there's a million&one ways
A/N: Have a very merry Christmas! :D
ALSO: if you noticed starscream's oocness from the last chapter, then know that he was meant to be a little ooc. for reasons that are revealed later.
Replies:
Bumblebeezgirl,, Anna will never become a transformer in the usual sense just because I don't like the idea of humans turning into transformers. but something will happen. x)
Pairings: Annabelle Lennox w/ Starscream vs. Annabelle Lennox w/ Ironhide
Disclaimer: I do not own transformers or any of them; they are rightfully copy-writed to their respectful owners.
He. Was. Dead.
Skywarp, his bondmate, was dead.
Dead, not living. Dead.
No longer living.
Gone. Forever.
Forever.
That was a long time.
Too long for Thundercracker.
He collapsed at his bondmate's side, his arms curling protectively, instinctively around the lifeless, ebon' body. Mud splashed onto his armor, but he couldn't care. He couldn't care about anything, not even himself. The only thing – creature – he cared for was gone.
GONE.
The word echoed in his processors but he couldn't grip its meaning. It seemed too fantastic and surreal.
The blue seeker pressed his head into Skywarp's back. The pressure in his lubricating systems was forcing lubricant out the major ports on his body. A blue hand snaked it way through his bond-mate's chest and rested where his spark chamber would have been. To not feel a spark chamber there created a hole in his spark. The hole was a void similar to that of a black hole – nothing could ever fill it again. Thundercracker's body twitched like a person having a seizure, and his claws sliced easily through Skywarp's armor. He clamped his mouth onto his brother's wing; it was the only way to hold back this strange, foreign feeling in his vocal processors.
After a few convulsing minutes, Thundercracker's body became impossibly still. The cold wind froze his body in place. 'Maybe this is what it feels like to freeze,' he thought lifelessly. The deepest, most intimate part of him was already frozen: his spark. His spark had over the frozen but this – this savage act was what shattered his spark. His soul was nothing more than shattered glass. Walk over it and you might cut yourself.
He could feel his spark plunge to a dangerously low level of energy. Thundercracker dangerously hoped that his spark would sink to a low enough energy level that it would collapse upon itself. Then he wouldn't have to live through these moments: the aftermath moments. As he saw, he was no longer living, only existing on some unreal and hell-like plain of existence. A fog of confusion swept over his processors. Death no longer seemed illogical. Life, life equaled illogic. Without Skywarp to fill the equation, it wouldn't ever make sense.
Thundercracker + life + Skywarp = logical
Thundercracker + life – Skywarp = illogical
Thundercracker – life – Skywarp + death = logical
Logical = good
Thundercracker – life – Skywarp + death = good
Deep inside the darkest place, the glowing spark began to expand, exceeding the chamber's limits. Thundercracker's death grip tightened as the overload hit him. The seeker could no longer contain the raw, bleeding emotions growing inside of his hollow shell. He howled into the evening air, crying out all the endless pain and loneliness that suffocated his spark and drowned out all logical thoughts. Pain, anguish, regret, guilt, love, loyalty, dedication, and selfless dedication flooded his cry. For miles the creatures in the forest listened to the screechy, dying-animal sound. Something had indeed died but what, the creatures would never understand.
As darkness overcame him, Thundercracker could only manage one coherent thought: 'Please, let me die.'
The wind rolled over his body, whispering, "No."
Without Annabelle, his world seemed much colder and this world even more alien. He couldn't believe that he would feel out place. Even when he was in his vehicular form, Ironhide felt as if all the humans could see for what he was, an alien, not a kind alien either. Oh no, his body language alone was a warning sign: brisk steps, bright but narrow optics, slightly hunched over back, and an unforgiving scowl across his facial plates. Even the twins, who had never respected his boundaries, strayed away from him whenever possible. He envied them, wishing he could get away from himself, but he couldn't. He stuck to face himself head on; which was the problem. How did anyone face the reality that they could have caused their loved one to jump off the cliff? Especially when you didn't know that you did it?
