Arcee knew two things: One, she couldn't be sure of being able to pass by the MECH soldiers in the dense forest without having Starscream and Knockout as backup. Two, if they managed to find Jack eventually, the Decepticons will turn on her immediately!
But, as a matter of fact, she was left with no choice, so she continued to sneak forward, her blasters ready at any time. Be it for MECH or the Cons following right behind her. She took a little comfort in the fact though, that the two mechs seemed to be as nervous as she felt. They have seen a whole troop of Vehicons disabled by those dangerous humans, so they rather did not intend to underestimate them, especially when not having the possibility of calling for reinforcements.
Arcee suddenly powered up her weapons, making the Cons jump in surprise but it was only a wolf who passed them by, running away from the sudden noise startled.
"Pull yourself together, Autobot!", Starscream growled angrily, "Can`t you tell friend from foe? You're giving me a spark attack!"
Arcee huffed sarcastically. "There are no friends of mine in this forest beside Jack and I hardly believe he would be sneaking around me instead of simply revealing himself. It's not my fault you're this jumpy."
"I'm not jumpy! Just wary."
"Would you two stop bickering?!" Knockout interfered, earning a pair of scowling expressions, "anyway, where are you leading us? I thought we were going after these MECH bugs to free Breakdown. What does any of this have to do with Arachnid's ship?"
Arcee answered the medic while scouting the area further cautiously. "Do you think the crash of Arachnid's ship and MECH being on sight is a coincidence? Hardly! MECH has most likely pinpointed the crash site in an attempt to capture Arachnid and use her as a lab rat. But, obviously, there was no one home when they tried to pay her a visit."
"Because she was busy cocooning you instead", Knockout smirked smugly.
Arcee only rolled her optics at the comment. "Either MECH is waiting for her at the crash site or Arachnid returns to her ship eventually, with or without Jack." Her facial expression clearly displayed the hope it would be the last count. "In any case, getting to the ship is our best option to find what we are all looking for instead of wandering around aimlessly. The forest is too huge for that"
"What if she already got to your human pet?", the red mech taunted.
Arcee stopped abruptly and turned her attention to the medic, who winced a little at the sinister gaze on the femme's face. "If that is the case, I do not care what you need her for." She drew closer to Knockout until she was standing right in front of him. It didn't matter that she was much smaller than the medic, the red mech had to force himself not to back away. She let her blades appear and whispered dangerously: "I will tear her apart until there is nothing more left of her than bits and pieces for you to clean up."
Knockout shuddered playfully. "You do hate the femme, don't you? Have a history with her or is it just because she is chasing after this Jack of yours?"
"She killed my partner", was the simple answer she gave the Con before she continued to walk.
The Cons looked at each other and shrugged. They couldn't care less for this partner surely must have been an Autobot, so one less for them to worry about.
"What if she got her filthy servos on Fave?" Arcee surprised the two of the mechs after some silence, trying to hide her curiosity.
"So?" Starscream asked.
"Oh, don't give me that scrap!" Arcee retorted, "don't try to pretend you do not care."
"I don't actually!" Starscream clarified angrily, "she is a human! I couldn't care less! Besides, she is not as weak as your pet humans are. She can defend herself."
"Like your Vehicons did?" Arcee took point again, not even interested in the Con's reaction any more. She was getting more and more worried for Jack's safety and more and more confused about the woman's relationship to the Decepticons.
oooooooooooooooooooo
Sadly, pain was something she could deal with. Pain was what she has been used to for years. So right now, inflicting pain on her didn't help MECH to get their so much wanted answers.
Silas was trying it for quite some time now, getting more and more annoyed by Fave's resistance. Breakdown had regained consciousness before the interrogation began, but after demanding the bugs to let him go and after several failed attempts to free his pinned chassis from the wall behind him, he simply segued into growling and observing what was done to Fave, unable to interfere anyway. At least MECH didn't turn his attention to the brute yet.
