Chapter Eleven:
Lyn slowly drifted from her sleep back to the world by a persistent and annoying feeling of being watched. She opened her eyes and blinked sleepily a couple of times before the fog lifted from her vision and she could make sense of the towering silver outline in her vision. "Megatron, sir?" She asked uncertainly as she tried to squint to see him properly, her mind still caught between being awake and asleep.
A deep chuckle and a single long knife-like finger brushing against her side was her answer. "Good to see you're doing so well." Megatron said softly as he scanned over Lyn, assessing her to see if there had been any change since she'd woken.
Lyn gave him a small smile and sat up, wincing at the slight pain that prickled through her shoulder and down her back. "Well, I'll have to be awake for at least a couple of hours before I can call it that I'm doing well." Lyn remarked as she noted that the IV was out and a small pitcher and glass were sitting not to far away from her should she need it.
"You appear to be in pain, would you like me to call Bonecrusher?" Megatron asked, frowning as he noticed how she winced when she moved.
Lyn raised her left arm up and flexed it, wincing slightly at the pain. "I'm not sure it's bad enough to bother him, I'm sure he's busy with a million more important things than to worry about me." Lyn said as she tried to wave off his concern.
"He will make time for you if I command him too." Megatron said flatly.
"This there will be no need for…" Bonecrusher said gruffly as he walked over to them both and scanned over Lyn. She shivered as the cold wave washed over her. Bonecrusher frowned slightly. "Stretch as far as you can before the pain hits." He told Lyn. She did as he commanded and stopped with her arm barely stretched. Bonecrusher grunted.
"What's wrong?" Megatron asked in Cybertronian.
Bonecrusher pushed the air through his vents in a heavy sigh. "She's only stiff; she'll need to exercise the limb in order to get the muscles to accept what is artificial." Bonecrusher explained to Megatron than spoke to Lyn. "The pain you are experiencing is completely normal. Your muscles and flesh need time to adjust to the artificial limb. The only way for that to happen is to use it on a regular basis and to do every day things with it. If the pain gets too great, I will give you injections of a painkiller, but I suggest you learn to handle it, there are worse pains in life." Bonecrusher's grumbled statement to her made Lyn feel a stab of pain.
Her expression cut through Bonecrusher as she looked at him sadly. "Okay… I'll use it as I used my real arm. I will handle the pain as best I can." Lyn promised as she looked over at Megatron.
Bonecrusher turned away and went into his small office in the back not far from Lyn's berth. Once safe beyond her and Megatron's sight, he put a hand over his face and shook his head. It'd been nearly two days since he'd gotten any recharge, and he was testy and grouchy. But he hadn't meant to take it out on Lyn. She'd done nothing wrong. "Great. Now she's really gonna start hating me. If I had any chance with her, I probably just blew it." He grumbled to himself in his native tongue as he sat down and went over his inventory lists to see what would be needed and what he had a good stock of.
Megatron looked at Lyn curiously. She appeared to have been hurt by Bonecrusher's cold and thoughtless words. Could she have had feelings for the heartless mech? The thought intrigued him, but he cast it aside in favor of thinking of ways to use Lyn to complete the takeover of the planet below. Most of the organics down there had been eradicated by the mechs Lyn had created in her wave of power, but if they were to get a stronghold here, she would need to transform the rest of the technology into mechanoids as well. With that army, and knowing that the Autobot base was fairly close, they could attack and take back the Allspark, then he would finally rule as he was meant too…
"When can I go back to my room? How long do I have to stay here?" Lyn asked, breaking Megatron from his thoughts.
He blinked at her for a moment, fighting back irritation for being jerked from his daydreams of victory and glory. "I will ask Bonecrusher, but I am sure it will be soon. After all, you are completely healed, your arm is fully functional and your iron levels have risen to safe levels now. I see no reason why he would keep you further." Megatron told Lyn with a note of confidence.
Lyn nodded. "That's good, it would be nice to sleep in my own bed…this is a little uncomfortable when slept on for prolonged amounts of time." She groused as she braced herself for the pain and stretched her arms out in front of her, and raised her wings up to stretch them as well.
Megatron watched with a small smile as her wings rose up and trembled with the effort of the stretch before settling back down against the berth. "Have you tried to retract them yet?" He asked curiously.
Lyn shook her head. "No, not yet, but I'm sure I should be able to…I can't see why I wouldn't be able to…"
Megatron nodded his head. "Try it now."
