Duty and Deceit
Chapter 7
Strict Freedom
She raced down the streets in her Cybertronian alt-mode: a sleek, angular bike with two rear tires. Her headlights lit the road in front of her as she sped through the south district of Kaon; towards the emergency medical center.
When she arrived, the little femme ran to the receptionist and demanded entrance to room thirty-seven beta. The receptionist was a silver-colored small – meaning only a helm taller than her – civilian mech. But she didn't particularly care after a dozen attempts - of varying politeness - to gain entry.
She stomped around the counter and lifted the light-weight mech a few inches off the ground, her desperation fueling her strength. Shaking the mech harshly, she asked him one last time.
"I can't! I'm sorry! The doc will have my helm if I let you in!" The mech whined pathetically as she shook him.
Her patience worn far too thin, the spy femme slammed his helm into the wall. He crumpled to the floor in a silver heap. She didn't take the time to check if he was conscious or not before she ran to thirty-seven beta.
At the end of the correct corridor, she nearly ran into Shadowlight, a femme with monotone armor; one of the medical staff.
"Is he going to be alright? I received a message saying that Commander Skyquake was badly injured. The message stated that his life-signs were going critical." Miraculously, she managed to keep her tone neutral, that of a mildly concerned subordinate. Later that orn she had tried to figure out how she had done so, but no answer came. Thank the Allspark for small mercies.
"He's stabilized. You can visit the commander if you like, but he is resting." The jet femme replied calmly.
"Thanks."
She entered the surgical bay slowly, immediately catching a glimpse of Skyquake. Her tanks churned painfully at the sight of twisted and charred armor. There was also a huge amount of newly replaced armor, the dull unpainted gray clashing with his army green. The amount of damage he'd sustained was sickening.
After three rotations, Skyquake was discharged from the medical center and put on light duty. During those three rotations, she stayed with Skyquake while he recharged, not even leaving for fuel. He only woke up once in that time and he didn't stay awake for very long.
"Optimus... battle at Technahar... unsuccessful. Failed..." He had muttered upon waking, though not fully awake.
"Skyquake!" Her excitement and worry laced her voice as she grabbed his hand in both of hers; rank all but forgotten."Thank goodness you're alright. What happened?" Her tone grew dark, "Who did this to you?"
"'erabyte..." The mech gave a contented sigh and fell back into recharge, a tiny smile touching his face-plates. Still holding his hand in hers, she smiled at Skyquake before her own exhaustion from her race across Kaon finally caught up to her.
When Shadowlight entered to check on them a few groons later, she found Skyquake deep in recharge with the Prussian blue femme still sitting in the chair beside his berth. The little two-wheeler was collapsed and recharging peacefully against the mech's arm.
It wasn't long after her conversation with the Prime that Ratchet was ready to implant the tracking device. Although Terabyte was still wary of the medic, she obediently followed Ratchet to the med-bay.
"Where will the tracking device be placed, Medic?" She asked slowly as she sat on the designated berth. Terabyte's gaze locked onto the small device in his hands; it didn't look dangerous, neither did the tools the red and white medic was holding. That didn't necessarily mean anything though.
"Under your dorsal plating." The mech motioned for her to lay front-first on the berth.
Reluctantly, Terabyte obeyed and lay down and braced herself for the no doubt painful procedure to begin. She shouldn't have her back to a medic. She'd have to have a death wish... But here she was. Her frame was incredibly stiff and her systems were beginning to overheat, but she refused to cycle air any faster. Sensing the medic's approach, she would have tensed further if it had been physically possible.
"Would you like to be offlined for this?" Ratchet's voice was surprisingly gentle, but the suggestion only terrified the little spy further. Who was to say they wouldn't just leave her off? They would be able to do any number of things to her and she'd never know.
"No!" Terabyte took in a deep draft of air and vented it slowly to compose herself. "No, I'll stay online, thanks."
Ratchet nodded, though she couldn't see the action. She felt his fingers pry open the control panel between her shoulder wheels. Moments after that, Terabyte felt her whole frame relax against her will; she had been immobilized. Her armor lay against her protoform in a way that made her feel small and vulnerable. She rarely didn't have her armor flared at least a little bit. The only mech she truly relaxed around was Skyquake.
Terabyte repressed a low whine of her engine; she had agreed to cooperate, and she would keep her word. She could feel everything that Ratchet did, though it bothered her that she couldn't tell what he was actually doing. She felt him remove a section of her armor from the center of her back, and then attach the device to one of her spinal struts.
Soon the installment was complete and the tracking device's signal registered on her HUD. Ratchet closed her up and re-mobilized Terabyte's frame. She sat up, instantly rearranging her armor back to her liking. The device was small enough that it couldn't be felt unless she tried, however the signal it sent was rather annoying.
