Notes/ Yay! Updating quickly this time it seems. And I'm much happier with this chapter than I was with a last couple of them. I've got a fair bit of action in this one, which I still doubt myself in my ability write well, though others see to like anyway, so... I've also written a good bit of them one using Cybershock's perspective again, which is obviously different because she's little. It's interesting though, writing in 'kid vision' and I had fun doing it.
"You're so quiet tonight, Arcee," Knockout said. He smiled at her in the dim lighting of their room, and shifted a little on the recharge station, so that he could look at her, laying stay on the side that faced toward him, with her optics still wide open. "Are you feeling alright?"
"Just fine," Arcee answered. And she moved then so that she could lay on her back and smile up at him. When he moved a little more, laying flat again and shuffling closer to her, she moved again to rest her head against his body armour. "I just... I've been doing some thinking..."
"Sounds dangerous," Knockout joked, laughing quietly until she lightly smacked him.
"What are you thinking?" he asked then, making a show of rubbing the arm she'd smacked, pretending she'd hurt him – which of course she hadn't in the least.
"Thoughts I only hope will make you happy," Arcee answered. Her tone was and odd mix now of nervous and playful. And she held her head up a moment resting on her elbows on the recharge station grinning, before she lowered her head again to rest it against him. "Thoughts I only hope won't scare you half to death."
"Arcee... this sounds serious..." Knockout was nervous now. But he stayed where he was, letting her hug him.
"I think..." his mate said slowly. And her voice was just slightly muffled, her face-plate against his body panels. "I think we should try for another youngling..."
"What?" Knockout exclaimed, after the long moment it had taken just for his processor to register exactly what it was she was suggesting. And now that he could easily sit himself up on the recharge station, he did so the second she raised her head from his plating. "Arcee... what?"
"I can't even gauge your true reaction," Arcee said. She laughed a little, but it was nervous laughter. "All I see is sheer terror in your optics..."
"We already have a youngling," Knockout replied hesitantly, as soon as he'd managed to at least began to collect his thoughts and calm himself again. Then he smiled brightly in her direction. "One beautiful and perfect little bot."
"I know. But the only thing better than one perfect little bot, might just be two perfect little bots..."
"You... you're completely serious..."
"Of course I'm serious."
"We talked it over before Cybershock was born. Decided she was our happy accident and we would do our best, but she would be our only one..."
"We decided that when we thought you'd likely never walk again," Arcee answered, sitting up beside him, and smiling. "When we were still facing the fact that you'd never be close to ever fully functioning again. It made sense then... there's no way we could have handled any more... though you sure surprised everyone with just how efficient you were with her once she was born. But things are different now. You can do so much. You can chase after Cybershock while I hold the newborn... then we can trade off. And with you mobile on your own, I can tend to both at once while you do what you need to..."
"Arcee... where did this come from?"
"Cybershock is getting older every day," Arcee said, considering her words as she spoke. "Of course I love my growing young child with all of my spark, but I miss my tiny baby. 'Bee and Speedy's twins are so cute and helpless, and Hotwire loves them both so much. All he talked about today at the preschool was how he's a big brother now. They'll all get to grow up together, as siblings. I feel sad those days to think that Cybershock won't get to have what they all do. And then, you held that youngling patient of yours the other day, while we had Cybershock with us outside the base. And I saw how well we can really do together with two little bots at once." Arcee lay back down again, bringing her bondmate with her as she did. And she moved again, shifting so that she could lay once again with her head resting on his chest panel and hug him. She smiled a little just as soon as he hugged her right back. And right away she went on with her musings. "This apartment of ours may not be huge, but we still have plenty of room for one more in here..."
"Arcee," Knockout said seriously. And his great concern was clear. "My own limitations were not the only reason we decided Cybershock would be the only child we'd ever have. Sure we were pretty well decided all along on that. But I think you nearly dying due to medical complications of her spark separation kind of made that final for us. Plus, she did have such a rough start in her frame, even if it did work out fine.."
"I've already spoken to Ratchet," Arcee answered slowly. "I know I should have talked to you first. But I wanted another opinion to be sure it was even possible, before I talked to you. He made it clear I'd be high risk right out of the gate. I kinda figured that much. He's not exactly pleased, but he said he's hardly shocked either that I'd want this anyway. And if we did succeed in producing a newspark, both I and said newspark would have the best care possible. With Cybershock, we did everything right. For it to end in near disaster... that was all just bad luck. As I understand it, there's no reason to think that in carrying again I couldn't be perfectly fine."
"I think we need to think on this awhile." Knockout's answer was far from agreement. But it was certainly not refusal either. And as the pair shifted again, both of them getting comfortable for a night's recharge, she saw him smile in the dimness of the room.
Cybershock knew full well she should have been in recharge. The darkness outside her small window, which she lay next to, told her it was sometime in the middle of the night. Still, she was wide awake regardless, had no idea why, and simply couldn't help it. The youngling bot sat up on her recharge station, pulling her black and white checkered cover up with her as she did. And for a good while she just sat like that, staring out the small window beside her, at hundreds of bright distant stars that shone high above.
The young bots in her preschool class liked to say that stars were tiny lights, hung above the world from invisible strings. And that every night, sometime just after sunset, somebot living alone high up in the sulphur mountains would flip a switch and 'turn on' the stars. Cybershock had never told them so, because she knew it wasn't very nice – but she'd always thought that was just plain stupid. Stars were burning hot massive objects, much like Cybertron's own sun, but so far away that they looked like simple dots of light instead of blazing balls. Her Creator had taught her that one night, while she sat on his lap on the patio. He taught her so many things. And though she sometimes asked far too many questions, and she knew it, he never seemed to tire of answering them for her.
Once last week, he'd taken her down to the sidewalk, out the doors of their building, after the sky had turned dark, and she was still wide awake, so that they could watch the sky from there instead. He'd pointed to the east and them to the north-west, gesturing carefully to groups of stars high above them. And he explained that once, on a place called Earth, the human race had given names to their own vastly different such groups. His best human friend, Miko, had taught him a few of them once. Cybershock had tried herself then to see images in the stars over Cybertron. She'd seen them at once, when she let herself try. And she'd pointed and clapped her hands, excited, while she explained what each one could be, and her creator had laughed, smiling. Her carrier had wandered out then, wondering where in the world either one had gone, because neither of them had thought to tell her anything while she was busy on the commlink. And she'd laughed too, sitting down on the sidewalk, listening intently while Cybershock explained to her exactly what it was she'd just discovered, looking at the sky.
