And thus we return with another update to the one and only Born to Kill fanfiction that has been in desperate need of an update. Poor thing. My reason for not constantly updating it when I should be? It isn't on the top priority list, but it's a story that will be updated as time goes on. In this chapter, we learn more about the brothers' personalities and just how much they resemble their 'father', not only that, we'll see tonnes of action as well.

This chapter I feel very proud of, even though it's not that long. We'll see how we go.


Chapter 3

Solstice Sun


The feel of air rushing past Sunstreaker's armour had never felt so... good. For the first time in his life since he had come online, the golden warrior felt content, but at the same time there was the feeling of excitement. He could sense Sideswipe's own excitement billowing through the link, but there was also the strong desire to get energon on his swords. Funny that Sideswipe had swords, and yet Sunstreaker wondered why he didn't detect his own weapons. It was very strange to him, but he did like a good challenge. Using his fists to bring down the enemy just made it all the more entertaining for him.

He and his brother continued to follow behind Optimus Prime as fast as their vehicle forms would allow them to with Ironhide guarding the rear. His first impression of Optimus had been confusing at first, but the moment the Autobot commander had spoken, he knew that he was the one to give them a shot at taking down enemies, enemies whose energon would be bathed on his very hands. He could feel his spark hammering against its chambered walls just as Sideswipe's consciousness brushed against his, fuelling it even more.

Sideswipe eased up alongside him, the booming of the upcoming battlefield echoing through his audio receptor and he felt his brother's quiver with bloodlust. 'I know, I feel it too, brother,' Sunstreaker whispered to the silver sibling for the first time over their newly created bond. 'The battle grows ever closer and it's causing my energon to stir.'

'Mine too,' Sideswipe commented, but he was forced into silence when an explosion erupted alongside him, forcing him to swerve to one side. "Whoa! Now that's not cool!" he snapped angrily.

"Ease off the throttle, Sideswipe," Optimus' deep baritone voice boomed across the battlefield, but he was too late. The sudden squealing of tyres alerted to the small group on what was going on and before Optimus could even stop him, Sideswipe sped off ahead of them. Sunstreaker, knowing that he was going to have to go along with his brother, raced after him.

He heard Ironhide calling him to stop but he ignored him. No way was he going to allow his brother to have all the fun without him. He barely managed to catch a glimpse of the silver form of Sideswipe being illuminated bright orange by another incoming explosion and he swerved in the direction. He yelped with surprise just as a plasma burst from slammed into a building above him and sent debris raining down upon his golden frame… scratching his paint.

Frag whoever decided to scratch my paint, he thought angrily as he put full throttle into his engine. He dodged left and right just as he circled a pile of scrap and allowed himself to shift into his bipedal form.

He glanced around for a moment, his sensors on high alert for anything out of the ordinary until he picked up Sideswipe's energy signature just further up ahead of him. He slid his wheeled feet behind his calves and trotted up a steep hill of metal, scrap crunching beneath his feet and energon somehow getting into his joints. His audio receptors could detect the wails of agony from wounded and dying; friend and foe alike. He finally found Sideswipe standing on the top of the hill, his bright blue optics glowing vibrant orange from the flames of war. He stood beside him and looked down to see what he could see.

Below them was a massive building that was being swarmed by many, many Decepticons. The enemy was raining chaos upon the large building in front of them. Autobots before them were trying time and time again to keep the enemy from overwhelming their forces. He ducked just as a white and red jet flew within metres above their heads, followed a trio of more jetfighters smaller than it.

Many dead and dying were littered across the battlefield, nothing like the Sunstreaker had ever seen before. It wasn't a battlefield, it was a massacre! The Decepticons were practically slaughtering the Autobots without so much as a second thought.

A glimpse of black and white drew Sunstreaker's attention and he frowned when he spotted what appeared to be a mech coated in black and white armour and a red chevron on his forehead. Bright blue optics flashed with determination as he leapt and blasted his enemies to pieces without a second's hesitation.

"That must be Prowl Ultra Magnus was talking about," Sideswipe said out loud.

'I see Ultra Magnus fighting alongside him as well,' Sunstreaker said over his sparklink, his optics fixing upon the blue and white Optimus lookalike that ran alongside Prowl, punching or blasting any Decepticon that got too close to the Autobot vice commander.

A twitch of Sideswipe's servos caught his attention and he realised he was trembling. Excitement leaked from the link and he returned his gaze back onto the battlefield, his processor analysing the situation. Just like his brother, he felt the strong urge to leap into battle and get his hands dirty, but another part of him wanted to remain still and figure out what to do without getting himself or his brother killed.

