Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers. Just the plot and OCs.
It is still Sunday. By eight minutes.
Chapter 37
Sanity for Silence
There was one thing Jynx was now completely and unreservedly positive of: Sideswipe was insane.
And oddly enough, she was relatively okay with that.
More so then she thought she'd be actually.
However, she was kind of off her rocker herself—okay more than kind of—so maybe it was bound to happen sooner or later. That she would find somebot that was as equally nuts as she was and not be bothered by it.
Because he had to have so screws loose. No sane mech would have come up with this.
This . . . absolute insanity.
"We're gonna do . . . what?"
Not that she thought she hadn't heard him right the first time, she had, but really she couldn't be understanding this right. It just wasn't possible. There was no way this was his greatly planned activity.
"Shoot each other with charged nanite pellets." Sideswipe sounded downright gleeful.
She could hear the face splitting grin that had taken over his cheeks.
Yeah. That's what I thought you said.
Blinking into the blackness that was everything around her she let her sensors flutter up and down with the confusion that she knew was seeping into her somewhat lax energy field.
She still didn't get it.
"Huh?"
She could almost hear him roll his vibrant blue optics too.
"Come on, Kitten." He chuckled. "It's really not that complicated."
"I think it's complicated." She replied with a snort. "How am I supposed to shoot anything when I can't see." Not to mention that she had always been one damn lousy shot when she could she. She'd be downright pathetic when she was like this. Well, everything about her was downright pathetic when she was like this, but this certainly wouldn't help!
"Won't matter." Sunstreaker's deep voice rolled over her sensors smooth as energon and she flicked her attention to the right though it did nothing to let her see him it was instinctual. She tracked sound like this, it was the only way she felt like she stood a damn chance of not dying. Even if dying wasn't something she was really afraid of happening anymore when she was with the twins. "The whole point of the training exercise is to teach you how to react to things you can't see. In the program we won't be able to see either. No ultra violet, no heat sensors, nothing. It's all only sound, field, and touch."
Jynx felt her jaw drop open more than it probably should have. "What?"
So maybe Sideswipe wasn't alone in his insanity. Maybe he had his brother for company.
Wait.
Wouldn't both twins be insane if one was?
Wouldn't that be how it worked?
They shared everything but a frame anyway.
"It's a training program, Jynx." Sideswipe went on from somewhere close to her right. The big crimson mech was actually bent over the projection booth of the simulator down in the hanger. They had led her down here straight from the med bay knowing that keeping Jynx busy was the only option.
Jynx never functioned very well when she was left alone to her processor and her spark. There were too many things that haunted her and trapped in the darkness that was only liable to get worse. Sideswipe and Sunstreaker were not fools. They both knew very well there was more than just the medical benefit of allowing her frame time to rest and heal that was the reasoning behind Ratchet pumping her so full of meds that she spent all her recovery time so far so deep in recharge she couldn't even dream. It was because she couldn't do anything, and Jynx wasn't very good at not having something to keep busy with.
So Ratchet had taken the excuse and he'd given them all an out, but given Jynx's history of habits keeping her drugged down any longer would do more harm than good. They couldn't allow her to become addicted to anything again. This was the femme that took CN to help her recharge for crying out loud.
Meds were a delicate balance with her, and Ratchet could no longer trade off sanity for silence.
She was going to have to be able to handle being trapped in the dark for the hopefully short time it would take Soundwave and Wheeljack to finish that visor. While she had absolutely nothing to do that they had been using to keep her busy. She couldn't draw, she couldn't play games, she couldn't read, couldn't play, couldn't race, she couldn't even watch movies. All their gathered actives were null and void until she got her optics back.
She would be stuck with nothing but her spark and her processor to dream up whatever nightmarish things she lived with that neither brother wanted to think too much about what might be.
Strange thing was though, neither of them had any idea that these facts had yet to accrue to Jynx.
There had never been a time in her life when she couldn't see that 'how to keep her processor busy had been at the forefront of her wondering. She's usually been too busy trying not to die.
She'd always been in that locked up mindset of the only things processing between adrenalin, fear, and anger was survival. It didn't leave much room to wonder about how her idiot processor and foolish spark could turn her inside out in a matter of nanos. There had been bigger things to worry about.
Actual bigger things.
This was actually the honest to Primus first time in her entire life that she was blind and wasn't scared if she was going to be breathing the next nano or not. It was kind of an odd concept that she hadn't really gotten over yet.
In the medical bay she'd only been awake long enough to be examined and eat, so this orn was actually the first time since her visor shattered that she'd gone more than a breem without falling into recharge with the aid of heavy meds. Her processor hadn't started running scary scenarios yet, which in and of itself was rather remarkable, but for now all she could do was look up in the direction she figured Sideswipe was as she leaned against a support post of the hanger while the sound of his clicking fingers against keys made her sensors twitch.
That and wonder if one twin could be insane while the other wasn't.
"A training program?" She parroted him, unable to really understand how this work.
"Yes. " Sunstreaker answered as Sideswipe typed furiously at the control panel. "Chromia wrote it."
"I don't understand."
"You never know what's going to happen in war." Sideswipe said. "There is no possible way to train anybot for everything that could happen to them, but to think that you're always going to be able to see what is out there trying to kill you is stupid. We had sniper training before. That's basic training stuff. How to stand the best chance of not getting shot in the helm from eight hundred yards away, but Chromia spent a mission trapped in a cave in with every radar and enhanced vision update blown all to slag with an EMP burst."
"She was basically fighting blind in a cave full of scraplets, data-bats, and mechs trying to kill her while she tried to stay alive long enough for all of us to find her." Sunstreaker went on.
"Let's just say it was an optic opening experience." Sideswipe huffed. "She was lucky to survive. Anybot less of a terrifying bad-aft wouldn't have. Well that and Chromia is just too stubborn to die. She came up with this exercise because of it."
Jynx nodded slightly, sort of understanding what he was getting at.
It was a good practice she figured, though she wasn't sure how much it could stand up to the real thing. The active, real, threat of being trapped in the dark and something trying to kill you was a completely different feeling then that of a practice game. There was just one thing she didn't get though.
"But how does it match up to what you can't see being able to see you? If you two won't be able to see me and I can't see you I don't get it."
"Well I'm editing it a little bit." Sides answered. "The original is a test of blind against sight, but that doesn't really help us much. You already know what it's like, and we're not gonna chase you around a game trying to shot you while you can't see us. We're just not."
Well.
She supposed she should be thankful about that. It didn't really sound like all that much fun to her.
The notion that it probably should have scared her, but it didn't did roll through her processor. Sideswipe speaking was a bit more distracting.
"So . . . sound like something you wanna try? It's just a game. Just something to do until Wheeljack needs to see you this evening."
"It doesn't hurt?" Her helm tilted and her sensors fluttered.
Looking over his shoulder back at her Sideswipe wondered all of a sudden if she knew how much like a kitten she looked when she did that. All big optics, and sharp sensors for audios, and pale round yet angled cheeks. Without that visor she looked even younger than she already did, and the clean view of the scaring and cloudiness of those optics did nothing to keep either brother very far away from a growl.
