Woo! Chapter 41 is done so I finally get to post this one! Hope you all enjoy!
Soundwave sighed to himself, his HUD was on, and his attention trained to it, his servo reached up, and stroked the holographic image that had sat on the top left since he'd onlined in his own frame once more.
His digits went right through, she wasn't in front of him, just an image displayed in a way that made it look like she was there.
Her smiling face haunted him in a way, he saw her in his recharge, heard her voice, that way she'd whisper sweet nothings in his ears when she thought he was asleep… even now he could feel her ghostly touch, gliding across him in a way that had him shutting down his motor functions so he didn't shudder... made his treacherous, wounded spark yearn to turn around and go back to her.
But there was no turning back… not even once he'd gotten Frenzy back…
The human dead did not rise, no matter what their horror genre suggested.
And he was certain, even though it pained him even more, that she would of moved on… she was too incredible not to, to not sweep another of their feet like she had him...
Ravage was curled up in his lap, and glanced up at his motion. "Sire?"
Soundwave let his optics shutter behind his visor for a moment, before glancing down at his eldest. "Yes Ravage?"
Ravage's audios folded. "You're…. You're thinking about carrier…"
Soundwave felt the words stab him in the spark, no, he hadn't been… but… he couldn't tell Ravage that… that he'd moved on, and still left behind his second love… "Yes…"
Ravage nudged further against his chassis. "We all miss her… when you vanished… it all came back… it all hurt so… so much more…" He found himself holding his eldest, letting their bond pulse with love and apologies.
He pulled the large Cygar even closer. "I'm sorry…"
Ravage returned the gesture, nuzzling close. "Can you… can you tell me about when you met Carrier for the first time…"
He knew why Ravage asked, it was one of his little's favourite stories, a time before Shrike brought them all to him.
Back when he was broken.
He nodded. "I can do one better."
He'd been getting more experienced at sharing full memories over the spark bond.
The rest of his littles were recharging in their chosen room, it would probably give them a nice recharge.
Of course, it would warp for them, but they'd still see her.
Iacon Central Spire
He was lost.
The two mechs dragging him by his arms knew where they were going, but he didn't, his pedes just dragged along the ground, helm hung low, just as limp and lifeless as when they'd grabbed him out of the gutter of that place he'd finally stopped walking at.
He'd been looking for them… his littles… where were his littles?
He knew where… but where were they?
They weren't with him… his chassis was empty, a void that pulled at the surrounding armour, at his very spark…
He sent a weak pulse down the bonds…
Their severed ends returned no reply…
He keened, the sound hidden within his chassis by the fact he no longer had the strength to open his mouth.
His optics flickered on and off…
Where had he left them?
They'd been so tired… he promised he'd find them energon… he'd started walking… looking for energon to take back…
They'd been too weak… where were they?
Why weren't they replying on the bonds?
The guards were talking above him, somebot had approached, was speaking to them in hushed tones.
His faceplates were grabbed, his optics shuttering on and off, barely there red didn't move to look into inquisitive blue.
The mech nodded, speaking, what he couldn't understand…
There was a noise, a scream, a shout, something was thrown and hit something that shattered into a thousand pieces.
The noise came from ahead, muffled in its distance.
The new bot chuckled weakly, fearfully.
His helm was dropped, left to hang, doors were slid open, and the guards threw him inside, the metal of his frame screeching and sparking against the floor for a few short moments before his limp form came to a stop.
They'd brought him to be offlined… Whatever was in here was enraged.
Something was running towards him, bipedal, the heavy fall of pedes shook the ground.
It lunged, launching over him, clearing him entirely, it's focus not on him at all.
The doors slammed shut just as it's shoulder crashed into it, the impact sending this other entity stumbling back.
The entity made one last over worldly screeching below, one last charge that he swore likely dented the doors, before all fell silent for a moment.
He could hear them re-aligning armour, muttering to themselves and pacing for a moment next to the door, but he was so tired… so… so tired...
