Irritation grew underneath my scales at the situation that William forced me to part take in. Three of those Cybertronians stood at the end of a medium sized table, human sized. One of them was Optimus, the others I had no clue who they were. Both were shorter than the largest, so far, bot here on base and standing off to his left.
The middle-'man' looked somewhat familiar to Barricade and put me on edge because of that. Same color scheme, same cop style look. It stood there, arms crossed with a stoic expression with unnerving blue eyes boring into mine. This one looked to be a good five or so feet shorter than Optimus but still held an authority aura around it.
Next to it lounged a much smaller bot. A blue visor covered where its eyes would be. That didn't stop me from feeling its gaze observing my body. This one was different, it held itself with ease and a casual aura surrounding it.
For humans, there was only William and a dark-skinned man sitting side-by-side. My gazed flickered between all of them; including the ones I partially knew. I, myself, sat farthest from the door for 'safety precautions'. Lennox still thought he could keep me contained in a hangar.
My talons grazed lightly on the table to keep me occupied until one of them speaks up. What were they waiting for? A party? For it to snow? For Hell to freeze over? Like, come on. You interrupt my tiny nap session just to drag me here and sit in silence. Good to know what our military likes to do.
Hot energy raced inside of me to the tips of my fingers, wanting to be released. I scoffed under my breath and glared daggers at William for this. He, in return, furrowed his brows and glanced at his friend for help. Said buddy only shrug his shoulders, both not understanding how irritating this is. Could someone for the life of them speak up?
As if Optimus gave a signal, William finally broke the silence. "Midnight, I understand you are a little…" he took a moment to try and find a fit enough word, "mad." Such a simple word for how I'm feeling. "But we did have an agreement for a meeting and to ask questions about Jasper." Ah, yes, now this makes some sense.
To allow the others in the room some ease, I leaned back in my chair, a small sign of vulnerability. He also took this as a sign to continue. "What is Jasper's main objective?"
I 'tch'ed from him asking such a stupid question. "Answer that yourself, genius. What does every bad person or team want?" I threw back, growing more annoyed of this ridiculous situation. Everyone in the hangar seemed taken aback by my 'rude' words but made no attempt to correct me.
"Right, power and world domination. What do they… do?" I flinched lightly at his question and stared down at the table.
A lump formed in my throat, making it nearly impossible for me to speak. Screams echoed inside of my head. My hand curled into a fist to stop me from making any rash acts. I cleared my throat but didn't have it in me to look anyone in the eye. "Kidnap or buy kids off the black market… to train them as their own soldiers. To have them follow their every command without hesitation. To turn them into something they are not, unable to return to their families ever again." My voice slowly hardened the more I talked.
Everyone in the hangar stared at me in confusion. Optimus did look like he understood and gave me a pitied expression. "Who, uh, who leads Jasper?"
My entire body tensed in reaction. Fear overridden the anger as I took note of every escape root if need be. More flashbacks sprung to life inside of my head. Nervously, my tail twitched unable to contain my terror of the leaders of Jasper and what they had done to me. "Cyrus an-and… Rue Reed," is all I could get out.
William caught onto my fear but didn't seem like he understood why. "Cyrus Joseph Reed, thirty seven years old, male. Rue May Reed, fifty-one years old, female. Married to each other. Current location unknown. Rue has a son, Jeremy Dragna, and a presumed dead daughter, Azar Dragna. Rue used to be married to Zayden Dragna. Current location is in Bent, Oregon," the police bot spoke up.
At the mention of Jeremy and Azar, I flinched a little bit more noticeable. My talons dug into the metal table, creating small incisions. "I told you about Aztec, William. Zayden Dragna is the leader and founder of Aztec," I stated and curled my hand into a fist.
"Wait a minute. Rue leads Jasper and Zayden leads Aztec… Their war is very personal. I'm guessing you knew both Jeremy and Azar," the man next to William put the pieces together.
"Personally." More like blood personally. "They are fighting over their presumed dead daughter, Azar," I was giving out huge spoilers. If they were smart enough, they would figure out it was me.
The smallest bot of them all finally decided to speak up. "Why would they want her?"
A light bulb could be seen over Optimus' head. "Because Azar is in this room with us." The Autobots leader words confused everyone besides myself. Would they get it now?
It took a good minute of glancing between each other before the dark-skinned man locked his eyes with mine. "You're Azar. Your parents are fighting over you and your power. That's why you're presumed dead because no one has seen you. How? How are you like this?" He gesture at my form.
At his statement, William and the nameless robots stared at him. "Rue brought me to Jasper. She allowed for me to be tortured and changed to be this thing. Zayden later learned of my disappearance and alerted the police. When they failed, he step forward built Aztec in hope to defeat Jasper and bring home his daughter. He was too late."
