Alright! A tiny crack in the previously sealed doorway of Nova's origin this chapter! Yes, that is an important thing if this plot is going to go anywhere other than the movies. Anyway, this one's a bit shorter, but the next one kinda makes up for it? I know I've been getting odd looks whenever I look over it in a public place (The Bunker, you wouldn't know what that is), mostly due to my attempts to inhale my laughter, thus sounding like a pig. Gah! Stop getting distracted! Normal disclaimers, are, normal, and incredibly boring, now then, one with the chapter!

Chapter 20

Four months later

Ironhide stood vigil at the Main hanger's doors, watching as the torrential rain hammered the tarmac of the runway.

Solardancer stood at his side, servos wringing through each other as her optics darted through the thick rain, searching for her teacher and their partner. "They'll be okay? Right?" She asked.

Ironhide glanced down towards the femme, who locked optics with him. "Yeah, those two are tough, they'll be back soon." He responded.

Chromia walked up to them, sidling up next to her mate, taking his servo in her smaller one. "It's been two days… this tropical storm is a nightmare." She mumbled, wincing as a harsh gust came crashing into the hanger through the open doors, just as another striking bolt of light struck the ocean far off, illuminating the horizon for a brief singular moment.

"But, they should be here by now… hasn't she said anything over the bond?" Solardancer asked, shifting and turning her gaze down to the gauntlet on her right wrist, her teacher had made it for her, equipped with all the tools she'd need, and a moderately sized serrated blade which she could use if she was ever in danger.

Chromia and Ironhide turned to each other. A simple glance was all they needed before they turned back to the young femme with forlorn looks. "Nothing since this morning, she and Qwezel are probably having to focus solely on flying." Chromia responded, kneeling down and opening her arms out to the young femme, who quickly accepted the offered hug.

Ironhide followed his mates lead, reaching out and running a servo over her helm, which was round in shape, unlike his own daughter, who's helm was more aerodynamic and sharp in formation. "If there's one thing that Nova does better than making the most abnormal creations known to the universe, its flying." He tried to console, glancing down at the 'Roastie Toastie' as Flareup had fondly dubbed the exploding toasters Novalight had garnered a liking for making. The devices had been upgraded, now needing the lever to be pushed before it detonated, instead of a violent jolt, the change coming from when a human had accidently dropped one, and almost got blown up had Qwezel not been fast enough in his reaction of getting the human out of the blast range.

"Yeah, yeah, where's the Twins?" Solardancer asked, glancing around, normally the two mechs would be glued to their spots just to the left of where they were for the few hours before Novalight and Qwezel's estimated arrival.

Chromia quirked her lipplates. "They got slagged off at Prowl for sending them out despite the forming storm, and ended up getting brigged, they're being let out in an hour I think."

Ironhide nodded, still bearing the dents the two mechs had caused when he, Optimus and Prowl tried to drag the two to the brig. He understood the two's sentiments, he wasn't best pleased about this, but Prowl had insisted the routine scanning of Russia, Mongolia, China and India, where necessary for the continued vigil for Con sightings.

Somewhere on India's coast

"I swear, if the boss finds out you talked me into this, we'll both loose our helms!"

"Shut up you fool! You were all for this when you got them here!"

"Yeah, before we had to drag this freaks gigantic aft up, a, cliff!"

"That's what the powerlifts are for!"

"Yeah, except they don't like this 'rain' scrap!"

"Would you quit whining?! We're almost there. See? The caves right there, they'll be sheltered inside, I hope."

"What were they even thinking? This thing is a giant lightning rod! Surely they knew they were gonna be struck!"

"Oh you know you'd happily do the same you idiot! Just to get yah aft as high as a satellite."

"You have me there, but hey, I don't have any real value do I? I'm just a whack job!"

"Look, you know that's not how I see this."

"Shut up yourself you sappy piece of slag, I'm only helping you so I can rub it in the bosses face when this all goes to slag."

"You know, for a mech who does nothing but act like a fool. You love to be a pessimist."

"Huh, says you, you clown, honestly, you were a fool for sticking around on Cybertron, but, you did, and now look where that choice got you."

"Shut up! You think I don't regret my actions?"

"Nah, I know you regret them, I just love reminding you that you were such an idiot, getting stuck like this, like a little pet in the big bosses cage~."

"Where, past tense, I'm not going to do something that foolish again. Not when her life is on the line."

