Following the Sun
AN: To each and every one to who IMed, Favorite'd, Alert'ed this story, I'm grateful for your encouragement and your reviews are just wonderful. I truly thank you all for the support and I hope you continue to stick with me.
Genre: G1 AU- or any'verse
Warning: May need tissues. Proceed with caution and Kleenex
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"Don't go."
"I'm not going anywhere."
"Don't leave me."
"I never would."
"Yes, you would. You already have."
"No, I haven't. I stayed." Sunstreaker gave his brother an exasperated look that softened instantly. "For you."
"Primus, Sunny. I'm so tired." Sideswipe groaned, wanting so much to curl up and sleep a full week.
"I know, and I'm sorry. It's all my fault."
"No, its mine. I was being an aft."
"You're always an aft."
"I gave away our position."
"You've done that before. Nothing new there."
"I took on the Cons."
"With my help," Sunstreaker said, giving his brother a look of surly disapproval. He had jumped into the fight, eager and pulsing and furious as his namesake. He had been nothing but a blur on the battlefield. "Besides, you've taken them on before. No new territory or nothing news worthy there."
"I thought I could take them down. Always have in the past."
"But you were injured."
"Ratchet said I could still fight."
"No, Ratchet said you weren't to engage in any strenuous activity for a full Earth month." Sunstreaker frowned at his brother. "Idiot."
"Primus, he's going to be pissed."
"He'll get over it. He always does."
"I have a feeling he won't this time."
"Oh, he will. He tries to hide it, but his spark is as big as his vocabulary."
"And his determination as tough as his wrenches."
"He can't save everyone," Sunstreaker muttered, staring off into the distance, as if his very will would make the medic appear. "Deep down he knows that."
"Primus, this hurts." Sideswipe gasped, trying to move. He winced, unable to continue. A spark erupted from his shoulder joint.
Sunstreaker looked down at his brother, feeling so helpless. He was unable to get to his twin in time before Devastator caught the red terror and proceeded to twist and tear. One of Sideswipe's legs was completely crushed, crumpled like an accordion. The other was somewhere in the distance, having been the first thing that pulled free from the bloody frame. One arm was missing, the other severed right above his elbow.
Sunstreaker had felt his brothers pain and raced to his side. When he came upon the scene it was to find a complete massacre. Bodies littered the ground, grayed unto death. Pools of discolored energon filled the tiny dips and valleys of the landscape. Sunstreaker could only watch in horror as his brother was crushed in the giant palm, sparks and fluids erupting from the fallen warrior in a brilliant pyrotechnic display.
Now, after all the shouting, booming, earth rattling noise that accompanied battle, there was only silence. No cries of fallen warriors, no wails of the grief stricken, not even a soft staccato of escaping life. Sunstreaker hovered over his brother, unable to stop the flow of life that ebbed away, being absorbed into the ground as offering.
"Ratchet will be here soon." Sunstreaker hated feeling so useless. Hope was the only thing he could offer his downed twin. Basic field repair didn't cover anything like this.
"Can you see him?"
Sunstreaker scanned the smoking wreckage. The human park had once been very beautiful, now, it lay in waste. Charred trees, smoldering brush, scorched earth and pale blue smoke greeted his vision. Distantly, grey mounds of fallen comrades rose from the fog, unmoving and accusing, as if their hollow optics could stare down the living and silently ask, 'Why not you?'
"No, but he's on his way," Sunstreaker said, pulling his gaze from the remains.
"How can you be sure?" Sideswipe asked, energon starting to trickle from the corner of his mouth.
"It's a law of nature." Sunstreaker grinned. "Someone goes down. Ratchet swoops in, fixes them, threatens them, they heal and then get punished for being an idiot." He smirked as his twin. "We kind of wrote the law after so many millennia of practice."
"Yeah, we did give Ratchet a lot of practice."
"So much so he was able to perfect it," Sunstreaker added, trying to keep his voice from cracking. It felt like a physical ache, seeing his brother so broken.
"And implement it on everyone else."
"Odd, how they tried not to repeat their offences."
"Yeah. Everyone knows you don't learn a lesson until the one million mark." Sideswipe tried to laugh, but the action caused a cascade of sparks to shower from the gaping hole in his chest.
Sunstreaker could only stare in powerless sorrow, looking into the chasm perforating his brother's chest. The spark chamber was cracked, the piercing blue light spilling out of its containment. A lucky shot had permanently crippled the red warrior. As he hung limp from Devastator's grasp, sparking and bleeding, the combiner simply tossed him to the ground like unwanted refuse.
Broken, bleeding, and in pain, he had watched as his twin jumped to his defense. The two combatants leaving his field of vision in a vicious song of grinding metal, screaming weapons and an aria of profanity. A searing heat had exploded throughout his body, snapping him back to consciousness. A cold numbness spread over his body, the pain ebbing away into nothingness. Occasionally a spark would flare to life, sending a jolting, searing pain straight into the frontliner's processor.
Sideswipe had come back online feeling cold and disoriented, but due to the large puddle he resided in, it was no wonder. Sunstreaker was kneeling beside of him, looking as gorgeous as ever. How the mech managed to look so good all the time, Sideswipe never knew.
