*Eep Eep Eep*

What is that? Was it her alarm clock? It was never that steady or annoying. It couldn't be six, yet, could it? She couldn't hear the sounds that usually came with sleeping in the barracks. No people running around to get dressed, no officers shouting out orders. Was she at home? No, her home alarm didn't sound like that and she couldn't hear her father downstairs in the kitchen making breakfast.

She took a deep breath. Everything smelled sterile. Had someone dumbed a bottle of disinfectant over…wherever she was. She moved her limbs; sheets. Was she in a bed? Suddenly a wave of nauseating pain hit her, and she knew she had groaned.

"Lee?"

A voice? Who's? It seemed familiar, but she couldn't place were. Whatever it was, she was going to answer it.

"Beckman? Is that you? Can you go get Dotty? And what did you make me drink last night?" Nya said as she opened her eyes. She wasn't at base or home, but at a hospital.

She looked around confused until her eyes were caught on a dark-skinned man wearing a grey suit, who was chuckling to himself.

"They said you'd be a little loopy when you woke up, but I promise you I didn't make you drink anything. How you feeling soldier?" he spoke.

"Who are you again? I think I know you, but I'm not sure," She said, still dazed.

He chuckled again, "Oh, you know me. We've met before."

"How?"

"My name is Special Agent William Fowler. You and I had a bit of a disagreement over a certain F-16 fighter jet."

"That sounds like me. William Fowler? Fowler…" it all suddenly drifted back to her. The battle. The aliens. The explosion. Starscream. Oh, lord! Did he make it?!

"What happened to-Agh!" She suddenly tried to sit up only be hit with a fresh new whirlwind of pain. She felt back groaning, pulling her arms up to touch her chest, only to realized that her left one was in a sling and cast.

"Whoa, easy soldier!" Fowler said as he rushed closer to her bed, "You only just woken up don't push yourself."

She groaned, "How long have I been out?"

"Two weeks. You managed to scare us more than once, with how many times you kicked that bucket and then replaced the bucket."

"Oh, that bad, huh?"

Fowler nodded.

"How's Starscream?"

"Of course, you'd ask about him," Fowler sighed, "I think he cares about you more then he lets on. He's been a model prisoner so far. Complying with everything that Prime or Ratchet asks of him. Aside from his nightmares he's been a real quiet con actually."

"Then something's wrong with him. He's usually a chatter box. Have you told him about my condition? It might calm him down."

"I'm afraid not. I only told the bots that you made it out of surgery. Anything else is risking your patient privacy."

"You can tell them, I don't mind," she sighed and winced, "How bad is it? And please don't beat around the bush."

Fowler sighed, "You broke your left forearm, shattered your right foot and ankle…"

"I figured that before I passed out."

"I'm not done yet."

"Oh, boy."

Fowler chuckled, "Mild concussion, a pretty bad gash on your cheek, you'll defiantly be having a scar there, but your heart is another story," he sighed "The shrapnel had caused so much damage, that they needed to put a pacemaker in," he looked to the floor, "The rest are all minor injuries."

Nya chuckled sadly and sighed, she didn't even hear the last sentence. She knew fully well what Fowler had meant about her heart, "That's a disability discharge."

Fowler sighed, and grabbed something from the nearby bench, "Here," he offered a bundle of ivory colored tissue paper, "They took these off of you when you went into surgery. I thought you might want them back."

Nya took the bundle and gently unrolled the tissue paper. Inside she found her old pilot jacket, and her gold pendent. She cradled the pendent in her hands, gently rubbing it with her thumb. It was a golden rhombus resting on a thin chain, with the smallest diamond resting in the center of the charm. It wasn't flashy and would most likely be over looked if it was in any jeweler, but to Nya it was priceless.

She sighed, "My daddy, gave me this when I got into flite school. He would have loved to been able to be a pilot like me, but he didn't have the money, so he became the next best thing, a mechanic. He used to joke that he'd be the father of 'a mighty hero of the clouds'," She paused chuckling, "But he more of a hero to me, and I'm not just saying that because he was my father.

"My mother was a real piece of work. I wasn't really a planned child. She'd always shout and scream at me, tell me I had ruined her life, and that was on a good day. I was four when Daddy got sole custody of me, and got me out that heck hole. He saved me and I wanted nothing but to make him proud. Me becoming a pilot, achieving what he wanted to be; I'd never seen him prouder. Then he got sick, and I couldn't save him. My comrades, friends, and my fiancé were there for me, but flying was what brought me the most peace after he was gone. And then the crash happened.

