When In Doubt In Which There is Pain, a transformers/beast wars fanfic

Chapter 20

Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers in any way, shape or form. However, I do own Nightshade and the twins - Ember and Evergreen. :P

Okay. The sparkling/femme bond credit goes to Litahatchee. :D Totally forgot to put that in the last chapter.

Starscream had located the femme just as she finished sending the coordinates and pictures, and he was angry. Maybe angry didn't quite cover it. Steam literally oozed from his exhausts, a sign of his internal temperatures sky rocketing. Not only were the autobots after them, now they had several million meat bags (a.k.a. humans) astutely aware of their presence! He'd been counting on their denied existence, but slag it all to pit the femme just blew their cover! He landed behind her, stalking up to her. So absorbed was she in her work that she didn't notice him. He grabbed her shoulder and roughly shoved her from the tower. She squeaked and fel, landing hard in the packed dirt.

"You are going to pay dearly for what you have just done, femme," Starscream hissed, towering over the small blue femme. She was terrified but she stood, ready to fight for her life. Starscream only laughed as the femme backed away slowly, her optics darting around, searching for escape He grabbed her by the throat and slammed her against the radio tower. It creaked and groaned, leaning dangerously. The power lines to the tower broke and fell, showering the both of them in sparks.

"What are you going to do, little Nightshade? Run? Hit me?" His voice was soft and mocking. A dangerous smirk graced his features. He trailed one hand down her smooth chassis, touching the Autobot insignia before ripping it off and throwing it into the grass. He rested his hand on her hip, licking his lips as his optics greedily took in every inch of her smooth body.

"Such a pretty little femme…too bad you are already bonded. I wouldn't have to work so hard to make you mine," he snarled, the hand around her throat tightening. Her optics widened as she realized his intent.

"Go frag yourself," she hissed. Then she kicked her leg out as hard as she could, nailing him right in the interface unit. He howled in pain and Nightshade laughed. The laugh turned into a yelp of pain as she suddenly found herself on the ground, having been thrown halfway across the clearing. Starscream pulled a rifle out of nowhere and advanced.

Then everything went dark.

Ratchet almost dropped to his knees. Nightshade's half of the bond was filled with pain and terror, almost overwhelming his half of the bond. At the last second he threw up a firewall, and managed to avoid being off-lined by the amount of pain his femme was being subjected to. Then his rage bubbled over. Something snapped inside of him and he slowly stood up. He spoke calmly and softly. A few of the mechs around him shivered in fear as his optics came on line. They glowed white, the only outward show of his true anger.

"You had better hope that you find Starscream before I do," he hissed, starting to go for the door. Optimus faced a dilemma. Ratchet, in his rage, would be a force to be reckoned with. If he tried to subdue him here, his men would take heavy damage. Any one who got between a mech and his femme would have Pit to pay, especially if the femme was being hurt. However, if he let Ratchet leave the base in this state, the mech would level anything in his path – including humans and their settlements.

He decided to take his chances. Optimus gently placed a warm hand on his friend's shoulder, speaking softly.

"Ratchet, we'll find Starscream and the femmes, I promise you that. I can't let you leave the base in your state, you'll kill someone."

Ratchet only hissed quietly, glaring up at the autobot leader. However, Optimus's words had sunk through the thick veil of rage clouding his processor.

"Starscream is mine, Prime. I will kill him," Ratchet said, his optics flickering back into their familiar shade of azure. Optimus felt a slight tremor of fear go through his body as he found himself believing Ratchet's threat.

Nightshade slowly came back online, her optics flickering tiredly. She groaned softly, rubbing at a massive dent in the back of her head. Discreetly, she ran a systems check. Everything was where it was supposed to be. Why hadn't Starscream finished her off?

"You awake, babe?" Chromia's voice came from one of the cells beside her.

"I feel like Sky Lynx sat on me," she groaned, rubbing her aching cranial unit, ignoring Chromia's snort of laughter. Chromia only shook her head. They were in a decepticon base, in the decepticon brig, with who-knows-what about to happen to them, and here Nightshade was, cracking lame jokes.

"Nightshade, do you realize what you did," Elita's amused voice came from another cell.

"What did I do?"

"You tapped into a broadcasting satellite and sent out an SOS," Elita said. Nightshade could hear the smallest of smiles in her voice.

"That's good, right?"

"Yes, Optimus got the message…along with several million humans," Elita finished. Nightshade groaned.

"Optimus is going to kill me. You know how much paper work he's going to have to fill out?!"

Nightshade encrypted a message and sent it to both femmes. As she had sat up on the berth, she felt some of her medical tools shift in her arm. She still had her welder, which meant that they had a chance to escape.

Can you see or detect any cameras or anything like that? I still have my welder.