"I'm not finished yet." The medic said quietly, pulling a hand-sized hub from his subspace.
She recognized the object instantly and recoiled at what it suggested. It allowed for a one-way sync with someone's processor; providing safety only to the mech performing the scan. Ratchet was going to scan her... But what for? Why now? Seeming to read her thoughts – which if she cooperated with the scan, he would be able to – Ratchet supplied the answer to her questions.
"Your malware and antiviral systems will attack the foreign material. To make sure that doesn't happen I need to adjust those systems. There's only one way to do that." He held up a small cord and looked down at the hub.
Knowing that she had to connect to the device first, Terabyte pulled out her own cord and stared at it like it was something disgusting. With a resigned sigh, she plugged it into the proper slot, bracing herself for the inevitable helm-ache and mental intrusion that would soon begin.
Ratchet likewise plugged his cord in and hardly an astro-second later Terabyte's firewalls had automatically risen and her processor was filled with the pressure of Ratchet's mind. The small femme let out a half-stifled gasp; she'd never been on the receiving end of a processor sync, normally she just hacked her Autobot prisoners' minds. It was different when it was her mind being invaded, and it hurt more than she'd imagined it could.
'Lower your firewalls or I'll have to hack in.' Ratchet thought to her. Disgust rolled through her processor from the medic; the idea of hacking her was apparently unpleasant to him.
Terabyte lowered the firewalls as ordered, giving an involuntary shudder as his mental presence flooded her now-unshielded mind. Instinctual panic was followed by anger at her own lack of mental restraint filled her thoughts, no doubt Ratchet could feel every passing feeling, every wisp of her innermost secrets now laid bare.
Every Autobot she'd interrogated in this manner came to her recollection, their horrified and agonized expressions making much more sense now.
Struggling to clear her mind, Terabyte was disgusted to find her thoughts only clarifying. Feeling as though her very spark had been opened up to the medic, abject terror sunk in to her core. In her panic, her processors reconstructed the well-known replica of her home which had initially been dropped when the medic filled her mind; she was in her territory now.
All reason abandoned, the little two-wheeler raced through the streets of Protihex before it was demolished, finding her favorite spot as a youngling. The illusion filled her mind, and as Terabyte hid in the center of the jade forest she could feel Ratchet's awe wash over her.
The scent of the wild crystal flowers and the gentle song of the wind through the branches. Now in a familiar place, she was able to calm down and listen to reason. Raising a thick, impenetrable barrier of distrust around herself as she curled up into a defensive ball in her mind, her thoughts were masked from the intruder. The medic made no attempts to speak to her for a while as she regained her mental composure. Finally when she felt her thoughts were restrained enough, Terabyte addressed Ratchet with an empty tone.
'I apologize sir. Where do you need to go?'
'You ask as though you had a choice. I could just find it myself.' Ratchet countered, although he seemed to radiate sorrowful compassion.
Terabyte scoffed at the plainly false compassion. As if a medic could have a spark. She didn't care if Ratchet could hear her opinion of him; she'd already made it clear. Autobots maybe she could learn to trust, but a medic? Never.
This last line of thought was added on to deceive Ratchet into thinking it was mostly him that she didn't trust. He wouldn't be able to see her hatred towards all Autobot kind, Soundwave had known she couldn't repress that entirely and had put appropriate precautions.
'Fine then. Go ahead and fragment my processor, it's not like I could defend myself. You supposedly don't hurt the defenseless; that's why I'm defecting. You're supposed to be the good guys.' Her mental tone was falsely saddened, her true thoughts locked away by Soundwave's undetectable shield. It was too bad that his shield hadn't hidden more of her emotions.
'I need access to your internal defense programming. I will wait for you to make a path.' Her antipathy seemed to have hurt the medic; his pain was only partially veiled. Terabyte felt almost sorry for the mech, he seemed so... used to being despised.
Shaking her helm, she put a golden highlight through the imagined jade forest leading to her old school building where her core programming was located. Her mind was nearly a perfect replica of Protihex, though here and there the details were faded and blurred. Places she couldn't remember were shrouded with a thick fog.
Ratchet followed her path slowly, gazing on her home city in the height of its glory. She could feel that he was more than a little impressed by the intricate illusion that was her processor. Terabyte couldn't help but feel a smug sense of pride. Her mind was all that remained of Protihex.
Editing her program was a simple enough procedure and, busy with the task, little more passed between them. Soon Ratchet withdrew from her mind and the dull ache that had begun pounding through her helm a few breems ago now threatened to overwhelm her. Movements sluggish, Terabyte detached herself from the device and laid her helm in her hands, caressing her helm gently.