The youngling sat up straighter on her recharge station, turning a little so she could lean against her window. And with her face-plate pressed against it, she looked out, trying hard to get a better view, to see far more of the huge night sky all at once. But the window was small and the sky was so big. And Cybershock slowly crept from her recharge station altogether, walking slowly across her room and out to the hallway, still dragging her cover, wrapped loosely around her frame, as she walked.
The apartment was dark. But that didn't bother her at all. She found the door to her creators' room easily. And found it closed tightly. She listened, close to it for a second and heard nothing at all from inside. Both of then then sound in recharge. Cybershock dropped the cover somewhere in front of their closed door, and she simply walked on with a tiny shrug, out toward the living room. She crossed that quickly, guided by the dim light that shone day and night from the main corridor outside the apartment. The youngling reached up in order to touch the front of her hand to a small switch next to the door, unlocking the door so that it slid open when she stood in front of it it. Once it had, she hurried out of the apartment.
Running to the end of the corridor, she reached the elevator. And though it crossed her mind to wonder for a second if its doors would slide open for a bot of her tiny size, they sure enough did. She stepped on at once, and thinking a second, recalling exactly what she'd always done each time either of her creators let her do it when she rode up and down with them, she reached up to grab the lever on the wall, and pulled it down, setting it to 'one' for the ground floor. And not before she'd made a mental note to set it to 'ten' to get back up again. The elevator was empty, and although she'd expected it would be, she was still surprised with just how big it suddenly seemed to her, in there all by herself for the first time in her life. Still she just smiled a little, leaning causally against the back wall like so many of the grown bots seemed to do when they rode up and down - and counted down the numbers of the floors as each one flashed before her on the little screen above the door, before the doors popped open again at the end of the short ride.
Standing a second later in the main atrium, just as well lit as the hallway at had at that late hour, she looked around a moment and wondered if perhaps she ought to go on back upstairs to her family's apartment. For a second more it occurred to her that she ought to be nervous, out of the apartment all by herself. But no grown bot even seem to be so when they ventured anywhere. And she reasoned that she therefore had little reason to fear either. With another small shrug, followed quickly by a grin, Cybershock ran to the main doors leading to the street outside, and grinned brighter when they slid open just as easily as the doors to the elevator had.
The youngling certainly knew better than to be outside by herself. She knew it was surely something her carrier would call her 'bad little bot' for doing, if she ever knew. And she certainly didn't want to be bad. Still she didn't see the harm and her creators were sure still both recharging without any hint at all that she was even gone. She'd be back quickly, she decided at once. And she only wanted to look at the sky.
The air was cool, and it chilled her armour just a little as soon as she stepped outside of the building. And it was dark too. Much darker then it had even looked from her window high above, even with the streetlights glowing along both sides of the empty street. Cybershock had never been outside so late at night ever before in her life. And standing on the dark walkway she'd never seen truly empty before, just that tiny part the world seemed huge. Stepping away from the building just a short distance, she turned around to look way up toward the windows of her family's small apartment. It took her a while to find it, because she'd only even done it in daylight before. But she knew it faced the street, and front there it was only a matter of counting ten floors up, using the windows – which was strangely tricky to do at night because strange shadows covered the windows and the metal of the building's front, and it was all so dim besides. Finally though she stopped her own checked curtains of her recharge room, and the beige ones mounted in the living room, and looked oddly dark greyish in the dark. Between the two windows was that of her creators' room (their own curtains blended into the darkness to well to really see at all, but she knew the window because it was between those she could recognize.) And the lack of any light from there made her smile just a little because she knew they had still not woken up to find her gone.
Cybershock plopped down into a seated position on the cold smooth metal of the walkway next to the street. And leaning with her back lightly against the building, she looked up into the sky. Her face-plate broke out into a joyful grin at once, when she saw the endless stars high above. She easily thought there had to be a million of them, way more then she'd seen ever before, filling Cybertron's dark sky with tiny dots of white light in any direction. And with her spark racing with her joy, she looked around the sky above quickly, trying hard to find the familiar pictures she'd seen formed by those same stars so recently.
To her left were the 'hungry scraplets,' which she'd named because fourteen stars reminding her of two such creatures, mouths wide open. (At least it seemed so from pictures she'd seen in a data pad once, deciding just as quickly that day, she would never want to see a real living one.) Right above her was the 'Autobot warrior,' posed forever watching over the world with his blaster in his hand. Somewhere to the right were both the 'two wheeler' and the 'racing car.' And not far from those was the one she'd finally called 'hey, who spilled the energon,' because at least two hundred tiny far away stars looked like something literally spilled carelessly across a corner of the sky.
A strange and unexpected moving shadow passed by then, across the sky. And for a second it covered the stars that Cybershock was staring up at. The youngling turned her head at once, to watch it as it turned sharply in the air high overhead, and flew back in a direction close to the way it had come. She wondered, mostly just in passing who it might have been. And hoping that whoever it was hadn't seen her clearly, or at least didn't know her creators in order to tell them they had, she tried to think of everybot she knew of with a flying alt mode. She was startled though - and would have jumped back a mile had she not been seated and up against a building - when she realized that whoever it was she was watching, she had not heard the usual and familiar loud noise of a roaring engines from it.
She heard instead the loud steady beating of heavy wings. And she got to her feet at once, looking around frantically to follow the shadowed shape in her growing confusion, as whoever it was flew high above the top of the building she lived in. She lost sight of it quickly as it went fast over the roof, and and she realized only than that whoever that bot had been, it was someone much bigger than most bots she knew. And curious where she knew perhaps she ought of have been scared instead, she stood for a good moment longer, staring up just as high as she could toward the roof of the high rise, just hoping the flying figure would turn around somewhere and reappear again. And she was entirely confused when a second after that, she heard the noise of engines that she might have easily expected in the moments before. It made at least some sense when she understood in a second of simply paying attention, that the sound of engines had come from a different direction.
"A good evening to you, small youngling," said somebot behind her. And Cybershock turned around at once to see whoever had spoken, transform in the middle of the street from a huge jet mode and into a proportionately huge bot mode.
"Hello," Cybershock said, politely though hesitant. She had been warned at least a hundred times in her life to be careful around strange bots – and this one certainly appeared strange, landing in the empty street in the dark of night.
"Tell me then, youngling," the huge stranger, a shiny silver one with optics the colour of her creator's, said. "Who are you? And to whom do you belong?"
The youngling just stood still a second staring up into the face-plate of this bot, before looking down to decide she didn't like the look of his sharpened claw-like fingers on his two huge hands.
