Crisis averted. I went to update, and found several chapters missing. Thank Primus for original document backup. I might be back to this chapter in the next couple of days to be rid of missing punctuation etc. I do not own the Brotherhood of Man, Wolfkidbirdgirl does. Go read her stuff too, it is quite excellent. But yes. In the meantime:
Chapter 165 - Ripples
(SePOV)
Sentinel looked around again, distracted.
It was his second and final seminar of the day, and the technician femme was not present, as she had intended. Sentinel prayed that she had been called back to base, but something in his spark stated otherwise.
That was a bad sign, he had followed his spark a few times in history, the result allowing him to do more so without guilt as time went by.
His spark somehow simply got to the bottom of a problem when his processors could find no alternative.
::. Sentinel Prime to Optimus Prime.:: he sent over the comm, onlining a couple of extra processors so his class did not recognize that they were not at the moment, in the forefront of his attention.
::. Are you not in class?.:: Optimus rumbled worriedly the next second.
::. Lieutenant Lena Davies is not present, as she had intended. I sense something... wrong... will you locate her, please?.:: Sentinel sent carefully.
Yet somehow, Optimus was suddenly sharply focused.
::. If you feel something is amiss, I shall locate her immediately.:: Optimus rumbled flatly. ::. When did you last see her?.::
::. When she left to retrieve some fuel. Have the humans recalled her to base?.::
Silence. Sentinel put a bit more focus onto his seminar while he waited.
::. Lena has not been recalled, there is no sign of her on the hall's video monitoring. We will be searching.:: Optimus rumbled flatly. ::. Prime out.::
Sentinel nodded somewhat in relief and returned to his lecture.
But a processor in the back of his senses refused to stand down, choosing instead to focus on the conflicting desires. That the Technician had become bored and left, warred with his fervent wish that she was a better student than that.
(LPOV)
Lena's head hurt. Not the minor headaches she sometimes got.
This was the 'you just got slammed upside the back of the head with a baseball bat' hurt. She could feel movement, if not touch. Nobody was touching her, her back was cramping up though, the definitive ribbed feeling of a van's floor was beneath her. Her hands were bound, feet too by the feel of it. Flex-cuffs.
Fuck.
The one time she went anywhere without her Jolt and she got kidnapped. If she survived this the little voice inside of her stated that Ironhide was never going to let her live it down.
But she would survive this, she was... fairly certain of it. Sentinel would... probably notice she wasn't there to ride home with him at any rate. Eight hours was a pretty long head-start though.
Lena took a slow, careful breath. Burlap bag on head. Great.
"Is that robot whore awake yet?" a man's voice demanded.
"Dunno..."
"Well check you idiot!"
Lena promptly closed her eyes again, the soldier in her vying for more time in consciousness without her captor's knowledge. Step one, gain intelligence. She forced her face into one of sleeping repose just as the bag was torn from her head. She stayed limp. Even though that caused her head to be banged against the floor once more and it hurt like a living hell, she stayed limp.
"Nope, still out," a third man's voice guffawed.
"I say we just inject her now," a fourth voice grunted.
"Didn't you hear the orders moron, don't inject her until she's conscious," the first voice snapped. "It ain't gonna work unless she's conscious!"
Right. Stay 'unconscious'. Got it.
"What's this stuff do anyway?" the third voice asked.
"It's gonna put her back on the right path, that's what it's gonna do," the first voice growled. "It's too late for that other woman, but it's not too late to save this one from those alien metal demons."
That. Did not sound good.
"Yeah but how does it work?" the second voice asked curiously.
"Simple, it'll get her libido revved up to the breaking point, and at that point she'll realize that only human men can satisfy a woman. Not those metal abominations!"
Evidently, the ass-clowns had no idea about her history. Human males? Totally revolting. Being raped, beaten and left for dead tended to do that to a psyche.
"And if it doesn't work?"
"Then we'll just have to make an example of her."
Fuck.
(OPOV)
::. Sentinel Prime to Optimus Prime.::
That had him immediately on edge. Sentinel did not use their full titles unless something had gone wrong. ::. Are you not in class?.:: Optimus rumbled worriedly.
::. Lieutenant Lena Davies is not present, as she had intended. I sense something... wrong... will you locate her, please?.:: Sentinel sent to him.
Instinct. The instinct of the spark, something that Sentinel had rarely believed in. If he felt so strongly, enough that he would allow even those carefully guarded words to state it?
Optimus was focused now, sharp focus. If his Kae's instincts had taught him anything, something was now very, very wrong.
::. If you feel something is amiss, I shall locate her immediately.:: Optimus rumbled flatly. ::. When did you last see her?.::
::. When she left to retrieve some fuel. Have the humans recalled her to base?.::
The logical first step.
