I'm sorry, guys. I know you're looking forward to getting back with Optimus and Ally and the team to see what's going on there, and I wasn't going to post this up until I had the next chapter finished, too, and do them both in one day so that the very next time I posted we would be back in present day with Prime, but I really need a little review-based pick-me-up. I've been dealing with bronchitis (for the first time ever) the past week and a half, and while I'm doing much better now thanks to rest and medication, I'm still not fully recovered and it's very frustrating. I hate being sick and I hate being sick for extended periods of time. Especially when what I'm sick with will wake me up in the middle of the night with a coughing fit that isn't productive at all and just wastes my precious sleep time and tears! Ugh! Give me back my lungs and burn in hell, bronchitis! BURN!
So here's this chapter in the meantime, and I'll try to upload again as soon as possible. Hopefully next time I'll have a couple chapters to post at once. Fingers crossed, but no promises.
I do not own Transformers or anything in relation. I only own Hunter, the Hybrid race, and any other character that you may not recognize.
Sword Art Online; No Way
24
Ω Et Inopinatus Ω
(The Unexpected)
"Come on!
"Pick your feet up, you pathetic, little whelp!
"No passing out on us now! It's bad enough that we have to help you to your cell—we're not about to carry you. Stop dragging your feet and walk!"
Hunter gritted her teeth and tried to do just that, but the pain from the lashes down her legs, hips, and lower back was made worse every time she moved and tried to put weight on her legs, making it agony to walk. More than once she stumbled and almost fell before being harshly wrenched back up onto her feet by the Field Acolytes helping her along. "Helping" being a very loosely used term, indeed; it was more like they were slowly trying to rip her arms off while forcing her to walk at the same time. As if her pain wasn't bad enough already!
The teen was actually looking forward to being thrown into a cell! Strange, sick, and twisted as it was, at least once she was in a cell she could be alone with her agony for a bit and do something along the lines of screaming her lungs out instead of having to force everything back and hide it away. Her chest was already bursting with the cries as it was. And above everything else, once she was alone and had dealt with everything else, Hunter could start trying to figure out a way to try and escape again. It'd take a lot more strategizing this time around. As much of an inescapable trap her cell of a bedroom had been with the containment spell, the cells of the detention block, as she remembered (not that she'd ever actually resided in one before) were just as impossible if not more so. But Hunter was determined to find a way out! She wasn't called "The Flame of Hope" for nothing after all. She'd just have to resign herself to the increased difficulty and not give in to her frustration and temper no matter how many times she failed. That, in and of itself, wouldn't be a small feat either….
Finally they stopped in front of a small, six by eight room. Shoved up against the back wall of the stone chamber was a short wooden platform, upon which a thin, tattered mattress rested. A set of chains was bolted to the wall just beside the bed, and the manacles were strung out along the energon and blood stained floor of the cell that sloped down towards a single hole in the middle of the room. That would be her toilet. How hygienic. This place was five star rate worthy, definitely.
Without warning—though not unexpectedly—the Acolytes forcefully half-shoved, half-threw Hunter into the cell. "Whoa!" The teen stumbled forward and crashed to the floor. She bit her already raw lips as a strangled cry of pain escaped her. Frag! No, she wasn't getting whipped and beaten by Ray anymore, but this whole ordeal definitely wasn't getting any easier despite that!
The Acolytes laughed harshly, obviously delighting some more in her suffering.
Hunter growled low in her throat and glared back over her shoulder at them. If only she had the strength to rip their heads off right now….
"Hey!" one of the Acolytes suddenly snapped, having noticed the girl's glower. "Unless you're lookin' to lose your eyes, put that glare away."
Hunter's scowl only deepened and she growled once more.
The Acolyte was not amused by this. With a snarl, she stepped into the cell. "I said put it away!" she seethed. She reeled a leg back and swung it forward to plant her foot as hard she could into Hunter's stomach.
All of the air rushed from Hunter's lungs and she instinctively curled into the fetal position, arms wrapped around her middle. She wheezed and gasped and coughed, trying to re-inflate her lungs. Really? Kicking her in the gut while she was wounded, weak, and on the ground—talk about insult to injury!
With a satisfied "hmph" the Acolyte turned and sauntered away.
The other Acolyte began to move his hands around and, a moment later, of pile of neatly folded clothes appeared in his hold. He threw them unceremoniously down at Hunter. "The Mistress will be down to see you in her own time," he gruffly informed the girl. "She will expect you to be in order." He turned away and slammed his palm against a button on the control panel beside the entrance of the cell, causing an energy field to activate across the opening with a soft warble. With that he made his leave, the woman following after him. "Dress," he called over his shoulder, then added with a rumbling, nasty chuckle, "if you can, that is." With that he let out an infuriating, raucous laugh, which caused the woman to join him with her own cackle, and they both disappeared down the long hallway of cells.
Now that she was alone, Hunter let go an unhindered cry of pain and allowed the tears to fall from her eyes. Frag, she hurt! There wasn't a single part of her that wasn't in agony; even her hair hurt! Was it Luna's plan to keep her badly wounded at all times to prevent her from trying to escape again or something? If this was any kind of clue… it would probably work.