"My name is Cybershock," she said, still hesitant, but deciding there was still little cause to be downright impolite to a bot she'd only just met. The questioning of her 'belonging' confusing her though for a second, because as far as she knew she'd never belonged to anyone. Finally though, understanding dawned, and she realized exactly what he'd clearly meant. "My creator and carrier are Autobots Knockout and Arcee."
It felt strange to her to use their actual names. She never had before, though she did know them of course. They had taught her once to remember both of their names well, just in case she ever got lost, they'd said once. She was glad now to know she'd really remembered.
"Ah yes," the stranger said. He smiled a strangely frightful looking smile and showed a mouthful of sharpened teeth to match his fingertips. And the ground vibrated just a little as he took a few slow steps toward the youngling, who might have backed up had she not be still been close to the wall. "I knew them well."
"You... you do?" Cybershock's voice was a mix now of surprise and even curiosity mixed in with quickly growing unease. And she watched the strange bot for a moment, as he tapped the pointed fingers of his hands together and grinned a grin that looked more like a snarl than much else.
"I did indeed," he said. And he took another step closer. "Knockout far more of the two however. Tell me, Cybershock," his optics flashed then with a much brighter crimson and the look he gave in that second unnerved her at once. "How much do you really know about your creator?"
"Lots!" Cybershock said And in spite of her and fully knowing far better, she took a bold step forward and planted her hands on her hips, just hoping she might somehow appear the slightest bit bigger than she really was. "I know that he's a wonderful medic, and he used to be a street racer. And telling him he'll never do something again only makes him try to work out exactly how to do it anyway. I know he loves my carrier and she loves him, and they both love me!"
"I don't suppose you know about his life before you happened," the silver painted stranger said slowly. And tone of voice well combined with the way he stepped forward slightly faster now, seemed increasingly sinister. "He wasn't always an Autobot. But you wouldn't have known that."
"I Think I know the basics," Cybershock answered. And she tried on purpose for her very best 'grown bot language,' while she looked the silver stranger in the optics and sidestepped slightly closer to the building's door. And her her surprise the huge stranger just laughed, a low chuckle far more menacing this time, before he stepped in front of the door, blocking the youngling's path.
"I... I think," Cybershock said boldly as she could manage. And she held a finger in the stranger's direction in pointed accusation. "You're a Decepticon!"
The stranger's laughter grew louder, and he just shook his head, Cybershock hurried away from the door she;d been inching toward. And she stepped out into the empty street because she couldn't think of anywhere else that she could go. Slowly, his voice just as low as his laughter by now, the silver painted stranger spook again.
"No no, Cybershock. Ah, well I suppose you are partly correct. I certainly was a Decipticon once. In fact," he held his hand then to emphasize his point, and he chuckled again darkly. "I built the cause. Every 'Con on Cybertron and later the universe – they all followed me, served the cause because I taught them to."
The huge silver bot stood silent a brief moment, just shaking his head as though he was almost confused, or least somehow conflicted. He wrung his hands together and took a few steps forward, moving surprisingly fast for a bot so big. His red optics flashed brighter again fro a second, before he smiled again. And finally he held out a hand, just as though he thought the youngling might actually offer him hers right back.
"I gave it up, you see," he said, explaining. "I have seen the grave error of my ways. Tyranny destroyed this world once, Cybershock. Five million bots died on battle fields all in the name of a war that I know was all my own fault. I didn't listen to the many that over, over many centuries, of how we might still find peace on our world. In fact I quickly grew so tired of hearing their opinions that I cut off their heads!"
Cybershock had never heard such violent talk before. The Autobots told war their war stories to younglings often, because she and her friends were all so curious and they liked to hear about it. But they 'kept it clean' in the words of her carrier, and told youngling friendly 'tame' versions of their battle tales. Never had she ever heard mention of any bot cutting off another's head! This bot so violent, Cybershock decided quickly. And though she had not liked him even the slightest bit to begin with, she made up her mind that she liked him far less by then.
The youngling looked up again, toward the windows she had identified already as those of her family's apartment. And just as much as she had been relieved when moments before those windows were dark, her spark sank now at seeing they still were. Coolant tears formed in her optics when she understood no one knew even then that she was outside at all. And she wasn't sure exactly how to reach the door while this stranger she'd already seen move so fast, clearly did not want her to.
"I have found new purpose now," the huge silver bot said. He gave another sinister chuckle and took a step toward the youngling again. He stared at her now, his optics never leaving her for a second. "I did so many wrongs, committed so many unspeakable acts against Cybertron and Cybertronian kind! The worst of it all, I fear every day, might have been to leave behind living bots effected so terribly by everything I made them become. The only thing I can hope for now is that I can terminate them all one by one, and wipe away the stain of their corruption left behind on our new world!"
Cybershock back up a few good paces at once, and she would have kept on going, clean across the road with the thought of turning, running, and reaching the building that Bumblebee and Speedbreaker lived in, across the road and two doors down. But she tripped over her own feet at the worst possible second. And before she could scramble back up to standing, the huge silver bot grabbed her with one huge strong arm. And he lifted her from the ground at once, holding her high above the street, while he just chuckled again and shook his head.
"Put me down!" Cybershock screamed. And she kicked him as hard as she could in the metal of his chest panel, knowing full well that his was far too big and strong to really be hurt by a kick from a small youngling, but hoping the metal on metal noise would cause someone to wake up somewhere and run to their windows. And held tightly by the huge bot, she tilted her head up, to stare him in the optics. "You're someone dangerous I think. My carrier says I don't need to like everyone. And I don't like you!"
"Understandable, young Cybershock," the stranger chuckled horribly again. "I'm not exactly the likeable sort. I came to the city tonight to look for your creator actually. You see, he served my cause under me for a century or more, before he defected to the Autobots. Somewhere along the line he must have fallen in love with that carrier of yours, which I must say is a bit... unforeseen. I hadn't exactly expected at all however that Knockout also has a child..." his optics blazed that awful brighter red again, and he growled as he tightened his grip on the youngling, who let out her best and loudest scream to make noise, and just hopping it might scare him off. "You are the youngling of a corrupted Deception, a broken spark that can never be fully repaired of the damage I did. He can only ruin you to in turn ruin the next generation after. I will therefore extinguish your own tiny spark tonight. I cannot, I will not let my own endless damage continue to plague this world I only wish to repair once and for all!"
Cybershock's spark pounded then, and for a second she was frozen with terror so great she could not even move. But quickly she did move again, kicking her tiny feet harder against the stranger's body armour, hitting him anywhere her feet could possibly land. And she screamed, yelling louder than she'd ever yelled before, just as though her life depended on it. Because in that second she understood it really may have indeed depended on it. This bot truly meant to kill her, and she knew he could if he really did want to. She was a small second frame youngling still far from, just beginning to read simple code. And he was so big and strong and sparkless.
