Arcee was at her workplace deciphering another set of coordinates. They were not doing well during that time. It took her and Soundwave a while to understand how the coordinates were built and how to decipher them properly.
Arcee was also frustrated, she didn't know why. Whether it was because she is the only other femme on Nemesis, or why. But Airachnid came to talk to her. She mostly talked nonsense and so ignored it, but she also mentioned how she would like to become the new leader of the Decepticons and how the soldiers would listen to her better, as well as the officers.
When she heard that, she wanted to start recording everything, when she remembered the sentence that Knockout told her, when she asked who the Decepticons on Nemesis were most afraid of. To her surprise, it wasn't Megatron himself, but his loyal follower Soundwave.
Decepticon ears and eyes
Arcee deciphered when someone entered the room. She expected it to be Airachnid with her talking, but the steps were harder. She turned around and saw the crimson moss sitting on the ground expressionlessly and pulling his legs to his chest, not caring that he would scratch his paint.
Arcee had never seen him like this before so she came over and touched his hand and he looked up at her. She could tell from his look that he didn't know what room he had entered and was about to stand up and leave when Arcee pushed him back to the back.
He looked at her incomprehendingly and wanted to look like a narcissist again, but before he could, a silent tear fell from his eyes. Arcee saw this and wiped her away. Knockout immediately rushed after her and they fell backwards, when Knockout hugged her tightly around the waist and started to cry. She was sitting and he was almost lying in her lap. She was as tall as him, but she had a smaller frame.
"Let it go," she said, as she put one hand on his back a little hesitantly. He trembled and continued to cry. She let him if it would help him. She didn't know what happened, but it had to be something serious when it decimated the eternally smug Knockout like this. When Knockout calmed down, he looked at her but didn't let go. "Now tell me what happened?" Arcee asked softly, a little surprised that she could keep her voice so calm.
"Soundwave played Megatron the Airachnid recordings when she was here, mainly the parts where she says she wants to be the new leader. Megatron usually keeps it to himself, but now he's tasked Dreadwing with the task. Dreadwing took Breakdown with him, but Breakdown attacked and after that only his scream could be heard, but he didn't find his remains" Knockout said and started crying again. She knew the relationship between Breakdown and Knockout. Knockout just needed to cry and get back to normal and when he chose her, she would listen to him when he talked.
Arcee would have let him, but she needed to get back to deciphering the next set of coordinates. "Knockout if you want you can stay here and talk as much as you want but I need to continue deciphering" she said quietly and after a few seconds Knockout stood up and helped her.
Knockout sat down in a nearby chair and watched as Arcee turned back to the monitors. He wanted to say something, but he didn't know if he could, if it wouldn't disturb her concentration.
"Keep talking, I'm listening" Arcee said and Knockout smiled a little.
"Can I ask something?" Knockout asked and saw Arcee nod without turning her head "and you're going to be honest?" Knockout asked and Arcee turned and looked into the optic.
"Depends on what kind of question it is," Arcee replied, giving Knockout a small chance that he might answer as she turned back to the set of coordinates she had been playing with for several hours.
"How is your relationship with Soundwave, don't take this in a bad way, but do you guys spend a lot of time together as.. erm.. lovers?" Knockout asked, almost whispering the last word but Arcee heard him and it wasn't the best question but either the worst.
"Friendly, we're just similar and no, we're not lovers like you and Breakdown," Arcee answered and didn't turn to him, but she felt the surprised look. Not many Decepticons knew they were forming a secret relationship. Knockout scratched his neck a little nervously and looked nervously in her direction. "Don't worry, I haven't told anyone and I won't tell anyone," she said, assuring him that his secret was safe.
"Arcee, can I ask one more question and I swear I won't ask again?" Knockout said and Arcee sighed and flipped her glasses. That moss had to return to its old self as soon as possible. He was acting like a fizz, why is he asking if he can ask when she told him she would answer. She nodded.
