Stolen Virtue

Author’s Note: “Bjorking” is pronounced “biyorking.” You’ll come up against it later. It was invented in my plumbing class on a boring, rainy day. Other than that, don’t ask. You really don’t want to know. =^_^=

Part Four: Life Returned

Optimus crept as quietly down the hall as he could. Megatron was already at the door, face slightly shocked. Optimus looked through the crack into the room, and then blinked. No wonder why Megatron was silent. Dinobot was awake, sitting up, cradling a sleeping Sinead. He was just watching her face as she breathed deeply in her slumber.

Not one scar lined his frame.

The humans all gathered around the two leaders, waiting for some sort of signal to tell them if Sinead and Dinobot were still living. After all, all the other young women had survived.

Finally, Megatron sighed, and looked down at the floor, rubbing at his forehead. The humans started to stiffen with fear. The Predacon knocked on the door, then growled, “Are you slagging done studying Sinead’s face? It’s getting embarrassing.”

Yells and cheers broke out. Dinobot managed to roar out over the ruckus, “You slagging woke her up!”

Miss Special ran into the room, and grinned. “Have fun last night?”

Sinead was rubbing at her eyes sleepily. Her voice was hoarse. “You wouldn’t believe it if I told you.”

“No, we believe it. See, when you bond to a Cybertronian, you can’t be killed in battle while one partner is safe and healthy somewhere else. Or if they’re even just alive.”

The short-haired author blinked. “What.”

“Inferno’s cute, once you get used to him.”

Sinead only blinked at her. “Who else bonded last night?”

Starath blushed, and called out, “We have to find Dannn, Skyfire, and Sharpshot some girls! The rest of us are taken!”

“Oh, that’s gonna be something of a battle all in itself. Wait! Wooo! I’ve always wanted to set someone up on a blind date!”

Dinobot looked at his completely healed body while Sinead went to his room to get spare armor. He, after all, had nearly died in horror when Rattrap was feeling “free” one day before the Quantum Surge. Indecent exposure just wasn’t on Dinobot’s “to-do” list.

He closed his eyes and felt for the memories of his torture. As expected, they came to mind, but . . . he was able to think about them rationally now, not curl up and want to die. Even . . . even when he had been violated, he could look back upon it without panicking. Sinead had taken the fear and the pain away. Just by holding him in what could have been his last hour, she saved his life literally by her love alone. And a certain sadness around her eyes had left her, replaced by a laughing joy.

Smiling, he looked at his hands, and then swung his legs off of the bed, to just sit with the sheets draped over his lap. Every new sensation that came his way this morning felt so pure . . . so new. The feel of the air brushing lightly though a vent, the soft smell of Sinead’s hair as she was asleep, the sight of . . . “That slagging sheet is moving now.”

Wrapping the blankets around his shoulders, he walked over to the window and tore the improvised curtain down. Sinead found him just looking out the window. Rattrap was with her again, helping her with the second box of armor. At first, she thought that she wouldn’t have been able to carry even the smaller one, but she did so, and easily. So she picked up the larger box and walked with it. Rattrap had laughed at her surprised face, and explained that her strength had been augmented by the fact that she was partially Cybertronian now. If she was lucky, Rattrap had also said, she might have robot and beast modes. He had started to say something else after that, an evil smirk on his face, but Sinead slapped him and started walking back to Dinobot, grinning at the fact that her hand didn’t even sting at the sudden sensation of coming in sharp contact with Rattrap’s cheek.

Dinobot turned to blink at the two as they entered. “Oh.”

Sinead laughed, then set the box down. “That’s all. I carry in something that weighs almost twice as much as I do, and all you say is ‘oh.’ Yeah, that’s my thanks!”

The Maximal laughed freely, almost shocking Rattrap. The rodent knew that it had been Sinead’s doing. The human was smiling as well. He set the smaller box down upon the floor. “Yo, ah, I’m gonna leave you two be. I got my girl ta get back to.”

