"You really think this is going to help him?" Duver stopped warily at the door. The elder guard was on edge the moment she had proposed to him what she wanted to do. Yet, despite his reservations, there was a trust he seemed to have for her. Otherwise, she was sure he wouldn't be doing this at all.
"Honestly, Duver," she felt her bones shaking at the mere thought of what she was doing. "I can't truly say for sure. At this point I'm trying to find what is going to help him open up to me. If this works, then I'm willing to do it." The lie was bitter on her tongue. This wasn't to help him, it was to help herself. This or Deagon learned of what she'd said. She pressed down a shutter at the thought.
"And if it doesn't?" He eyed her warily as her father used to do when she was younger. It seemed the stare was universal.
"Then I try the next thing."
Duver sighed and turned toward the door. "You want me to come in with you?"
Yes. That's what she wanted to say. She wanted someone else in there for her, if not just for security, but as a witness. But did she truly want someone to have a front row seat to a possibly very stupid decision? "No, I will be okay. But I do need you on the outside so you can open the door when I ask." And watch out for any prying eyes. This place was sorely lacking in cameras, but passing guards always seemed to make up for that.
"I'll be here," his tone was protective. "You knock, kick, scream, yell, whatever you need to do and I'll get this door open for you."
She smiled. "Thank you, Duver."
"Jack. You can call me Jack."
"Thank you Jack." She stepped a little to the side, allowing him to unlock the door. It was fascinating to her that no technology was used in the securing of the doors. Deagon had explained how many Decepticons, even being stripped of their abilities and strengths, could manipulate the technology. Going old school took that ability away from most, truly locking them behind the cement and metal barricades.
The door creaked as it was opened, clearly unused for an extended period of time.
"Be careful," Jack spoke kindly into her ear as she walked by.
Aurora nodded at him and stepped over the lip of the doorway into the room. Light poured in from the slitted window above and her eyes adjusted to the dim atmosphere around her. As both her feet planted onto the ground, the room hummed, sensing human life. The lights groaned above her, slowly glowing brighter at her presence. She waited at the edge of the door, Jack pushing it closed with a grunt. She listened as he turned the lock, separating her from the safety of the hallway. She was stuck in here with whoever had been secured behind the walls.
A light above her popped, making her body jolt. Deagon had explained that the lights were made to register human life, sulking the prisoners in darkness until they were visited. With their own glow of their optics, she imagined being in darkness was far different for them than it was for humanity.
Taking in a deep breath, she pushed one foot forward. It was now or never and she had made a deal with Megatron. One that she was not intent on breaking lest she find herself on a new side of Deagon's wrath. She shuddered at the thought.
"Have you not terrorized me enough?" a voice loomed over her. In the growing light she could make out the frame of someone large, but far smaller than Megatron. She squinted, trying to figure out the frame, where the head began and the body ended. But from where she stopped she could only see a mangled mess of blood red and rusted orange. "Did you not hear me?" The voice was mangled, worn, but filled with an anger that she heard often enough in Megatron's voice. One that begged her to test the limits. Thick chains rattled and she saw them slither as limbs moved. "Leave!"
Aurora felt her blood draining from her face when a head swiveled fast, optics coming eerily close to her own. Lips were curled into a snarl, optics that should have been as red as blood drained to the color of rusted metal left out in the world too long. A snarl slivered past the Decepticons throat, and her wisps of hair she had let fall from her face blew back.
The light grew and she could make out the Decepticons features. There were no optics, only one stared at her, his left gouged out leaving an open space of rotting and sparking wires. The half of his face that held the optic was mangled beyond repair, metal smelted down until what could be recognized as their muscle was permanently open to the world. His one good optic studied her, the other half of his face that worked shifting as thoughts seemed to run rampant through his head. "You are not one of them." he slowly etched himself back against the wall, watching her still body.
"What happened to you?" she couldn't keep the question at bay, never thought that it might hurt him to be reminded of his manglement.
