Chapter seven: The Wrong Side

Everything was dark again, I was in a dark room, my hands were bound with what I thought was a pipe or something, but after noticing the warm pulsing coming from the object I knew they were energon cuffs, after a few seconds the lights blared to life and I could see a Cybertronian standing in front of me, holding a volt staff.

"Alright, now that you're awake, we can get down to business."

The Cybertronian had an insignia on their chest-plate, at first I thought it was the Decepticon insignia, thinking that they found me and saved me before the Autobots could get to me, but as my vision slowly return I could see that the insignia was much more condensed and compact than the Decepticon insignia, and I feared the worst.

"And here I was expecting a battalion, but instead they send one bot?"

I question him on what he meant.

"Well I saw you poking your face-plate at the little doohickey I whipped up, guess you thought it was a tracker huh? Not surprised, I designed it that way, hoping you would set it off."

I took a minute to take in what he said, for some reason or another he let me figure it out.

"If it wasn't a tracker, then..."

"By that look I guess you solved it, fancy little thing huh, was hoping Starscream and his seekers would find it and shoot it to pieces, could've wiped'em all out right there, but instead they sent you to track the signal, one bot."

I gazed up at him, I could make out the obnoxious face plate covering his mouth with two weird metal things that blinked every time he spoke.

"I was really hoping Hardhat would've made it back though, his work as our spy definitely came in handy, but I always have a plan B for stuff like this."

The Autobot toyed with the volt staff, clearly modified for more delicate procedures.

"Now unfortunately I ran out of parts to make a remote for the detonator to set off the rest of the energon, so I just fashioned it to send out a pulse if it were destroyed one way or another, I guess your lucky then, huh?"

I felt around my back to find anything that could make the cuffs malfunction, because breaking energon cuffs with brute force is impossible, they're designed to absorb kinetic energy.

"Getting a little twitchy there pal? Trust me when I say you'll be twitching a lot more than that."

The Autobot activated the volt staff and jammed it into my chest-plate, I could feel the tool melt it's way though my armour, searing my circuits.

"Now I don't want to do this, but I need information, and since our spy is dead, I guess you'll have to do, now talk."

I stayed quiet, I faced far worse than this and I wasn't going to break from a torture stick.

"Your loss pal."

Once again I felt the rod pierce my chest-plate and once again I felt the searing pain of the electricity course through my servos.

"Please buddy, I can tell you don't want this, and I don't either, give me at least something so I can stop."

I looked up at him, and waited for him to make a move on me, his face showed both confusion and anger, then he stabbed me again with the spear.

"Fine, have it your way, but don't say I didn't give you an out."

The Autobot continued the torture, increasing the voltage every time he shocked me, yet I still wouldn't give in.

Hours passed and I still haven't spilled a single drip of information, I was used to torture, this was nothing new to me.

"Scrap, at this point I'm just wasting energon on you, your resilient I'll give you that, but I'll break you eventually."

The bot packed his things and walked out of the room, turning the lights off.

"One last chance pal, cuz I got something that hasn't failed me yet."

I didn't respond.

"Don't say I didn't warn you."

The bot left and then it was just me and the darkness, my servos twitched from the electricity still travelling through my body, smoke steamed out from the middle of my chest-plate as a smouldering hole ached it's pain throughout my entire endo-skeleton, but I wasn't going to give, even if I had to die to protect my memories.

Again and again the bot would return, again and again I wouldn't give in, the pain was almost insufferable but the confusion and frustration of the bot made the torture sort of worth it.

After more hours of torture, another bot walked in, this one looked bulky and had a red paint job.

"So this is the Decepticon scum who refuses to talk."

The bot looked intimidating, with a massive chest-plate and what appeared to be a can-do attitude, I figured that this Autobot was probably one of their high ranking members.

"Gonna be honest with ya Ironhide, I've tried just about everything."

I interjected with the fact that this bot's comrade just spoke his name, exposing his identity, I was expecting shock, but I got smugness instead.

