Chapter 11: Singing Siren
With the help of Captain Silos, Bumblebee managed to get to Earth quickly but didn't acknowledge any bots presence. He asked Optimus for the coordinates to the new Nest earlier and now scoured through the African jungle for it.
By the time he reached a clearing near the location of the Nest, his grill was filled with bugs, tree leaves, and something orange and sticky. Not minding it for the moment, the warrior continued on until he spotted a group of Flying Spiders resting on the floor while new offspring roamed close by, exploring their new surroundings.
Taking the hint, the mech found the entrance almost immediately after. The Metal Heads froze at the sight of him but did nothing to prevent him from moving inside, towards their leader. Some had their ears facing opposite directions meaning they were unsure of what to do about their new "guest". Others wagged their tail happily, for they considered him their savior for rescuing Tigressa, though Silos was the one who fixed her.
As he maneuvered through the Nest, he soon saw the Metal Heads staring at the ceiling, listening to something. He paused to see if he could hear whatever they were receiving and felt his heart drop.
"May it be an evening star?
Shines down upon you;
May it be when darkness falls?
Your heart will be true;
You walk a lonely road,
Oh! How far you are from home;"
Astonished, he knew it was Tigressa and that she was singing. Slowly, Bumblebee made his way to the stairway that leads to the upper levels of the Nest. As he followed the song's trail, he absorbed every word.
"Mornie utulie (Darkness has come),
Believe and you will find your way;
Mornie alantie (Darkness has fallen),
A promise lives within you now;"
He passed the main egg chambers still dazed and worked his way to the room where the song seemed to discharge the loudest. Pressing the control pad, the door slid open and the gold lay soundlessly among the echoes coming from another room attached to it.
"May it be the shadow's call?
Will fly away;
May it be you journey on?
To light the day;
When the night is overcome,
You may rise to find the sun;"
As he went under the archway that connected the two rooms, he silently gasped at the back of a throne in his view. Only her tail was visible along with the tips of her wings, but it was obviously Tigressa, observing the fading sunlight from her outlook of the jungle below. The song was as soothing and as voluble as ever now, almost like a lullaby.
"Mornie utulie (Darkness has come),
Believe and you will find your way;
Mornie alantie (Darkness has fallen),
A promise lives within you now;
A promise lives within you now."
The song ended but he could hear Tigressa breathing unsteadily, paranoid even. Either she heard him and was panicking, or the melody took the breath right out of her. "Why did you come here?" She instantly hissed. The former conclusion was true after all.
Bumblebee swallowed hard before gradually making his way to her side. She didn't look him in the optics but her face relaxed over the course of a minute of silence. "I…I want to tell you that you are a great mother, and a good singer too."
The word "mother" made her recoil with one of her ears turning to face the side. Retracting her fingers to clenched fists, she answered, "What…um…makes you think I'm a good mother? I only keep the M…Metal Heads in line. I don't see how I am a mother."
"You are because you're their mother; you're…my mother! The others consider you a part of our family, and you stuck by me all these years without me even knowing. You are more of a mother than you believe yourself to be. I have faith in you."
Frantically, the tiger-dragon's eyes couldn't keep still before she finally turned to face him. "I've never had anybody say anything like that to me before. I don't know what to say. Then again, everybody only witnessed the dark side of me. Heh, I suppose I forcefully drove them away."
"Yes, but we can see past that. We've been around you long enough to see your true self. You hid it from the world because you dreaded the events from 'before'. Artemis may not be her, but she loved you like a child loves her mother, her best friend, and I am willing to as well, but only if you let me," Bumblebee whispered as he put his hand onto hers.
Her yellow-red eyes gazed at his movement and in response, she willingly turned her hand to the side and opened it to let the warrior hold hers.
"Besides," Bumblebee started, "you deserve someone out there. I mean who's going to take care of you when you become an Elder?"
Tigressa slowly turned to him while raising a brow. "Boy, when I get to the point where I'm older than dirt, I'll still be able to kick your ass! I can also survive without a mate, thanks for bring that up."
The mech leaned against the metal chair, smirking, "Oh, we'll see about that, Mommy-dearest."
Silos grew impatient as Rodimus and Wasp planned their next training course. It was standard to practice and hone your skills for battle in case one becomes inevitable. But it bugged him that the two used the sparring room as their own personal "jungle gym". What's worse? He's stuck "babysitting" them.
He growled as they "accidently" broke two of the support bars on the ceiling barracks. Apparently, they were climbing up there and Wasp jumped on one of the beams that were weak. It broke and shattered another on its way down.
The Metal Head's eye twitched at the damage. He wasn't paying or replacing anything nor was he going to go down taking the idiot muscle car's spot in the blame game.
"You two hepachis! You're going to fix that and you aren't leaving until you do!"
Rodimus scoffed, "Or else what?"
Whipping his tail from side to side, he charged and smacked the red and orange-flamed mech into the nearest wall with all his might.
Wasp stared at where Rodimus was and saw his body partially through the shape of the Prime embedded in the wall. He hit face first in a spread eagle fashion but he wasn't moving. Quickly, the green mech ran to his side and pulled him from the hole only to see the other mech sloppily trying to stand up. The wind was knocked out of him and there was no denying he was going to pass out.
