Betrayal (Part 2)
Please note, this chapter is entirely a flashback and a continuation of the last one.
"I can't believe he's gone. Just-just like that. I couldn't- I should've- I didn't save him…"
Arcee was huddled in a corner of the Medical Bay, Bumblebee, a yellow and black-coloured scout, seated beside her and patting her back comfortingly. He was working to bandage up some of her more seriously bleeding wounds as she was too far gone to do it herself and the medics were still busy with more serious injuries at that point. Cliffjumper had left not long after dropping her off, needing to report back to his superiors as apparently there was more to Tailgate's death than most of them thought. He'd promised to come back as soon as he could though.
Bumblebee glanced around the room as the femme continued to mutter to herself, trying to distract himself at least a little. He'd been friends with Tailgate as well, although nowhere near as close as Arcee apparently was; he was really going to miss him. This was also Spec Ops' first death to his knowledge; he wondered how badly it was going to affect them. They'd handled a number of near-misses with their usual carefree attitude, but with all the rumours flying around about Sunstreaker's involvement, he doubted that would be the case this time.
He watched as the head medic Ratchet finished patching up a large, green Wrecker and began lecturing the poor bot to be careful for the foreseeable future; apparently Ratchet wasn't especially happy with the casualty count for this particular battle, most conscious bots that had come through his bay had gotten grouched at today. It probably didn't help that two of his precious Aerialbots had been part of that count, Fireflight having taken one of her brothers and three Decepticon Seekers out of the sky when she lost control to apparently still-wonky wings. Both flyers were resting on tables towards the back of the room, their older brother and commander Silverbolt, a tall bulky-looking flyer in a couple different shades of grey and silver, keeping watch over them.
Just as Ratchet all but kicked the Wrecker out of the med bay and Bumblebee began to hope he could look at Arcee finally, Jazz came wandering into the med bay, looking far too serious for the little scout's liking. As much as everyone wondered and complained about the silver bot's ridiculously upbeat attitude and near-constant blaring music, it was much preferred over whatever bad news always followed a mood like this. Sure enough, Prowl trailed him in a moment later, pulling along an utterly-depressed looking Sideswipe.
Bee jumped to his feet with a questioning beep, wondering what on Cybertron was going on. Unfortunately, that got Arcee's attention and the next thing anyone knew, she was throwing her least-damaged fist into her former friend's face. "Where were you?!" She demanded, sounding more than a little hysterical. "You and Sunny were supposed to meet Tailgate! He never should've been captured! It should've just been me…it should've been me."
"Arcee!" Jazz called out in a firm tone, pulling the shaking and sobbing femme back as she went to take another swing. "Sides had nothin' to do with it alright? We think Sunstreaker may have set us all up-"
"How could he have nothing to do with it!?" Arcee snarled, struggling to try and escape her commander's grip. "They're twins! Either he knew or he's too fragging stupid to have noticed!"
"Arcee, enough!" Came Prowl's stern voice when Sideswipe completely failed to react, too caught up in very likely the same thoughts. It was extremely unsettling to see the usually cheerful bot so down-trodden like this. He wasn't even trying to fake a smile as was the norm when something went horribly wrong.
Unfortunately, Cliffjumper chose that moment to return to the med bay, the rest of the Ops team trailing along behind him. "What the frag's he doing here instead of the brig?!" The little red bot demanded, jabbing a finger in Sideswipe's direction.
Prowl rubbed at his temples in frustration before calmly stating; "We have no reason to believe Sideswipe was involve-"
"No reason? Really?" Mirage questioned haughtily. "Hound and I just watched his brother rip apart half a dozen Autobots out on the battle field. Surely there's at least going to be some kind of investigation?"
"Just cause there's- there's something wrong with Sunny doesn't mean Sides-" Blue tried to argue, standing up for his best friend. The former noble wouldn't hear a word of it though.
"Of course there's something wrong with him! There always has been!" The delicate-looking white and blue bot huffed exasperatedly, ignoring Hound's efforts to get him to calm down. "They're both violent maniacs!"
"They're our friends! How could you just turn on them so quickly!? Maybe you're the one who needs to be investigated!" Blue retorted, waving his arms around, looking both angry and very hurt over the whole situation.
Whatever Mirage had to say next was interrupted by a bolt of lightning hitting the ground in the middle of the bickering group and startling most of them. "Enough!" Ratchet bellowed loudly, Silverbolt standing beside him, having been the cause of the electricity. "If you're not Jazz, Prowl, or injured, get the frag out of my med bay!"