Groaning and straining, Hunter slowly pushed herself up onto all fours and then, even more gradually, up onto her feet. She stumbled back against the wall. "Ahhh!" The contact with the rough stone surface grated painfully against the lashes on her back. The teen bit her lip and let her gaze fall to her clothes lying in a crumpled pile on the floor. There was no way she'd be able to be dressed by the time Luna came down here. No way. Even the first few whip marks on her back hadn't started to heal yet, and those had been opened up hours ago! Unfortunately for Hunter, not being able to dress because of the pain was undoubtedly another part of Luna's "lesson", and it looked like the witch would win that one.
But even so, Hunter was stubbornly resolute about one thing: She wasn't going to be naked when Luna came down here. She wouldn't be dressed, but she wouldn't be naked either. Turning her gaze towards the bed, the teenager limped over and pulled off the sheet; it was threadbare and grimy, but it would have to do. She'd make it do.
Steel paced around his room, nervously picking at his palms, his mind racing a hundred miles per microsecond. It had been an hour since he'd left the infirmary, healed, and escorted to his quarters. The flogging had to be over by now. (He prayed, for Hunter's sake, that it was.) His grandmother would be bursting in at any moment now to deal with him, and the punishment this time around, Steel dreaded, would be far worse than anything he'd received thus far. This act of insubordination was the most egregious he'd committed. He'd mouthed off before, shirked off duties, questioned his grandmother on occasion (mostly just recently when Hunter had returned), but this… he'd stood in the way of another's punishment—stopped the process of a lesson being learned! He'd broken rank and rules simultaneously! Worse, he'd let his teachings and the truth of them slip from his mind and allowed the poison of outside influence to affect him and guide his actions! He'd slipped. This was a heinous action, and the retribution for it would have to be fittingly heinous in return.
The nineteen-year-old tried with all his might not to think and wonder and worry about what the punishment could possibly entail, but he couldn't help himself. Would his grandmother decide to flog him just as she'd flogged Hunter? He could hear her voice now: "Well, since you were so eager to experience your cousin's lesson…."
The double doors to his chambers banged open, yanking the young man from his thoughts. Steel whipped around to face his livid grandparents. Immediately he hit his knees and bowed down beseechingly, resting his forehead against the floor, pleading, "Grandmother, please, I know what I did was wrong. I recognize and admit it—it won't happen again, I swear upon Lunar Mark that it won't. Please, please, I implore you, have mercy!"
"Get up, you pathetic, groveling worm!" Luna spat, glowering down her nose at her grandson.
Ray stormed forward and grabbed Steel by the back of the collar, yanking him to his feet. "Stand, boy!" he barked.
Luna waited until Steel was on his feet once again and then smacked him hard across the face, savagely raking her pointed nails into the flesh of his cheek. The witch received some satisfaction when the boy hissed sharply in pain. Seizing his chin in her hand, Luna yanked Steel's head back around and forced him to face her, her incensed raspberry eyes gazing into his ashamed and frightened electric blue ones. "What are the truths, Steel?"
Steel swallowed thickly, trying not to wince at the neither pain in his cheek nor the grip in which his jaw was being crushed. "The Lunation's mission is holy" he began to recite, "it follows the vision of the Mistress. The Mistress is the true savior of our people, and the Fuser is the vessel through which she will accomplish our salvation. The Mistress shall restore honor upon the Hybrid people. These are the truths of the universe, as deemed by Primus himself."
"As deemed by Primus himself," Luna repeated slowly and firmly, gazing deeper into her grandson's eyes. She looked even more angry now than she had just seconds before. "That is our doctrine, Steel."
"I know, Grandmother."
"Have I not been successful in teaching you that from the very moment you arrived in my custody was a young boy?"
"You have been successful, Grandmother." There were tears pricking at Steel's vision. He wasn't entirely sure if it was from the way his grandmother was so intensely disappointed with him or if it was the hotly throbbing pain from the bleeding cuts on his cheek. He'd never had an encounter with her poisoned nail-polish before. And at the moment he was certainly hoping he would never be stupid enough to do something to solicit another experience with it in the future.
"Then would you care to enlighten me," Luna seethed, so up in his face now that their noses her pressed nearly flat together, "on why you would throw aside the doctrine and everything I have taught you the last eight years to interfere with Huntress' castigation? You know better, Steel!"
The tears were leaking out of his eyes and down his cheeks now, only to cause more tears to fall when those on his left cheek seeped into the scratches there. "I know, Grandmother!" Steel pleaded, his voice breaking. "I don't know why I did it. Hunter… she was screaming… and crying…. She was hurting and… and I just… I had to help her… protect her. I couldn't stop myself, but I will never falter and forget again, Grandmother! Please, I promise!"
Luna was quiet for a long time, simply staring into her grandson's beseeching gaze. Finally she hissed, "See that you don't," and released him.
The release was so sudden and forceful that Steel stumbled backwards, tripped over his feet, and ended up in a heap on the floor. He reached up to hold his cheek, an involuntary groan leaving him.
Luna simply looked down her nose at him, her face hard and distant. "The poison isn't dangerous," she stated, explaining the effect of her nail-polish. "It will not spread beyond the afflicted area and will neutralize within 48 hours. However, until it does, you will not be able to heal the wound and you will not be able to dull the pain."
Steel helplessly meet his grandmother's eyes.
The witch's gaze hardened. "Perhaps this will help you remember to keep in line the next time you are so inclined to interfere." With that, and a majestic swoosh of billowing robes and skirts, Luna turned and began to exit the room. "Come!"
