TFP: Mercy Ch. 8

Ch. 8: Noise

Colored shapes danced before her half-shuttered optics, their edges blurred by the constant dull throb in the rear side of her helm. Her processor swam with half-coherent thoughts of consciousness and her glossa felt thick and out of place in her mouth as it moved sluggishly against her dental plates, trying to find purchase to call out to whatever was making all that noise in the distance. Her vocal processors didn't seem to want to respond to her commands though. A sharp spike of pain invaded her consciousness and she slipped back into stasis.

"Arcee! Arcee, wake up!" Jack shouted, writhing in his half-cocooned state.

Breakdown sidled into his range of vision. "Squirm around all you want. There's no way a human like you could break out of that stuff." The mech poked Jack in the side with large digit causing him to swing wildly side to side from the point where he was suspended by his wrists.
Jack merely continued his attempts to wriggle from his bonds, but did little more than perhaps causing the ties around his wrists to tighten even further. "Yeah? Well there's no harm in trying," he gritted out through clenched teeth. The tips of his fingers were beginning to grow cold from being suspended above his head for so long and the silken threads, though soft, dug into the backs of his hands despite the supporting strands that took off just enough of the pressure.

The sun was starting to creep down towards the edge of the horizon, casting its deep orange radiance on the back right side of his neck. Soon it would withdraw behind the cover of the surrounding land formations before completely retreating over the edge of the horizon. Jack imagined the temperature would drop significantly when that happened.

He twisted his body once more in an effort to possibly swing his tied legs up to push against the silk suspending him from the tree branch. It was a long drop down, but anything was better than waiting for who knows what Airachnid had in store for him. After a minute of struggling to ab-crunch his legs up and above his head he fell limp and exhausted. No way was that ever going to work. He craned his head desperately over his right shoulder to see Arcee still slumped unconscious in her bonds. It looked like they were both on their own for this one.

Whispering. There was whispering- no, mumbling nearby. Impossible words that swam through her processor without any decipherable meaning. The constant tone cycling through her left audio receptor did little to help her interpret them. A blinding light shone in her face and she winced, rolling her head to the side in a vain attempt to escape its erratic path. It was as if the sun were darting around inside her very optics. The flat tone intensified, bringing with it a swath of white noise that masked out any further thoughts.

A scraping noise to Jack's left made him jump as Airachnid approached his position and lifted herself up with her extra appendages so she could look him in the eye. She ran a cool finger down Jack's cheekbone sending a flurry of involuntary tingles throughout his spine. He drew a shaky breath, a tight fist of fear clenching in his chest. A small movement caught the corner of his eye and he strained to see his guardian stirring weakly where she was bound. Bright light flashed across her closed optics and she scrunched up her face ever so slightly as the sun's reflection shone off of Airachnid's mirrored shoulders.

The Decepticon femme peered at him. "It's a shame that I may have to kill you. You make for an interesting prey, but I never did get a human head for my collection. It's only fair for you to volunteer after destroying all of my hard earned hunting trophies when you blew up my ship."

The human's thoughts raced, trying to come up with something, anything to get him out of this situation. "But, don't you want to hunt me down fair and square first? I mean, it was Breakdown who actually caught me this time," he offered hopefully.
This earned a small laugh from the femme. "I like a good sport Jack, but I'm not stupid. Besides, it wouldn't be much of a chase now would it? You're running out of tricks."

Jack recoiled as Airachnid poised one of her spider legs near his chest, just close enough so he could feel the sharp tip needle through the fabric of his shirt. With machine-like precision the limb sliced a neat path from an area below his sternum up until it stopped just shy of his right collarbone. Jack drew a tight breath and could feel without looking that she scraped at least one of his ribs. He bit back a whimper at the hot pain erupting at the site.

A dull pulsing sound caught her attention and Arcee tried to concentrate long enough to pinpoint where it was coming from. Its throbbing reverberated through her chest, tingling the very sensory circuits in her outer limbs. It was almost like... Oh, right. Her sparkbeat. Now that she was becoming more aware she realized that all the auditory signals she was receiving were self generated. From the slight hum of her energon circulatory systems to the sporadic clicks caused by Primus knows what else. She wondered for a moment if she had somehow gone deaf to the outside world. The flat tone remained as an audible reminder of the ache still present at the side and back of her cranium.

