Stolen Virtue

By: Sinead

Edited January 25, 2005: I didn’t quite like the direction this would have taken on, had I continued with it. So what I’ve done was edit a few places and send it skittering in a new, fresher direction. One that will hopefully let me complete this beautiful tear-jerker. And I also added another part (this one) in between Part Seven and the original Part Eight, bumping Parts Eight and Nine up to Parts Nine and Ten, replacing Eight with this small part, which explains a bit more about the Beast Warriors settling in. Oh, and my mother’s name? Hah. Like that’s really it. Her name is known widely by those whom she knows, and would not wish for me to spread it around. And I so have her permission to use her in my story, and so you have to ask special permission from me! HAH! (End of Rant)

Part Eight: Finding Family

            “So I heard dat you an’ a certain Pred ’re thinin’ o’ becomin’ closer.”

            “That is none of your business, Rattrap,” the Maximal Silverbolt replied evenly, not stopping his pace in chopping wood for the bonfire that they had all wanted to do that night.

            “Really. Considerin’ dat da two o’ ’ya have da approval of da two leaders and deir Bonded, I’d say dat it’s kinda strange dat you two haven’t just come out an’ said sumthin’ ’bout it yet.”

            “Rattrap, it isn’t any of your business.”

            “I’d say dat it’s cute, but I ain’t one fer Preds, ’ya know?” Rattrap continued, leaning upon the long-handled maul. “But since we’re all attracted ta different thin’s an’ all, it doesn’t matter, really.”

            Neither noticed the human who had walked up the driveway, watching them in clear disbelief, but said nothing, and made no sudden movements either towards them or away.

            Silverbolt glared at Rattrap. “What happens between myself and Blackarachnia is none of your business.”

            “Yeah, I know, but ’ya gotta remember dat we’re all kinda stuck here together f’r a while, an’ da second cottage ain’t nowhere near done, so we have ta deal wi’ each other. So all I wanna know is if you an’ her have hooked up yet.”

            “You’re stepping too far, Rodent.”

            “Will you two slagging knock it off?!” Dinobot roared, turning the corner of the house and seeing them look towards him. And he also saw the human in the driveway.

            “Wow, you got them to stop?” Sinead asked, looking around his side. Her face lit up, and she ran over to the human, laughing. “Mom! What are you doing here?”

            They embraced, but her mother looked at the three Cybertronians. “They’re real?”

            Dinobot had frozen stiff, as had the two others. Sinead chuckled at their expressions of “oh, crap I’ve screwed up again,” and replied, “Yeah. Come on, you have to see what we’re doing so far.”

            “Another cottage,” her mother replied.

            “How’d you know?”

            “Rattrap let it slip.”

            “Figures. You always ruin surprises!” Sinead said to the Transmetal, laughing. She looked over the amount of wood, then nodded. “That looks like it should be enough. Rattrap, could you tell Sapph that my mom’s here, and that we’re taking a walk with Dinobot?”

            With a nod, he and Silverbolt fled the scene surprisingly fast, leaving Dinobot alone with Sinead and her mother. He cleared his throat nervously, but Sinead smiled reassuringly up at him, turning back towards the road, where they could take a good walk along. With that as a sort of signal, he turned human and watched the two interact. Sinead spoke first. “All right, Mom, there’s something that you have to know.”

            “How he turned human like that?”

            “Well, that’s part of it. But remember how I had to break off that relationship that I had been in?”

            “Yeah,” she replied, nodding. “He was a nice kid, and you wouldn’t even tell me why.”

            Sinead indicated Dinobot, who was following them as they walked back up the driveway. “Him. I told you that I had some strange dreams one night, remember?”

            “And the next day you broke up with your boyfriend.”

            Dinobot sighed, then asked, “Why didn’t you tell me that you were in a realtionship? You never said anything, not even to the other humans!”

            “Of course not. They would tell someone, who would tell you. And I didn’t want you to have any more excuses than you already did,” Sinead replied. “Besides, it wasn’t a nice relationship. He wasn’t all that interesting. Sure, he was a nice guy and all, but all he wanted in life was to be an accountant and make money, then with his spare time he wanted to collect toy boats and . . . well, he didn’t want a family, and you know me to know that I’d love to have kids sometime, but . . .” she grumbled something that didn’t sound either flattering or too nasty, and said, “so all he wanted to  marry was a trophy wife who had no aspirations of her own.”