Elita and Chromia both responded with no, so Nightshade pulled her welder out of her wrist compartment and began melting a bar close to the wall. With her luck, no one would notice it missing. Even with the bar missing and her slender frame, it was still difficult to slip out of the cell. She darted over to Chromia, who was sporting some champion sized dents and a giant, victorious smirk on her face. Nightshade vaguely wondered what Chromia had done to earn those dents and that smirk. She melted the bar away and helped Chromia out of her cell.

The mech sitting in the corner almost snorted and gave himself away as Chromia started swearing up a storm. Now, Chromia was one of the curvier, more well endowed femmes. She was designed for firepower, not speed, like Elita or Nightshade. Her weapons and ammo were stored in her leg and hip compartments, giving her a rather curvy appearance – which Ironhide strongly approved of. Her large chest barely scraped through the gap. Then she realized that she was stuck…her aft and hips were preventing any kind of escape.

While the situation was dire, Nightshade still found herself giggling at Chromia's predicament. The femme was about to shriek bloody murder but Nightshade took mercy on the femme and heated the bar just enough to make it bend slightly. Chromia slipped out and landed with a loud thunk on the floor. The femme started cursing under her breath, a combination of English and Cybertronian, making the other two femmes (and the male in the corner) blush slightly.

Nightshade and Chromia went over to the cell holding Elita, who was sitting on the edge of the rough recharge berth. She had been sitting with her legs crossed at the ankle, back straight, and her hands in her lap. What a time to remember her etiquette training. Once the bars were melted and Elita had slipped out, they made it to the door and were hacking the code when the mech spoke.

"Nice try, femmes," he said, standing. Elita yelped and backed away. This mech was absolutely gigantic compared to the three of them. He was easily forty feet tall, if not taller, and probably just as wide. How had they not noticed him?

"Where the Pit did you come from," Chromia asked, dropping the pick in her hand. The mech only smiled at her as he spoke.

"I am Thundercracker, one of Starscream's men. Give me the welder," he said, bending down so that Nightshade could place the welder in the palm of his hand. He crushed it easily and flicked the bits of metal away.

"I will not harm the three of you, if you answer my question," the mech said, speaking softly. He narrowed his optics at the femmes as they glanced at one another.

"What do you want," Elita asked suspiciously.

"Can I still ask Prime for forgiveness and defect?"

"He will grant you forgiveness. He would never say no," Elita said. That was one of the things that she'd fallen for in Optimus – he was kind, noble, and gentle. He had mercy for anyone who asked for forgiveness.

"Good. Starscream has gone too far," Thundercracker said absently, repairing the bars of the cells. He took a step back, squinting an optic at his work. Then he reached out and tugged on the metal bars. They didn't so much as budge. Satisfied with his work, he looked back at the femmes.

"What do you mean?" Chromia was confused, but still jumped at the opportunity of a possible ally within enemy territory. Besides – Thundercracker was not known for his thinking abilities. They might be able to extract information from him.

"There were sparklings aboard the shuttle, weren't there?"

"Uhm…yes," Nightshade said, ignoring the glare that she received from Elita. What? He was a genuine mech – he wasn't lying, period.

"There. Now go back to your cells before Shock Wave comes back," he said, politely holding the door open for each femme.

"Thundercracker?"

Nightshade's soft voice rang out over the silent room.

"Yes?"

"If you won't get in trouble, I've been meaning to ask something. I heard some of the mechs back home talking about a traitor on our base. Do you know who it was?"

Thundercracker sighed heavily and nodded.

"I can't tell you that right now…all I will say is that it's not what it seems," Thundercracker finished softly, and went back to his post. Elita sat back and pondered his comment.

If things were not as they seemed, perhaps they were actually being helped? Strangely enough, they had found one of the decepticon bases earlier that month – without any outside information. The information had suddenly appeared in the computer. Was this supposed traitor double crossing Starscream? If this was the case, what was the purpose of those actions? What would it accomplish? They had been captured…but Nightshade had also, inadvertently, revealed their existence to the humans…was the traitor counting on something like this, or did they know that something like this was going to happen?

The supposed traitor smirked victoriously. The pieces of the puzzle were starting to fall into place rather nicely. He began the next part of his plot – he'd be able to keep this planet safe and carry out his duties as protector. While he was powerful, he would not be able to restore Cybertron. He would find a home for their people, even if it meant living alongside the humans. They were a brilliant race, but relatively young.

With that thought pushed aside, the traitor began to rest once more, saving up his energy.

Frenzy skittered to a console, typing away madly. He was talking to himself, chattering and squealing. He carried a cup of coffee in one clawed hand. Pausing to take a sip of the aromatic coffee, he realized something. Something in his computing center snapped and he shrieked, taking off and running at Barricade. The coffee flew through the air, landing on a minibot named Gears.

"Barribarribarricadefemmesneedhelp!"

