Ch 25

Beyond The Point Of Safe Return

"But when the sun goes down

The faces shine bright

Through the whole night

Her glow hypnotizes

As the sea drops and rises

Red tide come alive in the night red tide"

-The Growlers "Red Tide"

A.N. (Okay, so I'm posting this friday... yeah. I got impatient. So how bout this, I'll usually post on fridays, but if I'm feeling extra creative and crap out another chapter, I'll post it on tuesday. So you'll usually get one chapter a week, but every once in a while there'll be an extra. Sound good?

Back to the actual story, things are finally starting to come together. And don't worry, I'll add some more twin fluff. ^_^

Arcee's engine hummed. Blastoff followed close behind in his sleek alt mode. The femme took a sharp turn that nearly sent her flying. The decepticon wasn't so lucky. He lost balance and flipped.

Jolt, Beta and Bumblebee were on him in seconds.

Blastoff was caught completely off guard. He took a heavy hit to the shoulder courtesy of Bumblebee. Another shot rounded off his leg, sending the con to his knees.

With an expert twist, Beta dislodged Blastoff's neck joint. It made a snapping sound as vital lines were severed.

Blastoff's optics went dark and he collapsed, dead.

Beta straitened, brushing her clawed servos clean of free energon. "Mission accomplished." She said in monotone.

Bumblebee slung his arm over Arcee's shoulder. "Pretty good acting, huh?"

She shrugged him off. "Not your best." When Bee made a hurt face she punched him on the shoulder good-naturedly. "Maybe you should practice."

Bee shrugged, rubbing his shoulder. "Maybe."

"Blastoff is taken care of sir." Beta said to Optimus through her comm.

"Good. Meet us at our landing site."

"Yes'sir."

High above the earth, a monstrous form of the Nemesis drifted closer to the organic planet. From its bowels shot out a small projectile, quickly followed by six more. Shockwave watched from his vantage point high in the ship as the seven made planet fall. Soon, Ravage would have the AllSpark shard, and the twittering bug that was his student would revive their leader.

Shockwave turned to look at the patchwork femme standing behind him. His finest creation and pupil, Virus. The silver and black femme blinked back at her creator with sickly green optics while her faceplates twisted into a hideous smirk. "Are you bringing me new toys to play with, master?" She asked in a sweet voice that contradicted so heavily with her exterior.

Shockwave would have smiled if he could. Yes, Virus was a femme after his own spark. "Once the AllSpark shard is retrieved and Megatron resurrected, we will appropriate the human female." His single optic flashed with sadistic glee. Virus shared the terrifying look, her shark like face twisting more grotesquely, yet somehow remained beautiful as only a lethal predator could.

"Then I can play with her, and see what makes the funny little organic tick."

Shockwave returned his gaze to the back water planet flouting before them. They had no idea what awaited them, he mused. That would soon change.

"Yes, and the frontliner twins are sure to follow. It will be easy to exploit their attachment to her. Then perhaps we can find out exactly what this Katlyn Singleir is."

I collapsed back onto my bed, tired from the day. I had yet to even take a shower. I was too exhausted to care. But, unfortunately, not exhausted enough to just fall asleep and escape from my annoying thoughts.

Specifically, thoughts about a certain black haired young man whom I had unfortunately grown close two over the last two years.

My relationship with Matt had started out just to spite the twins for acting so hostile to him, but then it slowly grew into something more real. I actually liked spending time with him.

Matt was kind, funny, and a good conversation. It was nice, having a human companion. I wasn't sure if we were quite to 'friend' yet, even knowing him so long, but there was certainly the possibility. I still didn't make friends easily, human ones at least.

After my little spat with the twins, I had marched out of the room in anger. Lo and behold, I once more walk right into the source of my anger.

This time however, we both fell, Matt on top of me in a very awkward position. After a lot of cursing and blushing, we had managed to get to our feet.

Matt insisted he apologize by taking me to lunch. After strong assurance it wasn't a date, I agreed to go.

For the first time in weeks, I left the base. Matt borrowed one of the jeeps and we headed to the nearest city to get some lunch. We ended up at a Katz Diner, something Matt found absolutly hilarious.

I'd learned quite a bit about the young man. He had just turned twenty, two years older than me. He came from a military family, and graduated top in his class before coming to NEST. He was a huge music fan, and could play the guitar fairly well, but had no other artistic talent whatsoever.

