Duty and Deceit

Chapter 34

Confessions and Consequences

Mama always had such pretty diamond roses. The yellow and blue sparkling had never seen anyone else with roses as nice as her Mama's. These roses weren't Mama's though, they were wild. But pretty none the less. She stumbled over a something in the road, too intent on the roses to really think about much else. A few adults said stuff to her, but she didn't know them. So they, and whatever they had to say, really wasn't that important.

She was going to see Stormsong again today. To give her these pretty roses. And the box of yummies she won at school for solving all her quadratics correctly. The young femme glanced around shyly before popping one into her mouth quickly. Ms. Stormsong wouldn't mind.

Her small, chubby second-frame sparkling pedes clicked on the shiny sidewalks as she pattered along. Something was wrong with the road though. It made the femmeling look up with a pudgy scowl. The buildings weren't as shiny as they were supposed to be, and the roads had holes. The adults were giving her worried looks, but the child wandered on determinedly.

After a while she sighed quietly as yet another adult said stuff. This one was kinda angry though. And he walked sort of lopsidedy, like he didn't know how to use his pedes right. It was funny.

Grinning up at the weird smelling mech, she said sweetly, "Hiya... What's wong wiv your pedes? You're not walking real good."

"Uh?" The brown mech mumbled intelligently. Wobbling some more, his chest made a funky squeak. He then ignored her and continued to trip along his drunken way.

"Fine den." The yellow and blue femme said, putting her little hands on her hips, mimicking her Mama. "You jus' go on your way. Iss not like I ac-tu-all-y said someting." She huffed, still mimicking her carrier. "Mechs."

She turned a corner, wondering if maybe she had made a wrong turn sometime along the way. Maybe she wasn't going to find Stormsong's apartment that direction. Maybe this one'd be better.

Humming happily, the femme examined her surroundings carefully. It was kind of grungy round here. A tiny black thing was huddled in the corner next to a trash can. It had wings and they were rattling against each other and the trash can. The yellow and blue femmeling poked the thing with her foot.

It uncurled and she saw a brilliant flash of blue, startling her. Optics. Blue ones. She fell backwards onto her aft and dropped the flowers and box. He blinked at her, trails of silver on his face-plate where the coolant tears had washed away the grime. He was whimpering. The poor little mech was even smaller than she was. And that was kind of an accomplishment, since she was the littlest kid in school.

"H-hello!" She said cautiously, smiling warmly at the mechling. "Are you lost too?"

The dirty sparkling's little armor plating squeezed tight to his protoform and he shivered convulsively, still whimpering pathetically. "G'way."

Her face melted into a worried, pitying pout. Reaching forward, she put a pristine silver hand on his filthy knee-plate. "Aww... I won't hurt you... Pwomise."

At her touch, the mechling screamed, trying unsuccessfully to shrink even closer to the alley wall. "No touch! G'way!"

She slumped back down in the dirt, momentarily defeated. Then the light hit the diamonds and the shiny new box of silvers. Humming thoughtfully, the femmeling picked up a handful of the diamond roses and handed them to the sparkling slowly.

He looked up momentarily. After a while he relaxed and accepted the roses, staring at them happily. "Pwetties. Dank-oo..."

Staring at them for a while longer, the little filthy mechling smiled at her. Pointing at the little shiny box, he said, "Bock."

Grinning widely, the little youngling opened it and offered him a silver drop. "See? Try one! They's reeeeaallllllyyy goooood. Twust me."

Accepting it greedily, the mechling stuffed it in his mouth. Shortly afterwards his thin face lit up with joy. He was practically bouncing on his ball joints. "Nudder? Nudder?"

"Yup! By the way... I'm Terabyte... But c'mon," She ate a silver drop and handed him another one, laughing and standing up. "Up?"

"Smokescween's me." He bounced to his pedes, the little wings on his back twitching excitedly. He held out his hands pleadingly, smiling really cutely. "Nudder, sis'r, nudder?"

Something in her chest seemed to be smiling. She'd never had a little brother before. This'd be fun! She gave him another piece of silver. "I'll bring you home! Mama and Papa'll love you!"

"Nuvs you, Tewabye..." Smokescreen said, smiling around the candy. "Um... Nudder?... Pwease?"

Previously on Duty and Deceit...