He could feel optics on him.
A piece of him tried to reach full alertness, but it only lasted a moment as the entity stepped over to his side, and then one more step to his front, where they kneeled.
He was laying faceplates down on the ground, strewn out as he had fallen.
Wickedly pointed digits worked together to curl around the underside of his lower jaw, and slowly tilted him up.
Flickering red optics met harrowed blues.
The agony in that gaze… for a moment his spark keened at the presence of a kindred spark…
"By the pits below… where… where did they find you?"
The femme, it was a femme, with curved yet pointed armour, painted in a gradient of different purples from a light one with hints of pink, to the dark purple of dusk.
Their voice wasn't soft, there was a hardness that played well with their accent, Praxian… what was a Praxian doing in Iacon?
What was he doing in Iacon?
The femme looked away for a moment, and he swore he saw them wipe lubricant from one of their optics.
Slowly, the femme lowered herself, broad pedes with wheels at the back, and claw like bracers on the other three sides, shifted back and out, it was an awkward sitting position if he'd ever seen one.
It mattered little though, when her four servos, two attached and two floating, he noticed, an odd mod if he'd ever seen them, reached down his backstrut, grabbed servo fulls of metal and loose protoform, and pulled him up into their lap.
His helm thunked against their shallow chassis, and it was with all his strength that he managed to stay online as his helm tilted out to the side.
Just in time to hear her speak again, looking in the same direction. "They're gone Sol. It was just Shockwave and some guards"
He watched a femme peak out from behind one of the counters in the room, one covered in datapads and scientific measuring equipment, was this a lab?
The femme was tiny, femmes were naturally on the small size, but this one would of had to of stretched to reach his hip… he'd never seen a frame type like it, but then again, he hadn't seen the frame type of the one holding him before either…
Wide fearful blues glanced around, only just visible over an off black mask that hid the vast majority of their faceplates, not quite believing the words of the one holding him, evidently.
Finally they seemed to sag, and came stumbling over, before dropping to their own knees right at their side, only then did a sound come from the femme, no words, just a sound.
He watched as their narrow abdominal plating shrunk further, and a trill like sound escaped the mask. It sounded like a squeak mixed with some high pitched laser blast, yet somehow came out as inquisitive in it's tone.
The femme holding him stroked one of their servos down his helm and on down his back strut. "Yeah… ah know… can you grab some energon for him? He's… he's looking faint… I've already commed Dust, she's on her way."
The little femme nodded, her colours were one soft blue, one darker blue, and a teal, as she scrambled back up, he noted the fact she had cloven pedes, and two panes of even darker blue tinted glass hanging from her hips, decorative, exagerated the sway of their hips, a trait often used to draw the optic he noted.
She scampered off then, stumbling as she bumped a table in her haste to get to an adjoining room, the glass pane was clearly made of strong stuff as it only dully thunked at the impact.
It was only when the little femme vanished from sight he slowly craned his helm back up.
His optics met hers again, and sure enough, there was more lubricant as she pulled him up to press a chaste kiss to the centre of his forehelm, and whispered. "I'm sorry… I'm so sorry... "
Why was she sorry?
She'd done nothing to him… she wasn't the reason he was so… so low on energon.
The femme glanced over to where the smaller one, Sol, came running back, the cube held in her servos, making it look comically large for her small frame, sloshing as she dropped back to her knees and skidded the final distance to pass the cube over.
One of those floating arms easily grabbed it and pulled it to him. "Drink." The larger femme half ordered, half requested.
He parted his lips, and his right servo struggled to raise to take it, but he hadn't the strength, and it only twitched on the ground.
He could practically see the sparks of the other two twist when they saw this, and slowly, the larger femme tilted his helm back with one servo, and slowly started tilting it for him.
It was high quality, perfectly refined, the best he'd ever had, but he was too desperate to swallow to pay the taste or texture any heed.
