Slipchain.
Claiming it after her final mission on Cybertron, it was the first codename she used when she came to Earth, after she walked away from everything.
She wasn't one to pick names with sappy meanings, but this one held significance. It marked the end of a toxic, emotionally abusive relationship and reminded her that her past could only hurt her if she allowed it.
But right now, her past was up in her face, and she was letting him belittle her. How dare he walk back into her life after the slag she went through to get him out?
Rage quickly outweighed fear, and she stood her ground, shoving him back harshly. "You have a lot of nerve tracking me down and coming here."
"Woah, woah! Calm down!" he held his arms up in surrender, stumbling to regain his balance. "I can tell you missed me." he rolled his optics, tilting his helm at the strange accent that laced her words. "What's with the accent?" It was one he'd never heard before.
Her optics narrowed into a glare. She didn't bother to respond. He eventually took the hint and backed away.
Quickshadow started to feel overwhelmed by the multiple emotions triggered by her hormones. She was furious, confused, and just flat-out tired all at the same time, but her stoic mask didn't falter. She took a second to calm down and figure out what to do.
While she was distracted, the obsidian mech looked her up and down analytically. She looked a lot different. New wheels, spoilers, and rims: a new vehicle mode, he assumed. But something seemedoffabouther, and he couldn't figure out what.
Despite the icy glare she was shooting him; she radiated something akin to warmth and tenderness. It greatly unsettled him, and he made a mental note to look into it.
She felt his optics burning into her metal and caught him staring. "My optics are up here." her arms crossed over her windshield.
"My bad." he shifted his optics away, shrugging sheepishly.
"What are you doing here?" she demanded, not in the mood for his antics.
"That much should be obvious," he stated, leaning against the wall. "I came here to claim what is rightfully mine." he gestured in her direction, catching a glimpse of disdain in her glare.
She was disgusted. He had no shame. He stalked her for weeks, and now here he was, trying to get her back.
She wanted to punch that stupid grin off his faceplates, but she wouldn't. Not here.
She glared at him long and hard. "Leave."
He wryly laughed. "Afraid I can't do that, sweetspark." his grin widened. "I'm one of the new superintendents."
Alarms immediately went off in her helm, and her face betrayed her anxiety. He mistook her unease for disbelief and scoffed. "What? You didn't think I'd make it?"
If things had played out differently between them,if he hadn't betrayed her, she would be ecstatic for him.
It was his life-long goal to someday be in charge of a division. Not because of some noble reason or because he thought he could be a good leader and bring change but because he wanted to prove everyone who criticized him wrong.
Quickshadow shook her helm, reprimanding herself for showing emotion. "No..I just.." she bit her glossa, realizing she almost fell into his trap. She steadied her breathing, feeling her anger flare again.
He degraded at her with a crooked smile, oddly pleased that he could still get under her skin.
"I missed you." he blurted after a few seconds of silence.
"Liar." She brushed past him. "You miss being able to control me."
"C'mon, Slipchai—"
"I don't want to hear it." She started for the door. If he wouldn't leave, she'd walk away.
He dropped the charisma and grabbed her servo, or at least tried to. She twisted away and glared at him. His expression shifted, and his optics dimmed considerably. He glared right back.
"5 years." he scoffs. "You've been gone half a decade and never bothered to call or send a message."
Her jaw dropped slightly, utterly baffled by his insolence. She crossed her arms, waiting for him to wake up and realize he couldn't mess with her anymore. She knew how to deflect his mind tricks.
"You just up and left." his servos moved as he spoke, further conveying his thoughts. "No explanation, not even a note."
"I don't owe you any explanations." she seethed.
He paused, trying to look offended. "After everything I did for you—"
"Don't paint yourself the victim,Eclipse." She prodded her digit on his windshield; optics narrowed dangerously. "You know exactly why I left."
He gritted his denta and watched her slam the door behind her.
"How are you holding up?" Kade asked, helping Heatwave untangle his hose after the small brushfire they had just put out.
"I'm fine."
Kade stopped undoing the knot he found and eyed his partner dubiously.
Heatwave shifted uncomfortably, not really in the mood to share, but he knew Kade was only checking up on him.
"I don't know," he finally answered. "..I miss her." That much was evident.
Her departure affected him more than he expected, and for the first few weeks, against all prognostics, he almost shut down. He tried to isolate himself from the others, but they insisted that he needed their company. And they were right.
It was hard getting used to her absence, but with the whole team distracting him, he didn't turn to isolation, and everything became much easier once they started scheduling weekly calls.
"..But I guess I'm okay." he shrugged, clearing the last of the debris from the fire.
"How is she?"
"She says she hasn't been feeling well these past few weeks," he was vague with the details. "but other than that, she seems fine." Heatwave replied, transforming and opening the driver door to let Kade in.
"She wanted to talk about something important, but something came up, and she had to go." he continued.
