SORRY SORRY SORRY SORRY SORRY THIS TOOK FOREVER! But…life happened. Including me going to Rome with my university choir. SO AMAZING! Highly recommend going!
I'm not gonna do review replies because I just want to get straight into it. The song's Thoughtless by KoRn (although I listen more to the live cover Evanescence did in their concert).
ENJOY!
…or not…
"Wakey wakey…"
Moaning, Talida shifted slightly to find herself face-to-face with her captor.
"Don't you have something better to do, Starscream?" Talida asked, slightly annoyed.
"Nothing is more important than the Autobot I captured," Starscream sneered before motioning to Malita to undo Talida's bonds.
'How do you know I'm not gonna break your nose the minute you free me?" Talida snarked.
Sure enough, when Malita undid the bonds holding Talida's hands, Talida's arm went swinging, aimed for Malita's face. Smirking, Malita gripped her arm and twisted it forcefully behind her.
"I have quicker reflexes," Malita retorted as she tied her captive's hands behind her back.
Forcefully, Malita started pushing Talida towards her cell door, following Starscream as he headed towards a peculiar room not far from her cell. Immediately, Talida recognized it as a place the Decepticons liked to take their prisoners for interrogation.
The kind of interrogation depended on who the Autobot was and the Decepticon providing the interrogation.
"Yesterday, I gave you an offer," Starscream began as Talida was bound to a chair with her arms tied to the armrests by her wrists and her legs tied to the chair's front legs by her ankles, "I offered you the opportunity to renounce your Autobot allies and join the Decepticons. You rejected that offer. I've allowed you the chance to sleep on your decision. Now, I ask again. Join the Decepticons. Denounce the Autobots."
"It'll take a lot more than that to rattle me," Talida sneered.
Shrugging, Starscream turned to Malita and nodded. The older techno-organic smirked before slapping Talida across the face. The teenager didn't even give her tormentors the satisfaction of making her pain known to them. Even if she did taste blood on her tongue for her split lip.
"I will lose my patience before long, Talida," Starscream warned her, "But consider the offer shelved for the time being."
"It will be shelved for a long time," Talida spat.
"For now, let's focus on the Autobots," Starscream ignored her as he ran a sharp finger under her chin, "Tell me the location of the Autobot base."
"You're like a dog with a bone," Talida sighed, "You never know when to let go."
This time, Talida's defiance wasn't rewarded with a slap to the face. Instead, it was a punch to the stomach. Malita relished the sounds as her captive struggled to regain her breath.
"Give me a couple of hours with her. She'll talk," Malita promised.
"Oh, I have no doubt she will," Starscream smirked as he left the room.
"Now it's just you and me," Malita mused as she looked down at Talida while cracking her knuckles and rolling her shoulders, "Let's have some fun, shall we?"
Talida could handle a lot.
But she didn't know if she could handle Malita's interrogation techniques.
"Any luck?" Fowler asked anxiously as he walked into the Autobot base.
"Bulk, Bee, Arcee and Optimus are scouting where she was kidnapped. Zilch," Cliffjumper grumbled in anger as he tried to stand up from the medical berth, "I should be out there helping them."
"The only place you should be is on that berth recovering from your injuries!" Ratchet snapped, firmly forcing Cliffjumper back onto the berth, "You'd be no help out there with the state you're in!"
"She got captured on my watch, Ratchet!" Cliffjumper objected, "I will not be satisfied until I introduce those 'Cons to my horns!"
"It is Optimus' orders that you stay and recover!" Ratchet reminded him, "And you and I both know that Talida would not want you to jeopardize your recovery."
It was only those words that made Cliffjumper stop struggling against the medic. But it wasn't because he knew Ratchet was right. Or, at least, wasn't the only thing. It was the guilt that still overwhelmed him. The guilt of having to face her parents.
Optimus may have been a Prime, but one thing that was clear to everyone since Talida's birth was how much the Prime took on and the emotions that clung to him. He was still controlled, but it was still clear just how effected he was by his daughter's kidnapping, even though it had barely been a day since the abduction.
"How's Prime?" Fowler inquired.
"Trying to keep it together," Ratchet vented, "Arcee didn't sleep at all."
Fowler didn't even try to attempt to hide his grave expression as he took in just how much the Autobots were falling apart already.
"How did Jack take the news yesterday?" Cliffjumper wanted to know.
At that moment, the GroundBridge whirled to life and Bulkhead, Bumblebee, Arcee and Optimus walked through the swirling vortex back into the abandoned missile silo. They had heard the question as they walked in and were curious to know the answer themselves.
"Shock. Disbelief. How else would you take a loved one's disappearance?" Fowler asked rhetorically, "I have an agent keeping an eye on him from a discrete distance. He's been searching for her since she disappeared."
"Maybe we should tell him," Bulkhead suggested.
"Talida wanted to be the one to tell him herself," Ratchet pointed out.
"I don't think she saw this coming, Ratchet," Arcee said bitterly.
"We may not have a choice in this matter," Fowler warned them.
"Jackson does have the right to know the truth, but now's not the time," Optimus rumbled, "Talida would not want him involved."
"She wouldn't want him lied too, either," Bumblebee bleeped his objections.
"Like I said, I have an agent keeping an eye on him. Regardless of whether he finds out or not, Talida would want him to be kept safe," Fowler cut in.
