= Forbidden Fantasies =

By Ayngel

Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers or any of the characters or concepts within. I make no money from this story or any other about Transformers.

Lots of love and thanks to all those reviewers and commentators that have hung in with this since the beginning and also those who discovered it recently and did a rapid read. I really do appreciate your interest and comments and great compliments :-)

At last – they get together!!

Warnings: Adult themes, course language, implied slash.

Chapter 25: Rescue

Hound

CJ was out of the coma but still unconscious on his side, his optics shuttered tightly. There were joins in various places from where Ratchet had operated and applied universal fixant. He did not move. Ratchet was still uncertain of the extent of his head injuries, and his recovery.

Empty and wretched and unable to feel anything except the greatest love, I reached out and stroked his face. I knew that he should never have gone into the rec room with a gun, but he'd obviously gotten drunk again and now that it was crystal clear what had been eating him, I felt a great sadness, and could not blame him. I should never have gone to the rec room myself, and I should have been way more perceptive.

Across the other side of the medbay, Ratchet was wheeling out a solid looking trolley. At each of its corners were large restraining straps. My circuits gave a shudder - I knew exactly what it was for. There was not a mech on Cybertron who did not, and who would not have felt the same. Ratchet pushed it back next to a machine adorned with ominous looking bits and pieces. Then, as I watched, he picked up a large syringe with clear liquid inside and started tapping it.

He looked up and saw me looking and smiled grimly. "Hurts less this way," he said.

Tears pricked my optics. That it had come to this! I had known Raj was unhappy and stressed, but I hadn't realized just how much. And now he was going to get shut down. For a long time, possibly even for good – as I was sure that was the hope of some. And I should not have cared; should have been furious at him. He had gone way over the top, and he had damaged my little CJ so. But I could not feel any anger towards him either.

Now I wondered how we could ever enjoy good relations on the Ark again, and I chastised myself, thinking how the whole incident could have been avoided, if only I'd listened to them both. I looked again at CJ's inert form, feeling a great pain in my spark.

CJ groaned and moved, then. Ratchet put the syringe down and came over. Bending over, he pulled one optic open and shone a bluish colored light into it. Then he drew a small device out of his arm and flipped it open. His optic ridges furrowed in concentration as he ran the small scanner up the length and breadth of his patient's form. Then he grunted. "Responding," he muttered. "He'll be OK."

He returned to the trolley. My circuits flooded with relief and I leaned over and kissed CJ lightly on the helm.

Just then Ratchet's com went off. With a typical frown, he flipped it on. .::Yeah, I'm all go here!::. I heard him say gruffly. Then .::What's the deal?::. Then he hesitated. Putting down the syringe again, he sputtered .::What? You've gotta be kidding!::.

I heard Jazz's voice say .::It's the brig::. Then there was something about Raj. Ratchet cursed. He glanced at CJ. "Watch him," he said, sounding mighty pissed. "We got a situation!" Then he strode angrily out of the room.

I stared at the door as it hissed shut, and then at the terrible trolley, standing there like a monster waiting to pounce, and my spark sank. Please Raj, I thought, please don't go and get yourself killed before they even put you on that thing. My spark pained sharply, and I fought an urge to despair.

There was a noise in front of me and, looking down, I saw that CJ had opened his optics and was staring around. Trying not to think about what may be happening in the brig, I stroked his helm gently, and his optics flared slightly and then moved and settled on my face. Then his face gradually crumpled. "Oh Hound!" he wailed, reaching out to me.

I gathered him up and took him in my arms and held him." It's all right, sweetspark!" I stroked his helm and kissed it softly, and he clung to me fiercely.

He started to cry, quite hysterically. "Everything hurts," he sobbed. "He did this to me!" His whole body was started to shake. "How can you do it Hound? How can you frag him when he does this to me?"

I held him tighter and kissed one of his horns. "I'm not sweetspark," alarm rising as I wondered how on Earth he was to self repair in a state like this. "Don't think that!" I said, "I never have, I promise!"

"Honest?" he howled.