Sunstreaker continued his vigil over his brother, watching his expression for signs of discomfort, though there wasn't anything he could do to ease the suffering of the only one who ever truly cared about him. One would think Sideswipe learned his lesson, but then again, his plating was rather thick. Always going on the offensive, attacking Cons as easily as sipping energon.
Fearless.
Fierce.
And Sunstreaker always followed. Blinding charging in, usually to save his twin's aft. Sometimes, just for the pure pleasure of inflicting pain on the enemy. They were a formidable pair. Unstoppable team.
Idiotic duo.
Now Sideswipe laid, battered and broken, the life draining away from his handsome features in a tormented agony. He grimaced as another spark erupted near the hole punctured through his chest, the flare sending a cascading heat over his numbed plating, before retreating, the ghost of its touch already forgotten on the scarred metal. Sunstreaker could only stare as his brother fought for his life, gazing at the face that was so much like his own. Not as perfect, but close enough to be labeled an ideal second. They were twins after all.
And now one was fading, the other a spectator to the worst moment fate could inflict on the duo. It wasn't fair. There was still so much to do. Everything to plan for. Autobots to prank, Cons to shoot, and high grade to be indulged.
Lives that still needed to be lived.
But help wasn't coming. There were no shouts of fallen warriors calling for aid. No screams of agony. Only silent acceptance. An acceptance Sunstreaker was loathed to behold.
"Tired," Sideswipe sighed, his voice fritzing due to static.
"I know," Sunstreaker whispered, his fingers lightly tracing his brother's face, a ghostly reminder to keep him anchored to the present.
"I'm sorry," Sideswipe said, giving his twin the most sincerest look he could muster. It looked unnatural on the infamous troublemaker.
Sunstreaker shimmered in Sideswipe's optics, the light growing dim.
"Not your fault," Sunstreaker muttered, watching as the light paled in the ruby chest. "Even Cons get off lucky shots every once in a while."
Sideswipe offered a tired smile, his warped cooling fans sputtering to a halt.
"Poor things. Happens so rarely for them." Sideswiped jibed, the smile faltering. He grimaced, his processor sending phantom pain from his mangled body.
Sideswipe tensed, the lax wires growing taut before twitching, and relaxing into an inert state once again, their energy spent. Sunstreaker wanted desperately to stop his brother's suffering, to save him the torment of slowing bleeding out. To end the misery and give his twin the peace he deserved. But fate was cruel to the golden warrior.
"Sunny, I'm scared," the words were choked by static.
"Don't be," Sunstreaker said, laying a hand on his brother, though Sideswipe could no longer feel it. "I'm right here."
"I know," Sideswipe whispered, the smile fading. His optics flickered once, twice, and then darkened. The only light visible was the soft blue glow of his spark. "Always together."
"Together forever." Sunstreaker whispered, hating himself for being so useless.
Sideswipe whimpered, a shower of sparks erupting from his severed shoulder. His plating rattled from the intensity, earning a pained keen from his vocalizer. Fans no longer cycling air, Sideswipe gasped, hoping to force air through his vents, but the fans remained stubbornly immobile.
"Sunny!" Sideswipe yelled, unable to see his remorseful twin beside of him.
Sunstreaker clenched his fists, watching as his brother flailed, his body dancing to the beat of his dying systems. He wanted to scream and cry and rage at the universe for the injustice of it all. But deep down, Sunstreaker knew it wasn't possible. His sorrow could not be voiced. His anger could not have an outlet. A silent fury of the sun that only the universe, and its creator, could have heard and understood. No one else could listen to his pleas, hear his anguish. His voice would fall on deaf ears.
"I'm here, Sideswipe," Sunstreaker managed to say, watching as the light of his brother's spark fluttered. "Let go. I'm here. I'll catch you."
Sideswipe shook violently, his systems powering down. A strangled rattle escaped his vocalizer as the brilliant blue spark flared in one last echo of life, before disappearing from the world. Sideswipe's mangled frame relaxed against the scorched earth, his once shining red armor dulling to a pale grey.
A form shimmered next to Sunstreaker. A ruby hand extended, touching his arm. He turned and saw his twin, as perfect as himself, standing next to him. Sideswipe's mischievous grin had followed him into the afterlife. An eternal twinkle that would forever shine.
"Now what?" Sideswipe asked, looking around at the battlefield.
"Now, we go the Well of Sparks," Sunstreaker grinned, ignoring the fading sounds of the world they were no longer a part of.
Sideswipe placed his arm around his brother's shoulders, a natural fit as always.
"Do you think it's possible to get thrown out of the Well of Sparks?" Sideswipe asked, giving his brother a cheeky look that meant only one thing.
Sunstreaker groaned as he was lead away, knowing his brother was already scheming.
Neither twin noticed Ratchet cresting the hill, screaming for responses from his favorite two patients. And neither knew the torment and grief the medic suffered until he too joined the Well.
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And I bet Ratchet beat their afts. I had a hard time writing this simply because I adore the twins and cant imagine one without the other. In fact, if I ever win the lottery, I'm getting a Lambo… course I'll have to get two. Can't have one without the other. I may get an orange one… nahh…. Not the same.
Anyhoo, let me know what ya think. I try to range emotions. The twins aren't always fun and loving and troublesome to Datsuns. They have a mean streak too… course its more prevalent when they see purple.
Any ideas or suggestions? I'm open :D
