Duty and Deceit
Chapter 18
Report
She awoke slowly, her frame aching all over, though mostly on her left arm and her face. Her faceplates were overheating and stiff. She was lying on a soft berth, though it was unfamiliar to her. Not her own berth, much too big… But not med-bay either. Someone was sitting on the berth beside her, dabbing her forehelm with something cool.
The dabbing ceased for a moment and she heard heavy pede-falls going away for a short time before returning. Finally her curiosity won out against her reluctance to move and the two-wheeler opened her golden optics slowly. Above her was a rather interesting black roof with intricate designs painstakingly etched into it. It must have taken forever to carve such a beautiful pattern into it. Definitely not in her quarters; her roof was hideous.
With a muted grunt, the spy shoved herself upright. Skyquake, who was sitting on the berth, smiled weakly. He looked exhausted; he must have been tending her wounds for a while now. That must have been where he'd taken her: his own quarters. Of course. He didn't have access to anyone else's quarters.
"How are you feeling?" He asked worriedly.
"Like I had a run in with a pit of Sharkticons." She tried to smile and gasped as the mask cut into her face. Energon oozed from the reopened scratch.
Skyquake grabbed her hand and squeezed it gently. "Try not to move your faceplates; from what I can see, the mask is bent into the scrape. I need you to take down the mask, Tera."
She moaned and shook her helm stubbornly. Ever since her early upgrade to her adult frame, she had worn her mask constantly. No one had seen her faceplates for vorns, not even herself. It had become normal, almost comforting, to have her mask up. She had never trusted someone enough to show her face. Her face showed far too much of her thoughts and emotions.
"I can't, Sky."
He looked at her worriedly. "Tera', you have to. You know how delicate faceplates are… you'll get rust in it or permanently damage your face."
She reached up and touched her overheated face gently with cool servos. He was right, the mask was making the damage worse and her face would never heal if she didn't take it off.
"I can't..." She looked into his optics, willing him to understand. She hated herself for not even trusting him enough to look at him face to face, but she wasn't sure she was ready yet. "I just... can't."
She could feel him running a scan over her and watched as his faceplates darkened when he got the results. Gently he slipped a pain chip into her wrist. It surprised her just how much it helped; she hadn't realized it hurt so bad until the painkiller relieved it.
Skyquake noticed her relief and caressed her hand soothingly. "Terabyte, I do not know why you wear that mask, but whatever the reason, I will love you just the same. No matter what."
Her golden optics flickered in shock as her logic centers attempted to process that information. Forever after the femme would remember her incredibly intelligent reply with chagrin. "You- w-what?"
The giant green mech grinned almost shyly. "I really care about you, Tera. Okay? I- you really matter to me, a lot, and I want you to be alright. If you didn't recover completely from this I would never forgive myself. Please, if you won't do it for yourself, do it for me? For your pin cushion?"
The tiny bit of teasing broke the last few shreds of her reluctance and her shock and the Prussian blue spy laughed gently, trying not to wince as the tender mesh was stretched.
She tried to retract her mask, but the bent and shredded metal tore painfully at her face, too badly damaged to slide behind her finials. Gasping at the pain she put it back, vents heaving to cool her down.
"I can't." She rushed to go on as Skyquake's face filled with exasperated desperation. "It's too badly damaged."
Skyquake frowned for a moment before his optics brightened. He raised his hands up to her face but stopped half way. "May I?"
She nodded her black helm swiftly. Her processors were still rolling the new revelation over and over, subconsciously replaying the memory. Skyquake had said he loved her.
He reached up and with surprisingly gentle – for his size – servos, twisted the mask back into its approximate shape. Then very gently, and somewhat tentatively, Skyquake slid the mask off her face and under her finials.
Her silver face was covered in dried life-En, and she probably looked terrible, but Skyquake said nothing. He picked up the polishing cloth and dipped it into the pale green cleaning liquid. She felt him gently press the cloth to her faceplate, taking great care to clean off all of the life-En without hurting her. The femme's gaze flicked to Skyquake's face for a moment, but he was intent on his work.
Once he had cleaned the life-En from her face and the scrape, Skyquake dipped the cloth into a strange clear ointment, looked up at her and froze. His faceplates went slack and his mouth hung open slightly as whatever he'd been about to say died in his vocals.