"Um…okay…" Lyn said with a little uncertainty, but did as her superior commanded and made an effort to retract her wings. A sharp unyielding pain stabbed through her back, lights flashed behind her eyes and before she could stop it, a loud yelp escaped from her throat.
Bonecrusher was at Lyn's side in a flash of movement. "What happened?" He asked, scanning her quickly.
Lyn looked up at Bonecrusher with tears in her eyes. "I can't retract my wings." She whimpered; the echoes of the pain still strong in her back and shoulders.
Bonecrusher looked at Megatron for a split second and then cycled a deep sigh. "Perhaps you simply need some time to adjust to the cybernetic arm before you can do that. Or perhaps your wings will remain permanently out. It is simply too early to tell." He told Lyn. "Just don't try to retract them again for a while, you might do yourself damage. You do not want to jeopardize the use of your wings."
Lyn nodded solemnly. "Okay." She said as she looked down at her hands, her eyes tracing the detailed lines of her cybernetic arm. She frowned slightly as her right hand's fingers traced over small little designs written along her forearm. "What are these?" She asked curiously, looking at both Megatron, then Bonecrusher.
Bonecrusher grunted and walked away, back into his little office and Megatron let a small smile play across his face. "That tells what you are. You are a child of the Allspark; those markings name you for what you are, so none may ever question your existence or your purpose." Megatron told her quietly, watching her as her fingers continued to trace the delicate little lines that made up the Cybertronian words inscribed upon her forearm.
"Really? But why have them engraved upon my arm? Why would anyone question what I am, everyone on this ship knows what I am capable of, don't they?" Lyn asked, looking up from her arm to Megatron.
"Not…everyone knows of you. I have tried my best to keep you as good a secret as I can. There are some who would have you leashed and used solely as a weapon and keep you caged to use you in place of the Allspark. So I have kept you a secret to protect you. Only those select few that I can trust know of your ability." Megatron explained.
Lyn cocked her head to one side and looked up at Megatron suspiciously. "And all those mechs who saw me bring those vehicles to life in the docking bay; they were allowed to see that? Because there were quite a few there, surely they would have told their friends about what they saw…and those people would have told others until this whole ship knew about me…" Lyn stopped and dropped her eyes and cleared her throat at Megatron's dangerous expression.
"Do not question me." Megatron said in a deadly quiet voice. "I know what I'm doing. I do not need to explain every little thing I do to you." Lyn swallowed hard. She had just done what she had never wanted to do with him. She'd challenged his authority in some way by what she'd said.
Lyn nodded and shied away from Megatron slightly, her wings dropping down as far as they could go in a submissive manner. "Forgive me, Lord Megatron, I did not mean to sound as though I was questioning you, I was merely curious…"
"There is a saying: Curiosity kills. I suggest you take that to heart." Megatron said in a soft, yet cold voice.
Lyn nodded. "Yes, Lord Megatron, of course." She said, fighting back the fear that was slowly spreading throughout her, threatening to send her into a panic and causing her to beg for forgiveness. "Forgive me." She said softly, lowering her eyes away from him and back down to her hands, which she forced in her lap.
Megatron took a deep steadying breath and forced himself to calm down. He wasn't in the greatest of moods today and really hadn't meant to take it out on Lyn, but she'd pressed where she shouldn't have pressed. "You are forgiven…this time." He said in a kinder voice, but the implications of the dangerous undertone were still there.
Lyn nodded again. "Thank you, Lord Megatron; I will heed your advice." She said softly, lifting her head up just enough to cast a small glance at him.
"I need to go speak with Bonecrusher about your dismissal." Megatron told her as he straightened and walked into the little back room that served as Bonecrusher's 'office'.
Lyn watched him go and felt instantly grateful for being left alone. She cast her eyes around the med bay. All the berths were empty, except for her own and the one just to her right. Her brow furrowed as she watched the fleshling figure on the berth move slightly, his skin was bruised nearly everywhere and she could tell he'd been through hell. He rolled over slightly so that she could see his face, her frown deepened; he was sleeping, but didn't seem to be sleeping very well. A moment of sympathy washed over her, but she quickly shrugged it off as she reminded herself that the man before her tried to capture her and bring her back to the Autobots. There was no doubt in her mind that they would have killed her. She was, after all, the enemy, why would they keep her? Plus they had Dawn; she would have been of no use to them.
