finally I was longing to put up this chapter, bring out the tissues becouse this is one of the saddest most heart wrenching things I've written!
This will be even stronger if you read it while hearing the Revenge of the Fallen score (SCORE not soundtrack)
Times couldn't have been better, Brother thought we quit the racing idea and we were frequent winners of the illegal racing, winning every single race and match, quite honestly I had never been happier in my life! And although Aqua would often say it was wrong to be lying to brother and that it was even worse we were racing in illegal competitions I knew that she was just as happy as I was. We were finally free.
All of those times we worked as a team, watching each other's back, speeding side by side, fearing nothing. That was until …that day…
"What? They are actually asking you to infiltrate the illegal races and to snitch them out?" I asked perplexed, I could immediately feel my sister's distress over our bond but told her to keep quiet and act normally.
If Blurr cought on to our distress, we were officially offline.
"Yes, so I'll be getting home later tonight, I'm sure you two won't mind? You can handle yourselves by now."
"Er...sure…no problem!" I said trying to sound casual. " By the way….where exactly are you headed?" I felt a tug in my sparkbond as if my sister was telling me I was going too far.
Blurr gave me a look which clearly meant he was wondering whether or not he should tell us. I shrugged trying to seem uninterested.
"You don't have to tell me, but if anything were to happen I'd like to at least know where to call for you." That seemed to have convinced him, and my sister's apprehension decreased, we were still not out of the heat though.
"I'm not sure" he turned back to his datapad, the report he had about his own systems, he often had to make those check ups on himself to make sure he was in proper conditions to race. Though that was hardly necessary since he was the fastest cybetronian in history. "Somewhere around the west neighbourhood I think."
Inwardly I was making a huge effort not to relax at that, tonight's race was on the east side of the city, so we were safe from being found out.
He put down the datapad and headed out.
"A-are you going somewhere?" I asked, he seemed rather distant today, as if he was daydreaming. I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad one.
"I'm going to train. Aqua you want to come? I heard Nightracer was coming this morning." My sister immediately cheered and I had to suppress a groan, she was completely love sick for that mech, well…every femme was…
"Sure! Just hold on a minute" she said dashing for her quarters. Blurr stood there staring the direction she went for a while.
"Your sister is a very delicate femme." He said to me, I nodded in agreement. "Make sure you always protect her…" I was a bit surprised by that, and gave him a questioning look.
"What makes you think I wouldn't?" he didn't answer, nor did he react, sometimes I couldn't figure out my own brother.
"Your Rash Flamer, sometimes you don't think about things and drag her along. Make sure you do" For a moment I wondered if he knew we were racing behind his back, but I shook that thought away, if he knew he probably would be scolding us already, not warning me, and definitely not taking aqua along to his training. He never took me along though, he knew I'd be tempted to race. I stared away with regret, I didn't like lying to my brother, but he wouldn't allow me to be me, he didn't like me for being me…in the end I just wanted him to accept me.
"Are you certain you don't have anything to tell me?" his voice asked in the background of my mind. I rubbed my forehead platting and nodded.
"Yeah….sure" I heard him sigh as my sister came back to join him.
Later that night we waited to make sure he really wasn't coming back home early and snuck out, armour plating ready and thrusters just dying to be activated. We silently made our way to the new arena.
As usual a lot of mechs and femmes were watching, the number of femmes had actually increased thanks to our success and were all rooting for us unless their bonded was in the race.
Here we were no longer Aqua and Flamer, here we were Cliffstrider and Ashbringer, the speeding duo.
There was only one rule me and my sister agreed to follow, and that was we wouldn't kill anyone in these races.
Yes I had gained my new name because of my voracity and merciless battle style but I never once extinguished a spark, nor did I intend to.
We were waiting in our designated spot, stretching out servos to get rid of the stiffness from the day, we were itching for a good race tonight, the shouting and rooting only pumped up our excitement.
"Well well well, I see my lovely femmes are ready for tonight?" we turned at the same time to lay optics on swindle, the one in charge of the races so far, there were a lot of shady rumours about him, far too many to actually know which were true and which were fake, Cliffstrider used to say he probably did all of them. "I'm counting on you two tonight! We have a mystery racer competing and everyone is betting on you two. Make them proud and make me rich." He said patting our shoulder encouragingly. I rolled my optics whilst my sister tried to smile but it was completely fake.
We knew all the guy cared was for himself but if he got us a good race we had nothing against him.
"This mystery racer" cliffstrider started.
"Is he good?" I finished staring at the challenge we had to run in a few minutes.
"I don't know, I have never seen him, like most of you he must have changed armour, but he's probably not even worth your worry."
"Why is that?" my sister asked trying to figure out what the mech's intentions really were.
"Oh you know, the typical mech that switches armour to look as much as he can like the champion Blurr." Both of us stiffened at that, we did not need this tonight. Not tonight! What if this really was brother?
"Are you sure it really isn't him?" I asked coldly, trying to sound not too close to the mech we spoke of.