"My loyalties," The jet spat, his ruby optics boring into him, "Have not changed. And no faction will ever hold my loyalty again."

"Move in, surround the triple-changer, but do nothing that might be perceived as threatening. We are Decepticons, not sparkless warmongers."

"Sk-k-k... Sky... Q-quake?"

Strong arms supported her against a strong, warm frame. Each spark-pulse vibrated through her frame, causing her spark to automatically pulse in sync with the larger pulse. Perfectly content, the femme's armor and frame remained completely relaxed as one by one her systems rebooted. It felt good to relax her whole frame. It'd stayed flared so long...

Then the memories flooded in and her blood red optics flung open to be greeted by the very reason for her recent glitch. As she took in that wonderful face-plate, her logic processors threatened to glitch out again. Finally, she concluded that the voices in her helm had finally succeeded in driving her mad. So, since she was very obviously crazy and seeing dead people, she must be hallucinating.

"Sky..." She whispered finally, staring up into the beautiful ruby optics of the mech supporting her still-wobbly frame. Smiling weakly, Terabyte said bluntly, "You're dead."

He chuckled quietly. "What do you mean? I'm right here."

Terabyte shrugged her midnight blue shoulders, still studying his face, determined to engrave an image of it in her mind, "For now. And that's what matters."

"Tera..." He touched her revealed face-plates, gently tracing over the scar running from her left optic to the left corner of her lips, "I swear to you, I will always be here for you."

"But you won't! Because you died!" She screamed, pulling away roughly. All her weapons charged up and her fiery bio-lights flared brighter than ever before. "I watched you fade away."

Pointing her cannon at Cliffjumper, who stood back watching with concern on his oddly squashed face, the broken femme said, "And it's their fault! They deserve to die for what they did to you. And I will ensure that they do if it's the last thing I do."

"Terabyte..." Skyquake said quietly, his arms still spread apart in an invitation for a hug. Normally such a gesture from her closest friend would have melted Terabyte's rage. But he was a figment. It would never be the same. And that made her even angrier. "Do you remember what I told you *before I left on this mission?"

(*To be featured at a later date that as of yet is undecided)

She smiled at the memory, "Of course… You said, "Tera, I will always love you and I will always be here for you, in person or in spark... Ages may come and go as they please and that will never change."

The spy blinked her optics, coolant slowly rolling down her face-plates as she accepted the offered hug, burying her helm into his cockpit. By this point, she no longer had any thoughts for any of their surroundings.

Skyquake hugged her tightly in return, so tightly that it hurt. Terabyte really didn't care though. She just cried into his cockpit. His arms were wrapped around her, holding her tight as if he thought that if he could hold her together. Nevertheless, her frame didn't completely relax. After all, she was hugging her own imagination. "That hasn't changed, Tera... It never will."

"Okay, Figment." She said weakly, not moving for a long while. A more cynical part of her chuckled lightly. Here she was, hugging the dead mech that was a product of her imagination. Finally she whispered, "I thought we had so much more time... I always thought, you know, after the war... Once I'd avenged Protihex and the war ended... We'd have all the time in the world."

The green jet didn't say a word, only continued to hold her. The steady thrum of his spark was so realistically calming. She hadn't realized that her processors were even capable of conjuring up such a perfect hallucination. Then again, she didn't go around hallucinating all that often to have experience.

"I mean, of course, we were in the middle of a war. But I never thought that one of us would die. I guess I just figured that happened to other mechs. I should've known better." The darkly colored femme laughed a cold, empty, humorless laugh that shook her light frame. It sounded so utterly... broken. "After all, everyone I've ever loved has died... Yes. You'd think I'd've learned by now."

Terabyte could feel his sad gaze boring into the top of her helm and she shifted to look up into his ruby optics. His expression was hard to read. She'd never seen that expression before. He seemed... shocked. Stunned. Overwhelmed by what she'd just said.

And that was when the realization hit. Her frame tensed ever-so-slightly and her mask and finials twitched. Then she basically gave up completely at trying to stay upright on her own as she felt an extreme sense of defeat. Her next words were a statement of fact, "You really are standing there aren't you. I'm not actually hallucinating."

Skyquake nodded almost imperceptibly, a tiny smile curving the edge of his lips. "Hey."

She slammed her helm into his cockpit. If he weren't still giving her the gyro-bear hug, she would've face-palmed. But his cockpit was the most accessible thing available to bang her helm on at the moment.