She gave him a bemused and considerably less painful grin. "What?" When he didn't immediately respond, her tone got a little worried. "Is it really that bad?"
Skyquake shook his helm slowly. "No... It's- you're beautiful! I- I thought, I mean... uh... well most femmes..."
The small femme's optics brightened and she smiled again, taking pleasure in knowing that he could see it. He could see her smile. "Since when do I count as 'most femmes'?" She teased, punching him lightly on the arm only to wince as she was reminded of her injuries.
He gave her a tiny smile and went back to work. The jet gently steadied her helm in one large hand, treating the scratch with the other.
As Skyquake tenderly cleaned and treated her wounds, she wasn't able to stop smiling. No one had seen her smile vorns, but now that was going to change. Maybe trust wasn't such a bad thing.
/Mission Report- Operation Infiltration/
/0830-Twelfth Rotation-Third Orn-Twenty-sixth Quartex on Planet Earth/
Long live the Lord Protector that Cybertron may shine once more.
During the past orns, much has occurred in the Autobot base. Lieutenant Terabyte has not yet been accepted among their ranks, however, the Prime has granted said lieutenant a conditional parole and most hostile attitudes towards her have dissipated. Daily logs enclosed.
The Autobots have not yet revealed the location of their base. Information gathered thus far indicates their base to be in a desert region, most likely located in the Earth states of Africa, Egypt, or the portions of their USA designated Nevada or Arizona. Coordinates unknown.
The sleeper agent known as Skyquake was severely injured by Autobot Bumblebee, however their medic has repaired the damage and expects a full recovery. Presently, the sleeper agent has shown signs of extenuating memory loss. Medical assessments to present rotation are enclosed in this file.
Commander Makeshift was recently sent to infiltrate the Autobots in an attempt to learn their location more quickly. His mission was a failure and nearly caused Lieutenant Terabyte's position to be questioned. The Autobots are on alert, further infiltration missions aside from the long-term mission in progress are not advisable at this time.
/data:dailylogs/LieutenantTerabyte/
/data:medical/Skyquake/
/End Report/
Terabyte tapped in the last line of encryption on her report and proofread the coding. She had placed level one encryptions as well as a few of her own just in case it got into Autobot hands. The spy had no doubts that her commander would be able to decode her encryptions in a few klicks. It still bothered her that Soundwave was able to crash all of her groons of hard work coding in less than two breems.
She hefted a huge sigh and glanced over at Arcee's empty berth. The other femme had gone to Jack's to take him to work. It was a Saturday morning, so in a few more groons she and the human would return. Terabyte opened a comm. link to Cliffjumper.
/Terabyte requesting Autobot escort from her quarters to the main chamber./ Only after she'd sent it did she realize that she'd referred to herself in the third person. Soundwave required all of his subordinates' reports to be in a strictly unbiased viewpoint and in third person. It made the official records much tidier.
/Cliffjumper answering request of Defector Terabyte./She smirked a little bit at the red mech's mocking glyphs. Following them came several smiley faces of various sorts, some Earth ones and a few Cybertronian ones. There was also one that resembled Nebulan glyphs./There a reason for the third person formality?/
/No, sir. I was simply writing a progress report and had not switched to first person./She replied. Her glyphs were, as always, tight and uniform. Today they were a little tighter than normal. Her spark still ached from Makeshift's harsh disowning of her.
/Prime wants our reports in third person?!/His glyphs were now sloppy and teasingly alarmed. /No wonder he's grumpy after reading our reports… I don't think any of us do that./
Terabyte reread his answer on her HUD several times before replying slowly, covering for her slip-up./I was not aware of Autobot writing regulations; they were not in the manual. I have been writing my reports according to Decepticon format./
Ba-dink.
She quickly opened the doors and stepped outside. Cliffjumper was leaning against the wall in the hall way. "You actually read the rule book?"
Nodding slowly, Terabyte cocked an optic ridge at the warrior. "Am I the only one on this base who has? Arcee had not read it either."
The red mech laughed as he started walking down towards the main room. "I think Optimus mighthave read it… I know he got at least half-way through. Prowl was a fanatic of regulations. No one that I know ever made it past page fifty."
Terabyte blinked. "The manual is nine-hundred and thirty-four pages long."
