ATE: You're all probably wondering what this story is exactly. Ever since my friend, Crystalmaiden62 and I came up with the idea for her new story Swan's Love, I came up with the idea of this story that would tell of the time that happened between the years that passed. If anyone's read Swan's Love then you'll know that it's based off of the movie Swan Princess, but using the characters (both canon and OCs) from To Dance Among The Skies. For those who have seen Swan Princess this story will basically be the part in the movie where the song 'This Is My Idea' (basically showing the events that happened while Odette and Derek grew up), but it's a 'nicer version' of it, as Crystalmaiden62 put it. And it's also a sort of companion story to Swan's Love. Enoy!
Declaimer: I don't own Transformers, Transformers Armada, or Swan Princess. I only on my OCs Valerie and Astera.
NOTE: due to the fact that Valerie is young in this story, she'll constantly mispronounce names and words (mainly for her POV) to reflect her age. It's been awhile since I've written a story with the OC's POV being in 3rd person. Here's a list of the names in case anyone gets confused:
Jetfire - Jeffire
Astera - Asera
Smokescreen/Hoist - Simokesween (Smokey)/ Hose
Cyclonus - Psychonus
PS: If I could put more than two genres for this story they would be Humor, Family, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, and Friendship.
Time In-Between
Chapter 1: Day One - First Impressions
A little girl gazed out the window of the moving car from where she sat in her car seat in the back. She appeared to be only 4 years old, with her ash blonde colored hair coming down to her shoulders. She wore a simple light pink dress that her mom had her wear that day with matching shoes to go with it. Her blue gaze wandering to the two people sitting at the front of the car. Her daddy was the driving the car, the sunlight making his slick blonde hair shine slightly, while her mommy sat beside him, her brown eyes full of happiness as she looked at daddy, and occasionally she would tuck her chin length light brown hair behind her ear. She didn't exactly know what was going on, but she heard bits and pieces of their conversation.
"Mommy?" The little girl asked. This caused her mommy to turn to look at her. "Where we going?"
"We're going to see Astera and Jetfire, Valerie." Her mommy answered, giving her a smile.
This confused the little girl known as Valerie.
"Asera and Jeffire? Who they?"
"They're friends of ours. They were one of the many people that came to see you after you were born. Jetfire happens to be Astera's son, and they're both looking forward to seeing you."
"Why we go see tem?"
"You'll see, Valerie."
Valerie was still confused. Why wouldn't her mommy tell her the reason they were going to see Jeffire and Asera? She turned her gaze back to the window and continued watching the unfamiliar scenery. She would admit that it was pretty, but she didn't recognize anything. Wherever this Jeffire and Asera lived, Valerie couldn't help but faintly notice something strange she felt. It felt…warm and welcoming…and it slowly got stronger the closer they got to their destination. She hugged her white stuffed bunny, who she had named Mr. Fwobbles. Maybe the feeling she felt was coming from her bunny, but for some reason it didn't feel like it.
Before she knew it Valerie felt the car stop moving and realized they must've been arrived at their destination. The door to her left opened to show mommy wearing a nice looking outfit. She searched her memory, remembering that she and daddy called the outfits they were wearing 'business suits'. Mommy reached over to undo the buckles that kept Valerie in her car seat before carefully pulling her out of the car. On reflex she wrapped her tiny arms around mommy's next (all the while holding onto Mr. Fwobbles) before looking around at her surroundings. All around her she could see green grass, but what stood out the most was the huge building (that seemed to be a cross between a really big house and a business building) up ahead, while surrounding them was a big courtyard that seemed to be attended to daily, along with a few trees around to make the place seem like it was friendly.
Why she thought of considering the whole place a castle she didn't know, but that was the word that popped into her head despite the fact that it didn't really look like a castle. There wasn't a drawbridge or pointed towers as she had always seen pictures of in the books her mommy would read to her before bedtime. It confused her.
Valerie looked up at the blue sky above, seeing that it was a nice clear day. She had always gazed up at the sky and never ceased to amaze her how fascinating it was to look at. She felt as if she had a connection to it or something like that, which confused her. She never understood why, but in the end she always would look up at the sky when she could (most of those times being before naptime).
Jetfire had seen the vehicle that belonged to Earth's peace ambassador members Thomas and Sarah Smith arrive before going to get his mother, Astera. What surprised him was when he found her at the bottom of the flight of steps he had been heading for, making him assume that she already knew that they had arrived. Astera smiled at him as her emotions showed through her violet optics.
"Shall we go greet them?"
"Why not?" Jetfire replied.
"You're mainly excited about seeing their daughter."
Jetfire couldn't help but smile behind his gold face mask at the mention of the ambassador members' daughter. The last time he had seen her was 4 years ago when she was still a newborn sparkling. He could still remember holding her in his arms for the first time and it had been during that time that he learned that she was his future sparkmate. The moment he had looked into her sky blue eyes he knew that she held his spark in her tiny hands, even if she wasn't aware of it yet.