Any further complaints were met with a deadly warning look from Jazz, so Blue, Mirage and Cliffjumper didn't resist when Hound ushered them out of the room and back towards their team's hangar. The silver bot deflated the moment they were gone; "Primus, what a mess." He mumbled, handing Arcee back to Bumblebee, who ushered the unresisting femme back to her corner.
Bee hugged her to his side as she broke down into a mess of shivering sobs, glancing over and giving Sideswipe a sympathetic look with his big blue eyes. Arcee was never going to forgive the pilot or his twin for this, no matter what anyone else said, and Sideswipe knew it.
Weeks passed and the atmosphere amongst the Spec Ops team wasn't even close to improving. Blue was defiantly standing by a still completely withdrawn Sideswipe, while Cliffjumper, Mirage and Arcee refused to even be in the same room as the bot. Jazz, Prowl and Hound were doing their best to try and keep the peace, but it was clear to everyone that it wasn't working.
Jazz had been stalling on sending the team on any missions, handling anything that came up either by himself or with Prowl or Bumblebee's assistance, but the time had come where it simply wasn't an option. His team had been ordered to wipe out a nearby hidden Decepticon base, and it was going to take the full team whether he liked it or not. While discussing out how to minimize the drama, Prowl had come up with the brilliant idea to partner up Arcee and Sideswipe, forcing them to work things out between them, with the belief that if they were no longer fighting, the rest of the team would simply follow suit. Jazz didn't believe it would be that easy, but he trusted his friend's judgement and proceeded to give it a shot.
It went about as well as expected; beginning with a loud and extremely impolite argument from most of the team, and continuing on to the most awkward ride ever in the Rustbucket when Jazz stubbornly forced them all to push on.
Their mission was rather simple; they were simply attacking what they believed to be a small underground Decepticon base beneath what appeared to be an abandoned town. It was too close to Autobot territory to leave be, so they were to capture any Cons they could for questioning and demolish the base.
"Right, Siders and Cee, you're both with the ship. Any backup arrives; I want it shot dead, got it?" Jazz began tossing out orders as the team departed the small ship, simply speaking right over the top of any arguments and ignoring the death glare battle going on between the femme and pilot. "Blue and Prowler, find yourselves a sniper point, you're our cover. Hound, Raj and Cliff, clear out the base, capture any Cons you find. I'm gonna go set the explosives. Everyone good? Good. Let's roll!"
Sideswipe and Arcee were left in silence within a minute, utterly refusing to speak to one another and simply listening in on the team's hushed radio chatter while Arcee sharpened her wrist blades. Despite the blades being as sharp as they were going to get, she was still at it when Sideswipe decided he'd had more than enough. "Cee-" He started, only to be interrupted by the ship's proximity sensors going off. Of course the Cons were going to attack then, why wouldn't they? Well, at least he could take out his frustration on them.
Starting the ship back up, he activated its cloaking systems and took off into the air. The weapons systems locked on to the enemies easily enough; it was merely a trio of cars seemingly evacuating the base. It was a bit odd they'd managed to get past Blue and his aim, but Sideswipe brushed it off, assuming the smaller bot had felt sorry for them. It was a well-known fact that flash sports cars were not the most popular Decepticons, and regularly got left behind or sent on the worst of missions.
He never even considered the possibility of Sunstreaker being one of them, despite the bright yellow colouring of the third car; perhaps it was just subconscious denial or something? Regardless, he was surprised when a deathly serious Arcee proceeded to jump out of the ship, just as he was taking aim at the first car, a jet black colour.
"Arcee!" She was a Cyberninja after all, so she could probably handle the landing, but it was still going to hurt.
It wasn't until she'd landed roughly and struggled back to her feet, taking off after the yellow car that Sideswipe realised what she was doing. "S-sunny…" He murmured to himself, hesitating. It was no wonder Blue hadn't shot these bots; he simply didn't have the spark to kill someone he considered a friend, regardless of what they had done.
Sideswipe froze; every instinct in him screaming at him to go protect his brother, despite what he'd done and who was after him. Utterly decimating the black car with the ship's blasters, he forced it into a rushed landing, transforming the moment he was out and speeding off after Arcee and Sunstreaker.
