Chapter 13​

Moonraider trudged through the trees and bushes of the woods, getting frustrated as some of the limbs got stuck in her armor. She hated this – being on the run from everyone. Both factions hated her and now she had to resort to being a rouge for possibly the rest of her life. Which felt like wouldn’t be long. Her wounds from earlier still hadn’t healed all the way and were giving her pain. Add in the fact that she was running low on energon, as the warnings she was receiving kept reminding her, and finding more was going to be a bit of a challenge, the femme’s future looked rather bleak. Carefully she leaned against one of the trees to allow herself a moment of rest.

“Slaggin’ Starscream!” she hissed as one of her damaged door wings brushed against the trunk of the tree.

Why did he have to go and damage her door wing? And of all of the places the Autobots’ medic could have ignored when he had patched her up, it had to be that. Would it have killed him to have repaired her wing before she had escaped? Their youngling had door wings; didn’t they know how sensitive the appendages could be when they were damaged? She brushed the thoughts aside and forced herself to get back up. Moonraider wasn’t sure if anyone was looking for her – the Autobots to take her back as prisoner or the Decepticons to finish her off – but in her current state, she didn’t want to take any risks.

She had only managed to walk a short distance when one of her legs gave out on her and she started to collapse to the ground. Before she could hit the dirt and grass below her though, she felt someone grab her from behind.

“Don’t worry Moony, I got you.”

“F-Forest?” she managed to whisper before blissful stasis claimed her.
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Forest looked at the femme in his arms with a strange mixture of happiness and sadness. Happiness that after all this time that he had finally found her, even though he certainly hadn’t expected to see her on this planet, but sadness at her current state. She looked so broken… and that wasn’t the way his Moonraider should look. She should look more lively – her armor cleaner and her violet optics brighter with a kindness to them that only he could see. Gently he lifted one of his servos to gently caress her face before removing the shattered remains of her visor.

Now he wasn’t sure what to do. He was no medic, but he could tell that most of the wounds that she had were superficial, though that didn’t make them any less painful. She was also low on energon, which was most likely the reason she had fallen into stasis. It was clear to him that the best thing would be to have a medic tend to her, but that presented a big problem to him. He wouldn’t take her to the Autobots without her permission. He knew that would most likely result in her being held as a prisoner for quite a while, which could possibly prevent him from getting to spend time with her. Plus he didn’t know how she had gotten injured in the first place, and whether she was a Decepticon or not, he was not going to let a Decepticon medic touch her beautiful frame, even in its current state.

A quick scan of the area told him that there was a nearby cave. He could stay with her there until she woke up and then he could ask her what had happened and if he could take her to a medic. He was careful as he carried her to the cave, taking caution as to not accidently touch one of her wounds. Once inside, he sat on the ground and plucked the twigs from her armor. Forest knew that Moonraider most likely wouldn’t be too pleased with the fact that she was being held when she woke up, but he wasn’t going to let go of her. She had already left his life once, and he was going to make sure that he never lost her again.
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The first thought that crossed Moonraider’s mind when she groggily woke from stasis was that she was dead. She had to be, it was the only way any of this made sense to her. Forest was holding her, but Forest should have been dead by now. It had been something that she had convinced herself long ago. But then she realized that she wasn’t dead. If she was dead, she was doubtful she would have been rewarded with Forest being with her. So she was alive and so was Forest. The part of her that had convinced her that he was a weakness and that she couldn’t afford to keep him around, told her to push him away. But the small part of her, that no matter how much she tried still cared for Forest, told her to savor the moment.

After all, he’ll probably hate you just like everyone else once he finds out what you’ve done, the voice taunted. For some reason, Moonraider was terrified that the voice would end up being right.

“You need some energon,” Forest’s concerned voice brought her out of her thoughts.

“I’m fine,” she lied, though her weak, rough voice betrayed her.

Forest put a small cube of energon into her line of sight, “I had this with me and you need it a lot more than I do. Come on Moony, please take it.”

She hesitated, but eventually took it from him. She was on her own now; she really couldn’t afford to pass up any energon that came her way. After she finished it, she couldn’t deny how much better she felt now that she had something to give her a little more energy.

“Now do you want to tell me what happened?” Forest asked. When Moonraider remained silent he got the hint that she wasn’t ready to discuss it. “That’s okay, you can tell me later. I’m a pretty patient mech.”

“You can’t stay here,” Moonraider finally spoke.

“What?”

“You can’t stay here. If any Decepticon finds me, they’ll kill us both.”

“You need to see a medic.”

“I already have. Unfortunately he didn’t fully repair me before I escaped.”

“You were captured?”

Well that settled that. There was no way he would be able to convince her to see whatever Autobot medic was on Earth now. He also realized that she did have a point about him not being able to stay. For whatever reason she didn’t want the Decepticons to find her, if they did and he was with her, things would most likely be worse for her. And if the Autobots came searching for him and found him with her, Moonraider would most likely be taken back as prisoner. And he knew that she would not like that. But he wasn’t willing to leave her unless he knew that he would be able to find her again.

“Are you going to stay here?” he asked.

“Maybe for a while,” Moonraider replied rather quietly.

“Will you stay here until I come back?”

Moonraider turned and looked at him in surprise.

“You’re going to need more energon,” Forest pointed out. “I could probably bring you some and try to get your visor fixed too. Plus I want to get to see you more. It’s been so long…”

It had been long, Moonraider could not deny that. But time had a way of changing them. Maybe not Forest, he seemed the same to her as he did the last time she had seen him, but she certainly had changed. Whether it was for the best or for the worst depended. A part of her was screaming that she couldn’t let herself become close to Forest again, while the other was urging her… begging her to let him back into her life. She hated the conflicting feelings that were flowing inside of her and it was beginning to exhaust her.
“I’ll be here,” she sighed, allowing him to wrap his arms around her tighter for a moment before letting her go and getting up.

“I’ll be back soon,” he promised. When he arrived at the entrance to the cave he paused for a moment. “I still love you Moony, I hope you know that.”

He left before Moonraider was able to respond. She could feel emotions that she had kept buried stirring inside of her at his words and she quickly struggled to push them back down. Of course Forest still loved her. He didn’t know what all had recently happened with her and once he joined up with the other Autobots, they would tell him. He may have still loved her now, but she was doubtful that he would after that. If anything, Forest was a loyal Autobot, and it was that trait that had frustrated her to the core. If only he hadn’t of been so loyal or if only he had been a Decepticon… maybe then things wouldn’t have been so impossible for them. At one time she had held out hope that the war would end and they would be able to be together, but she had soon realized that even then it would have been difficult. There would always be those who would ridicule them for being with someone that had been on the opposite side.

Once again she had to push those thoughts out of her mind. She needed a distraction, something to keep her from thinking of that. Moonraider never cared much for human culture, she still didn’t in fact, but at the moment their world wide web was the only distraction she would be able to find. Not much of it interested her at first, but then a piece of human literature caught her attention and she began to read it.

To say that she was disappointed with the ending would be an understatement. Why couldn’t the human known as William Shakespeare have given Romeo and Juliet a better ending? Her reaction surprised her at first, but then she realized that she had placed herself and Forest in the roles of the characters. She could see why she had done it, after all she and Forest were technically forbidden to be together too. Though neither of them were quiet as foolish as Romeo and Juliet had been.

She had been a youngling, probably around the same age as the Autobot scout, when she had first met Forest. It had been one of her first infiltration jobs and things had been going much better then she had anticipated. One of the Autobots, Forest, trusted her enough to show her every inch of the base. But then something had ended up happening and against her better judgment, she had started to fall for him. And then Forest had discovered that she was a Decepticon spy. She had expected that he would hate her and turn her over. He surprised her by not turning her over, but helping her leave. As loyal as he was to the Autobot cause, he had cared enough about her to break the rules.