::. Optimus to Ironhide.:: he rumbled immediately. Best to not cause Jolt to spin into a panic just yet.
::. Ironhide receiving.::
::. Have the humans recalled Jolt's Lena to base?.:: he rumbled worriedly, already sending his thoughts along the ether to view the monitors of Sentinel's lecture hall. Timestamps indicated the end of the first seminar, Lena strode out amidst the crowd. He followed her progress as best he could as she strode to the humans' restrooms. After that? She vanished.
::. No, Will says she's supposed to be at the seminars.:: Ironhide replied the next moment.
::. Lena has not been recalled, there is no sign of her on the hall's video monitoring. We will be searching.:: Optimus rumbled flatly to his old mentor. ::. Prime out.::
Before the comm released, Optimus could feel Sentinel's relief. He nodded to himself and immediately got down to work, striding to the communications bay and preparing for the long haul ahead of them. The doors slid open in front of him, and before his optics the young technician already stood. The look in Jolt's optics, the resonations of his spark spoke all. In spite of an information vacuum, the Technician was already sensing the danger to his intended mate.
Sentinel's instincts – despite the older Prime's reluctance to admit the existence of such a thing – were as accurate as Optimus had feared.
"We will find her, Jolt," Optimus rumbled sternly. The tone he used to keep the proverbial powder-boxes from blowing. The Prime in him was taking over, now, the commander, the doer. But the Prime in him was useless for minding the emotions of those around him. Thus, "Go, report to Kae." he ordered sternly.
Jolt stood, shocked before nodding and fairly scurrying from the communications room. Optimus strode to the centre and looked around himself sternly before spotting the Colonel.
"Colonel, we seem to be missing one of our number," he rumbled sternly, nodding to Ironhide as the Weapons Master straightened with a low growl. Off to the side, Bumblebee was completely oblivious to his surroundings, evidently engaged in deep searching scans.
The soldiers around him snapped to attention, saluting him.
"State it," Ironhide rumbled at his side.
"Lieutenant Lena Davies, intended of Technician Jolt is missing," Optimus rumbled sternly, looking around and catching the eyes and optics of all around him as was tradition in such times. "For her life, for the sake of Jolt's spark, and for the information she carries in her mind she must be found. Initiate emergency protocols Sigma seven, follow all lines of communications. Find the creatures responsible for her disappearance. She is to be retrieved alive using all means necessary. Questions."
Silence.
"To work," Optimus rumbled after a moment of surveying the troops.
"Sir yes sir!" was bellowed around him, and within moments the communications room was a hive of activity once more.
Optimus glanced worriedly at his scout, still deep in his own searching. Deep enough that he had not yet heard the commotion around him. The protocols for rousing the scout came to his forefront processors, but Optimus refrained, getting the sense that Bumblebee would have to start his searching all over should he be roused just yet. He hoped that such a thing would not be necessary.
(MPOV)
I stood back and looked at the finished, mostly blank form. I could foresee no difficulties in it's build for Lena's casting: it had the same percentage of blankness my own form had had.
Certainly Ratchet would be happy with it, it meant far less servo-work for him. I smiled and looked over at Soundwave as he continued building her spark-chamber, the calm, quiet efficiency that he worked with made me smile all the more.
A lot could be told by the way a man or mech worked. Soundwave's patience was a fact that I would likely be relying upon in the future.
"Inquiry: Femme Prime's process." the mech stated the next moment.
"You are a remarkably patient mech, Soundwave." I stated calmly. "I sense that your patience will be something I rely upon in the future."
His visor had slid to cover his optics again, but in the same way that I had known the bots to be glancing at me with emotion in their alt modes, I felt the amusement in his brief glance up at me.
"Restatement: variance between Femme Prime and Megatronus: monumental."
"Now if I didn't know any better, I could swear you were complimenting me," I shot at him with a small grin. Soundwave just shot me another of those highly guarded amused looks. "So how goes the spark-chamber?" I asked curiously, settling at my workbench again.
"Spark-Chamber: Eighty-six percent complete."
I nodded and glanced around, I couldn't think of anything to do, really. The Jeeps were now the domain of the twins, the non-sentient learning tools as they worked beneath Ratchet's mentorship.
Slow day, there weren't even any scraped knees to tend to.
::. Kae, Lena has been abducted.:: My Optimus sent to me the next second.
So much for a nice little bit of boring.
::. Status report!.:: I barked back immediately.
::. I am in communications. Jolt is on the edge of a full panic attack, I am sending him to you.:: my Optimus reported flatly. I nodded and rose, watching the doors as moments later, Jolt walked in.