She made no noise while another crackle of energy ran through her cell. She didn't want to give Silas the satisfaction on one hand and on the other: she didn't want to scare Jack. He had yelled and cursed enough already. When the crackle stopped she had to take deep breaths in order to stop her body from shaking. She was still on her knees, holding herself in a tight grip with her own arms and panted unsteadily, the blue glow of her eyes flickering.
"Enough." Silas ordered with a calm voice that betrayed his mood and the electrical crackle ceased completely. "I am impressed, Fave, I am indeed. But now, I got weary of this game. Allow me speed things along." He gestured to the cell, where Jack was still glaring at Silas. "If you do not tell me anything about how to operate the wormhole, I will kill the boy before your eyes."
Fave was prepared for this. In fact, she has been wondering what has taken him so long to put the boy's wellbeing into play. "If you killed him, Silas, you would not only draw the rage of the whole lot of the Autobots, Arcee in particular, which I believe would be devastating enough," she panted heavily but continued almost whispering hoarsely, "but you will also have nothing left to trade for your safe retreat, when, not if, said Autobots found you. It's only a matter of time and since you obviously won't trade me, you need Jack. If not for the Autobots, then to deliver on your end of the bargain due to the deal you made with Arachnid. She knows about your location, right? How long will it take for her to return here if not being able to track Jack down?"
Silas clenched his fists. He clearly underestimated the woman's intelligence even after being mangled for over an hour now.
"I will not kill him then", he smiled darkly, "inflicting pain will suffice as well."
Fave kept a straight face. "He will endure."
"Of course I will", Jack emphasized firmly, "If that kind of technology fell into the hands of MECH because of me, I could never live with myself anyway!"
Fave looked back to Silas, imitating Knockout`s smug face. If she only felt that way! In fact, she was rather terrified to watch Jack suffer. She was bluffing so hard, she had to wonder how her poker face didn't waver!
It almost did, when Silas nodded to his soldiers and a similar crackled loaded around Jack's cell. He braced himself while Fave's eyes widened in horror. She looked mortified.
That terrible monster!
A smug smile now spread over Silas's scarred face, but it vanished as quickly as it has appeared when all of them could hear a hiss directed from the building's entrance. Jack's eyes widened in horror when not only two but several peds could be heard stepping on the ground, coming closer.
"You…", Arachnid hissed, then growled. "Here I am, looking all over for my Jack and you don't feel the need of COMMing and telling me you got him?"
Silas simply turned to the femme fearlessly. "We haven't heard from you since you left to destroy the blue Autobot. Knowing how much you wanted to get Jack as well, we caught him in the forest to deliver it to you after you accomplished to terminate Arcee."
"That is a lie!" Fave cried out, locking eyes to optics with the spider. At least she could try to make them turn against each other. "He wanted you occupied so that MECH could come after your brethren!"
"And you!" Arachnid eyed the woman awkwardly, "aren't you the HUMAN who SHOT me earlier using an ENERGON BLAST when I was most likely to get my servos on the boy? How intriguing!"
Fave managed to get up from her knees, although weakly, hearing Breakdown humming appreciatively.
"Arachnid, is it?" the blue Con snarled then, "release me this instant! We have been looking all over for you! You are to accompany me back to our ship and explain yourself to our lord and master!"
Arachnid looked at the brute for a while, then hissed at Silas again. "You sure have been busy, Silas."
"The Decepticon shouldn't be your concern as you do not wish to join Megatron's cause anyway. Jack is yours, of course, as we agreed and…"
An alarming sound emanated from the computers and a soldier reported immediately. "It is Arachnid's ship, Sir. There is an intruder on site."
Arachnid and Silas glared at each other but shoved their dispute aside for the moment as they both approached the monitor. In the dark, only one shape could be seen but it was small, considering cybertronian standards.
"Arcee", Arachnid mused, and she cackled even more when she heard a relieved sigh from one of the cells. She turned to Jack. "In this case you should enjoy the view from here so that you can see first-hand, on a live feed, how I snuff her spark! But don't worry. You will be next!" The spider however first turned back to Silas, addressing him in a warning tone. "When I return, I expect my Jack fully functional and not harmed in any way. As much as Arcee, … he is mine!" She lowered her helm close to Silas who did not flinch, "are we clear?"
