Author's note: Hello! WeepingWillow here. This is my first time writing fanfiction, so please take that into consideration. I hope there aren't too many mistakes, but if there are, feel free to comment on them. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the plot!
Light of My World
Prologue
It was cold. The ground shook, the air whistled above, high-pitched and unnatural, and the sky was aflame with abrupt flashes of fire and light; explosions he could not hear above the gale. But the feeling of cold was greatest. It caught him, quite literally numbing him to the painful grinding and burning in his middle, masking the luke-warm trickle of life that streamed down his sides in glowing rivulets. The ice was creeping through his cooling systems; he couldn't feel his pedes. Powerless against the cold, the medic watched the fiery dance in the sky and simply tried not to feel; tried not to notice the tears of coolant running down his face, afraid that noticing them would force him to acknowledge the reason why they flowed. He didn't want to remember the moment the shot impacted with his middle, but not because of the pain. It was because of the familiar shape of the weapon, belching blue flame an held in an even more painfully familiar servo-
A harsh, guttural sob threatened to wrench his jaws apart, but he did not let it. He swallowed it with a jolting shudder, and forced his optics up to watch the burning sky.
the First Aid was dying, and with his death the last hope Optimus Prime ever had of winning the war would fade into tatters of a dream; a fantasy none of them could believe anymore. It was between his numb fingers, carefully held inside the wound in his middle so that the last dregs of warmth in his systems could keep it alive just a little longer. Casting a wavering flicker of white light between the oddly shaped bars of its cage, the tiny spark chamber pulsed and fluttered, little wires and mandibles ticking against his palm, seeking the delicate internals of a chassis wall, the nest in which the spark would live forever.
the First Aid closed his optics against the war that raged around him; against the plasma bolts that rocked the alien rock of the cliff beneath him. Bots were dying, and he couldn't save them. Cons were dying, and he wanted to save them. That fact should have shocked him, but it didn't. the First Aid never partook in battle for the simple reason that wrenching a mech's insides open and exposing his dying spark to the world was something he could not force his hands to do. He could throw whatever came to hand at his comrades when their stupidity warranted it, but his hands just…wouldn't kill a mech. Except when -
With a chock, he forced his his mind to wander. Faces flashed before him; golden eyes framed by haughty silver and a blue bell of a helm; a sapphire visor set above a sharp, laughably charming grin; the silver mask below optics as blue as Earth's vast oceans, filled with more kindness that the seas could contain…
The hand that touched his shoulder should have commanded more of an instinctive reaction, but the First Aid's body was kliks away from freezing, and all his limbs could do was shuffle in a bizarre kind of dance, metal screeching against stone. The servo inside his internals cupped the spark casing more firmly, and his optics stuttered online.
"G-Gah!" He rasped, voice laden with static, panic racing through his systems.
Darkly towering above him, wings spread in mockery of an angel of earth, stood a shadow. A very familiar shadow. One that chuckled in a high-pitched, grating tone, scarlet optics narrowed and glowing like molten steel.
"Well, well, well." Starscream crooned, words laden with a thoughtful lilt. First Aid dismissed the warnings popping up in his vision and snarled, engine revving - then sputtering and fading with a wheeze. An acrid stench filled the air, whipped away by the wind, but Starscream did not flinch throughout the display. Standing tall and proud and elegant amid the storm, framed by a molten sky, the seeker's powerful, slim form encapsulated the very essence of war.
"Honestly, Autobot," He said with a sneer First Aid more felt than saw. "If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were trying to get yourself killed."
Panic jolted his thought processes, giving First Aid no opportunity to reply. What if the seeker saw? Would he understand the importance somewhere in his deranged proccessors?
-Energon splattered over a golden cockpit, buildings falling, high pitched clicks of petrified agony slicing through the air like knives…!
No. The youth sectors had proven Starscream had no mercy nor consideration to the weak, let alone one so easily deactivated as the one cradled in First Aid's servos.
"Not going to speak?" The seeker had crouched nearer; a darkly colored face loomed above First Aid's, closer than the flyer would come if the medic had been capable of stopping him. "Pity…"
And then hands were clawing into First Aid's arms, bringing the weak limbs into the air, wrenching the closed fist from inside his middle.
He screamed. High, long, rasping sounds ripped his throat wide open, sending sparks from his vocalizer into the air. He could feel his plating shake and warp, internals grinding an writhing in agony. He had barely enough presence of mind to keep his fist unclenched, though the spark rattled violently within it as his servo shook.
