A/N: Almost caught up! I did end up finishing a chapter yesterday, so one more chapter tomorrow and then FFN will be caught up. Unless, by some happenstance, I belt out a whole chapter in a couple hours tonight. I doubt I will. I haven't been that fast. But I am going to be suuuuppppeeeerrrr strict about my rules about writing at work. And mornings aren't great times to write when I get absorbed in it and it's when I need to be working out or going for a walk or stretching or doing stuff like dishes or cat litter.
Chapter 8: Trouble Unseen Pt 1
Wheeljack looked around the Autobot tent after getting up to see who was around. Most bots weren't, it looked like. Just Ratchet and Shadebreaker. Ratchet was, naturally, working on repairing something. As the team's only medic and engineer up till now, Wheeljack wasn't surprised repair work of any kind fell on the mech.
Shadebreaker was a curious one, though. The brief bit he'd seen of her he'd thought she was a hard worker. Now she was curled up on one of the medbay beds, huddled like a scared cyberkitten. The set of her wings told him she was upset. She wasn't still upset by what he'd said yesterday, was she? Had she been up all night crying?
He approached cautiously and reached out to rouse her, wanting to check on her.
"Up!" Ratchet's sharp voice froze his hand midair. "Don't disturb her. She needs rest."
"Sorry," Wheeljack said, moving away from her and approaching Ratchet instead. "Did she…cry all night about what I said or something?"
Ratchet sighed, glancing at him and then over at her. "No, nothing like that," he said. "Though you did upset her greatly. She did something reckless and got a solid dressing down from Optimus about it this morning. She took it pretty hard despite knowing it was coming. Her systems are just worn out from the stress."
Wheeljack winced in sympathy. It was never fun to get dressed down by your commanding officer. "Poor fembot."
"Indeed," Ratchet said.
"What're you working on?" Wheeljack asked, peering at the item in Ratchet's hands.
"It is- It was Shadebreaker's visor," Ratchet replied. "It got severely damaged on a mission. I'm trying to fix it for her, but it's more badly damaged than the last time and visors aren't really my forte."
"Hmm," Wheeljack hummed thoughtfully. "I could fix it."
Ratchet paused and eyed him suspiciously.
"Relax," Wheeljack said, holding his hands up in surrender. "I mean no harm. If anything, I owe it to her as an apology. I didn't mean to upset her so badly. Plus, I bet I could add some cool features to it to help keep her safe in the field."
Ratchet considered this for a moment and Wheeljack watched the cogs turn in his oldest friend's helm. He knew he had said the right things when the medic sighed heavily. "Alright," he said, stepping aside and motioning toward the visor. "But if it blows up on her, it's your spark, not mine."
"That's fair, Ratchet," Wheeljack said. "But I would never blow up your femme."
"She's not my femme," Ratchet growled.
"Keep telling yourself that, doc," Wheeljack said happily.
Ratchet walked away, grumbling even as he moved toward the boxes of supplies near the door.
Wheeljack ignored him. He knew what he'd sensed. Ratchet could deny it all he wanted, but Wheeljack knew a blooming romance when he saw one. He was one of the few mechs especially attuned to such things. He'd noticed it eons ago when Chromia had met Ironhide—and he had never even met that mech! And then again when Chromedome had met Rewind—two mechs! He had not expected that! But good for them. And now he was seeing it with Ratchet.
He wondered if Shadebreaker had noticed. He glanced over at her to consider it, making sure Ratchet didn't notice. It was hard to know with how little he knew of the femme. His fins flashed a moment in thought. Then he turned back to his work. Best not think about it until he had a proper conversation with the femme. He had to make sure Ratchet was falling for a good one, after all. And the visor was the best conversation starter he could think of.
"So this is the place we'll find this Omega Key, huh?" Bulkhead asked, looking around the area Shadebreaker had sent them. "Sandy."
"Egypt is mostly desert," Arcee said, amused. "Reminds me of Jasper."
"Be alert," Optimus reminded them. "If the Decepticons have not already checked this location, the odds are high that they will be here as well."
"Naturally," Arcee said. "It feels like they're constantly on the same artifacts we are. Coincidence?"
"You're not suggesting Shade's playing sides, are you?" Bulkhead asked as they made their way toward the pyramids, sensors and optics alert.
"I'm just saying," Arcee said, shrugging. "It's a little strange that we bump into them at every artifact. The only ones we haven't are the ones they beat us to entirely."
Bumblebee whirled an argument, sounding a bit angry on Shadebreaker's account.
"I agree with 'Bee," Bulkhead said. "Shade' got pretty banged up on her mission. And don't forget how you found her. Kinda a little unfair to question her isn't it?"