"Buddy, there ain't a Decepticon on Cybertron that doesn't know me."

I quickly shut up.

"Oh, and this is my buddy Wheeljack if he hasn't introduced himself yet."

Both Ironhide and Wheeljack stared me down.

"Well now that we know you can speak, how about getting down to business?..."

"We gave our names, now what's yours?..."

I didn't respond

"Aw com'on, loosen up we're all friends here right? You give us your name and we'll stop the shocks."

I still didn't respond, Wheeljack looked nervous.

"So no name? Man and here I thought you were actually decent, guess we have to do this the hard-er way then."

Ironhide wound up a punch and clocked me square in the face-plate, the face-plate shattered like glass and I slammed against the wall behind me, cracking the metal plating reinforcing the wall. I've been punched in the face before, this felt like getting body slammed with a missile.

I looked around dazed to scrap as I coughed up energon leaking through my valves, I slumped to the floor, still leaking energon.

"I would talk soon buddy, I can assure you that Ironhide won't hold back."

Another punch collided with my face, cracking my right optic and crushing the ground beneath me.

"Com'on buddy I'm feeling bad now."

Ironhide dragged me up the wall and punched my guts in, hand still bound I could do nothing but watch, I still didn't say anything.

"You have a death-wish pal? Last chance, or I'll leave nothing left of you, cause at this point I'm just wasting energon on you."

With my face-plate broken, they could both see my face, and I smiled, then I chuckled, then I laughed, both Ironhide and Wheeljack were taken aback.

"You're crazy, that or your loyal to the core, either way you're gonna talk."

I snapped my head up at Ironhide, the initial shock made him lose his grip on me and drop me to the ground, I looked up at him with contempt on my face, my right optic was cracked to scrap, but still functioning slightly, Ironhide and Wheeljack took stance, expecting anything, I simply chuckled and called their bluff.

"You may be as tough as an insecticon, but you're no Shockwave..." I thought to myself.

I stood up, my legs barely holding me, my servos creaked inside my legs and my joints were almost about to snap.

"Scrap you are mad."

Covered in filth and falling apart by the plates, I stood up and held my ground against the Autobots in front of me, both of them stepped back with Wheeljack activating his volt staff.

"A fighter willing to die for his cause huh? Alright..."

Ironhide readied himself against me, preparing to send me to the all-spark, until a deep voice echoed from behind.

"Ironhide stand down."

A tall, bulky, authoritative Autobot stood behind Ironhide, Wheeljack stepped aside to let the Autobot into the already cramped room.

"Prime, good timing, we're just about done with this one."

The tall Autobot glanced down at my broken mangled body.

"Ironhide I think you've done enough."

"Optimus-"

The Autobot glanced over at Ironhide, he quickly got the message and left, Wheeljack followed him out, not saying a word.

I couldn't bring myself to look at the Autobot, if Ironhide could mangle me with only a few punches, then this one could rip me in half with one hand. I figured that this was it, I was going to die here in a small cramped room and just have my corpse dumped somewhere else, I couldn't stop shaking, the giant Autobot rested his hand on my shoulder and I flinched hard.

In a soft low voice, he spoke.

"Don't be afraid, I won't harm you..."

The Autobot picked me onto my feet and walked me to a nearby bench and sat down next to me, I was still shaking.

"What is your name soldier?"

I was about to respond, but then I realized that this was probably just another trick to bait me into giving information, I stood up and walked back to my wall, then slumped back down. The tall bot looked confused at first, and then simply just got up and left the room, locking the door behind him.

I laid down on the hard floor, hands still bound and energon still slowly pooling out of my optic, I laid there silent, unmoving, uncaring, unwilling.

I was not going to betray my brethren.

Cycles past I think, it was hard to tell time in my holding cell, but I knew it was long enough for Shockwave to get nervous. I heard muffled voices speaking from the other side of the wall, one of them spoke low, and I instantly knew who that was.

The door opened and I saw him again, the tall Autobot, I looked away.