"Like I said, we only kept him to hand him over to you."
"Get back here, Arachnid!" Breakdown hollered.
The spider ignored the mech and hissed one more time, then backed away from the soldier and left the hall in order to prevent her nemesis from tempering with her ship. MECH's leader waited a moment longer to be sure the femme truly was gone, then addressed his troops.
"Plans changed, gentleman. Make haste! Open up the Con, take a quick look and don't fear about making a mess. We will leave before the spider returns."
"What about them?" one of the men asked pointing to Fave and Jack.
"I don't want to be next on Arachnid's list", Silas clarified unamused, "we will indeed deliver on our end of the bargain and leave the boy here. The girl however, is coming with us." He looked at the woman and smirked due to her raged stare. "Whether she likes it, or not."
oooooooooooooooooooo
Arcee approached the crash-landed vessel with her blasters ready to shoot, hardly making any sounds while circling the ship cautiously to see if it was clear of MECH's or the sider's presence. If it wasn't for the dimmed glow of her optics, Starscream and Knockout wouldn't even be able to see her.
"I have to admit", Knockout sneered, "she is quite good. If only our Vehicons were just half the soldiers the femme is, we would have won the war a long time ago."
Starscream glared at the medic and watched the Autobot enter the ship and disappearing off their sight. "She is too good for my tasting. Not sure, if letting her investigate alone was the best choice."
"But yes!", the medic nodded fervently, "If there actually IS someone out there, either Arachnid or those bugs, she would be shot first instead of us. From my point of view, that is an advantage."
Starscream hoped that their hiding place at the edge of the clearing was indeed good enough. The seeker frowned even more, trying to hide his increasing nervousness the longer Arcee remained inside the vessel, when he realized the medic was watching him. "What?"
"About what you said earlier… "
"What about it?", the seeker huffed annoyed.
The red mech shrugged. "About leaving Fave to her fate."
"I meant it!" the silver mech snorted, "she may be sort of a sparkling to lord Megatron, but you know as well as I do, if there was the slightest chance to sever that sparkling-bond, he would not hesitate to deliver her into oblivion. Right now, she seems to be important or at least she poses a threat to Megatron's own wellbeing if something was to happen to her. That is the only thing that concerns me: keeping her safe in order to prevent myself from being beaten up again! Don't tell me you actually got attached to her already?"
Knockout intended to answer properly when the commander cut him off with a harsh wave of his servo. Someone has left the forest and appeared on the clearing and given the sound of several pedfalls, it had to be Arachnid.
"There she is", she seeker murmured.
"That is Arachnid?", the red mech almost chuckled but the seeker cut him off again.
"You would do well not to underestimate her. However, now is our opportunity to get to her before she gets to Arcee. We told the Autobot we would help her to find her human in exchange for her leading us to MECH so we could rescue Breakdown, but I don't think we need her, if Arachnid joins us as back up."
"Or maybe, we should let them fight a little", Knockout pondered, "If the spider is as fierce as you are making it out to be, she should easily get rid of the femme and we could keep looking after our brute afterwards nonetheless!"
"Agreed", Starscream answered with a sneer.
So, they waited instead. Arachnid got closer to her vessel and circled it almost the same way the Autobot did before. When she finished, she simply stood in front of the entrance. She started to laugh darkly and taunted: "Get out there, Arcee, I already know you are here! Don't you want to hear what happened to your precious Jack? If you do not come out, I cannot report to you how I tore him apart!" She waited a moment but there was no movement, no reaction. The spider chuckled darkly. "You know, I had an interesting encounter with another one of your human pets. I must confess, I'm somewhat curious what you have done to her, but that doesn't matter anymore as well."
"You WRETCH!" came the roar from both, Arcee and Starscream, when they jumped out of their cover, simultaneously firing at the spider. Arachnid, not having expected the assault from behind, got hit in the back by one of the seeker's missiles. Arcee took advantage of the situation immediately, slamming into the black femme and throwing her to the ground that way.
