Chapter 167 – Instincts
(LPOV)
There was a needle stuck in her arm still. It hurt. She'd struggled as best she could to keep that needle out of her arm, fat load of good it did: the metal had broken, and now it was stuck in her arm.
Ratchet would be pissed off, and to be honest? Lena was looking forward to it.
But for now she focused on that pain, it was something to focus on. The world was spinning, dizzying for all that her mind rejected the movement. The world did not spin like this, she was drugged, she knew it, her mind knew it.
But she was still dizzy, and cold, and hot, and she wanted her Jolt! Badly!
Laserbeak was grinning at her. Oh how she wanted to tear that pathetic creature's head from it's frail neck! They'd cut the ties from her wrists and ankles not long ago.
For good reason, she was far, far too disoriented to go on the offensive.
Her body wasn't co-operating, her heart-rate far too fast for her comfort. She was shaking, shivering, trying to stay warm. It was so cold, the walls of the cave fairly dripping with moisture.
Lena curled into herself, struggling to calm herself, calm her pounding heart.
Because she knew, now, Kae had told her.
Somehow, in the midst of this cluster-fuck, her spark had decided that now would be a good time to consume her flesh and prepare to be placed in her spark-chamber.
Fuck.
She doubted that Laserbeak was ignorant of that fact. Not with the way he was grinning at her. She had no doubt that he was simply waiting her out now, he'd attack her unguarded spark, consume her as a meal.
"Is she ready to go?" man four – nobody had said his name yet – asked curiously.
"Let's see..." Mr. Abel murmured, the man strode forward and Lena studied him, forcing her face neutral. Brown hair, brown eyes, clean shaven. His face was handsome, although it paled in comparison to her Jolt's aquiline faceplates. He looked familiar, a face she knew from the media. But whatever they had injected her with was making data processing difficult. Her mind was screaming, but screaming a continuous litany. 'stay calm stay calm Jolt'll come for you stay calm'
She didn't flinch, refused to move as the man stroked her cheek.
"I think it's working!" man three exclaimed excitedly.
Then, then he whipped his pants off.
Lena almost threw up, but she kept her face blank as the man approached her. She hadn't said anything yet, she still couldn't decide if it was wise. That part of the male anatomy... Lena had almost gotten over her revulsion of that object, she'd almost managed to become normal. You know, as normal as a woman desperately in love with a robot could be... the revulsion was back, now.
But then... man three had been the one to strike her... the hated male body-part came close to her, began poking at her mouth.
Lena wanted her Jolt, not this human intruder. At this point, she didn't care if this was going to spur beatings, or torture, or whatever they considered making an example of her.
She was very much focused on revenge.
So she opened her mouth, the member slid in and she bit down, tasted blood and bit harder. Screaming registered in her hearing, the man jerking away from her and leaving flesh in her mouth. She spat at him and resumed her foetal position, protecting the vital parts of her body as the human males exploded in shock around her. The beating would come soon, her instincts screamed that fact, but it would be worth it.
Because Technical Sergeant Lena Elizabeth Davies never went down without a fight.
Laserbeak was eyeing her up like a steak dinner, waiting.
She hoped that if that ever happened, she would give him a massive case of indigestion.
(MPOV)
Three hours of driving. Soundwave in the air had helped a great deal, and my little-brother was now very obviously a Soundwave fan. The two of them were passing communications in scout, and to my own receptors it truly sounded as though Soundwave had at one point been a scout.
It did explain his adaptability to an extent.
But regardless of the aerial and grounder scouts working at high-speed efficiency, it still took us three hours of zig-zagging.
Jolt was frantic, through the bonds of the unit, as a Prime I could feel his terror, I could feel his sense of Lena's horror, anger and pain.
Personally, my weaponry was fully online, and my apology to my beloved mate for bending his rule of not harming humans already queued in my vocal processors.
We were getting close, Jolt could feel it, I could feel it, and evidently, Bee and Soundwave could see it.
My little-brother transformed then, opting to run through the brush now surrounding us rather than attempting to bull through the foliage in his alt-mode.
