Oh boy, so much happened in this chapter, well, nothing really to say other than that Nova is owned by both myself and Lunarburst23, any other chracters in this are created by myself on a whim, you might see them again, you might not. Well, hope you all enjoy!

Chapter 7

Two vorns later

Novalight groaned as she leaned back, stretching backwards as she stood on a small ledge which stuck out from one of the Balconies on the Autobot base in Simfur, she'd been deployed to the base four orns ago, but she wasn't the only one deployed here.

"Bored?" Sideswipe asked as he leaned over the wall which separated Novalight's small ledge from the rest of the balcony.

Novalight just shot him a peeved off look, before turning to stare back out over the partially destroyed city in front of her. "What do you think Sides? Four orns, and only six attacks… wish we were still in Iacon… with my family unit…" She mumbled, shifting so that she could pull her knee joints up to the underside of her helm so she could rest it there.

A black servo landed on her shoulder, she knew it wasn't Sides though, her wings where pretty accurate at picking things up, and she hadn't missed Sunstreaker walking over to them.

"You know as much as we do that there's no room in Iacon anymore, too many bots packed in one place makes too much of a target, by spreading out…" He tried to reassure her, not because he cared, it was just that he'd found when Nova was down, Sides was down, and in turn would bug the pit out of him even more than usual.

"There's less casualties, I know… I just wish one of my family unit at least could have come with me… maybe my little bro? He's been serving long enough to transfer now…"Novalight finished form him before letting off a sigh. "I'm going for a flight…" With that, she just flung her frame forwards and rolled off the ledge, her form quickly descending towards the ground before she transformed and shot upwards, corkscrewing past the twin mechs as they watched on.

With a sigh Sideswipe turned to Sunstreaker, having picked up on the emotions he was feeling over the bond. "C'mon Sunny, will you stop thinking this is a bad idea?" He huffed, crossing his arms over his primarily red chassis.

Sunstreaker shot him a glare before answering. "Sides, she's too… too… too… Like you!" He growled.

An optics ridge quirking upwards was Sideswipes first response. "You don't like her, because she's too much like me?" He asked, trying to work it out himself.

Sunstreaker growled. "Side's, she made us think we had a deceased femme chasing us, she stole our wheels and threw them in the Bases incinerator! She replaced our berths with ones made of datapads! Sides! She once held us hostage and made it look like we'd been fragging decapitated! Do you not remember all of that?!" He exclaimed.

Sideswipe stared at him for a moment before sighing. "I understand where you're coming from Sunny, but… she hasn't done anything to us like that in over two vorns, since we made that treaty, she's only ever helped us with pranks."

Sunstreaker huffed. "Helped you, I only ever want to join in when the one you two are going after damaged my paint."

Sideswipe starred at his twin for a good few minutes before sighing. "Well I like her, and if you don't like her, then maybe she's not the one for us, but you need to at least give her a chance before you shoot her down."

Sunstreaker growled. "We've known her for vorns Sides. I doubt my opinion on her is going to change at this point."

With a groan Sideswipe shook his helm, he was going to respond when an all too familiar sound caught his audios.

"DIVE!" He shouted, launching forwards and tackling his twin to the ground, just as a large missile stuck the side of the base, the explosion and smoke engulfing the balcony and the area around as sirens began to blare throughout the base.

Novalight was a third of the way through her decided flight path when the sound of the explosion reached her audios, taking a harsh arch she transformed, optics quickly locking on the now under siege base, but what she spotted, even from where she was, was the balcony she'd just been on, was gone, and the rubble was still falling down the side of the base.

Dread instantly pooled within her as she cried out. "TWINS!"

She arrived at the now destroyed balcony within seconds, vents laboured as she instantly began grabbing at pieces of rubble and shorn metal which had been blown back on what little of the large balcony was left attached to the base, all whilst the sounds of gunfire and clashes occurred around her.

Her purple tipped servos screeched against every piece of metal she was too rushed to grab, but she didn't even notice the servo reaching for her shoulderplate.

Once the black servo made contact though, Nova snapped like a coil viper, fist soaring before she even knew where the target was, and making contact not half an astrosecond later, sending the one who'd made contact flying.

Her vents picked up when she finally spotted the large Iaconian mech lying in a daze on the floor. Steelwell, one of the heavy hitters on base and a member of the heavy artillery division.

"Scrap! Steel! I didn't realise it was you!" She rushed, running to the pale blue and green mech before she was even up right, causing her to stumble over her own clawed pedes in her haste.

After a moment Steelwell chuckled, rubbing the now split open side of his faceplates. "You sure you're not a frontliner like those twins you're friends with? Yah gota punch worthy of a Combiner." He rumbled out, pushing against the rubble covered floor so that he could stand back up, with Nova's assistance.

Nova shook her helm, moving in an attempt to pull the mechs arm over her shoulder, but he pulled it away not a moment later. "Steel…"

"Nuh uh, no way Nova, one, yah half my height at least, two, it'd do mah pride a number if anybot saw meh being supported by ah l'il femme like yourself."

