Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers. Just the plot and OCs.
Hey guys! Everybody doing okay? I hope so.
I got a new chapter done for you lovely readers. I hope you like it!
Chapter 98
Paradigm Shift
Kill-switch.
Kill-switch, a fraggin' kill-switch!
The word bounced around Sideswipe's processor with all the force of a hurricane. It clouded out all other rational thought until it felt like he could do nothing else but kneel there beside Jynx on the floor. Staring blankly at her dim visor as if it could answer the panic growing in his spark.
Gambit tossing tables about a very explosive place didn't seem to matter very much in that moment. It probably should, but the crimson mech couldn't make it.
Deep in his chest, his spark felt cold.
Cold in a numb sort of way that made a very old kind of panic creep along the back of his processor. There was a warning in that panic. One he needed to pay attention to. For there was danger to be had in that bond path growing cold. A danger he and Sunstreaker posed to everybot around them.
Yet he didn't move an inch.
He simply knelt there.
Aware of Sunstreaker tense as a coiled string beside him. If that tension came loose the golden mech would slip. It wouldn't be a berserker slip either.
Oh no, this wasn't that old angry code that lived deep in their minds. This was spark related. This was a cold kind of numb that lead to only one thing. Spark withdrawal.
Why?
Well, hearing the spark they wanted was living on a kill switch was probably a pretty good reason. Deep in their chests, the split life that fueled them both was quite quickly working up a very good bit of panic.
Swallowing hard, Sides clenched his fist against his knees. Squeezing his optics shut, he turned his focus inward for a moment. Chasing the cold down his bond lines to the burning light that was the open line between him and Sunstreaker. He grasped at the narrow path Sunny had made. He beat on it once, begging for the support they both needed in that moment.
Between one breath and the next, Sunny dropped the filter he'd been hiding behind. His burning supernova of warmth reaching in a desperate grasp right back at him.
It shouldn't make him feel better to know Sunstreaker was as rattled as he was about all this, but well, Sideswipe was far from perfect. So, he clung to his brother's silent fear in the hopes that it might even the both of them out. Because they didn't have the luxury of panic right now. And they sure as pit didn't have time to feel like fraggin' spark withdrawal. The outcome of that . . . oh that would not go well.
What their spark would demand to fix that . . . .
The hardened frontliner cringed internally at the very idea. Because no, no they would not do that. They would not. They couldn't do that to her. It would . . . ruin everything.
So, Sideswipe grasped hold of his twin's spark over their bond lines and forced his optics back open.
They didn't have time for panic.
Not yet.
Later, in the safety of their berth with a little white femme between them, they could quietly panic. If she would let them, they would hold her close and Sideswipe would breathe her in.
He needed it.
They both did.
They needed to know she was still there, that they weren't about to lose her at the drop of a bolt.
Even if it was a lie.
It was what he had to convince himself to believe in that moment, so he did.
Ratchet will fix it. The notion floated down the bond from Sunstreaker. A feeling that was so solid and steady that Sideswipe felt breath rush back into his vents.
Because yes.
Yes, that was true.
Ratchet would fix it.
Ratchet could fix anything.
He was their sire and he fixed them. He kept them sane and breathing. That was just fact.
They broke things, he fixed them.
This would be no different.
Ratchet will fix it. He pushed the notion right back at his twin. Knowing on an instinctual level that Sunstreaker needed to hear it to.
So, he would tell him.
He would tell him, open his optics, and watch that heavily armored chest flex with a deep breath.
Yes.
Sunny believed it. And Sunny never lied to Sides, so that was what it would be.
Ratchet would fix it.
Jynx would be fine.
They would be fine.
Simple as that.
Sideswipe sucked in a deep breath, feeling his spark warm ever so slightly in his chest.
It would be okay. Ratchet will fix it.
Setting his jaw, the crimson mech reached out to catch hold of Jynx's wrist. He was careful at first. Sliding black fingers carefully against the sensitive wires around the underside of her wrist. She jerked ever so slightly at the movement. Helm snapping up in a sharp movement that made Sides' chest ache at the sight of the fear he found there.
Wide silver optics regarded him warily from the other side of that slightly tinted curve of glass. He conjured up a smile, but it must have been rather weak for that pale silver face didn't brighten. He didn't have much else to give her though. All he could come up with was to slide his much bigger fingers down to tangle with her sharp, thin claws.
One brief squeeze before he let his grip go slack. Not letting his fingers completely let go—he was weak, he couldn't—but giving her the choice of holding on or not. For a few short breaths he was afraid they might have lost it; that she might have given up. However, between one breath and the next those small but strong claws tightened to the point of pain around his thicker fingers.
He squeezed back, spark surging in his chest, the tentative yet growing bond link between them flaring with the emotion he was suddenly dumping down it.
Ratchet will fix it. He shoved the notion—his and Sunny's belief of it—down the line. Opening himself up to the raging inferno that was her inner turmoil. It hurt, but he wanted it. He wanted more of it. He wanted to feel her as deeply as he knew Sunstreaker. He wanted to be able to comfort her on a deeper level then squeezing her fingers and letting their tentative link open wide.
He would settle for this now.
He would settle for what he could give her. Weathering the sudden surge of her anger, her pain, and her fear. He kept his jaw tight, his grip around her fingers tighter, and held on to the belief deep in his chest.
Because they would not lose her. Not now. Not over this.
She squeezed back, the mess of emotions flicking down the bond clouding a bit at his notion. He could tell she didn't really believe it. Her faith in Ratchet was high, but it wasn't the unshakable certainty that the twins had.
They were going to have to work on that.
The clatter of lifeless frames and heavy steel tables around a rather dangerous room finally tugged on Sideswipe's focus. Well, that and because Jynx looked up to follow the sound. Sunstreaker shifting next to the two of them didn't hurt either. His slightly bigger brother itched to step in front of them. Sides didn't need to focus too hard on what was swirling around Sunny's helm to know that.
Fists clenched at his side, he stood tense. Dark blue optics darting back and forth between the calamity of emotions around them. He was watching for the breaking point. Sides knew that much. He didn't know quite what Sunny was pinning it on, but he knew he was ready for it all the same.
He'd bet anything it would be Gambit, but between one heavy vent and the next the huge mech went still. The crimson mech doubted the choice had anything to do with Wheeljack darting forward to start grabbing at overturned experiments and various spilled box contents. The last thing they needed was to get blown up over this, thanks very much. However, Sideswipe couldn't pay the threat that was Jacky's work the attention it probably deserved.
He was too busy keeping half an optic on Jynx sat there beside his knees and his twin winding tighter and tighter next to him. The golden mech was going to snap. It was only a matter of time.
The only question was, which direction was that temper going to blow?
They couldn't take a mech that killed with his spark. The ex-gladiator in him rumbled and grumbled at the notion, but Sideswipe had lived long enough to know stung pride over reason. They didn't stand a chance against Gambit. No bot here did.
Well, no bot besides Jynx.
The idea of her bristled up there in front of that hulking mass of black plating still set his spark on edge, but he couldn't deny her the truth of it. The massive mech had stopped. She'd ripped into old scars, drew energon, and all he did was snarl at her for it.
There was something to be said for that. Something to be worked over, later, but for now Sides didn't have the mind for it.
Not when, quietly Jynx muttered.
"But you already knew that, didn't you?"
Vibrant blue optics darted back to the little femme at his side. She paid him no mind. That still dim visor had turned up. Silver optics narrowed into thin slits as she tipped her chin, pinned her sensors, and sneered up at the suddenly still beast of a mech.