The iron giant pushed his way through the forest, his armor catching a few streaks of the newborn sunrays. The ground sucked and gripped his feet like an octopus's sucker. The mud gasped as he pulled his foot away and hauled it onto dry land. The hulking autobot climbed up the hill, his guilty, death blue optics never straying from the oak tree. Its great leaves fluttered in the morning breeze and dripped with sweet dewdrops, but the tree appeared to be less magnificent without Annabelle underneath its shade. As the sunlight casted a golden glow onto its leaves and his back, Ironhide still felt cold inside. A deep chill swept through his spark, nearly extinguishing its flame.
He lied down in the sea of grass. The sky above him was open and completely free of any clouds to hide behind, yet somewhere in its vastness, he was sure was his Annabelle. Not the one that was pathological liar and betrayed them, but his Annabelle – the one could steal his focus if she glanced at him the wrong way in front of the autobots. She was the one that would climb out her window to whisper "good night to him" and give him a kiss on his hood every night, even on the coldest of winter nights. She was the one that would that could say "I love you" without muttering a single word. She was the one that could make him wish he could be human.
She was the person that made him feel normal and made him forget about his hardships. When she was around, he felt as if the war didn't exist. Oh god, did he love that feeling. She was the one thing that could actually make him feel all the emotions he fought to put aside. In so many ways, she reminded him of Chromia.
Ironhide couldn't remember a day when she hadn't brought a smile to his face or when he didn't feel proud in her presence. What he couldn't remember was how they had gone from being from being childhood friends to something other than that. It felt as if one day they both awoke from their sleep and knew that all the time they had spent together was adding up to this. He remembered the way she would lean into his fingers or curl into a ball between his shoulders and neck joints during the Wyoming winters. The way she would laugh as he cussed at the snow. Surely all of that had to have been real love.
'But what if it wasn't?'
The doubt chewed at his processors and he growled. Ironhide rolled onto his side where he saw the ghost of Annabelle staring back at him. She turned her head towards him, grinning from ear to ear. The tips of her blonde hair hovered in the air. The surface of her iris twinkled like a million stars, all because he was there beside her. "Why are you so upset, Scrappy?" she asked. "It's not like I'm the one in danger here."
"Anna – "
"I'm not," she interrupted. "You're the ones that are in trouble. It's not fair that you guys should have to put your lives on the line for me. I really feel like I should be protecting you guys."
"Anna – "
"I would join the bad guys you know, but not because I agree with them but because I would do it to keep you safe. Then no one could harm you." It clicked. Ironhide remembered this moment. It had been nine months, twenty-three days, seventeen hours, fifty-nine minutes, and twelve seconds ago that they lied together under the tree, staring at the stars. It had been the same night that the autobots learned that Elita One's body had been found strung outside of Iacon as a sign to all autobots.
"I'd become a decepticon just so that I could save you from Megatron and his creeps." She smiled brightly at him before looking to the stars. "I could pull it off too. I can act so evil and you guys would believe it – well, the others would believe, but you would know better, Scrappy. You always seem to know me so well, even when I don't."
It was illogical but he reached out to touch the memory of Anna. His hand passed through nothing. The autobot's spark seared with an unimaginable internal pain. The blue spark twisted itself into a tiny pretzel-like knot. Oh what he would give to go back to this moment and hold her once more.
"But you know I'd always be on your side," Anna interjected. "You would know that I could never betray you. I love you guys too much to do that sort of thing . . . especially you."
Her image vanished, replaced by a black, unfriendly foot. Ironhide blinked a few times before looking up to see Barricade starring at him with a charged canon replacing his left hand. The maroon eyes blinked insensitively down at the autobot. "Anna?" he sneered. "Is that the name of Starscream's little slave?"
Slave. Ironhide loathed that word as deeply as he loathed Starscream for his treachery. He pushed himself off the ground and aimed his canons at the decepticon. Surprisingly Barricade lowered his weapon and stepped submissively backwards. "I'm not here to fight, General," Barricade stated. "If I was here to fight, I would have attacked you when you were day dreaming." The mech had a point, and Ironhide lowered his guns against his better judgment. "I came here to make a deal, Ironhide. One I think you'll like."
