Miko shuddered as she stepped into the cold atmosphere of the Nemesis. It was the sharp contrast to the heat of the groundbridge, that quickly sewed shut behind her, and the scorching metal of Shockwave against her. The Decepticon's cooling fans were on full blast as his systems desperately tried to recalibrate. But with the amount of energon he was losing, it would be impossible.
The femme recognized they were in his personal laboratory. It was an odd comfort, after the chaos of the off-site base. Miko moved towards one of the berths, trying to shift Shockwave's weight against her. But it was too much.
The human-turned-Cybertronian let out a sharp cry as the two crumbled to the floor. The heavy mech fell on top of her, forcing her vents shut. Miko wheezed in protest and wiggled to get free.
"Ugh, Shockwave, you got to get up! I can't breathe!" she gasped.
The Decepticon only made a soft, staticky noise. His optic was horribly dim. Miko felt him shift, likely trying to move off of her. He only succeeded in rolling halfway off of his charge, but it was enough to elevate some of the pressure on the femme's crushed vents.
Miko wormed her way out from underneath Shockwave, gasping in relief as air rushing back into her systems. She shakily climbed to her pedes, slumping over with her servos on her knees. Energon continued to drip from her own wound, trailing down her side and onto the floor. The former human was still trying to register what just happened.
The Autobots... they had come. But not for her. They only wanted to kill the Predacons. They had attacked her, hurt her, and...
Miko glanced down at Shockwave's body at her pedes. A pool of energon had already formed underneath the large mech, still leaking profusely from his wound. No doubt he would bleed out in minutes. Panic seized the femme's spark.
But what was she going to do? She hardly knew anything about Cybertronian biology. She had watched Shockwave meddle experiments-mainly watched him tear her apart. She usually fell into forced recharge by the time he was done, and awoke to her wounds sealed and replaced by welding scars. The femme certainly didn't know how to seal off a ruptured fuel-line. Should she call Knock Out? But what he didn't get here in time? That meant…
Miko bit her bottom lip and summoned her courage. She leaned down, tucking her arms underneath Shockwave's. She wheezed as she lifted his upper body off the floor. He was heavy. Miko half-carried, half-dragged the Decepticon across the ground, her audios flattening at the screech of his pedes scraping on the metal floor.
"Ugh... come on… Just a little further..." she groaned through the process.
Yet when they finally made it the berth, the former human was filled with dread. How in the world was she going to get him on it. Gathering all of her strength with a strained yell, Miko lifted Shockwave even higher. Her pistons protested the action, but she ignored it as she heaved the large mech onto the metal slab. The femme let out a gasp of relief once her frame was relieved of her burden, but there was still more work to do.
She took hold of Shockwave's shoulder, shaking him vigorously as she demanded, "Shockwave, wake up! I don't know what to do! You need to tell me what to do!"
He couldn't die—not yet. Not until she was done with him. One way or another, Miko would force him to remove the inhibitor and slave coding. A wave of panic rushed through her as Shockwave's flickering optic dimmed. Not a good sign.
"No, no, no!" Miko cried. She struck his chest, hard, a metallic clang reverberating through the air. He may have groaned in protest, but she didn't listen. "Don't die, don't die!"
But glancing at the energon leaking profusely from the gaping hole in his shoulder, Miko began to wonder if that was a real possibility. It made her fear that coming here was a mistake. If Shockwave died, on the Nemesis, under her watch... no doubt there would be consequences.
Lord Buckethead would fully blame her. Miko would make her argument, of course. She wanted to prove to the warlord she wasn't scared of him. But... A shudder coursed through her frame as she remembered the last time she was stuck in a room with Megatron. How easily he pinned her down and threatened to squash her, as if she was a bug.
"What is all the noise around here?"
Miko nearly cried out in relief as shiny red metal appeared in the doorway. Knock Out, probably summoned by the commotion. The medic looked annoyed more than anything, settling his glare on her. Then his optics flickered to the bleeding, dying Shockwave on the medical berth, and the Aston Martin let out a dramatic gasp.
"What in the Pit—" he started, but Miko cut him off.
"Just shut up and help me!"
Knock Out moved forward, his frown deepening. His haughty voice was replaced by a disconnected, analytical tone, like a doctor walking into surgery.
"What happened?"
"Th-the Autobots shot him."
"What?! That wasn't part of the—I mean, um…" Knock Out's sudden exclamation was cut off with a sputter. Awkwardly meeting Miko's glare, he started again, "So much for the secret lab being secret."
The femme only cocked an optic ridge at the medic odd speech. Well, it was whatever. Knock Out had always been weird. As long as he fixed Shockwave.
