The femme imprisoned in cell no. 576 sighed, pacing around after a short recharge. As a Seeker she was used to the freedom of the skies and now she couldn't even see the outside world. She'd end up going crazy, if she didn't find a way out, though it could be worse. At least she had her little Autobot to toy with which was better than nothing. She needed him to escape, she needed his help but admitting it was out of the question.

She eventually stopped pacing and sat on her berth.

It didn't take long for her to hear the incoming footsteps.

The familiar frame of the Autobot officer appeared on the other side of the bars. Outride's bright, blue bio-lights shone happily in the dim light and his yellow-green armor looked like freshly waxed. One could think he got ready for some official meeting, not for routine guard duty. And yet he was down here, holding a small metal plate with an energon cube on it.

"Good morning," he greeted the prisoner politely but without a smile or anything that might be read as a sign of affection. "I brought you some energon."

"Morning."

She smiled getting up and walking over to the bars, her wings fluttered lightly in greeting.

He had to do his best not to stare at her for too long. He still remembered what she had called him just an orn ago. Making her distrustful, creeping her out or scaring her was definitely not what he wanted. Slowly he knelt down and put the tray with her food on the cell's floor. Then he pushed it in her direction, it went between the electro-bars without touching them.

"Refuel yourself, you will need to be in a good condition," he started as he shot her a quick glance, from his current position he had a pretty nice view on her long, white legs. "If the story you told me yesterday was true and you're just a medic on a rescue mission, we will move you to the one of our work camps so you can make better use of your skills than saving Cons. Or did you perhaps lie to me about the S.O.S signal?"

His eyes narrowed slightly, this time he was looking up at her face trying to catch a glimpse of untruthfulness written on it.

She sighed displaying her inbuilt scanner and showed him a dying signal.

"He's hardly still alive," She explained flatly folding the scanner away. "And I signed on to the war to save lives, not to be a slave. So just snuff me now. At least I'd die with dignity." Pure venom was heard in her voice while she gave him a cold glare.

"Why so dramatic?" The mech smirked at her. He tried to hide how displeased he really was by her sudden change of attitude. "A medic is better alive than dead. And as for your injured Decepticon friend... I will make sure our troops will look for him. I don't know, if he will make it to here in once piece. I hope you're not too sentimental."

"Why so snarky?" She huffed in response. "Besides, I'd be repairing the enemy, wouldn't I? What good does that do me, if they're going to slaughter other Cons? You Autobots are no better than us really, you commit genocide against us on a daily basis, destroy our bases, our homes rather. And still you belittle us as scum, at least Decepticons end your suffering once and for all!"

Her words made him go grim, it could be easily seen in his blue optics. But maybe it wasn't about what she just said but about the fact she had dared to voice her opinion?

"If I were you, I'd mind my tongue – you're flapping it a bit too carefree, some of the guards might get upset."

"Upset? I thought Autobots enjoyed the truth," she mocked.

At this point she felt like she had nothing to lose so watching her tongue was the last thing on her mind.

"Or maybe Autobots can't handle the truth?" She snorted with amusement.

This was not what Outride had hoped for, the femme in the cell didn't respect him. She apparently thought it was all just a joke, he had to prove how wrong she was and teach her where a prisoner's place was.

"Guards!" He called out and the two mechs appeared within a few astroseconds. Both of them heavy-armored and with their blasters ready.

"What's the problem, sir?" One of them asked as he saw that the Con was still where she should be – locked in her cell and unarmed.

"This prisoner is not appreciating our good intentions to feed her energon. Perhaps we treated her to kind by removing her gag and cuffs," he looked in her direction making sure she could guess what was coming.

"Like I said, no better than a Con. But if that's what you wish..."

She grinned waking over and holding her servos out.

"Go ahead, you're only proving my point. And all I had to do was say something you didn't like."

Outride didn't bother to answer her, at least not in front of the other soldiers, he only nodded his helm and the guards knew what to do at once. They pointed their guns at her.

"Enough of your talking," he ordered coldly. "Hands on the wall, so we can see them!"

He was going to enter the cell and cuff her himself – if he wanted it done right, that was the only choice. The Con wouldn't have it her way, oh no! Some 'silent time' would teach her.

"Darling, you can see them right now." She chuckled. "But ooookay." She put her hands on the wall. "Happy, hot stuff?" She asked sarcastically, she clearly didn't give a frag.

"More respect towards an officer, Con-scum!" One of the guards snapped at her while the other opened the cell and Outride walked in.

Small handcuffs were clicking in his hand as he played with them nervously. He moved closer to the femme, approaching her from behind.

One of his hands reached to grab her right servo.

"You get what you give," she purred.

She didn't resist and looked at him for a second before looking at the wall and mumbling something in seeker. They'd already taken what she valued most: Her freedom. Why would she care about cuffs?