"So what if I am?" He asked. "I've been looking forward to this day for 4 years."
Astera knew how her son felt about this. She was aware of the fact that the two ambassador members Mr. and Mrs. Smith were very busy people and that they were both concerned about their young daughter, so they had come to an agreement that would allow Valerie to say with them while her parents were away on their meetings. Not only would it be beneficial for them, but it would be beneficial for Jetfire so that he and Valerie could develop their engagement connection; for someday they would be the ones to unite Earth and their home planet Cybertron in peace when they both got married. The two planets had been waiting for an opportunity like this for years and both humans and transformers were all hoping that this would work.
Both mother and son walked outside to meet the Smiths, but Jetfire's spark swelled with joy when his gold optics caught the sight of young Valerie being placed on the ground by Sarah Smith. The instant her sky blue eyes spotted him she quickly hid behind her mother's legs, occasionally peeking at him before hiding from him. This confused Jetfire slightly. He hadn't expected Valerie to act like this since she would've been responding to him through their connection, but then again she was only 4 years old. It was probably normal for her to act like this around someone she felt like she didn't know.
As Valerie hid behind her mommy's legs she would peek at the two strangers that reminded her of those toys little boys seemed to like to play with. What were they called again? Oh, robots! That's what the two people before her reminded her of, or maybe those giant robots that she had seen when her parents had been watching the news about something she couldn't understand. But what confused her was that they were human size (or the size of her parents if not a little taller). Shouldn't they be bigger than this?
One of the robots appeared to be a pretty lady with glowing violet eyes which expressed the happy smile she wore on her face. Her whole body was a light green color with some light pink and yellow on her arms, legs, and head. She reminded Valerie of mommy in a way.
The other one was a bulky looking robot that was mostly white and gray and seemed to be a boy. His head was a red color with the only part of his face that she could see being his glowing gold eyes since everything below his eyes was covered up by a gold face mask. Unlike the lady robot next to him (who happened to be taller than her), he happened to have what looked to be gray wings on his back, making Valerie wonder if he could fly. There were parts of his body that looked as if they were from a rocket ship.
The bulky robot had looked at her with his gold eyes and they seemed to sparkle as if he were smiling at her from behind that gold mask of his. It was like he knew her and it made her feel funny. So she hid behind mommy's legs and every time she peeked at the two robots Valerie always found the bulky robot looking at her and she would end up hiding, only to repeat the process over again. She hugged Mr. Fwobbles close to her. The strange feeling she had felt during the car ride here had gotten stronger as soon as the two robots had come out of the huge building, but she couldn't pinpoint where exactly it was coming from.
"It's good to see you again, Thomas and Sarah." The lady robot said, her voice sounding kind and motherly.
"Same here." Daddy replied.
"It's been awhile." Mommy added.
"For you, yes, but for us…well, you get the idea." The lady robot giggled. Valerie was confused. What did the lady robot mean by what she said? She peeked around mommy's legs, but she hadn't been quick enough to hide since the lady robot spotted her with her violet eyes. "And is that young Valerie I see hiding?"
How did the lady robot know her name? Was she a mind reader or something?
"Yes, that would be our daughter." Daddy said.
"Valerie, why don't you introduce yourself to them?" Mommy asked as she looked down at her daughter hiding behind her.
"But mommy…" Valerie complained quietly.
This caused mommy to turn around before kneeling down to Valerie's eye level.
"What's wrong, sweetie?"
"I'm scared…"
Jetfire's audio receptors didn't miss what Valerie had quietly said and he felt his spark sink dejectedly. She was scared of them, including himself. To her, he and his mother were merely strangers to her and it was completely understandable that she would be scared of them, but the 4 year old girl wasn't even aware of how much her words had affected him. Astera was probably aware of Valerie's words, as well as how it made Jetfire feel.
"It's okay." Mommy told her. "They're not mean and they won't hurt you. They're our friends, Valerie. You like making friends, remember?" Valerie nodded subtly in response, wondering what mommy was trying to tell her. "And they want to be your friends as well."
Valerie finally understood what mommy was trying to tell her and she peeked at the two robots behind her. They wanted to be her friends? Mommy said they wouldn't hurt her, and if mommy and daddy trusted the robots, then shouldn't she? Mommy got up and placed her hands on Valerie's shoulders before turning her to face the two robots. She looked at the ground while occasionally looking up at both the lady robot and the bulky robot shyly. She hugged Mr. Fwobbles tightly as if the white stuffed bunny would reassure her before taking reluctant steps towards the two robots. The looks in both of their glowing eyes seemed to brighten when they saw her slowly make her way towards them like a cautious animal.
Jetfire felt hopeful as he watched Valerie come up to them. As soon as she stood in front of them both he and his mother knelt down so that they wouldn't seem so tall to the little girl. She seemed slightly wary as she watched them with her sky blue eyes. Astera smiled at the 4 year old so that she wouldn't feel uncomfortable.