"No," Sunstreaker answered. "It's just a little ping. Not even a pinch. Just a way to let you know you get hit."
"It's a burst of electricity, nothing more. It triggers in each players' processors."
"Well how does that work?"
"You just sync up for a klick with the console and load the program. It's in the simulator but since it's not visible it's pretty much just a big black maze of energy walls."
That didn't sound so complicated. She's synced with the simulator before. It wasn't a big deal.
Right?
Her processor decided then was a good time to flash a reminder of cold lab tables, sharp knives, and the burning inside of being hacked.
She shook her helm hard forcing it all away. It was too real too suddenly in the darkness like this. There was no place to run. It put a itch under her hide. To run, to hide. To make it go away.
But . . . .
She'd never faced her demons—not all of them—in the dark. Not and have it the only thing to be worried about. She didn't know how. And Jynx never handled not knowing what to do very well.
Then there was a smooth, deep, warm laugh rolling over her sensors as Sideswipe kept talking. "It's like a game insides your helm that is also outside your helm. Just no bot can see any of it. It's kind of weirdly genius when you think about it."
It was kinda cool if she thought about it that way . . . she guessed.
"So you wanna play?" Sides questioned.
Her sensors gave one last flutter before she shrugged, nodded, and found herself downloading a file then she found herself in a maze of fake black walls with a fake gun in her claws hiding from the twins wondering why the pit she agreed to this because she'd always been a damn awful shot!
Even when she could see.
What the pit had she been thinking?
This was a horrible idea.
Flipping the fake pistol around in her claws Jynx stood with her back pressed up against one of the digital walls with her sensors standing up and every sense she had to use on high alert. She could hear the air in the vents pumping into the room, she could hear the hum of dim lights she couldn't see, could hear the soft humming of the fake but very real feeling walls, and somewhere in the mix of all of it there was two sets of pulsing lives that she could almost hear. Every now and again she'd catch a step. The sounds that a frame couldn't help but make. She knew very well how to listen in the dark, she just wasn't sure why she was doing it.
Though she did have to give it one thing, she wasn't thinking about anything else. She was just acting and reacting which was something she was very good at.
Using this stupid little plastic gun however, not so much.
Sucking in a breath she slid off the wall and slinked forward with one hand on the wall and the other clutching a stupid toy gun. The thought flashed through her as she turned a corner listening hard that this was the sort of thing she'd been mocking when she came here?
These stupid games meant to teach the difference between life and death. The ones that didn't work. The ones that made Enforcers that she had slaughtered. The ones that were made to protect the ones this weird . . . family . . . all around her.
What was she doing again?
Sliding further along the twisting maze she was just about to turn a corner when a sound made her twirl behind her with the pistol raised only for a zing of electricity to pinch through her plating over her chest leaving her gasping with a stumble. She hit back against the fake wall blinking pointlessly down at her chest where the tingle faded with a burst of static through her processor. Then, there was a loud buzz of sorts and she could feel the game reset.
Sunstreaker's and Sideswipe's laughter drifted up just a few feet from where she'd swung.
"Got ya." Sides chuckled.
With a rather annoyed huff Jynx pushed herself off the wall and glared with the best of her ability when she wasn't quite sure where they were, feeling like a sparkling that just got bested at walking.
"How did you do that?" She huffed.
Sides tilted his helm to his brother looking to Sunstreaker's small smirk—hardly a tilt of the right corner of his mouth really—while he answered. "Your claws on the wall."
Glancing behind her to the wall she's been using as a guide Jynx hissed.
Damn.
She should know better than that.
"Wanna go again?" Sideswipe asked.
She swung back with a smirk and a glare in their sort of direction. "I haven't beat you yet have I?"
Two joors later Jynx was giggling inside her helm—keeping the sound from coming out as best she could perched onto of some kind of half wall with her sensors flared and her sightless optics tracking the almost soundless ped steps just about twenty feet ahead of her down two lefts and a right. They'd been playing for a while and she'd leaned just about the whole maze now. She'd even managed to catch one of both the twins before they got her too. They were sticking together, as she probably should have figured they would, using that link between them that might be considered cheating if she thought too hard about it, but that didn't mean she wasn't figuring out how to track them.
For every time they caught her first she got them as well and now she was starting to understand Sideswipe's somewhat insane logic of this game. She was so busy trying to find them she didn't have time to let her processor wonder on anything else.
It was . . . nice.
Then a zing stung into her right sensor and she fell off the wall with a startled squeak to Sideswipe's once again laughter as with a zing though her processor the game reset.
"Got ya again!" The big red mech leaned over the half wall she'd been perched on, arms crossed holding him up as he watched her spring back up to her peds and glare with a smirk just about to his faceplate. He kept having to remind himself that even if those clouded optics burned with the same playful defiance they were growing use to she couldn't see them.
Not so much that either of them could forget that she couldn't, it was just she managed to pull of things they wouldn't have thought possible for a sightless little femme. Sunstreaker's answering pulse to that unspoken question about half a joor ago had been that was probably because she'd been like this practically her whole life.
Joining him in looking down at the little femme as Jynx stepped back up to the half wall smirking up at them Sunstreaker huffed. Jynx might not be able to see the small smirk playing at the corners of his full lips, but Sideswipe could and it was with a warm pulse through their bond that he got shoved nearly on his aft by his twin.
The noise got a lower of sensors and Jynx pushing herself up on her toes trying to hear better what was going on, but as Sides got his peds back under him he knew better then to try and help her back on the wall. She seemed alright about being near them since the bay, she was letting them fake shoot her for Primus' sake, but he wasn't about to push his luck. The last thing they needed was her freaking out like this.
There was too much riding—too much still wrong with her healing wise—on her staying calm for at least a little while longer.
But underneath all that reasoning was a simple wish that was in both Sides and Sunny now.
They simply didn't want her to be scared anymore.
Especially not of them.
A curious look was plastered over Jynx's faceplate and Sides was about to let another suggestion of another game roll off his tongue when a ping to his and Sunny's comm channel rang through his processor. Both of the stalled, turning their attention inward at the signal belonging to Wheeljack.
"Twins?" The inventor's voice drifted through the airways.
"What's up, Jacky?" Sides chirped back.
"I uh," The inventor sounded like he was half trying to talk to them and half messing with sometime of explosive. Sunstreaker wasn't sure he wanted to know for sure. "I was just . . . oh wait that's not suppose to look like that. Why is it green? It's supposed to be purple. Umm . . . well frag why did it do that? It's really not suppose to be smoking."
"Jacky?" Sideswipe tired to cut in.
"Well this could be a problem." Wheeljack went right on like he couldn't even hear him. "Umm well what now? I suppose nitrogen might help. Or maybe if I—or not. That's not suppose to happen either."
"Wheeljack." Sunstreaker growled.
"Why is it doing that? It's not suppose to do that. How does solid glass burn anything? This doesn't make any sense—"
"Wheeljack!" The shout of his name through the comm seemed to jar the scattered brained mech back to the fact that he was not talking to himself.
