there's a million&one ways
A/N: Merry Be-Lated Christmas everyone! I hope you all enjoyed it!
&& this is a short, kind've fun filler chapter.
Replies:
Master Chief Nicole,, Sorry, but Anna will never become a transformer. I've never liked that idea of humans becoming robots and robots becoming humans. &&let me guess, you're writing a Halo based story? :3
Pairings: Annabelle Lennox w/ Starscream vs. Annabelle Lennox w/ Ironhide
Disclaimer: I do not own transformers © Hasbro.
With her arm wrapped around his and her fingers strung through his warm fingers, Anna led the way. The side walked baked in the streetlight's yellow glow. Windows were transformed into dark mirrors, reflecting the faces of young, happy people laughing and smiling loudly. The cold breeze that drifted through the maze of steel buildings ruffled their clothes, hair, and brought friends closer together. In between their breaths, the music's beat pulsed in the atmosphere. The atmosphere's electrical charge lifted the airs on their arms and excited their bodies. Suddenly this world wasn't defined by how you looked but by how you moved with the music.
While Annabelle's eyes searched for the perfect club to crash, Starscream disapprovingly eyed the people they past and the shadows in the alleys. He couldn't understand how his human could ignore the grimy faces that belonged to intoxicated women and the predatory stares from sly men. He brought her closer to him till her body was touching his. The seeker over-protectively glowered at anyone that violated his ten feet diameter, personal space circle, but he didn't deter the intoxicated people's stares; they continued to stare at his well-dressed Anna like he didn't exist. Starscream's disapproving frown turned into a scowl as they continued to ignore his warnings.
He felt a tug on his arm as Anna drifted to a suitable nightclub. Above the blue glass doors, a bright neon sign illuminated the Russian words "The Notion." Anna's ebony heels clicked against the floor, but the high sound was eclipsed by the music. His vital analyzing processing unit flashed a noise warning level. The mech trailed poorly behind his human and had to push people out of his way to keep up with her. He curiously watched as the lights flashed and beat with different colors to the music. The humans' faces all shared the same excited emotions. The bodies brushed against each other, some on purpose and others accidentally.
She had chosen what humans referred to as a "hot spot." Girls and boys younger than Anna swayed and danced away, forever lost to the music. Some shared their mouths in a disgusting form of human intimacy: a kiss. Oddly and illogically enough, some girls shared these "kisses" with other girls and a select group of boys copied them. 'Why would these insects choose a partner that they couldn't reproduce with?' he asked himself.
Starscream's eyes were dragged away and refocused on another scene. A girl with strawberry hair and drunk by the way she stumbled over her own feet, clung desperately to an older male. An intoxicated smile spread across her freckled face as she laughed at something that hadn't happened. The male, probably ten years older than the girl, led her into the male's restroom. 'Strange,' he commented.
"Someone's going to get laid tonight," muttered a Russian who had witnessed the same scene.
His processors short-circuited for a nanosecond as he realized the meaning behind the sentence. "Anna," he called in an urgent tone. "Anna!" His voiced was masked by the music. Starscream tightened his grip on her, stopping Annabelle in her tracks. "Anna," he hissed.
She impossibly spun around on her heels with a dirty look in her eyes. She placed a hand on his black dress shirt. "Why don't you go grab yourself a few drinks," Anna suggested heavily. "It might wipe away your bad attitude." She glanced towards the glow-n-the-dark bar. "There's a pretty girl over there eyeing you. Now go work on your human skills and talk to her."
"Anna, do you know what is going on here?" he asked loudly.
"Of course," she retorted sourly. "I've been to these places before."
"What?" he blurted. The mech stared surprisingly at the human. He was expecting her to be lying but she was telling the truth. "How?" Starscream demanded.
"It pays to have friends who are respectable members in the community that are old enough to be chaperones on far away field trips," Anna answered. She jerked her other hand from his grasp and used it to push him away. "Now go! You're starting to suffocate me with your snooty, anti-fun attitude."
"Anti-fun is not a word," he commented.
"It's better than the other word I was going to use," she snapped.
"And what was that?" he asked hatefully.
"Shitty," she spat.
He opened his mouth to speak but a wave of people crashed over them. Starscream was pushed back and out of Annabelle's sight. The swaying bodies brushed against the holoform, sending chills of claustrophobia and disgust for the humans' stench down his spinal circuit. He retreated from the human sea towards the only haven where there was a lack of human hordes: the bar.
Pushing through the wall of bodies was harder than he had calculated. Starscream discovered he had to shift his holoform into position were mentally uncomfortable. The "grinding" motions the female flaunted and the uh – whatever the male motion was called – increased his lack of respect for the insects. How either gender found it pleasurable was beyond his logic. 'Fleshies are strange creatures,' he reminded himself.