The femme stood there for a while with her helm still pressed into his cockpit. Finally she whispered, "Sky?"

"Yes?" He replied instantly, whispering as well, though he sounded like he wasn't entirely sure of why.

Smiling up at him, Terabyte said, still whispering, "You could probably let up on the super hug now..."

Skyquake released her slowly and took a step back. "Tera, come back with us. The Decepticons have altered your memories and maybe even your core programming. You don't really believe in the cause Megatron is using you to further. You never have."

The petite spy's expression went stiff, her armor puffing up, making her slight frame seem just that much larger. The midnight navy mask snapped back into place, blood red optics hardening. She backed up so that both Skyquake and Cliffjumper were in her view. Her dagger shot out and the miniature fusion cannon whirred to life.

"You would question my loyalty, Skyquake? Of all mechs, you're the last I would have suspected of treason."

He refused to meet her gaze. "And yet here we stand."

The calm, contentment melted completely out of her thoughts. Instantly she became aware of everything around her. Knockout watching the three of them – Sky, Cliff, and herself – like a holovid. Blitzwing trying to convince Knockout that blowing up everything in a fifty mile radius would be more entertaining. The Vehicons looking around with twitchy trigger-servos, just waiting for an order from someone.

"I watched you fade with my own optics. How can you live?" She demanded, suspicion overriding her joy at seeing the jet alive and well, aside from a helm-shaped dent in his wing. She glared first at the Autobot then at the jet she thought she knew. "What twisted Autobot bait is this? To make you live again with a mind filled with Autobot propaganda." Glaring at the red Autobot, "Your tricks won't work on me. Skyquake is dead. This… this thing spewing your lies is not Sky."

Cliffjumper stepped forward, his hands raised placatingly. "TB... It's no-"

"Shut up, Autobot." She spat contemptuously, "I've wasted enough time playing your games."

Turning to her Decepticon team, Terabyte snarled. "The Autobot and the deceased mech are not worth wasting our energy on. Our mission was a success, we will return to the Nemesis immediately."

As she turned and stomped away from the would-be battlefield, she opened a comm-link to contact the Nemesis for a bridge. A huge hand, belonging to a mech even bigger than Skyquake, landed itself on her shoulders, causing her knees to buckle slightly. Hydraulics in her pedes hissed under the sudden pressure. Terabyte glanced over at the hand on her shoulder, finials twitching in annoyance. It was obvious that the mech had to hunch over to reach her shoulder.

"Blitzwing." She acknowledged stiffly, a small amount of strain touching her voice. "Did you have a question?"

"Yes!" The triple-changer's angry face held an excited expression. "Can I keell zem? Vithout mercy?"

Sighing deeply, the dark femme shuttered her optics. She had no doubts as to Blitzwing's ability to 'keell zem'. The only thing she wondered about was whether or not the mech could be trusted to follow them home once he was done killing the Autobots. Her logic processors suggested that the probability was doubtful.

Now the tan and purple mech - Random - was practically bouncing out of his own armor, holding his hands together in a pleading gesture, "Pleeease, pretty leettle traitor-boss, I vill be ever een your debt!"

Knockout, who seemed well and truly done with being in the triple-changer's presence, commed her on a private line, /As your advisor on this mission, I would suggest that you just let the idiot go on his little killing spree./

"Fine. You may go." The femme said. Raising a servo quickly, she stopped the jet/tank in his tracks, preventing him from leaving, "On one condition: you return to the Nemesis by the end of this joor. Understood?"

"Yes, ma'am! I vill reeturn to you vith zeir helms!"

Picturing this in her mind, the spy semi-successfully repressed a shudder. The voice in the back of her helm whispered its concerns for her 'friends'. Facing Knockout as they emerged through the ground bridge on the roof of the Nemesis, she said, "Knockout... If he really does show up with their helms... could you... dispose of them for me?"

"It would be my pleasure." The medic said with a somewhat disturbing smirk. He went on in his rich, high-class accent, "I believe a visit to the doctor's office is quite in order... When would be a good time?"

"Never?" She muttered under her breath, really not in the mood for a medical check-up. Rolling her shoulder-wheels, Terabyte took in a deep, worn out vent of air. Might as well get it over with. "As soon as possible, please."

