The Honor in Duty
Chapter 12
What On Cybertron
Disclaimer: I don't own the Transformers or the Transformers: Prime series.
Okay guys, I know it's been like, aaaaaages since I posted last, I think you all deserve an explanation. Hopefully you're all still here! When I started writing fanfiction four ish years ago, I was (granted only fourteen at the time) not in a really good place mentally, and writing easily became an escape for me. That's part of why the writing came so easily and naturally to me, because it was my world and I was pouring everything I had into every chapter, and my goodness the support and feedback I got from all of you guys was amazing. My whole life has sort of been turning upside down in this past year especially, and I've had so many amazing things happening. In short, I've really become stable and happy in my life. Which is definitely a good thing. Unfortunately for you guys though, that means writing isn't an escape anymore, which means that my chapters are going to be pretty slow coming from here on out. I definitely still want to finish Terabyte and the Bots' journey (probably ending up as a series of four stories, Duty and Deceit, the Honor in Duty, and two more in the future) but you guys have been so good and faithful to this story that you deserve to know that it'll be a long ride, most likely with a lot of long gaps between chapters. Here's to life and happiness and another chapter!
To Oddity Empress:Oh my gosh, yes, it was soooo adorable and fun writing out that couch scene! (though I did get everyone all tangled up a few times before I figured out where everyone would realistically fit lol) I think you've pretty much already got the idea, but there's a lot of fluff in these giant robots' futures.
To BraveSeeker3: It honestly just makes me so happy when you (and other reviewers) leave super excited reviews. Love it! Here's to the continuation of the story we all adore!
To AllSparkPrincess: Family comes first, for sure. I have a feeling the Bots would like Lilo and Stitch lol, might have to find a good spot for a little family fluff about that eventually, eh?
To
To Rem: Like I said above, it'll be slow, but for sure this story is gonna keep on going! So good to know that everyone is still here and wanting more!
"What do you mean you have not yet completed the task?" She growled at the Vehicon sheepishly towering over her, "I assigned this report four orns ago."
A tap on her shoulder redirected her attention to the mech behind her. She quirked an optic ridge up at him, inviting him to speak.
"The console strip in the right side of the left wing's center is offline and sparking? I'm new to this division and I don't know- I don't know what I-"
She cut the mech's stammering off with a curt wave of her hand, "What is your designation?"
"Unit 740329837-"
"Your desired designation mech." The femme interrupted again, resisting the urge to roll her optics, "Do you really expect me to remember the series numbers of every bot under me?"
She never did understand how the other bots could never be bothered learning the Vehicons' designations, it made keeping order in the division far easier. Not to mention that it was what they were all fighting for, the elimination of the Autobots and their prejudiced way of life with castes and classes and levels of worth.
The Vehicons had sparks just the same as any of the named mechs, she did not see why they were disregarded like they were. That they were drones was propaganda, and yet even many of the Decepticons treated them as though they were.
The mech laughed, "Fair enough, Major. I like to go by Zippy."
"Zippy." Some of the Vehicons came up with quite impressive names for themselves, and then there were bots like Zippy. "Alright, so you said the console strip in the right of the left center was malfunctioning?"
"Yes sir."
"Directions like that are useless. I run seventeen divisions across Kaon and Kolkular territory alone. Get me the console code and come back when you have it, Zippy."
"Major Terabyte? Soundwave would like to see you in his office immediately."
Three other bots marched up and delivered reports while the messenger was speaking, so the two-wheeler did not quite catch what the mech had said. Before she could ask for him to repeat the memo, the mech was gone and two more had come up to inform her that she was wanted in Megatron's throne room, as well as in the training room by her mentor.
The little femme shooed away a couple of rookies, absently directing them to Voltage. Voltage could handle whatever minor trials they had. She checked her schedule with a sigh as she marched to her office for a klick of peace. Seemed like the whole Decepticon army was falling apart lately.
She bit her glossa, holding back a wave of unpleasant comments about the femme she'd put in charge of writing up her schedule. This was what she got for not doing the schedule herself.
