"This isn't a good idea. Why don't we just head on back to base and wait for them to bring her back?" Hound said for the…hell, Will didn't even know how many times the mech had said it now.
"No, Hound. We continue. If Prowl has his way, she'll be brought back in stasis cuffs. Maybe not at all. I want to be there, for her." The human snapped, barely managing to suppress a sigh of irritation at the mech's behavior. Never had he known Hound to be this…cowardly.
Will felt the Jeep droop slightly on its shocks, even as they barreled down the road at a nerve-wracking ninety miles an hour.
"We're almost there…Ironhide and Prowl have engaged already. They're reporting…um, a slight 'hiccup' but neither has specified what that is. They have stated that she's very combative…sounds like the pit-spawned femme I remember." Hound said, his voice quiet as they crested a rise, then he shot off the road, flying over the rough terrain so fast that Will was sure his teeth were going to rattle out of his mouth. What he saw when they got to the top of the next hill made him completely forget about chewing Hound out about his wild driving. That and the fact that Hound slammed on the brakes and nearly sent Will through the windshield.
Standing there, in all her glory, was Warrior Star, sixteen feet tall at the shoulder and twenty two at the top of her head. But behind her…what Will saw nearly made his heart stop. Three more Cybertronian wolves, two of them massive in comparison to the femme, and all four were staring down Ironhide and his little band. Will knew that the weapons' specialist and his mechs were outclassed in so many ways that it wasn't funny.
Hound's theatrics caught everyone's attention; nine pairs of optics swiveled to stare at the Jeep as he idled rather uneasily about thirty feet away. Before the mech could stop him, Will had hopped out and started walking briskly towards the wolves, prompting Hound to transform swiftly as Ironhide took a step to intercept him.
"Stand down, Ironhide. I just want to talk to her." Will snapped at the black mech, whose ice-blue optics were filled with uneasiness, concern, and a few other things on top of that.
"William…" The mech started, only to be silenced by a laser-sharp glare from the human. Ironhide only used his full first name when he was very serious, but the mech didn't know just how serious the soldier was.
"Don't start with me. I know what I'm doing." Will said before he turned his attention back to the four wolves, Warrior Star more specifically. She was watching him curiously, her cobalt blue optics filled with a thoughtful light as one of the other wolves, a big steely gray mech with frightening flame red optics, stepped forward and put a huge paw in his path to stop him.
"Shadowfang. Let him be." Her voice made every mech present go rigid, then the gray mech stepped back again, his optics glinting uneasily as he watched the human continue towards the bronze femme. She stepped forward to meet Will, lowering her head as she had done before until the human was right in front of her nose. They stared at one another, cobalt blue to hazel, before Will spoke softly.
"They hurt you pretty bad, way, way back, didn't they?" He watched everything that ran through the femme's optics, unable to keep up with the flurry of different emotions that he saw, before she answered him quietly.
"I gave them good reason, Will Lennox. My crime is one that lives in infamy in the memories of all mechs and femmes still online today." Her voice was calm and soothing, but underneath the calm, Will heard the pain she felt, from the betrayal she remembered, and the memories she could never forget.
"From what I understand of it, and mind you, I have not heard the full story, or even parts of it really, you were just as much a victim as anyone that day." He argued lightly, unsure of why he said it, but the light that entered the femme's optics made him hope that he had said the right thing.
"If only the ones that decided my fate had seen it that way, wise one. Perhaps my attitude towards the Autobots now would be different." Warrior Star's voice was soft, and very, very slowly, she laid down, placing her muzzle on her forepaws but keeping her optics on his eyes the entire time she was moving.
"Then tell me this: why is it you haven't forgiven Optimus? From what I know, he voted against having you exiled. Or is it that you haven't forgiven yourself for what you did?" Will tagged the last sentence on there when he saw the look in her optics.
In the background, Will heard a quiet intake from one of the wolves, but he couldn't be sure which. He kept his gaze on Warrior Star, watching the femme keenly as she processed what he had said and thought up a response.
"Have you ever done something so unforgivable that it cost you everything, Lennox? And if you have, you tell me…did you forgive yourself for it?" A sudden agony ripped through Will, and he could see the pain in his eyes reflected in the wolf's cobalt blue optics as he shot back into his memories about five years. He remembered a beautiful woman, her joyful laughter, her glowing eyes…then he remembered a cute little toddler, her infectious giggling…and then he remembered the very second the life faded from them, their eyes growing dull and hollow before closing forever.
Feeling his throat closing from the effort of keeping tears at bay, Will lowered his head, gritting his teeth in a desperate attempt to keep his composure. He went rigid when he felt a very, very light touch against his back, and he turned back to Warrior Star, realizing that the touch he felt was one of her huge paws. She was almost cradling him in her lethal claws, then she very, very gently touched the tip of her nose to his chest, her optics locked on his eyes, then she spoke again.
"You and I are more alike than either of us knew, William Lennox. Perhaps that is why I believed you earlier. Perhaps that is why I believe that I can trust you now. You know what it means to lose something so dear to you that it scars you forever. You know what it means to have nothing left to live for. You know what it means to hate yourself more than anything in the universe. And you know the wrath that burns through you, screaming for vengeance, no matter the cost. I must ask you now…have you forgiven yourself, Lennox? Or is the only reason you're still living because you haven't found the one responsible for your pain? Because if you haven't, and if you only live for revenge, then you do understand where I stand. Because you are right in the same fragging place."
Will had listened to the wolf speak, and he had finally understood why it is he had wanted to help her so badly in the first place. Then it hit him that she had asked him a question, and he realized she was waiting for an answer.
"No, I haven't forgiven myself, and I haven't found the one responsible yet. It was a Decepticon, one I've never seen before. He was this…I don't know, some sort of bird. Big though. Real big." Will saw it instantly when her optics widened then narrowed immediately. He wondered about it for just a moment, then she spoke so softly, so coldly, that he realized she knew who he was talking about.
"It had to be him…there are no others. Starscream's spawn…it had to be. And I let him go. I let that pit-spawned mech go."
A/N: Well, the movers were in and out of here faster than I thought possible. Six hours to pack up ALL my stuff, shove it in a truck, and get gone. Amazing really. Anyway...by request of a couple of my reviewers, Lennox is back! I've been trying to think of how to get him back in there...here you go. :) Hopefully it came out alright...
And is Warrior Star right about Moonflight? Is he the mech responsible for what happened to Lennox five years ago? I guess we'll all see...
And there's Shadowfang's protective streak again. Trying to protect his sister against even a human.
Thank you as always to my dear reviewers, favoriters, and followers! You guys rock!
Until we meet again...
Kani