Nova barely held in a growl when she gave him a shove, jolting him slightly. "I'll have you know, I'm now the largest femme in Iacon!" She responded, her upper two wings flaring higher up her frame.

Steelwell chuckled, rubbing her helm with one large servo as he drew a large, two servoed Gatling ion cannon from its holster on his back strut. "Still half my size, killer punch or not."

Suddenly, she remembered why she was back on the balcony. "Steel, you know the twins? Sunny and Sides? They were on that balcony when I left!" She exclaimed, waving her servos back the way they had come. "I have to go find them!"

Steelwell shuttered his optics at her a few more times before chuckling. "No need, those two terrors are already down on the battlefield if the com-link chatters anything to go by, thankfully, our defences haven't been too heavily breached yet, now, get moving!" He followed up with a battle cry before breaking into a fast lumber, shaking the corridor slightly as Nova watched him go for a second, before jumping up and activating her thrusters, shooting off after him and quickly passing him.

"Right back at yah!" She called as she shot down another corridor towards the Simfur bases main entrance.

However, as all the other times before, the moment she reached the battlefield, she was overtaken again.

A maniac grin overcame her features as she drew Spitter. "YIPEEKYAHCARRIERFRAGGERS!" She bellowed as she shifted Spitter to his grenade function, and began unleashing all out explosive barrage on the encroaching forces, aiming just far enough across the battle field to disrupt the charging cons and not the ones already engaged in firefights.

Sideswipe and Sunstreaker were already in the thick of the battle when they heard the cacophony of explosions go off ahead of them, but they were used to this, and quickly identified Nova's effective way of breaking up the con ranks.

Sunstreaker grunted as he sliced into another vehicons side, almost cutting the drone in two before charging on and leaving his previous target to drop to the already torn up ground, offline. His armour was already caked in energon, ash and anything else, and it put him in a horrid mood which had started the moment he'd found himself half buried in chunks of the balcony which had been blasted back into the corridor along with himself and Sideswipe, leaving them looking like they'd just gotten blown up, which in turn had put both twins in a very foul mood, namely Sunstreaker.

Wait, he had been blown up, and now, he and his twin were rearing for some retribution.

Not a moment after his thoughts returned to that area, he heard his twin shout something, and not a moment later, he was tackled to the ground by Sideswipe, just in time to save him from a large axe swinging through the place his helm had been, the large weapon having been thrown by a brute of a mech who was already lumbering towards them.

With only a nod between them, the two were back on their wheeled pedes and charging forwards towards their aggressor.

A moment before they could engage though, a large round slammed directly through the brute mechs forehelm, leaving him to tumble backwards from the force and go crashing to the already charred ground.

Helms snapping up the twins easily spotted the tri-colour seeker, who with a bright, and no less pshycotic look on her face, waved at the two, the large cannon which had come from her subspace and attached to her shoulder being the one she'd received from her sire an orn ago for testing.

Once they acknowledged her with a wave of their own each, all be it a little irritated from Sunstreaker and all out manic from Sideswipe, her form exploded into pixels, leaving nothing there a moment later, leaving them unaware of wherever the cloaked femme shot off too.

Sunstreaker huffed as the two quickly moved back into the fray, ducking behind a large outcrop as he and his twin drew their blasters. "Yah see what I mean Sides?! She's always taking our kills too!"

Sideswipe groaned, his twin really couldn't let it go. "Sunny! Now is not the time for you throwin' a glitch fit! Would you rather her be on the con side devastating our forces with her explosive mad ways? You act like it sometimes!"

Sunstreaker grumbled. "If she was, I wouldn't get called upon for friendly fire!"

Sideswipe pouted, jumping up and easily shooting another vehicon down before ducking back down as a round of fire shot past his helm. "One of these days, you're gonna have to take that rusted pole outta your aft and admit that she's at least good at what she does!"

"I'm not denying that she's not a good shot, nor am I denying that the weapons she makes and upgrade make those cons which they'd never been sparked! I'm denying the fact that I see anything in that femme! Which I don't! I still can't fathom why you kissed that glitch!" He barked.

Not a moment later, another bot jumped behind their cover, a mech they recognised as one of Wheeljack's distant cousins, Heavyhaul if they remember right.

"Hey! What you two screaming about?! Sounded juicy!" He barked a laugh at their irritated expressions, which the maroon and orange mech waved off, pulling out a detonator and pressing the button, causing a echoing 'boom' to ring out from somewhere ahead of their hiding spot where the mech had just come from.

Sideswipe smirked, Nova had already become a good friend to this mech, what with her close ties to Wheeljack and his family unit, and the love of high explosives more than half of the extended family unit also seemed to share. "We were talking about Nova!" He shouted over the gunfire.

Heavyhaul nodded. "Saw her a breem ago shooting off North of here! What about her was so important yah had to have a screaming match about her on the battlefield?!"

Suntreaker growled as he jumped up and let off a string of shots towards some random 'Con he couldn't be bothered to designate. "Sideswipe kissed her about two vorns ago! And I don't like her one bit!"

Heavyhaul shot Sideswipe an inquiring look, almost asking how he was still online. "If it's any consolation, she punched me in the face mid-kiss! Then, she friend-zoned me!"