The medic retreated away from the conversation to gather his tools, leaving Miko to stare at the heavily venting Shockwave. The scientist didn't acknowledge Knock Out's presence, not even saying a word or a grunt or a glance. His optic seemed to stare at nothing. It was the opposite of what Miko was used to seeing.
Shockwave was always acutely aware of his surroundings, always scrutinizing every single detail. And he was rarely silent, either barking at her or conversing with his fellow Decepticons or even rambling to himself. But seeing him now in such a state, it disturbed Miko to her core, and she didn't know why.
"I-is... is he going be alright?" she demanded in a stammer, then asking questions in rapid succession, "You can fix it, right? Is he going to die? You—j"
"Shut up and let me think!" Knock Out snapped, interrupting her rambling.
He all but shoved Miko out of the way, turning his attention to Shockwave's grave wound. He set about cleaning it at once, brushing away a coat of dried energon to see the extent of the injury. Miko's optics widened at the sight of it.
In between the broad breastplate and the clavical plating of Shockwave's shoulder was a jagged hole. The metal around it was scorched. Even with Miko's limited knowledge, she could tell the wound was deep. It had dug through Shockwave's armored plating and the reinforced wires, and the protoform beneath had been melted. Fresh energon gushed from the severed fuel lines, oozing from the wound.
"A... a bolt of energon did this?" the femme gasped.
"A lucky shot," Knock Out huffed. "Or, unlucky, in Shockwave's case, considering it took a fully charged hit to the protoform."
"F-Fully charged?"
"No doubt it was intended to be fatal."
Miko's spark twisted at that. A fatal shot... when she was still in Shockwave's grasp, forced to stand between him and their attackers. If the energon had strayed just an inch... it would have killed her.
The realization made her freeze in horror. Meanwhile, Knock Out seemed unaware of her distress as he continued to work. Or perhaps he just didn't care. Servo transformed into a spinning sawblade, he cut away jagged and burnt pieces of metal. He discarded the ruined pieces to the side, not unlike what Shockwave did when he operated on her.
Miko cringed when Knock Out's tools probed into Shockwave's shoulder, but the scientist offered no reaction. It seemed like eternity as the medic repaired the Decepticon's ruined frame. Knock Out carefully stitched severed fuel lines back together, melded broken metal, and replaced ruined plating. The air was filled with an uncomfortable silence during the entire process, filled only by the medic's muttering.
"Come on... there we go... and… ha! Viola!" Knock Out chimed with a noise of triumph as he sealed the wound close.
"Will... will he be okay?"
It took Miko a moment to register she said those words.
"Well, there's some protoform damage, which is impossible to replace," Knock Out explained. "His self-repairs should take care of it, but as Shockwave isn't jacked up with dark energon like that other brat, it'll take some time for his body to regenerate."
Miko's servos clenched by her sides as she eyed the Cyclops disdainfully. Shockwave wasn't going to die by someone else's servo. She would make him perish. She would make him suffer.
Shockwave had tortured her. He had mocked her, hurt her, degraded her. He saw her nothing more than an object—an experiment. Miko would relish his pain. She should have watched him die. She should have left him in that lab to meet whatever horrible fate awaited him. But she didn't.
Why? She didn't care what happened to Shockwave. She hated him for what he did to her... what he would do to her. The thought chilled the energon in Miko's veins. What would have happened, if she did leave Shockwave? If she was taken by the Autobots, if they didn't kill her, they would have locked her away. But if Shockwave survived and if he found her… Primus knows what torture the sadist would have inflicted.
No, she... she didn't have a choice.
She never had a choice.
~break~
Jack's cooling fans were roared at top speed, trying to cool his overheating body. His frame trembled without his permission and his stabilizers threatened to collapse underneath him. His HUD flashed with warning messages, but the mech ignored them.
He could do this. He had to.
With a deep intake, Jack took a hesitant forward. Only for his pistons to groan in protest and his body tilted to the side. He instinctively raised his arms to balance himself, grinding his denta as a jolt of pain went through his spinal strut. But he managed to stay on his pedes.
"Your condition is improving," Megatron rumbled.
The warlord sat with his elbows resting on his knees and his claws intertwined underneath his helm as he eyed his struggling charge. He looked as leisurely as he did regal, making it look he was sprawled across a throne rather than a medical berth. Jack's wings only twitched at the comment, feeling more frustrated with his progress than accomplished.
His reconstructed frame was stiff and his processor felt like it was detached from reality, forcing him to focus on each individual movement. And each one was slow and clumsy, just like when the former human first awoke in his new body. Except then, Jack had managed to walk through the hall of the Nemesis (albeit awkwardly), now he could barely manage to walk across the room.