"Sunny?" He asked, sounded honestly surprised. "What did you call for?"
Sunstreaker actually felt a nerve in his left optic burn when it started twitching. Sideswipe saved the tri colored inventor from getting his audios blown out by sighing.
"You called us, Jacky."
"I did?" The mech sounded actually startled by this information, but considering who he was Sideswipe couldn't say he was all that surprised by that. He bit back another sigh and rubbed between his optics.
"Yes, Jacky, you did." Sides told him.
"You obviously had something to say." Sunstreaker tried not to snarl too much. It wasn't the wacky mech's fault he'd been blown up too many times and breathed in too many fumes over the vorns.
Well, it sort of was, but nutty as he was he was still family. Crazy. Glitchy. Scattered brained family.
It was moments like these Sunstreaker questioned his life decisions just a little bit.
"Oh . . . ." Wheeljack made a confused huff before his voice suddenly lit back up. "Oh! Oh yes now I remember! Jynx! I was calling about Jynx. You two were suppose to bring her down here a breem ago. Are you coming? Soundwave and I have something to test."
"Already?" Sideswipe couldn't help but smile.
"Yes. Yes. Soundwave is a genius I swear. He figured it out. It's remarkable. I'll tell you all about it. The neural pathways in her processor are—"
"Jacky," Sunstreaker cut in. "Tell us when we get over there."
And then, he hung up.
Almost before she knew it Jynx found herself sitting on the end of a hard surface that at first she thought was a berth but turned out to be a work bench of some kind listening to Wheeljack ramble on and on about chemicals she didn't know what were as well as frame parts she didn't know what were in that happy, chipper tone of his that had her sensors half tucked by his volume. The twins lead her up to his rebuilt lab because he apparently had something to test, though how he had anything this soon she had no idea how worked.
She also couldn't understand what he was saying as he tried to explain it, there were a few too many words whose definitions she couldn't hope to know being through around. As well as his idea of explanations sounded a whole lot more like sparkling rambling then actual words leaving her sitting there trying to figure out what was going on. Tracking the sounds of his hurried steps around the bench across from her she found herself tuning him out and searching for the twins.
She needed a better explanation.
One that had less math figures in it.
However, her calmer explanation didn't come from the twins, because honestly they had no better idea what he was talking about then Jynx did. When Wheeljack got on one of these trips there was never any sense to be had from him. Normally either Ratchet was needed to bring him back down to normal bot terms and not brilliantly insane super genius, or Swoop and his giddy excitement but never ending questions could often do the trick as well. Neither bot was here right now though—the twins were still a little surprised no bot was a little more worried about the Dinobots and their little trip across the dark zone in Optimus' burrowed spaceship, but that was a different problem all together—so the two of them were left trying to figure out how to make sense of what the scientist was rambling about this time.
But then, all of a sudden, they weren't.
"Wheeljack." A cool, low, even voice brought the chattering to a stop as the tri colored inventor spun around to grin up to the long lean silver form of Soundwave as he walked into the main lab from one of the back offices. Both twins glare a bit more then they probably should have but when Jynx pinned her sensors and narrowed her sightless silver optics they felt justified.
Soundwave ignored all three of them though as he padded quietly toward them with the lethally sharp frame Ravage curled around his shoulders. The cat like mech resting his helm on his crossed front paws as his claws held to his creator's armored shoulders, his back legs dangling on both side of the other shoulder and his tail twitching lazily back and forth down the front Soundwave's chest. That huge, glowing, single red optics was mellow and content as he observed the room around him.
The bright red optic settled from everything else onto the little frame of the bright white femme he'd been hearing so much about. Tall, pointed audios tipping forward Ravage lifted his helm. A curious sound chirping up in his throat as Soundwave closed the distance between them in the lab. However, the former officer did nothing to address Ravage's curiosity. The mech would have to form his own opinion of the little femme made of up soft curves and soft angles. Soundwave was not going to influence Ravage's already narrow tolerances.
So the soft pulse of curiosity though their link was ignored in favor of Soundwave turning his cool optics to the slightly crouched form on the table.
"Good evening, Jynx." He greeted quietly.
Sensors rising slightly at his even, calm tone Jynx dared to sit up the slightest bit turning her slowly opening optics to him. She was wary—she had every right and reason to be—but as much as her processor told her offering up a chance twice was just begging to be hurt her spark was calm in its chamber and kept giving off the impression that being afraid of this mech was foolish.
Which was absolutely idiotic because wasn't this the mech that had every part of her alert with fear when she came here? Wasn't this the mech that was the kind of dangerous she feared above all others?
The cold, calculating, calm. The one that could kill without ever even quirking a lip. Without batting an optic.
Cruelty, anger, hatred, insanity, deviousness, all that Jynx could handle. Could understand. Could fight.
The danger that was cold and calm that she couldn't.
She should be terrified of him, but on that note she should be terrified of Prowl as well . . . but she wasn't anymore.
"Hi." She mumbled quietly, straightening a little more when she felt Sideswipe's energy field brush against her in a silent access of where he was as he leaned against the table just a pace from her. For some reason the reassurance that he and his brother were here relaxed her back to calm.
"I am sorry about our last encounter." Soundwave's even voice announced softly drawing her focus back to him. She was about to snort at the absurdness of that statement when Sideswipe beat her to it with a loud snort of his own that turned into a growl as it echoed in his brother.
"You do that again mech and I'll tear your damn headlights out." Sunstreaker never raised his voice, but that was never a good thing verses the yelling he could have done. Jynx had already learned Sunstreaker's quiet anger was far worse than any shouting the mech could ever do.
It was scary in a way all too similar to the reasons she should fear mechs like Prowl and Soundwave.
Soundwave's optics flicked to the huge bulk of the frontliner. Tense, annoyed . . . protective?
While it would never show on his blank faceplate Soundwave's interest perked up. He added another thing to his list while filing the look in both the twins' optics away.
This was different, and something that needed more analyzing.
Ravage suddenly let out a rattling growl of his own from his perch around Soundwave's shoulders. Pushing himself up at bit, claws finding hold in grooves of armor should he need to leap suddenly from his perch and shred into something. Sunstreaker was not at all daunted by the mouthful of snapping, long, jagged fangs or the narrowing of that single optic while the audios lay back and his tail went to lashing madly behind him. Sunstreaker just snarled back, curling his lip up in a snarl of his own.
Wheeljack was suddenly stepping between them, hands up on both sides looking frantic as he was trying to figure out what to say, but it was Jynx's confused sound that broke off all the noise.
Sensors standing tall, leaning up as much as she could on the table, her wide but unseeing silver optics fixed on the place Soundwave stood, helm slightly tilted as the webbed wires that had unfurled behind the thick, sharp plating of her sensors tried to make sense of what she was hearing. It was then that it actually accrued to Soundwave that Jynx had no idea what was sitting along his shoulders, nor who he was. All she could do was hear, and what she heard was the sounds a robo-cat would make when somebot stepped on its tail.
She'd never met Ravage.