Sunstreaker rolled his optics at his twins whinning tone. "A blessing! But I'd rather you hated her too!"

Heavyhaul just watched as the two mechs then continued to shout at one another over the ruckus of the battlefield.

It was, in his opinion, quite the show they were putting on.

Not three breems into their 'macho' screaming match, and a new 'Bot joined them behind the natural shield they were using.

And it was none over than Nova. "What are you all screeching about?! I could hear you over a glitch fitting Starscream! Also… ow… audios…" She huffed.

Heavyhaul shot her a look. "You engaged Starscream?"

That got the twin mechs attention, their helms snapping round to take in her slightly charred and dented armour.

Nova nodded, stretching her arms over her helm as she tried to crack her spinal strut. "Yup, got a round right into his hip… then he was just shooting randomly seeing as I had my cloak on, lucky femme impersonating glitch got a few shots in… when two mechs decided to be so loud, they could be heard from half the battlefield away… what the fragging pit was so important, that Primus himself had to hear it!? Scrap! Unicron could probably hear you from whatever hole he's rotting in!" She barked out, shifting and pulling Spitter back out into full view and beginning to reload the large multi-purpose weapon.

Sunstreaker glared at his twin, daring him to say anything. Sideswipe glared back for a moment before sighing. "We were… arguing about…" The look she and Heavyhaul were giving him where enough to convince him on what to say. "… About how Sunny doesn't like you Nova…"

Nova's attention went right to Sunstreaker with a 'really' look on her features. "Yeah… that was pretty evident from the shouting." She stood up then, drew a large weapon of some sorts from her subspace, and pressed a button on its side.

The twins watched in awe as the large… what they'd believed was a cannon, transformed, splitting in two and shifting into two lethal looking arm blades, the parts which attached to the frame looking like they were meant to attach to the sides, and the colour of the weapons, surprised the two.

They were gold.

Not a moment after that realisation, she shoved them to Sunstreaker. "Sides, yours are still in the works, I had made these things as a sign of good-will, but… I doubt they'll do much now to help me at least be friends with both of you." Without another word, she vaulted over the wall, thrusters activating and propelling her upwards back into the air before she transformed and shot off again, her cloak activating the moment she dodged a wild shot.

Sunstreaker stared down agape at the two large blades, digits brushing over the flat side of one as he took in the intricate carvings she must have etched into them, the flowing lines pulsating every few moments as energon shot through and around the blades, they were lethal looking, both internal edges holding a large divot about midway down and just as sharp on the edge as the rest of the blades.

Heavyhaul huffed. "She worked her aft off on those things… and you should know she ain't used to crafting swords… probably why she implemented the single cannon option… actually no… that made it harder…" He stated, remembering well the amount of prototypes she'd gotten through on the long nights she'd snuck out onto work on the things, often calling on his own skills and knowledge to help her piece the highly complex weapons together, the etching had been all her though, as well as the design, the transformation concept, and basically everything, she hadn't even let him touch the things actually, just asked for help to see if he could spot what was wrong.

He didn't give the two time to respond to what he had said before he vaulted over the cover, engaging his own shoulder cannon as he descended upon the enemy ranks.

The twin mechs then turned to one another looks of shock one both of their features, without even looking at the blades in his servos, Sunstreaker engaged them, allowing the attachments to side under the seams of his armour and wrap tightly around his arms, a near perfect fit.

The blades sung as they cut through the air, seeming to come from the etchings as the air passed over and through them.

Sideswipe had an almost giddy look on his faceplates as he shook his shoulderplates. "Oh... I want some of those." And the thought of them already being in the works made him feel even more excited.

Sunstreaker looked over at his twin, running his servo over the flat side of the blade again.

Finally, he turned to his twin, they exchanged a nod, and then launched back into the battlefield, Sunstreaker, using his new gifted weapons like they'd always been there.

Three joors later

"Sir! The attack here was a distraction!"

"Iacon was sieged!"

"Major casualties!"

"Nine combiners in total!"

"Tyga Pax has also been taken!"

"... Sir... The Allspark has been launched to the stars, but the co-ordinates where random and the logs destroyed! It's gone!"

"Reports of major casualties at Tyga Pax and many more still being located."

"Megatron has gone after the Cube!"

"The Prime is ordering that all Autobots are to evacuate the planet within the next few cycles, without the Allspark, Cybertron won't be able to support itself!"

Nova, Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, Heavyhaul and Steelwell were all huddled in one area, Heavyhaul was at present trying to treat the injuries on Nova's shoulderplate, as she wasn't serious enough to require attention from the already busy medics.

The two larger mechs exchanged a worried look as Nova's expression continued to worsen, her wings drooping lower than they've ever seen them go before.

It was also getting a reaction from the twins, namely Sideswipe, but Sunstreaker was surprisingly also showing quite a bit of concern, probably being influenced by his twins own strong emotions. "Nova? Nova? What's wrong?" Sideswipe mumbled, shaking her shoulderplate lightly and being weary of the more dented parts of her armour.

She mumbled something under her vent, her optics unfocused and her faceplates seeming to go numb.