"What do you want?" he barked. Shame crept through his circuits. He lifted his head proudly, criticizing Barricade with his optics. Ironhide knew he should've turned around because by staying here meant he was willing to cross the lines made by Prime and Megatron. After all, if Anna could have had the courage to cross it, then he had it within himself to cross the line too.
It was sometime after the fifth movie ended and between the low howling of the wind outside that Anna rolled her head over to see him staring at the ceiling blankly, very distantly. He didn't acknowledge her as she said his name, first softly, then louder. She went quiet after a few minutes of this and thought of it as nothing more than a glitch. He had, somewhere between the third movie and fourth, begun to slip away and paid less attention to her. Annabelle had assumed he was bored with the movies, but the way he looked at the off-white ceiling was different than a bored gaze. He was thinking about the darker side of things, but she had ignored it because of his human touch. She had, despite all her shame and instinct, enjoyed the way he held her. It felt normal to lean against his holoform and pretend his holoform was a human.
"Be like that!" Anna snorted. She pushed herself away from, but his hand came up, grabbing her roughly by her bicep. She snapped her head back, giving him the best death glare she could produce. "Let go of me, Twenty-two." She jerked her arm away, but his grip tightened to the point she felt her bone would snap underneath the pressure. "Starscream let go!"
"No," he breathed. The seeker turned his head towards her. He could make out all her features in the moonlight, from her crinkled nose to the way her pupils were enlarged with rage and fear. He loved the fear she emitted. It made him feel powerful leader he would be again. "I am your guardian and I can decided what you do."
"No, you can't!" she shouted loud enough that she was sure she woke up the people next door. "You're job is to protect me and show me your world. Nothing else! That's where the line is drawn!" He applied more pressure to her arm, getting a grunt out of her. "You're going to break my arm," she whimpered.
Submission. That's what he wanted. He dropped her arm and looked away to the door. Anna got off the bed quickly, disappearing into the next room. "Good riddance," he muttered sourly. Starscream placed his head against the backboard. It creaked ominously. He breathed out, trying to exhale his frustration with it, but it didn't help. Nothing did. He raked his hand over his face to the point he had to ease his grip or risk damaging the holoform. 'Some advice you gave me, Skyfire,' Starscream sneered. 'Not only did you successfully make me look weak in front of her, but actually made me pretend to like her.' His hand curled into a fist. 'And to top it off, it didn't so squat.'
"I know you will not want to do this, but try redirecting your rage. Anna responds better to kindness than rage," Jetfire's voice repeated in his head. "If you are to gain her loyalty, you'll need to show her that you care about her – make yourself look weak. Pretend that you're into her; almost like a mate. Anna loves being the center of attention." There was break in the memory of his voice. "Be open with her. You'll see the change immediately. Treat her like a human. Compliment her. She'll become more attentive to you."
"Change?" He had to cough out the word. 'More like I had to change into auto-slags.' As disgusted as his thoughts were about his past behavior, his scientific nature could not deny that there had obviously been some truth to Jetfire's words. Anna, once caught in the moment, ignore her initial instinct that something was wrong and for what? 'A little bit of comfort?' She was weak to trade her instinct for something as ridiculous as security. 'Hell, if she wanted that, she should've stayed with the auto-scums,' he criticized.
"You need to be patient, brother," echoed Jetfire's voice. "Anna doesn't like change. Too much change too quickly and she becomes upset. You need to give Anna time to adjust. Let her get used to you before you take her any farther into our world. This needs to be a gradual change. If you don't, then you'll never gain her trust." Starscream swore his memory chip was overloaded because of the clear, crisp sound of his voice. He banged his head against the head bored, trying to knock Jetfire's voice out of his head. "And please, don't give Anna the choice to make decisions on her own yet. She's still young and doesn't comprehend danger. She's young and foolish."
