Chapter 21

"Human."

God, please go away you overgrown non-organic lizard! Geez! Ash huffed, blowing her bangs out of her face as the behemoth's shadow fell over her.

The rumbling growl came again, although a little more forceful, "Human."

Ash didn't even look at the big bastard-she stretched her arms above her head and started talking to herself, "I wonder what moms doing?"

Pockets, who was seated across from her in the human cafeteria, cast a wary glance behind her, "Worrying about you, I'm sure."

Ash waved him off, "Mom doesn't even know I'm here."

His attention snapped back to her. He raised a red eye brow, "You didn't tell her?"

"I just told her that I was staying at a friend's house for a few days and that I'd catch up on school when I got home."

"And she let you go that easy, huh?"

Ash shrugged, "Not everyone's a tight-ass, Uncle P."

Pockets rolled his eyes. Ash raised her fork and shook it at him, "Don't give me that look, old man."

"Old!"

Ash grinned at his reaction. Pockets shot her a glare that could rival his mom's, "I am not that old."

"I don't know..." Ash rolled her eyes heavenward in an innocent manner. The look he gave her had her laughing.

"You will answer me when I call you, human." The voice snarled behind her. The floor abruptly shook so hard that Pokets' tray left the table and hovered in the air for a second. He managed to grab his glass before it went airborne. His glare turned to the towering being.

"We have names, robot," Ash snapped.

"You woke Rose!" Pockets growled when his daughter lifted cloudy green eyes.

Ash finally turned to give the big ass dinosaur what for, finding herself face-to-face with a big pair of ice cold eyes and a mouth full of teeth that were as big as her body. She said, "Listen here, short-stack, if you want any respect-"

He snarled, "Where is the femme?"

Ash blinked, "What?"

"Where is she?" He repeated after a heavy vent.

Pockets blinked, "Sundance?"

"Yes."

Ash looked back at her uncle with wide eyes, finding the same expression on his face. He asked, "Why are you looking for her?"

"I don't need to explain my reasons to a lower creature."

"...You do realize that her dad is here, right?" Pockets explained slowly.

Grimlock snarled, "I don't see how that relates to her."

"In other words," Ash said flatly, "if Jolt catches you messing with his little girl, he'll electrocute the shit out of your big rumbling ass."

The big dinosaur tilted his head slightly before he smirked, "He could do nothing to me."

"Jolt was the mech that offlined Devastator," Pockets informed, "you're a big guy, I'll give you that, but Devastator could have stepped on your ass and left you flatter than a pancake."

He lifted an arm when Rose slid over to his side with a lazy yawn, leaning against him. He curled his arm around her to keep her from slipping off then looked at Ash, "You think she's still looking for Jetfire?"

Ash turned away from Grimlock and nodded at him, "Probably. I think she's been looking forward to seeing him this whole time. He's like her hero, isn't he?"

"You could say that."

Grimlock snarled insults low in his throat and stomped out of the cafeteria. Pockets clamped his hand down on his tray this time, only to have his cafeteria burger flop up and down. He rolled his eyes.

"Fucking dinosaur..." Ash muttered under her breath.

"Megatron has fallen," Darkfire rumbled with a shake of her great body. Bloodstar watched as her sister's massive black plates of armor slid over her even thicker body like loose skin, like they weren't attached properly. Bloodstar knew better, though. She'd never seen a mech, decepticon or autobot, get past her sister's armor.

"We never listened to him anyway," Havoc hissed, shifting her wings.

Bloodstar turned her attention to the smallest of their trine, amusement shining in her optics when Darkfire snapped her jaws shut audibly, "YOU never listened to him!"

The smaller femme rolled her scarlet optics, "He was a moron. What other could spend most of his life raising a weapon only to have it turn against him in the end? If he wasn't strong enough to control Demona, then he wasn't fit to lead an army."

Darkfire uncoiled with a roar.

Havoc, less than half the black dragon's size, stood her ground fearlessly. They all knew that she was the fastest of their trinity, and could launch before their processors could even register what she was doing. She was built for speed, with long, thin limbs. She was the only one that had no arms in this form-rather they had transformed into her wings. She seemed to balance herself on her toes, like she was ready to shove off into the air. The sunlight left sharp high-lights in her silver armor.

"How dare you!" Darkfire spat, "Demona would still be on our side if that blasted Prime hadn't corrupted her!"

Bloodstar cut in, voice soft but effectively shutting them up, "I heard it was a human that won the Daughter's spark."

Both turned their heads to her, optics wide with disbelief. Bloodstar played the bored act, picking at the claws of one hand and optics half shuttered, "No mech took her away from Megatron's side. No bot. Just a fragile organic creature."

"Frag..." Darkfire whispered, "A bloody human?"

"That's what I said, sister," Bloodstar hummed softly, turning her claws over to admire the gleam along the serrated edges, "do you want to hear something real shocking?"

Havoc slid forward a few steps, "Speak, Blood."

"Skywarp says that she was the one that murdered Starscream."

Again, the stared. Havoc cocked her head to one side, "But Starscream..."

"Starscream was a master at aerial combat," Darkfire rumbled, "a great strategist. He was a whiny little pest, but Megatron kept him as his second all this time for a reason."

Havoc glanced at her before returning her attention to Bloodstar, "Starscream is offline?"

"The only remaining member of that trine is Skywarp. Thundercracker was battling the autobots when he was blasted to the pits, beyond saving. Demona shredded through Starscream like he was nothing when he made the mistake of going after a sparkling. Only Skywarp remains of the mech seekers. Those on earth, anyway."

"When did you meet him?"

"Yesterday." Bloodstar focused on Havoc as the smaller turned away, looking up at the sky. Darkfire started mumbling about something, but she ignored it. Instead, she called, "I forgot that you and Starscream were...close, Havoc. My...condolences"

Havoc shot her a look packed with warning, but said nothing.

Darkfire raised an optic ridge, "Admit it. You always wanted to frag that coward."

Havoc hissed, crouching down before pushing off the earth. She ascended rapidly. Bloodstar watched her go before smacking her sister in the shoulder with her tail, "You and I both know that it runs deeper than a 'good time'."

Darkfire twitched, "Obviously not deep enough, or else they'd be spark mates."

Bloodstar shook her head, "You have a lot to learn, sister."

She snorted and shifted subjects, "The autobots still have no clue that we've landed. What are our plans?"

"The most deadly decepticons are the ones that know patience. We wait and watch, when the time is right, we will make our presence known."

Darkfire grunted, "I'm starving."

"Go find some humans."

"They can't sustain us. We need energon."

"Someday soon we will once again bathe in the pools of our enemies' energon. We will drink our fill...until then, we will take the small comfort offered by the organics."

Darkfire turned to lumber off. She paused when Bloodstar called, "And sister, please try not to leave a mess like before."

Annd...Grimlock gets a piece of attitude from Ash...he just might have to get used to it.

Also, we see the trine and get to know them a little more...strange how each one is so different. Darkfire, the loyal, battle-hardened soldier. Havoc, the rebellious and apparently love-struck girl. Then there's Bloodstar...not quite sure how to describe her, yet. Manipulative, savage, and beautiful all come to mind when I think of her...

The random little twist of a possible romance between Havoc and Starscream sounds like fun. I'd like to know the full story of that someday...

Much love.

Sundance and her family/friends and the dragon trine and the story all belong to me. Transformers does not.