"She turned out pretty damn well, well for a pyrotechnic maniac, when was the last time you saw her exactly? When she was a sparkling?"

"Don't remind me! Don't make me remember that!"

"…Right, right, traumatic experiences are traumatic and frag yah helm up, get that a hundred percent, as you well and truly know."

"Sorry. I'm just… tense… I mean… that Predacon of hers could come around any moment and take this the wrong way."

"Pfft, she certainly would, I hear she's so violent, she shoots her alarm clock, and those things just make fragging irritating sounds, you're on a whole different level of 'fill up with grenades and burn to a crisp' on her list I bet."

"Thank you for the vote of confidence, now can you give me a breem of silence so I can try and take in the fact I'm sitting in front of my daughter?!"

"You mean cradling her and acting like she isn't a full grown femme, who, may I remind you again, will blow yours and my own handsome helm off if we stick around?"

"Exactly why I just asked you to shut up."

"Can we go already? Seriously, big reds getting twitchy."

"Gah fine, ruin my one chance I've had, ever, to hold my own daughter! You are such a pain!"

"And yah stuck with me, now that we've finished that, let's go! Seeing serious life in old lightning rod over there!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming… you are such an aft…"

"Hey, look at it this way, at least your still here, if you'd been spark mated to that femme you liked so much, you wouldn't have been here to convince me to help save them from the briny deep."

"… I am so tempted to hit you right now…"

"Nothing's stopped you before~ YOWCH! That hard?! Really?!"

"Serves you right for mentioning my mate like that! If she was still online, we'd be far, far away from here living a peaceful life!"

"Oh shut it with the mate and 'peaceful life' scrap, she croaked, don't affect me, don't affect the purple demon, don't affect the bigger, red demon, you've had your one sided sire/daughter bonding moment, so let's go!"

"One moment… I'm so, so, sorry I could never be there… I'll find a way to make this right…"

"Oooh, dangerous words, imagine if boss heard that? He'd have yah helm for 'treason'."

"Shut up! One day I'm finding a way out of this, and if I have to kill you all to do it, then so be it!"

"Ouch, I'm hurt, now let's move it, Boss is probably wondering where we've gotten to."

"I hate this."

"Not surprised, you are our 'prisoner without chains', hey, 'buddy'?"

"Call me that again, and I swear to Primus himself I am firing a prototype up your aft next chance I get!"

"Again, nothing's ever stopped you before~."

A few minutes later

Qwezel groaned, his processor feeling a little on the shaken and mashed side as he tried to work out what had just happened, the only thing he could figure out at present time, was his left wing was stinging like a fragging glitch, and his frame was soaked.

"Ugh… feels like that time I accidentally picked up one of Jolt's whips." Novalight groaned, having come around just before him, shaking her helm from side to side as she tried to clear the static from her processor, before flopping back down on her side, and then sitting right back up when she realised she was half covered by a large thermal blanket. "The legitimate frag?"

Qwezel chuffed, lifting his helm up to see what had startled her, as she in turn looked to him. "Didn't realise you'd carry a thermal blanket." She declared, confusing her partner greatly.

"But, I don't carry them, I do not have subspaces, remember?" Was his answer, before shifting closer and giving the blanket a sniff, nothing, the scent which radiated from it was a culmination of his partner, and whatever else it had been in contact with, and he couldn't place any of the others as a definitive bot. One they had never encountered before?

"Ah, hmm, alright then." She turned to look outside, watching as another bolt of light came, quickly followed by the booming roar of its thunderclap.

Frowning she delved into her bonds, quickly finding her creators. "Sire? Carrier?"

"Primus above! Novalight! Where are you femme?!" Her sire responded almost immediately.

A quick attempt to look at her location on her HUD made her wince. "I don't know, most of my internal systems are still rebooting, and the others are fried."

"Fried? How? Novalight don't tell me you were struck by lightning." He carrier spoke up.

"Then I won't say anything."

"Fragging pit, at least tell us you're safe." Ironhide called.

"Yeah, we're in a cave, somewhere."

"Stay where you are, is Qwezel alright?" Chromia asked.

Novalight glanced over at her partner, who's wing was doing nothing but making the most uncomfortable screeching sounds as he tried and failed to stretch it, a pained grimace on his features. "I think his wing took the brunt of the damage, I'll see what I can do, but I think Ratchet is going to have his work cut out for him on this one, it looks really bad, and sounds just as horrid."

