C.M.D: For anyone who may have read this story prior, you may notice a slight difference in the last scene from what you remember. I am sad to admit that the ending scene was not part of the original file, but an add-on that I wrote in on 's document program. Thus, when this story was deleted from the site, I also lost the additional writing I had put in. I rewrote it as best as I could recall, but I feel profoundly that there are yawning differences. Alas, there is nothing more I can do, but be content that I have at least somewhat replaced the last scene well.
His optics onlined to dark and gloom; his audios registering a leaking pipe somewhere out beyond the dim glow of his prison. Its incessant 'drip...drip...drip' seemed almost mocking. Venting wearily, he tried to move, remembering only astroseconds later that he was a convicted criminal, his chains rattling overhead.
Right...
He had been sent to the brig. Condemned for his attack on both Deathsaurus and Star Saber. At once. Because their new order of peace -the future they would build for their people, together- had taken an energon sacrifice...
A scapegoat...
Hellbat...
Fists curling weakly in their cuffs, he dropped his helm again, damaged wings drooping as best as they were able to, wrapped in chains. Appearing once more, for all the universe to see, unresponsive and almost dead.
xxXxXxx
Deja vu. That's what this moment was. Lyzack hovered near Hellbat's berth, watching as the medics poured over his frame; pulling back his chestplates and bearing his inner-most circuitry to the room. She thought to look away from a sight so macabre and so intimate, but her optics were welded to the prone mech, thoughts running a mile a klik. He was alive...
For reasons she could still not grasp within her state of shock, this mech had willingly sat and taken a blade straight through his plating. It was meant to kill him. It almost had... and it had driven her brother insane as a result as well. Why? Why was this happening? She had hoped that, with Leozack returned, he might heal and they would be together once more, like they had been when they were sparklings. She just wanted to share in his burden and be his closest confidant and friend...
She wanted what was lost in the past.
But now, it looked like she would never have any of that. Ever. Her optics narrowed, glaring now at Hellbat's lax frame, silently cursing him. It was all his fault! What power did he have over her brother? Why would he purposefully do something that would drive Leozack mad and condemn him as it did? Was that the extent of their camaraderie? To push and pull at one another, until the other completely snapped?!
Lyzack turned her helm away as the medics pulled out scalpels, cutting and pulling away damaged wires and broken grid work. It wasn't that she was weak or that the sight of another 'bots' circuitry made her nauseous, it was the fact that if she stared any longer, she would not be able to refrain from lunging forward and stealing a scalpel from one of the medics and plunging it deep into Hellbat's weakly, flickering spark. Yes... she was blaming him. She was conscious enough even through her shock and anger to recognize when she was holding someone else responsible for things that, once again, she had been unable to do anything about.
She hated feeling so weak and helpless...
A flash of deep royal blue caught her attention from the open medbay doors. Spark skipping a pulse, the femme quickly dashed for the door, slipping around both medics and patients alike, running out into the hallway. "E-emporer Deathsaurus!," she called, cursing her slight stutter silently. Lyzack stood up straight as the dragon-former paused at her call, turning around and facing the smaller Destron. He did not speak, but his optics flared momentarily; acknowledging her presence. Lyzack supposed with this new peace, came a new power structure... She was glad at the very least that she would not be punished for disturbing her leader so suddenly and informally.
"Lord Deathsaurus...," she started slowly, taking the time to properly phrase her words, "My brother, Leozack-"
"He has been taken to the brig." Deathsaurus turned to face the femme fully, his claws resting on his hips loosely. "His actions of today can not be forgiven, not if we are to move forward with our peace. And his threats of terrorism make him even more guilty. I am afraid that I can not let these trangressions slide anymore, Lyzack. Your brother will receive corporal punishment."
Hearing that declaration again made Lyzack's spark wither in its chamber. Wings trembling minutely, she tried to remain standing before the bigger Destron, ignoring the heat slowly crawling across her optics. "I...I-i understand, sir," she continued. She could not fight Deathsaurus on his decisions, no matter how much she wished too. She already knew that he would not listen to her... "But, h-he is my brother -the only family I have! P-please, Lord Deathsaurus, allow me to go se-"
"No," came the cold and callous reply. The femme swallowed back the rest of her question, shuttering her optics up at Deathsaurus in shock. He looked down on her, his bloody gaze sharp beneath the curve of his forehead crest.
He had not even let her finish her request...
He wasn't even offering reasons as to why she was being denied.
Lyzack startled as Deathsaurus turned away from her, his great wings shuffling along his backstruts to keep from scuffing on the ceiling. She did not think as she jumped forward, servos clasping at her chestplates in desperation. "P-please! Lord Deathsaurus!," she cried, keeping at his heels, unable to deny the tears welling up in her optics now. "I only wish to see him! Please, d-do not keep from him a-anymore!"
