Maelstrom Chapter 31
Conversations in the Kitchen Part G
Author's note: This story is part of a LONG series called Maelstrom. It is strictly Gen. 1 - sorry, but that was all that was out when I started writing back in the late 1980's. It began as a fan-publication so the first chapters are in the form of a comic book! If you have not read the nine original Maelstrom Comics and the preceding text stories, I strongly suggest you do. This is a complex universe. They can be found at http// illmatar. deviantart. com (I have put double spaces between the URL here or FF . Net eats the link.) The comics and art which accompanies this series are there...and believe me I am a better artist than writer.
Most chapters of this series contain strong language and violence. Rated M for adult themes! Really! Transformers characters belong to Hasbro. Critiques adored! This scene contains strong language, violence, and sex.
Transformers characters belong to Hasbro. Story and OC characters are mine. Critiques adored!
Conversations in The Kitchen Chapter 2
Getting to know everything about you
Part G
Continued from Part F!
Spike glared at Lancer, "Still!"
Lancer stepped in behind Rodimus whose eyes were still clamped shut. She squeezed at his shoulders and this time his hands came up to clutch at hers. "It has been only six months since this went down Spike, and since that time it has been non-stop carnage. Remember how tired and hair-triggered we were? The fact that you think we should have told you doesn't mean we could. The ugly truth is my mate had to scrape your son's brains out from under his fingernails and ya know he's just not coping too well with that. Back in the day if Hot Rod was AWOL it was usually off taking Danny for joy-rides. They grew up together like two silly peas in a pod, at least until Rodi inherited the Matrix."
Lancer stop, Rodi sent.
No. She looked back at Spike. "I'm sorry you feel we deceived you. It wasn't to hurt you, I promise."
"Of course it wasn't," Carly said.
"But," Rodi said. He opened his eyes, glazed with unshed tears, looked at Spike's flushed face and closed them again.
Spike scowled. "Rodimus I am furious. I want to kill someone I'm so furious, but it's the whole fucking situation in your universe! I can't hold you responsible for your whole universe even if you insist that you are. Optimus does that too...must be a Prime thing."
Magnus leaned back in his chair which creaked in protest. "I think I beat that out of him, mostly."
"Nah," said Hot Rod. "Takes more than one beating."
Rodimus threw his twin a perplexed and hostile glance. If he intended to say anything Carly interrupted.
"Rodimus, what about Spike? How...how is he handling it?"
Rodimus closed his eyes again, and Lancer gave a malicious grin full of fangs.
"Well," Rodimus finally answered slowly, "if they intended to discourage Spike they more than failed. They made him a man with nothing left to lose. He's become a political tank to be blunt. I think he's always thought of himself as sort of a messenger boy between us and Earth's governments. Not anymore. He's...inexorable. He won't play games. He won't listen to compromises. The bribes they throw at him are a joke, and he takes our names in vain. One hint of dissension and he threatens to pull our support from any government giving him shit...and we will too. The Cons don't go anywhere we don't control anyway so they can think they are on their own if they like. So far though, the threats are enough, and Earth security is looking more like a sieve than a breached dam."
"At least he's making himself useful," Spike muttered. "I can just as easily see my...him holing up and never coming out."
"Far from it," Rodimus said, shaking his head. "Our biggest worry is the Jabez or one of the big sponsors will get fed up. If that happens, Spike is a dead man. I...don't think he much cares. Claudia says the only things keeping him in this world are revenge on the slavers and revenge on me."
"Claudia?" Spike asked.
"Revenge on you?" Carly asked at the same moment.
"Claudia is my empathic friend," Lancer said. "She scanned Spike and Carly for us. She...she says Carly's mind is likely irretrievable, and Spike is just biding his time. He...he hopes Rodimus will finish off the Jabez during his lifetime so that he can kill Rodi himself."
"He has a right to me," Rodimus said.
"So do I! So do the girls! So do the Autobots!" Lancer snapped. "You really piss me off with that crap. You have bigger obligations than proving how guilty you feel by letting Spike waste you!"
