The Beginning Of The End Of The War.
Summary: In the midst of battle, a surprising, some would say shocking, secret is revealed, and it turns out not to be the only occurrence. This revelation sparks the beginning of the end of the Autobot-Decepticon conflict. It should be obvious, but this story is a crack fic.
Continuity: G1, but with one added Bayverse mech to add to the available Decepticons who are not gestalt members or Cassettes. Otherwise they are vastly outnumbered by Autobots.
Pairings: You might be surprised! Or not...
Mech-mech pairings, but no explicit slash.
Credit: LiveJournal user Paperandglass for the original bunny, adopted from the TF-bunny-farm on LiveJournal.
Disclaimer: Transformers isn't mine and I gain no monetary benefit from writing this.
The Beginning Of The End Of The War.
If asked afterwards, everybody involved could remember exactly where they were and what they were doing at the beginning of the end of the war.
It had started out much like any other battle. Wheeljack, Ratchet, Inferno, and a few other Autobots had been left behind at the Ark to prepare the medbay, and guard it against Decepticon incursions. The Decepticons had more than once used a battle to draw all the Autobots out of the Ark so they could enter undetected, and such incursions never turned out well for the Autobots, although thankfully, nothing done had been irreversible. It was a mistake the Autobots had made too often, but with their increased numbers, it was an error they would not make again.
The battle started off much the same as any other, Optimus and Megatron in the middle of the field, giving their orders, the Seekers in the sky on the Decepticon side, Autobots with ranged weapons taking shots at them to try and keep them busy dodging rather than attacking. Each side also had their front line troops, the usual suspects on both sides. Soundwave's Cassettes, plus Bonecrusher, Barricade, and Long Haul on the Deception's side, and Cliffjumper, Mirage, Sunstreaker, Sideswipe and Brawn on the front line of the Autobot troops.
Although he was small, Cliffjumper was brave, though some would say to the point of being foolish, but with his size came speed and manoeuvrability. He was using this to advantage to avoid Barricade, and Mirage was using his disrupter to make hits where it counted, distracting some of the larger 'bots from ganging up on one of the others. Of course, this only caused them to refocus on him, and this time it was Long Haul and Bonecrusher, who both co-ordinated their attacks to hem him in.
Mirage did what he usually did in this situation, activating his disrupter and making a quick dodge to avoid Long Haul, who lashed out to land a blow where Mirage had just been. It might have worked if Bonecrusher hadn't lashed out with a wide, sweeping blow to cover as much area as possible that also passed through where Mirage dodged to.
His attack caused metal to buckle and crumple as he hit the Autobot spy with enough force for Mirage to lose both his footing and control of his disrupter. He became visible as the force of the blow threw him up and over in the air, to land in a crumpled blue and white heap a few feet away.
Bonecrusher was quick to press home his advantage, for the sound had drawn more than one pair of Autobot optics to witness what was happening. Ironhide, Sideswipe, and Jazz all made to move towards their downed comrade, as they saw the slender ex-noble's predicament.
Bonecrusher was faster, though, stepping towards Mirage, stopping a few feet away and raising his blaster to point directly at the vulnerable Autobot as Mirage groaned and rolled onto his back, his plating visibly damaged around his waist. He tried to get up, and froze when he registered the green form standing in front of him, pointing a lethal-looking blaster at his chest. Mirage tried to crab backwards, then stopped, and raised his hands in a surrender position, but Bonecrusher had decided he was taking no prisoners today.
"Goodbye for ever, Autobot weakling!" Bonecrusher sneered as his finger began tightening on the trigger. He held his fire for a moment, to enjoy the look of fear and knowledge of certain and impending permanent offlining rising in Mirage' faceplates and optics, and he was so distracted he did not hear jet engines rapidly descending above.
Before anybody else could move or act further, there was a crack of displaced air, and Bonecrusher suddenly found his shot at Mirage was blocked by the frame of Skywarp, who pointed his own blaster at the Constructicon's face.
"You will have to shoot me first, Bonecrusher, and if you do, you'd better hope my reflexes are not quick enough to take you with me," he said. He had spoken clearly, although not loudly, but had already attracted so much attention that the nearest battles had stopped, and his voice carried. Bonecrusher blinked in confusion at the Seeker, as every nearby optic turned to witness the unexpected, unfolding turn of events. There was another movement, and suddenly Sunstreaker was holding his blaster aimed at Skywarp's head.
"You'd better not, because I won't miss either!" Sunstreaker said. "Harm him, and I will make the Pit seem like a vacation resort!"
Mirage raised a hand, stretching it out in entreaty not to Bonecrusher, who was still looking confused and hurt, but to Skywarp, whose arm had not budged since being aimed at the centre of the Constructicon's faceplates.
"What are you doing?" His voice was softer than usual, the tone that of a genuine query, not the sharp tones of an accusation, as was the look in his optics as he watched Skywarp.