            The mother smirked at that, then asked, “So what has that dream to do with anything?”

            “It wasn’t a dream,” Sinead replied softly, pulling her t-shirt over her head to reveal her bathing suit on underneath, showing her mother the two scars.

            “Where did you get these.”

            “In that so-called dream. Like I said, it wasn’t a dream. Not in the least was it a mere dream.”

            Mother and daughter looked at each other steadily, until Sinead put the shirt back on and started explaining the adventure she and the others had shared from the beginning up until that very morning. By the time she had finished and all of her mother’s questions were answered, they were sitting on a sun-warmed rock, it was dusk, and the smell of wood-smoke was drifting over to them. After one final sigh, Sinead’s Mum looked to Dinobot. “So you and my daughter are married in your own way, eh?”

            He nodded.

            “And?”

            After a blink, he asked, “What is it?”

            Sinead chuckled, seeing what her mother was getting at. “No, we’ve been good, and haven’t even gone there. We’ve agreed not to . . . ah, ‘have fun’ until we’re married by human standards.”

            Dinobot snickered semi-evilly at her wording, then settled into a smile, looking at Sinead’s mother . . . his mother-in-law. “Her first concern that she had told me about was that, wondering if we absolutely had to consummate the Bonding.”

            “Oh? That so?” the mother asked through a chuckle. “And your answer was no, I take it?”

            Dinobot shrugged, reaching over to tug on his Bonded’s hair lightly. “It’s all a matter of what the pair are comfortable with, and it belongs entirely up to them, and them alone.”

            “Good reasoning. And that sounds rehearsed, so you have had people ask you if the two of you had done anything since that date.”

            “Rattrap,” the pair chorused. Sinead chuckled, and added, “But we’ve convinced everyone that there was a possibility of that going on between us, even though most of the authors know me well enough that there hasn’t been anything. So it’s a continuing argument between a few, which is always amusing.”

            Dinobot stood, then helped Sinead and her mother stand. “I think that they’ve started roasting something. I can smell it all the way over here, and I haven’t eaten since lunch.”

            “Oh, wow, you’ve lasted that long?” Sinead asked, the growl of her stomach echoing her words.

            “You haven’t.”

            “Hush, you!”

            He made a face at her, to which she replied with one of her own, then looked at her mother. “Come on, everyone will be glad to know that you know. They were worried at first, what I would tell you and how you would take it, since they know how close you and I are.”

            “That so?” she replied, smiling. “Well, better tell them now than later that I approve of you two.” Looking up at Dinobot, she added, “And that I approve of you. And I’d have to say that I’m proud of my daughter for what she did for you. So I think that I can get used to you.”

            Dinobot accepted the not-so-hidden praise, then heard Sinead ask, “Can he call you ‘Mum’ like the rest of my friends from school do?”

            A chuckle caused Dinobot to look at the mother from the corner of his eye as he led them back. “Sure, but only if he wants to.”

            The young man smiled, replying, “Thank you.”

            They walked around the corner of the first cottage, and Sinead’s mum saw for a split-second Megatron, Rampage, Silverbolt, Blackarachnia, Rhinox, and Inferno as she had seen them upon her daughter’s DVD collection. She knew their faces and voices, and to see them as they were, and then only so shift quickly, watching her with ready wariness upon their faces . . . well, she chuckled well and hard for a moment before saying, “Oh, knock it off. I’m not blind nor stupid. And I know my daughter well enough that I know what her favorite hobbies are. So you can rest assured that I’ll keep your secret.”

            “Good!” Dannn said, laughing and standing to give the mother his seat. “And can I get on your good side so that you can stop your daughter from hurting me even though I might need it?”

            Sinead snorted. “Not likely.”

            “Sit back where you were,” her mother laughed, shaking her head.