"I'm just saying something's a little fishy as the humans say," Arcee said. "The 'Cons get two free grabs and we can't even get one? And the one we might've gotten is the one piece of her information that is inaccurate? I don't buy it. Something's off."
Bumblebee whirled questioningly.
"That's crazy," Bulkhead said. "How could there be a mole? We've all been here from the beginning. And Wheeljack hasn't been here long enough to account for your concerns."
"Autobots, radio silence," Optimus said as they neared the pyramids. "We are getting near the target search zone."
The team fell silent, each with their own thoughts on the matter. It did seem a little odd that no matter the timeframe of when they went after anything they always ran into Decepticons. Except for when Shadebreaker hadn't even communicated to them about the artifact in question she was going after. The fact the AllSpark hadn't been there had likely been a fluke if what Arcee was implying was true.
Did they have a shapeshifter among them? Again? Optimus did not like the thought. But he knew from Shadebreaker it wasn't out of the realm of possibility. He would have to ask Shadebreaker to start sharing her information with him more privately. This also meant her relation, that he'd meant to keep classified, was likely known to the Decepticons if there was a spy they hadn't caught.
And, if they were right, the mole was among those here, who had just discussed the possibility of it. Or, it was Ratchet. Optimus didn't believe for a moment it was Shadebreaker and he knew Arcee didn't either. She was merely making it seem like she did to let him know she suspected something without tipping the mole off, to lure them into a sense of false security thinking they suspected someone different. Which meant she believed it was one of the mechs with them. Or she was throwing them off her own tail. What was it Jazz had said once about spies and creating false trails?
"It's too quiet," Arcee said after they had searched several rooms. "And we've been in this room five times already."
Bumblebee whirled an agreement.
"Yeah," Bulkhead said. "I don't like it either."
They moved carefully through the pyramid toward the one room that was left for them to check. There was an air of unease about them under all the factors surrounding them. The potential spy. The weird quiet. The emptiness of the pyramid. The sense that something wasn't right.
I shifted as I came online and then stretched out all my limbs like a cat waking from a nap, wings included. I would've yawned, too, had I still been human. I almost did for the familiarity of it. It felt nice to have slept more, despite not having meant to sleep. I'd meant to stay awake. I was supposed to be on alert with a new bot present.
"Rise and shine, sleepy helm!" Wheeljack's cheerful voice greeted my audials and my nice mood fell.
I grunted and then rolled over with my back to him.
"Aw, don't be like that," Wheeljack said, wheedling a little. "I'm sorry I upset you."
I flicked my wing that wasn't now pinned underneath me at him. I closed my optics as if I could block him out.
"I got you something to make up for being a jerk," Wheeljack said in a chipper tone, sounding unmoved by my attempts at dismissal.
I flicked my wing again. His tone was much too lacking in seriousness for me to take his apology seriously. How was I supposed to know he was sincere if he treated it like a joke?
Wheeljack sighed now. "Look," he said, walking around my bed. I heard him stop right in front of my helm. His voice was much more serious and calm now. "I get it. I know I was a Grade-A Afthole when you met me yesterday. It wasn't cool of me to just….suggest we test something like that on your friends. I didn't…I wasn't thinking of the consequences of testing something called the Spark Extractor on living bots until you laid them out clearly for me to see. I understand why you are upset with me. And you have every right to never forgive me. Or talk to me." Wheeljack heaved a sigh and I heard a shift and felt the energy of his hand coming near me.
My reaction was instantaneous and not entirely controlled. I flinched away from him hard enough I fell off the bed with a loud CLUMP and CLANG as I hit the dying grass below. We really needed to water the grass inside the tent too.
Wheeljack peered over the bed at me. "Are you ok?"
"No," I answered. Then I got up, shaking my fall off and smoothing my feather armor. "I'm sitting here listening to an apology I don't know if I can trust because you started out not even taking it seriously. It feels like you just switched tactics to get me to believe you. And I'm done with being manipulated into believing apologies and accepting shit from people. Especially ones I just met." My wings shifted slightly. "I want to believe you, cause you are Ratchet's friend and he trusts you, but you have not given me a good impression. Not great when I already have trust issues."
Wheeljack listened to me speak patiently and there seemed to be some sort of regret in his optics if I was reading them right. I couldn't be sure though, and that could be faked. There was more than just his readiness to test the Spark Extractor weighing into my distrust, it just happened to be a convenient excuse.
"I understand." He said when I finished. "I will leave you be for a while if that is what you need. But first I wanted to give you this." He pulled something from subspace and I saw it was my visor. He passed it to me. "Ratchet was having a hard time so I fixed it for you, as an apology. I added some features, too, that should come in handy on your next mission."
I took the visor into my hands, but hesitated.