"Yep." He didn't seem too bothered by the fact that they didn't know any of their own rules. The Autobots were an even more lax army than she had thought.
They passed Optimus Prime's office on their way, and Terabyte made a rapid decision. Her tone was still stiffly formal in spite of her escort's teasing and cheerful manner. "I would like to see the Prime. If you do not mind?"
"I do not mind. Proceed." Cliffjumper said in exaggerated formality. He was obviously making an effort to cheer her up. It wasn't working.
Her armor flaring outward just a little bit more than her usual, Terabyte knocked on the Prime's door. The mech's deep voice sounded slightly annoyed.
"Enter!"
She did as he asked and walked in cautiously, maintaining a submissive posture. Optimus was sitting at his desk, glaring at the screen of his desk. Finally he looked up and saw Cliffjumper just outside the door.
"Cliffjumper... What have I told you about human laws and enforcers?" His tone was stern, but it was obvious that they'd had this conversation several times.
"We are robots in disguise, therefore we ought not draw attention to ourselves by disregarding their laws. Furthermore, taunting the human enforcers is unacceptable for us as Autobots because it is disrespectful to our human allies." The front-liner quoted boredly. "Yeah, I know... but following the law is boring."
"In the past month you have gotten fifty four tickets, a total of one point two million dollars in fines, and you have been legally banned from over a dozen states. All of this is only from the USA, other nations have similar lists." The way the Prime spoke indicated that this record was meant to be shameful to the red mech.
"Really?" Cliffjumper asked excitedly. He pumped his fist in the air and winked at her, leaning over to whisper, "Finally broke my record!"
At this point, the Autobot leader seemed to notice her for the first time. She gave him a half bow as he looked her way. "Terabyte, how are you feeling?"
She shrugged noncommittally. "I function within normal parameters. May I ask who has the morning patrol?"
Optimus nodded, his optics seeming to bore through her. "It is due time for you to take patrol again. Would this morning be acceptable?"
Again the fact that he would ask her opinion on the matter caused her systems to hitch in surprise. "Y-yes sir. Thank you, Prime."
"Cliffjumper, I believe you are free this morning? Accompany Terabyte on patrol." He still sounded annoyed with the red warrior. Terabyte figured that this was not the first month filled with Cliffjumper's fines and tickets. Nor would it likely be the last.
"You will patrol the town called Jasper, since there has been some Vehicon activity there recently. Just this once Cliffjumper, obey the traffic laws." The Autobot leader turned to her and smiled faintly. "Terabyte, you will require an Earth vehicular mode. It will also be necessary for you to obtain a human holo-form: a rider-less motorcycle will not go unnoticed."
Terabyte stiffened and shook her helm slightly, her finials dipping down as she fearfully spoke against the great mech. "S-sir. With all due respect sir, I will not abandon my Cybertronian alt-mode. O-our home may be dead, but I will not allow our heritage and culture to perish as well. I will obtain a human holo-form, however I ask that I be allowed to keep my Cybertronian form. Sir."
Optimus studied her for a while, his expression unreadable. Finally he spoke. "Present yourself in your vehicle mode to the human children. If they judge your appearance to be sufficiently Earth-like, then I will grant your request. If not, you must comply if you truly wish to join our ranks. Understood?"
The suggestion was fair enough. Terabyte glanced over at Cliffjumper before nodding. "Very well sir. Thank you sir."
Cliffjumper had just finished explaining her agreement with Optimus to the children, so she was stuck in her alt-mode, feeling very much like an item in a shop window, up for display.
Miko hummed thoughtfully and stepped back to examine her from a different vantage point... for what felt like the millionth time. Jack had shrugged and said she was fine. He hadn't been too interested in passing any judgement other than that he preferred Arcee. Raf said he'd seen concept vehicles similar enough that she would just be considered a very rare and expensive limited edition motorcycle.
Now Terabyte just needed Miko's decision. The human femme was being very slow to decide. Finally she laughed. "You're a wicked looking bike, TB. I'm pretty sure that's as far as anyone'll care. I say you're good!"
The black and Prussian blue motorcycle drove forward into the school parking lot of a small place called Jasper, Nevada. They'd taken a bridge here. School was currently in session so no one was around to see her. According to Cliffjumper, there would be lots of the average aged human femmes coming out in a few breems. Then all she had to do was scan a few that she liked and take her favorite attributes.
