Slipstream stirred; slowly taking in the silence and rolled over. He tried to remember the last thing that had happened; all he remembered was settling down beside Sideswipe… oh…
He peeled himself away from Sideswipes side and off of the berth.
Slipstream padded over to the crate that contained the Energon cubes and grabbed one for himself. His sleepy optics looking the slumbering frame of Sideswipe and could help but notice a few things about the lithe bot.
The way he had his left arm tossed over his sleek costa and grill plate in an undoubtedly protective manner.
The way he looked restless even in recharge.
The way he flinched constantly; even though he was recharging.
It was almost like he was waiting for someone to force him awake.
He watched as Sideswipe started to mutter and twitch in his recharge, "No… please…"
Slipstream crept closer to the slumbering mech as the elegant red helm started to toss side to side in what looked like an attempt to dislodge whatever nightmare was plaguing his processor.
"Please…No… Please don't…"
Just what was Sideswipe dreaming about?
\\\\\
"Do you have the transcripts?" Sideswipe asked as he juggled Daybreaker, Knockdown, Breakout and a bunch of items that needed to be packed.
Knockout looked at the poor mech and nodded, "Yep, The CERF Calisto will be leaving the port tomorrow and spending ten vorns in space studying rare space anomalies," He recited as Sideswipe tossed more items at him.
"I'll put these three down for bed; I'll come help once they are out," Sideswipe said, quickly dumping the rest of the items on the bed and walking to the two cradles in the corner. Gently lowering Knockdown first and placing Breakout beside her; he turned to place Daybreaker in her crib when the window shattered.
Knockout swiftly turned around to see a tall red and orange mech bearing no crest standing in front of Sideswipe-who had placed himself between the cradle that held Knockdown and Breakout and was clutching his own daughter like she was a lifeline- pointing a gun at the mechling parent. Knockout quickly pulled out his own gun and pointed it at the bot's helm.
"Who the frag are you?" Knockout snarled as he reached for the emergency button that was located in the room.
The mech didn't turn but Knockout could feel the mechs arrogantly victorious smirk and he didn't like the way Sideswipe shied away from the mech with wide, terrified optics.
"Why, I'm one of Crimsons old friends. I just wanted to congratulate him on his sparkling," The mech sneered and that was when Knockout clicked off the safety. He knew of Sideswipe's past and the fact that mech used his stage name told Knockout exactly what kind of old friend he was.
"The mechs name is Sideswipe; get it right," Knockout snapped as he pressed the button.
The mech turned his helm to the side, keeping Sideswipe and the sparkling in his sight, "The whore-house wants their prized mech back."
"You mean the whore-house that is under Council protection," Knockout snarled as he fingered the trigger.
"Sure, we could go with that," The mech drawled causally, "But I was paid a pretty credit to have Crimson Streak returned to their more than capable servo's."
Sideswipe shivered and clutched Daybreaker a little closer. Knockout considered just shooting the mech but that risked the mech falling on Sideswipe and the three sparklings. Shooting the gun might set it off and cause a casualty.
Knockout aimed for the servo, shooting the gun could buy Sideswipe enough time to get the sparklings out of the room; watching as Sideswipe activated the hover feature of the crib that Breakout and Knockdown were in.
"Since you won't come willingly," The mech sneered, "I'll take the next best thing."
Sideswipe barely had any time to register those words before the mech launched himself at him. He felt a scream rip from his vocalizer and punches landing on him but the only thing he could focus on was keeping Daybreaker safe. A punch to the helm knocked him away and his daughter was ripped from his arms.
His vision was cloudy but Sideswipe could hear Knockout hollering and the wailing of the two in the crib but all he could focus on was the screams of his daughter.
"Day…breaker…" He gasped out as his vision faded to black.
/
Slipstream watched Sideswipe flinch and fidget some more in his recharge; debating whether or not to wake the restless mech up.
Sideswipe didn't give much of a choice when he shot up not even a klik later, rapidly intaking and expelling oxygen as frantic optics danced around the chamber. Jetstorm bolted over the second the vital recorder started to beep rapidly; drawing in the attention of the others.