"Honest!" I said. His arms tightened around me and I rocked him gently and we sat like that and I tried to ignore the trolley, and all thoughts of Raj.

After a few moments he seemed to calm a little, but he had to lie down and rest more. I tried to detach him gently and lay him back. But as I did so he looked me urgently in the optics, and grabbed hold of the front of me. "I need to tell you something Hound!" he whimpered, "I should have told you this before!" He started to shake again, his optics blue and pleading. "I had an affair with him!"

I was taken aback. I guess a side of me shouldn't have been, because – well with the amount of mechs 'Raj had been through during the war it wasn't surprising one of them had wound up here. It was just that neither of them had ever mentioned it.

"He's an afthole!" CJ was sobbing again. "I really loved him!" he raved. "And he treated me like pit!"

I shuttered my optics and pulled him against me again, wrapping my arms around him. This was hardly the first time I'd seen someone like this over Raj. During the war it was almost part the course. But I hadn't thought I'd be seeing it here, and certainly not with CJ. It just made the whole situation that much worse. Sadness swept all through me. "I just wish you'd told me this before," I whispered, stroking his helm again.

"I thought you wouldn't want me!" he wailed. "I thought you'd think I was just a – slut. And I was so ashamed!" I kissed his helm and stroked him again. "Of course I don't think that," I murmured.

He was really crying hard now, there was a mass of congealed tears on my chassis, and I was conscious that his surfaces were far too warm. "I've been so unhappy!" he went on. "Down here – he hasn't even given me the time of day! And I really loved him!"

He curled into me and clung and I held him tightly and shut my optics, and thought of Raj again, conscious that for all the implications from this I still could not find it within me to be angry. I forced myself not to think of what could be happening in the brig, and turned my attention back to CJ, who was even more worked up now, I knew I had to find something which would get him out of this and settle him down more permanently. Then I remembered Raj complaining about gaps in his memory after his capture at Mordac and how infuriating it was that whole episodes of his life had just disappeared. "Maybe he forgot, love." I kept stroking him soothingly. "Mirage had a bad experience just before he went to Itopis. He wound up with the Decepticons. Something got done to his memory circuits – he has trouble recalling things sometimes, Sweetspark."

He eased out of my arms and looked at me, his optics all rough around the rims from the tears. "I didn't know that!" he sobbed, more running down his cheeks.

I picked up a cloth and wiped them away, then drew him into my chest again. "It's all right, love," I said. "It's not something he likes talking about."

He was still crying. "But if I'd known that things would have been different!"

I reflected ruefully that lots of things could have been different if everyone had been more open and less antagonistic. But I pulled him in again and murmured soothingly, determined not to upset him further. "He still shouldn't have done what he did."

CJ pulled away again. I saw his optics widen at something over my shoulder. I glanced back and there was the trolley , of course, gleaming in full executorial glory. He looked at me, optics wide with horror. "What are they going to do to him?" he said.

There was no point in lying. I sighed. "He's being put in stasis lock," I said. "Just until he can have a hearing." There was no point in elaborating as to my further fears either.

"But I don't want them to do that!" he sat up, looking more distressed than ever. "Hound, please don't let them do that! Go tell them I want to drop the charges!"

I must say, despite his obvious change of heart I was taken aback. "Sweetspark," I said, "I can't do that! It's a decision Prime's made. Whatever may have been the cause today, he's decided that in his current state Raj is just too dangerous to have around!"

He grabbed hold of my arms so hard that I could feel the metal give way."You have to!" He was almost hysterical. "Please Hound! Don't let them do it! I couldn't live knowing it was cozza me!"

His blue optics pleaded with me. He shook, and now I could feel he was burning up. My resolve began to give way. "Well …" I said, "Ratchet didn't want me to leave you … "

"Hound! Please!" he looked so desperate. I gave in. There was no way I could be successful in this, but if he could allow himself some proper repair time and make peace with Mirage before they put him under then I guessed that at least one positive would have come out of this miserable episode. "On one condition," I said. "That you lie here and do not get up CJ! You stay right where you are until I come back and get some rest!"