Starscream approached the femmes, his other missile readily trained at the Decepticon, but the question burning on his tongue was uttered by the Autobot instead:
"How did you know I was here already? You couldn't possibly know if…"
"Starscream?", Arachnid hissed in pain and scowled at the seeker, "So, I'm gone to the Decepticon cause for only a few eons and there I find Megatron's second in command siding with the Autobots!"
"Hardly!" she silver mech growled, "you do not know what you have done! Tell us where the humans are, right now or Megatron will have your head!"
The spider hissed again to hide her confusion but said nothing.
"Isn't that obvious", Knockout stated, appearing from behind the seeker with a frown, "If she had them killed already she would not only be bragging like this, but their lifeless bodies would be hanging from her servos as well to infuriate you Arcee."
The femme transformed out her blades and held them dangerously close to the spider's throat fuel lines. "You are not a victim to MECH as I suspected first! You have aligned yourself with them to get to me and Jack!"
"What a smart girl!" the spider cackled regardless of the blades starting to cut her throat, "Piece of advice? If I were you, I would reconsider storming MECH's base with them." She tilted her helm in a presumptuous manner in direction of the two mechs. "You sure know they will stab you in the back as soon as you get there and with Breakdown backing them up, you…"
"Breakdown is there, too!" Knockout cried out, "you left him to those MECH guys!? Do you know what they even are?!"
"What can I say?", Arachnid chuckled but a sudden hit of Arcee's fist knocked her out immediately and the blue femme would have done far worse, if Starscream did not grab her arm to hold her back.
"What are you doing!" he snarled angrily, shoving her back, "Now she can't tell us anything! Just, congratulation to your self-control!"
"I know where they are", Arcee growled through clenched dentals and shook the seekers arm off, "I took a peek into her computer systems, like I told you I would, and found the scrambling node is not emanating from her ship but rather from another location close by. I did not know what to make of it until now. It must be MECH's base!" She looked down at the unconscious spider, trembling in fury. "If Jack's life was not at risk, I would tear you apart right here and right now." She rose her helm up at the mechs again. "What are we waiting for?"
oooooooooooooooooooo
Fave observed the soldiers around her as closely as the mech pinned to the wall, while Jack kept staring at the video feed displaying the crash site of Arachnid's ship. Fave however, did not allow herself that much. She had to focus on the situation at hand!
MECH showed impressive speed in packing and retreating. As soon as Silas has given the command, equipment and men almost mystically started to disappear and vehicles, grounded and airborne, have gotten readied. The only equipment that was not being touched was what appeared to be the dissection tools they needed to dismantle Breakdown, but they did not turn their attention to him yet. Just not yet.
Fave knew she was running out of time. If MECH succeeded to transport her to a second location, no one was going to ever find her anymore and she was just not ready to let herself get into captivity again so soon after freeing herself from her previous torturers! Never again, preferably! Thus, her spark skipped a beat when she noticed Breakdown to tamper with his cuffs. It was not easy though, considering he was under constant watch, but she could not start any diversionary tactic until the bindings start to break at least a bit!
She almost fell to the ground when she felt her cell being moved by a crane. It lifted her up, away from Jack's cell, making the boy flinch. Fave stopped wavering when the crane and the cell with it came to a stop on a truck's trailer.
"Afraid of letting me out of here, Silas?" she taunted but it was rather to get the MECH leader's attention than to really insult him. "Is MECH always treating his house guests this way or is it only your fear of a little girl?"
"You are not a common girl", Silas mused, untouched by her words, "but rather a precious science object to study. And precious things should always be locked away and watched closely. They tend to disappear otherwise."
She heard a sudden crack and reacted immediately. To cover the sound Breakdown has caused by working on his bindings, she powered up the energy inside her, eliciting a similar crack out of the cage she was trapped in. The electrical surge rushed through her body and she whimpered loudly at the pain.
Silas got closer to the truck, looking up at her with mild amusement. "I advise you to stop resisting. We already figured it drains much energy from your body and because we do not know what makes you run yet, we would not be able to keep you alive if you run out of your power source."