Meanwhile, Moscow

He growled as her shape disappeared through the violet and emerald portal. Hissing through his denta the green jet roared in frustration, kicking the stump of a scrawny little tree. As if to spite him, the plant fell over momentarily before springing back up as if nothing had happened.

The tiny humans were running around them as close as they dared, taking video and pictures of himself, the red Autobot, and the tan and purple tank now rumbling towards him. The Decepticon carelessly ran over anything or anyone that got in his way. A small group of humans were panicking and trying to outrun the tank rather than dodge. They were going to get themselves squished.

Skyquake snarled again. It wasn't the pathetic flesh bags' fault they couldn't get out of the way fast enough. He glanced over at Cliffjumper to see if he'd noticed the fleshies' danger.

"Little Mech!" He roared, his deep voice rumbling over the chaos of screaming organics. "Get the organics out of the way!"

Transforming quickly, the jet made for the skies, his engines sending a satisfying sonic boom through the city below. Cliffjumper sent a few angered glyphs over the comms. /And what, may I ask, will you be doing while this nutcase tries to make confetti out of me?!/

/Saving your sorry aft, Autobot./ Skyquake replied smugly, sending a hail of bullets down on Blitzwing. /You got a problem with that?/

The red warrior sent no reply.

Blitzwing wasn't reacting to the jet's offensive as well as he'd planned. Skyquake growled in frustration. He really didn't want to fight the triple-changer with the organics squishing under pede with every step. That would get old fast. Organics had a way of exploding in splatters of smelly wet stuff that got in hard-to-clean places.

Honestly, he wasn't in the mood to kill the mech anyway. He didn't have the time to bother with it. Terabyte's processor had been altered so much that she thought he was dead. If he could just prove to her that he wasn't being used by the Autobots...

But he wasn't entirely sure he wanted to go back to the 'Cons. Lord Megatron had never really cared about those under his command; Skyquake had given and taken enough beatings to know that. Terabyte's hatred had kept her obedient and she'd been shielded from the truth to keep her loyal. Mostly because of something Soundwave saw in her. He however, knew full well what went on in the troops.

Enough to know that their leader saw them only as a means to his own power. Soldiers were expendable. Replace-able.

But he would join them again. At least until he could get her out. For Terabyte.

His mind being made up, Skyquake ceased firing on Blitzwing and turned around to the shiny red mech below. After a moment's hesitation, he let loose his machine gun on the Autobot, earning a surprised and angered yelp from the mech.

He said he'd get her back. He never said who for.

/Hey! Jetbrain! Whose side are you on anyway? The 'Con's over there!/ Cliffjumper sent still blasting at Blitzwing while glaring up at him.

/Like I said before, Little Mech, my loyalties have not changed./

Continuing the barrage from the skies, Skyquake began a steep dive towards the mech, angling himself to gain the most speed. Cliffjumper tried to dodge, but the green jet only adjusted as necessary. The wind whistled over his frame, his nosecone slicing through the cold Russian air with ease.

He'd never stop loving the thrill of flight. He felt unstoppable up here. Invincible. And one hundred percent in control.

Moments before he would have crashed right into the Autobot, Skyquake transformed, flinging his feet forward. A resounding boom filled the air as his feet came in contact with Cliffjumper's abdominal plating, crunching the metal instantly. The impact made Skyquake's knees buckle slightly, which he used to his advantage, shoving off of the mech before he fell, landing nimbly on his pedes, sliding back several feet with one hand dragging on the ground for balance.

Dust rose up around them both, Cliffjumper's cry of pain cut off by the lack of air in his vents. Judging by the crunching, the jet figured he'd at least done some decent internal damage. He'd need something to give Lord Megatron if he wanted to get back in. A peace offering of sorts. Dying Autobots always made for good presents where their leader was concerned.

Just then, blazing agony erupted from his wing connectors and helm simultaneously. Gasping at the unexpected blow to the sensitive wing-cons - the hit to the helm he could've dealt with - Skyquake fell to his hands and knees.

He groaned as he felt his tanks protest to the intense pain. Whoever hit him either had outstanding luck, or knew from experience just how sensitive the wing connectors were. Skyquake retched, purging all the Energon from his tanks. His vision was starting to go fuzzy as his wings went numb.

