Liberation Chapter 2

Again I do not own transformers or any of the IDW comic characters. Just Cadence

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She wasn't sure what to think of him, but she didn't have thoughts of suicide anymore in fact her mind had swayed in a hopeful direction. If he was telling the truth then at least she wasn’t going to be killed, but she had no intentions of staying trapped on a shelf in his room either. She was dying to see the sun, she had lost all track of time while in the decepticon’s clutches and the sun felt like a faint memory of hope to her. Bleak walls had filled her vision and numbed her brain, she needed to feel alive again. So she mustered up the courage to ask a small question.

“Can I go outside?”
Sideswipe’s smile immediately changed to a look of seriousness.

“No. it’s too dangerous.”

Her hopes sunk into a shallow state of depression. She couldn’t help but wonder if she had just gone from a holocaust to a concentration camp situation. She felt trapped. Sideswipe must have noticed her change in demeanor because his face went soft again.

“However I don’t mind if you wander around my quarters and make yourself comfortable. You don’t have to be confined to that shelf.”

At that he stood up and walked out of the room. She was happy that she had a bit more freedom, but she still wasn’t sure how to access that freedom without a way down from the shelf. Sideswipe made it clear that currently he had no intentions of harming her, but she couldn’t stay in his quarters forever. She would need to find basic amenities before too long. She couldn’t remember the last time she showered, or brushed her teeth for that matter……gross. Just as that thought crossed her mind Sideswipe returned with some strange items, and ratchet.

“Ok so I’m not exactly sure all the things your kind needs, but I heard water is kinda important. So I have this.”

He set down a large container on the shelf beside her. It was like the size of a small pool to her, and she watched as he filled it with water. She looked at him and then at the monster sized container next to her, and smirked.

“I hope you don’t plan on me drinking out of that. I’m a little more civilized then that.”
Sideswipe looked embarrassed, and that’s when ratchet stepped forward.

“He may have, but I thought these might be more your size. You can use that for washing up.”

He held out his hand towards her and revealed a stack of small cups in the center of his palm. She smiled warmly and he rolled them into her lap.

“I was also able to come up with this in my spare time.”

He hooked a small device to the pool, and she realized it was a spout of some sort.
“I’m drinking my bath water?”

“Sort of, this device will filter out anything that would be considered unsanitary for your kind.”

“Ummm ok I guess. Not ideal, but beggars can’t be choosers right?”

That’s when Sideswipe decided to interject.

“I was also able to put this together. It’s a small ladder so when you get your strength up you can climb down from there.”

He seemed oddly proud of something so simple, but she appreciated the gesture from him.

“Thank you Sideswipe.”

He smiled and nodded in reply. She looked to ratchet and saw him looking at the I.V. and fluids he set up. She felt guilty that she had pulled out her I.V. again.

“Sorry ratchet. Needles and I don’t really get along.”

“It’s ok as long as you think you’ll be strong enough without them. I knew you couldn’t stay on the I.V. forever so I made the inhibitor serum drinkable. You will still need to take it every day in order to keep those nano-drones inactive.”

She nodded, in understanding as ratchet continued.

“I also have some other basic things I was able to gather out of the rubble. You might want these as well.”

He set down a few human sized items. A hair brush, soap, tooth paste, and tooth brush. Then he handed her some clothes that were white and red and had a strange symbol on them.

“These are some garments that a previous human guest had worn. They haven’t been used for a while and I figured you would like something fresh to change into.”

“Thank you Ratchet. I really appreciate it.”

“You are welcome Cadence, now if you’ll excuse me I have some other matters to attend to.”
At that ratchet left the room.
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Sideswipe was finishing his work on the human sized ladder, which had been tedious and annoying, by securing it to the shelf. When he noticed Cadence scoot up to where he was working. She was sitting with her legs hanging over the ledge, which made him uneasy because she obviously wasn’t the most stable in her current state. She watched him work for a moment silently.

“Somethin’ crossing your wires?”

She smiled and let out a quiet laugh.

“Not crossing my wires per se, I don’t have any of those, but I do have a few things on my mind.”

“Ok, and that is?”

“What are you guys?”
Odd question.

“Well I guess in your terms we would be considered aliens. I mean we are from a different planet.”

“So you’re a giant, killer, aliens from……?”

“A planet called cybertron, but it’s not really habitable anymore. We destroyed in the war.”