Rodimus refused to look at her. She crossed her arms and glowed about the eyes. Her tail hit the floor in a rapid, violent rhythm.
Spike sat down. He stared into Rodimus' face. "Would you really let him?"
Rodi didn't answer, he looked down at his hands.
"Rodimus...look, I know that this wasn't really my family, but... I'm sure he's lost, devastated. I'm yelling at you because you're here... you're a target I can hit, but... He's probably doing the same only worse. Rodi he'll get over it. You said yourself it only just happened. He'll grieve, and when the pain isn't so raw he'll remember you did the best you could!"
Rodimus shook his head. "I didn't...I didn't. Maybe I couldn't have prevented what happened, but I didn't have to dispose of that Convert in front of Carly. At least not the way I did...I went for the chip. I...I wanted it out of him. I forgot about Carly...I just saw them using him. Violating his body, not even letting it die with his mind. I didn't think...I just went after it."
"If the tables were turned, you'd be more understanding if Spike killed Edana than you are of yourself!" Lancer growled.
"Spike didn't set this situation up," Rodimus said.
"Neither did you, you stupid heap of circuits!" Lancer snarled. Her jaw ground and the veins along her neck and temple throbbed visibly. "You just made a particularly ugly mistake! A mistake! Even people with 'Prime' stuck on their name get to make a few of those!"
Rodimus said nothing out loud, but treated Lancer with a headful of something black, sullen, and nameless. She threw her hands up and turned her back on him.
"Rodimus?" Carly asked, "How old was Daniel when he died?"
"He was 28. Just out of officer's training."
"So you were friends a long time," she stated solemnly.
"For a while, we were like brothers. Then I got this new job and wasn't such a good friend anymore. He...he always understood."
"It's funny...he's my son, but you know the kind of person he was better."
Rodimus shuddered. He hadn't given the kind of person Daniel was much thought recently. He couldn't get past the impact of his hand, the warm rush of blood, the splintering bone, Carly screaming... Tears started in his eyes again but he refused to let them fall. He had no right to grieve.
"Would he have wanted you to leave him that way?" Carly pried.
"He would have expected me to protect his mother," Rodimus stated.
"But, I'm sure he wouldn't have wanted his body used against me either," reasoned Carly. She knew she shouldn't be speaking in first person, but she thought maybe it would help.
"No...no. He loved you so much Carly...he was a...good person."
"Then he wouldn't want to be used against me, or against Spike."
"Of course not," Rodimus said firmly.
"Thank you," Carly said.
Rodimus blinked. "But..."
"No...I mean it. Thank you. Thank you for freeing him. Thank you for caring so much about him. I know my twin couldn't stand to see him die that way, but I doubt being raped by him would have been better. I know you killed him without thinking or hesitating, but you kept his memory whole. To her, you killed her son, but he was still her son, not some dead monster sent to destroy his family. You only see what went wrong, but I see that Spike is functioning, and my twin has a chance."
"But..." said Rodimus.
Magnus had had enough of that response. "You are sitting on it," he quipped.
Rodimus turned green eyes on him. "Magnus?" he said.
"Yeah?" Magnus responded, readying himself.
Rodi's fist flashed towards the City commanders nose and made some contact in spite of the gladiator's fore-sight.
"I'm in no mood for your humor," Prime threatened.
"Heh...fast bastard. That's a shame really," Magnus grinned. "You're stuck with it."
Foul Play stared, shook her head, and muttered something about never understanding Autobots while the Autobots in question smirked along with their City Commander. Rodimus glared at all of them, Magnus in particular, with eyes that were still glassy and dazed. Lancer frowned and wished he'd just let the tears go already instead of repressing them by finding something to get annoyed about. Just as she was getting ready to try (again!) to get him to let go, Carly made the move for her.
Carly sensed somehow that the armor was coming up, that Rodimus was gearing up to cause some kind of diversion by picking a fight with Magnus. Anything to change the subject.
