Lyric 23

Lyric still sat in that lonely edge of the cliff when Prowl found her.

It had rained for most of the night, and only now in the morning was it finally stopping, the sun shinning through as if nothing had ever happened.

Her frame reminded her otherwise though, she was cold and shivering, she was still wet, and it honestly felt unpleasant in some places in her armor.

Prowl made a small noise with his vocalizer to attract her attention, her sagging doorwings twitched once, but otherwise she didn't make any indication of acknowledging him.

With a sigh, he approached her, taking note of how dangerously close she was to the edge of a very deadly fall.

"Lyric" he called softly. "why did you run away?"

The answer didn't come for a long time, long enough to test even his patience, right now he really wanted to pull her away from that edge, but the wrong move could end badly very easily.

"I didn't run away"

He shifted his weight, crossing his arms over his front, trying to take in her deflated posture.

"Disappearing in the middle of the night without telling anyone, on your own accord, is considered running away."

"Its also just considered going for a walk." she said with a shrug. "Look, lets cut the crap, what do you want Prowl? For me to go back? Might as well put me in a bird cage while you're at it. I look better in one" she said bitterly.

"What is this about Lyric?" He asked patiently, trying his best to let the comment pass.

She sighed, looking back down below, the height didn't frighten her, no, there were much scarier things in life.

"You really don't know?" she asked, surprised at how numb she felt about the whole matter. Really what difference did it make if they knew?

"I have a set of possibilities as to your actions, I would like to reduce them to the true cause however, so that we may help you."

She snorted, picking at a plant that had grown at the edge long ago.

"How nice of you. You throw me away, then you kidnap me, then you give me a home, then you give me friends... am I supposed to feel thankful about this? Because I'm not." she turned to glare at him.

"It just makes it worse! What if THEY find out? What if they already know? What if THAT happens to them too?!"

"Calm down" he said gesturing with his hands slowly "It is all right, nothing will happen to them, nor to you. We would die fighting before that were to happen-"

"What if you DO die?!" she nearly screamed at him, tears jerking from under her visor. "Jazz nearly did! You got shot! The first time I saw you two for what you were at the zoo you were so badly damaged it took you weeks to be fixed! What if next time you DO die?!"

"Then other autobots would stand in for us, they would take care of-"

"I DON'T WANT THEM!" he was taken aback by the level and emotion in her voice. "I'm sick of it! I'm sick pf everything always changing! I don't even KNOW how much its changed! I don't even remember things I probably should of!" she said raising to her full height, stomping her pede on the ground to make her point.

Prowl wearily watched her, his doorwings sensing the floor's fragility beneath her.

"Lyric please be calm, we will sort this out, please just step away from the edge." he said motioning for her to come forwards.

"Sort it OUT?! How can you possibly sort it out?! You weren't there! You weren't watching when the Decepticons had me! You weren't the one drugged so much that they couldn't remember what was going on! You're not the one seeing their faces at night! Wondering what they did to you!"

The floor beneath her cracked, Prowl didn't even let her finish her rant before diving in, grabbing her around the waist and then throwing themselves backwards as far as he could manage, before the floor gave in.
They landed roughly on the floor, with him taking most of the damage, his sensitive doorwings screaming alarms at him for the rough treatment.

He held his creation close; that had been far too dangerous, far too close to losing her again. This was becoming a bad habit.

She shivered in his arms, her body half curled up.

He didn't let go, not so soon, he did however try to access the damage, taking note the small signs of rust forming from spending the night under the rain, as well as how cold she felt. He frowned, moving to sit up with her.

"Come, we should return to the ark, you need proper rest, after that we can talk." he promised.

She shook her head, but allowed him to help her to her feet, making sure that she could.

The walk back was silent, save for Lyric's attempts to quiet down small sobs, and hiding away tears.

It hurt to see his creation in such pain, and his processor tried to beat down every possibility he could come up with to make it better. None of it was any good.

Carefully he wrapped an arm around her shoulders, feeling a slight flinch from her momentarily, since she didn't pull away however he let it be.

She felt so tiny next to him, her posture sagging in misery, her visor dim and desaturated of its normal orange color.