A female was flung onto his chest and knocked him into the person behind him. The bleached blonde titled her head up, beaming brightly at him. She snaked her skinny arms around his body. "Hey, baby," she spoke in Russian. "Want to be my new dance partner?" She batted her fake eyelashes at him. Was she begging?
"I have one already," Starscream growled ruthlessly in Russian. He pushed her away from her shoulders and towards a new victim. Mumbling incoherent Cybertronian cusses and fueled with a new determination to escape this hellhole, the 'con broke through the human mass in record time. He stumbled out of the crowd and glared back at their uncaring faces. 'Dumb shits,' he cursed. He took a seat nonchalantly at the bar and ordered a screwdriver. The mech placed his elbows on the bar and glared at his drink. 'I should've said no. Should've, should've, should've!'
"She's a pretty girl." He ignored the obvious American accented English voice. "The one you came in with."
Starscream lifted his head. The woman sitting next to him was the one Anna had picked out for him at the bar. She let her straight, ebon' locks drape across her bare shoulders. In the limited light he couldn't make out what she was wearing but he assumed it to be a dress or something like that. The overly tanned woman had a narrow face with aquamarine eyes to compliment the darker tones of her body.
She turned herself around to spot Annabelle dancing in the crowd, while he glanced over his shoulder. Without much trouble, he could see Anna flirtatiously dancing like everyone else. Her white top was constantly changing colors, depending on which light was casted over her. She spun in circle, where he caught sight her smiling. His fingers curled into a fist. 'How is it that some stranger can get her to smile and I can't?' he asked himself angrily.
"I wouldn't worry too much," the woman commented. "It's just the nature of people when they get on the dance floor." He shot her a bitter glare. She dismissed it as a jealously and continued to talk. "I'm surprised she's not dancing with more people. It must be her shyness."
"Shyness?" he said bluntly. "She's anything but shy."
The woman glanced flatly at him. "Well, she is," she argued. "Otherwise she wouldn't keep looking over here."
"She's just twirling around," Starscream retorted.
"Yes," she acknowledged. "But when she does, she's looking at you." The woman swung her seat towards the bar and took a sip of her Bloody Mary. "She's hoping that you'll come over there and dance with her."
"Yeah, right," the seeker replied sarcastically. He tore his optics away from her. "She hates me. Absolutely distrusts me. Anything I do, she questions. She's constantly picking on my flaws instead of acknowledging all my good." He gulped down a quarter of his drink and pressed the cold glass to his left temple. Sometimes it felt good to complain. "We spend more time bickering than anything."
"She must really like you," she commented.
"That's an illogical way of showing it," he criticized.
She shrugged. "Insecure girls can be like that."
"Insecure?" he choked. "She's the most confident and arrogant thing I've met."
The human breathed out a sigh and rolled her eyes. "Guys," she muttered to herself. "Don't' know anything." Facing him with one elbow on counter, the woman added, "I'm going to assume she's had her heart broken … pretty badly if she's acting like that." The mech looked curiously at the woman. "She's "arrogant" and "confident" and "fiery" because she's trying to push you away. She doesn't want you to know that she's attracted – do seriously not know any of this?"
"I don't get out much," Starscream said flatly.
"Obviously," she breathed. "As I was saying, she likes you, but she doesn't want you – "
"That doesn't make sense," he objected. "If you like someone intimately, then you have to "want them" a little bit."
"Let me finish. She likes you, but she doesn't want to like you because she's afraid you'll hurt her emotionally. Basically, she's scared to trust you."
"But I've done nothing to her to make her scared of me," the seeker argued. "I've given her everything she's wanted; including a higher position of power in my business. I've even doted on her. I've given my trust to her."
"It doesn't matter," the woman informed matter-of-factly. "What the last guy, if it was a guy, did to her. She's going to think that you'll be just like him."
"You'd think with all I've done for her, she'd at lest give me some trust," he complained.
"Oh god." She ran her hand over her face. "You've been trying to buy her trust. That's the worst thing you could've done."
"What?" he asked point blank.
"You can't buy her trust," she stated. "If you try to buy it, you'll only make her more mistrustful of you."
"Well, what the hell am I supposed to do?" Starscream asked impatiently.
"Wait," the insect ordered. "You need to wait for her to trust you. Let her be the first to make a move. Just give her some time to trust you."