Steel was suddenly harshly pulled to his feet by his grandfather again and then practically dragged out of the room after Luna. He was in a bit of a daze. This was all his punishment would be? Not that it didn't have any sort of effect or didn't get the point across, but this was it? He wasn't going to be flogged? Or submerged under water until he couldn't hold his breath any longer? Or branded and burned? This was it: a few scratch marks on his cheek that would only cause him pain for a couple days? Not that he wasn't relieved by the situation, but Steel definitely felt he deserved something more severe to match his transgression. "Wh-where are we going?" he stammered.
He didn't receive an answer. At least not until they had arrived at the dungeons, deep under the grounds of the estate. By then it was fairly easy to guess where they were headed and Steel's stomach churned. He didn't want to see Hunter right now. He could only guess what a mess she must look like and how much pain she had to be in, and the young man didn't know if he would be able to take that. Also, he wasn't big on the idea of Hunter seeing his face either. Knowing her she would make a big deal about it and that would probably lead to yet another argument between the two of them, and Steel wanted to fight with her even less than he wanted to see her bloody and beaten.
As if sensing the boy's trepidation, Ray's grip on Steel's arm tightened and he pushed/pulled him along more forcefully than before. "No turning back now, Son," he murmured, his voice hard. "Ya shoudlda thought about this before you went and jumped in the way of that whip."
Ah. So there was the rest of his punishment. That made more sense now. It didn't offer anything by way of comfort, but it made much more sense. Still, he didn't want Hunter to see him like this, so, with that thought in mind, the young man quickly cast a concealment charm over his face. There—she wouldn't be able to see the scratches now.
The doors of the detention black whooshed open and the three marched on through, down the long aisle, and past many deactivated cells until Luna finally stopped before an activated one.
"Well, well," there was sneer in the witch's voice, "what do we have here? I believe my order was that you were to be dressed by the time I arrived, but I see that it went unheeded."
Ray finally pulled Steel up in front of the cell, and the nineteen-year-old was able to look inside and see his cousin. His spark dropped. Hunter was in far worse shape than he'd guessed. Sitting there on the cot, trembling and glassy-eyed despite her best attempts to glare out at them, it appeared Hunter had been doused in energon, she was so bloody, and the sheet she'd wrapped herself in was soaked through with it. Actually, the sheer fact that Hunter hadn't forced herself to dress and instead resigned to cover herself with the sheet (something that would tell Luna her plan to cause the teenager pain had been successful) spoke volumes as to just how much agony the girl was in.
"Take it and shove it," Hunter retorted. It didn't have as much effect as it should have; her voice was meek and lacked snap, not to mention the fact that it trembled the slightest bit.
Picking up on this, Luna's smirk deepened. Pressing a hand to the control panel in order to open the cell, the witch stepped inside, her heels clicking daintily on the stained and dirty stone floor. "It would appear," she stated as she made her way the latrine put towards the girl, "that my lessons are finally beginning to sink in. Is that correct, Huntress?"
Hunter said nothing, simply continued to tiredly scowl as the woman.
Luna pursed her dark lips at the lack of response and made a humming noise before reaching out towards the teen's face. Alarm suddenly flashed into Hunter's sapphire eyes and she flinched away. That was enough to bring the smile back to Luna's mouth. "Yes," she murmured to herself. "Yes, I do believe they finally are." She continued to reach forward and caressed Hunter's cheek, brushing a ratty lock of hair out of the child's face.
Despite the gentleness of the action, Hunter screwed her eyes shut and tensed up with a grimace, cowering back against the wall to try and escape the contact. An unintentional whimper escaped her.
Luna chuckled. "Perhaps you do possess some sense after all," she remarked. The woman lightly grazed the tips of her nails along Hunter's cheek and chin as she pulled her hand away.
Yet again Hunter refused to reply, and instead turned away to stare at the wall on her left. Her jaw was set defiantly, even if the fire itself wasn't in her eyes.
Silence reigned over the cell for a moment, before Luna finally broke it again. "Tell me, Huntress," she voiced, "how much more of this must we have? All of this violence and death and pain—how much longer must it continue?"
Hunter quiet for a moment, still refusing to face her grandmother. An intense, burning pressure flared up inside her chest, threatening to violently explode. Yes, because all of this was her fault. She was the one that brought all the violence and death and pain, and Luna had no part in it. She was the cause of it, not Luna. It was up to her to comply and stop it, not Luna to get a grip on reality and do something about herself in order for it to stop. If she'd had the strength, Hunter would have torn into her grandmother right then and there with no warning, no mercy, no remorse.
Swallowing hard, the teen pressed her lips into a thin line. "As long as it takes," she responded, voice shaking in either pain or anger, even Hunter wasn't sure. "As long as it takes for you to realize I'll never be one of you and let me go or for me to claim your spark." With that, a slight, twisted smile curled Hunter's lips and she looked back around at the Sorceress. "Personally, I hope it's the latter."
Luna raised an eyebrow at this, though the rest of her face remained unfathomable. "What is this? No speech about redemption? No extending a hand and offering me a chance to leave the dark and step back into the light?"
"I know a lost cause when I see it; I won't waste my breath."
"Hmm. I imagine your Prime would be disappointed in you for that."