Four appointments within five klicks of each other, on four different sides of the citadel. The femme vented heavily, opening her comm line to start rescheduling.
Her helm throbbed painfully, reminding her of the fact that she had not recharged or fueled in several orns. Sky would blow a fuse if he could see how deep she'd sunk herself in her work.
Energon prod collided with her abdomen, sliding perfectly through the gap in the decorative plating over her left hip, drawing a gasp of more horrified anticipation than pain. Nothing could brace a bot for the convulsive jolt of electricity that coursed through her frame as her adversary activated the prod.
The femme fell to her knees unwilling, frame spasming with the current. She snarled, forcing her servos to stretch out towards the shaft, fighting to grasp it as pain coursed through her Energon as the electricity literally boiled her life-En.
Yanking on the shaft with all her might, Terabyte's optics widened in fear as the head of the prod caught in the triangular gap in the abdominal panel, unable to come out.
The sounds of Arcee and Bumblebee crashing through and clashing with the Vehicons that Knockout had brought with him to the Energon mine. Both sides were so desperate for fuel these orns. Surely there was a better way to get Energon than this though, the battles for the mines were always vicious, and ended in more life-En shed than Energon won.
She turned her frantic golden gaze up towards her attacker, almost pleading, "Knockout-"
He looked down at her with contempt, a bitterness in his optics that made her spark catch. Who did he lose? The only bot he'd ever shown any genuine attachment to was Breakdown, but last she checked the mech was still online.
"What's the matter, Terabyte?" The red mech sneered, but he shut off the Energon prod's current to hear her out, "Run out of clever ideas?"
She quirked an optic ridge, her battle processors having already seized up the situation and determined the best means of escape. But she knew that there was good in the mech, now in this moment of pain, this might be her only chance to sway the mech. He'd helped her, she didn't care what Ratchet thought of the Decepticon medic, he had saved her life in the only way he could.
"I did not come to fight you, Knockout."
"Oh really?" He gestured to the charred streak over his lower pede from her cannon. The armor plating had split a little bit at the center of the blast, but the damage was minimal and they both knew it, but the mech went on, "All the cannon blasts and jabbing at me with that sad excuse for swordsmechship made it hard to tell."
The two-wheeler chuckled, "You know as well as I do that I could have dispatched you by now were I trying to do so."
Knockout opened his mouth to object with another snide remark only to shrug, a small smirk touching his lips as she winced at the movement of the sharp prod still stuck in her side. "And you know as well as I do that you won't kill me."
"Likewise." Terabyte replied, trying futilely to remove the spear again. Either he would retract the weapon and let her go, or she would have to snap the panel off along with the prod, and fight him in earnest. "Why do you stay with them? You know what they are, and Megatron's processors are slag and you know it."
"I…" Unlike the last time she'd asked, he wasn't lying to her, and for the first time, she saw the genuine spark pain set into his flawless features, his cherry optics carrying the same weight that she'd felt in her own far too many times. "I don't-"
Just as the medic started to speak from his spark, Bumblebee came crashing through, shattering the Energon prod embedded in her side as he plowed through Knockout, slamming the medic into the dirt and pressing his blasters into the Decepticon's face-plates.
The two-wheeler hissed, putting a hand over her side, where the scout's impact had destroyed both the prod and the armor piece it had caught in. She snarled, lunging at Bumblebee and kicking him off of the now enraged Decepticon medic.
Bumblebee was whirling and bleeping insensibly, but it didn't take a genius to know he was beyond angry with her. Terabyte ignored the scout's protests, as she pounced on his blaster arm to keep him from shooting Knockout.
"Stop blasting him, you fool!" She roared, pressing her sharp kneeplate into his chest to keep him immobilized.
The femme didn't dare let the scout up until she heard the familiar sound of a groundbridge activating. Arcee was shouting at her, verbally and through comms, and Bumblebee was still spewing insults and demanding explanation.