Bonecrusher looked up as his leader stepped into the room. "What's wrong?" He asked, again, suppressing the need to scowl at being disturbed while working.
"How much longer do you intend to keep the fleshling here? She appears fit and capable of doing things on her own to me." Megatron demanded, his crimson eyes narrowing at the make-shift medic.
Bonecrusher grunted. "I'm going to release her today. She'll be fine. Besides, I have the other fleshling to attend to, I don't have time to coddle and nurture the femme. She's an adult, she can look after herself." Bonecrusher's deep voice ground out as he desperately tried to hold his temper in front of his leader.
It was Megatron's time to grunt in response. "Very well, see to it that you do release her today. I will be sending Barricade in here to collect her shortly. He will be patrolling near her room, he can check up on her occasionally." Megatron said thoughtfully as he turned his back to the medic and stepped towards the door. "You did a fine job on building the arm and attaching it to her. Well done." He said before he was gone.
Bonecrusher should have felt good about the praise, it wasn't often that Lord Megatron gave compliments out to those who were under punishment, but instead, it only further pissed off Bonecrusher. He scowled and turned himself back to his inventory, muttering Cybertronian curses the whole time.
Megatron walked over to Lyn and looked down at her. After a moment of silence, he spoke. "I will be sending someone to take you to your room shortly. There you will be checked on periodically for a time." With that, before Lyn could acknowledge what he had said, he walked off, leaving the med bay and a frowning Lyn.
"Why is everyone so damned testy today?" Lyn muttered quietly to herself, than decided it would be best to simply practice channeling her power through her new cybernetic arm, after all, now that she only had one flesh arm, it would be wise to practice using the artificial one in case she needed it. Unfortunately, her left arm had been her power arm, so that left her weakened and vulnerable. Something she didn't truly wanna be.
A few hours later~
Lyn smiled in satisfaction as she played with a small tendril of fire that danced between her right and left hands, from a distance it appeared to be nothing more than a shimmering ribbon of pale orange and flickering red and yellows, but if one was close enough, they could see that it was fire. It had taken her a while, but she'd managed to figure out how to use her powers through her left hand, it wasn't what it used to be, but practice would see that corrected.
Barricade entered the med bay silently; he'd been given his orders and had taken his time in coming. Bonecrusher hadn't been in the best of moods when he'd contacted the make-shift medic to tell him of his orders and to remove Lyn from the med bay. He watched curiously from a distance as Lyn played with the strange object in her hands, it moved gracefully between her fingers, weaving in and out. He walked slowly over to the berth, completely ignoring the still form of Nicolei, until he reached Lyn's berth.
Lyn saw movement out of the corner of her eye and turned her head to see who had come. She flinched at first, seeing him, but relaxed as she noted his calm and relaxed demeanor. "Barricade, what brings you to my bedside?" Lyn asked calmly, but strained mentally to remain in control of the fire in her hands.
Barricade noted the strain she was trying not to show. "I have come to take you back to your room. You wish to return, do you not?" Lyn nodded, extinguishing the fire and rubbing her hands across her legs to try and get rid of the tingling sensation that remained on her hands. "Than come with me." He held out his hand, Lyn stood up and walked over so that he might grab her.
She winced slightly as his grip closed about her, normally, it didn't hurt, but with her wings out, it was painful. Barricade noted the pain she was in and did something unexpected. He carefully put her up on his shoulder. "Hold on, do not fall." Barricade told her as she quickly adjusted herself upon his shoulder and used her wings for balance as he waited patiently for her to settle before turning and heading out of the med bay.
"Shouldn't we tell Bonecrusher I am leaving?" Lyn asked as Barricade neared the med bay doors.
"The medic already knows of your absence. I informed him of my intentions before I arrived. He knows." Barricade said plainly, he had never been this close with Lyn before, and found that the variety of scents she gave off were intoxicating. Most fleshlings he had encountered gave off scents he couldn't stand, but Lyn's were different. There was something pleasant about her that was calming.
"Oh. Okay." Lyn said as she let her wings move and be her balance has Barricade began the walk back to her little apartment of a room.
Barricade enjoyed the rest of the walk in silence. Not that he hated hearing Lyn's voice, but it gave him the freedom to let his thoughts linger over whatever his mind chose to think of. He was careful to keep his pace steady so that Lyn could easily balance herself on his shoulder. It was slightly more than odd for him to feel the small fleshling upon his shoulder, in ordinary circumstances he would have killed any fleshling who would be brave enough to try or would have considered it an extreme punishment had he been forced to do so. But he was surprised to find that he rather enjoyed having Lyn perched upon his shoulder.
