Ridiculous.
That was Sideswipe's first thought. Forced to the ground and on his knees like some sort of mongrel had his next thoughts turning toward something vulgar he wanted to say to the humans, but wouldn't, not with Alexis standing behind him.
"We know what you are, Autobot." A stocky man came forward with an air of stifling surety. Sides knew who the human was from breaking into their digital files. One of The Line's, as they called it, enforcers. He was someone who was intimately familiar with Cybertronians, someone who had probably ended more than a few of the Autobots' own. Sides wasn't dazzled but disappointment.
"Do you?" was his unconcerned reply.
The short man smirked, his dark eyes glowing with what he knew. "You have an informer on your ship. We have known of your 'identity' for some time," he said, daringly stepping closer to Sideswipe.
"And yet you don't act until now," Sideswipe's mouth lifted up with disdain. Impatience and expectation dragged his thoughts toward what he knew was to come.
The man leaned down and forward, small head twisting to the side as he examined the humanized Autobot. And then audaciously, stupidly, he poked Sides like he was some sort of unknown specimen. Sideswipe growled loudly, laughing with great enjoyment when the man went stumbling back.
Standing back up, the enforcer stared down at the Autobot with even more pronounced hostility, his face a pinkish red. "We had to know of your companions' loyalties." Beady, intelligent eyes flickered behind him and on Alexis, causing Side's muscles to solidify, his smile to drop. "That resolved, we no longer need to... indulge you."
Sparing a glance at Alexis, he saw her hand on her hip close to her always worn staff, her eyes narrowed and alert. The security force mainly ignored the female, their attention on the only one they saw as a threat.
"Come to me, Alexis," Sides transmitted through the wireless earpiece she still wore. Her eyes widened, and it took her far longer than necessary to do as he requested. Three steps taken toward him, he pushed the stocky man back and pulled Alexis to him, his protective field surrounding them both.
His form shimmered from the excessive concentration required. Nearly shut down completely when the humans began to fire their weapons. He was pissed, not for himself, but because of the human who had wrapped one of her hands too tightly around his wrist. Alexis watched the weapons impact the energy field, her fear giving way to an observation of the tech he was using, her inquisitiveness hardly distilled by the danger.
He separated himself from the human form and left enough energy behind that it would stay on-line for as long as he required.
Settled inside his once hidden Cybertronian form, he ran past the startled humans, bursting onto the flight deck, energy trailing in his wake. Everyone in the vicinity shook and fell before dropping unconscious.
Alexis stood alone, her staff now extended, her gaze slowly tilting up to take in his subtly upgraded frame, the sleek door panels behind his back that folded neatly along his jetpack, the added shoulder cannon. The protective field collapsed around her and his human form shattered from existence. She frowned.
"It's time to go, Alexis."
"Yes. I think so," she agreed. And for once she didn't hesitate to climb onto his outstretched hand. Alexis secured on his shoulder, he headed toward the lower decks of the ship.
Sideswipe thought if anyone would have been discovered, it would have been Timothy. Even in human form, Thundercracker was stiff and stoic and then there was the stately way he held himself, the polished manner of his gait, the calculated nature that he approached all the humans with.
Slag, he used Timothy as an example of how not to act around the humans. In fact, acting naturally, just being himself, had him fitting in far faster than even a human could have hoped.
Not that he was discovered from any errors on his part. And knowing that they had a spy on his ship, while a very unpleasant revelation, was not something that concerned him at that moment except that it pushed his time frame for action forward, which really, wasn't much of a bad thing either.
He was quite ready to depart the Relentless. And while not all the humans on board were scum, it was time for things to proceed and conclude.
Through their bond, Sunstreaker was always aware of his circumstances, which saved vast amounts of time from explaining and catching up. An Autobot ship was on its way that was not arriving as soon as he would have liked.
Sensors that he had planted kept him alert of The Line's progress of finding him. Five hours had passed since he was approached in the landing bay. Thundercracker, aware of his situation, activated the modular devices the two had planted on board the Relentless. Alarms blared in the distance, alerting all on board that the ship's self-destruct had been activated.
The humans now distracted on reaching safety, they boarded escape pods that had tracking devices planted on them. Unfortunately, The Line's security was not so easily put off, their hunt for the Autobot and his human ramped up.
Nestled deep inside the engine room, Sides finished up delicate rigging that allowed him to take control of the Decepticon ship. The Autobot had to settle for turning the engines off since he was unable to gain full access.
Done, he turned around, finding Alexis exactly where she had been two hours ago, sitting against a side wall, her tablet resting on her knees, her eyes on the dimmed screen as she read, what he had no doubt, was probably one of her beloved mystery novels. Alexis wasn't prone to overreacting. And her ability to divert and move through was, he was starting to believe, uncommon, perhaps even unhealthy for a human. But he knew it wasn't cold indifference like he and his brother had honed and mastered as soldiers, but a form of escape that enabled her to cope at a distance.
"It's done," he informed her.
Alexis turned her tablet off and slowly stretched.