When they arrived back to their quarters, Prowl was as quiet as possible, she really didn't need an over protective Jazz all over her yet, so instead he directed her towards the private wash rack "Come, we need to get all that grime off your armor before you rust." He explained when she instinctively wrapped herself in her own arms and her armor tightened closer to herself.

"I don't feel comfortable with this..." she said meekly as he gently pushed her in and closed the door behind him.

"It is fine, you just require a superficial wash, you won't have to take your armor off." He explained, easily predicting her line of thought. "It will be quicker if I help you" He motioned for her to get under the water hose.

Hesitantly she did as asked, turning on the water to wash away the dirt and rain water, a dark puddle of brown quickly formed under her feet, some leaves falling along into the mix.

After a few minutes Prowl told her it was enough and to step out, she did so without complaint, the known grace of a femme completely absent from her figure.

He pulled one of the small stools, and patted it as an indication for her to sit, before he pulled a larger one for himself.

Silently, he sat behind her and began the process of covering her with solvent, using a soft sponge on her back first, mindful of every doorwing sensor he knew would set her off.

"So, are you going to tell me what this is really all about?" He asked cautiously.

"I told you what it was about"

"You've told me many reasons for it, you did not tell me what made you snap like that." he pointed out, waiting politely as she took a long pause, he took note of how she hugged herself, her knees glued together, her doorwings shivered slightly.

"I don't want to talk about it..."

"And yet I believe you need to." he said calmly, changing tactics and cleaning instead areas he knew would relax her more. "Perhaps not with me, perhaps with Jazz? Or maybe one of your friends. My point is Lyric: you are digging too much emotional conflict within yourself, and if you do not take care of it soon, it will take over you, it will drive you with fears, and affect your actions, push you away from others. If it gets to such a point I might be forced to hand you over to your uncle smokescreen for some therapy sessions." her whole frame tensed impossibly at the mention of such sessions, he couldn't see her expression, but the body language was enough.

"I don't NEED a therapist..." she said bitterly, her doorwings giving a proud flick.

"Then speak. You know that you can tell us anything, that we will never be mad at you for being who you are." He pushed soothingly.

"Stop it." the order came so short, and so firm, that Prowl didn't even notice that he did, that even his hand had stopped its motions to clean her frame. "Why do you have to be so annoyingly frustrating?" she growled. Prowl did not respond, he was unsure if she wanted him to, and he wanted her to speak. "You just thought I ran off-with reason- and spent the entire night outside of this ship! The least you could do is be angry at me! Yell at me!" she said still not looking up from the tiles on the floor her gaze had been boring into since they started.

"...you wish for me to punish you for your behavior?" He worded carefully, he needed to make sure he understood what she meant.

"I wish for you to act NORMAL around me! You two smother me all the time! There's nothing I can do that's wrong in your eyes! You act as if I'll break apart at any little thing!"

"Because you SHOULD!" she froze, Prowl recomposed himself quickly, he never rose his voice, he rarely ever needed it, even with the twins he was usually composed. Lyric was now looking back at him over her shoulder, her face was streaked again with tears, her lips slightly apart and her visor bright.

"I apologize if you think we are protecting you too much, but so much has happened to you as of late, we wanted to make the pressure on you be as minimal as possible." he explained a little more calmly now. "At first we wanted you to recover your health, and get used to things, then we were to approach talking to you about what has happened, clearly that has been a mistake." she flinched at the words, as if the subject still stung. "I realize that that is not the type of parenting that you are used to, but I will not be the abusive parent that you had." he said tapping the bottom of her chin up with his hand, to make her look back up at him in the optics. "You can talk to me, about anything, whenever you need it, you can come to me just for comfort if you do not wish to speak. But I want you to solve this, I do not wish you to keep on suffering in quiet."

He shifted his hand from her chin, petting the side of her helm, his thumb rubbing at the base of her chevron, hoping to send some comfort.

Her body shook, the armor rattling noisily as she tried to get it under control, her lips pursed with the effort, twitching whenever her control slipped a little. Her hands kept opening and closing into fists, lifting just a little to indicate she wanted them to move, but couldn't bring herself to do it.

