tw: abuse

It had been more than a lunar cycle since Zero-IN disappeared and there was still no word from him. Tensions were high among the rest of Starwake's old crew. Shatter had naturally taken over command of the ship, and she gave orders to start patrolling the planet in hopes of locating the AllSpark. However, without Zero-IN to properly calibrate the scanners, they were having no luck at all.

Still furious about her brother's death, Shatter was extremely irritable, and she would vent her frustration by verbally abusing the others. And they just took it because they were used to such things from Starwake, and they didn't want Shatter to get physical either. Or at least not any more physical than roughly shoving them around every once in a while. However, as the solar cycles continued to pass with no news, her temper kept getting shorter.

One day while yelling at Tangent about how useless he was being with the scanners and calling him every bad name in the book, her temper finally snapped, and she raised her servo to strike him. Tangent flinched, bracing. However, X-ray caught Shatter's arm before she could hit the scout.

"That's enough, Shatter," he said.

With a vicious snarl, Shatter whirled around and slammed her other fist into X-ray's face. Letting go of her arm, X-ray staggered back and dropped to one knee.

"Interfering again, you useless scrapheap?" Shatter growled, taking another swing at him.

The other mecha stayed back and either watched while Shatter continued to hit her brother or turned their helm away. Some of them felt a little sorry for X-ray but none of them wanted to get involved. Tangent grimaced with every hit X-ray took and he had to forcibly shut off his vocalizer to keep from whimpering.

Finally, Shatter had her fill and let X-ray crumple to the floor. She turned back toward Tangent again. He flinched and tried to make himself smaller. But she just glared at him for a moment before turning to Yank who was in the pilot seat.

"Take us down," she ordered. "I think it's time for some ground patrols."

"Yessir," Yank replied as he urged the ship to the ground.

They were currently over some flat plains so there was plenty of open space to land. As the ship settled on its landing gear, Shatter turned around and delivered a swift kick to X-ray's chassis while he was trying to get up. The poor mech grunted and was knocked back on his side.

"X-ray can guard the ship," she commanded, stalking off toward the back hatch. "The rest of you are with me."

Queback and Yank were quick to get up and follow after her, not wanting to risk making her any angrier. Tangent, however, got up from his seat and crouched next to X-ray.

"You didn't have to do that, you know," he said as he helped X-ray sit up.

"S'alright. 'M used to it," X-ray mumbled, energon dripping from the corner of his mouth. "You should go."

They heard Yank yell Tangent's name from outside.

"Go," X-ray repeated, lifting his servo to push weakly on Tangent's shoulder. "I'll be fine."

Tangent hesitated a moment longer, feeling guilty, before he finally gave in and hurried off the ship.

X-ray laid his helm back and let out a long, shaky ex-vent. Everything hurt. He was covered in dents, and it was obvious that he had some sort of internal damage, looking at the energon on his digits after wiping off the corner of his mouth. He sighed again, his damaged vents rattling.

It had been a long time since Shatter had beaten him so badly. Usually, Dropkick would have stopped her before she took it this far. But now Dropkick was…

Their trio hadn't been with this crew of Cons long, but it had been fairly obvious that Commander Starwake was ill-tempered and aggressive from the beginning. Despite their similar personalities, Shatter and Starwake hit it off pretty well. However, X-ray didn't think that Starwake was truly capable of being as violent as he knew Shatter could be.

X-ray was pulled from his thoughts by a quiet clatter near the back of the ship. It was too soon for any of the others to be returning. X-ray was, quite honestly, in no condition to fight, or even get up off the floor, but he activated his blaster anyway and waited tensely for something to come into view.

"What in the blazes happened to you, mech?"

Startled, X-ray twisted to point his blaster at the source of the unexpected voice on his other side. He was even more shocked to find Scythe there, perched on the edge of the empty co-pilot seat and staring at him. Panicking a little because he had just pointed his weapon at the Scythe, he deactivated his blaster and bowed his helm.

"Please forgive me, Commander Scythe," he started, "I didn't know it was-"

"I don't care about that," she interrupted. "I asked you a question."

X-ray flinched and kept his helm down. It wasn't that he didn't want to tell her, it was just that he doubted that she would really care regardless of what he told her.

"Not going to answer, huh?" She slipped off the seat and landed on the floor with a quiet thunk. "Let's start with an easier question then." She moved closer so she was standing next to his knee joint and looked up at him. "What's your designation?"

