Chapter Eleven:
Maeve bolted upright, one last scream dying on her lips as she did so. The memories were still painfully vivid in her mind, and she unconsciously grasped her side tight. Her side was still in pain, her ribs aching; she could still feel each of Dead End's sharp needles in her side.
She gasped, trying to draw adequate amounts of air.
And then, it was like her body was moving on its own, as she leapt off the table and rushed towards her bedroom faster than she had ever thought possible. Jack and Janet's incensed squeaks were ignored as she rushed into her bedroom. Her mind knew what she needed, and she would find it.
It was time for it to reveal itself, even after she had long forgotten about it.
Her hands grasped the long-forgotten box in her closet; her fingers slashing themselves open on the sharp edges as she tore open the box. Her broken wrist screamed in protest, the pain ripping through her, but she ignored it. The pain wasn't as important as finding what was within.
And then… her hands apparently found what her unconscious mind was looking for as it pulled out a small metal shard, about three inches long and an inch and a half wide. It had strange symbols on it, broken halfway in places. She didn't understand why it was important, she only knew that it was important.
She stared at it, confused. Why was a piece of stone important? Hell, what the hell was SO important that she had to find it?
Maeve pushed the thoughts to the back of her mind.
She thought she felt it vibrate; thought she felt a warmth rush towards her left shoulder, but figured it was just her imagination, as she placed the metal shard in her pants pocket. Relief spread through her. It was safe.
Whatever this was, it was crucial apparently. To her memories at least. She had absolutely no idea why, but it didn't matter at that point. She could think about the "why" later.
Maeve looked around her small bedroom, bare though it was, and suddenly felt the urge to get a bag together. Something felt off, as if she wasn't going to be able to stay at her home much longer. She didn't know why, but she had long since learned to trust her instincts.
She grabbed everything in the small room that was important to her, and then sat on her bed, knowing that everything material that had ever been important to her was now stored away in the duffel bag at her feet. She had only ever kept the important things in her bedroom, just in case. Just in case her entire life changed, just in case she ever had to leave quickly. Now, it appeared that the time when everything was about to change had come.
Maeve was suddenly exhausted. Her body ached, her wrist still screaming in pain, and sleep was threatening to overcome her.
She looked up warily as Jack rushed in, worry echoing across his face. His eyes sought her, and she noticed the terrified look in them, and how they suddenly relaxed as he saw her just sitting there. She had expected him to come barging in moments earlier. He glared at her then, crossing his strong arms. She weakly smiled at him.
"Maeve, what the hell are you doing? You need to take it easy!"
She rolled her eyes at the admonishment. "I'm fine, Jack."
She really wasn't. But it was better to lie in these circumstances, it seemed. Something pricked at her senses. Life was going to become very complicated, very quickly. His worries weren't important. She stared up at him again, as he stared at her with unbelieving eyes and slight hostility. She noticed the slight movement behind him, and suddenly saw Janet start to appear in her line of vision.
She flinched. The sight of her best friend was enough to make her heart skip in fear.
"No, you are not, and you will get your ass on your fucking couch before I force you there," Janet growled as she followed her husband into the small bedroom, and Maeve visibly paled at the full sight of the fuming nurse. Janet was one hell of a nurse, and was quite cranky if you didn't do just as she said.
Maeve had learned that the hard way six months ago. She didn't intend on a repeat, though it was hard for her not to smirk and do whatever she wanted, no matter the pain and consequences.
"Oh, um, hi Janet," Maeve was sheepish as she stood slowly, placing the duffel bag's strap on her shoulder. She couldn't help but wince in pain as her wrist bent awkwardly.
Janet responded with a glare, and an admonished Maeve squeezed past the two as she walked towards the living room.
As much as she didn't want to piss off Janet, she couldn't shake the feeling of impending dread and anxiety. She quickly found her Kevlar vest and uniform top on the table and set the bag down as she grabbed both. First the vest, then the uniform top was put on. She didn't even know why she was putting the clothing back on. Comfort, she guessed. And probably the feelings she was having, that something bad was going to happen, that she was trying desperately to ignore.