Suddenly, she began shaking, lightly at first, but it quickly built up to the point that everyone in the recroom could hear the now loud clacking of her armour pieces banging into one another.

"Nova? What's wrong femme!" Sunstreaker snapped.

Her response was to suddenly launch herself from her seat, claws pedes screeching and scraping for a moment as they tried to gain traction.

Once they found purchase, she was bolting out of the room in a brutally fast sprint, not even having the thought to activate her thrusters, leaving Sideswipe and then Sunstreaker to race after them, leaving everyone else to watch on confused.

Nova didn't stop, not when the twins called her stop, not when the guards at the hanger tried to stop her from leaving the base, and once she was up in the air, the two guards having been bowled over by her, there was nothing stopping her from rocketing away, her hydra energy drive working hard to continue hypercharging her energon to enhance her speed output.

Sideswipe and Sunstreaker skidded to a stop at the end of the hanger, starring at the vapour trail she'd left behind, the white flames of her twin engines the only thing they could make out against the toxic horizon before they too blinked out of sight.

The twins exchanged a look before Sideswipe spotted one of the smaller Transport ships.

"C'mon bro." He mumbled, hoping the still dazed guards didn't try to stop them.

Sunstreaker quickly clued into what he meant, the twin bond helping with that, he knew then that Sideswipe wanted to go after he, he was worried for her safety, and he didn't want something bad to happen to her after she'd bolted out of there with a look in her optics like she was facing offlinging itself.

Nova herself only had one thing in her processor, repeating time, and time again on a loop, internally she was slamming against the locked tight ends of her family unit, wanting nothing more than to feel their presence against her own spark, they had closed up their sides of the bonds at some point during the battle, and it was only when she was back to normal after the battle, that she realised something was horribly, terribly wrong.

And she didn't know what it was.

She didn't even stop once she reached the damaged base which she'd called her home for the vast majority of her life.

The base was clearly badly damaged, and she could easily spot Decepticon troops retreating on the horizon.

But she didn't even bother acknowledging the retreating troops as she transformed, her clawed pedes screeching again as she skidded to a half stop so that her momentum took her rocketing through the entrance, only for her thrusters to engage a moment later again and send he rocketing forwards down the corridor.

Shouts came from anyone who passed, only, unlike before, they all tried to stop her, reaching for her and trying to pull her to the ground, trying to stop her from seeking out her family unit, and it only madce the dread she was experiencing within her spark grow ten-fold.

Finally, she was stopped when two large, burly black with red decalled arms wrapped tight around her middle just before she reached the med bay, pinning her to their front as she continued to struggle and screech, reaching for the door that her spark screamed held her loved ones confined within.

"RUNT! STOP IT!"

The old nickname froze her in place, her helm falling limp for a moment along with the rest of her frame before she weakly turned her helm around to take in the slightly banged up and scratched frame of her sire, who was holding her to him in a death grip worthy of a combiner.

"S-s-s-sire..." She whimpered, before she somehow spun in his tight grip and wrapped her arms around his nackcables in a death grip, not a moment later she was shaking. "W-w-w-why... why'd you close the bonds opi?! WHY?!" She begged, her wails loud enough to be heard throughout the base.

Ironhide didn't answer right away, turning his worried optics to his mate, Chromia was right at his side, running a servo down along her adopted creations side. "We... we didn't want you to get distracted with your own fight." He tried to explain.

Nova just buried her helm deeper into his chassis. "Never... never do that again."

Chromia's faceplates fell into a small, sad smile as she moved to wrap her arms around her creations middle, her and her mates bonds opening back up and allowing Nova to just absorb ever drop of love and care they fed to her.

This lasted for some time, all other previous occupants of the corridor/waiting room leaving to give the family unit their much needed reunion.

After she was a bit more content though, Nova pushed back, and looked around them. "Where's Bee? Why can't I pick him up now?"

Her creators tensed, Chromia letting off a choked sob as Ironhide gripped Nova closer to him.

It didn't take a 'Bot with Que's level of inteligence to know where her brother was.

"N-n-no... tell me he's okay! Tell me!" She cried, banging her servo into his chassis.

Chromia shook her helm. "Inferno found him, Megatron captured him... Ratchet is doing all he can to make sure he survives... but... he still might... so brace yourself Nova..."

Those last four words... put a fear in her spark the which she hadn't felt since the day her creators pushed her from their home within that skyscraper, the sheer fear for her younger brothers life, not her life, his. "No… no… no, no, no, nonononononononono! He can't! He can't offline!" She wailed, gripping tighter to her sire as he did the same, along with Chromia as she did her best to hold her daughter from behind without getting too badly whacked by her daughters rattling wings.

This continued on for some time, Ironhide and Chromia having moved at some point during so that they could all sit on a wide bench outside of the med-bay, Ironhide holding his worrying mate in his right arm as she continued to try and soothe their beside herself creation over the bond, all whilst the large black and red decalled mech stared at the locked door of the med-bay where his son lay, his bond closed off so that he and the two femmes of their small family unit couldn't feel the pain he was in.

He felt his own spark pound furiously, cursing out the one who'd done this to his son, the mech in question, none other than the Tyrant himself Megatron.