Gambit twitched ever so slightly. Only a lifetime learning to spot weakness let Sides catch it. He was quickly starting to realize, those tall audials were actually quite telling. They flicked just enough to be called a movement before that hulking frame twisted just enough to glare down at her. The jagged scar that cut up the square angles of his faceplate was twisted by the curl of the mech's lip. Sharp silver fangs glittered against the black back drop of his dark coloring. The inferno that lived in his deep optics sparked and smoldered in narrow slits.
Sides didn't know what his spitfire of a femme was getting at, but those angry red optics did.
Slowly, not letting go of his tightly clenched fingers, Jynx hauled herself to her peds. Her free hand clenched in a tight enough fist that Sides had to bite his tongue to keep from reaching for it while he followed her up. Beside them, he could feel Sunny's focus snap down. The attention blistering against his plating and down their spark. His twin had caught on, and he wasn't happy about it, but he did nothing to stop Sides floundering in the dark.
He didn't have to.
Jynx did it for him.
"You knew it was him." She didn't so much as hiss the words as she breathed them. The anger in them spoke for itself. "You've known it was him since you came back."
Gambit turned, massive frame shifting in that easy way huge mechs did. It seemed impossible, even after all Sides had seen of big bots, that such a mass could move that easily. He flowed the way only a skilled fighter could. It spoke of vorns upon vorns of fighting, of winning. It spoke of a warning.
Jynx paid it no heed.
Lips peeled back over her teeth she glared up at him. "You sent that flyer back to tell his master this time you wouldn't miss! You knew."
One slow blink of those fire colored optics and the huge mech nodded. "Yes."
Oh. Sides rocked back on his heels. Optics cycling wide for a moment before narrowing into slits. He knew!?
Jynx hissed at him, throwing her arms up at the room around them. "Then why the slag do all this! If you knew it was him why make me do this!?"
"I knew he had to be alive." Gambit rumbled down at her. Seemingly not all that bothered by the flex of her angry field and the hiss behind her fangs. Sides wanted to punch him for it. For making her hurt and then not seeming to care. "I guessed after a while that he had to be the one calling the shots. He always was, wasn't he? It would make since a power shift like that would work just fine for him. He was running in the background long before the war. This is no different. But I couldn't prove it. I couldn't get close enough to. When I figured out the so-called Master of the biggest threat the Prime has was looking for one runt of a femme no bot should care about, it finally all fell into place. If he was looking for you it could only be him. But I didn't know how he was making the fraggin' empties that worked. I didn't know how he was playing with corpses that should have been long gone. I didn't know if he still had the damn codes to the switches in our processors."
She fluffed her armor, glaring through her darkening visor. "So you came to find me. Because I could hack it and give you an answer."
His silence was answer enough.
She bared her fangs. "Well, there you have it, Gambit. It's Rashact. He's still ruining and running our lives! I hope this answer pleases you!"
Those inferno colored optics blazed, swirling with purple.
Sides tensed, tightening his grip around her claws. Though he had little idea what hope he had against a mech that could snap and kill them all. At least he could yank her to the side should they get a chunk of wall thrown their way. He wondered, briefly, if he could pull her out the way and manage to get Sunny to duck all in the same movement.
He doubted it.
Because if that mech went for her, Sunny was past the point of caring if he got broke over it. He was going to go for the throat. He might not get there—probably wouldn't actually—but he would try. He was too worked up not to.
"Don't you fraggin' start with me, Shorty." Gambit snarled the words down into the space between them, but Sides couldn't hear much more than the nickname.
Because, what the slag?
He used a fraggin' nickname for her?
What the pit?
Sides didn't know if he wanted to laugh or scream. There were too many directions and emotions this all pulled at.
"You know very well I'm not pleased! You know very slaggin' well what all the frag this means! What I couldn't put together is all this slaggin' time in between! If he had you why let you run around!?"
"I never saw the Master!" She shot right back at him. "I think I would have slaggin' noticed it was Rashact, don't you!?"
"I don't know," He hissed right back. "You somehow failed to put it together all these vorns already!"
"Oh, I'm sorry! I believed you when you said it was over. I believed you when you said you'd come back and that he was gone! I guess that first part being a lie should have been my first clue, huh!?"
"I didn't mean to not come back! I told you that!" The shout made the walls rattle and the floor crack. Sideswipe braced to yank her and bolt, but her words stalled him.
"You still didn't!" She screamed, vents heaving in a way that made Sides want to tuck her up into his plating and hold her until she stopped shaking. He didn't dare touch her now though. Not yet. He just clung to her claws and hoped this wouldn't all blow up. "You just came here to get what you wanted and then throw a fit about it! If you knew it was him what the slag are you so pissed about, huh!?"
"BECAUSE IT WAS ALL FOR NOTHING!"
The words boomed around the room with enough of his strange force behind it that a few overhead lights shattered and cracked. The walls around them groaned and Sides tensed. Optics darting up to track the falling glass and fracture lines running across the tile of the ceiling. This already abused building wasn't going to take too much more of this mech's temper.
Then, as suddenly as his temper exploded, it fizzled out.
Between one breath and the next the tense hot air cracked and faded. Leaving in its wake Jynx's low growl and Gambit's panting vents. For a long moment, the pair stared at each other. Optics narrowed and fields pulled tight, then, something very strange happened.
Gambit started leaking.
Sides blinked, and then he blinked again. Confusion twisting up his faceplate while he rocked back on his heels. Focus zeroing in probably about the same time Jynx's did. Tracking that sudden bubble of energon sliding down Gambit's upper lip. Slipping down from his noseplate to trail slowly down the curve of his sneer. One drip streaking down his chin, and his expression shifted. Tongue darting out to swipe at the trail of blue.
Gambit rocked back.
His whole weight shifting as another few drops streaked down. Faster now and with more weight behind them. More energon. His fists went slack as he darted a hand up to swipe his knuckles across his upper lip. Tongue sweeping lightly at what he missed a moment later when he pulled his knuckles back to blink down at them.
It didn't stop the energon though.
More streamed down, faster, and the mech . . . sagged?
Sideswipe didn't know a better word for it. It was a weakness, a sudden shift that his processor locked on and refused to let go.
Jynx straightened, the growl dying in her chest as she tilted her helm. The sensors that had been pinned in preparation for a fight snapped back up. Her plating settling back down while the grip she had around Sides' fingers went slack. Her whole attention narrowed down to the massive black mech standing there in front of her. The massive back mech that all of a sudden let all his weight shift back until he could catch a hand against the wall.
He . . . swayed.
Faceplate scrunching up as he swiped uselessly at the stream of energon slipping down his lips and dripping down his chin.
"Gam?" There was a fearful note to Jynx's voice that made Sides' armor prickle when she slipped her claws from his grip and darted forward. She made it a stride closer before those inferno optics pinned her where she stood.
They weren't angry though.
At least, Sideswipe didn't think they were. Optics narrow, he watched those fire colored optics glare down at her in a tired sort of resignation that made the crimson mech's protoform crawl.
There was something wrong here.
Something very wrong.
"I don't want to fight with you about this, Jynx." It was quiet when he said it. The softest noise Sideswipe had yet to hear the mech make. "Not right now."
"O-Okay," She muttered back to him, hands flexing nervously at her sides while she hovered there in front of him. Perched on the balls of her peds Sides wasn't sure if she wanted to throw herself at him or circle him like a frantic fusion-fowl with a sickly clutch. It would have been cute, if Sides didn't think a bomb was about to drop that she couldn't handle right now.
The huge mech sighed, leaning more of his weight back against the wall only to hiss a long, low note when Ratchet dared take a step toward him.
