Chapter eight: Secrets

The Pentagon is a strange organization, in all my years of existence I never seen a cause so dedicated to basically not existing at all, sure the people of Earth had heard of them and knew some things about them, but in terms of our existence we were simply a rumour to humans, and I could tell they wanted it to stay that way.

"Alright Deadzone, that is unfortunately all the time we have for today, your next interview is scheduled for next week."

The interviewer got up and left, agents ushered me out as well, I transformed and made my way out of the location when I was stopped by Margret, waving me down.

"Mind if I catch a ride?"

I forgot I had an interior with this alt mode, normally it's because Cybertronians don't usually ride around inside of one another so the whole human occupancy thing was new to me, I opened a door to let her in.

"Are you sure? You're the one driving."

I was confused, first she asked for a lift, then she doesn't want to get in because I'm driving? Human customs still confuse me.

"Sorry, I bet this is confusing for you, humans don't usually take the seat of the driver, it's just weird."

I closed the door and opened one of the back ones, Margret gave me a cold look.

"Alright whatever..."

I swear I can't win with humans at all.

Margret told me to drop her off at her residence, it was a ways away so we had time to talk.

"So, how do you feel about Earth?"

I told her it was much different from Cybertron, unlike my home planet, Earth was full of colour and life.

"A lot of your kind has said that, Earth really is just a giant rock with life on it though, the deeper you go the more boring it gets."

I contemplated that, on Cybertron it's quite the opposite, the further down you dig into Cybertron, the more complex it's mechanical components become.

"Oh yeah, you feel that?"

I asked her what she meant, she referenced the atmosphere.

"You can't tell me you don't feel the air in the atmosphere, it surrounds all of us on Earth. Here's a little fact about Earth, just about every creature on Earth needs air, otherwise they would die."

Now that she mentioned it, I could feel the gas in the atmosphere, it felt very weird to feel it pass through me, Cybertron was a rogue planet constantly travelling the galaxy, so our atmosphere was far lighter than Earth's due to never forming in a solar system, any oxygen we had on Cybertron would be very minute.

Also the thing about Earth creatures needing air didn't really surprise me much, watching humans constantly expand and deflate their chests all the time without pause sort of lined up with the whole oxygen concept.

"So, what position do you hold in the Autobots?"

I told her I was a Shock trooper, just like Blitzwing, I did the things that other Autobots couldn't or wouldn't.

"Shock trooper huh? Never would've guessed from the sleek design and long sharp wings, I was thinking you were an assassin."

We stopped at a red light, honestly, it still creeps me out to see humans driving basically mindless husks that resembled Cybertronians, I guess this is the same reason why some humans hate mannequins, seeing as they look like humans yet not quite, I also don't like mannequins.

"So, you ever thought about joining the Decepticons again, y'know like maybe regret or?-"

The light turned green but I didn't move, that question didn't broil well with me and I felt sore thinking about it, someone behind us started honking so I moved out of the way into a nearby fast food parking lot.

"Sorry, didn't realize how much of a sore spot that might've been..."

I told her to get out, she asked enough questions, she was close to her residence anyway so I wouldn't feel as bad about it.

"Hey look I'm-"

I took off before she could finish that last sentence, looking back I wish I could've heard what she said, but at the same time, some questions are better left never asked about.

Heading back to the Autobot headquarters I stopped at a cliff side, I could see the town below us, and to think that there were thousands of humans down there completely oblivious to our existence was kind of funny.

Making my way to the gate, I get stopped at the guard post, the human inside asked for ID, not really knowing what he meant, I asked him about it, he looked a bit confused an told me to roll down the window, I did and once he noticed that there wasn't anyone in the vehicle, he checked his folders asking for my designation code instead, giving him the code, he looked through the folders most likely looking for me, once he did he opened the gates allowing me inside.

The entrance was just a tight tunnel that lead into the mountain side, at the other side of the tunnel, Prowl was waiting for me.

"So, how was it?"

I transformed back and walked with him, telling him that it went fine-ish.

"Fine-ish, what does that mean?"

Telling him what they wanted from me, he sort of got the message and changed the subject.

"You've heard of human sports yet? They're not bad, I'm on break so I can show you."

