Chapter Twenty-One

Optimus gave a small smile behind his faceplate as he gently stroked the femme's head upon his lap. Starlight had been so distraught when she had heard about both Storm and Lightning, saying how she had yet again lost the ones she cared about and that she'd never let anyone near her again. It had taken him a while to calm her down, as every reassurance he gave she countered with something she had experienced in the past and he did not have the…backup of Lightning to help get his words across to the already hysterical femme. Speaking of the other femmes he wondered how they were, there had been no word from Ratchet about Lightning's condition since Skyfire had brought her in and although Storm was also damaged she was not in a life-threating condition as the blue-grey femme was. He heard a knock at his door and saw the light yellow learjet start to stir at the sound, he looked over at the door and inwardly growled at whoever was on the other side. He was tempted to tell them to go away and let Prowl deal with whatever problem they had, that was until he heard a voice say, "Prime?" it was the white and black Datsun at his door, sighing he said "come in, Prowl." The tactician walked in and at least had the decency to look a little apologetic when he saw Starlight in recharge upon his lap. "Forgive the intrusion, Prime." He began. "I thought you would like to know of Lighting and Storm's condition." There came a pained murmur from Starlight, her head tossing from side to side before relaxing as she heard a soothing voice say "everything is going to be okay, Starlight. I promise you." Optimus turned an annoyed look over at his second-in-command before carefully placing the learjet on the berth and walking over to him. "May I know why you did not comm me with this information?" he asked an annoyed undertone to his voice.

"I was unsure if you were still trying to calm Starlight down or not. Had I of commed you, you would not have answered." Prowl explained.

Once again the semi sighed looking over at the grief-stricken femme, "how are they?" he asked not taking his optics off his lover.

"Storm is stable, she may not be flying for a while, though I cannot say how her sanity will be after what Megatron had done to her." Remembering how Jazz had told him how the learjet reacted to him when she onlined.

Hearing the silence after mech had finished reporting about the learjet leader's condition Optimus looked back at him, "What of Lightning?" he asked. He saw worry and fear in the Datsun's optics before they looked away from him, he placed a reassuring hand on the mech's shoulder "Prowl." He said gently.

"I…I am unsure about Light…about her condition. Ratchet is still working on her."

It surprised the Autobot leader to hear the tactician so unsure, he was clearly very worried about the blue-grey learjet. "How are the others?" he asked. If Prowl was this…shaky he wondered how the other mechs who were close to the femme doing, especially Sunstreaker.

Prowl sighed, "Bluestreak has locked himself in his quarters, blaming himself and saying over and over again how he didn't mean it. Sunstreaker is in the brig for both his and everyone else's safety, with Sideswipe keeping watch and occasionally trying to calm him down. Smokescreen is in the rec room blankly staring down at his energon and ignoring everyone who approaches him." The Datsun began to list off.

Optimus had a feeling he would not like the answer to his next question but decided to ask it anyway, "what of Skyfire?"

"No one has seen him and he refuses to answer communications." The doorwinged mech replied.

"And you, Prowl? How are you feeling about all this?" it was a redundant question really, he could tell how the mech was feeling by the low hanging doorwings, though he felt it had to asked.

"I am…fine." Prowl replied after a brief pause.

"Are you sure? You do not have to put up any pretence with me, Prowl. I can see that you are worried."

The Datsun looked at his leader a moment before heading over to the mech's desk and sitting against it, something very unlike him, and sighed as all the tension bled from his body. He looked down at the floor sadly not caring that he was letting his emotions show. "I am not just worried about Lightning." He revealed "I am worried about how it will affect everyone if she doesn't make it."

"Prowl," Optimus said walking over to the upset mech "you know as I well I do that Ratchet will do everything he can for Lightning."

"But what if it's not enough, Prime?" the white and black mech asked looking up at the semi, a crestfallen look upon his face surprising the mech at the amount of emotion he was expressing. "If she does not survive…"

"You must have hope, Prowl. Do not let your fear get the better of you."

Suddenly they heard the door open and the semi looked over at the berth to see the light yellow femme gone. He sighed sadly, "Starlight."