Bumblebee had been scouting out an overpass ahead of his unit when he was captured four joors ago.

He'd been found only a joor ago, his frame beaten in and his helm very nearly severed due to the injury in his neckcables.

His spark had barely even flickered, but now, even though the tight block, he could feel it slowly recovering, but even then, he could barely feel it at times before it was jarred back.

It was all he needed to know to work out what Ratchet and his medics had to do to keep his youngling online.

They remained there for another half a joor before Sideswipe and Sunstreaker wheeled round the corner, skidding to a stop though before they even reached the small family unit.

It didn't take a genius to work out where the youngest member of the group was, why Novalight had flown out of Simfur like Unicron was on her aft, and that they had to tread carefully if the absolutely murderous glare Ironhide was sending their way meant anything.

Sideswipe slowly moved closer, once he reached the three he crouched down and placed a servo on Novalight's shoulder plate. "Hey, Novie? Wanna… wanna go to the shooting range?" He asked slowly, not sure if he was doing it right, before he'd become such close friends with Novalight, he'd only ever had to deal with Sunstreaker, and there he had the bond to use to his advantage, as he'd learnt with Novalight, such a trick wouldn't work due to the lack of any sort of bond, meaning he'd had to learn to tread carefully around the femme, especially when she was in emotional turmoil, it had only happened a few times, but after his first botched attempt, he'd sworn never to enrage her like that again.

She turned her helm to face him, showing the rivers of lubricant running down her faceplates as her vents hitched as she nodded.

Before any of them could move though, the doors to the Medbay slid open, all optics snapped to Ratchet as he walked out a distressed look marring his faceplates and causing dread to form deep within all five of the ones waiting outside.

"I… I did all I could… but… Bumblebee… he will likely never be the same…"

Novalight pried herself from her sires now limp arms, raising on shaky pedes so that she could grab the CMO by both shoulder plates, looking into his optics with a look of kindling hope. "But he's gonna live right? He's still alive? He's still my little brother… I don't give a frag if he can't even walk anymore Ratchet!" It surprised all of them how calm she was, even more so when, with the speed she was famous for, trapped the CMO in a tight hug. "You saved my little bro, just like you did when he first came in, thank you… can… can we see him?" She asked tentatively, pulling back before he could even react and hug back.

Slowly he nodded, but when she went to bolt inside, he stopped her, grabbing her shoulderplate this time, causing her to still instantly. "He's in induced stasis, he won't be waking up until I deem his spark strong enough to support his frame again, and do not touch the life support system, if there's any fluctuations, call one of us." He listed off.

Novalight stared at him for a moment, before nodding her tri-colour helm. "Understood uncle Ratchet, I'll keep that in mind."

She strode in then, quickly followed by her creators, when the twins went to follow though, the door closed on them, causing them to whip around on their wheels to look at the CMO.

"There's multiple injured bots in there at the moment trying to rest, so for now, only they will be in there, seeing as they are directly related." He didn't say the final reason, but they knew what he was implying, and with synced huffs, the moved the sit on the bench facing the door.

With a sigh Ratchet sat down on another bench facing away from the Med-bay. "You followed her all the way from Simfur?" He enquired.

They both nodded. Sideswipe being the one to answer. "She was acting funny after the battle, then without a word she bolted out of the base… we would've gotten here sooner, but all the nearby landing pads are well… rubble… "Sideswipe stated.

Ratchet nodded, but the frown on his faceplates remained. "Why did you follow though? I thought you Sunstreaker, hated her."

Sunstreaker grumbled something under his vents before transforming his arms, revealing the blades that Novalight had custom made for him. "She's… proving difficult to hate at the moment…"

Ratchet raised an optic ridge at the mech before turning to Sideswipe. "And you?"

Sideswipe shrugged. "Already said it, I love that femme, sure, she's paintbombed our berthroom and scared our sparks to the point of almost moving out of our frames, but, she's just… Primus, there just aren't the words…"

Ratchet's frown furrowed deeper as Sunstreaker scowled at his twin. "You're well aware that for twins to mate, both have to agree…"

Sideswipe sighed, shooting his golden twin a look before nodding. "Yeah… we know…" His tone was almost distressed as he moved to brace his elbow joints on his legs, starring at the ground just ahead of his now entwined servos. "But Sunny just can't let go of his stupid grudge."

Sunstreaker scowled and shifted his new blades back in place. "And I won't until she's apologised!"

Sideswipe's helm snapped back up to glare at him. "She has apologised! Six times Sunny! That's why she made those stupid blades for you! To give you physical proof! I was right next to you ever time she attempted to apologise! And every time you just brushed her off with a glare! Sunny! You… you… GAH! I cannot deal with this right now!" With that he rose to his pedes and stormed away, slamming his end of the bond shut so that his twin couldn't feel anything except the lingering feeling of the rage which had just struck him.

Ratchet watched Sunstreaker carefully as the gold mech rose up to his own wheeled pedes, drew the blades, and cut a long and deep 'x' into the wall opposite the med-bay with a snarl.

"You favour her blades?" He mumbled, not expecting to have an answer given.

