Author's Note: Ta da! Yes new chapter and it didn't take two months! Thanks for all the reviews, they keep me going.
Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers and the Lion King or any of their characters. Keira is mine though.
Keira stared at the object in Knock Out's hand.
"A buffer?" she asked, not sure if he was playing with her again.
"That's right. And I even went back to that pathetic truck of yours to get one for you... You'll need a new door by the way." Knock Out said as he produced something from what Keira knew as subspace. And indeed, it was her toolkit, she was sure since it had her initials on it.
Keira would've thought it was sweet for him to get it…
…If he didn't just wreck her truck in the process. She wanted to say something back, but thought against it, thinking he'd just say something like, 'It looked wrecked to begin with' or 'I think I made it look even better actually.'
Her teacher tossed it to her and she caught it with an 'oomph', snapping out of her thoughts. She took her buffer out and dropped the toolkit onto the floor, making sure it landed safely from that height since she was still currently standing on Megatron.
"Good, now, get to work." Knock Out said, turning back to his monitor.
…What?
"Wait, you do realize that I'm a human right?" she asked, not sure if she heard him right.
"Uh-huh."
"And that my buffer is designed for humans to use."
"That's why I got it for you, yes." he replied, still focused on his work.
"And you expect me to use this tiny buffer," she shook said tool in her hand, "on that giant robot?" she gestured to Megatron with the hand holding the buffer.
Knock Out sighed as he shook his head. "Sometimes it amazes me how you fleshlings have survived this long. And yes, I expect you to do just that. Or at least until Starscream's done checking in on the patient."
Keira crossed her arms. "Ok, hold on. There's that name again, 'Starscream'. He's the one Soundwave showed on his… visor thing right? Who is he anyway?"
Knock Out paused, as if considering what to say. Then he turned around to face Keira. "I'll answer you as long as you start buffing."
She nodded. "Fair enough." She turned her tool on, and started shining Megatron's right shoulder.
Satisfied to finally get her to do something, Knock Out fulfilled his part of the deal. "Now as for your question, Starscream is Megatron's second-in-command, answers to no one but the big M himself."
"Does he run things here now that Megatron's… unwell?" she asked, choosing her words carefully as she continued buffing.
Knock Out shrugged. "More or less."
"He must want Megatron back then, if he's coming here to check up on him and considering that you mentioned it was Starscream who found Megatron in the first place." Keira mused
And by the time she finished speaking, her teacher was laughing…hard.
This made her nervous. "Did I say something wrong?"
Knock Out raised a servo to her, gesturing for her to wait until he was done laughing about whatever it was that he found funny.
He chuckled twice more before finally calming down. "You have a sense of humor, you know that, fleshling?"
"Maybe I'd agree with you if you told me what was so funny."
He shook his head, a smirk on his faceplate. "Starscream would want nothing more than for Megatron to finally 'be one with the Allspark.'" he said, air quoting the last part.
"You mean Starscream wants Megatron-"
"Terminated, offlined, scrapped, or in human terms, dead." Knock out counted off each one with his claws.
Ah.
She couldn't help but think of Mufasa and Scar from the Lion King. She giggled at this.
Knock Out smirked. "I assume you laughed because you get it now?"
"No, I mean, I get it, yeah but that's not why I was laughing. Let's just say their situation reminded me of a movie."
"Hmm, one of your species' modes of entertainment."
"Yeah, sure. You could probably watch some. I mean, there are drive-in theatres you could go to."
Knock Out waved her off. "I don't know if you've noticed but I have more important things to do. Now if we're done here, Starscream should come by anytime now. Try not to make him mad, I'd hate to clean up the mess."
Keira shivered at how Knock Out said it, like it was a common thing to happen. "He knows that there's a human aboard, right?"
"He does, but he doesn't actually care. And anything that'll help Megatron recover is reason enough to hate you, and there's the fact about you being a fleshling. I can already tell you two are going to get along nicely."
