Mountainside, Pass

Request fic for WANDERLING. I hope it was what you had in mind. Course, with the way my muse likes to warp things, there was a chance that your request was thrown in a blender and used by Sunny to paint the walls. I hope it lives up to expectations.

THANK YOU TO ALL REVIEWERS! YOU ARE LOVED AND APPRECIATED!

Apparently the last chapter wasn't as good. Sorry about that folks. Cant win em all I guess. I hope this one is better!

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"I hate you," Sunstreaker said in the darkness.

"You're mouth says hate but your optics say love," Sideswipe answered in that annoying tone that drove Sunstreaker to violence.

"Shut up," Sunstreaker snapped, feeling that insane giddiness bleed through the bond. Sideswipe was trying to boost the mood, despite the current situation.

A silence lapsed, a couple pebbles falling from their anchors and tumbling down over Sideswipe's body to land on Sunstreaker who growled at the slight against his vanity.

"Love me?" Sideswipe asked, and instead of being his playful self, he sounded childish, and almost…. scared? of the answer.

"No, you're ugly," Sunstreaker answered, feeling a gust of air that signaled Sideswipe's relief. The sensation was short lived however. Rock groaned from over head, dust falling on the two soldiers.

"We're twins." Sideswipe said, and there was no mistaking the dramatic optic roll in the dark.

"Yeah, but I got the looks," Sunstreaker answered.

Silence fell again. The ground rumbled with thunder, the weight of the heavens bearing down. Sideswipe asked again, though his voice sounded unsure, unsteady. His body was shaking with exertion.

"Still love me?"

If this was their end, then he wanted to make sure he terminated with the knowledge that he was loved by someone, even if it was just his twin. There was something sad about terminating without knowing you were ever loved.

"Against my better judgment." Sunstreaker answered, not liking the pang of desperation and fear Sideswipe was trying hard to quell deep in his spark.

Sideswipe winced, a loud grinding issuing from his shoulders as the joints started to buckle. His vents were coming in short, broken rasps, his suffering starting to bleed through to Sunstreaker, who recoiled. Hoping to take Sideswipe's processor off the situation, Sunstreaker spoke up.

"Did you see what happened to my leg?" Sunstreaker asked, the pain receptors turned off due to trauma. He couldn't feel anything from the waist down. Thank Primus.

"It was… by the door," Sideswipe answered, his voice straining.

"I bet the cave in smashed it," Sunstreaker sighed. "Ratchet's going to blow a gasket when he has rebuild my leg again."

"Same one?" Sideswipe asked, his words costing a great effort. He was under terrible strain, but Sunstreaker's conversation was helping.

"Yeah," Sunstreaker said, trying to shift, but finding his body pinned into place by his brother. He sighed, cursing his luck. "He should have several on hand due to the frequency he has to replace it."

The twins were doing basic repair duty along the ARK when the volcano decided to hiccup, thanks to Wheeljack's knocking along its magma chamber, and the roof had literally fell on top of the two. The initial rubble had landed on Sunstreaker, who hissed more from the scratches than from actual pain of having his leg pinned beneath a stray boulder. Sideswipe was tugging on his brother in an effort to free him, when the ceiling started to lower. The boulder shifted, ripping off Sunstreaker's left leg just above the knee. The floor gave way, taking the twins down another level, leaving Sunstreaker's trapped leg beneath the weight of the boulder on the floor above.

Only by Sideswipe's quick thinking where the twins spared a crushing death. Sideswipe had enough time to turn their bodies, landing on top of Sunstreaker and engaging his pile drivers. Now, Sunstreaker lay flat on his face, Sideswipe poised above him in a plank position, his pile drivers braced on either side of Sunstreaker's shoulders. The weight of the roof was straining Sideswipe's frame. He didn't have Brawn's strength. His pile drivers enabled him to have a stronger sub-frame, but the strain of holding up the mountain was disintegrating his joints. Sideswipe buckled, pained hisses coming from between his clenched lip components. Sunstreaker sent reassurance and strength through the bond, but it wasn't an emotional strength that Sideswipe needed, it was physical. His body wasn't built to hold up a mountain.

