Chapter 194 - Alliances
(LPOV)
Lena smiled at the Command Trine, and was gratified to see them smile right back at her.
"I need to speak with the Delta trine," she murmured. The ice was broken between them, which meant it was time to dive into the waters.
The optics of the fliers in front of her hardened.
"No-bot speaks to them," Skywarp stated with a frown.
Lena's faceplates hardened.
"This lack of speech allows them to remain in pain," she stated flatly. "Stay behind if you lot are hen-pecked starlings, but there's a damage that needs to be repaired. I'll not do anything without their permission. But to get their permission I need to speak with them. Now."
"Grounders have no business with the fliers," Starscream informed her flatly.
"For pride? Or for selfishness?" Lena snapped at him. "Humans have already gone to great lengths to cease the posturing of 'this race is better than that,' I would have thought such an advanced, mature species as the Cybertronian kind would have worked their way past that already."
Dead silence reigned throughout the entrance bay, Lena stood proud and sternly in the middle of it. Her mate was torn between terror and pride, but Lena gently touched his spark, re-assuring him that she would not go down lightly.
She would remain beside him to the end of days.
"Or is the human race better off enslaving itself simply because of a fear of difference?" she added, secretly enjoying the minor flinches in the fliers as her words struck them.
And enjoying the fact that her voice was so much more powerful now, but she quickly pressed that down.
"And should we state that we don't want to talk to you?" A voice demanded behind her.
Lena turned and glared the duo down as they walked toward her.
"If that was the case you wouldn't be walking toward me, talking." Lena snapped at the leader of the duo. "I very much doubt you wish your third to continue to suffer?"
In an instant, Lena regretted that statement, and in a second she was beside the duo, her spark humming her apologies.
"I'm sorry," she murmured, for the audio receptors of the duo alone. "The victims of monsters have to stick together, but it is unfortunate that the victims of monsters have just as much a chance to become monsters themselves."
"How do you, a grounder, propose to find what seekers cannot?" the second demanded bitterly, even as the two leaned against each other, and Lena held her hands out in supplicating support.
"Seekers aren't scouts," Lena murmured. "And it's the scouts that see the spark-threads."
"True scouts don't exist anymore," the first stated flatly.
"How do you think the human-borns were found?" Lena murmured with a small smile. "My mate saw me, and our scout confirmed the thread."
"Bumblebee is a true scout," Ratchet added behind her in a musing tone.
"What could you possibly know of the suffering of our mate?" the second demanded harshly. "Why would grounders even bother to get involved?"
Lena straightened, knowing her optics had become flinty and not caring.
"I am a human-born, the race is not without its flaws," she stated in an icy tone. "When I was in my nineteenth annum four men abducted me. They dragged me into the wilderness and began to beat me, my ribs, my hip, and my leg were broken in that beating. Then because that was not enough for them, they spent hours raping me. They were the first, and the last humans I ever interfaced. The sun was at high noon when I was taken, and the moon was beginning to rise when they left me to die in the woods."
She wanted to stop, the look of sickened horror in the optics of the bots around her tore at her spark.
She wanted to stop, but she couldn't.
"When they left me I dragged myself to the freeway, the police that followed my trail to find the evidence of the men told me I dragged myself for a mile through the underbrush, I laid dying on that road for an hour before anyone stopped. I know what suffering is, and I know that I will never stand idle when that suffering is forced on another."
"Please," Jolt whispered, his hand threading it's way into her own. "I cannot speak, but I can know. I know my mate, just as she knows me."
"You are one of his," the first stated with narrowed optics, looking at her mate.
"I was freed, and blessed by kindness," Jolt whispered. "Please, let us help do the same."
(SePOV)
Sentinel stared at the stately femme sitting calmly in the cab of his alt-form. Not with his holoform, though, no, his holoform watched the road and pretended to drive.
Sentinel stared with a couple of his own optics at the femme sitting in his passenger seat in stunned astonishment.
"It's rude to stare," she informed him with an amused tone in her voice.
Sentinel flicked his attention to his vectors, then turned back to stare at the femme.
"Oh come, you were far more eloquent at the seminar, what's caught your tongue old mech?" Mala asked him with a laugh.
"Are you absolutely certain you wish to infiltrate the brotherhood?" Sentinel demanded worriedly.