She had no idea Soundwave had creations—and they were his creations, he did not care about the technical slag of cast-cold, they were his, and the sparks in their chests were real, borrowed, saved, but real—or that one of them was built like a robo-cat and was sitting on his shoulders hissing in his audios. Rising a clawed hand Soundwave sprawled his long fingers atop Ravage's helm drawing the suddenly quiet mech's attention with slow strokes to his audios. Ravage went practically lip, laying back down around his shoulders as he accepted the soothing touches with a soft purr. Though he did not take his single optic off the confused clouded orbs staring at him.
"What?" She questioned softly, leaning forward a bit more as her sensors gave a flutter like that would somehow chase the darkness away and let her see what she was trying to figure out. It wouldn't, and she knew that, but her processor was stuck up on that sound. Suddenly the worry of how and what to link to Soundwave seemed less important.
She wanted to know what that was. Because it sounded like a robo-cat.
She knew Wheeljack had a kitten, she figured he was around down here somewhere, but that was not a sound some hand sized kitten could make. That sound belonged in the chest of a silver-saber, but there was no way that was possible.
Was it?
Bots couldn't keep silver-sabers. They weren't pets. They couldn't be tamed.
Right?
Did these stupid Autobots have a silver-saber and not tell her about it?
"What?" She muttered again, sensors flexing up and down in her confusion. "What is that?"
If Soundwave was somebot other then Soundwave he might have laughed, but he wasn't and so he didn't. Instead he kept the hand up there stroking at Ravage's audios when he tensed and glared across the room. That was to be expected though and would be cleared up in a nano or two.
"That is Ravage." He answered easily, taking the last few steps forward to the table Jynx sat on. Watching the twins as they held their ground just on the other side of her, but they had calmed down enough to just watch him wearily. That or it was Ravage they were watching.
He didn't blame them. The mech did not like being talked over. He never had, not that Soundwave could blame him. He had his reasons.
"It's a robo-cat?" She asked suddenly.
It was an innocent question.
Honestly, it was.
There was no way she could have possibly known, and Soundwave did not blame her, but he still tensed at the words. Vorns of defending what was his making it a habit reaction. Wheeljack flinched as well as the twins—for they knew well nobot talked about any of Soundwave's creations as if they were anything less than living breathing, bots with sparks and processors of their own—but it was Ravage that let lose a wicked snarl jumping from Soundwave's shoulders to land on the table with a thud.
Jynx squeaked and slid away from the sudden noise, but she didn't run, she couldn't, not when through that hissing growl came words.
Words!?
"I am not an it!" Ravage hissed through barred fangs up at the curling up femme staring down at him with wide but unseeing optics. Her plating plastered tight to her frame as her sensors slapped back down into their grooves when her jaw fell open.
Not that all that wasn't totally an acceptable response.
Because robo-cats didn't talk!
Which was why she just sat there in the darkness with her jaw hanging open blinking stupidly before Soundwave growled out.
"Stop Ravage."
The snarl died a bit when the silver mech turned his single optic to glare over his shoulder at his creator. His plating still puffed out and flared, his tail lashing angrily and his audios pinned, but he backed up a few paces none the less. Returning to Soundwave's side with a frustrated huff through his vents.
Jynx just went right on gaping like a fish.
Sideswipe stepped forward then, brushing his field against her plastered one, trying to pull her back. The sudden touch of energy spooked her and she flinched back, attention snapping to him as her jaw snapped shut. Sides lifted his hands out of reflex, surrendering until he remembered those wide optics couldn't see it and he spoke.
"Just me, Wild Cat." He said carefully. "Just me. It's okay."
The sound of Sideswipe's voice brought her back down a little bit. Getting her to blink a few times at him with more wariness then he wished she would before she gave herself a good shake and seemed to get a grip again. That was when she swung back to the direction Soundwave and . . . Ravage . . . with confusion written all over her pale faceplate.
"Umm." She started and then stopped.
She had no idea what to say, and the confusion was bubbling up into fear. Her energy field pulsing with it as it stretched from her plating on its own accord seeking the assurance of the pair of frontliners behind her. Only it alerted more than just the twins. Sliding against Wheeljack's field she got a surprising rush of reassurance, calm, and poorly hid excitement that she would seek such an answer from the inventor.
She wasn't sure if the fact that it was an accident because she didn't know he was standing so close as she searched for the steady, the calm, the it's alright, the twins pulsed back to her even accrued to the inventor, but he was suddenly so bubbly happy she couldn't find it in herself to yank it back when the two fields collided.
For some reason she got the feeling it would be like taking an energon goody from a sparkling.
She was sparkless, but she wasn't that sparkless.
It seemed that both Soundwave and Ravage picked up on the flare of her energy field as well earning her a confused sound from the creature mech and a loud sigh from the other.
"It is alright, Jynx." He told her lowly. "You couldn't have been expected to know. Especially like this."
"Know what?" Her voice cracked with the unease swirling inside her. Her processor and spark warring against reaction and confusion. "How did? What was? Cat's can't talk!"
"He is not a robo-cat." Sideswipe said behind her, drawing a quick confused flicker of sensors. "He looks like a robo-cat, but he is not a robo-cat."
"I'm a mech." Ravage ground out, still rather pissed about having to explain his existence once again. Then again, it was clear to him now that this little femme had no idea what was happening around her and she had no idea who he was. That was very obvious.
Even still, he was all of a sudden glad Frenzy and Rumble were not here at the moment. They would be throwing a fit by now and that would not be helping anything.
"I'm a bot." He went on. "Just like you."
"Only you're not." Wheeljack suddenly put in oh so helpfully and earned a death glare from the feline mech. "You are actually a wonder of life and science. Truly fascinating really. Remarkable. A true feat that shows the awe of sparks when you really think about it."
"I don't understand." Jynx breathed out, helplessly glancing in every direction to no purpose as she tried to figure out what was going on around her. "I . . . what . . . ."
"Jynx," Sunstreaker rumbled softly, seeing the state the confused little femme was about to work herself into. "We'll explain, just slow down a little bit."
"Hold out your hands." Soundwave told her, drawing not only a bewildered look from her but from the three other mechs as well. Ravage just tilted his helm up and flicked an audio. He already knew were this was going, but he couldn't say he really minded all that much.
Jynx stat still for a moment longer before slowly she did as she was told and lifted her hands out in front of her.
"No." Soundwave stepped forward, letting his relaxed and blank field show her where he was. "To the side, over the table."
"Oh." Jynx felt a little dumb at that, tucking her helm a bit and twisting to do as she was told. Soundwave either felt the short bit of emotion in her field or read in on her face because a bit of a sigh left him as he told her.
"It's alright."
Jynx kept her optics low. Processor still working hard, but spark caught up on his words as they rolled around through it.
Bots around here told her that so much. All the time really. Just about in every conversation.
She wondered if they got tired of it. Why they bothered.
She wondered when she stopped being annoyed by it and started believing it.
Especially from a mech like Soundwave.
