Duty and Deceit
Chapter 10
Loss and Hope
A.N. Ok. Speech in bold from now on is Cybertronian. Just to clear things up a bit. Except in flashbacks: Those are always Cybertronian – you know, because they're on Cybertron – so I really didn't think it was necessary there. In the past, unless she was talking to a human directly, Terabyte was speaking Cybertronian. 'Bee speaks Cybertronian, but at sparkling level and sort of tonelessly because of the damage to his vocals. (which is why he beeps and whirrs a lot) Everyone else speaks English as a courtesy to the humans. That will be addressed a little later on.
Skyquake was away on a mission. He would be away for at least an orn, so she didn't have her usual training sessions. She didn't want to spend the whole time he was gone by herself, so when Thunderblast asked her to a sparring match that evening, she had no objections.
The little femme still couldn't believe she'd lowered her mask at the party a quartex ago and it had made her even stricter about keeping it up. The things one does when they've had too much sweets. Since it was also Thunderblast's fault that she'd done it in the first place, the spy looked forward to a chance to humiliate the boat.
As soon as both femmes were in the training area, they bowed and began the match. After a few breems of neither one getting in a substantial hit, it became clear that their skills were nearly equal. She also noticed that Thunderblast had no qualms with fighting dirty; which turned out to be a slight advantage for the boat. Her own smaller size however, gave the two-wheeler an equal advantage.
"So, what have you been up to lately Terabyte?" Thunderblast asked, blocking one of her strikes and throwing in a punch which was easily dodged.
"Oh, fine. I have quite a bit more free time than normal just now; I'm not entirely sure what to do with it. That's part of why I came here." She continued fighting gracefully, not allowing her opponent's banter to distract her. "How about you? Anything interesting going on?"
"You know, this and that. I've been keeping an optic on Knockout. He's-"
Rolling her golden optics, the Prussian blue femme tuned out the next breem of Thunderblast's talking. The purple and gold femme was obsessed with mechs. She never paid much attention to the boat, nor did she particularly like her other than as a sparring opponent. As for herself, she couldn't care less about mechs.
"Honestly, Thunder. He may have a shiny paint job, but he's a vain and arrogant fool! Surely even you can see that." Taking advantage of Thunderblast's momentary lapse in concentration, the spy got in a blow that knocked the boat to the floor. She jumped on top of her downed opponent and wrapped her hand around a vital fuel line, pressing lightly. "Besides, you should pay more attention to the fight or you'll be seeing the medic shortly."
When the purple femme appeared to actually be considering the option, the two-wheeler pulled Thunderblast up; she shook her helm disgustedly, muttering, "You're going to make me purge."
"Alright, I'll stay more focused." Thunderblast grinned as she initiated the next round. "How's it going with you and Skyquake then?"
"Thunder, sometimes I wonder if you've even got a processor in that thick helm of yours. He's a good friend and he's taught me to fight. That's all." She feinted and over-balanced the boat-femme, smashing her fist into Thunderblast's helm. "And that's three to one in my favor."
"He's taught you a little too well, if you ask me." Thunderblast grumbled as she got back up, rubbing the new dent in her helm.
"Why don't we call it a night? I mean, it'd be a shame if you weren't able to get fixed up before your next shift." The spy grinned, her optics twinkling. She gestured to the various dents and scuffs on the femme's purple and gold armor. "After all, what would people think if they saw you in that state? Beaten by a femme half your size too. An awful shame."
As she'd expected, Thunderblast took the bait and charged again. Unfortunately for her, she was going too fast to stop by the time she noticed the Prussian blue pede raise up in her path. Thunderblast tripped over her pede and fell with a loud crash to the floor.
"Like I said, I'm going to call it a night. See you in the morning, Thunder!" She exited the training area in triumph, making a mental note to thank Skyquake when he got back.
Previously on Duty and Deceit…
"NO!" Terabyte's wail echoed through the canyon as Skyquake's optics closed and his frame relaxed under her. She held his face gently in her hands, "Sky! No!"
All at once Skyquake felt his systems crash. 'I don't want to die…' Skyquake thought in one last astro-second of panicked consciousness. 'She will save me. She promised! Please help me, I don't want to die.'
"No… no, no, no, no! You can't die!" Terabyte whispered. Pulling out her emergency med-kit, the femme quickly assessed the damage. It was too were two gaping holes, the larger in his torso and the smaller in his helm. She couldn't fix this! "I can't fix this… Shadowlight! Help me, please! I have to fix him. I promised." Vainly she called for her offlined former friend.
