Chapter 16: The cat and the snake (part 1)

"Skywarp!" she exclaimed as she saw the black and purple jokester. He swirled around at the sound of his name a few crates in his hands.

"Well, well if it isn't my trine mate's berth buddy," he smirked much to her chagrin.

Sighing, she let his remark slide.

"I need you to do something for me, it's urgent." She eyed him studying him for a response- the left corner of his mouth twitched upwards into an almost smirk.

"Urgent to who exactly?" Shifting the weight of the crates onto his right arm he arched an optic ridge.

"Me."

"That sounded more like a question more than anything."

"Whatever," she huffed his questioning started to get to her. "I need you to find out if Astrotrain is supposed to go on a mission, and if he is where and with who."

He snorted setting the boxes down before crossing his arms.

"Have a little crush do we now? Word of advice stalking never gets you anywhere."

If possible her face would have paled her mouth gaping at him like a fish out of water before her face scrunched up into an annoyed scowl.

"I'm not stalking anyone- Look can you just do that for me?"

"If I do it, what's in it for me?"

"I would owe you one. But that aside- will you do that for me?" She looked at him intently- silently pleading within her own head.

"I don't know why you don't just go to the twin twerps; they could get you what you need from Soundwave." He argued still not convinced.

Because it'll look suspicious if I'm looking at someone else's work schedule, dumb-aft. Grimacing she looked at him.

"I have reasons. Just go do that for me," she paused before scowling at him, "please?"

Laughing, he picked up the boxes and started to walk away without a word his laughter ringing down from the hall.

"Well so much for a yes or no confirmation!" she yelled after him. Continuing on she huffed making her way down to the lower levels of the ship to start her shift cleaning.

The data-pad glowed lightly- contrasting against the dark of her room. Her eyes lingered on the words sloppily written on the screen. Looking up she stared wide eyed at the onyx seeker.

"So it's true?"

"Well you read it didn't you?" He smirked, his long talon tapping against the screen making a Plink, Plink sound, "It says that you and Astrotrain are to head off to Tryxn, wherever that is."

Growling, she shut off the devise handing it back to the seeker. He leaned casually against the table behind him. Raising her head she met his gaze, the contagious smile on his face plate making her smile as well. Tilting her head she put the data-pad in his hands once more the smile never vanishing.

"Thank you, Skywarp."

"'Warp," his smile broadened.

Her face contorted into a confused look "Huh?"

"You can call me 'warp, I like it better than my designation."

She looked at him for a moment before the smile stretched back onto her face.

"'Warp it is then," She chuckled before getting serious, "but thanks."

He nodded dismissing her gratitude as nothing, before he turned onto his heel and walking towards the door before pausing.

"You shouldn't let her get to you, just brush her off like the scrap she is."

"What do you mean," she jutted out her hip letting her weight rest onto her right hip. He gestured his head towards the red and white painted wall beside them "It'll get her angrier if she sees that nothing she does to you has no affect, the angrier she gets the more you can worm into her processor and finally break her." She stared at him watching as his optics brightened with wicked thoughts.

"I'll take that into consideration next time." she said. Continuing out of the room, Skywarp walked out leaving the femme to herself. She huffed, her eyes glancing at the wall before she sat on the foot of her berth dropping her helm into her hands she rubbed her temples trying to message away the small throbbing ache she started to develop.

"Break her," she said into the palms of her hands her warm breath bouncing off her metallic skin and onto her cheeks. "If it was that easy."

Leaning back onto her berth she stared up a the ceiling in deep thought, the decepticon logo staring back at her.

Her fuel tanks churned inside her as she thought over the information she had gained. It wasn't an easy thought but it didn't surprise her- megatron was more than capable of trading her in exchange for troops, he would no doubt trade everyone else if given another chance as-well his soldiers were nothing more than pawns in this war between the feuding brothers. She desperately wanted to believe that all this killing and death was nothing more than an eternal struggle between good and evil- but underlying in the deepest corners of her processor she knew it ran deeper than just good triumping over evil or vice versa. Her processor throbbed once more threatening to take over her too complicated thought in favor of sending her into recharge. She sighed feeling so many emotions running through her like a wild fire with no sign of extinguishing. Her CPU was over crowded with thoughts and emotions going every which way so many negative thoughts filtering out all the positive feelings she may have had over the last few weeks; all she could think about was being bonded to a stranger.

Turning to rest on her side she glared at the offending door that lead into a closet for personal items or storage. Her processor ached even more now it was as if someone was pounding on drums within her head. She had thought about going straight forward to Megatron himself but rather decided to look for her answers else where. Granted, now she had even more questions than she ever started out with but she would deal with those when the time came. Now her priority was to find out who this mech was and why the interest in her specifically. Confronting Megatron was on the bottom of her list of to-do's, she would rather stay away from him at the moment it would not be a smart move on her behalf. She was to angry- her energon boiling within her like an active volcano ready to erupt and she knew that if giving the chance she would as Skywarp once said 'blow her top'. Shadowblur smirked, her eyes twinkling as she thought of someone who could give her the information she needed and she knew he would keep his mouth shut too. Starscream once said he needed her for information on Megatron, so why not use that to her advantage just this once. A trade of information would ensure some knowledge for both cybertronians; a fair deal really. Though knowing he was conniving and serpent like she would take her chances, he was sly trickster but then again so was she if push came to shove. Yes, this would come greatly to her advantage.

A/N: I'm a slacker I know! Sorry guys, this was up on my desktop this whole time waiting to get uploaded it was already done along with part 2 of this chapter, which I'll post tomorrow! I'm a slacker, I'm sorry. Hope you guys like this it was a little over due but atleast I finally uploaded- I didn't mean to take such a long time with this chapter just sitting there on my computer. Review please I want to know what you guys think especially since I'm finally back :P