At those words, Starscream should've ignored Jetfire but he had listened to them out of what they had once shared. The seeker had been foolish enough to listen to someone that clearly did not know Anna or his Anna to be specific. The two saw two different people. As he reviewed his time with Jetfire, Starscream began to realize something he hadn't understood, a fundamental reason that would explain Anna's actions.
The autobots didn't trust her. And why would they?
An adult human was unpredictable at best, but a young human was more than they could bargain for, especially when that human had grown up as one of them.'That's why they babied her,' he thought. 'They know she's disloyal to them. So they wanted to make her dependent on them, make her feel that she had to be a part of them. You led her on to believe she was human, when in fact she had the mind of a sparkling. Then you made it seem that she was the problem by allowing her to believe she is the crazy one. That she is the wrong. Brilliant. But of course you auto-slags forgot about the part when she was right and you were wrong. Now she's old enough to know that people lie to you, and who better to lie to you than your family. Make her feel small and believe she needs you.' Starscream heard Anna trip over the table and fall onto the couch. He was tempted to get up and check on her, but her sufficient cussing was good enough evidence that she was okay.
He had made his way through the door connecting the bedroom to the living quarters. The 'con sank into the cream chair and stared at Anna, unblinking. A table separated them, but it might as well have been a galaxy. There was so much in between them, so much distance that needed to be covered, that he felt small and weak.
"You're a good liar," Anna spoke emotionlessly. "A really good liar."
"A lie is only as good as the person who will believe it," Starscream explained bitterly. Clearly the time he had used to review her actions, she had used to review his. She must known by now that his actions were not genuine. "It's the persuasion factor that determines how good a lie is."
"Well, you did a really god job, Twenty-two," the human appraised coldly. "Because you had me fooled. I was beginning to think there was actually a good soul inside that shell, but I was right the first time; you're nothing but a hollow shell."
"You should've stuck with your gut instinct," the 'con retorted.
"Next time I will." It was a promise, perhaps even a threat if analyzed enough.
He pressed his back into the chair. Her piercing glare was carving wounds into his hard outer shell like was butter. It was sickening how easily she got underneath his skin. "But I like to take the time to say you are the best liar here, Slipstream," Starscream injected. "You had me fooled." His was not kind but not malicious either and that scared Anna. The absolute calmness and eerie composure sent shivers down her spine. Starscream pulled out a paper – her letter – out of his pocket.
She knew what it was without looking at it. "How'd you get that?!" she growled.
"That doesn't matter," Starscream explained curtly. He unfolded it carefully, pressing out all the creases. The mech set it on the table in front of her so that she could reach out and grab it. "A person who knows what their doing and what their goal is does not write something like this," he spoke matter-of-factly. "Which is leading me to believe that you didn't bring me back to keep your family together." She was pale and avoided his gaze at all costs. Anna took a fateful look at the clock sitting atop the television. She knew her time was up, that someone had finally caught up to her; but it couldn't be - not this soon. "So why don't you tell me what your real motives are. Why are you doing all of this?"
She quiet, still as a statue. The soul in her eyes was unreadable, masked by something he couldn't break through. "There are so many things wrong with us," Anna said softly. "With them and me. I knew it from a young age. They didn't want me, but I wanted them. The only reason they even put up with me was because my father served with them. Well, that's wrong. One of them didn't me: Ironhide. He's the only that actually didn't push me away when I first discovered them. He was the one that always played with me. He always had enough patience for me when I was little." The memories of Ironhide warmed her numb face and brought a tender smile to her thin lips. It pained her to know that he could still comfort her young heart, even after what she had done to him. "He was the one that argued to have me inducted into their world. I think he thought I would be the ambassador that Sam would never be."
Starscream's face was sour like a Warhead, but he was listening. She knew that by the way his cold eyes critically analyzed her words. He was looking to see if she was lying again. She licked her lips nervously. Anna brought her knees to her chest. She shouldn't be telling anyone this, especially him. Why would he understand what she had been forced to endure. "At first I loved the idea of growing up to be one of them, but – " She focused on the shadows. They suddenly felt much larger and menacing, especially the way they crawled along Starscream's holoform. He looked like the boogey-man from her nightmares. Hell, he could be for all she knew. If he was the boogey-man, then this was a dream. But if this was a dream, why hadn't she woken up?
