RETURNED. Not as long of a wait as you thought, huh? Thanks for any/all reviews. One day, in the near future, this will be bumped up to an "M."
This really was a bad idea.
Aurora cautiously advanced further into the crevasse, weapons drawn and optics scanning over her surroundings uneasily... namely the walls that seemed to loom so high above her. She should've called for back up. She should've gone somewhere that her comm. link worked, notified Ratchet of the situation, and brought the other Autobots back here to investigate it. Because this place was, simply put, giving her the creeps. It seemed there was no way she could shake the feeling that she was being watched. An enemy could probably pop into existence and fire on her from above with ease, and all it took was a lucky or well-aimed shot to injure or paralyse her, effectively sealing her fate. But she'd only just arrived on Earth! She didn't want to die now.
"You're not going to die," she assured herself out loud, and even though the words were spoken in a soft tone, they still seemed to echo eerily around throughout the crevasse. "Nope. The Decepticon is long gone. Pit, why don't you just return to base and Ratchet? In fact, this whole thing was probably just in your imagination... a trick of the light... c'mon, Aurora. What are you? Four?"
You are if you're still talking to yourself, some internal voice of hers had to point out.
Shut it you.
The sound of small, falling rocks from somewhere behind her caused the femme to whirl around in surprise, cannon charging and ready to fire. Her spark was pulsing wildly in it's chamber, and vaguely she recalled how a human would normally remark that it was like "something out of a horror movie." Embarrassingly enough, though, there was nothing there, and she figured it was most likely just due to her moving through the little-used space. Transformers were a lot heavier than humans, she supposed... what with their heavier footsteps and all, she could've just accidentally disturbed the earth... right?
At least no one was there to see that.
Grimacing at her own paranoia, she slowly turned away, but continued to glance over her shoulder suspiciously every few seconds ago. What if something attacked her from behind when she wasn't looking, catching her unawares? What if they were prowling after her, and were just waiting until they could get close enough to go in for the kill? Despite her suspicions, however, and no matter how hard she checked each time, she found nothing hidden in the shadows. So why was she so instinctively convinced that something was spying on her?
"Alright, alright, alright," she murmured to herself in an effort to calm her raging spark, letting out a shaky breath to try and get a hold of herself. "Cool it, will ya? Let's just get this over with."
She pushed herself further onwards, assuring any feelings of doubts with words of comfort that mainly consisted of "this will be over soon." No more startling noises were heard, and as the time ebbed on she began to become more confident that she was alone, and less afraid of an abrupt ambush. I mean, come on. If a Decepticon were there, they would've attacked her by now. It wasn't like she was the scariest or most intimidating femme in existence. Even those blasted twins Lunar and Eclipse would be considered more of a threat than Ratchet's little ol' apprentice.
Eventually, she stopped, letting out a tired sigh and deciding she'd gone far enough. If there were any Decepticons around- Pit, if there'd even been a Decepticon in the first place- then they were long gone, and didn't seem to be any threat to her or the Autobots. Pity her comm. link still wasn't working, though. If it were, she might have been more convinced of her conclusion. But who knew? It could just be a genuine malfunction. Maybe she'd get Ratchet to check up on it when she returned to base. Beginning to turn around and head back the way she came, the only thing that ended up stopping her was the feeling of something crawling up her leg.
Or, more acurately, sliding.
It started at her ankle, a long, glowing purple-and-black appendage that had easily wound it's way up her leg, reaching past her knee and still going. There was a moment of stunned silence as this new information began to register in her processor; the fact that something foreign yet threatening was touching her, yet not causing any kind of intentional pain. The fact that something had been able to maneuver it's way up her leg in such a short amount of time. The fact that something... or someone... must be standing behind her, where she could be most vulnerable. And then everything seemed to hit her like a ton of bricks.
There was a tentacle. On her leg. Moving it's way upwards fast. And it sure as Pit wasn't organic in origin.
Being the sensible femme she was, Aurora did the first suitable thing that came to mind: she let out an undignified scream of alarm, leaping backwards and spinning around to face her would-be attacker at the same time... which kind of made to be a rather messy and unco-ordinated move on her part. The tentacle released her easily, and as she righted herself from her stumbling mess she saw it withdraw into a form that was by far too close for comfort, and also very hard to make out in the dim lighting. All she could gather was that he was taller than her, and was probably darkly coloured...
And he was no friend of hers.
A tense silence followed; her waiting for him to make some kind of move, and he more-than-likely sizing her up (or so she believed, she couldn't seem to make out his faceplate for some reason). She wasn't sure why he'd even bother. Her femme-like squeal before was probably enough of a hint as to what kind of opponent she was, and what her abilities were like in battle. Slag it. So much for taking Ratchet's advice of doing her best to intimidate enemies, so that they weren't as encouraged to target her. She could see her name circled in red now on the Decepticon's Hit list, with "SQUEALS LIKE A LITTLE GIRL- IS ENCOURAGED TO ATTACK HER IF YOU'D LIKE EXTRA BROWNIE POINTS. LOVE MEGATRON xx" printed in bold letters beside it.
