~*~ Chapter Twenty-Five~*~
Day 348
Rex stayed true to his word and set to work with Arcee building a suitable home for the time being, along with a 'real' bed. Of course, Myra and Vance helped too but spent much of their time hunting and gathering herbs and forest foods.
Charlie split her time between Illusory and Silverdust, either talking with the femme or babysitting the little one. At least when she was awake. It seemed as if while everything was happening to their group: the separations, captures and torture, and everything else, there had been a filter or a dam keeping the worst of it from affecting her. Now all the adrenaline was gone, and she slept a lot in the wake of it. She had time to think about what had happened and she woke from nightmares, reliving each torment all over again; losing Aiden, seeing so many friends die, but one scene played out repeatedly no matter how many times she tried to stop it. Those two hours in Creton's office haunted her day and night.
Rex did his best to support Charlie through the worst of it, listening when she needed to talk, just being there when she needed him to be. He tried not to let his problems filter to her and used his time building to deal. It was easier to be strong for her than it was to try and cope with what had happened. At least that was what he thought. He could always be strong for her.
Illusory loved the times when she and Charlie were left to talk. She missed her old friend, though even now she knew this wasn't the same human girl she had known. Nor was she the same femme she had been. So much had changed again that it was a wonder any of them were anything except stark raving mad.
Silverdust was the only one who seemed to think all this was fun. She loved being away with Hound, playing with Charlie and Arcee, trying to hunt down Mirage and Blurr - they even let her find them sometimes - and generally being a bubbly, lively sparkling.
Illusory's paranoia had eased off enough to let the little femme wander and be a youngling like she should be, but there were times it would all come crashing back down on her, though those times were few and getting further between.
That is until Silverdust came back to camp talking - in her rapidly growing vocabulary - about 'black cat'. Illusory's immediate reaction was to fall back to her paranoia and forbid the youngling to be out of her sight, but she tried hard to talk intelligently to the younger femme to get proper answers, none of which eased Illusory's processors.
"Came to see," Silverdust tried to explain. "Just wanted to know why we're here..."
Scatterblade instantly threw out scanners as he asked his own questions. "What happened exactly?" He tried to be calm, masking his anxiety with curiosity.
The young femme beamed at him, spinning and kicking her feet while she talked. "We played!"
Prowl was alerted by the creators' sudden tenseness and came to investigate the cause of their stress. He didn't like what he was hearing.
"He likes to hide a lot. Sometimes I don't find him, but he always finds me."
Illusory was one step shy of a full meltdown. "What does he look like and why doesn't he come an' see us?" Her slipped dialog got Silverdust's attention. She knew her femme creator only talked like that when something was bad. At least that was how she had come to identify the language cadence Illusory sometimes used in highly emotional situations.
"Dunno," she admitted nervously.
"Can we stay near the camp for a little while? Just makes your Momma nervous when you don't have someone with you," the frontliner explained easily.
She looked like she would protest, then had a second thought of it and nodded. "Kay," she agreed. "But when can I go play again?"
"As soon as we find him and see that he is no threat," Prowl stated rather firmly. He was already sending out orders to anyone not currently occupied with something important. "Please describe him, so we know what to look for."
Silverdust looked even less sure now. "Um..."
Scatterblade vented. "Very subtle, Prowl." He smiled for his little femme. "If you have a new friend, I'd like to meet him."
"Okay," she still didn't sound very sure about all this but decided she wanted her creators to meet her friend. "But he hides a lot," she stated again. She thought for a moment before continuing. "He's black," she finally said helpfully, "with eyes like..." she looked around for an example, "like him!" She pointed to where Knockout was still working with Blindside, oblivious to the conversation.
Scatterblade glanced to the to the medic and pirate, working over what Silverdust's description meant. "Thank you, Silver. That was very helpful. Why don't you go play with Charlie? Ask her about Lion King; she'd love that."
The little femme clicked uncertainty but did as she was told.