"You and Soundwave looked like you had met before when you arrived, did you meet? Or did you just catch the eye like people say?" Knockout asked, adjusting his position on the chair. Arcee turned to him to see what he would say when he asked his question.
"You really want to know?" Arcee asked and Knockout nodded hesitantly. "Come on then" Arcee said. They started walking on Nemesis when they arrived at Medbay. Knockout looked at her blankly.
"What are we doing in my apothecary?" He asked and Arcee waved him to come closer to the room. She rummaged through his tools when she pulled out a long cord that Knockout recognized as a cortical psychic patch. "What are you going to do with it?" he asked, watching her as she set something up.
"You're going to look inside my head where I met Soundwave" she replied as she showed him the medical dock. He lay down and she poured it into his head. Then she also lay down and it hit her head, when her optics went off and Knockout entered Arcee's head.
In Arcee's head
Knockout looked around and was in Kaon, a part that was away from the pits and was safer anyway. Knockout started walking when he heard a child's voice. He turned and saw a small blue femme with pink highlights and beautiful optics that he had seen somewhere before.
Femme ran past him and that's when he realized he was in a memory.
"It's me," Arcee said as she came up to him. Knockout looked at her and then at the young femme, beckoning him to follow her. He looked at Arcee "I can affect a memory a bit" Arcee said following herself when she was younger.
Knockout followed closely behind her as she came to a large building that Knockout remembered as the Kaon security building. Knockout went to ask what they were doing here when Arcee nodded and motioned for him to follow her. Knockout went on without a word.
They entered the building and the sparkling femme was joined by a tall moss with blue optics and long arms and legs with dark blue varnish. He took her in his arms and carried her. He entered the elevator, but Knockout still couldn't see his face. They went up several floors, then got out and walked through a quiet and empty room.
Mech sat down in a chair and the femme sat on his lap looking at the monitors while his long fingers ran over the keyboard.
"Daddy," the younger Arcee addressed him and looked up. Mech lowered his head and smiled.
"Yes Sweetspark?" he asked and Arcee turned around and hugged him "what did I do to deserve this?" the mech asked giving her a gentle hug as well.
"You deserved it, because you're the best daddy and you didn't leave me and you treat me like your own," said little Arcee and the ghosts just stood there and watched. Knockout came to her and put his hand on her shoulder. He wanted to tell her that he was sorry.
"No, I don't want regrets, you asked where Soundwave and I met, keep watching" Arcee said as she shook his hand off her shoulder. Knockout turned back to the scene before him.
Mech continued to sit when someone was heard knocking. Mech took down Arcee and Arcee hid in the darkness. Another mech entered the room and was shorter than the dark blue one and had neon green paint.
"Soundwave, I'm glad you're here, we have a small meeting, so we'll meet in a meeting in half a cycle," said the mech and didn't wait for an answer, when he disappeared again.
"Yes Mr. Winster" Soundwave said mockingly as little Arcee came out from behind the monitors.
"Will I have to wait here alone again? Arcee asked innocently and Knockout was a little surprised at how innocent the murderous femme next to him was.
"Arcee, it'll be a while and when I come we'll be together again and we'll go see what you want" Soundwave said with a positive voice and Arcee immediately smiled and ran into his arms again.
Knockout wanted to see more when the memory disappeared and they were in a cell. When he looked at Arcee he saw she was in a trance with a tear running down her cheek.
He wanted to shake her when he heard crying. He knew that maybe now he would go into her memories more and maybe see the ones that Arcee is hiding, but the crying was childish, not completely, but childish and he wanted to know who was crying.
Knockout followed the crying, when he turned back to Arcee she was standing there in a trance, but when he turned 90 degrees he saw her again, but without the mask and with teary optics.
He went there, but immediately stopped when he heard the voice. They never knew who killed him, but he had a spark torn from his chest and terrible scratches on the lower part of his face.
"Arcee, you're beautiful, but even more beautiful without the crying" Lockdown said as he came up to her and cupped her face in one of his clawed hands.