His wings' sensors were still horribly dull, barely able to detect the cold air around him. Knock Out had told it would be some time until they were fully operational again. It would be some time before anything was fully operational again.
Jack gritted his denta even harder. He was sick of being battered and beaten, left bedridden for days. If it was not one thing, it was another. His own friends, crazed Terrorcons, or vicious Predacons. He was so tired of being weak.
Jack's frustration must have been bleeding over the blood-bond as Megatron hummed, "Patience, little one. Your range of motion was only restored a matter of joors ago."
"Then tell me, how am I supposed to be stronger than I was before?" the former human growled, He turned to face the warlord, but had to grip a nearby table to keep him stable.
"You are stronger," Megatron retorted predictably. "If you had been human, you would be dead already."
"How? I can't even protect the people I care about. I couldn't protect—"
Jack caught his mistake and quickly clipped his intake shut. Acting quickly, he threw up a defensively wall over the bond, just as Megatron raised an optic ridge.
"Hmm? And who would you be protecting, little one? Miko, perhaps?"
The warlord used her human name, rather the one Shockwave had given her. Jack didn't let himself fall for the bait. Megatron couldn't know about Raf.
The mech remembered how his master had flooded his evil intentions over the bond, forcing Jack to succumb and beat the poor little youngling nearly into a pulp. He knew Megatron wanted Raf for something—was plotting something—but he didn't know what. Miko and Jack had learned how to avoid their slavers' rage, how to play along with their will. Raf wouldn't know how.
If Megatron ever found out the former human had purposefully defied him, allowing Raf to escape and letting the humans live, Jack knew there would be punishment. And he had learned that was something he did not want to endure. Especially now, when he was in Megatron's good graces. Something that could change on a whim, should the slightest thing sway him.
Jack met Megatron's critical gaze and it took all his willpower not to flinch away from those scorching optics.
"She's my friend," the mech said lowly.
The warlord only hummed thoughtfully, "Friend? After she nearly terminated you?"
"That wasn't a fatal wound, and you know it. And it only happened because you forced us to fight."
"Ah." Megatron smiled. "But I did not tell her to beat you to the ground. I did not give her dark energon, so I have no control of her will. She made that choice."
Jack's tanks rolled, reminded of that bloody fight. He felt angry, betrayed, that his best friend would turn on him so easily, after everything they had been through together. But then he saw that scared, vulnerable girl down in the tunnels, abused and left alone. Then Jack realized. That wasn't Miko that had pummeled him to the ground and laughed. That was a tool, created by Shockwave's sick and twisted experiments.
"No," Jack retorted sharply, his wings twitching in distress. "No matter what happens, nothing is going to change between us."
"So you still chose to value her life over your own."
The tyrant tilted his helm, almost in curiosity, yet his voice had lowered to a growl. It was then the mutant recognized that simmering look in Megatron's optics.
"You're mad at me," Jack realized.
It was then the Decepticon leader bared his lips back like an irritated lion. "You would not be in this state if you had not been distracted."
The mech's optics widened and mouth gaped at Megatron's harsh tone, retorting, "Miko is the only reason I'm still here! If it weren't for her, we'd still be trapped under that mountain. We both would be dead." Megatron only gave a skeptical look, making Jack shake his head in confusion. "What's your game, Megatron? One day you have us fight to the death, and then the next you send us on a joint mission. Now you're saying we can't even be partners?"
"All of which was necessary," the warlord countered. "In order to observe your combat prowess… without my guidance."
Jack blinked, stepping back as if Megatron had slapped him. He could only stare at the Decepticon for a long time, Megatron's words circling in his helm.
Without Megatron's guidance. Without his control.
The tyrant had not manipulated him in his fight with Miko. It was only when Jack hesitated, Megatron pushed his bloodlust upon his charge, but did nothing more. Jack had been in control of his movements, just like he when he fought the Predacons. When Megatron was ignoring him. And now Jack knew why.
"It was a test," he gasped.
"Did you think that I would control your actions in every mission you partook in?" Megatron scoffed. "No. It was time that you learned self-efficacy."
Jack's voice turned challenging, wings hiking up. "So was that the plan, then? Send me up against a rampaging Predacon?"
"Of course not," Megatron retorted, rolling his optics. He looked away, gaze blazing as he growled, "They were not supposed to be functioning."
"Then why? Why send us to the other side of the planet? Why send us to pick up some dusty old bone, if you thought there was nothing to pit me against unless the Auto—"
Jack stopped with a choke-like sound as he realized the answer to his own question. Megatron said nothing, only looking back to him with a cocked optic ridge.