When they arrived at her little apartment, he opened the door for her and stepped inside, easily flipping on the lights for her. The apartment was exactly as she had left it, nothing had changed. Barricade reached up, offering her his hand for her to climb down, but she shook her head. "No, that's okay; I can get down by myself." She told him, he lowered his arm and watched curiously as she stood up carefully and jumped off, spreading her wings and gliding down effortlessly. She landed a little unsteadily and walked fast for a couple of steps to catch her momentum before turning to face Barricade with a slight wince. "Okay, so that was a little sore, but I still managed!" She said, giving him a wink.
Barricade's spark gave a leap, he quickly squelched it. He gave her a small smile and a shake of the head. "You shouldn't take such chances. Bonecrusher would have me stripped for spare parts if something happens to you while you're in my care, not to mention what Lord Megatron will do to me."
Lyn cocked her head to one side, looking at him thoughtfully. "Why so formal? You usually just refer to Megatron as just that…Megatron. So why add the 'Lord' in front of it now? Did you get into trouble or something?"
Barricade shook his head. "It is only proper and right to address him by his title. He is our Lord and leader, so he should be given our deepest respect."
Lyn gave Barricade a coy smile. "Oh, I see…so we should give him our deepest respect when it suits us to do so, right? Because last time we talked about him it was simply Megatron…there was no 'Lord' attached to it." Lyn responded.
Barricade fought to not smile. He liked her logic. It was, in fact, what nearly every Decepticon thought behind their, sometimes insane, leader's back. Only Starscream was brave, or stupid, enough to say it to Megatron's face. "You would do well to call him 'Lord' as well…it will come back to you in the end. When we acquire the Allspark, you want him to remember you fondly, rather than as insubordinate and disrespectful…that could very well lead you straight into Blackout's clutches." Barricade informed her as he watched her walk over to her bed and sit down on it scooting back until the backs of her knees were touching the mattress and her legs were free to swing.
"Very true…I will remember that. I certainly don't want to become Blackout's pet." She shuddered as she remembered the shape her would-be captor had been in. "He causes me enough harm without me being his pet; I couldn't imagine what he'd do to me if he had no restrictions…"
I can. Barricade thought as he walked over and sat down on the floor beside Lyn's bed so that she wouldn't have to look up as high to speak to him. "Show Lord Megatron respect, and you will be remembered fondly." Barricade said simply.
Lyn nodded, than frowned at Barricade. "What can I do…that would cause Blackout to be nicer to me? Anything?"
Barricade cocked his head to one side in deep thought. "That's a good question." He muttered, going over what he knew of his superior officer. "Blackout is a hard one to please. However, if you showed him respect, and gave him the fear he wants to see, and not be bold enough to challenge him, he might not be as vicious to you." Barricade told her, but thought to himself: Or he might just take advantage of that and do things far worse to you…
Lyn nodded slowly as she tried to picture what she would try out next time she encountered Blackout. "I'll remember that and give it a try. Thanks!" She said with a smile to Barricade. It warmed his spark to see her smile. While he despised fleshlings as a human would despise a cockroach, he found himself content with Lyn. She acted more like a small femme than a fleshling. Lyn watched him with a curious look. "Why are you so nice to me? Everyone around here tells me that you hate fleshlings…so why are you nice to me? I am what you hate."
Barricade took in a deep breath. "I don't see you as a fleshling." He answered after a long pause.
Lyn waited a few more moments for him to elaborate, and when he remained silent, she pressed. "Than what do you see me as?"
Barricade gave her a small smirk. "I see you as a small femme, as one of us. You are simply trapped in a fleshling body."
Lyn gave Barricade a strange look. "Really? You seem me as one of your own?"
Barricade didn't nod, or acknowledge what she had said; instead he looked away and scanned her room. He wasn't sure why he was so attracted to Lyn, but he figured it had to do with the absence of his symbiont and long time partner. Or perhaps it was just a sign he was getting soft…he shook off that particular thought. "Should you need anything…simply contact me through your communicator. I will be close by." He told her as he got his feet and straightened, looking down at her.
Lyn felt a little sad at the fact that he was leaving so soon. But according to the clock on her wall, he'd been there with her for nearly forty-five minutes. "Alright, I'll call if I need anything. Thank you, Barricade." Lyn said respectfully as he nodded, walked to her door, opened it and was gone, the door closing behind him.
