"We could still have a family," Fracture said, sitting on the side of the berth.
Quickshadow panted, struggling against her chains. "Never," she hissed.
"I don't get what you see in Heatwave," Fracture sighed, laying back on top of her. "What's so appealing about a gruff, 'Must save every last life' type of mech? What can he offer you that I can't?"
"Love," Quickshadow hissed.
"I can offer you that, too," Fracture promised. "Like I just did."
"It's not love if I don't consent to it," she growled. "It's selfish, cruel, torture!"
"Admit it, deep down, that's what you want," Fracture sneered, his red eye glowing.
"I'm not that type of femme," Quickshadow snarled, lifting her head to glare at him. "I want the love Heatwave can give me. True love. Compassionate love. Selfless love! I want a mech that would lay down his life for me instead of selling me to the enemy for his own gain!"
"I told you, I was doing it for us," Fracture insisted. "Had you just given over the information, we could've had it all. Gotten sparkbonded. Had a family. Had power. Everything that we could've wanted."
"Except freedom," Quickshadow countered. "The Decepticon values are twisted and corrupt and horrible! I would never stand for them and never will! Nothing you wished for us was what I wanted! You tortured me and try to put the blame on me because I don't have the same vision as you! You never cared about me! You only cared about yourself!"
"I do care," Fracture said, the old charismatic side coming back. "I wanted the best for us. For you. And we can still have it. You'll see. Once your through with that b**tleg's sparkling, we could start our own family and you'll understand."
"I am never leaving Heatwave and I will never have sparklings with you!" Quickshadow roared.
"What if Heatwave left you?" Fracture smiled, pulling out a sharp knife and imitating stabbing someone.
"I still wouldn't love you," she growled. "How can you possibly think that you can preach to me about how much you love and care for me when you and Steeljaw drag me around and take advantage of me like this!"
Fracture pulled up a holographic projector and showed her footage of the Decepticons tormenting the humans and the bots. He tschs. "Humans and their strange habits. They seem to worship anyone hung in that position," he gestured to Heatwave being tortured on a cross.
Quickshadow turned her helm away, pained by his agony. She could feel him through their sparkbond. "You fr*gging b**tleg!" she shouted, struggling against her chains. "I'll beat your sorry a**—"
Fracture turned his knife around and moved to stab Quickshadow's showing abdomen. She pulled her beginning-to-bulge stomach in to protect her sparkling with a yelp. "Ah, ah, ah," he chuckles. "You're lucky I let this little one live. Be a bad girl and your sparkling might not be so lucky."
Quickshadow bit her derma and held her tongue. Fracture chuckled sinisterly as he left the room.
Two days later, Quickshadow was lying on the makeshift berth Fracture had constructed in the lab. Chained up, she blinks back tears of coolant. "I can't do it," she thinks, depressed. "I wasn't able to stop Fracture… and now the whole island has to suffer… now my sparkling has to suffer… Why was I so stupid?! Why couldn't I have just accepted my friend's help?!"
Quickshadow can hear Quillfire yelling at something. Probably Leo. The two had been at each other's throats since the siege. She hadn't heard from Leo before, but she had heard Quillfire ranting in the other room. Considering that Leo was law-abiding and rule-following, the anarchist Quillfire had decided to pick a bone with him.
The anarchist Decepticon leaves the lab and Quickshadow sighs. Once again, she goes over her options. Once again, she had nothing that she could do to escape and help the island. She was chained up and unable to get away. And even if she could, her sparkling would be in great danger…
"It's pointless…" she thinks sadly. "There's no way I can escape…"
"No! Get back here you squishies!" Quillfire's annoying voice shouts.
Quickshadow opens her optics. "Squishies?" she murmurs.
She could hear Quillfire muttering to himself, and he opens the door. "Seen any squishies?" he asks.
Quickshadow tschs. "Humans getting the best of you? Weak."
"Watch your tongue!" Quillfire snaps as he pulls the door shut.
Quickshadow sighs.
Two small giggles are emitted from the door. Quickshadow lifts her head to look. Cody and Frankie had snuck past Quillfire while he was ranting. "Cody! Frankie!" she hisses. "What? How did you escape?!"
"The town's decided to fight back," Cody says. "They freed us. The rest of the family's gone to free the other bots."
"We're here for you," Frankie says as they run towards the berth.
Quickshadow reactivates her armor so that she is decent for the two as they struggle to climb up the berth. The two pant. "It's a struggle when you're five to six times smaller than the species designing this furniture," Frankie chuckles.
"The only way to deactivate these chains is to input the code," Cody sighs.
"Try 0312," Quickshadow suggests. "Was Fracture's code for everything. It was his birthday."
Frankie inputs the code and laughs. "Guess he hasn't changed much."
The two unlock Quickshadow's chains and she sits up. "Thank you," she murmurs, rubbing her wrists.
"Let's go free the island!" Frankie says enthusiastically.
"I can't," Quickshadow says despairingly. "I'm too weak… Too vulnerable…"
"Quickshadow, being on a team means you have others who have your back," Cody smiles. "We're all here for you, and we're all willing to help you take down Fracture. It's our island and our family and friends on the line, too."