He just stared at her for a moment, wondering why she wanted to know. But then again, it would be disrespectful if he didn't answer. "It's X-ray. My name is X-ray."

"X-ray, huh…"

"His injuries are recent. I can still smell the energon leaking," Leech commented, tails raised slightly in his direction.

Scythe nodded in acknowledgment. "If you're in such a terrible state, why did they leave you to guard the ship alone?"

"Despite my condition, I am still confident in my aim," he answered.

"Is that so?" she purred, tilting her helm. "Then would it be safe to assume you were the one who shot Alfa in the back?"

X-ray stiffened, only to wince right after because the action aggravated his injuries. He looked off to the side to avoid optic contact.

"I'll take that as a 'yes'," she said, climbing up onto his thigh.

His optics darted back to her as he shifted his arm off his lap and away from her.

"Wha-what are you going to do?" he asked nervously.

"You're bleeding," she replied, pulling out the custom med-kit that Bolthex and Fritz made for her. "We're going to patch you up a little."

He watched in disbelief as she expertly popped off a piece of his cracked and dented chassis armor to get to the leaking lines underneath.

"This might feel a bit uncomfortable," she said as Leech reached into X-ray's chassis. "Please, bear with it. And also, don't move."

X-ray offlined his optics and tried not to squirm. He could feel Leech's tails moving around inside him as they worked on patching his leaks. As they were finishing up though, they bumped a particularly sensitive wire and X-ray couldn't help but twitch.

"WHOA!" Leech exclaimed as Scythe pulled them out with her hyperspeed to avoid getting crushed.

"I-I'm sorry!" X-ray cried in a panic. "I-I didn't-"

Scythe quickly climbed up his chassis and put her servo over his mouth to silence him.

"Hush, X-ray," she chided softly while holding his gaze. "It's alright. It's not your fault. Leech and I aren't medics. We've only been trained in first aid. That's why I said it might be uncomfortable." She pulled her servo away from his mouth. "Are you ok? Can we continue?"

X-ray just stared. What in the slag pits was going on? Wasn't Scythe supposed to be scary, cruel, and uncaring? Possibly even worse than Shatter? Then who was this?

"X-ray?" Her helm tilting, concerned.

"Are you really Commander Scythe?" he blurted and then winced, realizing what he had just said.

But she just laughed. "The one and only," she replied, dropping back down to his thigh.

She picked up his armor and snapped it back in place. The dents would work themselves out on their own eventually. She was just interested in stopping his energon leaks. Switching to his other side, she removed the armor from there.

"I'm going in again. Are you ready?" Leech asked, looking up at him.

X-ray braced himself and nodded.

"I suppose you asked that because you've heard about my reputation?" Scythe spoke up, hoping to distract X-ray this time as Leech got to work.

The mech locked his optics on the ceiling, trying to focus on something other than what was happening to his chassis. "Yes."

"I figured. Ucon summed it up quite nicely for me the other solar cycle. 'Tends toward cruelty,' he said. That stung a bit, but I can't deny that it was true."

X-ray caught onto what she said. "'Was'?"

Scythe hummed. "Since Megatron's been gone, I have started to revert back to my original personality. You mechs really got off easy. Had it been past me, I would have cut all of you down without a second thought. Of course," she added thoughtfully, "past me would not have bothered rescuing Echo and Alfa in the first place either."

"Then…" X-ray hesitated. Was it possible…? "Then does this mean that Starwake is still alive?"

"Yes," Scythe replied as Leech extracted itself from the mech's chassis, done with all the leaks in that section.

X-ray looked down at her. "Then why did you kill my brother?"

Her helm jerked up, surprised. "That mech was your brother?"

"Yes," he answered. "His name was Dropkick. Along with Shatter, the three of us have been together since our creation."

"Shatter was the angry, red femme, correct?" she asked.

"Yeah. She can have quite a temper sometimes. She was only holding back because it was you."

"I see. So instead, she took it out on you," she said, looking down again so she could reattach the piece of armor she had pulled off his chassis. Once she was done, she looked back up to find him staring down at her in surprise. "Am I wrong?" she asked.

He exvented, his frame shuddering slightly as some of the tension left it. "...No."

"All that to answer her first question," Leech huffed, crossing their tails. "What a waste of time."

"Oh hush, Leech," Scythe replied, closing up her med-kit. "It's fine." She suddenly looked up and to her right. There seemed to be nothing there but still she spoke. "On their way back already?"