Mala laughed quietly and reached forward, lightly patting his dashboard.
"I'm already in place to do so, my love, I was at their rally before I attended your lecture, and spent the night in your headquarters. If they bothered to watch my movements – which is highly unlikely anyway – they'll demand to know why I'm back. That's why I'm riding with you, if I do this properly I'll have escaped you and retreated to the Brotherhood. Perfect cover."
Sentinel turned his holoform to look worriedly at his femme.
"Why?" he demanded, again.
Mala shot him a firm look.
"We've been over this several times now, Sentinel, are those new processors of yours having difficulty logging information?" Mala asked him sternly.
Sentinel vented a sigh – it was a deeply effective, deeply... satisfying human expression to mimic – and turned onto the final stretch of roadway leading to his hall. Mala had sat down in the med-bay the evening before, and had listened intently as every-bot present took their turn answering every question she had put to them. At four in the morning for the humans, Mala had finished her questions, and had made the most audacious suggestion Sentinel had ever heard.
Shyamala Kulkarni was going to destabilize the Brotherhood of Man.
"I know you're not happy with the idea, Sentinel," Kae had stated patiently, laying a hand on his forearm. "But Mala makes a good point."
Trust the human-born femme to grasp his Mala's plan and approve of it before he could dissuade her...
"What point?" Sentinel demanded. "You have an assassin in place already. Utilize him!"
"Sabre is only partially planted into the brotherhood, he's having issues gaining their trust because to be perfectly honest anyone with half a functional braincell knows better than to trust him. He's killed too many people, it's marked him." Kae stated firmly.
"I, on the other hand, just so happen to have been rescued, kidnapped, then proposed to by an overpoweringly handsome mech, confirming the Brotherhood of Man's worst suspicions that you aren't here to respect the boundaries of humanity, and defend the planet; you're here to steal the womenfolk," Mala stated in an amused, sarcastic tone, sitting sideways in her recliner and dangling her legs over one of the arms. Three hours previous, Kae had patiently handed her a pen and pad of paper, and Sentinel was having a rather difficult time not openly staring at the casually bared, shapely calves of the femme. Or ogle the way she idly nibbled at the end of the pen as she thought.
"Her resume is consummately crafted for their purposes besides," Kae added with a small smirk.
Sentinel stared between the femmes in consternation.
"Kae," Optimus rumbled in an amused tone.
Archangel looked at her mate curiously.
"For we who are not so devious as a pair of human femmes, will you explain?" Optimus asked in a fond tone.
"I've been a professional career coach and personal aid for years," Mala stated with an amused smirk. "Young men looking to make a name for themselves hire me to get them organized. I teach them how to sit, stand, walk, talk, eat, drink, and dress. I've made a career of polishing up the diamonds in the rough. The long and short? I take good men and I make them great, and never once have they realized that I'm just as capable of burning those houses right back down again."
"Women like Mala run the world from the shadows," Kae had added with a broad grin, leaning against her mate as Mala stretched languidly in her chair.
"Now we've discussed this," Mala stated firmly as his hall came into view. "From this point on you are not to take my actions to spark, here on out my actions are for their benefit, am I perfectly understood?"
Sentinel vented another sigh and looked mournfully at the femme.
"Chin up, it shan't take me too long," Mala stated cheerfully, reaching out and lightly pinching his holoform's chin. "Besides, that tracker Ratchet stuck me in the arse with will tell you precisely where I am now won't it."
"Only because the pin which held your femur in place while it healed will readily act as an extensible transmitter," Sentinel murmured through the holoform, he looked long and earnestly at the femme. "Please," he stated quietly. "Please be careful, Mala, this organization believed that gang-raping Technician Jolt's Lena would turn her away from him." he couldn't help the quiet growl of anger that hummed through his spark at the thought.
"Which is precisely the answer to your constant question," Mala stated in a patient tone that somehow lacked any kind of friendliness in it. "You cannot bring charges against the brotherhood, they'll simply claim it was those four acting of their own accord. That group of fanatics are meddling where they have absolutely no business, and I shan't have them interfering in such a ghastly manner any longer!"
Sentinel pulled into the parking lot, and Mala lightly touched the handle to his door, attempting to exit his alt-mode.
