Twenty Three stormed down the hallway in anger.
How dare Soundwave spy on her!
Stopping, she heard a feminine whimper coming from in the rec room, followed by a deep laugh.
Silverstreak and Devestator?
Seeing it was a public area and the door was open, she entered and saw something that chilled her to the core.
Devestator was forcing her femme to interface with him, the seekers and Bonecrusher all present and egging them on.
Silverstreak was letting out small painful noises, but looked like she had given up long ago. There were cracks in her armor, and she looked in pretty rough condition.
"Devestator," she growled. "Get off her."
She couldn't help but remember her own rape from Sector 7.
The mech jumped in fright, and retracted his interface lead. The others seemed to be trying to make themselves scarce.
"Stay where you are," she hissed at them.
"It was all Devestator, Twenty Three. I told him not to, but he wouldn't listen-" Starscream began, but she cut him off.
"Then you must not be a very good second in command. Perhaps you should approach Megatron about a change in station," she hissed. "And if memory serves, you were grinning your faceplate off not two minutes ago."
The Air Commander looked away in embarrassment, knowing he'd been caught out.
Twenty Three walked over to her latest creation and looked down at her with despair. The femme's optics were tearing up.
"Master… You saved me…" she whispered.
"Silverstreak. You were designed as a fighter. Why were you overcome?" she questioned in irritation.
"I… I tried to fight back. But you told me to do whatever he said… And he was so much stronger than me," she whispered.
"Silverstreak," the humanoid sighed. "What a disappointment you are."
"I'm sorry, Master," the femme squeaked.
That's hardly fair…
"Twenty Three?" Skywarp interrupted nervously. He didn't know what to make of her mood. Please don't kill me
"What is it, Sky?" she asked gently, trying to ease him.
"She could hardly be expected to stand up to us. She hasn't even had any training," Skywarp explained, a little more comfortably.
"Would you like to train her then?" Twenty Three asked him eagerly. "I want her well enough prepared to take on Ironhide."
"What? But she's a ground crawler! I can't train her!" he argued, wondering how he got into the situation.
"Sure you can," she beamed at him. "You're a great fighter."
"In aerial combat," he corrected, turning to his wing mates for support. "Right guys?"
"You could teach her shooting," Starscream teased him. "And hand to hand."
"But-but-"
"But your such a great warrior," Starscream continued to bait him with sarcasm. "You could easily train a femme to take on Optimus Prime himself."
"See?" Twenty Three grinned at the black and purple seeker, completely missing the sarcasm. "You have both of our confidences."
She looked around the room.
"Silverstreak is under my protection for the next week. If anything happens to her within that time, whoever caused it is dead," she warned. "Silver, I want you to learn as much as you can from Skywarp this next coming week. From then on out, you're on your own. Father has made it very clear there is no room in the decepticon army for weaknesses."
Silverstreak bit her lip and nodded determinedly.
"I will heal you today, but you need to learn how to look after yourself," Twenty Three said as she laid her hand down on her creations armor, spreading her healing energy through her.
Sighing in frustration, she exited the com room, and made her way to her father's quarters. She was so disillusioned. She had created Silverstreak on the argument femmes were as strong as mechs. But Silverstreak wasn't anything like she wanted her to turn out. Perhaps she could give them life, but not personalities? Was it because she didn't have enough knowledge of the programming?
Sighing again, she knocked on the door.
--
"Hey Dad," Twenty Three greeted tiredly.
"Daughter," he nodded in acknowledgement. "What brings you here?"
"I have come to talk about the arrangements with Soundwave and Frenzy," she informed him seriously. "I was going to leave it until tomorrow, but I believe this is best tackled now."
Megatron's optics flared. "Has Soundwave mistreated you?"
She shrugged. "He's just pissed me off. Nothing serious enough to warrant your attention, however."
"Then what is your issue?"
"I love Frenzy, father. It doesn't matter how hard Soundwave could try, but I can't be happy without him. If Frenzy is miserable, so am I," she explained. "I want him back, and I wont take no for an answer."