'We should think about this, brother,' he suddenly told him, causing the silver warrior to turn around. 'We cannot just rush in there and fight with bloodlust.'

Sideswipe frowned. "Why not?" he asked as he turned back to look around. "All I see is a bunch of Decepticons who deserve to get their sparks torn out."

Before Sunstreaker could reply, a horn blasted from behind him and they turned to see Optimus' behemoth form rolling up with Ironhide's jet black vehicle alongside him as well. "Thank Primus you two didn't go down there," Ironhide wheezed once he and the Prime had transformed and walked a little closer.

Sunstreaker noticed that Optimus' expression was… soft when his optics lay upon the battlefield.

"I was going to," Sideswipe huffed impatiently, "but Sunstreaker insisted that I stay a little to watch."

"And he is right," said Optimus quietly, tearing his optics from the view ahead of them, "rushing in without a plan will only result in more casualties."

Sideswipe gestured to the outskirts, his optics blazing hot with fury and eagerness. "But your people are getting slaughtered!" he snapped. "Do you want Prowl to die? Do you want your whole base to be overrun by Decepticons?!"

Optimus opened his mouth to reply, but before he could, Sunstreaker detected the thought in his brother's mind but was too late to stop him. The silver brother turned and skated down the hill, blades shimmering in the sunlight, his voice yelling loudly for all to hear.

If Sunstreaker had a voice right now, he would've told Optimus that Sideswipe was right. Planning wouldn't do much good, not when there were so many dying. He turned his head towards the Prime and Ironhide, they looked back at him. Optimus' expression was completely unreadable, but Ironhide's optics were blazing with unexplainable emotions. Whatever he was feeling, somehow Ironhide would've felt the same as him.

A deep sigh rumbled from inside the Prime's chest and his left hand converted into a sword while his right turned into a massive plasma cannon. "Let us go and aid our fellow Autobots," he said.

Sunstreaker's spark suddenly began to pound with more excitement and he felt the bloodlust rise within him. Whether it was from Sideswipe or himself, he did not know. To his surprise, sharp spikes appeared upon his hands and he yelped with surprise, but quickly shook it off. If these were his weapons, then he'd take whatever he could get.

He turned and charged down the hill with Optimus and Ironhide right on his tailpipe, the Autobot commander's vocal processor bellowing loud enough to get everyone's attention. Cries of joy and alarm came from both sides at the sight of the mighty Prime, but eventually Sunstreaker lost himself as he charged directly into the fires of war.

He leapt upon his first victim, a small and foolish Decepticon mech who had been distracted by Optimus' rallying cry. His pedes managed to pin him down, crushing his chest with his full weight and the screams of agony filled his audio receptors. He pulled back a braced fist and threw it into his face, metal and energon splattering his chest and scratching his golden chassis, but he didn't care. The mech didn't fight back as his face had become completely pushed all the way in, his processor broken beyond repair and he stopped struggling. Sunstreaker smirked with satisfaction. He was beginning to like his new toys.

"Behind you!" someone shouted.

Something grabbed him from behind and prepared itself to throw him, but instinct immediately kicked in and he shifted his weight, intending to overbalance his opponent. The tactic worked as the mech began to topple over, Sunstreaker's feet planted themselves in the ground and he threw the mech over his shoulder, a yelp of shock and surprise escaping the enemy's mouth. Sunstreaker lifted one leg and sent as much power as he could into a kick that sent him hurtling into another unsuspecting Decepticon, sending them both falling to the ground.

The Decepticon pushed himself off his comrade and beared what appeared to be sharpened teeth plates, nothing like Sunstreaker had seen before. "Clever, Autobot, but your strength will be your downfall," he sneered.

"Hah!" Sunstreaker chuckled darkly through the com-link. "I cannot say the same for you, Decepticon. I bet you say that to every Autobot you come across." He sharpened his knuckledusters against each other in a threatening manner. "Care to make my day?"

"You are not even worthy enough to face the likes of me, Autobot," the Decepticon spat. "You look more like a youngling who just got recruited by Prime. Seems like he is running out of experienced 'Bots to recruit and is taking in sparklings to fight his battles for him!"