She could see Jack and Janet watching her warily from the corners of her vision but ignored them. At the first button she tried to put together on the button-up uniform shirt, she gasped as a sharp bolt of pain went through her wrist. Gingerly placing her wrist at her side and giving up on buttoning up the shirt, she grabbed the duffel instead with the other hand.
She looked up quickly when she heard a sharp mechanical sound from her backyard.
Her heart ached, for some reason. She didn't know why, but the pain was enough to cause her to lean over slightly. She saw Janet's worried look. She pushed the pain away, ignored Janet's look. Surely, this was explainable. And then... the memories of the day overwhelmed her.
The day's events replayed in her mind swiftly, and she bolted outside, the bag jostling her side painfully, despite Janet's rather vocal threats of knocking her out personally.
That femme is much like the Autobot's medic, Barricade mused, and then turned his attention to the other small femme who stood at his feet as she dropped the duffel bag to the ground with an astonished look upon her face.
Maeve's mind reeled at the sight in front of her. She wasn't scared, only amused at how fate had brought her, once again, to a place in which "giant effing robots" ruled. Her new patrol car now sat, literally sat, in her back lawn in the form of a giant robot that was giving her a varied look of consternation, amusement, and wariness. His giant form was a mix of metal, wires, and electronics, but was still amazing.
She should have been scared. But she wasn't, only curious and amused at the strange twist of fate. Her heart still ached, and yet, she felt comforted. The ache in her heart eased as she gazed upon him, all the way up to his quadruple scarlet optics.
She knew this one, the one that had protected her early that day, was not like the others she had met. Certainly, he was not like the others who had hurt her, had hurt her family. She knew without a doubt that he had not contributed to the four years of nightmares, her need for alcohol and the incident.
We are not frightened anymore,
We stood up, we stood up
"Whoa," She breathed, in awe as she stared, continuing to look up until she reached the quadruple red optics. "Barricade? Is that really you?"
The mech in front of her huffed, his red optics flashing a deeper scarlet. "Yes, miserable human that insists on giving me a spark attack, it is me."
Maeve cocked an eyebrow, her heart slightly pulsating faster. "Spark attack?"
Barricade let out a sound that sounded like a snort, only more mechanical. A few clicks and whirrs uttered softly from his vocal processor as he thought of how to respond to her query.
"A spark attack is much like the heart attack of a human. However, a spark attack occurs when one cares deeply for another and is directly connected with another, whether it be through a twin-bond or sparkmates or Guardianship, and something happens to the other, whether it be injury or offlining… why am I even telling you this, fraggin' human," Barricade grumbled, something akin to unhappiness flitting over his faceplate.
Barricade was conflicted.
Maeve fought the urge to giggle at his grumpiness. Truth be told, she even noticed just how conflicted he was. It was intriguing to her.
Then, the full meaning of his words hit her.
"Wait, if I'm on the verge of freaking you out to the point of spark attack, then…?" Maeve's bewildered look echoed that on the faces of Jack and Janet. Jack placed a hand on his wife's shoulder, and gently tugged her from the open patio door, feeling that this wasn't a conversation for them to overhear.
Barricade cycled his vents in a sigh. He didn't answer her, instead staring off into the distance. Maeve continued to think, absentmindedly chewing on the inside of her cheek as she did so.
"You've known me two days, I just found out today that you're some alien species instead of a Saleen patrol car, I nearly get killed by one of your species that hates you, and I'm just supposed to believe that you were randomly assigned to me by some jerkoff that hates my guts and that somehow you care about me without even knowing me? That doesn't make sense. You… holy fucking shit." Maeve's mouth dropped in shock as recognition flashed before her.
"You were at Mission City! And you, you were there when-"
And there are two of us, there will be more,
They'll show up, yeah they'll show up
"Quiet!" Barricade stopped her dead in her tracks with that as he stood up quickly.
Maeve lost her balance as the ground shifted beneath her and fell onto her back, wincing and crying out as she landed on the ground.
