Duty and Deceit
Chapter 5
Complications Arise
"I accept your request, Terabyte. You will meet me here again next rotation after your last shift." His tone had been somewhere between an order and a question. Not sure which it was meant to be, she responded to both.
"I will be here, sir." So happy to have been accepted, she nearly forgot, "Thank you, sir. Very much, sir."
Throughout the whole rotation she had looked forward to her session with Skyquake. She wasn't disappointed.
When she'd entered, Skyquake immediately stopped his own training and, abandoning the practice drone that he'd been about to tear apart, gestured for her to approach.
Skyquake then asked her to show him all the moves her creators had taught her. It didn't take very long. Bullwing had listened to her femme creator, Tetrastar, and had not instructed her in anything except for a few defensive moves in the martial arts.
"Is that all you know?" Skyquake asked incredulously, his deep voice rumbling. "Alright. We will start at the beginning then. Try to copy my movements."
He didn't seem to think she would succeed, but began to move in a simple pattern, his bulky form blending from one position to the next in a surprisingly graceful manner, before finishing and returning to a standing position. He nodded to her and she mirrored the move, though nowhere near so smoothly, or without mistake.
"Do it again."
Complying, she started over only for Skyquake to interrupt her again.
"Hold your position." He walked up to her and gently grabbed her wrist. She stiffened at the touch and glanced up at him. He locked his optics on hers for a moment before she nodded. Skyquake tilted her hand slightly and moved it inward a few inches. "With your hands at that angle, your opponent would easily have been able to knock your blows aside. Try again."
She worked on the same move for another five breems with Skyquake continuing to gently correct her mistakes, explaining each time why the mistake would be harmful. Finally, the mech seemed satisfied with her performance of the move and they repeated the process with the next one.
They continued the session for three groons then stopped. Her frame was warm from exertion, but she had a sense of accomplishment and confidence that she had not felt for more than a quartex.
"Skyquake, sir? When will I be expected to return?"
"You are making good progress. I will see you here again on the seventh rotation of this orn. In the future, training sessions will take place four times in an orn; I will send a notification on the appropriate rotations." He looked at her, optics twinkling slightly, almost so that she didn't notice. "Between sessions I suggest that you practice."
And so it happened. She made sure that whenever she practiced she always did so in the same training room they used for the sessions though. During her 'practicing', she couldn't help but notice that the large mech was always nearby; ready to help her in any way needed.
She saw no one else until the end of the rotation, when Cliffjumper came once again with her fuel ration. Terabyte felt an urge to bombard him with the questions that had piled up in her processor over the course of the day, but somehow managed to restrain herself.
She settled with the off-hand comment of, "You know Cliffjumper, the decorations in this place are severely lacking."
The red mech chuckled, "Sorry about that. You ready to have those systems disabled yet? Of course, we don't mind too much if you'd rather just sit and rust in here…"
Terabyte wondered if they would seriously let her out if she allowed her systems to be disabled. From what Cliffjumper was saying, they would; but Arcee had looked like she'd rather just rip Terabyte to shreds once she was defenseless.
Choosing to ignore his query, she asked instead, "Remember how you'd asked if I needed anything yesterday? Well, I've thought about it… Could I have a datapad? Or something to read?"
"Sorry girl. Nothing I can do about that either. Security reasons."
'How could giving me a datapad possibly make me more of security risk?! Seriously!' Out loud she only said, "Oh. I see."
After sitting in awkward silence with her Energon for several klicks, Terabyte let one of her questions loose, trying to maintain a casual tone. "I heard a lot of commotion this morning, what happened?"
For the next groon, Cliffjumper filled her in on the morning's events, first telling her how Optimus and Ratchet had left to investigate an ancient battle-field in the Grand Canyon area. Apparently when they got there, Megatron had raised the dead using the Dark Energon. The Prime and Ratchet had fought and somehow defeated the zombie army before Megatron flew off, warning them of his bigger plans.
Terabyte wondered just what the Lord Protector's bigger plans were exactly. With Dark Energon involved, no matter what the plan, it was bound to be nasty for the Autobots. She looked forward to seeing it; though not without a small amount of fear: as a 'defector' it could very well be nasty for her too…
While Prime and Ratchet were doing that, a government agent had come to base and discovered the human children. According to Cliffjumper, they had been the cause for the audial torture that morning, it was supposed to be their form of music. Cliffjumper wasn't exactly sure on all the details of what had happened, but in the end the man, Fowler was his name, left only to be captured by Laserbeak and taken to the Nemesis for questioning.