"Back off, doctor. I don't want your help." The threat vibrated in the air around him, for all the good it did him. If anything, it just seemed to make him leak more. Another half-sparked swipe at the mess that his face was becoming before he just kind of gave up on it. A slow, angry shake of his helm before he pinned that fire colored gaze back on Jynx. He looked like he was waiting on something. Like he needed something from her. Yet he didn't look like he knew what it was.
The crimson twin mentally debated the best way to slide in there between them and maybe figure out how to get the mech to sit down when Jynx spoke up again.
"So, it's him. The switches in our helms are a very real possibility again. What do we do about it?"
"Besides kill him?" Gambit huffed, a tired but almost amused sound.
The slightest of smirks shown through the mess of energon on his lips when she rolled her optics behind a clear visor. "Besides that, yes."
"Find him, kill him." Those massive shoulders shrugged, as if he wasn't steadily dripping energon all over the floor.
"And how exactly do you purpose we do that, grand plan that it is? You're leaking!" Her breath hitched, and Sides tasted the slightest edge of fear in her field when it flexed around her only to be yanked back.
Gambit glared at her, lifting his energon covered knuckles and waving them in her direction. "Oh really? I hadn't noticed."
"Why!?" She shouted it, but the quiver in her plating gave it more desperation then anger.
The massive mech leaning back against the wall simply stared back at her in the wake of it. Then, slowly, he looked away. A tired tilt to his shoulders and the slant of his optics when he darted them around the mechs clustered behind her. Sides saw the moment the walls came back up. His backstrut stiffened and his chin jutted out.
He was shutting down. Closing it all out.
There would be no answer to Jynx's fear from him now.
Not here. Not in front of all of them.
He would not give them anymore weakness. Sideswipe didn't need to know the mech at all to know that.
The pit fighter in him recognized it well enough.
He had showed more then he planned and if that big mech was capable of fearing anything, he feared showing weakness.
So, this was done. Shut down be they at the end of it or not.
He was hurt, he looked tired, and he had given them too much. He would do no more.
Jynx seemed to realize it too. If the tired slant of her shoulders was any proof.
Soundwave did too.
Maybe that was why the mech spoke up then, or maybe it was just because Soundwave knew when best to play his cards. He'd made a life out of it, after all.
"I have a suggestion." Fire and silver optics slid his way. Sideswipe took a moment to admire the fact that the long, lean mech had just had his processor scrambled and still managed to look like he had everything well in hand. The crimson frontliner was never going to understand just how Soundwave managed to do the things he did. "Give me three orns."
"To do what?" Gambit glared across the lab at him. As if there wasn't energon dripping off his chin.
"To do some figuring. I have more experience than you might think with deep code."
Like an ember in the dark, hope sprang to life in Sideswipe's chest. Sunstreaker went stiff, and the surge of thought that flickered across the bond proved it was different from before.
For it clicked.
Ravage. Rumble and Frenzy. Laserbeak.
Soundwave had created them, for a lack of a better word. They had not come from his frame or his spark, yet he had made them. Taken dying sparks and processors from the wreckage that was the darkest orn in history and created something else so that they would survive. He had done what most thought was impossible. He took a dying life and gave it a new chance in a different shape. He had pulled it off.
If there was anybot in New Iacon that might be able to figure out how to dig a kill switch out of deep code or figure out what these sparkless monsters were, it was Soundwave.
Gambit's optics narrowed, thoughts the twins didn't have a hope of tracking simmering in that gaze. Jynx's optics widened in recognition.
Sides didn't think she knew the reason behind what Soundwave was saying quite like he and Sunny did, but she had met the mini twins and Ravage. She did know how Soundwave came to have his creations. It wasn't too big a leap for her to assume it had something to do with coding, nor the lean mech's understanding of it.
"Figuring?" Gambit huffed, like he wasn't holding himself up against the wall with energon dripping between them. "And what exactly are you going to figure?"
"A way to get you what you want, isn't that why you are here?"
Gambit bared fangs now stained in energon. "I can't have what I want. That's long gone."
"And a processor without a kill switch doesn't rank up there at all?" Soundwave stared right back, the slightest of a glare building in that normal blank expression.
Gambit grinned a smirk that made Sideswipe want to pull Jynx away from him.
"Not really, no."
It was almost like . . . he didn't care . . . .
Jynx wilted in his shadow.
"But if you can figure out how I get close enough to Rashact to rip him into tiny little pieces, then yes, I'll let you figure."
"Three orns," Soundwave repeated, pale red optics blazing. "And we will see."
Three orns.
What the frag were they suppose to do for three orns?
Turns out, there was quite a lot they could do for three orns.
The upper levels were toast.
Trailbreaker and Hound were good, the Constructicons were brilliant, but even they couldn't make magic. The mangle of the upper levels was not a priority when half the population had nowhere to recharge.
It had only been an orn since the lot of them had stood around undead corpses, but still much had been done. The streets were clean, the population had been moved out of the worse areas and brought in close. Empty barracks were empty no more and the city was one again alive with noise.
Megatron and Optimus had made quick work of calming and reassuring the population. Elita and Chromia had gotten to work on figuring out what to do with them. It was not perfect. It was cramped and it was hard, but everybot in New Iacon, citizen and refugee alike, had a place to lay their helms and something to eat. Much of the working population had stepped up. The cleaning effort was all hands-on deck and while Scrapper was heading the rebuild alongside Hound, it would take at least a decacycle to get things going again.
Some of the city had already been leveled. It was simpler to demolish the mess and start from scratch. The rest was being patch up as much as it could.
The cleanup and rebuilding crews were massive. All falling inline under Scrapper's gestalt brothers and Prowl's stern optics. Elita and Chromia had left that part to the Praxian—to give him and Jazz something to throw their frustration at more than anything else—the sisters had taken the military side of things. The Enforcers were working triple time, and not even Sides or Sunny could be left out of this one. Many had signed up in the wake of what had been done to their home, and while it was a boon in some ways in others it made things harder.
They had to be trained, and that took effort away from protecting their rattled city.
Ironhide and Megatron could not spear the twins this duty. They had been off for too long as it was. They were too good at what they did to not help now. However, they could at least grant them this.
Instead of leading patrols around the city, they were confined to the inner walls of the compound. Standing among lines and lines of nervous new recruits. Scared citizens that were afraid but desperate enough now to stand and fight to protect their families.
Sunstreaker would commend them their resolutions, if they weren't so slaggin' annoying.
Chromia had offered the twins this post after Ironhide wanted them on the lines. She was right, when she had argued with her mate. They would be no use with their minds focused somewhere else.
It had made the brothers bow their helms in a way they hadn't in vorns, but they had not argued. For the dark blue femme was right. They would not have their processors in the game. Not while constantly worrying what Jynx was doing back at the compound.
Gambit had yet to come out of the room he'd allowed Soundwave to tuck him away in down in the basement. He refused medical help, and only took energon when Jynx brought it to him.
What he had said while he waited, the brothers didn't know. Nook went with Jynx so far, the few times she had ventured down to her sort-of-brother, and what happened neither spoke of.
So, yeah, the twins were a bit out of it.
Which was why, two and a half orns later, Sunstreaker found himself standing front of shivering fools too dumb to use their own damn plasma.
"Keep glaring at them, Sunny. I'm sure that is helping them concentrate." A soft smirk curled Jynx's lips when the golden mech darted his darker gaze down to her. She had recovered well, all things considered. Some of it, he knew she wasn't dealing with. None of them really were.