"What the fuck did you do that for!?" Wasp angrily yelled as he tried to keep his friend conscious.
"Well, that's what happens when you question my authority," he snarled.
Suddenly, his comm. link on his wrist armor lit up and he turned away from the stumbling duo to answer it. ::Captain Silos here::
::Silos, I've talked with Tigressa and she's accepted me as her son slash friend!::
It was Bumblebee. The Captain gave an inaudible rumble and closed his eyes painfully. Disguising it with a fake tone, Silos replied. ::That's great, Warrior. You don't suppose you can bring her back to Cybertron, would you?::
::Well, she sort of wants to stay on Earth for a few months before going back to Cybertron so Optimus has decided to return here to keep an optic out for any more suspicious characters that Acheron may have made loyal to him::
::I see. I'll come meet her then as soon as possible::
::See you on the other side::
The comm. link ended but Silos still kept the screen on his wrist active with Rozarian and Kanjian symbols running across it. He just stared through the window in front of him with Cybertron's sunrise visible in the corner. Something made him unsettled but he didn't know what it was truly. It bugged him ever since the day before when he spoke to Bumblebee about Tigressa.
His conversation may have triggered a remote emotion he was not used to. Jealousy, perhaps? No, it could not have been that. Why would he be covetous about Bumblebee wanting, and now having, a position as Tigressa's adoptive son? It made no sense and he didn't want this rumor to be actually correct.
"You've got the words to change a nation
But you're biting your tongue;
You've spent a life time stuck in silence
Afraid you'll say something wrong;
If no one ever hears it how we gonna learn your song?
So come on, come on,
Come on, come on;
You've got a heart as loud as lions
So why let your voice be tamed?
Maybe we're a little different
There's no need to be ashamed;
You've got the light to fight the shadows
So stop hiding it away;
Come on, come on;"
Bumblebee sat sleepily in the comfort of her coiled tail, laying cozily on it like a dog in its bed. The lullaby wasn't truly that but it did give him something to think about. How she learned to sing these songs he didn't know, but they shook him to the core.
"I wanna sing, I wanna shout,
I wanna scream 'til the words dry out;
So put it in all of the papers,
I'm not afraid
They can read all about it
Read all about it, oh
Oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh"
Curled up in groups, Metal Heads rested among them, listening to her song. Some couldn't fit through the archway to the throne so they lay peacefully in the other room. If memory served correctly, Tigressa had never allowed the creatures to recharge in her chambers before, nor did she ever sing to them. Some of the monsters had taken over her berth that resided in a usually close door near her throne room, but she didn't seem to care.
"At night we're waking up the neighbors
While we sing away the blues;
Making sure that we're remembered, yeah
Cause we all matter too;
If the truth has been forbidden
Then we're breaking all the rules;
So come on, come on,
Come on, come on;
Let's get the TV and the radio
To play our tune again;
It's 'bout time we got some airplay of our version of events;
There's no need to be afraid
I will sing with you my friend;
Come on, come on;
I wanna sing, I wanna shout,
I wanna scream 'til the words dry out;
So put it in all of the papers,
I'm not afraid
They can read all about it
Read all about it, oh
Oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh"
Bumblebee felt the warmth of her bodily armor take over his own. He glanced up once in a while curiously to see if Tigressa was watching him. She wasn't entirely, but she did check up on him every few verses wondering if he fell asleep yet. Finally, she bent over the arm of her chair and nuzzled his cheek like a mother animal does with her offspring.
"Yeah, we're all wonderful, wonderful people;
So when did we all get so fearful?
Now we're finally finding our voices;
So take a chance, come help me sing this;
Yeah, we're all wonderful, wonderful people;
So when did we all get so fearful?
And now we're finally finding our voices;
Just take a chance, come help me sing this;
I wanna sing, I wanna shout,
I wanna scream 'til the words dry out;
So put it in all of the papers,
I'm not afraid
They can read all about it
Read all about it, oh
Oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh"
He could hear Tigressa purring against him and felt shocked when she actually climbed off her throne and curved around him protectively. Without hesitating, he got off of her tail and cuddled close to her chassis. Now a large tiger-dragon with a small Cybertronian cub were together with Tigressa posed around him like a cat with him nestled near her chest with her arms cradled over him. She continued to sing the last chorus.
"I wanna sing, I wanna shout,
I wanna scream 'til the words dry out;
So put it in all of the papers,
I'm not afraid
They can read all about it
Read all about it, oh-oohhh"
Smiling, the warrior drifted into recharge with his new mother following behind while cancelling out the snores from the Metal Heads surrounding them.
AN: For the term, "Siren", it refers to the mythical singing water nymphs that used to lure sailors to their deaths by singing. She doesn't do that but she can sing and has killed people in the past. The word, "hepachis", as you can guess, means idiots or morons.
The songs are "May it Be" by Enya and "Read All About it" by Emeli Sandé.
Just in case you forgot, I do not own anybody except Tigressa, Silos, and a good chunk of the Metal Heads.