64: Sorry for the wait, but hey you reviewed twice, cool! Hope you're happy with this chapter.
Breshcandra: Welcome and thanks for the review!
Purest of Hearts: That might work, but you do realize that somebody ahs got to die in this fic, right? Not just the bad guys.
Miss Anonymous: Welcome and thanks for the review. You're spot on, just read and see.
MissCHSparkles: I know I won't get the same number of reviews each chapter, though after getting 20 for one chapter that would be nice, I just hadn't gotten 4 lonely reviews in awhile. Guess I got spoiled with how quickly people reviewed. The mech torturing Starscream is not in TFP.
FallenNietehre: He's torturing Starscream, why? Because that's what he loves doing. As for who he is, just wait and you'll see.
Stitchar: There you are, ol' buddy! More Autobot/Decepticon interaction? Okay, coming right up.
DEVINE.L: Lol.
QuantumSheep: So I saw you reviewed and was like, "Uh-oh, what's it gonna be now?" But I was happily shocked, such a positive review! From you! No nitpicking whatsoever! I was like, "YES! I did it!" Now I just have to keep up the good work, right?
Autumnfloweres: Thank you!
Thunderweb: That is the question, isn't it?"
Answerthecall: Thanks.
Starfire201: You forgot? How could you? Perhaps I should send Dreadwing your way to remind you, ja? And don't worry, their ending will be painful.
{Autobot Base}
Orion and Ratchet watched Wheeljack's descending ship with mixed emotions. Orion was confidant that the plan would be pulled off smoothly, and that they would not have to rely on Dreadwing's squadron to contain the newly arriving Autobots. Ratchet was less certain, simply because he knew that Wheeljack's suspicious nature would be harder to cajole than Smokescreen's more trusting manner. Yet, he, too, hoped that Dreadwing's waiting squadron would not be needed, for surely when Wheeljack saw his nemesis he would become quite volatile.
"Open the base doors," Orion ordered and Ratchet obeyed. Originally, Bulkhead was going to be present but he had backed out, not pleased with deceiving his friend and also knowing that Wheeljack would see through the plan right away if the big green mech were there. Bulkhead could not lie to save his life, Wheeljack knew his friend too well not to be able to pick up the telltale signs of when Bulkhead was nervous. Blurr was also absent, since he had the unfortunate ability to blurt out secrets to just about anybody, making him the last person to be informed about anything.
However, the base could not be deserted, that would make Wheeljack even more suspicious. Arcee was standing off to the side with Jack, having a much-needed conversation about college. Jack was determined to get out of Nevada, but Arcee wanted him to stick stateside so as to make her job easier. Nothing doing, of course. Arcee was not a hundred percent sold on the plan either, but she was too grateful for the chance to get off the Nemesis that she wisely kept her opinions to herself, for once. The Twins were blowing things apart in the training room, happily providing some noise to the otherwise silent base.
Wheeljack and Smokescreen entered the base, looking much as they had before they had left five months ago. Arcee greeted them before turning her attention back to Jack, asking him to think about the energon usage for the groundbridge, which would be less if Jack stayed in Nevada. "Where's Bulkhead?" Wheeljack asked, not surprising anyone that that was his first inquiry.
"Bulkhead and Bumblebee are out with their charges," Orion said, being somewhat truthful as the two 'bots were with Miko and Raf. "How did your trip go?"
"It was amazing, Optimus," Smokescreen said, not noticing Orion's slight twitch at the name. "We catalogued new planets that even the Archives hadn't mentioned, I'm sure of it!"
"That's nice, Smokescreen," Ratchet said, finding it harder to stay in profile than he thought. "You can fill us in on the details later, right now I need to see each of you in the medical bay. You've gone five months without checkups, not to mention who knows what landing on foreign planets has done to your systems."
"Take it easy, doc," Wheeljack said, throwing off Ratchet's servo. "What's the rush?"