"As much as I would like, I cannot amend the past, nor our mistakes, I was not able to protect you when you needed me most, I was not able to give you the love that you needed" her vocalizer hitched a little as she suppressed a sob. "Perhaps that is why we are not so harsh on you, we feel that whatever is happening to you now, is in great part our fault, for our failure. Many times I wonder if it would have been better to have raised you ourselves, if it would have avoided all of this pain. What it would have been like to have a little femme running around our quarters all the time, tampering with Jazz's stereo, or stealing away my reports to gain my attention." a faint sad smile formed in his lips as he watched her try to contain everything right in front of him "I realize it will never be like that, it is too late for it. But I do wish to make the most out of what we do have, I just need you to give me that chance. Do you understand?"

The femme nodded jerkily, small sounds escaping her despite her best efforts. Prowl took that as his cue and leaned down to embrace her, surprised when she clung to him needfully, even hurting a little.

"I c-cant..." she sobbed, her head buried in his shoulder. "I c-can't say i-it."

That was what he feared. He pet her back between the doorwings and behind the helm, trying to calm her down a little.

"I understand, is there anyone you feel you could talk to about this?" There was a moment of hesitance, the femme's breaths evening out.

"I... I don't know..."she admitted "I never...there was never...anyone to talk to." she admitted "not like that..."

"Everyone needs someone they can talk to freely" He said, his embrace tightening just a little.

"I know... I just...I never trusted anyone like that...I never knew anyone like that..."

"What of your friends? The ones that have just arrived?" He suggested, trying not to sound too hopeful about it.

Again there was a long pause as Lyric hesitated.

"I couldn't... they have so much going on right now...its not right to dump my problems on them..."

"You care for them." he noted with some pride "You put their well being before yours, even though you really need the help at the moment." Selfless, his daughter had a great gift in that, one that would certainly reward her greatly some day he was sure.

"Its always been that way." she muttered, her sobs nearly gone. "They need more help than I do right now..."

"I disagree, I believe you all need each others help just as badly as each other. You should accept that, and support yourselves. They are the closest thing to who you are right now, and they were your friends before you met us. You can still trust them." she pulled away to look up at him again, trying to find something there that just wasn't present.

No deceit, no malevolent intent, only care and something else that she was not willing to accept seeing yet.

"Why...?" her voice was wavering, her optics behind the visor pleading an answer. "Why do you do this?"

He smiled faintly, petting her atop the helm. "Because I am your Sire... your father. I created you willingly with all my will and love, because I wanted you, and because I wanted to love you. In conclusion, you are my daughter, and I your father." He let out a soft purr of his engines, to show how much he meant it, even if she couldn't quite understand the magnitude of what that meant coming from him. "And I do not mind how long it will take, but some day, I will prove to you that much."

The femme let out a keen, shutting off her optics and visor and leaning into his touch, a small show of acceptance.

More cries tried to escape her, her fans kicking on due to her effort to keep it all in, and then something surprised him, a small crackle of energy. Not just any kind of energy either, not the kind you could see, but the kind you could feel, her EM field.

At first it was fuzzy, then he started to make out her emotional output, he could teek her field. There was confusion, sadness, fear, hurt, doubt, and the smallest hint of hope.

He opened his usually closed off field, testing the boundaries, making sure she felt his own emotions, love, comfort, warmth, hope, regret...He wouldn't hide even the bad emotions, no, this family had had too many secrets as it was, it was time they were honest with her, if they ever wished her to trust them.

Her breath hitched as she noticed the field, her visor snapping up at him, bright and fearful.

"Whats happening?"

"Be calm" he said, trying to give her as much of that as he could. "Your EM field just came online, it is normal."

"My what?"

"Your EM field, it is sort of like a net of sensations displayed in an electronic form. I do not know the science too well, but it allows you to show others your emotions, unlike a bond however it does not share them. You should be able to read my own right now. This is how most Cybertronians used to see through before the war. Sensors and sensor nets, you are able to close it off to some extent so that you do not make it obvious to everyone. If you do so, it would require another to be very close to you or even touching you to feel your field."

"I don't know how to do that..." she said, pursing her lip plates tightly.

"We can teach you, but not now." he said patting her head "come, we need to rinse you off and dry you."