"My dear what would a champion want to do in an illegal race? He already has all he wants in the official races."
"We er…"
"We heard rumours that he's coming" I said before cliffstrider would make any mistake, she was far too easy to figure out due to her shyness.
"Oh? And may I ask where did you get this sort of juicy information?"
"None of your busyness just make sure it ain't him. Otherwise we won't race." I deadpanned, I saw a glint of anger in his optics, he did not like the situation at all.
"Are you scared you'll loose to him?" That seemed to snap something inside me, my optics widened for a short moment in surprise and then slit in pure anger gaining their purplish tint for a moment. Swindle lifted his hands up in a sign that he didn't want to fight. "woah, I'm just saying, it sounds like your afraid to loose to the fastest cybertronian."
Cliffstrider was watching between us nervously, she knew what was going on through my spark, she knew what I was thinking. Beating brother was all I wanted; I wanted to prove to him that femmes could race just as much as mechs could, I wanted more than anything to take of that smug smile of his whenever he proved he was fastest. Not to get me wrong, I loved my brother just as much as my sister, but we always had this friction between us.
"Fine" I finally said turning my back on him and walking to my spot to wait, I wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone, not even my sister and she knew that for she went to her spot next to me without saying a word and looking at the ground sadly. Unlike me she just wanted to race, she didn't find blurr as a challenge; she merely enjoyed the adrenaline of it all.
The usual sponsor's voice rang out through the whole area alerting everyone to get into their alt modes and ready to start. We both transformed and revved our engines out of pure anxiety. We needed this.
If I had ever known what was to come, I would have never raced in my life.
The siren rang through our audio receptors and we sped out, zooming like streaks of colours far too fast for some mechs to follow with their optics. Our race line was soon to meet with every other racer, it was time to meet our foes.
A whole set of cybertronian vehicles set into place miraculously not crashing into each others. The first thing we did was try to find the supposed to be fake blurr but there were so many contestants today that we just couldn't spot him and keep concentrated in our race at the same time.
The first obstacles were easy but as usual many of the contestants stayed behind or crashed, we were now nearing the first arena.
"Ashbringer?" My sister called through our com link.
"Yeah?" I could sense her fear but she was trying to hide it.
"Think we can quit? Just this once?" her fear increased as she waited for my answer, I was shocked. She actually wanted to give up on a race? We hadn't lost so far! I tried to keep my cool however.
"Why do you want to quit? Aren't you having fun?"
"Well yeah…its just that…I have this really bad feeling today…"
"Your just feeling that way because of what we heard from Blurr, don't worry, he said he was headed to the other side of the city, he can't possibly be competing here! And this isn't the first time we see a rookie trying to look like him."
"I know but….its not just Blurr…I really have this bad feeling…" I inwardly sighed, if my sister didn't want to race I wasn't about to force her to, I hated myself for doing this.
"Fine…" Her cheerfulness spiked contagiously and I actually started feeling better "If your so antsy about all this then I suppose we can let it go just this once…"
However just as I said this a metallic wall shot from the ground separating the two of us, I was shocked at first trying to realise what had happened. On the otherside of me another wall had also lifted. I instantly felt my sister's fear. I stopped and tried to reverse out of there.
"Ashbringer!Are you allright?! Whats going on?!"
"I don't know! Pull up and reverse! We're getting out of here, I'll meet you at the other end!" However once I started to move back someone started shooting at the ground behind me and I had to abruptly stop. I heard a screech of tires on the other side that probably meant the same happened to my sister.
I looked up and saw a few mechs on top of the walls with guns pointed at me motioning for me to move forward. They weren't going to let me pass. I transformed into my bipedal mode and tried to bypass their shooting but whenever I did I'd nearly get hit, these guys weren't kidding.
"Cliffstrider, I can't get through!"
"Neither can I! Their shooting at me!"
"Yeah me too, I guess we have no choice but to go on"
"What?! But we never fought in the arena by ourselves! I don't know how to fight without you!"
"Calm down! I'm just as scared as you are but do you rather get shot? I doubt these guys have much patience they'll be shooting us towards the arena soon enough!" And just as I said that the mech did indeed start shooting. "Just play along for a while! Once we're done with this fight we should meet on the racing line again."
"A-allright…I'll see you then"
"Yeah….see you"
I entered the part of the race that was my second favourite, the fighting, I actually enjoyed it although I would never admit that to my sister, but I had a feeling she knew.
As I entered the usual scanners passed over me and I felt a small tingling sensation but shook it off, it was probably my nerves. I had yet to fight on my own, this was the first time.
I stepped into the round street to see a purple femme on my right staring at me, I hadn't seen her before but then again she had been of cliffstrider's side, I payed attention to the other one.
It was all a matter of speed and a right hit in these battles, as soon as we layed optics on each other, we ran and collided in a frenzy of fast movements dodges and hits. I was surprised to find this femme was good, and it was just fuelling my adrenaline.