Jack laboriously brought his head up, straining at its tremendous weight. The simplest actions seemed impossible and his every move was accompanied by a fresh flare of pain across his chest. He gazed foggily at the femme's mirror-smooth face, distracted by his own warped reflection. God he looked terrible. There were still twigs in his hair as it clung to his sweat-soaked forehead. His eyes trailed down to the gash now staining his shirt burgundy and he blinked back a few tears.

Airachnid surveyed her work. "There, now that wasn't so bad was it? The good news is that I missed all of your vitals. Unfortunately this next time you might not be as lucky. I tend to get a bit, overzealous," she said with a chuckle, circling around him in close examination to find the perfect spot to strike next. Finding a suitable area near the small of his back, she gave a soft hiss so close that Jack could smell the metallic scent on her hot breath. "This is going to hurt." She spoke low and soft, her voice offering no comfort as she poised an acid-tipped digit.
---
Breakdown watched the pair casually from his instructed post of guarding the captive Arcee. He made no move when the human cried out, arching its back in an effort to get as far away from Airachnid's caustic touch as possible. The large mech never particularly liked humans, especially since his recent incident with Mech's dissection team. He knew Airachnid had some sort of personal vendetta against this one in particular, though what exactly had passed between them was beyond what little she would share with him. Despite this, he had a feeling that she would have been  enjoying the act of torturing the small male even without their prior history. Honestly, it freaked him out a bit that she could take such pleasure from it.

"Airachnid, Megatron told you not to get sidetracked. Recovering Starscream is our top priority." Breakdown admonished, hoping to distract her away from her unsettling task.

The spider-bot made a face. "I know you can't see too well anymore Breakdown, but Starscream isn't here at the moment. Perhaps little Jack knows where he is?"

"But you didn't even question him!"

"Didn't I? Guess I forgot," she dismissed with an air of innocence.

"You know what I think? I think that you're just using this mission as an excuse to fulfill some sort of sick fixation of yours," he gestured accusingly.

"Breakdown, you insult me," Airachnid held a hand to her chest in faux astonishment. "Are you saying that I don't have the best interests of the Decepticons at heart? I but live to serve our Lord Megatron." Her optics narrowed. "If you think that I'm lying, perhaps you would care to hear out my side of the argument."

Airachnid took a step towards the larger mech, her spider legs curled threateningly above her head. Breakdown in turn swapped out his hammer in preparation for the confrontation. The two stood face to face, both daring the other to move first. After a long moment Breakdown withdrew his weapon and shot the femme a look of disgust before turning back to guard his charge. While infighting was not strictly forbidden among the Decepticon ranks, Breakdown wasn't one to go looking for trouble. And he especially wasn't going to be blamed for anything this she-spider caused. Airachnid smirked as the large mech turned his back on her, taking his submission as a small victory for herself. How easy it would be to take him out before he turned back around, blame it all on the Autobots...

Raining down from the skies above, a quick series of blasts seared across the blue mech's plating causing him to stumble forward. Before he could regain his balance, a missile collided with the ground next to him, the explosion of fire and dirt making way for a silver form that dropped from the skies, smashing hard into Breakdown's back and driving him face first into the ground.

Arcee heard a large crash and the rock face she was bound to shuddered at the impact. Her vision wavered with an orange haze obscuring the outline of Starscream rising from where he had finished suppressing Breakdown. A dull thought swam to the surface. 'He- came back...' Her processor ran sluggishly and she struggled to concentrate of the words now being exchanged between him and Airachnid.

"Starscream," Airachnid began as the seeker stepped deftly down from Breakdown's unmoving chassis, "you never were much for aim were you? The Autobot is over there. Although I'd pretty much wrapped everything up before you arrived," she joked with a coy smile, nudging Jack's shaking body causing it to swing back and forth.

"Airachnid, I see Lord Megatron has you doing his dirty work again." Starscream stated eyeing the spider-bot's handiwork impassively.