I was right behind him, bringing up the rear at a jog while the scout and technician ran at full tilt.
The only problem with out-sizing them so drastically, I could run so much faster, but it would do no good to outdistance them without knowing the direction.
Bee screeched to a halt. Jolt ran square into his back, I took a final two easy strides and lightly caught the both of them by the armour across their backs, keeping them on their pedes.
Soundwave was landing beside me the next moment.
"Banshee-hawk Femme: within mine." he reported flatly.
Immediately, I was scanning the area, frowning.
I couldn't get anything.
"Scans: ineffective. Reason: heavy metal content within stones."
Stones.
Automatically, I dug my pedes into the ground and knelt down, sending neurals through the earth and listening. Through the stone, I could feel vibration, just softly, I couldn't count the steps. But through that vibration...
Screaming...
Bee was scowling at the van the humans had made the effort to hide, at least, he was until I heard that screaming. Then, then he was staring at me in horror, we were far too familiar with each other's spark resonations for him to not immediately pick up my terror.
Because someone was screaming deep in the earth, and not one of us was small enough to reach her. My holoform winked online the next second, and as the human I had once been I scrambled into the old mine, my little-brother close behind.
Ineffectively. We made it perhaps three hundred feet before the signals were corrupted. I could see the inside of the mine for perhaps another hundred feet before I lost all solidity.
"Useless!" I snarled, fighting my own instinct to blast the ground, the stone listening alone stated the area was far too unstable for it. Jolt was on the ground now, on his knees staring at the path his Lena had most likely taken.
Defeat was bitter. We were so close, so close to the technician's intended, only to be defeated by size.
For the first time, I hated how large my form had become.
Automatic functions guided my actions as I knelt down, reached out and held the sobbing technician. I could feel his spark reaching for it's intended mate, feel his hope dwindling. At a loss, I did the only thing I could think of, holding him in a tight embrace and settling down to wait.
Wait for a miracle, or wait for his spark to go out, following his love.
Silence. Silence but for the sound of the wind through the trees, the soft, frame wracking sobs from the bot in my arms. Bumblebee's spark buzzing angrily as he glared at the entrance to the mines.
Soundwave's voice.
"Ravage: Eject. Objective: Locate retrieve Banshee-hawk Femme."
A panther form was streaking around us the next moment, catching scents around the van, and without a backward glance, plunging into the depths of the mine.
(SwRPOV)
"Ravage: Eject."
Ravage had been waiting for it, through her pride-master's optics she had noted the opening yellow-bot, electric-bot and wing-femme had been watching.
There was prey in that hole, she was certain of it. Holes of that size always yielded prey.
"Objective: Locate retrieve Banshee-hawk Femme." Pride-master informed her.
Banshee-hawk sparking had been taken!?
There was prey in that hole, Ravage narrowed her optic with a low snarl and circled the area. Yes. Banshee-hawk sparking scent. It touched the ground for a moment before other scents of the wet-prey that abounded this planet mingled and distorted hers.
The scents were mingled, the scents had taken Banshee-hawk sparking.
Pride-master stated that Banshee-hawk sparking was fully grown. Ravage had inquired if his sensors were functioning properly. Smart sparking, yes. But still sparking.
Sparkings of the pride were to be protected.
A strong leap and Ravage threw herself into the powerful stride of her kind, the long, graceful running form of which she was so deeply proud. Another scent. A familiar scent.
Ravage grinned, baring her fangs. She recognized this scent. Buzzard-bird.
Buzzard-bird was obviously hunting the wet-prey, she loved taking his prey. Buzzard-bird was quick to hide behind his pride-master. Ravage found that shameful, she never hid behind pride-master! She stood at Pride-master's side as was her due as alpha-femme and fought beside him.
Pride-master had informed her that buzzard-bird was not to be prey. But Pride-master was no longer allied with Buzzard-bird's pride-master.
Buzzard-bird was now prey.