"What is your name soldier? Answer me now or Ironhide will return, and I know you don't desire that..."

This time he spoke in a authoritative voice, commanding me to answer, I didn't respond, and the Autobot sighed.

"Then at least tell me this... why?..."

I looked up at the Autobot, his demeanour changed from authoritative to concerned, I answered back that the Decepticons were all I had, and that I wasn't going to give up what I know to save myself.

The bot looked surprised, I guess it came to a shock to him to see a Decepticon so dedicated to a cause that they would give up their own life just to protect a few useless data tracks.

"You have spark, but it's in the wrong place."

I told him to shove it and just kill me already instead of keeping me here as his punching bag.

The bot looked offended at my words, then pulled out a device from Primus knows where, I prepared for the worst, but instead of snapping my neck-joint or just outright crushing me between his hands, he activated the device and un-cuffed my damaged hands, and in a split second I struck. I leapt forward and slammed the bot into the wall, the bot grabbed me and pinned me to said wall, I couldn't touch the ground and my arms were far too damaged to break that vice grip.

"Enough, I want to help you, but I need you to calm down."

I scolded him, told him that if he actually wanted to help, then he wouldn't have had his goons fry my circuits with a volt staff and beat my face so far into my brain module cavity that I'm seeing stars in a windowless room, the Autobot looked perplexed, then content, and then he put me down and walked out of the room also not saying a word, leaving me un-cuffed on his way out, just like Shockwave I figured that this would also become a running joke. I sat back down onto the floor, still shaking.

A few hours past and the door unlocked and opened again, this time a white Autobot with a red horn visor thing on his head walked in, I backed up until I hit the wall, he didn't say a word and grabbed my arm, examining it thoroughly.

"Hold still will you?"

The Autobot pulled out a tool and jammed it into my arm, I tried to fight back but my energon reserves were critical.

"This should help levitate the pain."

The device pulsed a warm feeling throughout my endo-skeleton, the searing pain I've been feeling for hours was beginning to fade. The bot pulled out a cog wrench, something I saw Shockwave use before, and began to loosen my armour plates.

"You've sustained quite the injuries, I'm surprised you're even awake for this..."

The Autobot, which I then realized was a medic, shoved an energon pump into my spark chamber, the initial jolt made me jump a bit.

"You really should give us at least something friend, I want to help you, but until you give us something, then there's nothing else I can do for you."

The medic tightened my plates back and pulled out the energon pump, he detached the warm tool and soon left the room, the pain was coming back to me and I slumped down to the ground, shaking from the pain.

More time passed and the Autobots just kept coming back for more, trying just about everything to wring out what I had in my head, until eventually they had enough. Ironhide walked into the room and clenched my arm, dragging me out of the room, where I was going I had no idea, I sustained enough damage that my optics barely functioned, I was thrown onto a lab table and cuffed down.

"Sorry pal, we really need what you have, and you're not giving us anything."

I could see the Autobot medic again, this time holding a long cable with a spike on the end of it, and then I knew what was going to happen, I tried to struggle but it was no use, as I said, you can't break energon cuffs with brute force.

Ironhide grabbed my head and held it in place, I saw the medic line up the spike, and then everything went dark.

I woke up, I was inside that damp vat again, and everything was dark, I wasn't floating, but standing still, still with my armour, still with my wings, I walked out to find... me... I was in pieces, I could remember this, when the insecticons were tearing me apart, it was all a still image that I could see freely, and I could still vividly remember what was said here as well.

"Aw look at that, it's trying to scream, too bad it can't, it's never even used it's own voice before!..."

The scene then changed to a junk pit, the same junk pit that Deadringer found me in, still remembering the words that were said here also.

"A protoform? How- wow you look like your one foot from the junkyard, what happened to you?"

The image changed again, this time I was standing next to Shockwave with a gun in my hand.

"Put. Down. The. Gun."

Again the picture changed and now I was standing over a corpse, well what's left of one at least, Megatron was there as well.

