*NOTE TO READERS: IF YOU DON'T READ MY AUTHOR'S NOTES AT THE BEGINNING AND END OF MY CHAPTERS, PLEASE START DOING THAT. I HAVE THESE HERE FOR A REASON.*
Okay, everyone, second chapter, as promised. After this one I have absolutely no idea when I'll update again or how frequently I'll be updating. I would like to try and update every two or so weeks, but I KNOW for a fact that that will not be happening. With any luck I can finish up Kindred Sparks soon and then, with one more fanfic. out of the way, I can really start sinking my teeth into this one along with my other stories. Hopefully. My writing schedule never seems to stay a constant. *sighs*
WolfAssassin369—Awww, thanks, sis! I hope so. :)
AllSpark Princess—Yes, it is. It goes hand-in-hand with Hunter's Primus-state.
Alice Gone Madd—I admit it. I couldn't help myself. I wanted everyone to know that I hadn't given up on Hunter. XD Kitty, you're gonna have to let her read this.
SunnySides—You can drown in feels?
All right, let's go!
I do not own Transformers or anything in relation. I only own Hunter, the Hybrid race, and any other character that you may not recognize.
"Generals gathered in their masses… just like witches at black masses. Evil minds that plot destruction; sorcerers of death's construction. In the fields the bodies burning… as the war machine keeps turning. Death and hatred to mankind… poisoning their brainwashed minds. Oh, lord, yeah…!" Black Sabbath; War Pigs
2
Ω Reverto Ω
(The Return)
Mars;
It was a quiet day on Mars. Not a big surprise there—when wasn't it quiet on the red planet? Upon the surface of the planet, the outpost Epsilon was just as subdued as the rest of its surroundings. The Hybrid sentries of the post were all desperately trying to find some sort of stimulus to keep their processors from turning into burned out hard-drives from the endless boredom that plagued them day in and day out. They would have killed for anything to happen—an invasion of some other alien race, a Mars rover, anything! If this quietness kept up for much longer, they'd all snap.
Most of the crew was young and was in the cafeteria of the pressurized base, either enjoying their noon meal or passing the time with card, board, or video games, thumb wrestling, or arm wrestling… just as they always did… every day. They'd been out here for so long that they'd all won everything and beaten all of the video games at least four times. Except for arm wrestling. Sentry Flash Armstead was reigning champ of that event and it was an accepted fact that he forever would be. Nobody could beat him. That didn't keep anyone from trying however, as a group of about six sentries gathered around the official arm wrestling table, watching on yet again as Flash proved his claim to the crown against Sentry Spiro Zuber, cheering at the top of their lungs for the former.
"Go'a admit, love," Flash grunted through clenched teeth, thick Cockney accent in his voice, as he struggled to overcome his opponent, sweat trickling down his face, "you're no' 'alf-bad today. You been practicing when I'm not looking?"
The dark-skinned woman smirked and chuckled. "Maybe you're just gettin' old, Flashy-boy," she countered.
Flash chuckled. "'Member who you're talking to 'ere, rookie."
"I'm not a rookie anymore. Haven't been for a long time."
"Well, 'less you've seen some action, you're still a rookie in my book."
"Well then, by that logic, you're a rookie too."
"Maybe so. Bu' I'm the rookie who's king of this sport, and I intend on keeping it that way. Hrah!" With newfound strength, Flash slammed Spiro's fist down on the table, once again claiming his title.
The crowd around them groaned. Not again!
Flash jumped up out of his chair to his feet and pumped his fist in the air, laughing victoriously. "Ha, ha, ha! Yes! Winner and still champion!" He turned to the crowd. "Come on, pay up, the lo' o' you buggers."
Grumbling, all of the sentries dug into their pockets and wallets, each pulling out the amount of money they'd put up for the bet. Begrudgingly they threw it down on the table.
Flash scooped it up, whooping and laughing away. "Never be' on the long-shot, old chaps," he advised. "Never be' on the long-shot."