That was part of the reason she had acted the way she had before. After she had realized how impossible it would be for her and Forest to be together, she had also come to the conclusion that this wasn’t their war – it was Megatron’s and Optimus Prime’s war. They were the ones that had initiated it and they were the ones that had all of them pitted against each other. And most importantly of all, they were the ones who made it impossible for her to be with Forest. Of course defecting had always been an option, but was an option that Moonraider never would have considered. Forest would never have joined the Decepticons, and she could never join the Autobots. It wouldn’t have mattered if she had cared about their ideals, joining them would have been a death sentence – not only to her, but to Forest as well. By not defecting, she had been keeping Forest safe… even if it meant that they wouldn’t be together.

Moonraider felt a stab of annoyance at herself. She had gone so long without even having a thought about Forest. Sure he may have been the driving force behind her actions, something that would no doubt disappoint him, but she had kept him blocked from her mind. But now that she had seen him and knew that he was alive, all of her thoughts and feelings towards him had returned full force. For so long she had convince herself that relationships were a weakness and that she would never fall for it again, but now a part of her was dying to be with Forest. But maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing anymore. She was alone now… maybe having someone would still be nice. As long as he still cared for her once he returned that is.

There was no denying the fact that she loved Forest. No matter how much she wanted to convince herself otherwise, it was impossible. Moonraider let out a sigh, closed her optics, and tried to drift off into recharge. Maybe the conflicting feelings she had would be gone when she woke up.

 

well that was something, interesting character chapter !

 

 

Sweet EPICNESS this is EPIC

 

ARCTrooperAlpha - Thanks, I enjoy writing character chapters.  

RoadRage - Thank you! I'm glad that you like it!  
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Chapter 14​

Pain radiating throughout her entire body was all that Elita could feel. Megatron’s torture to her kept alternating to different things. At one point she would be stabbed with a blade and then at another point she would have electricity coursing through her frame. It was painful and disorienting, and it unfortunately kept her from being prepared for what would come. To make matters worse, as the torture went on she found herself focusing more and more on her bond with Optimus to try to escape the pain. It did help her a little, but Elita knew that it also allowed Optimus to feel her pain worse than he already could.

(I am coming Elita. It will be over soon. ) Optimus assured her over their bond. (Continue to focus on me.)

(No, you don’t need to feel this anymore than you have to.)

(And you do not need to face this by yourself. How badly are you damaged?)

(I’m not sure. I know I’m losing energon, but I don’t know how much I’m losing or what else is damaged. I’m not getting any reports… Optimus it feels like the pain is getting worse though.)

(Then I will not leave you. Focus on me and do not think about what is going on. Think of something else.)

(Do you remember when you first brought Bumblebee to the base?)

(Of course, the moment I stepped inside holding a tiny, crying sparkling you rushed over and took him from me.)

(He was scared and hungry, I felt like I needed to help him. So I grabbed some energon and started to feed him. While I was doing that he snuggled close to my spark and I decided that I would protect and care for him.)

(You wouldn’t put him down for orns. When I went to our room a while after I brought him to the base, you both were in recharge with him cradled in your arms.)

(I seem to recall when I woke up we were both cradled in your arms.)

(I could tell how happy he was making you and wanted to have you both close.)

If she hadn’t been searing with pain, Elita would have smiled at the memory. The feeling of a sparkling snuggled up close to her had been so wonderful. She and Optimus had tried to have a sparkling before, but it had never happened. When her sparkmate had found Bumblebee, she had felt like she would finally have a chance at being a mother and she hadn’t been willing to give it up. That was why she had allowed herself to get captured if it meant he wouldn’t be receiving any more harm from Megatron – she would not have a repeat of last time. Suddenly an alarm went off, causing Megatron to growl in anger and stab her with his blade again. Elita gasped in pain, unable to hold it back any longer.

“It appears my brother found a way to come for you sooner than I had anticipated.”

Elita remained silent and offlined her optics to try to conserve her energy. She was getting tired, but she knew that she could not allow herself to fall into recharge or into stasis until Optimus found her and they made it back to the base.
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The sound of alarms told Optimus that their presence aboard the Decepticons’ ship had not gone unnoticed. The Autobot leader knew that they were going to have to hurry if they were going to be able to get to Elita and Aly and be able to get them off of the ship before the Decepticons could do anything drastic. He knew that he would be able to find Elita – their bond would lead him to her. Aly on the other hand, would not be as easy to find. She could be anywhere on the ship, and it seemed that splitting up would be the only way to find her.

“Jazz, go locate the bridge and check to see if Alyson is there. Bumblebee, Ironhide, you will search the rest of the ship for her. I will go get Elita.”

Almost instantly Bumblebee took off in search of his human friend. Optimus was sure that the scout would be able to locate her. Of course what worried him is what the youngling would do once he had found her. There was no doubt in the Autobot leader’s mind that Bumblebee would do whatever he could to save Aly, even if it meant harm befalling him.

“You’re going alone?” Ironhide questioned.

“Yes. I know where she is at and I will be able to find her. I need you to help Bumblebee find Alyson and try to keep him from getting in over his head.”

Ironhide nodded before walking off in the direction where Bumblebee had run off. Once the others had left for their search, Optimus headed in the direction where his spark was telling him he would find his sparkmate. He just hoped that he would be able to get to her and get her off of the Nemesis before Megatron or any of the other Decepticons could do anything else to her.
Only a short while later did Optimus walk into the room where Elita was strapped down to an interrogation table. Energon was leaking from her pink frame and her optics were closed. A mere few feet away from her stood Megatron – a satisfied smirk on his face. Optimus could tell that his brother had been looking forward to his arrival. And now he faced a dilemma. Megatron would not simply let them walk away, he would want a fight. But in Elita’s current state, he was not certain how long she could hold on. He needed to get her off of the Nemesis as soon as possible so she could receive much needed repairs. The only question was how would he do that?

“Megatron, release Elita at once. Our quarrel has nothing to do with her.”
Optimus had extreme doubt that even attempting to reason with Megatron would work, but he needed to do something to ensure his sparkmate’s freedom.

“Oh I disagree Optimus. It seems that I now possess the perfect leverage over you,” Megatron stated as he unsheathed his blade and hovered it over Elita’s spark chamber. “With one fatal blow to her, I could deliver more pain to you than if I even fought you myself. I find myself in a very enjoyable position. One more blow and I can finally watch you crumble.”

Megatron started to raise his blade to deliver his final blow.
Everything appeared to be in slow motion for Optimus as the blade started to fall towards Elita.

“No!”

 

Chapter 15​

Acting on pure instinct Optimus lunged towards Megatron right as his blade pierced Elita's armor. He heard his sparkmate let out a pained gasp and he himself could feel the pain. What worried him the most though, was how excruciating it felt. Surely his brother's blade had not actually pierced her spark. That thought terrified Optimus to the core. He could not lose Elita. He wasn't sure how he would be able to live, knowing that he had failed to save her... or that she had been killed simply to harm him. Optimus knew at that moment that it was extremely important to get a hold of Elita and have Ratchet GroundBridge them back to base, so she could receive medical treatment. With that in mind, Optimus used Megatron's moment of destraction to shove his brother as far away from him as possible, before rushing to Elita and ripping the bonds off of her.

"O-Optimus," Elita managed to painfully whisper.

"Shh, I will get you out of here Elita and Ratchet will repair you. You will be alright," he replied gently picking her up right as Megatron rushed towards him.

Optimus quickly moved out of the way, unfortunately jostling Elita in the process causing her more pain, which he had hoped to avoid. Quickly the Autobot leader fired at the Decepticon, hoping that he would be able to stun him long enough to get out of the room. Fortunately for him, his blast was able to knock Megatron back into the wall – giving him the perfect opportunity to rush out of the room with Elita.

"Ratchet, I require a GroundBridge immediately," Optimus spoke through the comm. while he kept his optics looked onto his suffering, and possibly dying, sparkmate. "And prepare the medical bay for Elita."

"W-what a-about the o-others?" Elita managed to get out. "C-can't leave t-them..."

"Ironhide, Jazz, and Bumblebee will get Alyson. They will be alright. Right now my primary concern is getting you to safety and medical attention."