There was a few moments of pause before Ironhide spoke again. "Hold tight then, when your systems are running, let us know where you are, then, we'll come and get you, ok?"

"Yeah, got it, we'll stay put and I'll report in later, outside of being quite chard, we're fine."

After that the bonds closed again and Novalight shuffled over to her partner's wing. "Give it here." She ordered, reaching up to the second curving joint in his wing, which seemed to be the point of contact, if the burnt black and paint peeled metal was anything to go by.

Qwezel nodded, shifting and letting off a pained hiss from between his fangs as he lowered the limb into her waiting and expert servos. "I'm sorry Nova, I…"

"Don't, we shouldn't have flown in that weather, we're both at fault for following Prowl's orders, guess trying to fly above was a bit more difficult then we'd expected huh?"

"I've never experienced winds like that before, felt more like a Cyclone then a mere tropical storm." He responded, wincing as Novalight poked a cluster of wires which had been exposed and partially melted from the extreme heat.

"There's no way this is bearing you weight, not that I'd let you with an injury like this." She huffed, reaching up to the part of her helm which hung over the top of her faceplates, and pulling down her improvised goggles, multiple lenses were cracked and the strap was badly singed, but it still worked well enough as she examined to a greater precision the impact point, the hole was still hot to the touch, and the area was going to need multiple bracers to hold a replacement joint. "And from my guess, flying will be quite the no-go for you for quite a while, and I swear Qwez if you give me that 'I can handle it' slag again, I will yank on your cables for a month." She warned, watching as he locked up in concern, his visible hell fire optic turning to her, the slit centre wide, out of the darkness of the cave, or shock she couldn't be bothered to place.

Huffing she felt a cold chill rattle through her plates as a blast of wind rushed at them from the raging storm outside, glancing back to where she'd been laying she reached out and grabbed the thermal blanket, tossing it up over her wings to shelter the sensitive metal from the rain and wind flowing through the wide entrance.

Turning back to the wound, she drew her tweezers from one of her digits, hoping to remove some of the irreparable wires, pistons and whatever else which was about as likely to work as a rock being used as a battery.

She stopped however, when she realised that the small torch function on her goggles had practically exploded. "Ah frag me sideways, hey Qwez? Think you can light the place up for me? No way am I gonna try and do this in the dark." She asked, glancing up at him, taking note of the large jagged lines which covered the entirety of his left side, the cables she'd been perched upon charred and partially melted, they were likely hurting the most due to their sensitivity.

Qwezel nodded none the less, opening his maw and summoning some of the paralytic gunk he was able to produce, up so that it could rest in his lower jaw, the gunk had a luminescent quality, akin to glow worms really.

"Thanks, now, let me get to work… this may hurt… a lot."

Diego Garcia

The Twins had wasted no time racing to the main hanger entrance once Ratchet had released them, he'd called to them, but they'd ignored the mech, at one point nearly barrelling Wheeljack to the ground had the Wrecker not had the sudden reflexes of a neo-feline and managed to jump out of the way in time.

They only came to a stop when they arrived at the hanger, and made the worrying realisation that the now familiar sight of their femme friend and her partner reporting on their lack of or any findings they'd had on their scanning run.

Solardancer stood by Chromia at the hanger doors, that was where they first looked, until a commotion from the other side of the hanger drew their joint attention.

Optimus, Jolt, Elita-one, and Flareup were all doing their damndest to prevent a seething mad Ironhide from landing another blow on Prowl, who Moonracer was already checking over, the side of his helm dented in from an impact which looked very much like a fist.

"…Stuck out there in Primus knows what point from here to the edge of this damn freak storm!" Ironhide roared.

"Ironhide! Cease this! Novalight and Qwezel are well and online!" Optimus managed to get out, practically at a horizontal angle as he and his allies in this somehow oddly matched tug-of-war struggled to hold onto the seething sire.

Sunstreaker had already began storming towards the scene when Sideswipe caught his shoulder. "Maybe we should as the less volatile bots?" He pressed, gesturing to where Chromia and Solardancer stood, their forms being battered by the rain as well as wind the rest of them were experiencing.

With a huff Sunstreaker nodded, turning back around to approach the two vastly different coloured femmes. "What's happened?" He called.

The two femmes turned to them, a fearful look from Chromia was all that was needed to seal the notion in the twin's helms that something had gone wrong.

Solardancer was the one to speak. "Qwezel was struck by lightning, he's hurt bad, and Nova's systems haven't gotten back up and running yet to let us know where they are."

