And it's that time of the week for an new chapter to arrive! I'd like to say a big thanks to my readers, we made it to 1500 views for the story this week!
So enjoy the next chapter guys!
Chapter 12
Laughter.
She could hear laughter.
Was it hers?
No. She was sure of that.
But where was it coming from? Everything was dark. Nothing made any sense. Was she dreaming again? And why was there laughter filling her audio receptors?
After a while of seeming to wander the darkness, she noticed that the laughter was actually friendly, there was no malice behind it. It sounded genuine like the person or persons were enjoying themselves, just having a good time. Could it be a memory?
Finally something came into focus. Sitting around in a loose circle were six femmes; one was blue, one green, another silver and blue, another a light green, one red and the last pink. They were chatting and laughing, simply enjoying themselves under the shade of some large trees. The atmosphere around them was kind and welcoming.
Violetwind wished to go over and join them but as hard as she tried she could not move. Instead she attempted to call to them but not a word left of her mouth. With pedes glued in place and vocalisers not working she was left to watch from the sidelines.
Soon, however, the vision started to fade replaced with another scene entirely. This one much harsher. A battle was taking place in a strange metallic world. One side was fighting desperately to keep the other from destroying a large yellow spacecraft. Looking out over the fighting she realised that it was the Autobots and they were defending the space vessel from the Decepticons. Her chest constricted with the emotional pain of seeing Autobots and Decepticons alike, cut down in the war The loss of life from both sides was devastating.
This too faded to darkness, replaced with a pain over her entire body. It felt like all her limbs had been broken, all screaming out in pain at once. It felt like she was leaking from several places. It felt like... she was dying...
Then suddenly the nightmare broke off, returning her to the real world. With optics bursting to life, she awoke with a start, rapidly venting air through her intakes.
The purple femme was lying on a cold metal floor with her wrists cuffed together. It took her a moment to remember what was real and what was not. To remember that she had only been dreaming about the other femmes and the war and the pain. Right then she glanced around the dark room which surrounded her. Slowly she pushed herself off the ground into a sitting position, her joints feeling stiff from the hard floor and disuse. With a roll of her shoulders and a stretch of her door wings she rid herself of some of the stiffness.
"Smokescreen," she muttered softly, recalling how she had been with him when Laserbeak, Soundwave's pet, had attacked. Its master had come along not long after and must have knocked her out after their brief skirmish.
Sighing, she raised herself the rest of the way to her pedes, now knowing where she was; only that she must have been aboard the Nemesis. The Decepticons had captured her a second time, along with Smokescreen. Violetwind could feel panic rising up in her. He had been captured but was not in her cell. She was alone without knowing if he was alright. Or even why they had taken him in the first place assuming he was the intended target.
Hissing with displeasure, she remembered their fight before the attack. Oh how she wished she could take it back. She regretted yelling at him now, regretted having left him alone. If she had been there, they might have had a better chance at fighting off Soundwave and Laserbeak, maybe even not have found themselves in this mess.
Banging her helm against the wall, she took solace in the repeated sound. The clang of metal against metal. Denting her helm was the least of her worries. It could not be worse than what the Decepticons had in mind for her.
Eventually she tired of the banging, just resting the front of her helm against the wall. The scattered emotions and thoughts in her mind slowly began to settle, bringing to remembrance another thing that had happened the night before.
"So my mysterious voice, think you might start explaining some things? Like what's going on?" she muttered, turning around to lean against the wall before lowering herself into a sitting position. "You've been keeping secrets. And I want to know about them."
Well, I'm afraid you're not getting any answers from me, it replied firmly.
The femme had not been prepared for that kind of response and it took a few moments for her to come up with what to say next. When she did she grumbled lightly, "You can't be like that! Whatever this is, it isn't normal. What are you, why are you here?"
I'm here because I have to be. You need me, I need you. That's all you need to know.
"But..." she whined, "But that doesn't help me... I mean... what about those nightmares? "
The voice made a soft noise like a sad sigh. I'm sorry... I am so sorry...
Quiet tears trickled down her face. No more conversation occurred between Violetwind and her voice. Without the voice saying any more there was no point in continuing. She had no will to fight it out either. Everything had gone downhill and she did not have the strength to resist.
...
For hours the purple femme sat there lost in a jumble of thoughts, memories and regrets; the voice leaving her alone in these things. It had nothing else to say and little comfort to give.
"Hey, Vi, you in here?" someone called, a head poking out of the wall.
Seeing it, Violetwind jumped in surprise, letting out a scream. "Ahhhh!" she fell over, her cuffed hands not able to help keep her upright as they tried to fly in different directions.
"Violetwind!" Smokescreen emerged from the wall, rushing over to her. "It's only me, you silly thing," he chuckled.