"A moment," Sentinel murmured, his spark rumbling at Optimus and Kae's joint suggestion of a last minute gift for his femme. Kae suggested a sharp implement traditionally worn in the hair of human femmes, Optimus suggested the materials he make it with. Thus Sentinel concentrated for a moment and looked at Mala. "I wish you to have something," he stated quietly, gesturing to the 'glove compartment' of his alt-mode.
Mala patiently looked in the glove box with an expression on her face that suggested she was humoring him. But she had plainly stated that her actions were for the benefit of the protesters, no few of their eyes already upon them. Her eyes momentarily softened as she looked at the long, thin, jeweled hairpin.
"Every woman needs a weapon," Mala murmured, rapidly twisting the heavy mass of silk that crowned her helm and slipping the pin in to hold it in place. Sentinel beamed at the femme, winking his holoform to stand at his passenger's side door, reaching up and helping Mala down to the ground.
Her body language shrank from him, but regardless she stayed still, watching his holoform as he drank in the details of her face, lightly running a finger across the bony ridge that encased her eye.
Cheekbone, the humans called it. He caught her hand and pressed a gentle kiss to her fingers.
"Shall we?" he asked in as courteous of manner as he knew how, offering the femme his arm.
"I'll catch up to you," Mala stated in a forcedly patient tone, patting his arm. Sentinel nodded to the femme and winked his holoform out, transforming and ducking into his hall the next moment. He strode to his place in the central and sat, nodding cordially to Arcee as the femme settled into the seat of the second in command of the mindspace. The femme had great patience for the humans, she made an excellent second to ensure they weren't harmed.
But over the security feeds, Sentinel watched his femme in admiration as her motions became outwardly furtive, the woman retreating into the dwindling crowd of protesters. Whatever she said, it took her no time at all to be whisked away from his view.
(SwPOV)
Soundwave observed the outer shell of the wrecker complex interestedly. He clearly remembered the arching doorways that had led inward any who desired to associate themselves with the Wreckers, long before the war. There was absolutely no sign of those doors now, not so much as a window, or even the seam of a hidden portal showed.
The bane of the Iaconian Decepticon force, no plasma torch, blast, nor intelligent coding could pierce that shell. The cursed, impenetrable shell of the wrecker stronghold.
There had been many a joke running through the Decepticon ranks, the shell of the stronghold reflected the impenetrable helms of the wreckers themselves. That had been at the beginning of the final siege, when the wreckers had sealed themselves in shortly after the Emperor had fled in exile.
Those jokes had rapidly dissolved in the sea of discontent and frustration as the explosives failed, the torches ricocheted, the cutters dulled, and the Wrecker stronghold remained inviolate.
::. Righ', you two stay back a wee bit.:: Roadbuster growled.
No doubt the wreckers would not wish any but another wrecker to know how to enter the shell.
::. Soundwave: begin next phase.:: Soundwave stated patiently, turning toward the palace. Iacon needed to be secured, and he could easily attend to such minutiae while the Wreckers brought their forces back from stasis.
::. Nex' phase?.:: Jazz demanded. ::. Which nex' phase?.::
::. Soundwave: Assume control over Iacon.::
::. Over mah rustin' husk!.:: Leadfoot snarled.
Soundwave rolled his optics, he couldn't help it.
::. Rephrase. Soundwave: must begin second phase of concealing wreckers. Result: Necessity of resuming control over Iaconian security systems. Saboteur: coming?.::
Behind him, Jazz snorted in amusement.
::. We need ta wohk on yah phrasin' Sahndie.::
Soundwave rolled his optics again, even as the Saboteur began meandering behind him once more. Soundwave couldn't help but approve of the bot's unhurried pace, the lack of furtiveness in his stance concealed him quite effectively.
::. Let 'im be.:: Lugnut commanded flatly. ::. Soundwave's probably had the method to single-servoedly resume control over Iacon for orns.::
::. Vorns.:: Soundwave corrected patiently. ::. Soundwave: can re-gain control over entirety of Cybertron in space of four orn.::
::. Oh yeh? Then what?.:: Roadbuster demanded flatly.
::. Soundwave: doesn't know.::
::. Fer yer own leadership?.:: Lugnut hazarded in an amused tone.
::. Negative.::
::. Why?.:: Jazz shot at him.