The others just rolled their eyes. Flash really needed to be put in his place, but who was going to do that? Nobody here could beat him.
"Never bet on the long-shot, eh, son?" a suddenly voice drew all their attention.
Every single sentry in the cafeteria looked over at the entrance to see their commanding officer, Captain Bullet-tongue Marx and his second in command, Sergeant Calypso Wolff, standing there. The duo could not have been more contradicting.
For one thing, the captain was male and the sergeant was female. For another they were almost exact opposites on all levels. Captain Bullet was rather tall, lanky, and awkward looking. How he had advanced to the rank of Captain, nobody knew, for it didn't look like he possessed much upper body strength or really any type of physical strength at all. Maybe he had talked his way into the position, considering he chattered so much and so fast. That was where the nickname "Bullet-tongue", had come from. He was freakishly smart and rather calm and collected as well.
Sergeant Wolff was just the opposite. Whereas Captain was tall, lanky, and awkward, she was short, stocky, and stout. Almost solid muscle, it was no question that Sergeant was powerful, which was a good thing since she wasn't all that bright. Oh, it wasn't that she was stupid—she was of average intelligence—she was just a little too hotheaded and brash to let intelligence and logic stand in her way. Her power and skill tended to more than make up for that though.
All of the sentries stopped what they were doing and leaped to their feet, drawing themselves up to attention. "Officers on deck!" one of them shouted.
"At ease," Sergeant Wolff boomed out her in her rather deep voice.
The sentries relaxed.
Wolff and Marx then came all the way into the room, heading in the direction of the arm wrestling group. "So, you're still the champ of arm wrestling, is that right, Armstead?" he questioned the young Brit.
"Ye', sir," Flash responded with a curt nod.
"How long do you plan on keeping that title?"
A cocky smirk curled Armstead's lips. "Till the AllSpark calls me home for tea 'n' crumpets, sir."
Captain Marx simply replied with a thoughtful, "Hmm." Walking past the young man, he picked up one of the chairs that had fallen over in the rush to stand and set it back up before sitting down at the table. He was quiet for a minute as he picked a piece of lint off his uniform. Finally he looked up and met Flash's eyes once more. "Would you like to arm wrestle me, Armstead?"
Heavy silence fell over the room.
After a long moment, Armstead gave a bewildered scoff. "Beg… beg pardon, sir?" he croaked out, looking a bit befuddled.
"Let me rephrase that," Captain replied calmly and with a small smile. "I challenge you to arm wrestle me, Armstead."
Once again the young British Hybrids scoffed and half-chuckled. "Are… are you sure, sir? I don' want to hurt you."
"Oh, don't worry about me, son, I can take care of myself."
Looking just as baffled, Flash exchanged glances with Spiro and a few other sentries. Was this really happening?
"You in or not, redcoat?" Sergeant Wolff questioned, growing a bit impatient. She never had been Flash's biggest fan—he was a little too cocky and sure of himself for her liking—and was eager to see him finally be put in his place. "Our are ya too scared?" she prodded.
A little bit ruffled by that accusation, Flash puffed up a little bit. "I'm game." With that, he took his usual seat at the table and began to get ready, rolling his sleeve back once more and cracking his knuckles. "What's the stakes, Captain?" he questioned.
"You win," Marx answered, "and you get half my pension for the year. I win and you give all of your comrades back the money that you won off them today and pay back the rest of the money you've racked up on bets the past year off them with your pension."
Flash laughed. "You sure you know what your wagering 'ere, Captain?"
Bullet just smirked. "As I've stated already, Armstead, don't worry about me." That said, the Hybrid Captain held his hand up. "You ready?"
Flash grabbed his hand and positioned his elbow to where it needed to be. "I was born ready, Captain."
The older Hybrid just smiled and nodded. "Sergeant Wolff," he said, not looking away from Flash, "count us down please."
Wolff came over and put a hand atop theirs. "Three," she counted, eyes going between the two as she smirked knowingly, "two, one—wrestle!" She released their hands and backed away.