He lay back on the medberth and shuttered his optics. "OK, you got it!" he said. "Just do it, Hound!"

Thundercracker

I stood there looking at Starscream's inert form and feeling absolutely wretched. Then he moved, slightly. Noticing that the energon flow had stopped, I heaved a sigh of relief. I didn't lose it often, but I sure had lost it just then; and whilst I had doubted I had the capability to defeat Starscream's sophisticated self repair systems and do more than temporary damage, it was good to know just the same.

I needed Sunstreaker, then, more than I'd ever needed anyone in my life. Activating the com, I called the Ark again.

He answered straight away. "Thunder??"

That was when everything that had happened in the last few breems came to a head and I lost it for a second time. In a different way. "Sunny, I've really fucked up!" I muttered wretchedly, not caring that I sounded pathetic. "I need to talk to you! Can I meet you somewhere? I might have to leave the Decepticons!"

There was a pause. "Primus!" he said, not sounding displeased. In fact, there was a note of elation in his voice. "I thought it was just us with the shit going down today!" Then there was a pause and he said "Look - can you get to the forest? I'll meet you there, same place!"

"All right!" I took some deep intakes and turned away from Starscream, who was now moving and groaning but not yet conscious. "Let me get myself together," I said.

I snapped off the com, and stood there intaking deeply, trying to take in the implications of what I had just said. Had I really meant it? It had slipped out with hardly any thought. But I didn't get the chance to think for long. There was a sudden presence and there in the doorway was Soundwave. Then I was backing up and he was coming in – closely followed by Megatron! As they entered, the Cat slunk past them. Oh Primus! I thought, This is it. I am sooo for it!

Megatron looked from me to Starscream. A smirk appeared on his face. "Oh dear!" he said. "Looks as though you did a bit of damage, Thundercracker!" he gestured to the communications officer. "Soundwave, if you please …" Nodding, the masked blue mech lumbered over to the form now groaning on the ground. Then he looked at me and darkened, and his optics flared. "Explain yourself!" He said.

My insides twisted. All of us knew what that look usually meant. "We er had a bit of a tiff," I said. "Over Skywarp. Starscream - er – wanted him you see. I got jealous."

He smiled and my insides churned. "I see!" he said. He looked at Starscream. "Soundwave?"

The blue mech had crouched down beside my commander and was running a scanner over him. He looked faintly amused. If that was possible, for Soundwave.

"No permanent damage. He will live." He said.

Megatron didn't answer him. He turned back to me . My processing chamber gave a lurch as his optics narrowed. This was it. "I've told you before about allowing this bond nonsense to interfere with your responsibilities here!" he roared. " Much as I cannot find it within me to be too unsympathetic – after all, I feel like doing this to Starscream every day of my life - it is simply not acceptable for you to take it upon yourself!" he glowered at me. "Now where is Skywarp!" he demanded. " You will be going back to Cybertron and the Coneheads will be arriving here just as soon as I …"

"Megatron. Allow me to explain." Megatron looked as surprised as I did at the interruption by the monotone.

"Bonds are fragile structures!" said Soundwave. "But their existence can be of great value in battle. This conflict between the command trine is capable of resolution. Skywarp needs to be alone. Thundercracker needs to think. Starscream needs to heal. Allow them the space, Megatron and they will not disappoint you!"

Words cannot describe my astonishment! Megatron seemed similarly astounded. He appeared lost for words. Then the Cat came padding forward. Soundwave made a grab at her but she moved over and rubbed against Megatron's legs. He looked down and his expression softened. "Yes Ravage!" He said.

The cat leapt nimbly on to the table so that she was next to him and out came a series of miaows and growls and other alien noises which must have been Catlish. I didn't have a clue what she was saying, of course, but Megatron obviously did.

"I see," he nodded. "You concur with Soundwave." She struck him lightly with her front paw then and said something else in a very low voice. Megatron lowered himself closer and I saw Soundwave stiffen. There was a moment's silence. Then Megatron 's face went rigid and he glared at Soundwave. "What does she mean, the Spirit Cats of the eighth dimension give this their blessing?" he roared.