"Ramjet, I think we've found our new Decepticon, see to it that he is sent back to Shockwave's lab for repairs."

The image changed and now I was in Megatron's war room, I could see all of the commanders standing around the round table waiting for me. I had to stop the link before the Autobots could get anymore information than this.

I tried to fight the link, scrambling my memories with others to confuse the link protocol, being Shockwave's lab rat I knew a few things about these tools; if I could create a false memory that contradicts other ones, I could force the link into a segmentation error and crash the memory scan completely, this was extremely dangerous though, if I made too many false memories I could've irreversibly damaged my memory drives. I merged memories together as I felt the Autobots try to reassemble them, I could feel my spark tearing itself apart under the confusion, and then almost instantly I lost the hold on my own memories and they all shattered like glass, in the unfathomable confusion with my own shattered memories swirling around me, my brain went into a stasis lock and everything once again went blank...

I woke up in a dark room... again, like the one the Autobots kept me in as their prisoner, but instead of Ironhide and Wheeljack standing here, I only saw Shockwave, his single optic beaming through the darkness of the room, his Ion cannon was aimed at my face and he only said one word:

"Failure..."

And without another word the cannon went off.

Dizzy and shaking I woke up to the sounds of sparks and panic, I saw the medic Autobot trying to readjust the link spike and Wheeljack trying to solder multiple wires together, I looked to my left and saw a huge screen with both vitals and brain-code strung across the computer, assuming they're my system diagnostics of course, however the screen was glitching and smoking, the tall Autobot was at the computer as well, trying to input commands to fix whatever was happening.

"The circuits are fried Prime! The link is severed and the wires are just a melted mess!"

Still cuffed, I looked around to see just about every Autobot in the facility looking at me, most with confusion, others with fear, I felt a gun barrel collied with the side of my head, feeling the heat of the gun on my temple I froze.

"What the scrap are you!? There ain't a Cybertronian alive that could sever that link!"

"Ironhide stand down..."

"Why Optimus? Gimme one good reason why I shouldn't just pop his brain right now!"

"Because it's not his fault."

Ironhide, Wheeljack, just about everyone looked practically dumbfounded at the tall Autobot's answer.

"Prime did you hit your gasket?, you saw-"

"I know what I saw, however I don't think we saw the same thing..."

The Autobot turned around to the glitching computer and hit a button, the screen blipped to that weird false memory I made, we all watched it play out again, I flinched at the blast of the Ion cannon.

"You..."

The tall Autobot marched towards me, I tried to break free of the cuffs as he got closer, thinking once again that this was it, I was done for.

"You are a brave soldier, Decepticon."

I looked at the Autobot, my optics shrank at the sight, I didn't realize how big he actually was.

"You would be willing to destroy your own memories to protect the information you have, and now I know why."

I stopped shaking a little.

"You are afraid of Shockwave aren't you? Why?"

Wheeljack interjected.

"Who isn't? That bot is not normal."

The tall Autobot glanced at Wheeljack, he promptly shut himself up.

"I saw the image of the laboratory, did Shockwave do something to you?"

I just stared at him, so many questioned burned through my mind, but one stuck: "If the Autobots were so horrible, so cruel and unjust that they would destroy their own planet, then why am I still alive?..."

The medic stepped in with his own proposal:

"Prime I don't think this Decepticon is an ordinary Decepticon."

Ironhide just slumped back against a wall watching me intently.

"When I first met him to do repairs on him, I found his designation code, I got curious and typed the code into Teletran 1..."

The medic pulled out a data tablet.

"There isn't any record of a "D-340" in the database at all, at first I thought nothing of it, many Cycbertronians, Autobots and Decepticons, didn't have a designation code at their recruitment, and we all know the data work it takes to get one, however after what I saw here now, I hypothesize that this Decepticon was formed after the fall of Cybertron."

Everyone looked shocked, even the tall one, Wheeljack interjected again.

