Chapter 36

Time seemed to slow down to a crawl as her optics fell upon the twisting form of her sparkling, hurdling through the air at an unreal speed and growing closer and closer to the earth.

Demona had never felt so much raw fear. It was so strong and so sharp that it actually hurt. Part of it was coming from the open bond with Sundance. The little dragon, although hurt and unable to save herself, was clenching tight to her mother with her spark. The other half was Demona's alone, and it was the strongest of the two. Every inch of her frame was straining to reach her creation in time. She dropped down and shifted into her land alternate in one motion, hitting the ground hard enough to send a shock of pain through her. Warnings went off in her processor, alerting her that she was putting her joints under too much stress.

She didn't care.

The fear escalated into wrath when she caught the glint of mutilated silver in the sky, closing in on Sundance. She pushed herself harder and shifted forms so fast that her frame nearly overheated from it, hands open and raised.

Starscream was swiping a hand down to snatch Sundance out of the air but Demona was there first. The second the sparkling's weight landed in her hand, she twisted in the air and deployed the blades on her other arm. In one lethal strike, the seeker's arm from the elbow down was severed from his body. Demona landed and slid back. Starscream landed in an ungraceful heap on the earth, grasping at his injury and snarling curses and insults.

Sundance uncurled, trembling so much that her damaged armor clanked together, and stood up weakly to pull at Demona's chest plates to get into the safety of her carrying hold.

"Demona!" Starscream spat, "your life ends today!"

"Don't let him, momma," Sundance whispered, "don't let him hurt me!"

Demona willed her armor to part, and the dragon scrambled inside. It was a tight fit since Sundance's second frame was large compared to her first one, but she managed to turn and settle. She pulled herself in a tight ball of red armor, pressed as close to Demona's spark and the hidden spark of her sibling as she could get.

Starscream began to go into detail, giving her the list of all the things he was going to do before he ripped her spark from her chest. Demona sank deep into her rage, sealing her chest plates again. Burning red optics fell upon him. "STARSCREAM!"

Before the mech could answer, she was upon him. Her claw blades found purchase without effort, tearing through his armor like it was tin foil. One wing fell when he turned to defend himself. The other crumbled beneath her fist in the same swing. Her toe-claws tore gouges in the earth as she moved, twisting and turning without pause, never giving him the chance to step back and regroup.

Curses and insults became pleas and cries of pain, but she was deaf to it all. 'DESTROY,' instincts and thoughts screamed, 'No mercy!'

His free hand managed to tear deep into her leg. She shoved her blades into his chest, hauling him up off the ground to hold him above her. Her red optics focused on his flickering gaze. She whispered, "You're lucky I am nothing like my creator."

"M-mercy, Demona..."

"No," she clenched the blades. They slid through his body easily until they were fatally close to his spark, "Megatron let you live despite all your mistakes and faults. I'm going to tear your spark to pieces."

She began to squeeze, grazing the protective casing around his spark. It was then that something shifted inside her spark, something old and evil and hated. Her optics widened and turned up in time to see a second decepticon drop out of the sky. This one was massive, with wide, old wounds crisscrossing his front. His armor was silver and thick. His serrated dentals were bared in a sick smile as his blood-red optics glared down at her.

The anger drained out of Demona. She kept her hold on Starscream, who slackened and said, "L-lord Megatron..."

Sorry it's a short one.

I didn't go into detail on the so-called 'battle' because, obviously, Demona was pissed. I figure that the whole thing wasn't exactly thought out-she just moved out of her anger so its all just really fast-paced.

And how Megatron managed to pop up out of the blue without anyone seeing him, I have no idea...same goes for why the remaining autobots haven't coming rushing to Demona's aid. :/ Couch potatoes...

ANYWAY, there are two ways this story could go. Now, I'm not going to pull a Bay and start killing off everything in sight, but there will probably be a death or two in the story with either way, so heads up.

Demona and her family and the story belongs to me. Transformers does not.