Soundwave shot a dark look at the cat. She put her tail in the air and, leaping from the table, stalked past him and out of the room, a smirk on her face. His optics followed her momentarily, and then turned back to our leader.

"It is her way, Megatron, of giving her approval. That is all."

Megatron looked from me to Soundwave to the retreating Cat. "Oh very well!" He snapped. "Skywarp can go – wherever the damned idiot needs to go – and sort himself. Thundercracker, you will remain in quarters and sort yourself. And as for Starscream…." He considered.

Then he smiled. "Put him in my quarters!" he said. "We need to have a little chat when he - wakes up! " He took a step back. "Operations are suspended until further notice!" he barked. Then he shook his head. "I could do with a break anyway after the last few days anyway, Soundwave!" He started to move towards the door.

I thought of Sunny strongly then and how I did not think it would be possible for me to just sit in quarters for days on end. I had to see him. I looked at Soundwave, but he was busy gathering up Starscream, "Er - Megatron …" I said to his retreating back. He turned. His optics burned at me. "I don't know whether - could I just perhaps - be allowed one flight before I am confined?"

He stared at me and then looked at Soundwave, who was standing now and holding Starscream, who was clutching at thin air, his head lolled back like a sparkling toy. Soundwave nodded.

"Well why not!" exploded Megatron, coming back into the room. "Lets just all of us go and have a damned vacation!" He glowered at me. "You may go, on Soundwave's recommendation," he said. "But do not disappoint me, Thundercracker! You will return here within the joor and whilst you are gone you will at least attempt to make some useful observations. Otherwise you will be first in this miserable outfit to be converted to scrap metal! Do I make myself clear?"

Oh, it was very clear! I bowed my head and touched my helm, a traditional sign of Decepticon respect.

"Yes, Lord Megatron!" I said.

Skywarp

I emerged from the void dazed and disorientated and trying to come to terms with something I still could not quite grasp – that I really was actually on the Ark and rescuing Mirage.

It did not seem real! Any moment I expected to wake up and find myself back at the base with TC and Starscream marching grimly down to face Megatron. But I hardly had time to think before there were approaching footsteps, and voices I recognized only too well. Realizing I was far from dreaming, I concealed myself hastily behind a large pillar like structure which happened, conveniently, to be there and waited, hardly daring to intake.

Around the corner came the familiar sounds of the Lamborghini twins, their footsteps echoing off the metal walls. Mixed with the noise were the sounds of an argument. "For pits sake see sense Sunny!" I head Sideswipe say. "You're just gonna end up exactly the way you were before!"

"You don't fraggin' understand!" I heard his brother snarl back. And then, horror of horrors, they stopped. Right next to where I was standing!

I was not well hidden. I mean – I'm big. And my colors are not exactly unnoticeable. I was all too aware that one wingtip was sticking out in full view. I tried to shrink myself up, but it was no good.

Preparing myself for conflict, I put my hand on my canon. I did not want to draw attention to myself just yet but I realized I may have no choice. But, amazingly, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker were obviously completely engrossed in their altercation..

Sunstreaker was obviously upset. "Just lay off Sides!" he snarled. "Let me make my own decisions for once in my fraggin' life!"

Sideswipe's intakes let out a sigh "Sunny think about this!" he said. He sounded thoroughly rattled. I could not help grimacing in satisfaction. So calm and reasonable he fancied himself as! Right then, he sounded anything but.

"He's got himself in real shit this time!" Sunny was saying. "He needs me."

Despite the situation, I stifled a laugh. The Autobot's glory boy, who was more of a loud mouthed violent thug than a lot of the Decepticons, and a liar as well! The thought of somebody actually needing him was laughable. "I love him Sides!" he was saying. "I've always loved him. I've never loved anyone else! You try'n stop me doing this and I'll fraggin' kill ya I swear it!"

Primus Almighty! I thought. The dramas he had once put TC through flashed through my mind. I felt like emerging from my hiding place and blasting straight into his stupid face just to cut whatever unfortunate he was referring to a break, even though this was doubtless some equally brainless bot. But Mirage came strongly into my mind, then, reminding me starkly of what I was here for. I could not afford to frag up!