"That's what we've been trying to tell you this whole time," Frankie adds. "You're so used to doing things on your own, but you don't have to. When things are too much for you to handle, that's when you come to the team and they step in."
"I know," Quickshadow sighs. "I should've stopped being stubborn a long time ago… now it's too late…"
"C'mon, where's the stubborn Quickshadow who never gave up?" Frankie asks. "We need you. The town's fighting back. The bolder town members have been distracting the Decepticons while Carin, Taylor, and Amy came to free us. Now our families are going to free the bots."
"We're not going to be able to defeat all the Decepticons on our own," Quickshadow tells them.
"That's why we need you to contact Bumblebee and Optimus," Cody smirks. "Cause we can't reach the communications panel."
Quickshadow sighs. "All right, time to snap out of it." She shakes her helm. "We're heading to the communications center. We'll contact Bumblebee first. He can arrive quickest. And if we can't contact Optimus Prime immediately after, he can contact the Prime. Then we'll run and free the others and disarm as many Decepticons as we can."
"Sounds like the Quickshadow we know," Cody grins.
Quickshadow scoops up Cody and Frankie, places them on her shoulder, and races out to the temporary communications panel. To her relief, Bumblebee answers immediately. "How's it going?" Bumblebee asks. "I see you got the holograms working again."
"No, everything was always working," Cody explains. "Decepticons have overrun the town and didn't want you guys to see their faces!"
"What?!" the Bee Team choruses.
"Fracture and Steeljaw took over the town," Quickshadow explains. "They've chained us up and destroyed the town and abused the humans. The humans of Griffin Rock have staged an uprising, but unless we have more bots ASAP, they'll get killed underfoot. We can't take care of the Decepticons on our own. You all have dealt with these guys on a daily basis."
"We're on our way!" Bumblebee nods.
"How did we talk to Heatwave if he was captured?" Sideswipe asks.
"One of Fracture's mini cons imitated him," Frankie spits.
"That low life, dishonorable piece of scrap," Drift growls.
"Get in line, that b**tleg is mine," Quickshadow chuckles. She hears Quillfire coming back. "Contact Optimus Prime for me. I don't have time to make the call!"
"Will do," Bumblebee says as the call ends.
"Hey! Back away from the panels!" Quillfire orders.
Quickshadow turns around. "Should be easy enough," she thinks, looking the porcupine Decepticon up and down.
"He's got toxic quills," Cody warns.
"And the toxic toad on his side," Frankie hisses as Springload bounds into the lab.
"Escapees?!" Springload gasps. "These unworthies will hinder my quest for Doradus!"
"Oh for Primus sake, let it go you delusional Amphiboid!" Quillfire shouts. "Help me take down this prisoner!"
Hearing the delusional frog, Quickshadow gets an idea. "Unworthy? I am the Princess of the Lost City of Doradus. Ye shall heed my orders and not those of this buffoons."
"Princess?" Springload asks in awe and suspicion as Quillfire groans.
"Indeed, and I find ye unworthy to discover my lost kingdom," Quickshadow announces regally, knowing full well the effect it would have on Springload.
The frog Decepticon goes berserk. "Unworthy?! The spirits have deemed me worthy! You must be an imposter!"
He lunges for her. Quickshadow quickly grabs Cody and Frankie and ducks underneath him. She races out of the lab's garage, narrowly missing Quillfire's quills. Finding an opening leading to the tunnel system. Making sure the two Decepticons were following her, she transforms, allows Cody and Frankie to climb in, and drives off down the tunnels.
"Where are you going?" Frankie asks, gripping the seat.
Quickshadow groans. "I have a plan… shouldn't have transformed while halfway through my gestation…"
Keeping Springload and Quillfire hot on her wheels, she leads them through the tunnels and out into the woods. The frog Decepticon begins to gain on her. Just as he transforms back into con mode and jumps to tackle her, she skids on her tires and drifts out of his reach. Instead, the Decepticon finds himself crashing through the fence surrounding the Old Parker geyser. He twitches and stills.
"Stop!" Quillfire orders.
Quickshadow allows Cody and Frankie to exist and transforms—albeit, feeling like she would throw up. "In what? The name of the law?" she smirks.
Quillfire screeches and throws his quills at her. The Autobot dodges them as she runs, ducks down and swings her leg underneath him. The bulky porcupine is swept off his peds and grunts as his behind hits the dirt ground. Quickshadow grabs his peds, and heaves as she throws him into the technologically dead zone.
"That's two down and how many to go?" Frankie laughs.
"I don't know, at least a dozen," Quickshadow sighs. "Bugger, carrying a sparkling really takes it out of you."
"So, what's the plan?" Cody asks. "Luring the other Decepticons to the tech dead zone?"
"No, although I will inform Bumblebee's team of this very useful area," Quickshadow says. "The plan is to go assist the others in any way we can. Your town is in danger. As a Rescue Bot, my first priority is saving those in danger. The town is where we're going."
"This is the most alive I've seen you in a while," Frankie says as Quickshadow begrudgingly transforms and allows the teens to hop back in.
"Come on, let's go help the resistance!" Cody exclaims as they drive back into the tunnels, preparing themselves for war.
Last chapter: The Resistance