"Hello there, young Valerie. It's nice to finally get to meet you after hearing all the wonderful things your parents told us about you." The lady robot said. "I'm Astera. And this is my son, Jetfire."
Valerie glanced at the two robots before pointing at the lady robot.
"Asera." Valerie said before pointing to the bulky robot. "Jeffire."
Jetfire couldn't help but grin behind his face mask when Valerie mispronounced his name as 'Jeffire'. Close enough. He wouldn't bother correcting her since she was still a sparkling. She'd learn to pronounce his name correctly as she got older.
"That's right." Astera said encouragingly. "Those are our names." She looked up and smiled at Valerie's parents who stood behind her. "You have such a beautiful sparkling."
Sparkly? What was a sparkly? Valerie turned to look at her parents behind her as if they would know the answer to her silent question. Apparently it was a good thing since mommy and daddy both smiled.
"Yes she is." Mommy agreed. "You'll be okay with taking care of her while we're away, right?"
"Of course!" Asera smiled. "We've been fine with this every since we made that agreement 4 years ago."
Valerie looked back and forth between her parents and Asera and Jeffire with a fearful look in her wide eyes.
"Mommy?" She asked, feeling confused and fearful. "Where you and daddy going?"
"We have to attend to a peace meeting with the other peace ambassador members." Daddy explained.
"We'll be away for a few weeks, so you'll be staying with Astera and Jetfire for the time being."
Valerie was even more fearful now. Mommy and daddy were going to leave her here with these two robots while they left? Were they abandoning her? Did she do something bad that would make them leave her with two strangers that they said were their friends? She didn't want to be left behind! She wanted to stay with her mommy and daddy, not with two people she barely even knew!
"Mommy! Daddy!" She started crying and occasionally sniffling. "Don't leave me here! Take me with you!"
"Valerie. It'll be okay." Mommy said, kneeling down in front of her daughter. "We'll be back soon, and if you're good we'll get you something. You can trust Astera and Jetfire. They'll protect you and make sure you stay safe."
This did little to calm Valerie down. Why would they need to protect her? She didn't want to be protected. She wanted to stay with her parents. Asera had to hold Valerie back as her parents drove away from them. She continued crying as she felt like she was in a different world, like Alice in Wonderland. She didn't belong here. Nothing was familiar except for the blue sky.
"Valerie, how about we go inside?" Asera asked, her voice calm and gentle as she talked to the crying 4 year old. "We can get you something to eat and I'm sure-"
Valerie didn't let Asera finish since she ran off in a random direction in the large courtyard. She didn't want to be here! She wanted to be with mommy and daddy, but they abandoned her here! As she continued running Valerie didn't notice that she dropped Mr. Fwobbles.
Jetfire watched Valerie run off and he couldn't help but feel sad. It made him feel horrible when she started crying over her parents leaving her for one of their meetings. She didn't know what was going on; she was too young to understand that her parents had a very important job that had duties that were just as important. He glanced at his mother to see the regretful look on her face.
"She doesn't trust us." Astera said quietly. "She doesn't understand what's going on or that she's only staying with us for a few weeks."
"She thinks they abandoned her here." Jetfire mused. "Poor kid…"
"Jetfire, go find her. She doesn't know her way around and she could easily get lost."
Jetfire turned to look at Astera and nodded before running off in the direction Valerie went. Apparently he was going the right way since he soon came across the white stuff bunny that the 4 year old had been holding earlier. He smiled sadly as he held the bunny with care in his hand.
"Don't worry, little guy. We'll find her soon." He said to the stuffed bunny as if it would come to life and talk right back to him. He frowned as he suddenly realized what he was doing. "Oh, right. You're just a toy."
Jetfire continued following the path he was on, but then he stopped as his audio receptors picked up a sound. He could hear someone crying, followed by sniffling. Valerie was nearby! He followed the sound to a group of large bushes and that was where he found the crying sparkling hiding. Jetfire knew that he would have to be careful on how he approached her. One wrong move and he would most likely lose whatever little trust she had in him. He glanced down at the stuffed bunny he held. Maybe if he returned it to her she's start to trust him. That was his best bet right now.
Jetfire went around the huge bushes so that he could have a clear view of the little girl hiding in the slight alcove the bushes formed. Her head shot up to look at him and he could see that her sky blue eyes were red and puffy from all the crying she had been doing so far. She buried her face in her arms that were hugging her legs to her chest. Jetfire sighed quietly before sitting against the wall across from her, bending his leg as he draped an arm across his knee. How was he supposed to talk to her? If Astera had been here she probably would've been able to talk to Valerie. After all, his mother had raised him on her own since his father had been offlined when he was only 50,000 years old. But right now he was on his own, so it was up to him to get Valerie to trust him. This was the only way to get the engagement connection to start developing between them. Plus, if he wanted to ever have sparklings of his own with his sparkmate, now would be the perfect time to practice on a 4 year old Valerie.