More footsteps. The golden twin was storming angrily away. I heard Sideswipe say – pathetically - "Sunny – please – don't do something you'll regret …" His brother responded with some colorful swear word but I was too far away to make it out. Then Sideswipe was evidently hurrying after him. As their footsteps died, the com buzzed. I could not believe how nearly I'd just been sprung.

Squeezing out from behind the pillar, I tried for a second time to get my bearings.

Then the com buzzed. I answered it. "Er - hello!" I said.

Mirage's voice was like a sweet breeze which breathed gently through every circuit. There just aren't words for the joy and sense of everything being worthwhile that I felt. A warm glow spread all through my spark and for the first time in my life it felt like everything in the Universe was turning out exactly all right. Despite the situation. All the recent agonies I had been through just seemed to fade away and it didn't even feel strange. It felt like we always talked like this on coms in weird situations.

But we didn't get to talk for long. There was somebody else coming. "Gotta go!" I said, hating breaking the link.

It was the green one. The Tracker, Hound. Obviously in a hurry, from the way he was charging along. And this time there was nowhere to hide.

He saw me and pretty much screeched to a halt. I never saw an Autobot look more surprised in my life! I immediately leveled my canon arm but he yelled: "No! Don't shoot!" and put his hands up. And I remembered that this one, actually, out of all of them was all right. Reasonable, when it came to the crunch, and less of a self righteous twit. Besides, he did cool holograms.

He was certainly more likely to listen to reason than the Twins. He glanced around him, anxiously, obviously alone. Marveling at my sudden cool logic and wondering where in Kell this had come from and what in Kell had happened to shoot first think later Skywarp, I lowered my arm.

"What are you – doing here?" He was quite smart, I thought. Any of those other idiots would probably have asked how I got in.

I thought fast. It was best not to start a kafuffle here. If I could avoid it then hopefully I could get Mirage before there was a display of firepower.

Again that cool logic! This was brilliant! TC would be amazed! Now, what was that policy Megatron had laughed over. The one he said meant Prime wasn't going to kill him …

"I'm on official business," I said. "The entertainment policy!"

The green one looked astounded. "Entertainment policy?" he asked. Then he laughed out loud." I didn't know we had one!" He thought for a second. "Prime's got a containment policy," he said.

"Yeah - that's the one!"

His optic ridges furrowed, and he looked me up and down. "They sent you?"

"Yeah!" I said. "Prime asked for me. He thought I'd be - less threatening than Megatron or Starscream. Now can you tell me where the elevator is?"

He looked at me very, very curiously. "It's – er - this way," he said. "I'm about to get in it myself. And he started to hurry along. I knew then, of course, that it was anything but that way. Regretting having to do it - even though I was astounded by the fact that I did - I lunged and cracked him hard across the head.

Not hard enough. He managed to sprint lighting fast to a large red buzzer on the wall and strike it, before collapsing on the ground. Immediately, a shrill alarm rang out and Teletran's voice starting saying Decepticon alert again and again.

I still didn't know where the damned elevator was! The com went off again. "It's on your right!" said Mirage. I could hear the excitement and longing in his voice and my spark flashed. I looked, and sure enough, there was the damned thing at last! At the same time, that desperation I had felt back at the base came roaring back, driving me like an unstoppable storm. He was so close. I was going to him. Nothing would stop me and nothing was going to stand between me and him. Ever again. "I'm comin' in!" I said.

The elevator. You needed a fraggin' access code, didn't you?

Well I didn't have time for that! Powering up the canon to maximum, I fired straight at the doors. They flew off and into the shaft, there was a clang and then a ball of smoke billowed up and out. Peering into the haze I could see the elevator hanging one floor down, the heavy cables which held it up right in front of me. I let off another volley and they snapped, easily. The thing broke free, cannoned down a couple of levels and crashed into the ground with an almighty *boom.*

Shots sounded behind me. A voice I knew well and had heard not long before yelled something and a bullet grazed my wing. Sideswipe! Without pausing to return fire I leaped into the hole, landing on top of the elevator with a loud crash. There was another yell, and microseconds later, he landed beside me. Trying to look all red and gleaming and fearsome, he brandished a gun in one hand and his piledriver arm on the other side. "What a great opportunity!" he rasped."I've been waiting for this, you piece of pit! Didn't even have the guts to call me, did ya?""