Fave growled loudly through clenched teeth and when she heard another crack again, she simply powered up even more, causing the cage to adjust its amplitude along with her. She kept looking furiously at Silas who returned the gaze rather unamused now. "Stop it!"
Regardless of her aching body, Fave managed a scornful grin on her face. "I… told you already", she hissed, her voice getting more hoarsely by the second, "I will… never… give in!"
"You will achieve nothing but to weaken you to a state that will make you most vulnerable to my plans!", Silas huffed, "Stop it right now!"
Another loud crack, an earsplitting shattering sound of metal torn to pieces was all Fave needed to actually stop resisting. Breakdown roared enraged and started to rampage the place by transforming out his hammer and slamming it to the closest tech station, taking down a few MECH soldiers by the way. Fave shivered. How could she be that cold suddenly? She focused on herself the best she could and found her energon level has dropped to a dangerous low. She quickly buried her face in her hands and stayed still, hearing the boy's shouts though.
"Fave! Fave, are you alright? Fave! Woaaah!" Jack, though being safe for the moment, raised his hands before him when a MECH soldier slammed against his confinement.
"I'm going to crush you bugs!" Breakdown snarled, his hammer hitting monitors, vehicles and men, and crashing into the wall of the warehouse he has been restrained to only seconds ago. "Whoever finds you will have to scrape you off the floor when I'm done with you!"
"Regroup!" Silas shouted at his soldiers, "Get him back under control, NOW!" Silas also scowled at Fave, who remained curled in tightly on her knees. Good thing he has thought about a separate power source for the cage, otherwise it would have turned off by now due to the energy loss that triggered a power failure in the warehouse right now.
Breakdown was about to storm forward and crash the cage Fave was sitting in motionlessly, freeing her to get back up but suddenly his frame got shaken by a hit from one of those lights-off-switching weapons MECH has constructed to disable cybertronian systems. Several electrical crackles ran through his chassis at once and the brute hollered angrily. He managed to swing his hammer once more, destroying the dissection equipment and squashing a handful of MECH soldiers under him when his shape finally stopped shaking and crashed to the ground hard.
"Damage?" Silas asked with his still buzzing weapon in hand.
"Emergency power went online almost immediately", one of his scientists informed him," but our dissection equipment is ruined. We do not possess the means of studying him before leaving this place and actually I strongly recommend leaving. Except for the Bot, we will be ready in less than 10 minutes."
Silas let out a small growl, but nodded. "Hurry up, then. The girl will have to suffice for now."
Saying that, he again turned his attention to Fave who lifted her head weakly, but the resisting gaze has not left her face, even now. "It will be up to her then. To tell us what she knows about our alien guests. I believe…" Something hit the entrance of the warehouse, making it sound like a giant knocking at the door. "What NOW?", Silas shouted angrily, getting into position along with his trained soldiers and readying his special weapons. Fave tilted her head in a confused manner, while Jack grinned. During the chaos Breakdown has caused along with the woman, it slipped everyone's attention what has happened at the crash site except for Jack.
"ARCEE!" he yelled and a second later everyone could hear the femme's roar when the entrance buckled and started to give. The soldiers simply raised their weapons, awaiting the assault.
"Be careful!", Fave cried out, "their weapons can disable your systems! About twenty of them are right behind the entrance and a dozen more over… AHHH!"
Silas scowled at her and activated the electrical surge to emanate a constant crackle in order to silence the woman. This time, she didn't have enough strength to muffle herself and let out a pained yell.
Another hit and added blaster fire dashed the doors into the warehouse and another kind of chaos took place. The soldiers fired their weapons at Arcee, who jumped in first, transforming into her alt mode and driving at Jack's cell hard while avoiding being hit by the electrical crackle. Only when she almost got to her human counterpart, she transformed back and lashed out in an attempt to shatter the cell.
"Jack, get down!" she cried, and the boy threw himself on the ground immediately. "Starscream, Knockout, NOW!"
While the boy's cell broke like a child's toy under Arcee's blow, said Decepticons rushed in right after the femme.