"Hey…I guess I found you." Jetfire started, feeling unsure if this was the right way to start a conversation with the upset and confused girl. "Nice place you got here."
Okay, that was probably the most stupidest thing he could say right now. He was surprised when he suddenly heard a barely audible giggle come from the 4 year old, but luckily for transformers their audio receptors were able to pick up faint sounds. He smiled a small smile behind his face mask, seeing that the quiet laugh was a good sign for him to continue.
"Mind if I joined you inside?" He asked.
At this Valerie peeked up at him before quickly hiding her face from him. She quietly hummed and Jetfire took that chance to carefully get inside the bushy alcove and sit down next to Valerie. Good thing that the alcove was big enough for the two of them to be in. He gazed down at her before holding out the white stuffed bunny in front of the little girl.
"I found this on the way here and thought I should give it back to you."
Valerie felt the soft and familiar fabric brush against her arm and looked up to find Jeffire holding Mr. Fwobbles out to her. Her eyes widened in surprised and she turned to look up at Jeffire to see if it was okay to take her stuffed bunny. Upon seeing Jeffire nodding Valerie took the toy and hugged it tightly to her.
"Mr. Fwobbles!" She said quietly in relief.
Jetfire smiled at seeing Valerie cheer up when she got her stuffed bunny back.
"Mr. Fwobbles?" He asked. "What kind of name is that?
At this Valerie looked back up at Jeffire.
"A good name." She said quietly. She frowned slightly. "You…don't like it?"
Jetfire's optics widened in surprise from Valerie's question and he shook his head.
"No, of course I like it. He's your bunny so you have every right to name him whatever you want." Jetfire laughed quietly at this before coming up with his next plan of action. "I, uh, forgot your name. Mind telling me what it was again?"
Valerie felt confused. Hadn't Jeffire heard what her name was earlier?
"It's Valerie."
"Oh, that's right! It was Valerie!" Jeffire exclaimed. Valerie hid her small smile behind Mr. Fwobbles. He wasn't so scary anymore. In fact, she almost found him…funny. The strange feeling, she noticed, was stronger and she realized that it seemed to be coming from the robot sitting next to her. She felt like she could trust him, but she didn't understand why. It still confused her. "So how old are you?"
Valerie lifted her hand up and held four fingers up for him to see.
"This many." She told him.
"So you're 4 years old! I happen to be 270,000 years old.
Valerie's eyes widened in surprise when she heard this.
"You old."
Jeffire chuckled.
"I'm not that old. By human standards I'd be considered 27 years old. That would be…" Jeffire gently grabbed both of Valerie's hands with his so that she showed all her fingers before holding all of his out. Then he realized that he didn't have enough and looked around to find seven small pebbles and placed them on the ground in front of them before lowering both of their fingers with the pebbles. "…this many."
Jetfire watched as Valerie stared at all their fingers and the seven pebbles on the ground in front of them, her brows furrowed as she tried to understand how much 27 looked compared to the four fingers she used to show her age. She seemed to understand since she looked back up at him with her sky blue eyes. Valerie slowly lifted her tiny hands up to grab one of his larger ones and brought it close to her so she could look at it, turning it this way and that as she examined every detail and joint of his metallic hand. Her tiny hands were soft, he noticed, and he thought that her curiosity was cute.
Valerie removed one of her hands from holding onto Jeffire's larger hand before having his palm face her. She placed the palm of her free hand against his, noticing how his hand was made of smooth metal, yet it wasn't cold like she had expected it to be. It was warm like her daddy and mommy's hand. Jeffire had five fingers on both of his hands like she did, he had arms, legs, and feet like she did. He had a face that he mostly hid behind his face mask and eyes like she did. He had emotions like she did. He was more than just a robot; he acted so much like a human, yet he wasn't. He was more than meets the eye.
"We the same." Valerie said quietly before looking up at Jeffire.
"We are." Jetfire agreed, smiling behind his face mask. She was starting to trust him. That was good. "We may seem to be different than each other, but we have so many similarities that make us the same. We're not so different than you think."
Jetfire's spark filled with joy when she suddenly smiled a small smile at him.
"No different. Same."
"See? That wasn't so hard, now was it?"
Valerie giggled quietly from what he said. At least he managed to cheer her up.
"You funny." She said.
"I try." Jetfire agreed. "Maybe I should introduce you to one of my friends that happens to live here. Would you be okay with that?"
Valerie looked down at her stuffed bunny as she thought about her answer before nodding.
"Are they…like you?"
"Of course he is. You don't need to worry about a single thing. I know you'll like him." Jetfire crawled out of the bushy alcove they had been sitting in before pulling Valerie out and held her in his arms. "You're okay with me carrying you, right?"