Already his fuel gauge started to ping up.
By the time the cube was dropped to the side empty, his gauge pinged just shy of the halfway mark.
The doorway slid open before he could say anything, if he even could.
He felt the ground shake with steady, calculated steps, as a new bot entered the lab.
He turned his helm, and realised he'd have to look a lot further up to see the faceplates of the mech.
Half way up, past the towering heavy pedes, he realised suddenly that what he was looking at wasn't a mech, but a femme, a really, really big femme.
He had a strange feeling that he was in the presence of both the smallest and largest femmes on Cybertron at the same time.
He also spotted a second femme, another small one, near identical to Sol, sans colour, a twin? Split sparks?
Split sparks were known for being smaller than average…
The new femme was perched on the giant femmes shoulder.
"Dust…" The purple one spoke.
So this was the one they'd called.
Dust nodded, and slowly eased herself down onto one pede, and looked him over. "Obvious case of severe starvation and malnutrition, the vast majority of his armour is beyond repairable…" The medic tapped the side of his shoulder, he didn't need to see to know a chunk of it hit the floor. "He'll need a full plate replacement, going to hook him up to a drip to get his tank up in the meantime, can't do anything drastic until his internal systems won't crash if I put him under for an extended period of time... You were right to give him a cube, but his tank's gonna have to take the rest slowly."
The femme holding him nodded, but didn't let go. "Shrike…" Dust warned.
Soundwave watched the femme on the medics shoulder jump down, landing foul and scrambling on all fours for a moment, before she righted herself and joined her twin, their expressions near identical from what he could see from their optics.
Both wore those off black masks.
The new twin let out a chitter, a little half there noise, directed at the one holding him, who he guessed was Shrike.
Her hold tightened.
Dust, the medic, he couldn't see her right now, busy looking up at the one holding him, his lower jaw resting on her chassis, looking past the broad neck guard she wore.
She was looking right back at him, gaze conflicted, before she sighed, eased her grip, and let the towering medic heft him up like he weighed nothing.
"Clear a table, I'm going to have to do a full check over… Primus only knows what he might be carrying in his systems, if they did drag him out of the gutters."
The twins scampered off to do just that, both seemed to be unsteady on their pedes, grabbing the tables for support as much as they were grabbing measuring devices and rushing off to put them elsewhere.
Shrike mumbled something about not being able to find any of the moved stuff later, but it didn't matter.
He was set down and the medic snapped her pointed digits to get his attention. "I'm going to put you under, it will let your systems recalibrate to the influx of energon, alright? I'll monitor your read-outs in case something happens."
He gave a weak nod, and let his optics power off.
He'd found energon… now he just needed to find his littles and bring some back to them…
He sent a little pulse down his bonds, wanting to let them know.
Dead silence replied… and in a single moment, clarity struck.
They were gone… his littles were gone…
He hadn't been fast enough…
He felt a prick in his medical port, and everything shut down, just as his whole world shattered.
Ravage sniffed and nuzzled against his side as he came back.
His hold was just as tight as before, even if the experience had drained them.
"I forgot they were all there…" Ravage mumbled.
Soundwave knew what he meant.
The four femmes, the lost femmes, it was still difficult to accept they were all gone…
He didn't speak, he just held his oldest close.
Something nudged his side, glancing down over the seat, he spotted Rumble, under the red visor were two little tracks of lubricant.
His spark keened, and over the bond he sent a pulse of soothing love, even as he let go of Ravage with one servo and hefted Rumble up to join the hug.
Buzzsaw and Laserbeak were already there, curled up on his shoulders.
There was a spot empty for when they got Frenzy back…
And… if he deceived himself well enough, he could imagine the chair was Shrike, covering him from the back, the helm rest her helm, fallen back instead of against his shoulder plating.
Somewhere in the mess of limbs, he could also imagine a final form, about the size of rumble, but taller… curled up with one hand splayed out against his chest…
Not exactly how they'd shared a bed… but close enough…
Close enough… he thought, as he allowed himself to slip into recharge.