Dinobot freed one arm to pull Sinead into an embrace. “By all means, leave.”

They made faces at each other, and Rattrap closed the door. Sinead laughed harder, Rattrap heard, as he walked down the hall, and nearly ran straight into Tarantulus. “Hey, ain’t ’ya . . .”

Scars laced over the spider’s face.

Activating his comm-link, Rattrap screamed, “INTRUDER!!!”

Before he could say anything more, the spider pinned him up against a wall and would have bitten him had a hand not grabbed him and pushed him up against the opposite wall. The tip of something very sharp grazed his back. A voice he had never expected to hear again hissed evilly, “Move and you’ll wish that you had never been brought online.”

Dinobot.

The warrior was barely armored, but armored enough to be modest. An unscarred Megatron, as well as most of the Predacons and Maximals, came running into the corridor. The humans were not far behind. Rattrap rose to his feet with a slight bit of pain, and Sapphire was instantly beside him. Megatron looked to one of his warriors, then nodded. He looked back at the Maximal warrior and said, “Dinobot, allow Rampage to take care of Tarantulus, yes.”

Dinobot’s head snapped to look at the Predacon, optics glaring out from under black, black hair. He looked to the unscarred Rampage, who walked forward and gripped the spider carefully yet fiercely. Dinobot released Tarantulus and backed off slightly so that he could look into the intruder’s face. Astonishment, fear, hate . . . everything evil was portrayed in that face. He shifted his gaze to the other-universe Tarantulus, the unscarred one. Sure, it was still corrupted, but underneath all that was a genuine wish to do something memorable, something . . . something not so evil.

Without saying anything to either spider, Dinobot walked back into the sickbay, pausing only once to say to Megatron, “Once he is disposed of, I want to talk to you.”

Megatron nodded once, and the humans all walked into the sickbay after Sinead and Dinobot. Rattrap and Optimus followed as well. Dinobot sat upon Sinead’s soft bed, and rested his head in his hands. Sinead sat beside him and leaned against his side. She felt his silent growls as vibrations throughout his entire body. Finally, she stood to kiss his nose. “Tell me what you’re running over and over in your mind.”

“Who else will that tyrant send after me?”

“Whoever’s left,” Sharpshot said faintly. “Whoever can be ordered to go.”

Dinobot looked up at the boy he had not yet met, then sighed. “Sinead, I don’t know all of your companions.”

“Oh! Sorry. That one’s Sharpshot, that’s Lady Venom, you know Miss Special, and that’s Nurannoniel. You’ve met the rest at one time or another.”

With a sigh, Dinobot nodded. “Yes, I have, haven’t I. Hngh . . . slag it all.”

Starath blinked, then asked, “What’s wrong?”

“I do not wish to see who else may try to kill me. I do not want to see their faces–”

A scream split the air, but cut off abruptly. Nurannoniel shuddered, and Optimus started to move towards her when he saw Sinead wrap arms around the slightly-younger warrior. “Nurann, it is what had to be done. I know that you were watching the monitors at least once, and I know that you saw some of Dinobot’s wounds. I have the feeling that you also sat watch in here during the night a few times.”

Nurannoniel nodded, face hidden against Sinead’s shoulder.

“So you saw part of the torture. Tarantulus did worse than what you saw, and I’ll leave it at that. Whatever Rampage did, the spider deserved ten times over.”

There was a knock, and Megatron’s voice accompanied it, saying, “Ah, Dinobot?”

The velociraptor Transformer snarled irritably. “What.”

Megatron entered. “Tarantulus, ahem . . .”

“Dead?”

“Not quite. He threw himself over the waterfall. Rampage still senses life in him.”

Rattrap swore, then rubbed between his optics. “So what happens now?”

“Rampage also went over the waterfall for him,” Megatron replied, “and is now searching. Inferno is keeping watch from the air.”

Dinobot nodded. “So be it. If he is killed–”

Megatron’s comm-link crackled to life. “Rampage to Megatron.”