Ravage extended her claws somewhat, digging them deeply into the ground beneath her paws and driving herself forward all the faster. One of the wet-prey was already breaching, spilling it's fluids across the ground. Banshee-hawk sparking was no doubt showing the prey her claws.
Good sparking. She had the survival thoughts within her already.
Light ahead, Ravage slowed and silenced her steps, crouching low to the ground and dimming her optic.
Best to not be seen. The huntress surveys her prey first, decides how best to hunt them.
Silent paws carried her forward, slowly, carefully toward the light. Three wet-prey surrounded a fourth, the fourth was prone already, spark-beat erratic. It would not survive much longer. Buzzard-bird was watching Banshee-hawk sparking. Watching her the way Ravage now surveyed him.
Next meal.
Ravage did not understand why, at first. The wet-prey were rather disgusting, after all. But then she surveyed Banshee-hawk sparking.
Not sparking. Spark was beginning to reject the wet-chamber it was housed in, consuming it!
Ridiculous creatures, the large pack-masters. So dependent upon others for their bodies! Not like the hatchlings Ravage had borne, their bodies small at first, but growing quickly and learning the hunt and the survival thoughts.
Ravage continued her thoughts, surveying the scene in front of her as she crept ever so closer.
The wet-prey were helpless against her, they would run as the jork before her wrath. Buzzard-bird though, Buzzard-bird was somewhat capable of his own fighting. Banshee-hawk femling was pride. There was plenty of eat available, no reason for pride to turn against pride.
Buzzard-bird was primary prey, then.
Ravage smirked, silently showing her fangs as her claws crept somewhat more deeply into the ground beneath her.
Now, she simply needed to wait for the correct moment.
Buzzard-bird turned somewhat, his back completely toward her.
Now.
Every spring, gear and cable in her body released it's tension. Ravage shot forward, gleefully tracking buzzard-bird's movements.
She released a feral roar, proud of the sounds her throat produced. Particularly the way it echoed through these tunnels. Buzzard-bird spun, but it was far too late for him, he never got a shot off before Ravage's fangs were around his neck. A powerful bite and the head was severed.
The head continued though. The body stilling with the loss of it's controller. Ravage smirked again, lightly batting at the head for a moment before crushing it.
That. Was for the time Buzzard-bird had nicked her flanks with his pellets.
Ravage scanned the area once more, the wet-prey was running, as she had expected, dragging their wounded along with them.
Obviously, the survival thoughts were not within their minds.
"Ravage?" Banshee-hawk sparking's voice whispered. Immediately, Ravage turned and nuzzled at the tiny sparking. Then she realized something.
The tiny sparking? Not tiny. The entirety of the Banshee-hawk's frame was becoming spark. Ravage glanced at Buzzard-bird's corpse and shrugged, she'd come back for it later.
Banshee-hawk needed wing-femme. Pride-master had given her the order, after all. Gently, Ravage caught hold of the sparking's armour and stretched her out somewhat, reaching for the femme and encouraging her to at least partially enter the hatchling space.
Or trying to.
The wet-prey had a bizarre language, it was nothing like the trilling clicks of Ravage's ilk.
But sparks didn't need language...
Ravage opened her spark chamber, just a little. Enough to send a tendril to Banshee-hawk.
It was enough. Banshee-hawk sparking seemed to understand, curling up against Ravage's chest and winding her damaged wings around Ravage's neck.
Slowly, carefully, always ensuring that Banshee-hawk did not fall, Ravage began the trek back to the sunlight where pride-master waited for her.
~How is Ravage here helping me?~ the sparking thought in shock.
~Pride-master send Ravage~ she responded in amusement. ~Sparkings of the pride, protected by the pride. Banshee-hawk sparking should know better than to consort with buzzard-birds.~
The spark beneath her was laughing, this was good. Pride-master considered such laughter good among the wet-prey and fellow pride-masters.
Banshee-hawk sparking clung to her, but Ravage could feel her grip weakening. This was a bad thing. For what little Ravage cared about distance, she had covered half the distance between the place she had been, and the place where pack-master waited with wing-femme.
