Some MiragexTwister fluff in this chapter :3 I'm sorry it took this long to get another chapter out. Too much school! I'm drowning in it!
I hope you guys like this chapter. For some reason, it feels like a filler to me even though I know it isn't. It takes a major step towards the climax of the story. Anyone want a Cybercat plush?
Thanks SJSGirl, Trapezodial, Kaitlyn Thorne, Naughtia, KnockOut'sFanGirl221, and Autobot StarRacer for reviewing!
(P.S. I'm writing a short side story for this fic called "To Serve and Protect" starring Annabelle Lennox and Barricade. It serves to explain something that happens during the climax of this story. Please read if you have the time. School's a killer.)
Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Secret's Out
I felt like I was flying after I realized that Mirage was nearby. His poem was so sweet. It came from the heart…spark…of a true Prince Charming. I was thinking about Mirage even as I waved goodbye to my parents as Mom drove Dad to the hospital. Mom was scared something caused him to pass out. I just had a feeling that Dad knew more about the roses than I thought. I wouldn't put it past him.
But that didn't matter! Mirage was somewhere nearby and I would be able to see him sometime soon! I just had to figure out where he was. He could be anywhere. I'd just have to look for him. Or better yet, I could just comm. him. That would be a lot easier and a lot less time consuming. But I had calm myself down a little before I called him or I would sound like some deranged fangirl instead of his courted. After pacing the length of the porch a few times while taking a few deep breaths, I was finally calmed down enough in order to comm. my courter. 'My courter', gee, that sounded so romantic. Now I realized why I read so many fanfictions under the 'Romance' category.
::Dino~,:: I comm'ed jokingly. ::Where are you~?::
There was a short silence before I got a reply. ::I'm in 'my barn',:: he said.
I felt relieved to hear that Italian accented voice. It caused my spark to beat faster as I took off towards the barn he mentioned as fast as my legs would allow me. I dodged trees and jumped over logs as I made my way to the barn where my guardian/courter was waiting. I came to a stop when I reached the small clearing the barn was in, before I slowly walked forward and grinned at the red Ferrari sitting in the doorway of the barn, between both of the barn's open doors. Mirage transformed up into his bipedal form before he crouched down and picked me up. I let out a little squeal of happiness before he gently pressed me up against his chest in a version of a hug.
I blushed as Mirage set me down on the ground after our hug. But then I looked up at him as seriously as I could even though my mirth was still shown on my face. "How did you do it? What did you do to make Dad freak out?"
Mirage looked away for a second with a small sigh. But then he focused on me. I didn't blink. "I confronted him. He knows that I…love you…but I didn't tell him what happened to you. He's the one who told me that you like blue roses. But I'm not sure that he'd allow you to leave the property. He…ran before I could get that out of him."
I burst out laughing, the image of my father running from Mirage with a terrified look on his face making me laugh. "N-no one has been a-able to do that!" I exclaimed through my giggles. It was true. My father rarely ran from anything seriously, and rarely did he ever show any emotion on his face. And Mirage had come along and scared him. When I managed to calm down, I grinned and gave him a thumbs up. "Good job," I chuckled, leaving the Ferrari confused.
We stood in that clearing, talking, for what seemed like forever. Mirage updated me on what was happening down at the Nevada base. I was surprised to hear Jazz was not taking this too well and that he was walking around with a constant frown on his face. The human soldiers were giving him a wide berth. This news unsettled me, since Jazz was usually a happy mech. Nothing could bring him down. I would have to talk to him once I got back to base.
"If Jazz doesn't perk up soon, I think Ratchet'll drag him into the med bay," Lennox remarked as he and Epps stared at the small silver mech who was crouched hunched over in the corner next to the catwalk, sulking. Lennox didn't like the way how the usually carefree mech looked so tense. He was afraid if someone managed to tick off Jazz, he would attack something.
"And all of this because Twister's dad came and took her?" Epps added, cocking an eyebrow.
Lennox turned his head and looked at him. "It has been a rollercoaster for us. First Twister is kidnapped by Megatron. They rescue her, but then we think she dies. She comes back, but as a femme, but then is nearly captured by Megatron again. She gets back to the base, but not long after, her father comes and takes her away, threatening to sue us if we try to stop him." He shrugged. "Now the Autobots feel useless. I just hope Twister realizes that she has the ability to leave her family and come back ho—here." Lennox winced when he nearly said 'home'.
Epps sighed and looked down slightly as he heard Jazz shift slightly. "That girl's got the guts to face a Decepticon, but does she have the guts to face her parents?" he looked at Lennox. "From the way she speaks to everyone, she views everyone with high respect…but does she respect her parents so much that she'd be afraid to say 'no' to them?"