But then, suddenly, she wasn't wondering anything along those lines anymore because her whole focus narrowed in on the sudden touch of a somewhat large yet narrow and streamline helm with thick, sharp audios pushing its forehelm into her palm. The first reaction was a yelp and a flinch backward but when there wasn't a snarl or claws digging into her hide she straightened back up and with curiosity flickering in her field and on her faceplate she reached out slowly again.
Ravage once again stepped forward, bent his helm, and pressed it into her palm. He then let his words rattle up through his whole frame so she would be sure to understand it was him that was making the sounds.
"I am Ravage."
"Whoa." Her voice came out in an short burst of awe as her jaw dropped open again.
This seemed to amuse the strange mech because he let out a purr of amusement before he pressed a bit harder against her hand then walked forward. Allowing Jynx's hands to slide down from his helm, over a strong neck, down to a pair of thick powerful shoulders, against sharply plating yet sleek and strong sides all the way down to a slightly flicking tail that expressed the mechs building amusement. It was then that Jynx found herself almost with a lap full of Ravage as the mech built like a robo-cat placed himself against her side in what started as a show of how big he was compared to her—his head was resting against her shoulder—but turned into Jynx tracing his pointed audios in utter fascination.
It didn't even process with her that she had something that wasn't the only bot she'd ever let do it pressed up against her side rumbling low purrs as he let her stroke at his audios while she stared down sightlessly at him.
Because she was so utterly awed, not to mention still very confused.
He was a robo-cat. An actual robo-cat. A very big robo-cat to be sure, but a robo-cat none the less. But then he wasn't. Because animals didn't talk.
She was so very lost.
"I, uh," She swallowed and let her hand drop back to her lap and Ravage took that as his cue to lean away from her to put a little space back between them. It was only when the feline mech looked up did he find the somewhat narrow optics of the twins. He lifted an optic ridge, an audio twitching as well.
What was their problem?
"Umm . . . ." Jynx tilted her helm again looking the direction she thought Soundwave was. "I don't get it."
"He is my creation." The lean silver mech responded, and while he knew there would have to be the whole explanation before Jynx would have a hope of getting it, he figured that was a pretty good place to start.
"He's your sparkling?" Jynx asked, shocked. Bots didn't look like animals. Not since the ancients at least.
What was . . . ?
"No." Soundwave shook his helm even if she couldn't see it. "I did not sire him. I did not carry him. But I did make him. Him and his brothers."
She blinked. "How?"
Taking a deep breath Soundwave decided only the whole story would do. "I never agreed with Shockwave's plan to destroy the Youth Sectors."
Jynx went tense, but either Soundwave didn't notice or he left it alone. The twins on the other hand were watching her even harder.
All Jynx could do was fight back the instinctual snarl that wanted up her chest.
A Decepticon that didn't agree with killing sparklings?
How sweet.
She suddenly wanted to bury her claws in his chest. The long dangerous appendages itching for energon like they hadn't in a while. She felt a little more than justified in this anger though and she couldn't bring herself to care. Instead she just kept herself still.
For now.
"I fought the choice to destroy them. I pleaded with Megatron, but it wasn't really Megatron that made that decision. It was the beast that had poisoned his mind. There was no reasoning with him when he got like that, for the monster wouldn't listen and Shockwave was jut feeding it. In the end it was Shockwave that was responsible for the Sectors falling and I could not have fought that. Not even the link between myself and Megatron was going to be enough to talk him back down that time. So the attack was launched and I was not told until it was already underway. There was nothing I could do to stop it, but I tired. I sent word to the Autobots."
Jynx bit back a shocked gasp.
Soundwave?
Soundwave, the second of the Decepticons. Megatron's one and only real friend—or so most of the world thought for a long time—had betrayed his lord and called the Autobots?
To try and save the Sectors?
All Jynx could do was sit there and stare into the darkness as she felt her whole understanding of this silent, cold mech turn up on its axis and shake itself loose.
"I thought maybe they could get there in time. That if anybot could stop Megatron it was Optimus, but I had to code the message. It couldn't just come from me. They would have thought it was a trap. By the time it was figured out it was too late. Nothing could save all those innocent lives by then. It was over." Soundwave swallowed hard, the memories of that horrible night flooding to the forefront of his processor. Contracting his spark. He could still smell it, the rancid stench of burning protoform. He could still see it, the thousands of small broken frames among the frames of those that had given everything trying to save them, tiny and helpless, burning in an inferno. He could still hear it, the screams of entire generations that never stood a chance, and then the cries of the bots that came to try and save them. The ones that arrived too late.
He remember it all.
He always would.
It was a shame that would forever haunt his nightmares. He would always blame himself for not trying hard enough. For not having seen what was happening to his best friend until it was too late. He would never be able to make himself regret standing by Megatron's side until the very end—because he could never forsake his brother, his best friend, the mech he owed his life too—but he could regret allowing him to be consumed by a ghost that used his pain and his anger and almost destroyed their entire race.
He would forever regret that.
Especially when he looked at the femme sitting there staring blindly up at him. Because she was one of the lucky ones—she had survived—and that was a sad thing horrible beyond words.
"But I went. I had to be there. I could do nothing, but I was there. Standing there among all that death when I found . . . a few sparklings still breathing. They were dying though. Horribly. And . . . ." He took another breathing finding that without him realizing it Ravage had returned to his side and sat with his helm pressed against his side. He realized his hand was petting worriedly at the mech's audios. He couldn't bring himself to care. "I honestly have no explanation behind why I did it. I don't remember deciding to do it. I just did. I picked them up and I took them home to my lab. Then the next thing I knew I was fighting Primus to keep their spark beating when I probably should have done the kind thing and let them stop suffering. I did not though. I just couldn't. For some reason I couldn't let them all die. So the next thing I knew I was piecing together sparks and processors building plating and protoform with everything I had in my lab and more. Shockwave had . . . well more than enough materials that I could borrow from and it not be missed."
"But," Jynx cut in, trying to keep up. "You can't . . . build sparklings."
"Technically," Wheeljack spoke up. "You can if you want to get down to the basics of it. Almost every piece of our race can be replaced. Even processors. Protoform can be grown and spliced. The only thing we aren't capable of creating in a lab are sparks—"
"Jynx," Soundwave cut him off. "Have you ever heard of cold-cast?"
"No." She shook her helm back and forth.
"It's a theory that dates back to the first Golden Age, after the last Rust Pledge. So many young lives were claimed by that sickness because it was eating them alive."
"I know what the Rust Pledge was." She remarked bitterly. It might not be the incurable sickness it once was—there was a cure now—but it was still a disease that could very much kill a bot if they didn't get the vaccination. Jynx would know. She'd had it.
That had been the only time in her life Jynx had been glad Rashact stuck her with a needle.
"Well do you know how they managed to save some of the younglings and sparklings that got it right before they developed the cure, but their frames were too far gone to support their sparks?"
"No."
"Cold-cast." He told her. "It's basically the theory that if you build a frame suitable for supporting a spark and transfer a spark into it that frame comes to life with that spark while the other frame dies. It's basically building a life to support life. It's no different then what medics do when they put bots back together only instead of repairing the frame that is holding the spark it's moving the spark to a frame that was built. Not a protoform that was grown in a gestation chamber. That is cold-cast, and in second Golden Age it was outlawed. It was considered unnatural. The bots that were saved that way, abominations."