"I don't have time," he spat. She looked at him, bewildered. "I'm going to be deployed in a few weeks … I don't want to lose her to someone else while I'm gone." He finished his drink and placed it on the bar. Starscream concentrated on the empty cup. Strange, it didn't as big without a liquid occupying it.
"You must really like her then," she commented softly. She leaned against the table' edge. She swished the liquid around with her black straw and found it to be a nice distraction. "Most guys would runaway from a girl like her."
"She can be incredible," Starscream explained. 'Pain in the ass.' "She's witty, smart, funny … everyone loves her. She's – "
"Everything you're not."
"I wouldn't say that," he defended. "She can be just like me at times … stubborn, sarcastic, cynical … determined." He waved his hand to dismiss the bartender. "I can get her out of my head. I want too but I can't."
"If you like her that much, then why would you want to get her out of your head?" she asked innocently.
"Because it's not healthy," Starscream enlightened. "Not for my profession. I need to be able to focus when she's not there. I don't need to be worrying about her when I'm on the battlefield or thinking about what she's doing in my free time. I don't need a distraction like her – they're dangerous."
"It sounds like you need one," she corrected. She eyed him briefly before looking at her drink again.
"Why do you say that?" he asked acidly.
"Because only the truly lonely people think having someone by your side is a weakness," she answered frankly. "They're afraid to get hurt. People like that, you for instance, are cowards. You don't want to be weighed down by anything. To you, people are expendable." His glare was beginning to burn a hole through her personal shield. She laid the money down for her drink and shuffled out of her seat. "I gotta go," she spoke urgently. She glanced towards him. "Good luck. I'm sure you two will need it."
"Hey," he called after her. She glanced over her shoulder, still walking. "I'm Daine! " he yelled over the music.
"Mikaela!" she shouted back. "Mikaela Banes!" Then she blended flawlessly into the mass of insects. Mikaela slid easily through the crowd and slip through the doorway. Outside in the cold air, she pulled her vibrating, teal cell-phone out of her black boots. She brought to her ear and answered, "Hello?"
"Mikaela?" asked a familiar, masculine voice on the other end. "It's Sam."
"I know," she answered curtly.
"I … I was just wondering how you were doing."
"Doing fine, Sam."
"I figured so…" Disappointment clung to his voice. "Mikaela, I'm sorry. I didn't mean what I said earlier. It's just … I was out of line. I'm sorry and I love you."
"I love you too, Sam," she replied. "Just not everything you do."
"Look, I was calling to see when you'd come home," he explained. "It's lonely here without you and I want you to come back."
"I'll be home in a few days. We can discuss it then."
"Actually, I was hoping to now."
"Why the rush?"
"I just want things to get back to normal as quickly as possible," he admitted.
"Is your mom coming over or something?" she inquired.
"No. She and dad are on vacation in the Bahamas right now. Can't I miss just having you around?"
"What are you scheming now, Sam?"
"Nothing. I honestly miss your company."
"You have Bee, Sam. I bet he would love to talk to you. Maybe you two should go for a ride. You haven't taken him out on the rode for six months."
"Bee's not here, Mikaela," he said somberly.
"Oh, did he go down and visit the autobots?"
"Kind've."
"Kind've? What's that suppose to mean?"
"Galloway is rounding up all the autobots and moving to the Diego Garcia ... permanently."
"Why would he do that?" she asked harshly.
"Lennox's girl is missing," he explained. "The decepticons kidnapped her."
"Kidnapped her?!" she repeated loudly. "How? She's surrounded by autobots."
"I don't know," Sam replied. "They haven't told me much."
"Why wouldn't they tell you anything?" she demanded.
"I don't know, but it's not good. I think they know something big is about to happen and it's scaring the shit out of them." They were both quiet as she strolled down the street. "And Mikaela?"
"Yes, Sam?" she asked quietly.
"I'm seeing them again." She froze in place at those words. The medicines, why had they stopped working? After almost thirteen years, why now? Ratchet had assured them that Sam would stop seeing the symbols permanently. She rested against a streetlight and used it to support her weak legs. Mikaela had to remind herself to breath. "Please come home soon."
"I'll be there tomorrow," she assured. She felt her throat begin to tighten.
"I love you."
"I love you, too." The line remained opened for several minutes before Sam hung up the phone.
His optics never left her, not even a pica-second. For one straight hour he watched her ignore the pain in her ribs so that she could flirt with the music. He'd seen her flash smiles to insects that didn't deserve them. She'd gone as far as to take a sip out of some random male's beer bottle. Didn't she think anything through? It took what little restraint he had to stay in his seat and brood over his slutty human.