Rage suddenly erupted on Hunter's face. "Don't you talk about him!" she barked, sitting up rigidly. "You don't get to say his name ever! You mention him again and I'll rip your tongue out, Witch!"
The witch actually looked rather amused by this declaration. "Well then," she chuckled, "with a threat such as that it is most definitely certain that you are my granddaughter, however else you may conduct yourself."
Hunter's hackles raised. A deadly glint shone in her narrowed glare as she growled, "You and I are nothing alike."
Luna hummed and wordlessly conjured up a chair, which is promptly sat herself in. Leaning forward she gazed intently at her granddaughter. "You know that's not true," the Sorceress stated quietly. "Many of your characteristics and abilities come from me: your will, your defiance, your desire to do what is best for others…"
"You only have a desire to do what's best for you!" Hunter hissed.
"Seemingly."
"No "seemingly" about it. You got a bigger me-complex than Starscream, and, believe you me, that's saying somethin'."
Luna bit her lip, as though she was trying to hold back from snapping back, something that could only lead to more unpleasant backtalk from the teenager. "Let's not forget your pyrokenesis," she continued on after a moment. "That is an ability we share directly. Or the fact that you're powerful and just how powerful. You certainly didn't gain that potential from your weakling father, or your pathetic human mother."
"Shut up!" Hunter spat. Luna wasn't going to get to talk about her spark-father and the bitch sure as Pit wasn't going to get to talk about her parents either!
"You bare the crescent-moon headpiece, Huntress, just as I bare it; only the most powerful in every generation of our family bare it."
"That doesn't make us the same," Hunter retorted. "That doesn't make any of us the same; Eve has it too and she's nothing like you either."
"Eve may have been powerful in ability but she has always been weak in mind and spirit," Luna jeered contemptuously. She leaned forward, getting more up in her granddaughter's personal space. "But you, Huntress," she murmured, "you are powerful in mind and spirit as well as ability." She suddenly reached out to put a hand on the girl's knee. "As am I."
Hunter instinctively reacted. "Get away from me!" she shrieked. Forgetting about her pain and fatigue, the redhead kicked a foot out and slammed it into Luna's chair, causing it to topple over backwards and take the witch with it.
With a cry of alarm Luna tumbled out of the chair and found herself with her head stuck down the latrine pit. It was horridly filthy and, though it hadn't been used in quite some time yet, to a sensitive Hybrid nose shoved right down into it, disgustingly rank. She quickly pulled herself out of the hole and staggered back up on her feet, looking rather disheveled and ruffled. Her cheeks were deeply flushed and her hair and headpiece were askew. It took the sorceress a moment to collect herself. When she finally managed it she, of course, whirled around on Hunter, raspberry eyes positively livid and flashing. "You will regret that," she seethed dangerously.
"I don't think I will," Hunter replied with a smirk. It was all she could do to not laugh at what had just happened to her grandmother, and she was incredibly proud with herself for being the cause of it.
Luna's lip curled. "Ray," she called over her shoulder, "darling, would you be so kind as to wipe this grin off Huntress' face?"
All at once there was a soft but ominous hissing sound followed by a slithering one. Movement in the hole drew Hunter's attention. A knot tightened nauseously in her stomach and she froze, sapphire eyes wide with absolute terror and a scream caught in her throat by her spark leaping there as a King Cobra the size of an Anaconda rose out of the darkness of the pit.
The snake's hood was flared and a murderous glint was in its black eyes which were focused directly on the teenager. Its mouth was wide open, baring needle-like fangs that had to be at least three inches long dripping with venom. Releasing a hiss that transformed into a roar-like sound, the serpent jerked its head at Hunter, forked tongue forcefully lashing out as if to taste her.
Hunter could only remain frozen in terror. She definitely wasn't proud of herself and smirking now!
All at once the snake attacked, surging forward, its jaws flung even wider than ever as it bore down on the sixteen-year-old ready to impale her on its fangs. Hunter screamed bloody-murder and squeezed her eyes shut as she instinctively ducked in an effort to dodge the attack. She hit the stone floor with a jarring impact. "Ugh!"
Opening her eyes at the sound a laughter, Hunter looked up at her grandfather to see that his eyes—which normally matched her own sapphire blue ones—appeared to be made of black shattered glass. His power—hallucination inducement…. The snake wasn't real; it was all in her head.
In a single blink, Ray's eyes were back to sapphire blue and the snake disappeared.
Hunter was suddenly snagged by the arm and wrenched up off the floor, unable to help the yelp that left her as the force of the jerk jarred her yet sensitive nerves. The girl grimaced and winced. Was it really too much to ask that people stop touching her—let alone grabbing her—until she'd healed up a bit?!
"Tell me, Huntress," Luna hissed as she held her granddaughter close and shoved stuck her face in the girl's, "this Prime of yours-"
"I told you not to talk about him!" Hunter spat, trying to pull away from the Sorceress.
"-do you love him?" Luna continued on, undaunted by the harsh interruption. "I imagine this is the only option considering that he is, in fact, your spark-father, as well as way you have spoken of him and how you wish for me to refrain from speaking of him, but tell me regardless: do you love Optimus Prime?"