"I am not an abomination." Ravage whisper hissed.
"Now you know how we feel." Sunstreaker grumbled.
"Not fun being considered unnatural just because you were born different." Sideswipe huffed. "Is it?"
"Oh both of you knock it off." Wheeljack shoved them lightly. "Don't pick."
"Did you forget who you're talking to?" Sideswipe snorted.
Jynx was still hung up on what the ex-Decepticon that saved four sparklings from the Youth Sectors and built them back to life was saying.
"I didn't know enough about what I was doing to be able to make them . . . normal." Soundwave went on carefully, ignoring the bickering. He could see how set Jynx was on his explanation, and he was only going to explain this again once. She would have to take what she got. "But I gave them a chance at life."
"Them?" Jynx tilted her helm again. "There is more like him?"
"No." Ravage almost meowed and then hissed because of it. "Rumble and Frenzy are micro-bots, or at least they are like micro-bots. Laserbeak is built like a hive-hawk."
"Why did you build them that way?"
"To hide what they really were from Shockwave." Soundwave sighed. "If he had figured out what I did he'd have taken them, experimented on them. His drones were basically cold cast without sparks because he didn't have any at his despoil, but had he figured out I made it work he'd have taken them and turned them into something else. Then he'd have started doing that to the troops. He already screwed around with prisoners. I didn't want to see him do any worse than the experiments he was already messing with. And because I wanted to protect them. I stopped them from dying. Turning sparklings into things that would never be able to really be what they were meant to be. I owed it to them to at least attempt to keep them safe. So over time, after I saved them, I started upgrading and adapting them to be able to serve some type of purpose. It was the only way to keep them alive."
Jynx could only stare in his direction in complete fascination.
This mech was nothing like she'd thought he was.
The other three bots were not so affected though. They'd all already heard this story, already learned who Soundwave really was. The mech that had been the friend to Megatronus, the one that had stood in a Enforcer station beside Prowl, Jazz, and Ultra Magnus. Had known Ironhide, Ratchet, Optimus, Elita, Chromia, and Arcee since before they had met.
Soundwave had never been sparkless. No matter the bot he had had to become over the war to keep himself and later his creations alive while he struggled to save the life of his best friend from his own twisted mind.
No.
Soundwave had never been sparkless. Different, yes, that he had always been. He'd always functioned a little odd compared to most, but the same could be said for Prowl. He was so brilliant his processor had hard times relating and his spark even more, but the ball of life in his chest was very much there and it was very much a part of his character. He had just learned very young not to show it. He'd been doing it so long now it had become his personality, but there was more to the quiet mech then just standing silently to the side and watching.
All that though, the fact that that might be true, had never occurred to Jynx. She was so use to mechs being just what they were on the surface that looking beyond that had become a luxury she hadn't been able to afford. The last time she'd done it was with Nook and she hadn't been big on doing it sense.
Except . . . wasn't she doing it here?
"So," She started out slowly. "They're like normal bots . . . they are just shaped different . . . ?"
"No." Soundwave replied. "I could not save a good portion of most of their processors. Ravage is actually the only one that has most of his, the part that isn't I coded in the ability to function in a from like this. The ability to think more animal then mech should he need to because it would keep him alive."
Ravage let out a low purr of approval.
It was true this was the only way he remembered being, but he liked what he was, he wouldn't dream himself any other way.
"He is the most . . . developed in the processor however."
Jynx's sensors lowered slightly. "Developed?"
Wheeljack made a small nervous type of sound as he tried to put it as gently as possible. "Smart, femmeling."
"They're not stupid!" Ravage lunged to his clawed peds snarling viciously, but Soundwave's claws latching hold of his scruff and yanking him back. There was no verbal warning. Just a deep rumble that couldn't even be considered a growl as it vibrated in the back of Soundwave's throat. It did just what it was meant to and Ravage fell to his belly on the table with his helm bowed and a sparkling like whine in his chest.
Soundwave glared at him a moment longer before he released his hold and turned his attention back to the others. Wheeljack stood looking sheepishly at his toes, but the lean silver mech was not angry at him. The inventor hadn't meant any harm. His mouth just ran away with him again. So instead of growling in defense of his creations he turned his cool red optics back to Jynx who was flicking back and forth quickly trying to understand.
"Laserbeak has the processing power of a second frame youngling. He is capable of looking after himself most of the time, and of functioning on his own should he need too. But a good portion of his processor, more so then Ravage's, is more animal then mech. It was the only way I could keep him alive. Rumble and Frenzy though will never have the functionality of anything more than sparklings. They can do the simple things I ask of them, but in their processors they are sparklings. They always will be. That is just the way they are. Differences and complications are usual in cold-cast. It is the price that is paid when playing with life and death."
The price that came when bots started playing with sparks and processors.
Jynx understood that very well.
It took everything she had not to lift a hand and cradle her helm.
She knew just what the price of playing with the insides of a bot—changing them—was. She had the screwed up spark to prove it, as well as the . . . well the everything that was still messed up in her processor. The things she still tired to forget. The things she told herself weren't there anymore, that they didn't matter.
Because Rashact was gone.
She was going to go on telling herself those things too. Because it was easier that way, and there were a few things that these Autobots and especially Ratchet and Arcee would simply be better off not knowing.
And Jynx would go on telling herself that it didn't matter anymore.
She was quite content with that.
At least that was what she was going to go on telling herself.
Soundwave's explanations had come to an end after that, as did Jynx's questions. It was not hard for her to get when the mech felt he had explained himself enough, and when the conversation turned to what he had discovered about her optics in that little headlight flashing stunt of his she found she would much rather hear him talk about how he was going to make this new visor and give her back her optics.
And so Jynx sat there quietly on the table for a long time listening to Soundwave explain how if her optics were receptive enough to light to still be hurt by it then that meant not all the hardware needed for her to see was destroyed in her processor. There were still some connections in there that could be used with the right science to make the visor function.
A whole lot of other scientific explanations were given too—mostly by Wheeljack—but once again she had no idea what most of what he was saying even meant so she had taken to listening to Soundwave's much quieter and simpler explanations that went on under the loud ringing of Wheeljack's voice.
About three breems later Jynx had been poked, prodded, and measured a good many times and Soundwave had finally deemed he had enough information. With a promise to have her a proper visor to test by two evenings from now she and the twins were dismissed from the lab with wagging finger orders from Wheeljack to get her checked up on and get her to berth.
She'd hadn't really noticed, but she'd been yawning for the last breem of Soundwave's looking.
The check up with Arcee went rather swiftly. Maybe it was just because Jynx wasn't paying all that much attention—she was tired and she wasn't even sure why—to all of it. Arcee had scanned her, checked over her still useless optics, given her another cube of energon full of meds and anti-virus and then sent her off with the twins as well.