Valerie nodded. It didn't matter if Jeffire carried her or not, as long as she had Mr. Fwobbles she'd be fine. She looked around curiously as the robot made his way through the large courtyard, seeing all sorts of pretty colorful flowers and could faintly smell their sweet scent through her sniffling nose. She could feel a nice gentle breeze that managed to pick up a few strands of her hair and blow they around. She hadn't realized how nice the courtyard was until now since she had been too upset to notice it earlier. Valerie also noticed the way Jeffire carried her. Mommy had always held her and carried her like this before, but it didn't seem to compare with the way he was carrying her. He held her with so much care and was so gentle with her as if she were the most precious thing in the whole world. What was it about Jeffire that made her trust him? She hadn't known his for very long, but then again mommy and daddy had told her that he and Asera had come to see her when she was just born. Maybe that was why.
Jetfire couldn't help but smile behind his face mask as he watched Valerie look around the courtyard, but occasionally she would look up. He didn't really think much of it since they soon came to the front of the estate and he took the little girl inside. As Jetfire made his way down the hallways in search of his friend Valerie would hide her face from the few humans and transformers they passed by. She really was a shy girl, he mused.
'Now where could he be?' Jetfire thought. 'He should be around here somewhere.'
"Hey, Jetfire! I've been looking all over for ya!"
Jetfire turned around to find his friend coming towards him. He smiled behind his face mask.
"Funny since I was trying to find you as well." Jetfire stated.
"Well now that I found you I was wondering if you wanted to go get some energon."
Jetfire shook his head.
"I can't really do that right now since I happen to be carrying precious cargo at the moment."
Valerie pulled her face away from where she had been hiding it in Jeffire's neck and turned to look at where the new voice was coming from, only to see a orange robot with red eyes and what looked to be a crane hanging over his right shoulder. She hid her face in Jeffire's neck again.
Jetfire saw this and couldn't help but chuckle before using the hand he had placed on Valerie's back to gently rub it. He wanted to make her feel as comfortable as possible at the moment.
"Hey, it's okay, Valerie." He cooed, trying to reassure the little sparkling. "This is my friend I was telling you about awhile ago. Won't you say hi to him?"
Valerie looked at Jeffire's face before turning back to look at the orange robot she had seen. She stared at him. This was Jeffire's friend?
"…Hi." She said quietly, hugging Mr. Fwobbles.
At this the orange robot smiled at her before letting out a jolly laugh.
"Why hello there, little one. My name's Smokescreen." The orange robot greeted.
"Simokesween?"
"No, 'Smoke-Screen'." He corrected.
"Smokey!"
At this Jeffire laughed, causing Valerie to feel confused. What was so funny? Did she miss something?
"'Smokey'! Now isn't that something!" Jeffire said.
"Aw, c'mon, Jetfire! It's not that funny!" Smokey complained.
"It actually is. Don't give the kid a hard time. She's only 4 years old so she can't exactly pronounce our names correctly yet. Just let her call you that for now."
"I see. So how come she's here?"
"Valerie's parents had to leave her here for a few weeks while they're both away for one of their peace meetings."
At this Smokescreen's red optics widened in surprise.
"'Peace meetings'? She's peace ambassador members Mr. and Mrs. Smith's daughter? Then that makes her your-"
Jetfire gave his friend a look, telling him not to mention the fact that Valerie was his sparkmate in front of her. He didn't want her to know about that yet and he still needed her to trust him. Smokescreen got the message and stopped himself.
"Anyways, I was thinking that having Valerie meet you would help her to open up a bit." Jetfire said as he started walking beside Smokescreen down the hallway.
"Why? Something wrong?" He asked.
"Well, not exactly. We're just having a little issue on trust, that's all." Jeffire glanced down at Valerie and she could see the warm look in his gold eyes. "Isn't that right, Valerie?"
Valerie was a little confused by what Jeffire was asking her and nodded her head at first, but then she understood his question and shook her head. Both he and Smokey laughed wholeheartedly at this.
"Looks like someone's unsure of how they feel." Smokey said jokingly.
"Don't worry. You just need a little time to adjust, that's all."
Suddenly they all heard the sound of footsteps running towards them from behind and both Jeffire and Smokey turned around to see a robot that was yellow, pink, and gray with an orange face and green eyes. On his back were what looked to be helicopter wings unlike the red face she had seen painting on both Jeffire and Smokey, this robot had a purple face that looked completely different, almost like a bird or something. There was something about this new robot that Valerie didn't like and she ended up hiding her face in Jeffire's neck.
"I finally found you, Autobot!" The new robot said.
"Oh, great…" Smokescreen muttered, causing Jetfire to look over at him.
"Okay, what's goin' on? I've obviously missed something important here." Jetfire said.
"Thing is that Cyclonus challenged me to a game of Requiem Catch and Fire. I tried to back out and avoid him all day, but he been hunting me down ever since."
"Of course I have! You just don't want to do it because you're just a coward." Cyclonus said.