"Hhm. What do you think she wanted to tell you?"
"No clue." Heatwave's face appeared on the monitor.
Kade furrowed his brows. Something about that narrative didn't sit right with him.What if?...nahh.He ruled out the idea as absurd. They were alien robots, after all.
Heatwave seemed lost in thought; optics fixed on the road.
"I don't think she's in danger. She would've messaged you if it was that urgent." Kade frowned. He didn't like seeing his partner so worked up. "Maybe her mission was extended, and she doesn't know how to tell you?" he suggests. He was trying to comfort him, but his words had the opposite effect on Heatwave.
"..Maybe." the firebot ignored the bothersome turn in his engine.
"..You really care about her." Kade pointed out. Heatwave met his eyes for a nanosecond.
"...Why didn't you tell her?"
The firebot grimaced and looked away. "I guess we just knew it wouldn't work out." he pursed his dermas. "She's an agent. She goes where the job takes her. She was bound to get reassigned sooner or later." he paused, feeling his spark falter in its chamber. "It was better to live in the moment, no labels, just us."
Kade nodded and didn't pry anymore, leaving Heatwave alone with his thoughts.
He couldn't fathom what Quickshadow wanted to talk about; he just hoped she was okay.
Superintendents rarely went out on the field, preferring to monitor everything from the base, but Eclipse insisted he wanted to get familiar with their team dynamic. In reality, he wanted another chance to try and work things out with Quickshadow.
To try to get her to believe his nonsense like she had many times before.
Quickshadow stood a good distance from the group, ignoring a few side glances as she watched Eclipse's excessive attempts to brief her colleagues on their tasks.
The group finally split up after having their orders repeated to them about four different times. Watching for anything suspicious to report, they stayed out of sight while they monitored the entire base.
Eclipse kept a subtle eye on her. He had to admit he didn't think getting her back would be this hard. She used to be so naive and easy to manipulate, but all his old tricks had failed so far. She dodged each verbal attack, each fake compliment, and countered them accordingly.
He used to have her wrapped around his digit, going along with everything he asked of her, but now she was avoiding him like the Cybonic Plague. It was irritating.
Five years helped her overcome her old weaknesses, but that didn't mean there weren't new ones. He just had to find out what they were.
An hour passed, and the first rays of light began to spill over the horizon. Quickshadow was cold and tired. The walls protected her from the violent winds, but it still took some effort to suppress a few shivers as she lurked through the shadows and pulled herself onto the facility's roof to get a bird's eye view.
She'd barely controlled her shivering when she heard pedsteps behind her and mentally groaned. "Your stealth skills still need work." she deadpanned, optics still trained on a Decepticon below.
"Give me a break. I have large peds." Eclipse defended. She merely shrugged, letting him stand there awkwardly.
"What do you want?"
He grimaced at the waver of annoyance in her tone, but he stuck with his script. "What I said yesterday...I'm sorry."
"Mhm." she shrugged indifferently, shifting on the rooftop to get a better view of the ground below. Eclipse followed, ducking slightly to avoid being seen.
She didn't seem the least bit interested in his half-witted apology and continued ignoring him. Frustrated with her lack of response, he reached over and tried to touch her shoulder pad, but she merely moved away and tilted her helm at him.
"What are you getting at?" irritation laced her words.
He paused before meeting her optics. "Look...can we start over?"
"Start over?" She scoffed, shifting to face him properly. "How stupid do you think I am?"
He blinked, not letting his face show his desperation.
"If you think I'd just forget theslagyou put me through and willingly allow you to manipulate me again.." She fought to keep her voice at a whisper. "..after how hard I fought to escape, you're completely insane."
He scowled and finally backed off, moving to the other side of the roof to locate any other Decepticons.
He was internally fighting himself on what to do. He wouldn't admit it to himself, but he was desperate. Desperate for the unconditional love she once had for him.
He spent years trying to locate her with no success, and now that he finally tracked her down, he was at the point where he'd doanythingto have her back at his side.
Quickshadow heard blaster fire from inside the building. She didn't spare Eclipse a glance as she climbed down and went inside.
She searched room by room until she heard muffled voices in the distance.
"I swear I saw something over there!" someone hissed. "A spy."
"Yeah? I doubt they came here alone. You just alerted all of 'em!" the second Decepticon growled.
"Secure the perimeter. Make sure no one gets in this room." a third ordered.
Quickshadow sunk into the shadows, realizing whatever they were hiding was in the room with her. Using her night vision, she scanned the room and saw something lying on a large table a few meters away.
She waited until she could hardly hear their pedsteps and went over to investigate. Her optics widened at the blueprints scattered before her; she instantly recognized the device.
This changed everything. How had they acquired these patents? She had to get in contact with Optimus. A device this powerful could do irreparable damage in the wrong hands. She contacted Eclipse and the other agents and briefed them on her findings.