"That's impossible, Megatron drained all of the Cybermatter pits on Cybertron, there's no way this Decepticon could've formed after the fall."

"I'm not saying he was formed naturally, if he was formed naturally then he wouldn't have a designation code, his formation records show that it would've been too early in the war for that possibility."

"Your saying that this Decepticon was made artificially?"

"I'm saying that this Decepticon was made in a laboratory, most likely the same ruined laboratory that was found Astro-cycles ago."

"That means..."

The tall Autobot spoke again, looking at me with fear.

"This Decepticon is one of Shockwave's own creations..."

I cant remember much here, I heard multiple shouting matches, I saw Wheeljack I think unplug the link spike, I very much remember that pain, hurt like scrap but I was way too out of it to really care at all anyway, and I felt my consciousness drift into stasis again, I guess I finally caved to the pain and shut down.

I woke up on an operating table, I felt light, I had a lot of those weird warm pulsing things on me, it felt so nice to not feel pain for the first time in multiple cycles.

"Awake huh? How are you feeling?"

The medic Autobot was at my right, adjusting a dial on his solder gun.

"We never got to introduce ourselves properly last time, name's Ratchet."

I hesitated, then spoke my name back to him.

"Deadzone huh, weird, but I've heard weirder so nothing new."

Ratchet twisted a knob on his solder gun and it ignited with a deep blue flame, he went to work on my chest-plate.

"Gotta admit, Shockwave did a mighty fine job putting you together, your endo-skeleton is basically one-of-a-kind."

Ratchet pulled back a plate and soldered a piston back together, working his way down.

"Look, I get it if you don't trust us, being a Decepticon, let alone one of Shockwave's own creations, really would paint us as the bad ones here, but really..."

Ratchet twisted my chest-plate around, pulling out a fractured energon infuser, I knew that this part was tedious so I stayed still.

"We really just want peace."

I questioned him on that, telling him that Megatron wants the same thing.

"Peace between Cybertronians yes, but A: on his own terms, good or bad a mentality like that usually never ends well. And B: Peace between only Cybertronians, there's a lot of other life out there and Megatron wants it either under his command or dead."

I was taken aback, I mean I knew that Megatron wasn't exactly... puppies and kittens (I still have no idea what this exactly means, I just know that Megatron isn't soft.), I retaliated against that claim, I really didn't want to believe what I heard.

"Megatron only sees those other lifeforms out there simply less than what Cybertronians are, he sees them as filth and nothing more other than free work force if it came to it!"

I sat back down, not wanting to escalate the situation further I let Ratchet get back to work.

"That's why we fight, not for just our species, but for all of the life this universe contains, for them an invasion from the Decepticons would mean nothing but total extinction."

I still questioned him on it, asking Ratchet about Megatron's real intentions.

"You really think he just wants Cybertron? If Megatron wins then he won't stop until the entire universe is under his command, and with all the other lifeforms out there either dead or slowly dying out simply for his own amusement, nothing could stop him."

I just looked blankly into the void of my own mind as Ratchet continued his repairs, I noticed that unlike Shockwave, he was much more careful on what parts to move to keep me calm.

"You know he wasn't always like that though."

I perked up, I already kinda knew this story, but I've always wanted to hear it from an Autobot's perspective.

"Megatron used to be a feared gladiator, basically un-defeated in the pits of Kaon, and for a long time he fought for a cause no so different from ours."

I leaned forward a bit, holding myself up with my arms.

"During the "golden age", the government that was in place at that time was very authoritative, with Autobots being our main military. Megatron was one of Kaon's miners, and after a scuffle with a guard, he ended up as a gladiator for the pits of Kaon, over time Megatron begun to make a name for himself in that twisted underworld, and recognized the corruption within our former government, he fought for the freedom of all Cybertronians."

I listened intently, wanting to hear more I questioned him further.

"Well... the former government threw just about everything they could at him, assassination attempts, gladiators from other worlds, even going as far to make him fight a digger, those things are tough I'll tell you. Megatron eventually built up his own underworld, with Soundwave, his communications officer and former government senate at his side, they formed their Decepticon empire and fought against the tyrannical government in their bid for the freedom they craved, but after a while his ambitions for freedom grew dark..."