When Annabelle took a seat by him, he pretended not to notice. He looked in every direction other than hers. She reclined against the seat and sighed. She stared out onto the crowd, not fixating on any one person. "So … you're pissed off," she commented.
Silence.
"We can leave if you want," Anna threw out there. "You're probably ready to leave."
More silence.
"Are you going to talk?"
Not even so much as blink from him.
"This is really uncomfortable," she informed.
'Now you know how I feel when I'm around you,' he retorted.
"Hello?" she asked. "Are you going to answer me or just sit there and look pretty?"
Nothing. Just silence.
Desperate to get a reaction out of him, Anna slid out of her seat and plopped herself on his lap. She hung her legs off his thighs. Carefully, the human crossed her arms. Starscream couldn't contain his smirk any longer. He slid an arm around Anna's back to support her. She placed her against his shoulder. With larger eyes, Annabelle looked up to him. "You're a real jerk," she spat.
"So I'm told," he dismissed.
"You smell like alcohol," the human stated.
"And you smell like dirty human," Starscream replied. She narrowed her gaze on him. "You insult me, and I'm going to insult you back." She huffed and muttered something to herself. "Now why are we here, Anna? You said we would work on our relationship."
"We are," she said coolly.
"No, all I've been doing is watching you be preyed on by undeserving fleshies," he corrected.
"Well, if you were so concerned you should've intervened," Anna snapped.
"But I didn't."
"Yeah … why?" she demanded.
"A test of wills," Starscream informed. "I wanted to see if you'd come back to me or if I'd have to fetch you."
"I guess you won," she said sourly.
"Indeed I did," he agreed. "And I think a prize is in order."
She rolled her eyes and mockingly laughed at his statement. "Yeah, right," Anna snorted.
"You're so quick to judge, Anna," he stated flatly. "You don't even know what I want."
"Let me think." She tapped a finger against her chin thoughtfully. "Oh, power with a side of punishment for his human? No, no. Maybe a hot fudge sunday topped with lies and a cherry?" she said sarcastically. "Or perhaps Twenty-two would like an obedient human that took her punishments without complaining?"
"No," he replied. "Though all of those – excluding this "sunday" – would be nice." He brushed his sandy hair against her forehead. "I want you to say "yes" to my next question," he spoke into her ear. She raised an eyebrow at his demand. "I promise you that you'll not be harmed any more than the state you are in now."
"Oh wow, that's real promising," the human retorted.
"I've made very little promises in my life, but I've kept all of them; that includes the ones I made to you." Starscream looked at her, focusing on her eyes. He was searching for that something she had had in the autobot's basement. "Do you swear on your life and the lives of your family to keep everything between us confidential?" he asked. "That you'll never reveal any of this to anyone, not even to a stranger; you'll give up your life before telling anyone about what happens between us?"
"Where are you going with this, Twenty-two?" she demanded.
"Do you swear?" he asked.
"Why do you need me to swear?" Anna asked persistently.
"I can only tell you that after you swear," the seeker informed. "Now do you swear?"
"Yes!" She gave into his mind games and sighed.
"Then give me your hand," he ordered. He took her hand left hand in his before looking at her. "This shouldn't hurt too much." A pen prick shot through her palm. She jerked it away from him to see what he had done. The blood rose to the surface of her palm, bringing life to the tribal symbol. "Its ancient Cybertronian for remember your promise."
"So I have a new tattoo on my palm?" she asked dryly
"I didn't add any dyes, " he answered. "It'll just be a scar." He placed a napkin in her hand and folded her fingers around it. "I just have to make sure you'll never forget."
"Why would I forget?"
"Should the autobots steal you away from me, they'll want to pry you mind for dirty little, decepticon secrets. None of my other comrades could know about this either or else we'd both be fatally compromised." He tapped a finger on her forehead. "And I'd hate for any of them to find out one of my dirtiest ones all because you forgot about the promise."
"What exactly can't they know?" she asked hesitantly.
"I'm going to make you my bond-mate," he answered.
"Wha – what?" She pushed herself away from him, till only his arm kept her from falling onto the floor. "But – but that's – that's insane. Why the fuck would you do that, Twenty-two?"
"Life is about your priorities – wants – and I happen to know what I want, Anna," he said calmly. "I want Megatron dead; which has been accomplished. I want to regain my leadership over the decepticons. I want to win this war so that our race can begin reconstruction. Lastly, I want you."
"Why would you want me?" she asked viciously. "I wouldn't want me!"
"Well, it's a good thing I'm not you," Starscream answered.
Anna was unable to meet his gaze anymore. She slipped off his lap. She reached for his hand and spoke softly, "Let's go for a walk."
