~O~
6
Red Alert awoke and found Shockwave attempting to lure one of his specimens out of its cell. A snarling, titanium moosebot.
"Shockwave!" she exclaimed, watching as he tugged on the shock collar he had been using.
The moosebot let out a bellowing cry and raised itself up to slam its hooves down onto Shockwave; but before it could, Red Alert stepped between it and the Decepticon. She reached out with two hands and began to stroke the creature's muzzle. It slowly calmed and let out a thick, rumbling grunt.
"There there..." she soothed, "It's okay. We're okay."
Shockwave watched this, straightening where he stood. Red Alert looked at him and gestured with one hand.
"Come here, Shockwave." she said. "It just needs a gentler touch."
Shockwave clicked his mandibles before Red Alert took his hand. The moosebot stirred a little, growling in distress, but Red Alert soothed it with gentle Cybertronian.
"No, no, it's okay," she told the animal. "Okay. Good."
Shockwave's hand was placed on its side and he felt the cybernetics within its body whirring. The animal stirred a little, nervous and Red Alert shushed it.
"See?" she told the Decepticon. "If you give it a more gentler touch, it will obey you."
Shockwave stared at her for a moment.
Red Alert reached for a bucket filled with Energon treats and held one out to the moosebot. It sniffed her hand and she smiled when it gobbled the treat up. Red Alert chuckled and turned to Shockwave. She removed a treat from the bucket and placed it into his hand.
"Now you try." she said.
Shockwave seemed to consider her request before he held out the treat to the moosebot. The animal backed away and let out a snort, but Red Alert continued to calm it. Shockwave reached out and the moosebot hesitated, sniffing his hand for a few moments.
Eventually, it took the treat from his hand and stepped back, braying. Red Alert smiled at the sight.
"It just takes a little time and patience." she told him.
Later that day, Red Alert was given a surprise.
Shockwave did not call for her simply for interface. He called and asked her if it was what she wanted to do. Red Alert didn't really know how to answer.
"I'm sorry?" she said.
"I want to interface, but I am asking if it is something you wish for as well." Shockwave said, simply.
Red Alert stood there, shocked. She was being given a choice?
Shockwave's mandibles clicked once and his optic narrowed. He spent a moment waiting for a response before he approached her. Red Alert expected to be hit and so cringed back a bit - she hadn't intended to do so, but she was prepared for it nonetheless.
Shockwave hesitated now. "No. Do not look at me like that."
Red Alert frowned, confused. "Like what...?"
"Like you're afraid of me."
Red Alert was still confused and wavered, shaking her head. "I don't understand."
Shockwave raised his claws, as if to seize her, but held them inches over her face before clenching them into a fist. He gestured gruffly with a flick of his head.
"Leave." he ordered.
"What?"
"Leave!"
Red Alert quickly rushed from the room with a frightened sound.
O
Slipstream was more than surprised when Shockwave called for her.
"What troubles you, my friend?" she crooned.
Shockwave was standing at his table, contemplative. "My slave confuses me."
Slipstream tilted her head curiously. "Does she? Well, she is a curious little Autobot." she remarked. "I'm surprised she has managed to baffle you so. But as you know, if a slave fails to uphold your expectations, she is to be sent away...or killed."
Shockwave shook his head. "She has not failed my expectations, you fool."
"Then what concerns you?" Slipstream asked.
"I want to know what she discussed with you. What you two have been plotting," Shockwave said, evenly. "And I will find out. One way or another."
Slipstream grinned. "Aww, a little patch?" she cackled. "That might be fun to see!"
"Not on the Autobot. On you."
Slipstream looked surprised. "Really. Little me? You do understand that us clones have a unified mind. Whatever you see could come from any one of us."
"I am prepared. Which is why you will have your central processor shut down. Now get onto my table before I break your legs."
O
Red Alert didn't know what she stared at.
The statue of Optimus Prime had been taken down and replaced with one of Megatron, in a pose that represented all the glory of Cybertron.
Or so it read on the plaque.
But Red Alert was not so certain. Her people were slaves. They were traded like toys or Energon, but in the same instant, Cybertron was flourishing again. She saw signs of the fauna returning, the Energon trees were growing again... what did this all mean?
There was no way they had been the problem. No. That wasn't possible.
But why did the thought pass her mind anyway?
"Autobot."