Even though she knew Knock Out meant the last part of his sentence to be sarcastic, Keira hoped that he was still right.
She paused to look at Megatron's faceplate, the warlord still deep in slumber. Keira lowered her voice. "It would be real swell if you decided to wake up right now, big guy."
For a moment, Keira thought that her hands would never stop shaking after having used the buffer for as long as she did. And she was only halfway done with Megatron's left shoulder.
As she was doing this, the med bay doors swished open, indicating that someone had just entered.
"And how is the patient doing today, doctor?" a voice asked.
Keira turned to see probably the thinnest robot she'd seen on the ship. He had wings on his back and that gave her an idea as to what he transformed into. On his chest was the Decepticon sigil Knock Out told her about, only it was red in color rather than the purple one her teacher said was common among them.
She shivered as she caught a glimpse of his claws; they looked…sharper than those of Knock Out and Megatron.
I wonder if he files them.
She giggled at this and froze as she realized her mistake. Luckily Knock Out was speaking at the same time.
"Same as every other time you've asked me, Commander Starscream."
Said 'bot growled. "How many times must I tell all of you!? It is LORD Starscream now."
Knock Out wasn't fazed by his outrage though and simply shrugged. "As long as my monitor registers life signs from Lord Megatron", Keira noticed Starscream flinch as the sportscar emphasized Megatron's name. "I don't think you'll be earning that title anytime soon."
Keira heard Starscream scowl once more before turning to Megatron…and her.
The Decepticon second-in-command narrowed his optics as he focused on her. "And you must be Knock Out's human pet."
Not knowing if she should respond or not, she chose to simply nod.
Starscream chuckled. "What? You haven't taught it how to speak, doctor?"
Knock Out sighed. "Just tell him your name, that might make him go away."
"I'm Keira Grayson." she finally said, thankful that her voice didn't falter.
"See? That wasn't so hard now, was it?" Starscream asked, inching closer to her.
Keira had stopped buffing at this point, thinking that he'd probably vaporize her if she didn't pay much attention to him. She could already tell that he was one to adore the spotlight, as long as it was on him.
The seeker looked her up and down. "You never told me you got a female, Knock Out."
The medic shrugged. "Does it matter?"
"Perhaps. A female's hands, organic or not, are known to be more delicate. Delicate hands for a delicate operation; that is, if we were to even go through with the procedure."
Keira noticed Knock Out roll his optics as he stood behind the seeker. "Of course we are, that's why she's here."
Starscream eyed the buffer in her hand and looked back at her. " And I can already tell she's hard at work, dear doctor." Then he moved away, already making his way for the exit. "Keep it up, fleshling. We do want Megatron looking his best when we finally decide to hold his memorial." And with that, he left.
Keira let out a breath she didn't know she was holding.
"That went well." Knock Out deadpanned.
Keira scoffed, "What from that went well?"
"He didn't kill you now, did he?"
Deciding that Knock Out made a good point, Keira let it go and turned her buffer back on.
Then a thought struck her. "Knock Out?"
Her teacher let out a sigh. "What?"
"About Starscream… were those high heels he-"
"We don't talk about that ever, do you understand? Not unless you want one of his claws scratching your perfect finish."
Keira tilted her head. "My what?"
"Oh, I mean, clawing your skin off." He stopped typing on his console and made his way to the door. "Anyways now that visiting hours are over, I need to go see to some other matters. I'll be back."
"And you expect me to stay here and keep buffing?"
Knock Out looked at her and paused. "I suppose you can stop. I don't want you shaking when I need you to do some actual work. Just stay here and don't touch anything."
Happy to follow that order, Keira turned her tool off and dropped it to floor. Then she shook her hands and rolled her shoulders. "Thanks."
She got a simple 'hmph' from his as a reply.
And just like that, she was left alone once again with the warlord.