Activating his driver with astonishing speed, he tried to drive it straight into me. I blocked him and threw my weight against him, trying not to be completely astounded by what he had just said, as we crashed through the roof of the elevator and descended to the floor below.

Mirage

I watched them dithering and deliberating by the door, as all around the alarms sounded.

Brawn went to punch in the doorcode. "Wait a minute!" hissed Ratchet. "We've still got a prisoner in here. He looked around and then they all looked around, that was when they realized nobody was watching me. "Well don't all just stand there! Someone get over there!" said Prowl.

Jazz gave a short laugh. "Well he ain't gonna be in that pithole any more, is he?"he said over the alarm noise, "and I think we gotta slightly higher priority situation here!" Prowl's optics flashed and they exchanged a not very bondmate like glance. But just then there was a great bang which sounded like something very heavy landing and everyone jumped. "What in Kell was that?" said Ratchet and Ironhide together. Immediately, shouts and the noise of heavy objects being thrown around sounded from beyond the door, then there was another explosion.

Then suddenly, there was total confusion. Half a dozen voices struck up in competition with the alarm. "For Primus sake …!" "… open the door …!" "… No!..." "... don't know how many of them …" "stay grouped …!" " … draw weapons …!"..."somebody get Mirage ..." "... forget it!..." "...call Prime ..!" " he's off the air again!" Then someone was on a com anyway yelling "We got a fraggin' Decepticon down here!" and then Ironhide was yelling "Autobots, load weapons, battle formation!" That seemed to decide them. There was a momentary silence, and then they all rushed to the same configuration which usually proved so futile when the Seekers were airborne. The alarm cut off.

Skywarp! I reached out.

Give me a minute! He seemed to say. there was another crash from outside.

I stole a glance at Bluestreak. He was near the door, and looking frantically around and seemingly the most confused of the lot. If Skywarp was coming through then I must get him out of harm's way. I tried to decide what to decision was hard, and seemed complicated, for some reason, and I did nothing.

Ironhide was on the com. He broke away from it. "It's Skywarp!" he bawled. "He just attacked Hound! Sides is out there … we gotta blast through the door, Autobots!" Then there was more commotion and they raised their weapons, and I saw that from somewhere he had obtained an even more enormous canon than the one he had earlier. It whirred and gleamed in the artificial light. I wasn't even sure I had even seen it before, let alone knew what it was called, but one thing was certain. Anyone right in the line of that was not going to stay intact for long. "Sideswipe, stand clear!" he bawled into the com. Autobots! prepare to fire!"

This time I was not relying on whatever fragile bond like connection we may or may not have going. I flicked on the com. "Skywarp!" I screeched, sounding like his commanding officer and not caring who heard.

There were more grunts from outside and and a clang and what sounded like a howl, now right outside the door. "Skywarp!"

Then his voice. "I'm OK!" he said. "Blast in now!" I yelled. "Don't even think anything else! You've got Ironhide and half the bloody army right the other side! And at the same time I yelled "Bluestreak! Get out of the way!!" But the gunner stared wildly around, more confused than ever.

There was no blast. Skywarp's essence flooded my whole being. There was nothing in the universe but me getting to him and I took off, intending to knock their weapons flying clean out of their hands. But I had forgotten Gears on the floor! I fell straight over him and went sprawling face first.

And then I felt a tight grip around my ankle and then there was ripping and tearing sound and suddenly blinding pain shot through me, followed by a gun in my side. " You miserable spawn of a glitch, you ain't goin nowehere!" he snarled. "I've got Mirage!" he yelled. Hesitating, their heads turned.

"Skywarp!" I holllered.