“You don’t have a home? That’s sad, what was the fight over?”

“An ideal of how we should live, but it got out of hand and the fight spans the galaxy now.”

“Shit.”

“Yea, our kind was trying to protect your planet from the decepticons when we were ambushed and sent back to our dead world.”

He thought about that encounter, the loss of his brother Sunstreaker, and the destruction of Earth. He was the one who pointed out that the autobots needed to change, and he was happy they listened. He just wished it didn’t have to come at such a large price.

“So you guys were here before everything went to hell?”


Her question pulled him back to the present.

“I hadn’t been here long, but my kind has been here a while.”

“Right under our noses?”

“Weird way to put it, but yea I guess.”

“So I’m guessing you guys can change into vehicles like the other faction.”

“We are the same species.”

“Just double checking. You don’t have to be a smart ass.”

She obviously wasn’t terrified of him anymore. She was even bold enough to give him an attitude.

“You realize you’re mouthing off to a giant, killer, alien right?”

“Yea, except minus the killer part. So I can say whatever I want.”

She shot him a mischievous look. He might just get along with this human.

“You better watch it spot. Just cause I won’t hurt you, doesn’t mean I won’t torment you.”
He finished securing the ladder and stood up straight. She looked at the ladder, and smiled at sideswipe.

“I’m just glad to have somebody friendly to talk to. It’s been far too long since I’ve been treated this kindly.”

He frowned. He didn’t like the thought of anybody suffering. He walked over and leaned against the wall the shelf was attached to. He had decided it was his turn to ask a question.

“How did they catch you?”

“When they took over it was pure panic. They just herded a bunch of us into a dead end. So many people were shot and killed on sight just for the hell of it. Like I said they seemed to enjoy it. The more death, and suffering the better to them. It was horrible. I was with my mom and sister during the chaos, and by the time we realized we were trapped it was too late. They grabbed us all, and shipped us to that creepy bug guy’s lab like a bunch of cattle.”

Sideswipe shook his head in disbelief. He noticed she had spaced out for a moment, and could only imagine what she was thinking. She began to swing her legs back and forth nervously. One of her hands lost its grip on the edge, and she quickly became unsteady. He reached his hand out gentl and steadied her, but decided it would be better to just move her away from the ledge. So he scooped her up and set her on her bed. It brought her out of her daze, but made her obviously uncomfortable as well.

“Um can you please warn me before you do something like that? I’m not sure how I fell about being handled like a freaking hamster.”

He laughed.

“Sorry, but I don’t trust you not to fall off that ledge again and then all my hard work would be ruined.”

“Yea not to mention my life. Just give me a heads up or something.”

“Can’t make any promises. I’m going into recharge now, I need some rest. You should probably do the same.”

“Ehh, I’m not that tired, but you enjoy your little nap.”

Sideswipe laid down on his large bed and quickly fell into recharge. Saving a human and working hard at his shift was exhausting.
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  Cadence waited and speculated whether she should attempt the plan she had quickly formulated. Sideswipe was going to be pissed, but she had to get out. She had been stir crazy for far too long, and she hadn’t been feeling as weak since her fall. It could just be nerves causing the adrenaline to surge through her veins, but she could swear she would be able to make it down the ladder just fine. She had to get outside, the thought of the sun was pulling her like a riptide current. So she stood and shakily walked over to the edge of the shelf closest to Sideswipes bed.

“Sideswipe? Sideswipe!”

No response he had to be asleep. She threw another rock at him just to double check.

*Tink*

It bounced off his armor again, and still no response. All clear, she was gonna to do this.

She walked over to the ladder, it was a long way down, and one misstep from high up could be potentially fatal. Broken legs would be the best she could hope for, but nothing could syke her out of this now.

One wrung at a time she made her way down. Very cautiously, and quietly, she had no idea what would wake up Sideswipe. She had almost made it to the bottom when her foot slipped and she fell about 8ft to the ground, and landed flat on her ass. She cursed under her breath when she hit the ground, but she knew she wasn’t seriously injured, that spot was going to be sore though.

She stood up and scanned the room for a way out. She was never very good at caving, but she did know that cracks and holes were never unusual in a cave wall. So when she spotted one that looked like a way out she immediately took advantage of the small opening. She sidled up against the wall before entering the next passage way. She peaked around the corner and noticed a large mech headed her way. He seemed a little intimidating even though he was looking at a data pad. She noticed he had what looked, from her angle, to be the word police on the door/wing things. She quickly pulled back into the safety of her little hall. Sideswipe said what she was doing was dangerous, and she wasn’t sure who she could trust.

