Predatory

The Danger Close

Tarn smirked, his eyes narrowing. Clearly this was the answer he was looking for. 

"Excellent. I was hoping you'd agree. Now... femmes first?" He raised an optical ridge. I considered this for a moment, deciding at length to start with something simple.

"Favorite color?" I ask, slightly feeling like I knew the answer. 

"Gold. And you?" Tarn replied without any thought, he pressed his digits together into an arch and gave me an expecting look. I blinked in surprise. I had assumed it to be Decepticon purple, but I appeared to be wrong. 

"Black," I say, nervous. Tarn hummed to himself, then tapped on his datapad.

"What's your history with conjunx endura, and/or sparklings?" He asked calmly, not even lifting his optics from his datapad.

"Nonexistent." I reply, thank the stars. Tarn looked up, quizzical.

"You mean to tell me," Tarn asked, scrutinizing my expression. "That you have never had either a spark mate, conjunx endura, or any other form of significant other? A strapping young ballerina like you in the Capital? Right..... And I'm an Autobot." Tarn spat the word out like it was some unspeakable curse.

I nodded, my sisters in arms had made that fatal mistake. Mechs, in my opinion, were completely irrelevant to the pattern of my life. Not to mention they had no commitment and felt entitled to your soul and body just because they "took care of you". Pffft. Like I wanted that. Not that I had many offers by mechs that were even halfway tempting. My face plate had been more than enough to take care of that. 

Tarn remained unconvinced. 

"I only ask, to ensure no conjunx or sparkling decide they get to stake a claim to you. You're a part of my team, and I don't like to share. Also if they are an Autobot that you have to kill, I want to know that you can do it." Tarn reasoned.

I just smiled, and shook my helm. 

"I have never, and I will never. First rule of my life, is to never play with fire. " I declare. After a few moments, Tarn nodded. Accepting my answer. Now it was my turn to ask. I decided to play it safe. "What's your favorite story genre?"

"Mystery. Too tame. Try again." Tarn prodded, unsatisfied with my question. My servo started twitching again. 

"Okay, uh- What about you? What's your history with conjunx endura?" I ask, my servo beginning to shake violently. I grabbed it with my other servo to quiet it. 

"Now we're getting somewhere!" Tarn laughed. He thought for a moment. "Well, there are at least four that I remember, then there's quite a few one night stands....most of which I don't remember. There were three serious ones." He crossed his arms and sat back in his chair. "There was this one called Silverstorm. We were together for a while, but then she broke it off after she found out what I was doing to the prisoners that were under my care at Grindcore prison. Then she went missing.  And then there was Stardust... she was known as being the most beautiful bringer of death anyone had ever laid optic on. But I had to kill her after she betrayed the Decepticon name to the Autobots....pity. she was a good soldier too. After her, I didn't really feel like getting involved with another femme, but I couldn't help myself with Fireflight. She was definitely all Decepticon, this was when the DJD was just being formed. She helped build it. But she soon showed her true colors as a class "A" glitch. Sure, she was pretty and definitely a killer, but she was also kind of sadistic. A little too sadistic even for me. So...when she died from an Autobot assault, some backup came just a little too late. I think that was when I realised that a serious relationship femmes wouldn't work easily. So after that I kept everything to one night stands. Didn't want to have to murder another emotional investment again, you know?"

 I nodded, knowing what he meant. Love only brought pain. That was why it was so irrelevant. "

During that whole time, I've only had one sparkling, and this was back with Silverstorm. We had been together since....oh, maybe a year or two after the war began? Anyway, we decided to go for it. And we ended up having one, it was a pretty little femme. Energon pink if I recall correctly. Not that it mattered. She fell ill and died a few cycles afterwords. It was really sad. Silverstorm took it worse than I did. That's why she broke things off I think. She cried in her room for weeks. After that she wasn't herself anymore. She was nothing but a husk after that. Then one day, she just went missing. I still have no idea what happened to her." 

He looked down, had he not been a sadistic murderer, I might have thought he was sad about her. Then he looked back up at me. "Dreadflight, do you believe in true love? That somewhere, your perfect half is waiting for you?" He asked, somehow this game had turned into a full on life talk. 

"No. I don't." I say, looking down. 

"Hmm." Was all Tarn said, he twirled the glass again. After a few moments of silence, I realised that it was my turn to ask him a question and he was waiting on me politely. Darn this mech. Sadistic and sociopathic as he was, his manners were impeccable. 

"Why doesn't Kaon have optics? That doesn't seem terribly practical." Was all I could come up with. 

"I suggest you never tell him that!" Tarn chuckled. "As far as I am aware he's always been that way. He refuses to get them, something about being different? I don't know. Personally, I prefer to just say they represent the Pits of Kaon. Makes it sound more, official. And less, a personal choice." He got a laugh out of me on that one. He was just about to ask me another question, when Megatron's voice came on over Tarn's datapad.

"Tarn! Get over to the basement! I need you down here quickly! And bring some backup!" 

Tarn's optics met mine, and we both bolted for the door.

Hey hey hey! Look who posted on time! This transformers fan! Anyway, I have some dinner to make, and a bunch of stuff to do so I'll keep this short. I hope you guys like this chapter! Seriously, thank you so much for all of your support! I never thought my little fan project would actually be liked! All of your support is appreciated so much more than you know! Really! If any of you have any questions that you want Dreadflight to ask a certain Leader of the DJD, please tell me in the comments! Also, EisiamGodesOfStories, I want to say thank you! And the next chapter is going to feature a very specific team of Decepticons you wanted to see! ;) anyways guys, I'll post again next Monday! 

~swordsandroses