The dragon-former didn't even turn to face her. "Lyzack...," his powerful voice intoned lowly.
The femme paused, frightened that she had finally angered him; unable to move from her spot, even though he was still walking away in even stride.
"Return to the medbay and help the others," Deathsaurus ordered over his wings as he reached the end of the corridor. "You shall be informed of your brother's execution once it has been set."
Trembling wings drooped behind her, joining her fists that slowly fell, hanging by her sides hopelessly as she watched her leader turn the bend and disappear from sight completely. The astroseconds dragged by tortuously, before the femme could refrain no longer -her helm dropped as a small sob escaped her; tears plopping at the floor beneath her pedes one after the other.
xxXxXxx
The halls of the sunken ship were dark and dim; large, purple and black shadows reaching from every corner and nook, threatening to smother out of the few pot lights lining the floor and ceiling, shining with what little they could muster. Of course, what he feared wasn't the darkness -it was the conniving, slimy scrapheaps, watching his every move, that even sent a flicker of worry through the lieutenant commander.
Slamming open a barely visible door in the over-lapping metal panels, the teal Destron quickly stormed inside; grabbing the fin of the startled mech within and throwing him against a wall. "Have you been taping me?!," Leozack snarled, closing in on the other jet with clenched servos.
Grasping his aching helm with a servo, Hellbat looked up at his superior nervously. "N-no! Not at all!," he swore quickly, "P-please, believe me Lieutenant Commander! I-"
Leozack punched the blue Destron, stomping a pede on the lowered helm. "The day I believe you is the day I end up on the scrapheap!," he snapped. Spitting on the other mech disgustedly, he headed to the computer terminal at the back wall, tapping quickly at the keys.
Touching his top fin gingerly, Hellbat slowly sat back up, anxiously looking at the teal jet's backstruts. He hoped that the lieutenant commander would not be able to access his files but he abandoned that hope when the computer gave a successful beep; pulling up all of his folders.
Scanning them quickly with his optics, Leozack was both enraged and disgusted to see that it was files on him -and organized in the strangest fashion. "I can't tell if you're trying to embarrass me or if you're just that twisted," Leozack said over his wing, selecting the first folder, titled 'shower', and dragging the mouse to include all the rest.
"No matter though," the tomcat jet continued, deleting everything with a simple press of a button, "This only proves what I said -you were recording me for blackmail purposes. How pathetic of you..." Turning around, Leozack smirked nastily at the still crumpled Destron, his servos propped on his hips.
He ignored the pathetic look Hellbat was giving him or the fact that he didn't even try to deny what he'd just seen. "Next time you try to blackmail me...," the teal mech informed, strutting for the door, "Maybe you should properly encrypt your files. Or I'll just rip your stupid, useless wings off."
Hellbat watched him go quietly, not saying a word.
xxXxXxx
"You're still here?"
Lyzack turned her helm shortly from her seat beside the prone mech, shuttering her optics wearily at the new-comer. She recognized the grey and purple plating of one of the Breastforce members, but for the life of her, she could not recall his designation at that moment. Venting shortly, the femme turned back forward in her seat; shuffling her wings tiredly.
"Is that a problem?," she replied after a moment, vocalizer soft with exhaustion.
"No...," the mech answered, "But it is well past the communal recharge time and even the medics have retired for the rest of the orn."
Lyzack grabbed the clothe beside Hellbat's berthside, using it to dot away the condensation from his plating as a distraction. "I'm not tired."
The soldier walked around the berth, standing directly opposite from her, making it harder for the femme to ignore him. "Your appearance would dictate otherwise," he callously pointed out. "Your wings are stiff and far lower on their struts than any decent jet's should be. Not to mention your plating is gathering a certain layer of dust due to lack of activity, and I can tell that your joints are beginning to lock up in your knees from sitting so long."
She glared at him for his audacity, fist clenching slightly as she returned the clothe to its proper tray.
Brushing aside her look, the mech turned to the system-support machines standing to his side; a myriad of cords and wiring looping into each other and into the open network of components within Hellbat's chassis. He seemed to be reading the lines of glyphs and graphs as he continued to ignore her. Perhaps he even knew what they meant, unlike her.
"...is there a reason for your visit, other than to pester me with facts?," Lyzack demanded, her patience waning quickly. "You're up a little late yourself, if the rest of the colony is as deep into their recharge cycle as you state."
At the jab, the soldier raised his helm, looking directly into the femme's optics. For a 'bot so large and bulky, he didn't seem commonly dimwitted. In fact, there was a profound wisdom in his narrow optics -maybe a bit more forward than she would have liked, but there was no ill intent or hidden agenda accessible within his gaze.
"Wasting away beside his berthside will not help you any. This mech is not your brother," he said softly. "Nor will that change anything."