"It's ok," Wheeljack said, looking bemused. "It won't blow up. Ratchet would have my helm if it did."
I couldn't help the small smile of amusement at that. Then I put the visor on carefully. And was momentarily shocked when a hud booted up, telling me my own stats and the stats of Wheeljack.
"Whoa," I said.
"That's not all!" Wheeljack said enthusiastically and then launched into an explanation of all the features he had installed into my visor and how to work them.
And while he explained, I silently ran programs that would detect spyware or anything of the sort in them as Optimus had taught me that day when I brought up the delicate topic of Makeshift when no one was around. It was one of those early mornings he had patrol and the others were asleep. I had joined long enough to have that talk.
He was just getting into the finer points of the health scanner when a beeping was heard from the main computer a ways away. We looked over and then at each other before moving over.
"A signal from an Autobot ship," I said, checking it.
"Looks like they're in trouble," Wheeljack said.
My hands hovered over the console, debating. My scans of the visor weren't complete. I had to bide time for just a minute. "I'll try to raise them on the comms." I pressed the necessary buttons, openning a channel isolated from the away team—they didn't need to be distracted. "Autobot Base Zelta to Autobot ship, come in."
Static was our answer.
"Comms must be down," Wheeljack said. "And everyone's out on patrol or something?"
"Investigating some information," I said vaguely as my scan results came back. "We're not disturbing them unless we have to."
"What? But what about the ship?" Wheeljack asked.
"How are you in a fight?" I asked.
"I thought you weren't in the field yet?!" Wheeljack asked, sounding slightly panicked as I opened a portal.
"In case you haven't noticed, we're a little tight staffed," I said. "Coming or what?"
"Scrap, I'm coming," Wheeljack said. "But it's your aft if you get killed. Ratchet's gonna murder me for going along with this."
I smiled ruefully. Then I ran through the portal, Wheeljack right behind me.
THUMP! CLUNK!
"That's not good," Bulkhead said about the sound that came from the room as they approached it.
They stopped their approach and a couple of them even took a step back as a large form stepped out from the darkness within. The hulking form had a lot of jagged edges and the silhouette of wings spread against the dark backdrop as it began to walk into the light of their flashlights. Standing before them was a massive Predacon—something they'd only heard stories of in horror stories and from Shadebreaker's warnings of what might be waiting for them in the future.
"Uh oh," Bulkhead said.
The Predacon let out a massive roar and then darted out of the room at them. It was then they realized it wasn't just the Predacon emerging from the room, but also a contingent of Vehicons.
"Uh oh!" Bulkhead said more urgently as he ducked under the Predacon's claws.
Optimus pulled out the Star Saber and blocked a blow from the Predacon's mighty claws.
"Comms are jammed!" Arcee said. "Scrap!" She rolled out of the way of the Predacon's massive tail only to defend against a strike from a Vehicon's sword.
"Autobots! Retreat!" Optimus called.
"Not an option!" Bulkhead said, looking at the entrance, which was sealed off now.
Bumblebee whirled worriedly.
Optimus's optics narrowed as he zoomed in on the entrance to see that it had indeed been sealed. From the outside. Which meant someone had been waiting outside in order to seal them inside with the Predacon. The feeling that Arcee was right about the mole was growing.
The moment I exited the portal I realized a crucial piece of information I had not realized before running into it.
We were in the air.
"S-Shade!" Wheeljack cried as he flailed for less than half a moment before he started falling.
I transformed quickly and then caught him with my talons by his biceps. "No worries," I told him. "I gotcha."
"Good…good," Wheeljack said. He looked around and pointed. "There's our ship. Being hassled by those 'Cons."
"I'm gonna get you on my back, that missile launcher on your shoulder any good?" I asked.
"Any good? Ha ha! Just let me aim it and you'll see good!" Wheeljack said, getting more into the spirit now.
"That's what I like to hear!" I said and swung him up. I let go and ducked, swooping under him and he landed on my back as if we'd practiced this a billion times. I wondered how many times he must've swung out of a moving vehicle in the war for that to have gone so smooth.
Wheeljack kneeled on my back, placing a hand on the top of my wing connector to help keep himself steady against the beat of my wings as he took aim. I flew as quickly as I dared to with him perched up there. He fired off a missile and I watched it soar through the air and hit a flying Vehicon right in the engine. Wheeljack whooped as it went down.
"Get in closer," Wheeljack said, sounding like he had a plan.
"Hold on!" I said. "This might get bumpy!"
I flapped my wings harder and pushed myself to fly faster and harder than I had yet to do. I saw a hole had been blown out from the side of the ship and a couple bots were firing out of it at the attacking Vehicons and they looked our way when they noticed us. One of the attacking Decepticons near the hole didn't look like a standard flying Vehicon, however. It looked like a Seeker. Not Starscream, though.