Megatron watched as mechs removed the body of the mech that had suppose to of been watching the monitors of the security room, and not recharging while doing it, before walking in himself. He looked over the footage that showed the learjet's cell and found a continuous loop of the same footage being played. He growled, whoever had rescued the femme had covered their tracks well. His hand clenched as he recalled how close he had come to breaking the femme in doing whatever he wanted. He searched other screens and noticed how quickly Starscream had made his way to the exit, a smirk on his face. Where was the mech off to in such a hurry? A thought occurred to him and he quickly checked other screens to find where the blue and black seekers had been during the rescue attempt, he found Thundercracker had returned before the start of the video loop and headed straight for the rec room never moving from the table he sat at. Skywarp had gone to his quarters and not come out at all, at least according to the camera. He still could have teleported somewhere. He thought crossly. That was until the footage showed the black seeker leaving his room and heading for the rec room where he sat with Thundercracker for the rest of the footage. Neither seeker looked very happy, if they had help the learjet escape there would have been some…joy, happiness at the femme's freedom but all the silver mech could see was anger and annoyance from both of them. They were in no hurry to leave as Starscream had been, which asked the question, did the tricoloured seeker set all this up to make a fool of him? Megatron growled dangerously, it was not Skywarp and Thundercracker he needed to question in loyalty but that treacherous mech he called his second-in-command. He would deal with the seeker soon enough, right now he was more focused on getting back that femme and breaking her in. After all, it didn't hurt to have a little…insurance to keep the other two mechs in line, just in case. He smirked he would steal her back right under Prime's nose, and he knew the exact mechs to do it. He chuckled to himself as he walked out.

Starlight looked out across the land from the mountain clifftop she had landed on moments ago. She was relieved that Storm was now safe back at the Ark, but at the same time she was also quite worried. Would she still be the same femme she'd known for most of her life, or would the events that happened in the Decepticon base forever change and scar her? The learjet shuddered at the thought of Storm no longer being the strong confident femme she once was, being nothing more than a shell of her former self. That scared Starlight more than she care to admit, Storm was the one femme she looked to for strength in the times when she felt she had none, that when nothing was going right and all was lost Storm would be there to lift her up and keep going. Then there was Lightning, Starlight could feel tears welling up in her optics as she thought of her friend and the conversation she had heard between Prime and Prowl. She didn't know what she would do if Lighting didn't make it through. "Do not let your fear get the better of you." She remembered the semi telling the Datsun. So easy to say, so hard to do. She thought sadly. "What's happened?" a voice said surprising the femme, having her turn instantly to it. Starlight gasped, how had she not felt that her brother had landed behind her? Was that the effect of her link being shared with someone she was romantically involved with? "Skywarp?" she asked, "What are you doing here?"

"You may be able to hide your emotions from others, Starlight, but I can still see them." He told her cryptically.

"You shouldn't be here." She told him "How else am I suppose to…separate myself from you. Think of you as just another con that needs to be taken down like any other." Remembering what Storm had told her once as she turned back to the view. Storm. She thought sadly.

"You wouldn't believe how many times I've thought about you. About how I should have taken you with me instead of leaving…"

"Skywarp stop it!" she snapped "are you trying to ruin my life even more?" She turned to him annoyed even though there were tears in her optics "are you trying to hurt me, hurt us? Make it so that we can no longer fight you anymore? You've already landed poor Storm in the medbay, virtually killed Lightning." She willed herself not to breakdown at the prospect of losing her dear friend. "I'm next on the list, is that it? Let's destroy Starlight from the inside so she'll never want to do anything again." She got angrier with every word, the tears now rolling down her cheeks "I don't know who you are, but you're not my brother. You're not the mech I grew up with, that mech is dead. He died with everyone else I ever cared about! Everyone I loved…" she slumped down the ground and started to cry. Skywarp was dumbfounded by Starlight's words, was that really how she saw everything? He walked over to her, crouching down and went to touch her shoulder to reassure her when she suddenly looked up at him and pushed him away having him fall back on his aft at the unsuspecting push. "Don't touch me!" she spat at him.

"I…I never meant to hurt you, Solarflare." He told her "all I ever cared about was your welfare, even when we found each other here."

"You are not my brother." She repeated coldly "the Skywarp I knew wouldn't land Storm in the medbay, the Skywarp I knew wouldn't cause me harm. The Skywarp I knew wouldn't have left me and then told others to kill the ones I love!" the light yellow femme was breathing heavily now, tears replaced by a fierce anger that as directed straight at the mech in front of her.

"I keep telling you that it wasn't my fault!" Skywarp snapped at her knowing she was referring to the destruction of the settlement.

"Yeah. You just keep telling yourself that." Starlight retorted as she stood.

"I came here to see you one last time, to settle things between us and…" he began standing himself.