She needed a medic.
Even though she knew she couldn't fix Skyquake, Terabyte's hands flew over his chassis repairing the few things she knew how to; hoping that she could stop the leaking enough to keep him alive. All the while, pink optic fluid rolled down her face.
Terabyte jerked away instinctually from someone's hand. Looking to her shoulder, she vaguely recognized the hand as belonging to the Prime himself.
"Get away! Haven't you done enough?" Terabyte screamed, staring at the life-En on her hands. "He's going to die and it's your fault! Are you happy now? All for the Autobot cause, right? I don't know how anyone could think joining your life-En-thirsty army could be better for them! I should never have gone to your side!"
"Terabyte…" His voice was filled with pain and sorrow. Good. The Autobots deserved all the pain their warped sense of honor could throw at them. "Step away from Skyquake. We will take him back to base. Ratchet may be able to save him. But you have to trust me and let me take him back."
She snorted rudely. "The only place you want to take him is the Well. And then you'd probably call it 'mercy'."
"You have my word as a Prime, Terabyte. I will not allow any more harm to come to him."
The distraught spy turned her gaze down to the growing pool of life-En around her black diamond-shaped knee-plates. Biting her lip, Terabyte made up her mind. Skyquake was dying. Desperate times called for desperate measures, or so it was said.
Terabyte stood up slowly and looked up at the Prime. She only just reached mid-riff on the huge mech. The same height as Skyquake, Megatron… It was a good height, she thought blearily. Her processor felt numb, as if she had reached some sort of stress cap and the result was that her logic centers had simply turned off.
"If you are lying, know this: I will not rest until he is avenged." With that dire threat, the femme stepped aside.
Optimus nodded solemnly and quickly knelt to pick up Skyquake, taking care not to jostle the unconscious mech. The ground bridge opened and the three of them rushed through it to the Autobot base.
"What on Cybertron happened out there?!" Ratchet shouted as Optimus laid the gravely wounded Decepticon on the surgical berth. Not waiting for an answer, the medic continued his rant. "Optimus, with all due respect, you're severely glitched if you think I'm going to fix this mech! I will not repair this Decepticon murderer."
"Ratchet…" The Prime rumbled dangerously, laying one flat hand on the medic's shoulder. "We are Autobots, we serve and protect all life; regardless of-"
"No!" Ratchet pulled away harshly and ripped a wrench from subspace, flailing it around as he spoke. Terabyte's engine growled. Skyquake must be saved at all costs; he didn't have time for the medic's tantrum. "I don't care! I will not willingly save the life of the mech who killed our friend!"
"Which one?"Terabyte snarled, "This is war: Mechs kill, mechs die. Would you rather add another spark to the list?" She released her dagger and, dodging the swinging wrench, shoved it up against the medic's neck, pressing the medic into the wall.
"So help me, if you don't fix him… I will not hesitate to offline you." The femme hissed, adding more pressure to the blade. She hadn't drawn life-En… yet.
"Terabyte, this is not our way either. Stand down, now. Ratchet, Commander Prowl was a close friend to me as well; his death is not unfelt. It weighs heavy on my spark, even after so long." The Autobot leader leveled a reproving look on the medic and the spy in turn.
Both mechs wilted noticeably. Terabyte stepped back, still simmering, but she retracted her blade as well – jaw-hinges creaking under the strain from clenching them so tightly.
"That does not condone deliberately allowing this mech to die; no matter what atrocities he has committed in the past, he deserves a second chance. We gave Prowl a second chance. Would you deny another that same chance?" The Prime glared at Ratchet; it was not up for discussion. "You will repair him as if he were one of our own. Understood?"
"Even he would not hesitate to offline every one of us?" The medic asked bitterly, but it was obvious that he had been subdued.
Terabyte hovered nearby, watching as the medic immediately began working on Skyquake. The red and white medic repaired the soldier without any further questioning. That didn't mean that Ratchet was happy with it – his shouting and throwing various medical tools across the room, adding several more dents to the walls, floors, and Terabyte's armor, proved as much.
Or was he just always like that? It was difficult to tell.
"Terabyte!" Ratchet smacked her shoulder wheel with the wrench he'd just been using, his other hand still deep in Skyquake's chassis. "Focus! Either pay attention and be useful or get out. Give me a laser scalpel."
"Yes sir." The femme hurried to obey, knowing fully that Skyquake's life depended on her cooperation.