"Lightning? They were struck?!" Sunstreaker was able to get out through his shock.

Solardancer gave a timid nod, staring up at the two far larger mechs. "Well, he's a giant lightning rod effectively, they're sheltering in a cave somewhere." She tried to explained.

Sideswipe's arm snapped out, servo gripping his twins shoulder as he'd turned again towards the commotion further back in the hanger. "When did this happen?" He asked, trying to get over his shock.

Solardancer thought for a moment. "About half an hour ago, Jazz is already helping organise a ship to go to wherever they are, you know, to pick them up, until then, we're gonna have to wait."

They both felt their fists clench, wait, at this point they'd come to despise the notion of waiting, it always meant their femme friend wasn't with them.

Sure, their relationship with her was still developing, and beside the odd peck or hug, Novalight had decided it better to take their time. Waiting.

Her words had been along the lines of wanting to make sure that they all felt the same way, and that she wanted breathing room in the relationship, being close was fine, they just couldn't swamp her.

It had made things a bit more difficult for the two mechs, having to watch carefully for the times they'd accidentally pass her boundaries, and have to a dodge a mostly physical swipe at them, they normally didn't hurt much, but other times, well, they'd known what they were getting themselves into with Novalight, feisty was just something she was, and it did add quite the appeal.

But now?

This latest development just made them more concerned of when Novalight and Qwezel were sent on missions, alone, without them,

Solardancer broke their train of thought then. "If you're thinking that you should have been there, tell me, have you got a weapon hidden in there that can beat the scrap out of a natural phenomenon like a few hundred thousand volts of electricity? No? Then stop looking like you're planning to lock Nova away or some scrap like that." She huffed.

Sunstreaker scowled at the young femme, before huffing and turning his attention to the outside world. "Regardless, we're going with the rescue party."

Solardancer just shrugged, un-effected by the statement.

Karnataka, India the next day

The sound of heavy pede falls was what brought Qwezel round from the light recharge he'd fallen into lifting his helm up to listen, he found a jolt of joy entering his spark when he spotted Ironhide practically charging into the entrance way of their cave.

The large black mech came to a stop at the sight of them, Novalight had passed out a few hours prior, and was still draped over his back and covered by her thermal blanket.

"Primus." Ironhide got out as he came down into the cave, the light of the day revealing the extent of the damage, and the gaping wound on Qwezel's wing, along with the disfigured surrounding plating, which had seemingly been half melted from the heat of what they were struck with.

The entire left side of the Predacon was charred and peppered with jagged bolt like markings from where the electricity had gone through them.

Qwezel chuckled at the Weapons specialists expression. "Yeah, yeah, I get it, I look like scrap even more now."

That was when Sunstreaker and Sideswipe practically charged over the raised cave entrance, the commotion they made jolting Novalight awake and into falling right off Qwezel's side to land behind him. "Ouf! Gah! What's all that damn racket about?!" She could be heard muttering to herself, a string of curses following after as she pushed herself into a sitting position, at least for the brief moment there was between that and Sideswipe tackling her, followed by Sunstreaker, the three quickly rolling some distance with the momentum before being knocked apart by a rock formation.

With a groan she sat up again, this time managing to get up before the twins again locked her in a tight embrace. "Guys, really?"

Sideswipe was too busy burying his faceplates into the gap between her collar and neckcables, so Sunstreaker spoke, standing between her wings and arms wrapped around her middle. "We were so worried about you." He got out, before pressing his own chiselled features into the back of her neckcables, optics locked on the scar there.

Novalight huffed, squirming to get free and finding herself being trapped tight between the two. "Guys, room, please!" They hadn't realised that she was quite tender still, a good portion of her frame was dented and banged up from when they'd crashed into whatever they'd crashed into, what she couldn't remember, having likely already passed out before they hit the ground.

They just tightened their hold.

At least until Qwezel came to her aid and swept Sideswipe up into the aid by his scruff bar. "Hey!" Was the red mechs indignant cry as he was set back down on the ground, and was quickly silenced by a moderately sized amount of paralytic gunk landing on him, freezing the mech in his tracks.

With one twin no longer caging her, she was able to pry her way free from Sunstreaker, letting off a sigh as her dented form stopped giving her such grief, especially her stinging wings, the appendages were where she assumed she landed, thankfully their sharp edges meant they'd probably just sliced whatever she landed on, but, tender they certainly were.