She got up and tapped Rodimus on the shoulder. He flinched, and turned those strange, haunted eyes up to hers with obvious trepidation. He seemed frozen in his seat. She let her own tears fall, knelt in front of him, and before he could move away she gathered him in her arms. She didn't say a word, just held on to him until he sagged against her.
He didn't make a sound, but she felt his shoulders shake, and felt a dampness growing at her shoulder. She stayed there for several minutes and when she finally pulled back he just buried his head in his arms on the table.
Carly looked to Lancer and found the mutant leaning on the counter with tears streaming down her face and an odd half-smile on her lips.
"Thank you," the mutant mouthed at Carly, who nodded and got up to go to her husband. Spike smiled at her and kissed her hand. He was proud of her compassion and resolve.
Rodimus continued to hide his head in his arms and Marissa finally took over. She silently got to her feet and waved the others out of the room in a reluctant procession. Lancer smiled at her through her tears as the EDC captain forced everyone out.
Marissa passed by the mutant on her way out. "Is he OK? Do you need anything?"
"I...I think this is just what he needed, Marissa. It will be fine," Lancer said.
X
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X
The next few days were like living with a pair of poltergeists. Carly poured Rodimus' glass of juice defiantly and set it on the counter. Then she reached for her coffee mug and creamer in the cupboard. Turning, she shrieked with surprise. The juice was gone, the glass empty and in the sink, and the screen door was slowly drifting closed.
The "ghosts" were seldom seen, never heard, and difficult to prove if you did catch sight of one. Most evidence of their presence came in the form of objects mysteriously moving themselves when no one was looking.
Finally, after about two days of seeing neither of them for more than a fleeting instant, Lancer showed up at the breakfast table with her usual paper in one hand, and a huge steaming mug of coffee in the other. If either Magnus or Marissa (first up) were surprised to see her, they gave no sign.
"Morning," she said casually.
"Morning Lancer," Marissa said cheerfully.
Magnus, always more taciturn in the morning anyway, settle for his standard, futile attempt to punch her in the arm like he did everyone else.
As predicted, she effortlessly avoided the blow. The coffee in her mug never rippled.
"Where's your mate?" Marissa asked. Her tone was light and casual.
Lancer smiled. "He's fine, don't worry. In fact I think he may be more fine than he's been in years. As for where he is," Lancer pointed up. "He's up on the roof having a good cry. If there is one thing he and Optimus share it's a compulsion to seek high-ground when they're upset."
"Ah," Magnus said sagely. "Optimus does that here too. Hot Rod doesn't," Magnus paused, thought about it, and amended himself, "yet."
Lancer smiled, then looked sad, then blinked watering eyes. She shuddered, shook her head, and smiled again.
"Are...are you OK?" Marissa asked.
Lancer took a long swig of coffee and smiled ruefully. "I am. I'm trying to give him some space, which is never easy where we are concerned. Once in a while he gets to me though." She looked toward the living room door and narrowed her eyes.
Marissa cocked her head and frowned a little, "I'm surprised you aren't with him."
Lancer shrugged, "Where do you think I've been the last two days? I've had enough shingles up my posterior, and he...he needs time to deal with this on his own. Sometimes...sometimes this whole mental link thing becomes a crutch."
Marissa frowned deeper, "Still..."
Lancer sighed and met Marissa's eyes sadly, "Marissa, Danny was his friend...his little brother really...and Carly, well. If Kup was like his father, Carly was the closest thing he had to a mom. Arcee was the only female Autobot he knew until Elita's band was revived after he got tortured, and she's nearly the same age he is. Carly was the one who yelled at the boys when they got home after dark. She was the one with the garden hose for both of them after one of their deep woods adventures. He should have been an ATV, not a sports car for all the mud they got into. She saved his butt from many disciplinary actions from a cranky City Commander with that hose of hers. He might have shown up late for inspections, but at least he showed up clean."
"I'm not..." Marissa started. "Morning Spike," she said awkwardly.
Spike grunted in answer, pretending to be too sleepy to have noticed what Lancer said.
Lancer pretended not to know he'd been listening by the door.
