Duty and Deceit
Chapter 12
Scrapheap
"Tera'!" She heard Skyquake roar.
Gritting her denta, she looked up just in time to see the green jet land and transform next to where she was lying on the ground. The femme raised her gun-arm in a weak salute. He captured her gaze with worried optics, before facing the squad that had distracted her.
Moments later the small squad was reduced to graying frames on the ground, each one pocked with blast marks and gaping holes. Skyquake was kneeling at her side almost before the deaths of the Autobot squad could register in her mind. It hurt so bad… Her spinal struts felt like they were on fire, burning through her whole frame like acid.
At thought of acid, she realized that that was exactly what it was. Acid pellets. That was Prowl's special weapon, wasn't it? She had been lucky; she had moved just enough that the blast hit at an angle and part of the acid spray hadn't landed on her.
"Hi, 'Quake." She whispered through the mist of pain that was clouding her thoughts. "How'd you get here? Bludgeon…"
Holding her up with her back to him, he gently began applying a cool gel to the acid burns, probably to counteract the acid before it ate into her systems. "It doesn't matter. Who did this?" She could almost feel his engine growl as he continued to rub the gel base onto the affected areas on her back and arm.
As he worked she could feel the burning sensation fade into a numb throbbing. Involuntarily, her frame relaxed into Skyquake's supporting arms as exhaustion swept over her. "Doesn't matter…" She muttered, a faint smile lifting her lip-plates.
"Terabyte!" He shook her lightly, jolting her systems into full alert again. "You can't recharge yet! You need your self-repair systems completely online; recharge level repairs aren't good enough."
She shook her helm faintly. Skyquake didn't have a very good foundation of basic first aid… The self-repair nanites worked better when they didn't have to keep her other systems functioning as well as repairing damage. She was going to tell him that, but she was just so tired.
"I need to get you somewhere sheltered…" She heard Skyquake tell her. Her optics were beginning to dim again when she felt strong arms slip under her knees and shoulder wheels, gently lifting her off the silver ground.
He was carrying her somewhere… Probably that shelter he'd mentioned. She could feel the tension in his chassis; he was furious about something. Her being injured by the Autobot Prowl? That was sweet of him.
She listened to rapid thrum of his spark as he ran across the battlefield with her in his arms. A frown crossed her face-plates as she heard Skyquake grunt mutedly with each hit he took for her. He shouldn't be getting hurt for her…
The spy watched the Autobots' blue laser-fire shooting over her helm. For a brief moment it seemed beautiful, reminding her of Tetrastar. Blue was always her carrier's favorite color. Then the image of her carrier's charred and graying frame flashed over her processor; the blue smoke of that day filling the sky in her mind.
Her engine whined, the memories bringing a familiar ache back into her spark. In response, Skyquake held her a little closer to his frame. It was so warm, strong; it made her feel secure. Nothing could hurt her as long as Skyquake was nearby. After entering a small indentation in the iron cliff face, he set her down carefully.
"Are you alright? Not hit again?" The mech asked her worriedly.
"I'm fine, Sky…" She replied, smiling up at him again. Frowning slightly, she realized that Skyquake couldn't see her smile. He never did. Briefly she considered lowering her mask so that she could reassure her friend, but her resolve failed her at the last moment.
Her face betrayed too much; the spy knew very well that she had no control over her face-plates. To show someone her face would be like showing them her spark… She wasn't sure she could ever trust anyone that much. Not even Skyquake? She asked herself in her mind. She wasn't so sure… She'd trusted him with so much else. But no. Not yet anyway. She wanted to trust him that much, but she wasn't ready yet.
"Terabyte, please tell me: Who shot you?" Skyquake asked, a dangerous hint to his voice. He didn't seem to have noticed her hesitation.
Seeing how much it mattered to him, the spy told him quietly. "I think it was Prowl, it was his acid pellets."
"I'll kill him." Skyquake growled firmly. She had no doubts that he would fulfill that vow. Prowl would die that joor. He rested his hand against the side of her face – or at least where her mask covered her face. "Will you be okay here? I won't leave you if you're not…"
"I'll be fine." She looked deep into his optics. "Just… be careful, Skyquake. Promise me that?"
"I swear on my spark that I will come back." Skyquake vowed solemnly, holding his hand to her face for another few nanoseconds before running out into the battle. She barely heard his dark mutter, "Though I doubt Prowl ever will…"
Third rotation since Skyquake's awakening.