Bluestreak

When we ran over to the door I knew nobody was watching Mirage. I was relieved. Of course, I knew a Decepticon attack was serious but it was nowhere near as serious as Mirage getting frozen with liquid nitrogen.

Then there was that great bang and then nobody seemed to know what to do. Then it got all confusing, cos everyone was yelling and the alarm was still going and there were shots and clunks and clangs outside and everyone was drawing weapons and lining up and I thought I heard someone yelling at me to get out of the way. Then Gears was yelling out and Brawn was running over to him and suddenly you could see Mirage on the ground. Then there were more noises and I didn't know whether to pay attention to that or Mirage, and I could hear Jazz yelling something about opening the door but Prowl didn't and then Ironhide was screaming "For Primus sake, fire!" and everyone was drawing weapons again.

I looked at Mirage. Gears was twisting his ankle and he was screaming out in pain. Gears had a horrible cruel look on his face and Brawn was over there too and he seemed to have forgotten about Skywarp, he raised his fist and landed Mirage one right in the face. That was it! There was no choice really. I mean, I thought there were enough there to deal with just one Decepticon, anyway! I thought: This is it Blustreak! Here goes your Autobot career down the drain. But I love you Mirage, you're worth it! I pulled out my rifle, and with a yell I charged at Brawn.

But I didn't get to do anything! There was an almighty bang and I stopped in my tracks and turned to see and the door flying across the room, smashing straight into Ironhide who was pretty much flattened by it. Jazz, Prowl and Ratchet got thrown right up in the air and landed with a crash and I saw Bee stagger and clutch at the wall. Then Skywarp came rushing in. Brawn turned on him and Skywarp just blasted him across the room, and an arm came off and clattered across the floor.

And now I could see why they'd panicked so much even though it was just one Con. Because really – Skywarp was awesome! Even though I'd seen those Seekers tons of times in the air I never realized just how amazing they were up close and even though I knew he was a Decepticon and had caused us a great deal of trouble that day, and that I really shouldn't be thinking such things right then, I thought he was really attractive in a very basic, raw, powerful, smexy sort of a way, and I saw that he had a beautiful face.

Then he saw Mirage, and Gears still hanging on to him, and this look came on that face. It was just so - tender! But it soon changed to one of absolute fury! He seemed to swell, and his wings arched upwards, and he absolutely glared at Gears, who let go of Mirage straight away. It must have been too late. Skywarp let fly with his canon and bits of red minibot shot across the room. And even though it was pretty shocking, I guess, I didn't feel sorry for him. I thought it served him right! Perhaps because I was busy thinking that I was not as alarmed as I should have been when Skywarp turned the gun on me ....

He went to fire but Mirage said: "No! Not Bluestreak!" and Skywarp looked at him and they looked at each other, and again that was that tenderness and Skywarp looked back at me and then lowered the gun.

Everyone was groaning on the ground. Mirage was just staring up at Skywarp and Skywarp started towards him and their optics seemed to lock into each others and flare and a warm feeling went all through me. I never saw two mechs look at each other like that before. Ever. And because nobody else was in a fit state to do anything and I did not even know where Bee was I felt like I was the only one allowed into something which was really special, and suddenly I wanted to cry.

Skywarp moved like in slow motion. He went across to Mirage and held out his hand. "Are you OK?" He said. Mirage nodded, and his optics were very blue and I saw there were tears running down his face, then Skywarp helped him up and suddenly, to my amazement, they were in each others arms and they were both crying. I remember thinking I hadn't even known Cons did cry and I never saw Mirage cry either. And now I did have tears running down my own cheeks.

They stood there and held each other and they looked like they really belonged together, and they were so rapt in each other that they did hear the click as Prowl, who had recovered, loaded his weapon and aimed.

But I heard it! And I saw. "No!" I screamed and I leaped between them and Prowl.

Just as he fired and the pain blasted through my chassis, and everything went black.

Well at least I got them together – it only took 140 odd words. Next chapter is nearly all Raj and Warp – yay!

As for Bluestreak -well there had to be one last Cliffhanger!!

Thanks again for reading everyone - please R and R

**A** xx