Bulkhead and the kids went to rescue him and met up with Cliffjumper, Arcee, and Bumblebee inside the ship. The three had gone straight to Bulkhead's position after discovering the base's emptiness when they returned from patrol. Terabyte listened as Cliffjumper gave a wild account of the battle that ensued when they were discovered. In the end, they retrieved Fowler, who was delirious from the torture, and the kids had somehow managed to bring back data from the Nemesis' bridge.
Cliffjumper said Ratchet was currently studying the data in an attempt to determine just what it was for, though they had identified it as engineering specs for something big.
When the red mech had finally finished, Terabyte was silent. She thought over all that she'd missed and filed it away into her memory files. Better to get it second-hand than not at all.
"Wow... That's a lot to process." the little black and dark blue femme said finally, unsuccessfully stifling a yawn. It was a little surprising that she could be so tired when she hadn't done anything.
"So... You never did answer my question... About your systems." Cliffjumper mentioned offhandedly.
"No, I didn't." She replied contentedly.
"So..." He prompted, sounding on the brink of annoyance.
"Good cycle, Cliffjumper." Her tone remained steadily unconcerned, and a small mischievous smile graced her lip-plates. Unbeknownst to her, Terabyte's optics twinkled merrily.
"Aww, c'mon! This is getting ridiculous! We've been nothing but kind to you this whole time! What makes you think that'll change?" Steel gray hands went up in exasperation. "Besides, I trusted you to fix me up, you ought to trust me."
'Play logical femme for a bit...' She thought happily. She hadn't let herself have fun for a while.
"Your point is invalid. You never had a choice and-"
"You don't want to have a choice? Fine. Mr. Nice-guy's done."
'Logic tactic: Failed.' Her previous amusement slid away rapidly. This was not a mech to mess with.
Before she could react, the mech stormed up to her and tore off the armored panel on the back of her neck, exposing the wires to her communications network. Swiftly and skillfully Cliffjumper cut the appropriate wires, instantly disabling her systems.
As Terabyte felt the long-range sensors go offline, she realized suddenly that the mech was experienced with this. In fact, that probably was his job. Terabyte frowned in confusion; Why'd he wait so long?
While she puzzled over the question, Cliffjumper moved on to the next system and unlatched the prelim-armor on her right forearm. He then placed a security lock that rendered her dagger useless. After that, he locked her subspace and forcibly taking her cannon -painfully snapping the clamps that held it in place in the process- and stalked out of her cell.
"I was trying to avoid doing that. You should have cooperated." He told her, his voice hard, before he left without even a glance back at her.
Shocked, Terabyte slowly put each piece of armor that he'd torn away back on and set her self-repairs in action. She wasn't entirely sure why the usually nonchalant warrior had been so easily provoked, but it felt almost reassuring to her; that was how Autobots were supposed to act.
Her reassurance was slightly dimmed by the memory of his parting words. His voice had held an edge to it, as if his actions had actually hurt him. Pained and remorseful.
After thinking about it for a while, Terabyte laughed humorlessly. Even in showing their true colors, the Autobots couldn't help but maintain a few shreds of their facade of noble kindness.
"'We believe in peace for all' they tell you, even as they murder you in your sleep." She muttered darkly to herself.
Before shutting down for the night, Terabyte raised a proximity alarm that would wake her if anyone came with in ten meters of her. After that experience, she certainly didn't want any of the Autobots to find her shut down and helpless in recharge. Who knew what they would do to her.
She was back in Protihex, in her family's mid-size apartment at the spire's peak. She could hear her sire's rumbling baritone, accompanied by her carrier's sweet crystal-clear soprano. Her own voice, similar to her carrier's, though slightly lower, blended with theirs as they sang one of their favorite Protihexian melodies together. Just like they always had.
She knew in her processor that it was all a dream, but as she sat in her sire's warm embrace, feeling the rise and fall of his chassis with each vent, the thrum of his spark... She allowed herself to melt into its comfort anyway.
The scent of Tetrastar's diamond roses wafted through the room, mingled with the noises of younglings playing in the levels below them. Watching the moons' light dancing on the walls, she focused on the words they sang; words she hadn't thought of in what felt like an eternity.
Ages come and ages go,
On and on an endless flow.
Battles raging , vict'ries won
Have no effects...
In sweet Protihex.
Storms around us, peace within,
Sparks of loved ones, sparks of kin,
Never lost, for all are one.
In each of our sparks...