"Wheeljack! Take a Vehicon. I'll take the Seeker." I said.
"No way! If you get killed, Ratchet will kill me!" Wheeljack said. "I'll take the Seeker. You take the Vehicons."
"Fine," I grumbled at him taking my chance to really test out my air combat skills. It was fair. But he was at a disadvantage, so was it really?
I got in close enough and Wheeljack leapt off of me and directly onto the Seeker while I plowed into the neighboring Vehicon with my talons extended. I flung the Vehicon into another one and then dived to catch up to the falling Wheeljack and Seeker, grabbing the Seeker's wing with my beak and ripping a gash into it.
"Gahhh!" the Seeker cried in pain, being forced to disengage from Wheeljack, who'd been struggling to get the upper hand.
Wheeljack took advantage and punched the Seeker in the face, not with his fist, but with a…
"Is that a landmine?" I asked incredulously.
Wheeljack looked pleased.
The Seeker looked panicked.
I flew around the Seeker quickly and snatched Wheeljack by one shoulder and dragged him quickly away from the impending explosion. We escaped the blast radius just in time and Wheeljack whooped again and was laughing when I veered into the Autobot ship to land between the Autobots that had been shooting from inside the ship. It seemed all the offending Decepticons were taken care of now.
"That was exhilarating!" Wheeljack said, continuing to lay on the ground after I dropped him. "I should fight in the air more often."
I transformed and just gave him a tolerating look. "You're a perplexing mech, Wheeljack." I said. Then I looked at the Autobots that were looking at us, clearly trying to decide whether to shoot us or not. I tilted my helm and then gave them a small bow. "Shadebreaker, at your service. We got your ship's distress call."
"Autobot distress call," the larger of the mechs said. He looked me over.
"And we are Autobots," I replied. "Optimus would probably be here if he wasn't busy already when we got it."
The smaller mech, a Praxian, considered me for a moment. "Did you lose your insignia?"
"Haven't got it yet, actually," I replied. "Still kinda new. Technically not supposed to be on the field yet, but literally everyone else besides this guy is busy." I motioned at Wheeljack. "And I'm the only one who flies…so I'm not sure it would've gone well if I sent just anyone through the portal to get here. I may have missed the coordinates being mid-air. Really gotta work on my geography. I thought it was a mountain."
"To be fair," Wheeljack said, sticking a hand in the air. "There was a mountain! That way!" He pointed.
"Are you just gonna stay down there, Wheeljack?" I asked, putting my hands on my hips.
"I feel a little motion sick," he said.
I huffed a little. "My flying wasn't that bad," I said, crossing my arms.
The bigger mech laughed at that.
"Anywho," I said. "If you point me to the bridge and I can provide your pilot with the coordinates to home base."
"Can't you just portal us all home?" Wheeljack asked. "Like, the whole ship?"
I looked back down at him.
"What does he mean by that?" the Praxian asked.
I looked at him. Really looked at him. And realized I must be looking at Prowl. "I have the ability to open time-space portals at will. It's how we got here to help. It's currently our main form of transportation." I looked around at the ship walls. "I haven't attempted anything quite this large before. My portals have thus far just been big enough for us bots. I've been meaning to test their limits, but it has not been a priority."
"Time-space portals," the bigger mech said, calling my attention to him. "Like-" He stopped when I put a finger to my lips. I shifted a wing slightly and he raised an optic ridge. "What?"
"Like space-time portals," I said. "They go through space and time. Very handy. Anyways, we can test— hold on."
.:Shade' where are you?:. Ratchet's voice came through my comms and my wings instinctively tensed in preparation to get chewed out.
.:Wheeljack and I responded to a distress call,:. I replied, looking back at Wheeljack, who was now getting up to his feet with the help of the wall. .:All is calm now, we were just discussing whether to fly the ship home or test the limits of my portals.:.
.:You might want to change that to test the limits of your portals to go save Optimus and the others,:. Ratchet said and my wings shifted in alarm and my mouth opened.
.;What do you mean?:.I asked.
.:We've been receiving a distress call from Arcee,:. Ratchet said.
"Scrap," I said.
"What? Ratchet chewing you out?" Wheeljack teased.
"No," I said, motioning them to follow me. "Optimus and the others need help. I need to either portal just us bots to go help them or try to portal the whole ship. Ratchet seemed to think portaling the whole ship was a good idea. And he's not usually one to tell me to test things on the go."
"Slag, it must be bad then," Wheeljack agreed as the three mechs followed me toward the front of the ship. "He's not even telling you to get your aft back to base."
"Same day I'm lectured about leaving base without permission I'm leaving base and getting a pass, the world is strange when you're in war," I commented dryly.