"Please, I don't want anymore, please" Arcee said softly as more tears started to fall. Lockdown tossed her into the berth and pushed her small frame into the berth.
"You know, just submit to me Arcee, the sooner you do, the sooner your debt to me will be repaid" Lockdown said as his gloss traveled from the sound receiver down her neck to her wings.
Arcee managed to roll under his heavy frame onto her back and when he went to her lips she took her leg out from under him and kicked him in the chest.
Arcee quickly stood up and started to run. She remembered how to get out of there. Knockout followed her and wanted to know what was going to happen. Arcee kept running when she got out of the building where he was holding her. She saw that all she had to do was run to the fence and jump over it.
She was almost near him when something shot her in the leg and she cried out in pain as she fell to the ground and saw energon leaking from her leg. Arcee started to crawl towards the fence and was almost at it when something grabbed her leg and gripped her tighter and pulled her back. She screamed in pain when he squeezed her leg harder.
Arcee looked over to see Lockdown who was angry, terribly. He grabbed her face and brought her close to his.
"You thought you could escape me, remember, Soundwave abandoned you, left you with a defenseless robot that couldn't protect you. Soundwave never liked you, he only did it out of duty to find you. Commit it to your memory, you are my property and always-" Lockdown didn't answer.
Knockout looked around and saw everything falling apart. The whole world was disappearing and he knew what that meant. He wasn't the only one watching her memories and stopped it before Knockout could see more.
Reality
Knockout looked around to see only Soundwave with the visor looking towards the exit, but Arcee was nowhere to be found.
Soundwave turned on the Decepticon medic and left the Medbay. Knockout didn't know what happened until he woke up, but he also didn't know if he could go to Arcee now. He didn't know if she would be angry or disappointed that he used her trance and went more into her memories.
A few minutes before Knockout woke up
Arcee woke up gasping for breath. She had this memory again, but when she looked back she was in the Medbay, Soundwave was in front of her holding the second part of the cortical psychic patch and then she remembered showing Knockout how she met Soundwave.
Arcee got to her feet, but they quickly gave way. Soundwave wanted to go help her stand up, when she stood up earlier and looked at him with sad eyes.
"How much did you see?" Arcee asked, her optics radiating every negative emotion except anger. She wouldn't be angry with him, she decided to show Knockout this and knew that there was a risk that whoever entered the Medbay would see through the monitor what was going on in her head.
"Arcee, why didn't you say anything when you came to Nemesis, I would have helped you, I would have been there for you" Soundwave said as he wanted to grab her hands and pull her into a hug where she would feel safe, but she backed away to she could look into his black visor.
"And as if it helped, I killed him anyway" Arcee said and her lips trembled under the mask as she said something else in a fit of emotion "I even killed my mother Elita-One in that whole one, I was angry, his the words went through my head and I killed her without hesitation" said Arcee only then realizing what she said.
Soundwave was surprised under the visor. Femme, whom he took as a daughter, found out a lot. He saw how Lockdown destroyed her even more. The femme who preferred to put the cyber-ladybug outside so that she wouldn't accidentally kill her became a femme who killed.
But when she talked about Elite, he saw it in her eyes. Sadness, fear and shame. Sadness probably because she subconsciously wanted to get to know her, fear that Optimus Prime hates her for that and also subconsciously wants him to like her at least a little, and shame that she couldn't control her anger.
Arcee turned and started walking away when Soundwave grabbed her arm and stopped her "Arcee I'm here for you I always will be" Soundwave said not seeing her sad smile as she covered her face. Arcee turned around and started marching back to her workplace. When she got there, Megatron was waiting for her.
"Arcee" He said and she bowed respectfully before looking at him.
"My Lord" Arcee said and Megatron just looked at the undeciphered set of coordinates.
"How's the decoding of the Iacon database going?" Megatron asked and Arcee sighed, she would have taken any other question but this one.
"Slow, I'm still trying to understand, each set is made differently, but I noticed that they are made in four kinds, so once I understand them, it should go faster" said Arcee and noticed Megatron's uncomprehending look, but didn't point it out.