At that moment the GroundBridge opened and Optimus hurried through it. For a moment, he wondered why Megatron had not come after them. Had his brother assumed that he would not be able to get Elita help in time? That did not seem right and he began to wonder if the Decepticon leader had went after the others. He did not get to dwell on the thought however, for as he stepped inside of the base – his concern returned to his sparkmate. As soon as he was certain that she would be alright, he would go help the others if they required his assistance. He hated the thought of leaving Elita while she was hurt so badly.

"Where is she hurt the worst?" Ratchet asked as Optimus placed the pink femme down on a medical berth.

"Megatron stabbed her near her spark. I do not know if he pierced it or not... I believe he was close to it though. I can feel how much pain it is causing her."

After hooking her up to several monitors, so he could keep a watch over her vitals, the medic removed Elita's chest armor to get a closer look at her spark. Ratchet knew that Optimus was hovering nearby, and if it had been anyone else, Ratchet would have normally kicked him out of the med bay. But there was a mutual understanding between medics, sparkmates, and twins. If there was a potential life-threatening injury for one, the other would be allowed to stay as long as they did not interfere with any work going on – and Ratchet knew that Optimus would not interfere with anything unless he asked him too. After a closer inspection, the medic was able to see that fortunately Megatron had not completely pierced Elita's spark. He had assumed that would be the case since the femme was still online, but it was still good to have it confirmed. However, even though the spark was not pierced, he could see a cut running across it.

"Did you knock Megatron away right as his arm blade entered her?" Ratchet questioned.

"Yes. Why do you ask?"

"When you did that, you prevented Megatron from immediately killing her by letting him completely stab her, but he was still able to cut it – which is not a good thing. There is little I can do to keep it stabilized, so that is going to be up to you after I patch up the rest of her wounds," Ratchet explained before turning his attention to Elita. "Elita, I am going to put you into medical stasis while I work on you, alright?"

The femme managed a weak nod, before Ratchet put her under.

"What do you mean, that is is up to me to keep her spark stabilized?" Optimus asked once Elita was in stasis. "What will I have to do?"

"Optimus, the cut on her spark is irreversible," Ratchet said as he worked. "There is literally nothing I can do to fix it, and it will cause her problems. Anything too strenuous or stressful could give her a spark attack, which could end up offlining her. I believe she will have to stay off of active duty and out of any battles. As her sparkmate, her spark is connected to yours. If her spark needs to be stabilized to keep it steady the best thing to do is to have you merge your spark with hers for a little while."

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A short while later, Optimus was laying on the medical berth with Elita in his arms. Ratchet had finished patching up her wounds and Optimus had stabilized her spark for the time being. Ratchet had hooked her up to a machine that would pump energon in her to replace the energon she had lost. Already she was out of her medical stasis, and didn't seem quite as weak as she had before, though she was more lethargic than usual. They were currently waiting to hear something from the others about whether or not they had been able to get to Aly.

"I am sorry, I did not get to you sooner Elita."

"No, I don't want to hear any apologies nor do I want to hear you blaming yourself. It wasn't your fault and I don't want to hear you saying so."

"Elita, you were badly injured because I did not get to you sooner."

"I would have been injured no matter when you got there. Megatron was waiting for you to arrive – you stopped him from killing me, that's what should matter to you."

"This injury will not leave you, Elita. You realize that you will have to remain off of active duty."

"I know," the femme replied quietly, "but I will find some way to keep myself occupied. Besides I will still be able to go out some. I'll survive, and I hope you remember that."

Optimus remained silent. He certainly had not expected that Elita would take her new disability so well. He was sure that there would be times later on, when it would bother her much more than it did at the moment. Having to stay behind and wonder what was happening to them in battles, he knew that she would not be able to stand it. But he supposed that they would have to deal with that later on when they crossed that bridge. For the meanwhile he knew that he would try his best to honor her wish of not blaming himself. It would not be easy, that much he was certain of. Every time he saw that that she was letting her disability bother her or he saw the effects of it, he would be reminded of the fact of what happened.

"Optimus, perhaps you should go back and help the others," Elita suggested. "I know that you do not want to leave me, but right now I believe they need you more."

"I have already contacted them and told them of your condition. Ironhide and Jazz both said that they could handle things on the Nemesis, and if they do need me, they will contact me."

"That may be the case, but I would feel better if I knew that you were there to make sure no one else gets captured and tortured."

"Elita..."

The femme leaned up and gave her sparkmate a kiss, "Go. I'll just recharge while you're gone. And please make sure to tell Bumblebee and Aly to not blame themselves either – Aly was already blaming herself for us getting captured and we raised Bumblebee, and unfortunately he takes after you with some things."

"Very well, I will go and help the others if that is what you want."

"It is. Now don't worry, I'll be fine and perhaps by the time you get back, Ratchet will believe that I can leave the med bay," Elita said glancing over at the medic.

Ratchet quickly replied, "You're staying in here for the rest of the Earth day and night. If everything appears to be fine tomorrow, you can move back to yours and Optimus' room."

Optimus had to hide a smile at the scowl on Elita's face.

"I will stay in here with you once I return," he promised, earning a small smile from Elita.

"I know you will. Now go, so you can get back here soon with the others."

The Autobot leader nodded for Ratchet to reopen the GroundBridge for him. He hoped that he would be able to catch up with the others before an inevitable skirmish broke out. Optimus did not like the idea of a human being caught in the middle of a fight like that. He knew that Bumblebee would protect the girl with his life, but he would rather the youngling not get badly injured himself in attempting to keep her safe. If it was possible, he was going to make sure that those two would be the first to be extracted from the Decepticon ship. He, Ironhide, and Jazz would most likely be able to hold any Decepticons off to allow them to escape, before getting off themselves.

 

Chapter 16​

Partnerships were not uncommon amongst the Decepticon ranks. That being said, it was rare that the partnerships would form genuine friendships. Many only used them as means to an end, while others simply didn't want to be put in a position where they could be compromised or viewed as a weakness. In the, as the humans would say, dog eat dog world of the Decepticons, weakness was not a valuable asset. And the fact that they lived in that kind of conditions, was precisely why Knockout loved his position as CMO of the Decepticon army. It wasn't exactly a position that was sought after by others, and even if it was, few wanted to get on the bad side of the one Decepticon that would be in charge of patching them up and even fewer would want to take the risk of having to face the doctor's medical assistant.

Breakdown was not the type that one would expect to be working in a medical bay. In fact, one would expect that the brute would be out on the front lines – which he actually was, most of the time. But Knockout and Breakdown had formed a friendship a long time ago, and the two simply worked well together. Plus Knockout couldn't deny the fact that it was good to have someone watching his back whenever he was sent out to participate in battles. After all, it meant that his finish was less likely to get ruined.

Though Knockout knew that the day that their partnership proved to be less than useful, they would no longer be permitted to work with each other. It was one of the many downfalls of being an officer under Lord Megatron's command. Knockout rarely considered the possibility of that ever happening though. The few times Breakdown had attempted to bring it up, Knockout had simply waved him off.

He wasn't going to consider it, because it simply wasn't going to happen.

"So what is Starscream doing with the human now?" Knockout questioned his partner as he tried to tune out the sound of alarms going off.

"Still talking."

Most of the time, Knockout enjoyed the fact that Megatron had forced Starscream's lab to be placed inside of the medical bay. It occasionally provided entertainment whenever he and Breakdown were unable to get off of the ship. But right now, Knockout despised it. They were going to be the ones who were forced to face the Autobots first, all because Starscream had taken their human and went into his lab with her. And to make matters worse, they had been ordered to remain in there. Knockout had been tempted to tell Starscream where he could put those orders, but had thought better of it.

"Still? He's forcing us to have to defend him from the Autobots, just so he can talk to the human?"

"You know you can leave if you want KO."

"And let Starscream try to ruin my finish when he finds out. No thank you. I'll just make a strategic retreat once the Autobots show up, which shouldn't be much longer. And then you can let the Autobots take care of Starscream. They're his problem anyways."

"You might want to keep that down. Commander Starscream will throw a fit if he hears you saying that you're just going to let the Autobots get to him."

"If anyone should be throwing a fit, it's me. He's the one leading the Autobots straight into my medical bay."

