Chapter Thirteen

"Something wrong, Magnus?" Hot Rod asked seeing the mech begin to curl his hand into a fist.

"Silverlight's said something to Prime that's obviously upset him as he's called off the search." The car transporter explained looking back in the direction he came.

"He can't do that. He can't leave Silver out here on her own, primus knows what'll happen to her!" Hot Rod exclaimed.

"So are you going to follow orders and leave or continue on?" Sunstreaker asked a tad insulting.

Ultra Magnus looked back at the yellow Lamborghini annoyance in his optics. "I've already found her. Why do you think I was following Hot Rod?"

"You...oh slag." The red and orange mech said facepalming. "Silverlight's going to kill me."

"We better get back to her before that aft of a brother of yours frags things up again." The white and blue mech said turning towards Silverlight's direction and transforming.

"Hey wait for me!" Hot Rod cried out, transforming and speeding off towards his sister.

"Why would Sideswipe be looking for Silverlight? He's already driven her away what more does he want?" The yellow twin asked confused.

"He wants his brother back." Ultra Magnus replied driving off.

"What do you want?" A voice asked insultingly.

"To talk..." The Lamborghini began

"Talk? That'll be a first. All I ever hear from you is how I should leave and never return. Well guess what, Sideswipe, you got your wish. I'm not returning to the ark, ever."

Sideswipe sighed and looked away at the ground. "Have you ever wanted something only to find that it wasn't really what you wanted and hurt others really close to you in the process?" He asked sadly.

"What are getting at?" She asked suspiciously.

Sideswipe looked the femme in the optic, "I...I never meant for you to leave, Silverlight." He began in a spark-felt tone "I know that's what I said but I never meant it, never thought you'd take me so seriously. I mean you had mechs like Jazz on your side who would have told you to ignore me."

"He did, they all did." The racing truck replied sadly all her anger towards the Lamborghini gone as she turned her back on him. "And I had tried but..." She trailed off and sighed "when you have a past like mine it's hard to forget it and let it be forgotten. I may not have done half the things other cons did but I still lead them there, had I not done that most of the battles against them would not have been fought."

"That was not your fault, you were just a youngling who Megatron used. If you could have you wouldn't have done those things."

"I cannot go back, it's too late." She told him.

"This has something to do with Prime, hasn't it? About what you said to him that made him called off the search for you."

"Why were you searching for me?" Silverlight suddenly asked turning back him.

"Everyone's searching for you." Sideswipe replied slightly confused.

"No I mean you, why were you looking for me?"

The red mech looked away from her. "Ever since you left Sunny's been avoiding me." He sighed "I can't even get him to talk to me without yelling how this was all my fault."

"So you're doing this for Sunstreaker not because you want me to return." She concluded. She thought for a moment before saying, "I'm sorry."

Surprised Sideswipe looked back at her and asked, "Why are you apologising?"

"I ruined your relationship with your brother. Guess that's all I'm good at these days, ruining things."

"While it is true that I hoped that by looking for you he would somehow forgive me, he was not the only reason I am here." He told her.

"Let me guess, you're here because of Prime." She told him bitterly. She noticed the surprise and confusion in the mechs optics at the sudden change of tone in her voice. "I don't see why you should be doing anything for him, he doesn't deserve anything."

"Hold it right there, Silverlight." The Lamborghini said slightly annoyed. "You can slag me or any other mech off all you want but you will not say anything against Prime."

The racing truck chuckle "and what are going to do to stop me, Sideswipe? You all may know the circumstances of my…abduction but you know nothing of what happened during that time. Of how I lost my mother because of him, of how he stood there and did nothing while Megatron carried me away. My immense hatred of the mech who is supposed to be my father."

"You told Prime you hated him, didn't you." Sideswipe said almost in disbelief.

"Of course I told him that." She spat "he foolishly believed the reason I couldn't 'fit in' was because I still held feelings for Thundercracker." She chuckled again "the aft…"

Sideswipe's hands started to turn into fists which began to shake in anger as the blue femme continued to insult the Autobot leader. Finally having heard enough he stormed over to the racing truck and slapped her so hard that she fell to the ground.

"Don't you dare!" he seethed "don't you even dare say that Prime did nothing but leave you with the Decepticons. You do not know how long he has been searching for you, trying to find out what happened. I may not have been there, Silverlight, but I know he's been searching for you a long time, he never stopped!" he yelled at the downed femme who held her cheek as she looked at him. He went to pick her up only to suddenly be held back.

"Touch my sister again and it'll be the last thing you do, I swear it!" an angry voice threatened.

"Let me go, Hot Rod. She needs this to show her what a slagging glitch she's being!" the Lamborghini replied trying to get out of the red and orange mech's grip.

Silverlight couldn't help but smirk at the situation, Prime was quite right when he said Hot Rod would defend her no matter what. "Are you okay, Silverlight?" a voice asked making the femme look up at the mech. She frowned when she saw Ultra Magnus with his hand outstretched offering to help her up. She looked away from him missing the confused look in his optics.

