A/N In a desperate attempt to purchase myself some time between now and the chapters I have yet to write, I may wind up updating Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I do apologize, and hope that my muses return. Quickly? Please?
A million thanks to my readers, Betas and reviewers. As always, anything that you recognize, I simply do not own. I wish I did. But I don't.
Chapter 158 - Chargefrights
(MPOV)
I slowly began coming online, my Optimus was curled around me, his hand gently stroking my frame.
"Morning," I whispered, onlining my optics to look at him.
Megatron's face looked back at me with a smirk.
I screamed, shoving him away and scrambling up from the berth.
The floor and shelves of our quarters was strewn with the parts of my family.
My little brother's face was fixed in a look of horror, his head sitting on a shelf and staring at me. I screamed again, my weapons coming online.
"Mikaela!? Kae!" Optimus' voice rumbled in terror.
I onlined my optics frantically.
He was there, my dear, beautiful, loving, sweet Optimus was there, stroking my face, gentling me as I vented in an overheated panic.
"You... he... I..." I babbled just this edge of hysteria.
"Shh," he whispered, stroking me gently.
My protective circuits were screaming at my lack of armour; terror, horror and dread flooding my systems. I was panting with no lungs, my instincts screaming at the suddenly horrifying lack of lungs to hold the air.
Automatically, my Optimus pulled me tightly to his frame, his spark gently reaching out to caress mine. The lighting was still set to night mode, my chronometer said that it would be slowly bringing itself up to day mode in an hour or so.
"What happened my Kae?" Optimus rumbled gently, holding me tightly.
"I was waking up, and you were holding me, but it wasn't you, I opened my eyes and Megatron was smirking at me..." I sobbed, clinging to my mate. "It wasn't you, Optimus, I was enjoying your touch as you roused me and it wasn't you."
Optimus hummed gently, cradling me against his frame. The door to our quarters opened.
"Is everything alright in here?" Sentinel demanded worriedly. "I heard you scream all the way from Central!"
I glanced up to see Ironhide, Ratchet, Chromia... practically every bot on base was crowded around our door.
"Chargefright," Optimus rumbled gently, rocking me as I sobbed against him.
Bumblebee, my dear, sweet-sparked little brother strode in and disengaged his armour, crawling up onto our berth and cuddling against me.
"Must'a been one pit of a sight if it made you scream," Bee murmured gently. I turned and caught him in a hug, sobbing as I clung to my mate and my little brother.
"You were dead," I sobbed. "He had your head on my shelf and you looked so scared and you were dead, all of you were slagged and scattered on my floor and he was in our berth and you were dead."
Bumblebee immediately scooched closer, cuddling me as the unit flocked around us, surrounding me with the comforting sound of their sparks.
But the most surprising, was Sentinel sitting down on the edge of our berth, reaching out and gently stroking my cheek.
"I am so sorry," he rumbled softly. "I am so sorry that the potential of such a thing ever had to come near you."
I felt my sobs lessen as I came fully online, my usual embarrassment of being seen crying slowly coming to the front of my processors. I began suppressing my sobs, forcing back the tears and straightening.
"Stop that," Bumblebee stated sternly, glaring at me.
I looked at him curiously.
"Quit suppressing your emotions, it's bad for you," he chirped irritably. "I'm not gonna let the sister that lets me cry in her arms suppress her own sobs."
The image of his terrified optics, his bodiless head crashed in on me. I wound my arms around him and broke down, rocking him and sobbing.
(OPOV)
Optimus came online in the dark, his Kae still deep in her recharge beside him. He smiled slightly and reached out, gently stroking her bared frame.
She began humming softly, the sound of a bot dreaming of something.
But then she screamed.
Still in her recharge, she began thrashing. She screamed again.
"Mikaela!? Kae!" Optimus rumbled in terror.
Her spark hummed back to wakefulness, and Optimus felt her desperation as she onlined her optics. She looked at him as he stroked her face, her frame, trying to calm his femme as she vented furiously. Overheated. Panicking.
