"It was a dark and stormy night, just like this when you disappeared…"
Warrior Star couldn't help the twinge that flickered through her frame at the affectionate yet sad tone to Will's voice. On impulse, she shifted her head a bit closer to him as he kept talking, blissfully ignorant of the wolf's guilt.
"The rain was going non-stop. Lightning and thunder, the whole nine yards. I swore the sky was going to fall on us…but there you were. Just standing there. Facing down that big Decepti-creep Shockwave and the Driller like you were made of stone. Your optics were on fire…I've never seen anything like it. If looks could kill, they would have both melted down into nothing under your gaze at that moment. God, I'll never forget it." Will leaned a little more comfortably into her thick bronze armor, his eyes misty with memories before he spoke again.
"I've never seen you move that fast…you were a blur of bronze armor. Shockwave never even saw you coming…you hit him so hard that I could hear his frame creak under the strain. Silver and bronze armor flew, energon splattered…you were fighting so fast and so hard that I couldn't even follow it. I do remember when the Driller hit you…I thought it was going to tear right through you. But no…you bounced away and came right back at it, tearing off plate after plate of that weird rotating armor that it had. I remember its screams of pain and anger…they haunt my memories to this day." Warrior Star remembered as well, her hot energon soaking her bronze armor as she tore Shockwave's favorite pet to shreds, piece by piece by piece. She vented softly, shuttering her optics as she kept listening to Will's deep, soothing voice as he continued telling the tale that both of them knew so well.
"I remember the look on Shockwave's face when he realized that you were destroying that monster of his. He looked so shocked, but then this look went through his optics, like he was hell-bent on destroying you and saving his pet. But you sensed the change, I think…you turned to him as the Driller writhed beneath you, staring at him like a predator looking at its prey, then you leaped. You were wide open and you knew it and you didn't care…your optics were insane. Never have I seen such hatred before. He fired that cannon point-blank into your chest armor and it didn't even faze you…I remember the fear that was in Shockwave's optics when your claws tore into his chest. That fear was there up until the second you crushed his spark, and then his optics went dark." She remembered that as well, staring into her most hated enemy's optics up until the moment he died. Never had the Cybertronian wolf felt such satisfaction in her entire existence as she did then.
"And then Driller…I couldn't even tell what you did. You were a blur…then the next thing I knew, that thing hit the ground with a screech of gears, then it went still. I didn't even know how you killed it. Hell, I still don't. I just know that it and Shockwave are gone, melted down and then the alloys recast into tech that the Autobots can use." Warrior Star snorted very softly at the irony. Some of Ratchet's new tools and Ironhide's new armor mixes were made up of dead Decepticons. At Will's silence, she onlined her optics again and stared at him, finding herself looking into his clear hazel eyes, seeing a question there before he spoke again.
"You still never officially joined the Autobots…none of your pack has. Why?" The human asked, placing a hand against the wolf's cheek plates as her optics dimmed in thought.
"They still do not trust me, Lennox. Even with Shockwave gone, the moment I step on base, the femmes are on guard, wondering if I'll attack their sparklings, and the mechs prime their weapons, wondering if they'll have to put a bullet in my spark. I won't join a faction that won't trust me. And I do well with my pack…if Optimus needs us, he'll call us. We were there for him in Chicago…he knows we'll come again." Then she paused thoughtfully, her optics flicking before she spoke again.
"It was a dark and stormy night in Chicago, the day before the battle began…"
A/N: Well, now that I've kinda got a handle on how I want this little challenge fic to run, it's rolling pretty smoothly. That and the smaller chapter requirement makes this one pretty easy to write for.
I'm also enjoying writing just Lennox and Warrior Star, jumping back and forth from one point of view to the other. I'll be rotating back to Will's POV next chapter...already have an idea of how I want that one to go as well. Now just to write it...
As always, love if you will, hate if you must. I will take anything that you care to dispense.
Until we meet again...
Kani