After several long grueling hours of avoiding the Hunters, Night time fell over the highlands. Blackout landed on top of a mountain, his rotors folding up on his back. He perched and glared out over the dark forests below.
"Airach, you got anything?" He asked on his comm.
"No...She's elusive. Keep moving up. No way would they go back to the wreck. They still think there's a relic to collect" She chuckled with her husky tone. Blackout nodded, transforming and flying off over the highlands.
Miles back, at the plane hull was indeed where they were. Arcee peered outside at the dark sky, a huge full moon of lunar white looming overhead like a dab of chalk on a blackboard of stars. She sighed heavily and dragged a large portion of wing they scavenged across the front of the hull, blocking out the amber glow of their crackling fire inside. The wing acted as a door perfectly. Jack shivered and his teeth chattered. Even inside the hull, the cold night air gnawed at his skin.
Arcee sat down beside him and lowered her hands to his shoulders, rubbing them creating warmth. Jack sighed with relief.
"T-T-T-Thanks C-C-Cee" He stuttered in the cold. She smiled warmly as the amber flickering of light from the small fire illuminated her face. She peered up at the other side of the fire. Colin was sat with a stick held out over the flames, a crispy charred rat on the end. He twisted the stick and cooked it thoroughly.
"You eat that?" She chuckled gently. Colin scoffed and peered up at her.
"Foods food. All gotta eat" He smiled, pulling the stick back from the licking flames and embers of rising lights. "Looks done"
"How can you tell?" She grimaced. Colin snapped off a leg like it was a twig. He nibbled the cooked flesh. Arcee groaned and winced.
"Taste is a luxury me lad. Here, waffa thin rat" Colin chuckled as he leaned over to Jack. Jack smiled as he removed a leg, regretting it as he looked it over.
"Gee...thanks" Jack faked. Arcee continued to rub his shoulder gently as he lent into her side. The only sound to be heard was the fire crackling and Colin munching.
He licked his fingers and threw the stick and remainder of the carcass on the fire. Jack nodded as he licked his fingers clean.
"Good catch Colin. Not too bad" Jack congratulated. Colin shrugged.
"Wasn't all me pal. Thank old M4 Carbine over here. She be a sexy gal!" He chuckled as he stroked the rifle. Arcee shook her head as Jack settled against her, feeling her warmth. She kept gently rubbing his shoulder with her arm over him. Colin watched the pair. He tiled his Beret back.
"So...you two..." He swirled his hands for more information.
"Partners...Romantic...partners" Arcee rubbed the back of her neck. "It's complicated"
"Aye, not at all lass. We've all got someone out there for us" Colin smiled. Arcee warmly replied with a smile back.
"Well, apparently that other bot had a thing for you" Jack shrugged. Arcee's hand left his shoulder and she pushed away, looking at him angrily.
"What?"
"So...you told Tailgate you loved him?"
"Why does that matter?" She hissed.
"A damn lot Arcee! You forgot to mention that when you told me about what Airachnid did to your partner" Jack explored. Colin rolled his eyes and sat back.
"That had nothing to do with you back then!" She snarled.
"So this is how it's going to be, you never told me you loved someone before me" Jack sighed as he rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"I never did!" She shouted, Jack raising an eyebrow. Her angered bright optics dulled. "I...I told him I did because he said it...and I panicked. I didn't want him to die. Part of me wanted to say it so he wouldn't die unloved, another to see if maybe Airachnid would spare him...but none of it was that I actually loved him. Once we were friends...now we're enemies" She sighed, lowering her head. Jack dropped his defense, gently caressing her knee.
"I'm sorry Cee...sorry"
"It's all my fault. I told him that...so that he'd die happy, I didn't realize he'd survive. Gah this is such a mess!" she slammed her palms against her scalp. "It's horrible I know, But I didn't know what else to do! I panicked. And now this...horrible Flamewar is after me...and working with him"
"Don't worry. We'll stop em, get out of this mess...like always" Jack smiled proudly. Arcee rolled her optics with a smirk.
"You really think that? Maybe...Maybe my luck's finally run dry" she sighed.
"No...We'll get out of it. Tailgate's still got good in him. We just need him to realize it" Jack nodded.
"Thanks" Arcee smiled as she rested her forehead against his. Colin smiled at the pair.
"We'll get out of this, and ya can all go home" Colin nodded. Jack peered at him as he settled against Arcee again.
"You got anybody waiting for you back home?" Jack asked over the crackling fire. Colin's face was slightly distorted by the wobbling flames, but he definitely frowned as he lowered his head.
"Her name was Amber. She was a gorgeous wee lass. Body built like...well yours" Colin chuckled as he pointed to Arcee.
"Curves at every point and eyes that...well, you need a map to get out laddie!" He chuckled, Jack smiling. Colin's smile dropped as he continued the story.
"We met...under the Blues and Royals, our regiment in Helmand. We were close...got closer...war tends to...put things in perspective" Colin shrugged as he jabbed a stick at the flames. "She was a tough gal, I tell ya. One day, we got assigned to do a patrol near a small village. There was around twenty of us, all big men, then this wee lass...Amber. She looked harmless. But I'd seen her in combat, made some of those big lads look like little pant wetters!" Colin chuckled as the memories flooded his mind. Jack and Arcee smiled as they listened.