"Now, any hope I had of getting back in cockpit is thrown out the window," She chuckled again, but tears were clearly starting to swell, "I know it's weird to think that a girl whose had everything go downhill, would hope to have a chance to be what she was again. To have her friends, her home, and her job back. It seemed so impossible, but me being a hopeless dreamer; I did believe it could happen," she sighed, "So, when do you kick out of here and back to my broken barn? Or are you going to take me into an alien robot protection custody thingy?"

"First off, we're not going to kick you back to that old barn and leave you with the medical bills. We're not the people who did, and those people will be kept away from you. Especially with your new mission offer," Fowler walked towards the window over one the right side of her room.

Nya looked at him confused, "What are you talking about? Even after I get out of here, I won't qualify for any air team in the country."

"Well, I pulled some strings and found something that could work for you."

"Tell me it isn't a janitorial position? No offence to those guys with the job I'm just not in the mood to be able to look forward to that."

Fowler laughed, and turned back to her, "No, it's not that. I think this offer will be much more appealing."

Starscream hadn't recharged. He wouldn't be able to even if he tried. His anxiety was running wild at the moment. Having a run in with a psychotic murderous evil alien warlord who abused you and having someone you know being in limbo, can do that to a person.

The autobots they had been much more hospitable than he expected. Bringing him rations, repairing his injuries, taking the infernal wing clamp off! They even allowed him to take a few minutes at a random sight outside of the base every few days as to curb his claustrophobia. There were no words for how much gratitude he felt for that, well there probably was, but he couldn't say them right now.

For the past few weeks, he'd been nervously pacing around his small cell, jumping at the smallest sounds, and his wings were always high, and pushed back with nerve. He never spoke, unless it was to answer a question. Though Optimus did give him pression to roam around the base while the children were at school, he just could bring himself to leave his cell. He had been constantly trapped in his own little world of anxiety and regret.

Regret over what happened. Sure, everyone made it out alive, but he still felt he could have done things differently, and things would have been better for everyone. If he hadn't tried to fly that night, Nya wouldn't been in a coma. He had felt relief to hear that she had made it out of surgery alive, but then he'd heard that during it she had suffered heart failure, and while alive she was now in a comatose state. He wasn't allowed to know more about her condition sadly, humans apparently take a patients' rights to privacy very seriously. He couldn't help but feel that if he had done things differently, she wouldn't be suffering right now.

The reason the decepticons were attacking the base in India, was his fault. The access codes they wanted for his encrypted file had given them the coordinates for one his earliest energon stashes, which happened to be right under the abandoned military base. The reason she was on that battle field was so that the cons wouldn't get what they wanted from that base, but what they wanted was something he'd planted there. She'd wouldn't have been there, she'd wouldn't be in the hospital, if he had never made that stash.

Nya was also one of his major anxiety triggers. Fowler had said even though she survived the surgery, she as he'd put it, 'wasn't out of the woods yet', meaning that anything could still go wrong. Knowing that at any moment she could no longer be on this plane of existence, was nerve wreaking. And if she did die? What would happen to him next? Knowing how attached the autobots were to humans they would probably execute him one the spot for getting one killed. Yeah, these thoughts definitely help with his nightmares and recharge problems.

He stopped pacing and sat down onto his berth, sighing. Primus he hated this. He hated feeling like this. Why did he hate this? Frag! Why did he feel like this in the first place?! He rested his helm in his servos. Why?

*knock knock knock*

He nearly jumped into the ceiling being startled by the sudden sound. He quickly looked up at the door, seeing he had a visitor.

"I apologize for startling you, Starscream," Optimus spoke, "Are you alright?"

"I-I am fine," the seeker steadied his venting, "What will it be today, energon mines? Battle tactics?"

Ever since Starscream had been staying with the autobots he'd had stayed true to his promise and gave what ever information he had on the decepticons. Though dated, his information had proved to be quite useful.

"I am not here for information, but rather to escort you outside," Optimus spoke.

"Pardon?"

"I am here to escort you outside."

"I thought my next outing wasn't until tomorrow?"

"I thought that you could use another excursion, to calm your nerves. You seemed to be troubled."