Marissa watched Spike get his coffee and decided to continue. "I'm not challenging his right to grieve, Lancer. I'm just surprised you aren't with him."
"If he really needs me, I'll know, " Lancer said softly, "What he's going through is normal grief, and he needs to go through it. If I'm with him...if we're with each other the burden seems lighter, we both feel stronger, but he needs to do this the hard way."
"Still," Marissa started.
Lancer's eyes flared briefly. "I'm not going to live forever either." she growled. "I won't leave him an emotional cripple. Grieving is hard for him, kinda like screaming. If he relies on me too much...what will happen to him after I die?"
Marissa stiffened, "You're right."
Lancer toasted her with the coffee mug.
"How long do you think he'll be up there?" Magnus asked.
"Up where?" Spike asked.
Lancer smiled at his deceit. "On your roof, like a big, red-headed weather-vane. 100 percent chance of sulking. Oh, quit griping Rodi. It is always a good time to pick on you. If you want to get me back for it do it when you can stop leaking around the eyes!"
If Rodimus chose to get Lancer back, he did it in private, because when he finally reappeared it was in the morning just like Lancer did. Two days later, orange juice, not coffee.
"Deja vu," Magnus said. He missed Lancer as per tradition, and socked Rodimus in the arm. Per tradition, he was thumped soundly in return.
"Morning guys," Marissa said happily. Awkward as it was, she was relieved to see Hot Rod's twin. She scrutinized him at length before sitting down.
"Do I pass inspection Captain?" Rodi asked with a quirked eyebrow.
"No," Magnus said. "Defective through and through."
"Major General, thou art a pain in the ass," Rodi said.
"You look fine," Marissa said, "but your eyes are still puffy."
Rodimus sighed and gave Lancer a dirty look.
"I did not reveal some kind of classified information Mr. Prime Sir," Lancer said, not looking up from her paper. "You are entitled to cry just like everyone else so save your macho stupidities for someone who cares."
"Whatever," he said.
"OO...a snappy comeback," Lancer observed, looking up and grinning at him.
Rodimus stuck his tongue out at her.
"Major General?" Magnus asked.
"Ah," Rodimus said, happy for a distraction, "now there is a story worth telling!"
By mid-day, Spike was packing Magnus, Marissa, Rodimus and Lancer into his van again for resumed testing at Metroplex. He was cheerful, the girls were chatting, Rodimus was only slightly subdued, and Magnus was sulking.
"Oh get over it," Spike said to Magnus. "It wasn't even you."
"I will never command the respect of my troops again," Magnus averred. "Even Arcee is calling me Major General. Arcee! The only well-behaved one of the lot of you!"
"You can order them to stop saying it," Marissa suggested.
"Yes, but I can't order them to stop thinking it! I can see it, lurking in Hot Rod's eyes. One more reason for me to hate your Vector Sigma, Rodimus. I don't know how my twin has held on to his restraint."
"Well, the fact I enslaved the damned thing didn't hurt," Rodimus sneered. "I'm going to make him happy when I get home though."
"What are you going to do to it?" Spike asked with venom. He no longer really blamed Rodi for the death of "his" son. Instead he decided to blame Vector Sigma for tampering with the Autobots in the first place.
"I'm going to recruit one of Lancer's friends."
Lancer coughed.
"OK...not really a friend but a comrade in arms. Kain, the Maelstrom's resident telepath."
"Not a friend Lancer?" Marissa asked as Spike pulled onto the road.
"Kain is a Drazi," Lancer explained. "Humans are beneath his friendship."
"A Drazi? What's he doing with you guys? I thought they never left their own world."
"His sister is an exception to that, and where Pagan goes, he goes." Lancer grinned. "He's a Class 1 telepath and he is going to pick Vector Sigma's brain down to the wiring. I'm going to take pictures."
"Too bad you can't send us some," Marissa grumbled.
"If we can find a way to get home, maybe we will," promised Rodi.
"You guys are blood-thirsty," Spike said with a wolfish grin.
