"So you don't hunt down traitors on a ridiculously long list to kill them in ridiculously cruel and painful ways to terrify Decepticons into staying the course?"
"Yes, and no."
"Very helpful."
"We kill the ones who present threats and problems to the well-being of the Decepticon cause." Tarn clarified. "Those who present a danger other than the autobots. If we killed everyone who had every committed event the tiniest infringement on Decepticon law we'd have to kill everyone and then ourselves. Not terribly effective. Small-scale captains and field marshals can oversee that sort of thing. We take care of the dark side of the war that Megatron doesn't want to deal with on his own. Like crime lords. Ships of marauders and pirates, infiltrators, coups, uprisings, other armies. Believe it or not the Autobots aren't the only opposing threat."
I blinked, "Those are very dangerous words for anyone to say around you at the base."
"True, but they are the truth. Efficiency has to exist somewhere. And I think we all have better things to do with our time than massacre an idiot who worships cyber-foxes." Tarn pointed out.
"So, what are we doing then?"
"Visiting a friend of mine. He's the furthest thing from a Decepticon, but he has a powerful army and he knows everything there is to know about anyone who lives anywhere. He's bound to have information about this Aphelion mech."
"This whole thing reeks of a conspiracy. I don't like it."
"Me neither, but the only way to help the situation is to investigate. Regardless of the danger it presents. Kaon is not going to like this, I can see that now."
"Why won't Kaon like it?"
"Because he hates going under-cover. It makes him...twitchy."
"I won't ask what that means."
"Probably for the better, I'll explain more at breakfast when everyone else is up. For now I'm going to enjoy the peace and quiet and drink my energex before the crazy kicks in."
"Good plan."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~timeskip~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I reached into the refrigerator, pulling out the bottle of sweetener for Kaon. Apparently he didn't drink like energex unless it had sweetener in it. The heathen. I closed the fridge and chuckled at the massive overpopulation of magnets, post it notes and stickers that caked the refrigerator in a layer of vaguely funny cliche words. The one that I found most ridiculous was the one right smack-dab in the center that read: We put the fun in dysfunctional. Another one that I assume Kaon had everything to do with had a paw print on it and read: The Choice is Simple, I Choose the Dog! As well as many other ridiculous family refrigerator jokes. Another good one read: I licked it, so it's mine!
I shook my head at the ridiculous humor everyone on this team had. I think even Tarn was in on it.
I handed Kaon his sweetener (gross) just in time before Vos jumped onto my back. He might be tiny, but the force of him landing on you when you didn't expect it was really heavy. I wrapped my arms around his legs so he wouldn't fall off and hefted his weight closer to my shoulders when I felt him start to slip. Tesarus was working making something in a pan on the stove-top that smelled delicious. I really hoped he was planning on sharing.
Helex was giving me a weird look from the table. He still didn't seem to like me much, and I still needed to ask Tarn why. He looked away after a few minutes, irritated.
Nickel wheeled herself into the room with a yawn. The dark circles under her eyes indicating just how little sleep she had been getting. She had been working on some type of serum recently and hadn't been sleeping because she was so engrossed in it. Last night had been no different apparently.
Vos poked my shoulder. I tried to look at him, struggling though because he was behind me and my head could not turn 360 degrees.
"What?" I asked, in Neocybex. Tarn was trying to get him to at least make an effort to learn it instead of relying on Tarn and I to translate for him. Because what would he do if we weren't around for some reason? Pretend to be mute?
He didn't say anything. Instead he poked my other shoulder.
"What?" I asked again.
"Hiiiiii....." He held out the "ī" sound a bit longer than necessary. That was one of the things about Vernacular, the "ī" sound is always carried for a bit longer. It made him sound creepy when trying to say words like this one due to those patterns in that language. But it becomes endearing when you realize he's just trying to say a simple word. I love him so much, he's kind of like the child I never wanted to have. But better, because he isn't a child.
"Hi." I reply, I lift one arm to give him a little wave.
He sunk down behind my shoulder so I couldn't see him, he was pretending to be shy today it would seem. He made a sort of purring sound and rested his forehelm on my back.
"Are we being shy today?" I asked.
I felt him nod, yes.
"Did you get any energon yet?"
He shook his helm, no.
"Do you want some?"
I could feel him nod again.
"Words, Vos." I said, smiling as I felt him start to get frustrated.
"-Yesss..." He said eventually.
"Yes what?"
He crossed his arms and huffed, I was the only thing holding him on my back now.
"Yesss....puh-leassssssse." He always pronounced "please" as "puh-lease." I think Kaon's sassy little mouth taught him that one. Or maybe he just liked the way it sounded? Either way, it was adorable. Much like everything else about Vos.
I opened the refrigerator and produced a bottle of regular energon. Vos didn't get to have the caffeinated stuff, a hyper Vos makes for a torn apart Peaceful Tyranny and a stressed out Tarn. I handed the bottle to him over my shoulder.
"You good now?"
He nodded.
"Need anything else?"
He shook his head.
"See you later?
He nodded, then slid back down so I couldn't see him. He liked to pretend I couldn't anyway. I was his personal taxi in his eyes, and he spent a lot of time on my back just hanging out and not walking. He didn't necessarily talk. But if I tried to let him down he would throw a hissy-fit and jump back on.
Tarn entered the kitchen door, and shut it behind him. Everyone stopped what they were doing to look at him.
"Right, let's get down to business."
YOU ARE READING
Predatory
FanfictionWhen Dreadflight, a Decepticon assassin, is apprenticed to the D.J.D, she is surprisingly welcomed. The D.J.D. has their own set of demons, often in the form of Overlord who can't seem to leave them alone, but as well as many nightmares they experie...