Then the two big mechs tucked her slightly wobbly steps between them and lead her back up to their rooms. The fact that the meds Arcee gave her completely knocked her out before they got to the elevator meant Jynx wasn't even aware of the moment she'd leaned hard on Sideswipe's left thigh and slipped off to recharge in less than a blink. She wasn't awake to hear the small huff of laughter that bubbled in Sideswipe's chest, nor the small smile that played on Sunstreaker's lips. She didn't know that Sideswipe scooped her up in his arms pulling her curled sideways form to his chest and carried her the rest of the way to their rooms. She hadn't the slightest clue that when the red twin placed her carefully back into her own berth he tucked her blankets around her in the cocoon he'd seen her make so many times and pulled down one of the smaller pillow letting her tired frame clutch to it out of instinct.
She didn't know he left the door that separated their room open when he left. She didn't know that the crimson mech just about pounced on his already sprawled out brother in their berth and burrowed himself into Sunstreaker's neck with vibrating purrs and a goofy smile that had the golden brother swatting at his audio horns and grumbling nonsense things as he tried to pry the clinging hug off of him before eventually he just gave up and let Sideswipe have his stupid cuddle time that Sunstreaker secretly—not so secretly from his twin—craved.
Trembling she dug her claws into the railing above her helm and hauled herself to her peds only to get half way up and have her arms give out and send her crashing back to the hard floor below her. A sick sounding splash came with the fall back to the floor as she landed in the steadily growing puddle of her life's fuel gushing out of the two thick slices starting at the top of her shoulders and cutting her down to her hips.
She hurt so bad she couldn't even fraggin' open her optics as she shook there on the floor choking on her sobs. And the only thing she could think was she couldn't believe she was fraggin' crying. She couldn't believe she was giving him this satisfaction.
"Is that it?" The raspy, smoke sounding quiet voice seemed to boom over the eerily quiet of the arena that had been alive with the sounds of the fight a few nanos before.
The sad part was, she'd won.
But she didn't feel like she'd won.
She knew she was suppose to answer. She had to answer. Not answering would put a plasma round in her already aching back, but she couldn't.
She just couldn't.
She was too busy choking on the energon bubbling in her mouth.
Spitting it out only for it rush back in just as quickly she rolled, struggling, trembling.
Jynx somehow managed to push herself to her knees and lift her helm looking through the energon splattered visor to the thin, spindly, sickly looking red mech with empty red optics.
The energon dripped down her bottom lip and running from her busted nose plate. Spitting again she managed to get some words out.
"Yes." She tried to say, but it came out as a whisper.
"Well that's down right pathetic."
Yeah. She figured he'd find it that, but she couldn't care. She hurt too much.
"I expected more than this."
He always did. But she was still breathing, couldn't that be enough?
"Let's see how you do with the next batch of drones."
No. Her spark clenched. No. Please.
She couldn't. She couldn't even stand up.
Please.
By now she should know better than to beg though. It was pointless.
The doors across the arena opened and her spark hit the floor in defeat.
She could hear the yells start up in the cages above the arena.
Arsine.
Gambit.
They could see her, but they couldn't help. If they even wanted to help. They sure were raising a fuss, but her helm was ringing so bad she couldn't make it out over the sounds of the twenty or so drones that spilled out that door.
A spear slammed into her shoulder before she could even try and get her peds back from under her she crashed back to the floor with a scream.
Sideswipe bolted upright, weapons systems whirling on and blades slinking out as he tossed himself into a crouch as that spark shattering sound scrapped across his audios. Systems coming on in a rush and vents heaving as he shook himself from recharge trying to clear his helm as his gaze swung to the door across the room. Sunstreaker was up in a blur beside him, weapons running and optics blinking quickly trying to clear himself out of recharge as well. They'd both been deep and calm, snuggled together and resting better then they had in a while now that they were back in their room, their berth, and felt safer with the knowledge that they had Jynx back in a place they could better defend.
Both of them booting back slowly, recharge heavy in their frames, as they tried to figure out what woke them when another scream tore out of the dark room just across from them and Sideswipe was flinging himself out of the berth flying through the doorway in two nanos flat.
"Jynx!"
Another pained cry tore out of her chest as she lay there on the berth, twisting, and failing, and struggling. By the time Sideswipe slid up and got a hold of her she'd tore the plating loose from her arms and was leaking badly. Her failing got him smacked hard with a kick upside his cheek in a slice that drew energon and left him hissing, but he kept the hold and scrambled up to pin her struggling just to keep her from hurting herself worse.
Another scream tore out of her as Sideswipe used his weight to pin her down, her energon covered arms pinned above her helm as he used his knees to pin her failing legs.
"Jynx!" He shouted again, shaking her arms he had a hold of trying to wake her up. "Jynx wake up!"
Her back arched and a cry that felt like it nailed him in the spark as she twisted about trying to get out from under him.
He was making it worse. He knew he was. She never handled being touched well when she was like this, but he had to get a hold of her before she tore into a main vein or something.
Then Sunstreaker was there.
Latching hold with him he managed to get a good enough hold that Sideswipe could take most of his weight off of her. He took hold of her kicking legs Sunstreaker latched hold of her arms and shook her hard. Trying to draw her awake.
"Jynx!" Sunstreaker snapped, shaking her still struggling frame. "Jynx wake up!"
"You're dreaming!" Sides fought her lethally strong legs to keep them still and out of his thighs. "It's not real! Wake up! You're okay."
But their hold on her just made her fight harder, scream louder.
They were making it worse, and the energon rolling down her arms was getting faster.
Suddenly Sideswipe was cold with fear.
What if she already sliced a main vein?
He felt the fear spread even before he was sure of the thought and it slammed into Sunstreaker so bad that the golden mech leaning over the side of the berth froze up beside him and then his grip was raising and his fingers were taking hold of not her wrist, but her leaking arms.
It would hurt—it did hurt her—but he had to stop the flow of energon, and they had to wake her the frag up.
"Jynx!" Sunstreaker snarled, squeezing hard on her leaking arms. "WAKE UP!"
But she wouldn't wake up.
She was screaming, and fighting, and leaking, and . . . crying.
Stuck in her helm.
They couldn't wake her up.
Sideswipe jarred her whole frame hard against the berth and slammed her legs down. "You have to wake up, Jynx! It's not real! Wake up!"
She wouldn't wake up though. She just kept screaming.
Sideswipe was shaking almost as bad as she was by that point.
"Sunny?" He gasped. "Sunny she won't wake up!"
"I noticed, Sides!" He growled, fighting to keep hold of her leaking arms.
"What do we do, Sunny!?"
Her claws got free for a swung and took a chunk out of Sunstreaker's shoulder earning pained snarl and a slam back to the berth.
"Call Ratchet!" He hissed. "Call him right fraggin' now! Something is wrong!"
"Let go of me!" She screamed kicking, failing, struggling, but Off Road just sneered and kept her pinned to the wall as he chuckled.
"No, I don't think I will." He rumbled mockingly as the heavy bass form the speakers in the club thumbed through wall and her back. She'd managed to make it to the back before the bastards caught up with her this time, but all that was going to do was cut down on the audience for her pain. Oddly enough that actually was some kind of consolation.