Her sire was by her side a moment later, checking her over for damage as Ratchet appeared in the gave, going straight to examining Qwezel's injuries. "You alright runt?"

Novalight nodded. "Yeah, the landing left me pretty damn tender…ugh, wings are being a bunch of glitches." She huffed, she turned to look at her forlorn golden mechfriend, moving back over to him and reaching up to wrap her arms around his neckcables, pecking his cheekplate. "It's ok, I ain't mad at you or something for hugging me, you didn't realise."

Sunstreaker frowned, pulling her into a much more careful hug this time. "We still hurt you…"

Novalight couldn't help rolling her optics. "Pfft, please, you were just aggravating some tender spots, I ain't mad, you didn't hurt me, a bit of discomfort at most." She pressed, before worming herself free and moving to where Sideswipe was already recovering from the effects of the lock up, doing his best to stretch out, before reaching out to her, she took his servo, and allowed herself to be pulled into a kiss rife with a remorseful feel to it, she quickly kicked that away by deepening it for a good few moments before pulling away at her sires embarrassed clearing off his vocalisers, and Qwezel's mirthful chuckles, which were quickly cut off by a pained hiss from Ratchet pressing a large needle into his wing and injecting something into the Predacon's system, causing his helm to snap round and shoot the medic an accusing glare. Which Ratchet ignored completely.

The next hour was spent helping Qwezel down onto the long beach which lead to where an old industrial port was handily still in existence, a large aircraft carrier waiting for them to arrive and return them back to Diego Garcia.

They'd been half way there when Novalight's left pede started giving her a good deal of grief, the limb having taken the brunt of the original shock, it had begun shaking when Sunstreaker broke off from helping guide the large Predacon, who'd discovered the gyroscopes in his frame used to control the direction of his individual sections along his back end would need recalibrating, hence he's multiple almost submerges into the crashing waves to their left.

Sunstreaker was quick to heft her up into a bridal carry, much to her irritation and remarks of such, which he ignored, making sure to hold her legs still as he continued to follow the others towards the aircraft carrier, wincing when at one point Novalight was able to get a less then gentle whack in on his helm.

All of them were blissfully unaware of the optics watching them from the thick forest on the cliffs above them though.

They followed the group until they were all boarded onto the aircraft carrier, and the vessel was a mere speck on the horizon.

With a sigh from his vents he rose up, reaching up to touch the collar around his neckcables, feeling the spikes pressed deep into the vulnerable area move with the touch, causing him to wince as a thin trickle of energon ran down the side.

"Someday… I'll find a way to get rid of this…get rid of them…and finally make everything right… I hope."

Pained red optics traced the horizon again, realising they'd passed beyond his visionary range.

That was when his com-link pinged. "Where are you."

The grating disjointed voice almost had him snarling. "Just out, was feeling cramped in my room and needed to stretch my wings."

"Well then, seeing as you've been gone two jours, I'm certain you've stretched those limbs of yours long enough! Now get back to the base, I will not have this project delayed any longer!"

"Of course, why would I ever want to delay such a project? It's not like it doesn't go against every morale code within my processor!"

"Watch that glossa of yours you fool, were it not for your mind, I'd of slain you myself. And I still can, need I remind you?" He felt it coming, but that still didn't stop the agonised scream that left him as the spikes lodged deep in him suddenly released a horrific charge of electricity through his systems, leaving him to stumble and fall against a tree, knocking it down with him from the force.

With a groan he pushed himself up, carved to points dentas grating together as he responded. "…Un…Understood…" He cut off the link before he had to listen to that monster any longer.

He reached up and tentatively touched the collar again, running a sharpened digit against the purple insignia etched into the side of the battery box.

"One day… One day I'll kill you all… for what you did to me… my mate… my daughter…"

He began moving to go deeper into the forest, out of the range of the air radar which was employed by the Ports temporary staff.

"I'll kill all of you… Mark my words… when I'm free… I'll show you exactly how much you've forced me to become a monster."

If anyone caught the political symbolism, then good for you, I didn't even notice I'd put it in until the fourth reference and having just come off the news, anyway, like the little peek here? PS: That was Nova's sire!

More on him later, good luck trying to crack this puzzle!

Oh, a little sneak peek of next chapter, because I almost busted a gut at this scene: ("FRAGGIN' PI'! GIVE MAH BIKINI BACK YAH AFT!"

And now, swimwear removal.)

Moon