“Ah. Yes?”

“Found him.”

“And?”

“He’s dead. Took care of that just now.”

Megatron left the room, and walked down the hall until he was sure that the others wouldn’t listen in. “Method?”

“I crushed his Spark.”

“You didn’t ingest it?”

“Hmph, no. My Lady supplies what I look for in devouring a Spark. I have no need, no hunger, for that anymore.”

Megatron smiled at the possessive way Rampage spoke about Lady Venom. “Very well.”

“What do I do with the body?”

“Dispose of it in whatever way you feel fit.”

There was an evil chuckle. “I’ll see that it’s delivered to their doorstep, then. Rampage out.”

When Megatron returned to the sickbay, only Sinead, Dinobot, Starath, and Lady Venom were there. Dinobot looked at the Predacon. “Well?”

“Spark was crushed, and the body is being brought to the Predacon base as we speak.”

“A warning.”

Megatron smirked. “In a way.” The smirk disappeared. “Likely as not, however, the other Megatron will not care for the warning. He’ll disregard it, and send another.”

Dinobot stood, and started piecing the armor upon himself again. “Then we’d better be ready.”

Sinead watched Sapphire’s movements carefully later that morning. There! The shorter female blocked the move lightning-fast, and then struck, which was also blocked. A series of moves, too fast for the boys to see, followed until there was a scuffle. Sapphire landed on top of Sinead, her knee pinning her to the ground. Rattrap held Dinobot’s elbow, keeping the tall bot from entering the duel. Sinead walk laughing. “That was great!”

Sapphire helped her up, and then looked over her shoulder at Rattrap. “Thanks!”

Dinobot looked into Sinead’s eyes, and saw that nothing serious was meant by the duel. It was a test for both of them. Sapphire nudged Sinead’s side. “You tripped on that rock.”

“Yeah . . .”

“Wanna go again?”

Dinobot sighed in exasperation as the two warriors squared off and circled slowly. “Will this never end?”

Starath laughed beside him. “They both have a higher sense of balance, speed, strength, and almost everything else. Why deny them the wish to see how far they can go?”

He looked down at the human curiously, then smiled, and nodded. “Understandable.” Looking back at the two authors exchanging blows, he asked, “I only wish that neither of them would accidently hurt the other.”

Rattrap was grinning behind Dinobot’s back so only Starath would see. She nodded and the Transmetal barreled into Dinobot, sending them into a wrestling match. And then Dinobot truly understood why Sinead was pushing herself. His own speed was unbelievable! Strength and dexterity were heightened as well, but . . . Rattrap had technique. He knew what moves Dinobot was about to make. But Dinobot knew something as well. With a deft twist, he pinned Rattrap to the ground, just as Sinead was pulling a tripping move upon Sapphire. Both Rattrap and Sapphire went down, and dust rose. All four were panting, but grinning. Starath whistled. “Winners!”

Rattrap let himself be helped to his feet, then said, “Man! I didn’t know you knew somethin’ like dat!”

Dinobot grinned. “Human martial arts. I learned how to fight unarmed before I was allowed to hold a sword.”

Sapphire launched herself onto Rattrap’s back, then kissed his cheek. “Any other wounds I can kiss other than your bruised pride and ego?”

“Oh, dat was cute, Sapph. Real cute. I’m gonna go an’ sulk now.”

“Just as long as I’m with you!”

Rattrap smiled.

Two pink optics watched Dinobot and Sinead in Dinobot’s room. It was mid-afternoon. Sinead was sitting between Dinobot’s knees and watching his face, just as the ex-Predacon was watching Sinead’s own face. They smiled at the same time, and the human leapt into his arms, knocking him onto his back. “You’re too cute, sometimes.”

“I’m cute?! Slag, that doesn’t fit, somehow.”

Sinead laughed, and sighed, then traced Dinobot’s brow, before removing the helmet and playing with his medium-length hair. “Can I call you ruggedly handsome?”