The kill switch in her damn helm was driving him up a wall but the little femme didn't want to talk about it. She didn't seem to be able to. Sides and he hadn't yet pushed her on it. That first night after Gambit turned his back and followed Soundwave to a room, the brothers had bundled up their femme and hid her away in the berth they been given. Nook's glares hadn't stopped them, and Jazz's frustrated hisses hadn't either.
They couldn't.
Not right then.
The other mechs must have realized it to. That or—and this was more likely—Ratchet had shut them down. The medic knew how far their spark was stretched right now. It was why he demanded the three of them down in his office tonight. He had let them have a few orns though. To try and calm down on their own.
It had helped.
A lot.
Jynx clutching at their plating while they curled her between them had done more than anything though. Sides had quivered there around her. Fingers digging tightly into the femme's plating while Sunstreaker wrapped his arms around the both of them and yanked them close.
They probably should have talked about it.
They probably should have forced themselves through the fear bubbling in their chest.
But Sunstreaker was not gifted at words, Jynx was tired and scared, and Sideswipe had just been desperate for any comfort he could get.
So, here they were.
Two and a half orns later, pretending they weren't waiting with baited breath for Soundwave to comm. Or Gambit to snap. Or . . . something worse.
Like Jynx dropping at their peds.
The golden mech repressed a shudder, glared at the femme beside him a bit more, then turned his attention to the idiots before him.
"Were you born glitched, you half-bit toaster!? Your frame knows how to make the plasma cannon, you idiot! Just let it!"
The truly hideously painted orange mech flinched at the bellow. Hunkering down over where he was trying to work through the arm cannon transformation.
It was easy!
The first damn internal weapon system any fighter was taught! A bot's frame should know it by instinct! Were there really any bots left in their race that didn't have any idea how to fight!?
"Sunny," Jynx hissed softly, dropping from her perch on the table to his left. She had been helping there for the last couple of orns. As unwilling to leave their sides as they were hers. She wasn't technically an Enforcers—didn't want to be, and the way Prowl glitched about the notion of it two orns ago had been something—but Mia had taken one look at her hoovering behind the twins when orders were being given out and put her to work.
She wasn't a teacher.
Wasn't the least bit good at it, but neither were Sides and Sunny, so well here they were.
If it hadn't meant he couldn't keep an optic on her, he'd have sent her off with Nook. The tri-colored mech had taken up with Smokey and Blue. Tactical meetings with Optimus, Elita, and the rest of the command staff.
She would have been safer there, probably been more help as well since she knew more about the Ground then any of them. But, well, the twins couldn't let her go and they were needed here.
Nook had snorted in their faceplates that first meeting Elita had been arguing for Jynx's input. It was what she was here for anyway.
"I know as much as she does about the Ground." He had huffed at the Lady Prime. "And Rashact being the Master makes no difference. Not yet. Not until Gambit comes out of his hole and we figure out that code. For now, I'm more technical advantage to you. I'll do it."
And so, there he was.
He worked well with Smokescreen. It was strange to see, but almost kind of intriguing. His mechlings were in the safe care of Skywarp and Tailgate. The new carrier tucked away in the safety of the deepest parts of the compound with all the other younglings and sparklings. There was a whole half of the population—mostly their carriers—that had been put to the task of watching the young.
It was deemed too dangerous to have little ones wondering around where they were not accounted for. So Quickfire and Mirage spearheaded the team assigned to helping the carriers get settled. The three biggest work out and play hangers had been converted to caring for the young.
There was plenty of space between them, plenty of things to keep the young ones busy, and there they were in the safest places in the whole damn city now. More then that though, it was deep under the inner workings of the compound. To get to them the Ground would have to go through the whole damn population.
Sunstreaker dared him to try.
Thundercracker had brought up the possibility of tunnels and perhaps more scraplets being a threat to coming in underneath, but Wheeljack and Perceptor had quickly worked that out. Jynx and Nook had spent two breams with them the first orn and worked out an electro-magnet alert system.
The notices pinged a direct link to all the command staff. A steady report on what moved underground around the city.
It was rushed, and it was crude, but it was working.
It was an early warning system if nothing else.
It calmed the warry carriers more than anything though, and right now, that was more than enough.
None of it was perfect though.
There were too many bots in too little a space. There were not enough skilled military to divide up all the attention they needed. There was too much fear hanging in the air still.
For so much had been unanswered.
The population wanted to know who Gambit was, and not even Elita could figure out what to tell them yet. The threat of the Master's real identity had been kept from the population—it would do them no good to know—but the rest of their patchwork family and command staff did know. It made them all tense. It kept them all on edge.
Even more so then the powerhouse hiding in the basement.
Shaking his helm, Sunstreaker forced himself to turn away from the fumbling of these idiots he was trying to somewhat prepare before they all went to slaggin' war again. Letting his focus narrow down to the white plated femme stepping into his field space. Across the small sliver of courtyard currently dedicated to their group, he could feel Sideswipe's optics, but he paid it no mind. Jynx's field was too potent and he was still too worried about her to look anywhere else.
"Stop shouting at them." She whispered up at him, silver optics darting over to the fumbling mech. He was little more then a youngling. He had been born since the war ended. He really did not known of war.
He didn't belong here before Sunstreaker. He didn't belong trying to figure out how to shot other bots. He didn't . . . .
He just—
Gritting his teeth, Sunstreaker flexed his fists.
He didn't want to do this again.
He didn't want to train more foolish younglings and send them to their deaths.
They were supposed to be done with war.
It wasn't supposed to be starting again.
"This is the easy part." Sunstreaker rumbled back at her, helm vents flexing as he tried to rein in his emotions. Across the courtyard, Sideswipe pulsed a calming note at him. The golden mech resisted the urge to throw himself over there and throttle him. "You know that, Jynx. If he can't do this, he's going to get himself killed."
The little femme beside him flexed her sensors at him and sighed. "I know."
Clenching his jaw, Sunstreaker looked away. Turning his focus back to where it was supposed to be.
"Would you two rather be out patrolling?" She asked it quietly, but it yanked all of the golden mech's attention back all the same. Across the bond, Sides narrowed in on them as well. Though he did not leave the tangle of femmes he was trying to work though a rapid weapons from alt mode transformation. "Because I know you don't like this. And I could just go help Nook. It would probably bet better for all three of us."
Sunstreaker was silent. Staring down at her when she turned away to fiddle with an ion blaster laying on the table beside him.
After sucking in a breath to try and calm down he settled for the truth.
"Yes," He told her softly. Because she already knew it. There was no point in lying to her. "But we can't."
"I'm not going to just drop dead any moment, Sunstreaker." There was frustration in her voice. A growling tick that made his fingers itch and his plating ruffle.
Because she didn't know that.
She had no way of knowing that.
None of them did.
He simply stared back at her.
Letting out a huff, she rolled her optics, claws flexing at the air beside her hips. "I'm not. I've been trying to get you two to listen to me for the last two orns. He isn't just going to turn us off! It's be a waste of effort! He doesn't want to destroy all his precious work. If he was going to kill us, he'd have done it vorns ago."
Sunstreaker grunted. It was the best he could come up with.
Her optics narrowed behind her visor but what ever she had wanted to say was cut off when the command comm channel chirped to life through their helms.
"Bots?" Bluestreak's voice. Excited and wavering.
Sunstreaker's focus narrowed down the comm line as Sideswipe answered. "What's up, Blue-mechling?"