Lennox shrugged. "If she can say no to Megatron, what do you think?"
Epps answered that question with only a shrug. "Dunno…" he said with a sigh. "I'm gonna talk to Jazz. He hasn't had any Energon lately," he said before he walked up to the mech. "Hey, Jazz, why don't you grab an cube of Energon and we have a talk, alright?" Lennox watched as Jazz began to refuse, but Epps stopped him and urged him to ("…after all, I'm gonna have some coffee," he said). After a few seconds of hesitation, Jazz got to his pedes and followed Epps to the cafeteria.
Lennox shook his head with a sigh before he walked back to his office. His men needed to pull themselves back together because they had found where Sam was and they were going to move in to rescue him. There was no more waiting.
Mom and Dad soon returned home. Mom was calm since she had found out that Dad was just fine. I was glad too, and I just grinned knowingly at my father before I glanced back at where Mirage was hiding among the trees. I quickly looked back at Mom and Dad as Mom locked Dad's truck and they began to walk to the house. I was full of energy because I wasn't so far away from Mirage now, so I was bouncing up and down as I followed them. My parents looked at my odd behaviour with raised eye brows. "Did you sneak chocolate or something while we were gone?" Mom asked me as she went to open the door.
I shook my head, still grinning. "Nope!" I chirped.
"Then why are you so…energetic?"
"Oh…I'm just thrilled that someone other than a family member loves me," I sighed wistfully.
Dad huffed. "I'll have to meet this boy in order to figure out if he's the one for you," he grumbled.
"Whatever you say, Dad," I said with a shrug.
The conversation came to a close after that. Mom turned and went to enter the house, but the sound of falling trees and massive footsteps drew our attention back into the yard. At first, I thought it was only Mirage, finally deciding to reveal himself. But I was wrong. I froze as the massive figure of Starscream as he revealed himself. He came crashing through the trees before he stopped and looked down at me with his evil red optics.
"No…" I whispered with horror.
"Well, well, well, look who I found," Starscream said, chuckling. I took a step back, my eyes widening.
Mirage leapt from the trees with a roar and collided with Starscream. "MIRAGE!" I screamed before I whirled on my parents. I was going into battle mode. I couldn't resist it. Thinking quickly, I pulled the gun I used in my human form from my subspace and tossed it at my father. He caught it with a shocked look on his face. "Aim for Starscream's eyes," I ordered before I turned and ran a few feet from them and transformed up into my robot form. I glanced back down at my parents and noticed the really shocked looks on their faces. Dad looked like he was going to topple over from shock again. "Do it!" I commanded sharply before I turned to look at Starscream. With an angry growl, I unsheathed my wristblades as I rushed at the seeker. Mentally, I comm'ed Optimus. ::Sir, we need backup now!::
::Mirage has already contacted me. The Arielbots should be there shortly.::
I cut the connection with a relieved feeling before I focused on the battle and ran in for an attack. Mirage managed to distract the Decepticon SiC for a few seconds, allowing me to zip around behind Starscream. I slashed at the seekers wings, successfully cutting deep scars into them. But then Starscream whirled on me and tackled me to the ground. I cried out as I felt myself land on my left doorwing and crushed it. "Where did you come from, femme?" Starscream snarled. "Are you Megatron's femme?"
Mirage let out a rage-filled cry before he barreled into Starscream, successfully throwing him off of me. I quickly got to my pedes, my left doorwing now hanging limply against my back. For a few seconds I watched as Mirage clung to Starscream's back, literally standing on it as he worked to shove his digits between the cracks in the seeker's armor. The way he managed to dodge every swipe of Starscream's servos was with the style of a 'Bot who used to be a high classed mech.
I was quickly brought out of that reverie by the sound of human gunfire. I looked down at Dad, who was aiming a gun a bit clumsily, but was actually hitting the seeker. I could tell, because Starscream flinched every time he was hit by a bullet. Blinking, I watched as Starscream threw Mirage from his back before I dashed forward and leapt at the seeker. I gripped the edges of the plating on his shoulder before I threw myself up onto his shoulders and clung to him as Starscream began to flail around in attempts to throw me off as well.
It would be silly to say that I wasn't terrified at this moment as I used all of my might in order to keep myself on the Decepticon. Even though all of the training that Ironhide put me through, nothing would have prepared me for an intense combat like this. And the size of the SiC! He was huge, much bigger than Mirage and I. He was taking us both on with ease (well…it looked like ease), and a bad feeling was growing in the pit of my tank. I hoped that backup would be getting here soon…
I reached down and covered Starscream's optics as Mirage rushed at him and brought his left wristblade down on Starscream's cockpit. It shattered with a loud cracking sound, and I winced as the Decepticon screamed loudly and jumped away from Mirage. Mirage followed him, and continued to attack.