Just as he got close, the final Decepticon, a hideous neon green, swerved in front of him, cutting him off. Both transformed immediately, the Con all but throwing himself at Sideswipe, swinging for his head with a massive battle axe. As Sideswipe spun and ducked, narrowly avoiding the attack, he decided that all worries about his brother and friend trying to kill one another were going to have to wait; he was no help to either of them headless. Growling, he unsheathed his wrist blades and lunged at the Con.
He parried a second blow with his left blade, his entire arm shuddering at the impact but withstanding it for now, and swiped at the vital lines in the Con's neck with his right. The attack connected, but only enough to cause the axe-wielding maniac to drop his weapon and stumble backwards, gripping at his throat. A quick blast from his jetpack sent Sideswipe hurtling up and forwards, allowing him to quickly swing around and jab a blade straight through his opponent's head. Landing awkwardly and yanking the blade back out, he grimaced at the sparking wires and large amount of energon, before kicking the corpse away and scanning the area for Arcee and Sunstreaker.
They'd wandered a good distance while fighting, Arcee's combat style and delicate build requiring her to dodge repeatedly before attacking any openings. He watched them battle it out a few moments longer: Arcee clearly utterly furious and letting attacks come far closer than she should considering just how hard Sunstreaker was capable of hitting. Sure enough a flip backwards after a kick to the yellow bot's face was just a tiny bit too slow and she was smashed hard with a fist and sent sprawling into the ground.
She managed to roll just in time as Sunstreaker slammed a foot down where her head had been, and scrambled back to her feet. Her optics were fritzing and her balance was clearly off now; she wouldn't be able to take another hit like that.
Sunny seemed to have slipped into his usual battle-rage, an unhinged and wild look in his now red optics. He pounced on the unstable femme, stabbing both of his blades into her torso. She managed to just evade the one aimed for her spark which would have been fatal, but the second one dug straight into her side, tearing through her armour and a number of lines and wires. She fell to the ground with a cry of pain, but Sunny didn't stop, clearly intent on killing her.
"No!" Sideswipe dove, tackling his brother to the ground, both rolling a short distance.
Sunstreaker snarled and smashed his twin's head into the ground violently the moment they stopped, peeved at having had his fight interrupted. As Sideswipe stared up at him wide-eyed, Sunstreaker seemed to snap out of it, stumbling away backwards, a shocked look on his own face. At that moment a number of shots rang out, all hitting the yellow bot dead on in the back and sending him sprawling face-first into the ground. Bluestreak.
The little bot was shaking as he rushed over to help Sideswipe up, his rifle in hand. "I'm sorry- I didn't- I- Are you alright- I-" Blue prattled frantically.
The red bot accepted the help without a word, staring over at his twin blankly. He was so out of it, he didn't even move when Sunstreaker groaned and began to pick himself up. Blue reacted, readying his rifle once again, but it wasn't needed, Arcee throwing herself at the Decepticon.
She'd aimed high and tackled his shoulder, sending them both crashing down into the ground once again, this time her ending up on top, one of her wrist blades held to his throat.
"Go on, do it," Sunstreaker grit out, scowling up at the femme.
"Cee! Cee, don't!" Blue called out desperately. "They're twins- you can't-!"
It was Arcee's turn to hesitate, well aware of the rumours that spark-split twins shared a life, that when one perished, the other eventually followed. "You think I don't know that?" She snapped back at Bluestreak, her bladed arm shaking slightly. "I just- I can't- Tailgate… Why?" She demanded of the Decepticon helplessly, "Why'd you do it?"
"They wanted one of Spec Ops." Sunstreaker replied tightly. "It came down to you and Tailgate or Sideswipe, and face it, I was never going to pick you over him."
Arcee snapped her optics shut at that, keeping the blade tight against his throat for a moment as though considering what to do. Eventually she pulled it away and got to her feet, struggling through a transformation and driving away without a word.
Sideswipe pushed Blue gently, forcing him to do the same and follow after her. "It didn't have to be like this," He said quietly to his twin.
"Yeah, it did."
With one last look back at Sunstreaker, Sideswipe transformed and followed after his teammates.
Next Episode: Freedom
An old enemy escapes.
A lot of editing was done to this one until I was finally satisfied. Not my best work, but I think it covers what I wanted it to. Next chapter will be back to the present time.
Thanks for the follows, favourites, and reviews, please keep them up as they bring me great joy! I really do love the feedback, no matter how big or small.
~Saani