"What on Cybertron has gotten into you?!"
Before she'd even processed that the other femme was behind her, Terabyte found herself thrown aside, catching her fall in a roll and standing up, scowling at the both of them.
"What's gotten into me?" She repeated incredulously, "I was getting through to him! What the Pit is wrong with you bots?! Is killing the only way you know to end this war?"
Bumblebee threw his hands up in the air, rolling his baby blue optics with an exasperated buzz, "You weren't getting through to him, you were at his mercy! He was gonna off you!"
"Bee's right, killing may not be the only way to end the war, but suicide sure as Pit won't help us either." The blue and pink femme had her hands on her hips, looking at her with a disapproving, even disappointed gaze, "And neither does fraternizing with the enemy. They aren't your friends anymore, Terabyte, you can't treat them like they are."
She flicked her finials, flaring her armor and shifting her posture more aggressively, "So what about me? What about Sky? Jetfire? We were all 'Cons. Once a 'Con always a 'Con, right? They may not be our friends, but they don't have to be our enemies either, if we have a chance to try and win them over, we'd be fools not to take it!"
"You guys were different!" Bee objected, though it was obvious that he was second-guessing that statement even as he defended it, "You weren't- you weren't cold-sparked killers-"
"Oh you want to try that? Make us out to be better than the rest? High and mighty Terabyte and Skyquake, not proper Cons at all?" The reversion back to Cybertronian as her temper flared made both Arcee and the scout cringe under her anger. The last time she had railed on them like this was when she was still a spy for Megatron. "Prowl. Pyro. Twintwist. Not to mention the Pits, Sky spent decavorns in the Pits before the War, or did you forget about that? Do you want to take a seat while I go on? We will be here quite awhile if you do."
She turned her back to the two Autobots, marching towards the Energon mine to start carting back Energon for Jetfire and Ratchet to refine back at base. As they followed her towards the cave-like mouth of the mine, she could sense the pain and conflict in their EM fields and stifled a sigh.
That was a cruel way to bring it to their recollection. It was necessary though.
"What is the point of fighting for good, and for hope, and for mercy, if we do not practice them ourselves? How can we ever win this war if we refuse to give them a chance? If death is the only way out of this gridlocked war, how are we any better than they are?"
Terabyte didn't wait for a reply, nor did she expect one. What more was there to be said? She was reaching him, she was sure of it.
If someone had told her a vorn ago that she would attack and berate her friends and fellow workers to defend Knockout of all mechs, she would have laughed in their face. She would have been all derision. Yet here she was. In her time on the Nemesis under his care over the past few quartex, she had come to see a side of the vain medic that she hadn't ever realized existed.
The mech that she'd come to know, although through more pain and trial than she would have preferred, was a mech worth defending.
Later, Autobot Outpost Omega One
Wrench collided with the back of her helm, making the little femme flinch away instinctively, even though it did not particularly hurt.
"You're still recovering, you little glitch!" The ornery medic snapped, pausing for a moment in his ranting to yell at Jetfire to bring back his welder, "Hardly an orn off your sedatives and you let the butcher get the best of you, rupturing your newly rebuilt chassis and ripping off the only sturdy abdominal plating you have-"
"Actually Bee ripped off the plating." She pointed out, even though she knew the medic wasn't listening to her at all.
Sure enough, her comment brought her no more than another wrench blow to dodge as the medic ranted, "Not to mention that after sustaining damage, you went to work in the mines for three joors. What on Cybertron were you thinking?!"
Terabyte gave an amused huff, "How many times can a femme hear that question in a single day?"
"Bumblebee said you just knelt at that slagger's pedes talking to him while he tortured you! Every bot here knows that prissy excuse for a medic can't best you in a fair fight, so what the Pit were you doing at his mercy?"
As Jetfire came in and set the welder down on the medic's surgical table beside her berth, he shrugged a wing lightly, a slightly puzzled expression forming on his inquisitive faceplates, "From what I have heard of this 'Knockout', he has little mercy to be at?"