            “So what do we call you?” Rhinox asked candidly, shoving Dannn back into a sitting position and leaning lightly upon his shoulder in play, causing Dannn to glare up at the dark-skinned man and pout.

            “Meara. Miss Meara, if you will, for you boys who have to learn manners and tact!” At their laughter and the laughter from the other males, she smiled at the girls. “Or Auntie Meara.”

            “Aw, how come we can’t call you ‘Auntie’?” Cheetor whined.

            With one leg, Optimus indulged in the imp of the perverse, upending the stool the younger boy had been sitting upon, landing him in the dirt and looking up at his leader with a bit of confusion on his face. Said leader looked down at him almost as if surprised that Cheetor hadn’t simply stood when he felt the stool shift under him. “Because you can learn a lot from Miss Meara. And because most of the girls know her and have met her.”

            “Hey, we have too,” Skyfire replied.

            “Yeah, and I’m from England, so why can’t we find some familial relations?” Sharpshot entreated, turning puppy-eyes to the older Irishwoman.

            “Because ye be a young scalawag and never ye forget it!” Meara replied, fists on hips and replying in her native brogue.

            “Yes! I’m a scalawag!”

            Sinead snorted and shook her head, playing along with the Irish brogue bit. “Mum, ’e’ll never let ye live callin’ ’im a scalawag daown. It’s in ’is nat’re t’ be both annoyin’ an’ t’ be an imp.”

            “You can speak in brogue?” Dinobot asked.

            The author chuckled. “Yep. It’s in me blood.” Her stomach growled again, this time louder. “Well, er . . . yeah. So. Where’s the food?”

            “Was it just me, or was Rhinox watching your mother a bit too closely?” Optimus murmured in Sinead’s ear later that night. Her mother was staying with them for a few days, and was given the best cot that they had to sleep in the living room in. She was currently setting that up while Rhinox was looking over the plans for the second cottage again, which just so happened to be in the kitchen, which opened up into the living-room.

            Sinead looked up at the Maximal. “No, I noticed that too.”

            “Would she have?”

            “Most definitely. I’ll ask her, you ask him.”

            “Sinead, you saw him watching me.”

            “Yeah, Mum, I think he likes you.”

            “Somehow, I knew you saw that, too. Does he know that you know?”

            “Probably. Optimus is most likely cornering him and asking him questions like what I was going to ask you right now.”

            “Questions?”

            “Yeah, like if you noticed it, and if you did, what are you thinking we should do . . . ?”

            “Do? You do nothing.”

            “Well, I know him, so I thought that I could see if there was anything that I could do to help. Nothing more.”

            “Help what?”

            “Whatever you wanted done.”

            Meara sighed, and looked up at the stars. “This is a truly beautiful clearing. How did you find this, again?”

            “Oh,” Sinead said, chuckling. She knew her mother was working the current situation around in her head while she asked other questions. “Well, me and Dinobot were bored, and we wanted just time to ourselves, not around the others. You know how stressful that could get. So we wandered out here around sunset one night, and then watched the stars come out.”

            “And did nothing.”

            “So we kissed. C’mon, Mum, you know that I can hardly resist him. He’s really, really cute when he gets all sappy and in that kind of mood that says that all he wants is to hug me.”

            “You’d better be able to resist some of his attention.”

            “Oh, seriously, now. Both of us don’t want any accidents, and neither of us want to screw up in any way, shape or form. I’m still keeping my vow to stay chaste until marriage.”

            “So has he asked you formally, yet?”

            “You mean with a ring? Mom, they’re only three, no, four days here. I doubt that he even knows about that custom. But we’re devoted to each other, literally connected by our souls, as you know.” She paused, then sighed. “I know that it wasn’t even a full marriage-Bonding, too, though. He really didn’t want me to risk my life for him. I don’t know why. I mean, he . . .” Sinead sighed. “There was one part that we didn’t tell you. I knew that he wouldn’t have been able to tell you. He told me that I can, though, if it came up.”

            “About what?” Meara asked.

            “He wasn’t just tortured. They had broken his spirit, and you had heard that. But it wasn’t by simple torture.” She averted her gaze up to the stars, watching them silently for a moment. “He had been raped. That was how he had been broken.”