Hunter bit her lip and glowered up at her grandmother with a deadly savage look, a look that didn't threaten but promised to kill. But she said nothing. She couldn't. For one, confirming such an allegation—albeit one that was very much common knowledge—would only be exposing her spark-father to more danger; because if there was one thing about Luna that was predictable, it was the fact that she would always go after what you loved most. For another, it was much too painful to discuss or even think about Optimus. The sixteen-year-old missed him so much that it physically hurt. In all honesty, the only reason she hadn't completely broken down sobbing for him by now was because she'd forced herself to shove the mech to the very back of her mind and focus on defying Luna and trying to find some way to escape. But the pain was always there. And it only made it harder to ignore whenever Optimus' name was brought up, forcing her to think about him even if for the briefest of moments.
But Hunter didn't have to say anything in order to answer Luna's inquiry; the witch could see it in the teenager's eyes. Her painted lips curled into a sneer. "And I would assume," she went on, a sadistic tone in her voice, "that you believe that he loves you as well."
Once again, Hunter said nothing, but of course she believed that. Why wouldn't she? It was the truth! Optimus loved her just as much as she loved him—maybe even more so; he had originally sacrificed a part of his spark in order to ignite hers and safe her during her first transformation after all! If that didn't prove his love for her, what did?
Luna made a sound that was part chuckle, amused snort, and haughty hum. "Well, if that's the case, I would suggest that you ask yourself one simple question: if your spark-father loves you as much as you so blindly believe he does, why hasn't he come for you yet?"
It was with this statement that broadsided Hunter and caused her to feel a sensation akin to a wet blanket that had been left out in the open arctic tundra until it was completely frozen settle around her spark. Her stomach lurched uncomfortably. Her mind went completely numb and her breath caught in her throat. For the longest time the redhead stared at the older woman, trying to understand exactly what she had just implied and finding it extremely difficult to do when struck utterly dumb. "Wha-what?" she finally stammered, voice hardly above a choked whisper.
Luna's sneer grew. "Well, he is your spark-father," she simpered, "which means that you, of course, share a spark-link with him. Thus he should be able to sense where you are and come for you wherever you may be. But he's not here, is he? He hasn't shown up, has he?"
Hunter slowly looked away from Luna and back down to the floor, realization hitting her. The spark-link! The past days she'd been so concerned with trying to find a way to escape and showing Luna that she wouldn't bow to her that she'd completely forgotten about her and Optimus' spark-link! With the link it should have been simple to come find her: all he would've had to do was follow it until he reached her. But Luna was right—he hadn't appeared. Hunter hadn't even felt his presence drawing closer through her side of the bond either.
That's when the panic flooded her. Quickly turning attention to the spark-link, Hunter focused on it and felt as hard as she was able for her father's presence. To her relief she could still feel him; he was still alive—Luna hadn't sent out any of her lackeys to kill him yet. Thank Primus! But that just made the question of why he hadn't shown up yet to rescue her even more disturbing….
Luna tsked her tongue and shook her head in a pitying way. "I know it's painful, my dear, but if I were in your position, I would honestly start asking myself if what I thought I felt and what I thought he felt were ever truly real, or if it was just something I told myself in order to survive in a harsh world."
But Hunter wasn't listening; she was too busy focusing on her spark-link with Optimus and trying to figure out why it hadn't led him to her by now. As it was she was trying to reach out through the bond herself. If she was still able to sense him through it then, but all rights, he still should have been able to sense her, and maybe reaching out for him would help to make finding her even easier. Or at the very least it would let him know that she was alive and well (well… as well as could possibly be expected after being flogged for several hours at a time) and actively trying to reach him. But, much to her dismay, Hunter found she couldn't reach out through the spark-link. Something seemed to be blocking it; there was some sort of wall there that she couldn't penetrate. She could feel her spark-father just on the other side, but she couldn't reach and connect to him. And what was more disturbing yet, the sensations the girl could feel from the mech's side… they felt the exact same as they had the moment she'd entered Cody Philips' car under the pretense she was being taken to her aunt and uncle to be adopted by them. It hadn't changed the slightest.
Optimus knew she'd been abducted—Primus, she'd screamed for his help over the phone to him when it had happened!—and she'd been missing for several days now: One would think the Prime's emotions had changed from sadness, despair, and anger at least a little bit. But no. According to their spark-link, Optimus was feeling at this moment the very same things he'd been feeling when they'd all believed her to be leaving to be adopted by someone other than him. And that didn't make any kind of sense at all.
There was only one explanation for the strangeness of it all.
Slowly, even more slowly than she'd been in looking away from her, Hunter looked back up at Luna and met her gaze yet again. "What did you do?" she whispered, a dangerous edge in her voice.
Luna's smile slipped away and her face became unreadable, her eyes reflecting nothing except the harsh coldness that Hunter knew had to dwell in her spark. (Assuming the witch even had one anymore.) She wasn't about to give away any kind of information, but rather than make Hunter think that maybe she had the wrong idea, it told the girl she was exactly on the right track. Her grandmother had done something to her and Optimus' bond.
"I beg your pardon?"
"What did you do to our spark-link?" Hunter snarled a bit more loudly this time.
Luna scoffed. "You're under the assumption that I've done something to affect the physical bond between you and your Prime?" The witch actually had the audacity to look appalled by the accusation!