She thought then of her creator and her carrier, still high above somewhere in the family apartment they all so happily shared together. And ever at her young age, Cybershock knew her off-lining would matter to them. She remembered quickly each of the very few times she'd ever seen her carrier cry. And she thought then that she would surely cry harder than she ever had before, giving up on working in the preschool and missing her only baby. And her creator, disabled and struggling all her life and finally so close to really walking again – she knew at once he'd simply give up on trying, because so much of everything he tried to do, he tried it all for her. She knew his processor had failed twice before – once after she'd already existed and once before, but she'd never really thought to wonder before how and why that happened. It had always just been something she was just sort of aware of as a fact of her life. But she wondered it all now, and her spark pulsed still faster when she wondered if perhaps her passing would cause it to fail again. It would surely be enough to kill him this time, if it did happen that way. And she cried hot heavy tears of coolant when she understood just as quickly that his spark would surely been broken entirely regardless of what happened to him. And if was possibly to cry still harder, she did when she remembered in eh next fleeting second that none of that mattered, because this evil stranger fully planned to kill him too when he was done with her.
"No, no no, please no," Cybershock begged, shaking from her hard sobbing cries. "I can't die. I can't!"
"A quick and honourable passing from this life," the huge silver stranger growled at her. And his optics flashed with something that looked like so strangely twisted and sickening pity before he only glared again at her. "A good and clean death for you, worthy of a warrior."
"Let me go!" Cybershock shrieked. And her optics travelled in that second back again to the windows of her home.
There were lights now, bright in every room, including her own. And it made her spark sunk to see the lights now, because she understood it was far too late. It was only a matter of a moment now before her creators came downstairs because they'd realized she was nowhere inside. And they might just made it just in time to see her dead, or even to watch it happen, unable to do a thing but beg. Cybershock was so consumed with her panic, that she heard nothing at all of another engine, as the second flying alt mode approached.
"Megatron!" a voice roared across the darkness of the night. And Cybershock's spark surely skipped a full pulse when she heard the name she recognized from war stories. It surely skipped another when she understood the identity of the bot that still held her off the ground.
She turned around, as as well as she could in her partly pinned position, and her optics locked on Soundwave, who stood on the walkway next to the street. This was the first time she had ever seen the standoffish nearly silent bot without his usual cover over his face-plate, and she could clearly see that he was downright glaring at the stranger, with his own optics full of burning rage.
"Soundwave," the huge silver stranger – Megatron – said. His tone was terrifying now. "Stay out out of this. You lack any true understanding of the damage I seek to rectify."
"I will destroy you," Soundwave answered. His voice, usually quiet or least it was when he talked the little he did with most bots on the base, was powerful and serious. "My own greatest mistake, and one I seek to undo quickly, was once allowing you to live in the pits of Kaon."
"Soundwave. You... you were once my most loyal of subjects..."
"I was loyal once to your dream of a united and equal Cybertron, a world where no bot suffered as a slave. And then you changed and I watched the world suffer, enslaved by you and the war you declared, instead of the corrupted high council. The world of today is the one I wanted – the one we all wanted. We have succeeded where you failed. You twisted depravity knows no end. You would truly snuff out the spark of this youngling for your lack of understanding."
"Soundwave, I'm afraid you don't understand."
"I'll tear your spark from your frame, Megatron. Let go of that child at once."
"I can't see why you would possibly care about this youngling," Megatron growled. And Cybershock felt his grip tighten around her even more. "She's Knockout's young one. Not yours."
"The younglings are the future," Soundwave answered, his voice just as strong as before, and he advanced toward the larger bot fast, without the tiniest hint of backing down. "They belong to new Cybertron. They will grow up in a world without fear, and place free from you!"
"I have wanted to fight against you again for a long time, Soundwave. Fist to fist and face-plate to face-plate. Just like we fought in the good old days of Kaon! So much better for two bots of our history, than our recent little scrap in the crystal cave!"
"You attacked me from behind! Like a coward! Tried to break my neck before I caught an intake..."
"An early attempt to right my wrongs. And there will be another were you are concerned, be assured."
"That child did nothing to you!"
"You cannot judge the things you do not understand!"
"Put. Her. Down." Soundwave's voice was grating with his rage, as he took another step. And Megatron just laughed a second, before he dropped the youngling to the street.
Cybershock had not expected to be dropped like that. And she gasped, an intake knocked from her frame as she hit the ground on her knees, which scrapped on the metal of the road, kept rough to give traction to alt-mode tires. Megatron had clearly not meant to drop her at all, because he lurched forward not a second after, about to scoop her up again with another wicked snarl.
But Soundwave was faster, perhaps because he was smaller – and he surely had to have been younger too. His frame collided hard with Megatron's at once, a fist striking the huge bot's chest panel with enough precision to cause him to gasp and sputter for a second or two. Soundwave followed through at once with a kick and another one right after, leaving dents in the huge silver bot's frame. And Megatron retaliated quickly, slamming a heavy fist into the side of Soundwave's upper body with a loud and heavy crash, making him stumble backward two steps before he easily caught his balance again.
Cybershock had watched bots in their training matches before so many times. Her carrier enjoyed training with the others of her former team. And though she was much smaller than any of the bots she fought against in the training gym, Cybershock knew well by then, she would easily smash the tail pipe of anybot who dared to call her helpless or weak. Just days ago, sitting on the floor in the corner of the training gym and out of the way, she'd watched as her carrier put Bulkhead onto the floor, by simply tripping him up with one spinning kick, before she promptly jumped onto his chest panel to kneel on it for a count of three. She'd seen Smokescreen and Bumblebee punch and kick each other safely but still both so clearly determined to win, until one of them had simply given up. Wheeljack's thing was so clearly fighting for more with short range weapons then his fists and his feet. And she'd seen him use them well, defeated anybot that dared to challenge him on the training mats - Soundwave included and that was apparently impressive.
But those matches had always just been training. It was always something bots did for recreation, fitness and even simply for fun. Cybertronians, it seemed so clear, might have had an almost inborn instinct to fight – or least it seemed they did when they got a little older. Never before had Cybershock even seen bots fighting like this. Megatron was certainly not just messing around, and neither was Soundwave. Their frames slammed together, fist to face-plate and foot to chest panel and side seam, until energon streamed from various places on both of their bodies. There was a sound of something snapping, and whatever that something was, it sounded important. Soundwave yelled for just a second with pain, but still neither bot stopped. And Cybershock, sitting up on the edge of the road, too nervous to move much further, watched them, horrified and realizing that Soundwave was clearly losing.