Ratchet blew out the solder gun and pulled out a cog wrench, his hands were mildly shaking.

"Megatron not only wanted freedom, but also power, power against those who have wronged him so many times in the past, and he was willing to do anything for it, even going as far to commit genocide against his own kind, and with his Decepticon armada nothing could stop him."

Ratchet's hands shook at they tightened my plates back together.

"His strive for power, killed our planet..."

Ratchet un-clipped his wrench from my plates and put it down on a tool table.

"I don't care what you think of the Autobots, but I can assure you that I will not let Megatron do to another planet what he did to ours, not while my spark still pulses..."

I've only felt this hate once before, and it was my own, I still feel bad for Longshot, in the end he didn't deserve what I did to him.

"For us, seeing our planet die by our hands was inevitable, for others to see their planets also die by our hands, it's just not fair..."

Ratchet packed up his tools and made his way to the door, it opened with that tall Autobot again standing on the other side, Ratchet said nothing to him and left.

"I see you've been acquainted with our medic, forgive him if he seems off-putting, he's been around far longer than even myself."

I felt something off about the situation now, I glanced down and noticed that I wasn't cuffed anymore, that whole time I was being repaired by Ratchet I could've killed him.

"I don't think we've formally introduced ourselves."

The tall Autobot walked over to the operating table, I got up to stand him down, but I almost fell, my legs were still very much recovering.

"Easy, you don't need to stand up soldier."

I got up anyway, holding myself with the operating table.

"You've already shown bravery that I haven't seen in a long time, many Autobots here would admittedly never do what you did today, willing to sacrifice your life for your cause is something that I cannot overlook."

The tall Autobot walked me out of the room, standing by closely probably to prevent me from escaping.

"My name is Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobot resistance-"

I froze instantly, I knew that this tall Autobot was at least of some form of high ranking authority, but to think that I was standing next to the Cybertronian who formed the very heart of the Autobot faction, and has killed thousands of my Decepticon brethren in the past, was horrifying.

"Is there something wrong soldier?"

I begun to back up slowly, I didn't break sight at all, I knew that I was capable enough in a fight, but I could never stand my ground against such a powerful opponent, and that fear washed over me like a plague.

"Easy now soldier, there's no need for your worries, I won't harm you."

I stopped moving, now I didn't know what to do.

"Come soldier, there's something I want you to see."

I stood there for a few seconds, contemplating if I should follow along, eventually I caved and went with him.

Optimus opened a door that lead to a platform, here I got full view of their hanger, I could see Autobots repairing carrier ships and just having fun doing it, I saw a couple of strange looking Autobots eating metal scraps, yeah that confused me a bit.

"Many of the Autobots here were victims of Megatron's tyranny, others are volunteering members wishing to help our cause, there aren't many of us, but we've held our ground since the beginning of the war."

I looked over a railing to see more Autobots wiring up weapons, I turned my head to see Optimus standing at the edge of the platform, looking out to the hanger below, I stood beside him, looking out as well.

"Shockwave may have designed you as a Decepticon, however you don't need to be one."

I looked at him confused, I never really thought about my own choices, I just listened to orders given because that felt like the right thing to do at the time, now... I wasn't so sure anymore.

Looking at the Decepticon symbol engraved on my body, I contemplated the truth about this war for a while, leaning against the railing I thought about my place within the Decepticon ranks, I thought about Deadringer and if he felt similar feelings, wondering if maybe I could save him from the despair he fell into after Hardhat's death.

It all didn't feel right, everything felt dizzy and uncomfortable now, looking down at the hanger, the ground seemed to distance itself from Optimus and I, twisting into a spiral of confusions, yet also perfectly still like calm liquid energon, I couldn't help but wonder: "Maybe I'm fighting for the wrong side?..."

End of chapter seven