The femme narrowed her optics. "I wouldn't have bothered, but Megatron seems to think this is a high priority mission. We wouldn't be here at all if a certain bot hadn't gotten himself captured by the enemy- Mhm, or should I even call you a prisoner?" A corner of Airachnid's mouth pulled up as she noted the somewhat defensive stance the seeker had taken in between her and Arcee's bound form. "It would save a lot of time at this point if we could settle where your loyalties truly lie."

Starscream fell silent for a moment, his attentions darting behind him to where Arcee was bound, her optics half open and struggling to focus long enough to make contact with his own. He looked away before she managed and instead looked to Breakdown's chassis sprawled at the femme's feet, singed and battered, but overall operational once he came to. The seeker returned his gaze to Airachnid and noticed that she had taken a couple paces closer to him. He drew back a few steps in kind to keep the distance between them.

"Autobot, Decepticon, it doesn't matter. Both have employed flimsy excuses to validate treating me as a prisoner. Why should I care what happens to either side?" he dismissed cynically.

"You don't care at all? Even I care one way or another whether the Decepticons or Autobots win the war. Much like you I primarily look out for myself, but in the interest of my personal freedoms I choose to aid the Decepticons. Without alliance a bot will get torn apart in the crossfire. So on what side have you placed your loyalties?" She eyed him as he remained silent for a very long cycle.

"Maybe I can help you along. Do you care if this boy lives or dies at this very moment?" She took a step closer to Jack who was currently biting his lip from the chilling pain in his chest and lower back, taking in shallow breaths because anything more substantial threatened to push his consciousness over the edge from the pain. "Would you care if I were to torture him in front of you?" She brought a spider leg up where Jack's legs were encased in silk and Jack weakly kicked in Airachnid's direction, missing by several feet. She swiftly dripped a small portion of her venom on the outer casing, its acidic effects sizzling immediately through the webbing. A short moment passed before Jack let out a pained yell as the acid found his left ankle. He twisted ferociously in the air, anything to move his leg away from the substance that was already burning at the outer layer of skin. An agonizing five seconds later and the acid was neutralized, leaving Jack shuddering in his bonds with a few tears finding their way from the corners of his eyes.

Starscream watched impassively, not even raising an optic ridge as the boy whimpered. Airachnid studied the two for a moment. If she was disappointed at the seeker's lack of reaction she didn't show it. Instead she scuttled over to where Arcee was beginning to return to consciousness. With a soft moan the blue femme struggled to lift her head, the cerulean light in her optics flickering. Airachnid raised a limb up to where it rested near the base of the two-wheeler's helm.

"And you wouldn't mind if I were to..." She flicked the sharp edge of the leg ever so slightly to carve a delicate line on the side of the two-wheeler's neck. Immediately, a small bead of energon appeared at the site, lingering for a moment before trickling down the outside of its conduit. Arcee groaned and pulled back, mumbling something neither of them could make out.

Starscream gave a small smirk to mask his growing derision. "If I didn't know better I'd say you came out here just for the sake of having a little fun."

"I try to take time out of my busy schedule to do something for myself once in a while. Something I'm sure you're quite familiar with. Though why you would even consider teaming up with the Autobots is beyond me. Are you still sore about losing your old position as second in command? Is that it? The truth is, I never even wanted it. Being tied down in the service of another just isn't my thing. But as events played out, I ended up being the one most fit for the job."

"Well, look at you, taking one for the team," he countered with a scowl. His air of impassiveness breaking, it was apparent that her words were beginning to strike a little too close to home.

She continued regardless. "If you come quietly I'll even put in a good word for you with Megatron. He really does value my opinion you know. I'll tell him that you didn't even try to fight back. So eager to return to groveling at his feet you'll do anything to get back into the Decepticons. Perhaps eventually he'll promote you from maintenance drone to one of the Vehicon generals. I bet you'd look great with an automobile alt-mode."

Starscream growled and lunged at her, flexing his long fingers so that their knife-like tips dug into the gaps of her shoulder plating. With a mighty wrench, he tore one of the mirrored panels from their mounting before getting in a few more external slashes. The arachnid's fuchsia optics widened in surprise as she struggled to kick the feral seeker off, finally succeeding in knocking him away with a wild swing of a spider leg.