Sunstreaker locked up, starring down at the long wrist blades which continued beyond his servos in their elegant curves.

He just stared at the for a few moments, frame tensed before his form relaxed with a slow vent of air.

"They're… the best I've ever had… they produce the finest cuts… clean, no jerking, I sliced through a brute like he was a single strand of wire… but… these don't… don't… I don't know…"

He didn't notice the slight gap between the med-bay door and the wall, or the single swirling blue optic which peered through, having heard the commotion outside.

Ratchet sighed. "Why do you try to hate her so much?"

Sunstreaker growled. "She… she's just… so… so… oh who am I kidding… I don't hate her Hatchet… I'm… scared of her…"

Ratchet's jaw almost fell loose, the nickname all but left alone. "Scared? Of Novalight? Sunstreaker…"

"I'm scared she's going to get between me and Sides! That's what I'm scared about! She… he… he genuinely cares for her, I don't know how… I don't know why… or what he sees in her! Whenever we're near her, he… he just… what he feels… I don't… all he want's to do is tell her, and have her believe him… but I… I don't feel what he does!?" He exclaimed.

He probably would've continued, had something not crashed into him from behind and two arms wrapped around what they could of his chassis, digits only just entwining in the process.

"It's okay Sunstreaker… If you want… I'll say it again, I'm sorry, sorry for the pranks and the mistreatment I gave you when my pranks went too far… please don't think I intentionally want to split you apart, you're some of the closest friends I have, and seeing you two fight like this just makes me feel… I don't know what… so please, accept my apology and end this petty squabble."

Before he could respond, she'd turned around and walked back into the medbay to return to her younger brother's berthside.

Ratchet turned back to look at Sunstreaker, the gold mechs back strut still facing him, but now, his arms hung limp at his side as his pedes shook slightly.

After a moment he jerked round to face the already closed door, his faceplates holding a genuinely shocked expression.

"You… I… she didn't need to apologise…" He mumbled out.

Ratchet huffed, done with all the drama outside of his med-bay, pushing off his bench he moved to walk down the corridor towards the temporary barracks, seeing as his and many others own berth rooms had been completely destroyed during the final attack. Sunstreaker remained there, starring in shock at the door.

Within the med-bay, Novalight sat perched on the small ledge that had been installed for her, allowing her to peer down at her little brother as he remained hooked up to life support, it was evident that Ratchet and the other medics had done their best, but it was also evident that the supplies needed for a complete patch up, simply did not exist, as evidenced by the fact that the area where the main storage cabinet had been, had been taken out by a mortar round to the side of the building, leaving a gaping hole filled by a shield generator as a replacement quick fix wall.

Her creators were resting against the berth Bumblebee laid on, her dani sitting in her opi's lap as they comforted one another, Novalight would join them, but her thoughts were too plagued to allow her to unwind with them, hence why she remained vigilant on her perch.

The main reason for it being the twins.

Why she'd just acted like that and apologised to Sunstreaker, for the seventh time, was beyond her, but, when she'd heard how lost he'd sounded, she'd just wanted to hug him, especially after hearing that he was actually scared for his and his twins bond being at risk because of her.

She wasn't sure why Sideswipe stormed off though, having only heard what was going on through the thick door as he was storming away.

With a near silent groan she gave up on trying to understand those two, she apologised for the last time to that mech, hopefully seventh times the charm with the mech.

She didn't want this strain on their friendship to get lost.

Tilting her helm down she gazed at his little brothers closed optics, feeling her spark stall and guilt grip her.

If only she'd known… if only she'd known he was in trouble… she could've made it in time to save him.

Sure, she would've had to of fight Megatron, but, she would've if it meant her little brother would've gotten out of this mess unharmed.

She would've given her own spark for that.

Deciding to distract herself from such thoughts, she drew the swords she was making for Sideswipe from her subspace, shifting her pointed digit into a small medical grade welder so that she could continue, she'd had the CMO at Simfur give her this upgrade so that she could work on her projects with a far higher level of accuracy, and it was paying off.

She lost track of time as she continued to work, thanking Primus she'd had the tank feeling to take all her tools and materials out of her temporary workshop and keep them with her so that she could work on them whenever she had a moment free.

Every so often though she'd turn her attention to her family unit, her carrier and sire now in recharge, with Chromia leaning against Ironhide's chassis and one of her servos reaching at an odd angle to wrap her digits around her little brothers limp servo.

She didn't fall into recharge for a good few more joors, keeping focused on her work, but eventually, the lack of refuelling that cycle and the sheer speeds and other strenuous activities she'd done throughout the battle and the flight to Iacon, finally caught up with her, and without warning, she simply slumped backwards against the corner her perch was in, her welder tool flickering out and leaving the second of Sideswipe's blade almost finished.

It took some time for Sunstreaker to locate his twin, the corridors were all but demolished in some places, mostly from what he assumed to be mortar fire.

Ash and debris littered the ground his pedes wheeled over, throwing up a light cloud behind him as he had to swerve to avoid larger clumps of sharp metal and torn tiling which collected in piles.

