She didn't look at Thundercracker or Starscream, just barreled ahead as if walking through specters of memories. Alexis was so tiny, tinier than usual. Her body was thin, her face was wan, her hair longer with some pulled back in a knotted fashion he was unaccustomed to that enhanced the soft lines of her face.
His optics drifting as she passed between the two, TC noticed the small plant she was carrying and then the silver band that rested on her arm, a symbol of her tie to a dead man. A sign that her attachment to the Vildan had not ended in death. Aching, he felt a compulsion of anger and hurt that compressed his spark and made his Energon acidulate.
Starscream was right. He was far from over Alexis. But he didn't need his wingmate's words to understand that he knew that all along. The weak denial he had aimed for, however beneficial he may have thought it would be for him, was unnecessary and useless.
Her familiar scent lingered from where she had walked through, inundating his circuits and making his spark waken further, pulsating under his chamber in acknowledgment of the female's nearness.
"Glad you came now?" Starscream's supercilious tone crashed through their bond and forced TC to turn and face his trinemate. The Supreme Air Commander was smiling wide, wide enough that Thundercracker felt the watching Autobots tense and tighten, their systems involuntary heating for confrontation with the Decepticons.
As if things weren't precarious enough between the group.
But circumstances involving The Line had forced the Decepticons to turn to the Autobots. The terrorist group had returned with a vengeance. Their acts spreading and the numbers of their victims, both Decepticons and Autobots, growing in an alarming enough rate that Optimus Prime and Megatron had reached one of the rare instances of joint participation toward a shared goal.
The elimination of The Line.
The job passed off to Megatron's second-in-command, Starscream didn't even bother telling his trinemates of his new duty, nor that they would be working with the Autobots until shortly before the first meeting took place.
Thundercracker found out what his wingmate was up to several days ago when he found Starscream going through his compiled data that involved the radical group.
"Why do you think I was on Zthzz all those months ago?" Starscream sneered, not even bothering hiding that he had gone through TC's terminal.
"The humans..."
Starscream frowned, turned around and sat down on TC's worktable. His sharp optics washed along Thundercracker's frame with a show of suspicion. He spoke with aggravation, "In part. Turned out a dead-end though. Had my mechs watch the humans, but The Line never contacted them."
Moving some delicate equipment out of the way of Starscream, he lifted an optic ridge, "That doesn't explain why you were there yourself, usually..."
Starscream cut him off, and TC felt a flush of thick chagrin coat his wingmate's emotions.
"Megatron wants my personal involvement. You know what that means." The Seeker said, momentarily deflated by the admission, a grudge toward his master apparent that spoke of things far from forgotten about.
"I do."
Starscream huffed at that. His attention shifted back toward Thundercracker with severe appraisal. "Well, since you were unable to find these anomalies, I can assume that..."
"I didn't fail to locate them. They disappeared."
Screamer's optics dimmed. "Never stopped you before."
"Do you want to be shot?"
TC didn't even realize until that very moment that he had repeatedly walked the corridors of the Autobot's ship over the course of the last couple of days, always, without even thinking about it, returning to the hallway outside her quarters.
She rarely left the room. He saw the Amanda one visiting. And the other female, the new companion she had brought with her from Renth exiting or entering the chambers. But even that female ignored him. Or so he thought. But she had obviously informed someone because Sunstreaker was waiting for him, leaning against the wall so close to where Alexis resided.
Optics unintentionally flickering to her door, his attention returned to the Autobot.
"This area is nowhere near your own provided quarters, nor the planning room. So," Sunstreaker moved away from the wall, shifted his head to the side and scanned him fully. "I ask you again: Do you want to be shot?"
"You are reaching false conclusions."
"You wanting to be shot? Or why you have been repeatedly spotted in this area?"
"Optimus said to allow us full access to your ship," TC spoke firmly in a voice that warned of pressing things any further.
Sunstreaker smiled, chuckled loudly and ignored the obvious threat. If anything, TC's tone only spurred him on. He dangerously stepped into the Seeker's space, his words low and amused and surprisingly bitter. "Not to her quarters. What exactly did you make her do to you under the guise of slave and master that makes you continually pursue the female? Did she pleasure you? Did she touch you? Did she tremble and shake when you forced her to? Did she fight you?" the Autobot questioned with ferocity, his vocals thick and robust.
"Shall I have TC give you a detailed report or would you accept his holo-recordings?" Starscream appeared from the corner where he had observed the exchange, his smirk fully realized, his stance one of a fight waiting to happen. "Slag, Autobot, a little overprotective of one of the humans that rejected you, aren't you?"
Spluttering, taken aback, the Autobot responded far too quickly, "She is under my protection, just like the rest of the humans that are still onboard."
"A good excuse as any," Starscream replied, everyone present knowing far well that the Autobot barely tolerated the creatures. "My sources did inform me that you managed to draw powerful emotions out of the human..." The Autobot straightened and actually preened. "...of disgust." The Seeker chuckled loud and hard at his own words, especially when the Autobot's face became overshadowed with befuddlement, his frame losing composure.