"Hey! I'm not a coward and you know it!" Smokescreen retorted.
"Then prove it!"
Smokescreen growled quietly and Jetfire could feel Valerie start to tremble in his arms. He had to do something before she ended up being too scared to be around anyone.
"Hey, Smokescreen. How about you accept his challenge so that this whole issue can be put to rest." Jetfire suggested. "For good." He added as an afterthought.
Smokescreen sighed at this, knowing that Jetfire was right.
"Fine. You wouldn't mind coming along, would ya?"
"Well…I'm not sure if that'd be such a great idea." Jetfire glanced down at Valerie, seeing that she was still hiding her face from everyone. At least she had stopped trembling.
"I think Valerie will be fine, Jetfire. You two can watch from a safe distance and you wouldn't have to worry about anything happening."
Jetfire sighed at this.
"Okay, I'll come and watch." Jetfire looked down at the little girl he held. "Hey, Valerie. You want to go watch Smokey and Cyclonus play a game?"
Valerie lifted her head to look at Jetfire. A game? She knew what games were and she knew that they were fun. So whatever game Smokey and the new robot, Psychonus, were going to play would probably be fun to watch, right? She nodded her head slightly in answer before all four of them started heading outside. They ended up in a large size patio attached to the back of a building that overlooked the wide open area they were heading towards. Jeffire had placed Valerie on the grassy ground where she could sit and she was surprised to see three smaller size robots that, instead of talking, merely bleeped and beeped as their way of talking. She couldn't understand what they were saying, but she found them to be interesting to look at.
"Jeffire?" She asked quietly, causing the robot holding her to look down at her. "What are they?"
"Those are Mini-Cons, Valerie." Jeffire told her.
"Mini…Cons?"
"Yep. Their names are Sky Blast, Astroscope, and Payload. Together they combine into a weapon known as the Requiem Blaster."
What surprised her even more was when they suddenly shrunk down to the size of a mouse before transforming and combining together to make some sort of gun. Was that the Reqim Blaser Jeffire was telling her about?
From where Valerie and Jeffire stood (which was a good distance away) Smokey was positioned with a target placed over his head and the Reqim Blaser in his hand while Psychonus stood a ways away from the orange robot with his back facing him. Smokey threw the Reqim Blaser as Psychonus before he (to her surprise) transformed into an orange vehicle with a crane. Psychonus quickly turned around to catch the gun that had been thrown at him before suddenly firing it at Smokey. Valerie had expected the blast of bright light that shot out of the gun to hit the target that had been placed over Smokey's head, but nothing prepared her for what her widening sky blue eyes saw next. Smokey had been hit straight on by the blast and all she could hear what the orange robot's voice yelling out in pain while Psychonus laughed, but it wasn't the kind of laugh that one made from hearing a funny joke; this laughter was one that sounded cruel and uncontrollable, almost insane or crazy.
"SMOKEY!" Valerie cried out.
"Yes, YES!" Cyclonus laughed maniacally. "This finally proves that you ARE a coward, Autobot! All Autobot's are cowards! And there's no room in this universe for cowards!"
Cyclonus started firing at some of the trees in the area, all the while laughing insanely from the result from his destructive behavior. Jetfire ran out to try and stop Cyclonus from causing anymore damage to the estate and surrounding area, all while activating his comm link to call for help.
"Jetfire to Optimus! I'm in need of assistance ASAP!"
"What's going on, Jetfire?" Optimus asked from the other end.
"Smokescreen is seriously injured after Cyclonus shot him in a game of Requiem Catch and Fire and now that psycho is enjoying his new game of destroy everything in sight!"
Jetfire turned off his comm link before charging at Cyclonus. But he wasn't even a close to the Decepticon when he suddenly fired in the direction he had come from, where Valerie was!
Valerie was frozen in place due to fear as everything seemed to suddenly go slowly. She watched at the blast started to get closer to closer to her. Her mind was screaming for her to get out of the way, to run to safety, but her body wouldn't listen. All she could do was hold Mr. Fwobbles tightly in her arms as she squeezed her eyes tightly shut. Suddenly someone snatched her away from where she had been standing a few seconds ago as they got her out of the way of the blast, holding her protectively in their arms as they both ended up rolling on the ground. As soon as they came to a stop Valerie was trembling and she slowly opened her eyes before looking up, only to have her eyes widened when she found Jeffire gazing down at her in a mixture of worry, concern, and relief showing in his gold eyes.
"Are you okay, Valerie?" He asked her quietly.
Valerie didn't say anything at all, not even nodding her head or anything. She just stared up at the robot holding her close to himself. Jeffire had protected her; he had saved her.
"CYCLONUS!" A deep new voice yelled in anger, causing Valerie to look up to see a horned robot with red eyes and a scowl running up to Psychonus and punching him in the face. Another robot that was red and blue with gold eyes followed him just as the horned robot dragged Psychonus off the ground forcefully. "What do you think you doing, you ignorant fool? Watch where you're aiming! I don't know what's worse, Demolisher's stupidity or your aim!"