The two figures fell away from each other for a moment; Airachnid taking quick stock of the deep gouges leading up to the gap in her plating. Energon flowed at a slow trickle from the wounds.

"You're right that I do care about one thing," Starscream began, flicking a few drops of blue energon from his claw-like fingers, never once taking his optics from the femme as they circled each other, "and that's making sure that you don't walk out of here online. Even if I were still a part of the Decepticons, I would gladly be cast out a second time just so long as I got the opportunity to kick you and your eight legs halfway back to Cybertron!" With a snap he transformed out his arm blasters and let loose a flurry of shots.

Airachnid dodged quickly, taking to the trees as each blast came within a hair's breadth of hitting their target. She called down to him from her perch among the foliage. "So I take that as an official refusal of my invitation to rejoin the Decepticons?"

Starscream shot his second missile to where her voice was emanating and satisfaction lit across his features when a short yell accompanied the explosion, followed by her leggy figure crashing to the ground. With an anticipating grin, Starscream headed towards her position, his knife-like fingers curling in and out as he drew nearer. This was what he wanted, to finally get revenge on the femme who was partially responsible for his leaving the Decepticons. He raised his hand.

"St-Starscream..." a faltering voice called from behind him, its edges laced with static. He turned to see Arcee pulling weakly against her bonds, her optics gazing into his own. For a long moment he kept his clawed hand raised, ready to strike, until ever so slowly the hard edges of his expression began to relax and the hand fell limp to his side. The moment was short lived however as Arcee's optics widened at something behind him. A nanoclick later a rush of motion flashed across the corner of his vision and he whipped back to his foe.

"Ah, no sudden movements now." Airachnid warned. Her violet fingertips, scorched from the seeker's missile, wrapped around Jack's torso and one of her extra limbs pressed against his throat. "We wouldn't want any accidents, now would we?"

"Are you really resorting to human hostages?" Starscream spat out.

"Like you have any means to judge," she accused. "Besides, he's not a hostage. He's my getaway." With a swift slashing motion Airachnid cut the ties binding Jack's cocoon to its tree branch sending Jack plummeting to the earth while she launched herself into a midair transformation. With only seconds before the human hit the ground Starscream reacted out of instinct more than anything. Launching himself forward he caught the human a split-second before impact, breaking its fall with the last few feet of distance. Starscream on the other hand, hit the ground hard with his hands outstretched in front of him and skidded to a halt earning a face-full of dirt.

The human boy still in hand, the seeker rose to his feet and looked up at Airachnid's sleek helicopter mode swiftly retreating in the distance. For a moment he was overcome by the urge to chase after her. Her chopper form was no match for the pure speed of his own jet mode. Before he could decide either way a voice called out to him.

"Starscream, is Jack alright?" Arcee asked haltingly, still bound to the rock. Worry was written all over her features and it was clear that she was having a hard time focusing on the pair.

The seeker looked wistfully one last time at the sky and made his way over to the blue femme and held out the human. Jack was still conscious, but only just. Even Starscream with his limited knowledge of fleshling anatomy could see that he was in a lot of pain. Taking care not to nick the boy's skin, he cut the ties that bound his wrists and legs together, to which Jack responded by weakly curling into a more natural fetal position.

Arcee looked at her injured junior partner with a sparktrodden expression. "Jack..." She waited as Starscream set the human gently on the ground beside them before slicing through her bonds. The two-wheeler picked the last of the sticky webbing from her chassis and she tried to take a few shaky steps to where Jack lay on the ground. Stumbling a bit, she found herself instead being caught by Starscream's steadying servos, and rather than pulling away from his support immediately like he expected, she remained at his side for a few seconds more until her stabilizing servos were able to support her weight. She then took the last couple steps to her human partner and knelt down beside him placing a reassuring smile on her face.

"Alright Jack, we're going to get you back to base. You're safe now," she said gently, as much for her own benefit as his.
Jack winced and looked up at her in kind. "Glad to- see you're okay too." Satisfied that her partner would pull through, but still openly concerned, Arcee gently scooped him up in her servos and stood using the nearby rock for support.

"Do you want me to carry him?" Starscream offered, noting her difficulties.