We had equivalent height, there for our strength was also similar. Even our speed seemed alike; however this femme lacked taste and skill in her battle moves.
Through my bond I felt my sister was facing a worthy adversary, but she had one thing I hadn't: fear. I could feel each blow she suffered and it was painful. I wanted to help her! Primus I just wanted to be by her side again! We were never separated! And here I was alone and in one of the worse conditions possible.
"Sister! I can't beat this! It hurts too much!"
"Hold on Cliffstrider!I'm coming!" I said increasing the strength of my blows, even if they dented my armour I'd do anything to get to my sister right now, her distress was intoxicating.
I felt her sudden pain and bucked holding onto my stomach, the femme in front of me did just about the same but on the ground since I had just hit her around there somewhere as well.
I knew this was a battle of wills; I had to take this femme down. I threw myself at her snarling and doing as much as I could, I could feel my sister screaming mentally through our bond, I could feel her pain, fear, agony, her desire to be with me again. Primus I promised I'd protect her, and I'd do anything for that, even if it meant…..even if it meant…" I closed my optics, my flame thrusters in the arms activating, I slammed my fist into the femme's abdomen and blasted the fire into her circuitry. Then I felt my sister, her pain was so intense I fell back trying to push away whatever pain had also hit me. I screamed along with the two femmes, I didn't know how long it lasted but finally the screams subsided, and along with their silence, there was no cliffstrider. Regaining my rational consciousness but still dizzy from the pain I tried to reach out to her, only to feel nothing, hear nothing, I feared the worse.
"Cliffstrider?" The com link only gave me static, my panic increased and I tried harder to reach out to her but felt nothing. "Cliffstrider answer me!" for as much as I called, my sister didn't answer me. I stared down at the ground, shaking, I looked up at the femme that held me back for so long, and my spark almost extinguished, her figure was fizzling frequently, underneath the purple colouring I could see a different form, a blue and black femme with a figure much like my own.
Everything was making sense to me now. I slowly approached the femme, the holograph fizzling out completely when I did, there stood my sister, killed by my own hands energon dripping our of her offline optics and a burn hold through her abdomen, her armour heavily dented some of it actually missing.
"Cliff….strider…" I fell to my knees in front of her, I couldn't understand, I didn't want to understand…my sister… "cliff….cliffy?" I tried desperately shaking her shoulder armour gently, she didn't respond. "Cliffy? Come on its me…please…wake up…please…" energon started to unknowingly slide down from my own optics as I stared at her prone form. I realised with immense pain, what had happened. I couldn't hold it in anymore.
"CLIFSTRIDER!!!!!!!" my howl of pain echoed through out the entire arena I was sure, but I didn't care, I wanted to reach to her, Primus I'd do anything to feel her warm spark.
"What is going on here?! You have to get on the race!" I heard him, Swindle again, I heard his disgusting voice, I tightened my fists, trying to hold back and raised to my feet, not taking my optics off my sister.
"You planned this? You planned to make us fight each other?" I asked venomously, I couldn't help it, my whole body shook violently, my flame thrusters dying to turn on.
"My dear it was only a matter of time, everyone wanted to know which of the two of you was best, and I must say you fulfilled my expectations, young Cliffstrider didn't stand a chance…such a pathetic display…" I snapped, I turned around and what swindle saw were blazing red optics dripping energon and a vicious expression that promised death.
That night, everyone found out that I'd live up to my name as Ashbringer. My flame thrusters lit and I knew very little of what I was doing, I attacked everything and anyone in my way, burning everything to the ground. I didn't care who I hurt, who would miss the ones I took down, whose spark hurt the most as I broke through every last one of them, all I wanted was for them to feel the same pain they put me through, all I wanted was for them to hurt even more than my dear sister had. I wanted revenge.
Roaring in pure fury I killed spark after spark. Everyone panicked, if anyone survived, they were extremely lucky.
When I came to, I was staring at a burn wall; he mark of a mech's body was surrounded by ash. I stared at it, half conscious now that most of my anger was gone, I just felt pain, despair, and most of all…guilt…
It was I that had brought my sister into this place, selfishly wanting her to be with me and participate on such a dangerous adventure.
My sweet sister…
My body finally seemed to realise how much energy I had lost and my knees buckled. I crashed into the mass of bodies, I could see the piles and piles of mechs and femmes there and at the far distance someone was standing.
At first I couldn't really make it out, my processor wasn't functioning right, then I started recognizing the light blue armour, the figure I had looked up to so many times, looking back at me with sad optics, an ashamed expression.
"b-brother…" I managed to call lightly, but it was impossible that he could even hear me. He turned away, and like his name, disappeared in a blur.
Realising I still had my brother I tried to reach out to him, seek some kind of comfort, somewhere to hide from the cruel truth, only I was pushed back, he wouldn't accept my presence anymore. My brother… had abandoned me.
oh boy....*sniffle* I feel emotional lol. god I dunno what when on through my head. hope you liked it. review! :)