"M-Megatron!" Psychonus said fearfully completely shocked by what the horned robot.
Jetfire, still protectively holding Valerie close to him, got up off the ground as he made his way over to where Optimus, Megatron, and Cyclonus were. Suddenly Megatron gestured to him, or better yet the little girl he held in his arms.
"Do you even know who this little girl is? This is peace ambassador member Mr. and Mrs. Smith's daughter! Do you even realize what you could've done? You would've cost us our only chance to establish peace between Cybertron and Earth!"
"Oh, I'm sorry." Cyclonus said sarcastically. "I didn't know that that rug rat was so important to all of us."
"SILENCE! You will not talk to me like that, do you hear me? So unless you want an even worse punishment than the one I plan on giving you, you will apologize to this sparkling!"
"You're kidding me! I have to apologize to this brat?"
"Cyclonus!" Megatron said warningly.
"Fine!" Cyclonus turned to both Jetfire and Valerie with a scowl on his face. "I'm sorry for shooting at you little girl." He said, not seeming to sound so sincere about it. "I'll never do it again."
Jetfire could feel Valerie tremble in his arms before hiding her face from everyone. Megatron turned to Optimus, giving him a serious look.
"My apologizes as well, Optimus Prime, for your soldier. See to it that he gets the care that he needs." Megatron said.
"Thank you for your help, Megatron." Optimus said.
"No need. Now if you'll excuse me, I have an insubordinate soldier to deal with."
With that Megatron started dragging Cyclonus back inside the estate before Optimus turned to face Jetfire.
"How is she, Jetfire?" Optimus asked.
"She'll be okay…hopefully." Jetfire answered. "She's very shaken up right now."
"She shouldn't have seen something like this happen yet at such a young age. I fear how this might affect her."
Suddenly Jetfire heard Valerie start to cry as she continued to bury her face against his chest. He felt his spark fill with sadness at the fact that she was crying and that she was so terrified.
"I'll get Smokescreen to Red Alert while you take care of her."
With that Optimus left with the fatally injured Smokescreen. Even the three Mini-Cons that made up the Requiem Blaster had left as well. Jetfire gazed down at Valerie as she continued to cry, his optics softening as he saw how small she seemed right now.
Valerie continued to cry as Jeffire held her close, occasionally rubbing her back soothingly. She was so scared. Smokey had gotten hurt and she had almost died if it hadn't been for Jeffire saving her. He saved her from getting killed and because of that she found herself trusting him completely now. No longer did she view him as a complete stranger, for now he was her friend, her best friend. One that had risked his life to keep her safe.
"I was scared!" She cried. "I was so scared!"
"Shh… It's okay, Valerie." Jeffire whispered, trying to comfort her. "I'm here now, you have nothing to be scared of. I'll keep you safe."
Jetfire tried to think of something that could probably calm Valerie down. That was when he thought of the Cybertronian Lullaby that his mother had always sang to him when he was still a sparkling whenever he was upset or before he went into recharge at night. Maybe it would work for Valerie as well. He sighed quietly before opening his mouth behind his face mask.
Beyond the sunBeyond the moonThere are the starsIn the night sky
Beyond the skiesAmong the starsIn quiet waitHome Cybertron
Rest in peaceIn my embraceAnd listen to this lullaby
Valerie was surprised when she suddenly heard Jeffire singing to her. His voice sounded slightly rough, but at the same time it was strangely soothing to her ears. She found herself slowly start to calm down until she was only sniffling. She looked up at him with her sky blue eyes being red and puffy from all her crying, and even if she couldn't seem Jeffire's face she could see that he was smiling down at her through his gold eyes, something she found herself starting to like about him.
"Don't…leave me." Valerie found herself saying.
"I'm not leaving you, Valerie." He told her. "Not anytime soon."
Valerie shook her head, knowing that he didn't understand what she was trying to tell him.
"No, don't leave me. Not like Smokey."
Jetfire's optics widened as he realized what Valerie meant before smiling behind his face mask.
"So now you trust me, eh? Don't worry. I'm not going anywhere. I still got things I need to do before that even happens. But Smokey's gonna be fine. Just give him some time and he'll be good as new."
"No reckless?" Valerie asked.
"No reckless." Jetfire answered, knowing that she didn't want him to do anything stupid that would end up with him getting hurt. "I think it's time we went back inside, kiddo. Are you okay with that?"
Valerie nodded her head. As Jetfire started making his way to the building he noticed that she was looking up at the sky again and he stopped momentarily. He watched her carefully, observing how fascinated she seemed to be the open blue space filled with white fluffy clouds…and did one of them look like a rabbit? Looking at her face Jetfire saw that she seemed to be at peace and he could even feel her small body relaxing slightly after what had occurred not so long ago.
"Whatcha looking at?" He asked.
