Thank you all for getting this story to pass the 100 review perimeter! If you have read my story 'Two Worlds, One Family' (Ironhide/OC, which has over a thousand reviews and has made people cry quite a lot), I couldn't shut up when it came to 'perimeters'. So, I'll just be mentioning these perimeters only when they have some sort of meaning to me and I want to share the excitement with you, occasionally reward you for taking the time to review with a longer chapter.

Chapter 12: The War Has Begun

12 cycles later…

We were travelling through the ruins of Praxus, restlessly and cautiously swerving around the debris that decorated the streets. Along with the characteristic stench of gunpowder, melted metal and energon, the sight hurt. We were travelling in absolute silence, one behind the other, each carefully driving and trying to evade running over various metal scrap that would creak when put on pressure. Praxus has been obliterated, mangled and destroyed beyond repair. All done by the sole command of the Decepticon leader.

How I had grown to hate the Decepticons. 12 cycles spent in complete silence had given me time to think about the past, present and the future. How everything had changed in a little over 12 cycles. My home was destroyed, my friends were left in the battlefield, half of them possibly offline. And I? I could do nothing about it.

Who knew how many lives have been lost already? We intercepted no Autobot in the 12 cycles we have been travelling through the city. None. So why were we alive when so many lives had been lost? Maybe it wasn't mine to ask.

It was tiring, to say the least. Constantly driving through the ruins of the city, without pausing or refueling. But we had finally managed to exit Praxus as we went through lands that were nobody's to claim. It was simply an empty space between Praxus and Primus knew what. But we had trusted Prowl enough to lead us safely towards our sanctuary, wherever it may be.

So then why were we privileged to a sanctuary, when so many others were not? It didn't seem fair. There were these endless questions that kept arising, and although nothing was said aloud, it was clear that they were occupying others' processors, as well. Then again, we had tried saving all that we could. So what had happened to the other superiors? Enforcer, Tradewind and alike? The rest of the cadets, Blue, Springer?

And what happened to my mother, Vectra? I could care less about Railgun, even though he was my father. I disliked thinking about him.

All of the many questions that kept arising and would not be answered in the near future.

A tugging at my spark shook me from my pacifistic thoughts. I knew it was Silvershot wanting to say something to me, so I let him in. He was quite welcome, because there was finally someone who dared talk. I had been trapped in my thoughts for a dozen cycles, I needed somebody to talk to anyway.

"I know what's going through your processor." He said through the bond as I was driving right behind him, through an area that increasingly became more dangerous and unstable. "Constantly asking yourself questions won't bring the answers."

"So what do I do, Silver? Why was there no warning prior to the attack? No alarms, no signals, nothing? We should have had an emergency signal of some kind to inform us of a preceding attack."

After a short silence, he spoke back. "There's nothing that you could have done, Goldstreak. They chose their own fates." I knew he was talking about Bluestreak and Springer, as he switched the subject so swiftly. He was callous.

"How dare you say that? They were your friends! Primus Silvershot, they were mechs you knew!"

"I dare say it because I had not considered them friends in any way."

"You callous, sparkless gli-"

"Enough. I didn't do this, so don't get angry with me. Learn to control your temper and emotions."

"Don't lecture me." I sighed out at the end, as he sent a wave of calm through the bond. The action was grotesque, but at least he was trying to put my worries aside and put me at ease. I wanted to fight it and to stay mad at him for what he had just said, but I couldn't. The feeling of calmness was much needed, but only slightly appreciated. I was still very mad at him.

Suddenly, the encrypted comlink was opened and the messenger was Prowl. "We will be crossing the swamp. Consume one cube of energon without transforming before we continue. Keep away from the corrosive gasses and proceed with caution." His short instruction stated and was expected to be obeyed. Only when things were very serious and when Prowl wasn't in the mood, he stated things extremely formally. I was growing stiff from driving in my alt half the mega-cycle, but I thought of this as another endurance training. I had to get through this.

It took a lot of concentration on my part before I got one cube out of my compartment and into my fuel tank. I could already feel myself a little revitalized and powered up, but only slightly. Factually, energon could not replace standard recharge.

Prowl had shut down the encrypted comlink as he led the group straight through what had seemed to be a swamp filled with corrosive gasses we were supposed to evade. We had to make sure we didn't fall into the swamp's craters, otherwise there was no saving us and not even the best medic on Cybertron, and by that I mean Ratchet, could save us from deactivation.

So far we were doing alright. We were not targeted by Decepticons or anybody else for that matter, and I didn't have a feeling that we were being watched. We only had to look out where we were rolling our tires on. Apparently, the gravel and unpaved roads were quite insecure and to our dismay, all the ground we were driving on was soft gravel, which eroded if a lot of pressure and weight were being forced on it. No wonder Prowl had told us to proceed with caution.

A sudden flash over my HUD told me to stop moving, so let my brakes squeeze the disks on my wheels, effectively stopping me in place. Something wasn't right.

The group in front of us moved at a slower pace, but my HUD told me to stay put.

And an astrosecond later, a huge eruption of corrosive gas erupted from the swamp near me, pushing the gas right where we were going through. I stayed put until the gas had subsided, only then accelerating slightly, to keep up with the rest of the group as we went over the unpaved, rough and ever eroding roads.

Other than that, it took us about two more cycles to get out of the swamp and I was beginning to get a headache. I wasn't one for whining to superiors, so I sucked it up and didn't tell Ratchet. No need to. All setbacks, such as attending to my non-passing headache, would only delay our arrival to the destination Prowl had set out for us.