Soundwave had been a pit fighter once. More than one bot had mentioned it a time or two. And Cybershock may not have known exactly what that entailed, but she knew it meant he was someone a bot may not have wanted to be on the wrong side of. And though he'd always been just a nearly silent and tech bot in all the time she'd known him, she could almost imagine he must have once been downright dangerous. But she knew too, just as well that it had been centuries since his time in the fighting pit. And Soundwave was all too clearly just slightly out of shape and very out of practice.
He'd kept up for a while, or had even been ahead in the brawl. He'd managed to wrap his long dangerous cables from somewhere inside his frame, around Megatron's legs, and cause him to fall, with a thunderous crash. And the kicks and the fast heavy blows he rained on him were certainly impressive. But soon, it was he getting hit far more, and harder than ever. The cables let go, and Soundwave fell hard to the ground once onto his knees. In only a second he'd gotten up again, but this time he was knocked flat onto his face-plate.
"You should knew well, Soundwave to never challenge me," Megatron roared. And with one fast move, he'd grabbed his oppionant hard by his shoulders, flinging him just as quickly across the ground, where he fell a third time, in a halfway crumpled heap close to the youngling.
"Cybershock," Soundwave mumbled, clearly shocked that she was still standing there outside near the road. "Get inside. Go! You need to notify the police."
"S... Soundwave..." Cybershock cried. And though she tried to avoid it, her simply word turned at once to tears all over again. Soundwave was questionable in character as far as Cybertron was concerned. She knew just as well as she knew too many other things about the world already. But he was a friend to her creator, and Firestorm – another grown up bot she choose to look up to – loved him. He was soon to be a real Autobot, switching sides just like her creator had once done. And to her, all of those things were enough to make him decent in her book. She'd always been just a little bit afraid of him, keeping her distance where she might have talked easily to most anyone else, mumbling quite polite hellos when the others around her did, because it was... well... polite. She felt bad for it now, that she had never been truly nice to him, when she was to anyone else."
"Run back to your carrier," Soundwave said, gasping hard and winded. And he gestured toward the building doors.
"I will right my every wrong!" Megatron raged. "Every one of them. Including you Soundwave. Including that youngling, and Knockout just as soon as he comes looking for his baby. And I won't stop there. Shockwave is next. And there are still living troopers. And..."
The huge bot lunged at Soundwave again, fist poised for another hard, and probably dangerous blow right against his chest panel, which was already dented so badly and bleeding energon all over him. But he stopped both his rant and the swing of his first right in the middle of everything, staring up instead toward the sky, with horror on his face-plate.
Cybershock turned too look as well, and and she was certain Soundwave did too.
The figure flying across the sky earlier – though it seemed suddenly so long ago now – was back. And with furious beating of it's huge wings, it came much closer than it had before, quickly swooping lower in the air, and right toward the ground. A predacon! Cybershock recognized it then, as it come close enough to see it's beast form. It roared loudly enough to shake the windows partway up in buildings on both sides of the roadway. And energon fuelled fire bellowed from it's open mouth, as it circled once, low overhead.
The predacon landed on the road with one hard noise as it's whole enormous body hit at once. The beast did not waste a second. Leaping at Megatron in one great jump, it knocked him clean off his feet, where he landed backward cracking his head on the opposite walkway. The large bot screamed, a noise Cybershock was shocked to hear from him. And she cringed, watching in terror as the predacon all but destroyed him in only a couple of moments. There was more noise of screaming and yelling, a terrible curse and a mumbled threat on the creature's life. But soon there was nothing but a silver unmoving silver well mauled frame socked in energon on the metal ground.
"Is he...? Is he...?" Cybershock mumbled shaking, crying and trying hard to ask if Megatron was dead. But she could barely manage to speak.
She watched the creature turn then, and she saw it advance toward her in slow steps. It's head swung back and forth just as slowly as it walked, and out behind it, it's erogenous and clearly heavy tail, one obviously capable of lethal damage in itself, swung from one side to the other. Cybershock was just about to scream again, as it stopped walking to stand right over her, it's read and dark silverish head just a foot from hers.
She shut her optics tightly, sure she might just be about to be roasted by it's energon fire, just as sure she could do not a thing to help herself, and far too fully frozen with terror to move regardless. But nothing happened. Nothing at all. She opened her optics again, dismayed, to find the huge prediction simply sniffing at her frame, before it pawed her gently with a powerful clawed hand.
The beast transformed then. She had never had any idea at all that the predacons had bot modes. And this one's was massive and powerful. He backed up a step, extending a hand with such obvious doubt and hesitation. The youngling reached up to take up, just as slow and hesitant herself.
"Th... thank... y... you..." she mumbled, still shaking hard as tears streamed down her face-plate. She looked to her left, where Soundwave lay still as anything half on the walkway and half on the street. "S... Soundwave is... hurt..."
"Cybershock!" the voice of her carrier all but screamed somewhere behind her.
The youngling turned slowly, to see her standing in front of their building doors. Her creator was close beside her, sitting on his mobility cart, without even having bothered to do up his seat belt. They'd been there for a while, at least a couple of minutes. That was obvious. But the youngling knew, in the chaos they'd have no hope at all of reaching her. So... that had been why Soundwave had yelled to her to run to her carrier then...
"Primus, slagging scrap this could have been bad!" her carrier muttered, her tone still close to screaming it all out instead of just talking. "What were you doing out here. Tonight, of any night to venture on out of the house! Primus, Cybershock, don't you ever ever do that again!"
"Mama..." Cybershock said. And she wanted to say more, mostly in apology and promises to indeed never do that again. But she just burst out sobbing again instead, her face-plate at once hidden against her carrier's chest panel, just as soon as she was lifted from the walkway and up into her arms, clearly without regard at all for how heavy she was.
"You're safe," her carrier's voice said, obvious shaking then she tried so clearly just as hard to stop it. "We found you."
Cybershock lifted her head again after a moment. She wanted to hug her creator as well, just like she had already hugged, and been hugged by, her carrier. But he was busy, still sitting on his cart, with a scanner in his hand, he'd driving closer to where Soundwave had fallen, and was assessing him carefully with the scanner. Cybershock knew at once to let his entire attention fall on his work, because that was so important then. So her gaze travelled instead back toward the predacon, who simply stood where he was, appearing to contemplate something.
"Who is...?" the youngling tried to question, still barely able to speak a word.