The damage was so severe... She didn't understand even half of the things Ratchet was doing. She could tell however, that the scout had torn open one of Skyquake's fuel tanks and ripped out part of his processor. Very few mechs could survive that much damage to the helm. Those who did were never the same again...
Her anger at the medic's reluctance had faded relatively quickly, being replaced instantly with worry for her friend. The life-En slowly oozing down her pedes from the wounds in her abdomen went unnoticed by both mech and femme as they worked.
Now holding a clump of wires Ratchet had given her, Terabyte looked at up at him fearfully, her mask back up. "He's not going to make it is he?" She already was certain of the answer.
The idea of Skyquake dying made her feel strangely dead inside. Hollow. As if her spark had gone to the Well and somehow left her behind, no more than an empty husk with no more hope of joy than a machine.
"Shut up and turn up the Energon output on that drip. I don't give up on a patient; you got that? Never. Unlike the medics you know." Ratchet growled as he finished sealing the sliced fuel lines and began cleaning up the dried life-En so that he could patch the ruptured fuel tank properly.
"If he lives, will he even still be the same mech? Or will he be a different mech with Skyquake's body?"
Terabyte almost thought that would be worse than losing him. No, she'd rather he died than have to live seeing some shredded wisp of the mech she had known. If she couldn't keep Skyquake, she didn't want a fake running around as a constant reminder of her loss. It would be a violation of her friend's honor.
A voice in the back of her mind wondered if she had pushed the angry mech too far. After all, he had already made it clear that he'd rather see Skyquake offline anyway.
"I DON'T KNOW!" The medic roared at her. "Alright? I'm not Primus. I can't work miracles; I can only do my job and hope for the best. You should be glad I'm trying at all. Do you know how many of ours have died on my watch because of this mech?"
"I lost my entire city because of your kind. I should think I understand loss." Terabyte returned resentfully.
Ratchet turned back to the repairs. The damage to Skyquake's fuel tank was easily fixed in comparison; the main problem had been the rapid loss of Energon. Now the question was not whether or not he would live, but rather whether or not he would ever come out of stasis.
"Go get me an Alpha model processor drive. Replacement parts are in cargo bay five. And be quick about it."
"Alpha drive. Bay five. Got it." The femme answered tersely before running off to retrieve the part.
When Terabyte reached the cargo bay she groaned. The place was a disaster, various parts lay unlabeled and unorganized on the floor and shelves alike. Obviously, Ratchet wasn't in charge of this bay; the medic was meticulous about medical supplies being kept tidy. How was she supposed to find an Alpha drive in this wreck when she didn't even know what it looked like?
By some unimaginable stroke of luck, the femme noticed one shelf at the very back of the room that hadn't been trifled with. It would make sense to look there first; processor damage was rare and living long enough for spare parts to be needed was even rarer. Making her way through the chaos as quickly as she could, Terabyte scanned the shelf thoroughly twice before she located the correct one.
Terabyte shuddered as she picked up the very last Alpha drive in stock. If there hadn't been one… She hurriedly cut off that line of thought.
After she gave Ratchet the part, he ordered her out of the med-bay.
"I'm not leaving." She answered firmly.
"Yes you are. Get out. This is complicated work and I don't need any distractions." He answered just as firmly, not even looking up at her from where he was prepping the tools for the procedure.
"I'm not leaving!" Terabyte insisted. "I won't be a distraction, I promise."
"If you could turn invisible you would still be a distraction. Besides, this is going to take at least a joor and you have injuries of your own to attend. Cliffjumper!"
Terabyte glared at the red mech as he burst into the med-bay.
"Doc? You called?" Even then, the mech was grinning cheekily at them.
"Don't call me Doc. Get Terabyte out of here." Ratchet still didn't look up from his work. He was busy slicing into Skyquake's helm so that there was enough room for him to begin the surgical procedure.
"Sure thing, Doc." Flashing the medic another of his annoying grins, Cliffjumper put a hand on her shoulder wheel and steered the femme to the exit.
Terabyte allowed herself to be led away, both because she knew there was nothing she could do to help and because her own injuries were beginning to really hurt. The extra rush of energy that had come with her fear was now gone, leaving her feeling drained. Though that may have been from how much she was leaking. It was hard to tell.
"-ing your life was perhaps not the best of strategies, Bumblebee, but you performed admirably today." Optimus Prime was telling the scout in the main room. Terabyte shuddered; a swarm of thoughts flooding her stressed and weary processors.