The red blob in front of him was hugging its stomach, glaring at him with an emotion his processors were too pain-dulled to register.

Piercing, icy blue optics...

Meanwhile: Omega Outpost 1

Optimus sighed deeply, pinching the bridge of his nose. That mech. He was almost too much work to keep in line. Always charging out to the front-lines; usually before he - Optimus - even knew they were there. Sometimes he wondered why in the galaxy Vector Sigma chose him to be a Prime. Surely there was someone better suited for the job; more patient anyway. A loud, high-pitched beeping filled his audials.

Beep-beep-beep-beep, beep-beep-beep-beep, beep-beep-beep-beep.

"Ratchet?" He asked somewhat impatiently, walking towards his old friend slowly.

"Our sensors have detected a Decepticon energy profile... but the signal is ancient." Ratchet replied, sounding like he very much thought it was another glitch in the systems. Granted, there had been a lot of glitches ever since the Scraplet infestation.

The Matrix was prodding him in a direction, but it was difficult to tell which direction it was trying to point him. He sighed again. "Things of the past have a way of catching up with the present, Ratchet. Open a ground-bridge."

Turning around to face his team, the Prime said simply, "Autobots, roll out."

"Optimus," Arcee asked, hands on her hips. Her posturing and tone suggested that he needed to be ready for an argument. He really wasn't in the mood for a fight with the aggressive femme-bot. "Cliffjumper and the prisoner are still MIA. Are we just going to leave Cliff' at the hands of the traitors and 'Cons?"

"Arcee," He said warningly, starting right off with the end-game voice, "We have no proof that Terabyte and Skyquake betrayed us willingly; we will not make any unreasonable and unprecedented assumptions. As for Cliffjumper: he is a grown mech, skilled in battle, and he has been in captive situations before. He can take care of himself until rescue."

The fierce two-wheeler glared up at him with her unique violet ringed optics. "It's not an 'unreasonable' or 'unprecedented' assumption to believe that a 'Con defector had alterior motives. Or that her beloved Skyquake should follow her!"

Optimus felt his optic ridges curve down into a scowl. Arcee had allowed herself to become just as blind in hatred for the other faction as Terabyte had. How could he ever bring this accursed war to an end if both factions were so drowned in hatred from the evils of the past?

"Tell me something, Arcee. And answer me honestly." The Prime began, his tone deadly serious. He really didn't want to pull this particular trump card on the femme. But she wasn't leaving him any other choice. "Were Tailgate to have betrayed us and joined the Decepticons... can you honestly say that you would not have considered following him?"

Arcee's armor fell slack, her mouth falling open slightly, as if she couldn't believe he would have asked such a thing. After half a klick of standing like that, completely slack-jaw stunned, her whole frame stiffened, armor flaring and hands twitching like they wanted to transform into blasters and shoot a hole through his spark.

"How dare you suggest that he would ever betray us?! Tailgate would never join them! Never!" The femme shouted, dropping into an offensive stance. He doubted that she was aware that she had, or that her blasters were now charged and locked on his spark.

Automatically, Optimus raised a hand to calm her. His tone softened, his face-plates sliding into a calm, plactating expression. His spark and Matrix hummed softly in unison, too softly to be noticed by most, just like it always did in tense situations.

In spite of her instant aggression, the much larger scarlet and blue mech could tell that Arcee had in fact considered his query. And reacted the way she did to try and hide the conclusion she had come to.

Optimus never said a word. He just watched her with gentle cobalt optics, waiting for her to realize that her laser-blasters were locked on him. A klick passed in silence, all the other Autobots simply watching them, waiting to see how the situation would end up.

Arcee's blasters transformed back into hands, her lips pressed together as she straightened slowly. Her frame relaxed, her shoulders hunched slightly in defeat. "You're right. Cliff can take care of himself. And I know you wouldn't question Tailgate's loyalty. I'm sorry."

"A rescue operation for our three captured mechs will be mounted as soon as possible. Until then... They are strong. They will endure."

Having to make such decisions were never easy. He felt like he was failing his people when he couldn't rescue them before they were captured. But whatever this signal was would be powerful: the Ancients didn't mess around when it came to weaponry.

The Prime looked into each of his warrior's optics. They were strong. They may not know it, they may not always believe it, and they may not always act like it... But they were strong. And that strength was why they were all still here.

"Autobots... roll out."