The seconds stretched into minutes, and Aurora wondered if he was doing the same as her: waiting for the other to make the first move. He continued to stand there impassively, watching her (for all she knew) in what she imagined to be an unblinking and expressionless gaze. The image she got from that thought sent tingles down her backstruts, and she did her best to supress her shiver. This was getting her nowhere. It looked like she was going to have to be the first to react, if she wanted to have some hope of getting out of here.
Cautiously, as if testing the water, she shifted a single pede in an attempt to back away from the mech.
Much to her surprise, he remained where he was, completely still and unmoving. Part of her wondered if this guy was even still alive, or if perhaps he was even a simple figment of her imagination. Surely not. What about the tentacle? That had been real enough... she could still feel the thing wrapping around and slowly circling upwards, higher and higher... she hated to imagine where it would've ended up, should she have failed to notice it. Her lack of Decepticon interaction for quite a few years may have left her combat skills unchecked, but she still had common sense.
But common sense said one thing to her right now: you either run, or you find out if you're just being stupid, and this thing isn't actually sentient.
"What do you want?" she demanded, the words meant to come out strong and confident, but sounding tainted by fear according to her audio receptors.
There was no reply.
Curious, her azure optics narrowed, considering her options. Was he just ignoring her? Or was there honestly nothing there, and she was just being way too paranoid for her own good? The second option couldn't been the plausible, but he just lacked so much movement... she couldn't even detect a glint of red that would signal the presence of scarlet optics. A trick of the light... again... perhaps. That could explain it, no? Maybe she'd even caught a virus on her travels, and was currently experiencing the mental effects that were causing her to hallucinate. Pit, her comm. link might not even be scrambled! It was a strangely comforting thought...
One way to find out.
She summoned up the last shreds of her confidence, steeling herself, before taking a confident step forward...
...and he moved.
Quickly, too, might she add. One second she was moving towards him, and the next her back was grinding into the hard wall of the crevasse, bending doorwings and denting newly-polished armour. His hands gripped her shoulders in a bone-crushing grasp, holding her well off the ground with the tips of his long, spider-like digits digging into the seams of her armour and painfully pricking the bundles of cords and wires hidden beneath. She scrabbled against the prison-like wall uselessly as the hot frame pushed up against her own, feeling as if it were scorching her cooler one. Tentacles wound around her ankles another time, harder than before, pinning them down and preventing her from kicking her assailant.
Um... yes. I think he is sentient.
Aurora's revelation did little to assist her in her struggles against the bonds, her attempts quick to prove useless, as his hold remained unrelenting and firm. Her optics made the mistake of darting back to his faceplate, as if she could (on the off-chance) find some weakness within them, but she was only met by the reflection of her own somewhat terrified faceplate. Her spark immediately dropped into her fuel tanks, and she could only watch her reflection hopelessly as the terrified look merged with an underlying look of shock and horror, shown back to her rather mockingly in that blank screen that made up this mech's "faceplate." No wonder she'd been unable to see the glow of his optics beforehand.
Soundwave. Soundwave. She was sure it was him! Of all the mechs that could track her down at a time like this. Primus help her, there was no way she was going to get out of this alive. She should've seen this one coming the moment her comm. was scrambled! That was no convenient frequency interference.
Oh Primus slag it. Didn't we have a talk about keeping emotionless in desperate situations that involve Decepticons?
Her bids for freedom continued, but this time she raised a hand that had transformed into a weapon previously, prepared to fire at the unsettlingly familiar 'Con. This was quick to be thwarted as well; she didn't get a chance to open fire before more tentacles burst forth, restraining her by the wrists and slamming them above her with an unneccessary amount of force. A hiss that was a cross between angry and pained escaped her vocaliser, struggling violently against his hold.
"You're not going to die..." Her Energon ran cold when she heard her voice playing back to her, quiet and full of the nervousness she'd been experiencing when she'd said it. Rather than calm her, however, the words merely encouraged her to continue her thrashing with twice the amount of force. She was eventually stilled, but only when the mech pushed his body up against her smaller frame, him feeling unusually hot to the femme. "Cool it, will ya?"
"Look who's talking," she spat out, fixing the faceless mech with a fiery glare.
He didn't reply this time. With a contemptous snort, Aurora continued her failing attempts at freedom, though in her position she could do little more than squirm against the darkly coloured mech. A couple of tries to comm. Ratchet confirmed that Soundwave was still jamming her comm. link, causing the femme to scowl. There was simply no way she was making it out alive of this one; Soundwave's words had been mocking, she was sure of it. And as frightened as she was of her impending deactivation, Aurora would not simply cower and take it. No way would she let some 'Con scum murder her in such a disgraceful way. Rather, she'd prefer to be defiant. She was screwed anyway. What logical difference did it make?
Well, her struggling didn't seem to be making much of a difference either, now that she thought about it. Furious and frustration gradually growing- she could recognise a lost cause when she saw one- Aurora ceased her attempts and began spitting out the meaningless insults.
"Tell me," she growled, glaring at the sheet of black ice that hid her attacker's faceplate, and hoping to provoke a reaction from the mech, "are all 'Cons as cowardly as you, or does Mega-aft just reserve that kind of behaviour for his best bitches?"