Lyzack bristled at the words, feeling the truth she had been trying to forget stab deep into her spark. Rising to her pedes quickly, she leaned forward across Hellbat's berth, wings flared in warning. "You would do best to mind your own business!," she snarled. "Unless you have something sensible to say, I suggest you leave me alone to my ward."
The mech lifted his servos placatingly, his expression stubbornly neutral. "I did not mean to mock," was his reply.
Glaring still, Lyzack kept her pose until the drill-tank had circled back around the berth, heading for the exit. Only when she heard the medbay doors open and close behind her, did the femme finally collapse back in her chair, servos shaking. Her view of Hellbat's darkened optics and the beating pulse of energon cables plugged into his open chestplates was obscured as the coolant pooled quickly in her own orbs; scattering the pixels and making it hard to focus as grief overtook her again.
"...b-brother..."
xxXxXxx
Those stupid Cybertronians!
Leozack grasped his arm weakly, trying to staunch the energon pumping richly from his wound. His breast-animal, Lionbreast, was still missing but he could feel twinges of pain echoing from their bond. He prayed the lion wasn't captured... The Destron doubted he'd be able to mount a rescue in his pitiful state and he was certain that cruel idiot, Deathsaurus, would only leave Lionbreast to the Cybertronians as a means to punish him.
"Slag...!," the teal jet cursed weakly, moving as gunfire started shooting the rock he'd taken cover behind; chipping it into a hundred, thousand gravelly pieces. Limping, Leozack shuffled out from the safety of his hiding spot, circling as quickly as he could around the surrounding hillsides. He had to get away, before he ended up offline or captured himself.
Fans chugging weakly, the Destron continued with his sad, little stumble-run, always hearing the Cybertronians just behind him. Why wouldn't they just him alone?, Leozack screamed inside. They'd won already -his troops had retreated, they'd not managed to take any energy and he was horribly wounded. Did they have to hunt him down and finish the job too?! So caught up in his angry, paranoid thoughts, the jet did not realize that he'd wandered into a large nest of thorny vines, until the pestering vegetation wound around his pedes; the razor-edged needles and thorns getting into the seams and biting into his unprotected circuitry.
Biting back a painful yelp, Leozack tried to rip himself free but only wound the vines tighter, increasing the agonizing sting. The Destron ended up crashing to the ground moments after, cringing as the vines dug deeper.
"Ah-ha!," someone called from behind him, "I found one!" Terror spread through Leozack as he twisted his helm back, staring up at one of the Cybetronians that walked out of the woods; blaster in his servos and a triumphant smirk on his faceplates.
"Ha, it's Leozack too!," he boasted loudly, "Today's my lucky day!"
He was weaponless, wounded, tangled and currently incapable of transformation. He was as good as dead. Shuttering his optics, Leozack waited for the Cybertronian to either shoot him or to knock him out and take him prisoner. The Cybertronian stepped forward to fulfill one or the other of available options, when there was a sick crunch and a weak yelp as something crashed back into the woods.
Onlining his optics in surprise, Leozack was startled to see Hellbat slowly approaching; fresh energon staining his battered frame, part of a smile showing through the crack of his battle mask. "...you're still alive...," he sighed happily, crouching by his superior's side cautiously, "When we were forced to retreat, I didn't see even your vapor trail in the sky... I came back to make sure you weren't still here."
Leozack just stared at the other Destron. He couldn't pinpoint the other's motive in returning and Hellbat's lax smile was slowly digging under his circuits, worse than the thorns biting into his under-wiring. But he wasn't nearly as confused as when he noticed the teal snout that peeked over the protective cage of the rafale jet's arms.
"Oh," Hellbat mumbled, turning his helm down as Lionbreast struggled to rise and return to his master, "I found this poor guy getting pinned down by Blacker's two lackeys. I thought it'd be best to get him back to you."
He lowered Lionbreast towards the lieutenant commander and Leozack was loathe to admit that he sat up quickly to receive his breastanimal. Hellbat stood by silently, watching intently as Lionbreast leapt from his arms immediately, transforming and clicking into his proper place on the other mech's chestplates. Leozack realized this after he and his breastanimal had been reunited and scowled in defensive discomfort.
The blue Destron quickly moved on though before anything could be said, ripping all the vines from the root, and quickly -but carefully- picked the ones tangled into Leozack's pedes free. The teal jet vented softly through his vents as the more pressing pain receded, but he never thanked the other. Destrons didn't do embarrassing things like that.
Grunting, the lieutenant commander pushed himself back up onto his pedes, hissing angrily when blue arms wrapped around his torso. Turning his helm, he glared at the rafale jet but Hellbat merely turned his optics away silently. "We'll get clear faster this way, then I'll fly us back to base," he mumbled, "We could get Drillhorn to fix the worse of the damage after."