Short memories flashed behind my eyelids when I blinked. I stood up, unable to stay in one spot for much longer. My talons clicked against the concrete flooring, the only noise until I broke the semi-silence. "They had altered her DNA to something of myths. They weren't done though. Jasper continued changing her, giving her the ability to shapeshift, create fire or water at her whim. Then once satisfied with what they created, sent her out to kill. They just created the greatest killing machine to ever walk upon the earth."
William took it upon himself to speak after. "Never judge a book by its cover." I chuckled lowly at his words and met his eyes with my own. "I-I didn't k-" I held up my fist to stop him from speaking and knew what he was going to say.
"Zip it, your ignorance of not knowing shouldn't have drove you to be rude towards me. To ease you all on the edge, I'm not like that anymore. My hand was being controlled… fear drives people to do things unlike them. I will work peacefully alongside the military and Autobots if you promise to not let anyone outside of this base know of me."
The soldier nodded his head. "I agree to your terms." He held out his hand for me to shake. I gingerly take a hold of the appendage and we shook on it. "Is it okay if I call you Azar or do you still want to go by Midnight?"
It did not entirely matter to me to be called Azar, I only made up a name just in case. If I had gone through with leaving, Anna would have told her father about me. Azar isn't necessarily a popular name and could probably been easy to find the real me. Now, though, it didn't matter. They knew of the bare minimal of my past.
"It doesn't matter to me," I answered and released my hold on his hand. "One thing though. I need a bit of a introduction to those two-" I gestured up to the nameless robots-" and him-" I motioned towards the man next to him-" and any other important people or being's on base."
After our discussion, I felt a little more at ease with him and let a relaxed smile rest on my face. "Oh right. This here is Robert Epps, my right hand man." When his name was mentioned, he dipped his head. "Prowl is the second in command of the Autobots-" he pointed at the police style robot." Jazz is the third in command-" he indicated up to the visored robot.
"For the others, Optimus will have to set up a meeting for you to meet them. I will send out a message to everyone on base so they don't freak out about your presences."
Once finished, we dispersed and went our own ways. I took to the skies and flew over to the Med. Bay, a place I would call my second home. Ratchet had welcomed me, allowed me to take refuge under his own home, and made sure I was healing. I definitely respected him for his acts and somewhat followed his commands.
When I entered the hangar, I half-expected him to be in here but only found Sideswipe and Sunstreaker. The former was tinkering around with the medic's tools. The latter was leaning over his brother, watching what Sideswipe was doing.
The buzz made sure I was aware of its presences and hummed annoyingly behind my sternum. I rubbed with the heel of my hand furiously at buzz's origin. My actions did nothing to calm the feeling.
In return, it alerted the two to my presences. Both twirled around on their wheels quickly and faced me. A smile brightened up Sideswipe's features as he moved to and left behind what he was messing with. "Hey, Nighty. You're already done with your meeting?" How did he know about that? Ratchet was the only one out of the group that knew.
I narrowed my eyes suspiciously at him and flew a couple of inches to the side. Sunstreaker had replaced where his brother was, back facing me with his hands moving around. Sideswipe slid over to block my sight of the yellow bot with a nervous smile. "So, I see you're flying now. Does your wing bother you?" He attempted to get my attention away from what Sunstreaker was doing.
"What are you two doing?" I questioned and crossed my arms, a hardened glare set on him.
Sideswipe glanced back at his twin as the gears in his head rotated as he tried think up an excuse. I could tell they weren't supposed to be in here by the way they were acting. "Looking for… our data pad! We gave it to Ratchet for him to borrow." His lying wasn't as slick as he thought.
His brother turned around and presented a large tablet. "Well, you got it so, you can leave." I moved to the side and swung my arm towards the open hangar door.
A look of hurt passed over both of their features. Sunstreaker was the first to move out of the hangar, still holding the tablet in his hand. My stomach flipped when he got close to me, causing me to lose a beat of my wings. I growled under my breath in reaction and set a glare on him as well.
The red bot timidly moved after his twin, eyes staring into mine until the wall blocked his view. When he got close to me like Sunstreaker, my stomach rolled again and this time fluttered the longer he was nearby. The buzzing rattled behind my sternum. In reaction, I rubbed angrily at the spot and felt his gaze on me again. "Are you okay?" he questioned and nervous reached his hand out towards me.
"Yes, now leave," I grounded out and narrowed my eyes, the heel of my hand still pressed against my chest. His hurt filled expression came back and he solemnly left the Med. Bay. Stupid robots.
Once both were gone, I glided over to my spot in one of the corners. A couple blankets were piled as my bed for the two times I was able to sleep while here. The buzzing slowly calmed down the longer I was away from the two but the red, irritated scales stayed.
What is it with those two? Ratchet hasn't shocked me nor did a weird feeling start when around him. Sunstreaker started something and his twin joined in for the 'fun', I guess. Annoyed, I pushed the heel of my hands into my eye sockets.
A yawn interrupted my peaceful sitting. I needed another nap. But after Lennox waking me up, I didn't know if I could fall asleep again. It was hard for me to sleep in general. Especially on a busy, human infested base like this. Which included the loud, clunky robots that free roam almost anywhere.