Flash threw all of his strength and force into his arm and began the process of trying to force the Captain's hand down to the table. Much to his surprise, for a long moment, Captain Bullet's arm didn't move, and when it finally did, it was very slow and halting. Bullet-tongue was stronger than he let on! Grunting and gritting his teeth, Flash tried harder, but since he'd already put all of strength into the struggle, it was rather hard.
Captain Bullet grunted a bit at the pressure and the pain in his arm and hand, but then he steadily began to work his arm back in the other direction, taking Flash's down to the table. He inwardly chuckled at the sentry's awestruck stare.
"C'mon, Captain!" Sergeant Wolff cheered. "Show 'im who's boss!"
The struggle continued on for several more minutes until finally Bullet slammed Flash's hand down to the table with such force that the young Brit fell out of his seat.
"Way to go, Captain!" Wolff cheered while the rest of the crowd just stood around gobstopped and stared in disbelief.
Flash, however, looked the most shocked of any of them. From his spot on the floor, he looked as dazed as dazed can possibly be up at his commanding officer. Had that seriously just happened? Had he really just lost an arm-wrestling match to Bullet-tongue Marx—string-bean Bullet-tongue Marx?! No! It wasn't possible! This had to be a mistake—a nightmare—a hallucination—anything but real! He would never live this one down…. "Impossible…" the brown-haired, blue eyed sentry whispered.
The captain just chuckled. "I'd start making a list of how much you owe everybody if I were you, son," he said. Reaching out he patted Flash's shoulder. "The sooner the better."
All at once an alarm started to ring throughout the base, red lights flashing. It stands within reason that when something like this occurs, the soldiers leap into action, but that was not the case here at base Epsilon. Everyone simply stood there in bewilderment. In the five years the base had been active and the seniors of them had been there, the alarm had never gone off, so for it to go off now left everyone in a daze. What were they supposed to do? What was happening?
The door to the mess whooshed open again and in rushed a sentry, panting and looking as though he'd just seen a ghost. "Captain Bullet!" he exclaimed. "Captain Bullet!"
"Sentry Nugent," the captain replied, getting to his feet, "what's wrong?"
"It's an incoming space cruiser, Captain. Hybrid origin."
Captain Bullet and Sergeant Calypso exchanged a worried look. The alarm system was designed specifically to go off when one specific ship came within range of the planet. The one ship that carried the person that was the single reason they were all stationed out here on this rock to stop from coming back. "You don't mean…" Bullet's voice dropped off as he looked back at Nugent.
Sentry Nugent nodded. "I'm afraid so sir. It's the New Moon. She has returned."
Bullet whipped around and took all of the other sentries into his gaze. "Everyone armor up and into battle positions!" he bellowed. "This is not a drill!" That said both he and Wolff transformed into their robot modes then into their vehicular and peeled out of the mess hall, the soldiers coming out of their daze and following after them.
"Captain…" Sergeant Wolff began.
"We don't let her pass Mars, Wolff," Bullet cut her off in a hushed tone that only she could hear. "We can't let her get to Earth."
"I know, Captain… but is that even possible? The council just barely managed to drive her off last time, and, after the Fuser, they're the most powerful of any of us Hybrids. Not to mention her powers. Captain, the humans worshipped her as Hecate for a reason."
"I am well aware, Sergeant," the mech responded. "But it can't be helped. She's back now and we all know what she's after, but it is our duty to make sure that she doesn't get it—that's the exact reason we were put out here to begin with. We must not let her get to Earth. We must stop her at all costs!"
"Yes, Captain," Wolff replied, but she still had a bad feeling about this.
The doors that led into the airlock opened as the battalion came within range and closed behind them all as they drove through. Then the outer airlock doors opened, releasing the Hybrid sentries out onto the red, desolate landscape of Mars.
Captain Marx and Sergeant Wolff screeched to and stop and transformed back to robot mode, extracting their weapons as they did. The rest of their soldiers followed suit. Everyone looked up to the sky to see a huge, dark colored war ship descending towards the planet's surface. Actually, 'huge' didn't even begin to describe the ship—it was colossal; at least twice as big as the Decepticon's own Nemesis and just as menacing in appearance!