Nothing. Not even a twitch from him. Scowling at the lack of response, Aurora shifted in his grasp to relieve some of the building stress on her joints, and also using it as an excuse to think up something else that would get her some kind of acknowledgement. What was this guy's problem? She'd heard stories of Soundwave (Primus, you'd have to have being living in a hole not to have), but she would never have thought to take them so... literally. Why was it so hard to frag him off? The sooner he got pissed, the sooner he'd either kill her or make a mistake for her to take advantage of... both much more preferable than the thought of being dragged back to the Decepticon ship the Nemesis for interrogation.
Despite the eerie and somewhat intimidating silence, and lack of reply, the Autobot pressed on. She was fragged anyway; might as well go down with some shreds of dignity remaining.
"Get off," she demanded bluntly, glaring at him in the optics- or where she hoped his optics were anyway- and wriggling for emphasis. He didn't move an inch. Aurora gritted her dentas together in frustration, before trying again. "Look, what if you get off me and go along your merry way, and in return I'll go back to base and pretend like I never saw you? Then you can get whatever you need done without Autobot interference, and I'll, uh, go home in one peice. Deal?"
She was still answered only with silence. Frustration giving way into steadily mounting anger, she scowled, quickly running her optics over her current predicament in search of some way to get out of it. As thoroughly bound as she was, however, that didn't seem likely. Gaze returning to the blank mask that was uncomfortably close to her own faceplate, she found nothing there either, apart from her own enraged reflection.
"What do you want, you malfunctioning miss-clock?" she spat, optics darkening in growing ire. "Huh? Too much of a scaredy-bot to finish what you've started?" She let out a soft growl as it began to become clear that he had no intention of responding. Which was just fan-fragging-tastic for Aurora. Now what was she meant to do? Just hang around there all night, until Soundwave eventually got bored and killed her? No way. Not happening. But apparently silence wasn't the correct course either, for as soon as she stopped talking for too long his grip increased tenfold, and she swore she could hear her armour denting underneath his iron grip. "Fine, fine, fine, fine, fine. What do you want?"
That must have been the correct thing to say, as the tentacles hold immediately relaxed; unfortunately, not enough for her to escape, but enough that she was sure she wouldn't lose permanent feeling in certain limbs. There was a metallic hiss, much like air being released, as more tentacles slid out of Soundwave's chassis and weaved there way towards her. Aurora watched them suspiciously, optics narrowed, and twitching in his grasp as one brushed against her ankle.
"What are you doing?" she demanded, feeling her panic levels beginning to rise as a couple of other tentacles followed suit, brushing against her ankles before beginning to slide their way up her legs. She jerked one leg in an attempt to shake them off, but the motion barely even hindered them. It didn't help that she was trying to convince herself that the tentacles that were holding her legs still had totally just not spread her legs out wider.
Soundwave still made no move to answer her directly. His optics remained trained on her as she hissed and cursed at the tentacles, jerking in his hold, trying to get free and get the Primus-damned things off of her. One strayed too close to her faceplate, and her head lunged forwards, dentas sinking into it to try and make a point. Unfortunately, this didn't seem to effect him all that much. The other tentacles continued their advances as if one of their partners weren't getting assualted; a partner that was soon released with a surprised hiss as another tentacle brushed against her interface panel.
Her entire systems stalled, spark leaping out of pure fear. Forget just letting him kill her and getting this over with. What kind of 'Con would be that merciful, anyway? Primus no, he was going to end up humiliating and defiling her first, then probably leaving her body somewhere that the Autobots would never find her... or, even worse, somewhere that they would find her and would know the disgusting way in which her last moments had been speant. Or worse still, he wouldn't kill her in the end, and would take her back to the Decepticon ship... Some part of her screamed for her to do anything to get out of there, whilst another part of her boiled over with unadulterated fury at the thought of being taken advantage of.
"Get off," she snarled, making a poor attempt to shove him in her restrained state, spark pounding in pure fright as she began to realise just how close to getting raped she may be, "And get those things off me as well."
As usual, Soundwave made no move to indicate that he had heard her plea. The tentacles quested onwards; some dipping in and teasing seams she knew they shouldn't be touching, others stroking her thighs and seeking out more sensitive areas, and the rest acting more bold by attacking her interface panel directly.
"No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no..." she struggled vainly in his hold, her anger giving way to her horror at what she was about to experience... at the hands of Soundwave, no less. "Let me go you sick fragger!"
There was no more hiding the desperation in her voice. She thrashed in his constricting hold, hissing things under her breath, spark racing to unthinkable speeds. Why couldn't she have just stayed put? What Primus-forsaken emotion compelled her to do her patrol properly? Digits curled at an unusual angle as she attempted to flex her wrist and claw at her bonds, but managed to do little more than scrabble uselessly at the wall behind her. Her own frightened expression stared back at her with wide, panicked optics within the reflection of Soundwave's mask, and some distant part of her slowly registered that this was going to go ahead without her say so. Soundwave had her trapped up against the wall, pretty much immobilised, comm. link ineffective, and with no help coming for her. Forgive her if the setting was rather bleak.