Illusory was pacing in the small space specifically designed as human free for her general sanity. With her vision still not up to par, it helped knowing there was a space she didn't have to be so cautious about moving. She was doing her best to stay calm but was failing. "You'll find it?" She all but demanded.
Scatterblade joined her and took her hands to help stop her pacing. "Relax. We'll look into it."
"What if..." she vented harshly to try to calm herself. "Okay," she agreed.
"I'll be back. Just talk to me if you're feeling you need to," he wrapped her in his arms smiling reassuringly.
She held onto him tightly, letting her fears flow for a minute before clamping down on them tightly. "Promise?" She asked with a nervous laugh.
He nodded. "You know how close I am. We'll be back." He let her go, reluctantly, and joined Prowl. ::Let's get Mirage and Blurr up to speed.::
::Mirage has already been debriefed on the situation. Hound will update Blurr as soon as he is within range. Jazz is also coming within our patrol space to aid in the search.:: Prowl lead the way out, sharing the search grid he had deemed most likely to be successful.
That last comment surprised him. Where had Jazz been hiding? It had worried him until he had to switch his worrying to Illusory. The panic didn't renew, but his curiosity was piqued.
As they began to search, small clues started to appear that there was definitely another 'bot in the area. What tracks were found were obscured in most places. Where they could be picked out, they appeared to be large feline or canine, but the minor traces of energon dotted here and there made it clear it wasn't organic.
Scatterblade kept his hands on the hilts of his swords as he aided in the search, anxiety still pulsing through him. They were alerted by Mirage's yelp of surprise when the mech stumbled over their target. A black form darted away, bounced off a tree back onto the mech growling and snarling viciously. Scatterblade released the blades and tackled the mech's aggressor to the forest floor. The beast was more than half his size and thrashed wildly sinking teeth and claws wherever they would go.
"Watch it!" Someone shouted, and a new weight joined the fray. It was tense for a few minutes, then the black quadruped fell limp and stopped fighting.
Scatterblade scrambled back to his feet. "What the frag..." He huffed more out of anger and annoyance than pain.
Jazz moved away from the black form now locked in stasis. "Sorry," he shrugged at Scatterblade. "Looked like 'bot was tryin' ta defend itself. Probably don't know we ain't here ta fight." He brushed dirt from his frame. "Ya alright?" He glanced between Mirage and Scatterblade, judging their wounds.
"I'm fine," he said and knelt to look at the black form better. "Anyone recognize this guy?"
"Not one I recognize," Mirage sneered with annoyance.
"Might be reformatted or somethin'. Hard ta tell these days. Have ta look inta him."
"We will wait until we can speak with him first. I would rather not resort to excessive measures unnecessarily." Prowl looked over the small group, sent out a burst signal to the others to let them know the situation had been resolved and to return to regular duties.
"Take him home then?" Jazz asked as he stood up, keeping in the shade of the trees.
"Yes. Scatterblade, if you will grab one set of legs, I will carry the others." Prowl pulled the beast's - who on closer inspection looked far more doggish than feline - front paws up and together, supporting his upper weight. The frontliner almost disagreed, he didn't want this thing anywhere near camp. Or maybe that was Illusory rubbing off on him. Ultimately, he complied and hefted his weight of his given chore.
Illusory jumped to her feet when the mechs appeared on her scanners towing an unknown with them. 'Who is that?' She demanded immediately. 'What is it doing here? Why are you bringing it here?' Her panic was quickly rising to unmanageable levels, and she scrambled to pick up Charlie and Silverdust, doing her best to be gentle about it. Her panic only worsened when she realized she couldn't run - she didn't know where to go and anything beyond camp and the cliff was an absolute unknown to her at the moment.
Charlie hung on for dear life as her center of gravity did cartwheels. "Woah, Lu...careful!" Then she saw the mechs coming back to camp, and it started to make sense.
Scatterblade tried to ease Illusory's fear. 'One at a time. We're getting answers. That's it.'
She backed up until she felt something solid behind her. Her panic was creeping through her systems, her fear freezing her where she stood. 'Get it away!' She all but begged.