"Frenzy hurt you," he pressed, unwilling to change his plans.
"I allowed myself to be hurt. Soundwave helped me regain control-"
"Which is exactly why he should be your mate. He is the only one well enough equipped to protect you," her father growled forcefully.
"I don't care what happens on that front. If you want me to continue with Sounds, I will, however, I cannot continue without Zee," she ranted desperately. Why wasn't he getting this?
"You want both? Isn't one mech enough for you?" he asked, shocked.
"I cannot continue without Frenzy," she repeated. "If remaining with Soundwave is one of the requirements, we shall deal with it."
Megatron looked thoughtful for a moment, before hardening his features.
"I will not allow you to be hurt again. You are my only daughter, and our last hope at rebuilding an empire," he said with finality, and she glared at him.
"You still owe me a favor, from inventing the energon harvester," she reminded him.
He scowled.
"What, are you going to go back on your word?" she looked him in the eye.
"When did you become so full of attitude," he complained.
"The same time I realized I have to stand up for myself, or I'll never get anything I want," she retorted.
"You already have a lot of things. Respect from my troops. Freedom."
"But not enough freedom to have the only thing I really want."
Megatron sighed in defeat. "You are sure there is nothing else you want to redeem your favor on?"
"I want nothing more than Frenzy," she finalized their agreement, and he nodded.
"He will be in the communications room."
"Thanks Dad," she whispered, and left the room at a run.
--
"ZEE!" she shouted, shoving the door open.
He looked over his shoulder morosely at her. Rumble tensed immediately.
"What do you want, Twenty Three?" he asked, depression dripping from his voice.
She walked briskly to his side, and picked up one of his clawed hands in hers. He looked at it, confused.
"I thought we weren't allowed any physical contact," he reminded her longingly.
"I just got back from talking to Dad about it, Zee," she whispered, and his head snapped up.
"What?" he was shaking with tension.
"Well, I'm not allowed to give Soundwave up. I never thought I would be, though," she began, and Frenzy snatched his hand back, sinking into his chair.
"Then why give me that false hope?" he sulked. "I never thought you were that cruel."
"Hear me out, you jerk," she punched his shoulder gently, knowing she wouldn't hurt him. "I'm not allowed to give up Sounds, but if you don't mind sharing, we can still get back together."
"You're lying," Frenzy watched her intently, optics bright. "Megatron never changes his mind."
"Which is why I'm so glad I never redeemed that reward he offered me when we made that energon generator."
"You used that for me?" Frenzy gasped.
"There's nothing I'd rather have, than you by my side."
Rumble was gagging behind Twenty Three's back, so he gave him the fingers, and pulled his love into a tight embrace.
"Rumble," she addressed him gently, picking up on Frenzy's wish for privacy. "Go inform Soundwave. Tell him I'll be spending tonight in my own room with Zee, and I don't want to see him until tomorrow, and ONLY if he apologizes."
"What'd he do?" Frenzy asked, intrigued, as Rumble took the excuse to flee.
"It's the exact same issue you originally had. Only worse. He decided he couldn't trust me, ad sent Laser to spy on me," she admitted. "I was just taking a drive with Cade."
Frenzy shook his head. "Sorry Tee," he whispered. "Try to understand, though. What if I wanted to hang out with your new femme all of a sudden?"
Twenty Three stood immediately, dropping the mini-mech. "I'd dismantle her," she threatened savagely.
"See what I mean? It's hard seeing you with anyone else. Although I trust you, I'd have no problems with reformatting anyone who went near you into a toaster."
"I… see," she sighed, picking him up again. "I believe I understand this jealousy now… I'll have to talk to Soundwave tomorrow. He has no reason to trust Cade as I do, after all."
"I'll vouch for him," he said, while playing with her hair, marveling at the contact. "Primus, I've missed you, Tee."
"Let's go," she whispered, rubbing her cheek against his. "I've missed you too, Zee. I love you so much."
--
Soundwave found himself fidgeting for the first time in his life.