The Decepticon sneered with his half good side, his optic looking to the barren wall adjacent to him. "What the hell do you think happened to me, human?" he spat out her title, a glob of grease and whatever else could be qualified as a liquid inside their bodies flying off toward the wall he stared at. Then he glanced at her, his gaze softening for a mere moment of contemplation. "But you are not one of them, are you?"
"No. I'm not."
"You're one of the others." he continued as if he hadn't heard her. "The ones they bring in for the big boss." a laugh echoed from him, leading to a recoiling cough that bounced around the tight walls of the prison. He hurled over, another glob of something releasing from him. It settled between his legs where he sat, one knelt and the other sitting cross. He recoiled at his own actions, a chained fist wiping away the residual spit that hung from his mouth.
Aurora could only watch in horror and felt sympathy pinch at her skin. "What happened to you?"
His sideways glare reminded her that she had already asked that question once. He shifted, both legs crossing so that he sat back against the wall, head tilted. "You might think your species kind and loving human," he spat. "But this is what they do to things they don't like."
She studied him under the light. His face was not the only thing mangled. A servo sat limp and mangled, a pede detached from a leg. Half of his chest had been wrenched wide open, the plates that should have covered his insides removed. Behind what should have covered it were the inner workings of a Cybertronian - wires, cogs, and things that she wouldn't think to be organic all pumping and writhing to create a living being.
"They're studying you, aren't they?"
He snorted, his one optic rolling. "What else am I beneficial for after the war?" he sniped, chuckling at his own misfortune. "I am nothing but a thing, not a living being, not even a creature, just an odd existence in the mass of fleshbags I could trample under my pede.
Her heart sunk. She didn't know why. This was one of the bad ones, the same side as Megatron - and yet she felt for him. Was it so wrong to think that he deserved some peace, even if it came at the expense of his death? No living being, no matter how vile, deserved such treatment. Even Megatron seemed to have a better outcome than the one in front of her.
"What are you called?"
He snorted, his head lolling to the side as if she had asked him to tell her a joke.
"Well, you must have one."
His one good optic turned and looked at her. "Crossteal. That's what they used to call me."
She paused in reflection. "What do they call you now?"
A huff of air escaped the open center of his chest, a laugh that couldn't quite make it out of his mouth. "Bag of bolts. Dead metal. Hollow lug. Take your pick." he shifted again, the sound of grating metal that was well unkept slicing her ears. "Why are you here?" His question was cold, cutting through the tense fog between them.
"I made a promise to your leader." Her tongue burned with the lie but she was not about to tell a Decepticon about the blackmail.
"Megatron doesn't make or do 'promises'." he coughed again, liquid spraying out of his mouth. As it calmed he tilted back again, his optic staring her down. "He makes threats."
"That he does," she sat on the ground, her legs crossing. "But I made a deal with him. I am checking on all the prisoners here and reporting to him how they are doing." And in turn she was safe from Deagon knowing how much she truly hated him. Not that he probably didn't know already, she'd made it clear she was not his number one fan. But verbal confirmation was the last thing she needed him to have against her.
"Ha!" Crossteal's head lulled to the side again, as if he could not keep it upright for any length of time. "He does not make deals either. You are running a wild chase for a mad-man. Megatron is simply using you and in the end you will find that you have worked so hard for nothing in return." His digits clenched and unclenched, his optic watching them as if they changed with the movement.
"It sounds like you are speaking from experience."
His smile was dark and cut through her like a knife. "Only once or twice. I learned my lessons fast. Unlike some Decepticons I knew." His head rested back against the wall. "Tell him I am here and that his plight against humanity is to be warranted." a breath shuddered out of him. "Now go before I decide you are nothing more than a bug to swat."
Aurora backed away, her eyes locked on his ever watchful one. Her bag pressed against the cool solid metal of the door and she knocked. Clicks resounded from inside the doors mechanism and it opened to Jack's worried face. Turning, she slipped out, shuddering at the feeling of the ever watchful optic. She wished she would have had some better news to tell Megatron - that the first of his people she visited was well in health enough and not a mangled mess from human experiments. But such was the way of life, and this one phase she was in was persistent in keeping her constantly in a state of worry and anxiety.