It was a reasonable excuse, Leozack noted, and not that far from the truth. Besides, he'd be in danger if he lingered around this area any longer. Trying to swallow back his embarrassment and indignation, the teal Destron allowed Hellbat to lead them forward; ignoring the way the arm around his chassis tightened a few degrees and how warm the other's plating felt lined against his own.
xxXxXxx
He could remember now. Remember that he was never far away; that the rafale would always show just when things had spiraled out of control. Not to taunt him, not to harass or try to gain leverage on him (though it was something anyone else would have done) but simply to get him out.
Save him, to put it bluntly.
Why? he wished to ask. For what purpose?
His chains buzzed as he shifted slightly, his wings giving a soft flicker; wishing for air to brush against, for open sky to glide upon. But he was a dead mech...
Dead...
"Lieutenant Commander?"
The jet flinched, helm tilting to the side as the achingly familiar vocalizer spoke within his audio.
"Oh... Lieutenant Commander..."
Now he felt those brazen servos on him, ghosting over his frame; brushing over the wounds in his side, circling around his chassis in an embrace. He didn't fight it, didn't even feel enraged or humiliated or indignant. He longed for this -needed it- he realized, and was tormented when his sensory grid barely buzzed at the insubstantial touches.
"My poor Lieutenant Commander," the remorseful vocalizer sighed gently, "Look at what they've done to you... Again, I've failed you. I regret that."
There was nothing there. His dim optics tried to see through the darkness of his cell, but it only confirmed that he was alone. That Hellbat no longer functioned and his slow decay into the scrapheap brought forth these taunting delusions. Vents choking flatly, the Destron offlined his optics again, needing to escape this fact.
"My precious Lieutenant Commander," the vocalizer continued, pressing close with a ghostly heat, "Let me help you... Allow me to release you from this torment."
Leozack gasped weakly as pleasure echoed faintly across his sensors, driving away the rest of his sanity.
xxXxXxx
Star Saber shifted through a pile of datapads quietly, browsing through their contents and placing all of them neatly to the side once finished. The desk he sat at was narrow and small, with hardly any surface volume, and the datapad piles swayed almost dangerously; threatening to collapse and blend into one another again, but there was nothing for it. True, this was inconvenient, yet it was the only space Deathsaurus had offered, and considering how much work had been passed off to the Cybertronian, an office was a necessary accommodation. Trying to over look this while playing a curious-game of Jenga with the datapads, there came a knock at the door, drawing Star Saber's attention.
"Come in," he quietly called, stabilizing the rickety piles, opening the door with a switch.
"Sir," Laster said, entering with a short salute. He paused, glancing at the chaotic desk. "...Paperwork?"
Star Saber smiled wearily. "It has to be done, unfortunately," the superior replied. "Deathsaurus seems sincere in his wish for peace, so if this is what I must contribute, than I am glad to do it. It is nothing that I have not done before."
Laster nodded, falling quiet for a moment.
"...is there something on your mind, Laster?," Star Saber asked.
The yellow mech did not reply for a klik longer, but when he did his words were hesitant and careful. "Sir, Leozack... What will become of him?"
The larger Cybertronian didn't know what to say. "I... am uncertain," he eventually sighed. "Deathsaurus refuses to answer any of my comms and I've heard no further news on Leozack myself."
"The medics say Hellbat's recovery is slow but consistent," Laster added. "None though have heard of anyone going down to the brig to tend to Leozack. Rumor is... he's being left to rot."
Dreadful, but not surprising news, really.
"Sir... What are we supposed to do now?"
It was a question that required much thought... and had no easy answers. "For now, please do your best to help the others when they might need it, Laster," the Cybertronian told his yellow comrade. "We need to strengthen relations with our Destron brethren and I know there is much to do around the Fortress. I will try to get Deathsaurus to speak with me, in hopes of dissuading him from another execution. One near-fatal attempt has already proven the wrong course; pushing for another will only divide our people."
The smaller warrior nodded in agreement with his superior, his optics scanning the room, falling on the little human sleeping atop a small cabinet. "...Is Jan-?"
"Well," Star Saber answered, "He is sleeping well... I fear what tomorrow might bring though."
"We never wanted him to find out about Hellbat," Laster apologized. The multi-coloured mech waved him off, with a sad smile, dim optics fixed on his adoptive charge.
"I know, my friend... I never wished for him to see the darker side of our war either..." Star Saber paused to vent exhaustedly. "The only thing we can do now is show Jan that we are not monsters, and quickly bring this treaty to motion, before any more trouble arises."
The brainmaster could only nod, completely understanding and sympathetic. With nothing more to say, he bid the Commander goodnight and good luck; leaving with a report to give his other comrades.