"Exactly my point."
"You do not know him like I know him." She snarled in reply, pushing herself off the berth, ignoring the medic's protests and pushing off the massive white jet's attempts to steady her. Gold optics sharp, she picked up Ratchet's datapad with the inventory list, scanning through it briefly to locate the plating she needed to replace. "One day, he will turn and prove all of your high and mighty preconceptions wrong. If I have learned anything in the past nearly two years, it is that nothing is quite as it appears."
Ratchet rolled his sea-glass blue optics impatiently, "And if I've learned anything in the past eight decavorns it's that if a bot is impaling helpless femmes with lethal weapons it's pretty safe to say he's not actually a great mech inside!"
Now it was her turn to roll her optics, "I hardly think I would be standing here today if I were helpless."
"My point still stands."
"And so does hers, Doc."
Terabyte turned to smile appreciatively at Cliffjumper, who'd just walked in. The red mech shrugged, "I figure she had a good reason for doing what she did out there. This is TB after all, she's always got a good reason for what she does, even when no one else can figure it out."
She frowned for a moment, then quirked an optic ridge. Odd way of putting it, but she supposed it was a compliment nonetheless. Maybe. In any case, it silenced the medic.
"C'mon, Short Stuff, the kids are here, Raf'll wanna check on you."
"-tron were you thinking?"
The little two-wheeler fought the urge to facepalm at the words that welcomed her entrance into the lounge where Bulkhead, Arcee, Bumblebee, and Skyquake were all glaring down at the human children.
"What have I done this time?" She asked wearily, not wanting to admit that she really was quite tired now, even though she had just recharged less than half an orn ago. Her energy levels were taking an inordinate amount of time to recover from her stay at the Nemesis.
Bulkhead gestured towards Raf impatiently, "Did you do this?"
Puzzled, she looked at the spiky haired boy, only then noticing the smaller frame huddled behind him with an expression bearing equal portions of fear and awe. The blond girl clung to Raf's arm like a life-line, hazel eyes wide and mouth slightly agape.
How had Taia gotten here? Terabyte took in Raf's defensive position in front of the younger child and sighed. "Raf, you should not have brought her here."
"You said you told Optimus about her already, I thought everyone knew!" He argued, pushing his red framed glasses up and gazing up at her in something hovering between accusation and inquiry. "And you promised her you'd show her the base!"
Terabyte ignored the protesting shouts of the others, wincing as the little girl let out a squeak of fear at the uproar her presence was causing. She could see the girl shrinking closer to Raf and trembling ever-so-slightly, her wide eyes gleaming with unfallen tears.
Kneeling beside her and Raf, she scooped up the distressed youngling in her hands and making a gentle shushing sound, while simultaneously shooting a comm message to everyone present to shut up before they made her cry.
"It's okay, Taia, don't you worry. Alright? It's okay."
The girl sniffled, rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand, "Your friends don't like me, Ms Byte. Th-they're yelling at you a-and it's all my fault."
"No…" The navy femme's optics widened minutely when she realized that the girl's tears were on her behalf, "No, Taia, it is not your fault, not at all. I promised I would bring you here, and here you are, it's just a little bit earlier than I had intended, okay? My friends are just surprised, because Cybertronians are supposed to be a secret and they did not know that you found me. But everything is okay, and none of it is your fault, alright?"
"But you're gonna get in trouble-"
"Terabyte will not be punished for your inquisitive spirit, Taia, you have my word."
The smooth baritone rumble so near her audials startled Terabyte, so absorbed in soothing Taia as she had been she had failed to hear the Prime's approach. Nonetheless she nodded her appreciation to the much larger bot now down on one knee beside her to be closer to the girl's level.
He reached out one large servo to the girl, laughing softly when the girl shook his servo with all her might, in spite of his finger being larger than her whole arm. "Welcome to our home, Taia, I am Optimus Prime."