Suddenly, Starscream reached up and grabbed my wrists. I gasped as he yanked down on them and literally pulled me off of him. I slammed into the ground and grunted when I landed on my injured doorwing. As I got to my pedes, there was the sound of more human gunfire and I looked over at my dad. I watched with horror as he ran up to Starscream and began to fire at Starscream's optics. Starscream cried out as his right optic shattered.
In retaliation, Starscream stepped forward and attempted to step on Dad. He dodged Starscream's first attempt, and his second, but then tripped shortly afterwards. My optics widened when I saw Starscream knock Mirage away and go in for the killing stomp. With a cry, I shot forward at a speed I didn't know and dove for my father. I wasn't going to lose my father like my mom lost hers. Grandpa died in a plane crash—I didn't want my father to die because of a Decepticon that turned into a plane. I grabbed my father, and quickly moved him out of the path of Starscream's pede. But before I could scramble to my pedes, Starscream kicked me harshly and I was sent flying into some of the trees that surrounded the property. Dad went flying from my servos, by luckily landed in the duck pond.
Slowly, I got up from where I had landed, and looked forlornly at all the trees I had knocked down, but only for a second. After that, I was up and running back to the battle as Mom ran to check up on Dad and see if he was okay. I jumped onto Starscream in attempts to distract him as Mirage tried to land a hit on the evasive seeker. And not too long after I got onto Starscream's back, I was thrown off. I collided with Mirage, and we both went down.
I groaned as I lifted myself onto my elbows and looked up at Starscream. He towered over us with the most malicious smirk I had ever seen resting on his lips. He pointed his gun at Mirage and I felt my optics widen. "Pitiful femme. Now that I have you and that the step of transforming you into a Cybertronian is already complete, it seems that you'll become the lady of the Decepticons sooner than we all thought," he said. His smirk widened slightly as I felt a look of horror cross my faceplates. "Of course, I have to take care of your guardian first…"
"No…" I gasped. Starscream clicked the safety off of his gun. "No!" I cried. Tears began to leak from my optics since I knew I couldn't do anything to stop the Decepticon. He couldn't hurt Mirage though…
My fear and defeat transformed into hate, and my spark thrummed with anger. I leapt to my feet and charged at the seeker, catching him off-guard. But I only got one slash in before Starscream batted me away. I landed heavily next to the house. I watched helplessly as Starscream aimed at Mirage again. I was afraid to look. Any second now…Mirage would be…gone…
A new Cybertronian signal suddenly popped up on my HUD, the source coming from the garage. I looked over and gasped in surprise when my cat came running full speed from the garage, a look on her face that said pure determination. Wait…cats don't show emotion on their face like humans do! I watched in shock as Pebbles suddenly increased in size as her body transformed from fluffy black and brown to sleek black metal with glowing green accents and matching optics. I watched as she charged at Starscream with a determined growl and leapt at his face.
I could only blink as Starscream struggled to get my cat off of his face. How had she…?
"That is a surprise," Mirage stated as he got to his pedes since Starscream was now distracted. "A Cybercat on Earth?"
"That's not any Cybercat, Mirage! That's my Cybercat!" I exclaimed. "Pebbles!" I ran forward to help my cat and threw a punch at Starscream's gut. It only left a dent and didn't serve to knock any air out of the seeker, so I aimed a kick at Starscream's midsection, this time successfully making him double over. Pebbles fell from the seeker's face with a squeak and I caught her.
Starscream slowly straightened and leveled a glare at me. But then he backed up before transforming and flying away. I just watched him leave while holding Pebbles close to me. Her metallic purring served to sooth me.
The sound of sobbing drew my attention to where my parents were standing. Dad had thrown the gun off to the side and was now staring into space. Mom just stood there, her face buried in her hands. I twitched as I wondered how my mother was going to berate me. I walked over to my parents and knelt down so that I would be more on their level. "Mom…?"
"What…happened to you?!" Mom cried. "You disappear as my precious baby girl and then you return as a giant—deceiving—metal robot!"
I reeled back as if I had been slapped. A deceiving metal robot? I didn't want to deceive. I just didn't want to tell! I thought, feeling hurt inside.
"I beg pardon?" Mirage demanded dangerously. "How can you speak of her in such a way?" I looked up at him from where I was kneeling and saw the hurt look on his faceplates.
"It's okay, Mirage," I soothed as I set Pebbles down on the ground. Passively, she transformed down into her domesticated cat form and rubbed herself up against my parents' legs. I looked down at the ground before I slowly transformed back down into my human form and picked up Pebbles. I cuddled her to my chest before I smiled sadly at my parents. "I guess my secret's out."