"You... he... I..." Kae began babbling softly.
"Shh," Optimus whispered gently, stroking his Kae, gentling her as best he could. He recognized a disturbing sound, her protective circuits were fully online.
But she was un-armoured.
Automatically, Optimus pulled his reliant, bonded spark-mate tightly to his frame, his spark gently reaching out to caress hers. The kindest way to inform the protective circuits to stand down. She didn't need them, they were safe.
"What happened my Kae?" Optimus rumbled gently.
"I was waking up, and you were holding me, but it wasn't you, I opened my eyes and Megatron was smirking at me..." His Kae sobbed, clinging to his frame. "It wasn't you, Optimus, I was enjoying your touch as you roused me and it wasn't you."
Optimus hummed gently, cradling her against his frame. Unfortunately, it was true. Megatron would have loved to have made her a conquest. The door to their quarters opened.
"Is everything alright in here?" Sentinel demanded worriedly. "I heard you scream all the way from Central!"
Optimus looked up calmly, noting that every bot on base was crowded around their door. It did a spark proud to know that they cared for each other so.
"Chargefright," Optimus rumbled gently, rocking his Kae as she sobbed against him.
Bumblebee immediately strode into their quarters, disengaging his armour and crawling up to cuddle against his sister.
"Must'a been one pit of a sight if it made you scream," Bee murmured gently. Kae turned and caught him in a hug, sobbing as she clung to the two of them.
"You were dead," Kae sobbed. "He had your head on my shelf and you looked so scared and you were dead, all of you were slagged and scattered on my floor and he was in our berth and you were dead."
Optimus' spark wrenched, his poor Kae.
Bumblebee immediately scooched closer, cuddling his sister as the unit flocked around the berth, disengaging armour and beginning to connect into the collective, surrounding themselves, all of them, with the comforting sound of united sparks.
But the most surprising to her, was Sentinel sitting down on the edge of their berth, reaching out and gently stroking her cheek.
"I am so sorry," he rumbled softly. "I am so sorry that the potential of such a thing ever had to come near you."
Kae slowly came fully online, her sobs quieting as her usual embarrassment of being seen crying slowly coming to the front of her processors. Kae began suppressing her sobs, forcing back the tears and straightening in his arms.
Optimus hated that she felt the need to do that.
"Stop that," Bumblebee stated sternly, glaring at Kae.
Mikaela looked at her little brother curiously.
"Quit suppressing your emotions, it's bad for you," Bee chirped irritably. "I'm not gonna let the sister that lets me cry in her arms suppress her own sobs."
Mikaela froze for a moment, staring at Bee. Optimus could feel the horror rising in her spark again. She broke down, winding her arms around her brother and sobbing.
Optimus shot his scout a grateful look and carefully gathered their sparks into the collective. Firsthand, he finally felt his Kae's hurts. Her insecurities, her fears...
But more, a pain, her continual struggle to bear, to understand the all-spark in all of her moods.
"My Kae," he moaned softly. "Oh my Kae..."
Then the most astonishing of things.
He said her name and the hurt receded slightly.
"My Kae," he whispered to her spark, gently pressing his love for her to the forefront.
"Why do you never believe me?" his Kae asked, making a stab for her usual gentle humour. "Your hands, your voice carries me through the worst of pains. Your love gives me the strength to carry the world."
Optimus smiled, Sentinel beside him and beaming at the femme as she wound herself around and through him again. Optimus moaned slightly, he loved having her so close.
(JaPOV)
Jazz snarled, Megatron had landed among them, fired on them. He fired up his boosters and went after the mech, ain't nobody was gonna get near their unit!
"You wanna piece of me!" Jazz bellowed. "You wanna piece!"
Then, then clawed hands, grasping his legs, sinking into his spark.
"No, I want two!"
Pain, dull, burning pain then nothingness.
The pain he could have dealt with, pain was an ally, it cleared the processors, forced them to sync after a blow. He used the pain, and he'd drilled that into his Prime's processors.