Breakdown chose to drop the subject, knowing that if it continued the chances of Starscream hearing them increased. The last thing they needed was to have one of their commanding officers mad at them.

The sound of blasters going off in the near distance was enough for the two Decepticons to know that the Autobots were almost there. Breakdown transformed his arm into a hammer and Knockout grabbed his staff. The medic was very fond of his weapon. It was modeled after an energon prod, but a tad more potent. All he had to do was hit a Cybertronian in the right spot, and it would be lights out for them. And even if it didn't knock them out, the burst of electricity proved to be an excellent distraction to get away.

It was only a few moments later that the doors to the med bay blasted open, revealing the Autobots' Weapons Specialist and their scout. Almost instantly did the scout bolt towards the door to Starscream's lab. Knockout didn't even bother to stop him. Surely Starscream could handle one measly Autobot scout. He turned his attention to the fight going on between Breakdown and Ironhide, casually twirling the staff in his hand.

Help or flee.

Truthfully Breakdown probably could handle the Autobot on his own, granted it would not necessarily be easy. Even if Breakdown couldn't take down the Autobot, the brute was smart enough to know when to retreat. Of course two against one put the odds more in their favor, but it put himself at risk. Knockout was currently the only medic on board the Nemesis, something that he viewed as a major inconvenience.

If he was forced into a battle and was critically injured, there would be no one to repair him. Breakdown only knew how to do so much, and if he was injured as well they were all doomed. It was that very reason that he tended to stay away from the fighting – not only to protect himself, but to ensure that someone would still be around to patch everyone else up afterward. Which was why he was having to internally debate whether or not he should help Breakdown. If it had been any other Decepticon, the choice would have been obvious, but Breakdown was his friend, so more consideration had to be put into it.

Attacking Ironhide would not prove to be an easy task, considering the fact that Knockout would have to get behind Ironhide and the Weapons Specialist was more or less facing him at the moment, with Breakdown being the only thing that could block his view. It was entirely likely the moment that he made a move closer to the fight, he would be shot at, depending on whether or not the Autobot had an easy target.

At the moment, Breakdown was positioned just to where Ironhide wouldn't have a good view of Knockout. If he was going to try to attack at all, this would be the perfect opportunity. Making his decision, the medic moved closer – only for Ironhide to notice and fire at him. Fortunately for Knockout, the shot missed him, albeit barely. His staff on the other hand, hadn't end up quite as lucky. Part of it snapped off and he heard a small yelp from behind him. Turning around he saw that the scout had managed to open up the door to Starscream's lab and that his broken piece of staff had ended up landing right next to the human.

Hmm, he was going to have to invest in a sturdier metal for his staff. He certainly didn't need it breaking apart and unintentionally arming humans with it. With that in mind, making a retreat was sounding like a much better plan for him now. While he did have other weapons other than his staff, all of them would require him to actually get close to Ironhide. That clearly was not going to happen – not without his paint getting ruined, or getting injured in the process. Add in the fact that the end of his staff that had landed next to the human was still functionable, and therefore she could potentially use it to help the scout fight Starscream, getting out of there seemed to be his best option.

The red mech transformed into his vehicle mode and speed of the room.

"Breakdown, I'm making my exit. Let me know when you're finished with the Autobots."

Knockout was sure that he would be reprimanded later, no doubt by Starscream, for this, but at the moment he simply couldn't bring himself to care.

 

ah ha ! cool chapter, though its kinda weird to have Knockout consider anything besides his own survival (the bit about being the only medic available). Will there be a battle monologue between Breakdown and Ironhide ?

 

ARCTrooperAlpha - Yeah, it is kind of odd for Knockout to think about someone else instead of his own survival and if it had been any other Decepticon, he wouldn't have. I'd like to say that there is some battle monologue between Breakdown and Ironhide, but unfortunately there isn't. A lot of these chapters were written months ago and at the time I wasn't sure how to write a good battle scene.
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Chapter 17​

Aly wasn't really sure what she had expected when Starscream brought her into his lab, but it certainly wasn't this. She had thought that maybe something painful would be happening to her, and maybe if the alarms hadn't started going off the moment Starscream stepped inside his lab, it would be. But nope, that wasn't happening at all now. He was just talking. True, he was mostly just insulting her and while she hated that with a passion and could think of several things she could say back to him, she was remaining silent. Bumblebee or one of the Autobots would come get her soon, she just needed to make sure she didn't do anything that would get herself killed in the meantime.

"It's sad really. The Autobots think that by keeping you around, they're protecting you, when really, we probably never would have bothered you again if they hadn't kept you as a pet."

"I'm not a pet!"

How many times did she have to say that before it got through the Decepticons' heads? Just because she wasn't a Cybertronian and she hung out with the Autobots did not make her a pet. Of course she probably shouldn't expect that the faction that wanted to take over her planet would consider her to be anything else.

"It's even more pathetic how attached they are to you. Willing to get captured just so you would live. Do you want to know why we used you as bait, girl? Because you're such an easy target. You can't defend yourself against us. The Autobots are just one misstep away from killing you themselves. Humans are such a pathetic, fragile species."

"Humans are tougher than you think."

It wasn't her best comeback, but it was the only thing she could think to say that wouldn't possibly get herself killed.

'Just keep your mouth shut until help gets here,' she silently chanted.

"Oh, I'm sure that some are. You just aren't amongst them," Starscream smirked. "You're not even useful to the Autobots."

"You don't know that."

"Really? What advantage do you give them?"

"Well I tell them stuff about Earth..."

Starscream laughed in amusement at that. Aly knew that truthfully that wasn't the most useful thing to help the Autobots, but really what else could she do? She couldn't help them fight the 'Cons, no matter how much she wished that she could. All she could do is tell them about Earth and maybe now help keep Sector Seven away from them.

"You tell them about Earth," Starscream mocked. "I look forward to when your precious Autobots show up. I'm going to show them what a waste it was keeping you around."

Panic coursed through her as she glanced towards the door to Starscream's lab. He had to be bluffing. He wasn't going to kill her as soon as the 'Bots showed up. Aly was hating this more every second. She couldn't let Starscream have the satisfaction of killing her. The table she was on was high up, but maybe she would be able to jump off of it without getting hurt too bad and then one of the Autobots could grab her and they could leave.

Suddenly the door to the lab opened up and an object came flying towards her, causing Aly to let out a startled yelp. She breathed a sigh of relief when whatever it was didn't hit her and instead just landed next to her. Looking at it, she still wasn't sure what it was. Some type of Cybertronian weapon obviously, but she wasn't quite sure how it was used or how it had winded up flying into the room.

"Aly!"

The sound of Bumblebee's voice was a relief until the human teen noticed that Starscream was aiming his weapon at the Autobot. The scout dodged out of the way when the first shot was fired. Then he dodged another, and another after that. He was getting further away from her. It took Aly a few moments to realize it, but Starscream was forcing Bumblebee towards the other side of the room – not near her at all. She had to do something.

Aly glanced back at the weapon that had landed beside of her. It looked like it would still work – granted she still wasn't sure how it worked. Maybe the user was supposed to use the glowing end to hit someone? She wasn't sure if it would work, but at the very least maybe she could distract Starscream momentarily.

Picking it up, she walked as close to the edge of the table as she dared and shoved the glowing end towards Starscream's back. It barely reached him, but the hiss of pain that came out of the Seeker was enough for her to know that she at least somewhat succeed in hitting him. And she succeeded in ticking him off as the enraged look that she received from the Decepticon showed her.

The next thing Aly knew was that she was in Bumblebee's hand right as Starscream's talons came down and scraped against the scout's arm.

That had been meant for her. If Bumblebee hadn't of gotten to her when he had, she was doubtful that she would still be alive – especially since Bumblebee had a small wince on his face as he moved away from Starscream.

"Are you okay?" Bumblebee asked as he shielded her to his chest.

"I'm fine. Are you?"

"It's just a scratch. I'll be fine."

"You're going to be leaving here with more than a scratch Autobot!" Starscream snarled.