Terabyte woke up at 0330 in the vain and desperate hope that Arcee would be recharging so that she could have some time to herself. She had gotten up a groon earlier than her normal last rotation, yet the pink and blue femme had already been awake, sitting stoically on her berth as she carefully observed Terabyte. This morning, if one could even call it that yet, Terabyte had gotten herself up more than two whole groons early. The Autobot better be asleep.
The Prussian blue femme sat up with a small groan and opened her golden optics slowly, her bio-lights casting a faint yellow glow on her berth. Terabyte looked over to where the other femme's berth was, her optics bright and hopeful.
"Scrap."
She glared at Arcee, who was - as usual - sitting up on her berth with a datapad in hand. The warrior femme glanced up at her with a casual smile.
"Good cycle, Terabyte." Arcee greeted her all too cheerfully. "Lovely morning, isn't it?"
Terabyte growled, her early morning patience worn thin. She'd never cared for anything earlier than 0600, and being up this early had made her grouchy. "Do you ever sleep?!"
Arcee merely smiled and went back to reading her book. The Decepticon femme ran her delicate servos down her smooth battle mask. With a tremendous groaning sigh, Terabyte flung herself back into the berth; glaring holes into the roof as the small berth bounced from the force with which she'd thrown herself down on it.
There was no way she'd be able to survive this mission.
A little later that morning.
The three-mech expedition shivered in unison as the chilly Arctic winds bellowed, slipping under their armor and chilling them to the core. At this point, the exhausted and nearly frozen spy was beginning to think there was such a thing as Fate. If there was, it was most certainly determined to extinguish her.
Nightracer had strongly believed in fate and destiny… The poor clone had always believed her fate was to live forever short of the first Nightracer's legacy. Terabyte wondered sadly where her last femme friend was now. Was she even still online? Last she had seen of the pale blue sniper was shortly after Skyquake came to Earth. Nightracer had decided to go neutral…
Terabyte shoved the thoughts of her friend out of her mind as Bulkhead answered something Bumblebee had said.
"-eadings are off the chart!"
'I bet that's how a scan of my core temperature looks like – only in the opposite direction.' The Prussian blue mini-bot thought grumpily as she caught a glimpse of the scanner Bulkhead was waving around. Even from her distance, she could tell that the readings were unusually high. Energon in the Arctic. Great. 'Probably should put it in my report anyway. Soundwave likes a thorough report.'
A small note was filed away in the back of her processor. Terabyte rubbed the layer of frost build-up off her forearms and scanned the surrounding area on several frequencies. Optics dimming, she analyzed the results on her HUD; still following Bulkhead, the team leader.
Odd… "Sir?" Terabyte wasn't sure what his rank was, only that it was higher than her.
"Yeah?" The frost-coated green mech stopped and looked at her questioningly. "Problem?"
"No sir. I ran a multi-frequency scan of the area and located something unusual at coordinates: 89.6513 degrees south by 153.2074 degrees east. It has ancient Cybertronian shielding technology and is made of a Cybertonium alloy. The shield blocks most scanning frequencies, which is why yo- our sensors back at base didn't pick it up." The intel agent reported sharply. Her lip-plates tightened at the light static coming from her vocalizer; the frigid temperatures were starting affect some of her non-vital systems.
"Any clue what's in it?" 'Bee asked with a suspiciously human-sounding buzz.
Bulkhead, who was much larger and had thicker armor, was not nearly as affected by the cold. It was having the worst effects by far on Terabyte, whose frame wasn't built for such extremes. What would a neutral be doing in the midst of a battle, or a frozen wasteland on an organic world?
"Negative, sir." She answered stiffly, nowhere near forgiving the would-be killer of Skyquake. She just barely held a respectful manner – not, however, without a significantly patronizing undertone. "As I stated before, there is a shield around the object which deflects most scanning frequencies. The object is impenetrable, at this distance at least, unless the shield is shut down."
"We better check it out." Bulkhead concluded as he led the way to the coordinates Terabyte had provided.
Her numb pedes slipped on the icy hillside. She was starting to lose feeling in her audio finials, the sensitive panels almost completely coated with ice. She hated the cold. The first time she'd seen snow, she'd been fascinated by it. However, along with vorns of experience, that fascination had faded to a loathing. Her frame simply didn't handle it well.