"Yup," Lancer agreed, "and you like it."
X
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X
That day's tests involved a run through the Autobots' training facility. Rodimus made quick work of their toughest obstacle course on his own, even though it was a team course.
The rest of the day proved much more taxing for Rodi. They put him in a chamber loaded with every kind of sensor they could imagine and asked him to morph between robot and human form over and over. After about two hours of that, Rodimus had to call them off. He was pale, and shaking from exertion.
"I never knew how much energy I used doing that," he exclaimed.
Ratchet apologized for the team and insisted he refuel before going back to Carly's. In spite of the refueling, he slept on Lancer's shoulder on the way home, and actually ate a full serving of macaroni salad for dinner.
"A miracle," Carly exclaimed, throwing her arms over her head. He was obviously still nervous around her since his response was a wide-eyed stare.
Sick of that reaction, as well as his new habit of avoiding Daniel with as much clearance as possible, Carly got drastic.
"Spike, we are going to the movies!" she announced.
Spike choked a bit. He wasn't even finished eating.
"Right now?" he asked, incredulous.
"Now," she ordered, picking up the baby as if to take him along.
She walked past Rodi's chair. He curled his shoulders in ever so slightly.
"Here ya go," she said, deftly dropping Daniel into Rodi's lap. The Autobot had no options but to catch the baby or let him fall. Caught, Danny giggled.
"You baby-sit! Bye!" Carly said. She grabbed her amazed husband by the arm and dragged him towards the door.
Rodimus sat frozen, wide-eyed.
Marissa applauded and the rest of the table followed suit, except for Lancer who rested her cheek on her hand and mooned at Rodi.
"But..." Rodi said.
"You're sitting on it!" Springer and Arcee said together.
"But..." Rodi said, making a move as if to hand the baby off to someone, anyone, else. Suddenly the whole room became a flurry of activity. Never had so many hands had so many dishes to attend to.
He looked hopefully at Lancer.
"In your dreams, My Love," she said, still gazing at him, dew-eyed.
Daniel giggled and wet his diaper. It leaked and ran down Rodi's arm.
Rodimus sat another long second in shock. Then snickered. He suppressed it, looked guilty, and then completely against his will, snickered again.
Daniel babbled at him, and sneezed.
"You did that on purpose," Rodimus accused the baby.
Danny grinned.
"OK, fine," Rodimus said. "Have it your way." He tucked the boy unceremoniously under his arm and went off to change him.
"Yes!" Lancer said. She jumped to her feet and went to help clean an already immaculate kitchen.
X
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X
Routine, if you could call it that, resurfaced. Training for everyone in the morning, break-ins and security upgrades in the early evening, and scientific "pokings" for Rodimus in the afternoons. Daniel once again became part of Rodi's equipment as he followed the trainees through their break-ins. Carly remarked it was hard to decide who was funnier - Rodimus in the way he carried the baby everywhere, or Danny for giggling about it so much.
Weeks passed. The students grew quieter and surer of foot, Springer learned to do the splits, and the Witwicky house became the most secure craftsman-style home in Earth's history. It would now withstand nearly anything short of a direct blast from a fusion cannon.
"Not that I don't have plans for that," Hot Rod explained to Spike seriously, "but we'd need Grapple and Hoist to pull them off....and girders...lots of girders."
Spike laughed. His only complaint was that now his camera system was such that he did in fact know too much about the soap-opera life-style of the squirrels in his yard.
Rodimus grinned. "OK Ingrate, you graduate. Ready for something bigger?"
"Like what?" Hot Rod wanted to know.
Rodimus looked at Magnus and grinned.
X
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X
The next day, Kup came into Prime's office with a perplexed look on his face and a scrap of paper in his hand. He looked ridiculous, carefully trying to hold an 8"x10" piece of paper between his huge fingers.
"Kup...what in Cybertron's name is that?" Optimus wanted to know.
"It's a note...from your son. He says he's stolen all of the energon chits out of your desk and that if you want them back you have to spring for pizza."
Continued in Part H