"I hope you don't mind a little ruckus", Knockout's cackle sounded through the warehouse, but he stopped cold when seeing Breakdown laying on the ground motionless. "What have you scum done to him!"
Starscream reacted similar about seeing Fave, who has silenced herself immediately and made visual contact with him right after the seeker got in sight. Of course, it had been only nanoseconds, but it was enough. Seeing her on her knees, trembling in agony with her optics flickering due to the surge running through the cell something inside the silver mech which has been gone for eons reached the surface and almost exploded.
"You..." he growled dangerously low and lashed out with his bare claws and by that destroyed several vehicles which were about to attack the mechs. He made a quick step forward and transformed his servos into blasters, bringing down further vehicles and men alike simply by squishing them under foot before he shot hot plasma to bring down more MECH soldiers. Arcee, while pretty occupied herself with protecting Jack and her own chassis, was stunned not only due to the seeker's sudden wrath but due to his fearless and precise assault as well. Where was the mech that usually avoid getting himself in the line of fire?
"You will let go of MY SEEKER AT ONCE!"
Starscream turned around and fired one of his missiles in direction of where they have entered MECH's base so to shoot a helicopter which was trying to target them with his weapons. Another cry eliciting from Fave made him turn around to a soldier who has intended to reach the truck with Fave's cell on it.
"Starscream, watch out!" Fave warned but her voice was too hoarse, he couldn't hear her. The seeker yelled when one of those tiny guns hit him eventually before he could crash the cell and free the woman.
"Starscream!" she would have shouted in shock, but her voice was not more than a whisper. She has not been exposed to the surge this long in a row before but above seeing who has fired at the commander she felt like freaking out.
Knockout tried to get to Breakdown, making MECH guys jump out of the way when the red mech waved his surgical saw enraged. Arcee was still busy covering her appendage but still tried to provide cover fire for the mechs. They have not anticipated that amount of tight security. She tried to call for back up frantically but the COMM lock down was still active.
Starscream tried to get back to his peds but failed to do so. Instead, he started to fire his blasters on the men while located on the ground, simultaneously locking optics with Fave.
"Shatter it!" he ordered, "Break yourself free this instant!"
Fave looked up at him and yelled again, when Silas managed to hit the seeker again, disabling Starscream's transforming sequence und leaving him unarmed. Another pained yell could be heard from Arcee and Knockout who seemed to be in a similar distress.
Starscream saw Fave's optics flicker off again. "If you do not break free like right now, you will be drained of your energon completely and DIE!" he cried at her furiously. "SHATTER IT!"
Fave cried out and instead of saving what was left of her strength, she increased the energy, making the cell's systems buzz loudly.
"This will do nothing!" Silas laughed, looking around pleased. "This is even better than planned! Now that the spider seems to be knocked out and with the lot of you at our disposal, We will get all the information we need and more. It won't take long to…"
The crackle sounded oddly all of the sudden, and the cell started to spark violently.
"Sir! The systems are beginning to overload!"
"That is not possible!" Silas yelled.
"I will NOT allow you to keep me prisoner!" Fave whispered as loudly as she could. "I will NOT give you any information and I will most certainly NOT allow you to hurt ANY of THEM!"
"Retreat!" Silas commanded angrily but MECH did not have the chance to react quickly enough when a powerful explosion dashed all of them away, into the walls, into vehicles and Bots and into each other. It dashed away humans and Bots alike and made the warehouse tumbling down with a loud cave in.
"A shockwave?" Starscream murmured quietly to himself after coming to his senses again quite a distance away from what was left of the warehouse, astonished but the aftereffects of the many electrical surges that have hit him still kept him from moving. Through the dust, he spotted Fave's optics, her fully glowing optics, telling him more than her following shout.
"We're here, Soundwave!"
Two ground bridges opened, both at once. One in the middle of where the warehouse used to be seconds ago and another one just outside of it. The dust from the explosion was still in the air when Decepticons and Autobots ran out of the whirls simultaneously, powering their weapons and targeting each other. Soundwave has come on his leader's behalf which was a rarity.