Marx turned around to face the sentries. He could see fear in all of their optics, and he wasn't at all surprised. This was the first time any of them had seen action—or action of this magnitude anyway. Quite frankly, this was the first time he had seen action of this magnitude and he was scared himself. Nearly five years on this planet at the outpost with no action and now his deployment almost up and now this was happening. This woman sure had a bad sense of timing. "Do not show fear!" he ordered. "This is what you have been trained and stationed here for. Our duty is to prevent this ship and its inhabitants from bypassing this planet and you are going to see it out, dead or alive! The future of our breed, of Cybertron, and of the Fuser herself depends on what takes place here today, and we will not drop the torch. I will be right beside you every step of the way. We are the first and only line of defense and we hold it! We do not let her pass! We make her wish she had never tried to return to this solar system! Do not show fear!" He turned back to see that the ship was almost ready to land on the planet's surface. "Don't let her pass," he whispered to himself, flipping his battle mask down. "She doesn't get past." With that, Bullet raised his sword high and released a battle cry before charging the ship as it opened up.
Wolff did the same, just steps behind him.
The rest of the sentries took their cue from them and followed as well.
As they all neared the ship a shimmering, dark purple ring like a shockwave slammed into them with such impact that a handful of sentries' sparks were extinguished on contact. A powerful explosion soon followed.
Earth: Autobot Outpost Omega One;
Hunter awoke with a sharp gasp and sat up. Her brilliant sapphire optics darted around the room, scanning searching for any signs of danger, but all she saw was the familiar comfort of her berthroom. Releasing a heavy sigh, she held a hand over her eyes and lowered her head. "A dream," she panted in relief. "Just a dream." But it had still felt so real—even more so than any dream she'd ever had! She could still feel and see the terror of the Hybrid soldiers, still sense the unknown danger, still smell the scent of scorched metal and freshly spilled energon. She could still see that battle, as if it were happening right now before her. It had all been so real. Too real.
"Hunter?"
The Hybrid femmling looked up to see her spark-father standing there in the door that connected their rooms looking rather concerned. "Daddy?" she gulped, still trying to even out her vents and lower her spark-rate back to normal.
"I sensed your distress," he explained, coming into the room and striding over to her berth. He lowered himself to sit beside her. "Are you all right, my shooting star?" he questioned, reaching out to stroke her cheekplate lovingly.
Taking hold of this hand and nuzzling into his touch, the Fuser smiled and nodded. "Yeah," she replied. "Just a bad dream is all. At least… I think it was just a bad dream…." She thought it over for a second and sighed frowning in uncertainty. "I dunno."
Optimus cocked his head, raised an optic ridge, and gave her a quizzical look. "Meaning?"
"Just by what I said. I don't know."
The Prime hummed and stroked his chin in deep thought for a moment before a smile slowly began to creep across his faceplate. "I believe I have the perfect solution for a situation such as this," the mech claimed. Hunter gave him a look and he grinned even more brightly. "A warm cube of energon," he chuckled. Standing up, the 'bot offered her his hand and helped her to her feet, then wrapped an arm around her shoulders and led her to the base's cafeteria.
"It was real freaky," Hunter finished up relaying her dream to her father. She was sitting at one of the large, elevated, concrete and metal slabs that the 'bots used for tables in the kitchen/mess hall room of the base. Her arms were crossed on the table top and her head was tiredly resting on them. "And to make it even freakier, it felt like it wasn't even a dream. In fact it almost felt like some kind of… warning."
"From whom?" Optimus asked over his shoulder as he stood at the stove [A/N I seriously have no idea what to call it besides that. -_-' If someone has a suggestion that sounds more Cybertronian, please, I'm all ears!] heating up a small cube of energon.