Until then, she had a chance to simply sit and observe the humans, replaying her brief reunion with Makeshift before his termination in her mind. His optics had been lit with excitement and... pleasure when he was killing Voltage and the other Vehicons. The same glee had been in the bond right before he broke it.
Could she have really been so blind that she just hadn't noticed? Her own mentor was one of the bloodthirsty mechs that were so like the Autobots. How many others were the same way? How much had her lust for revenge blinded her to?
She fought in the war to protect other innocents from the pain the Autobots had caused her, but were the Decepticons any better?
Terabyte shook her steering wheel. She had been with the Decepticons since her final upgrade, she couldn't start doubting her cause. She was on the right side. There's just a few bad mechs in the ranks, just like the Autobots have a few good mechs.
"Oh... you are beautiful!" Terabyte froze as a squishy hand slid over her seat. "You are the coolest bike I've ever seen." According to her sensors, the hand belonged to a human femme, a very young human femme, even younger than Raf.
The motorcycle tried not to move as the child clambered up to sit on her seat with a little difficulty. "Oooh! I so want a bike like you! When I'm a grown up." Her handle twitched. "I got an A on my math test today. It was really easy. Though I'm not sure why I'm telling you... Oh, there's my mom... I need to go home now. Bye!"
With that, the little human femme slid off her and ran to a little car parked on the sidewalk. Soon there were kids and young humans running around talking loudly. Terabyte scanned several femmes as a group of them walked past, laughing and giggling.
Most of the human mechs would stop and point and talk about her for awhile before heading off. Several would run their hands over her handles, or take photos of her. Staying totally still while the humans practically drooled over her was not easy.
By the end of a few breems, Terabyte had scanned almost fifty femmes and configured a suitable holo-form. She'd also obtained a considerably thick layer of human grease smears on the majority of her armor.
/I have obtained a human holo-form. No Decepticon activity in the area./Terabyte commed dutifully./Where are you?/
No response appeared on her HUD. After a few klicks, Terabyte tried again./Cliffjumper, state your location./ She frowned. It wasn't like the red mech to not respond./Cliffjumper, where are you?/
Finally she received a rushed message on her HUD, along with a quick location ping. /Fighting Soundwave. Back up would be great./
/Hold him for five klicks. Terabyte out./
Terabyte formed her holo-form in a nearby alley, and looked around through it. That was really weird. She turned her gaze to look at herself. She had red hair, and she was rather short and skinny for a human her age: approximately twenty years. Human frames were so squishy and odd looking. She shook her helm- head; getting distracted.
Her holo-form ran out of the alley and jumped up onto her seat. In moments, Terabyte was out of the city. She dissolved her holo-form and transformed when she saw where Cliffjumper and her commander were fighting.
Deftly, Terabyte pulled a tiny data chip out of her subspace compartment. On it was her report, daily logs, and findings and calculations that she'd made while with the Autobots. With any luck, she could somehow slip it to Soundwave during the battle.
She slid the chip up under her wrist armor and ran towards the battle. She watched as Cliffjumper was flung through the air and hit his helm on the ground, sliding several feet. Soundwave walked towards him slowly and Terabyte shot him in the arm. Her cannon wasn't on full power.
Soundwave glanced in her direction but didn't change course or slow down. He simply pulled out his laser and shot at her, catching her hip. Terabyte heaved a pained vent. She nodded minutely. Okay then. Keeping her cover meant fighting full on. Lesson learned.
Laying down light cover fire, Terabyte rushed over to where Cliffjumper was stumbling to his pedes. Soundwave was closing on him fast. The red mech wasn't recovering fast enough; he looked like he'd gotten thrown around like that for the whole battle.
The two-wheeler wondered vaguely how long the mech had been struggling before he asked for help. From the dents in his armor, it had been a decent amount of time.
Her commander reached the Autobot before she did and slammed his gun into Cliffjumper's stomach and fired, the blast sending the red mech through the air again, this time coming to an abrupt halt as his frame crashed into a cliff face. Luckily his armor just barely survived the blast, protecting his spark and internals.
He bounced off the rock and landed on his face in the dirt. The rock where he'd hit was smeared with life-En. His armor was scratched, dented and dirty. Energon mixed with mud was caked on his whole frame.