He had all the indicators of shock in his movements.
"Jolt?" I asked gently. He stood for a long moment, obviously fighting for his composure.
"Lena's gone," he whispered. "The one time we're apart and she disappears, where would she go? She always tells me where she's going..."
"Can you think of who would want to hurt her?" I asked him gently.
"No... she doesn't have much family anymore, no potential mates upset with her, who would want to hurt my Lena?" Jolt whispered.
A thought occurred to me, and I didn't like it.
"Have we had any system compromises lately?" I asked softly.
"No, well..." Jolt frowned. "The NSA got hacked, their files on us were copied... whoever did it got the minor stuff, our designations... that you were human once, and that Lena and I..." he went pale.
"They discovered that Lena is going to become a bot," I stated flatly.
Jolt nodded, and it was then, and only then, that the little technician fairly hurled himself against my chest-plates, sobbing like a broken-sparked youngling.
"It's my fault! It's all my fault! They're gonna hurt my Lena because of me-" Jolt was howling into my chest.
"Command: cease hysterics." Soundwave stated the next moment.
I could practically feel Jolt's processors switch from horror to rage.
"What do you mean cease hysterics!" the technician fairly shrieked, shoving himself away from my chest and storming over to Soundwave.
"Diagnosis: high emotional state. Result: unclear processors, unhelpful for searching." Soundwave replied simply.
"What in Pitfire would you know about it!?" Jolt damn near bellowed at him. "What do you mean cease hysterics!? My Lena is gone! Primus only knows where she is or what slagger has his hands on her and there's only one fact available right now, I can't find her and I can't help her until I find her!"
As quickly as it had come, the rage left him. Jolt looked about a breath away from collapsing onto the floor. I had a hand over my vocal processors, the only thing keeping the soft keen of grief from airing itself.
I half expected my self-appointed advisor to take offence, instead, he rose and towered over Jolt. Then, one of the most shocking things I'd seen from the mech yet.
Soundwave reached out, and gently cupped Jolt's shoulders.
"Soundwave online: one thousand eighty-five point seven vorn. Experience: extensive. Emotional circuits: destroyed by loss of intended."
Jolt froze, staring at Soundwave. I stayed just as frozen, Optimus' spark reaching for me in concern as my own ached on behalf of the mech speaking with what was evidently grief enforced un-emotionalism. I touched his gently, updating him
"Determination: disallow same experience for electric-bot."
"What happened?" Jolt choked out.
"Guardian Reliant: taken by Shockwave." Soundwave reported quietly. "Soundwave: too emotional at time of abduction. Result: found Nightsong too late."
"Nightsong?" Jolt whispered.
"Fate: Slag-bride. Result: ..."
I was beside him the next second as the towering mech sagged, then, it wasn't him supporting Jolt. It was between Jolt and I that the thin mech leaned.
"Result:" Soundwave whispered. "Soundwave: eased Nightsong into Well of All-sparks."
"Why didn't you slag him," Jolt husked.
"Lord High Protector: Order co-operation. Soundwave: bound to follow orders of Lord High Protector."
::. Optimus?.:: I sent softly on our private comm, I felt him online an extra processor.
::. Kae?.::
::. What's a slag-bride?.:: I whispered. The sense of indignant rage in our joined sparks almost overwhelmed my sense of self.
::. A femme whose body has been forcibly re-built for the purpose of producing hatchlings.:: my Optimus growled furiously. ::. A specialty of Shockwave's, he destroys the circuits capable of producing a blocker, and... more often than not, their servos are removed to prevent them fighting back.::
It took every ounce of my beloved's strength of will bolstering my own to keep me from purging my tanks there and then.
::. Why would you ask such a thing?.:: my Optimus asked softly, even as I continued to bear the weight of both Jolt and Soundwave as they spoke their experiences to each other.
::. Soundwave has dibs on destroying Shockwave.:: I murmured, sending him the conversation.
My Optimus nodded sternly.
::. Once Lena is found, we will aid him in hunting the 'scientist' to the ground.::
Soundwave straightened then, any and all emotion completely wiped from his countenance and stance once more.
"Suggestion: Bee-bot follow spark-thread."
Simple, to the point.
No wonder Megatron had relied on this mech so much. In seconds, I was comming my little brother.
::. =Little-brother=.:: I chirped softly.
::. =Big-Sister?=.:: he asked curiously, I could feel the majority of his processors focused on the thousands of faces and bios he was scanning.
::. =Little-brother Lena is missing=.:: I informed him softly.
::. =Why the scrap didn't anyone rouse me sooner!?=.:: My brother shouted before his processors paused their work, one remained, saving his place in the lineup before his presence left the ether.