As sad as that was.
"Get off!" She snarled, kicking out and slammed a clawed ped into his chest. He hissed with pain as her long claws diced through his armor leaving him to fall back with a grunt, but before she could even hit the ground from the drop Blackice had a hold of her neck and slung across the hallway straight though one of the backroom doors.
The cheep metal shattered like glass, slicing into her all over as she landed on the other side with a yelp. Crumpled there in a pile she sucked in trembling breaths, whole frame aching already, as she listened to the mocking chuckles coming from the two huge mechs stalking in behind her.
"What's the matter, Jynx?" Blackice's raspy baritone shook the very floor she lay on, but that wasn't too big a feat with a mech as big as he was. "It's just a little fun."
"Go jump in a smelter." She ground out through clenched fangs, arms shaking as she tried to push herself up right when the towering bulk of the Captain straddled over her bending down to latch hold of her sensors to yank her up by the sensitive appendage.
The scream it pulled out of her almost made the two huge Captains flinch to cover their audios, but Blackice was a little too busy finding her failing and sobbing as she grasped at his wrist trying to take some of the weight off of the sensor he was trying to yank out of her helm funny.
"Ah now that's just unkind." He mocked as he yanked her close to his thick chest and pressed his lips to the side of her leaking neck. She tried to cringe away from the touch, from the fangs sinking in and the tongue rolling over behind it but she was a little distracted by the white spots of pain flashing behind her optics as he kept her whole weight hanging by tearing sensors. The wring and cabling started to buckle and snap behind the plating that was meant to protect it.
"Stop!" She cried out, tears spring to her optics from the blinding pain. "Stop! Please!"
Blackice only huffed a laugh at her before tossing her out on the berth behind him while Off Road cackled at his side.
"Begging won't save you." He laughed.
She knew.
It never did.
"Jynx," Sideswipe pleaded, struggling to have a hold of her as she twisted and tried to roll away from them as she cried out with tears rolling down her cheeks. "Come on, please wake up!"
"Where the frag is he!?" Sunstreaker snarled as he fought her claws for grip of her arms.
"He's coming!" Sideswipe's voice shook, before half his processor twisted to Ratchet's voice.
"Mechs wake her up!" Ratchet's voice ordered through Sideswipe's comm. He sounded like he was running, and Sides was hoping to Primus that he was.
He didn't know what to fraggin' do.
"We're trying to wake her up damn it!"
"She won't wake up!" Sunstreaker's tone snarled in. "She's pulled half her damn arm plating off, she punctured the main vein in her arm! Something's wrong Ratchet! What the frag did you bots give her!"
All they got back was the medic cursing while he ran as the two of them fought a femme not half their size, pinned to a berth, and yet they still could hardly keep a hold of her. They had known all along just how much fight Jynx had in her. How much damage she could do when she got desperate. She was only still alive this orn because she was good in a fight, because she could fight through pain that should have brought her to her knees.
She was strong.
Sometimes they wondered if she might be stronger than them.
In a lot of ways they both already knew she was.
But she was hysterical now and she was going to fraggin' kill herself in her recharge if they didn't figure out a way to stop her.
To wake her up.
They just didn't get why! Why the pit wouldn't she wake up!?
Another twist pulled her legs out from under Sides and a sudden kick to the forehelm he hadn't seen coming put him on his back at the end of the berth. She suddenly had enough leverage that she almost sprang out of the berth. She might have, was going too, had Sunstreaker not cracked his hand across her cheek.
The hit was hard enough that a crack boomed across the sudden quiet of the berthroom as Jynx crashed back to the berth, optics suddenly snapping open and frame yanking itself in a ball.
And then there was silence.
Spark numbing silence apart from the hard vents rattling through the brothers as Sideswipe crouched there at the end of the berth and Sunstreaker leaned against the side of the berth almost fully over her as he panted. Two sets of vibrant dark blue staring wildly at the quivering ball of white plating, bubbling energon, and coolant tears.
She didn't move.
Didn't even whimper.
She just lay there, silent tears running down her cheeks as her breath came uneven through her vents.
Sideswipe's scared optics darted up to Sunstreaker's but the golden mech wouldn't look at him. All he could make himself do was stare down at the rapidly bruising protoform and dented plating of her cheek.
Energon already rushing to the split in the corner of her lip.
He . . . he hadn't meant to hit her that hard.
He . . . just . . . .
He hadn't know what to do.
He . . . he panicked . . . .
He hadn't meant to hit her that hard.
Shoving himself away from the berth Sunstreaker took several steps back shaking his helm slowly. Sideswipe pushed himself up more, wide optics watching his brother warily. Reaching quickly at the bond between them he felt the rolling ball of emotions in Sunny's chest before he was promptly slammed out. The sudden shut had Sideswipe actually falling back on his aft with the force of it, but before he could do anything else Ratchet was rushing into the room and at the berth.
In two quick nanos the medic's quick optics had assessed it all and had the numbly still femme on the berth twisting to lay on her back as he quickly took to fixing the punctures she'd torn into her wrist.
"Sideswipe." He snapped distractedly drawing the red twin to him in a flash.
"What? Why?"
Ratchet cast a quick look at him, almost stalled by how very shaken the red brother looked.
Sideswipe didn't get shaken.
Neither of the twins do.
Not over just anything.
They were hardened to almost every aspect of this world. Things rolled off of them like oil most of the time. It was very rare something hit hard enough to hurt them. Physically or emotionally, and while Ratchet was one of the few they trusted enough to show their venerable side to he hadn't expected to see it here.
"Get over here and hold her still for me."
Sideswipe did as he was told without argument. Simply scooted closer, sat down, and pulled a trembling bright white femme up into his lap and held her there in a cross ways bundle as Ratchet's hands flew fixing the damage.
Sunstreaker didn't move.
He only stood there panting behind him as he watched with wide optics.
Their breathing, Jynx's soft whimpering that started with Ratchet's touches, and Ratchet fixing were the only sounds that rained until finally the medic lay his hands on the berth on both sides of Sideswipe's lap bending down in a huff of breath while he looked at the little femme that had yet to speak, yet to move really, trembling there in Sideswipe's lap.
Then Sideswipe's voice breathed over his audios.
"What the pit just happened?"
Ratchet flinched, looking away as he fought to keep his frame from shaking.
He should have known. He should have KNOWN!
"I kept her drugged under too long." He whispered. "I . . . she . . . it was loop lock, Sides."
Both the twins yanked in a breath.
"What!?" Sides bit.
"Loop lock." Ratchet's voice shook. "She was in loop lock."
"But . . . ." Sideswipe's optics fixed on her quivering form. "That can . . . ." He sucked in a wavering breath. "How much . . . ."
"I don't know." Ratchet's fist balled in the sheets of the berth. "I don't know."
Well, that took a rather drastic hard left turn.
I will once again take a moment to thank all you wonderful readers for being you, for reviewing, the faves, and the alerts, not to mention messing with the blog. I adore you all.
Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Can't wait to see what you thought of it!
Now. I'm going to sleep. See you guys next time. ^-^
-Jaycee