"No!" She replied a bit too quickly. Catching herself, she held Jack a little bit closer to her chest. "I- just want to be the one to carry him is all. Nothing against you or anything."

Starscream nodded as he changed the subject. "What do we do about Breakdown here?" He gestured to the ‘con who was still out cold.

"We don't have anywhere to contain a mech that size back at base." After a moment of thought she added, "Nor would we have reason to I suppose."

"And I presume it wouldn't be right to offline him here and now?"

She shook her head with a small knowing smile. "Not while he's unconscious like this."

Starscream sighed and took one last look at the fallen mech. "You Autobots really are terrible, you know that?"

"It's all a matter of perspective," she returned knowingly. "Now let's get back to base. We need to get Jack some medical attention. You'll have to call in though. Airachnid disabled my comlink unit."

"Oh, right..." Starscream answered, a deep seed of guilt plummeting in his chest. He had forgotten to turn the receiver back on after he deactivated it during his flight. It dawned on him that that one simple action nearly cost both Arcee and her human partner their lives. But they were fine now. That's what mattered, right?

---

One comlink call later and soon they found themselves walking through the blue-green portal that opened before them. While Arcee refused to let Starscream carry Jack for her, she accepted a supporting servo without opposition as her equilibrium sensors were still recovering.

"Arcee, Starscream! We've been wondering where you guys got off to. You should have said you were bringin' Jack along." Bulkhead greeted them as soon as the two bots were coming out of the portal. He then noticed the labor in Arcee's footsteps and her focus on the small figure she held cradled in her arms. "W-what happened? If Starscream pulled anything..." Bulkhead began, taking a menacing step towards the seeker who entered the base close behind the femme.

Starscream stood his ground, narrowing his optics in return. "And what if I did?" he challenged.

"Starscream had nothing to do with this," Arcee stated quickly to nip any confrontations in the bud. The last thing they needed right now was to spread accusations when there were more pressing matters to be resolved. She brushed past the green mech to where Ratchet stood next to the ground bridge controls. "Jack's hurt. I'm not sure how bad it is."

The medic's optics widened at the sight of Jack's battered form. "By the Allspark... What happened? Actually, never mind. Just get him over to the table." He motioned with a hand and hastened to gather supplies.

Arcee laid Jack as gently as she could onto the Cybertronian sized examination table, his curled figure seeming even smaller against the titanic steel bed. She noticed a small amount of a sticky substance on her fingers. Upon a closer examination her optic ridges scrunched with worry at the unfamiliar sight of red blood. "Ratchet, I think we should call his mother. She'd probably be a lot more qualified for something like this. She is a human nurse after all."

"J-June?" The doctor paused mid-search for his medical tools, slightly flustered. "Well, I suppose that would make sense," he responded with a slightly downtrodden expression before glancing down at his smallest pair of forceps, roughly the size of gardening shears. "Yes, it would be best if we let her handle something like this," he admitted.

---

"Well, he should be fine for the moment," June spoke, brushing the hair from her eyes as she straightened up from cleaning and dressing Jack's multiple injuries. Concern clouded her brow as she surveyed her work, her fingers combing absentmindedly through her son's hair for the hundredth time as she looked down at his at last sleeping face. She was more than a little shaken by the situation. This is exactly what she was afraid of when she first found out about her son's secret daytime activities among the Autobots. Back then they had told her, assured her over and over that he would be fine; that they would keep him safe no matter the cost. Now just look at him.

She squeezed her eyes shut for moment before turning her attentions up to where Ratchet had begun to work on Arcee's injuries now that the femme was satisfied that her partner was taken care of. June's expression hardened as she let her authority as a mother take over. "He may be stable now, but he has a lot of recovery time ahead of him." She said semi-accusatorily to the two bots towering above her. "I don't know what on earth you were thinking in letting him go with on such a dangerous mission. Never mind the stitches and the scars that he'll most likely have for years to come. He could have died out there." Arcee merely looked guiltily off to the side at June's admonishments.