It was only then that she seemed to notice she had gotten him wet and with solvent as well, and she had to nod, embarrassed, murmuring an apology.

"It is all right" He said, helping her to her feet, noting alarmingly how unbalanced she was. "Perhaps this conversation should have waited..." he noted out loud, helping a very flustered femme back under the water and helping her stand and rinse the solvent off.

When they were almost done he felt her lean on him, her field plainly projecting fatigue.

"Why am I getting so tired...?" she wondered out loud with a frown.

"You are still recovering, despite the great improvement you've done so far" he reminded her "you have however been in a controlled environment, and spending the night outside broke that control, your body was not yet ready for it."

"heh... I didn't know robots could get sick..."

"Cybertronians sweetspark" he corrected, helping her out of the stall and to the dryer. "and yes, we can become ill, although it usually takes a lot for that to happen to us naturally. Your spark temperature must have cooled off a lot during the night, and your body is trying to regulate itself back to normal now, wasting a lot of your energy." he tried to explain, turning on the dryer and noting with some satisfaction how she relaxed to the warm air.

Once that was done it had actually become a problem to support her, the femme was practically in recharge, her armor puffed up and warm.

"I'll help you to your room, you can recharge then" he said, praying that she could at least stay awake that long.

Her field was suddenly flaring with a spike of fear, and instinctively she clung to his armor, burying her head into his armor.

"I don't want to recharge..."

"Lyric... you are exhausted, you need to recharge." He pointed out, wondering if this really was about recharging or her room. "Would you rather recharge in our room? Jazz can stay there with you" he suggested, and was pleased to find a note of appeal towards the idea in her field, and then there was a mixture of shyness worming its way in.

"I don't want to bother him... it'd be weird" she said, looking away.

"Don't worry about that, I'm sure he would love to have you over." He changed directions before she could argue and opened the door to his quarters, not surprised to find Jazz on the berth, watching the vid screen.

He looked up from whatever he was watching and flashed them a smile.

"Bout time you two got back" he said cheerfully, even if Prowl could feel the question over their bond.

"We've had a little talk, and had to wash her a little." Prowl said easily, guiding his creation to the berth. "Her EM field came online" He announced, trying to keep the conversation light. "I had to explain a bit on how it worked, but now she is tired and requires rest."

If Jazz wondered why rest meant on their berth, he did not show it, he wasn't about to complain a few hours with his creation.

Lyric crawled into the berth, and stayed a respectful distance from Jazz, only to have the saboteur sneak an arm around her shoulders and pull her close, field warm with welcoming. She noted with some fascination how absolutely different Jazz's field felt from Prowl's.

"Dun worry 'bout a thing Prowler, Ah got it covered with the little miss." He said, watching his mate move to their closet and pulling out a thermal blanket, bringing it over and covering his creation with it, she WAS a little cold...

"I trust that you will... I will just get her a cube and then head to work. I am late enough as it is." He said hurrying out, failing to teek how guilty Lyric felt at his words.

"Dun worry Lyric, he's more than happy ta be late fer work if it means yer all righ'." Jazz told her, his arm around her shoulders tightening a little.

She nodded faintly at that, and waited until Prowl came back and handed her her cube, petting her forehead as she took it and started to drink.

"I want you to think on what we discussed, and I want an answer when I return, understood? Until then, rest over the matter."

Again she gave a faint nod, optics focused on her cube.

" I will see you two later then. Have a pleasant day."

"You too Prowler" Jazz said getting comfortable.

When he was gone, an unsettled silence fell between them, and Jazz could easily teek her apprehension and awkwardness.

"Why don't ya go ta recharge sparkles? Ah'll keep watchin' on mute" he told her "or would ya rather Ah turn it off entirely?"

"You don't have to... I don't really want to recharge" she said, shifting a little in her position.

"Is that so...?" he said knowingly. "Well, want ta watch this series with meh then?"

"Sure..."

He un paused the screen and continued to watch his series, with some satisfaction he noted over time her head nodding off a bit, her posture slackening, until she fell entirely to recharge without knowing so.

Petting her form idly, he continued with the series, leaving it on low volume.