But he could do nothing against the nothingness. The emptiness. The loneliness.
There was nothing here, nobody.
Caught somewhere between the light and the darkness.
He couldn't even hear himself scream.
Panic was an alien feeling for him. The Jazz-man did not panic! But panic pulled his systems into battle-mode, and battle-mode brought you online in a hurry.
His room was dimly lit, the walls plastered with artwork.
Somethingness.
For the first time, in a long time, Jazz rolled to his pedes and walked the corridors, straight to the Primes rooms.
Optimus and Kae were wound around each other, the femme buried into her mate, Optimus was half-online already, optics looking at him dimly, even as his sensors registered Bumblebee walking softly behind him.
"Room for a few more?" Jazz asked softly.
Optimus nodded and reached an arm towards the smaller bots, rousing his Kae somewhat with the motion. Without a doubt the sparks of the bound Primes updated each other, Kae was reaching for them the next moment, winding herself protectively around Bumblebee.
Jazz couldn't help but envy the scout, that was a gorgeous femme.
His recharge was blissfully quiet, pierced only by the soft, comforting hum of familiar sparks, the hiss of a door opening.
Nope, that meant optics needed to online.
Of all mechs, Flare walked softly into the room.
"Chargefright my sister?" Kae asked softly, Optimus not even rousing.
"Cee and Chrome have Ratch and 'Hide," Flareup whispered. She sounded as alone as Jazz had felt.
"What'd yeh dream gorgeous?" Jazz asked in a perfectly sleepy tone. He was wide awake, processors already humming full-speed.
That femme tended to do that to him.
"Let's just say I'm never going to tease Ironhide that his biggest fear is being the last bot standing," Flare whispered, climbing up onto the berth.
Jazz reached out, tucking the femme tightly between Optimus and himself. She cuddled against him, which felt incredible. Except for one thing.
With the feeling of that femme against his frame? He had no hope of recharging now.
Not that he minded, really.
(SePOV)
Fire, smoke...
Death surrounded him, beneath his pedes he could feel Cybertron herself breathing her last gasps of life. The All-spark was gone, lost to the stars, Megatron stood before him, gloating over his 'prize.'
His very actions sickened himself, he was betraying his young friend, his comrade. His brother Prime.
Optimus had such potential, not a fighter, and yet he fought.
Disgusted by his own actions, Sentinel reached out once more and took Megatron's servo. Agreement, agreement that he would go against his own beliefs.
He would find a world, find a viable species and they would make slaves of free creatures.
The world flashed before his eyes, the Ark came under fire once more. Sentinel locked himself away.
The madness had clawed at him as he lay there for orns, vorns. Waiting, waiting for someone to find him. Darkness, light.
He stood upon Cybertron, and watched as the tiny human slaves struggled against the stronger gravitational fields, as even the smallest struts crushed the life from them. Megatron sat in glory, gazing proudly around himself at the bastardization of society surrounding him, as femmes and younglings died for his amusement, as the last of the human and auto-bot resistance faltered and died.
But beneath his pedes. Cybertron remained still, dead. No pulse of life, no breath... the fires still burned as his fellow Cybertronians bickered and killed each other over what scraps of energon were left...
And Kae, Kae lay barely online at Megatron's feet, her armour torn asunder, the wings that rode proudly across her back torn completely away. Her energon seeped from wounds unhealed across her protoform, lines roughly connected to her systems, forcing her spark to continue burning...
Sentinel onlined his optics and rolled to the side of his berth, fighting the urge to purge. He cycled his processors and rose, shifting his armour over his frame as he strode to the corridors.
Down the corridor to the room the bound Primes shared, he strode through the unlocked doors and cycled his processors once more in relief.
Kay lay, wound deeply in her mate's arms, surrounded by more bots seeking the comfort of joined sparks. Sentinel glanced around and settled onto one of the benches, sitting and watching the bound Primes as they rested.
The image of the innocent femme, slagged at the feet of the twist-sparked Lord High Protector flashed in front of his optics again, and Sentinel felt his spark harden in resolve.
