(Before Optimus's ceremony, Iacon, Cybertron)
The space bridge opened, Blackwolf and Arcee, followed by the others ran through it. He saw the looks on every Autobot's faceplate, Optimus had fallen.
Once everyone was inside, he looked for his son to check on his condition. When he spotted Centurion, he froze.
There was a femme next to him, the very femme who had nearly killed his best friend, Drift. And his son's arm was around her shoulder. Slipstream's optics met his furious golden optics.
"YOU!" he growled, he began marching through the crowd towards her. Centurion gasped and stepped in front of her. Blackwolf's knuckle claws extended.
Ultra Magnus stood in front of Blackwolf to prevent him from advancing. "Why is she here Magnus?!" he asked his ally.
"She is now an Autobot Blackwolf, and defended as one of us." the old commander steped aside finally, thinking Blackwolf had calmed down.
"She doesn't deserve our mercy, nor our protection! Give me one good reason I shouldn't make her a stain on the wall!" his fangs reflected the light of the room. Slipstream smirked.
"If only you had defended Drift with such furiosity." she smirked. His optics went red for seconds. He lunged, grabbed her by her helm, and threw her into the nearest wall with earthshaking strength.
Centurion lunged and held him back, Blackwolf looked down at his enemy. "You mention Drift ever again, and I'll show you furiosity, you murderess glitch!" he snarled. She stood up and wiped the dripping energon from her lower metal lip.
"Easy dad!" he released his dad.
"She's not your enemy!" he growled.
"SHE'S NOT MY ALLY EITHER! Should I tell him why I hate you?" he asked her with anger mixed with sarcasm. Slipstreams optics widened, Centurion was confused.
"She tried to kill you, right?" Blackwolf shook his helm.
"That happened almost at the end of the great war, this was at the midpoint, when the Autobots were able to go on the offensive still. We made several runs to evacuate Autobot or neutral refugees. On One of these runs, Drift led the mission." he sighed, remembering that dreadful day.
(The Midpoint of the war for Cybertron)
The Autobot elite guard had been on a successful campaign, taking back several locations back from the Decepticons.
The Decepticon commanders, besides Megatron, were unprepared for Ultra Magnus's strategic command on the field, how he maneuvered his soldiers with ease and without a single failure in battle.
Since the Decepticons were going on the Defensive, it gave many cities of refugees a chance to escape their tyranny. The Decepticons didn't allow their citizens to escape, so the Autobots would raid in hit and run attacks so the refugees could escape during the chaos.
It was late, Decepticon guards were patrolling the walls of one of their smaller towns. It was anything but quiet while the refugees cried out, begging for their freedom. Megatron usually answered their begging with an iron fist.
He'd have some tortured, even executed to make an example, to show their people with mixed feelings what would happen to traitors.
Two golden optics peered at the town in the distance, along with a pair of blue optics. Blackwolf and Drift were surveying the town for the troops to be ready. They had, under their command, twenty marauders, thirty blaster rifle wielding members of the Autobot militia, five rocket troops, and ten shotgunners.
"What do you see?" Drift asked.
"Four guards on the wall, from what I can see, there are about ten soldiers guarding the interior perimeter, but from what we've seen recently, Megatron's been keeping large garrisons of several dozens, we won't have long to get those refugees out of there before they sound the alarm. This is what I'm thinking, I'll lead the attack, while you wait outside the town in the ship, once the conflict begins, you start loading refugees into the ship." Drift nodded in agreement.
"I'll be ready." Drift backed up and vanished into the shadows.
"Autobots, move out. Stay low, and don't get spotted, await my signal to attack." he ordered, leaping down and beginning his march.
The Decepticon garrison kept watch over the length of their territory, but they were currently stretched thin. It wouldn't be long until Ultra Magnus reached the town with his army.
Two guards stood next to each other, both unaware of anything until, out of the dark, a large Cybertronian, his faceplate hidden by a battle mask and red glowing visor, leaped at them. The Cybertronian landed as he drove his swords through the both of them. All optics in the town were on him.
"FOR CYBERTRON!" Blackwolf roared as the Autobots began leaping onto the wall. The marauders leaped over, their hammers and shields in hand and began crushing the Decepticon defenders. The militia climbed up to the wall, they began firing their automatic blasters at the Decepticons, who were still trying to figure out what was happening.
The rocket soldiers reached the wall and began firing their rockets at any open Decepticon they could target in the commotion. The shotgunners leaped over the walls and began cutting through the Decepticons with their scattershot blasters.
Drift's ship flew down, with a thud, it landed softly onto the metal ground. He opened the cargo storage compartment and ran out to begin his job.
Within minutes, there were Autobot and Neutral civilians running out to get into the ship. Blackwolf was fighting several defenders. He ducked under one's attacks, dodged another, and drove his blade through the nearest one's chest.
He dropped the body from his sword, he looked and grabbed another defender's arm before he was struck, and pulled the con onto his blade. He pushed the corpse off of his sword, he looked at the last one, who didn't back down for some reason.
The Decepticon started rapidly throwing attacks at him, but Blackwolf kept dodging them, until with a growl, he brought his swords sideways, and sliced the Decepticon in half.
Suddenly, a blaring, repeating pattern of sirens began blasting into the sound barriers.
He opened his communicator. "Drift what's the status of the refugees?" he asked.
"I've almost got them all into the ship, just a little longer!" His friend answered. He saw as more soldiers began charging from the barracks.
"Marauders! Form a line! C'mon bots! Let's show these cons who they're dealing with!" The marauders began interlocking their shields. The militia and rocket troopers fired at the wave from above.
