Niave

Chapter 14: Settling back into the Nemesis

When Lila woke back up, she was human again. It took a few blinks before she adjusted to the lights and sat up.

Then she panicked.

Her clothes were gone. She was 100% naked.

Lila jumped to her feet and looked left and right, searching for some kind of cover, but the medical cot she was sitting on was metal and bare, aside from herself.

The med-bay doors opened and Knockout stepped inside, spotting her relatively quickly. "Oh, good. You're awa–"

"DON'T LOOK AT ME!" Lila screeched. "I'M NAKED!"

Knockout blinked in confusion. "Wha–"

"I'LL SHOOT YOU!" Lila yelled, pointing the staff at him, which had just materialized out of thin air.

Knockout immediately yelped and cowarded. "No, please! I'm sorry! Don't ruin my paint job!"

He disappeared through the doors and Lila looked at them for a moment before teleporting to the table on the wall. She limped back and forth, covering herself, and searching for something, anything. Eventually, she found a cloth stained with energon.

"Mmph." Ratchet turned away. "You should know then that energon is toxic to organic lifeforms."

Eh. Lila pulled the thick fabric around herself. She'd already been a cybertronian, how could energon exposure get much worse than that?

Lila teleported to the other side of the door and looked around for Knockout, but the medic was nowhere to be found. With a frown, Lila began to teleport to the end of each hallway, hoping to find Megatron or his berthroom. Maybe even Breakdown or Knockout, although, she wasn't keen on seeing the latter. He'd seen her naked.

"Are you going somewhere?"

Lila whirled around, lowering her staff only when she realized it was Starscream who had just turned the corner. He visibly shifted his pede, which was positioned to step on her, and moved it away.

"I almost killed you," he snapped. "You should be more careful. Megatron would have killed me."

He swipped her off the ground with his clawed digits and glared. "Why are you covered in an energon rag?"

Lila blushed. "My clothes ripped off when I turned into one of you."

Starscream scoffed. "You were never one of us, you were just big and made of metal. A cybertronian body is too advanced for your species."

Lila glowered and after a moment of no objections, Starscream began to walk down the hall.

"Well, now that I've found you, I might as well return you to our lord, fleshbag," Starscream huffed. "Maybe it'll get me off of monitor duty for a little longer."

"Thanks," Lila said quietly.

Starscream scoffed again. They were quiet for a while before he glanced at her. "What are your clothes for anyway?"

"To cover myself...?"

"Why?"

"So I'm not naked."

"What's wrong with being naked?"

"Ummm..." Lila frowned. "It just is."

Starscream looked away, the edge of his derma lifting slightly. "Is having your clothes off in any way, dangerous?"

"I mean, not really, unless–"

"Starscream!" Megatron suddenly boomed from behind them. "What are you doing with my human?"