"The sky." She said, never taking her eyes away from it. "Why is it blue?"
Jetfire couldn't help but smile at the innocent question. From what he had learned while on Earth, it was common for sparklings to ask such questions, but when it came to someone older have to provide answers they usually ended up trying to explain it in a way that the young mind of a sparkling would comprehend the information until they were old enough to understand. Luckily he had an explanation prepared.
"Because Primus made it so that it'd match your pretty blue eyes."
Valerie looked at him looking surprised before she had a confused look.
"Who Primis?"
"He's the god that created us transformers, or what you've probably been considering robots here this whole time."
"You're not robots?"
"Nope. Technically we're called Cybertronians, but we're also called transformers because of our ability to transform into other things, like how Smokey transformed that vehicle awhile ago."
"Can you transform as well?"
Jetfire chuckled.
"Course I can. Let me show you."
Jeffire placed Valerie down on the ground and backed up a few paces. She watched, holding Mr. Fwobbles as she wondered what would happen next.
"Transform!" He yelled.
Valerie's eyes widened in surprise when Jeffire's body started twisting, turning and folding into itself until a rocket ship that was a little over half the size of her robot friend stood in his place. She wasn't sure what to do, but she soon found herself going over to the rocket ship. She placed her tiny hand on the area near the front windows, surprised at how warm the smooth metal was as she ran it along the side while making her way towards the wings.
Jetfire couldn't help but shudder uncontrollably when he felt Valerie run her tiny hand along his wing. It just felt so good, but it took all his effort to keep quiet. She pulled her hand away from his wing with a worried look on her face. Valerie didn't know what was going on and he planned on keeping it that way for now.
"Jeffire? You okay?" Valerie asked.
"I'm fine. Just a little cold, that's all." He told her, hoping that she would buy his excuse for why he had been shuddering. He decided to change the subject by asking her a question. "So what do you think of my form?"
"It's different." Her eyes lit up as she seemed to realize something. "Can you fly?"
"Yeah, I can! What point would there be in having this form if I can't fly?"
To prove his point Jetfire started to slowly fly around and was careful as he circled around Valerie. The little girl giggled as she watched, causing him to smile inwardly for making her happy. After awhile he stopped flying around before transforming back into his normal form, but he hadn't expected Valerie to run up to him and wrap her tiny arms around his leg in a hug. The funny thing was that she only came halfway up his thigh height-wise. He chuckled before bending down and giving the 4 year old a hug as well.
"Does it hurt when you transform?" Valerie asked.
"No, it doesn't hurt at all. It's very natural for transformers to constantly change like that." Jetfire told her.
"Can you take me flying?"
Jetfire chuckled as he grinned behind his face mask.
"I'll take you flying someday, okay? But I'd have to take you flying in this form since my other one is too small. Okay, let's get you back inside. I have a feeling you're probably hungry."
Jetfire scooped Valerie up into his arms before carrying her inside. After having gotten her something to eat (thankfully there were some humans around to help him make a simple ham and cheese sandwich) he took her by the med bay where they were going to see how Smokescreen was doing. Although what they saw surprised them both.
Valerie was surprised when she saw what looked to be Smokey, but instead of being orange he was white and his face blue.
"Smokey!" Valerie said, happy that he was okay. "You okay!"
Jetfire and Smokey laughed at this. Apparently the little girl didn't know that fixing up or repairing transformers was a lot easier than having to tend to a severely injured human.
"Hey, kiddo! As you can see I'm as good as new! But I also have a new name as well. From now on my name'll be Hoist."
"Hoist? How come you want that name?" Jeffire asked.
"What? New frame, new name. What else?" Hoist replied.
"Hose!" Valerie said cheerfully.
Jeffire ended up laughing because of this, much to Hoist's expense. Even with a new name she still couldn't pronounce it.
"Looks like Valerie comes up with the most creative ways to say everyone's name." Jeffire chuckled.
Later that day Jetfire was sitting down on a couch with Valerie curled up in his arms as she slept. He smiled behind his face mask. To think that only hours ago she had been upset about her parents leaving her behind and didn't want to be around him. And now here she was sleeping in his arms looking so peaceful. His spark swelled with joy and love for the little 4 year old, knowing that he held his future sparkmate in his arms. Jetfire knew that as long as he could keep her smiling then that was all he needed to be happy himself. He knew that this year and all the years to come would be the best ones in his life.
ATE: When I was writing from Valerie's POV I was very tempted to correct every word I misspelled on purpose. It's that hard to do at times. The events in this first chapter actually tie in with Swan's Love as to how/why Smokescreen-excuse me, Hoist is so scared of Requiem Catch and Fire. And you could probably tell that there were some references to TDATS and Astera. One thing I actually like about writing this was that Astera is alive in this story (and in Swan's Love) and that writing her character is something I enjoy. It's almost like this is a AU of TDATS since she's alive, but I could be wrong.
Please remember to review! ;D