The spark's protection didn't last long. Long, large claws pried his fingers open as easily as humans peeled bananas, and First Aid left all dignity behind.
"No!" He screamed, begging. "No! Please no! Kill me! Not him! Kill me!"
After a pause that sent his hopes flaring, the claws plucked the spark from his palm.
First Aid writhed, barely noticing how his energy splattered the seeker's cockpit - not caring when his middle bent and began to cave.
Words failed him. He didn't know what he was saying, but it wasn't working. The seeker stood, holding the spark in his own blue-stained servos, optics watching First Aid with a look that could be anything from disgust to pleasure.
On his knees now, bent almost double and sparking, First Aid's rage reared, burning through his panic and setting his plating rattling. With a screaming tear of metal on metal, he dove to the side, rolling, snatching, and rising to a jerking halt on one knee only meters away from the seeker. In his servos was the rifle; the familiar weapon that had blasted him through the middle, wrenched from the dead hands of the mech First Aid had killed before he could be killed himself. The body lay to his right, and even in his rage he could not bear to look at it. He could kill again - he would - for the sake of the sparkling Starscream held in his own servos, bodiless and fading-
Except Starscream wasn't holding the spark in his servos anymore. It was pressed against his chest. within his cockpit. Near his own spark. The arms that had held the sparkling were crossed over the flickering light, protective, aiming charge null rays at First Aid. There was murder in the scarlet optics, but there was also a strange look; a sort of wary hope.
Shocked, the medic choked.
Slowly, carefully, the seeker opened his lips. "I am here…" he said, clearly and carefully, as though First Aid were a bomb that would be set off by the slightest aggression…which he was. "To help."
From behind came a slight sound - a vague hiss and crack accompanied by a purplish flash, but First Aid could not even begin to turn away from the sight before him. Fingers slipped onto First Aid's shoulder, light claws resting on white paint. He remained frozen in shock, staring. Three more hands slipped onto various parts of his body, a deep, thrumming voice murmuring to the open air from behind him.
"You could have told him, Starscream." Thundercracker, wingmate to Starscream, once an airlord of Vos...
"Yeah, this slag ain't gonna be easy to fix, now that you went and had him go all protective daddy on you. Aft." Skywarp, wingmate to Starscream, the most mysterious soldier in the Decepticon army, and potentially the most vicious…
"I didn't want the sparkling exposed to his internals any longer! Do you think he would've believed me if I told him?!" Came the responding shriek, back lips exposing white fangs.
Purple crouching into his vision, red optics wide and sympathetic. "Hey, kid." A chuckle. "I can't believe I'm being nice to an Autobot." Violet fingers clinking against white-hot metal inside of his middle. "Aw, frag. Hook is gonna freak."
"Just tell him the other Autobot did it." First Aid jolted involuntarily. That had been Thundercracker, again, murmuring near his helm, hands steady and reassuring…not ripping, not tearing. Just…holding. "…Why am I letting you do the field repairs? You couldn't even fix that human toaster you were so fond of."
"Hey, that was a complex and tiny-as-all-slag piece of equipment!"
"It was human-made."
"You're human-made."
There was a sigh, followed by a few seconds of tense silence, then-
"Fine." Thundercracker growled, continuing in an absurdly childish voice. "You're face's human-made."
"You're mom's-" Skywarp began, but a derisive screech cut him off, emanating from the broad span of white wings swaying to and fro ahead them.
"-Shut up you two. Prepare for take off."
When had they started moving? Thundercracker's shoulder was braced beneath First Aid's arm, his vent grinding against the medic's dented armor. They moved in slow, staggering steps, Skywarp's hands grating and clinking against First Aid's insides as he continued his dubious 'repair work' from the medic's other side.
Scarlet eyes moved from his internals to First Aid's face, and the dark seeker smiled in a kindly way. It looked painful. "War's over, kid." He said, speaking more quietly than First Aid could recall him ever speaking. "Well, not quite yet, but…" The red gaze ticked ahead, eyeing the soft glow of the sparkling in his wingmate's cockpit; at the light of the new world. "…Soon."
Author's note: Like it? Can't stand it and wish it would be burned (if only you could burn computer documents)? I do apologize for any OOC-ness; I have seen many variations of the characters and haven't yet decided which I will use in my stories (plus, First Aid is not on my list of favorite characters). This is sort of a test run, so I would appreciate it if you would give me your honest opinion of it. I know a lot of fanfiction writer's want a lot of praise when they're starting out, but I think I would prefer to know how people like my style, and if they find the story intriguing AT ALL. Thanks so much! Reviews will affect further postings.