"Don't let me disturb you, but I didn't just come to check on you, I came to give you a suggestion" Megatron said, watching as Arcee turned to face him and waited for him to say something. "Since now I don't have my representative and Airachnid is still missing, but also a traitor, I need a replacement and since your arrival, you have shown yourself as a worthy robot to be my representative" Megatron said and expected everything, but certainly not rejection.
"I appreciate that you put so much trust in me, but I am not worthy to be your representative my Lord. There are better soldiers than me, for example Dreadwing, he tried to eliminate two Wreckers and Prime without backup, I think he he's more worthy than me" Arcee said and Megatron gave a toothy smile.
"You have a good argument why not take the position and I agree with you for now, but remember Arcee. If something happens to you, a robot that will automatically be installed as my representative" Megatron said as he turned and left the room.
Arcee sighed and went back to deciphering. She stood there for another hour, when she heard the door open, she thought that Knockout had returned and came looking for company, but those steps were hard for Knockout, even hard for Soundwave. Arcee didn't turn around as she realized who had come and felt nervousness from his electric field.
"Dreadwing," she said, but didn't turn to him.
"Arcee, I need help, are you willing to help, or should I just go ahead and beg Soundwave?" Dreadwing asked, his nervousness fading a bit.
"If I answer that I won't help you, will you leave?" She asked and Dreadwing nodded his head as a sign that no, he wouldn't leave. "Then next time don't ask if I'll help you" she paused and waited for him to come closer, but he didn't so she turned her head just to see him "what can I help you with?" She asked and Dreadwing finally came closer.
"Can you find Lord Megatron's signal?" Dreadwing asked and Arcee began to work on it. He watched as her fingers moved quickly across the keyboard and was a little amazed at the speed. He didn't understand then, but he did now, why his twin was obsessed with finding her. She was an excellent fighter, she knew how to sneak around so that she couldn't be seen or heard, she was good with technical things and finally, she was stoic, or so he thought.
He was snapped out of his thoughts when he saw Arcee remove her hands from the keyboard and Megatron's signal flashed on the monitors.
"Everything?" Arcee asked and Dreadwing left with a nod.
She didn't know how much time had passed, but as she finished deciphering the set and was about to move on, Dreadwing entered the room.
"So" she said and waited for Dreadwing to continue and he continued.
"It's good that you helped me, we saved Lord Megatron from being captured or killed by the Autobots. Airachnid escaped us and Lord said she had incenticon with her and I am Lord Megatron's new second in command" Dreadwing said with a positive voice. It wasn't every day that the Decepticon leader appointed him as his deputy.
"Congratulations," Arcee said in a neutral voice as she began to decipher. Dreadwing saw one decoded set.
"You have new coordinates" Dreadwing said and Arcee nodded. Dreadwing started to get a little nervous and didn't realize that he could feel it through his field "uhm... Arcee would you like to take a break and go, for example, to refill energon?" asked Dreadwing and he didn't know what was going into him, but he wanted to continue. Arcee found out where this was going and she had no plans for a romantic affair. She turned to him and frowned.
"I'm fine, my energon is at a good level" Arcee said and saw Dreadwing gasping for another suggestion as she passed him "Dreadwing, I'm sorry but you're almost more than half my age and we're at war, the only thing would happen would be a broken spark for you" Arcee said and Dreadwing frowned this time.
"Why would only mine be broken?" he asked incomprehendingly.
"We've all been through something and some of us decide to never trust these things again" Arcee said and Dreadwing had a disappointed look "I'm sorry but it would probably be better if you left, Lord Megatron definitely needs you on the bridge" she said and Dreadwing was all disappointed walked away.
Arcee must have sighed a hundred times this day. When I went with the plan to join the Decepticons, I didn't think it would be like this, Arcee thought. She turned and went to the nearest wall and leaned against it. She thought that recharging might help her, but she couldn't stop thinking about someone