"You get what you need?" Jack asked, his voice shaky for her sake.
"Yes, but it's not the news I expected. Tell me," she faced Jack. "What goes on here?"
"'Sides what goes on normally?" he shrugged his shoulders, bolting the door back into place. "I've heard the rumors from those who work weekend shifts. Experiments, tests, unconventional conversations with the alien folk." he shrugged. "It's over my head and my paycheck to pay attention to those things. All I do is show up, guard a door, and head on home to the missus." He stopped after the door locked in place. Turning, his eyes held a sort of protective nature to them, a warning. "Don't go snoopin' places you ought not to be, Aurora. This place is a dungeon for those alien kind, but I don't think those like Deagon are dead set keeping it only for them. I see the way he acts 'round those he doesn't like. He's more than willin' to lock up anyone who opposes him. If I were you," he stepped close enough so if anyone were nearby only she could hear. "I would stay in his good graces for as long as you're able. That man is mad with power."
Aurora stepped back. "Duly noted, thank you Jack. And thank you again for doing this."
"Don't thank me, Dr. Clark." she could hear the lump forming in his throat, the way it did when someone hated to speak the next part. "I can't do this no more for you. It right scared me thinkin' you were being splat to nothin'. And watchin' out for the other guards and for your warning signs. I'm too old for this."
She let out a low sigh. "That's alright, Jack. Thank your for your willingness to help me with even one. I got more than enough information for Megatron through him. I'll figure out how to see the rest."
His hand grabbed her upper arm in a grasp her father used to do when she had done something bad. Her heart ripped in her chest, feeling as if she were going to be reprimanded for something she'd done. But his words were not a reprimand but a warning. "You truly listen to me, Aurora. I'm scared for you with the kind like Deagon. He's a man who goes after what he likes to see and I see how he looks at you. This trick you're pullin' on the big guy, it's a right hope in your heart that you think it'll open him up to you. . . But you'll get yourself killed before he'll do that. Or worse. And I'm scared you'll end up witnessing the worse before you ascend to our maker." his grip lightened when he realized it was hurting her. His eyes softened, a fear behind them. "Just be wary of what you promise. And if you truly think this'll work, watch your everythin' because Deagon has eyes even where you think there ought not to be any." His eyes scoured the hallway. "There may be a severe lack of cameras. . . But he ain't blind. " Jack let go and she let out a breath she'd been holding back.
Licking her dry lips, she swallowed to coat her throat. She didn't know what to say or even feel. There was a real fear behind his eyes, but yet she had made a deal - one that meant the life or death of her career. She couldn't tell that to Jack, he'd fall apart hearing that she was being blackmailed into this. He needed to see this as her own good faith, a way to get Megatron to open up to her. But for her, she needed this for her secret to stay safe.
She knew Deagon was dangerous, but Jack made the small knot between her stomach and heart grow ten times. He made it sound that the man was far more than she could have ever imagined. But she knew well enough not to trust him in some things. It was why she had not wanted to start out with him. Her lying was good enough to get by, but something about him made her skin crawl, made her feel that he would not accept her lie at face value. He was a man who knew when another lied because he was a man who was steeped in them himself.
Her hands took Jack's and she pressed it close between her palms. "I promise I will be careful, Jack. Thank you for helping me this far."
He stepped back, his eyes never leaving here. He was worried for her the same way her father was worried when she talked about getting her degree in psychology. When she got her first job as a trauma therapist. When she got her first high profile client. When she was in the news because one had. . .
She shook her head. She had sworn to never think of that client again but he had been popping into her head since telling Megatron her darkest story. Even her censored version felt weighted even after how much time had passed.
Jack let out a defeated sigh. He knew his words would only go as far as her ears. They would not resonate her mind. They would not stop her from this venture. She would continue on. She would learn about the other Decepticons. She would do it with or without help, but she would certainly leave using Deagon for a last try.