"Are you just not good at following directions?" Prowl asked.
"To be fair, no one explicitly told me not to leave base before the first time," I told him, turning toward him slightly as we walked. "But it was really reckless of me and it was a decision I made while really angry at that one." I pointed at Wheeljack.
"I said I'm sorry!" Wheeljack said.
"Apology accepted." I conceded, reluctantly.
"Yes!" Wheeljack cheered.
I rolled my optics behind my visor. "And this time…well, we covered that." I said. "It's habit, I guess. I jump in where I see a need. Unless I can't."
We made it to the bridge, where three more mechs were waiting, discussing whether the ship could make it somewhere or not. They stopped what they were doing to look at us and I immediately felt self-conscious. Prowl stepped forward and told them what the plan was in as few words as possible while it was still understandable as I stepped up to as close to the very front as I could. The front windshield was broken off the bridge and the shielding appeared to be down. I didn't know if it mattered, but I thought it might be good that I didn't have to test it.
"So," a red mech said. "How does this work?"
"It's difficult to explain," I said, shrugging. Then I lifted my arms, gusting air through my systems. I closed my optics to focus entirely on my portals.
"How long does it take?" the mech whispered to Wheeljack.
"I need concentration, I haven't done it this way before, please be quiet," I told him. "And keep the ship steady."
I found the program I had identified as responsible for my portals after some deep concentrating one day. I focused on it entirely and focused on where I was, where I wanted to go, how much further ahead of my hands I wanted the portal to open and how big I wanted it to be. I felt a physical strain as I felt the energy move and heard the audible gasp from the red mech as the portal opened in front of us. I flinched a little and heard Prowl tell the red mech to get the ship through the portal and stop gawking. My wings twitched a little.
"Ok, Shade'," Wheeljack said quietly from beside me. His hand was lightly touching my arm. "We're through."
I let go of my concentration, whole body relaxing. "Damn," I said. Then I looked out the windshield. "Really damn. That's Ser-ket. Holy shit. That's Ser-ket fighting Optimus."
"Who's Ser-ket?" the silver mech among the Autobot crew asked.
"Really fraggin' dangerous Predacon that was a guard in Shockwave's laboratory when I was one of his experiments," I answered, aware of how panicked my voice sounded. "We gotta get our bots and get. Optimus has the Star Saber and still looks like he's having trouble."
I bounced on my pedes a little, anxious to do something but not sure what. I looked at Prowl, practically begging him to tell me what to do. I heard the silver bot chuckle a bit.
"She already has you pegged for the leader, Prowl," he said.
Prowl's doorwing twitched as he looked back at me. "Sideswipe," he said, addressing the mech without looking away from me. "How close do you think you can get to the battlefield?"
"Depends," Sideswipe answered. "On if that Predacon turns its attention on us."
"I could distract it," I offered.
"And get murdered?!" Wheeljack asked. "Ratchet will literally kill us if we get her killed Prowl! You cannot let her do that!"
"I can portal away," I said. "I know I cannot fight her. But I'm an escaped experiment. That wounds her pride. I spent enough time in that place to know just seeing me will drag her away from Optimus. And I am nothing if not good at avoiding dying when I ought to die."
Wheeljack stared at me like I'd lost my mind.
"You can out fly her?" Sideswipe's voice asked, sounding uncertain.
My wings shifted. "I have not seen her fly," I admitted. "So I cannot say for certain. But she is much larger, and bulkier. There is more to such a game of chase than speed."
Prowl nodded his helm to me. "Do it."
"Prowl!" Wheeljack said in protest.
The larger mech grabbed my arm as I turned toward the windshield to climb out it. "Are you sure about this?" he asked.
"About this? No. What I'm sure of is that I don't want to watch another Autobot die if I can do something about it," I told him. "Honestly, that's probably the only thing I've been sure of from day one."
Then I pulled away from him and then climbed out the hole in the windshield. I balanced there for a moment, locating Ser-ket in relation to where we were. Then I leapt, transforming mid-air and then diving toward my target. When I came upon her, I shifted to extend my talons and caught her on the face, distracting her from what could've been a decisive blow on Arcee—who'd taken her attention off Optimus by the time I'd gotten to her.
"Shade?" I heard Arcee.
"You," Ser-ket said, venom in her voice. "The escaped one."
"Come and get me, you big sucker," I said and wiggled my tail feathers at her.
She roared. "I'll put you in your place, bird!"
I flew away at top speed as she abandoned her assault on my friends to give chase. I lead her away as quickly as I could, dodging swipes from her claws and jabs from her tail that kinda reminded me of a scorpion. I banked hard to the left to avoid one claw, hoping to get some distance if she had a harder time turning and weaved around her other outstretched arm. It was successful, but it lead to her shooting fire out of her mouth that I had to fly up and around to avoid, causing me to fly over her back and have to avoid her tail.