"You three need to get up here. Right now. We got something. Well, I got something. Okay, really it was me and Rodimus, but it's something and you need to come, like now. Like right now. And Gambit, Jynx can you get Gambit? He won't answer the door. And Soundwave wants to talk and—"
"Blue." Sunstreaker cut him off with a bark down the line.
The grey Praxian cut off with a stutter. "Y-yeah?"
"Which office?" Sunstreaker sighed, wishing he hadn't snapped at the younger mech, but drawn tight to have the energy to apologize.
"Same one as this morning. Everybot is just coming over here."
"I'll get him." Jynx assured Blue, glaring at Sunstreaker as she did. The golden mech wilted a little under the narrow optics. "But he's going to what to know why. I can't drag him out for nothing. He'll break somebot."
"He still mad?" Blue squeaked. "I thought you managed to talk to him last night."
"No, Blue." She sighed. "He's not talking about anything. He's hardly moved. He's . . . hurting . . . sick . . . I don't know and he won't tell me."
Over the line it was hard to tell the hurt, the worry, and the fear the words spun up in Jynx. They all knew she was doing her best not to worry too much about Gambit at the moment. Him or what he was hiding. They had too much else to do right now for her to hover around his door and fret. It wasn't easy though. It was pulling on her nearly as much as it was pulling on them.
There was a breaking point rapidly approaching all of them, and where it would hit, Sunstreaker hadn't yet been able to place.
"It's about Rashact." Blue told her softly.
Jynx nodded, though the grey mech couldn't see it. "I'll get him. Is . . . Megatron going to be in there?"
A few nanos of static and then quietly. "Yeah."
Sunstreaker grunted.
Jynx looked away.
Sideswipe snorted from across the courtyard. "Wonderful."
Jynx was, in a word, rattled.
The world she had come to rely on here had been tilted, shaken, and dumped out like a youngling's toy chest all over the floor. Most of the pieces remained the same, though they now lay about in a new order. But somethings that had been lost and buried at the bottom of forgotten corners suddenly came back to light.
It created a new layout.
A new game.
There were now new rules, new problems, new ways to fail.
One orn, she was going to sit back and marvel at one piece of truth she could no longer deny the Prime. He and his command staff knew how to handle a crisis. A city in panic had been quieted and calmed in a matter of two orns.
Order had been returned. Though it was a stressful new kind of order, it still gave bots direction. It gave them the ability to breathe and figure out what to do next. The patrols circling the city none stop, the new recruits flooding the compound, and younglings safe behind every last line of defense they could give. It was an impressive bit of work for two orns time.
Jynx had to give them that.
It did not calm the swirl of thoughts in her though.
She was not a fool.
She knew Sideswipe and Sunstreaker needed to be out among the patrols guarding the city. They were wasted here glaring at scared citizens playing at warriors. They wouldn't leave though. Because of her.
They were scared if they let her out of their sight, she'd be out of reach forever the next time they turned around.
She . . . wasn't sure they were wrong.
She kept telling herself that Rashact would have flipped that switch by now if he could. Now that Gambit was back and he had the proof of it, all he'd have to do was trigger the code and they'd be dead or mindless pets again.
It was that second part she was doing her best not to point out to anybot.
Jazz and the twins were scared she was going to drop dead at any moment because of a bit of code they couldn't dig out.
Jynx was scared of something far worse.
She was scared of that code switching on and turning her into Rashact's mindless monster once again. She was afraid of him turning her against them. She was afraid they would refuse to stop her, and she dreaded the thought of what that would allow her to do.
They knew it.
They had to have figured it out by now.
Soundwave at least.
They just weren't talking about it.
She was grateful for that much. It gave her time to think.
Then, of course, there was the other major issue in all this.
Gambit.
Standing there in the flickering lights of a quieter corner of the space they had left, Jynx glared at the slab of metal before her. Her whole life, she'd thought this mech untouchable. Now, he was hiding in a hole.
She wanted to rip her claws into him, she wanted to laugh, she wanted to cry, she wanted to know what the ever loving frag was wrong with him!
Instead, she knocked her knuckles against the door. She ignored Sides and Sunny hoovering just a few steps down the hall. Sensors lifting from their grooves she tilted her helm toward the door and listened.
Silence answered her for a long serious of klicks.
Well, no. That wasn't actually true.
There was no silence left to be had in this city. Power relays were overworked and whining endlessly in the background, voices bounced off metal walls too packed full of bots for the space they had left, and tension pulsed in the very air around them. This city had never been silent since Jynx came here, but parts of this compound had.
That was no longer the case. Silence had left with their sense of safety. The noise of tension was what remained.
Later, she was going to have to thank Soundwave for finding the quietest corner of space he could to put her mammoth of a sort-of-brother. It was probably the only reason he hadn't gone and blown some slag up yet.
So, in reality, she tuned out the rest of the noise and focused on the quiet on the other side of the door. She could make out the whirl of a powerful flight frame crammed in too small a space. Only a dead bot—or one with some serious upgrades—could ever make their frame completely silent. It was just, the natural noises they all made were such a normal sound to most that they never even heard it.
But the truth was, vents hissed, engines hummed, fans whirled, warm plating pinged, gears and muscles cabling flexed and spun, and frames made noise. Life made noise.
A dead bot was a bot that no longer made a sound.
Or, one that had been trained to become a living death.
Bots like Jazz. Like her.
Like Gambit.
He wasn't bothering to be silent though. He either didn't care, or he was too tired to bother. At this point, Jynx was betting the later.
Because there was something seriously wrong with him. Something . . . she was starting to think she figured out.
She shied from the chance though.
Balled up the notion and heaved it out of her mind as quickly as it came up each time. Because she didn't want to be right. She couldn't handle it if she was right.
The problem was; she knew she was.
Another knock of knuckles, this time much harder.
"I know you're in there." She grumbled to the door, not even bothering to raise her voice. He could hear her. Pit he could smell her. He knew she was there. But it wasn't the end of the orn yet and she didn't have any fuel. Fuel was the only reason he'd let her in so far. Taken the cube, sniffed it, and shut the door in her face.
After two orns, it was starting to get a little old.
It wasn't like she wanted to talk to him.
She didn't know what the frag they could possibly say at each other that they hadn't hissed and spit already.
He was mad at her, she was mad at him, they were both hurt, and they were both stuck with dealing with each other.
That didn't really make for all that riveting of conversation material. At least, not any that wouldn't end in them taking chunks out of each other.
Still, never once in her life had Jynx seen Gambit hide.
She didn't know if she wanted to mock him, or fuss over him.
Considering she had been given neither option, she settled for standing there glaring at the door.
"Gambit." She called after a few more moments. Crossing her arms back over her chest, she drummed a rhythm of frustration out against her forearm. "Come on, this is stupid."
Nothing.
Her lip curled back over her fangs.
"Which one of us were you calling a youngling again?"
Movement shifted on the other side of the door. The scrape of thick plating and the whirling of shifting motor relays moving a massive frame. The following heavy steps gave her enough time to take a few quick steps out of reach then the door snapped open in front of her.
Chin tilting up she caught narrowed, fire colored optics set in deep black protoform. Tired optics.
Jynx shoved down the urge to fret. It wouldn't do her any good. They were very pointedly not talking about energon once seeping down Gambit's faceplate. They were very pointedly not talking about the truth Jynx was starting to have no argument against.
"What?" The massive mech ground out, optics flicking down the hall to take in the twins before returning to her.
"Soundwave wants to talk."
The tiniest bit of emotion flickered across that black faceplate. Then it was gone again, in the time it took Gambit to lift a claw and scratch at the edge of the scar along his optic ridge.
"And he couldn't come to me and do that?"
Jynx just blinked at him.
