Rush

Part 3

In the air near the Nemesis:

Soundwave felt himself almost trip over his pedes. His sparkling was alive! With the Autobots. For a minute, Soundwave was almost considering turning around and getting his femmeling back, but stopped himself. How would Megatron react? He'd never told his master/old friend he even had a sparkmate. Bringing Skyrider back to the Nemesis would not only cause mass confusion, but bring up questions he wasn't going to answer. 

Now, he had to focus on how to (silently) explain why the mission failed, and why they did not stay. Or maybe he could leave that to Dreadwing and just escape to his quarters to think.  Would Skyrider be safe with the Autobots? He mentally slapped himself, of course she would! The Autobots were soft sparked and would give their own lives before letting any harm come to her. He was sure of it. Now, he just had to figure out a way to find their base so he could at LEAST see if Skyrider was fully functional. 

Autobot base:

Optimus was quick to rush through the groundbridge and and set the pod on the floor and drop to his knees next to it. All sets of eyes/optics were on him as he shakily ran his digits over the designs. 

"Whoa... what's in there?" Miko asked. Optimus didn't answer or look up when Jack elbowed Miko in the shoulder.

Miko was confused, though. From where she was standing, Optimus was showing way more emotion than usual. The Prime's sevos were shaking and his breaths shuddered. Like he was nervous to open the pod. But why?

Ratchet set a hand softly on Optimus' shoulder. "I don't know what your scared of," He said softly, "But you should open it. You're giving us all spark attacks." Optimus nodded.

As Optimus slowly punched in the code to the pod, Arcee, Bee, and Bulkhead leaned in closer.

The pod opened with a hiss and stasis gas floated out. Optimus reached both his servos into the pod and took a deep vent, and grabbed something, slowly pulling it out. Sharp gasps ran throughout the room as everyone stared at the sleeping sparkling on their Prime's hands.

"I-is that a s-sparkling?!" Ratchet stammered, taking a step back. Optimus seemed to not hear. He was too busy checking the sparkling over, looking for any dents or scratched that weren't there before. There were none. In fact, the sparkling's vents were normal and she appeared to be able to come out of stasis at any moment. 

"Where did you find a sparkling, Optimus?!" Ratchet demanded, "Talk to me!" Optimus looked up and smiled a great wide smile.

 "She's alive, Ratchet." Ratchet just glared, clearly not getting it. "Remember the sparkling I told you I sent off into space? This is her." It took Ratchet a few moments, but then his optics went wide and he sucked in a breath. 

"This is Overdrive's?" Optimus nodded. Ratchet massaged his forehead and sighed. "Can I give her and examination while you explain to your dumb-struck team?" 

Before he could nod and hand Skyrider over to Ratchet, Optimus heard the proximity sensor go off. Agent Fowler wasn't here. He wasn't supposed to come for another day. The entrance to the base opened and a white car drove in and parked. June Darby was here.

Decepticon warship:

Soundwave and Dreadwing walked briskly into the control room, where Megatron was. Dreadwing kept tapping his digits against his side. He was nervous. Soundwave wasn't. He was more emotionally moved that nervous. What was he going to tell Megatron? Better yet, how was he going to get back his sparkling. Megatron knew he could talk, and if need be, he could MAKE Soundwave talk. It wouldn't be easy, no. Megatron would get a hell of beating before Soundwave took off his visor and spoke. 

But he couldn't think about that now. Not when his sparkling was with the Autobots, at their mercy. Not even a vorn old, she was helpless. Her Carrier was dead and her Sire was in a complete different side of the war, a Sire the Autobots didn't even know HAD a sparkling. What would happen if they found out?  He didn't want to know.

"Soundwave! Dreadwing!" Megatron barked, "Where is my relic?!" 

Dreadwing started to stammer over his words but soundwave pulled up a picture of Optimus Prime on his visor. Megatron got the message. "It's with the AUTOBOTS?!" He snarled, slamming his servo on a nearby console. Soundwave just nodded while Dreadwing fumbled to find an apology. Megatron turned to him, "Soundwave," he spoke with dangerous calmness, "What exactly was in that escape pod that you lost, hmm? It's obviously not a new mech, was it a relic? A weapon? A key to winning the war?" 

Soundwave shook his head. "...space junk..." some random mech's voice answered. Megatron's optic ridges furrowed. "Just junk? Are you sure, Soundwave?" The TIC nodded. It was partly true, too. Aside form the pod that carried Skyrider, all that was in the larger escape pod was junk.

Dreadwing fixed Soundwave with a half confused half horrified stare. Soundwave was telling a white lie. There was a pod that the Autobots took. What was Soundwave planning? And better yet, what was he hiding..?