When they reached the top of the small hill, Terabyte easily spotted the object jutting out of the ice, its black surface standing out sharply against the white landscape. It looked like a pod of some sort, leaving the spy to wonder what the mysterious object contained.
"Come on! I wonder what's inside?" Bumblebee said excitedly, bouncing slightly; though from the cold or the excitement was difficult to tell. As the mech spoke, he slid gracefully down the incline, using the slick surface like a ramp.
Bulkhead and Terabyte followed suit, the large mech nearly losing his footing at the bottom. Soon they had reached the small pod, each trying to figure out what it was for.
"It's too small to be a ship... Even for a mech your size." Bulkhead thought aloud. He quickly added, "No offense, Terabyte."
"None taken." She sighed lightly, a convulsive shiver running through her frame as the wind blew especially strong. The young femme wasn't sure how much longer she could stay out here. It was so cold!
"You'd be warmer if you weren't flaring your armor so much." The yellow scout pointed out with a few beeps and clicks to convey confusion and mild concern.
"Flaring my armor?" She asked innocently... or perhaps more stubbornly, "I'm not flaring my armor. This is normal."
Terabyte supposed the mech had a point, but she was willing to be a little colder if it meant not letting her guard down.
Bumblebee shrugged, obviously not caring enough to press his point. He returned to studying the pod. Terabyte kept an optic on their surroundings in case anyone else was in the area. She certainly didn't feel like a battle today; the rotation had been bad enough as it was, thanks.
She turned to face the Autobot when Bulkhead addressed her. "Terabyte, think you can scan it now that we're closer? I know your sensors are more sensitive than mine."
The Prussian blue optic ridge quirked up minutely. "The doorwinger has an even better sensory network, why not ask him, sir?" She tilted her helm away embarrassed, "Besides, at the moment I can't scan a thing, the cold has started interfering with my systems. I'm not even able to feel my sensory relays, much less use them."
Bulkhead turned to Bumblebee questioningly, receiving a short blip in morse code as a response. 'Ditto'. The green Autobot sighed, Terabyte thought it sounded rather relieved; her suspicions were confirmed by the mech's tone as he spoke next.
"We'll just have to take it back to base then." His servos went up to the side of his helm, indicating he was using the comm. Not that it mattered, since he spoke out loud anyway. "Hey Ratch', we're ready for a bridge home."
Once they were back at the Autobots' base – which, frustratingly enough, Terabyte still had no idea where that actually was – the medic sent them all into the med-bay and hooked Bulkhead and Bumblebee up to a monitoring system after running his medical scanner over all of them several times. There were only three monitors, one of which was hooked up to Skyquake.
The spy couldn't help but notice the Autobots' prejudice in their order of priorities. Their mechs first, leaving her untended. Terabyte didn't mind though; she hadn't been too fond of medics since that one 'procedure' several vorns back. A repressed shudder rolled down her struts at the memory.
Absently she rubbed her finials as she watched the medic poke and prod and scan the unknown object. So far he'd come to the same conclusion she had: It was unable to be scanned and it was of ancient Cybertronian origin.
After a few breems of examining the pod, Ratchet had Cliffjumper move it to another part of the base where it could thaw without getting under-pede. That was about when Bulkhead decided he'd had enough of the medical equipment and tore it out of his chassis, two or three tubes at a time.
"I told ya, Doc, we're fine."
Ratchet laid a restraining hand on the large mech's shoulder. "The only way to know you're 'fine' Bulkhead, is to endure standard defrosting procedure. You know prolonged exposure to subzero temperatures can cause permanent system damage."
Terabyte snorted disbelievingly as she ignored yet another error message on her HUD telling her to 'Acquire medical aid. Systems have been exposed to a subzero environment: Improper defrosting may result in extensive damage.' Yeah… that pretty much summed up her standing with the Autobots.
Half a groon later, Optimus and Arcee had returned from their separate patrols and had been briefed on everything the Antarctic expedition had discovered. Now up to date, Optimus addressed Ratchet.
"Have you learned anything more of our Antarctic find?"
"Not yet." Ratchet answered huffily. "The pod can't be opened while it's frozen solid."
For a while, all was quiet; Bulkhead, Bumblebee, and Cliffjumper having left to check up on the human children. The red Dodge Challenger had gone in Arcee's place to check on the eldest fleshy; mentioning something about playing with the 'cops' again. Terabyte guessed that the word was referring to human Enforcers.