Also, I was use to sleeping alone which made me feel safe. With no one around, there is no threat. Luckily for me, Ratchet had a calming aura around him and has shown that he means no harm. Instead, he has helped me, made sure I was eating what my body needed, and cleaned my wounds. Yes, he's a medic and is suspected to do those things but something about him eased my anxious nerves. Hmmm.
Speak of the devil, the neon yellow/green bot strolled into the hangar, a tablet in his hand. Without even looking up to make sure he wasn't going to run into anything, he stopped in front of his work station; the place where the twins were messing with.
His back was to me so I couldn't see his expression. By the way his fist curled, he was clearly angry with what they did. "Sideswipe, Sunstreaker!" the bot shouted at the top of his lungs. Did they have lungs? I have no clue.
I curled up into a ball at his incredibly loud voice, terror running through my veins. Cold energy raced to my fingers in reaction of my fright. A whimper escaper my throat as tears threatened to fall. I wasn't fond of any loud noises.
My heart pounded hard against my chest, overwhelming me instant. "Midnight?" Ratchet's voice could barely be heard. "Slag." I couldn't help as a flashback became my main focus.
"Again! We'll keep at this until you get to the top," an all too familiar voice spat with disgust. My arms trembled as I attempted to get to my feet, again. It wasn't quick enough for her. A sharp boot connected with my side. My body went with the kick and landed on my opposite side. I gasped in pain and shock as I tried to gather what bearings I had left.
"Get up! You won't stop until I tell you, Azar." I shudder at my name being used and couldn't stop the tears pouring down my cheeks. Her cold hand wrapped around my neck. With ease, she lifted me off the ground and held me up. "You piece of shit. You're lucky Cyrus has taken a liking to you or you would've been dead months ago."
Weakly, I clawed at her hands to get them off. My actions only made her tightened her hold. The inky darkness of the void began to close in on my vision. Her brown, nearly black, eyes bored into mine, disgust and rage clearly evident; and all of it was pointed at me. "You know you're pathetic but you're all we have. If your brother was here, he would be excelling unlike you," her honeyed voice filtered into the air.
A tremble racked my body at the thought of my brother going through all of this. Yet, it caused my motivation to surge forth once more. I had to fight for him, I had to fight for Jeremy.
The darkness continued to close in. I began to lose feeling in any of my limbs from the lack of oxygen. With the renewed motivation, I lazily kicked out my foot and hit her in the knee. She grunted at the attack but didn't seem injured because of it.
No! my mind shouted at me as nothing could be done.
As if she was satisfied with her work, she dropped me to the floor. My body flopped as blood rushed back to my head. I gasped hard to get in needed oxygen and coughed until blood could be tasted. But that little strangulation session didn't end my training. "Again, Azar! You aren't done," her voice hardened.
I scrambled nauseously to my feet and focused on my training partner: Rue. Oh, how kind of my mother to teach me to kill for sport.
My eyes snapped open as I stumbled disorientated and found a wall to steady myself. Bile threatened to spill from my lips but I fought against the feeling and focused on the dull grey flooring.
Beyond freezing energy wanted out, a side effect of flashbacks. I forced the energy to subdue and settle back down for the time being. It was agony hold that much power inside with no outlet. Then, I realized the frozen tears stuck to my cheeks and peeled them off painfully.
The noise of machinery forced my gaze to dart over to the origin. Ratchet stood there, understandment and pity evident in his eyes. "Is there anything I can do, Midnight?" his voice, thankfully, was soft and timidly, as if scared he was going to set off another bad reaction.
With my voice lodged deep in my throat, I shook my head to answer him. He needed to give me time after what he did. But, I didn't blame him, completely at least. Something internally didn't let me place all the blame on him. What was it? It couldn't be my humanity. That was ripped out years ago with no sign of remorse.
Another yawn escaped me with tears brimming my eyes. That flashback didn't ease my nervousness of sleeping again. I peered up at Ratchet, his blue orbs still trained on me.
His tense frame slowly relaxed after a minute or so of staring between us. He must of have gotten the message being silently asked by me. The bright color medic dipped his head, a reassuring smile gracing his lips. "It's alright. You're okay. You can rec-sleep," he calmly spoke.
I was more than afraid to let my guard down, again in front of him. To ease my nervousness, I took a few deep breathes before gently sitting down on the pile of blankets. Thoughts still race through my mind at hyper speed.
Ratchet seemed satisfied of calming me down and returned back to his desk/table. The bot rummage through some of his tools until finding a wrench his size. "I'll be back, Midnight. I'll also close and lock the Med. Bay door so one can get in. If you need out, the windows around open up."
After his statement, he took his tool with him and exited the hangar. Just like he said, he closed the door behind him and continued walking on.
A little confused of the situation, I timidly eased myself down on the blankets, eyes scanning for threats. None of my senses alerted to danger for a good twenty minutes. Then, I deemed it safe enough to sleep and allowed for the darkness to swallow me up.