Something wasn't right; from the way she looked away and faced the doorway. "Anna?" he asked. "What's wrong?"
"We need to go for a walk," she insisted.
Diego Garcia did not feel like home. It felt like a prison.
Galloway had taken advantage of the current situation to enforce regulations on them that would not have passed otherwise. The first rule stated they had to remain in their vehicular forms unless instructed by an officer. They were to remain stationed in the hanger unless instructed. They could not project a holoform unless instructed. They could not speak to any humans unless spoken too. They could not speak aloud to each other in their native tongue unless given permission. They were allowed to sit in the same position, gather dust, and rust.
The only autobots not occupying the hanger were Mirage and Jetfire. All communication with Jetfire had ended in failure. The techno division of NEST was currently searching for him, but he had fallen off the map. At the current moment, they had put him under MIA status.
Mirage, on the other hand, had experienced trouble with the decepticons on his way to Earth and was forced to remain in a distant solar system or so that was the story Optimus had relayed to the commanding NEST officers. They, the autobots, knew the true story. Mirage had landed on Earth twenty-two hours ago. He'd track down Barricade and copied his design. Then he had encountered Skywarp and hacked into his systems. All current decepticon plans and hiding places were in their hands. All the vital information needed to retrieve Annabelle was there, but instead of rolling out, they were rusting away in the humid hanger.
In the room adjacent to their designated resting place, Galloway was yelling at Lennox. The worst of both men had flushed to the surface. Epps and Graham were holding a thrashing Will Lennox by his arms. A woman's wrath was said to be like hell, but a father's love and determination to protect his daughter against treason was worse … much worse. Scientists and troops alike flinched as Lennox screamed angry words at the top of his lungs.
"This isn't right," Sideswipe muttered over their frequency. The humans had no control over their frequency. "They can't do this to us just because one stupid human is missing."
"That's Anna you're talking about!" Bumblebee defended. "She's not some human! She's your family."
"Family doesn't do this to you, Bumblebee," Sunstreaker answered.
"She didn't betray us!" the camaro repeated for the tenth time.
"Oh, so she was a victim of circumstances?" Sunstreaker retorted. "The bitch turned on us, Bumblebee. She chose him over us. She's a fucking decepticon."
His circuits snaked angrily beneath his cool armor. Being surrounded by arguing 'bot and not allowed to moved was creating a deadly situation. He had an internal clock counting down to the moment he would lose. "She's not a decepticon!" Ironhide growled over the frequency. "She's better than that!"
"And how do you know that, Ironhide?" Ratchet inquired. "She displayed signs of trusting him over us. She could have well switched sides while suffering from bi-polar disorder."
"She's not bi-polar!" Ironhide snarled.
"Then why is she doing this, Ironhide?" the medic hounded. "If you have a different theory, then please present it to us."
"It's because she told me!" the soldier retorted.
The frequency was empty like space, completely void. Optimus, who was in the same room as Lennox, marched into the hanger. Galloway turned his attention to Optimus and was yelling at him for leaving without permission. "What do you mean she told you?" he asked bluntly.
All four men fell silent as Ironhide shifted into his bi-pedal form. The pitch-black autobot looked to his leader with a dirty secret in his eyes. "Anna told me she would do this. That she would pretend to be a decepticon in order to protect us," he explained. Lennox's stare was burning a hole in his spark. A rush of guilt and shame electrified his circuits. "I thought she was kidding when she said that, Sir. You know, human imagination. They're such creative creatures after all."
The humans were still like the autobots. They couldn't believe what he had said nor could Optimus. "Sir," Ironhide said. "She wouldn't have gone through with the plan had I not done what I did."
"What did you do?" Galloway demanded.
He glanced towards Ratchet but without a face to offer comfort, he was just another object. "I took Ratchet's advice," he answered slowly. His optics rested on Lennox. What would he think of him now? "I ended my relationship with Annabelle."
"Relationship?" Galloway asked, bewildered. "Like romantic?"
"I'm sorry, Prime," Ironhide said. The humans said once you confessed, you would feel the weight on your chest lift, but he felt his chest being compressed by the shame. "I told her she was a human and that she could never do what we do; that she would be limited to human limitations."
"In other words, you told her she was another useless and stupid human," Ratchet commented.
"Yes," he acknowledged. "And to prove me wrong, she did this – something that a human or autobot couldn't easily do."
"You and my daughter?" Will choked on the words. All the eyes were on Ironhide. Everything they had thought of him forever changed. He, besides Prowl, had been the biggest enforcer of the rules. It seemed impossible that he'd break the third cardinal rule.
Do not get intimately attached to or involved a biological terrestrial.