"Sideswipe; it's ok! You are safe!" Jetstorm yelped as the lithe red mech pinned the Minicon with wild and pained-filled optics.
Optimus and Drift were poised to help the klik that Sideswipe reacted negatively but that never happened.
"Sideswipe?" Slipstream asked softly as the mech shook like a piece of rotten metal. Sideswipe whipped his helm up to look at the Minicon, "Are you ok?"
Sideswipe nodded his helm once than shook it, "Yes… no; I don't know!" The mech cried out; startling the other bots in the room, "I'll never be ok but I have to be for everyone else!"
Jetstorm edged away slowly, letting Slipstream do his thing while he left to get a sedative.
"Sideswipe, you can talk to us; we can help," Slipstream soothed.
That was the wrong thing to say.
Sideswipe looked at Slipstream with wild optic, "No one can help me! No one! No bot cares!" Sideswipe said in a hysterical tone, "I let myself get sold to the Jade Cube and get myself sold to the highest fragging bidder and fragged by other bots every single night; I didn't even like it!"
Slipstream's optics filled with an indescribable sadness as he slowly started to realize what the hysterical mech was talking about. The others- except maybe Jetstorm- didn't know what he meant.
"Sideswipe…"
The poor mech just kept on ranting, "Then I let my own daughter get kidnapped and I couldn't do slag about it! I'm just a mechling!" Everyone looked startled and unnerved by this side of Sideswipe; Jetstorm pausing in his frantic rummaging of the medical crate to look at the slender mech in horror, "I let my only daughter and link to my spark-mate get taken right out of my servo's! I just want to finally hold Daybreaker in my arms again and hear her laugh! I just- I just," Sideswipe completely lost it at this point, resting his helm in his servos and sobbing.
Everybot knew that this wasn't the mech that they were used too seeing. Slipstream scrambled onto the berth and gently took a servo in his own, "None of that was your fault Sideswipe. You didn't choose to be sold, you didn't choose to let your daughter get taken. The owners of the Jade Cube did and you are not to blame."
Sideswipe just kept sobbing and Jetstorm choose that moment to inject the sedative into the distressed mechs IV. Sideswipe looked normal at first but the sedative did its job and the poor mech started to sway. Drift quickly steadied him and helped him lay down. Within kliks, the mech was asleep.
Silence reigned in the chamber for all of ten kliks before Windblade wanted answers, "Okay… what just happened?"
Jetstorm sighed, "That was the reason behind rule number two."
"Okay; we get that but why did it happen?" She asked.
"Like I mentioned before, his body is ensuring that it is still functional and what happens is that certain parts of his processor gets affected for a while. This stage only lasts a day but it usually manifests itself within a half a week of revival. The main areas that get affected are the ones regulating emotion and word processing."
"In other words," Slipstream said, effectively taking over for his brother, "He's gonna say things that are straight from the spark. He will definitely remember what has happened and he is going to react poorly so we have to be supportive, not judgemental. We also have to not push him too much," He directed a glare at everyone, "We want him to open up but at his pace and his pace alone."
Everybot was quick to nod. Drift however was marvelling at the way that Slipstream handled the irrational Sideswipe.
"How did you learn how to handle him?" He asked. Slipstream looked at Drift with cool but sad optics.
"I used to work at the Altihex Center for Carriers Care before the war broke out."
/
Sideswipe drifted in and out for the rest of the cycle. Most of those consisted of the mech curling up and crying his spark out with somebot rubbing his backstrut. A few of the times had bore witness to sobbed apologies for everything; being a slut, losing his daughter, slowing them down, freaking them out. Sideswipe had apologies for even the tiniest misdemeanor and frankly, it was freaking them out even more than the original slipping of the upset mech's backstory. They were thankful when Sideswipe slipped into a natural recharge.
They waited for the recharging mech to wake up but Slipstream and Jetstorm were just praying to Primus that they had the smarts to avoid the painful questions.
They both knew that was impossible.