It was quiet for a moment while both sides looked for their comrades and tried to assess their possibilities. It was Bumblebee, who spotted Arcee first covering Jack under her chassis but the yellow mech dared not to move before Optimus gave the command, but he bubbled in relieve when the blue femme got up slightly, revealing that Jack was ok so far as well. Knockout was laying close to Breakdown, but he was coming to his senses as well while Starscream even got to his peds but unfortunately, he was not far away from the Autobots, so he dared not move as well.
"A textbook example of a stalemate", he hummed lowly and it truly was one. While Bulkhead has trained his blasters at Starscream, Bumblebee never left the Vehicons out of his sight. Arcee quickly added her own blasters to the picture, pointing them at the Decepticon medic and, to their jointly surprise, at Fave who was standing on her feet weakly not able to stop herself from trembling. Starscream barely managed to hold in a growl. Optimus noticed Arcee's doing but didn't comment it as he was pointing his own weapons at Soundwave, the silent mech returning the curtesy.
All Bots, no matter the faction, looked at each other cautiously for a while but the silence did not last long.
"Soundwave", the Prime looked at the surveillance officer fearlessly, "this can only end in mutually assured destruction or in retreat. I suggest the latter. Allow me to retreat with Arcee, Jack and Fave and I give you my word that we will not open fire."
The Decepticons all powered up their weapons in unison.
"I will not be coming with you", Fave clarified firmly, looking up at the Prime who seemed thoroughly surprised. Even more when Arcee confirmed: "I assure you, Optimus, she will not be coming with us." The femme looked over to Starscream with a frown, who seemed utterly ready to jump at anyone who dared to approach the woman. Seconds passed, and it was not until Arcee lowered her blaster that has been pointing at Fave, but not the one targeting Knockout, that the mechs started to move slowly, Optimus the first to show good will. Fave's eyes lit up in a silent conversation with the silent mech and shortly after he lowered his weapons as well.
"Ratchet", Optimus COMMed his medic back at base, "reopen the ground bridge."
The command has been executed and the bridge opened just behind the Autobots. Bumblebee moved slowly to Arcee, still on guard and ready to fight if necessary. He helped the femme to her peds and picked up Jack as well, backing away from the scene and leaving quickly through the swirl. Knockout got up too and dragged Breakdown in direction of their own bridge with the help of two Vehicons while Starscream moved closer to Fave, not leaving the remaining two Autobots out of his sight. Bulkhead looked at Optimus who nodded and thus, the wrecker left next. Optimus gazed at the woman for another long moment who returned the gaze firmly before he left last. The ground bridge closed and the Autobots were gone.
The swirl barely disappeared when Fave growled deeply, irate, and huffed with a hoarse voice: "They're gone again!" she looked in direction of the warehouse, where it has been before she blew the place sky high. "I swear, If I get… my… hands… "
She felt a violent tremble coming up again together with a wave of nausea and she wavered. She felt being caught by the seeker and found herself in his servo.
"Let me down, Starscream, "she said weakly, "you know I don't like being carried around like…"
"You will have to endure", he snorted, following the other Decepticons who already started to leave. "You just caused a shockwave in your already weakened state. I don't want to explain to lord Megatron that you have been drained off your left energon by walking back to the ship."
Fave lifted her head up and looked the commander over. She wanted to ask what has happened to him and Knockout, what made them align themselves with Arcee, what they have done to Arachnid and what just happened and what he meant by 'shockwave'. But another, simpler question came to her mind and she was not ashamed of asking it.
"Are you ok?"
Starscream was baffled. He even stopped walking for a fraction of a second and frowned at the tiny human in his sharp claws. Claws, that could easily tear her to pieces and he wouldn't have hesitated to do so not long ago.
Not knowing how to react otherwise, he refused to look at her and rumbled lowly: "Why wouldn't I? I am Starscream, second in command and fearless soldier! It takes more than a small blow to take ME down! Nonetheless, just try not to scrap us all unintentionally next time, will ya?"
oooooooooooooooooooo
"Arcee, what has gotten into you?"