Hunter shook her head. "Heck if I know. Your guess is as good as mine." The sixteen-year-old then sighed heavily and looked up towards the ceiling with pleading optics and raised her hands, palms upward, in a beseeching position. "For once I would like to get a peaceful night's sleep without any type of nightmare or weird premonition dreams to disturb it," she moaned. "Just once! Is that really too much to ask?!" Making a noise that sounded somewhere along the lines of a sob, her head dropped back to the table and she curled her arms around her helm, hiding her face in the circle of them.
Chuckling sympathetically, Optimus turned off the stove and carefully poured the contents of the cube out into two of the oil barrels that had been at one time washed and converted into Cybertronian sized cups. He then took up the cups and went back to the table, setting one down in front of his daughter. "I wish I could help you on that front, sweet-spark," he empathized with her, rubbing her backplate soothingly and kissing the back of her head.
"Ya know, it's probably not a good thing to say, but there are times when I really wish I wasn't the Fuser," she muttered, not lifting her head.
Her father smiled and nodded, making his way around to his seat across from her. "I know what you mean," he replied, setting into the seat. "There are still moments when I wish I had never been chosen to become a Prime."
"Everything was so much easier before," Hunter went on, lifting her head up and laying it back on her arms again in order to look at the mech. "I mean, within reason. The foster care system seriously sucked, and not having anybody love me or want to adopt me certainly didn't help, but I least I had my past experience and knowledge to go on. There was none of this battling 'cons and bounty hunters, or saving my friends from certain death, or randomly being shown visions of the future—though now that I think about it, there were times before when I had dreams that came true later on—or trying to connect with a god-like being living inside of me. This is all new territory; I have absolutely no friggin' idea what the heck I'm doing here!"
Optimus nodded and took a sip of his energon. There was just something about heat that brought out the most delicious of flavors in the aqua-blue substance. "Yes," he agreed. "It was simpler before our ascensions—much simpler." At that he closed his optics and sighed heavily, setting down his barrel. "However," he countered, "we must not linger on what was and instead focus on what is and what is to come." His sky blue optics opened and found her sapphire ones. "We are the chosen ones, Hunter," he declared softly. "For whatever reason, we have been I selected to shoulder this burden, and we must do it to the best of our abilities. The very fate of the universe lies in our hands as well as countless lives and we must not let them down. We must find a way to succeed, for if we don't… I hate to imagine the consequences."
Hunter remained silent and straight-faced for a moment, simply staring at him. Then her lipplates curled into a smirk. "Nice pep-talk there, Pops," she snickered. "Mind if I make a motivational poster outta that?"
The red and blue Autobot commander rolled his optics with a snort. Leave it to his spark-daughter to turn something serious and dramatic into something lighthearted and comical. Not that he was intentionally trying to be dramatic. "Hunter…"
"Oh, no really, it was great," she insisted teasingly. "I especially liked the "fate of the universe and countless lives lie in our hands" part and the "we have to succeed or something terrible could happen" part. Very doom-and-gloomy—just what every great pep-talk needs!"
Optimus gave her a smirk and shook his wise head. "All right, little one," he said, obviously meaning to put an end to her joking at his expense. "Enough."
His femmling giggled. "You're right though," she admitted with a sigh after a moment, looking down at her barrel of warm energon as she took it in her hands. It was just big enough she had to use two hands to hold it. "Everyone—on some level—is counting on us and we have to make sure that we don't let them down." She took a swig of energon. "I have to stop griping and complaining and suck it up." It was then that she looked up and smiled lovingly at her spark-father. "I just thank Primus that I have you here to help and support me whenever I need it."
Optimus returned her loving smile and gaze. "And I you," he murmured softly and warmly.
Setting down her barrel, Hunter reached across the table and took one of Optimus' massive hands in one of her substantially smaller ones and squeezed it. "Always, Daddy," she promised.
The mech squeezed her hand back. "Always, my shooting star," he vowed back. "No matter what separates us."
The duo remained in that position for a long moment, holding hands and smiling lovingly at one another as they gazed into each other's optics and sparks in comfortable silence, before they finally untwined their hands and picked up their barrels again. They raised them in 'cheers'.