Sunstreaker's optics flashed dangerously. "I AM NO SPARKLING!" he roared and leapt for the Decepticon, closing the distance between them so quickly that the Decepticon barely had any chance to respond. He landed upon him, planting his feet into his chest he used his toes to grip hold on exposed plating and buried a spiked fist into his face. The Decepticon barely managed to raise his arms up to defend himself, but Sunstreaker would not let up. He continued to throw both fists into his forearms until the armoured plates that protected them became dented and bled precious energon.

Sunstreaker roared and raised both arms above his head in preparation for the killing blow, only to be slammed into from the side and away from his opponent. A grunt of pain escaped his lips, but he bit it back. He straightened himself up and whirled upon his attacker, only to come face to face with a red and black Decepticon femme with broad wings upon her shoulders.

"Stay the Pit away from him, you no good for nothing freak!" she snarled cruelly.

Sunstreaker wiped a trickle of energon from his lips with the back of his forearm, and then he turned his head and spat on the ground. "That's not very nice, darling," he said to her, causing her to blink.

She bristled and pointed a blaster at him. "Call me that again and I'll blast a hole in your spark chamber," she hissed, wings twitching in anger.

"Is this how you treat your kids?" Sunstreaker asked as he and the femme began to circle each other, her companion sticking close to her and holding his injured arm. "Femmes like you would make a great mum."

"SHUT UP!" the femme bellowed as she ignited her thrusters and flew straight at him, only for Sunstreaker to leap to one side and lunged for her back. He wrapped both arms around her wings and pulled her up in the direction of the sky.

"Hope you do not mind a lift toots!" he mocked, adding to the sparklink to his brother: 'Look, brother, a new game we can play! I call it Jet Judo!'

It took a moment before Sideswipe replied. 'We've got to try that some time! It looks like fun!'

If Sunstreaker had a voice, he'd have laughed out loud, but he couldn't, not yet at least. He returned to his new invention as the femme flew them higher and higher above the battlefield, her sharp voice yelling curses at him. "Get off me!" she growled.

Sunstreaker thought long and hard for a moment, but in the end he shook his head, a big grin forming on his lips. "Not a chance, toots," he told her. "I hope you like falling as much as I do."

Before the femme had a chance to reply, he turned her back down towards the ground and ripped her left wing out of its socket. It took a second before the femme's mouth opened and screamed the most satisfying scream he'd ever heard. Immediately she started to fall and he pushed away from her, tucking his arms and legs against his sides and he plummeted back down to Cybertron with the still screaming femme alongside him.

'Frag, brother, I hope you're good at making emergency landings,' Sideswipe's voice cut through his spark as he continued to fall. He thought he felt his tanks move straight into his aft, but he pushed that thought into the back of his processor.

'Don't worry, I've got this,' Sunstreaker replied casually, sending a small wave of giddiness through the link. He angled himself a little until his arms were spread out to slow his descent, a pair of fins appeared from his forearms that made his fall less faster. His optical sensors managed to pick up an incoming trajectory and he reached out for it, his servos latching onto that something and he realised that it was the same large silver and red jetfighter he had seen earlier.

"Fancy getting myself a passenger," the jetfighter laughed in a cocky tone. "Thank Primus I happened to be going where you were going."

"Which is down, I suppose?" Sunstreaker asked.

"Ah, com-link talk," the jet chuckled as he dipped slightly, falling down to the battlefield. "I'm guessing you're one of the protoforms that awakened in the Temple?"

"That I am, but talk later, fight now," Sunstreaker grumbled.

"Already done," the jet replied as he angled his wings and Sunstreaker released his grasp, landing with a loud thud on the ground and the jet transformed into a large red and white mech with strangely golden optics. "The name's Jetfire, kid, I'll see you after the battle."

And with that said, he transformed just as the three smaller jet Decepticons caught up with him to resume the chase.

Huh, what a strange mech, Sunstreaker thought. He turned to look over the battlefield, he managed to catch a glimpse of Optimus Prime rising higher than anything he'd seen as he stabbed an incoming Decepticon with his sword, twisted it and threw him aside like as if he was dead weight, all the while Ironhide ducked and weaved around beside him, making a path to get to Prowl with his powerful cannons that exploded loudly. The Autobots seemed to fight with renewed strength, pushing the enemy further away from Headquarters.

"Push them!" someone shouted from somewhere. "Push them back!"

"Push on!" the others responded.

Sunstreaker didn't need any encouragement as he once again charged deeper into the enemy lines, optics blazing with intensity. The more he killed, the stronger the energon in his body burned. When one Decepticon fell, another rushed in to replace it. But Sunstreaker was no ordinary mech, he was built to kill, and kill he did. He thought he sensed Sideswipe's own bloodlust ring through his spark, but he ignored it as he and the rest of the Autobots continued to push the enemy back, his spiked knuckles became splattered with the energon of his kills, feeding his strong desire to kill and kill. His lips twisted into a grin of excitement and he allowed the beast within him to take over.