After taking a copious amount of pictures and stashing away the blueprints and a few other important-looking documents, she started hacking a nearby monitor, looking for more information on their plans.
"Hey! Get away from there!" the two Decepticons came running over.
She moved away just in time to avoid the blaster fire they shot at her and ducked behind the counter.
They circled said counter from opposite sides and fired, but she wasn't there. Confused, they looked around until she came up behind one of them and swept his stabilizing servos from under him.
He looked up and immediately recognized her as the agent that got away a few days ago.
"You." he snarled, letting her know he had a vendetta against her. He signaled for his partner to call for backup before getting up and attacking her.
Feeling her engine turn, she begrudgingly fought back. She dodged his fists and kicked his blaster to the other side of the room.
The other bot snuck up from behind and grabbed her by the waist. Her servos locked around his neck, and she jumped, using her momentum to throw him at the mech in front of her.
They groaned in a pile of tangled limbs, and she whirled around to retrieve the USB but caught sight of a dark purple paint job and a fist coming at her.
She dodged the attack but felt her nausea worsen with the abrupt movement.
Unfortunately, the new opponent didn't give her any time to recover. He aimed to strike her neck, but her reflexes kicked in and blocked his servo.
She got up and waited for the bot to make another move. He wasted no time and lunged at her, but in contrast to the other two Decepticons, he struck with precision.
He was significantly better at hand-to-hand combat than the other two, and while she usually enjoyed a good fight, she was two moves away from throwing up.
Quickshadow blocked his hits as best she could, studying his fighting style in the process. He followed a single pattern, and it took her a few seconds to muster enough strength to grab his arm, twist it behind his frame and trip him.
He glared at her but felt his systems shut down when she struck a particular set of neck cables.
Quickshadow leaned against the wall, taking slow deep breaths to rid herself of her nausea. Her helm was spinning, and she was too distracted to realize she was being watched.
Behind her, the blue Decepticon had regained consciousness and quickly came to his senses when he saw her catching her breath. Silently reaching for his blaster, he shakily brought it up and fumbled for the trigger.
Before he could adequately aim at her, Eclipse stepped out from the shadows and stomped on his helm, effectively knocking him out.
"Someone got sloppy." he teased, but she didn't reply; she was too busy trying not to purge her tank then and there. Eclipse furrowed his optic ridges in question. "You okay?"
"I'm fine." she waved off his concern and collected the USB she left collecting data.
After every Decepticon guard was taken care of, the other agents regrouped and returned to the base to prepare for phase two. "Not you, Slipchain. I need a report of what you saw in there." he lied.
Quickshadow grit her denta but didn't oppose the order. Once the others had left, she waited for the interrogation to start, but to her surprise, Eclipse leaned against a wall and pulled out a small flask of what she assumed was high-grade.
She watched him take a swig and extend it to her, offering her some.
She pushed his servo away. "No, thank you."
Eclipse hadn't expected her to turn him down. "You sure?" he tilted his helm with suspicion.
Quickshadow glanced away. "I don't drink anymore."
He laughed. "C'mon, a sip won't hurt."
She refused again, feeling uncomfortable with his behavior. "If you're going to act like this, I'll head back. I don't appreciate you wasting my time."
"Not another step, Slipchain," he ordered. "As you're superintendent, I forbid it,"
He ignored her sharp glare and took another swig of the liquid, taking a minute to observe her again.
She seemed on edge, but it wasn't entirely because of him.
He had watched her take down those three Decepticons and was shocked when she left her flank open to catch her breath. Something wasn't adding up.
Eclipse hobbled toward her, noticing something peculiar in her metal.
Quickshadow felt her sparkbeat accelerate. She needed to get far away from him.
His optics trailed to her lower torso, and after a few seconds of eyeing the slight bulge, everything made sense.
The smell made her gag, and her spark skipped at his analytical gaze. She felt him analyzing her from helm to ped and started to panic. His optics stopped at her carrying chamber and slowly lifted back up to hers—his face unreadable.
A mix of rage and jealousy swelled inside him, but he caught a glimpse of fear in her optics and grinned. He had found a weakness.
He circled her, talking swig after swig, until he felt he was spinning around her.
He lost track of how much high-grade he had and grimaced at the empty flask. His processor was all fuzzy, and his stabilizing servos were wobbly.
Slightly intoxicated, Eclipse wobbled closer; the movement tore Quickshadow out of her trance, and when she found his servo reaching for her carrying chamber, she didn't hesitate to punch him in the helm.
The impact made him dizzy, but he felt much more sober and level-headed once it dissipated. Her protectiveness sparked his curiosity.
"What do we have here, hm?" he reached forward again, but she slapped his servo away.
"So...you met someone new." he sputtered, leaning on the wall for support. Optics trained on her facial features.
Her silence answered for her, and Quickshadow felt time stop. Her spark dropped to her engine. She should've run.