Close enough.
Monaco
Optimus wasn't sure what to do.
The fact that had become a recurring issue wasn't one he was blind to.
But he found solace in the fact that neither did Ironhide.
Who was currently watching Ira, who'd arrived in her actual form about three hours previously, bounce around happily on her pedes, with an air of suspicion.
They'd rarely if ever seen the smallest Harpy be so… animated and happy, the reasoning of which was alluding them spectacularly.
The fact she was still being so bubbly and happy for three straight hours was also very much alarming.
By the sheer fact that every attempt they'd made to find out what that incident earlier in the night was about, had been replied to with a winning smirk and a 'You'll see yah impatien' buggers.'
Some seating had been installed for them a few days ago, and though they had needed a bit of reinforcement, they now took his weight easily.
So he sat, and watched the primary runway/exit with Ira, audios and optics trained to spot something in the dark void the tunnel became.
Ira picked it up long before he did.
An excited trill and she was bouncing on the spot, helm shaking from side to side and causing the rest of her frame to shake happily.
He watched on, expression shifting into attentive focus.
With a final flare of her wings and ruffle of her feathers, she stilled, and with the end of her motions, he was able to hear it to, he and Ironhide.
Wingbeats, slow, shallow, but just as powerful as ever.
He spotted the silhouette of the twins approaching the entrance, the very longest of their feathers brushing the sides of the tunnel.
A high screech caused him to wince, and there was a quick shower of sparks.
They'd hit the roof of the tunnel with their ridged back struts.
After a moment longer, he realised why.
Clamped awkwardly in their talons, was a large mass.
One that was dropped just as the Monochrome femmes entered the main base, and crashed fully to the ground, another screech of metal against concrete, longer than the last, frame going into a full roll across the concrete, dragging on that horrid screech of metal, before finally coming to a stop, vents laboured and flared wide to let plumes of hot air and steam rise from their sides and cause the air around them to wave in the heat.
He rose, just as Ira went to the Harpies side.
Stepping over, he noticed the mass shifting, and a helm rising to shake, a single line of protrusions flaring and a set of optics flickering back online as they opened their lower jaw wide to yawn revealing the hooked blades of metal within.
He had to stop for a moment, just staring at this new femme.
Plump lipplates, unlike that of the other Harpies narrow ones, and decorative navy blue markings running down her faceplates, her optics accentuated by fluttering optic covers.
Then, the navy, tan, dark green and bright blue femme turned their helm on their incredibly long neck, one broken up by two seperate light blue bands of metal, and spoke with the voice of a mech. "I told you you didn't need to carry me the whole way."
Optimus looked to Ironhide, who was obviously just as taken baack.
He gave a gesture to just step back and watch, this was… odd.
Ira was fussing over the largest Harpies. "Oh jus' loo' at tha sta'e ah yah, yah flew all tha way back withou' stoppin' once didn' yah?"
Wren mumbled something.
Ira huffed. "Six hours of flying with one one hour break ain't good for yah wings yah nutters. Surely ah taugh' yah tha'."
Both twins huffed.
The new femme/mech huffed as well. "I kept telling them they could let me go. I'll have to figure out using these at some point." They remarked, showing off one of their wings, primarily brown feathers ended in darker blue flight feathers.
Then there seemed to be a moment where the new commer regarded Ira in curiosity before he gasped. "Wait a minute… IRA?!"
Ira threw her helm back and laughed. "Took yah long enough! Ge' ova here yah bugger!" She exclaimed, opening her wings up to the other.
The mech let off a happy noise, and promptly fell on his own chassis the moment he tried to get up. "Ow…"
Ira tried not to laugh, but the choked noise that came out was tell enough.
Again he glanced to Ironhide, who just shrugged.
For the next two hours, introductions took place.
