TFA: Together We Stand (Season 1)

Chapter 17: Mantis's Life Story; Saboteur at Your Service ~6~

"Oh, um.....about that........" her demeanor changed. Her mouth pressed into a thin line, she began to play with one of her dreads and she averted her gaze, optics looking at nothing in particular and deep in thought.

Prowl reached forward and took her servo in his. "You don't have to if you don't want to." He comforted her.

But Mantis shook her helm. She had to do this, she had to get over this, delaying it would only make it harder to accomplish at this rate.

"Brother....can I ask you something?" she asked.

"Anything." Prowl said.

"If....if someone was in a bad situation, a desperate one and....and they did something- not something bad but not good either, does that make them bad themselves? Or are they excusable? Or is it just an excuse for the sake of their conscience?" she asked, her voice sounded so firm and serious yet so vulnerable and scared.

"No." Prowl said. "That doesn't make you bad. If.....if you're willing to acknowledge that what you did was wrong, if you're willing to admit your faults and try to repent for your mistakes then you're far from a bad guy."

He only knew this himself all too well considering how much of an outcast in society he once was.

Mantis took a deep vent then looked at him straight in the optic. "I'm a saboteur." She said.

It took a few nanoclicks for Prowl to process what he just heard.

Processing......processing....processing.....DING!

A saboteur.

"WHAT?!" he said.

Mantis winced and prepared herself for a lot of yelling and another barrage of emotions. "It's.....a long story." She said.

Prowl took a deep vent and told himself to calm down, he needed to stay calm to think straight. There had to be an explanation to all this. He knew his sister, she wouldn't stoop as low as to becoming a criminal even if her life depended on it......right? But don't desperate times call for desperate measures like they say? Maybe she did the wrong things for the right reasons- that sounded like something she would do.

"I think we still have plenty of time left for the rest of it." He told her, placing his palm on his knees as he sat down, pedes crossed again.

Mantis sat the same way but more.....refined since she was a femme. Prowl was glad to see that she was civilized and proper and...maybe even a bit more feminine in her style.

"You want the whole story?" she asked, cocking her helm sideways a bit.

"Yes." Prowl replied without an ounce of hesitation. "Tell me everything."

Mantis paused and seemed to gather her thoughts. All those memories....everything she experienced, her 'childhood'.....all of it seemed like a lifetime ago. Did she really go through that much in her admittedly short life?

"I.....guess we should pick up where I last stopped....." she said and closed her optics as she revisited the old friend, at the same time shackle that is her past.

^^*************^^

(A/N: Ok you know what? To make things easier, XXXXXXXXXXXXX is Mantis narrating, ok? Ok, good. Back to the story.)

"Jade." She blurted out. "My name is Jade." She repeated with more certainty.

I took Shifu's words seriously and came up with a fake designation. I used Jade cuz....well.....Shifu always called me that and...and I don't know, maybe it was a subconscious impulse thing?