Warpkey materialized out of thin air, startling X-ray. "Affirmative."

"I guess it's time to go then," Scythe said, stowing her med-kit away.

Taking the hint, Warpkey reached down and picked her up. After he deposited her on his shoulder, she pushed up her visor and looked down at the mech on the floor.

"One more thing, X-ray," she prompted, holding up a single digit to her mouth. "We were never here, got it?"

"Yes, Commander," X-ray muttered as they teleported away, leaving the poor mech rather confused by the whole exchange.

It wasn't long before X-ray heard the others returning, just as Scythe had said.

"X-ray, we're back," he heard one of them call so he would know not to shoot them when they came in.

X-ray made optic contact with Shatter when she appeared, but he quickly ducked his helm.

"Anything to report?" she demanded, standing over him with her arms crossed.

She seemed to be in a slightly better mood than when she left but he still kept his helm down. "No, sir."

Shatter hmphed before turning away from him. "Queback, get him out of my sight."

"Right away," Queback answered, quickly moving to X-ray's side. They weren't exactly gentle as they grabbed his arm and pulled him to his peds.

Thanks to Scythe's ministrations though, X-ray was able to mostly keep his peds under him rather than having to suffer Queback dragging him to the back of the ship. Once they were out of sight of Shatter, though, Quebec was slightly more gentle about helping him sit on a storage container.

"Do you need my help?" they asked as they pulled out the ship's med-kit.

"I can handle it," X-ray replied, taking the med-kit from them. "Thanks anyway."

"Suit yourself," Quebec said before walking off.

X-ray just sat there, staring at the med-kit in his servos, and going back over his conversation with Scythe. That's when he realized something. "She never answered my question."

Zero-IN was torn. Joining Scythe was a very logical choice, especially if it meant his continued function. But he was also a Decepticon, and he had sworn loyalty to Lord Megatron. Live or probably suffer some excruciatingly painful torture that would most likely lead to his death.

He was on his own again. Without his scanner, though, he felt useless, so he spent most of his time holed up in the room they gave him, alone with his thoughts. He only went out once in a while to stretch his legs. And of course, check in on Starwake's condition.

He entered the medbay quietly. Fritz was the only medic on duty at the time. He glanced up to see who came in and then went back to his datapad. He was used to Zero-IN's visits, so he generally ignored the dark mech unless he spoke.

Zero-IN made his way over to Starwake's med berth and stopped next to it. From the looks of it, her chassis was completely repaired. But her servos were still… They were technically 'attached', but only with energon tubing and a few wires to keep them viable. Half her forearm and her wrist joints were still missing.

"How is she today?" he asked, servo hovering at the edge of the berth. Yes, she had been a cruel commander but, to him, she was his only comrade in this place.

Fritz set aside his datapad.

"Ready to be woken up actually," he said, coming over. "We are done with her chassis and have already started on her arms, so I think it's about time. I'll take her off the sedatives now, but she might not regain consciousness right away."

Fritz took Starwake off the sedatives that were keeping her in induced stasis and, after checking to make sure her vitals remained steady, went back to his datapad.

Zero-IN took a seat on the med berth next to Starwake's to wait. He was going to stay there until she woke up, no matter how long it took.

Sometime later, Delta came back from his scheduled recharge to take over for Fritz.

"Anything I should be aware of?" he asked, glancing in Zero-IN's direction.

"I took the patient off sedation, she should be waking up any time now," Fritz replied. "However, it has been half a solar cycle already."

"Ah! Starwake?" They heard Zero-IN exclaim as he quickly slipped off the med berth and over to hers.

The two medics hurried over to look. Starwake's optics were online but dim and unfocused.

"Starwake?" Zero-IN asked again, laying a servo gently on her shoulder.

Starwake opened her mouth and tried to speak but only static came out. It took a moment for her to reset her vocalizer before she tried again.

"I-I am alive?" she gasped.

"Yes! Yes, you are!" Zero-IN cried. "Starwake, do you know who I am?"

Her optics started to focus as she looked over at him. She blinked a few times while the inner workings of her optics adjusted so she could properly see.

"Zero-IN," she confirmed, after a moment. Her gaze shifted to look beyond him. "Where are we?"

It was Delta that answered. "Commander Scythe's medbay."

Starwake flinched, frame shuddering at the name. She turned her focus to the two mechs that came up on her other side.