The mountain grumbled in protest again, sending a shower of small rocks and powdered earth falling on to the two pinned beneath its mass. Sideswipe grunted, hearing another pop in his joints as his systems gave one by one. A hydraulic gave out, hissing in the dark like an angry snake.

"Wish they would hurry up," Sideswipe growled, his frame shaking with effort.

"Your locator beacon on?" Sunstreaker asked, though he could feel the pulse of the frequency thrumming his own his body as well. Two signals calling for help, screaming for their friends to rescue them from the premature burial.

"What do you think?" Sideswipe snapped, his spinal strut feeling like it was about to snap. He lowered himself a little further, his arms trembling. The rock shifted, raining debris on its victims. The change in pressure caused Sideswipe to shift, the weight bearing down on him at a different angle. A groan of metal issued from his spinal strut as his body bowed in supplication. If his shoulders gave out before help could arrive, there was a good chance both would terminated from the weight of the rock. Sideswipe's tensile strength was the only thing keeping them from being buried under volcanic rock and twisted metal from the compromised ship.

"Hold on," Sunstreaker whispered in the dark, wishing he could lend physical strength to help his twin. It irritated him that he was helpless, powerless to assist Sideswipe when both their lives were in peril. "Hold on just a little longer."

"What do you think I'm trying to do!" Sideswipe shouted in his brothers audio. He didn't mean to be so waspish, but the strain was getting to him. Warning lights flooded his vision into red as bloody as his armor. Systems threatened to crash all together. Pressure was being lost through fissures sustained in the straining cables and tubes. His entire body was quaking in turbulence, and his strength was waning with each passing second.

"They better hurry," Sideswipe gasped, another pop issuing from his shoulder. The sound was accompanied by a significant portion of the rock shifting, crumbling away and encasing the two mechs.

There was a long, low groan of metal warping, followed by Sideswipe's fluent cursing. Sideswipe had to cycle air through his vents at a quickened pace, making the air hot and stifling in the confined space. It was taking twice the effort to cool his systems, and the atmosphere was becoming thick with rock dust, clogging the panting vents. Any complaint about being breathed on was quieted in Sunstreaker's vocalizer.

"Primus," Sideswipe muttered, feeling as if the mountain was trying to staple his arms into place. "This hurts."

"I think I hear voices," Sunstreaker said, his audio turned into the noise in case the volcano decided to get fussy again. If they had another trembler now, it could mean their termination.

Sideswipe snorted, the rock shifting again and forcing him to press his legs against his twins. "I always knew you were a few nuts loose of a tune up."

Sunstreaker ignored the jibe, hearing the strain in his brother's voice.

Sunstreaker hated this as much as his brother. It was one thing to fall in battle, preferably taking an enemy with you. But to be crushed by tons of rock, suffering a slow compression until the mountain gave one last sigh to represent your life and then…termination? That was too much.

"I hear something," Sunstreaker said, his audios a bit more attuned due to the ornamental augmentations. There was a moment of intense silence, then Sideswipe heard it. Voices. Their friends were coming! The question was, could they make it before Sideswipe's armor buckled and his frame snapped?

"On the count of three, start yelling,' Sunstreaker said. Hearing a warning hiss as Sideswipe now had his entire lower body pressing him into the rock floor. If this is what Sideswipe was feeling, Sunstreaker felt a wave of pity that was squashed with his determination that they survive this ordeal. "One. Two Three!"

In unison, the twins started shouting. 'We're here! Help! Hurry! We're right here!"

The voices shouted back, though the tons of rock muffled their words, but it was clear they had doubled their efforts to dig the twins out. Sunstreaker coughed through his vents, the condensation forming from his overheating twin making his own venting become harsh, the air unfit for circulation. It was a good thing the twins didn't require oxygen to survive. They would have already suffocated in the rocky tomb.