The massive mech rolled his optics. "We're going to have to do this in front of the Prime aren't we?"
She gave a small jerk of her chin.
"And if I refuse?" He glowered down at her.
"Then you wouldn't have opened the door."
He glared at her.
Jynx just turned on her heel and started off toward a conversation none of them wanted to have.
This was, likely, a horrible idea, but really what choice did they have?
It wasn't quite as many present as she thought it would be. In fact, it wasn't even half. Maybe Optimus had finally caught on that shoving a bunch of tempers in a tiny room and hoping it wouldn't go off was rather foolhardy.
Took him long enough.
Jynx could appreciate the effort though. However, it did seem the Prime's pull only went so far. Hunkered at the corner of the table beside where Soundwave stood, Megatron glowered at the table. The Protector had finally reached the end of his leash, she supposed.
Well, he made it longer then she thought he would.
Jynx wondered how many of them were going to be leaking at the end of this.
Oh well, might as well get it over with. Slipping into the room she quickly made her way over to where Nook, Smokey, Blue, and Prowl were clustered at one end of the table. She took a short breath to marvel at how close Nook and Prowl were before deciding to let it go. She pulsed a short note down the new linked between her and Jazz when the silver mech dipped his helm at her. Stepping back just a bit from the table to let her slide though and hop up on the edge.
Nook had situated himself in a half lean half sit against one corner, flicking though a datapad with Bluestreak. Neither seemed all that surprised when she perched herself up on the ledge next to his leg and plastered up against his side.
Those green-gold optics darted down to her for a short moment. Quickly assessing and cataloging. He seemed satisfied by what he found when he offered her a twitch of a smirk. His attention was pulled away though, as were the other optics in the room, when from behind the twins making their way in came the hulking shadow of Gambit.
Optimus stood across the table from the door, tall and regal as ever with Elita at his side. Just a bit down from him, looking kind of like a buffer between the Prime and the Protector, was Rodimus. The fire colored mech was slumped against the table. Seated with more then half his weight sprawled out onto the table edge by his elbow. He flicked slowly through a rather large holo-map Jynx couldn't make the finer details out on. The motion of his bright yellow finger slowing when he flicked that royal blue gaze up to the take in the shadow.
On Elita's other side, stood her two sisters—Chromia looking worn, and Arcee more tired then Jynx had ever seen her—and Ratchet.
It wasn't nearly all the bots that run this place, but likely, it was all they could spare in the moment. If Jynx had to guess she'd figure Ultra Magnus and Ironhide alongside Perceptor and likely Red Alert were running everything while these bots clustered here.
This wouldn't be able to go on for long though. Not this soon after the city nearly went to its knees. There was simply too much to do. That one glaring question so many voices were whispering around the halls was becoming very pressing though.
Who—what—was that massive mech that had set the sky on fire?
Jynx had no doubt, that was what this was about as much as it was anything else.
Silver optics tracked Gambit's lazy stroll into the tight office. Keeping careful track of where those fire colored optics lingered and skipped. He looked all the world as if he could crack mountains in two with the flick of his wrist, but Jynx could see the tired lines around his optics. She could see the heavy weight around his shoulders. She could see that he hurt in a way he was growing tired of hiding. Or maybe it was that he simply was losing the ability to hide it.
She chose to not think too long on it.
She was the only one in this room that knew him well enough to read anything off that blank faceplate. To every other bot, that hard line of his jaw, the narrow glow of his optics, and the firm angle of his shoulders spoke of only calculated indifference that bordered just a bit too much into the threat category.
For now, it was best it stayed that way.
There was no chair big enough to hold him, not that he likely would have let himself relax like that around these bots. Instead, Gambit simply crossed the short distance to the table's edge that meant he was looking straight across at the Prime.
For a mech that towered over most others, it was something of a novelty to watch Optimus have to tilt his chin so much in order for those royal blue optics to catch the burning fire of Gambit's red ones.
"Hello, Gambit." Optimus managed to keep an even tone, but there was clearly fatigue in that deep bass.
Rolling his helm in a slow arch of his neck, Gambit flexed the wings, appraising the room around him until his optics flickered back to Optimus. "I don't really do groups. This needs an audience?"
Jynx shifted a bit further into Nook's plating as Sides and Sunny circled back around the cluster of Praxians she had wiggled her way into. She knew all too well Gambit was baiting. Testing to see where the weak places were. He had shown too much of his hand leaking down there in that lab. It had rattled him in a way Jynx had never seen before. She had no more idea how to deal with it then she figured he did, but it didn't make any of this easier to watch.
He was going to be digging for weakness far more then normal now. He was going to go for the throat without a moments thought.
The only question was this; would it be physically or mentally?
Hunkered down closer to Nook's side, Jynx was wasn't quite sure if she was guarding him or using him for comfort. She was grateful either way, when he pulsed a warm note down their bond. A silent easy that let her breathe a little easier while she watched Optimus take a breath.
She shouldn't have been surprised he wouldn't be baited.
"Unfortunately," He rumbled. "As I need my bots elsewhere, this does take several inputs at once."
"I thought the Prime and Protector ruled the city?" Gambit shot back, optic ridges lifting as he swept his optics back and forth between the brothers. He didn't seem all that interested in Rodimus, but well, the youngest brother didn't have a title. Considering the young life growing next to the flame colored mech's spark, Jynx was perfectly fine if Gambit didn't pay him any attention.
"The Cabinet rules the city. Megatron and I are just a vote among it."
"How very diplomatic." Gambit drawled, optics flickering over the femmes and mech medic before snapping back. "Where did you pick that grand idea up? The Council?"
"Earth, actually." Jynx found herself snapping her sensors back in shock as she wheeled in her perch to stare at Bluestreak. He didn't squeak when he spoke up. The stutter in his voice forcibly swallowed back while he lifted his chin. The broad doorwings behind his back did not flare but nor did they fall. Hanging there in the middle of his back in a non-threat but also a testament to the fact that he wasn't planning on ducking down anytime soon.
Gambit twisted at the sound of his voice. Those flame optics flaring in what Jynx couldn't tell what was when they narrowed down on the grey mech to her left. The long, strong wings draped down the flier's back flexed in an aborted movement they weren't allowed to finish.
Jynx didn't have the chance to analyze what the wing movement meant, nor what the frag Blue was thinking pulling all that angry attention his way. Because the grey mech kept talking.
"They have a voting system too. We're working on that. You know, once all this is over."
"Over?" Gambit grumbled. "What makes you think it will ever be over?"
"The War ended." Bluestreak shrugged. "Everybot thought that wouldn't happen, but it did."
"Did it?" The black titan huffed a bitter laugh. Jynx shrank a bit more into Nook's side. The two-tone mech wrapped an arm around her back and hugged her close.
"Yes." It was Jazz that said it. A hand lifting to touch at Bluestreak's back. The motion hidden behind the amount of frames clustered tight at their end of the table.
Gambit let his gaze slide to the silver mech, the fire in his optics burning brighter when they narrowed. "Have you looked outside lately? Your city was on fire a few orns ago. There were scraplets in the streets. You would have all been eaten. And you call that a war that is over?"
He rumbled a deep sound somewhere between a laugh and a snort.
"Just because the names of the sides have changed, does not mean anything. They—" He threw a clawed hand up between the towering form of Optimus and the slump of Megatron. "Might have stopped their little bicker match, but what did you actually change? The same thing that fueled the rage in the Pits of Kaon, the bitterness of Dead End, the madness of Hive City its all down there in those tunnels. The Underground is just another group of angry bots following behind the biggest dog in the fight. The Master was around before your war, he helped cause that, why would you think what he is doing now would be any different?"