"It was nothing, really." Bumblebee clicked modestly. Nothing. The swarming thoughts cleared, leaving only one thing behind. Rage. Terabyte fumed where she stood unnoticed by the victorious Autobots.
"Aww, 'Bee! You're too modest. You were probably awesome out there!" Raf said admiringly from where the yellow and black mech had placed him on his shoulder. How did the fleshy understand Cybertronian anyway?
"Raf's totally right! What happened out there anyway? Were there more Decepticons? I bet you and Optimus pounded them to scrap!" The thought of scrapped Decepticons seemed to please the young, excitable human girl. Already the impressionable human sparklings were being influenced by the Autobots' lies.
Her lip-plates curled upwards in disgust. She couldn't take this any longer. Forcing herself to appear calm, the dark-colored femme took the few steps to where Miko was standing and knelt down to one knee so that she was closer to optic-level with the human. The fleshies were all so small, even compared to her.
"Do you really want to know what happened out there Miko?" Terabyte cast a glance at the Prime to see if he was going to stop her. She was after all still a prisoner of war. He didn't seem to be making any moves against her though, so she looked back at Miko.
"Well, duh. Would I have asked if I didn't?" She replied rolling her eyes. The serious tone that tinged the air didn't seem to have been noticed by the girl.
"Good point." Terabyte conceded, softening her tone and reminding herself that she was speaking to a child. "The Decepticons were waking one of their own. He had been in stasis for v- a really, really long time. While I was trying to find out what Soundwave was doing on the cliff-top, Bumblebee and the Prime engaged this newly woken Decepticon. I was not there for the entire battle, but I did see that both Autobots were attacking him. Bumblebee tore out a large portion of the Decepticon's proces- brain. He would have died."
Terabyte finished soberly. It had been harder to use only human terms than she'd thought it would be.
"Isn't that a good thing?" Miko asked.
"No. It isn't." She stood up to glare accusingly at the other Autobots. "When is it ever good to kill someone, anyone, in that way? An unequal fight." Terabyte snorted. "You might as well have been ganged up on him! Since when is that good, or admirable?"
After looking deep into each of their blue optics, Terabyte laughed, humorless. "I was sparked a neutral and raised as one. But if this is how both factions raise their young... Into sparkless killers. No wonder this war never ends."
With that statement hanging in the air, the dark femme went and sat down next to the med-bay door. She figured the damage to her chassis ought to be fixed, but Terabyte couldn't bring herself to do it. Her thoughts were too scattered to do it properly anyway.
Hearing heavy footsteps approaching a few breems later, Terabyte looked up from where she had been staring at a blank point on the wall to her right. The green one, Bulky or something like that...Bulkhead. He was shuffling his pedes awkwardly.
Levelling the mech with a flat look, the two-wheeler spoke. Her tone was respectful, yet as flat as her gaze. She stood to attention, wincing as her armor creaked loudly in protest to the action. "Yes?"
"Uhh... Prime wants you to, uh," More awkward shuffling, before the mech seemed to get his bearings. "Optimus wants a full detailed report on the mission. It's due tomorrow."
Terabyte glanced at the empty datapad she'd just been given. A full report of all the legitimate sounding slag she could come up with to cover for her meeting with Soundwave. Should be easy enough. She'd also need to write up an official report for her commander. She frowned minutely as she noticed the life-En smears her servos had left on the datapad's surface.
Falling back on Decepticon military formalities, she bowed her helm deferentially. "Yes sir. I will have it prepared by the end of the rotation. To whom shall I deliver it, sir?"
"Um, to Optimus." She nodded with another quiet 'yes sir'. Terabyte was beginning to wonder if she shouldn't be so strictly formal though, it seemed to be bothering the Autobot. "Do- do you want some help with your repairs?"
Unable to stop herself, the femme tossed a pointed look towards the mech's huge, clumsy looking servos. She gave a nervous little chuckle. "Heh... Thank you sir, but I believe I'll be able to manage on my own."
He followed the femme's golden gaze slowly and then sighed. "Yeah. That's okay, just, uh, thought I'd make the offer. Um... I'll just, uh, go now."
"The offer is much appreciated, sir. Good cycle." Terabyte said quietly. A small smile crept to her face-plates as moments later Ratchet's voice echoed through the base.
"Bulkhead! I needed that!"
A.N. And there we are! Sorry this is late. I have been chaotically busy and I'm not sure if it will let up any time soon. My posts will probably continue to be late, so please bear with me.
Please tell me what you think about Bulkhead from that little scene? I want to be sure l have him properly portrayed. Character portrayal is very important to me.