"And no one will be killed?" She asked of him, her concern easing the Autobot. The female, since their month on board the Relentless had been so withdrawn. The human showing an interest in what was happening was an encouragement that made a small smile settle on him.
And then he remembered.
She knew how he felt. The idea of that truth was unsettling and made his systems feel as if on the brink of pleasing destabilization. But what he had told Alexis, he meant every word.
And what he hadn't been able to say, Sideswipe knew, he meant even more.
He knew what love was now.
He didn't when he spoke to her all those short hours ago, but since her reaction to his promises, to his offer, he had time to research and analyze, to discover things, to understand.
He loved her.
That was the only explanation. He wanted to be with her, keep her safe, wanted to make her happy, whatever the sacrifice, whatever the cost. He felt a patience with her that was so unlike himself that he knew her importance was even more monumental than he had acknowledged yet. He didn't want to share her. He did want her to like him, so desperately that what should have been pathetic was only a promise of what could be, if he allowed.
He wanted a future with Alexis.
"Not if I can help it," Sides answered, feeling energized by the trust she placed in him. An unsettling nervous twitch settled in his tank when she lifted her eyes up to his optics. No, not unsettling, livening. He wasn't prone to such reactions but the delicious pang that came from the nervousness that she elicited from him was hot and enthralling, an unexpected turn on. "We should get moving, Alexis," Sideswipe let her know, his optics intent on her small form, another delightful pang crawling up into his spark from the intimate pressing of his glossa inside his mouth with the forming of her name.
Alexis' brows lifted up, her mouth settled into a frown, her cheeks brightened with color. She may have said he couldn't speak of how he felt, but she said nothing about him expressing himself in more subtle ways.
No, she wouldn't get rid of him that easily.
Alexis had fallen asleep exactly forty-five minutes ago. Sides had almost forgotten that she had had a very long day for a human, depleted most of her energy long before the interruption by The Line.
She didn't look at peace as she slept. Alexis jerked and moved and struggled. Her eyelids fluttered and her hands clenched. The Autobot had never really seen her sleep before, and the vision before him was unsettling and made his mouth curve tightly downward.
"How is she?"
Having barricaded the two on board The Relentless' bridge, he had been waiting for a signal from his brother. All the while keeping his optics on the remaining security force.
The Line was tenacious. He would give them that. They were still trying to enter the bridge. They had already tried to burn their way in, even used a Decepticon altered grenade, all to no effect. They were unwilling to give up, not willing to concede defeat or lose the stolen warship.
"She is fine, as I already told you," Sideswipe spoke softly, moving away from where Alexis rested on the floor on one of his cleaning cloths. "You shouldn't have come here," he hissed at the human Deception, unsettled and riled by the Con's presence. Stepping forward he tried to block Alexis from the Seeker's searching eyes.
"You mean you didn't want me to come," the Deception responded, his eyes narrowing as his mouth pulled up on the side. "You have a special regard for the female?" Thundercracker spoke casually, but what he said was not a question.
"Do you?"
Thundercracker glanced over at the female in question, his mouth twitching into a hidden scowl. His silence was more of an answer than words would have been.
Sneering, he spoke hastily, "You won't see her after this is over," Sideswipe smiled lowly, greatly pleased with that thought. "I will make sure of it," he vowed.
Thundercracker lifted his attention upward, unaffected by the Autobot's pronouncement, his eyes following Sideswipe's digits as they mindlessly caressed his servos weapon's compartment. He forced himself to stop when he realized the unease he was clearly broadcasting to the far too intelligent Seeker.
"Her regard remains with her Vildan mate," the Seeker answered indifferently, his sharp gray eyes hard and unrelenting.
"At the moment," Sideswipe shrugged the words off, careful to keep his words a delicate whisper that only the Seeker would be capable of picking up. "As for the future..."
His words were cut off when his systems alerted him to a breech. A moment later, the bridge door's slid open, allowing the Line's remaining security force to break through.
Fraggin' humans, they were too smart for their own good. Breaking through the security firewall he had erected was impossible, so instead of trying to break through they circumvented it with a worm of a coding that would have made an Autobot engineer proud.
But that grudge of near respect was forgotten when Thundercracker went to the startled and now very awake Alexis. He helped the female up and handed Alexis her gun. She checked to make sure its cartridges were loaded, changed its setting to non-lethal and began to fire. The deft way in which she handled the weapon made his pride show with a large appreciative grin that spread on his face. The lessons he had given her had obviously been fruitful ones.
Getting down, he picked up Alexis and Thundercracker, releasing a nontoxic but highly effective gas.
"They are late," Thundercracker announced, his tone filled with deprecation. His eyes strained with displeasure. He wasn't accustomed to relying on others, most certainly not Autobots, and the Con's rising discomfort was most pleasing to watch.
"The humans managed to mask the ship's signals, they will find us," Sides shot out a little more tersely than he meant, but the Con's superciliousness rubbed him the wrong way.
"Then I suggest we move to somewhere of more prominent safety." The Seeker's gaze shifted over to Alexis, once more giving away where his thoughts resided. The Con's authoritative tone left little doubt that what he said was not a suggestion.