"Hi! I'm Taia, I'm nine! How old are you? Ms Byte said that your people live foreeeeever, she's like older than two thousand, and she said she's the youngest of all of you!" The little blond girl wiped the last of her tears away and smiled brightly up at the Prime, her usual bubbly character returning almost instantly.
Optimus chuckled, then looked over at Ratchet – who had come to see what all the shouting was about – as though to double check, "Unless I have miscalculated, I would be approximately twelve thousand of your years old, but Terabyte did inform you correctly: in ideal conditions, a Cybertronian may live for millions of years."
"Millions?" Taia bounced up and down excitedly, "I would do so much if I could live that long, I'd build the biggest castle ever, and I'd cure all of every bad thing, and I-I'd be able to have as much candy as I wanted, and, and I'd make everybody in the whole wide world happy."
"A noble goal, child." The Prime replied with a smile.
If only Cybertron knew such innocent aspirations, Terabyte mused, watching as her young charge jumped off her raised hand and started introducing herself to every bot in the room, finding something to compliment on each bot. Terabyte's favorite was the girl's assessment of Bumblebee: "Ohhh! You have baby wings! Like an actual bee! They're so cuuuuute!"
An Hour Later
"Go Raf! Yes! You can beat 'em!" The youngest child cheered, little hands clasped together as she watched the race with wide eyes, all of her focus on the remote control race cars currently speeding through the main chamber.
Jack, Raf, and Miko were intently mashing buttons on their contollers, occasionally gasping or snarling good-natured threats at each other as they raced through the obstacle course the bots had set up for them. Said bots were gathered around in a loose ring, cheering on their charges enthusiastically.
"C'mon Jack! Pick up the slack!" Arcee urged, laughing at the eldest human whose racecar was a good three feet behind Raf's and Miko's.
Bulkhead whooped and pounded his fist into his palm loudly, "Crush 'im, Miko!"
Wheeljack leaned closer to the Asian girl, smirking mischievously, "Play it dirty, Lil Wrecker, ram him, you got this."
"Jackie!" The girl scolded, laughing and revving her little car harder, catching up to Raf just in time to completely miss a corner and crash into the wall, flipping her car with a whine of its battery powered engine.
The room chorused a combination of cheers and groans as Miko was knocked out of the race. Terabyte laughed, sharing a victorious grin with Raf and Taia before her attention was drawn to a flashing red light on the main control panel.
She frowned minutely, sending a comm through to the others to let them know to come over when the race was over as she slipped behind Cliffjumper and Skyquake, taking care to walk silently as she passed behind Bulkhead so as not to alarm him.
Tapping in her access code, Terabyte raised her mask and opened the call to Agent Fowler's angry voice, "Prime? Do you read me?"
"My apologies, Agent Fowler, the Prime is not currently present. He-"
"Then I'll take that as confirmation that he is presently trying to run me off the road!" The man barked, glancing behind him with apprehension. The vehicle he was in suddenly jerked to the right, prompting a yell from Fowler.
Scowling, the femme traced his call to be in the middle of a relatively empty Nevada highway a few miles out from Jasper. "Agent Fowler, that seems highly unlikely, perhaps you-"
"Tell that to my burning treads, Con!"
The two-wheeler winced at the man's accusing tone and glare, glaring right back at the man with her expression flat, "A team is on the way, ASAP. Lieutenant Terabyte out."
"Bee, Arcee, Bulkhead, I need you to go to the location I put into the gorundbridge to assist Agent Fowler."
Cliffjumper and the others, who had gathered around behind her just as she hung up with Fowler, all regarded her with curiosity.
"What's the sitch?" Cliff quipped, putting a hand on his hip in a mocking pose.
She didn't have time to question whatever Earth reference he was making, so she simply responded, "Unknown, he claims Optimus is attempting to run him off the road."
"Optimus would never-"
Terabyte cut Arcee off, opening the bridge with a loud whoosh that drew a shriek of surprise from their newest human charge, "I know, Arcee, just go investigate and make sure Agent Fowler is safe, then report back."