"Who is that?" her carrier said, supplying the question her youngling had been unable to make her vocallizer ask. And she gave a small, anxious hint of a smile in spite of the mess all about them. "We call him Predaking." Cybershock watched her as she looked, with a strange expression in the predicon-in-bot-mode's direction. "His people's story is a long and strange one. And some bots want to fear them as beasts and monsters... the fear is hardly unfounded I suppose. But tonight this one did something heroic regardless of all that."
"Soundwave is... alive?" Cybershock almost didn't want to ask the question, because she feared the answer. The bot still wasn't moving even a tiny bit.
"He's alive," her creator said in answer. He looked up for only a second from the screen of his scanner- just long enough to smile assurance at the youngling, before he fell fully into his 'medic mode' and went on speaking. "He'll need urgent transport to the medbay. His injuries don't appear to be life threatening, though some are certainly bad. I would guess he might need surgery on his cracked chest panel. And he's lost consciousness from complete rapid onset system shock."
"What about Megatron?" Cybershock heard her carrier ask her creator after a moment. And she saw him shrug slightly at first in reply, which all made it clear that huge silver stranger was hardly a pressing priority for either one of them.
"He's alive for the moment, but barely so." Cybershock's creator sounded so oddly conflicted as he answered slowly after scanning the huge and badly damaged bot. "Not even a bot of his physical strength has a good chance of surviving transport."
"Thanks for letting me come with you for a minute," Cybershock said. She smiled a little, still so badly shaken from the terrible events of the night before. And Firestorm smiled back, holding the youngling gently by the hand while the two of them walked together into the main entryway of the hospital.
Firestorm only nodded, before she stumbled badly, her foot catching on a think rubber mat just inside the sliding door. And she grabbed quickly for the door frame with her free hand, steadying herself, before she walked slowly over the mat, still using the door for balance.
"Need some help?" the youngling asked her. The white and yellow bot with the nearly constant smile might just have seemed impossibly awkward and clumsy for an adult bot, in the optics of some many in the city. But Cybershock knew very well it wasn't her fault her processor was damaged once, and many bots were needlessly ignorant. Cybershock had always just helped her whenever she saw her and saw a need to offer, just like she had always so easily helped her own creator in a similar state.
"I'm good," the older bot said, and her usual smile covered her face-plate as she spoke so cheerfully. She explained, quite simply, that the rubber of that mat, or anything like it, was just so sort and squishy, it made it a tricky thing to walk well on. And Cybershock just nodded, understanding at once, because it certainly made a lot of sense.
"And no problem at all on letting you come along," Firestorm added then quickly, addressing the subject they'd been about to discuss when she nearly tripped and feel. "I talked to your creator earlier. He told me you wanted to go. Said it might just be good to let you."
"Firestorm?" Cybershock spoke hesitantly now. And she stopped walking, right in the middle of the entryway.
"Yes?" Firestorm questioned at once, pausing to let the youngling speak again.
"Soundwave is awake again by now, right?"
"Yeah." Firestorm led Cybershock to a bench against in front of a large window that looked out to the courtyard outside. And when she sat down just as soon as the youngling did.
"He was awake not long after he got here," she continued on explaining. Firestorm was another bot who had always talked to Cybershock, just like she was almost a grown up, and could understand things, because of course she really could. So Cybershock in turn just smiled a little, listening to her carefully, as she went on speaking. "He didn't want to be in the medbay. Wanted me to take him home instead. We all saw that coming. He's looking much better though." She paused then again and looked Cybershock right in her optics. "How 'bout you though my little friend? How are you doing today?"
"Me?" Cybershock questioned, probably sounded quite ridiculous in doing so. It surprised her that someone had asked her that question, because she'd noticed hours before that no one had yet at all. But Firestorm just nodded, and the look she gave showed that she might have truly been interested.
"I'm... okay I think," Cybershock said slowly, thinking hard as she did, about exactly how she could explain herself properly. "I wasn't hurt at all, if that's what you mean. Except... I don't think that's what you mean at all. I'm... happy I'm alive because last night I wondered for a while if today I wouldn't be anymore. But... I'm kinda sad too. I guess because I'm still scared and nervous, and I don't know what to think and what to do. And I can't talk to any of others really, because none of them have tried to talk to me about it all yet and I don't think anyone will... not even my creator or my carrier." Cybershock stopped talking for a moment, and turned to look out the big window behind her. Slowly she spoke again, mostly just musing out loud. "I... I think they all mean so well. They think that if they just say nothing about it, don't let me talk about any of it either... then last night night just go away, at least for me. It won't though. That's just not how memories work. I'm just a bit too old now for that trick to work."
"You're the smartest little youngling I've ever met yet," Firestorm said. And Cybershock smiled then, because she felt like she'd been acknowledged as a bot with real feelings and opinions, instead of just redirected - as if that was still even possible.
"Of course I am," Cybershock said, grinning then as she gave a little laugh and looked up at Firestorm's optics. She let herself change the subject entirely because it was on her own terms that it was changed so quickly. "My creator and carrier are both very smart, so why wouldn't I be just as smart as they are?" Her smile grew bigger than, and she hugged Firestorm happily, before she added with confidence, "Soundwave is one of the smartest bot's ever. Or at least that's what I've always heard. And you aren't dumb. You two might just have a youngling with the greatest processor ever one day!"
"Maybe," Firestorm said slowly in reply. But Cybershock saw the strange sad look on her face-plate. And silently she wondered why anyone would possibly be sad over such a thing, when most bots would be happy.
"Hey, Cybershock?" Firestorm said slowly. The two of them had gotten up from the bench had started to walk again.
"Yes?" the youngling bot asked, politely. She stopped walking again when Firestorm stumbled, this time over nothing obvious at all. She barely seemed to use her walking frame at all anymore at least inside. And though that did mean she could fall, Cybershock was happy for her trying anyway.
"You can always talk to me, you know," Firestorm said. And the youngling saw her smile then as she caught herself easily using the door frame of a supply closet to hold onto for a second. "You're right of course. Things won't just kind of go away and disappear if you just pretend it never happened."
Cybershock smiled brighter then, a grin to match the one so often seen Firestorm's face-plate. And she stopped walking again only because the other bot had stopped. They stood in front of a partly open door on the main hospital ward. Firestorm walked inside the room at once, holding the youngling by the and hand pulling her in gently along with her. Cybershock stepped closer to the older bot, and for a second she just looked around the small hospital room, realizing at once that she was both uneasy and curious and that both were probably okay things to be. And she was surprised at once, when Firestorm, quite strangely began to laugh and shake her head – just the way grown bots seemed to do when they had no idea how else to react to a thing they had heard or seen.