"I'm sorry June. I didn't mean to-"

The human woman stopped her, rubbing the area above her right temple wearily. "Explanations can come later. The important thing right now is that I get him home so he can get some rest." She started wheeling the gurney over to where her car sat parked next to the ground bridge, the motion stirring Jack from his slumber just enough so he could blearily help take some of his own weight off his mother's shoulders as she helped him into the passenger seat. Once settled, he took one last weary look up at Arcee, but seemed to be at a loss for anything to say before the door sealed shut behind him.

"Keep us posted?" Arcee asked anxiously looking down at the two. June paused in consideration on her way around to the driver's side before finally nodding briefly in acknowledgment. Without another word, she got behind the wheel and departed through the ground bridge.

A collective weight lifted from the room as the ground bridge closed with a slight sucking noise. "Now that that's taken care of..." Ratchet turned to the slightly depressed looking Arcee, preparing for a more thorough examination of her injuries. "I tried to contact both of you several times. What happened?"

Arcee turned her helm so the doctor could better examine the gouge on the side of her head. "Airachnid disabled my comlink system before I could call for backup. She caught me off guard."
"And Starscream? Couldn't he have called for backup?" Ratchet prodded. Arcee merely shook her head that she didn't know and looked over to where the seeker had been quietly sitting off to the side before June came. The medic followed her gaze, honestly having forgotten that Starscream was even there, but saw that the seeker had somehow managed to slip out of the room during all the commotion.

---

Starscream slunk into his quarters, carefully sliding the door shut behind him as if trying to avoid stirring someone from recharge. Once inside the room he leaned his back against the door with a long exhale and squeezed his optics tightly shut. The fact that he was able to flatten his wings to either side again hardy even registered as his processor turned over the events of the past few hours. To say they were upsetting him wouldn't be completely accurate, more like troubling.

Airachnid and Breakdown showing up was no doubt a result of his presence among the Autobots; that much he could not deny. But the matter still stood to question, how much was he at fault? Surely the Autobots would not hold him accountable for the assaults of Arcee and her human pet. Even when Bulkhead had suggested that he might have had something to do with it, she had stepped in on his behalf. His expression softened a bit, taking solace in that fact before remembering how close Airachnid had come to off-lining the two of them.

Slag. Starscream pushed himself away from the sealed door and began to pace. I should have headed back sooner, he thought to himself. Sure, neither Arcee nor her human were mortally wounded but... No! What am I even thinking? Why should I even care about what happens to a tiny fleshling? The only reason I saved him was to stay in the good graces of the Autobots. Of course mauling Miss 'Second in Command' is always a bonus. Starscream smiled to himself at the thought of Airachnid returning to the nemesis damaged and having failed her mission. Megatron would not be pleased.

The human boy really did posses a certain amount of resilience though. He honestly hadn't expected a soft-shelled being to be able to withstand that amount of torture at the hands of a Decepticon. Although, Airachnid was well known for her ability to prolong her prey's life-span, unlike so many other extortionists. An unexpected sensation of guilt returned in the back of his mind at the thought of both Arcee and her human being tormented for who know how long before he even realized there was trouble. And all for the trifling reason of divining his allegiance. Plus, now that Megatron knows that I defended an Autobot, he'll have little reason to believe me if I ever admit to wanting back on the Nemesis.

Starscream paused a moment, struck by the surfacing realization of what had been there all along. A part of him did want to go back to the way things were with the Decepticons. Back when he had a semblance of respect. When he had power. He could put up with the ridicule, the beatings, and what he wouldn't give for status quo. At least he knew where he stood with the Decepticons.

He stopped pacing a moment and stared at the ground. What even was status quo at this point? The Autobots had taken him in, despite his countless misdeeds against them. They had given him his wings back in an absolute act of trust. Arcee said it herself; he was free to go at that point. At any moment during his flight he could have contacted the Nemesis if he so chose. Or he could have chosen to fly off to some remote corner of this world and gone into hiding until another opportunity presented itself. In the end though, he was also invited to remain at the Autobots' side, perhaps with the opportunity to become more than just an enemy under probation.

The seeker sat heavily on his berth. There was just so much he wasn't sure of anymore. In the end, today only proved one thing for certain; something he hadn't considered even when his thoughts strayed back to his previous comrades.

Megatron wants me back.