Finally the Prime and Arcee walked back over to the ground-bridge.
Nodding his helm to the bridge controls, the Prime indicated for Ratchet to set the coordinates for the icy wasteland. "Arcee and I will search for any clues regarding the origin and purpose of the pod."
The ground bridge opened and Ratchet pointed a small device at first the Prime and then his second in command, pressing a button that made their insignias glow bright, Energon blue for a nanosecond. "Only until your sensors sound." The medic warned. "Remember, once your core temperature reaches the blue zone, system failures aren't likely… they're imminent."
The Prussian blue spy smiled faintly. The medic did have a flair for the dramatic, didn't he? Autobots were all so… stiff. Their voices were heavy with undertones and secret meanings, alterior motives. It set all of her battle systems constantly on high alert. Terabyte turned her attention inward, compiling a report for Soundwave into a compressed databurst. Every rotation she added a few more details to her report, which she would send at the end of the quartex if not contacted before then.
The two Autobots were about to enter the green portal when the passage that led outside was filled with the roar of engines. She wasn't allowed to go outside; the Autobots were at least smart enough to know that she could triangulate her location as soon as she left the missile silo. As it was, the spy hadn't even managed to glean what country they were in, much less pinpoint a location. Not even the accent of the humans could help her; of the four humans she'd heard or seen, each one of them was of a different nation.
Bulkhead and Bumblebee came in calmly enough, but Cliffjumper – show off that he was – came in full speed, slamming on his brakes at the entry with a loud squeal of rubber, throwing his alt-mode into a 360 degree spin before shuddering to a halt. A slightly pale Jack emerged from the car's interior, noticeably putting a significant distance between himself and the red vehicle a soon as possible. All three mechs transformed quickly, Cliffjumper bent over with laughter at the fleshy's reaction. Terabyte couldn't quite repress the bubble of laughter that had risen up in her chassis. Poor kid.
Ratchet looked at the three children and looked up at Optimus. "Uhh… Aren't they supposed to be in school?"
Miko smiled mischievously. "On a Saturday? No, we get the whole day off…" She looked up at the medic, her squishy optics twinkling. "… To spend with you!"
Raf looked up into Terabyte's face and smiled, waving at her. Terabyte cocked her helm at the tiny human, waving awkwardly. She kept her optics on the child curiously.
The spiky-helmed boy heard Arcee mention the Antarctic to Jack and walked over to them. "Antarctic? I've always wanted to see snow…" He said wistfully.
"I would invite you to join, Rafael," Optimus answered, "but the conditions are far too harsh; even for we Autobots."
Terabyte winced at the bad grammar. Surely if the Autobot leader was going to insist they speak English he'd at least speak it properly.
"I understand…" Raf sighed, looking extremely disappointed.
Optimus paused yet again on the ramp to the portal. Slowly the Prime turned around and smiled at the boy. "… But I will bring you back a snowball."
Raf's head shot up eagerly. "Really? That would be great!"
One Earth hour later. Rec room.
Terabyte had sat back down on the stairs to the rec room and was simply allowing her processors to wander. The main portions of her thoughts were on Skyquake: When would he wake up? Would he remember her? Would he remember anything?
The other part of her was watching the three humans play. Today it was a racing game of some sort, and Jack was leaving Miko in the dust. Terabyte made a small mental note to never let Miko drive; the girl's driving was so poor, she wondered if Miko was trying to hit every wall, sign, and power pole in the game. The older two seemed to be ignoring Raf and he was beginning to look really left out.
The spy restrained a groan. Back on the Nemesis, she'd always had work to do. Here though, she had nothing to occupy her time when she wasn't on a mission… How did the Autobots stay sane? Terabyte smirked as a small thought popped into her mind. Half of them didn't stay sane.
Raf got up off the couch and walked towards the stairs and where she was sitting. "Hey Terabyte." He said somewhat dejectedly. "I'm going to go… um, exploring."
"All right." Inspiration struck her – or was it just boredom? – and she spoke up, "Would you mind if I came with?"
He shrugged. "Sure, I don't mind. I'm not really going anywhere…"
She nodded and followed Raf's lead. He wandered down several corridors for a while before he started playing a game with himself, apparently okay with her presence. She had made sure to keep a decent distance between herself and the human, so she wouldn't bother him.