"Why did she keep me alive?" she asked, voice quivering. "Does she intend to punish me more?"

Delta and Fritz shared a look.

"Depends on if you consider getting a chance to redeem yourself a form of punishment," offered Fritz.

Starwake stared. "...What?"

"Commander Scythe seems to be different from the rumors about her," Zero-IN commented. "She is not as loyal as everyone thinks."

"Nor is she nearly as cold-sparked," Fritz added, turning to the monitor to check Starwake's vitals again.

"What Zero-IN meant was that the commander is not as loyal to the Decepticons and Megatron as everyone thinks," Delta corrected, shooting a glare at the dark mech. "However, she would never abandon anyone under her command, as you have witnessed. She is offering you both a place here. You have until your repairs are done to decide."

Starwake's optics went wide. "Repairs!? You are repairing me?"

"The commander's orders," Delta replied. "We've already finished with your chassis. But your arms are still in pieces."

"So that is why I can't move them," Starwake muttered, lifting her helm to look down at herself. She laid her helm back down with a sigh. "Can I have some time alone to think?"

"Certainly," Delta said, moving away from the med berth.

Fritz followed him. They conversed for a moment by the door and then Fritz left as it was his turn to recharge.

"I said I want to be alone," Starwake growled quietly when Zero-IN did not move. "Just because I am laid up doesn't mean you don't have to follow orders, Zero-IN."

The dark mech flinched slightly at her harsh tone. "Yessir. Sorry, sir," he said quickly before leaving.

"How long will it take to finish my repairs?" Starwake asked aloud after lying there in silence for a while.

Delta set aside the task he was working on and came over to her berthside. "Well, we are still waiting on Bolthex to forge some new parts so, probably another lunar cycle at least."

"Laid up for a whole lunar cycle? How grand."

"I'm sure we could get you back on your peds before that, if you want. You just wouldn't be able to use your servos."

"Not ideal but better than nothing, I guess."

"I can't give you a definite answer at this exact moment, however. I need to consult with Fritz first, since he's the Chief Medical Officer. If he says no, the other option is putting you back into stasis."

"How long was I in stasis before?"

"It's been about a lunar cycle since the incident." Delta hummed. "Speaking of, I should probably report your awakening to the commander."

Starwake shifted slightly on the med berth, obviously uncomfortable about the idea, but didn't say anything in reply.

Delta noticed. "Yeah, I get it. My first meeting with her didn't go so well either," he said, reaching up to tap the permanent burn mark on his chestplates. "But once you get to know her, she really isn't that scary… Most of the time."

"I suppose I should take that as a compliment."

Both of them flinched at the sound of Scythe's voice. They looked over to find her perched on the edge of the next med berth. Or at least, Starwake assumed it was her. The being that was there was smaller than Scythe's usual appearance, as well as soft looking and organic, but overall, very squishable.

"What's with the fleshling look?" Delta asked, used to the fact that Scythe will just randomly show up sometimes and it is best just to roll with it.

"Oh, I just figured this would make me appear less intimidating," the being spoke in a voice that did not match their organic looks.

"I mean, yes, it does," Delta agreed. But then added, "Until you speak."

"Alright, fine," Scythe grumbled, transforming. "I guess there is no way to win right now."

Starwake immediately averted her gaze to stare at the ceiling.

"See?" Scythe sighed, shoulders falling. "Anyway, Delta, what is the situation?"

"As long as Fritz approves," he explained, "she'll be able to get up and walk around even though her servos aren't finished."

"Good. And you told her about my offer?"

"Yes-" Delta started to say.

Starwake interrupted. "I said I wanted to think about it."

"Of course. That is perfectly fine." Scythe got to her peds. "I'll be going then." And teleported out of there.

"She was attempting to consider my feelings just now, wasn't she?" Starwake asked, staring at the now empty med berth.

"Yes," answered Delta.

She looked up at him. "Why?"

He returned her gaze. "Because she wants you to say yes to her offer."

"Do you think she is aware that I could say yes and then betray her later?"

"I am sure she is aware of that," he replied. "Even if you do say yes though, because of what you did, I suspect it will take her a long time to fully trust you. And if betrayal is your decision, well, the only way you will survive is if you run for the stars, because there is no place on this planet she won't find you." He turned and spoke over his shoulder as he walked away. "My advice: why make an enemy out of a monster when they want to be your friend."