Disclaimer: Obviously I don't own the Transformers, they belong to Hasbro.
Summary: This is my first fic I've ever posted, so I'm kinda nervous Told from Sunstreaker's POV, based in G1 universe and set during season 3 of the cartoon. Story contains character deaths (lots of 'em).
"Through these fields of destruction
Baptisms of fire
I've watched all your suffering
As the battles raged higher
And though they did hurt me so bad
In the fear and alarm
You did not desert me,
My brothers in arms…" – Dire Straits – Brothers in Arms
As ash and dust was still sifting through the air and settling on the ground, I regained consciousness. How long had my systems been shut down, how long had I been offline? Whilst all my internal systems were whirring and still rebooting, I pushed myself up off the hot ground and stood shakily on my legs. Cybertron. It lay before me and all around me, the mechanical planet, destroyed and in pieces. Primus…if there really was a Primus, how could he let this happen?? Data started flowing back to my cerebro circuits…data collections from before the darkness overcame me. Deceptions/lots of them/all of them. Galvatron/unstoppable/determined more than ever…victorious?
Still stuck in a trance staring ahead of me, I take a look around, mouth agape, optics wide. Scrap metal litters the entire ground as far as I can see, thickly like a carpet. Small fires are scattered throughout, thick, hot ash drifting down from the sky, covering everything. My fellow Autobots…my brothers…they lay destroyed, twisted and mangled. Mere husks of what they once were. My brother…frag, not my brother too…not Sideswipe. My processors cannot take it, the fact that my brother may be gone too. I gasp, my systems overheating with panic rapidly. The ash is in my mouth, all my olfactory sensors can smell is melting metal. I start searching rapidly through all the destruction around me, trudging through it, my entire body shaking. Chucking pieces of metal aside- wait, that was Blurr's hand- slag, I'm sorry Blurr, I rasp, continuing my desperate search, sifting through metal upon metal. A bit further along the way, I see Bluestreak's head, staring up at the sky, optics black. I don't know where the rest of his body is. A glimpse of red catches my optics further along the way, my head drawn to it like a magnet- can it be? For the love of the Matrix, please don't let it be…I stumble closer…It isn't, its Cliffjumper I realize as I get closer. At least he's in better shape than the others I've seen so far, the poor wrecks, he's still all pieced together for the most part.
Sideswipe…I must find him. I pass more Autobots, mainly just pieces of them lying amongst the smoldering metal. I can't get over what I'm seeing with my optics, its not right, I can't accept it…
Just after passing Bumblebee, I see him…I scream out in horror…slag it! Not my brother! Not Sideswipe, no one can take him away! I run towards him, almost tripping in my frenzy, and kneel down. My mouth open, I'm too shocked to say anything. He's covered in soot and ash, I desperately try and brush it all off of him, this horrible slaggin' stuff covering his perfect red paint job. Dammit to hell! It makes me angry, but the anger quickly melts into despair. One of his arms is missing, blown clean off, his left leg below the knee joint is gone. His optics are black…I look up and scream out in agony, I don't care about the ash settling on my face…my brother, my best friend- the other half of myself!- gone. His chassis is completely burnt out, his spark extinguished…there is no longer life here…I can't stop myself sobbing as I hold him to me.
How did Galvatron manage this?? He must have been planning this massacre for months, year's maybe. We could never have foreseen such an assault. Why am I still alive? Perhaps they wanted someone to pass on the story of what happened here…but by the Matrix, I don't even remember! My databanks cannot retrieve the information, I can't process why.
Sideswipe looks so peaceful in death. I can't even start thinking about the others now…
Galvatron has won. But I have survived for a reason, and I'm going to do whatever it takes to avenge my brother and the Autobots. They never would have deserted me and I sure as hell am not gonna desert them now.