He was unused to this femme business.
And this wasn't just ANY femme, but the daughter of Megatron…
He only wanted to keep her safe… but if he screwed this up, Megatron would dismantle him.
He had been shocked when Rumble had told him she was getting back together with Frenzy, and a little insulted she hadn't told him herself…
But he DID spy on her, and he admitted she should be angry with him…
But why was he so hurt about their fight? Was it fear of his leader? Or Twenty Three herself? She could destroy him, but somehow he didn't think she ever would. On that point, she wouldn't allow Megatron to offline him either.
So it wasn't fear.
Then what was it?
Had he really become that attached to her?
More so than his cassettes?
Or was it the fact she was messing around with his creation, Frenzy?
But to be fair, they HAD been together first, and Soundwave was the one trespassing.
Was that it? He felt like a trespasser? Out of place.
He had never been out of place before. He had been Communications Officer. All his orders came from Megatron, and he simply followed, because Megatron was the leader. He had always defended his cassettes, as he was their creator. He always knew his place… But now, where was he?
Megatron had ordered him to be his daughters mate, something he didn't entirely understand. He knew he was supposed to protect her, and he was trying to. He was supposed to keep an eye on her mentality, and he was trying to. He was supposed to make her happy, and he was trying to do that as well, but the truth of the matter was he had no idea what she wanted.
Apart from Frenzy. It was obvious she wanted him.
But why?
What did Frenzy have that he didn't? He was the creator, he was supposed to be better, wiser, stronger. So why had he been outdone?
And now she had him back, would there be any room for him? What would he do?
If she had gotten permission from Megatron to see Frenzy again, where did that leave him? Was she going to dump him?
He had been left stewing in his own regret all night, as she had expressly not wanted to see him until the next day. He had gotten Rumble to playback, just to make sure.
And here he was standing outside her door, feeling like a fearful sparkling.
Hesitantly, he raised his hand and knocked twice.
--
A scrawny male fleshling opened the door, and looked guardedly up at his creator.
"Frenzy?" the mech hazarded.
"Soundwave," the human nodded. "Come in, we've been expecting you."
Soundwave strode in and knelt next to Twenty Three, his spark feeling like it was eating itself.
"I'm very sorry," he told her honestly, his visor flashing with emotion.
She gently touched his faceplate, and extended her mind to connect with his. He eagerly accepted the link, desperate to see what she was thinking.
They felt each others pain, regret, heartbreak and hope, and both ended up shaking with the overload.
"So… you're not dumping me?" Soundwave rasped.
"No, you great idiot," she sighed, and, knowing he was empty, she unleashed her Allspark powers, changing him into his human form. He collapsed into her arms and hugged her tightly.
"I was so afraid," he whispered.
It was at that moment, Frenzy realized his creator loved Twenty Three just as he did. Somehow, although he was unhappy at sharing his woman at all, he was glad it was him.
Twenty Three smiled at her longtime lover, and ushered him over to join the group hug.
"Soundwave," Twenty Three caught his attention immediately. "Don't you ever do anything like that again."
He nodded, unable to speak, and hugged her even tighter.
Their moment was interrupted by her communicator going off.
"Twenty Three, we have a transmission from the autobots. The human girl wants to know if you'll be going to her 'christmas' gathering," it was Devestator.
"Yeah whatever," she answered, not really paying attention.
"Tell them she's bringing an escort," Frenzy added, watching his girlfriend strangely. He hadn't heard of this gathering.
"Make that two," Soundwave added, not wanting to be parted, now he had her back.
There was a moment of silence, before Devestator put through another call.
"All arranged. They want you there at one in the afternoon."
"What?" Frenzy yelped. "It's today?"
"Hmm?" she raised her eyebrows lazily. "Guess we should find out what this 'christmas' is, then."
Frenzy grabbed his lover by the hand, and dragged her over to her console, Soundwave still attached.
He sat her next to him, and Soundwave kept his arm around her, peering over her shoulder at the screen as the hacker began his research.
R&R