Prowl led me to the lounge, where I could see multiple humans and Cybertronians alike watching something Prowl called hockey, he sat me down to watch it with him, I didn't really get what was going on, but I sort of got the idea on how it worked, I'm gonna admit that it was kind of funny to see them dash around on the ice and score goals and stuff, there were teams but I didn't really care about that part. Eventually it got boring, and I left, I also noticed that prowl was also gone, guess I was here long enough that he had to get back to work.

Walking around I get a call on my transponder, it's Wheeljack calling me to come down to the communications sector to come collect a quarter key.

Making my way up to the sector, I run into the most annoying being on the planet.

"Hey-Deadzone-how's-my-friend-doing?-is-he-doing-good?-I-bet-he's-doing-good!"

I swear, even though I was literally designed to out-compete every Cybertronian formed, even I can't keep up with Blurr and his persistent chatter.

"So-Deadzone-where-you-going?-I-was-going-to-stop-by-anyway-becau-"

I cut him off, my day has already been exhausting, I didn't need this as well, leaving him behind I finally got to communications sector.

"Ah good, you're here, here's your quarter key, enjoy your day."

Wheeljack handed me the key and waved me off, looking at the quarter key, I read that my quarters were on the other side of the facility, I sort of broke down internally, this place was basically a maze to me and I had no idea where to start and stop, I already made my quota, so I could just do whatever now, walking around it felt very perplexing, mind you I've been to different planets before, I mean what Cybertronian hasn't, however I've never seen one so full of life.

Walking past the memorial, I could see many Autobots and humans alike gazing at the names of the fallen, I also saw my plaque being taken down by Hoist.

Walking further, I ended up lost, I guess it was pretty obvious that I was lost, because someone asked me if I needed help, I turned around and couldn't believe my optics.

"Umm, are you ok? You seem lost there buddy."

I looked down and couldn't believe my optics, a scraping Minicon, I mean I was told all the Minicons died out on their colony world, but here was one now, literally talking to me.

"Sir? You...um... you ok?"

I guess I sort of scared it because I was just completely wide-opticed at the little guy, I mean I'm one in a million, but this was basically a red energon geode it's that rare.

"Sir?"

I picked my manners up realizing how creepy I was looking right now, and introduced myself.

"Wait... WHAT!!!"

Gonna be honest, I was caught of guard by that.

"Your Deadzone, the Deadzone?! I saw- you were- I mean I saw your plaque, there's no way I'm talking to a living Delta-con right now!!"

Delta-con, this especially caught me off guard, what in Primus was a Delta-con?

"I can't believe that I'm speaking to you, I mean I've always dreamed of this day, but I never thought-"

I cut him off, even if he was technically a living relic, I really just wanted to power down, I asked him for directions.

"Oh, it's just over there."

I turned around, low and behold, my quarters are right next to me, with a sigh and a wave, I thanked the little bot and left.

"Ah, okay, I'll just um... see you around I guess..."

Waking up never felt so energizing, after spending 300 Astro-cycles in suspension, it felt so good to finally sleep in a stasis-pod instead of a cramped escape pod.

I sat up and unhooked the jack from my neck and opened my door, right on the other side of it, was that Minicon from last cycle he was holding a cog wrench in his left hand.

"Oh! You're uh- Opf!"

He tripped and fell.

"Ah uh- S- Sorry about that I was... uh..."

Gonna be honest, he was pretty adorable.

"I was- Checking the door interlocks! Yes that's what I was doing!"

The Minicon pulled out a material scanner, and started to... scan... the door? I really had no idea what he was doing, material scanners are for scanning material density and compositions, it can't X-ray like that to show full-blown door interlocks."

"Welp, your door interlocks seems to be... locking... just... um... fine."

The Minicon was about to walk away until I grabbed his shoulder-plate, halting him, I swear he turned a different colour but nobody believes me.

"AH! Uh- Um... Is t-their something you n-need?..."

The Minicon was about to practically burst his transmission fluid he was so afraid of me, I asked him for the real reason why he was at my door, with a cog wrench at that.

(I know the machinations of a simple door interlock, and you can very easily pry one open with a cog wrench.)

"Uh... UH... w-well I was..."

My grip grew much tighter, now I was annoyed.

"OK OK I'll tell you, just please let me go!"

I let go of his shoulder-plate, I let a noticeable impression on his plate from my hand.

"Ah... you really got a- ACK!!"

Just as he was about to finish that sentence, a servo snapped in his shoulder joint, and it started to leak energon, The Minicon let out a very noticeable scream, I quickly covered his mouth as to not draw any attention.