“If you ask nicely, I’ll consider it.”

“Gee, thanks.”

Sinead blinked, smiled, and then kissed his nose. The Predacon swept into the room, shooting at the two. He hit each squarely between the eyes, but . . . the shots passed right them.

The hologram wavered, then fizzled out.

The sounds of guns being primed caused Megatron to turn. Sinead and Dinobot were surrounded by their comrades. Sinead grinned. “And here I was, thinking that he wouldn’t fall for it. Dinobot, you won that bet.”

“Wonderful,” Dinobot growled. “So, Megatron, what do you think that your troops will do when you’re killed?”

“Hah! You wouldn’t, no. I can still see that you’re full of your fear for me, Dinobot, yess. Your optics are more expressive than usual,” the scarred leader sneered.

Dinobot grinned. “I’m learning how to show my emotions. I have a wonderful teacher.”

The unscarred Megatron was trembling with rage. With a growl of frustration, he roared out, “He’s mine and mine alone!”

Sinead glanced over her shoulder to look up at the unscarred face. Reading it partially, she looked at Starath, who also looked down from her Megatron’s face. The strawberry-blonde girl nodded once. Sinead faced completely forwards again. “Maybe we should let him, Dinobot.”

“He could be killed,” Dinobot said levelly.

“War is war. Besides. He has something that the other Megatron doesn’t.”

“Technique? Refinement? Hah! Oh, I see what you are getting at! It’s that, isn’t it,” Dinobot snickered, a bit of his old, tormenting self seeping though.

His anger was rising, and Sinead knew that she had to get this done quickly. She nodded. “Correct. Get outside, Megs.” She guided the Maximals, scattered Predacons and humans back into the hallway, so that the two Megatrons would be able to get outside quickly. “Move. That way. Now.”

“And if I refuse?”

Skyfire aimed twin rifles at his stomach and mid-chest. “Then you deal with buckshot ripping though your torso before you and the other Megs duel. Get. Moving.”

The scarred Megatron walked out the door, sneered at Dinobot, then walked towards the open side of the hallway. The unscarred Megatron followed him, heavy footsteps announcing his rage.

When they passed the sickbay, Sinead roughly shoved Dinobot in and closed the door after them. The others continued on, pretending that they didn’t notice.

Lady Venom knew that Dinobot would have been liable to lose it; he was still experiencing some stress from his torture. She and her Rampage guarded the door after a small glance.

Sinead held Dinobot’s wrists, glaring into his optics. He was glaring back, panting as if he had run leagues. Sinead’ grip tightened further, and she hissed quietly, “Come back to me, Dinobot. Lose that rage, and come back to me.”

The wild look in the warrior’s optics didn’t diminish. With a swift movement, Sinead unbalanced Dinobot, knocked the sword from his hand, and sat on his chest, pinning his arms to the floor. The impact had driven the breath from his body and shocked him all in one go. He blinked a few times, then saw Sinead’s glare. His face melted, and he sighed. Sinead gently let go of him, then hung her head. “Sorry that I knocked you over. It was the only way that I’d get you back.”

Dinobot reached up to rest his hands upon her shoulders. His optics were dark with not only worry, but with apology. “I know. I’m sorry. Sometimes . . . sometimes it’s hard to control my temper. I wish that it wasn’t.”

Nodding, Sinead helped Dinobot up. They walked to the window and looked out, seeing a scarred and bleeding Megatron turn to shoot at the unscarred Megatron, who had received a few blows himself. Sinead and Dinobot noticed two more were watching over their shoulders. Lady Venom and Rampage. They were all silent, as the two tyrants circled. With a roar, the scarred one lashed out with his tail-gun, catching the unscarred one’s midsection. That Megatron gripped the arm, to pull it towards him as he aimed a kick at the scarred Megatron’s lower stomach. Foot collided with groin, and that Megatron went down with a groan. A few more moves later, neither of the scarred Megatron’s arms were there. Sinead had stopped looking, turning her face into Dinobot’s torso.