He had a little sister, who lived in New York studying as a fashion designer. He'd also never had a girlfriend.

We'd only eaten out twice after that. Part of me was glad, while a smaller part was disappointed.

I sighed, covering my eyes with my elbow. He was a nice guy, sure, and attractive, but there was no spark. I honestly didn't know what I wanted. If I even wanted a relationship.

Alex's words came back to me, about Sunstreaker and what he'd implied. Could something like that even work?

The twins were my best friends, but what if fate had dealt me a different hand? What if I were cybertronian, or they human? Would that relationship change? Would we be something more? Could we be something more?

I rolled onto my stomach and absently plucked at the blankets Sides had given me. Him giving me the blankets wasn't that big of a deal. Friends gave friends things all the time.

And that's what we were, friends.

But why did it taste so bitter?

I sighed again. It must be those memories, whatever they are. The femme from my dreams obviously had a romantic relationship with the twins. It was rubbing off on me.

I thought back to the very last dream I'd had of the not-memories. After I finally found out who the voice in my head was, the dreams stopped.

It was weird, in my dream, I held such reverence for them, such respect. But now that I think back on them, there's just annoyance mixed in with a tad bit of awe. Like seriously, what the hell had they meant? 'You are important.' Prima had said. Since when was I important enough to gain the attention of eleven alien deities? And follow my spark? I didn't have a spark. Was it just lost in translation, or was there a deeper meaning?

I groaned, tussling my shoulder-length hair. This was so confusing.

I was spinning aimlessly in a swivel chair in my dad's office. The owner of said office was distracted with a crap ton of paperwork, even at twelve p-fucking-m.

"So how're you an Lacey doing?" I asked absently. A year ago, NEST had hired a nurse to help Dad out. A very pretty, very singe nurse named Lacey Pond. Her and Dad's relationship had started out entirely professional, but I could tell there was something more there. At my urging, Dad asked Lacey on a date. That date led to another, and another, and another.

"Fine, fine." Dad mumbled. I sighed. Workaholic.

I'd come to terms with the fact that Dad had moved on, while I was still left silently picking up the pieces of my still broken heart. I was happy for him, for Lacey. They were happy together.

I would, however, never see her as my mother. Even if they got married or something, my real mom was dead and nothing would change that.

"Dad, com'mon, you need to take a break." I wined, poking his shoulder. I waved me away.

"In a moment."

I rolled my eyes. "No, you break now." I said, getting up and stealing his papers. Dad tried to grab them back, but I held them out of reach.

"Ah ah, no you don't." I tisked. "Fifteen minute break, then you can have these back."

Dad glared at me. "Five minutes."

"Ten." I countered.

"Deal."

Dad stood and popped his back. I set the papers back on his desk as he went to lay down on one of the medical cots. I sat back down, watching as his mind fought to remain conscious, but his exhausted body finally won out. I stood, picked up a blanket, and tucked it around my dad's limp form.

"Sweet dreams daddy." I murmured before turning out the lights and heading to my own room.

I curled up in bed and fell asleep just as fast as my father. Deep oblivion held me for what seemed like only seconds when I was jolted awake by alarms.

I tumbled from my bed, had instinctively reaching for my gun that lay next to my bed. The warm metal under my hands calmed me enough to let me evaluate the situation with a clear head.

I stood up cautiously. The room was dark, lighting up with red light as the alarms sounded all around me.

I snatched up my sword and encrypted earpiece, quickly attaching both to my body before making my way from mine and the twin's room.

Outside was the same as inside, alarms ringing, halls dark and empty. I raced through the compound to the control room. I was met with a group of somber bots and humans. I ran over to Sideswipe and stepped onto his waiting hand. Sunstreaker quickly looked me over, checking for any injuries that I may have acquired in my time away from the two. I ignored his fretting. "What's going on?" I asked, fear slowly spreading its way through my ribcage. "No one's hurt, right?"

Optimus sighed. The look in his optics was a picture of pure exhaustion, of just wanting to be done, but unable to stop.

"The AllSpark shard has been stolen." He said gravely. The cold spread through my veins, freezing me up as I took in his next words.

"They are trying to bring back Megatron."

Well... shit just hit the preverbal fan.