I lost track of how long we flew this dance. I knew by the end I was getting tired and she was showing no signs of letting up. I was just wondering what was taking the bots so long when I finally got the message that they got everyone aboard the ship and I was good to portal away.
"None too soon," I muttered.
Then I portalled away just in time to miss being snapped by her jaws. I exited just outside the hole of the ship and then flew into it, landing a little unsteady next to Optimus and the large mech that had almost stopped me from playing my distraction game.
"Shadebreaker," Optimus started.
"I know you're Prime," I said, transforming and putting my hands together. "But I'm gonna get us home first, then you can chew me out."
Optimus blinked, but I turned and rushed toward the bridge. Once there, I repeated the process that got us here to get us into the airspace above home as Sideswipe piloted the craft through the portal. Once through, I worked with Sideswipe to communicate with the ground team about where he could park the ship.
"Well, glad that is over," Wheeljack said.
"And you thought I was gonna die," I said, leaning heavily against Sideswipe's chair, causing the mech to look at me in concern. "Multiple times, in fact."
"No offense, but you do look rather….exhausted," Wheeljack said.
"I feel exhausted." I said. "Opening my portals that big was a lot. And avoiding Ser-ket was a lot. The stress of Ser-ket was a lot. And…I need energon. Like…that thing you put on my visor is flashing red."
"Oh slag," Wheeljack said, moving forward and catching me as I was sliding off the chair.
"Ah, oh, a little urgently, huh," I said. "Now I know what it feels like."
"Indeed," Wheeljack said, helping me lean against the base of the chair.
Sideswipe moved around his chair swiftly and was putting a cube in my face. "Here, take this one," he said. "You probably need more than one, but this will get you up again."
I looked up as Optimus came in with the large mech behind him and flinched as Sideswipe helped me drink the energon. Wheeljack moved away so Optimus could kneel opposite the twin. "Uh, hey, Optimus."
"You overworked yourself," he observed.
"Apparently my systems don't like me opening large sized portals two times in a row with intense flight in-between," I said, holding a hand out in front of me to test my vision. Then I moved it back to the cube as Sideswipe lightly bumped my shoulder to tell me to drink. "Now I know. Sorry I left base without permission again."
"Ironhide told me it was to assist them," Optimus said, indicating the large mech, who nodded to me when I looked at him. "I appreciate your initiative. This was not an act of recklessness, but an act out of necessity. Your stunt with the Predacon, however, is a different story."
"Prowl told me to do it," I said. "Sideswipe heard him. He can vouch."
"Hey! Don't bring me into this," Sideswipe said, though he didn't sound actually offended.
"Hmm," Optimus said. "I will have a word with Prowl, then."
I blinked and stared at Optimus a bit blankly. "Neither of us were gonna let you die, Prime."
"And if you had died instead?" Optimus asked.
I blinked, then turned away. "Then you'd be sad, I get it," I said and sighed. I let Sideswipe help me with another sip. "You're not gonna convince me your death would be better, though. We'd sit here trying to out-self-sacrifice each other all day."
Sideswipe chuckled at that.
Optimus gave a long sigh and then stood up. "When you've regained your strength, I want you to meet me at the building for the new medbay."
My wings shifted curiously, but I merely nodded. "Yes sir," I said.
Sideswipe raised an optic ridge as Optimus left to speak with Prowl. "What's that about?"
"Ah 'unno," I shrugged. "Beats going to the temporary medbay and getting chewed out by Ratchet, though. Not that he's chewed me out before, but there's no way he's letting me slide with dragging my energon levels this low without a lecture on being careful. And I hate lectures."
Sideswipe chuckled at that. "I can agree with that one."
A couple hours, and a firmly worded lecture from Ratchet when he stormed into the ship, later, I was standing in the empty main room of the new medbay building. It wasn't nearly ready to be moved into yet. Power still needed connecting and some rooms still needed paint. With me were Optimus, Ironhide, Jazz and Prowl. I noted the lack of any of the bots that had already been here outside of myself and Optimus.
"So, now that we're all here," Jazz said. "What's this about Optimus?"
"Do you three remember aboard the Ark? When Makeshift impersonated Hound?" Optimus asked.
My wings shifted and I crossed my arms, tilting my helm. Where was he going with this?
"Yeah, what about it?" Ironhide asked.
"Do you remember what happened to him?" Optimus asked.
"We trapped him on Junkion, before it got destroyed by Megatron stealing the Requiem Blaster," Prowl answered. "Then….then we do not know."
"Shadebreaker knows," Optimus said, nodding to me.