::. Soundwave: has more important tasks to perform.:: Soundwave shrugged. ::. Mission: ensure noisy wreckers not discovered by Soundwave's alarms. Recommendation: resume radio silence. Duration: six Breem.::
Soundwave nodded as the silence took hold once more, resuming his usual pace toward the command turrets of the Iaconian defensive systems with a silvery ghost meandering behind him.
(SyPOV)
Symphony woke and smiled. Wingnut and Longbolt's sparks were nearby again, the siblings taking her protection detail far beyond the necessary lengths. Longbolt's spark was humming halfway between slumber and waking, increasing its resonations when she took a deep breath.
"Good morning," she stated cheerfully, feeling the gentle warmth of the sunbed on her face. Ratchet had installed that for her specifically, she hadn't even asked.
"Humans need sunlight to manufacture vitamin D, you don't have enough of it in your system," the medic had gruffly informed her when she'd asked what the sounds were. The tone of his voice had the inflection of an individual expecting her to argue.
"Can you time it to coincide with the sun?" Symphony had asked curiously. The mech had audibly jumped, then snorted.
"Of course I can Symphony," he murmured in an instantly contented, fatherly tone. Ace had informed her repeatedly that if she had any issue to go to Ratchet. The bot was gruff and grumpy sometimes, and several of the bots around her were scared of him. Symphony didn't entirely understand why though, Ratchet was always nice to her. Her sunwarmth woke her up in the morning now, just as the warmth had roused her at home.
"I'm certain Soundwave wouldn't mind if you two slept on his berth," Symphony stated with a small smile, canting her head toward Longbolt as the sound of Wingnut's body languidly stretching filled the room. Her spark was humming the song of content.
"If I sleep on the berth I don't get to soak under that little sunlamp of yours," Longbolt grunted softly, the sounds he made changed to those of his body lifting then holding itself upright. "You aren't gonna hog the light you can't even catch are you?"
Symphony laughed and swung her legs over the side of the stabilized swing bed. The rocking bed was lovely, the mattress soft and guaranteed to lull her into deep slumber. But the hammock was immensely comfortable, situated under the sunlamp and perfect for napping in.
"No, but we should find something more comfortable for you to lay on if you want to soak with me," Symphony smiled.
"I like this floor, it's springy," Longbolt shrugged. Symphony nodded patiently. That was another question she meant to ask her guardian. How he knew how much she enjoyed the variances of texture, and how he'd managed to build her living space in the few days between her arrival, and his departure.
Symphony took ten steps and reached out, lightly caressing the frame of her baby grand as she moved to sit.
"Ratchet says you're s'posed to eat when the sun is high," Wingnut informed her. Symphony huffed slightly and Longbolt laughed, it was unfortunate that her body couldn't thrive on music alone. It was also unfortunate that Lugnut's creations had quickly learned to not let her get settled on her piano bench before she ate.
She certainly wasn't going to get up for the sake of mere food!
Symphony began to walk toward the door leading to the corridors, Longbolt already striding to follow and ensure she didn't get underfoot. Literally. Every bot on the base worried over her incessantly, as did a number of the humans, but the humans were quickly getting to know her better.
A soft tap at the door and Symphony opened it.
"Good morning Symphony, may I have the honor of a gorgeous femme on my arm?" Chance's voice asked cheerfully. He was a fun human, choosing to imply that every time she walked down the corridors with her hand lightly resting on his elbow it was for his benefit, not her own. Symphony appreciated that, especially now that several of the human soldiers had begun vying to walk with her down the corridor. It was a verbal game amongst the males to claim that they were her favorite.
But it was okay, they all knew that Ace was her favorite.
"Oh slag it all! How do you always get to Symphony's door first!?" Bumblebee's voice demanded incredulously.
"Because I'm her favorite," Chance bragged with a broad grin in his voice. Symphony smiled and reached with her other hand for Bee's voice. It was low to the ground today, which meant he'd onlined his holoform to guide her to the human's mess hall.
Bee was funny, anytime the humans had something new to try in the cafeteria he was right there demanding what it was and if he could have some too. This was handy, because his commentary regularly built her a lovely picture of what was on offer.
In a moment, a hand gently caught hers, leading her hand to an elbow. Symphony smiled as the human and the holoform promptly began guiding her toward the mess hall. Eventually they'd figure out that she'd long memorized the path, but for now she had company to visit with.