"And why exactly would you be watching her?" Sunstreaker broke through Starscream's laughter, forcing the Seeker to acknowledge the Autobot.
Starscream only shrugged, sparing an almost cautious glance at Thundercracker. "Why not?"
The Autobot became more smug. He scoffed, "Well your spies didn't inform you of everything, and certainly not of what occurred behind closed doors. I still can't get the taste of the female off my glossa." He slowly licked one of his digits, making sure both were watching. His attention shifted to each in turn, focusing intently on Thundercracker.
"I suggest you initiate a thorough scrubbing then. And update your protocols on how you should speak to a superior officer," the Supreme Air Commander answered easily, a flicker of hostility coloring his seemingly cool words.
Optic ridges lifting high, Sunstreaker frowned tightly. "Superior is certainly not the word I would use to describe either of you. You think just because you have the capability of flight that you are better than everyone. Even my brother can fly with a jetpack. You Seekers are nothing but Megatron's trophies. Nothing but pathetic underlings with wings."
"Says Optimus Prime's best lackey," Thundercracker said, his inflections firm yet unaffected. Three precise steps were taken toward the Autobot.
It was at that moment when the Autobot realized that he wasn't in the hallway with just one, but two battle hardened Seekers, and that his cavalier attitude, while tolerated by others, would not be by them. But when Thundercracker grabbed the back of the Autobot's head and smashed it against the nearest wall, he understood soon enough.
It was perhaps a good thing that the ship had been emptied of most of the humans. For the fight that followed destroyed everything in its path, lasting longer than anyone could have predicted. Ever since the Decepticons arrival on the Autobot's ship, the fight was inevitable, the strain and the tension apparent. Things were bound to escalate.
It wasn't just the lingering grudge between the Autobots and the Decepticons that fueled the fight, but everything and anything. How TC had attacked and downed and nearly killed Sunstreaker. The Seekers' attack on the Autobot base on Earth. The time Starscream had buried the twins in an underground Energon shaft over twenty cycles ago. The battle of Trymendial that had left Skywarp flightless for three very long mega-cycles after being tricked by Autobots into landing after following a fake sensory trail. Slag, that alone, after all the complaining Skywarp made them endure would have been enough to cause the stress and tension and absolute grudge toward anyone.
As if summoned, Sideswipe joined in, and they ended up in the landing bay, crates overturned, supplies spilling out, energy weapon discharges tainting the ship's cycled air.
Running out of energy happened gradually, but soon increasing in its potency until all four Cybertronians were venting hard while watching each other as they waited for who was going to attack next.
"And Optimus expects us to work together? I'd sooner throw you in the ship's incinerator," Sunstreaker spoke tightly.
"Frag, when Megatron suggested such a ridiculous thing, I only agreed when he said we could use you as bait," Starscream said smugly.
"I only agreed because I planned to end you," Sunny smirked, wiping off a trail of Energon from his mouth, staring at Thundercracker. "After we extinguished The Line of course, no reason not keeping you around while you are actually useful."
TC sneered, the Autobot's obvious derision for him not going unnoticed or unchallenged. "I would have thought it was the punishment that Optimus would have given you instead, for getting a group of humans stuck on a fighting barge, for exploiting them and..."
Sunstreaker broke through his words, blatantly ignoring TC and shifting his response to Starscream, "And I am to believe you are doing this with magnanimous intentions? We all know that Megatron must have whipped you into submission to get you to agree. How much groveling did you waste trying to change his mind? Would have liked to have been a flikbar on the wall to see that!"
"Whether we want to or not, we have to work together," Sideswipe spoke up, daring anyone to fire at him as he left the safety of crates that blocked his body from potential weapons' fire. His servo bent and twisted and his blaster disappeared in his arm. "Now that we have gotten this hostility somewhat sated, I say we save the rest for when we are through with this unfortunate partnership," the Autobot spoke reasonably, a far cry from his brother's rabid exchange.
"Partnership? Don't make me bust a circuit," Screamer lashed out from behind a dented wall of protection. "We shall get this over with more quickly if you remember your place and my," he glanced over at Thundercracker, smiled thinly and amended his statement, "our superiority. It was, after all, Decepticons who first became wise to these agitators. How many of your comrades had to fall before you even knew what was happening?" Starscream boldly came out in the open, his capricious bravery coming into play now that he was no longer in peril. The thin gouges along his cockpit that he had acquired during the tussle were more noticeable under the dim, damaged and crackling lights from above.
Brushing dust and debris from his shoulder panels, the Air Commander snickered at the Autobots. Casually placing his hands behind his back, Starscream settled into an elegant stance of the empowered.
"Come, Thundercracker." He motioned toward the charred and damaged door behind them that was stuck open. "We have work to do."
