Intermission 4

Alone Together

"My heart is like a stallion, they love it more when it's broken, do you wanna feel beautiful, do you wanna love yeah, I'm outside the door so let me in, we can go back and play pretend"

The sky was rolling, dark purple clouds lighting up randomly and the air heavy with humidity. It wasn't the same kind of electrical tension that she was used to from the plasma storms on Cybertron, but it would do. If nothing else, the destruction powerful thunderstorms like these wreaked on this planet was like no other and she wanted nothing more than to watch a little destruction not of her own making. The wind picked up and she wondered if she would get to witness a hurricane. It was early in the hurricane season, but it was also somewhere in rural Louisiana, so her chances were actually pretty good.

She didn't really remember flying so far but her natural, if slightly diluted sky-hunger urged her to take to the air and her distress didn't help her ignore it. Her twin may have said that she didn't want her to leave but she knew very well that it wasn't the truth. Not the whole one, at least. Muted though the bond was, she could still tell a lie from the truth. There was just so much in-between sometimes, everything an annoying shade of gray.

So she had given into the urge and flown away from her sister and Diego Garcia and everything else to this little backwater piece of land and got ready to throw herself a nice little pity party. Okay, it was probably going to be a huge one during which she would pretend that brooding was acceptable and sit there and hate every last moment of her life for the last few millennia because she deserved it.

Of course, she only had maybe a day or so to herself in the coming storm before her scanners (she hadn't meant to leave them on but half her life spent at war came with consequences, the inability to turn off certain functions being one of them) alerted her to the approach of another Cybertronian. Another scan showed it to be an Autobot and she didn't bother to wonder how in the Pit he had followed her without her noticing. She was slipping and she honestly didn't care as long as he didn't interrupt her. Surprisingly, the most intrusive thing he did was transform and sit beside her on the ground. He wasn't even close but she still felt him, his heat and EM field sliding against her withdrawn and morose one. Ultimately, it was her that broke the silence hours later.

"I was a runner back in Praxus, before the War. I won most of the Games I participated in but it was only ever the small scale local ones. I loved it, the speed of running. That's why I love the roads on this planet so much. I can go full throttle and driving almost feels like flying. It's liberating and just plain fun, something I haven't really allowed myself in vorns."

"So why are you out here now? This storm doesn't exactly look like fun."

She gave him a brittle smile and said, "But it's still a storm. Even on Cybertron, I loved the plasma storms. Me and my sister both, we'd sit outside out of the acid and watch the plasma flash. Thunderstorms like this bring back memories. The good ones."

They sat in silence for a while, each completely lost in their thoughts until he came to a decision. She deserved a chance. "I used to watch them too, before the skies became dangerous. I was a soldier even before the war and I watched the storms to remind myself that natural beauty does still exist. I needed the reminder that it's not all war."

"Ironhide, why- why are you talking to me, telling me this?" she asked, cables in her legs automatically tensing to run. She never ran scared, ever, but this mech… being around him made her think and feel- two things, she absolutely could not do anymore.

She kept all her secrets locked inside. She had her sister and her (probably definitely broken) bond and her memories, but she was still in an enemy camp that didn't trust her. If anything, Lightningstrike was far more careful than her previous incarnation. She was the new and improved version of the femme named Starfall.

Well, maybe not improved, but definitely new.

The big mech shrugged, cables creaking with tension and age before he answered, "You deserve a chance. This is your chance."

She didn't have an answer to that, no reply or smart remark. So she settled for something like the truth, "I want to run again. I want to run long and hard and end up somewhere I've never been."

"Well, I'm an old mech with a heavy frame that don't run much, but I can get you to that place you've never been. On one condition," Ironhide said slowly. He grinned when the femme tilted her head curiously, just like Striker did when she knew something she wouldn't like was coming. "I'll come with you."

"Why?" The question was curt, to the point and as dangerous as a loaded gun.

"Because you deserve a chance, I'm due for my yearly disappearance and I haven't done anything stupid in a while." He was never a politician like Optimus, so his answer was curt as well and bluntly honest. She sort of respected that.

"Well you don't seem to know where you're going and I certainly don't know where I'm going and I think I have room for one more troubled spark. So why the Pit not? I'm overdue for something reckless anyway." She wasn't sure why she was doing this, why she felt compelled to do it with him, of all mechs, but the pull was there and she rarely ignored her instincts.

Reckless works and when all else fails, play dumb and claim no involvement.

They weren't quite out of the state before Lightningstrike had to pull over from the random pain. She could tell that Strikezone had done all she could to keep her from feeling it, but it was a lost cause. Lightning wasn't sure how long she spent shaking in shared pain or how long she spent recovering, but when she was okay to move again, the first thing she did was comm Bumblebee, whom she knew was stateside too.

She had a twin to rescue.

Thunder rolled and lightning flashed, touching down on a tree in the field they had been in and setting it ablaze.