"What are you doing out of your recharge station?" she said a second later to Soundwave, who was sitting up in a chair by the window, busy reading something from a data pad. "Ratchet told you quite clearly to stay in there!"
"You brought Cybershock here?" Soundwave sounded surprised and confused, just judging by the tone of his voice. And the youngling, still standing close against Firestorm's side, smiled just slightly in his direction.
"She wants to talk with you a moment," Firestorm explained. And Cybershock, stepping just slightly away from the older bot, nodded slowly. "Knockout said I can certainly borrow her for a short while, just as long as I give her back."
She laughed just a little, the way so many grown bots seemed to like to over such outrageous and not funny jokes, shared between them in regards to small younglings. Soundwave though was clearly only confused by the ridiculous joke. And this caused Cybershock to giggle just a little. She turned her face-plate back quickly to a look of seriousness though, and took a few slow, still slightly hesitant steps toward the much bigger bot.
"Hello," she said, speaking just as slowly as she had walked. But she smiled then, and just stood still, trying hard not to fall into her usual habit of rocking on the fronts of her little feet.
"Hello," Soundwave answered back, smiling slightly. His smile was strange somehow. And Cybershock just watched him for a second, until she realized quickly that it was simply the damage to the face-plate that must have been to blame for that.
"I am... sorry!" Soundwave exclaimed suddenly after less than a second. His optics looked a just bit wider as he hands gestured, with a look that seemed to mean despair and hopelessness, vaguely toward his own face-plate.
"Why?" Cybershock asked at once. And she remembered only after she'd always spoken again, to wonder if it might have been impolite somehow to ask him why he was sorry – even if she really didn't understand any reason at all, which she honestly did not.
"You.. may well be... horrified," Soundwave answered. His voice was slightly shaky, and his optics fell on the cover which always used to hide his face-plate, and now instead left laying close by on the worktable that also held his small stack of datapads. Cybershock understood then that he had forgotten all about it. And it made her sad to think it should have mattered.
"Nope," Cybershock explained, speaking with confidence now, and feeling just as confident as she walked forward to stand even closer. "And if anyone else ever is they need a good kick in the tailpipe, and an even better talking to!"
"Thank you..."
"You're welcome." Cybershock stayed standing exactly where she was for a second in silence, before she realized she had indeed began to rock on her feet again, despite her best efforts not to. And she made herself stop doing it at once.
"I... wanted to thank you," she continued. And she felt her voice grow even bolder the more she talked. "I'd have been dead now I think, if you hadn't come to save me Too bad you got scrapped doing it though."
"I am... not that easy to destroy." Soundwave smiled again.
"Why were you outside so late, anyway?" Cybershock asked, curious simply curious. She reminded herself just a second later, that it was not always acceptable to question grown bots on their reasoning for such things. But Soundwave just smiled a little again, and appeared to consider for a second.
"I... sometimes like to fly alone at night," he said slowly. "The world is quiet, or mostly so, and I can think a while. Last night though was different, because I heard noise and screaming. Never good to hear - though especially so in the dead of night..."
Knockout got himself off his mobility cart easily enough. And sitting for a moment on the recharge station he shared with his mate, he managed to plug the machine in to change without assistance, by leaning forward carefully from his sitting position on the edge, to do so using outlet just within his reach. Arcee lay on on her own side of the recharge station, with her optics closed and Cybershock unmoving in her arms. And so, he simply gave a small shake of his head, and lay down just as carefully as he could, so as not to bother either one.
"Welcome back," Arcee mumbled, sleepily beside him. Her optics opened a little, and she smiled just slightly. Knockout however responded with a tiny hint of a frown across his face-plate.
"I woke you up," he said in whispers. "I didn't mean to do that."
"I wasn't in recharge." Arcee frowned then herself. And moving slowly, she gently shifted the youngling a little, so that her arms were free and little bot lay flat on her back between them. "You've got to be kidding. After last night, I'm not sure I'll sleep again... ever."
"You will," Knockout answered, in what he hoped was convincing assurance. He held out a hand, which she took at once, both of them reaching easily over their recharging child. "We both will, eventually." He looked intently at his mate, watching her tired, disturbed optics, and mumbled in sad realization, "I should not have gone to my duty shift tonight..."
"Of course you should have gone," Arcee replied, smiling again. She looked less uneasy by the second as they just lay holding each other's hands. "Bots still get sick and injured. The hospital needs you... the younglings on your ward love you! We were fine here. We sat a while and watched a holovid. Then Cybershock wanted me to play with her. We raced her little cars around for a bit in the living room, but her spark just wasn't in it... Bulkhead stopped by to check in. Wheeljack come by not long after..."
"They really are all such good bots," Knockout said seriously. "Sometimes I'm still surprised to remember I have good friends now. Real ones who won't stab me in the back, over... well any number of reasons really..."
"I see we have a... small visitor tonight, he mumbled with a hint of a chuckle and a slight shake of his head. And his optics went to their youngling, still in sound recharge, now flat on her back with arms and legs sprawled everywhere. Knockout gently lifted the youngling's left arm, tucking it in carefully against her frame, that he could move further in and not feel as though he might fall right off sometime in the night.
"She just couldn't recharge by herself tonight," Arcee explained. She moved the younglings other arm and one of her legs, slowly so as not to wake her. "It's perfectly understandable I should think."
"She couldn't recharge by herself because she panicked in trying? Or she couldn't because you panicked yourself in trying to let her?" Knockout asked pointedly. But still he smiled, not exactly minding in the slightest that the youngling was close to both of them that night.
"A good bit of both," Arcee admitted. Cybershock whimpered then just a little, and her body flopped slightly over to rest against her carrier, before she quieted at once and stayed still, returning right to recharge.
"You okay?" Knockout asked his mate, concerned a long moment later, when she'd been silent for what seemed a bit too long, right along with their child, with her optics still open and obviously awake.
"I'm fine," answered slowly. And her tone was contemplative. She shook her head just a little and said, "It's still almost impossible to believe Megatron is really gone this time."
"Once and for all," Knockout answered. And though he was of course dedicated to the Autobot cause now just as much as any of the team, it still surprised him just how okay he was with that.
Ratchet had truly done the best he could so to save the life of the former Decepticon leader. He'd explained quickly over protests from half the medical team, including Knockout and even Bumblebee, that to not do so was simply not the way of a medi-bot worthy of the title. (And Knockout had surprised himself then too, by understanding entirely well, that his mentor was right.) But despite his greatest efforts, the former tyrannical warlord had died anyway. He'd survived transport, proving Knockout wrong in that. But he'd gone that long only to die of massive injuries minutes after arriving in the medbay.