He was restless. A state he most assuredly was not used to, one that had not come upon him since he had been a sparkling of so many mega-cycles long past. To find out that Alexis was involved did not surprise TC as it should have. The Line had contacted her after finding out about the death of her husband at the hands of Decepticons. At first, they offered condolences and a sensitivity of understanding that spoke of a sympathetic nature that would have been considered more sincere if not for the subtle hints of their true vicious nature.
As their messages went unanswered, they began to send her pictures of their recent activities, send her sentences filled with promises and vows, and finally an invitation for revenge, trying to appeal to a nature that TC was quite sure the female was not capable of.
"You didn't have to choose her."
"True," Starscream said as he lazily stared out of the nearest viewport, his back facing TC. "After finding out their methods of recruitment, and intercepting their messages, it was nothing to track the receivers of their... offers." Starscream turned around, walked back toward TC and sat down on the table. He stretched out his wings. "Just because I am being forced to do something, does not mean I can't make it... enjoyable."
The planning room's doors slid open. The twins came through, followed by two humans.
TC's restlessness increased.
Ever since the disagreement the four had things were going better now that an arrangement of sorts had been reached. But the hostility was still there, the needless disagreements and arguments, an ever reminder, no, a promise of the resolution that awaited them at the end of the current ordeal.
"No."
It was the first that Alexis had spoken after entering the room and listening to Sideswipe fill her in on their plan. That wasn't the first time that he noticed that Sunstreaker gave the female a wide berth, that he didn't speak to her, but to her brother. At first the Seeker thought it was a grudge of some sort, but the physical twitches that the Autobot displayed made him realize it was an ambivalence that had to do with the female's recent loss.
"Alexis," her brother spoke up, hesitant and mindful, but determined. "This group has killed so many Cybertronians, and not just Decepticons, but..."
"And why exactly," Alexis broke through Josh's words, her tone wary and tense and astoundingly enraged even in its quietness, "do you think I have to do anything about this? I. Don't. Care," she enunciated, even as her words slurred. The state of her glassy eyes spoke further toward her obviously affected and drugged state.
"Alexis..." Josh grabbed his sister's arm. She stepped back and shook her head.
"Just leave me alone." By then she was crying, her mouth trembling.
TC tried to look away. The consideration he wanted to show her was overshadowed by unpurgeable captivation.
"You get me to leave the safety of my room for this?!" Alexis swept a quick dismissive glance at the Seekers and Autobots alike. "Do you have no concept of what I have been through? My husband is dead." Her strained voice echoed in the planning room. "He died and I wasn't even with him because I had to have a change of clothes!" She barked out a laugh at that, signs of hysteria breaking through her words, the trickle of liquid increasing in flow. Alexis wiped her eyes off and when her brother made an effort to comfort her she slapped his hand away. "Stay away from me, Josh. I can't believe you." She shook her head, lifted her gaze and set her chin as her eyes narrowed, defiantly glaring at each of those present in turn.
With that, she stalked out of the room, just in time to miss Starscream's appreciative smirk.
"Was any of this your idea?" Alexis asked of him, astonishing him because he made sure that she couldn't see him. His time with the female on Earth had given him the ability to track and pinpoint her with precision. Alexis being able to sense him though was unexpected, made the idea of such familiarity between them entice his processor into momentary utopia.
Infiltration of The Line had been decided upon. A plan, while not perfect, had its advantages. The group was very specific on the people it chose to join them. The Line wasn't exceptionally brilliant in their methods, but used a form of prudence and obvious meticulous planning that enabled them from getting caught, that had allowed them to get this far. Finding out how they operated...
"Tell me one good reason why I would even consider helping after everything I have been through with you," Alexis continued when he didn't respond. Her voice was scratchy as if it was a struggle to speak.
There was something prodigious about her talking to him after one year and several months and too many days that his words were momentarily lost. There was no grudge in her tone, no expected hostility apparent, as if she had momentarily forgotten all that he had unintentionally put her through since his discovery as Timothy, since his altercation with Sunstreaker on the neutral space station. Her voice, even pained and dull was something that affected him and made him want to forget so much if it meant that he could remember everything else.
He stepped closer, probably too close. Close enough to imagine her warmth, to better hear the soft inhalation and exhalation of her breath.
TC didn't hesitate in his answer, "Because you are inherently compassionate. Because no matter what happens to you, you will always care about others."
Alexis turned away from the viewport she had been staring at and faced him fully. Her eyes were rimmed in red, the vibrant shade of green hindered by emotional turbulence. Gazes merging, the effect was explosive, sending TC's subroutines into a welcome chaos. Wings twitching, systems heating exponentially from his refusal to give into tempting inclinations, he forced his reactive emotions into submission. The denial was painful, but this time he had her nearness, an undeserving balm that mollified his internal discomfort.
"You think too highly of me. I'm a horrible person. All I care about is my self, all I care about is..."
Thundercracker stopped her when his digit found her face. He was unwilling to let her continue speaking. Alexis' body jerked and it took her a moment before she pulled back completely startled.
"I didn't..."
He stopped with the far away expression on her face, the drifting away of her eyes. Turning, she went back to the viewport, staring out into the blackness of space.