"Just a little longer," Sunstreaker said, wanting to give Sideswipe some hope. He could feel his brothers pain bleeding thought like a torrent. It was stealing his resolve, feeling his twin lose hope.

The rocks shifted, rumbling low in the bowels the earth. The sound reminded one of a giant slumbering beast, fearful when woken. Sideswipe gaped, a whine issuing from his vocalizer before he could stop himself. He fell forward, his upper body barely hovering over his brother's inert form below before dropping in agonizing protest. Sunstreaker could feel his brother's chest pressed against his back, and the tremors that coursed through his frame rattled Sunstreaker's plating.

A voice called, muffled though distinguishable. "Almost there! Just hold on guys!'

"What the slag?" Sunstreaker muttered hoping to boost his brothers spirits by making fun of the situation "I think that was Gears. Man, if it's Gears, just let go and drop the rock. I don't want to be rescued by that miniature aft."

Sideswipe snickered against his will. He was grateful for the distraction; though there was a good chance he wouldn't be able to withstand the pressure for much longer. His internal HUD was scrolling a long list of injuries, warning of emergency shut down procedures due to structural damage. He didn't have much time. And in essence, Sunstreaker didn't either.

Sideswipe didn't know if it was fatigue or his processor playing tricks, but he felt the mountain get lighter.

Rock crumbled all around, falling over the duo, coloring them in the shade of unkempt dishevelment. Sideswipe's shoulders gave one last whining grind of protest before the metal split, rendering his joints useless. He collapsed strutless on top of his twin, earning a painful grunt as Sunstreaker was compressed into the floor. Sideswipe was sandwiched between the volcanic rock against his back and his gasping twin below. Sunstreaker's words were muffled due to his face being smashed into the ground, but Sideswipe understood him nonetheless. The last chunk of debris was shifted, giving a welcomed respite to the two who thought their time was up.

"Primus, I'm tired," Sideswipe sighed, his lip components pressed against Sunstreaker's neck. It felt good to not have a mountain sitting on his back.

"Get off me," Sunstreaker muttered, half heartedly. His brother's sharp chin was cutting into the join of his neck. "I don't want anyone to see us like this."

"My body is broken and my systems paralyzed. Can't move, Bro," Sideswipe informed his twin, his shoulders popping and hissing as the pressure was finally released. The sound resembled pressure valves releasing steam when it had built up past the point of endurance.

"Aww.. how sweet,' Brawn chuckled, using his reinforced joints to their full advantage and removing the last of the boulders from the two Lamborghinis. "Did I interrupt a touching moment?"

"I can't move," Sideswipe called, feeling his brother's growl reverberate through his own chest. "Systems overheat and destabilized. My frame has snapped in several places. Structural compromise is at seventy-four percent. Emergency stasis lock in two minutes."

"Sunstreaker?" Brawn called, seeing the golden paint peek from beneath the red.

"Missing a leg and has busted joints," Sideswipe called, his voice able to carry better than Sunstreaker's muffled words. There was also a slim chance that Sunstreaker's jaw had been dislocated when Sideswipe's strength gave out and landed on top of him.

"Hold on, we'll get you," Brawn called, and started yelling over his shoulder for Ratchet to be prepared for a set of busted Lamborghinis.

"Oh man, saved by minibots?" Sideswipe said, giving a long suffering groan. They weren't going to live this down any time soon.

"And the dust, its clogging up my lines," Gears was complaining as he shifted the smaller rocks out of the way and wedged himself into the small opening they had made in the rockslide. Windcharger and Cliffjumper rolled their optics at Gears complaints. Both looked ready to commit the murder Sunstreaker was prepared for.

"I can stand being saved by the minibots," Sunstreaker muttered so only Sideswipe could hear. "As long as I'm allowed to put Gears in our grave."

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