Which means…
She plopped down to sit on his torso and smiled. "Hey there. Before I start, can I just say that your second-in-command, you know, Starscream? The one with the heels? Yeah I can already tell what a pain in the ass- or aft- he is. Anyways, feel like sharing anything now?"
Megatron had torn through two more Autobots before he heard that voice again, this time, no longer surprised.
Hey there
Once the Autobots had been vanquished, Megatron strode back to sit on his throne. "Ah, you've returned."
Share… anything?
The tyrant raised an optic ridge. "Anything?"
Yeah
He didn't feel like sharing much about his days as Megatronus, so he instead tried thinking back to what brought him to where he was now, Kaon.
But all he saw was space. Then he froze, suddenly remembering a blurred shape gliding above him.
"There was… someone there. Then when I… 'woke' up, I was here, and Cybertron was mine."
Starscream
"Starscream?" Megatron's clenched his servos into fists. He always seemed to do that when his SIC was mentioned.
The one with the heels? Yeah.
He had to smirk at that. "What about my treacherous lieutenant is of importance?"
Think… back
Despite the fact that he was being ordered around, something he wasn't very fond of, he still did as he was told…
And was glad he did.
He remembered it clearly. He was floating in space, badly damaged, with debris surrounding him, and then he saw Starscream.
Megatron snarled as he remembered all what his soon-to-be-slagged subordinate had said to him. As the image of Starscream pulling the Dark Energon from his spark and kicking him away attacked his processor, the warlord snapped and fired a few stray shots from his fusion cannon.
"I should have known that pest was involved. Where is he?" He yelled upwards.
Came… med-ba... Nemesis.
Reminding himself stay calm, the warlord sighed heavily and analyzed the situation. He was on Kaon and Starscream was on the Nemesis, no doubt busy declaring himself a king to the others. But what happened before and after Starscream's traitorous act?
"Why am I here and not back on the Nemesis? And what brought me to such a… weak state that I was not able to kill Starscream then and there?"
No reply.
And more shots were fired.
"Then answer me this, voice. How may I get back to the Nemesis?"
Wake-
"-Up. I said get up, fleshling."
Keira felt someone shake her. Blinking a few times, she felt something metal on her cheek. Then realized she had fallen asleep on Megatron's chest.
She sat up, rather abruptly and, with reluctance, dared to look at who had woken her up.
It came as a surprise to her when she wasn't greeted to the sight of the familiar white faceplate and red optics of Knock Out, but instead to an orange faceplate and yellow optics. And unlike Starscream, Knock Out, and even Soundwave, this one was bigger.
Without warning, the newcomer scooped her up into one servo and started walking.
Still drowsy from waking up so suddenly, Keira couldn't form any coherent sentences yet. "W-what? Who-"
"Relax, I'm not going to crush you under my foot or anything like that. Knock Out thought that you'd need some rest soon and told me to bring you to a berth. Judging by the state I found you in, the doc was right."
Keira could do nothing but stare at him as he continued speaking.
"Just what were you thinking, anyway? Falling asleep on Megatron?"
She did nothing but shrug, not knowing the answer herself. Well she did, she was tired and hadn't gotten any sleep since she was taken by Knock Out, and it was already late at night when that had happened.
Though she knew that what she did seemed rather… scandalous, she wasn't as bothered by it as she should have been. Even in his weakened state, Keira felt Megatron's intimidating aura, and something else.
She had felt…
Safe. As if no one could have harmed her while she was with him.
Like when Starscream was on his way. She had asked the tyrant to wake up and…
What? What exactly did I expect him to do? Defend me?
Not wanting to think more about someone who she hasn't even spoken to, or rather, had a real conversation with, she forced herself to sleep as she was carried away by the new big Decepticon.
As the two left the med-bay, they failed to notice one of Megatron's servos twitch.
Author's Note: Yeah not sure how I feel about this one. Anyways, review and let me know what you think :D And now it's late so I'll reply to reviews when I can ;)
(p.s. I've watched Deadlock and well…ok, I don't want to spoil it so I'll shut up now)