I shrugged when their optics landed on me. "Kinda? I have a bunch of knowledge of stuff. The whole reason Optimus and the others were at that pyramid was because of knowledge I have. I'm still waiting to know anything about that, by the way." I looked at Optimus, just feeling confused.
"We'll get there. First, Makeshift," Optimus said.
I huffed a little. "From my knowledge, Makeshift makes an appearance on Earth, trying to infiltrate the Autobot base," I said. "I brought it up to Optimus, even though I wasn't entirely sure it would happen because it's still a threat. But I brought it up as someone who would be coming into the base later, so I'm uncertain why this is the group we're talking about this with."
"Because," Optimus said. "I have reason to believe Makeshift has been among us for some time now, before anyone new joined us after you."
I dropped my arms. "Tell me you are joking, Optimus. Tell me you are joking."
Optimus shook his helm.
"He's been here this whole time and I missed it?" I asked, frame trembling a little as I clenched my fists. I wanted to punch something in frustration.
"Easy, femme," Jazz said, moving over and resting his hand on my arm. "We found him once, we can find him again."
My wings shifted agitatedly. "How do you know, Optimus?" I asked quietly.
"There was a trap laid at the pyramid," Optimus said. "There was no Omega Key. There, perhaps, never was. It is unclear whether that was a ploy by Ser-ket so that we wouldn't go after the others or if she was telling the truth because she was so sure we were going to die. But they were lying in wait for us. The only way they would have known when we were going to be there is if there was a mole."
"I mean," I said, not wanting to believe I had missed signs of Makeshift being on base. But, then, I hadn't exactly been social. "They might have been there for ages, couldn't they have been? Like, camping out? Since they found that scrap of information in what they pulled out of my helm when I was Shockwave's….experiment." I practically spat the word. "Knowing we would eventually investigate?"
"There's something Ser-Ket said that makes me believe they were tipped off," Optimus said. "About how Autobots are too trusting."
"Ah," I said. "That does sound like someone who has planted a mole would say." I nodded and then sighed heavily.
"Arcee brought up the fact that every artifact we go after we are met by Decepticons, meanwhile the one time you went after one without a word to any of us you went unchallenged," Optimus said. "Which is also the one time your information seemed to be faulty."
"Wait," I said. "So the 'Cons are….waiting for us to go after the relics before going after them? Why? Do they just want the challenge? Or are they just hoping to pick us off that way?"
"Probably hoping to pick us off," Ironhide said.
And then something else registered. "And is Arcee insinuating it's me?"
"I do not believe she actually thinks it is you," Optimus said, making a calming motion with his hand. "And I do not believe it is you either, that's why you are here right now. I believe she was suggesting it to give the mole a false sense of security."
"Or she could be trying to throw us off the trail," Prowl said.
My wings shifted slightly. "Do…do you have an idea when Makeshift replaced a bot?"
Optimus shook his helm. "It must've been on a mission."
I thought for a moment. "If I went through the mission reports, I might be able to find when it happened. Maybe I could even go back to save the bot and bring them to the present."
Optimus gave me a look.
"Not changing the past," I told him in reassurance. "I would go back, with backup, save them, and bring them to the present time. I mean, I guess it would kind of change the past. But it depends if it works on time turner rules or paradox rules, I guess. Vector would probably stop me if it would screw everything up….Wouldn't he? Isn't that his job?"
"Time turner rules?" Jazz asked.
"Like in Harry Potter," I said. "You go back and as long as you don't meet your past self, you're fine! Everything that you did technically happened to begin with, you just didn't know it! I kinda did it once already. Arguably I'm in my own past right now if you think too hard about it. Cause I went to a planet and then came back at the time of my departure, missing myself by a hair. I stopped trying to think about it after a minute of debating about going forward a day. I got too paranoid that I'd miss something important, especially being the mode of transport."
"We will discuss the idea of going back for the mech after we find out what happened to them. Using your portals to change the past is too risky to act with too little information," Optimus said. "As for going through the mission reports, I will put that to Prowl to do. If we switch up your tasks, the mole will get suspicious."
"And what do we do about the fact Arcee brought it up while you were probably with them?" I asked. "Do we make a makeshift brig for me to sit in while I continue to pinpoint artifact locations and act like you caught me playing double agent for the side that caused my misery?" I felt myself sneer at the mere idea of it. "Ugh, even just thinking about pretending makes me feel icky." I shuddered and wiped at my arms, feeling like there were webs on them or something.
"It would sell the bit, if you could muster the act," Jazz said. "Give Makeshift a nice, cozy sense of security while we sus him out."
"Do you believe you can do that, Shadebreaker?" Optimus asked me.