I didn't realize how hard I was squeezing him, I never took into account that he's far smaller than me, and therefore far more fragile, kind of like humans. I brought the Minicon into my room and sat him onto the stasis pod, closing the door behind me.

"Ah!.. oh scrap, ah!.. that hurts so much!.."

I took the cog wrench out of his working arm and went to work, this was an arterial snap, if I couldn't fasten that servo back together, then this Minicon would definitely die.

"H-Hey! Get the scrap away- AHHG!!"

I Pulled back his shoulder plate and quickly tightened the servo back into place and the energon stopped flowing out, a secondary joint also needed repairs, and luckily I can do just that as well.

"S-Stop..."

The Minicon looked pale and grey, he didn't lose much energon, so it's probably shock.

At this point the Minicon completely fainted, and I had no other choice but to hook him up to the stasis pod until he wakes up. While he was out I reworked his inner piping to make sure that the energon wasn't leaking inside him, energon is vital for Cybertronians yes, but it also extremely combustible in a coagulated state, meaning if there was leaking energon, and it came into contact with- say- a transistor, it would burst into some nasty blue flames and fry any electrical circuits it touches.

After an hour, the Minicon woke up.

"Ah... WhaaaaAAAAAA-"

The Minicon panicked at the sight of me, I jumped foward and held him down, closing his mouth.

"MMF!! MMF!!"

I told him to shut up or he would unfasten the servo again and he would very quickly die, he stopped squirming but was still very noticeably shaking, right then I got blasted with a massive sense of that thing humans refer to... I think it's called Déjà Vu.

I slowly uncovered his mouth, I was expecting him to scream, but he was strangely compliant.

"A-Are you going to h-hurt me?..."

I looked at him with confusion, hurt him?

"My arm- what d-did you do to my-"

He was starting to panic again, as he looked down at his arm, it was practically in pieces, turns out that it wasn't just his shoulder servo that snapped, his entire right arm was damaged, and I had to take it apart.

"Ah- Ah! What did you do to my-"

Just then, I stuck him with an energon infusion pump I maganed to sneak into my quarters while he was out cold, I had no idea what the scrap happened to this dude, but it wasn't good at all. The pain from the injection shut him right up, he tried to move, but I had him fastened down.

"Please stop! I be-"

I covered his mouth again, I told him that if he screamed, then he would be wasting vital energon, he quieted down and then I asked him how the scrap his arm got this bad, because I knew I squeezed him a bit hard, but this type of damage was chronic.

"Pl- Please don't tell anybody, if you tell the others, they'll have me put on indefinite leave, I- I can't have that happen please!"

I looked down at his arm, the endo-skeleton was badly rusting, and his servos were no different, his energon pipes were also extremely degraded, however his exo-skeleton was shiny and polished.

"Hah... I polish my plates daily, i- it doesn't do much, but I can make it appear to look okay at least..."

I asked him why he never told anybody.

"This job is all I have, if they find out I'm u- useless, then they'll just get rid of me, besides, scrap is only useful when it's thrown out..."

I looked at him with animosity, and he noticed that, looking back I probably shouldn't have done that...

"W-Well I mean... uh..."

The Minicon was practically about to break down, I didn't want to upset him any further, so I ask him why he thought this job was so important.

"I don't have anything else, my own colony world was wiped out by the Decepticons and, well, we sort of lost Cybertron as well..."

Now I understood, he was... just like me... and just like me, he also had nothing else to count on.

"I just want to h-have something y'know? Without this... I'm nothing..."

We both sat there for about 2 minutes in silence, the only audible thing was the pump and the buzz of the lights, and then I started back on his arm, fixing what I could, and throwing out the rest.

"Hah... t-thanks... nobody has ever done something like this for me before..."

He hopped out of the pod and began to walk out, until he realized that the door wouldn't open.

"Hey um... I think you're door is-"

He looked back at me, I was holding the cog wrench in plain view, he knew what was going on.

"R-Right! That! Uh-"

I cut him off, telling him to just get to the point and tell me why he was trying to break into my quarters.

"Alright... I've never actually seen a Delta-con before, and I-"

I cut him off again, I wanted to know why he referred to me as a Delta-con.

"Wait, y-you don't know? Oh scrap was this confidential?! I mean I just heard some bots talking about it, and w-when I saw you, you practically fit the description of what they were talking about!.."