"To always," Hunter proclaimed.
"To always," Optimus nodded.
With that they tapped their barrels together and set to work at draining them of their contents. When they had finished, Optimus stood and took both barrels back to the sink where he rinsed them out (dried on energon was an absolute glitch to wash off!). He turned back around and smiled as he saw his daughter back in the position where her head was laid on her arms. A tired look was in her optics and her yawn confirmed her weariness. The Prime chuckled. "Come along, my little one," he said, coming back over to her. "It is past your bedtime."
"Mmm," Hunter moaned the sleepy objection. "But I don't have school tomorrow."
"School or not," Optimus remarked, arms crossed over his chest and another smirk on his face, "it is important that you maintain a set bedtime. It will be better for you because you will not be so tired and better for everyone else because you will not be so irritable."
Scoffing, his spark-daughter cracked an optic open and glared up at him with it. "I am not irritable," she insisted.
The mech gave her an 'Oh really?' look.
Groaning, the Hybrid closed her optic again. "But I'm not…" she broke off into another large yawn, "… not sleepy."
Her spark-father shook his head and smiled. Reaching out he took a lock of her wires in his hand and gently, playfully tugged it. "Anyone can plainly see that is a lie."
Sighing, Hunter opened her optics and playfully glared up at him again. "Fine," she gave in.
"All right then," the mech nodded. "Up."
At that, the scarlet and black-and-silver striped femmling sat up and put on one of the sweetest, most adorable, most innocent smiles she could conjure up and batted her eyes. "Legs won't work," she stated in a small, 'little girl' voice. She held her arms up, reaching for her father. "Carry me?"
Playing along, the Prime put his hands on his hips and shifted all of his weight onto one foot. "If I carry you," he began with a knowing look on his faceplate, "will you go right into stasis?"
"Uh-huh."
Optimus released an overdramatic sigh, as though he were suffering himself to a very arduous and unwanted task, when in actuality he was rather looking forward to carrying his daughter and cradling her close. He loved holding her, whether he was carrying her or simply embracing her. When she was in his arms he was absolutely certain that she was safe and would remain that way for the duration she was there. He didn't have to worry about Decepticons (particularly Starscream), or anyone wanting to hurt her, or boys (especially boys—he'd already had a few encounters with them already), or any type of danger from coming to her. And if danger did try to come at her while she was in his arms, Primus help them because they wouldn't be a threat to her for much longer. "Very well," he relented. "I shall carry you, but just this once."
The femmling giggled, "You always say that."
The mech reached down and scooped her up in his massive, rich red arms, holding her as though she was no bigger than a sparkling. In comparison to their statures, she very rightly could have been, for even though Hunter was rather large compared to most femmlings her age, she was still small when compared to Optimus. "Yes, and I always mean it," he professed, settling her comfortably against his chestplate.
"Until the next time," Hunter snickered, wrapping her arms around his neck and leaning her head against his shoulder.
Her father chuckled. "Yes," he admitted in a whisper, nuzzling her face. "Until the next time." He gently kissed her forehead. His precious, beautiful, sixteen-year-old, baby girl. The mech began to exit the cafeteria and head back towards their berth rooms, the sway of his gait rocking the femmling in his arms.
"Sing to me, Daddy?" Hunter requested all of a sudden, using her small voice again. She smiled that adorable little smile of hers up at him again and batted her optic shutters. "Pwease?"
"You do not need to affect the 'l', love," Optimus quietly laughed. "Of course I will sing to you. I will always sing for you."
"Yay," the child murmured as she snuggled closer to his chest.
With that, Optimus rested his chin atop her helm and began to softly sing to her.
"Hush, my little one, no need to weep,
I am right here, guarding your sleep.
Close your eyes, sweet-spark, in my arms I will rock…
You, beautiful sweet-spark, you I will rock.
"No need to cry, little one of mine.
No need to fear.
My love will be with you.
My love will be near.
I'll be near.