"And what do you know the Underground?" Jynx spit it before she meant to. The angry thought bouncing around her processor while Gambit hissed down at her sire bursting forth before she could stop it. Once it was out there though, she wasn't about to take it back. She wasn't going to crouch there and watch Gambit hiss at Jazz. She certainly wasn't going to let him ball up on Bluestreak.
Fire met silver once again.
Gambit sneered.
"We know that bastard better than anyone."
"Yes," She agreed, but she wasn't about to back down. "But Rashact is one thing, Blackice is another. And no matter if you want to admit it or not, Blackice is a pet, yes, but he is still the one that is doing all the dirty work now. He's the one Rashact has out front. He's the temper we have to deal with. And I know him. You don't. They know this is a war. Believe me, it took long enough, but that isn't what this is about."
He pealed his lips back in a snarl that was far too many sharp fangs. "Then, by all means, tell me what the frag this is all about!"
"Rashact was a Senator." Bluestreak blurted it out like he couldn't keep it in anymore.
Both Jynx and Gambit stalled in their glaring match. Twisting to pin Bluestreak where he stood gripping at a datapad. Those pale blue optics danced between the gathered bots, but he settled his attention on Jynx when she blinked at him.
"What?" She muttered.
Blue hurriedly placed the pad down on the table in front of her. Gambit leaned forward, not even bothering to try and pretend disinterest. What was the most surprising in that moment wasn't Blue hurriedly flipping through pages to get to what he wanted to show them. It was that Gambit wasn't trying to look at the digital information. He was watching the Praxian.
Oh.
Jynx blinked around the shock.
He can't read.
Of course, he can't. He had had no more reason to be taught in those cages then she had. Gambit hadn't had the last over half vorn that she had either. He'd been rolling though the cosmos trying to get back to her and Arsine only to come up short on half of it. He hadn't had Sunstreaker's deep voice, and Bluestreak's endless chatter to carefully help him work though how to figure it out.
She quickly shoved down the flush of pain at the notion. Of another thing that had been taken away from him as well as her.
Blue was babbling again anyway. There were other things to focus on.
"See, here." Finding the page, he was after he pushed it closer to Jynx. She leaned in her kneel to end up balanced there next to him bent over the table. "This is an official registry of the Court of Sentinel Prime. It's the royal census mandate that includes the names and bond links of all those considered members of the high court at the time. That includes the Senators. I was looking for Rashact's name. I didn't want to say anything earlier because I wasn't sure, but I swore I heard that name before somewhere. I just couldn't remember where. Besides, so many bots have similar names in those orns. There were just so many of all of us, after all. But I kept thinking I knew it. So I started going through the registry. That was the only place I figured I could have seen it."
He darted a look up from the page to meet her optics.
"I use to read the registry, you see. Back during the war. I—uh—well it probably wasn't healthy per say—"
"It wasn't." Ratchet grumbled over on the other side of the table.
He was ignored.
"But it, gave me something to do. When I didn't want to think. I would read. And there wasn't much to read. So, I read that sometimes. Before Prowl took it away. Anyway," He darted his gaze back down to the datapad. "I was right. I had seen it. Here. See this register right here. This is a list of Senators in the high court that were mated within it. See right here, there he is."
Jynx leaned over, optics darting down the list of glyphs of names. Meaningless, if she was being honest. All these bots were long dead. Rich bastards that had used up the lives around them until they had finally pushed too far. And then, when the repressed fought back, they didn't even have the gumption to survive that first attack. That night Megatron attacked and slaughtered Sentinel Prime's council. That night he'd killed his own sire.
Jynx had always heard there had been none left after that night. That had been what made sense, after all. Megatron hadn't stopped until the court was dripping energon. In retaliation for what they had done to Vos. The same night Praxus fell, while the seekers rained fire down on a city without warning, Megatron took a few—Soundwave and Shockwave, and others she didn't know—and slaughtered the council at a fake meeting regarding Vos.
What Jynx didn't know though, was that there was more behind that attack then just taking out the ruling body in one night. What she didn't know, until she stared at the names on the register, was something she never thought of before.
"Shockwave was a senator?" She wondered out loud, not quite believing the words listed after his name. The ruthless scientist that made Mister look tame in the Decepticon ranks. "Shockwave was mated to Rashact?"
Gambit was silent.
The cluster of bots around her all leaned closer to the datapad. But apart from Sides short hiss of vents and Sunstreaker's fist creaking no other bots made a sound.
They all already knew.
It made sense. If she thought about it.
Bluestreak would have run to Optimus as soon as he figured it out. They would have all discussed it before fetching Jynx and Gambit to make the rest of it out. She didn't begrudge them that.
She couldn't.
Not really.
Not when she was too busy trying to wrap her helm around the fact that that mad little red bastard had a mate. He had been in the Court. He had been . . . somebot.
"Yes," Optimus was the one that spoke, drawing Jynx stunned gaze up from the pad. "Shockwave was a Senator before my sire tried him for treason."
Jynx's sensors fluttered. "Treason?"
Megatron's claws fisted over the arms of the chair he sat in.
Optimus nodded.
"He was funneling resources into Kaon and the Dead End." He answered. "Helping the rebellion."
"He was helping me." Megatron's deep, raspy growl yanked optics to him down the table. "And when he got caught—when Sentinel couldn't stand the bad press of anyone finding out I was playing in the pits of Kaon—he used Shockwave as a scapegoat. It had more to it than that though. I didn't know just why he was willing to help me back then, but turns out Shockwave was running some pretty illegal experiments out of quite a few labs. Some in Kaon, Vos, even one under Iacon under Sentinel's orders. They were doing quite a lot of the Council's dirty work down there. Shadowplay, Empurata, you name it, they were screwing with processors with it."
"Same lab I ended up in, I imagine." Rodimus muttered bitterly to the table with a glare burning in his royal blue optics. "The one Solarflare took me from."
Megatron cut a look his way before he nodded. "Yes. And when it became a liability, Sentinel cut ties with it. The same thing the bastard did with everything. So, he destroyed all the evidence of his input behind it and called Shockwave out of order. They tried him and sentenced him to his own surgical invention to cover up their part in it."
"Empurata," Sunstreaker growled the word out though clenched teeth. The hostility behind the single word enough that Jynx couldn't help but look back at him. There was such a burn of anger in his dark optics she was almost tempted to wiggle out of Nook's hold. Something told her plastering up to the golden mech wouldn't go well right now though. He was furious, angry in a way she hadn't seen in a very long time.
Which was strange.
Because last time she checked, the twins hated Shockwave. They couldn't possibly be mad on his behalf.
They weren't.
She didn't know it though, that the tension in Sunstreaker's frame was solely on the surgery itself.
Optimus nodded. "Yes, and then threw him in prison. His mate disappeared sometime before the sentencing. No bot really paid much attention to it. Most thought he died due to the trauma through the bond Shockwave went though. I . . . well, I don't remember much about the mech. They were both in the scientific division back them. I spent most of my time if I could in the archives or out on my beat, but from what I do remember the mech wasn't much. A thin, sickly red grounder that never seemed to do much more then follow Shockwave around like a pretty accessory."
