The Ascension of Nova Black

Part 7 of 17

Verse: G1 AU (all characters are OCs.)
Wordcount: 2,000+
Rating: M for violence, dark themes, etc.
Warnings: Well, there's a fight... not too horrible, but not exactly pretty either.
Summary: Wherein Nova has continuing trouble not acting like she was built to act... and finally turns to Quake for help. Which, of course, means confronting some feelings about her past that she's been trying her hardest to avoid...

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 - Part 8 - Part 9 - Part 10 - Part 11 - Part 12 - Part 13 - Part 14 - Part 15 - Part 16 - Part 17

Nova Black soared over Settlement Four, circling again and again. Since her little altercation with Brightbolt, even those who agreed with her about the Autobot activity had taken to avoiding her. Others glowered at her, muttering things they thought she couldn't hear. A handful said them to her face. She didn't care what they thought, but it did get irritating. Besides, from what she'd heard, Grandeur was looking for her.

Slaggit, she thought. The trouble with flying away from grounders you didn't feel like dealing with was that they were usually waiting for you when you landed.

And she'd have to land eventually. She was wasting fuel doing this anyway. She swerved, looking for a good place to touch down, away from the prying optics of most of the Settlement.

Preferably someplace close to where she was going.

Seeing an empty alley, she flew toward it. Once she was close enough to the ground, she transformed and hit the ground running, the shock running up her legs.

No sooner had she done so then she heard voices behind her. She cursed again. Apparently, she wasn't alone after all.

"Hey, Decepticon," someone sneered, stepping out of a nearby shadow.

"Where do you think you're going?" said someone else, closing in from the other side, his voice so similar she wondered for a moment if her audio receptors were malfunctioning and the words had actually come from the first instead.

As he stepped into the light, Nova could see that he was identical to the other, even down to his paint job. Eerily in sync, their fists clenched as they stared at her, hatred blazing in their yellow optics.

Fortunately for Nova, the two were small and light. "I don't have time for this," she snarled, pushing them away.

One lost his balance, falling to the ground with a metallic crunch. The other kept coming, grabbing at Nova's arm and side.

Nova growled, her optics flashing yellow. "You're in my way. Get out of it."

She'd tried the whole not fighting thing already, and it hadn't worked. Besides, everyone was expecting her to fight now. Guess I'll just have to give them what they want, she smirked, enjoying the hum in her weapons systems.

Oh, she wouldn't shoot anyone. Not yet, anyway. But she might as well have some fun.

"Get. Off. Of. Me," she hissed, twisting around to slam the bot holding her against the side of a building. The metal of his plating screeched as it met the wall. He howled in pain and fell.

Nova grinned and kicked the prone form. "That ought to teach you to leave me alone."

"Barbarian," the other snarled behind her, launching himself at her back. "You'll pay for that."

He latched on to her wings, pulling them down. Nova gritted her dental plates against the pain and bucked, hoping to throw him off, but the little bot hung on, pulling with all of his strength.

She spun around again, hoping to repeat the maneuver and get the smaller bot off of her back before he damaged her wing joints. If he managed to do so, she had no guarantee the Settlement's medics would be on her side. Not any more.

She slammed hard into the wall. The bot on her back keened, an electrical whine of distress, but still clung to her. His tiny, brightly-painted fingers moved from her wings (thank Primus!) to her head, struggling to wrap themselves around her optics. She shook her head violently, grunting in satisfaction as one of the hands retreated, and then cursing as it found purchase, half-blinding her.

She raised her hands to pull it off, too slowly, and her attacker's free hand reached to cover her other optic. Snarling, Nova wrapped her hands around the smaller bot's hands and tugged.

"You hurt my brother, Decepticon scum," he wheezed, his voice distorted by static, skipping and squealing from the pain. "Trust me, I ain't letting go."

"Didn't hurt your 'brother' until you two came after me, you slagging idiot," Nova growled back, still struggling to pry those digging fingers off her optics.

Her attacker yelped in surprise and anger. Nova wondered whether he was crying out in pain again. Then she let go of the grabbing hands as someone yanked her attacker off of her with a rumble of disapproval.

"Go," a deep voice said as Nova whirled around, fists clenched. Was the newcomer helping her, or just wanting a turn? She wasn't going to take any chances.

"But -- my broth --!"

She saw Quake, his beady optics wide as he rumbled another warning and shoved the smaller bot aside. With a last glance at his companion's crumpled form, the small bot transformed and sped off, his engine screeching indignantly.

Nova glowered at Quake. "I could have handled that myself."

He looked over at the crumpled form of the bot she'd slammed against the wall. Its optics flickered and it twitched, but otherwise did not move. "Yeah, I'm sure you could have," he murmured with a shudder. "That's not why I interfered."

He snorted, a puff of air escaping the vents on his head. "Let's go inside. Unless I miss my guess, you were looking for me when those two jumped you."

Nova stretched, her back aching, and followed the other, passing by shapeless buildings in even poorer repair than most of the Settlement. "Yes, I was. But why'd that get you involved in my business? I told you off. Besides, you fighting might not look bad, but helping me fight will."