He was in too much of a rush to notice how by simply passing through these destroyed and near abandoned corridors, his armour had become even worse off than it had been straight out of the battle at the Simfur base joors before.

Eventually though, he found his red twin, sitting, staring up at the toxic smoke which filled the sky, on the roof of the base, right next to where a good portion of it had seemingly been blown out.

At any other time he would have wondered how so much damage could have happened in the space of time that the battle had occurred in, but he had noticed something, the hole which his twin was sitting next to and blatantly ignoring, had been blown outwards, the metal warped and distorted, and the way the area within had collapsed in on itself, left little to the imagination as to what had happened.

"There was a traitor… But they're offline now, they took themselves out with that blast, and severed all the communication relays, that's why the SOS didn't go out."

The words left his twin in a monotone, not even regarding the hole. "Nova sat there once, you know, after that battle where I got my arm ripped off, and she got shot down… she didn't give a Scraplets aft about flying with only three working wings, you remember that right?" His voice was lighter now, reminiscent.

Sunstreaker nodded, moving to sit down on his opposite side of his twin to the hole, taking note of the different faded colours which littered this part of the roof, the memory of his twin returning to their quarters with so many colours on him, that he looked like the walls of Novalight and Flareup's favourite training room after they'd been in there for a few joors. "You really are enamoured with her, aren't you…"

Sideswipe nodded, letting off a slow vent as he reached over and grasped his twin by the shoulder plate and shook him from side to side slightly. "It ain't an infatuation Sunny, it really is love, we've known her for vorns… and whenever I'm close to her, I just want to… to… to hold her and never let her go, whenever she gets hurt I fret until she's up on her pedes again and causing havoc in a way she seems to of perfected… why do you think I signed up for transport to Simfur the moment I heard that she was being shipped out…"

"Wait! That was you! I thought… You said Prowl was trying to get rid of us three so that he could get some work done!" Sunstreaker exclaimed, moving so that he could whack his twin over the helm. "Last time I believe you a 160%." He groaned.

Sideswipe chuckled. "I'm surprised you bought that with how little you trust me anyway, well, when it comes to stuff I say."

Sunstreaker rolled his optics before reclining back so that he lay against the cold roof, quickly by Sideswipe. "We're getting off topic… so, you ain't gonna blow up at me for not liking Nova like that?"

Sideswipe shook his helm. "Nah, I know you're as blind to your emotions as Nova and the rest of the demo squad is to hazard signs."

"They're not blind Sides, they just don't give a Scraplets aft about losing limbs in the name of carnage and shaking the base they reside in off its foundations."

"Good point." Sides chuckled, pausing as if waiting to hear the sound of an explosion come from within the base, followed by the groans of the other residents and exclamations that no one was offline by the members of the demo squad involved with the most recent wakeup call/energon rush inducing base shaker.

But the sound didn't come, the base was like a ruin, nearly abandoned due to how much damage it had taken.

Sunstreaker nudged his twin's side. "Back on topic Sides."

Sideswipe sighed. "I know… it's just… I keep, remembering that lunar cycle, when we both leaned in… how soft those golden lips of hers were… and how she punched me in the faceplates and threatened to offline me if I didn't explain myself… heh, she leaned in too… but, you're right, this is meant to be about how your scared… that she'll tear us apart… Sunny… you know as much as I do that's not how the Sparkmate bond works, it's meant to bring all involved closer together, not further apart…"

Sunstreaker sighed, pressing the palms of his servos into his faceplates for a moment. "I… I know that Sides… but I don't feel what you feel! And it makes me worry… if… I don't end up ever loving her, I'll only make you feel worse in the end by raising your hopes up… Sides… I can't help but worry that she ain't the one, and that you're just letting your hopes get the better of you… I don't want to see you spark broken Sides…" He admitted.

Sides rumbled his engine for a moment in thought before moving to sit up again. "Does Nova really act like the kind of femme who'd purposefully break someone's spark, sure, she's psychotic on the battlefield due to the coding she has, or when someone slags her off, but, we've known her for vorns Sunny, she ain't that kinda fem… that's one of the reasons I like… love her." He sighed. "Hopefully, someday, you'll feel the same way, without needing the bond to feel what I do…"

Sunstreaker nodded, rolling upright as well and stretching and checking his internal chromemeter. "It's getting late, c'mon… I feel exhausted…"

Sideswipe nodded, the two helping each other up as, in synch, they pressed their helms together, something they used to do as younglings in the Pits, to show that they were still there for one another.

Then Side's pulled away first, a worried look on his faceplates. "Can we go check on Nova first? Her little bro is in emergency stasis… as her friends, we should be there for her."

After a moment of thought Sunstreaker nodded, sure, he didn't see Novalight as his twin did, but the femme had been there, in her own weird way, supporting them, and she'd shown she at least saw them the same way if the swords and saving them from their pranking victims was anything to go by, he would admit, she was a good friend now that he thought over all the times she'd saved, helped and supported their sorry afts.

"Alright, let's go check on the femme."

Medbay

Neither of the twins was sure what to think when they came across Novalight, strewn across the floor, wings in the air and the remains of her perch and what looked to be the blades she'd been working on for Sideswipe laying underneath her, thankfully not cutting into her.