"Rashact," Megatron growled, fangs bared at the table. "I never even knew his name. Just kept him alive because Shockwave bargained for him. When we busted Shockwave out of prison, he helped us break the override codes to the cells. He was a fraggin' gifted coder, but he was slimy and quiet. I had bigger things to worry about then some little berth warmer. Guess I should have paid him more attention. After all, Shockwave never did anything without a purpose. Turns out the mech was just as brilliant as Shockwave was, and . . . way more fragged up. Shockwave was cold, hard logic. He cared about nothing else. Especially when they turned his own torture against him. But that mate of his, that mech was . . . curious. I don't know a better term for it. He enjoyed watching things break. He liked to see in what ways he could twist things and what would happen if he did. He was . . . useful, and Shockwave wanted him, so it was an easy thing to allow. But I never paid him much mind, frag, not even you did Soundwave."
The long, lean, silver mech huffed every so slightly at his side. "I was young. Foolish. I had not yet learned the need for information. I would learn better, quickly. I should have learned sooner."
Megatron waved him off even while he didn't lift his burning gaze from the table. "Then Sentinel's dogs tracked Shockwave to the hole in the wall I stuffed him and his mate in Vos to keep them on the low while the rebellion grew. And well, you know what happened next there."
Jynx stared, a slow creeping realization starting up her backstrut. "The Council bombed Vos."
Megatron nodded. "Yes. Knocked half the damn towers out of sky, all to kill Shockwave and his damn mate. Well, it didn't work. Mostly. Shockwave told me his mate died in the fire. I believed him. Didn't have any reason not to. Was too angry to care. Then Praxus happened, and we stormed the senate. Then . . . War. I never thought of him again. Shockwave ran experiments on his own. He had labs all over Cybertron and I didn't care what he did. I should have realized most of it was working for his benefit. After all . . . the Sectors . . . pit—"
Then massive mech surged out of his chair, snarling in a whirl of powerful turbines and engines. Stalking the short distance away from the table to the wall where he paced a tight circle. The same angry, coiled power of a beast locked in a cage. Restrained fury looking for the slightest weakness in the bars to break its way loose.
Jynx stared after him, processor whirling as she tried to keep up.
Soundwave watched the towering prince snarl to the shadows of the wall before turning his attention back. Those pale red pools dimmed as he spoke. "Shockwave was responsible for the Youth Sectors falling. Not Megatron. He . . . wasn't in . . . there so to speak. That was when . . . well."
Jynx didn't need him to say it. She could figure that much out on her own. The timing was right. Perfect even.
The Youth Sectors fell a matter of orns after Skydancer died. After Megatron lost himself to grief and gave . . . what he thought was a dead sparkling over to a bot trafficker living underground.
Oh.
Spark pounding hard in her chest she darted a look up to Gambit, the silent shadow tracking the huge grey mech across the room.
"Shockwave always did think Megatron was a little too angry to lead anybot." Soundwave went on. "And he took the chance while he was gone. Ordered the Sectors attacked because of what logic told him it would do to moral for the Autobots. I could not stop him. I tried. I failed. So I tired to warn the Autobots. Tried to at least give the Sectors a chance. It was . . . not enough in the end. But there is nothing to be done about it now either way. When Megatron returned and saw what had happened he nearly killed Shockwave. The mech was not where he was because he was weak though. He survived, and kept his helm down. I never let him out of my sight—so to speak—after that though. Yet somehow, I missed it. I don't know how. I am still working that out. The point is this, Shockwave must have hid his mate away all those vorns. Tucked him away in a place no bot would look and let him run the experiments both of them were so interested in. Funneling resources and bots and . . . younglings into where no bot would notice. All those vorns running in secret until he finally pushed his luck to far on Earth and got himself killed."
"And the lab full of younglings on a moon no bot noticed was left forgotten. As well as the mech that took them apart." The low grumble echoed like thunder in Gambit's chest, drawing Soundwave up short.
Jynx didn't like the glow in those optics, but she didn't have the slightest idea what to do about it.
Soundwave simply nodded.
"So, all these vorns." Gambit pressed on. "He's just been left there. Doing whatever he liked, because you were too, what, stricken over a dead sparkling to notice?"
Megatron drew up short.
That snarl echoing in his chest cutting off with a choke while every bot in the room went tense.
Gambit payed them no mind. His focus set solely on the grey mech slowly turning to face him. The mech who's optics he bore.
"Really?" He huffed, so much mockery suddenly in his voice Jynx repressed the urge to shudder. Because Gambit only mocked when he was too done to even bother with wanting to get angry. It was almost always worse too. "The Great Lord Megatron, Leader of the Decepticons, Tyrant of the Universe, and Liberator of Cybertron. You lost your pretty wanna-be mate and tossed a half dead sparkling to a pirate because you couldn't handle it? That's it? Seriously? You just didn't notice the most twisted mech our race ever produced? He was under your noseplate the whole damn time and you never paid him any attention? That's. It?"
Silver fangs glittered as black protoform peeled back in a sneer.
"How very disappointing."
Silence pressed in like miasma around them. So thick it was hard to pull vents until, quietly, Megatron whispered.
"You know . . . ."
"What you are?" Gambit rumbled at him, fire optics flashing as he gave a cold bark of laughter. "Oh yes, mech. I know what you are. What kind of fool do you take me for? I can do this."
A hand stretched out beside him, long black claws flexing, and every datapad on the table started rattling. The sound louder then gun shots in the still air of the room before Gambit let his hand drop back down.
"You don't think I know what it is? Where it comes from? You don't think Rashact would gloat for vorns to me about it? You don't think he would have told me what I was meant to be? What I could have been? Had I not been sold for a few damn guns?" That cold laugh rumbled out again, sneer twisting. "You underestimate the sick pleasure he takes in making you hurt without even having to touch you. No mech, he told me. He enjoyed telling me. So, yes. Yes, I know who you are, Sire. I simply. Do not. Care."
Megatron was silent. Fire optics wide and jaw ever so slightly slack, but he made not a sound.
Jynx could do nothing but watch as Gambit sneered at him, an amused kind of twist to his lips while he slowly shook his helm back and forth at the sight before him.
Judgement gleamed from those optics, and disappointment was written in their gleam.
Optics that rolled when they slid from the grey prince to take in not the Prime across from him but the lean silver mech he had made a bargain with.
"Is that it? Is that why you drug me down here? To tell me the mad mech was a part of high society? That you found his name as if that means something? To try and tell me something I already know but don't care about? Is that it?"
Soundwave stared back at him.
Gambit's fangs flashed in the overhead lights as he tilted his helm.
"You promised me answers. If you cannot give me what I want, I will take what I need and find it elsewhere."
Soundwave tipped his chin, narrowed his optics, and rose to the challenge. "I do not think what you need will go with you. Not willingly, at least."
Jynx sank back down further into Nook's side while he tightened his hold around her waist. Gambit's attention snapped back down to her. Those optics she knew so well darting over her before taking in the mechs that surrounded her. For a moment, fire met silver once more.
She didn't know what was written on her face. She wasn't sure she wanted to know, but whatever it was, Gambit found an answer there.
His focus slowly sliding back to Soundwave with an ever so slight, reluctant nod. "So it seems. Which is the only reason I'm even still here."
Then, with nothing else, he turned and walked away.
Leaving Jynx staring quietly in his wake.
Boom! Gambit knew the whole time. Poor Megs never stood a chance.
Soundwave's job is about to get a whole lot harder. Ratchet's too. Because something is seriously messed up in Gambit, and Sides and Sunny aren't doing too hot.
Jynx, poor baby, I swear I'll give her a break one day. Just . . . not one any time soon. XD
Well, I hope you guys enjoyed it! And that you are all doing well in the face of this rather strange world we are living in currently.
Thank you so much for reading guys! I can't way to see what you all thought of this one.
See you next time!
- Jaycee