He would never survive to see that imagining become reality, because it would be over his offlined form that such a thing would be allowed happen.
Sentinel dropped into a watchful half-cycle, sitting guard over his dearest friends, his spark calming as he assumed the post of his namesake.
(RPOV)
Ratchet jerked himself back online, growling to himself in irritation.
"Mmn?" Arcee hummed softly beside him. Ratchet looked down at his femme with a smile.
"Chargefright," he murmured, pulling her a bit closer to his spark.
"Did you want to talk about it?" Arcee murmured, nuzzling her face into his neck struts.
"And risk passing them to you? No," Ratchet murmured, gently stroking his femme as she lay sprawled across his chest.
"That's an old femme's tale and you know it," Arcee chuckled softly.
"Tell that to Bumblebee."
"Mm," Arcee murmured. "Open up."
"Hmn?"
"Open up," his femme murmured, her spark reaching to lightly caress his chamber.
Ratchet hummed with pleasure as their sparks gently connected, touching and touched as closely as they could without risking a spontaneous bonding.
Until his spark began demanding more, slowly removing itself from his conscious control to pull the femme's closer.
Arcee looked up at him with optics full of love, and Ratchet stopped trying to hold his spark in check.
Very little of their personalities crossed, very little needed to. His femme an equal mate, their reverence and devotion to the maintenance of life on par.
He felt Arcee's patience though, felt it integrate within himself.
It was no real worry to them, that anyone would discover their new bond.
Really? They would only keep it a 'secret' for the sheer amusement of watching the Weapons Master gloat over Ratchet's new-found patience.
(CPOV)
Chromia started awake, mildly irritated.
Ironhide was a rough sleeper sometimes, particularly if they'd been too run-down to interface before dropping into their recharges.
So she sat, collecting her wits before crawling back onto the berth.
She surveyed her intended irritably for a moment before her spark softened.
Ironhide was dreaming again, no doubt watching his comrades dying and leaving him behind. It didn't take too long for Ironhide to jerk awake, his cannons coming online as he stared around himself blearily.
Chromia glared his cannon down, then crawled up his body to sprawl across him again.
"Sorry 'Mia," Ironhide rumbled softly, ejecting his cannons to lay close at hand, rather than keeping them on his arms. That was enough for her to forgive him aiming at her whilst half-online.
"Chargefright again," Chromia murmured, she didn't have to make it a question.
"Mmnph. Y'all were dyin', an' I wasn't even hurt, couldn't even manage to fire my damned cannons. I was the last Chrome. I was the last..."
Chromia did the only thing she could think of, she reached up and lightly cuffed her intended's helm. Ironhide snorted in irritation and glared at her.
"Let's get one thing straight," Chromia snapped at him. "You are not allowed to die after me! I will not have my bot outliving me, hear? I'm the younger, so I get to live for thirty seconds after you."
Ironhide stared down at her and snorted, then immediately looked irritated.
"Stop that," he rumbled.
"Stop what?"
"Making me think about you dying 'cause of me, that hurts more."
Chromia promptly melted, reaching up to press a lingering kiss to her intended's faceplates.
"Good, now stop thinking about it."
She cuddled down over Ironhide's spark, fully prepared to go back to her recharge.
Silence.
"Damn it."
"Hmn?"
"Now I can't stop thinking about it."
"Think of something else."
"Like what?"
Chromia hummed for a moment.
"Like how you're going to convince me to bond to you when you keep throwing me out of your berth."
"I what?"
"You threw me out of the berth again."
"Oh. Sorry 'Mia."
Silence. Chromia began to pout slightly, now she was online. She didn't want to be online, she wanted to be recharging in the comfort of her intended's embrace.
Hmm...
"Ironhide?"
"Mmn?"
"You can make it up to me."
Chromia didn't have to look to know that there was a smug grin on her bot's face. Definitely the right way to get him to stop thinking about morbid things. Death and depression made his spark hum discordantly, a sound she hated, far better to make him smile.