"Looks like her perch gave way…" Sideswipe whispered, not wanting to stir anyone else in the room, but then again, if they'd recharged through Novalight falling to the floor from a perch, then they were all either under the influence of chemicals, or in her creators case, simply in too deep a state of recharge, for a firefight or combiner all out brawl to even stir them slightly.

Sunstreaker nodded, taking note of the large web like crack which had formed along the area her perch had been. "She must have fallen into recharge before it gave way…"

Sideswipe turned his attention back to the femme, bending down he grabbed her right arm and easily lifted the femme up into a vertical position, with his other servo holding onto her opposite hip for support as he pulled her arm over his shoulder and held it with his other servo. "Let's get her to the rec-room… it's one of the few places which wasn't so badly damaged, and we haven't checked our own room… probably in rubble."

Sunstreaker was too tired to argue, moving to activate the door so that his twin could wheel out of the damaged by somehow still functioning med-bay, having picked up his twins in progress swords and leaving them instead on the berth side table next to the yellow and black stripped mech that was Novalight's younger Praxian brother.

The journey to the med-bay was held in relative silence, the odd recharge laden mumble from Novalight being the only sound as her clawed pedes lightly brushed against the odd pile of debris which was high enough to tap them.

When they reached the room, the lights were all dimmed, the odd bundle of someone recharging evident, those who were here likely faced the same problem as them, more than half of the quarters had been destroyed, and a good portion of Iacon was also in ruins, so those left quarter less, had to make do with anything they could find.

Thankfully though, one of the sofa's was left unused, the twins quickly claiming it with Sunstreaker sitting on one side, he let off a quiet and irritated grunt though when Sideswipe set Novalight down in a way that caused her to slump against him, still in recharge, as Sideswipe sat down as well, after a moment though, he shifted, laying his helm down onto her lap and letting his pedes hang off the other side of the sofa.

"Side's, what the frag are you doing?!" Sunstreaker hissed quietly.

Sidseswipe shrugged minutely. "She's comfy… oh scrap, I think she's waking up."

Before he even finished her swirling blue optics had flickered one, the centres unfocused and remaining so as she sighed and snuggled deeper into Sunstreaker's side. "S-side's? Wha… what's goin' on?"

Sideswipe let his engine rumble at a low tone in an attempt to lull her back into recharge, but she seemed to be fighting it as she reached into her sub-space and drew a medium sized rectangular box. "Can… you give this to Sunny? I… bought it from a trader… in Simfur… after you told me he liked… Painting… and he hadn't been able to find any…since the war started… thanks Sides…"

Her helm rolled back to rest against the now stunned gold mechs shoulderplate, the femme seeker clearly unaware of who she was laying against.

She didn't stop talking though. "Maybe… if we ever meet again… he can… teach me… 'cause I wanna draw… but I… ain't tha' good… and… we… 're being… separated…" In the barely lit room they barely caught the lubricant pooling under her optics.

Sideswipe acted on impulse, sitting up and placing the rectangular box down next to the sofa, instead taking the sides of her helm in his servo and making it so that he could lock optics with her, but she was already back in recharge, and the lubricant had stopped forming.

After a moment of just staring at her faceplates, he looked over at his baffled twin. "Separated?" He murmured quietly.

Sunstreaker didn't respond, already going through the exodus roster which had been sent out whilst he was looking for his twin earlier.

He didn't have to look far; the groups had been all allocated.

And Novalight was going with her sire and younger brother… with the Prime… to one of the furthest quadrants of the charted Universe in hopes of locating a safe new world to colonise.

And he and his twin were going in nearly the opposite direction.

The two mechs looked to one another as Sunstreaker sent his twin the highlighted areas, watching as his optics widened, snapping down to the femme sitting between them.

Within a moment, his arms where locked around her, his armour rattling quietly as his vents hitched. "No… Not yet… I wanna tell her…"

Sunstreaker let out a low keen himself at the prospect, the thought of not seeing the bubbly, explosives prone femme again caused something in his spark to freeze almost, halting all processor function except on the simple fact, that there was a high chance; they'd never see her again.

The twins exchanged a glance before Sideswipe ducked his helm slightly and pressed a chaste kiss to Novalight's forehelm, before resting his own forehelm against hers. "Primus why us?"

Sunstreaker let off a distressed sigh. "I don't know Sides… but, if she really is the one, we'll see her again… we can't not… Primus isn't that cruel… I hope…"

Sideswipe didn't answer, shifting instead so that he could drape Novalight's upper half onto his lap, caging her in place with his arms and his legs sprawled out across the floor next to his twin.

Sunstreaker paused, after a moment of thought he picked up her pedes and lower half and draped them over his lap as well, then leaned in against his red twin, the two of them watching the exhausted femme they had in their laps for a while longer, before recharge claimed the two of them.

Please don't come at me with pitch forks and torches! This had to happen!

Ok, I'm gonna get out of here and start work on chapter 9 as soon as possible so as to avoid the potential lynch mob, ok? That sound good? Yeah, I'll get right on that, until next time everyone!

Moon +Lunar