It had hardly been surprising. Not one of the medi-bots had thought he'd live an hour once they'd seen him. Still, once he had, sure enough passed on, they'd committed his body to the smelting pit within another hour. Because it seemed to be that while no medi-bot alive would leave even him to die, little stopped them from wanting a hasty end for the frame of a bot too well known to come back, now that he'd passed on despite them.
Yes, he had been entirely mad. And his coming into the city in the first place had only been an act fuelled by that utter madness he'd so clearly begun to suffer from. Still there was so little to be done about such insanity – short, the medical had reasoned, of possibly locking him away for centuries for their own safely and possibly his own. His actions though, insane or not, had been too much forgive for bots whose world had already suffered so much. And that as understood among them all, with little discussion needed on the whole matter.
A tiny hand grabbing sleepily for his own free one, made Knockout look down at once. And his optics fell on Cybershock, now just slightly awake, though mostly still recharging lightly. She rolled a little in her sleepiness, until one half turn later, her small body was against his where it had started against Arcee's instead.
"Daddy..." the youngling mumbled, obviously so happy to see him, because that night she'd missed his coming home. Her optics, tiny slits of bright blue a second before, began to quickly open fully. And Knockout let his mate's hand go so that he could hug his small daughter for a moment.
"Go back into recharge, my girl," he said calmly. "And I'll see you in the morning. I'll take you to the playground and we'll try for that push on the swing."
"...Kay..." the little bot mumbled already back to recharge in under a second.
Cybershock had escaped from her encounter with the deranged former Decepticon leader without a single dent to her frame, and hardly even a scratch on her paint. But she had stared her own near passing from life, clear in the face-plate. And that, she would live with for her entire life. Knockout stiffened with sudden anger at the very thought of that. And not wanting to wake the tiny bot that recharged, sill rested close beside him, he forced away his growing rage before he began to shake and tremble from it.
"There's no doubt in my mind that the team is going to grant Soundwave Autobot status now," Arcee mumbled, with a tiny smile on her face-plate. "He's certainly got my vote after all he did today for our baby girl..."
Knockout nodded his head a little in reply. And he opened his mouth, just about to speak. But a tiny squeal from the youngling beside him made him stop at once, to look at her instead. He hoped the youngling would quickly settle again right back into sound recharge. And for a second it looked to him like she would. But then she squealed again with panic, and that tiny squeal turned quickly to a small weak scream. Her tiny frame stiffened in seconds, and with her optics still closed tightly, she kicked her feet widely while her hands smacked horribly against her creator's armour in her obvious confusion and panic.
"Hey, hey you're okay," Knockout said to her calmly and slowly. He held her body tightly against his trying hard to calm her. And after some fumbling about, he grabbed both of her hands in one of his, holding them lightly to stop her from smacking at him. "You okay. I've got you my girl."
"Let'me'go... let'me'go..." the youngling mumbled, optics still closed tight and obviously caught up in some nightmarish flashback. Knockout was of course not holding onto her all that hard. He would have easily let her roll away from him if that;s what she wanted to do. But still in recharge, the youngling was confused, and unable to free herself simply because of it, she only screamed again before tears began to fall down her face-plate.
"Okay... not working..." Knockout mumbled almost almost silently in growing despair as his spark dropped hard and his fuel tank flipped.
Gently he rolled the youngling's small body way from him instead of holding her. Her hands had stopping flying out to hit and smack in perceived self defence. And flopped easily over into her back again, she but lay too still then, frozen and stiff with her terror as she just went on screaming.
"Cybershock," Knockout said, calling her name firmly but gently, while lightly rubbed a hand against her shoulder panel and shook her just a little. "Come on, my girl. I think you've go to wake up."
"... dun'wanna die..." Cybershock mumbled, just barely audible and through shaking tears. "Wh... wha'did I'do..."
"You're alright," Knockout said, still calm as he could manage to stay. And he watched carefully, as the youngling's little blue optics finally snapped open slowly.
"Daddy..." Cybershock cried still shaking hard. She rolled back over again, pressing her small frame tightly against his and making in clearly in that she wanted to be held tightly now, just as much as she had fought against exactly that a moment before.
"Don't let me go," she shrieked horribly and still shaking, just as soon as he'd quickly pulled her against his frame. Immediately she buried her face-plate against his body armour, and her hands grabbed for his in panic. "Don't let me go... please don't let me go!"
"Okay... okay..." Knockout said, speaking to his youngling still slowly, while he held her tightly against him. It certainly seemed to take a while, but eventually the trembling of her tiny frame all but stopped entirely.
"Do you want to get up for moment" he asked her once she was calmer. He thought back his own endless nightmares and the worst kind of terrible flashbacks, remembering at once how he would so often instantly leave his recharge station, in order to stare out a window, wander the darkened hallways, or turn a light, to grab his drawing screen and working on sketching something pointless – all just to think of something, anything else at all, but the fear of something he should knew he should have known could never hurt him then. Or, at least that was how it had been before his damage and disability and the start of a time when getting up at will just simply wouldn't work.
"No thanks," Cybershock said, her voice quiet and sleepy. "I... think I'm good now"
The youngling bot fell back into recharge a moment later, her body still resting against that of her creator. And he held her against him gently for another moment or two, before he slowly shifted her, with help from Arcee, to let her lay between them again flat on her back.
"I've done a little thinking," Knockout said to his mate, again in hushed tones over their recharging child.
And Arcee looked at him, smiling, her expression curious as she fussed a little with the recharge station covers, pulling them up over Cybershock's frame to keep her warm enough. Slowly she smiled, still so obviously shaken up from their youngling's horrid nightmare.
"What were you thinking about?"
"Everything in life can be so... fleeting. We just never know what's next. When anything will change without a second's warning..."
"That's true.." Arcee reflected right back quietly. Cybershock rolled slowly against her, still in recharge, and Arcee just chuckled silently, holding her gently. "We were all so busy with a war to win, and one day it just... ended. You and me just kind of... happened. And then..." Her optics went to the youngling in her arms, and she grinning. "Just look what we made..."
"Is that really something that would make you happy?" Knockout asked serious and smiling all at once while his optics left hers in order to gesture down at the youngling. "To have another one eventually?"
"Yes," Arcee answered simply, and she said nothing more about any of it.
"Okay," Knockout replied, with confidence that had come seeming from nowhere at all. And he nodded once in the dim light of the room, his simply reply meant firmly as agreement instead of any further questioning. And he watched his bondmate's face-plate as she stared a second in disbelief and shock. Slowly a smile broke through her shock, and that turned fast to a full on grin at him.