My suspicions rose with every word he said.

"They talked about these extremely dangerous breed of Cybertronians made in a lab or something, they d-described them having a face-plate covering and 2 energon supply capsules built into their upper-waist endo-skeleton, and when I saw you, you matched the description perfectly!.."

I froze instantly, every single servo in my body would not respond at all, and honest to Primus, I felt something cold go down my spine. I asked him how he even got this information.

"Well, I'm a Minicon, I do weekly maintenance in the vents, y'know, checking the grates for any damage, making sure the air flow is correctly adequate, you get the idea. So anyway I was in the vents responding to a quick fix, one of the fans blew a fuse, and I was right next the the communications facility, one of the more private sectors, and I over heard some of the high-rankers talking about it, I'm not sure but I think I even heard Optimus and Perceptor! I mean I c-can't prove it, but I swear I heard his voice!"

I asked him if he knew anything else about it.

"N-No that's all I know!"

I held my head in my hands, this was bad, really scraping bad, I could feel that coldness again, that aching feeling of dread.

"Are you a-alright?.."

I got up and opened the door for him, I told him to leave, he very quickly complied, grabbing his cog wrench on his way out.

I sat down in my stasis pod, completely stained with energon that wasn't mine, and the floor leading to it was also splattered with now coagulated energon, I cleaned what I could, and just prayed that nobody would think twice about the weird mess of totally not energon.

Looking at my hands, they were visibly shaking, I was used to fear at that point, but just at that moment I heard the Minicon spilled his own story to me about the laboratory, my fear just jumped to far higher heights. I desperately didn't want to think about it, but that ONE question wouldn't stop haunting my thoughts.

"The others survived?.."

I sat straight up and stormed out of my quarters, I watched other Autobots and humans alike quickly side-step me as I made my way through the facility, and I only had one name burning into the back of my head:

"Prime..."

I walked into the communications facility, in one of the many rooms, Perceptor was there, working on who the scrap cares.

"Ah, Deadzone, just in ti- ACK!!"

I remember grabbing Perceptor's throat and slamming him against the wall, I told him to tell me we're the scrap was Optimus Prime.

"Dead... Zone... stop..."

I let go of Perceptor, the other Autobots in the sector were just frozen, they looked horrified, Perceptor clutched his throat.

"I...don't... know what this...is about... but we can-"

I told him to cut the slag and ordered him to tell me why the scrap he and Prime of all bots never told me that the others of Shockwave's experiments survived.

"How did you?.."

Just then, Ultra-Magnus along with 4 other Autobots rushed in with volt staffs, pointed straight at me.

"Deadzone, I'm hereby putting you under arrest for assaulting a high commanding officer, along with the suspicion of threatening Optimus Prime's life."

I looked to my left, one of the Autobot communications workers was holding a small device with a button on it, I then knew how they got here so quickly.

"Now, you can either come with us quietly, or we can do this the-"

One of the Autobots, a newbie I presume, tried to shock me with the staff.

"Stand down private!"

Ultra-Magnus ordered the Autobot to stop, but by then he was already in full swing, and I grabbed the volt staff by the tip, the electrical current rushed and snapped is way through my arm, frying circuits and locking servos, that searing pain was nothing though, I'm used to it.

"Private! Pull back your weapon now!"

Before the private could react, I twisted my hand around the tip of the staff, and shattered it in my bare hands. Everybody except for Perceptor was horrified, even Magnus, who's usually never shocked at anything.

"Stand down Magnus."

"Perceptor-"

"I said stand down!..."

Ultra-Magnus along with the other 3 Autobots disarmed their weapons, the fourth Autobot just sort of stood there.

Magnus steped up to me, with visible distain in his optics.

"Deadzone, mind telling me what you were doing trying to crush Perceptor's throat?"

Perceptor stepped in, still clutching his throat.

"Don't blame him, this reaction is extremely reasonable, given the circumstances."

Magnus was about to blow a gasket.

"What exactly are you insinuating here Perceptor? That this violent action was justified?!"

Perceptor pulled Magnus outside of the room and quickly whispered something to him, I'll never see the pure fear that I saw freeze Magnus down to his very core ever again. They eventually walked back into the room.

"Uh- Deadzone, forgive me for this intrusion."

Magnus called upon his soldiers to leave the room, Perceptor ordered the other Autobots to leave as well. Perceptor pressed a button down on one of the panels.