Then it was over.

Lady Venom shuddered, and saw the bleeding but unscarred Megatron rip the Spark from the scarred Megatron’s body and crush it with a roar that was audible to even them. Sinead shuddered again, then clutched at Dinobot’s sides. Rampage pulled the curtain. His shoulders sagged when he saw the auburn-haired young woman’s appearance. “You’ve never seen war, before, have you, Sinead.”

Her head shook back and forth a few times, slowly. Dinobot sighed and picked her up, holding her close. “You didn’t have to watch as long as you did, you know.”

“No, Dinobot, I did. I saw what his hands had done to you, and I saw what he had done to your mind. I had to watch.”

“I’m glad that you turned away when you did, though.”

“So’m I.”

Lady Venom sighed, and rubbed at Sinead’s back. “Hey, you want anything to drink? Water?”

“Yeah.” Sinead sniffled, then reached down to grasp Lady Venom’s outstretch hand. “Thank you.”

“Hey, anytime. I’m going hunting with Rampage, Miss Special, and Inferno in about a half hour. We’ll grab you something, even if you still don’t feel like eating it. Someone else will.”

She aimed a subtle glare at Rampage, who blinked at her innocently. “What?! Like I have a choice over how much I have to consume, my Lady?”

“No. But you could at least stop complaining. ‘I’m hungry! Feed me!’ Honestly!”

Sinead chuckled, and said, “I might be able to eat when you guys come back. Thanks.”

Rampage opened the door for Lady Venom, then closed it after her. “She looks like she was about to . . . what do you say? When the stomach contents are brought back up.”

“Puking, throwing up, ralphing, yarfing, bjorking–”

“Right. So, water for her first, then hunting?”

“Yeah. Frankly, I’m surprised I could watch that.”

Rampage seemed fidgety. “That’s because of who you bonded with. I’ve been around violence all my life, and have caused more than half of it. I’m used to worse sights than that. Obviously, Dinobot has been in battle situations for only a short while in comparison to me. Maybe a third of his life was dedicated to war-craft and such.”

“Oh.” She grabbed a water bottle, then went out the front of the Axalon to lower it down into the well Rampage and Tarantulus had worked on the entire day before, for lack of something else to do. The water came up clean and fresh. Sapphire and Rattrap were on the other side of the freshly-dug spring, each staring off into space. Lady Venom crouched next to Sapphire, who had an empty water-bottle in her hands. The British-South African young woman looked up slowly at Lady Venom, who whispered, “Did you want me to refill that?”

“Please?”

Taking the bottle from Sapphire, Lady Venom replaced it with the full one. “Is Miss Special doing okay?”

“Yeah . . . she’s fine. Didn’t puke, like most of us.”

“Starath included?”

“Starath included. Is Sinead okay?”

“She’s probably yarfing right about now. Knowing how she likes to protect us, she probably held it down until me and Rampy were out of the room.” Lady Venom smiled sadly. “She really looked horrible. I had to get out so that she and Dinobot could at least deal with seeing that.”

“Did she see everythin’?” Rattrap asked quietly.

“No. She turned away just after Megs got his arms ripped off.”

Sapphire swore, against her nature, and rushed back to the edge of the gorge. Rattrap held onto her belt, making sure that she didn’t fall. Lady Venom sighed, and rubbed at her forehead, refilling the other water bottle. “I shouldn’t have said that.”

The other girl coughed, spat, and rinsed her mouth out with the water. “It isn’t your fault, Lady V. Honest.”

Rattrap helped Sapphire back to sitting by the well, embracing her carefully. Lady Venom rubbed at Sapphire’s hair for a moment, then whispered, “I’ll be out with Miss Spesh an’ Ferny. We’ll have food when we get back.”

“When’ll that be?” Sapphire asked.

“Two hours? We have a lot of hunting to do.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

“Anytime.” Lady Venom looked at Rampage, then sighed. “I gotta go get this to Sinead. She’ll be looking for water.”