Starscream didn't answer. It was true that he did feel a little more at ease outside, but he wasn't sure how to feel knowing that the prime had noticed that. But it didn't matter what he thought, he wasn't going to let extra time outside slip away. He silently got up and walked over to the holding out his wrists waiting for the stasis cuffs, but to his shock Optimus just ignored the gesture and continued down the hall.

Okay, odd…

Although confused, Starscream still followed Optimus continued down the hall. As they entered the main part of the base Starscream noticed something; no one was there. The base as strangely and hauntingly empty.

The ground bridge suddenly opened to this right, he turned to the prime silently asking for confirmation. Optimus quickly nodded and gesture to the swirling green splashed with blue portal. Starscream hesitantly walked through. He turned around, only to see the bridge close behind him!

What on Cybertron?! Usually, one of the autobots stayed to watch him, or in case of Bulkhead or the younger bots try to talk with him. Did they just leave him here? Was this some elaborate plan to get rid of him?

"Hey, Screamer!"

He froze. That voice. It could be. Not believing his own audio receptors he slowly turned around. The autobots had bridged him to the top of a plateau in the middle of a desert, and there sitting on the cliff's edge, with her legs dangling off the side was…Nya.

"Nya?" he spoke still unsure if this was real.

"No, I'm bio-chemist Leonardo Snipperman, of course I'm Nya! Who do think I am!?" she said before laughing.

A large smile broke on his faceplate, but he still stood there. Scared to move towards her only to find out she was nothing but an illusion. Her bright smile, he'd honestly had thoughts that he would never see it again.

She stopped laughing and looked at him confused, "What are you still standing there for? Get over here! I got something to tell you. I'd join you over there but I'm a bit stuck right now."

He quickly shook his head before joining her. His spark continuing to leap. Though his happiness dulled when he came closer. A large white fabric like patch was on her right cheek, one of her arms in a sling and some kind of extra armor around her right ped. If this was all he could see, then what injuries did she have that he couldn't see?

"Are you alright?" he asked as he sat on the cliff next to her.

"Emotionally? I don't really have anything to be upset about. Physically? I'm not doing okay, per say. I've got a broken bone in my arm hence the sling, and the cut on my cheek is most likely to turn into a permanent scar," she chuckled, "I was right, my foot and ankle shattered, and I had to have a pacemaker put in."

"Pacemaker?" Starscream asked, not familiar with the word.

"It's a device that was placed in my body in order to keep my heart pumping. The doctors couldn't leave the shrapnel in me any longer and I was brought in to surgery to have it removed but it had already damaged my heart too much, they had to put the pacemaker in so that I don't suddenly drop dead." she sighed, "It also means that I'm not longer qualified to join any normal Air Force team. It's a disability discharge."

Starscream's wings dropped. Guilt suddenly rested heavy on his shoulders, like a suffocating shroud. He may not have killed Nya, but he had grounded her, permanently. To a seeker, he'd might has well have killed her! He remembered how happy she sounded through the comms on the mission. How happy she was to be able to fly. Now? She would never fly again and it was his fault.

"Hey?"

He looked back to Nya to see her looking at him concerned. Great, he must have looked really pitiful.

"You okay?"

He turned away. What could he say? What was wrong with her? Why wasn't she blaming him? the storm or questions was destroying him from the inside. All he wanted to say was "I'm sorry" but he couldn't.

"What for?"

Oh, scrap! Did he say that out loud? He could feel her staring at him, her gazing feeling like lasers on his wings. Silence fell upon them; it was excruciating

"Starscream," Nya spoke, "Turn around. Look at me."

He slowly complied. Scared about what she would say next. The kind gaze, her green eyes was casting was both comforting and terrifying.

"Why are you apologizing?" her voice full of confusion and concern.

He couldn't stay quiet anymore, "Because this happened." He gestured to her, "It hurts seeing you like this! and I don't know why! You haven't lashed out at me and I don't know why! I haven't been able to recharge for so long and all this is just making it harder and harder to think!" he put his helm in his servos, "I just don't understand."

Nya looked at him, did he truly not understand? She tried to scoot closer to him, while difficult with an injured leg and only one arm, but she managed. She gently reached out and touched his leg, drawing his attention.

"Hey?" she waited for him to look at her before continuing, "Listen, I am not a genius, but I think know what going on. The reason why you hate seeing me like this, it's because you care about me, and you were scared. Scared of losing me. And that is completely normal when someone close to you is in danger. I know I felt like that."