The proximity alert rang through her processor, jolting Terabyte awake and back into reality. It had been such a lovely dream... She growled angrily, according to her internal chronometer, it was the middle of the night cycle. Who had interrupted her sleep and why?
Terabyte jumped off the berth and trudged over to the front of the cell, armor flared in anger. Looking around, she located and identified the offender. Arcee; she was leaning on the far wall, shadows wrapped around her.
Automatically, Terabyte raised her left arm, only to lower the bare appendage quickly, her frame heating with embarrassment when she remembered that Cliffjumper had confiscated her cannon. Hopefully Arcee hadn't noticed that.
"Why?" The other femme asked coldly, the steely blue glow of her optics lighting her face-plate eerily.
"Why, what?" Terabyte snapped. Logic centers still sluggish, Terabyte lashed out. "By all rights I should be asking you! Whatever you wanted could have waited till morning! But no... you had to come in here, in the middle of the night, and disturb my recharge to ask me stupid questions!"
Luckily, Terabyte managed to snap her vocalizer off with hiss of static before the fact that all she wanted was to go back to her dream slipped out in her ranting. Arcee could never be allowed to know that, it would only be a weakness.
"'By all rights' you have no rights." the blue and pink femme retorted, taking a menacing step forward. Terabyte could almost feel the tension in the Autobot's slender frame. After a few moments of simmering silence, she rephrased her demand, "Why did you save him?"
Taken slightly aback by the pure fury thinly veiled by her cold tone, Terabyte's vocalizer seemed to go on autopilot, spewing the predetermined cover story she'd memorized.
"I'd considered defecting to the Autobots for many vorns, ever since Cybertron began to die. But I was always too scared to. If I got caught, I'd have been executed for treason. Then we captured Cliffjumper, and I saw my chance. I repaired him little by little and when an opportunity arrived, I removed the low-level dampening field on him so you could detect his energy signal. You were there for the rest."
"I don't care how it happened! I asked you why!" She said, her voice rising to somewhere just below a yell. Battle blades slid out of Arcee's forearms, the razor sharp edges glinting in the faint light.
"I wanted to defect! I got sick of fighting for a dead cause!" Terabyte yelled the lies in response, annoyance escalating into defensive aggression as Arcee adopted a more threatening posture. Though Terabyte's voice grew louder and angrier, her dark armor could be seen to flatten marginally against her frame.
"You're a 'Con! You're not supposed to save people. All you do is kill; War is sport to you!" As she spoke, the femme swung her arms through the air fast enough that the air hissed around the exposed blades with each swing. Ironic. She would have said the same of the Autobots, if not for her mission.
"And you're an Autobot! YOU aren't supposed to hate people just because of the insignia they wear!"
At that reminder the slightly taller Autobot femme's entire frame sagged and the battle blades retracted, her next angry accusation audibly dying in her vocalizer. Terabyte glared at her, a smug, victorious smile tugging at her mouth in spite of her slight fear of the warrior femme. It was probably a very good thing that Arcee couldn't see past the mask.
"Why didn't you kill him?" Arcee asked again, no longer shouting, but pacing agitatedly instead.
"I told you. He gave me a way out that actually had a chance of succeeding." Terabyte tanks churned at the traitorous words, but she determinedly maintained the masquerade.
Her golden optics followed Arcee's steps warily; her own aggressive stance relaxing towards mere caution at what seemed to indicate the near-end of the Autobot femme's outburst.
"So he's just a tool to you?" Or not... the taller two-wheeler's voice rose back to the previous volume and her pacing stopped abruptly.
Attempting to formulate an answer that would satisfy the other femme and drawing an incredibly unhelpful blank, Terabyte didn't answer.
"What did you do to him? Why does he trust you?" Her tone was biting and accusatory. Blue optics locked with gold; the unspoken challenge making Terabyte's armor clamp down against her protoform even further.
The annoyance of her interrupted dream was forgotten and replaced with intimidation and the need for self-preservation. Arcee's ability to break through her outward wall of calm only served to intensify Terabyte's inner fears.
"I didn't do anything to him! If he trusts me, your guess is as good as mine why."
"You shouldn't have saved him. He's my partner, and it was my job to save him! You should have left him alone. You'll NEVER be an Autobot!"
"What-? I wasn't... I never- That's absurd!" She sputtered as the reality of Arcee's own fears hit her in full force.
Arcee stormed out, completely deaf to her protests, leaving Terabyte to sit in the solitary silence that now seemed more deafening than any words could. Try as she might, Terabyte didn't fall back into recharge; her dream slipping away into no more than a vague, mistily comforting memory.