"But as you grow older, you begin to realize things don't match. By then though, it's too late. The snare has already caught you by your neck. I tried to get away from their world and retreat back into mine, but I could never fit back into society. I had to watch what I said and make sure I didn't let their existence slip. I created whole excuses for why I could never make it to my best friend's slumber party or why my friends were high-school kids. I lied in order to survive in my native world, but that meant surrendering to their world. Among the autobots, I didn't have to lie. I didn't need excuses. I could be myself. That felt nice you know, to be yourself, yet, myself isn't good enough for them." She closed her eyes and wrapped her arms tightly around her legs. Anna was scared that if she would let go, she would crumble underneath her own lies. "I think at first they thought I would be like Sam: naive and stood stupid to realize it. They wouldn't have minded had I not taken one step too far." She swallowed the hard rock in her throat. "I understood their native speech. I crossed the one barrier that they didn't want any human to cross. When I was around, nothing they said was safe. They spoke less and less in their own tongue, and more and more in English. The autobots don't want the humans to know their true feelings towards the alliance.
"Optimus and the others are dedicated to the cause of keeping Earth safe from decepticons but not human threats. Should they decide that the best decision would be to leave Earth, they would do so without hesitation, but the government doesn't like that idea. Galloway and his crew like having power over the autobots. The officials don't understand how irritated the autobots are with them. I overheard Ratchet suggesting they leave the planet out of their own safety. The humans trust their lives to the autobots, but the autobots would not put their lives in human hands. The autobots know better. But I knew and that made me a danger to them. I could compromise their whole alliance if I wanted too. But I didn't because I liked the power I had over them. I was just as bad as Galloway, but I'm worse than him. I knew better than Galloway. But still I did it.
"Then I out grew Ironhide. It was like one day I woke up and I no longer wanted him around. I wanted something more substantial than a real imaginary friend. He felt it too."
"Felt what?" Starscream asked.
"What we had always ignored," Anna explained. "We were too ignorant to recognize that the others didn't feel the same way about me. I was a human to them, not a sparkling. They didn't trust me like a family member. They took caution when I was around. I was a human and would always be a human to them. No matter what I did, I would always be a threat. All because of what I was born as." Hot, too hot, tears leaked onto her icy cheeks. They burned her cheeks, leaving an invisible scar on her soul. They tasted of salt and sour betrayal. "There comes a point when you know you won't change their minds. So I tried to become what they wanted me to be: human. I thought if I tried hard enough that I would magically forget their world that I would fit into my native world again.
"It only made it worse. Instead of being a hollow shell in one world, I would be a hollow shell in another world. Then I had to pretend to my parents that everything was okay. I would ignorant to the fact that they couldn't stand one another. I thought if I changed myself, that everything would become normal again. Maybe if I changed for them, then I could stop it from falling apart. But I got so caught up in pretending that I forgot about me, the real Anna. It is so much easier to be someone else than who you are. It's so much easier to please someone else when you're something they want you to be."
She was quiet as she retreated into her the dark abyss that was her mind. The gap between them was smaller and Starscream was sure he could, metaphorically, jump over the gap and into her world. He was aware of the fact that all the theories (including his) about her were wrong. She wasn't crazy; at least he didn't think she was. No, Anna, as he perceived, was the equivalent of a sparkling whom had been shoved into a world she didn't know without the right programming. She had spent the better part of her life trying to please them so that she could be accepted as one of them, but when they didn't, she blamed herself. She considered herself a failure. And so when he acted like a caring human, she acted human to match him, to appease him.
"I'm so weak," she cried. "If I was stronger than I could keep this up, do it for them. After all, isn't that what love is supposed to be? Selfless? You're supposed to sacrifice yourself so that they can be happy, right?" She felt his arms wrap around her and his energon-scented breath on her nose. "I'm so pathetic because I'm confessing this to a robotic Hitler instead of my family." Anna clung to him, leaning into him. She wanted something real to hang onto, something that wouldn't turn against her. She buried her head into his neck. "I'm so fucked up," she breathed into him.