A growl from directly behind her made the small femme stiffen fractionally and flare her armor out. "Who died and made you Prime?"
"Bulkhead." She repressed a sigh, her voice hardening, "Agent Fowler does not have time for you to argue, either aid him or Skyquake will go in your stead."
"Fine." The Wrecker spat, "I don't take orders from you."
She tilted her helm in acknowledgement then waved Skyquake through the portal after Arcee and Bumblebee. Technically the mech was right, Arcee was higher rank than she was and ought to have been the one making orders. Nevertheless, she was the one who had the needed intel to make judgement, and thus it was only logical that she be the one to make the call.
Prime could fire her later, when Agent Fowler was not about to be killed by an imposter.
As she closed the bridge behind the team, the tension in the room was tangible, seeming to crush down on her still recovering protoform like a heavy fist over her spark…
"Bulk, put the femme down, she's only tryin' to help."
"And doing a better job of it than you."
Wheeljack and Cliffjumper both stood with arms crossed, glaring at the massive green mech, who was currently holding her just higher than optic level, leaving her feet swinging nearly five feet above the ground. His hand wrapped around her, crushing her and rendering her immobile in his grip.
The kids were gathered around at a safe distance clustered together and watching with wide eyes. Taia was burrowed in between Raf and Miko, tears on her freckled face.
/This is my fight mechs. Do not interfere./ Terabyte ordered over the comms before meeting the Wrecker's optics, "You're hurting-"
"That's the point, Con. What's your game? When are you gonna turn again? How long till you betray us all again? How many times do you expect Optimus to be able to cover for you?"
Terabyte gasped quietly as he squeezed harder, stressing the still-healing welds on her spark chamber. After all this time one would have thought her frame would have healed, but Knockout's experiments had taken more of a toll on her than she liked to acknowledge.
"You are hurting the kids." She bit out, her systems beginning to throw warnings about the pressure. "You are not hurting me, you are hurting Miko. What are you going to do Bulkhead? Kill me in front of a group of younglings? Pit, Taia is hardly past being a sparkling."
He growled at her, crushing even tighter, bringing an involuntary cry from her vocalizer. "I'm going to show them that treason can't be tolerated, from anyone. Even our friends."
"What you are showing them is that you are no better than the Decepticons. That we are no better than the Decepticons." She lowered her mask and forced her frame to hang limp. "If you kill me, Megatron's already won. No matter how hard it gets, we cannot compromise our values, because they are all that separates us from them. If we compromise now, then why did we bother fighting all these vorns? Would you throw away your entire cause for a single femme?"
Bulkhead glowered at her, grinding his jaw and shifting his grip on her. His EM field was tight and strung with distrust and anger. For several klicks no one moved or spoke. The only sound in the room was Miko and Taia both sniffling.
At long last Wheeljack prompted, "Bulk?"
The mech growled, throwing her to the ground with a roar of frustration. "You're right. But don't think for a klick that this is over. You're nothing more than a liability and the next spark we lose will be on you."
"Then let my spark burn with the pain." Terabyte let out a heavy sigh, picking herself up off the floor, "But until then, I will continue to perform my duties to my cause to the best of my ability."
At that moment Ratchet returned from the back lab and the smaller femme stepped aside with a slight bow, allowing the medic to access the terminal.
He pulled up the comms, /Arcee, report./
The line remained silent and she could feel Bulkhead's glare burning hotter every astrosecond that the team failed to reply. After a moment, Ratchet commed the whole team, /Autobots, report immediately./
When the line opened in reply, the message sent back was slow in coming, bursts of static interrupting the connection, indicating weapon's interference. /Base, Skyquake reporting. Arcee is injured. Hostile has fled. Requesting groundbridge./
/It looked like Optimus!/ Bumblebee burst in, incredulity glyphs punctuating his message.
"It is not Optimus." Terabyte whispered under her breath, feeling Cliffjumper give her shoulder wheel well a gentle squeeze.
"We know, Short Stuff, we'll figure it out, we always do." The red mech glanced at the fuming Wrecker whose field still radiated anger and blame. "We'll work all of this out."