"Black Cat!" Silverdust cried out happily, not at all understanding why her friend was so limp, or out in the open for that matter, and not getting why all the adults seemed tense. Illusory held her tighter.
Charlie kept Silverdust's hand in hers to keep her from running off.
Scatterblade did his best to send warm waves washing over their bond. He gave a constant loop of his presence there for her to draw from.
Prowl guided them to a place away from where they generally recharged, but that offered some cover.
Blindside finally looked up from working on the refiner. "What's going on?" He didn't exactly ask anyone in particular, just a confused mumble.
"Weren't you listening at all?" Knockout asked with an air of knowing. "It's our local stalker. Seems they found him." He glanced around the camp to see what everyone was doing. "Should probably give the high-strung femme a sedative until the others decided what's going on." He vented. "Be right back, don't get too lost in your work."
Blindside gave the medic a sideways glance and rolled his optics. "Whatever..."
Even as Knockout was approaching Illusory, Prowl was giving the order for Jazz to bring the quadruped back online with limited motion so he could not attack again.
Scatterblade watched the black mech diligently, ready to act if he so much as twitched in the wrong direction.
The quadruped's first movement was all four legs twitching at once - what would have been a rather powerful leap had he been able to get to his feet and to have put any power behind it. Seemingly unaware of his immobility the mech continued to twitch, hissing and growing with impotent rage at his current condition.
"Stay calm," Prowl advised the mech. "We will cause you no harm; we only want to ask a few questions."
"I will not talk to Autobots!" The mech barked angrily.
Scatterblade vented harshly. "That's kinda all you have left."
"No!" He barked again, his whole body twitching with anger. "I will not believe you!" He growled.
Behind them, beyond the quadruped's vision, Knockout was trying to convince Illusory even to let him near enough to touch her, let alone sedate her. He knew he had to get her to calm down, but also knew that he was not going to succeed at that with her in this state. "Hey 'Blade, think I could use you over here."
The beast was suddenly alert at the medic's voice, his focus shifting beyond those immediately surrounding him.
Scatterblade's optics flicked from Knockout to the mech, then he grinned. "Tell you what, I'll switch you spots."
Knockout looked over to where the others were, shrugged, scanned the femme one more time for good measure, then went to see what use he could be in the Autobots' version of interrogation.
"You," the mech growled softly, "are Decepticon." He looked at those surrounding him again. "You are a prisoner?"
Knockout rolled his optics. "Worse, I think. I'm their medic." He crouched by the mech, scanning him and not liking anything he saw. "They are all but at my beck and call," he said smoothly. "And you are?"
"Not going to be a pet of Autobots!" He growled again.
Scatterblade stood and walked away from all this. Blindside watched, having paused to rest his optics and processor, lazily watching from his spot at the refiner.
"Pet? That's good," Knockout hummed. "Then what will you be? Scrap? We could certainly use some of that. There's plenty of fixing needing to be done and not enough parts to go around."
"I am not scrap! I still function!"
"Ah...yes, for how much longer though? I'm patient." He rocked back on his heels opening up more space for the mech to see the camp. "Look, honestly I don't need another husk of a mech to look after, but these mechs," he waved to the general populace surrounding them, "they seem to think our race has some kind of chance at survival if we stick together. Seems to be working...so, your choice."
"We will not harm him," Prowl reiterated for Knockout's sake.
"See? Morals..." he shook his head. "So, talk to them, deactivate, I don't really care, just get it over with." At this the medic stood and sauntered away, making a point of scanning everyone he passed as he went back to check on Scatterblade's progress with his mate.
He wasn't getting very far. 'Relax. It's only to help you feel better,' he told her gently, continuing to wash her with warmth.
'Not with that thing still there! What if it attacks?' Her grip on her charges was getting to be aggressive. Silverdust was starting to squirm. 'What if there are others? Then what?' She was shaking with anxiety, still trying to find a reasonable escape.
"Lu, careful," Charlie pleaded gently, one of her arms was caught in the femme's grip, and Charlie tried to yank it free without dislocations.