The mech cuffed her hands behind her back, not too roughly but also not particularly trying to be gentle. He also didn't miss his chance to actually put his hand on her right wing. And even if it was only for a mere astrosecond, the smooth and cold surface felt so right, almost slick and fragile under his hasty fingers. He couldn't let himself enjoy this for longer though so he quickly moved his other hand to her face, pushing the gag into her mouth.

She growled softly, her wing smacking him for copping a feel. She wanted to shove him away but not with the other two mechs around. Her patience was running short with each passing moment.

From the way her frame reacted, he knew she didn't like that treatment. He, however liked being in control. He slightly bent down to strap the gag on the back on her head so she wouldn't be able to spit it out. As he did that, he managed to whisper into her audio-receptor: "Have patience."

Then he let her go, not wanting her to do anything stupid. The guards were waiting for the smallest wrong move from her to open a fire and Outride really didn't want her to get hurt.

She ignored him completely moving away from him and sitting on her berth before laying down, she couldn't really do anything but that. She shifted bringing her legs through her arms so the cuffs were on the front.

The Autobot left her cell and reset the electro-bars behind him. There was no reason for him to be there anymore, even if the femme wasn't furious with him about all the troubles he just put her through, she still wasn't able to talk anyway. She'd better stay alone for now, he decided. Giving her some time in that not-so-comfortable position, cuffed and gagged and without her energon ration, should probably make her more obedient and not so impertinent. Not like he didn't like femmes with some temper but at the same time he couldn't allow his authority being undermined.

"Watch out for her," he ordered the guards loud enough for NorthStar to hear him. "No removing the restrains until I, or some other officer, gives the direct order to. I will try to check on her in few joors or maybe next orn. Till then, let her rot in her cell."

With that said he left, carefully planning what to do next. He certainly was going to report today's events to the Master Tactician. Of course he'd tell his boss that the femme was provocative and her poisonous words could decrease the other soldiers' morale. He had two witnesses to prove his words. If everything went according to his plan, the commanding officer would not allow any low ranked front-liners to interact with such a manipulative and dangerous femme anymore. Soon, only he would be allowed to talk to her.

Outride liked that plan and he hoped she would understand why that little drama with cuffing her had been necessary. No one could suspect anything since even simply thinking about a Decepticon that way was wrong for an Autobot soldier. Outride was better safe than sorry. And next time he could always make it up to his winged beauty for treating her bad.

Meanwhile inside her cell NorthStar growled softly, she couldn't figure out why he couldn't handle a few smart remarks. She wouldn't let him win, oh no, not at all. He'd issued a challenge and she wasn't giving up. She looked at her cuffs extending her claws and slicing off the gag, tossing it to the side before turning her back to the two guards and slipping into recharge.

The rest of this orn was looking rather promising for Outride. The reporting went well, he managed to convince his commanding officer to not allow the low ranked soldiers talking to or teasing the imprisoned Con. He even got the permission to go to the city tonight to calm down a bit after the troubles the prisoner had given him earlier. Anybot who knew a bit about Outride's past would probably assume that he held a grudge toward the Seekers but to be honest that wasn't the case. He didn't want to enlighten them however, his private things were not for them to know.

"Hey buddy! You got a furlough?" His Autobot colleague from the communication department waved at him as soon as Outride entered his favorite pub in the downtown alley. "I've heard you got some info from that slagging Con we had captured. Our team is checking on whatever files we can find about her but it seems that she was telling the truth."

Outride sat down at the table with the other mech. It looked like his friend had been here for quite some time already, judging from the empty high-grade cubes lying around. But that was fine, he didn't mind having a drink or two either.

The night was passing by fast and the more cubes he had, the more often he thought about NorthStar. She must have been lonely in her dark, narrow cell. Was she missing him? He hoped she did. Maybe he should get her a high-grade as well and switch it for the normal energon ration they gave every prisoner. That should cheer her up, right?

"May I ask you something?" He turned to his companion who was currently staring at some cheap dance performance transmitted on the main screen in the bar. "Can you let me into the surveillance room? You have a key card for it, right?"

"Sure thing," the other replied audibly intoxicated, "but what for? The guys in there will have an eye on that Con, if that is what bothers you. You worry too much. Chill out, have a cube on me!"

They had a cube indeed and after that it was even easier to convince the mech to actually visit those guys stuck for the night at the boring surveillance room.

And when they got there, and Outride thought he was finally going to see the femme who had occupied his mind for all that time, she actually wasn't in her cell.

"Where's the prisoner?"

"That Seeker? They dragged her off for interrogation," the mech working at the monitor explained. "The interrogator from the Delta base arrived just a few joors ago. They surely gonna ask her about that distress signal she received."

Outride's optics widened, he didn't like the sound of it at all.