The shotgunners stood on an elevated area to blast through the Decepticon charge. The wave hit the line of shields as the two forces clashed. The marauders held strong, but unlike the vanguard, which could form an almost Impenetrable phalanx, couldn't skewer the cons upon spears, due to their weapons being hammers, so they were on the verge of being pushed far enough to where the line would break.
Blackwolf's communicator opened. "The refugees are all loaded up into the ship! Get out of there!" Drift ordered him.
"Autobots! Fall back! Fall back to the main army!" Blackwolf ordered. The marauders, with all their force, shoved the Decepticons back with their shields. The shotgunners and militia covered the rear until the rest got out. Following them, the shotgunners fell back and over the wall.
The militia fell from the wall behind the shotgunners, running behind the rest of the Autobots as they made their retreat.
Drift's ship was ready but Blackwolf saw as the garrison climbed over the walls.
"Go Drift, we'll be fine! Get those refugees out of here!" he ordered. The ship pulled up, slowly due to it's size and the increased weight inside the ship.
Blackwolf heard the sudden crack in the sound barrier as the sound of jet thrusters filled the air. He looked up and saw a Cybertronian jet flying towards the ship. It wasn't Starscream, too slim, and not as loud. He zoomed in on it, he saw a purple, dark green, and black color scheme covering the jet.
"Slipstream..." he gasped.
"DRIFT! It's Slipstream, go now!" he ordered, he ran in the direction of Drift's ship, still taking off.
Drift tried to get the ship in the air as quickly as possible, but he could see Slipstream flying directly at the ship. He looked back at the refugees, there was even a sparkling among them. He grimaced, before opening the rear hatch. "GO!" he yelled to them, they didn't understand.
Blackwolf saw the rear hatch open and was confused. "Drift what are you doing?!" he opened his communicator.
Drift sighed, some tears falling from his optics. He pulled with all force, and made the ship tip back, causing the refugees to fall out, he saw the sparkling, in the grasp of a femme, fall from the ship. He felt one last wave of happiness that from his death, came a new life for that sparkling, and he was happy with that.
He looked out at Blackwolf and smiled. "Goodbye...old friend..." he closed his optics as Slipstream fired her missiles at the ship.
"HANG ON!" Blackwolf yelled as he ran towards the ship.
But it was a faulty attempt as the missiles collided with the ship, causing it to explode on impact. The ship roared in a fiery inferno as it fell from the sky.
"DRIFT!" Blackwolf yelled in shock, dread, and pain. He saw the ship hit the ground. He fell to his knees, tears fell from his optics.
He looked back up, seeing Slipstream, staring at him with her cocky smirk. Seeing her boiled his energon, he growled, the sadness left him and only rage filled his senses.
"YOU!" he yelled to her, she raised an eyebrow.
He pointed to his optics as the rage, the fury, filled his optics as they went blood red.
"MARK THESE OPTICS! BECAUSE THE NEXT TIME YOU SEE THEM, THEY WILL BE THE LAST THING YOU WILL SEE IN THIS UNIVERSE!" She chuckled, but it was empty, because she had just made a nemesis of a powerful foe.
(The present/past to chapter 13)
They were all silent. Most of them hadn't expected to hear that. They knew that a seeker killed Drift, but not which seeker. Centurion was speechless, he looked at Slipstream with shocked optics. Her optics were low to the ground, filled with dread, regret.
But then, Centurion did something they didn't expect. He turned to Blackwolf, and with a hint of nervousness, spoke.
"That day has long since passed, dad." he attempted, but Blackwolf pushed that away.
"That day will live forever! I still see that crash every day I look back on the past! Just because she wears that insignia, does not make up for what she did!" he got close to Centurion, he looked into his optics and noticed they were very bright, much like his when he got close to Arcee. He looked at Slipstream, who's eyes were glowing brightly as well.
He began to piece it together, the odd behavior of Centurion, Nitalia's nervousness when around him recently, Arcee's expressions when he was kind to her, and the time he had thought to see Centurion enter base at early times. His optics widened.
"No..." they were shocked.
"No. No, no, no no no no NO! Please do not tell me this has happened!" he growled.
"YES! Okay yes! It's true...we're...sparkmates." he sighed, looking at Slipstream.
"How long…?" his father asked.
"Huh?" Centurion asked.
"HOW LONG?!" Blackwolf asked again.
"Since the energon mine incident." Blackwolf's optics widened.
"Unbelievable. My own son, and my arch nemesis, sparkmates. What makes you think I'll allow this!" this time, Centurion stood in front of her.
"Dad...I love her...and if you wont allow this, then you lose me, you may be my dad, but you don't control my emotions." Slipstream was shocked that he stood up to his father like this.
Now Arcee stood forward, "Blackwolf...doesn't this remind you of a moment from the past?" he looked confused, until he realized that she was talking about when he was infected by the virus, how he almost killed Ratchet over accusing them of their relationship and bonding as sparkmates.
"Doesn't it remind you of how we fought to be together?" she asked him. He realized she was right.
He felt ashamed that he was now in Ratchet's position.
"Primus...how time has passed. How times have changed. It used to be so simple." he looked down.
"Well, wherever we go, things never seem to be simple." he chuckled at that and looked back up at her, then to his son and Slipstream, whose servos were intertwined.
He sighed.
"Fine...but DON'T...make me regret this." he looked at Slipstream one last time. Centurion would have cheered with victory, but decided to stay quiet.
"Now...where's Optimus?" he looked at Ultra Magnus, who sighed.
WELL! There's chapter 14. I know it may be confusing to be in front of chapter 13 due to it happening before the events of chapter 13, yet being placed after. It just seemed like it would be a better idea then to be boring and put it as chapter 13.