“Here’s another empty bottle,” Sapphire said, holding it out while drinking from the nearly-full one.

Lady Venom rinsed it, filled it, and smiled her thanks before walking back into the base.

Miss Special looked at Lady Venom, a half-hour later. “Everything goin’ all right with Sinead and Dinobot?”

“Yeah. She’s completely nauseous right now, though. I asked Rhinox, and he looked up that case where both the human and Cybertronian were injured, but bonded . . . ? Yeah, the girl was sick to her stomach for two days after a small delay period. So it wasn’t just the fight that set her off.”

“Ooh, not good.”

“Well, Dinobot’s learning how to be gentle by this. He’s so worried about her. It’s really cute.”

Miss Special laughed. “Yeah, I’ll not tease them about it. I get the subtle hinting.”

Inferno blinked. “Why would you tease?”

The pyromaniacal human smiled up at him, then shrugged. “Usually when a girl finds a guy who gets really worried about her health and won’t leave her side when she’s sick, friends either tease about it or think that it’s the cutest thing.”

“Oh.”

“Kinda like how you spazzed out when I tripped and skinned my knee this morning, and Starath was saying how cute that was.”

Inferno nodded, smiled, and said, “I have to protect you. You are the–”

“You say ‘queen’ and you’ll sleep on the floor,” Miss Special cut in.

Inferno laughed. It wasn’t the insane laugh that it had been before. When he and Miss Special had bonded, programming that had been supposedly deleted had been accessed. His mind was whole again. He was still trying to explore all those connections, which made him not only thoughtful but sharper than ever. He smiled as kindly as he could. “No, I understand that there is no need to try to place a title upon what kind of commander you are. When it comes to me, you’re not a commander, or any more of a commander than I am. You’re my equal; my Bonded.”

“You’re a sap.”

Inferno, Lady Venom and Rampage all got a chuckle out of that. They quieted, though, as soon as they reached a clearing. Three deer were there. Two does and a buck. Lady Venom indicated the buck. In a flurry of movement, Miss Special fired and reloaded, watching for any more movement. Two rabbits soon fell and the girl stopped firing. Piling the three carcasses together, Rampage asked, “Will this be enough?”

Miss Special ticked off the people in her head. “Nah. We’ll need another deer. But let’s at least skin these puppies and prepare them here. The others are still too sick to see stuff like this right now.”

Lady Venom looked at Miss Special. “I’ve been meaning to ask you: Why aren’t you sick?”

The other young woman shrugged. “Inferno’s been through Hell, I guess. Something almost like what happened to Rampage, but there was fire. A lot of fire.”

Inferno nodded. “That’s the main reason for my obsession with fire. It was my birth, in a sense.”

Rampage yawned. “Yeah, enough of the philosophical slag. Who gets the deerskin this time?”

“Sapphire?” Lady Venom asked.

“Dinobot,” said Miss Special.

“Sinead and Dinobot!”

“Doesn’t Rattrap already have a deerskin that he shares with Sapphire?” Rampage asked.

“Everyone but Sinead has one,” Lady Venom replied. “She insisted that they get one before her since she had a wool blanket.”

“Then where is it?”

“When we started our fires at night, she used to rip strips off of the bottom of the blanket so that we had something dry to start the fire with. She should still have it, somewhere.”

“I think Starath stole it to hem it, actually,” Miss Special cut in.

“Or Sapphire.”

Inferno sighed. “Then this goes to Sinead. Rabbit-skins?”

“Nurann. She’s been bored lately. Needs something to make. I heard she’s starting a rabbit-skin blanket.”

“Right. Who’s skinning the small ones?”

“Me, hand it over. Lady V, you get the deer this time.”

“Yes!”

“Ick.”

“Ah-hahahahaha!”

“Rampage, you’re rubbing off on her a bit too much there, pal.”

“Me?! Slag, no! This is how she’s been all along!”

“. . .”