"Optimus Prime, please report to the communications facility, sector 4Fa."

After a few minutes, Optimus arrived to the room.

"Perceptor, why have you called me all the way to the other side of... oh, I see..."

Optimus looked at me, and then the damaged terminal behind me where I slammed Perceptor.

"Mind telling me what this is about?.."

"Deadzone knows Sir."

"So it would seem..."

I asked Optimus why the scrap he kept this information from me, something this vital is a necessity for me to know, especially considering that they are exactly like me.

"We both feared that if you knew, that you would stop at nothing to hunt them down."

I stopped him, "Them... so more than one survived..."

I asked him how the scrap he even got this information.

"Human technology, they have camera systems set up circling their entire planet."

My spark sank, they weren't just alive, but they were here.

"Optimus, do you really think it best to tell him everything?"

I looked up at Perceptor, I never held as much hate for him as I did right in that moment.

"He has the right to know, this information should have never been kept from him."

"And yet you lied to me multiple times yourself Prime...", I thought.

"We had no idea what this information could've done to you, as far as you knew, you were the only survivor, Optimus and I didn't want to put the extra burden this on you as well."

I just sat down, I mean when it comes to this, I wasn't glad the others survived, I was horrified.

"Deadzone, you of all Cybertronians know just how much you've been through, if we gave you this information, how do you think you would've reacted?"

He's got a point with that one, I mean I was designed to kill, so really there's only one way it would've turned out.

"Perceptor, pull up the terminal data. Deadzone, as far as we know, they haven't hurt anyone yet, we've only detected 3 other subjects, and 1 of them currenly remains unaccounted for."

If the other subjects survived, then I would have to figure out which ones, I walked over to the terminal and looked through any data I could find, yet nothing was there, Perceptor eventually interrupted me.

"Don't bother, the data is heavily encrypted, only the commanding officer can access them."

Optimus walked foward towards the terminal, and pressed a button, and then spoke.

"File name: Delta-con..."

The terminal opened up to a password screen.

"Password: Deadzone..."

How ironic that my name was the password to the information about my past.

I looked through the files, and found near hundreds of images and video recordings of the others on Earth, one of the Delta-cons had a noticeable scar on the back of his head-plate.

"3..." I thought, now to find the others...

3 was the most common of the Delta-cons that came up, it was rather difficult to find any others, until I did, guess Shockwave didn't want to admit to Megatron that one of his other creations survived.

Another Delta-con showed up, this time it was a video, this one was perfectly formed, so that rules 2 out, but this one looked rather sane all things considered, that thankfully also ruled 1 out.

I kept looking through the files, and I could find nothing about this last Delta-con, file another file it was all basically blank, until Perceptor cut in front of me and pulled up a file I already looked at.

"Take a closer look."

It was a picture of what I presumed to be 5, I told Perceptor that I've already seen this one, but he insisted I take a closer look.

Looking at the image, 5 was pretty blurry, as if he was moving extremely fast, like they were running, then my brain picked up on an outline, and slowly followed it, once I made out the whole outline, I stepped back to analyze it...

I practically fell apart inside of my own head, there was no way...

The picture finally made sense now, 5 wasn't running, they were dodging...

Dodging away from another Cybertronian, the outline of the Cybertronian practically mirrored 5's own shape.

The fear and the reality of it froze me to the deepest parts of my spark.

The only thoughts that came to my head in that moment:

"1is alive..."

I slowly stepped away from the terminal, and just left the room leaving both Prime and Perceptor behind me, I heard Perceptor call out my name, but I'm guessing Prime stopped him from following me, because when I looked back there was nobody there.

After a while of wandering, I slumped over a railing overlooking the docking bay, looking down I could see Autobots and humans working in tandem, a group of them were over near the farthest sector, I think they were trying to move something heavy.

I couldn't help but think about how many times I might've been lied to, how many secrets were being kept from me to... protect me?.. I really couldn't find any other possible justification, I mean they were my friends, and they wouldn't keep something like this from me if they didn't think it would endanger my life, but at the same time, I couldn't help but also think that maybe I was the one they needed to protect me from...

It was all just a mess of perplexing questions in my head, and at that moment I didn't know how to move forward knowing that the other subjects of Shockwave's design were not only alive, but also on Earth.

Just how many secrets were being kept from me?..

End of Chapter eight