"When?"

"When my father was sick. When any of my flite, crew was hurt. When my fiancé was doing something stupid, and when you shut down."

He looked at her confused clearly asking for her to elaborate, he hadn't got deactivated recently, as least he couldn't recall that happening.

"After you recused me from the cons. You weren't saying anything, and you had a distracted look on your face. I wasn't sure if something had happened or not, and I wasn't allowed to talk to you to find out. It scared me."

He nodded slowly, starting to understand what she was saying. Had he been scared of losing her? The great Air commander Starscream scared of losing a fleshy human woman. It sounded absurd, but it was true.

"Now, why are you apologizing to me? and why do you think I should lash out at you?"

He sighed, and shook he helm, "Because this," he gestured to her, "and everything else that has happened to you is my fault. You should hate me."

"What do mean? None of this is your fault. You didn't bring my plane down. You didn't let me fall to my death. If anything, you're the reason I'm still alive."

"They found us in the barn by tracking my energy signature. Your capture? My fault. You collapsed in the base after wards due to the stress that your captured caused. Your collapse? My fault. The decepticons were after an energon stash on the mission you crashed in that I had planted. Heck I gave them the means to find that said stash! Your crash? My fault! And then I got you grounded! You have every right to be angry or to punish me yet you don't! Why?"

"Because, it's not your fault, and even if you want it to be, I forgive you."

Starscream looked at her, utterly bewildered.

"I know you weren't in a good place before," Nya continued, "but you don't need to keep thinking that when something goes wrong that its your fault. Now, it's not always going to be not your fault either, but in this case it is not. You didn't know they could track you. You didn't cause my condition to go off, and I was the one who agreed to go on that mission, not you. Heck, I practically dragged you on to that one. You can look at those times and make them your fault all you want, but just know that I don't blame you for any of them."

"How can you be so forgiving to monster like me?"

"Shut up. You're not a monster. You're a person and people make mistakes. It's part of life and I know you have two choices when someone has wronged you. You can either hold on to that anger or you can let it go. I learned that it's better to learn how to move one rather than hold on to it, a long time ago."

"That may be, but I you can't possibly be able to forgive me for grounding you."

"What do you mean grounding me?"

"I remember how happy you sounded when you spoke about flying and when you were at the helm on the mission. Any seeker would know that feeling and I took that away from you. With your pacemaker, you be able to anymore. If you were cybertronian, I might as well have killed you."

She suddenly began to laugh, "After the crash, a pacemaker was always a possibility. I had just never got it checked out to confirmed if I needed it or not. So, you can't blame yourself for that, and I never said I was done flying, Starscream."

He looekd at her confused, "You had just informed me that you would no longer qualify for any earth seeker team. Surely, your flying days are over."

"Not exactly. I said I couldn't qualify for any normal team, but Fowler managed to find a team who won't care about the fact that I have a pacemaker and is in serious need of air support. I was one of two pilots chosen to be apart of this team's new air squadron. It's a little base out in the desert, and I will be given the option of living in a flat in the nearby city or in the barracks on base. My entire dept will be paid and I'll finally have health care for my conditions."

Starscream was so stunned he almost forgotten to answer her, "I-I'm happy for you." Yeah, he was happy for her. Saddened by what was most definitely a goodbye, but happy that she got to live the life she deserved, "When do you join them? Your new team."

"I'm not sure, I haven't decided to take the offer yet."

"What?! You can't be serious! You have a chance to become what you once were! Have the life you deserve again! Y-you can't… NO! you are going back to Agent Fowler and telling him that you have changed your mind and take the offer before it's too late. One of us should at least get what they deserve."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. I never said I denied it and you didn't let me finish."

He sighed, "Apologies. Please continue."

"Well, I haven't accepted the offer as I don't know the opinions of the second pilot on the matter."

"Why?"

"Because he's good friend of mine and I want this to be his choice too."

"Who is it?" he hesitantly asked.

Nya slapped her own face, "Are you kidding me?! How have you not figured it out yet?"

"Figured out what?"

"The second pilot is you, Joker, and the team is the autobots."

Once more Starscream was stunned, "Me? and the autobots? How can this be true?"