Ratchet huffed with genuine irritation. "Are you being deliberately imprudent? I will not have you walking around the base, contaminating everything you touch with no who knows what kind of alien bacteria. Medical bay now!"
{Nemesis – Bridge}
He was no longer what he had once been. It had all been stripped away, torn and shredded from his frame and processor like unwanted rust or corrupted data. No more will he race with his fellow grounders, for his wheels were ripped off and replaced with wings. He is a seeker now, a skinny framed 'bot of the sky and a slave. A monster. That is what he has been turned into, a freakish experiment of science.
He wants to scream, to run and hide in a dark corner of the planet where no one will ever find him. Yet he can do none of these things. His voice is gone, his mouth welded shut and his vocal chords replaced with reinforcing neck structures to make his helm harder to rip off. His limbs are chained to the wall, the links clinking together as he shifted on his peds.
He flinched when fingers trailed up a wing and caressed his blank visor with hard strokes. "Perfection," a voice from a faceless helm purred in his audios. Around him are other mechs chained to the walls but they hang listless, their sparks having either extinguished due to the trauma or blasted apart by the scientist himself when their processors broke under the strain of having their frames mutilated into unnatural shapes. Death fills the air, it is cycled through his vent system as he shakes under the scientist's touch. He is unprepared for the band of cold metal that snaps around his neck, and he tries to jerk away as it is locked into place. "I am Shockwave, and you are my weapon of peace. You will help me end this war, you will break those who resist me, you, my Soundwave, will—"
"Hey you!" Soundwave pulled himself out of the memory file and turned, looking down in the direction of the approaching, tiny footsteps. "Yes you, Mr. I'm-Gonna-Intimidate-You-With-My-Silence!" It was the youngest femme, he could hear her guardian's lumbering footsteps before the door closed but the grounder would most likely be on the bridge within a few seconds. She had given Bulkhead the slip or had ditched him when her guardian had not approved of her plan, Soundwave would have to check the security tapes to see which it was.
The Vehicons stared at the tiny human as she ran toward the communications officer. Soundwave could detect no fear in her; she was perfectly at ease in a room filled with Decepticons though somewhat hyper. She skidded to a stop before him, looking up at him expectedly and he found himself wanting to make sure that he did not disappoint her.
"Miko!" Her guardian had entered the bridge, looking uneasy at the Vehicons and Soundwave before walking towards the girl at the TIC's peds. "I don't think you—"
Soundwave lifted a servo, making Bulkhead stop midsentence. The communications officer crouched down and offered his servo, palm up, to Miko. The black, pink highlighted haired teen looked up at him, showing no signs of shyness but grinning at him with, what the humans called, a '100 watt smile'. She jumped onto his servo, her bio readings going up but with excitement rather than alarm.
"Miko…assist?" Soundwave played two different voice recordings to the girl.
"Ya sure can, Soundy!" Miko said, making Bulkhead groan. "I know ya're like the king of all things technological around here, eyes and ears glued to every TV, camera, gizmo and whatchamacallit. So, do ya think ya could let us watch what's happening down below? Maybe even inside the Autobot base itself?"
"Miko," Bulkhead said, "you can't expect—"
"Look! I get it why Jack got in on the action, once again, but that doesn't mean I'm not entitled to watching what's going on, right?"
Soundwave tilted his helm at her, mentally smiling at her spunkiness but knowing that if he had been his guardian he would not have put up with such disrespect. Bulkhead looked defeated, caving into her need for attention most likely not for the first or last time. The communications officer did no mind the interruption, he did not mind the request, but an uncertified individual should not run onto the bridge especially during an ongoing mission. Yet it was not his place to discipline her.
He moved one of his data cables to a nearby workstation and tapped a few buttons. The screens came to life, showing the inside of the Autobot base for all on the bridge to see. "Suh-weet!" Miko said, plopping herself down on Soundwave's palm to watch the screen. She looked back up at him, cracking a smile that somehow managed to look innocent and mischievous at the same time, "Ya don't mind, do ya?"