Terabyte's vents hitched as the red mech struggled to raise his helm enough to look at her. His lips curled up in a weak smile. Life-En was pouring down the corner of his mouth and from a gash on the side of his helm.
Soundwave was approaching where Cliffjumper lay on the ground. Seeing a window of opportunity, Terabyte put on a huge burst of speed, running towards her commander. She drew her dagger as she ran.
The purple jet hardly glanced at her, intent on his purpose. If she didn't stop him, the red mech would be offlined. This didn't really bother her - he was still an Autobot - but his death on her watch would cripple her mission. Her finials twitched. Attacking her commanding officer... Not good.
She was halfway to him when the purple mech bent down over Cliffjumper, picking him up by his neck armor and raising him several feet above the ground. Surprisingly the mech pulled out a blade and raised it above Cliffjumper's spark. Normally Soundwave didn't like to get his servos dirty.
For some reason, the image of the red mech's weak smile despite his injuries reappeared in her mind. Something in her spark made her double her speed. Moments before the blade touched the scuffed red chassis, Terabyte leapt between the Autobot and her commander, shoving Cliffjumper to the ground. The blade scratched her chest plate, the black and navy femme just barely slipping past with minimal damage.
Now Soundwave actually looked at her. Turning away from the red Autobot who was lying in the dirt, staring at her with his mouth hanging slightly open, her commander twitched his wrist and the lasers charged up. She brushed away a tiny part of fear at the huge looming jet.
Terabyte lunged at Soundwave, slicing - and missing - the mech's visor. At the same moment she slipped her small silver hand into his purple one, discreetly passing her report to him. She'd hardly accomplished this task when the jet flung her off like she was little more than a bothersome pest.
The small two-wheeler howled in agony as she hit the cliff face with a sickening crunch of metal. She'd hit it helm first, the force snapping one of her sensory finials - the most pain sensitive part of her - in half and bending the other one to an awkward angle. The world was spinning a little bit, it felt lopsided; a result of losing so much of her sensory net.
She raised her mini-cannon, her aim wobbly. Her depth perception was off as was her vision in general. There were two of Soundwave, each running in opposite directions. Charging her gun, Terabyte fired at one of the Soundwaves. Apparently it was the right one, though how she managed to hit him she never knew.
Her commander slowed, her shot having hit him in the upper pede, his gait lopsided as he transformed and flew off. The jet cloud hung in the sky like a warning.
She stared at the limping, dented mech in front of her. Her finials swayed as she tried to make sense of him, or at least the bent one did. The other just sort of twitched and sparked. Terabyte was getting the most confusing sensor readings from him. According to her sensory net, there were three Cliffjumpers around her, but she could only see the one.
Her sensors were also telling her that he was colder than the Arctic and his helm was on upside down.
Laughing silently to herself - giddy from the pain, in spite of having shut off her pain receptors - Terabyte turned off her malfunctioning sensor relays. Repressing a gasp at the disorienting inability to feel her surroundings, the two-wheeler slowly blinked her gold optics and tried to stand up.
Instantly she knew that she shouldn't have tried to do that. The world started spinning, going round and round and round and... She tripped on her own pedes and stumbled... up? Right? Backwards? Terabyte couldn't tell which direction was which.
She'd never had both her primary and secondary sensors offline at the same time before. This time her secondary systems were fried when her finial snapped and shorted out. The world around her was blank and strange.
She could tell however, when she failed to hit the ground. Opening her optics, which she hadn't realized had been shut, Terabyte saw nothing but red. Were her optics damaged too? Then her disoriented processors reached the obvious conclusion. The little two-wheeler shoved herself away from the red surface that was Cliffjumper – though he still kept his hands on her shoulders to steady either her or himself, it was hard to tell – feeling him wobble precariously. He was really badly injured, much worse than she was.
"Can you call for a bridge?" She asked finally. Her own long distance comms were still disconnected, there hadn't been a need to reconnect them.
"Sorry. Comms are down... Soundwave fried them." He winced as he gestured to the various scorch marks on his frame. "We'll just have to walk. I probably shouldn't transform."
In spite of her nonexistent equilibrium and balance, Terabyte had to repress the urge to jump up and down in excitement. She was about to learn where their base was! This was great, maybe her mission wouldn't be so long... At this rate, she might be able to get the Decepticon fleet out by the next quartex!