Bumblebee glanced back at the door to the lab. He needed to get himself and Aly out of there as soon as possible. The scout knew that he was out skilled in this fight. Starscream had been fighting in the war a lot longer than he had been, and the Seeker had a larger height than he did too. Even without having to protect Aly, it would be hard to get out without getting too injured. He wondered what the odds of him making it out the door without getting shot at were. He had to try.

"I don't think so Autobot!" Starscream grabbed a hold of one of Bumblebee's door wings and pulled him back.

Slag. He had forgotten how easy of a target his door wings could be. Bumblebee knew he should have remembered that, especially after having seen the fight between Starscream and the Decepticon femme earlier. Flyer wings were similar to door wings in the fact that both were sensitive appendages and it hurt a lot whenever they were damaged. They were also very easy to get a hold of in a fight if you weren't careful, as Starscream had just displayed.

Starscream gave a hard tug on the wing, and Bumblebee had to keep himself from crying out in pain. It felt like the Seeker was trying to tear the wing straight off. That probably was what Starscream was trying to do. Bumblebee tried to remind himself that it was just a wing. It would hurt like slag if it was torn off, but he would survive. He just needed to get Aly off of the Nemesis.

"Did you really think it would be that easy to get away youngling? I'm not finished yet."

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Jazz had made sure to contact Ironhide the moment he discovered that their human ally wasn't in the ship's brig. He got a brisk reply from the Weapons Specialist that they were in the medical bay of the ship and that he should get over there now and help Bumblebee. As such, the silver mech didn't hesitate and rushed towards the medical bay. He wasn't even half way there when he ran into Optimus.

"Where's Elita?"

"I have already taken her back to base. Have the others had luck in locating Alyson?"

"'Hide said that they're in the med bay and wants me to get down there to help out 'Bee."

"Is he in trouble?"

"No clue."

No other words were spoken as the two hurried to find Ironhide and Bumblebee.

They arrived right as Ironhide was finishing his fight with Breakdown. The blue mech was running out of the room, clearly injured, right as they were getting ready to enter it.

"Ironhide, are you alright?" Optimus questioned.

"I'm fine Prime. Just a few dents."

"Where is Bumblebee?"

"In that room over there. I would have thought that he would be out by now, but he's still in there. That's why I told Jazz to get down here. I was busy with Breakdown and I needed someone to check on him."

The silver mech made his way over to the door with Ironhide and Optimus close behind. When they walked inside of the room, they saw Bumblebee struggling to get away from Starscream. The Seeker had a hold of both of the youngling's door wings. Immediately all three Autobots brought out their weapons and trained them on Starscream. Bumblebee looked at them in relief and made one last attempt at breaking free to get over to them, only to let out a hiss of pain when Starscream didn't let go of his door wings and he felt them starting to tear.

"'Bee?" Aly whispered, still hidden by Bumblebee's hand. Not being able to see anything that was going on, she was beginning to get worried about her friend. Starscream was keeping him from leaving, that much was obvious, but whatever he was doing also seemed to be hurting him and Aly was starting to get worried.

"Starscream, release Bumblebee at once."

The sound of Optimus' voice filled Aly with relief. The others were here and they would be able to get Bumblebee and herself out of there.

Starscream weighed his options. If he let the Autobot and human go, no doubt he would have to face Megatron's wrath. On the other hand if he refused to let them go, the Autobots were sure to fire upon him and then he would still have to face Megatron only he would already be damaged when he did. The choice that gave him the best chance at survival was unfortunately obvious. Roughly he pushed the scout towards the other Autobots, causing the youngling to stumble and almost fall before Optimus Prime helped him regain his balance. The Autobot leader led the youngling out of the room, leaving Jazz and Ironhide with their weapons still trained on Starscream.

"I gave you your scout back, there's no need for threats," he raised his arms up in surrender, nodding towards their weapons.

"Think we can trust him to stay in here while we leave?" Jazz questioned Ironhide.

"No." Ironhide watched as Starscream started to back away from him, trying to hide himself further in his lab. "But we don't have much of a choice. Lets go."

The two walked out of the lab, making sure that the door closed behind them.

"You alright 'Bee?" Jazz asked.

The youngling gave a small nod, "I'll be fine. My door wings just hurt a lot."

"You are leaking energon from where they were being torn off," Optimus said as he took a good look at the youngling's wounds.

"I'll be fine," Bumblebee replied as he placed Aly onto his shoulder, giving her a reassuring smile when he noticed the concerned look on her face. "You still okay?"

"I'm fine. You got to me before Starscream could hurt me." Aly noticed a swirling green portal opening up near them. "Umm, what's that?"

"A GroundBridge, it's how we're getting home," Bumblebee explained.

"It's safe for humans to go through, right?"

"Guess we're going to find out," Ironhide retorted as he headed through the 'Bridge.

 

Chapter 18​

It had taken Aly five minutes to get over her spell of dizziness whenever they got through the GroundBridge. She felt like she had just got off of a roller coaster with many, many loops, and was partially amazed that she was just dizzy instead of sick. Going through the GroundBridge was definitely something that would take some time to get used to. The thought of having to go through it several times just so she wouldn't be dizzy made Aly hope that she wouldn't have to use the GroundBridge very often.

"Can Aly stay here tonight?" Bumblebee asked as he sat down on one of the medical berths so Ratchet could fix the tear in his door wing, making sure that his human friend was still secure on his shoulder in the process.

"I believe it may be best for her to return to her family tonight, Bumblebee. We do not want them to worry," Optimus replied.

"Oh it's okay, I can just call my parents and tell them that I'm staying with a friend."

Aly knew Bumblebee well enough to know that he wasn't wanting her to be out of his sight for a little while. He took his job as her guardian seriously, and it wouldn't surprise her at all if he became overprotective after everything that happened. Part of her didn't mind though, since it meant that she could keep an eye on him. She wouldn't have to worry about Sector Seven showing up and capturing him.

"Are you sure they will not mind?"

"Nah, they'll just think I'm talking about staying at Zoe's and will be fine with it. By the way, what happened to her?"

"She's fine and back at her house," Sideswipe said as he walked back inside of the base, followed by a green mech that none of the others had seen before. "I couldn't find the 'Con femme, but I found this guy."

Ironhide glanced over at the mech, "And you would be?"

"Autobot Forest, reporting for duty. I arrived on this planet several of its days ago."

"I didn't detect any incoming signals," Ratchet mused looking up from where he was working on repairing Bumblebee.

"Sorry about that." A sheepish grin formed on Forest's face. "I've gotten in a habit of hiding my signal when I land on new planets. Ran into quite a few 'Cons one time and I've been avoiding a repeat ever since."

In reality Forest had another reason for hiding his signal, but he wasn't going to admit it yet. He always tried to search for Moonraider before trying to find any other Autobots. Fortunately this time had been a success in that regard. Though what he was going to do about her remained a mystery. The Autobots were trying to find her to recapture her. Forest had managed to get the basics of what happened from Sideswipe without raising any suspicions. Betrayed the Decepticons, tried to get some humans to capture Optimus Prime and Megatron, and the entire thing had resulted in Prime's sparkmate and their human ally getting captured by the Decepticons. It was almost like Moonraider had a death wish.

"Welcome to Earth, Forest," Optimus greeted.

An hour later Aly was sitting on a shelf in Bumblebee's room while he searched for something to make it more comfortable for her to sleep on. She had never actually stayed in the Autobot base overnight before, so there wasn't actually anywhere suitable for a human to sleep. She would have to make sure that she brought over some pillows and blankets for herself in case she stayed again. Zoe had said that she would bring over some clothes for her to change into before they went to school, and Bumblebee promised to take her through a drive-thru to get breakfast.

"Ha! Found it!" Bumblebee exclaimed as he walked back over to her, carrying what looked like a metal blanket.

"What's that?"

"A thermal blanket."

"You guys need blankets?"

"Well, no, not really. They're mainly just used for comfort. Though sometimes when you have a virus, your heating systems get messed up and you need one. That's probably why we brought one with us, just in case someone was sick and needed it. But you can use it for tonight."

"Is that actually going to be comfortable? No offense, but it looks like it's made of metal," Aly eyed the blanket skeptically.