In answer, Soundwave moved his servo to the workstation and tilted his palm. Miko squeaked with indignity as she slid off of the hand and onto the flat metal beneath her. "Ya're no fun!"
Soundwave did the equivalent of a shrug and walked to another station to work. "I'm sorry about that," Bulkhead said, once Miko was fully absorbed in watching the interchange between Wheeljack and Ratchet. "Miko always acts first and thinks after."
Soundwave remembered seeing the three wards in the thick of things, especially that first time when he had encountered them. Scaring them had not worked, especially the young femme. She was fearless, or perhaps she was an addict for dangerous situations? Never happy unless she had gotten her quota for an adrenaline rush for the day. He could think of several human discipline tactics that would, most likely, cure her of her impulse to fling herself into danger, but, once again, he was not her guardian.
"Hey look!" Miko shouted. "They're going into Ratchet's torture chamber!"
The Vehicons made sounds of distress, as they whirled from their positions to look at the screen. Soundwave sent out a comforting wavelength to soothe the drones, knowing that traumatized Vehicons were not something he had time to deal with today. "Miko!" Bulkhead tried to admonish, but his voice came out more like a half-plea instead, as if asking why she had to be as she was.
Soundwave did not approve of the dismissive wave Miko gave her guardian, as if saying, 'Oh, what's the big deal?' Yet he did nothing, because she was not his. To distract himself, Soundwave returned to his searching for MECH's new base and the location of Shockwave.
{Autobot Base – Medical Bay}
Ratchet blew air out of his vents in relief when both Wheeljack and Smokescreen were rendered inert due to forced stasis-lock. Knockout came out of hiding once the Autobot medic gave him the all clear. With two medics working on the coding this whole ordeal would be over in mere minutes.
Hooking up the medical cables to the ports, Ratchet and Knockout got to work. Knockout was not surprised by the amount of coding he found in Smokescreen, as a novice of the Elite Guard the council would have ensured his loyalty and commitment to the Autobot cause. Deleting the unwanted command codes was not easy, which made Knockout glad that he had hacker skills as well as medical knowledge. The codes that he could not outright delete, Knockout first had to break into before then trying to erase them from Smokescreen's systems. A growl of frustration from Ratchet made the Decepticon smile, apparently he was not the only one having problems.
There, another code gone, Knockout moved onto the next code with a sigh. Knockout would be the last to admit it, but he rather liked it when he was not fighting for the life of his patient and could take his time with the job instead of having to quickly seal off an energon leak or repair a vital system before it crashed. Not that what he was doing was not dangerous in its own right, overlooking one code inputted by the council could be detrimental to Smokescreen's health as well as hazardous to everyone else. So, Knockout carefully removed the codes one by one, the medical bay mostly silent save for the beeping from consoles and Ratchet's grumbling.
Knockout became mildly concerned when he finished two hours later and Ratchet was still hard at work. He would have thought that a Wrecker would have taken less time than an Elite Guard, but he was apparently wrong. After sending a diagnosis code to check the young Autobot for any alien substances, Knockout turned to look at Ratchet.
The Autobot medic was glaring at his screen, sifting through the layer of codes that were in Wheeljack very slowly. Too slowly, actually. Knockout understood the need for some people to be perfectionists, he was that way with his paintjob after all, but one could only double check one's work so much. If you thought you still might be missing something but could not find it then it might be best to call in a fresh pair of optics.
"Need help?" Knockout asked, earning a glare for his effort.
Ratchet looked thoroughly ticked off, and concerned. "I cannot find Protocol 371."
That statement was enough to make Knockout's spark run cold. "At all? Are you sure? Maybe it's merely hidden under another layer of code?"
"Knockout," Ratchet growled in frustration, "it is not there. I found the usual codes of loyalty and honesty to the council, but there is no protocol 371 nor any forced aggressive coding or violence. His coding is largely untampered with."