"I'm not assuming anything," the teen rumbled. "What did you do? Some kind of spell, right—something to stagnate the flow of it?" She snorted derisively. "Just so you know, screwing with people's spark-links: lowest of the low of things you can do. Not to mention cowardly. What's the deal, Luna? Afraid you really wouldn't be able to take on my dad when he showed up to rescue me? I thought you were the greatest sorceress—a goddess among gods."
There was brief flicker of rage in Luna's raspberry eyes, but it was quickly replaced with placidity. A smile curled her lips again. "And so I am," she responded, "make no mistake of that, my dear. And since you hold such a lowly opinion of the Frozen Bond curse, perhaps you should consult with its creator. Steel?"
Hunter's gaze quickly flickered from her grandmother over to her cousin. To be honest, she hadn't even noticed he was there; she'd been so focused on Luna and then Ray that she'd completely overlooked Steel. Now all of her attention was on him. "Steel?" she murmured, eyes wide in disbelief. "Y-you?"
Unable to keep eye contact, the young man looked down at the floor of the cell. "Yes," he admitted with the slightest of nods. "The Frozen Bond curse… is my creation, Hunter." He managed to look up at her that time, an air of shame in his electric blue eyes.
"But… why?" Hunter rasped.
"Why did you have your memories of us removed, Hunter?" he asked by way of answer. "Why did you choose to forget?" His voice was bitter and accusatory.
That caused the redhead to fall silent because she understood. She understood what it was like to be plagued with something that caused you so much pain, you'd do anything including sell your soul to stop it, to make it go away, or even just take the edge off. How many time had she been there herself?
Ray gasped mockingly. "What's that?" he asked. "Nothing to say to that, Huntress?" Hunter's eye briefly flickered away from Steel to glare at their grandfather, but then went directly back to her cousin. "I never wanted to forget you, Steel," she softly declared. "But it wasn't a choice—you know that."
That time Steel fell silent. He pulled his gaze away from Hunter's piercing sapphire one and refused to look back at her. Tears were already pricking at his vision.
"You never wanted to forget him," Luna repeated, gazing coldly at the girl, "and yet you did. You allowed it; it was your decision."
Hunter glared back up at the witch. "It never would've had to happen if it wasn't for you," she growled, her ire rising once more. "You ruin everything, Luna."
Her grandmother arched a carefully sculpted eyebrow. "Is that so?"
"Don't give me that!" Hunter snarled, sticking her face in the woman's. "You know exactly what you do—what you've done! And so do I! You don't get to stand there and play innocent—not after this!"
"And just what is it I've done this time that warrants such a thing?" the sorceress chuckled condescendingly.
And with that, Hunter had had enough. Wrenching out of Luna's grip she backhanded the woman across the face, causing her to go stumbling backwards and be caught by Ray. "YOU BITCH!" the teen roared. "YOU TOOK ME FROM MY FAMILY! YOU SCREWED UP MY ADOPTION! I've waited for years for that to happen and you come along and tear everything apart! And I'll make you pay for it! The next chance I get, I'll kill you!"
Allowing her husband to help her back up on her feet, Luna turned her gaze back on her fuming granddaughter and laughed, wiping away a trickle of energon from the corner of her mouth where Hunter had struck her. "Is that so?" she panted. "Well, if that's the case, you'll be disappointed to find out that I wasn't the one who stopped the Prime adopting you—it wasn't my idea."
"Liar!"
"Perhaps. But not in this instance."
"Who else could it possibly be besides you?!
As if it wasn't already twisted enough, Luna's demented grin grew bigger and she looked in Steel's direction.
Noticing this, Steel felt his stomach drop and roll on him. No! His grandmother hadn't…! She wouldn't…! She couldn't….!
"St-Steel?"
The nineteen-year-old quickly turned to face Hunter. The girl's eyes were full of disbelief and betrayal and hurt, her face drawn tight with the emotions. Steel felt utterly sick with guilt. "Hunter…" he murmured, instinctively moving towards her.
Hunter backed away. "Steel? Y-you?" she stammered, shaking her head, horror filling her. "You… i-it was your idea? How…? Why…? You?"
Looking very pleased with herself at this newest development, Luna stepped out of the cell, Ray going with her. "We'll leave you to it," she simpered. "It seems you two have much to discuss." And with that, the couple sauntered of down the corridor, arm in arm.
Silence overtook the dungeons. The cousins stared at each other, neither of them sure what to say or even wanting to speak to each other. They didn't know what would happen if they tried. The tension was palpable.
Finally, Steel sighed. "Hunter-"
Smack!
Steel stumbled backwards, reeling in both shock and pain. He hissed as he grabbed at his injured cheek, burning heat that had slightly resided now surging back in full and then some with Hunter's slap. His eyes watered.
"You bastard."
The harsh whisper caused Steel to face his cousin again. He could still see the pain in her eyes and the betrayal, but now there was also anger shadowed across her face. The guilt he'd already been experiencing was increased tenfold. "Hunter, please…."
"You bastard!" Hunter repeated, shouting this time. Tears welled up in her eyes and spilled down her cheeks, and she did nothing to try and stop them. She couldn't. She was too hurt, too angry. Steel—her cousin—someone she loved dearly and who she knew loved her in return—had betrayed her! Shaking her head, Hunter slowly backed away from the boy, murmuring, "How could you?"
"Hunter I-"
"Do you have any idea what you've done to me, Steel?!" Hunter barked. "Do you know what you've put me through—what you're putting me through?! You took me from my family, Steel—from my family, my father! How could you?!"