"Maybe?" I said, uncertain. "I mean, I've always had trouble with being trapped in a room and I can't imagine my time with Shockwave made that any better, but…if it helps catch Makeshift? I'd rather deal with it than have him keep running around us. And I'm worried about the bot he replaced." My wings shifted anxiously.
"If I may," Prowl spoke up.
Optimus motioned for him to continue.
"I have an idea that would not require a brig," Prowl said.
"Great, since we don't have one anyways," Ironhide said.
Prowl gave him the most unamused look I had ever seen. "We can place inhibitor cuffs on Shadebreaker's wings. And post a bot to guard her at all times. Make it look like we do not trust her anymore."
"Inhibitor cuffs?" I repeatedly questioningly.
"They would restrict your access to subspace and prevent you from using your T-Cog," Prowl replied.
"My work data pads are all in my subspace," I said cautiously. "And, while I keep them password protected and all that, if Makeshift's here I don't want to leave them around like I've done a couple times."
"We will not turn those settings on," Prowl said. "They have settings where we can allow you to pull out specific objects. It is restrictive, not altogether prohibitive unless desired. We can simply say that is what we have done. While we want it to be believable, I do not wish you to be without the ability to defend yourself."
"I was already planning on posting a bot with you at all times," Optimus said.
My wings shifted. "Why?" I asked carefully.
"If Makeshift has been here the whole time, he knows of your relation to Vector Prime," Optimus said. "That alone could make you a target of special interest to the Decepticons. Plus, they may believe you hold more information than what they may have gathered, especially having been with us now. And the development of your portals could pull Shockwave's optics back on you if they weren't already set on reclaiming you."
"Oh," I said. "That's a lot of reasons the 'Cons might want me." I laughed a little nervously.
"Of course, it will only be bots we know are not Makeshift," Prowl said reassuringly.
"What's this about a relation to Vector Prime?" Ironhide asked. Then he realized something. "Ohhh. That's why you shushed me on the ship when I was going to mention your portals being like the portal Optimus used with the Blades of Time to talk to him."
I nodded. "At the time, Wheeljack was still a suspect to me," I told him. "And he doesn't know the relation yet. Everyone else knew because we thought we could trust them. The real versions of them are trustworthy bots. We're not really sure on much details other than me being related to Vector Prime, likely a daughter by Ratchet's theories. But we're unsure if it has to do with something Shockwave did or if I was already his daughter."
"How do you not know who your sire is?" Jazz asked.
My wings shifted a bit. "I mean, I know who my human sire was," I said meaningfully.
There was silence. For several minutes as the new bots took in my words and turned them over in their processors.
"Oh slag, Shockwave really put you through it," Jazz said as the full meaning of my words registered.
"No wonder you looked so freaked out when you saw that Predacon," Ironhide said, reaching out and rubbing my shoulder. "Talk about ghosts from your past."
"Mhm," I said, nodding. "If you really want caught up to speed on Shadebreaker's Trauma Story," I waved a hand through the air as if it would make the words appear in it, "I'm sure I'll eventually tell you everything. But I don't exactly feel like going into it right now with bots I just met. We have more important things to do."
"We'll go with Prowl's plan," Optimus said. "I'm sorry, Shadebreaker, but the others will all believe you to be a traitor until we catch Makeshift."
I bowed my helm. "I understand," I said quietly. "I will bear whatever anger they send my way to catch him. Knowing it is temporary and the truth will come out should make it easier."
Prowl moved toward me. "I am going to place the cuffs on your wings now," he said. "Remember, you will be able to access everything in your subspace, including your weapons, but you will not be able to transform."
"I understand," I said quietly, helm still bowed.
"It is not going to be comfortable," Prowl informed me. "They were more designed for the wings of a Seeker."
"I figured," I said.
"You don't have to agree to this," Optimus said.
"I already did," I reminded him, looking up now. "I'm dreading the other's reactions a little bit, because I know it's going to hurt. I went and let myself get close and now they're gonna think me a traitor. But I'm committed. We need to catch Makeshift more than my feelings need to be protected. It's temporary. Once it's done, we'll move past it. One step at a time. Just as we've moved past all stumbling blocks in life, right? What's that word? Resiliency."
Optimus nodded and then motioned for Prowl to continue.
As expected, the cuffs were extremely uncomfortable. I rolled my shoulders a bit, trying to alleviate the feeling a bit, but it didn't really help. Ironhide gave my shoulder another reassuring rub and I smiled a bit at him, feeling the sadness in it.
"Ironhide, I'm going to have you take the first watch with her," Optimus said. "She's probably gonna need the support of someone who knows the truth when we tell the others she's betrayed us."
"You got it, Prime," Ironhide said and his grip on my shoulder tightened a little bit. Not painfully, but as if to make sure I knew he was there for me.
I doubted he knew how much it meant to me.