Lyn sighed and went back to looking at her cybernetic arm. "There is so much I need to learn…and so little time to learn it in. If Megatron asks anything of me, I have to be ready to do so." She said to herself as she set to practicing using her powers with her cybernetic arm.
Back in the med bay~
Nicolei groaned as he came back to the agonizing world he had hoped he had escaped from. He'd been having a wonderful dream of being back in the Autobot base with Okelani. It had been a dream he hadn't wanted to wake from. But wake he did, and to the pain he'd left when he had fallen unconscious.
Bonecrusher heard Nicolei's groan and emerged from his little office to check on the fleshling. He grunted. "I see you've decided to wake." He grumbled as he scanned over Nicolei.
"I'd still be sleeping if it were up to me." Nicolei managed to stammer out as he tried to look up at the medic towering over him.
Bonecrusher felt a smirk tug across his face plates. He actually kind of liked the small fleshling. He had spunk and spirit. Two things he needed to survive what Blackout would undoubtedly give him. "The nanites seem to be working." Bonecrusher grunted as he scanned over Nicolei once more.
Nicolei shivered and scratched his ribs carefully. "Yeah…well I can feel the little buggers moving around in there…" He muttered as he sighed and looked up at the Decepticon medic.
Bonecrusher grunted. He had scanned the male fleshling and had found that the extensive injuries were all on the mend, however, some of the more severe ones were going to take more time. "You might as well get used to the feeling. You'll get more than one injection of them before you're fully mended."
Nicolei groaned. "Man…that seriously sucks…" Bonecrusher gave a light chuckle. "So…what's your name? Since I'm gonna be seeing you on a regular basis." Nicolei pressed lightly, unsure as to how far he could press the Decepticon medic. After all, he was a medic, so he couldn't be that aggressive, right? He thought as he waited on the 'Con to reply.
Bonecrusher looked at the fleshling curiously. Should I answer? He pondered, than decided it would be nice to have someone else to talk to for once during his punishment here. "My designation is Bonecrusher."
Nicolei struggled to contain the flinch. Okay, that's not a promising name…he thought as he nodded lightly. "Oh." He swallowed hard and smiled shakily up at Bonecrusher. "I'm Nicolei."
Bonecrusher grunted. Frankly, he couldn't care less what the fleshlings name was, after all, he wasn't going to be alive likely for much longer. Only until Blackout lost interest, then he would kill the male fleshling and it would be over. "Do you require food?" Bonecrusher asked looking at Nicolei with the same curious expression he bore earlier.
Nicolei nodded, his head aching slightly with the movement. "Yeah." He answered simply.
Bonecrusher gave a curt nod. "Very well…I will return shortly with food for you." With that, he left Nicolei's bedside and went to where Nicolei could only assume fleshling food was kept.
Nicolei sighed and let himself lower back down. His body hurt like nothing he'd ever felt before in his life, he couldn't move any part of his body without feeling total agony. So he did the only thing he could think of to distract himself from the pain…he thought about Okelani.
Memories of the first time they met flashed into his mind. He smiled and closed his eyes, remembering the day…He'd been injured in a battle, and had somehow been dragged back to where the injured were being cared for. It had been there that he'd met Okelani…
Flashback~
Nicolei never saw the blow that knocked him out, but thankfully one of his comrades had and immediately went to aid him. They managed to drag him back away from the fighting and back where there were medics helping to save the injured.
When he woke up, a bright light and a woman beautiful beyond words greeted him. She smiled down at him and gently pressed her hand to the side of his face. "Good to see you awake."
Nicolei, numb from the painkillers he had been injected with smiled up at her. "I must be in Heaven, because you could only be an angel." He muttered, slightly slurred from the painkillers.
She smiled. "You're in the medical tent. You were injured on the battlefield. You should be lucky that someone was close by to help you. Most who fall like you did never survive to be tended too." She told him.
"What's your name, angel?" Nicolei asked, he could feel his heart pounding in his chest, she was breathtakingly beautiful, her long hair, beautiful eyes, and a figure to make any man drool.
The nurse blushed. "My name is Okelani." She answered as she checked his IV line, happy to have something to distract her from the handsome man she was tending too.
"Okelani…" He murmured, than nodded with a smile. "Yes, a name fitted for an angel!" He said after a moment's pause.