One way or another.
It did not need said, it was obvious enough. Either Bulkhead would forgive her, or he would find an opportunity to kill her. She would not fight him. She had enough life-En on her spark, and would likely add more before this War ended, but she would not off an ally unless she was given no other choice.
When the War was over, she was going to separate herself from this life. She would find a neutral colony with Skyquake, and live a peaceful, civilian life, far from any bloodshed and spark loss. A peaceful life, free of all the pain of war.
/Opening a groundbridge at your coordinates. Bring Arcee directly to med-bay./
Moments later Skyquake came through the portal carrying the two-wheeler in his arms. Her unconscious frame looked almost doll-like compared to his bulk. Terabyte tilted her helm minutely, wondering briefly how she always forgot just how massive the jet was in comparison with herself. It was a wonder he had not killed her accidentally a million times over since they first met.
She watched as Bumblebee followed along behind with the government agent supported carefully on one servo and the other arm raised as a blaster aimed towards the portal as it closed behind them. The femme waited a few klicks to ensure that Ratchet and the others had the situation under control before she made her way over to the worried looking cluster of children.
Kneeling in front of them, she lowered her battle mask and smiled half-sparkedly, nudging Taia's chin up gently to look her in the optics. "Do not worry yourselves on my behalf, younglings. All will be well in time."
Miko crossed her arms, glaring both at her and at Bulkhead. "Why can't you guys just go back to how things were?"
"I wish we could, Miko." Terabyte shifted positions, flaring her armor and turning a shoulder wheel idly, "Unfortunately, life is rarely so simple as that. I have made colossal mistakes, Miko, and the trust the others have in me was founded on a lie, and built upon with betrayal. Bulkhead may come to forgive me, and he may not. All I can do is continue on with integrity in the attempt to regain his trust."
"But that's not fair!"
"You weren't even in control of yourself for most of that, he can't blame you for being brainwashed." Jack argued, brushing a hand through his black hair.
"And hacked." Raf supplied.
She shrugged, her smile fading into poorly hidden despair, "Nevertheless, what was done was done. Perhaps one day both he and I shall grow enough in spark to forgive me."
Rising, the two-wheeler smiled at them again, "I have work to complete in the research room, excuse me."
Three days later
The swish of the doors startled the little femme from her calculations, causing her to snap her helm up to stare wide opticked at the intruder. He took in her appearance with concern in his ruby optics.
Her armor was still dinged from where Bulkhead had slammed her into the ground, and her plating was dull. The gold optics gazing at him like a stunned glitch-mouse were foggy enough to make him question whether the femme was even seeing him. Her right shoulder wheel was spinning anxiously and her armor trembled with the effort of trying to flare before she gave up and her armor went slack against her protoform.
"Tera… you need to come fuel and charge now." Skyquake said quietly, gauging his little femme's reaction carefully. "The medic says that Arcee will be coming out of stasis in a joor."
He frowned minutely when she merely hummed softly in acknowledgement and went back to her console. The green jet stepped around the console to come up behind her and place a hand around her shoulders, gently coaxing, "Come on, Terabyte, your personal maintenance is important."
"So is this." She mumbled back, not turning from the streams of encrypted data scrolling through the holographic projection.
"What is 'this'?"
"Work."
Skyquake fought the urge growl that he could see that much. Instead the jet rubbed the crest of his forehelm and stifled a sigh. He cautiously tugged her away from the console to face him, brushing her masked face with the back of one servo softly, "You need to stop this now, femme. You can come back to it, but you can't finish this if you offline because you refuse to take basic care of yourself."
He regarded the femme with sad optics, watching her exhausted processors muddle through his words. The medic had told him she needed to recharge at least a little bit every earth night, and refuel with the nutrient mix every time her tanks reached seventy percent until he stopped registering abnormal fluctuations in her spark.
The jet waited expectantly for another few klicks before his little two-wheeler finally nodded slowly, "Fair point."