As we had exited the swamp, the air seemed to be so much cleaner on this side. Cleaner than I have ever had the chance to inhale, for even in Praxus the air wasn't this clean. This was good for our systems, for cycling air. In front of us, there were no obstructions, only a large clearing where our civilization had never stepped foot on.

Prowl transformed and so did we. I stretched, letting the cracking of my protoform soothe me, while my headache thrummed with lessening pain and I began to feel tired, worn out. "We will rest here for four cycles and hide in the shadows of the swamp." He explained patiently. "Then, a means of air transportation will aid us towards our destination."

"Air? Who the frag is so insane to be flying in the middle of a war? Do you not see this clearing?" Ironhide protested, pointing towards the clearing that had absolutely no way of hiding anyone or anything in it. "The Seeker's gonna get offlined!"

Seeker? I didn't know what that was, but I supposed it was some sort of aerial transportation.

"Which is why an automated drone will be transporting us." Prowl spoke back.

"That makes a large difference, Prowl." Ratchet wisely added. "Although we are out in the open, I'm unsure as of whether that is such a good idea."

"It's the only option we have now." Prowl answered calmly, unfazed by Ironhide's groaning, cursing and protest.

"Does anyone have wounds that I must attend to?" Ratchet spoke to us, looking over everyone.

I glanced to my side, only to see the rest of my friends shaking their heads. "No, Ratchet." I replied.

"Good, because I wasn't up for fixing anyone anyway." He said, transforming into his alt mode, lazily driving over to hide in the shadow of the swamp's metallic trees as he extinguished his headlights.

"Sir," I spoke to Prowl. "Shouldn't one of us be guarding the rest? In case a threat is near us?"

"Yes, which is why that job will be taking Ironhide." He nodded. Seeing as I had no more inquiries, he transformed into his alt mode, parking next to Ratchet.

I supposed this was it. Ironhide seemed completely fine with staying up this whole time as I transformed into my alt as well, taking cover in the shadows of the trees as I let my processor wander freely, until I reached the phase of recharge. I hadn't felt so tired…

...since the day Fireblaster did what he had done to me. I didn't want to remember it, yet it was always in the back of my processor.

XxXxXxXxX

It was very easy to wake up from recharge. Other than the internal alarm that went off that woke me up, I wasn't getting much recharge anyway. In front of me, the drone plane was hovering just a little above the ground, but it was oddly silent. It was colored in a dull, monotone gray color and was adorned with many dents. It looked like it had been shot at multiple times.

"Hurry. The sooner we get into the plane, the sooner we can leave." Silvershot said as we all transformed and walked into the plane, the door closing only when we were all safely inside. But we weren't the only ones in the large plane, no. There was one femme, from the looks of it, and two mechs. Only these bots had their frames colored, although scratched from battle, and we looked like homeless bots next to them. It was such a contrasting picture. But their paints weren't immaculate, far from it. Chips and dents in their armor were there clearly visible, but not regarded.

The femme seemed to recognize the superiors from my team. For an astrosecond, and only an astrosecond, they all stared at each other in disbelief. Prowl was the first to collect himself first as he took a respectful bow towards her. "Elita." He said.

"Prowl, Ratchet, Ironhide." She bowed to them as well. I wondered who she was. All that I could say for her was that her deep purple paint job, as chipped and ruined as it was, suited her perfectly. And her frame… she was every mech's dream. Although she seemed older than me, a lot older. "Is everything alright? Ratchet, what happened to your frame?" She gave him a searching look, obviously intrigued as to why he was missing his greenish yellow paint.

"Praxus was destroyed." He solemnly replied as nobody else spoke a single word in conjunction with him. "We had to evacuate, but in doing so successfully, we had to remove our paint, to avoid attention."

"What of the camp?" Her deep voice resounded as we lifted up into the air and began flying to Primus only knew where. But we were going high, into the depths of the atmosphere, where darkness was the only thing we could see through the transparent, large windows on the drone's walls.

"The camp was destroyed, as well." He shook his head as he let it slightly lower. "We could have saved two Cybertronians… I fear their lives will be lost."

"What do you mean, old friend?" She asked him, putting a servo on his shoulder and looking at him from under perturbingly. "I will need a report on everything that has occurred in Praxus." She turned to Prowl.

"And you will receive one." Prowl nodded to her.

I couldn't listen in to their conversation, so I walked towards the two rows of seats that were placed conversely of one another, meaning the seats were facing each other. They looked bare and rough, but would have to do unless I wanted to recharge against a wall, which was certainly not within my plans. I was tired and my joints needed rest.

I took a seat, settling myself in the middle of Silvershot and Hot Rod. There were two mechs in front of us, both exceedingly looking alike. I looked over them once, as they weren't even looking at us. One was in recharge while the other was simply looking around. Primus knew, we all should have been in recharge.

I found myself leaning on Silver's shoulder, resting my helm on it. At first I had expected him to roughly nudge me away, but he didn't. Perhaps he was over the 'younger sibling domination' thing. It was about time anyway. I had gotten sick of it.

Shutting my optics, I let myself drift into forced recharge, but only for two cycles. I couldn't recharge on my own for I hadn't known what had happened to Bluestreak and Springer. Many horrible things could happen and I didn't want to think about them, so I invoked forced recharge, duration: 2 cycles.

I was out like a light.

Don't forget to check the poll on my profile, it's pertaining to writing a new story, a TMNT (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) one.

Written:

11.05.2014.