"The Autobots," the former human finally finished. "You wanted us to fight them."
No, that wasn't it. Megatron couldn't expect the recently converted humans to defeat his longtime enemies, after eons of war. Which was why he had sent the Predacon—no, Predaking—after them. Not to watch the pair. But to hunt the Autobots. Which meant...
The warlord's knowing smile said all.
"You sent us there to see if we would fight the Autobots," Jack corrected. "And you sent Predaking to kill them if we didn't."
As always, Megatron didn't miss a beat. "And it was fortunate that I did. If our newly awakened… recruit had not been present, those beasts would have terminated you."
Jack only grounded his denta in rage, raising his voice to a near shout, "Were you seriously going to gamble our lives like that?! Even if it was just the Autobots, what if they attacked us? Try to capture—or kill—us?"
"Well, I suppose now we will never know."
Jack fell silent, optics narrowing for a moment before his gaze fell to the floor. Would he have fought his former friends, his former partner? He was still so angry at them, but could he kill them? Could he kill Arcee? Would she try to kill him? She certainly didn't attempt to intervene when Ultra Magnus threw him over the bridge, or when the humans fired upon him. Did she even care?
The youngling balled his servos into fists as he remembered what he and Miko realized, down in the tunnels. They were on their own now. They did what they had to do to survive. He had to survive. Even if it meant he had to become a Decepticon.
Jack's dark thoughts were interrupted by the hiss of a hydraulic door, followed by a familiar shrieking voice.
"Lord Megatron!" Starscream cried, skidding to a halt before his master. His optics were wide and bright, wings raised high in distress. "Autobots! They have attacked Project Predacon!"
"What?!" Megatron demanded in a fury, optics blazing as he stood abruptly from the berth to face Starscream. "How did they discover its location?!"
Jack's spark froze in fear. Project Predacon? Was that...
"Shockwave's off-site laboratory," he gasped, stepping forward on shaky pedes.
Wasn't Miko there, with the scientist? With... Predaking?
"That remains unclear, my liege." Starscream merely shook his head, but he went on with his report with an almost disturbed tone. "But they have brought a whole strike force. There... there was an explosion... All of the Predacons in incubation have been destroyed. Shockwave has been taken into the medbay for personal injuries as well. Knock Out is tending to him as we speak."
A stunned silence fell over the room once Starscream finished, leaving his audience to process the news. While Megatron stood with an unreadable expression, Jack's spark pulsed rapidly in his chest.
The Predacons… they were all dead? What could have caused such destruction? Shockwave, one of the most powerful Decepticons, barely managed to escape with life. Then what about…
"Miko!" Jack exclaimed. "Where is she?!"
"She... was accompanying Shockwave when the Autobots launched their assault. She should be in the medbay with—AH! Watch where you're going!"
Jack ignored Starscream's startled grunt as he barreled past him. Frozen fear had melted into frantic horror. The mutant used what was left of his strength to bolt out of the door. He was still unsteady of his legs, running through the corridors like a drunken fool. He shoved past startled drones and stumbled into walls, nearing tripping on his own pedes several times, but he didn't care.
All Jack cared about was his friend.
Starscream said there was an explosion. Autobots had raided the laboratory, with the intention to destroy it. And if Shockwave was injured... then that meant Miko was hurt as well.
The Autobots hurt her.
Crooked denta were bared as he angrily cursed the Autobots. So his fears were proven true. They would go so far as to try to kill Miko!
It seemed like an eternity before he finally reached the medbay's doors, barging through before they even had a chance to full open.
"Miko!"
Jack scanned the wide room, optics locking onto pink highlights of a familiar figure. Miko jolted at the shout, nearly falling off the berth she was sitting on. Her optics widened as she noticed the mech stumbling towards her, panting heavily.
"Jack? What are you doing here?" she demanded in high-pitched confusion. "What's wrong with you?"
Jack didn't bother to answer her confused questions. The femme let out a squeak as he slammed into her, wrapping her arms around her in a tight embrace. He felt her stiffen under her touch, but he didn't care. As a human, Miko had always been a hugger, but since she had been converted, she had been deprived of any sort of affectionate contact. So Jack pulled away, but didn't let go, his servos wrapped around her shoulders.
"Are you okay?" he asked with concern.
The surprised femme just stared. It took her several seconds to reply, only for her voice to be low and hesitant. "I-I'm fine..."
She avoided Jack's gaze, finding an interesting spot on the floor. The mech remembered that look.
"You're lying," he accused. He looked over her frame, catching sight of scorch armor of her side, a long gash marred by blackened metal. Revealing torn wires. Blaster fire. "What happened? Who did this?"