"I-I never thought that Grandmother would actually utilize my idea," Steel stammered helplessly. He was more than a little shaken with Hunter being so upset with him. The young man had never seen his cousin this angry with him before; even back when he'd refused to leave the Lunation with her and Ally, Hunter hadn't been this mad. And he hated it! He loved Hunter, she was almost like another sister to him, and to see such furiousness and hurt and betrayal on her face all directed exclusively at him… it broke him. "I swear to you, Hunter, I didn't—I swear!"
"That's not the point!" Hunter roared. "You came up with the idea, Steel! You found out I was getting adopted, came up with the idea to stop it with a fake adoption using your parents' names, and gave it to Luna! It doesn't matter if you thought Luna would use it or not, you knew it would hurt me and you gave to her as an option anyway!" The girl shook her head again as she stared at her cousin in unbelief, the tears coming harder and hotter. "I just… I don't… how could you even think of…?"
Steel looked away, unable to face her any longer. "I'm sorry, Hunter," he murmured, voice broken and full of regret. "I am. But you don't understand. You don't know what this life is like; you don't know what you have to do to survive here—what I have to do to survive here. Grandmother is righteous and incredible… but she isn't merciful—she can't be. She has rules and standards and…. She has a destiny that is great and taxing. How can she expect any of us to act any differently than she has to?"
Hunter was quiet a moment, allowing her cousin's words to sink in. She wasn't really surprised by them, but at the same time she couldn't believe what she was hearing: Steel was still singing Luna's praises! Even after he'd just witnessed her being flogged at their grandmother's orders; even after seeing the current state she was in because of it; even after jumping in between her and Ray's whip to try and stop the beating and protect her! Even after all that he still wouldn't speak against her! "What I don't understand," she finally responded, "is how she could have done this to you. How she could have just broken you and reigned you into line so tightly that you think what she does—all of this—is justified, and you'll defend her no matter what she does!"
Steel dared to meet Hunter's gaze again, but there were tears shining in his eyes and beginning to trickle down his cheeks. "You don't understand, Cousin," he repeated slowly and adamantly.
The girl pressed her lips into a thin line and slightly nodded her head. "You're right," she whispered, voice quivering. "I don't. And I don't want-" Hunter broke off into a pained hiss as one of the oldest whip wounds on her back began healing. It was about time! Now came the long and painful process of these things stitching themselves back together. The teen vaguely wondered how many would scar.
Recognizing this, Steel came forward, hand extended, the palm already beginning to softly glow with magic. "Here," he offered. "Let me help-" he dropped off as he watched his cousin back away from him. He took a step back himself when he saw her glare. "Hunter…"
"I think you should go," Hunter rumbled, her tone acidic despite its softness. "I think you should go before I do something I regret."
"What?"
"I'm not exactly in any kind of mood for your company right now, believe it or not."
"Hunter, I'm sorry-"
"'Sorry' doesn't fix this, Steel."
"But-"
"Go, Steel. Get out of here. Now."
"Hunter-"
"I said leave!" Hunter thrust a hand out towards him.
A sudden and somewhat painful sensation that felt like he was being both pushed and pulled at the same time overcame Steel, and he found himself being forced backwards out of the cell. "Oof!" He hit the back wall of the open and opposing cell. Shaking off his daze, the young man looked up just in time to see his cousin coming after him and react to it. Steel made the same motion Hunter had previously done, a blast of magic exploding out of his palm and enveloping Hunter and forcing her back into her cell.
She slammed against the back wall. "Ahh!" Hunter cried out in pain as, not only her wounded backside collided harshly with the stone, but the force of the impact was enough to cause some wounds that were stitching themselves back together to tear open and bleed anew.
Lunging to his feet, Steel bounded across the hall and slammed his palm down on the button to activate the energy field door of Hunter's cell. Then he stood there, staring at his cousin and finding it hard to turn away from her. He didn't want to leave her down here. She was his cousin, his family; she didn't deserve to be contained in a cell so far away from him—it wasn't right! But there was nothing he could do about it. "I'm sorry, Hunter," he repeated, tears pricking at his eyes again. "I'm so sorry." With that he turned and slowly plodded his way down the hall back towards the exit, leaving Hunter to deal with her agony alone.
Tears trickling down her cheeks from both physical pain and the subsequent emotional pain of learning about Steel's betrayal, Hunter leaned her head back against the wall. She squeezed her eyes shut, not wanting to see the world around her. Maybe she'd wake up and this would all be a dream and she'd be back home in her own room safe and sound with her father right next door and the rest of the team down the hall. But the sixteen-year-old knew better: She wasn't going to wake up. Nightmarish as this was, it was all completely genuine and it wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. Neither was she. And the only thing decent about any of it, the only person that could bring any kind of light and love into this situation at all was so deeply engrained and enmeshed in the darkness of it all that he had been the one responsible for her being dragged back into this hell in the first place. As much as she loved Steel, Hunter wasn't sure how she'd ever be able to forgive him for that. In fact she wasn't sure such a thing could be possible… or that she really even wanted to.
Before she could stop it, a sob escaped the girl, and then another and another. Unable and unwilling to try and collect herself, Hunter pulled her knees to her chest and buried her face in them as she allowed herself to truly weep for the first time since her capture. At the moment it was all she could think to do.