Knockout said nothing, he was too numb to think let alone speak. His processor brought up the memory file from all those years ago, when he had first seen Wheeljack barge into the captured Decepticon medical clinic and murder all the critically wounded, Autobots and Decepticons alike. He shuddered, his optics shuttering for a brief moment before he looked back at Ratchet.
"What do you suppose that means?" Knockout's voice had dropped a few decibels; he did not trust himself at the moment to not do something rash.
Ratchet shook his head, "I don't know. It is possible they had a servo in writing his original coding but I would have thought there would be more evidence to account for the way he is."
"Recommendations?" Knockout asked, taking a step away from the unconscious Wrecker.
"Our options are not something you and I should decide on our own, we need to bring in Prime and Megatron for this."
"Agreed." Knockout turned away, bracing himself on Smokescreen's berth. He had been prepared to forgive Wheeljack for the atrocities the Wrecker had committed that day and every other time the medic had heard of. But if Wheeljack had been aware of his actions, knowingly executing the wounded right and left without batting an optic, than there would be no forgiveness. Right now he wanted nothing more than to arm his blaster and shoot the Wrecker's spark to pieces, but that would make him no better than Wheeljack.
{Nemesis – Bridge}
On unsteady peds, the newly named Soundwave followed the bulkier mech down the hallway, dreading the ominous promise of being granted a trial run to test his new abilities. Once released from the chains he had tried to attack the fiend who destroyed his life, but his new weapons systems had refused to lock-on and his servos halted within inches of hitting the larger mech.
"Did you think I would make such a perfect instrument to serve me and not ensure that it would not turn on me?"
They entered a large room and Soundwave halted at seeing his team chained to the walls, much like he had been. The Autobots were alive, though sporting wounds that leaked energon. They did their best to look at the two newcomers without fear, but he could see it in their optics nonetheless.
"These test subjects have outlived their usefulness," Shockwave said, no emotion whatsoever leeching into his words. "Dispose of them."
No! Soundwave turned to him, pleading silently with shakes of his helm not to do this. The chained Autobots thrashed against their manacles, yelling threats or cries of mercy against their approaching doom.
Shockwave's red optic burned right through his visor and into his own begging red ones. "Kill them."
"Hey, what're ya doing?"
Bulkhead could have told Soundwave that unless Wheeljack went berserk in ten seconds the screen would not hold Miko's attention, but he was not exactly ready to be chummy with the Decepticon just yet. Let the communications officer worry about how to entertain the girl, the ex-Wrecker would stay close to make sure Miko did not annoy any of the Decepticons too much but other than that Bulkhead would take a backseat to this. It might be entertaining.
Soundwave turned to see that Miko had turned from the view screen and was trying to gain a Vehicon's attention. The drone in question looked briefly down at the small human before returning to his task. However, this was not enough to thwart Miko's desire for some action.
The girl got up and made her way to where the Vehicon was working. She did not ask for help as she made her way across a connecting metal piece to the other workstation. The Vehicon stilled, his helm tilting to watch the small human and Soundwave could see the drone's fingers tremble slightly. The drones knew how to operate with straightforward instructions and were quite comfortable on the Nemesis, and even working the energon mines or fighting Autobots. But the humans were so small, erratic and different, they made the Vehicons uneasy.
Miko grinned at her reflection in the Vehicon's visor, "What's your name?"
The Vehicon shifted on his peds, "Designation A105478."
"No, no, your name!" Miko protested. "Mine's Miko, I'm Japanese."
The Vehicon was no doubt scrambling with his limited processor range to form a reply. "No name."
"What? That's horrible. You can't go through life just being a number!" Miko thought for a second, "I'll call you Haru, that's my favorite uncle's name. Hmm, 'course I'll have to mark you somewhere so I can tell you apart from everyone else."
There were certain words you did not use around Vehicons, 'mark' was one of them. Drone A105478 latched onto that forbidden word and jumped back, bringing his blasters to bear on the tiny human in half a second. Bulkhead jumped forward, but was pushed aside by Soundwave, who grabbed Miko with a data cable while laying a servo on the Vehicon's powering up blaster.
