Chapter 3

"You're lying," Miko spat out.

"Surprisingly enough I'm not," the black and gold femme replied thoughtfully. "Now why would those soft sparked idiots go off and leave you to my tender mercies. Ah, wait. I know they know I'm on the island." The dark face returned to Miko's line of sight and leered down at her. "But did they know you were?"

There was no mistaking the look of fear and dawning comprehension that crossed the child's face.

"You snuck along didn't you? So here you are with me, and none of your friends even know it. Isn't that nice? Nice for me." A sickening smirk bloomed on the metal face.

Miko felt fear lock up her throat. She had to react. A small voice in the back of her mind called out for her to show no fear. The wild energy inside of her rose up and exploded outward.

"Kutabare!"

"You know dearest. I'd really prefer it if you spoke a language I know."

"Baka busu!"

Airachnid smiled cruelly and reached forward with one razor sharp talon. Miko cried out in pain as the blade sliced across her cheek.

"Now, in English if you please."

"Drop dead!" Miko hissed out as a thin trickle of blood ran down her face.

"There, wasn't that easy?"

"Oh you want me to speak in English huh? Well listen to this you…"

And listen Airachnid did as she finished securing her vocal little hostage. At first she was faintly amused, then she outright laughed, finally she simply shook her helm in silent amazement. How could such a young being have amassed such a store of cunning, vicious, and malicious language? What the spider-bot found especially impressive was the class of the tirade. Not once did the child demean herself with common vulgarities. Even as the femme's spinnerets laced the final strands around Miko's head the stream of sharp adjectives kept up, never repeating.

The Ex-Decepticon leaned her helm over the little female and gave an unpleasant grin. All that was visible of the girl was her furious face. Suddenly the sound of transformation surrounded the girl. Even through the webbing it felt as if a thousand spiders were crawling across her back and up her sides. She refused to scream in front of that monster, she refused to scream… Then she was encased in blackness; warm comforting blackness.

Airachnid watched the terror and determination battle across the human's face with mixed parts sadistic glee and real admiration. The fragile little female was stronger than the Cybertronian had given her credit for. Maybe Jack's resilience wasn't as unusual a species feature as she'd thought. She carefully adjusted the carrying hold in her thorax. It would not do to have her hostage dying of compression fractures if it came to combat.

"So, comfortable?"

Miko twitched at the voice that seemed to vibrate all around her. Oddly enough it was rather comfortable, she admitted grudgingly to herself. Still…

"You are so scraped when Bulk gets here," the girl snarled.

"You keep saying that, but where is your erstwhile protector? Hmmm," the spider-bot crooned. "I mean we've waited nearly two hours now. They do know where to look for you don't they? I don't want to be carrying around a nasty little organic in my chamber for no reason you know. If I can't get something out of this situation I might as well just…"

Terror shot through Miko as the chamber suddenly tightened around her. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't move. The girl fought down the panic and refocused the energy at the spider-bot, using the fear to fuel her growing anger. When Airachnid finally let off the pressure with a dark chuckle Miko took a deep breath and launched into a new tirade against her. Airachnid half listened as she began to move about the island. This string of insults was cut short as the girl was seized with a coughing fit.

"Are you sure you're okay back there?" the femme asked idly as she carefully planned the rout of booby traps she was laying for a certain Autobot.

"Fine!" gasped the girl.

"Oh, you don't lie very well do you? Poor thing. I guess no one ever took the time to teach you," Airachnid sighed in mock sympathy. "Fortunately for you I have plenty of experience at keeping organics alive and healthy. Now let's see, yes, I think these pods will do nicely."

"You?" Miko demanded as soon as she could speak again. "What would you know about keeping us alive? Didn't you like, kill organics for fun."

"No dear, I was a trophy hunter. There is a difference. Have you ever heard of the three-winged swallow tigers of Antares Tertiary? No? Well I'm not surprised they are very rare and very beautiful."

Miko could feel herself rocking back and forth as the femme moved around the island. The human wondered in irritation what she could be doing out there. With a twitch her nose began to itch. The girl's smooth face gave a spasm of irritation.

"Anyway, they are the most coveted of all class five prey in that sector, nearly extinct you know. Oh, don't look that way," Airachnid scolded. "They were that way long before I got to the planet. But the tricky thing about taking them as prey is that those beautiful wings deteriorate so quickly after they are dead. You can't let them offline until you actually have them in the dissecting lab, and then you take them apart alive."

The ex-Decepticon smirked as she felt her hostage's trembling increase. It was nice to have an appreciative audience for once she mused; especially one who didn't scream or lock up in stasis at the slightest hint of gore. Maybe she would keep the spunky little organic around after she had used her to lure in her real prey.

"So there I was. I had landed my ship too far from the mountain where the individual I was hunting was and I had to devise a way to get the specimen back. So I modified my sparkling chamber a bit and boom, instant organic transporter. Let's see now…"

Miko let out a cry of pain as a slender needle penetrated the webbing over her arm and pierced into her flesh. The girl whimpered and gritted her teeth as she felt it probing around.

"Saline water base, complex carbohydrates, proteins, gottcha," the femme muttered analyzing the inner fluids of her prisoner.

The needle stopped moving and Miko took a deep breath. Something Airachnid had said had triggered her curiosity.

"Hey, freak."

"Yes, human?"

"Number one; my name is Miko. Number two; you called this thing your sparkling chamber?"

"Oh yes, back in the day on Cybertron I would have used this to hold my sparkling. My caste was constantly on the move so we had to carry them with us at all times."

"Wait. YOU actually imprinted a sparkling? Aggghh!"

"I don't like the way you said that," there was a cold edge to the spider-bot's voice. "It was hurtful; very hurtful. Besides what does an organic like you know about sparklings and imprinting?"

Miko gritted her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut. The sadistic ex-Con was running electricity through the needle. The girl didn't know what was worse; the actual pain or the twitching that ran up and down the muscles in her arm.

"Ratchet," she finally hissed out, "the doc-bot told me."

"I see."

The pain stopped and Miko let out a gasp of relief.

"Well this is going to be more work than I thought," Airachnid mused out loud.

"What is?"

"Well you see child, originally I was only planning on trading you for Arcee. You may not be her human but there is no way in the pit she'd let anything happen to his mate."

"What! I am not Jack's, ouch!"

"Don't interrupt girl. It is simply dreadfully impolite. As I was saying, that was the plan."

"But now?" Miko asked in trepidation.

"You are simply too much fun child," the femme purred happily. "My life is a lonely one; drifting from star to star. I have decided to grant you the enormous honor of becoming my pet."