"It is, but it isn't. Actually it's kind of hard to explain. We don't really have fabrics and that kind of stuff on Cybertron, or if we did they were long gone by the time I came online. Anyway, it's not as bad as you think it'd be."

Aly reached out and touched the edges of it. Sure enough it didn't feel like any Earth fabrics, and the closest she could compare it to would have been satin, but it certainly wouldn't be uncomfortable to sleep on for one night. She let Bumblebee place it down for her and curled up to get comfortable as he went over to lay down on his berth.

"You okay?" she asked when she heard him let out a wince of pain.

"Yeah, my door wing is still a little sore. It'll be better after some recharge though. Are you okay?"

"Of course. I didn't get hurt or anything. Well I might have a few bruises, since Starscream wasn't exactly gentle when he tossed me into the cell that Elita and I were in to start with, but other than that I'm fine."

"Your fine physically. What about anything else?"

"Still fine. Starscream just talked, well insulted me and that's about it."

Bumblebee looked like he didn't believe her.

"So you mean to tell me that you were captured by Decepticons and that doesn't bother you at all? Aly, even the times when I wasn't interrogated or anything by the 'Cons when I was captured bothered me."

"Okay, so I'm a little freaked. And I feel bad, because most of this probably could have been avoided if I had listened to you and left."

"Yeah, it probably could have. I appreciate that you wanted to help me Aly, but it's my job to protect you – not the other way around."

"Well, no offense, but that is a crappy system. You get to get me out of dangerous situations, but I'm not allowed to help you? That sucks!"

"I'm your guardian, that's how it works."

"And I'm your sister, I'm supposed to be able to help you when you're in trouble. Just because we're not related biologically doesn't make things different."

"There's a difference between helping and getting in over your head."

"I know that. I just want to be able to help..."

Now that was a feeling that Bumblebee could relate to all too well. He had practically drove Elita insane when he had started trying to get her and Optimus to let him begin training. She had been hoping to keep him out of the war for as long as possible, actually both of them had been hoping that. Optimus would constantly remind him that he didn't have to get involved in the war. But Bumblebee hadn't wanted to stay out of it, and eventually he had got his wish.

The situation with Aly was different though. Earth technically wasn't fighting in Cybertron's war. In fact only Aly and Zoe knew about the war, Sector Seven just saw them as machines to dissect. There was no reason for any humans to start fighting in it, and Bumblebee knew that Optimus would never allow it. Aly did not have weapons and she was so much smaller than they were, and her getting involved in keeping Sector Seven from getting to them could have consequences of its own.

"I know you do, but your helping by not risking getting yourself into trouble."

"I don't see... fine."

Aly didn't want to get into an argument with Bumblebee. Especially when she knew that he had a point. But that didn't change her feelings on the matter. She wanted to help, so she would find a way to. Aly wasn't sure how she would find a way, but she would. And for now, she could just keep her thoughts on the matter to herself. In this situation, the Autobots weren't going to be much help in finding a way for her to help them.

 

Chapter 19​

Forest waited until he was certain that the other Autobots would be in recharge, before sneaking out of the base. He needed to see Moonraider again and he needed to get her some more energon. The green mech felt a little bad about taking some of the energon from the storage room, but frankly Moonraider needed it a lot more than they did. Plus it was only two cubes – he could cut back on any rations he had to make it up. Repairing her visor would take some time though, but he would get it fixed for her sometime. Granted she actually stayed like she had said that she would.

That was the thing with Moonraider it seemed. She had a habit of leaving. Forest knew that he couldn't blame her for that, she was a spy, if she got caught then she could be killed. And if any Decepticons caught her with him, then both of them could be killed. It was an unfortunate cycle that they had been forced to live in. They had only been able to see each other on rare occasions, and most of those times had been during battles. All in all, they had never had the chance to have much of a relationship. It didn't stop them from having feelings for each other though. They had spent too much time together when she had first showed up at his base, intending on finding out all the information she could, but he hadn't know that at the time.

As far as he had been concerned, she was just some lost youngling who was going to be staying with them until they found somewhere to send her. He had been assigned to be her guide around the base since the two of them were somewhat close in age. That had caused some of his friends to tease him, they kept telling him that he would end up wanting Moonraider to stay with them. They had been right. He had had a crush on her from the moment he met her, which may have boiled down to him thinking that she was pretty, but after talking to her and getting to know her, his feelings towards her grew.

And then he had found out that she was a Decepticon spy. That revelation had hurt, there was no way that Forest could deny that. How could it not have hurt? He trusted her – he was falling in love with her – to know that she had been spying on his base, trying to get intel for the Decepticons that could potentially kill them was shocking. Yet, he still hadn't been able to turn her in for being a spy. He had hated the thought of her being locked up for a long time, or potentially being killed for being a Decepticon spy. He still hated the thought in fact. So he had helped her escape, holding out on the hope that the war would be over soon and he would be able to find her again.

It unfortunately hadn't taken too long for the commanders at his base to find out that Moonraider was a spy, but as far as he knew they had never realized that he had been the one who had let her escape. Their base never was attacked though and Forest was certain that he was the only one who thought about that the most. He had shown Moonraider all of the base. She knew the weak points, she could have told her commanding officers and their base would have been an easy hit, and yet they never were attacked. That one little fact had been enough for Forest to realize that she did have some good in her. It was just unfortunate that good seemed to only come out around him.

He shook his thoughts away from that as he approached the cave where he had left her. It was time to focus on the present now, not the past. The only thing from the past that would have to be discussed was her recent actions. He knew that it would probably result in a fight, but he needed to know why she had done it.

"Moony, you awake?"

"It's hard not to be when you know that there's a chance that someone will come kill you while you're recharging and you have no weapons to defend yourself with." Her violet optics locked onto him.

"Well you can't be surprised about that. What were you thinking?"

"I was thinking that I'm sick of fighting in a war that is nothing but a sibling rivalry gone mad!"

"So you were going to get yourself killed?"

"I acknowledged that it was a risk, but I hadn't expected that anyone would have caught on so soon."

"So when I got here, I was just supposed to find out that you were dead? That I had wasted my time searching for you, because you decided to do something stupid that got yourself killed?"

Moonraider's optics narrowed, "For all I knew you were dead. I didn't need to factor you into anything!"

"You could have at least considered the possibility that I was alive and wanted to see you again."

"Well I didn't," she huffed and turned her head away.

Forest frowned. This really wasn't going well. Making Moonraider mad at him, certainly wouldn't make things better between them.

"Look, I don't want us to fight. I've really missed you, and I just don't like knowing that you could have gotten yourself killed. I brought you some energon," he said, trying to change the subject.

"Won't the Autobots be suspicious when they're missing energon?"

"It's not all that much," he admitted, handing the energon to her. "But it should be enough to last you a couple of days and then I can just split some of my rations with you."

Moonraider looked away from him, "You're an idiot. After everything I've done, all of the trouble I've caused, you sill insist on trying to help me. When will it get through your head? You can't help me! I'm not good!" Her voice lowered to almost a whisper. "And you deserve better than me."

"I think you're wrong," Forest crossed his arms. "You've shown me in the past that you can be good and I'm not going to give up on you. You might not want me to help you, but I'm going to. And nothing you say is going to change that."

"Were you expecting for us to pick up where we left off?"

The question caught him slightly off guard.

"I would want to, yeah. But I wasn't expecting it. I know it's been a long time, so we can't just pick things up and move forward. I don't want us to have to start all over though, Moony."

She remained silent and didn't say anything in return. Forest resisted the urge to sigh, and walked over to sit beside of her. He had the slight feeling that she was hoping that he would leave, but he wasn't going to do that. He would stay there as long as it took for her to give him some sign that they wouldn't have to start from scratch.

"We may as well start over," she finally said. "You don't really know me anyway."

"I know enough. And you can always fill me in on what I don't know. Here's something easy, I grew up in Iacon, what about you?"

"Crystal City, until it was destroyed. After that I was moved around a lot by the Decepticons."

"Wait, the 'Cons found you there?"