"Sleep now, my dear one, all will be well
I will protect you, and protect you I shall.
Slip away, small one, slip off to dream
Tomorrow is far closer at hand than it seems…
Than it seems.
"No need to cry, little one of mine
No need to fear.
My love will be with you.
My love will be near.
I'll be near.
"Dream peaceful things, dream only good
And I will keep out the nightmares, as my love only could.
Dream of the sun, and of peaceful rains falling
Rise to the sun's calling.
"No need to cry…
No need to fear…
My love will be near…
I'll… be… near.
"I'll always love you, my little one
And will do so, till my passing's come.
I love you more than Cybertron.
Drift off, my child, drift off and dream
Worry not of tomorrow or the dark.
I will guide you and not leave 'til morning light."
By the time Optimus had finished he was at the door to Hunter's room. He looked down at the miracle in his hold to see that she was nuzzled into his chest, fast asleep already. He smiled, spark melting at her sparkling-like innocence that never failed to show through in moments like this. She truly was his shooting star. His precious shooting star. And he'd be fragged to let anything or anyone take her away from him. She belonged to him and he belonged to her and to Pit with anyone who disrespected, questioned, or challenged that.
Pushing the door open with his shoulder, Optimus moved out of the hall and into the dark room and closed the door once again with a foot. He then moved across the room towards her berth. Carefully he laid her down upon the concrete surface, placed her stuffed wolf Blue in her arms and smiled as she pulled the animal closer, and pulled her thermal tarp up, tucking her in just the way she liked. Then he leaned down and kissed the scar that cut across her left optic. "I will always be here for you, Hunter," he whispered, rubbing her shoulderplate. "No one will ever be able to take us away from each other. I promise you. I love you, my precious one."
Mars;
The Hybrid femme stood atop one of the mountains, hands folded behind her back, the sun gleaming off her armor of rich wine and dusty violet. Her vivid raspberry colored optics gazed far off into the distance of space in the direction of her destination: Earth. For five years she had traveled the deep darkness of space. For five years she had waited patiently, honing her skills, growing more powerful and confident in them. And now, after five years of exile, her long-awaited wish was finally coming true. She was finally returning. Soon her plan would be set in motion. Soon she would restore the honor of her family's name and no one would be able to stop her.
The sound of approaching footsteps reached her audio-receptors and a few seconds later large, strong arms of gold and copper encircled her waist. She was pulled flush against a large, solid, warm body. Gentle lipplates found her neck cables and the owner of them began to gentle kiss and caress her with them, nibbling occasionally here and there. Sighing happily, she leaned back against the figure and closed her eyes. She smiled and she tilted her head ever so slightly to give him better access. "Mmm," she moaned, her silky voice a purr. "That feels nice."
A deep, rumbling chuckle replied. "I thought you might like that," a deep voice whispered into her audio-receptor.
"Are we ready to go?" she asked, still looking off into space.
"We are, my love," the mech answered. "All of the sentries have been dealt with—we've found no survivors among them."
"We're so close," the femme remarked. "By this time two days from now, we'll be back on earth."
"Yes," her spark-mate agreed with a nod. "And then we may begin our work."
"I can sense her, Ray. I can sense her power. She is strong."
"Good," Ray said. "The stronger she is the better."
"Yes," she conceded. "However, the stronger she is, the harder it will be to obtain her."
"You will succeed, Luna," Ray burred. "You always do." He pressed another kiss to her shoulderplating.
"Yes," Luna agreed once more. "I always succeed. Nothing will stop me from succeeding." Pulling away from her mate, the femme began to trek back towards the New Moon. "We are now within range; contact my disciples," she ordered. "Let them know that it is time to begin the project. Let them know that their mistress has finally returned."
Confession #2:
For those of you who didn't know, the song Hunter always asks Optimus to sing to her—'A Prime's Lullaby'—is actually loosely written to the tune of Taylor Swift's 'Safe and Sound'.
Confession #3:
This chapter is actually named after episode 8 of the first season of 'Justice League Unlimited'.