Terabyte smiled at Raf's antics. He was play-acting being on a mission in the Antarctic. Subtly she played back an audio recording of the blizzard-like conditions. Finally – she'd probably be terribly embarrassed about it later – Terabyte played along with the human, pretending that she was with him, her mission commander, on a search for a lost ship and its treasure. Raf was pleased to no end when she started playing.
Younglings always had such vivid imaginations; she was constantly surprised by the things they could come up with. The days when she was a youngling seemed so far away... Sometimes she wondered if she ever had been a youngling. Besides, with Bumblebee, Bulkhead, and Cliffjumper all busy helping Ratchet and the other kids ignoring him, the little boy needed someone to play with.
Back in Protihex, when she was a youngling, there had been a little mechling quite a bit younger than herself that was always picked on by the other sparklings for his size. He was much smaller than the other sparklings… Terabyte had befriended the little mech, coming to see him as a little brother. She didn't know if the mech was still online or not. Very few had survived the destruction of Protihex, but... Maybe, she'd tell herself, just maybe he survived – like she did – Maybe she'd see him again some orn.
Raf seemed to have noticed her mood change and stopped, looking up at her with worried eyes. "What's wrong?"
She looked away slightly, not sure what to make of the kid's concern. She was a POW, Terabyte had expected the humans to be terrified of her; certainly not worry about how she was feeling. So far however, Jack was the only human who seemed even a little bit cautious toward her.
"Um… Thank-you?" Terabyte smiled shyly at the little fleshy. She wasn't sure why, but it was important to her to befriend this little scrap of meat that wasn't even a quarter of a vorn old. The resemblance to her adopted brother was too much for her to dismiss. Too bad he couldn't see her smile. "I'm alright… You just reminded me of someone I know. He was like a little brother to me. I appreciate your concern though… No one has cared how I felt in – a long time."
Raf was quiet for a little while then, "What's his name? Where is he?"
"His name was-" Terabyte frowned, hearing a scurrying sound above them. She raised her left arm towards the roof, her frown deepening when she remembered that Ratchet had disabled her weapons systems and confiscated her mini-cannon when he repaired her. "I've really got to stop doing that…"
"What was that?" Raf asked, looking around nervously. "Hello?"
Human and femme both jumped back as something fell in front of them. Raf tripped and fell to the ground with a frightened yelp. Terabyte stared at the tiny metal creature. It opened huge indigo optics and raised its disproportionate helm to look at them.
Raf laughed shakily, "Wh-where'd you come from?" The creature blinked adorably at him in response, making Terabyte smile. Such a cute little thing couldn't be that bad could it? Terabyte didn't bother to scan it. She felt almost as if she ought to have recognized the creature… something she'd read in the files… "The Autobots never said anything about pets…"
"I haven't seen anything like it before either, Raf. It is adorable though." Terabyte replied quietly, crouching down to look at it more closely.
"W-want to play fetch?" The boy asked the creature, holding up the bolt he'd picked up earlier, pretending it was part of their 'treasure'. He was obviously still a bit wary of the creature. It seemed disoriented from its fall from the roof. That was understandable; it had landed on its helm after all, probably rattled the little thing's systems.
Nevertheless, the creature started dancing in an excited circle the moment it saw the bolt. Raf threw it down the corridor. The thing was incredibly fast and had gotten to the bolt almost as soon as it was thrown. There was a whirring sound and Raf shouted, "No! Don't eat that! Y-you'll choke!"
The little silver thing turned around and blinked its huge optics up at him innocently; bolt nowhere to be found. The speed with which it had eaten the bolt was somewhat disturbing, but when Raf picked the creature up and started to pet it like a kitten, Terabyte couldn't bring herself to take it away.
"Be careful, Raf. It might be dangerous…" The spy looked at the large-helmed creature that was now in a light recharge in Raf's arms. Something so trusting couldn't possibly hurt, right?
A.N. Ooh are they in for trouble now… My reasoning for Terabyte not recognizing the Scraplet is that since she is relatively young and didn't spend a lot of time on field in the latter vorns of the war when the Scraplets became a more common occurrence (more on that coming) she would have read and heard about them, but never seen one. And my reasons for the Scraplet not recognizing Terabyte as lunch was that when it fell from the roof it landed on its helm and got its tiny little processor momentarily scrambled.
Also, my next update may or may not be a little late, I've taken a short break from the story and am working on a one-shot/prologue/thing detailing the destruction of Protihex.