A while after he had passed, she booked to the next turn in the hall. That’s when she realized she had no idea where she was going. Fuck it, she’d already come this far, all she could do was guess. There was another hall a little way down the path, and again she pressed herself against the wall to get a peak. Nobody was there, she took a breath and stepped quickly into the open, but jumped back when she saw another mech make his way down the hall. This one had multiple gigantic swords and looked like he could kill her in a nanosecond.

She wasn’t sure what to do. Thinking frantically she looked around and noticed a crack in the wall across from her, it was within the sight of the terrifying mech. There was a hint of natural light coming in and her heart skipped a beat. If she made a run for it there was a possibility she could get to it, and pray the mech didn’t see her.
She took off. She didn’t want to look back for fear the mech was after her, and death by giant sword was not in her plans today. She made it to the crack, but continued to run. Her momentum was pushing her forward and she tripped, falling face first into the sun baked sand. Picking her head up, she quickly jumped away as an angry Gila monster hissed and twisted in her direction with its mouth wide open. He obviously was not pleased by her intrusion on his sun bathing. Deciding she had been warned thoroughly, the angry reptile lumbered away from her.

She surveyed the land in front of her. She was obviously in the desert out west somewhere, plenty of cacti and gangly dried plants dotted the landscape before her. There was nothing familiar to her, except the view of the setting sun’s rays painting the clouds pastel colors. So she sat on a large rock absorbing the view, and lapsing into memory as she memorized the clouds beauty.

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She reached down into the shallow lapping waves and pulled up a handful of sand. The small shelled creatures she had disturbed quickly clambered back under the sediment she held.
“Babe come here!”

A young man with blond hair put down his skim board and walked over. He was smiling as he saw her playing with the coquinas in the sand.

“Hold your hands out I want you to feel this.”

“I’m not sure I want to feel a bunch of mini clams trying to dig into my skin”

She laughed.

“I promise they can’t hurt you. They can’t even break the skin. It tickles.”

“No thanks babe.”

“Lame.”

She taunted him, and in return he splashed sea water at her face. She giggled playfully and threw her wad of sand at him, forgetting all about the tiny mollusks it contained. He slicked the sand from his skin and into the water, saving any creatures that were on him.

“C’mon baby it’s about time for the sunset.”

She stood up and clasped his hand. They walked over to a wooden bench and sat down to watch the sun dip below the horizon.

As he draped his strong arm around her as he started to muse aloud.

“Why is it that nobody seems to appreciate the role the clouds have in this?”

“What?”

“Everyone focuses on the sun, they want to come to the beach on a clear day. Nobody really stops to see the colors painted on the clouds when the sun sets on a cloudy day.”

She thought about it for a minute. It had never crossed her mind, she had never thought to appreciate the clouds instead of the sun or the orange and pink sky. The clouds themselves reflected many of the same colors of the sun set but it almost seemed enhanced. Like somehow they were floating puffs off cotton that had contained concentrated color that leaked into the sky surrounding the sun. She leaned her head on his shoulder and watched as they slowly faded in hue while the sun sank deeper. Eventually the sun had almost completely vanished leaving the clouds a deep purple in the sky. That’s when he stood up, and reached into the back pack they had brought with them.

“Babe I've had something I had been meaning to ask you for a while now. You know these past four years have been better than anything I could ever have imagined even in my wildest dreams. I love you more then you could ever know, and I was wondering if you might want to spend the rest of your life with me?”

He opened a small box, and showed her the small diamond ring. It was nothing fancy, just simple. A small diamond set in front of the nose of a white gold dolphin, and the tail comprised the circumference of the ring. Tears of joy started to flow down her cheeks, she hated to cry it made her feel so girly and she was never the super girly type.

“Yes! Yes! I love you so much Zane.”

At that she threw her arms around him and kissed him, tears still streaming from her eyes.
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Cadence wiped a tear from her cheek and absentmindedly twisted the ring on her left hand. She thought getting to see the outside and the sky would help fill a void, but it only brought the pain to the surface piercing through her heart like a hot knife.

It was almost dark, and she still had to get back to sideswipes room before he woke up. She stood up and that’s when she noticed that someone was watching her from a far. It was the mech with the swords and he was moving toward her.