Optimus was standing right in front of the femme while Ratchet looked her over for serious injuries. The Prime stared down at his soldier, both, confused and firmly. "I expect a good explanation to why you have pointed your weapons at a defenseless human."
"Fave is anything BUT defenseless, Optimus!" Jack interfered, "she blew Arachnid off me and managed to evade her by flying me and herself out of danger until MECH found us."
Bumblebee whirled and asked Jack to confirm if he just said 'flying'.
"And the condition you found us and MECH's base in?" Arcee huffed, "that was her doing as well. She blew the warehouse by emanating a shockwave, Optimus."
"HA!" Ratchet retorted in disbelief. "A shockwave!? This cannot be. Of course, I have seen her shooting with energon with my own optics, before she left our base some time ago, but I highly doubt she could perform something that even we have not been able to since our home planet went offline."
"What do you mean?", Miko piped up, "you once could create a shockwave? All of you? How cool is that!"
"Not all of us, Miko", Arcee clarified, "most of us had once additional… abilities. But they ceased working shortly after Cybertron went dark. We do not know why but since then, we do not have access to that power anymore."
"Maybe Cybertron is more than just a home to you guys", Jack speculated, "maybe the link to your home planet runs deeper than that."
"And because Fave is a human who has grown up on earth" Raf added, "and with earth intact, she has access to additional abilities."
"As if linking herself to cybersystems isn't enough!" Ratchet scowled.
Optimus's frown only deepened while he still waited for an answer on the side of Arcee.
"She is one of them", she answered finally, ignoring the faces of disbelief," I am not even talking about her behavior."
"By using ME as a hostage for example?" Miko scowled.
"Or by leaving our base in order to get back to the Cons as it seems," Jack continued.
"Scrapping ground bridge controls which I have to tinker with for days!" Ratchet ended.
Arcee nodded and explained further. "It is how Starscream and Knockout talked about her as well. Especially Starscream tried to hide it but you should have seen him when he entered MECH's base and found her trapped and tortured." The femme shook her head while remembering. "I never saw him this way. He all but rampaged the place."
Jack helped his partner: "And when I was running through the forest with her, she called him and the other Cons for help."
"About that", Arcee looked around her comrades. "The COMM link was down the whole time. How did you manage to find us eventually?" When the Bots did not answer right away, Arcee got impatient. "What?"
Ratchet finally turned to his console, checking his readings again before answering the femme. "It seems that Fave told us the location. Whether she intended to do so, I do not know, especially after what you and Jack just told us. She has sent a high frequency distress signal, that got our attention."
"That must have been when Breakdown broke free!" Jack shouted in surprise, "she got down to her knees because of another electrical surge, at least that is what I though was happening. She hid her face from Silas, when the Con started to rampage the place before he got shot again. There was a power failure for a few seconds, that was when she must have used the breach to send the distress call!"
"If it were only seconds, she may have had no time to adjust the signal so that only the Cons would receive it", Bulkhead speculated, "she sure isn't familiar with her newfound abilities yet, right?"
Bumblebee whirled loudly, saying that she may have as well sent the SOS intentionally to enable them to save Arcee and Jack.
"That is something that bothers me, too," Arcee said confused, "where did she get those abilities to begin with? I mean, she is drinking energon like Miko does her sodas and fires energon like we do with our weapons…"
"She is capable of transforming!", Jack stunned them, "I saw it before she flew off with me."
Bulkhead sighed: "That too! She can fly!"
There was silence for a moment until Ratchet jumped suddenly, startling the team.
"By the Allspark!"
The medic rushed back to his working station while the rest of the Autobots and the children looked at each other as if the red mech had lost his mind.
Optimus hummed gently. "What have you discovered, old friend?"
"Do you remember the distorted signal back in the desert?", he asked, "Where we first saw her AND Megatron? The signal was doubled but we didn't pay much attention to that fact back then. I have even begun to think it to be a malfunction." Ratchet turned to his comrades again. "When Fave was here, she asked me about why Bumblebee's life signal is not equal to Optimus's. But… how is all of this possible!? No, it IS NOT possible!
"What, Ratchet? What!" Arcee urged the medic.