Miko didn't answer. Only a pitiful whimper came out, doorwings flattening on her back. Jack lowered his voice, trying to be gentle.
"Was it the Autobots?"
After a long, strained silence, Miko refused to look at him in the optic as she muttered, "...Yeah."
Jack wasn't aware his grip tightened in growing fury, making the femme wince at the pressure.
"Which one?" he growled lowly.
"I-it doesn't matter," Miko tried to brush off, but Jack wouldn't allow it.
"Who was it? Tell me!"
The femme flinched at his harsh bark, shutting her optics tight. When Jack didn't let go, she reopened them after a long moment.
Miko let out a keen, her voice quiet and broken as she finally relented, "Wh-Wheeljack…"
It was only then Jack let go. He stepped away from her, optics wide in shock and disbelief.
No, he didn't hear that right. Not Wheeljack. The Wrecker loved her, as if she was his own charge.
"Wheeljack hurt you?" When Miko nodded meekly, he asked in a barely audible whisper, "Why? Why did he do that—"
"I don't know!" Miko interrupted with a sharp yell.
It was Jack's turn to start at her sudden volume, instinctively backing out of her personal space. She hardly gave him a look of regret as she turned away from him, arms wrapping around her middle. Coolant pricked at her optics. She spoke again, but instead of that fiery, confident tone that Jack knew so well, she sounded pitiful and lost.
"They just started shooting—"
"Hardly surprising," Megatron's calm voice interrupted.
The pair of younglings flinched and turned towards the door, only to see the titan stalking into the medbay.
"What are you talking about?" Jack snapped. He turned to face his master, all the while instinctively shifting over to stand between Megatron and Miko.
The Decepticon leader merely shook his helm, nearing the pair. "Come now... Surely you were not expecting them to come to your rescue."
The warlord settled his intense gaze on Miko, and Jack realized he was addressing her, not him. The femme refused to meet his optics, but the Decepticon leader took her silence as permission to continue.
"Why would they? You were no Autobot, never mind a Wrecker, and they no longer need you as a pet. No... you were an obstacle in their way."
Miko balled her trembling servos into fists. "B-But it was Shockwave—"
"That was their real target. But a Wrecker doesn't care about collateral damage. As long as they complete their mission."
"That's not true!" Miko denied vehemently, but there was a shake in her voice that Megatron didn't fail to notice.
The silver-tongued mech paused beside the human-turned-Cybertronians, tilting his helm with a fanged smile. "Oh, but it is, my dear. And you know that, don't you? After all, if it were not for you, the Autobots would have succeeded."
Jack blinked in confusion, only to follow the warlord's gaze to a familiar figure. There was Shockwave, laying across a medical berth, with monitors attached to his frame. His optic was dim in stasis.
"I didn't do it to save him!" she spat out spitefully, her crimson optics blazing hotly. "I only dragged his aft back so I could kill him myself!"
While Jack cringed at her open defiance, Megatron merely chuckled at the threat as if she said a joke.
"Regardless, it was you who kept Shockwave from an untimely demise."
Miko looked over at the fallen scientist, her finials flat in distress. Her optics were still burning with hate, but Jack wondered if it wasn't only for Shockwave. Megatron stepped forward, gently placing a clawed servo on the top of the femme's helm.
She flinched, but the dictator continued to soothingly stroke her finials as he purred, "You have done a great service to the Decepticon cause."
Miko said nothing as her gaze turned downward, claws digging into her own palm. Jack's spark twisted as he watched the surreal scene before him. He didn't focus on the fact that Megatron was petting Miko, like an animal, but the way she looked so broken.
Nothing like the fearless, reckless girl he knew. Now those hateful optics were haunted with misery, and she clawed at her own frame, as if to rid of an itch that wasn't there. Instead of standing tall and proud, she was huddled in a pitiful ball, whimpering like a kicked puppy. It wasn't right. None of this was right!
Jack flickered towards the ruined armor of her side. Ruined by Wheeljack. The human-turned-Cybertronian had always known the Wreckers were a bit unhinged, especially the seasoned warrior, after eons of suicide missions. They were sent to do the jobs no one else could, and accomplished them by any means possible. Regardless of how much damage was done, or how many mechs were killed.
Was Megatron right? Had the Autobots truly abandoned them? It... it wasn't supposed to be like this. They were supposed to be together, keeping each other strong in face of the Decepticons.
"Miko..." Jack said lowly, cautiously taking the femme's servo. When she didn't jerk away, he gave it a gentle squeeze. "I'm here."
It was a promise than anything.
It was the only thing Jack could give to his friend.