"You killed your sister, Skywarp." She told him interrupting the mech "she died on that medical berth, not from the injuries that she sustained from the artic battle but from a broken spark as she realised her own, beloved I might add, brother no longer cared about her."

"You're lying." The black seeker told her his optics narrowing in annoyance. "I saved you from dying, I was almost shot at the fragging Ark for Primus sake!"

"No." Starlight told him plainly "the femme you 'saved' was Starlight, Solarflare died on that berth uselessly calling out to you."

Skywarp walked over and grabbed her arm tightly stopping her other arm mid-strike as she when to slap him. "Stop kidding yourself, 'Flare." He hissed annoyed "If that were so then why did Starlight contact me about Storm, as I had said she has no connection to me." This conversation was not going the way Skywarp had hoped. Instead of the calm casual conversation Storm and Thundercracker had, this one had turned into a full out anger fest and he was the target.

"You're right, she doesn't." the femme said calmly, too calmly for Skywarp's liking, yanking the arm in the air out of the seeker's grasp. "In fact, Solarflare would never do this."

Skywarp smirked at the weapon being aimed at him. "Go ahead, shoot me." He said "here." Taking her hand pointing the gun at his chest and releasing her arm. He saw the shock on her face and her arm begin to tremble. "Shoot me." He said seeing her hesitation "shoot me." He told her getting annoyed that all she would do was look at him. "SHOOT ME!" he yelled at her making the femme jump before slapping him. "You see." He began "you can no more harm me than I can hurt you. Why do you think I don't go after you in battles?" "In our next battle I want you to take out the yellow jet, or I will take you out." Megatron's voice suddenly said in his head, he ignored it.

"So instead you go after my best friend. What kind of logic is that, Skywarp?" Starlight asked annoyed.

The seeker shrugged, "she had it coming."

The learjet growled, aiming her weapon at the mech once again but she couldn't do it. No matter how much she wanted to pull the trigger at the moment she knew she wouldn't be able to live with herself if she actually shot him where he wanted. The smirk was back on his face and she cried out in frustration walking away. "Why can't I hit you!?" she said rhetorically.

"How is she?" Skywarp suddenly asked.

Confused, Starlight turned back to her brother. "How is who?" she asked.

"Storm. You mentioned she was in the medbay but you have yet to say how she is."

"Why would you care?"

"It would ease Thundercracker's mind to know how she is doing." He lied. Why am I asking about Storm anyway? He wondered and why did does that fact that Jazz rescuing her and taking back annoy me so?

"You may be able to hide your emotions from others, Skywarp, but I can still see them." Starlight told him repeating his words back to him when they had first started the conversation. She saw his annoyance at her statement and smiled. It had been a long time since she had smiled in his presence. "You're not asking for Thundercracker." She told him.

"Of course I am. Why else would I want to know?" he saw amusement in her optics. She started to walk back to him when they both heard the sound of engines, they looked over to see someone heading in their direction.

Starlight look back at her brother anger now replacing her amusement. "I should have known." She said rising her weapon once again and firing hitting the mech in the shoulder. "Solarflare. Is. Dead." She told him harshly before flying off.

Skywarp watched the learjet go, he knew he should be mad at her for shooting him but he couldn't help the smile that appeared on his face. She was right, Solarflare would never have been able to do that. Starlight, however, was a different matter and the one he would be able to focus on now. Thank you, Solarflare. He thought. "Was that Solarflare?" a voice asked behind him.
"No." he replied, "that was Starlight."

"Both you and I know they're one in the same." The voice told him.

Skywarp finally looked away from the sky and down at the ground. "No, they're not." He told them "Solarflare died a long time ago."

"You've been shot." They said surprised as they turned the seeker to face them. Hearing no reply, they gently lifted the mech's face up to look at them. "Did she do that?"

"What do you want, Thundercracker?" Skywarp asked annoyed walking away from his trinemate and holding his injury.

"I wanted to thank you." The blue mech began.

"Tch. I've done nothing."

"You saved Lazer."

"Lazer died with Solarflare, the sooner you see that the better." The black seeker snapped.

"Storm then." Thundercracker gave a small smile when he saw his friend flinch at her name, as much as he tried to hide it.

"I did nothing of the sort. The Autobots saved Storm, I had nothing to do with it."

Thundercracker walked over to Skywarp placing a hand on the mech's good shoulder. "Warp." he said quietly. "You may not want to admit it to yourself, and you may not have had any in the past, but I can say with certainty now that you're in love with her." Skywarp looked at him amazed by what he'd just said.

(END)