"I think we know that," the black and white cruiser said, glaring mildly down at the hacker. But then Frenzy elaborated on his theory and Barricade's optics darkened considerably. The theory of what Starscream wanted to do was bordering near blasphemous. It was considered as one of the few unforgivable sins of their culture.

Barricade hissed – not even when he'd been a decepticon had he even remotely considered something like that!

"Thundercracker, bring me the dancer," Starscream sent over the com. Thundercracker only sighed as he unlocked the door to Nightshade's cell. The femme looked frightened but stood anyway, determined. She wasn't going to back down from the freak that had kidnapped her and her friends.

"Starscream wants to see you," Thundercracker said, motioning for the femme to follow him. Nightshade nodded and followed, ignoring the protests coming from Elita and Chromia's cells. Nightshade was determined to be brave – she'd had it with being the damsel in distress. She was going to get through this...and maybe kick some aft along the way.

Starscream smirked as the femme followed Thundercracker into the room. Upon entering the room, her nose plates curled in disgust. She made absolutely sure not to make contact with anything in the room – it was filthy! She looked him directly in the optic, defiant. Starscream purred. He was going to enjoy breaking the femme.

"Come here," he commanded, beckoning her over with one clawed hand. She slowly – and with defiance marking her every motion – made her way over to him.

"What do you want," she said, glaring at him.

"Ah, you've recently bonded with the medic, have you? Good, good. This will work out just perfectly," Starscream said, standing and walking around the femme. His lecherous gaze sliding over her body, and she refused to let it bother her. However, she was curious.

"What the slag do you mean," she asked, crossing her arms delicately.

"Oh, nothing much. The bond between you and your mate can be broken," he said absently, stopping in front of her. She gave a short bark of laughter. Starscream's smirk only grew wider.

"Oh, believe me femme. You and the mech bonded only days ago, am I correct? Your bond hasn't had time to become an integral part of your systems. By the time I'm through with you, you'll be begging for mercy," Starscream hissed down at the femme, smirking.

A bond could be forced on any unbonded femme or mech, but not without dire consequences. The one who forced the bond would have to answer to Primus himself, but that was a completely different story. Theoretically speaking, Starscream could break the bond between Nightshade and Ratchet. He would only have to force her spark to join with his a few times and establish himself as the dominant male in her life. Then, the medic would most likely die, but not before Starscream forced him to resurrect his fallen and loyal seekers, and the rest of Bruticus.

"Go frag yourself," she said as politely as she could. He grabbed her face and forced her to look up at her. She jerked out of his grip and gave him a solid punch to an exposed energon line. He didn't so much as flinch, though a punch like that had to have hurt. He threw her to the floor and smirked down at her. Then she raised a middle finger and told him to shove a pipe up his exhaust.

"Ooh, a feisty one…I'm going to enjoy every moment with you," he purred softly, motioning for Thundercracker to return the femme to her cell.

"The autobots have two days to get me what I want, femme, or you will be mine."

His voice echoed after her in the hallway.

Optimus Prime nearly choked when he received the transmission. It was a highly encoded videostream. From whom, he did not know, but he had Prowl and Red Alert scan for anomalies or glitches, but they found none. So he opened it. As he watched, his optics grew bigger and bigger.

"Optimus Prime, my name is Thundercracker. I am-well, was a decepticon. The only reason I am still here with Starscream is because I am acting under a higher authority's command. Starscream's base of operations can be found at these coordinates. Elita One and Chromia are quite safe. I wish I could say the same for Nightshade. Starscream intends on harming her to get to your medic and the remaining shard of the AllSpark. For her sake, please hurry."

Optimus was shell shocked – under whose authority was Thundercracker acting? Was this some sort of trap? What was going to happen to Nightshade?

Optimus and his group of men had decided on a course of action. Starscream had at least ten loyal decepticons left. So, with that in mind, Optimus asked that Silverbolt bring his men, along with Ironhide, Prowl, Ratchet, and Jazz. Then he received the transmission – from Starscream. Ratchet was brought along only for the sake of his sanity and so that Ratchet wouldn't slag the base or his comrades.

"Prime, you have two days to bring me the remaining shard of the AllSpark and your medic," Starscream said, bluntly, "Or else Elita and Chromia will die."

"What about Nightshade? And what do you want with the shard?"

"I have plans for the femme. As for the shard, wouldn't you like to know?"

The message fizzled out.

It was the second day and Optimus still hadn't responded to his message or thinly veiled threats. Starscream decided to give him two more hours before he made his move. Besides, it was only four in the afternoon and he had things to do – like prepare his quarters for the femme.

Bleh. :P

Starscream is a smarmy little bugger.

BTW, I'm exempt from most of my exams - I'm not sure on one of my classes. Pre-Cal. Urgh. shudders Hope that I'm exempt, cos if I am, there will be more smut. ;)