So Ravage paused her progress on the trek, taking a moment to reach down and nudge the sparking more deeply into her hatchling chamber. It was difficult, Banshee-hawk sparking was far larger than the sparking she had taken from her pride-sister's broken frame in the past before she had joined pack-master.
After considering for another moment, Ravage extended her frame around Banshee-hawk sparking. It was causing damage to her frame, which went against the survival thoughts. But pack-master would repair her.
It was one of the primary reasons of her loyalty. Pack-master repaired her damages.
Banshee-hawk sparking was now far more securely enclosed within her, so Ravage picked up her pace, running toward the signal of Pack-master.
(JPOV)
Lena was changing, Jolt could feel it. Feel it deep within his spark.
He tried, with every code within his processors Jolt tried to stay calm, his Lena needed him to be calm.
"Ravage: returning with sparking." Soundwave reported then. Thank Primus for that mech and his reports! Lena was coming back to him. "Suggestion: Femme Prime prepare to accept sparking."
"What!?" Kae almost shouted, lurching away from Jolt to stare at Soundwave.
"Ravage report: Banshee-hawk sparking consuming frame. Too large for Ravage to carry. Wing-femme take sparking."
For a spark-beat, Kae stood frozen. Then, then she began shouting over the Primary.
::. Arcee! I need the sparking protocols!.:: she bellowed.
::. Lena's changing now!?.:: Ratchet bellowed back.
::. Her body is complete! You need to finish her spark-chamber!.:: Archangel barked out.
::. That is going to take hours!.:: Ratchet shouted.
::. Soundwave: eighty-nine percent complete spark-chamber.:: the mech chimed in.
::. Size transformable?.:: Ratchet demanded.
::. Affirmative.::
::. Good.:: Ratchet barked.
On another frequency, one that Jolt often ignored, seeing as it was the femme's channel, massive amounts of data were being passed back and forth. He watched in awe as Kae began transforming, modifying her bipedal frame to what were obviously Arcee's specifications.
She became somewhat shorter, her chest and abdomen expanding somewhat as she relocated the metals to where she felt they were the most needed. In front of them, Archangel synced her processors again, her spark sounding perfectly serene. She looked like she was with sparking now.
Frankly, the mech in him thought she looked incredible like that. No doubt Optimus would be drooling over her when she returned to base looking like that.
It felt like an eternity, but his chronometer stated it was less than a breem that Ravage emerged from the mine entrance, the poor cyber-cat was hobbling somewhat, her very frame distorted to make enough room to fit his Lena's changing form.
Even amidst his burgeoning panic, Jolt made a note to ask Soundwave how he could thank both the mech and the cyber-cat symbiont for so efficiently coming to his intended's aid.
"Come Lena," Archangel murmured softly, the tone of a mother, carrier. She reached gently toward Ravage and accepted the exhausted looking femme.
"Jolt..." his Lena's voice whimpered softly.
"I'm here, Lena, I'm right here," Jolt choked out. He knelt down beside his Prime and hesitantly reached out, touching his femme with a gentle finger. "Go with Kae, Lena, she's gonna take you to your body."
His Lena smiled at him and relaxed into Kae's hands.
"Jolt will be right behind us, dear spark," Kae murmured gently, her chest-plates opened, baring her now far larger spark-chamber. Jolt watched in awe as Kae delicately deposited his sweet Lena into the chamber before withdrawing her hand and closing her chest-plates protectively around the two sparks.
"Rendezvous at base," Archangel stated calmly, looking at him, at Bee and at Soundwave. "I'm taking the skies."
"Soundwave: Provide escort."
Jolt looked over at the mech in awed gratefulness. Kae was vulnerable like this, but there was no way she'd be able to comfortably transform into a vehicle mode and take the land-route. She'd wind up walking back to base!
Archangel nodded, and in moments the two leapt into the air, streaking back the way they'd come.
"Let's roll!" Bumblebee informed him seriously. Jolt nodded, struggling to understand the events through his shock. He transformed – it was practically an automatic function – and followed the scout, speeding back toward their headquarters and home.