Sides huffed at the uselessness of Thundercracker's words, at his attempt to decide for him.
"Are you?..." Thundercracker addressed the human.
"Fine." Alexis frowned.
"Do you need...?" The Seeker made a small gesture with his open hand.
"No." She shook her head, wisps of hair floating over her shoulders and then pulled back. She offered a small smile to Sides before her attention spilled back over to the Con. "Sideswipe already gave me some water." With that she moved away from the two and leaned over a railing and looked down, unintentionally giving the two space.
Head spinning from their quick exchange, from the way Alexis knew what the Con was speaking without him evening saying it, he directed his terse words at the male's back. Thundercracker's apparel was as black as Side's mood, the well-fitted garments accentuating the dangerous weaponry that hung loosely at his hip.
"You don't need to remain. I can take it from here."
The human Seeker chuckled harshly at that, his eyes still on the human female. Swallowing softly, his already stiff posture lengthened his back and stretched his legs. His right hand rubbed his left wrist. "I do, and you cannot. Autobot ingenuity is not something I am prone to witnessing. I will leave when we are through."
"Decepticon tenacity outside a battlefield... are you malfunctioning or forgetting your base coding?"
"Neither," was the Con's overly simplified reply, the contempt apparent in the word. And the confidence, the arrogance of the things unspoken that were contained in that easy utterance riled the Autobot with expert effectiveness.
Sideswipe had a lot to say to that. A lot to make clear.
He crowded the tiny Seeker, towering over him completely as he spoke thickly, his inflections influenced by the feeling of his spark chamber being compressed, "She will never want a Decepticon," he finally managed, abridging the truth because the whole truth was not for the Con to comprehend.
The Autobot expected deflection, agitation, anything but what he got.
"I know." Shoulder's bunching tight they fell with a soft release of determined breath. "I will lead the security away. Get Alexis away from here," Thundercracker commanded imperiously.
Before he could argue, the agile Decepticon jumped over a railing and onto the bottom deck. Of course, he did such a thing right next to Alexis, giving her a clear view of his prowess.
Sideswipe hated the Con.
"After this is over, what do you plan to do, Alexis?"
They were now situated near the brig. A place he was sure the security detail would never check, for looking for cover near captured Cons wasn't exactly something a normal person would have done.
She reacted strangely to his question, her muscles coiled, her mouth shifted down.
"I... I don't know," she responded, her words ragged and difficult. Legs brought up to her chest, Alexis lowered her head.
"You will stay with your brother?"
"I have nowhere else to go."
"You could come with me. I could take you anywhere you want. There are so many fascinating places out there, Alexis. Places that will make you forget about things, places that will astound and consume." He was unable to contain his enthusiasm as he revealed just how much he had thought about such a thing.
Head lifting slowly, she frowned, green eyes marred by paranoia. She addressed him with a tiredness in her tone, an unmistakable sadness, "And what do you want in return?"
He shook his head, arms tangling in front of his chassis as he tried desperately toward something casual. "Nothing. I just offer you my ...comfort, whether intimate comfort or just my presence, I could give you... peace. Physical reassurance is quite beneficial when recovering from loss."
Her brows lifted, her mouth tightened. "Is this your way of saying you want to... fornicate?"
The Autobot internally trembled at the coldness in her reply, at her choice of words, a reaction that was not as unpleasant as it should have been.
"If it helped you, yes." He replied gently, trying to enforce upon her mind his willingness to adapt and overcome his own inclinations toward force.
Alexis blinked twice, heaved out a small breath and stretched her neck back so that her head lifted up along the wall that her body rested against. "So you want me, because you pity me?" She didn't appear to be irritated, just stating what she believed to be true.
Deeply offended, it took more than just will power alone to keep his reply in neutral. "We both now it isn't as simple as that."
She frowned hard. "I suppose not."
Taking that as encouragement, his mouth opened and spewed out words before he could contain them. "Alexis, you must know how much I..."
Alexis physically recoiled, her back pressing hard against the wall. She shook her head, covered her face with her hands as if to protect herself from his almost declaration. Sideswipe cursed loudly. Another mistake, another misinterpretation. He started to turn around, determined to give her at least the illusion of space and privacy, despite the nearby trapped Cons in their cells, despite that he wanted to do the complete opposite.
He still didn't understand her, and Alexis was so far away from knowing his motivations that the distance between them left an unseen gap that he was at a loss on how to eliminate. His tank turned bitter. His thoughts filled with resentment, both for himself and the female at their lack of integration. Lust would have been so much easier. He knew what to do with that, how to resolve that issue. What he felt for Alexis though was complicated and toilsome.
Suddenly her hands dropped away from her face. Alexis' attention moved upon him unexpectedly. "How is it that you were the one that raked up debt on the fighting barge, not your brother?"
Astounded, because she was giving him a chance for recovery from his error, he replied a little too eagerly. Alexis pretended not to notice.
And as their conversation drifted and lengthened and expanded toward more interesting and even some personal things, he couldn't help but marvel at his tolerant human.