Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers or any of the characters in it.
Back on Cybertron...
Elita stood silently as she observed the damage on Cybertron. How much longer would they be able to remain on it? She hated the thought of abandoning her home, but she couldn't risk everyone else's lives. In Optimus' absence, she was the one who had to decide if it was too risky to remain there anymore. And then of course she was constantly worrying about Optimus and Bumblebee. She wanted to be with them so badly. To know what was happening with them and to know that they were alright. Elita wanted to be there in case her youngling got hurt, so she could comfort him and make him feel better. Her spark literally ached from her separation from them and that wasn't the only thing that was bothering her.
Not being all that familiar with the possible side effects to a strained bond, she had looked around and finally found a datapad that covered it. According to it sparkache was extremely common, and even Chromia had complained of it a few times, but aside from that everything varied between each Cybertronian. Some apparently very irritable, which Elita thought fit Chromia fairly well, and others, like her it seemed, ended up feeling more exhausted. Elita had reasoned that for her it was because she had two strong bonds being strained. If she had just been separated from Optimus, it might not have effected her quite as badly. But Bumblebee being gone as well made the strain worse on her. But she was glad that the youngling had went with Optimus. It was better for her to deal with the majority of the spark strain than it would be for her sparkmate.
"Still tired?"
"A little," Elita replied turning to face Chromia. "I'm just not used to being this far apart from Optimus and Bumblebee for so long."
"I know. I'm not used to being away from Ironhide like this either."
"How's the ship coming along?"
"The Wreckers are saying that it's almost done. I'm going to go by what they say, because I'm not even going to pretend to understand what they're doing."
"Any progress with..." Elita trailed off knowing that her sister would know what she meant.
"He's not out of stasis if that's what you mean. Probably for the best, Sideswipe is going to freak out when he discovers that Sunstreaker is missing."
That had been a tragedy that they had not expected. Only a few short orns ago a fight had broken out between some Decepticons and Sideswipe and Sunstreaker. By the time that Elita and her sisters had arrived, the Decepticons were gone, Sideswipe was badly damaged, and Sunstreaker was nowhere to be found. Elita had sent out a message to all Autobots still on Cybertron asking if anyone had seen the golden twin in the hopes that maybe some other Autobot had found him. So far it seemed that the answer to that question was no, and at the rate it was going, they were soon going to have to admit that it was likely that Sunstreaker had been captured. To make matters worse, it would only be a matter of time before they had to leave the dying planet they called their home – making a rescue mission much harder than it needed to be.
"What are we going to do 'Mia? We can't just leave Sunstreaker like this, but we don't have the supplies to find a way to rescue him..."
"I know. I'd hate to leave him with the 'Cons after seeing what they've done to some of their captives."
Elita had to suppress a shudder when her sister mentioned that. They had rescued two Autobots that had been captured by the Decepticons not too long ago. It was another pair of twins, but what had made it hard for Elita was the fact that they were still younglings – close to Bumblebee's age in fact. The Decepticons had decided to see if they could make a combiner out of twins. Whether their results had been successful, Elita had no idea, the two younglings wouldn't say and none of them were going to push the issue on them. But it was clear to see where the 'Cons had attempted their experiment since several of their parts were disproportionate to the other. Her sisters had taken turns taking care of the younglings. At first the two had been extremely quite from their experience, but now that they were feeling more comfortable around them, they were becoming, as Chromia put it, a little obnoxious. But they were younglings and they had been through a lot – it was probably a coping method for them.
"Where's Arcee at?" Elita asked.
"She was watching Skids and Mudflap earlier, I don't know if she's still there or not. Have you noticed that she's been sneaking off?"
The purple femme nodded, "She has the same look in her optics that another sister of mine had when she would sneak off when she first met a certain weapons specialist."
"He wasn't a weapons specialist back then, and don't act like you didn't go off to see Optimus."
"I'm not denying that I did, but I did inform either you or Arcee when I was going to see him. We didn't exactly have the same liberties as you did considering his social standing."
Chromia smiled, "I know. So you think our little sister has finally found herself a mech?"
"It seems that way, but I suppose we won't know for certain until she tells us herself."
Arcee felt bad about not telling her sisters where she was going or who she was seeing. When she had first met Cliffjumper, she hadn't expected them to be anything other than friends. He had the same frame that her nephew had, the only difference being that Cliffjumper was red. Any other feelings towards him would just be too weird. But as she got to know him, the weirdness started to fade away and she realized how much she really liked him. But she hadn't told her sisters about him. Arcee had wanted to wait and see how things would go between her and Cliff before she said anything. Chromia had pretty much done the same thing with Ironhide, so Arcee hadn't seen any harm in doing it herself.
Now she was certain in her feelings for Cliffjumper and things seemed to be going pretty well between them – well as well as any relationship could go in a time of war – and she was ready to tell Elita and Chromia about him. The only problem was that every time she was getting ready to tell them, something would get in the way. They were too busy, there was something that needed to be done, Chromia was in a bad mood due to her separation from Ironhide, Elita was too tired due to her separation from Optimus and Bumblebee, and then the latest tragedy with Sideswipe and Sunstreaker. Her relationship with Cliffjumper seemed unimportant compared to the other things going on. Besides she could wait to tell them. It wasn't like she and Cliffjumper were ready to become sparkmates – they hadn't known each other long enough to go that far yet.
"'Cee!"
Arcee turned to see Cliffjumper walking over towards her. She hurried over to meet him and was greeted by a hug from the red mech. The embrace lasted a few breems longer than it normally did – not that Arcee minded of course. She always looked forward to her meetings with Cliff, and she hoped that once she told her sisters about him, the two of them would be able to have more frequent and longer meetings.
"So how have things been with you?" he asked.
"Fine for the most part. We're still asking around trying to find Sunstreaker. Have you heard anything?"
Cliffjumper shook his head, "No. I've asked around, but no one's seen him."
"Sideswipe is going to be crushed. I'm not sure how he'll actually react when we tell him... We'll probably have to restrain him to keep him from running off."
"You know I did have an idea."
"What?" Arcee turned and looked at Cliffjumper curiously.
"Well my team has a ship, it's not as big as the ship that the Wreckers are building, but it's still a pretty good ship. I might could get my team to fly around and do a search for Sunstreaker."
"Oh Cliff, that would be great! I'm sure that will make Sideswipe feel a little better if he knows that someone's looking for his twin."
"You know, there is room on the ship for one more aside from Sunstreaker if we find him. I'd love it if you could come with me 'Cee."
Arcee thought about Cliffjumper's words for a moment. She wanted nothing more than to tell Cliffjumper that she would go with him, but there were other things to consider. The main one was that she needed to tell her sisters about Cliff before she could just go off. They would be worried if she just vanished without telling them where she was going or who she was going with. And she certainly didn't want to cause them any unnecessary worries. The two of them were stressed enough as it was. Once the two of them knew about and met Cliffjumper, it was more likely that they would be alright with letting her go. True she didn't really need their permission – she was not a youngling – but both of them did outrank her and they were her older sisters. It was always better to make sure they were fine with her plans.
"I want to go with you Cliff. I just need to talk to my sisters about it first. In fact, why don't you come with me so they can finally meet you and you can meet them."
"Sounds like a plan."