"When I was still recovering in the hospital. Fowler came to me with a proposition. Optimus wanted to recruit me as the first human aerialbot and fly for his team. I'd say I'd take the off on one condition," she looked up at Starscream, "That you would be my partner. If you agree you'll get a full pardon, course Arcee will probably still hate you."

Starscream, chuckled at Nya's quip and then thought about this for a moment, he had to ask, "Why are you doing this for me?"

She smiled, "Because you're my friend, Starscream."

He froze. A friend. He'd hadn't had one of those in a long time. So, long he had kind of forgotten what it was like, but now he was just…happy? Yeah, happy. He was happy, a rare occurrence in recent days. he used to only get joy out of power or a scheme going perfectly, but the joy always seemed to end. Now? He felt like this happiness he felt was endless. All he needed was her.

"So, we going to take the offer?"

"A full pardon?" his wings flicked down, and he eyed Nya suspiciously, "What's the catch?"

Nya cringed, "Oh, I was worried you'd ask about that," she took a deep breath, "Well, I would kind of be, officially, on paper, on record, your commanding officer," Her voiced continued to get more and more high pitched.

Starscream groaned and shook his head.

"Oh, come on! I'm not that disgusting, am I?"

"No! NO! You are not disgusting at all! Just give me a klik to wrap my processor around the idea of I'll be taking orders from a human, alright."

Nya burst out laughing. Primus, how Starscream had missed that sound.

"Don't worry, Screamer, I won't barking orders at you. We'll be partners if anything, the only reason that I'm being put in charge of this new flying autobot thing is to put some people higher up the food chain at ease."

"I'm glad to hear that," he thought for a moment, "Why did Prime or Fowler not inform me about this? Or about the fact that you were out of the hospital?"

"Because I told them not too. I wanted to surprise you with the news myself. That's why I asked them to give us some privacy."

"I was wondering why Optimus didn't following me through the bridge."

She sighed, "So, we're taking it?"

"I don't think we have much of a choice."

"Guess you right."

"Should we inform the others of our decision?"

"Uh… my crutch is currently too far away from me to reach it right now, so I can't really walk, and besides we got a pretty good sunset right here. They can wait a few minutes."

Starscream nodded, and a comfortable silence. She was right, the large yellow star lowering below the horizon as the planet turned on its axis was truly a sight. Bright gold melded into velvety violet. He'd never really considered this planet all that pretty, but now he was starting to appreciate it more.

He glanced over to his new partner, and found that she seemed to look a bit more pretty too. The dying gold rays glistened off her dark hair, making it appear auburn. The setting sun was perfectly reflected in her gorgeous forest green organic optics. Her complexion seemed to be glowing as she smiled at the sight. She may have been a fleshy, squishy organic, but she was truly a sight to behold and truly a wonder to know.

He sighed at turned back to the sunset. The day itself may have been dying, but at this moment it was truly a dawning of a new day for them.

10 Years Later…

Laser fire rang out across the battle field. Not a single star was brave enough to stay in that sky meaning it was nearly pitch black. He'd had ducked behind a large stone in order to buy him some time. The blue glow from the energon leaking out of the gash on his side would give away his location if he wasn't careful.

His commlink onlined, "Starscream where are you? You were supposed to be at the drop off point almost two hours ago." A familiar and concerned female voice spoke.

"Oh, don't worry darling I'm just currently pinned under a rock with laser fire all around me. I'll be there soon enough," he answered,

"You're being attacked?! Hold on! I'll get a team out to you. Don't you even think about dying on me!"

He chuckled, "I wouldn't dream of it. What would you do without me?"

"Uh…get a good night sleep of once."

"Oh, that's cruel," He could hear her laughing through the comm.

"I just sent a team out. You going to be okay, just hold on a little longer for me."

"Don't worry. I had vowed that I would protect and stand by you. I'm not going anywhere."

"You'd better not be."

The end?

A/N:

Well, that's it! ladies and gentlemen! I finished this story! I hope that you have all enjoyed this work of mine and I know that I learned a lot by writing this. I hope that whoever has been with me on this ride will continue to support my other works, both ongoing and those to come. Speaking of stories to come, I am happy to announce that my next transformers piece will be on…

CHEETOR!

Cheetor had won the poll by one vote, and was the only vote (not counting that one that I accidentally casted myself). Yeah, I was very disappointed with the turn out. But not really that upset with winner as this kitty cat needs more recognition; it's very difficult to find stories about him.

So…uhh Read and Review!