"He has to be told," Cliffjumper voiced from his place on the medical berth, "Tally may be able to withstand the physical torture the 'Cons put her through, but she wouldn't be able to survive them using Jack to get to her."
Cliffjumper's words hit a hard truth for the Autobots. Talida didn't have a lot of weaknesses, but her one true weakness has always been Jack. Don't get them wrong. Talida loved her family and would do anything for them, but she also knew that her family was more than capable of protecting themselves from the Decepticon threat.
Jack, on the other hand, was unable to protect himself.
After all, how could you protect yourself from a threat you don't know about?
Talida began coughing as Malita punched her in the stomach once again.
"Don't you get tired of that?" Talida gasped as she desperately tried to fill her lungs with air.
"Don't you get tired of fighting?" Malita retorted before shrugging, "It's easy to make me stop. Just give me what I want or this continues. I might even turn this over to Starscream."
"You're the Decepticon enforcer for a reason, Malita. If you couldn't do it, what makes you think Starscream could?" Talida spat.
"Come now, Talida," Malita taunted, "What was Starscream's reputation in the war?"
Talida reflected on Malita's question. According to everything she had learned, Starscream was, in a lot of ways, more dangerous by Megatron, as he is less predictable and more willing to kill on sight than Megatron is. Of course, Starscream is also power hungry, egostistic, cowardly and paranoid, but right now, that was irrelevant.
Especially when she knew that Starscream was ruthless when he wanted to be.
"You mean he was just as much as a coward on Cybertron?" Talida quipped, smirking despite the pain from her split lip.
This time, Malita didn't reward her with a slap or a punch or violence of any nature. Instead, she laughed.
"You know, I may hate your guts, but I find you amusing," Malita mused.
"I'd like you if you weren't on the wrong side," Talida shrugged.
"So are you," Malita threw back, "You have my father's disease, Talida. It turned him dark. It will certainly turn you dark."
Talida froze in fear. She had heard the story from her father. She had heard how Megatron used to be good. How he used to fight for the innocent and oppressed. But he had the disease. The disease that corrupted you from the inside until nothing good of you remained. Her father defying him before the Council that day was the catalyst that sparked not only the war, but his disease.
It had become clear when Talida got uncontrollably angry during a training session and injured Bulkhead pretty badly when she was young that she had the disease as well. Granted, she could control it to an extent, but there were moments where the control would disappear and she would give into the darkness.
Lately, it had become harder and harder to bring her back whenever she descended into them.
"That doesn't define me," Talida shook her head.
"It will," Malita vowed, "Because one day, there will be no turning back. You might as well give in now."
"I have something that stops me," Talida spat, bracing herself for the hit that she knew was coming, "Something worth fighting for."
"And we don't?!" Malita snapped as she punched Talida across the face.
The force of the punch was enough to send the chair – and Talida – toppling over.
"We fight for Cybertron!" Malita proclaimed.
"After dooming it in the first place," Talida growled.
"Your precious father had a part in that as well! The Autobots are not entirely blameless for what happened to Cybertron and you know it!" Malita screamed in Talida's face as she held her up by her hair.
"We didn't poison the core," Talida hissed, "That was all you."
Yes. Talida knew that the next hit was coming. Granted, she didn't expect the hit to knock her out cold.
But it was so worth it.
"Well?" Starscream pressed as Malita walked onto the bridge.
"She's not talking," Malita grumbled as she examined her bruised knuckles.
"Where is she?" Starscream demanded.
"Back in her cell. I hit her too hard. Knocked her out," Malita shrugged, "But don't worry. I didn't damage her too much. Just the scrapes and bruises from my hits. When she wakes up, she'll be good for another round."
"Lord Megatron would surely be pleased when he comes back and finds that we have discovered the location of the Autobot base," Starscream simpered.
"If you could convince him the ends justified the means," Malita retorted, "You know that he will not be happy when he finds out you did it by capturing and torturing his niece, who was not to be touched by any Decepticon."
Starscream ignored her as he turned to Soundwave, "Man the bridge."
Together, Starscream and Malita walked off.
"Oh! Make sure you mention the disease when you take another shot at her," Malita suggested to Starscream as they walked down a corridor, "She's sensitive about that. Refuses to believe that what happened to my father will happen to her."
Starscream smirked as he walked past her cell and opened the door. Looking in, he and Malita saw that Talida was just beginning to stir.
"What? A girl can't take a breather?" Talida quipped.
"You should really…oh, what is it you humans say about watching what you say?" Starscream asked in frustration.
"Be sure to taste your words before you spit them out?" Talida offered.
"I don't think that was it, but I do like that one, so that one will do," Starscream mused before snarling, "You should really be sure to taste your words before you spit them out. They could land you in serious trouble."
"Well, I figure I'm already headed for the scrapheap," Talida shrugged, "Might as well make the journey worthwhile."
"Malita treaded lightly with your interrogation today. I promise you that will not happen again," Starscream vowed.
Before leaving, he ran one of his claws down the side of her face hard enough to draw blood.
For good measure.
Guess what? I'M NOT DEAD! Like I said earlier, life got in the way.
I'll try to be more regular with my updates, but I'm in my final year of my first degree and assignment time = hell. So no promises.
So, how and when do you think Jack should find out the truth about the Autobots and his best friend? Remember. This story is about, 'What if Jack found out about the Autobots before the start of the series?'
Bye-bye!