She took a few deep intakes of air, calming her beating spark. "You're- you're here?"
The mech grinned, turning off the phase shifter at his wrist. "You bet. You really need to stop getting into these situations. I can't keep rescuing you, you know." Using his blaster, he broke off her hand cuffs with a single shot.
Getting to her pedes, she smiled and rolled optics. Though shortly afterward, her smile faded and she looked down at the floor, "Hey, thanks for coming to find me, even after, ya know, what I said..."
"It's ok. I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have been so harsh when you were only trying to help me," Smokescreen admitted. He held out a hand, "Friends?"
The femme smiled, taking his hand in a handshake, affirming with a nod. "Friends."
"Good, cause we gotta get outta here. I don't think Meg's too happy with me."
Turning the phaseshifter back on he took her by the hand and they started making their way about the Nemesis, through its walls.
"What happened? What did you do?" she asked as they peaked out of a wall checking for Decepticons.
"Ah, not much," he chuckled, "Just gave Knock Out the slip and stole back the Omega Keys." He pointed at the two relics that he had attached to his back between his door wings.
"You got the Omega Keys! This is just great! Way to go, Smokescreen! I bet Megatron was mad about that," she replied excitedly. The situation, surprisingly, had an upside.
"Oh he was, I'm surprised you couldn't hear his roar from here," teased the mech.
Smirking in response she next asked, "So how'd you escape from Knock Out?"
"A bit of acting, bit of help from the phase shifter and I was out of my restraints," he bragged, "Only took a short struggle with Knock Out to get it off him and leave him in the wall."
"In a wall?" she did not believe her audio receptors.
"Ha ha yep, he was phasing through a wall when I removed it from him leaving him in a very awkward position," he snickered, picturing the vain red mech as he had left him.
The femme giggled. "I would have loved to have seen that." Turning back the conversation to more pressing things she questioned, "So how're we getting outta here? Ground bridging?"
"Nope, 'Cons have upgraded their console security and I'm not good enough to get in," the mech grimaced, "I've already checked. We'll need to find another way off."
Phasing through another wall the pair found themselves on top of the warship. The wind blew against their armour, enhancing the already dizzying experience of being up in the clouds.
"Um, Smoke, this doesn't look like the way off..." Violetwind glanced over at the edge uncomfortably.
A gravelly voice came from behind them, "Leaving so soon? We did not even begin to show you our hospitality." His 'cordial' tone become rough, "Return the keys or suffer a short trip to a long death."
"What are we going to do now?" Violetwind whispered desperately, looking to her companion for answers.
"Looks like our only way out is down..." the young mech glanced over the side of the ship.
Immediately she protested, "Are you kidding? We'll never survive the fall!"
Megatron chuckled with twisted pleasure, "A pity you are incapable of flight."
The femme glanced over at him, before looking back to Smokescreen hoping he would come up with something else. What she got though was not what she had expected... or wanted.
"Yeah, like I'm gonna let that stop me," grabbing Violetwind's hand, he jumped over the edge.
"Smokescreen!" she shrieked in alarm as they fell through the sky, "What are you doing?!"
"Hoping the others can play catch," he replied to her before calling into his comm. "Smokescreen to base, we could really use a ground bridge."
Back up on the Nemesis Megatron yelled at his soldiers, "Retrieve them! Quickly!"
Two of the vehicons next to him earned his wrath, none of the troopers making a move fast enough for the Decepticon leader, who leader promptly tossed them off the side of the ship. One fell for a short while before transforming into a jet, flying after the Autobots. The other was not so fortunate, this one transformed but his alternate mode was a car and unlike his companion, he continued to fall, letting out a scream as he went.
Megatron groaned at the incompetence of his soldiers. "Fliers!" he yelled, "Find me fliers!"
Vehicons with jet modes not wishing to earn their master's wrath quickly lept off the warship after the escapees. Jetting after them, they did their best to catch up, giving the Autobots short lead.
Violetwind glanced back to see troopers coming after them. Wanting to hurry them up she commed back to base. "Hey, any time now would be great!"
The first vehicon caught up to the pair and started firing, one of the shots skimming the femme's arm causing her to unexpectedly let go of her companion's hand. Winced in pain, she held the limb close to her chest but was more worried about falling away from Smokescreen, than the slight damage.
Thinking the same thing, the mech angled himself to fall closer to her. "Don't go flying off, we need to stick together for when Ratchet gets the ground bridge up."
Hmming and nodding her agreement, she reached out for him as he got closer, with her good arm. Stretching out for one another's grasp they were almost there as Ratchet commed, ::Smokescreen, Violetwind, I'm opening up a ground bridge directly below you.::
Just as the mech had said, the familiar vortex opened up underneath the pair. It was poised perfectly ready to rescue them from the fall.
