Chapter Four
Megatron stared calmly at the girl Skywarp held in his claws. There was only a minimal amount of fear written in the human's face, more like she was well aware of her situation and trying to find a way out of it. She was struggling against her panic, and Megatron found it . . . amusing.
He crouched down so he was on her level and looked her dead in the eye. "Do you want to go back home?" he asked quietly. Rae glared at him.
"Don't even try it, Megatron." she said tiredly. "I've heard a lot of stuff about you, and none of it is good. And that's from your own Decepticons. I'd hate to hear what the Autobots have to say about you." She shook her head in mock-sadness, and an amused chuckle rippled across the group of mechs who had gathered to see the new prisoner. Megatron's optics narrowed as anger radiated off him in waves. Rae was trying to shake him up a bit, prove she wasn't scared of him when she had a healthy dose of fear. She would go as far as she could to keep him from pushing her around, but she wouldn't get him so mad that he would lose control and hurt her. From what Starscream had said, Megatron wanted her for a reason. She didn't want to become useless before she had a chance to escape. "Whatever lies you're about to tell me, don't. I'm not interested."
Megatron scowled. "You haven't even heard my offer. Are you sure you want to turn me down?"
"You want something from me. If I do what you want, you'll let me go." She rolled her eyes. "Pardon me, but that's a bunch of slag and we both know it."
The Decepticon leader shook his head in amazement. "They trained you well. I suppose you see us as the 'bad guys', huh? Are we evil in your eyes?"
Rae was cautious now. He was fishing for something. The change in topic was just too quick for anything else, but she saw no harm in answering honestly. "Considering your little war destroyed your home planet and probably a few others in the process, I'd say both you and Prime have steel rods through your CPUs for keeping it up for this long." she said quietly.
He laughed heartily at that, and that made Rae even more nervous. Whatever she had said, it was exactly what he wanted to hear. "I'm sure Prime would be ecstatic to hear that." he murmured. If he knew what I know. "I'm going to make you a deal. You see, there's this thing we want that will help end the war. It's called the AllSpark. I want you to help us find it."
"The AllSpark." Rae closed her eyes for a moment, bringing to mind the little bit of information that Case had told her during one of her physiology lessons. "Why would you need that? The Creation Matrix will give you all the Decepticon sparklings you need. The same goes for the Autobots. All the AllSpark does is create Neutrals. Half-breeds. Not something a noble Decepticon such as you would want." She spat the last sentence out like it tasted bad. There were a lot of Decepticons she would call noble, but Megatron was not one of them. "What would I get in exchange?"
"Your freedom."
"Like I don't have that already."
Her fear was almost gone, Megatron noticed with some interest. Ever since he had asked her her views on the war, she had been more relaxed. That might not be a good thing. "Human, you must understand – "
"Rae."
He blinked. "What?"
"My name is Rae. I am not human."
There was a long moment of silence. In the background of the small group, Starscream smirked. Barricade shot him a look. "The little human does have her appeals." he murmured to the Seeker. "I wonder if Megatron would let me keep her."
Starscream shook his head. "It would be safer to kill her. Harbinger was pretty fragged off when we took her."
Barricade stared at him in shock. "Harbinger? That slagger was there?"
"Of course. That's his youngling right there. He was her guardian."
Barricade hesitated a moment. "I still like her." he said. "Not many have stood up to Megatron of all mechs like that." Starscream nodded. "So what do we do now that we have a likable human with us?"
"The first thing you need to do is learn to stop calling her human." Starscream said, turning around to head back to his room that he shared with Thundercracker and Skywarp. "She's a youngling, Barricade. Other than that, you two should get along just fine." With that he was gone, leaving Barricade to wonder just how well Starscream knew the little human-youngling called Rae.
/---/
The sounds of small feet brought Barricade out of recharge that night. He was automatically sitting up, getting ready to bring his weapons to bear when Rae pushed the door open just a bit and slipped inside. She looked exhausted, but she was clearly fighting it. "Shouldn't you be recharging, runt?" he asked tiredly.
Rae shook her head. "I refuse. Megatron says I have to recharge with him unless I find somewhere else, and I can't find Starscream." She shivered. "I won't recharge in the same room as Megatron. He creeps me out."
"He's a slagging glitch-head." Barricade murmured. "Get over here, runt. May as well spare you the trauma." Rae grinned and plopped down next to the recharge berth. Barricade rolled his optics and picked her up, setting her down on his chest. "What? You think Harbinger came up with this idea all on his own? It helps younglings recharge better. Even the Autobots do it." Rae's grin turned into a smirk as she curled up on his chest, her eyes closing on their own accord.
"Thanks, 'Cade." she murmured. Barricade's optics widened as it dawned on him the language she had just used. The clicks and beeps of Cybertronian sounded just right coming from her, more natural than the human language. He sighed and went into recharge himself.
This was going to be interesting to say the least.
/---/
"Optimus!" Ironhide called the Autobot leader over to the computer bank. Prime looked a bit confused as he came to the weapon specialist's side. "We just intercepted a message from Megatron. It appears as if he's found some sort of key, and now he's organizing search parties to find a cube of sorts. He doesn't go into any detail, but he does make it clear that no one is to touch the cube if they find it. Strange, right?"
"The cube." Prime murmured. "Why is Megatron after the AllSpark?"
"The AllSpark is a myth." Bumblebee pointed out. "Besides, it wouldn't be of any use to him. Only a Neutral mech can use it."
"So he's found himself a Neutral." Jazz pointed out. "Wonder who it is?"
No one noticed how Bumblebee went suddenly quiet after Jazz's observation. There was only one Neutral Bumblebee knew of, and he sincerely hoped that Megatron had not found Case. Bumblebee and Barricade had gone to great lengths to keep their brother hidden from everyone else. Not even Prime knew of his warrior's attachment to not only a Decepticon but a Neutral as well. If Megatron had Case –
But no, Bumblebee knew he didn't. Barricade would have contacted him by now if he did.
"In any case," Prime's deep voice drew Bumblebee from his thoughts, "we need to stop them. Disrupt their search any way possible. I don't want there to be any chance that Megatron has found the AllSpark. Ironhide, get everyone ready. We'll attack the base in a week's time."