"Shut up, my sweet spark, what does it look like? I'm saving your life," Skywarp replied, his own voice gentle, softer than any had ever heard it. Then he turned to Bonecrusher, who was just realising how much trouble he was potentially in, and had brought the arm holding the blaster back down by his side. There was no gentleness in Skywarp's voice now, only the cold and hard of steel, as he said "Move. Now. Or I will blast you to atoms." The Seeker made a play of adjusting his arm blaster's setting, although he could (and probably already had) adjusted it just by thinking about it. Sunstreaker, for his part, growled his engine in a tone that left nobody in any doubt that he was angry.
"You will join him if you do!" Sunstreaker said.
"Skywarp, this was meant to be our secret, just between you and me, so neither of us would get into trouble with our leaders," Mirage said, as Bonecrusher sensibly moved out of the way, still looking confused. Sunstreaker put an arm around him and quickly moved him away from the pair, as Optimus Prime said "Can somebody please tell me just what is going on?" Nobody answered him directly, but as Skywarp dropped his arm and spoke to Mirage, the situation between the pair became clear.
"I cannot deny what we have any more, and I certainly was not going to lose you today'" Skywarp said, bending to carefully pull Mirage into his arms, semi-cradling the young spy to not put pressure on his injury. He cradled the Autobot gently, and kissed him so soundly that Mirage was rendered silent, at first going limp, and an astrosecond later reciprocating. All combat had ceased on the battlefield as every optic watched with disbelief as Skywarp and Mirage embraced, seemingly oblivious to everyone and everything around them. Then they disengaged, and Skywarp semi-lowered Mirage to the ground, one arm supporting Mirage's damaged side. Then the Seeker turned, his voice raised to carry across the field of conflict.
"Mirage and I are in love, and have been for some time. We hid it, for ours and our side's sakes, living something of a lie. We will not let our opposing sides be a barrier, and we will not allow anybody to end what we have."
Mirage could only nod, and raised one delicate, slender hand to cup one of Skywarp's cheeks. Then he turned, with the Seeker's support, to run his gaze over all the staring, silent mechs, before saying "If you want to kill one of us, you will have to kill us both, but we know that we will die true to each other, and to the world, together." Mirage broke the gaze, putting his arms around Skywarp's neck and burying his face in the Seeker's cockpit. Skywarp, for his part, put his other arm around Mirage again comfortingly, and looked out over Mirage's shoulder with a challenging look.
"I will not be killing either of you today," Optimus commented into the quiet.
"You're still more useful to me alive, Skywarp, I will let this incident go," Megatron, to everybody's surprise, said a moment later. Both the star crossed lovers raised their heads in surprise, and Hook took the advantage given to move over and say "Put him down, Skywarp, so I can fix him, he's putting a brave face on it, but that must hurt."
"You would fix him, an Autobot? No risk of sabotage?" Skywarp asked, but he was already putting Mirage down on on the ground.
"He's important to your happiness, and Megatron's allowing it, so yes, I will fix him," Hook replied."And no, I will not sabotage him and fall victim to your anger as a result. I am not suicidal."
"Hey, would you believe it, they're like us," Sunstreaker said to Bonecrusher. "If they can kiss and tell without incident, then let's do likewise," he said, wrapping the Constructicon in his arms in a surprisingly tender gesture. He looked up to see that those not staring at Hook and Skywarp hovering around Mirage were looking directly at them, and he saw a couple of jaws drop, including that of his own brother.
He ignored them, as one of his questing hands found the back of Bonecrusher's head and pushed it down, gently but insistently, towards his own. Bonecrusher resisted for a split second, then gave in, locking his derma with those of the yellow Autobot artist.
There was a sudden jet scream cut off by a thud, as Starscream landed, reminding everyone else that there were still Seekers in the sky.
"If you can do it, than so can anyone else, and to the Pit with the consequences!" he said, moving over to Red Alert.
"My other half of my Spark, are you well?" He asked, catching Red Alert's hands in his own."Yes, quite well, my Spark, my life, my love, even Ratchet said your null-ray has done the trick and stabilised me permanently," Red Alert said, reaching his arms up to the Seeker's shoulders.
"As I knew it would," Starscream said, running one hand down Red Alert's side, making him shiver.
Red Alert seemed to notice everyone around staring at him, and he raked the rest if the Autobots with a "So?" look before his optics returned to gaze back at his Seeker lover.
Skyfire was the next to act, although most of the grounders were still watching Starscream and Red Alert. The big Autobot flier began spinning around in the air, making lazy loops around and above Ramjet, who quickly joined in, so the pair were dancing around and about each other in jet they both unfolded into robot form in mid-air, and Skyfire scooped Ramjet into his arms and soared upwards with him as they began to kiss each other with an urgency almost unique to Seekers. The kissing swiftly developed into more, again not uncommon with Seekers, and the two performed an explicit dance in the air, which was quickly vacated by the remaining Seekers, who landed to give them the freedom to fly without risk of collision.