She had thrown out her wrist to catch herself, even though that wrist had been broken. Habit, she knew. Pain rippled through her body, and she hugged her broken wrist to her chest. She looked upward at Barricade and cringed as his weapons systems came online. Some sort of rotating mace/blades weapon was whirring from his clawed left hand, while the other had shifted into some sort of rocket launcher.
She unconsciously cried out in terror.
He looked terrifying, his quadruple crimson optics glowing and pulsating with something akin to rage.
Primal fear grasped its claws upon her. Maeve scooted back slowly on the dirt and grass, feeling Jack and Janet grasp a hold of her arms. They had heard her cry of terror and had come running.
Suddenly she stopped moving when those crimson optics came to rest on her. She was... comforted.
It did not escape her that his rage-filled optics softened as they glanced at her. His hostile presence wasn't towards her, or Jack and Janet, but rather something else. It took her only but a second to realize it. She shrugged off Jack and Janet, who were still pulling on her, painfully. Jack gave a resentful protest as she shoved them away. She stood, unsteady on her feet, but able to keep her balance. She stared up at Barricade, and then followed his dark and meaningful stare into the distance.
She knew.
Something was coming. Her feelings of dread and anxiety were coming to pass.
"It's not us. Something else." Maeve explained to Jack and Janet softly. The other two humans gazed open-mouthed at her, and then up at Barricade. There was no way she could know anything, and this giant robot still terrified them. But then, what the hell was going on?
"And how the hell do you know that, Maeve?" Jack hissed towards her, and she rolled her eyes.
"Just trust me, LT. We're not the threat, something else is."
Barricade gave a quick nod to Maeve's assessment, and snapped his optics back up, scanning the area around Maeve's home. His scans repeated what had garnered his attention in the first place; Autobot signatures within half a mile of Maeve's home, moving far too quickly for him to go into alt-mode and leave with Maeve safely. The three Autobots converging on his position would be there in seconds.
All he could do was wait and ponder how the situation would deteriorate.
If that blasted weapons specialist was with this group… well, he was certainly doomed, no doubt about that. Nothing would stop those infamous cannons from training their expert gaze onto his form. Several outcomes whirled through his processor; each one dependent on how the Autobots reacted. He wondered if Prime was with this group. He couldn't get a fix on the identifiers of the signatures, and that annoyed him greatly.
He knew Prime was his only hope of survival. He scowled. An Autobot, the Prime at that, being his only hope. Nothing could have irritated him more. Well, except for Ironhide showing up at Maeve's house first. That would certainly piss him off.
Still, what kind of hunter/scout was he? Primus, he had gone so soft that his training was in peril. A look of disgust passed over his faceplate at that. Unacceptable.
"Get behind me. Now." He muttered to the three humans. Maeve, without hesitation, did as she was told. Janet and Jack, on the other hand, did hesitate.
Until the dirt road in front of Maeve's home seemed to dissolve into fire and smoke, sending a shock wave through the house and into the backyard, knocking them flat.
Janet started screaming hysterically as Jack forcefully shoved her to where Maeve was positioned behind Barricade's left foot. Maeve held her Glock in her still-working hand, as she crouched behind Barricade's attack-ready form. She didn't know why, but she was prepared to give her all, for him.
Jack tried to shush his hysterical wife to no avail, as Barricade looked again upon Maeve.
"If I am offlined and sent to the Well of All Sparks, Maeve McWilliams, you must keep that shard safe and you must leave me and find safety. Do not trust anyone, human or otherwise." Barricade warned her softly as the Autobots moved in front of her home.
Maeve gave him a look of annoyance as she painfully grasped her Glock, though she found the words strangely comforting.
She simply responded, "I'm not leaving, you ass."
Blame a change of mind
A seismic shift in times
They told us not to fight
But we'll fight it till we die
'Cause we are not frightened anymore,
We stood up, we stood up
And then her home exploded into flames, as all of them except for Barricade were knocked backwards from the shock wave. Barricade tensed when he heard Ironhide's exuberant cheer.
This was not going to end well.
A/N - I do not own A Fine Frenzy's "Stood Up".