By the look of her, she had not recharged the past three earth nights, much less refueled. He doubted she had even moved more than two paces away from her console.
Leading her towards the rec room, he watched her movements warily, ready to catch her should she fall. Skyquake's spark rolled with displeasure at the thought. It was far too often that she got herself in a position where he needed to fear that she could not even walk on her own.
"What are your fuel tanks at, Terabyte?"
The femme stopped walking for a moment to glare at the floor, "Uhhh, forty-two. Wait, no, thirty-seven percent."
His lip-plates drew together tightly before he kept walking, his little femme following beside him, "You know what the medic told you."
"Ratchet worries too much. Like a fussy mother nanogoat."
The jet laughed at that description of the mech, instantly forming a mental image of a nanogoat with Ratchet's paint and features, baaing out orders. "Perhaps. But he's a fussy mother nanogoat that knows what's best for his patients. And you should listen to him."
She lowered her mask and showed him her best pouty face before giggling, "And we all know what an angry nanogoat is like if you don't listen."
"Precisely."
One joor later
Terabyte felt herself coming out of recharge, her systems blearily onlining one by one, flashing their respective indications of functioning before her processors provided an overview of her recharge cycle. She hummed softly in pleased surprise as the read out declared that she had recharged the whole joor without any fluxes.
It also showed a definite increase in her repair system's level of functioning, and indicated that her protoform was only a few microns short of being fully recovered. She took a snapshot of the readout and sent it to Ratchet through the comms. Most likely she would be fully healed within another month.
The femme frowned minutely, realizing after the fact that she probably ought to have refueled first and run another scan to send the medic. Low fuel stored. Ratchet would likely scold her for neglecting her regular fuel intakes.
Her servos twitched and the berth shuddered a heavy sigh.
It occurred to her that her berth seemed bent to the side quite significantly. And berths did not ordinarily heave shuddering sighs when their occupants twitched. She cocked her helm and opened her optics slowly, shuttering them several times to clear the static.
Terabyte smiled fondly at the massive jet, bent over double to rest his helm and arms on her berth, his weight causing the berth to dip dramatically. Idly she wondered if her berth would recover from the strain, but she dismissed the thought as she saw how he had wrapped his hand around hers as she slept.
She rubbed her servo over the palm of his hand gently, marveling for a moment at the vastness of his hand compared to hers. One would think she was a sparkling in comparison.
"Sky…" The femme tapped his helm with one claw, biting back a giggle as he groaned, but did not wake. "Skyyyyyquake."
Mischievous servos pattered softly over his wing-tips, tickling the sensitive paneling. Green wings fluttered in response, but the mech remained inert.
"Skyyyyyyyquake."
An idea struck her and the little two-wheeler slid her hands up to the back of his neck and she pressed her servos to the bare, warm protoform hid just beneath his neck plating.
Instantly the jet jerked upright and away from her, leaning backwards instinctively and collapsing his chair so land with a crash on the floor, roaring in indignant surprise the whole way down.
"What the-" Perfect ruby optics opened wide and glared at her when he took in her childishly pleased grin, "Sweet Cybertron femme, how in the Pit are your hands so cold?"
"Full systems shutdown for repairs." She replied smugly, laughter still coating her words. "You awake now?"
The jet growled, snarling under his breath about hands colder than the third moon of Cybertron, "Course I'm awake. Pit, Terabyte, just shoot me next time."
She saw the glimmer of amusement in his optics despite the grouchy tone and giggled, giving him a jaunty salute, "Sir yes sir, cannon to the helm is preferable to ice-servo wake up, duly noted. Really though, it's what you get for insisting on standing vigil over me unnecessarily. Not a single flux."
He shot her a short glare, "You would have had the fluxes if I hadn't stayed."
"You don't know that for sure."
"But I do know you."
"… For sure." Terabyte smiled fondly at the jet, using his helm to lever herself out of the berth, "Come on you sappy lugnut, we need to hurry or we will miss Arcee's debrief."