Somewhere within driving distance of a tiny town in the middle of Jasper Nevada. The Decepticons never would have guessed. Jasper was a pathetic little town in the middle of nowhere.
Her glee faded just as quickly when she remembered Raf and how nice he was to her. Megatron hardly tolerated the humans and Starscream absolutely despised them. The masquerading Autobots were at least treating the youngling relatively well.
What if all of her colleagues regarded humans in the same respect as Makeshift had? The war had hardened the sparks of all Cybertronians, Bots and Cons alike. Were the humans safe with either side?
Her thoughts must have shown in her optics, because Cliffjumper cocked his helm with one optic ridge raised, mistaking the cause of her concern. "You going to be able to manage?"
Terabyte laughed lightly, gripping the mech's shoulders in a braced position as her lack of sensors threatened to throw her to the ground again. She'd wait to tell Soundwave about their location until she had coordinates. "You're worse off than I am. If you can make it, I just need to follow. All I'll be able to do is follow though; I couldn't tell up from down if my life depended on it."
Cliffjumper laughed at that, though it progressed into a harsh, racking cough. There was that one old femme in her apartment, Stormsong. The one with constant coughing fits and the most delicious copper rounds. She never did water the old femme's sapphires.
Terabyte frowned. Why was she thinking about that? She hadn't thought too much about Protihex in vorns, yet here nearly every little thing here flooded her with memories. Nothing with the Decepticons had reminded her so much of home.
"Why..." Cliffjumper hesitated thoughtfully for a bit, wincing as his vocals caught. "Why don't we use our holo-forms to go back to Jasper? Then we could call one of the kids to send a bridge."
"That would work... but we'd need to transform, just in case." She pointed out absently, still trying to sort out her own thoughts.
He nodded and with quite a bit of difficulty and obvious pain, folded himself down into the horribly beat-up Dodge Challenger that was his vehicle mode. Terabyte followed suit and threw out her kickstand to balance herself. Then they activated their holo-forms and began the trek back to the town.
Cliffjumper's holo-form was a young human male, around Jack's age, with short brown hair, blue eyes, and a mischievous grin. He had freckles and was wearing jeans and a leather jacket, with a red t-shirt underneath.
Her own holo-form was a human female, older than his - even though she was technically younger - with long curly red hair pulled up in a loose ponytail, green eyes, and dainty features. She wore a Prussian blue t-shirt with a denim jacket and black cargo pants. A thin, jagged scar ran from just below the outer edge of her eye to just above her lips.
After about half a breem, Cliffjumper looked over at her. "So... did you know that Wheeljack was really a 'Con?"
Terabyte didn't answer, though she knew he'd take that as a yes. She didn't want to talk about it. Not to an Autobot, not to anyone. This was between her and Makeshift, and she needed to think about it; figure out how she felt about all of it.
"Oh." The mech was quiet for a while longer before he spoke up again. "I thought you changed sides... Why didn't you tell us? Things might've worked out better."
'Better meaning he'd have died sooner.' Terabyte's engine would have growled if human holo-forms had engines. "I didn't want him to get hurt."
"Was he family?"
"My mentor." The city was getting closer, though it seemed so much further away in human forms.
"We wouldn't have hurt him, Tera." Cliffjumper said gently.
Terabyte froze in her footsteps and glared at him. Only her family could call her that. And Skyquake. "Don't call me that. No one calls me that, got it? I don't care whose side you're on, no one calls me that."
He raised his hands in surrender, taking a few steps backwards. "Okay, okay... I didn't know. Did the Shifter call you that?"
She glared at him a little longer before she muttered angrily. "His name was Makeshift, but I guess he died before you could ask. And no."
They walked in silence for the rest of the way, Terabyte's mood getting darker with every footstep. It was the Autobots' fault that Makeshift turned on her. He would never have become the mech that broke their bond and took hostages and enjoyed killing if it weren't for the Autobots.
They started the War, their beloved Primes did.
If the Autobots had never started the War, her creators would still be alive, Smokescreen would be at her side and Cybertron would still be a prosperous world. Darkshine would be alive with her twin and millions of Cybertronians across the galaxies would still be living happily with their families and homes. All of the death and destruction since the dawn of the War was the fault of the Autobots.
All of the records said as much. She could not doubt the records, or her cause.