"You need to rest; you'll feel better soon…" Okelani told him, but already his eyes were drooping and threatening to close. He fought it as long as he could, unwilling to let his eyes leave the beautiful woman in front of him, lest she disappear and be only a figment of his imagination.
"You're the most…beautiful woman I have ever seen!" He said, his voice heavy as sleep tried to take a hold of him.
Okelani felt herself blush an even deeper shade of red. "Thank you, sir…however, I believe it is only the drugs talking. You wouldn't think that of me if you were to know what I was and see me with a clear head." She told him as she brushed his hair off his damp forehead.
"I would think you were beautiful no matter how clear headed or foggy my brain was." Nicolei told her, and then drifted into sleep.
When he had recovered and the retreat had been called, he'd searched long and hard to find the mysterious Okelani. But when he'd asked his friends about her, they'd scoffed and told him to find someone else. That she was a freak and not something he'd want to be with. It had been then that he'd discovered that she was one of the few shapeshifters left, her exact species name he didn't know, and no one seemed to want to answer him, saying only that it was a dying race, what difference did it make. But he had been determined to find her…
Flashback end~
"Eat this." Bonecrusher's voice interrupted his memory as he blinked a couple of times and looked at the tray of food in front of him.
The food wasn't the slop that Blackout had been feeding him. It was actual good food that Ashalyn was probably fed as well. Nicolei frowned slightly and looked up at the medic in confusion. "This is for me?"
Bonecrusher looked insulted. "I see no other fleshling sitting anywhere near you." He growled, Nicolei held up a hand in surrender.
"Alright! No need to get all aggressive about it! I'm just not used to getting food like this…Blackout only gives me stuff that makes gruel look appetizing." Nicolei muttered the last disdainfully.
"You won't be fed that while under my care. If you are to heal, you must be fed properly. Nutrition is necessary for the health as well as the healing process." Bonecrusher said as he gave Nicolei another scan to check him again.
Nicolei nodded as he grabbed the tray and set it on his lap. The smells the food gave up were enough to make his mouth water. Some of the foods were foreign to him, but he wasn't about to complain. Not when he was being fed real food! He quickly devoured the food; Bonecrusher had walked away and was working somewhere close by, doing whatever it was mech medics did when they had no patients to work on. Nicolei licked his fingers to savor the taste of the food, while most of it had been foreign, it had all been delicious. "Thank you." He called over to Bonecrusher, and heard the grunt of acknowledgement.
Nicolei scratched his arm absently at the feeling of the nanites swarming around inside him. His body was still so sore it was agony to sit up or to move, but he took it all in stride. As long as he was away from Blackout and able to recover sufficiently, the pain didn't bother him. He was a warrior…pain was something he was trained to handle…it was a shame Blackout had never done research on his home planet. If he had, Blackout might have thought better of keeping Nicolei as a pet…military men of his division were trained to withstand torture and pain on levels most people would simply give up and die from. While what Blackout had done so far had been bad…it was barely more than his training had been. He found himself grateful for the training; otherwise…he might have surrendered to Blackout's will and given up by now.
Back at the Autobot Base~
Dawn hadn't spent a lot of time with Adrian, she'd still had tons of practice time using her powers, and had used exhaustion as an excuse to retreat into her apartment for much needed rest, then, once night had fallen, and things had quieted down, she left her room after wrapping herself in a cloak of power and crept silently down towards Thundercracker's cell.
Once again, she passed as silent as a memory past the guards posted in front of the brig doors. She held her breath and tightened her hold on her power as she passed them. They were mostly busy talking to each other and enjoying memories of old times, she didn't even register on their sensors.
As soon as she was past them and safely outside of their audio range, she walked up to the cell and stopped. Thundercracker was leaning against the wall like he usually was each time she came to see him, this time he looked fairly beaten up. "Hello there, little one." Thunder said softly, Dawn felt her heart tighten at the sound of pain in his voice.
She dropped her cloak and walked as close to the bars as possible. "What happened to you?" Dawn asked, concern written all over her face and was apparent in her voice.
Thunder chuckled lightly, wincing slightly. "My dear sweet, innocent Dawn…this is what they do when they interrogate prisoners of war…did you honestly think they asked nicely?"