"We were walking through a small set of stalls, chatting with locals, nice enough folk. She goes up to a stall, and buys this..." He reached into his shirt and pulled out a necklace. On the silver chain at the end was a small dragon made of silver, its tail wrapped round its torso. In the middle was a circle amber stone, light orange in color.
"She thought it was cute. I told her that it reminded me of her. She went on and on about how I'd called her a dragon" He stifled his laughter, eyes distant in the past. "I told her that it wasn't the dragon that reminded me of her, it was the stone...Amber" He chuckled.
"Gave her a wee kiss and then a stronger one, bloody regiment whooping and cheering like nosy little bastards" He shook his head with a smile. "I put the necklace over her head, and told her there and then that I loved her. I must have jinxed it something awful, cos a barrage of bloody gunfire came down from the balconies. People screamed and ran, we stayed and took cover. The fight was long, ammo exhausting and hell, downright piss poor. One of me lads got hit in the arm, so we called in a chopper for evac. Not half an hour later we were loaded onto the bird in a nearby field, gunfire flying which way and right" He swung his arms to simulate the bullets.
"So anyway, I'm sat with Amber, checking her over for bullet wounds. She's shaken up, but alive. Just as we lift off and head home, this missile decides to ruin our celebration, blowing the tail off me bird. We spin wildly before crashing down in the field again" His smile had vanished somewhere in the story telling.
"We lost a couple of good lads in that crash. Fred, Rick, Michael. All good lads with families back home. We made it to a nearby structure. Blasted thing was made of bloody dry mud and sticks. Bullets ripped through it, I tell ya we might as well have stayed out in the pissin open" He scoffed. "Amber and I were on the top of the building, laying covering fire. We got our guys out the back and were beginning to fall back from these Taliban fuckers..." His eyes reflected in the flames as tears weld.
"It was just me and her. We cleared the field from the building top. She gave me one hell of a gorgeous smile and went to stand up. She said, "Race you down there" She was a big kid at heart. She never let anything get her down. I mean, there we were getting fired at, and she was cracking jokes! I loved that about her, hell we all did"
"She got up...and a loud bang echoed. I never saw someone fall so lifeless before in all me life. I caught her and that...that..." He struggled to speak over the tears. "Whew...that smile of hers was gone...Those beautiful eyes were dead...empty. Whatever it was that made her, her...it was gone. I was pretty much broken after that. We got back to base, had the memorial...and I resigned" He shrugged, wiping his eyes. Arcee stared at him with emotional eyes, Jack as well.
"I guess...what I'm trying to tell ya is...It doesn't matter how different you are...So what if you're not from the same fuckin planet. If you love each other...Like I loved her, then hang onto it. Don't let it slip away. Mine was taken from me. Doesn't have to happen to you two" He nodded, tucking his necklace back in.
"I'm so sorry" Arcee huffed, Jack nodding.
"A few years back, I joined a group called M.E.C.H" Colin shrugged. Arcee and Jack widened eyes. "As soon as I found out what they were truly about, I left. Not working for a group of sick bastards like that" He tended to the fire again.
"Then...I joined Fowler's team here...and well, here we are"
"Thanks for everything Colin" Jack smiled. Colin nodded.
"Don't mention it lad. It's what Amber would have done" He smiled as he leaned back against the wall of the plane hull.
Arcee's temperature warning began to beep, the Autobot logo on her wing flashing blue.
"What's that?" Jack asked. She quickly turned it off.
"Nothing important, come on. Cozy up, keep warm" She smiled, huddling him against her torso.
"So...how'd a kid like you meet a bot like her?" Colin chuckled as he placed his hands behind his head. Arcee smiled as Jack sat up.
"Well...I worked at K.O burger in Jasper. I finished work, came out and saw this bike...it was beautiful..."
...
Flamewar walked along the snowy night time ground. The path before her was flat and white, glistening like glitter. The cloudless sky above shone stars down on her and lunar light as the moon slowly rotated above. She sighed heavily and closed her fiery optics.
"My lord, she is responding well to our experimentation. The body has been successfully transferred to her new Cybertronian state" Shockwave stated. My eyes flickered open on the table I was bolted to. I peered up and saw that one eyed doctor. He gazed down at me emotionless, Megatron beside him.
"Excellent news, this will revolutionize weaponry if successful"
"Indeed Megatron. Her Energon levels are stable; I can begin to transfer the fire element"
"Shockwave...begin the transfer" Megatron snarled. I tried to break free, Primus I did! He put a cable deep in my chest, my new chest...why...why so painful? So...Argh...the pain!
"The fire element is being deposited into her Energon stream"
I screamed so loud, my hands shaking under the shackles. Fire burning, scolding my very Energon, my...Energon? Gah! Pain like no other! Help me! Please help me! Ahhhh!
Flamewar gasped back into the reality of the highlands, the Present. She stumbled and fell back in the snow, the cold snow melting at her hot touch. She rubbed her head and sat up, crouching.
She took a crunchy handful of white snow. She smiled and giggled at it's odd touch, the sensation of...cold? But her joy soon vanished as the heat of her palms melted the snow to water extremely quickly. Rage overcame her. She clenched her fists tight and tightened her extremities.
"RRRRAAAAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!" She bellowed as her limbs exploded outwards and a wave of fire erupted out in a ripple, melting a circle perimeter of snow around her. She calmed and looked at the scorched circle of charred ground she was stood in, smoke and steam rising. Water from the still melting snow trickled around her boots and boiled.
"Where were you? Where were you when I needed you?! You will pay...Arcee" She snarled.