Quake grunted as his fingers skipped over a lock. With a creaking sound, a pair of rusty doors slid open and Nova followed him inside.

"Don't be any stupider than you can help, Eclipse," the other grunted. "You were alone out there. You're Decepticon built, and nobody's bothering to deny it any more. You've gotten into two fights in as many days. You left one of the bots you just fought half-conscious, not to mention kicked him when he was down. Do you really think anybody would believe you if you told them they came after you?"

She growled. He was right, of course, but that didn't mean she had to like it. "What's that got to do with you?"

"You were looking for me. And if I helped you fight 'em off, that means it's not just your word against theirs. If I was part of the fight, it means I must have seen them start it."

"Heh. Yours. The one who wants to sell us all out to the Decepticons."

The great head snapped up with a metallic, grating sound. "If you've got such a problem with that, what were you doing looking for me in the first place?"

"I want to know what those Autobots are up to. The bots who say I don't know what they're building are right. I'm not sure yet what the slag they need those parts for. But I'm not about to show what I recorded to someone I don't know agrees with me."

Quake scratched his broad chin. "Well, you did tell me off not too long ago. And if you don't know what that Autobot was carrying, there's no guarantee I will either. But I'm curious.

He snorted, puffs of air leaving his vents. "And worried. Go ahead, show me what you've got."

Nova nodded. She didn't like trusting him any more than she had earlier, but this was the best she was going to get for now. She tapped the side of her head to project the video she'd captured of Burden's cargo.

Quake's round optics narrowed as he studied the projection. "Those long pieces are energy collectors, I'm sure of it."

"Yeah, that's what I figured. But what's it storing energy for? It's too small to be any kind of repository." She raised her head to look at Quake. "Which makes me think those must be storing charges for a weapon."

Her wings twitched, stinging where her attacker had pulled them. "But of course, if I say that, the others will think I'm glitched. Only thinking about war and fighting, because that's how I'm built. Even if I am right." Her fists clenched again. "Damn fools."

"I don't think 'glitched' is the word. 'Dangerous,' more like."

Nova's lip twisted into a bitter smile. "To them, maybe. To anybody back home, no. Not these days. Not now."

"Back home?" He laughed, his frame vibrating with the deep sound. "I thought you told me you weren't a 'Con any more."

"Nobody believes that. Just look at those idiots who tried to jump me."

"No, nobody does." The round, wide optics stared intently at her. "Do you?"

She raised her head to stare back at him, her yellow optics meeting his. It surprised her how easy it was to stare at him directly.

But it still wasn't easy to answer his question.

"I don't know," she said finally, hissing the words at him.

He chuckled, pleased to hear the confession he'd wanted from the beginning. She scowled. Fine. There it is. Whatever good it does either of us.

She sighed. If only it were that easy. Even if Leech and Colossus and the others wanted her back -- and there was no guarantee even they'd like her after she'd been Neutral for stellar cycles -- there was Bane.

And Winder. Her dental plates clenched in spite of herself, remembering. Even Bane might have forgiven her, if not for that skinny little slagger poking his servos into her business.

Even if the others could forgive this, these blank wings and dull secondhand optics, shining the wrong color entirely, he'd still be there, whispering into their audio receptors.

She killed Cinder. Do you really think she's safe to have around?

Look at this hovel she lived in for stellar cycles. Look at her face, all scarred up from ripping out her own optics to look like them. She's not one of us now. She never will be again.

Quake's voice broke into her thoughts. "Let's see you, then."

"See me? What do you want me to do, prance around for you?" The electronic paint job was embarrassing enough without him wanting to stare at it. Besides, it wasn't like he hadn't seen it already.

The flat face twisted into something approximating a leer. "Could be fun. But I'm not talking about this ugly thing you're walking around under. I'm talking about you."

Nova froze. "I couldn't show you that even if I wanted to, Quake. It's all been painted over."

"Like hell it has. You flew for your life and you expect me to believe you painted yourself up that perfectly afterward? Nobody paints herself these days. Least of all some random 'Con enforcer who probably came from a batch of two hundred. You wouldn't even know how."

Nova rounded on him, her fists clenched. He watched her, smirking.

"Fine," she snarled finally, yanking the device free violently enough for the sudden disconnection to sting.

She looked down at herself as the colors shifted, her wings darkening to black, her body and the wide stripes on her wings shifting to a deep gray, and finally the thin yellow accents on her wings.

And last, the faded symbols on her wings reappeared, cracked and chipped and dirtied now, marking her as something she no longer could be.

Quake pulled a shard of reflective metal -- a piece of an old mirror, Nova supposed -- from a shelf behind him and tossed it to her, quietly. She caught it and held it up to her face.

She gasped at the familiarity of the face looking back at her: the gray helm, the black plates of metal that formed her features.

And then the one thing left over from Eclipse's blue face, a stranger's face, a face she'd gotten used to because she had to: optic ridges pitted with scars, the sensors embedded in those pockmarked sockets shining a faint, cloudy yellow.

Growling, she threw the shard down.

Quake ignored her, his broad faceplates twisting into another smile. "Well, Eclipse... who knew you were so good looking?"

"That's not my name."

She raised her head, hissing. "My name is Nova Black."