Author note: Hello all, here is the sequel to Shore Leave. hope you all enjoy what is about to unfold!
Arcee sprinted down a never ending passage, dark and foggy. Her spark was in her throat and her stomach pulled somersaults. Her legs felt weak and flimsy under her torso as she sprinted to a target that never got closer, only further away. There was no ceiling above just an ascending constant pair of walls disappearing into foggy darkness.
Her eyes were full of fear and her trembling lips only quoted that fear. She kept sprinting, even though she was growing tired, physically and mentally of running this foggy hallway. She couldn't transform she just kept running. Suddenly her eyes widened and she slammed to a halt, her feet sliding against the floor as she stopped.
Before her manifested two figures, the fog rippled and twisted around them as they formed. Their cloud sculpted heads looked up, changing color and becoming solidified. When she saw their appearances, her jaw dropped and eyes widened.
Tailgate and Cliffjumper were knelt before her. She looked at both of them, shock and awe on her face.
"You're both okay! Thank the Allspark!" A smile formed on her face.
They both changed their expressions.
"You failed us" They simultaneously said with a snarl.
Her smile disintegrated, and her eyes gazed up from them. Two more ghostly figures formed, each stood behind Tailgate and Cliffjumper. The figure behind Tailgate sprouted spider legs and Airachnid's head as the figured fully formed into the Decepticon monster. She flicked her fingers and hissed at Arcee.
Arcee staggered back in shock as she saw Starscream appear behind Cliffjumper. A smirk stretched across his evil face. He swung his sharp fingers out and Airachnid raised her spider leg.
"You failed us" Cliffjumper and Tailgate said simultaneously again. She tried grabbing them and pulling them to her, but her hands went through them, and a swirl of foggy cloud hazed from them. She looked at her palms as fog slowly fell from them. She couldn't help them.
She was forced to watch as Airachnid and Starscream performed their killing moves on her past partners once more. Cliffjumper's eyes widened as he felt Starscream's sharp fingers rip through his chest like soft buttery flesh. Tailgate spluttered as Airachnid's quick swipe of her leg sliced his throat, Energon blood speckling Arcee, causing her to stagger and scream. She shouted as loud as she could, with rage and horror, but no sound emitted. She was silent whether she liked it or not. Starscream dropped Cliffjumper and he fell, disappearing into fog as he slumped. Tailgate repeated this demise as he diminished to fog.
Airachnid and Starscream looked at Arcee and slowly walked towards her, terrifyingly. She backed away and bumped against something huge. She looked over her shoulder at Blackout. He smirked evilly and laughed demonically, his chest heaving with every inhale and exhale.
She stepped away and Starscream and Airachnid each grabbed one of Arcee's arms. She was caught tight as Airachnid gripped her right arm, and Starscream's vice tight grip grasped her left. Arcee couldn't escape.
She looked down in unbelievable horror as Jack manifested before her. She screamed and roared at him. Her lips read "Run" But no sound vocalized them. Her eyes spoke volumes of emotion that no one could see. Blackout fell to one knee with a groan, resting his left wrist across the bent knee. He looked at Jack, and then at her. Jack seemed unaware that he was even behind him.
Arcee tried to break free but couldn't. Blackout extended his sharp wrist blade and smirked at her.
"I will hurt you in every way before I kill you, the only way I know how. Attack your spark, and all it holds dear!" Blackout roared, ramming the huge blade through Jack, lifting him off the ground and sliding his body onto the blade. Jack fell silent after a fear filled face died. Arcee screamed in horror and pain, but nothing came out.
"Jack!" She screamed, sound emitting as she awoke in the garage. A cold, translucent Energon, sweat coated her metal skin and she breathed heavily. She looked around the dark garage and hugged her knees.
"It was...it was a dream. Thank the Allspark" She stammered as she tried to catch her breath. She rested her forehead on her wrists and looked up at the garage door, sat aloft her mats that Jack had placed for her to sleep on, since she found it very uncomfortable powering down as a Motorcycle.
She felt a watery splat on the metal of her wrist. She looked at it, seeing another drop on her wrist again. She pressed her feminine finger against her cheek, wiping a watery Energon tear away. She sighs as she closes her optics, squeezing tears out and down her cheek. She had no idea she was crying till she wiped it away.