            A sigh, and a noise of sad understanding came from her mother. “You’ve already helped him more than you know. He’s . . . he’s really . . .” The mother stopped, seeing her daughter’s face. “Oh, come here, you.”

            Sinead willingly surrendered to her mother’s arms, glad that she had finally been able to tell her, to prove to her . . . and that her tears of pain could be spent upon someone’s shoulder, someone who wasn’t Dinobot, and who wasn’t in the Wars, but who understood. Who understood her and knew the words that she couldn’t say, couldn’t even try to articulate.

            “Sinead, you’ve been holding that on your chest since you had, what, Bonded? Why didn’t you tell me before?”

            “You wouldn’t have believed me,” Sinead replied through her tears. “I wanted to tell you so badly, but . . . Mumma, I couldn’t. You would have thought that I wasn’t telling the truth.”

            “Among other things,” Meara said, sighing. “Oh, sweetheart, I’m sorry. I’m sorry that you had to hold this to yourself for so long, I’m sorry that you couldn’t tell me before now. And I’m most sorry that you had to hold to yourself the responsibility of bringing Dinobot back up to who he had been before. You’ve done so well with that. I never would have thought that he had gone through such pain.”

            “But it’s so hard sometimes . . .”

            “I know. It would be. Tell me?”

            The younger woman sniffed, then wiped her still-tearing eyes upon her sleeve. “We’ve been here for four days, them too, and he’s had two nightmares. Rattrap said that,” she sniffed again, “they’re not as frequent, but they’re still bad ones. This hadn’t happened since we Bonded. I wake up with him, since I can feel his mind and all . . . but . . .” She sighed. “It’s hard. I have to be happy for both of us, try to help him dull his temper–”

            “Oh, so his temper is as bad as it’s said to be?”

            Sinead gave a half-chuckle. “Worse, actually. He can be rather nasty when angry. I just have to remember what he’s angry about and then see if I can turn it around somehow, or knock the sense into him, sometimes literally.”

            “You . . . what.”

            “Knocked him over once. He hasn’t gotten that angry since.”

            “I should hope not.” After a deep sigh, Meara took her daughter’s hand in hers, and they looked back up at the stars. “Shin, you’ll be fine. You’re doing well enough with him.”

            “But ‘well enough’ doesn’t mean that I can’t try to get more settled with him.”

            “What?”

            “His mind, his thinking, how he works things out mentally . . . they’re still a fraction off of where they had been before he had done what he knew he had to do.”

            Meara sighed, then turned to look back at where she knew the cottage to be. “What’s Rhinox’s human name, again?”

            “Roark.”

            “Odd.”

            “Not really. It means strength.”

            “Oh. And Dinobot’s?”

            “Benjiro.”

            “Japanese, isn’t it? Huh. What’s it mean?”

            Sinead and her mother stared the first few steps back, after she had said, “Not many of the others know it, but it means ‘be in peace.’ He chose it yesterday, after everyone else had figured out their own names. He thinks like the Japanese, almost. He chose his name with the wish and want to grow into it.”

            “What are their last names?”

            “Dunno yet. We just wanted them to have something that we could call them by when we were in public.” A thought reoccurred to the author. “Oh.”

            “What is it?”

            “We still have to get them some more changes of clothing.”

            “Ah. Well. We’ll see what we can do about that.” Her wink was conspiratorial as they met Rhinox and Dinobot, both in their Cybertronian modes, just as they were in the main clearing for the original cottage. She looked up at the tall Maximal, smiled once, and continued the conversation that she had been having while they were walking out to the smaller clearing. “And so you’re thinking about transferring out here?”

            “Yeah, silly, I know, but I really like the area,” Sinead replied.

            “And the people.”

            Slipping her arm through Dinobot’s, she nodded. “Definitely the people.” She looked back at her mother, who was watching her. “What?”

            “Have you planned nothing about your wedding? I’m shocked.”

            “Oh, great,” Sinead grumbled, hearing her mother start in on a full-blown lecture while Rhinox and Dinobot either chuckled or laughed quietly at the playful banter that the mother and daughter shared. They talked long into the night.