Scatterblade rested his hands on her arms, gently. "I'll keep an eye on Charlie." Silverdust, at least, could take a little more abuse than Charlie's already fragile body.
Reluctantly she released Charlie into Scatterblade's care but held tight to Silverdust. 'What if we're separated again?' She continued to question every bad possibility that crossed her processors, doing nothing for her panicked state of mind.
'It's alright,' he soothed. He placed Charlie down on the ground. "Stay close?"
Confusion was apparent on her face, but she nodded.
"Is she going to rip my arm off if I get close?" Knockout asked, not really needing an answer. He could read the femme's aggressive state clearly as if it were printed in plain cybertronics on her frame. He vented, deciding he was going to risk his chances not to have her glitch again. "Just a quick pinch," he said as he stepped in to give the sedative.
Scatterblade kept a gentle hand on the femme drawing her focus away from Knockout.
'It'll be fine. We've got this all under control. You just rest, okay?'
She tried to move away but the wall to her back, Scatterblade so close to her and Charlie on the ground nearby, she froze with indecision and Knockout took advantage of the moment. A few kliks later she sat in a total daze, the fear and panic fading onto comfortable numbness.
The quadruped mech watched the whole thing with confused alertness. The femme was a Neutral, the mech an Autobot and the Medic a Decepticon, yet the two enemies were working together to help the femme.
Scatterblade eased her down and lifted Silverdust from the femme's grasp. He set her down beside her femme creator. "Can you watch her?" He asked her, his voice calm and knowing she could use the 'responsibility'.
Silverdust trilled with acceptance of the task, settling close to Illusory.
Charlie leaned against the wall. "What's going on? What's happened now?" Her question was tired and bordered on irritated.
"Found a 'Con and he wasn't happy about being restrained. Illusory was equally unhappy about him being here," he explained with an edge of exhaustion in his voice. Sometimes calming the femme was as physically exhausting as it was mentally.
Knockout scanned them all and checked Scatterblade's scratches. "You'll be okay." He said dismissively as he returned to Blindside.
"Yeah, I know," he waved the mech off before settling down once more beside Illusory.
Silverdust watched Illusory intently, taking her task very seriously.
The quadruped mech looked around the camp again before speaking. "If you really are what you are pretending to be; then you would offer asylum to a mech like myself?"
"Well, that depends on what uh mech like yerself would do if we gave such uh thing." Jazz said, watching the still twitching mech doubtfully. "Ah can't say Ah trust ya much."
"Then the feeling is mutual," he snarled back.
Prowl vented with mild annoyance at Jazz's interjection. "We are working together to keep everyone alive and functional. We are not a militant group and are willing to forsake what alignment anyone has held so long as they are willing to do the same and work towards our common goal."
"Survival," the mech agreed, looking once more to the sedated femme, the protective mech beside her and the bright and eager sparkling watching her. He spotted the human setting among them, and his optics narrowed suspiciously. "You still have your human masters I see."
"Hardly," Mirage scoffed with a deep offense.
"They are refugees as much as any of us." Prowl stated defensively.
"They've lost pretty much all they have too," Jazz added, regret heavy in his tone.
"We will protect all within our group regardless," Prowl added. "Are you going to be a threat?"
The mech didn't answer for a long time, his twitching stopped, and those around him were beginning to wonder if something had gone wrong when he finally spoke again. "I will join...for the sparkling."
"Good uh reason as any," Jazz chuckled.
"What is your designation?" Prowl indicated that Jazz should release the motion lock.
"I am Sidestep," he said as he stretched his now mobile legs and stood. For a quadruped, he was enormous. "I give my alliance to you in honor of protecting the young." He bowed dramatically to Prowl, tucking his tail tight to his leg before sitting and looking expectantly up at the mech.
"Good. It will be a few orns before you will be fully integrated into the job cycle. Take the time to orient yourself here and get to know the others. Use caution around the familial unit and humans. See Knockout for repairs that can be made." With that Prowl dismissed the mech and turned to Jazz, a private meeting between them obviously in the making. Mirage mumbled something unpleasant and headed off to resume his duties.