That was another thing she liked about this place. There was always someone to visit with, but they always gave her some privacy when she wanted it.
"Do I getta hear you play that giant piano of yours yet!?" Bumblebee asked with a broad grin. Symphony smiled, she'd finished tuning her piano last night, listening to the sound and allowing the vibration of the strings to guide her to where the adjustments needed to take place.
Bumblebee's holoform had been remarkably handy then, too, willingly taking her orders as to which key to repeatedly press long past the point that Wingnut and Longbolt tired of it. He'd had to go on patrol though, just as he'd struck the final key.
"I know just the song," Symphony informed him cheerfully.
"After food," Longbolt stated flatly.
"You're starting to sound like Ratchet," Symphony informed him with a grin. Longbolt looked around, Symphony could hear the tiny whirr of the actuators that allowed him to do so. His spark humming with the tones that always predicted the tone which would appear in his voice.
"The twins told me to do it," Longbolt whispered conspiratorially. "They said it works, if you do exactly as Ratchet says they start letting you do stuff, like going out on patrol stuff!"
"You're not taking Symphony out on patrol," Ratchet's voice stated flatly. Symphony started in alarm to hear a clang, then Longbolt yelling. This was a noisy place.
"Why not?" Symphony asked curiously. "Wingnut did."
"She did what!?" Ratchet bellowed.
Symphony frowned.
"Why are we yelling!?" she bellowed back at him.
Dead silence. Much better.
"Wingnut did what," Ratchet asked in a flat tone.
"Wingnut took me out riding-" Symphony began.
"Sh-" Ratchet started.
"It was fun, I'd never heard the doppler affect applied to birdsong before, is that what it's like for you when you drive around Ratchet?" Symphony finished cheerfully. She began walking toward the mess hall again. Bumblebee and Chance didn't follow her, maybe they weren't hungry after all, so Symphony shrugged and walked into the mess hall, and straight to the trays. They were easy to find, the recycler always left them hot, and a fresh one was guaranteed to be dropped quickly onto the track with a tinny clatter.
Silence pervaded around her, enough so that she finally became curious.
Then it occurred to her; Symphony hadn't actually walked to the mess hall on her own yet. There had always been someone there to take her. She smiled and turned away from the tell-tale, upright coolness of the fruit and sandwich cooler.
"What? You guys haven't seen a blind chick walking around before?" she asked with a grin.
"See? I told you I'm her favorite," Chance stated cheerfully. "She could'a just walked here by herself."
"But-" Bee stated with a pout in his voice. Symphony grinned and strode toward his muted spark-song, retracing her steps to the doors.
"But you can make sure I don't pick up the apple juice," Symphony informed the mech's holoform cheerfully, winding her arm around his.
Symphony grinned when Bumblebee immediately began towing her around the cafeteria, the holoform's frequency humming the mech's usual, bright cheerfulness.
"Okay so no apple juice today, how about guava?" he asked cheerfully.
"What's guava?" Symphony asked curiously.
"I have no idea, let's try it!" Bumblebee stated cheerfully. Symphony laughed and followed the excitable holoform, quite happy to let him pick the foods for her and open them.
He never ate more than two or three bites of anything, he just wanted to try it. Symphony patiently ate her lunch and listened to the conversations that surrounded them, and regularly joined by the soldiers whenever she laughed at Bee's commentary of their food.
Then the sound of their sparks changed. Symphony caught Longbolt's arm in surprise when Bee disappeared from beside her. Even his spark hum was gone. There was no doppler effect to it, either, it was simply gone.
"What's going on?" she asked worriedly.
"Archangel Prime is calling bots into the central," Longbolt stated flatly.
"Can we go?" Symphony asked curiously.
"I don't see why not, it's central," Wingnut grinned.
Symphony smiled, tucking her orange into a pocket for later as she caught hold of Wingnut's servo, letting the little femme lift her onto the spots extending from her frame to settle her feet like they always did when Wing wanted to go down the corridors quickly.
They were in Central in moments, made evident by the gathered chorus of spark-hums in the circular room. Definitely circular, Longbolt had sat on his bench, calling out directions to her as she'd walked its circumference.
"It's high time somebot got around to eschewing the barriers here." Lena's voice stated passionately. "As the bonded mate of one of Shockwave's victims I claim the task. The Delta trine needs help, they need Bee to follow their spark thread!"