"Oh, wonderful," a sudden voice sounded out through the dungeons. "And just how long do I have to put up with this pitiful display of uncontrollable feminine emotion?" The voice was raspy, crackly, and old but deep and definitely male. It was also apathetic, cruel, and caustic.
At the sound of it, Hunter jumped about a mile out of her skin. Her eyes naturally flickered up towards the front of her cell to see who was standing there, but she saw the space was vacant. This was beyond confusing. She'd most definitely heard someone very clearly say something, but there was just as clearly nobody else around to have said anything.
"I mean, really, I've never seen anything so pathetic and shameful in all my long years, and I have many to account for," the voice returned.
Slowly rising to her feet, Hunter padded towards the front of her cell. Standing as close to the energy field as she dared she craned her neck to look down the hall first one way and then the other. She still couldn't see anyone. "He-hello?" she called out. "Is someone there?"
"Well it's a good thing you're attractive," the voice came back, "because you certainly aren't making any headway in intelligence."
That comment, whomever it was coming from, irking her off, Hunter whipped around and glared around her cell. It seemed to be coming from inside the cell, but she was the only one in it. "Excuse me?" she huffed indignantly.
"Oh, did the bluntness of my observation offend your delicate, feminine sensibilities? Terribly sorry."
The voice seemed to be coming from up above and at the back of the cell.
Directing her gaze towards the ceiling at the back wall, Hunter found a small, barred window that she hadn't noticed at the very top and center of the cell wall, directly over her cot. And, alarmingly, there was a set of withered and gnarled hands grasping the bars and a face pressed right up to them. A pair of obsidian eyes bore down on her.
Releasing a startled gasp, Hunter took several steps back, never taking her sapphire eyes from those blue ones. Her spark hammered in her chest. "Wh-who are you?" she stammered, swallowing hard. There was another prisoner down here—a man!—and for some reason they were neighbors! And they shared a window! None of that was unsettling at all….
The man released a crackling howl of a laugh that sent shivers running up and down the girl's spine. It was an old laugh, an overworked one, and it didn't seem to be at all normal. In fact it sounded… as if it belonged to a dead man. Or at least one who should have been.
The stranger laughed so hard that he began to violently cough and for a moment Hunter believed that he was about to end up as a dead man after all. "Look at you!" he coughed and chortled at the same time, black eyes twinkling in a maliciously gleeful kind of way. "Backing away from me in fear at my age, and even with a solid wall of stone between us!" He started to guffaw all over again.
That stoked Hunter's irritation a bit more. "I'm not afraid of you," she declared, stepping towards the back wall, eyes locked on the stranger. "You startled me. I didn't know Luna had anyone else down here." Then she added to herself, "Or that there was a peephole into my cell…."
At that the man stopped laughing and glared down at her. "Oh, I see now," he replied, voice dripping with venom. "I see. You think you're so special, so damn important, that you're the only one the old bat would deem worthy of throwing in her dungeon. Well, look who's high on herself!"
"Take it and shove it!" Hunter spat, brows knitting together in a scowl as she bared her teeth. "You know nothing about me!"
"Oh, don't I?" the man retorted. "Huntress Starstreaker James; the Fuser—Primus' chosen one; savior of the Hybrid people; restorer of Cybertron. Daughter of that pathetic excuse of a Hybrid Comet-Thunder and spark-daughter of the even more worthless Last of the Primes."
Normally such a defaming of her fathers would have sent the redhead into an aggressive tirade, but at the moment Hunter was much too shocked to let it set her off. This stranger… he knew her father! She could believe he'd know who she was and what her titles were, and she could even let go the fact that he knew of her spark-father, because Optimus was mentioned in the prophecy as well (though not by name). But to know her father's name!
Hunter shuffled closer towards the stranger and looked at him closely. "How… how do you know my father's name?" she just dared to ask.
The old man snorted. "Believe me," he grumbled, "I wish I didn't. Pathetic waste of Hybrid mesh that boy; still can't believe he was of my blood-line."
Hunter froze. "Your blood-line?"
"Yes, of course my blood-line! However such a weakling came to mar my line I'll never understand, but I blame that Radiance: There's weaklings in his lineage—I knew and snuffed some of them personally back on the home planet. I told Luna to choose the sire of her children wisely, but she never listened to me. Perhaps if her grandmother or creators had survived…."
Hunter's mind was spinning, clinging on to words the old man was saying and trying to piece them all together to form a coherent conclusion. "Comet-Thunder… his blood-line", Ray and Luna, "back on the home planet"… the teen's mind put them all together and only one conclusion came to her. But it was far from coherent. Far from possible. But there could be no other explanation for it all!
Stepping up onto the cot so that she was as face level with the window and thus the stranger, Hunter peered closely and carefully at his face.
"Wh-what are you looking at?" the man stammered, sounding a bit perturbed. He drew his face back from the window a bit and Hunter pressed hers even closer.
And that's when Hunter saw it. Caught by the light of his cell, etched the left of his worn old face, cutting at an angle from his temple, through his eyebrow, over his eyes, and down his cheek, a long, thin, pale scar. The girl's eyes widened and her jaw dropped. She was sure her spark stopped beating. It wasn't possible! It couldn't be—it just couldn't be! And yet….
"Scarface… Malice?"