Red Alert turned, finding Sentinel Prime approaching her. She was concerned about being alone with the traitor of the Autobots. Concerned in the way that she would say something she would surely regret. Sentinel simply watched her as he approached.
"You're thinking about what's happened here," he said, evenly.
"I am, sir..."
Sentinel let out a small sigh. "I know you hate what I've become." he told her. "Truth of the matter is, I can't say this union between myself and Megatron is something I should be proud of. I'm not. But if you knew how badly our planet was falling apart - "
"So that means betray Optimus and his trust?" Red Alert's words left her before she could stop herself.
Sentinel's optics narrowed and his features smoothed out a little. "Optimus was my student. He looked up to me to teach him everything I knew. I regret that he had to die for this all to end. I truly do. But to save our home and the lives of all of us, I had to make that sacrifice."
Red Alert knew she couldn't say anything to make him understand. Sentinel would forever keep his own opinion of the matter and not change it purely because she wanted him to.
"Now then. Return to your master." Sentinel told her.
Red Alert scowled after him. "I am no one's slave."
Sentinel smiled a little and glanced back at her as he started to go. He chuckled and departed, leaving her alone with her thoughts and her indignity.
Later that evening, she returned to Shockwave's laboratory and found him waiting for her.
"Where did you go?" he asked.
Red Alert shrugged her shoulders. "Just to think."
"Understood."
Shockwave's behavior seemed peculiar, but Red Alert didn't note it.
"Sit." he ordered, gesturing to the other side of a table where he sat.
"I don't think - "
"No! I will speak to you now."
Red Alert nodded. "All right."
She took a seat at regarded the Decepticon carefully. "What did you want to discuss?"
"You. What are you?"
Red Alert frowned. "Sorry?"
"I understand you are unique," Shockwave replied, hesitating a few times in his words, "I do not comprehend the nature of you, Autobot. It is not an easy feat to fool me. I know many and all types of your kind."
"Well, that is where you're wrong, Shockwave." Red Alert said, evenly. She watched his optic narrow a little. "What we are compared to you isn't different. We are both Cybertronians. As for our titles? They are about choice. I chose to be an Autobot as you chose to be a Decepticon."
"No. There was no choice."
"For some of us, there was. No one forced me to be an Autobot."
"Then why make that choice?"
"To be an Autobot?"
He nodded.
Red Alert sat there, pondering this. When she felt herself ready to answer, her mind somehow pulled back. Now that she had given it a lot of thought, she didn't know. Shockwave watched her for a few moments.
"Do you not know?" he asked.
"I suppose I don't."
"Hm." Shockwave said nothing more.
Red Alert was quiet for a few moments more before she spoke again. "And you?"
"I joined the Decepticons because Optimus was a fool. Megatron was a bot of vision."
"Optimus was no fool!"
"Wasn't he?" Shockwave countered. "His plans for a 'just Cybertron' went only as far as was convenient to him. Megatron and most Decepticons had their own means of what was 'just', but they did not fit in with what Autobots believed. In a sense, the entire war is a game of fools."
Red Alert wanted to argue, but her words stcuk in her vocals.
What if he was right?
"I don't believe that..." she said, but it was pointless. Her voice betrayed her.
"Well, it doesn't matter what you believe." Shockwave said, simply. "You are a simple pawn in this game. You always have been. Your thoughts are irrelevant."
Red Alert's optics narrowed. "Then why speak to me at all?"
Shockwave was silent for a moment. "I did not insinuate that your thoughts were irrelevant in an entirety. Simply to those who boast a higher status. Trying to change what cannot be changed will not merit results. I am a scientist and a warrior. I have seen enough of this to understand. I was particularly intrigued with what I witnessed in Slipstream's mind."
Red Alert understood that he must have initiated a psychic patch with the flier. She didn't want to think further on that because Shockwave was standing. He took a seat in front of her now and she frowned up at him.
He seemed thoughtful, given the slow click of his mandibles.
"Are you frightened of me?" he asked.
Red Alert nodded. "I'm no fool, Shockwave. Your strength is something to fear."
"Perhaps I should send you away?"
She looked confused.
"No... perhaps..." Shockwave seemed to contemplate before standing. "I will not touch you anymore. Unless you call for me specifically, I can tend to my own needs from now on."
Red Alert looked stunned. Unless she called for him? What did that mean?
She needed time to think about this, so she departed after he bid her away.
Maybe he needed to think too.
It had certainly changed for the strange these passed few days.