Soundwave dragged her back through the groundbridge and dumped her into the brig. Verdant yelped in surprise and caught herself.
"I don't understand what's going on," Verdant stood up and looked at Soundwave. "I abandoned the Autobots."
"Yes," a raspy, amused voice purred from behind her.
Verdant turned around, coming face-to-face with Megatron himself. The great warlord loomed over her, his sharp denta glinting in sync with the vicious glow of his optics.
He grinned. "Your betrayal is a fact the Autobots are well aware of. Still, threats to torture you are quite effective."
She frowned. "How did you even get in contact with them?"
"Watch your tone," Megatron warned as he turned away. "The Autobots have always been easy to contact. I have Optimus Prime's personal comm signal memorized."
"Right... Lord Megatron," Verdant looked down. "My apologies."
He hummed and sat on his throne. "Is that sufficient proof of health, Optimus?"
Verdant's helm snapped up, and she finally noticed the screen in the corner was glowing with the sight of the Autobots gathered around the monitors. Her optics flickered between the faces of each of them and she took a step back.
Fear. Disappointment. Anger. Shock. Horror.
"Yes," Optimus avoided Verdant gaze and looked at Ultra Magnus... angrily. "That is sufficient."
Megatron clasped his servos together. "Wonderful. I'll be expecting those bones soon."
The connection was lost and the screen darkened. Verdant stared at it for a moment before suddenly a tight grip was wrapped around her arm. Megatron had somehow teleported from his throne and was now slamming her into the wall.
"What were you doing in the brig?" he demanded. "Did Soundwave not give you a detailed schedule regarding where you should be at all times?"
"I-" Verdant swallowed hard. "I thought you had an Autobot prisoner."
"And you what?" he snarled. "You thought you would go visit and free them?"
She shrunk. "N-no! I-"
"No, what!?"
"No, Lord Megatron," Verdant looked down. "I'm sorry. I was curious."
He let go of her. "Next time, keep your curiosity under control. I do not allow insubordination on my warship. Is that understood?"
She nodded rapidly. "Yes, Lord Megatron."
Megatron growled. "Consider this your first and last warning."
After he began walking away, Verdant rose to her pedes and headed for the door, bowing her helm in shame. Ultra Magnus had publicly humilitiated her plenty of times, but never like that. Decepticons always attacked first and asked questions later.
Soundwave, apparently, followed that same philosophy. The moment he realized that she stepped out of line, he was pushing her into walls and throwing her through groundbridges. That wasn't the mark of a bot who cared.
And to think the only reason she was still here was because of him.
Verdant scoffed and headed for the flight deck. She wouldn't be here any longer than she had to. Not as an ally, and certainly not as a hostage.
She activated her comms once she got outside and tuned into a frequency still fresh in the projector of the Decepticon bridge. "Optimus. Don't hand over the bones."
Then she deactivated it and returned her comms to offline, so they wouldn't contact her again. She had no desire to speak with anyone yet.
Finally, Verdant turned around and fixed her attention on the large mass in the corner. "Hello."
The predacon blew out a puff of air in response.
"Would you mind giving me a ride down to Earth?" she questioned.
He stared unmovingly.
"Soundwave is busy and I can't fly," Verdant informed him. "Shockwave told me I could ask you."
The predacon stood up and slowly circled her, sniffing her arms and back with veiled suspicion. Finally, he slowed down and lowered himself to his stomach.
Verdant gulped nervously, but there was no backing down now. She grabbed ahold of his plates and swung herself onto his back. Barely moments after she was sitting atop him, the predacon leaped off the flight deck, unfurling his massive wings, and jumped off the ship.
Immediately, she tightened her grip on his plates, resisting the urge to hug his neck, and gritted her denta. Autobots were not meant to fly.
Except maybe Wheeljack. He didn't follow the rules of gravity-or anything, really.
Focus. Verdant forced herself to pay attention as the ground came up rather swiftly. Her predacon transport expertly shifted his wings and hit the ground only hard enough to knock her off.
He growled, turned away from her, and indignantly flew back up to the ship.
Verdant sighed and checked her coordinates. It was a sizeable distance away from the Autobot base, but thankfully, the space between wasn't highly populated and didn't require large detours.
She was on a small island off the coast of California, and if she travelled east with only small shifts to the north, Verdant would arrive at the Autobot base in two days. There was enough energon in her system to last about three days, if she didn't exert herself too much.
By driving.
With a small sigh, Verdant started walking toward the edge of the island. She transformed her servo into a knife and held up the arm with her new Decepticon insignia. No point in keeping that around.
She scratched at it until it was unrecognizable. It took just long enough for her to reach the water. Verdant transformed into a wheel and took off.
What was she going to tell them? Verdant felt abhorred by her actions, and it only made her feel worse knowing that Megatron had held her against them. They didn't deserve to deal with such an emotional liability. This was war.
Ultra Magnus always embodied that ideal. Emotions were to be saved for one's personal life, and barring that, the day they finally beat the Decepticons. That day seemed to get farther and farther away as time moved on. But either way, she had no good reason to be looking to Ultra Magnus as a source of guidance or inspiration. He was the last mech she wanted to deal with, or even think about.
If she was going back to the Autobots, it was because they were the good guys and they were the ones who needed to win the war. Nothing personal could be attached. Not after this.
Verdant sped over land and water, keeping her steely gaze on the path ahead. Things would never be the same again. Chances were, the first time she looked at Ultra Magnus, that heated feeling of rage and fury would fill her chassis to the brim once more, and she'd not be able to hold back a flurry of fists. At most it would get her killed; at least... nobody would treat her the same again.
But that was an event she could avoid. It was paramount that by the time she arrived at the Autobot base, all memories and emotions saved for her home's destruction were compartmentalized. War was not the time for anger.
Not at her allies, at least.
She had a goal now. A sacred mission to defeat the Autobots and restore their homeworld to its former glory. In all reality, the mission hadn't changed, but Verdant felt as if everything had changed. She needed to re-prioritize. To remember what her purpose was.
For the first time, Verdant blinked away the fire burning in her peripherals, and she tuned out the sounds of screams and explosions. The ever-constant reminders of what she'd lost so long ago were quieted.
Once upon a time, trying to put aside the past might have felt shameful, as if the goal was simply to be relieved of it. Verdant was wanted to remember, to let the flames of Steelbend burn in her spark and fuel her drive. But now such thinking was catastrophic. Letting that anger take over meant letting the Decepticons win.
Verdant didn't like it, but the destruction of Steelbend was... insignificant. It meant nothing.
The Autobots destroyed Steelbend, but the Decepticons had bombed their fair share of cities too. Everyone was an aggressor in this war. The only difference was that the Decepticons were driven by emotion and a thirst for power. Verdant could only live alongside such beasts for so long.
The Autobots were better. The casualties were Insignificant. The deaths meant nothing. There would always be death and destruction in the wake of marching armies. Verdant had simply forgotten to look back.
And that mistake had nearly cost the Autobots more than they could afford to lose. They couldn't afford to let the Decepticons build a predacon army, but neither could they afford to become the enemy. Their moral code did not allow them betray someone who had never wronged them before.
It was an act of empathy and kindness Verdant could never hope to repay.
So, yes, from now on, life would be very different. There was only one factor that mattered. She needed to focus on helping her allies, and nothing else mattered.