Unfortunately, a very furious mech would not allow them to escape. Megatron had come after them himself and crashed between them. Taking the brunt of the impact, Smokescreen was sent spinning in another direction, out of the line of the ground bridge. Violetwind, meanwhile, was only sent tumbling but was till headed towards the vortex.
"Smoke!"
He looked back over at her, his optics wide. "Vi!"
Before they could do anything she had shot through the ground bridge and right out into the Autobot base. With a loud clutter she tumbled onto the floor, rolling over an over with her limbs in a jumble. Slowly she came to a stop and as her head stopped spinning she let out a groan. Opening her optics to look about she wondered just when she had closed them, though it must have been somewhere amongst the dizzying tumble.
Optimus and Bumblebee quickly arrived at her side, the voiceless scout beeping in concern, 'Are you alright?'
The femme nodded as they helped her to her pedes, holding onto her as her equilibrium senses aligned themselves once again.
Before she could say anything though, she heard Arcee cry out in disbelief, "You missed?!"
"Open another one! Fast!" Bulkhead yelled at the medic.
Unfortunately it was too late, Smokescreen's life signal they had been tracking on the screens, vanished at the ground. He would undoubtedly have made impact with it.
Ratchet closed his optics in despair. "No..."
Everyone was silent, Violetwind letting out a heavy vent of air. Smokescreen, gone? She had only just seen him, been right there with him. It couldn't be happening again, could it? The young mech dead...
Suddenly the communications clicked back on, out coming the mech's voice in a whisper, ::Hey, Ratchet, I could still really use that ground bridge.::
The stillness back at base was broken as the bots gave a collective cheer. Ratchet grinned and promptly opened the bridge at his request. The rookie was always surprising them each time he managed to escape a dangerous situation with his life.
The purple femme relaxed and let out a sigh of relief, feeling as the rest of the Autobots did; glad to have not lost the rookie.
Within moments Smokescreen was walking into the base proudly. Removing the Omega Keys from where he had stashed them on his back, he waved them in front of the Autobots looking very smug. "Told ya I'd get them."
Stepping forward, he presented the two keys to Optimus, the leader taking them gratefully.
"Destiny," he declared with a wide grin.
Going over to him, Violetwind hit him over the back of the helm, "Please, just don't bring me with you next time 'destiny' comes calling and the 'Cons are involved."
Rubbing his helm, he grinned back at her, "Those 'Con's aren't nothing to worry about."
Arcee glared at him with her arms folded, not saying a word, before moving her hands to her hips. Suddenly her expression changed, and she smiled at the rookie, even complimenting him, "Nice work, kid."
"So where were you on the ship?" the purple femme was curious as to the reason behind their separation.
"Well, the 'Cons must have figured out that I was carrying the key," he tapped his chest proudly, "which Alpha trion knew I'd keep safe. At first I thought they were going to cut it out of me but then Knock out used my phase shifter instead. Megatron then went and used that patch to get inside my head." He was visibly disgusted, "You guys are right. Having that guy in your head, is not fun."
Remembering her own experience, Violetwind shook her head. "It's not..."
"Sounds like the 'Con's are starting quite a trend for their prisoners using that cortical psychic patch," commented Arcee with a wry grin.
Counting on his fingers, Bumblebee brought the conversation back to the Omega Keys, 'There's your key and Megatron's key; but that's only two.'
Shrugging his shoulders, the white mech admitted, "It was the only one in Megatron's Vault. I didn't see any more."
Optimus held up the two keys, "Then three keys are accounted for."
"And the fourth is still somewhere on the 'Con's warship," Bulkhead surmised.
"Unless Megatron never had it to begin with?" Arcee suggested otherwise. "It could be why Smoke didn't see it."
Letting the others discuss theories regarding the Omega Keys, Violetwind made her way over to their medic. "Um, Ratchet? I need to talk to you. Privately."
He looked at her, noting her seriousness. "Yes, of course," he nodded, directing her away from the group enough so they would not be over heard. Once out of range he waited for her to speak.
"Um, Ratchet? About my memory block and that voice... I need to know more about it. I've-" she was cut off by the main computers beeping as they received an incoming message. Glancing over at it the femme put on a smile, "It can wait I guess..."
"Are you sure?" he asked, receiving a nod in reply. The mech hmmmed quietly to himself, concerned about her query as he walked over to see about the message.
Reading it, his optics widened in surprise. "A high frequency signal, with an embedded message."
Bulkhead immediately recognised such a message format, having received one like it before. "Starscream..."
And more cliffhangers! But this one's probs not as bad as last time :P