This newcomer was, as luck would have it, the twins younger half brother, a concept that Ira had had to explain to them, he had apparently washed ashore on the coast off Portugal, where he finally came online, hence the twins manic departure at having his presence suddenly show up on their sibling bond.
Then came the awkward discussion of why said mech, apparently designated Derrick, looked more like a femme than any of the actual femmes.
Which lead to a theoretical discussion about sexual dimorphism in birds, Cybertronians, and apparently a human thing called androgyny.
From Ironhide's exasperated expression, Ratchet was probably taking notes and having his mate pay attention to every little detail.
At some point early in this discussion, the twins had dropped into recharge, and had been left to rest on the ground where they'd ended up.
Optimus knew they hadn't been recharging well recently.
Apparently with their family member returned to their presence, they were making up for lost recharge.
Which left them with Ira, who was also showing signs of recharge having a strong hold on her, and the new comer, who'd managed with some help to sit on his aft, legs splayed out haphazardly, wings held close to his front, and a mass of excessively long but very vibrant tailfeathers trailing behind him, who's full attention was locked on Optimus and staring at him and Ironhide in un-abashed awe, jaw hanging only slightly.
Ira let out a groan, catching all of their attention as she stretched and yawned. "Ah'm bea'... Der… ge' ova here." She mumbled as she stepped over to the twins, and half crouched, half fell down on top of the larger Harpies, helm burying into the mass of feathers of the others wing. "Ah'll sor' ou' yah holoform tomorrow… maybe..."
Derrick tilted his helm to the side, then smiled, and shuffled over, folding in and using his wing to lift Wren's own, and carefully slid under the giant limb.
The twins grunted in their sleep, wing coming down and pulling him flush to their side, a low content rumble leaving them in their recharge.
Optimus turned away, and Ironhide followed his lead after a few more moments of watching.
Optimus made a decision then, nodded to his weapons specialist, and went to the lift that would take him up to the garage, he was going to go for a drive, and check in on Lena.
He'd learned over the last month or so the woman could be up at any time of the day, and was always happy to chat, no matter the hour.
Considering how long this day had been, he desired a little bit of human normality before he retired for the night.
Jasper Municipal Hospital
"Evening Annie." June greeted, stepping into the private room, half a filing cabinets worth of papers tucked under one arm.
Annie gave the nurse a smile. "Evening June. How's Jack?"
"Oh you know, being a typical thirteen year old. Really wants a motorcycle…" She sighed and shook her head.
Annie reached out a gauze wrapped hand, and June carefully took it as Annie brought her other gauze wrapped hand over to pat the top of June's. "Kids want to feel free. He's probably itching to go somewhere. Take a few days off to make a long weekend, and just, drive with him, windows down, go somewhere, doesn't matter where, and just… let what happens, happens. Unless someone tries to murder you, then you have my full permission to use the second amendment and pump that bastard full of lead." She knew full well June kept a safety locked handgun in her drivers side glovebox, Jack's father and her hadn't parted on good terms.
June huffed and shook her head. "Why you decided against kids will forever allude me."
Annie shrugged as much as she could. "And leave Prowl and Maria as the only two officers while I'm on maternity leave? June please."
The scandal in her voice got a laugh out of the nurse. "Alright, fair… on… that topic… you know that um… case you and Prowl dealt with a few months back?"
Annie gave her a blank look. "Which… one?"
June shook her head. "No it's nothing, don't worry about it, Maria's handling it."
Annie sighed, and sent June a look, who held out for all of five seconds. "Oh fine! The Esquivel case opened up again, Marcelo Esquivel broke his restraining order and tried to break into Mr and Mrs Esquivel's property in broad daylight… they're youngest came home from a walk and got spotted. A neighbour called it in and the boy just got out of surgery… neither of his parents have been able to get out of work… and I was wondering if you'd be okay with him being brought in here? I mean, you're really great with kids and..." She trailed off, blushing somewhat.