Dawn was thunderstruck. She hadn't thought of the Autobots as this…brutal…not with all of the talks Optimus had had with her about wanting peace and being the most gentle between themselves and the Decepticons. The way he made it sound, they never did anything aggressive at all towards the Decepticons…but if that was true…what was all this about? Thundercracker obviously didn't do this to himself…how could he? He had no weapons; he was as defenseless as a young child… "But…why would they do this to you? You've made no attempts to escape…you've been as cooperative as you can without risking death from your leader…can't they understand that you can't tell them everything they want to know?" Dawn asked, still in partial disbelief at how they had treated Thunder.
Thunder shrugged. "This is war, baby girl. Prisoners of war aren't treated like guests of honor. But don't feel sorry for me, it's not the worst treatment I've ever had. I'll heal, maybe not before they come down in the morning to interrogate me some more…but I will eventually heal, and if it becomes life threatening, they'll take me to their medic." Thunder said to her in a reassuring tone.
Dawn edged closer to the energy bars, eyeing the space between them. "But it's not right." She said as she edged a little closer to the bars, she could feel the heat they were radiating now, but it wasn't intense enough to deter her from edging forward further.
Thunder watched her with a thrill of anticipation. The Autobots had given him the best gift they could have possibly given him by not allowing Ratchet to repair him after their last interrogation session. They'd given him fuel to hit Dawn's sympathy cords…something that would be vital if he was going to gain her full trust and complete his mission. "Be careful, those bars have enough power to kill you, youngling." Thunder cautioned her honestly…after all, if she got killed, this would all be for naught.
Dawn nodded, but kept walking forward. The energy bars themselves seemed about four feet apart, but the trick was that they fluctuated, with them changing how far apart they were at unpredictable intervals, it made passing through them a lethal challenge!
Suddenly an idea formed in her mind, she wrapped herself in her power and closed her eyes, she pictured herself directly in front of Thundercracker, she pictured his cell in her mind, and placed herself directly in front of him.
Dawn knew she succeeded when she heard a gasp from Thunder. She opened her eyes and found herself in front of the huge mech. He looked much bigger this close than he did through the bars! She swallowed hard, knowing that she might have just signed her own death warrant.
"You can teleport?" Thunder asked his voice just as kind as ever, hinted with curiosity.
Dawn nodded. "But only short distances, and I have to be able to see what I'm teleporting to. If I've never been there before I can't teleport there. I might get stuck in a wall or get stuck inside of a couch or halfway in a table. That would suck; in fact, I think it would kill me…" She muttered the last with a half wince.
Thundercracker thought for a moment in silence. If the Allspark was indeed there, on the very same base as he…then he might be able to use Dawn's ability to teleport to his advantage…especially if she'd been in the room with it before. "Then its good practice not to be doing those sorts of things." He said lightly, and then turned a little more serious. "Dawn…you realize I am the enemy. You shouldn't be here, inside the cell with me. I could kill you before you realized my intent."
Dawn blinked up at him with an innocence he was actually a little sorry he was going to be the one to destroy a part of it. "I know you won't. It's in your best interest to not hurt me after all." She answered back just as seriously.
"And you think I fear the wrath the Autobots would give me?" Thunder asked, slightly offended that she would think him so weak.
Dawn shook her head. "No. From what I understand, you guys are much older than I could ever fathom...and this war of yours has been going on for, again, a time I couldn't fathom. But if you killed me, then I couldn't help you."
Thunder looked at her slightly confused as she walked fearlessly up to him. "And how can you help me, little one? You can't get me out of her and back to my wingmates. So how can you help me?"
Dawn looked him over critically. "Well, I've never really tried this before, but I have reason to believe that I might be able to heal you."
Thundercracker stopped and gave her a strange look that Dawn had no idea how to translate. "Why would you want fix me? I'm your enemy. You shouldn't care about your enemy." He told her softly, but Dawn shook her head.
"But that's what separates me from my enemies. My enemies don't care about anyone or anything besides themselves and their futile cause. I do care. That's what makes me different." Dawn said calmly, than stepped closer to Thundercracker, summoning her power from deep within her, focusing it on what she wanted it to do. When she practically felt the air around her crackle with her summoned power, she placed on hand delicately on Thunder's leg. He struggled not to jerk away at the soft touch, not because of the touch of her hand, but because of the rush of energy that the power had coursing through him.