"No, you aren't," Starscream assured. He gently ran a hand over her back, trying to sooth her shacking body. "You've done nothing wrong, Anna. It's them – the autobots – that are the problem. They are the ones that don't know the meaning of love. They don't – "
Anna pulled away from him. She disgusted by his hypocracy. "And you do?" she asked critically.
"I know the meaning of being lonely and the difference between that and being with someone who is one the same level as yourself," the seeker answered. "And I know now that you and I are on the same level, Anna." He cupped her face with his large hand and stared into her eyes. She was hurting and strangely it pained him to see her in that state. He was her guardian after all; he was supposed to protect her from pain. "I promise that I will make you strong, Anna, so that you will never need them again."
She doubted him. It was plain in her eyes. "B-b-but they're a-all I-I have left," she said through her sobs.
He shook his head. Humans could be so thick at times. Starscream stood up, staring sympathetically at her. This sparkling would take a lot of work if she were to become what he imagined her to be. "No they aren't," he informed. The 'con outstretched his left hand to her. "You have me." Her bleak, irritated eyes stared blankly at him; then they slid down to his hand. "I'm all you'll ever need, Anna."
"Forever is a long time," she muttered.
"Not when you're at my side," Starscream replied. She curled away from him and the tears stopped, but restraint finally snapped. The seeker snarled, "Anna." He rolled Anna onto her other side, leaving scratch marks on her skin. "You pathetic human," he breathed. "Nothing will make you happy! And you're so thick because you don't see that I'm trying to set you free from this vicious cycle. But no! You think I, your savior, am the bad guy!"
"Because you are the bad guy!" Anna yelled. "You're a scheming decepticon with a record of being a traitorous bastard, and I've spent enough time around you to know you don't do anything without cause. Which tells me that you are only keeping me alive for something horrible; otherwise you would've let me stayed at the autobot base or let me stayed dead."
"How many times do I have to repeat myself?" he growled. "I did not mean to kill you. It was an accident."
"It only proves my point!" she retorted. "You need me alive for something!"
"If you put some trust into me, then I could show you," he blasted.
"Show?" she mocked. "Why the hell can't you tell me – oh wait, you're a coward. I almost forgot that."
"I would have to show you because you don't trust me word," Starscream snapped. He yanked her to her feet and pressed her against his chest. A low cried emitted from her vocal cords. He had forgotten that her ribs were still recovering from the incident. "You make this so hard on yourself," he spoke softer. "When it doesn't have to be. How can I be your guardian if you don't trust me?"
"Why are you so concerned about having my trust?" he said bitterly. "Isn't that what you're supposed to save for your second-in-command?"
"I am," he replied sternly. "But she isn't responding well to it."
"Wait. What?" she blurted out. The anger in her voice transformed into confusion, concern, and curiosity.
In unison, he rolled his eyes and sighed. Starscream's hate for stupidity hit a new low. Assured she wouldn't run away, he eased his grip. "Thundercracker is a weak second-in-command. He has proved to be a disloyal soldier to the decepticon cause. He has a high risk factor of betraying me in the future. It would not surprise me if he defected to the other side or runs away from the war all together. You, on the other hand, may be weaker than him at the moment but you have a far greater potential. I know I could count on you."
"How do you know that I won't betray you?" Anna questioned.
"Because it is not in your personality to betray someone," he assured. The decepticon ran his hand through her hair. It was the only action that kept him from coming unglued. "If I didn't think you were worthy of this position, then I would not be offering it to you, Anna," Starscream added flatly. He stared at her, looking as if he meant ever word.
She blinked away from him. The human was tired of lies, especially the ones that seemed too good to be true. "Why?"
"Anna, I would not have kept your alive if I thought you were a danger to my operation," Starscream stated. "It's for the opposite reason that I'm doing this. I trust you."
"You barely know anything about me," she criticized.