As Sideswipe moved over to Long Haul and pulled him into a passionate embrace, Optimus noticed a black and white blur heading for Bumblebee. Optimus was about to move to intercept when Bumblebee said "No, Prime, he's with me, he means no harm."
Barricade indeed did not collide with or attack the yellow scout, but stopped before him with the precision his hydraulics gifted him with. He moved his formidable clawed hands up to cup Bumblebee's silver face tenderly, as Bumblebee placed his own hands on the frontliner's forearms. Then, as if choreographed, Barricade crouched a little as Bumblebee pushed down on Barricade's forearms, and their derma met and meshed in a kiss as passionate as any they had seen that day, which was many more than at their usual fights.
Then they broke the kiss and Barricade said defensively to Optimus "Well if they can, so can we! And nobody will separate us without a fight." He lowered Bumblebee back to the ground and assumed a defensive pose, as if he expected Optimus to try.
"I have always stated that freedom is the right of all sentient beings," Optimus told him "and that includes the freedom of whom to love. I will not be trying to separate anybody."
As Optimus looked over the battlefield, it seemed the same process was going on all over the battlefield, Autobots and Decepticons pairing off with each other. There was Brawn, usually aggressive and belligerent towards any and every Decepticon, staring, besotted, into the optics of Constructicon Scrapper. Not far away from those two, Jazz was holding Scavenger's hand as he played music and danced, and Scrapper was quite happily and calmly, as if he did it every day, dancing with him.
Dirge had taken to the air again, as Jetfire and Ramjet had stopped flying around the sky and were locked together in a tangle of limbs that made it hard to see where one ended and the other began. Blaster was clinging just as tightly to Dirge, his arms and legs wrapped around the Conehead Seeker's torso, and they, too had their derma all but welded together.
Ironhide and Blitzwing, a bit further back, at first gland appeared to be fighting, wrestling, but it soon became obvious that they were attempting to embrace without tangling the assorted "kibble" of their vehicle modes; as a triplechanger, Blitzwing had more than most.
Back where it had all started, Hook was almost done fixing Mirage, while a worried Skywarp paced back and forth nearby, while a short distance away, a confused Mixmaster was asking an equally confused Thrust just what was going on.
Optimus was pulled from his thoughts abruptly when he saw Megatron suddenly rush forward and seize Cliffjumper around the waist from where he was watching Mirage being repaired. Optimus for a moment feared that the Decepticon Leader was so angry at the unexpected mid-battle love-in that he intended to tear the smaller mech apart, nobody was more surprised than Optimus when the unexpected happened: as Megatron pulled the small red mech against his body, Cliffjumper reached out his hands and ran them over the Decepticon Leader's chest and abdomen, eliciting an unexpectedly needy moan from Megatron, who actually dropped to his knees, his optics flickering slightly. Cliffjumper answered with a similar moan as one of Megatron's own hands plucked and stroked at his back.
Optimus was distracted from this most unexpected pairing by the feel of a hand in his own arm. He'd know that touch anywhere, he thought, withdrawing his battle mask and smiling as he turned to see his own guilty secret, Thundercracker, gazing at him suggestively.
"Everybody else is coming clean about their relationships, shall we join in?" The Seeker asked, one finger stroking against Optimus' plating.
"I see little point in concealing it any further," Optimus said, running his other hand up the Seeker's other arm, but his optics strayed over to regard Prowl, whom he worried about being left out, but he realised he needn't have worried.
His tactician was unashamedly staring at Soundwave, unusual enough in itself, but what was surprising to Optimus was that Soundwave was equally blatantly staring right back. Then the Decepticon Communications Specialist moved over to stand in front of Prowl, and despite the visor, it was obvious he was checking Prowl out.
"Soundwave-appreciates-Autobot-Prowl's form," Soundwave stated bluntly. "Does-Prowl-reciprocate-appreciation?" he asked.
"Prowl does indeed," the Autobot tactician replied.
"Then-logic-suggests-relationship-should-be-encouraged. Does-Prowl-concur?" Soundwave asked, raiding and opening his arms in invitation.
"Yes," Prowl replied, and threw himself into Soundwave's arms.
A/N: My Muses are peculiar creatures. Believe me, the Cliffjumper/Megatron pairing was a major surprise to me, till I remembered how often in Seasons 1 and 2 Cliffjumper attacked Megatron by throwing himself at him, and then it was the only logical choice.
Some of these pairings are obvious, although I did try to steer clear of cliches like Jazz/Soundwave or Blaster/Soundwave, or Optimus/Megatron.
And I make no apologies for portraying the Decepticons being able to be tender lovers. They have a different opinion to the Autobots, but are still Cybertronian, like the Autobots, and can still feel and love in the same way.
One more chapter and this story should be wrapped up. After all, Thrust, Hook, and Mixmaster have yet to find their loves.