"Crying, really Arcee? Grow up" She insults herself, hugging her knees tighter.
She heard the faint sound of a door open and muffled footsteps thumping. Suddenly the door to the garage edged open and Jack walked in, wearing his boxers alone. He pressed his palm against the light switch and a violent blast of light blinded him, his eyes squinted.
"Hey Cee, what's wrong?" He asked, obviously hearing her scream as she awoke.
She seemed to ignore the fact he was barely dressed, his hair ruffled and his eyes weary, hardly awake.
"Nothing Jack, go back to sleep" she ordered, slumping her head on her wrists. Jack and Arcee were the only ones home, since June wasn't due back till the early hours of the morning.
He crouched down in front of her, hand on her shin.
"Not until you tell me what's wrong. I heard you scream, and you never scream, now what's wrong?" He asked, very concerned. She sighed and looked up at him. He saw the tears welling bright blue under her shiny optics.
"Oh Cee, why the tears?" He asked in a soft voice, stroking her polymer cheek and sweeping the tears from the soft metal skin.
"Nothing Jack, please go" She pleaded. He looked into her eyes, showing his undying support, but all she saw was Blackout's blade slamming through his ribcage. She shuddered her head and looked away from him, closing her eyes.
"Cee...it's me, you can tell me"
"I...I had a nightmare, there, happy?" She snarled, feeling vulnerable. Jack sighed as he smirked gently at her.
"There is nothing to be ashamed of Cee. We all have nightmares"
"Not me! Jack, I survived the war on Cybertron. I saw Tailgate killed, and watched a dark Energon infected Cliffjumper die! Not one nightmare happened that affected me like this one. It...It was because you were in it Jack" She explained. He sat listening as he gently caressed her cheek.
"And I knew, as soon as I got involved with you, that sooner or later I'd have to see you die-"
"No, don't. We aren't having the lifespan talk, not now okay?" Jack said firmly. She scoffed and a small raise in the corner of her mouth initiated a smile. She glanced back at him.
"So you had a Nightmare? It wasn't real. I'm here, see? I'm fine" He smiled at her. She raised her hand and gently squeezed his.
"Thank you Jack" She leaned down, kissing him on the lips passionately. He returned with equal pressure. Both, eyes closed as they kissed, forgetting the nightmares and the world around them.
She gently retracted as she opened her beautiful optics and stared back at him with a smile.
"There's my Cee" He smirked. He pats her leg and stood up with a groan. She watched as he got up and began to walk to the door, smiling at her.
"I'll see you in the morning okay Cee?" He said, just as he finger went to the flip the light switch she stammered out some nervous words. A nervous Arcee?
"Jack...wou...would you mind...staying with...me?" She managed, wringing her hands together and avoiding eye contact, snarling at herself internally at the fact she had just asked someone to stay with her so she wouldn't be alone.
I'm pathetic.
Jack sighed gently and nodded to her. "Of course. I'd love to" He said as he hit the light switch and darkness resumed, the only light coming from faint orange street light beams gazing through the thin slits in the garage door. She looked up and smiled to him, a calming blue hue emitting from her body and eyes. He walked over, grabbing a large blanket from the corner of the garage and whipping it out, throwing faint dust off of it. He walked back over to the awaiting Autobot he loved and lay down on the mat beside her. She was larger, but not by much, just a lot taller. She rested her head back and all her issues and nightmares melted away. She turned on her side, looking at Jack, the only time they could properly look into eyes without either looking down slightly or him looking up. He looked deep into the bright blue optics with pink rings illuminating them. He thrust air from his nostrils with a smirk, like a stifled chuckle.
He raised a hand from under the blanket, more a tarp sheet that could cover them both. She had her hand open and he met it with his pressing them together, still no glow, no sign that being Sparkmates was possible but they didn't care, not at that moment. They just stared at one another, feeling something warming the blood in his heart and the Energon in her spark. Was this love?
She closed her eyes and met his lips with hers, a passionate goodnight kiss. They parted and she kept her eyes closed as she began to power down. He stroked her cheek and lay watching her drift off for over half an hour.
Jack sighed and smiled as he had succeeded in calming her down, and giving her a well needed power down. But he also frolicked in the fact that he'd succeeded in something else. He'd gotten his dream girl.