"I know that you are five foot, three inches with blonde hair and acceptable blue eyes. You weigh one hundred-nineteen pounds and have a knack for gymnastics. You hate the situation you are in with the autobots, but you don't want to leave them for moral reasons. So you take your frustration out on me because I am a threat to your cyclic lifestyle. You're afraid to get away from that life, yet you are eager to have freedom and control over your own life. Underneath that weak fleshing body is a fighter like her father. You also know that I would never intentionally harm you nor would I leave you without cause; which is a new concept for you."
Her mouth parted as she stared at him. He naturally smirked, feeling as if he had won a major battle in this relationship. "And I know that you will say yes to this position because it gives you the power that you always wanted. You will also say yes to this because I know that deep inside you trust me; otherwise, you wouldn't have ignored your instincts and lied with me on the bed while we watched that horrible entertainment."
"What if I said you were wrong?" Anna asked. "What would you say to that?"
"Then I would say you are lying," Starscream answered frankly.
She pulled her lips into a small smile. "Then I guess you do know me after all, Twenty-two," the human said. "But when do I get to find out who you are? I don't know you as well as you know me."
"If we are to work as a team, then I surmise we have to take down these barriers," he thought aloud. He paused, thinking of a good starting point. "My mentor and guardian was Alpha Trion. I was originally assigned to work in Kroan as an over-seer but I was transferred to Iacon to become a scientist. I worked first as a local scientist before upgrading to an off-world explorer. I choose Skyfire as my partner for the journey. We became brothers and lived together. Then when he disappeared, I went into the military force. There I served under Ironhide as Captain of the forty-second seeker regime. I defended Cybertron several times from The Unknown. Then when war broke out I joined the autobots. I later defected to the decepticons. In order to join the winning side I killed Chromia – Ironhide's sister. I then became second-in-command and commander of the decepticon air force.
"After many years I came to Earth to retrieve the Allspark but those humans destroyed it and Megatron. I retrieved Frenzy's head and headed back to Cybertron. I then spent some time to recreate the cube and created the protoform Scourge from it. Shockwave betrayed me and I was a prisoner under him. I managed to escape and came to Earth to make yet another Allspark. Thundercracker called me crazy. In my weakened state, we fought. I had enough energy to get to that hanger.
"Then you revived me. Together we escaped from the autobots' oppression. Now we're in Moscow and I'm explaining this to you. Soon enough we will leave Earth and head to Cybertron . . . with you at my side as my second-in-command." He looked boredly at her. History had never been one of his favorite subjects, and it was made only worse because he was the primary subject of this history lesson. "Is there anything else you'd like to know, Anna?" he asked slightly bitterly.
"Yeah," she said snootily. "What happens between Moscow and Cybertron?"
"How did I know that you would ask that?" he asked rhetorically.
"Because you know me so well," Anna replied with a cheesy smile. She stood on her the tips of her toes and brushed her nose against his shoulder. "But you didn't answer my question, Twenty-two."
"I'm not going to answer it till tomorrow night," he replied flatly.
She slid away from him. "Well then," Anna mused. "I guess I'll just have to burn some time." She glanced over her shoulder at him. "You might want to change into something a little more casual, Twenty-two."
"Why's that?" he asked cynically.
"Because I've heard rumors on the internet that night clubs in Moscow are some of the best," she informed. "I for one am not going to miss the chance to experience that for myself." Her words were finals. She slipped away to the next room.
"And why are we doing this?" he called out.
She peeped her head through the doorway. "Because we need to work on our relationship, Twenty-two," she argued logically. "Otherwise, we'll never get anything done. Well, other than driving one another crazy."
"I believe we have accomplished that one already," he said, following her into the next room. She beamed brightly before turning around and disappearing into the artificial light. He stood still for a few moments, staring at where she had been. Perhaps he had gone crazy from being around her, and that had insanity had caused him to keep her alive; but as she called out his name, he felt no regret about the decision. She was the first creature that genuine in his world.
"Twenty-two!"
"I'm coming!" he barked. Then he too disappeared into the artificial light.
A/N: what's that old saying again? keep your friends close and enemies closer?