Dawn focused her abilities and closed her eyes. She pictured in her mind what she wanted, visualized it with all her might, than unleashed her power into Thunder. The force of it hitting him was far from painful, it was almost ecstasy, but what was most strange to him was feeling his injuries disappearing as the power coursed through him. When he had been but a small newly sparked sparkling, he'd been touched by the Allspark, it was something that he kept to himself, but this was as close to that touch as he'd ever felt. But as soon as the power had come rushing through him, it faded and disappeared altogether, Thunder barely had time to catch Dawn before she fell. "Hey! Are you alright?" He asked, concern and worry evident in his voice.
Dawn took a deep, shaky breath and nodded. "Yeah, just overspent myself a little too much…" She said softly, her voice shaking ever so slightly. Then she straightened herself a little in his grip. "Did I do it?"
Thunder ran a self-diagnostic and was impressed by what her power had actually done. All of his major injuries were still pretty much there, but the smaller ones were completely repaired. "You did a good job. The majority of my injuries were minor, all of them have been repaired, but you power couldn't do the major ones." He informed her, trying to hide his nervousness at holding her in his hand. Thundercracker was afraid that he might be holding her too tightly, or that he wasn't holding her tightly enough and she'd fall while she was still weak and unable to catch herself.
Dawn smiled and went limp in his hand, relaxing so that her body could recharge from the energy she'd spent in trying to heal him. "That's good. I'm sorry I couldn't heal all of it." She told him with a hint of regret in her voice.
Thunder shook off her regret with a quiet chuckle. "Don't be sorry, you did an impressive thing! Aside from the Allspark, I know of nothing else that has a touch like that." He told her softly.
Dawn sat up a little in his grip. "How do you know about the Allspark's touch? Optimus was telling me that few have ever been graced by its touch."
Thundercracker pressed his lips firmly together and thought hard whether or not to tell her his story, but decided that it wouldn't hurt to lightly go into it. He'd just stay away from all the details that weren't necessary. "Well, to keep it short…I was very, very young, and I was playing in the temple chamber in which the Allspark was kept. My parents were off doing something else somewhere in the temple…The guards had just changed shifts, so it was going to be a while before the next rounds were made in the Allspark chamber…Right after the last round was made, and the shifts changed, a group of youngling mechs, still young but much older than me, came and began to make fun of me and to hit me. Their leader got brave by the fact that my cries weren't being answered and hit me harder, egging his friends to do the same. By the time they were done, I was beaten so badly that I couldn't even see straight. I had energon flowing from everywhere and when the leader stopped to gloat, he noticed the extent of the damage. Frightened of being discovered with a dying sparkling, he had run off with his friends. I don't remember much of how I got to the base of the Allspark, but I remember feeling the life leave me. It was then that the Allspark reached out and healed me. That, dear one, is how I know what the Allspark's touch is like."
Dawn looked up at him with a wide eyed expression that reminded him of an sparkling hearing stories from the older mechs. "But why did they pick on you? Are there a lot of bullies among your kind?" She asked her brow furrowing as she tried to piece things together.
Thundercracker sighed. "They picked on me because I'm a Seeker. That was what I was Built as…thus I was endlessly terrorized about it. I can take on no other form than that of a flight mode. Younglings don't understand that this isn't a bad thing and make fun of others who are bound to only one mode." He stopped there, unwilling to tell her anymore. He hadn't told anyone of this except for his wingmates, and that was where he wanted it to remain. Not with this fleshling child who could do only harm.
Dawn sensed Thunder's sudden tension and the abrupt stop in his explanation. She sighed. "It's alright. If you don't wanna tell me anymore, don't worry about it. I was just curious, that's all." Dawn said with a reassuring smile. A yawn interrupted Dawn as she started to open her mouth to say something.
"Perhaps you should go and get some rest while you can, little one. I will most likely be here tomorrow." Thundercracker told her gently as she nodded her head reluctantly.
"Yeah, I guess you're right…it is really late, and I have to get up early tomorrow to go visit the Allspa…a close friend…" She tried to suppress the wince as she almost let it slip to him that the Allspark was here on this very base. She studied Thundercracker to see if he had heard her slip. But he showed no signs.
"Goodnight, little one." Thunder said softly, watching as Dawn wrapped herself up in her power and promptly disappeared from sight and scanners. Thunder waited a good twenty minutes before he allowed himself a smile of victory. "I knew the Allspark was here! Now if I can just manage too…" Thunder instantly fell silent as footsteps echoed down the hallway. His interrogators were back for more questions that he couldn't answer. He sighed, if only he could get them to understand that Megatron didn't spell out his plans for anyone…especially Starscream, his second-in-command.