"Are you injured?" the car transporter asked worriedly and received a shake of the femme's head. "Is there a reason why you won't look at me?"

"You hate me just as much as he does." She half whispered referring to Sideswipe. "I've seen you staring at me, like all the others. It's the same one Sideswipe gives me when he thinks I'm not looking."

This only confused the white and blue mech even more, was she confusing his feeling for her with the hated stares of the red mech? Or could it be that… Ultra Magnus suddenly felt jealously rise within him at the thought that the one who had driven Silverlight away felt the same way as both himself and Sunstreaker. He turned and was slightly surprised to see not only Sideswipe and Hot Rod but also Prowl and Sunstreaker. The tactician was doing his best to keep the yellow mech away from his twin and from the amount of bodily harm he was threatening his brother with it was a good assumption that Hot Rod had no doubt told him what Sideswipe had done.

He walked over to them and stood in front of the red mech.

"Do you love her?" he asked straight out surprising everyone.

"What?" Sideswipe asked confused.

"Do you love her?" the car transporter repeated and saw the Lamborghini look away at the ground. "Answer me, Sideswipe!" he virtually shouted annoyed and saw the mech flinch.

"Why would you think that?" he asked quietly.

"Sides." Sunstreaker virtually whispered in disbelief.

"She told me you looked at her the way I do when you thought she wasn't looking. It's why she believes I hate her." Ultra Magnus explained. "She has confused affection for hatred because you cannot admit that you've fallen for her."

Sunstreaker broke free of Prowl's, now weak, hold and headed over to his twin. "Sideswipe." He said in a calm tone. Still the red Lamborghini stayed looking at the ground. As gently as he could Sunstreaker lifted his brother's head to look at him and was shocked to see a tear making its way down Sideswipe's face.

"You love her."

"So do you." He said quietly "it's why I pretended to hate her, so she'd get closer to you and choose you over me."

"You…you…you…" the yellow twin couldn't get the words out dumbstruck by his brother's confession.

"You pretended to hate her in order to get them together, though you did not count on the fact that she would take your words so seriously." Prowl said "you relied on the rest of us to reassure her."

"Yeah. I mean she had Jazz and Sunny and Hot Rod, not to mention you, Prime and Ultra Magnus. You'd all tell her to ignore me, tell her I was just being an aft and to think nothing more of it." Sideswipe said looking over at the tactician. "I never meant for it to go this far."

"Then why did you attack her?" Hot Rod asked confused as he let the mech go.

"She hates Prime, blames him for what happened to her. I lost my temper when she began insulting him." He replied.

"But…he's our father, how can she hate him?" the red and orange mech said still quite confused.

"Let's ask her." Ultra Magnus said turning the racing truck who had been sitting there listening incredulously to everything that was said. "Silverlight." He said walking over and knelt down to her.

"Sunstreaker," Silverlight said quietly ignoring the white and blue mech. "why did you never say anything?"

"You were the only one who treated me the way Sides did, didn't care about my quick temper or that I was an anti-social aft." He glanced over at Sideswipe when he heard a small chuckle. "I didn't want to ruin that."

"Silverlight." Ultra Magnus said once again placing a hand on her shoulder gaining her attention. "Why do you hate Prime?"

The femme looked the mech in the optic and remembered what he had said to Sideswipe 'you looked at her the way I do….confused affection for hatred because you cannot admit that you've fallen for her.' did that mean that Ultra Magnus was also in love with her? She shyly looked away from him only for him to gently turn her face to look at him again. "Silverlight." He said softly. "y-you love m-me?" she stuttered out feeling her spark start to beat faster and faster the more she looked at him.

"I do." He replied.

"Looks like she didn't want either of us." Sideswipe whispered to Sunstreaker who gave a nod as they saw the racing truck's hand go up to caress the white and blue mech's face.

"I still don't understand why you would hate dad." Hot Rod suddenly said scratching his head and breaking the moment the two Cybertronians were having and receiving glares from the red and yellow mechs.

"You wouldn't remember, Hot Rod as our home was already falling down around us." She replied removing her hand and looking over at her brother. "I guess I always thought he loved you more than me, I mean he…did kinda choose you over me. No matter how many times I screamed out his name to save me." She looked at the ground to hide the tears that were threatening to spill. "Over time I grew to resent that. Began to blame everything on him, our mother's death, my capture, the fact that it took him so long to find me."

"I believe that was Megatron's plan." Prowl said "to make you hate Prime so much that when we found you and brought you back you would destroy him from the inside."

"Hm. That was probably a backup plan, Prowl. His actual plan was to use me to kill him. He knew that once he'd see me he'd put up no resistance. Guess he wasn't counting on all of you to…help out." She sighed.

Ultra Magnus put a finger under Silverlight's chin and lifted her head to him. "Let's return to the ark." He said softly.

"I can't go back there, not after what I said to him. He wouldn't accept me back."

"He may just surprise you." The car transporter replied with a smile.