"Yes. The city was destroyed, my creators were killed, and Nightbird found me and took me away from there."

"The Autobots had found survivors there. Slag, if they had been sooner, they could have found you instead of the 'Cons."

"What a shame they hadn't been sooner. It wouldn't have made a difference, I would have grown tired of the war regardless."

Forest felt like telling her that the Autobots would have treated her better – they still probably would treat her better than the Decepticons. But then, truthfully he didn't know much about her life with the Decepticons. One day he would ask her about it, but at the moment, that didn't seem like the best thing to bring up. She was still worried about them finding her and killing her, not that he could really blame her.

"You really should get some recharge. You need it, so you can heal properly."

"I already told you, I can't."

"Sure, you can," he replied, getting an idea. "After all, you're not alone at the moment."

Before Moonraider could say anything in protest, Forest reached over, picked her up, and plopped her down on his lap. She would hate it, he was sure about that. Her aversion to closeness had grown a lot ever since he had helped her escape. It was pretty easy for him to put it on the Decepticons trying to keep their spies focused on their missions, with no distractions.

"What are you doing!" she snapped.

"You need recharge," he reminded. "Now you don't have to recharge on the ground, and I can't leave without waking you up. That way you don't have to worry about defending yourself with no weapons."

"Or you could just reactivate my weapons and leave."

"Can't. I don't know how to reactivate them. So unless you want to come back to base with me..."

"Forget it," she huffed. "I'll permit this, but this is as close to the past as you're going to get."

Forest smiled, feeling satisfied. This was a definite improvement. She may not have said anything, but this could be an indication that she was possibly going to stop pushing him away. He would have to be careful about how he handled things from now on though. Forest didn't want to push Moonraider any, but he hadn't been lying before when he told her that he would be patient. When it came to Moonraider, he would give her as much time as she needed.

 

Chapter 20​

Despite the long period of time Starscream had spent as Megatron's Second in Command, and the even longer period of time that he had spent as his protégé, he never was prepared to face his leader when he was in a foul mood. Of course considering the fact that many of the confrontations had ended with him on his way to a medical bay, that probably was to be expected. He would have to be crazy to actually want to face Megatron, especially after he had contributed to a loss. It wouldn't matter that he had to give up the Autobot scout and the human girl because he had been outnumbered. Megatron would take one look at him, see that no damage had been accumulated, and then call him a coward and punish him for his mistake.

It was a cycle that was repeated all too often for Starscream's liking.

Granted there was little he could do to stop it. Not that he hadn't tried though; it was just that his attempts at overthrowing Megatron had led him to death's door too many times. It had gotten to the point where Thundercracker had tried to step in to stop Megatron from killing him. The result of that hadn't been pretty, and Starscream had stopped his attempts at overthrowing his leader for the sake of his brothers. No one could ever claim that he was completely sparkless. Even if he didn't always show it, he loved his brothers and oh did he miss them. If Starscream had any luck the two of them would make it to Earth soon and he would still be in one piece when they arrived.

Trying to hide his fear the best he could, Starscream made his way into the command center where Megatron was waiting. The moment the warlord's optics locked onto the Seeker, his expression became livid. Megatron took a step closer to him and Starscream started to panic.

"Tell me Starscream," Megatron's voice was deceptively calm, "how is it that you couldn't hold onto one measly human?"

Starscream hesitated before saying, "I was outnumbered. I was going to lose her either way, and it would have been pointless to keep a human around anyway. Humans are so fragile, she would have died before any use would have come from her."

"She was our last source of leverage against the Autobots you fool! And not only did you have her, you had the youngling in your grasp too!"

"The Autobots would have killed me if I didn't give them back!"

"You are a coward, Starscream," Megatron growled. "You didn't even try!"

A feeling of annoyance surged through Starscream. Would Megatron have honestly rather have lost his Second in Command and Air Commander, just so he could keep a pair of brats to have leverage over the Autobots? Ever since he had joined the Decepticon ranks he had been trained to be Megatron's successor. Apparently that position was worth little in Megatron's optics. Starscream had started to suspect a long time ago that the warlord seemed to think that successor was just another word for scapegoat. It wasn't like he could help it that Megatron's plans had often failed. It wasn't his fault that Megatron had lost to Prime.

"If you couldn't defeat Prime, how was I supposed to?" he sneered. "I'm not the only one who lost a hostage!"

Megatron lunged forward and grabbed a hold of Starscream's wings, claws digging deep into the sensitive appendages. The silver Seeker let out a cry of pain and struggled to get away, only succeeding in making his current predicament worse. To flyers, wings were an integral part of their frames. Sure there were some mechs and femmes that had flight abilities with no wings, but those with wings had no other way to fly without them. A flyers instinct was to fly. In fact, claustrophobia made it impossible for them to remain inside closed structures for long periods of time. To have the ability to fly taken away, caused many mechs and femmes to succumb to insanity. As such, like many flyers, Starscream was protective over his wings and did his best to prevent any injuries from befalling them.

"I tire of your insolence and cowardice, Starscream. No longer will I tolerate such traits from my Second in Command." Megatron started to tear off the Seeker's wings, causing Starscream to cry out in agony. "Perhaps this will serve as a reminder to you!"

"N-no, master please!" Starscream begged.

The irony of the situation was not lost on Starscream as he suffered through the agony. He had caused damage to the door wings of Moonraider and the Autobot scout earlier, and now his own wings were being torn from his body.

"You'll get these back, once I believe you've learned your lesson."

Starscream crumpled to the ground as his wings were ripped free from his body. Delivering one hard kick to Starscream's frame, sending him sprawling across the floor, Megatron strode out of the room, taking Starscream's wings with him.

Megatron knew that taking away Starscream's wings, and by extension his ability to fly, was a risky punishment. The Seeker would remember it well, but there was the chance that he would be driven to madness depending on how long the punishment lasted. As much as an annoyance as the mech could be, Starscream did have his useful moments. Crippling him to the point where he would be useless to the Decepticon cause would be a waste.

Sometimes Megatron really wondered what he had been thinking when he had decided to make Starscream into his successor. Mentorships were an ancient Cybertronian tradition, and all of Cybertron's leaders had found themselves protégés to train. At the time the war had still been young and he had been certain that he was going to win it soon. While finding himself a protégé had not been a primary concern, it had been something that he had been considering. Perhaps he had saw something similar to himself in Starscream. Or perhaps he hadn't been thinking straight at the time.

The Seeker had still been a youngling at the time. Young enough to potentially start shaping him into a decent leader, but old enough to where he wouldn't be a burden and could fight in the war. Of course he had been a package deal, that had been an unfortunate condition. True, Starscream's siblings had been excellent additions to the Decepticon ranks, but that had caused some problems for him in the past. The eldest of the group, Thundercracker, had often interfered when it came to teaching Starscream. The blue Seeker could be too protective of his younger brothers and Megatron had often had to find ways to separate Starscream from his trine.

Shaking away those thoughts, Megatron walked into Knockout's medical bay.

"Knockout!"

The red mech jumped from where he had been working on repairing Breakdown.

"Lord Megatron," the medic quickly turned and bowed. "How may I be of service?"

Megatron tossed Starscream's wings at Knockout, who scrambled to catch them. Looking at the appendages in confusion, he exchanged a look with Breakdown before questioningly turning his focus back to Megatron.

"Starscream is in need of repairs," the warlord answered simply. "Those are not to be reattached to his frame for eight solar cycles."

"Of course, my liege. As soon as I finish Breakdown's repairs, we will go attend to Starscream."

"Good, and see to it that he does not know where his wings are located nor when he will be getting them back."

The medic and his assistant both nodded in understanding, with a slight look of dread in their optics. No doubt dealing with Starscream would be a difficult task. Megatron turned and left them, right as he received a message from Soundwave, telling him that the Communication's Officer had returned from his mission.

"Tell me Soundwave, what is the condition of our little traitor?" Megatron questioned as he entered the communication bay.

"Missing. Security footage revealed that the Autobots took her into their custody."

"The soft-sparked fools probably repaired her," the tyrant scoffed.