Once the girl was safely hidden behind the communications officer, Soundwave tapped his fingers against the Vehicon's helm. He focused on soothing the drone, calming the agitated nerve circuits until the Vehicon powered down his blaster and bowed his helm. Certain that the crisis had been diverted, Soundwave kept the thankfully quiet human out of A105478's sight while he walked out of the bridge, Bulkhead in tow.
Soundwave brought his data cable to his servo and deposited the girl in his grasp, bringing her up close. This had moved beyond a guardian's role, she had caused turmoil on the bridge and with Megatron and Dreadwing absent that left Soundwave in charge. It was up to him to scold her for her actions, but he knew he would be more lenient than either of the ex-gladiators would have been.
"What happened back there? Was he afraid I'd hurt him? That's silly! He's so—"
Young one, desist, Soundwave said, earning him not only peace from the small human but also a very shocked expression.
"You can talk? In my head? How's that possible?"
Human sparkling minds are very open, lacking firewalls to protect their brains from intrusion or suggestion. No matter, I shall take advantage of this fact to lay down some much needed ground rules for you, small one. You will leave the Vehicons alone, unless they approach you. They are drones, we freed them as much as we could from the council's hold but they simply lack the sufficient processor space to be of the same intellect as the rest of us. They were meant to process only orders and carry them out, not to think or answer questions. We have done what we could to upgrade their processors to allow more data but anything more than that would break down their frames.
"Wait hold up, you lost me. Drones, council, processors. Is there going to be a quiz?"
Bulkhead stared at them, completely in the dark as to what was going on. Soundwave paid him no mind; instead his processor whirled on how to get through to this not-quite-ready-to-leave-sparklinghood human the importance of what he was saying. In the end he gave up and went with simple, more direct instructions.
You will stay away from the Vehicons and stay off the bridge. Disobey these rules and you will be confined to your quarters with plenty of 'quizzes' to keep yourself occupied. Understood?
"Sheesh, ok, I get it."
Satisfied, Soundwave deposited Miko in Bulkhead's servo and reentered the bridge.
{Autobot Base – Medical Bay}
"We do not have time to deal with this." Knockout whole heartily agreed with Megatron on that statement, but Orion looked less convinced.
"We cannot simply ignore this problem," Orion said. "The loyalty code was removed, he should be given the chance to explain himself before we condemn him."
"I vote against bringing him out of stasis-lock," Ratchet said. "Wheeljack is a very violent, and hardened mech. There is a lot of anger running though his processor, all of it pointing to the Decepticons and all of it originating from within himself, no outside influence. Once he comes to and notices the missing codes and that he was forced into stasis that anger will most likely transfer to us, Prime."
"The problem is not being ignored, Orion," Megatron said, making a point to say his friend's name in front of Ratchet. "We simply do no have the time to deal with this. I will agree that he deserves at least a trial where he can speak up his defense but there are bigger issues we have to face now."
"Then what do you suggest?" Orion asked, his stance not happy but Megatron knew his friend would back up his decision.
"The Wrecker will remain in stasis-lock, hooked up to life support and locked up in a secure room. Once MECH and Shockwave have been dealt with then we will bring Wheeljack out for his trial. That way we have the available time to deal properly with this situation, and not miss anything vital simply because some of were in a hurry to get it over with. Agreed?" When everyone nodded Megatron relaxed a little, "Knockout and I will secure the Wrecker, you two had better bring the novice online and see how he responds to the council's treachery, Dreadwing will be in the hallway if you need assistance."
AN: I'm back! Sorry for the break but I just needed some time off, I really did. Updates should be more frequent now, that is if nothing crazy happens in my life these next few weeks. I should seriously start wrapping this story up soon. Also, I beat my record; this chapter is 7 and a quarter pages long!
Decepticons: 19
Autobots: 9