Annie processed June's verbal output for a minute and then sighed and nodded. "Yes, he's going to want company."
June nodded. "Good! Good! Um… oh! I'm here to change your bandages!"
Annie chuckled, but then sent June an imploring look. "I meant it about taking a break June, you're getting worn down."
June glanced away.
Annie's gaze narrowed. "June, please, for me? For Jack?"
June crumbled, and turned to start changing the bandages with a pile of clean ones that had been brought in earlier and left to just sit there.
Annie watched the whole process, eyebrow raising slowly as she regarded the burn scars.
They looked a lot better than she thought they would.
June seemed to notice that too. "Hmm… odd… your skin seems to be regenerating faster than I anticipated…"
Annie shrugged. "I've always been a quick healer June, you know that."
June nodded, she did, but she was a nurse, not a fool, there was scar tissue yes, but a lot more already than there should be with third degree burns…
The process only took about twenty minutes, and with a final strip of medical tape being put in place, Annie's arms, legs, neck and abdomen were re-bandaged.
Laying face down as she had been had saved her face from much of the worst burns, those patches that had been seared were already passed needing bandages.
June clapped her hands together. "Right! I'll page Dr Riverford and let him know you've agreed to give Rafael company." Annie nodded, and watched as June scampered back out.
Sighing to herself she eased herself back further into the pillows that propped her up, she didn't want to tell June, but she was beyond bored.
Maria was pulling favours from the sheriffs of other districts to help her, with both deputies out of commision for the foreseeable future, the woman was wearing herself ragged trying to keep on top of all of Jasper.
She'd been taking a few minutes to visit every few days, but Annie could tell Maria was under a lot of stress.
Annie could empathise with her boss, she was just as worried, for both Jasper and her husband.
Prowl had sent an email to her personal phone, which sat on the bedside table, that he'd arrived safe in Monaco the day before, but such different time zones might as well have put them on separate planets, Prowl was going to be up when she was supposed to be sleeping and visa versa.
He'd still yet to wake up if the fact her final message in their chat had yet to be answered, one asking about what the food was like.
Bella was her most frequent visitor, coming at least once a day with entire books of time taking puzzles and the like.
She appreciated it, but she was starting to worry she'd never be able to finish them all, there was already over twenty in her bedside table!
And goodness only knows Bella had given the local florist a significant financial boost since she'd been hospitalised.
The doors swung open, catching her attention as they wheeled a second hospital bed into her room.
Annie watched with only partial interest as June and her co-workers set up all the machinery that came with the young boy.
About ten minutes later they dispersed back out, revealing the small, frail looking form of the youngest Esquivel, sleeping soundly, likely still under the influence of narcotics they used for his surgery.
Everything was covered by a hospital sheet save the nasty black eye the kid seemed to have.
Annie winced, the poor kid was going to have to go to counseling after this for a good long while at the very least.
She could empathise, she'd had to do the same when she'd moved back to Jasper over two decades ago.
A buzz came from her phone then, reaching over she picked it up, and couldn't help but smile.
'Gorgeous sunrise here, wish you were here to make it jealous.'
Not a moment later the picture loaded, and instead of said sunrise, it was her Prowl, his human form on a balcony, golden eyes crinkled at the edges as his face was bathed in gold by the morning sun.
Her heart did a few somersaults in her chest, and further inspection revealed Narissa, or was it Selena? One of the sisters strewn out on the visible sofa inside, mouth open and likely snoring loud enough to rouse the dead.
She had to laugh, and sent a message back. 'Honey, you're doing it for me.'
There wasn't an immediate reply, but she knew he'd probably just had his whole face go red.
A minute later another message. 'God I love you, just so fucking much.'
'Ditto partner, ditto.'
'...Are you ever going to tell me what a ditto is?'
It hurt to laugh as hard as she just did, but she didn't care.
'Nope ;P'.
'Annnnnnnnniiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee'
Thanks for reading! Until next chapter!
Moon