Soundwave nodded in agreement, "Laserbeak picked up Autobot transmissions claiming that she escaped."

"Contact Shockwave, it appears we will require the assistance of his assassin. Nightbird should be able to take care of her former student. What did you learn from the human facility?"

"The human group known as Sector Seven holds two Cybertronians in their custody. Current location is unknown. They are reverse engineering them to enhance their technology and weaponry. Schematics for armor were found. It is possible that these weapons could cause harm to a Cybertronian."

"They've been expecting more of our kind to land on this planet?"

"This group has and they do not seem to fear us. Security footage also indicated that the traitor had discovered that they are wanting more Cybertronians to experiment on."

"Search through Moonraider's belongings and see if she had discovered anything else about these humans and the Cybertronians they have captured. If these humans do not fear us, then perhaps it is time to show this planet exactly what we are capable of."

 

LOL Megatron's like an genuine angry dad ! "Son, I'm a "bit" angry, but I'm mostly disappointed in you" I love this change in character and the bit of characterization: Megatron's kind of a traditional person.

 

ARCTrooperAlpha - I'm glad that you liked the change in character and the characterization for Megatron. Thank you so much for leaving a comment!
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Chapter 21​

Five Days Later

Optimus knew that they technically should have had this meeting a lot sooner. With the threat of Sector Seven, the loss of a Decepticon prisoner, and the addition of a new human ally and a new Autobot team member, there was much to discuss. Of course he had wanted time to mull over the recent events before discussing them with Ratchet, Ironhide, and Jazz, and Jazz had wanted to try to see if he could find any information at all about their escaped prisoner. He had agreed with Jazz's thoughts that someone, possibly Ultra Magnus or Prowl, would have some sort of backup to their databases where Moonraider would be mentioned. Elita was present at the meeting as well, though Optimus had already discussed all of his thoughts with her.

They were going to have to finish discussing their current situation involving the humans and Sector Seven first though, before that topic could even be brought up.

"Bumblebee and Sideswipe are at risk being on guardian duty," Ironhide stated. "Bumblebee especially since Sector Seven already knows what he looks like in alt-mode."

"We would be putting Aly and Zoe at risk if Bumblebee and Sideswipe were removed from being their guardians," Ratchet pointed out.

"The humans are putting us at risk! Their government is already after us and the Decepticons have proven that they're willing to use them as bait against us. The fact that one acts terrified to be around us and the other has already proven that she'll throw herself in danger certainly doesn't help things. They're as defenseless as a sparkling, and probably even more fragile than one! We'd be better off distancing ourselves from them."

"Chill 'Hide," Jazz shook his head. "The humans are fine. You heard what 'Bee said, Aly attempted to help him fight Starscream. Even then we don't need them fighting with us. They're just good to be around."

"You are correct in your statement about the humans being fragile and more defenseless, Ironhide. But Jazz is correct. Our human allies do not need to be fighting with us, but we need them as our liaisons. The day will come when we will have to reveal ourselves to the humans, and we will need the help of our human allies to convince them that we mean no harm and only wish to protect this planet," Optimus stepped in.

"Do you believe that the other humans will listen to them and believe what they say?" Ratchet asked. "They're not considered adults by their species's standards and they are still quite young."

"They'll need to be taught and trained," Elita spoke for the first time during the meeting. "They don't know much about our species and that information could be beneficial to them."

"Aly never seemed interested in learning about our culture in the past."

"Did you ever ask her if she was interested?" Elita glanced at Optimus, Ratchet, and Ironhide. The silence from all three was enough for her answer. "I'll ask the girls if they want to know and I'll teach them. I need something to do since I won't be fighting, and I'm sure that at least one of them would be interested."

"Then that is settled." Optimus nodded. "Jazz were you able to learn anything about our former prisoner?"

"Not a lot. From what I've heard back from Prowl on her record, she's a Decepticon spy. She's infiltrated several bases, some were attacked after she left, some weren't."

"Do we know why some were left alone?" Elita asked.

"Nothing definite. Though I did find it interesting of the few that weren't attacked, they all had one thing in common."

"What?"

"Forest was there. It could just be a coincidence, but there was a rumor in Forest's file about him being spotted with a Decepticon several times in the past."

Optimus frowned, "Was that rumor ever proven?"

"No, but it is a little suspicious considering that he keeps running off and he arrived shortly after we lost Moonraider."

"We have no proof that he is doing anything related to her. Unless there is concrete evidence that he is aiding an enemy, I do not want to accuse what could very well be an innocent mech. We do not need any animosity building on this team, especially not when we are facing new threats."

"I don't like this," Ironhide grumbled. "If he is helping her, we're letting him get away with it. We don't know where his loyalties lie with her in the picture or what she could be planning."

Optimus couldn't help but think that Ironhide was being more difficult than usual to reason with. His friend had always been easy to anger and tended to be a little less trusting of others, but it seemed to be worse lately.

(I'm betting that he misses, Chromia.) Elita mused through their bond. (You know he and my sister are easier to get along with when they're together.)

(Then perhaps we should hope that she arrives on Earth soon.)

(I'm sure 'Mia is already on her way. She'll be missing Ironhide just as much as he misses her.)

"Ratchet, you repaired Moonraider. Would she be in any condition to launch any attacks on any Autobots?"

The medic thought for a moment, "She could try, but I'm doubtful any would be successful. I only repaired her life threatening injuries, the rest were mainly cosmetic. One of her door wings was bent, which would make transforming painful, though Forest would be able to straighten that out himself – if he is helping her. Her weapons were deactivated as a safety precaution and they should still be that way, so any attacks would have to be one-on-one." He thought back to her escape. "She's quite agile, so I imagine that she could be a tricky opponent in a fight depending on who she would be fighting."

"So she has a chance at attacking a single opponent that would be on a similar or lesser skill level as her own," Elita summarized. "Though the question is whether she would want to. The Decepticons will no doubt want her dead and she knows that if she attacks any Autobots, we'll find out about it and find her. If she wants to avoid capture and death, she would want to remain hidden."

"It would be impossible for her to remain hidden though. Eventually she'll have to find a source of energon in order to stay online," Ratchet reminded.

"Unless someone is helping her and bringing it to her," Jazz concluded. "Which brings us back to the possibility of Forest helping her. Though really I don't see what he would get out of it."

"If he is helping her, perhaps Moonraider convinced him in the past that the two of them were friends and he cares about her," Elita suggested. "Or perhaps the feeling is mutual. I'm doubtful that we'll know for sure unless Forest tells us or we find evidence to question him."

"We will keep a close watch on things," Optimus decided. "If there is evidence that Forest could be potentially aiding an enemy or he is caught, he will be dealt with. Until then, he is to be left alone. It is imperative that we stand together right now. Forest could prove to be a useful asset to our team, and I do not wish for him to believe that he is unwelcome here."

(You don't seem too concerned that we could potentially have a traitor amongst us.)

(I could say the same to you.)

(The only reason I'm not concerned is because I think that you're thinking of another scenario. What is it Optimus?)

(If Forest does care about Moonraider, I do not believe that he would want her to remain alone as a rouge.)
(Do you think he'll go rouge as well?)

(It is a possibility, but I do not think that is what he is going to do. I believe that eventually he will try to bring Moonraider back here.)

(Moonraider would have to truly care for him as well, for him to be able to convince her to come here. Either that or she'll have to be desperate enough. I could see that eventually happening though. She has to know that she won't be able to spend the rest of her life hiding from all Cybertronians, except for potentially Forest.)

(Which is why I believe that one day we will find her here again. The only question is when.)

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A/N: And this brings us to the end of When We Stand Together. I plan on writing a sequel to this story sometime in the near future. If you are interested in seeing what happens with Forest, Moonraider, and the rest, keep a look out. I want to thank everyone who has followed this story. I hope that you all have enjoyed it! This story has been in the works for a long time now it feels like, the original version that I wrote before I did this rewrite was my first Transformers fanfiction. So this story has provided me with a bit of a learning experience in writing and developing characters. I hope to improve even more with that in the sequel.

 

That's a great first story you've done.  

 

Thank you!