She looked up quickly – and rather painfully – when she felt the medic slip something into her wrist. Watching him warily she moved to remove whatever it was when the aching was considerably blunted. Pain chip. Relief and exhaustion swept through her and Terabyte lowered helm back down to the table, shuttering her optics and taking in a deep draft of cool air.
"That was your first sync wasn't it?"
Terabyte lifted her gaze slowly send a withering glare at the red and white mech as he watched her sympathetically. After almost a klick, she returned her helm to the table and groaned quietly. Let him think what he wanted.
Soundwave of course had synced with her – he did with all his subordinates, to install higher security firewalls – but she was positive it hadn't been like that. Although, when she really thought about it, she couldn't remember much at all about that sync. Just that it wasn't unpleasant. Terabyte vaguely wondered if the gap in her memory ought to worry her, but it didn't; not really.
"I was... unprepared. Hacking someone's processor is very different from being hacked yourself." She muttered. "Are you done now?"
Hearing a grunt that she took to mean yes, Terabyte stood up slowly and walked out of the medical area, eager to get away from the medic. Medics always brought pain. It was better to just do things herself; she could trust herself.
Mid-afternoon of the next rotation
After a good recharge, she had recovered almost completely. Terabyte had returned to her cell for the night, supposedly because her living arrangements had yet to be decided. She figured it was more likely that they just felt better with her locked away; the spy doubted the arrangement would change for quite some time.
She was standing quietly in the back of the room watching Bulkhead and Bumblebee play a video game with Miko and Raf when Cliffjumper approached. The humans had brought it, a game called Call of Duty. Terabyte wondered that the human younglings would enjoy such a war-like form of entertainment; the inhabitants of Earth truly were a blood-thirsty race.
Cybertronian sparklings and younglings certainly didn't 'play' by mercilessly murdering virtual versions of themselves… Or at least she never had… Her creators tried to keep her far away from anything related to war. They didn't want her to get involved. Terabyte often wondered if they'd still be proud of her; she hoped they would understand why she had to. After Protihex she hadn't had a choice... Had she?
"So… How's it going?" Cliffjumper asked casually. He had walked over next to her and was now leaning against the wall watching – as she was – the two Autobots and their charges play. Every now and then one of them would find another, which was generally followed by simulated gunfire and a exaggerated groan from the victim.
"Oh, fine." Terabyte replied sarcastically, "I'm really enjoying how much mechs have welcomed me. Being treated like I don't exist is just loads of fun. Outright hating me would be better than this."
If Cliffjumper surprised by her response, he did a very good job of hiding it. Ignoring her bad mood he gave her a winning smile, "My dear femme, may I have the honor of showing you the delights of our humble abode?"
"Um. That would be… nice?" Her voice hinted at an unspoken 'I hope?' The memory of her recent encounter with the mech made her remain slightly cautious. But she'd give him a chance. Maybe this was his way of trying to make up for that. Or probably just trying to make her let down her guard.
"Right this way then, my lady."
Terabyte raised an optic ridge at him as he made a dramatic bow before leading her through a corridor, pretending that her spark didn't twinge at the reminder of Skyquake. Cliffjumper's disregard of all things normal would definitely take getting used to. He didn't seem to care that she was a prisoner, or that she'd not even been there for an orn.
Try as she did not to, Terabyte quite enjoyed the tour of the Autobot's base – as well as Cliffjumper's company. The mech spoke almost non-stop, but as she had nothing really to say, Terabyte didn't mind too much. The base wasn't really all that big, but his descriptions made even the near-empty cargo holds into things of great interest. Every room had its own story and Cliffjumper was determined to tell her all of them.
When they had almost made the circuit of the base, Terabyte began to wonder where the other Autobots were. The Prime was out on patrol, so his absence was no surprise, but the tour had taken at least a groon – Terabyte hadn't bothered to check her chronometer – surely they would have at least seen Ratchet or Arcee?
Of course, as soon as Terabyte decided to ask, they ran into Arcee… literally.
A.N. Oooh that is so mean of me… But what will happen next? Will it be another explosion of Arcee's wrath? We shall have to wait and see… As usual, huge thanks to everyone who reviews!
Note- The following characters are property of Subterraneangem (a.k.a: Me). My OC's are not to be used without my permission. Ever.
Shadowlight- Can't decide if we'll see more of her or not. For right now I just wanted to use her because I liked her name.
Tetrastar and Bullwing- Terabyte's parents. They'll be popping around as such throughout the story.
Terabyte- Of course.