"Sunstreaker, no, let them go! We've won, you can stop now!"

He thought he heard Ironhide's voice – or was it Optimus'? – but he ignored it as he grabbed hold of his victim – a trembling and terrified Decepticon mech. He leered upon him, picked him up by the neck and squeezed his vocal processor with just one fist. He squeezed until the helpless Decepticon began to choke and gasp, all the while crying pitifully as his life began to ebb away.

The golden brother's lips pulled back into a monstrous grin, his glossa snaked out, licking the sweet taste of energon from his previous opponent whose life he had ended swiftly.

"Sunstreaker!" A servo fell upon his arm that was still holding his victim and his head swivelled around in time to see the concerned expression of an energon covered silver mech with blue optics… Sideswipe? His sensors snapped back to reality and he turned back to see the slowly dying Decepticon in his hand whom he had in the air. "It's over, brother, let him go."

Blinking, Sunstreaker emitted a silent gasp from his lips and he dropped the Decepticon on the ground. The Decepticon curled up in a ball, clutching at his bent plated neck and gasping for fresh oxygen.

'Primus, what have I done?' Sunstreaker whispered over his sparklink to Sideswipe. He looked down at his servos and saw that they were completely coated in the lifeblood of the lives he had taken. Dings and dents littered them including the spikes on his knuckles.

"It's alright, brother, it's over now," Sideswipe reassured him. He turned his head and Sunstreaker followed his gaze to see the Autobots finally chasing off the last of the remaining Decepticon forces, leaving their dead but taking their wounded away. Ultra Magnus, Roadbuster and Springer were at the front of the forces, cheering their victory while Ironhide and Optimus had stayed behind to get an update from Prowl.

'But…' Sunstreaker hummed, 'I could've…'

Sideswipe looked down upon the Decepticon, who had somehow slipped into an unconscious state. He walked up to him and roughly tapped it on the side with one of his swords. "He's not dead, brother, just be thankful for that," he explained.

Sunstreaker felt a soft brush of reassurance from the other's spark and he hadn't realised his own had been pounding against his chest from the rush of the battle, and that his breathing had become laboured. He eventually willed it to calm down.

'What should we do with him?' he asked.

"My suggestion," said Sideswipe as he returned his swords back into subspace, "is that we take him to Optimus. He might know what to do with him."

Sunstreaker nodded as he returned his spiked brass knuckles into his fists. He picked the mech up by the scruff of his neck and followed his brother to the waiting Optimus, Ironhide, Prowl and a dark green and black mech that was tending to Optimus' injuries just as Ultra Magnus arrived with some of his forces. Optimus was just as battered and bloodied as he had been before, though some of energon coating his frame didn't seem to belong to him. He flinched away as the other mech pressed a sensitive spot on his shoulder. Prowl eyed the twins with fierce emotionless optics, then he frowned when he saw the unconscious Decepticon in Sunstreaker's servos.

"So these are the awakened protoforms that you told us about?" he asked.

"Yes, Prowl, they are," Optimus answered once Sunstreaker dropped the Decepticon in front of them. "It would seem you two have been busy." He nodded in the direction of the battlefield.

"We have," Sideswipe said, nodding. "As it is our duty."

Prowl's brow furrowed deeper. "Formalities are required in line of duty, youngling," he told him. "Address Optimus as 'Sir' or 'Prime' while we are on the battlefield."

Optimus raised a servo, quietening the black and white vice commander. "Prowl, now isn't the time for formalities," he insisted, his deep voice rumbling softly. He looked down upon the mech. "Though it would appear that we have ourselves a prisoner."

"Something told me that you may wish to interrogate him," Sideswipe explained, gesturing to the mech. "Though Sunstreaker wasn't so… interested."

Sunstreaker flinched and found himself looking at the ground, attempting to avoid optic contact with the elders. He'd rather not talk about what he had almost done, and Sideswipe was more than willing to respect that, even Optimus seemed to as well. Fortunately, they had far more important things to talk about than anything else.

"I know this mech," the dark green mech said as he peered at the mech. "Looks like Sunstreaker got one of Megatron's inner circle 'Cons."

Optimus frowned, peering a little closer. "Who is it Ratchet?"

"It's Barricade."