Chapter Fourteen

"From what I can gather from what Sam has told Sideswipe over their past few conversations, Starscream had intended to use her as a spy within the Ark." Ratchet began to explain.

"A spy?" Prowl said confused.

"How exactly would that work?" Jazz asked.

"The... link she has created with Sideswipe was supposed to have been made with Starscream. This…fog that she kept mentioning was to overtake her and strip her of her…personality making her easy to control." The medic answered as best he could.

"We are fortunate that Sideswipe interrupted that process." Prowl said.

"Indeed. If Sideswipe had not of spoken to Sam in the medbay when he did we would have lost her."

"Do you believe she is still in danger, Ratchet?" Optimus asked seeing the trouble look that crossed the medic's face.

The ambulance sighed, "We need to find a way to bring her back, the more she is left with this…fog the more chance there is of losing her."

"Why do I get the feelin' ya not tellin' us the whole picture?" the Porsche said.

"That you would have to ask Sideswipe. I feel he's withholding some things that Sam tells him."

"Like how scared she is when he leaves her." Jazz mused looking down at the table.

"What are you thinking, Jazz?" Optimus asked knowing there was more to what he was saying.

The saboteur looked over at the semi, "let's say this thin' that surrounds her when Sides is not there is driven by fear and doubt, which how Sides was able ta break through shall we say."

"I believe I know where you are going with this, Jazz" Prowl began "if Starscream can control this…fog as Sam calls it, he will try to make her doubt the things Sideswipe is telling her and possibly Sideswipe himself."

"Do you believe that once Sam is awoken that Starscream's hold on her will terminate?" Optimus asked Ratchet.

"I'm sure of it. While she is still in this state that link of hers can still go either way, once she is awake it will permanently be tied to whoever was…chosen."

"So we just gotta make sure that one is Sideswipe." Jazz said voicing everyone else's thought.

"Has Sunstreaker been to see Sam yet?" the Autobot leader suddenly asked and having everyone look at him surprised by the change of 'subject'.

Ratchet looked away from his leader hesitant to tell them about the yellow mech's one and only visit in which they bared their spark to the female and virtually ended up crying. He looked back at them all upon hearing Prowl curiously call his name. "He does not believe he can do anything." Or that she'll take him back. He thought.

"She keeps asking about you." Sideswipe told his brother as he walked into their quarters.

Sunstreaker looked over from his drawing, "I told you I'm not falling for that." He said annoyed.

"She wants to see you or at least hear your voice." The red mech continued as he walked over to him ignoring his comment.

"You're not getting me to go there."

"She's upset that you can't join us." Sideswipe said still trying to convince his twin that Sam wanted him around. He'd been trying for over a week now and each time Sunstreaker ignored him saying that there would be no way it was possible. Today was the day he was going to prove him wrong. Today he would tell his brother that Sam had heard his apology and accepted it, that she wanted all of them to be together once again. He saw the mech return to his drawing in an effort to ignore him, he gave a frustrated growl. He could hit his brother across the head but that would do nothing but get Sunstreaker angry that was not what was needed at the moment. He walked behind the yellow Lamborghini and looked over his shoulder at what the mech was working on. It was a picture of the brown-haired female staring out at the ocean from a clifftop the wind blowing through her hair.

"She heard you, you know." He said causally still looking down at the picture and noticed the mech twitch at the comment. He gave a small smile. "Heard everything you told her when you apologised for what happened. She accepted it, said she couldn't believe how stupid she was to let her anger and hurt guide her over it. How she wished she hadn't treated you the way she did, that she could get another chance. Sadly it's too late now, isn't it Sunstreaker."

"Why do you force these things, Sideswipe?" a quiet voice asked.

"I'm not forcing anything." The red mech replied "I'm simply telling you what she has asked me to tell you."

"I know she is sorry about how she treated me, she told me so while you were away on that mission."

"Then why do you torment yourself like this? Why do you refuse to believe what I tell you about her, about what she says to you? She loves you, Sunstreaker." Sideswipe noticed his brother's hand started shaking and how he turned it into a fist in order for it to stop. "Sunny?"

"You had to go and push it, didn't you? You couldn't have just left it alone!" Sunstreaker said slightly annoyed "did you ever think that maybe, just maybe I had a reason for staying away from her. Did you?!"

"And what reason would that be, huh? That you thought she'd never want you back? That's a stupid reason, Bro and you know it!" the red Lamborghini almost spat back getting annoyed that Sunstreaker would listen to nothing that was told to him about the human female lying in their medbay.

"That's not the reason!" the yellow mech virtually shouted back glaring up at his twin "that was never the reason! What the slag would you know anyway? The two of you always got on well, she could relax around you, be herself and what do I get? A scared 'I-hope-this-doesn't-frag-him-off' reserved side. No Sides, thinking that she'd never want to be with me was never the reason." He explained as he stood to look at the mech behind him his fists shaking in anger, sketch pad abandoned on the couch.

"She was really like that with you?" Sideswipe asked surprised.

"Yes."

"Then… what was is the reason? I want to help you, Bro, but you're not making it easy for me."

"Hm. Forget it." He replied looking away.

"No I won't forget it. She wants you to be back with us again and by primus I'm going to help her whether you like it or not because I know that you love her and want to be with her also. So tell me, what's this big reason that you're keeping your distance, huh?" seeing the mech wouldn't reply he walked over to him and placed and hand on his shoulder. "Sunstreaker." He said in a pleading whisper.

"I hurt her, okay. Happy now!" the yellow mech said as he stormed towards the door.

Realisation suddenly dawned on Sideswipe, "you're afraid you'll say something wrong and upset her again, or worse."

Starscream sat in his lab as he began to think of all that had happened through the last two months. If it weren't for that blasted Autobot the human would be under my control already. He thought irritably I need to find a way to have her distrust everything he's told her, he suddenly smirked as he remembered how she was captured. She knew nothing of her 'rescue' as far as she knew he still had her, time to reclaim what's mine he thought cruelly.