Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Unending Mist

Jaguar felt the cool plasma of warp phase cool down the red hot metal of her fuselage. Boy that was a close call! She thought to herself. Realizing her side bays were still open, and empty, the guilt of not saving those humans flowed through her. She had been so close!

Then a terror began building within her, she realized she hadn't set coordinates before teleporting! The drain was building in her system as she continued through the plasma phase. She didn't know what to do! Desperately, she thought about all the stories that Raptor had told them, but her mother had always had at least a mental picture! Jaguar had nothing!

Thinking quickly, Jaguar decided that she had to try something, anything – to get out of warp phase somehow. So she cut all power to her plasma engine. Praying against all hope that this would drop her out of this phase!

As her velocity plummeted, a strange mist engulfed her. She could tell she had dropped out of warp phase, but couldn't lock any coordinates, scanning with her air and ground radar arrays she sensed nothing. There was no ground, no sky, and nothing – just this endless mist. Calming the panic rising in her, she tried all of her sensory scans – infrared, low light, pressure, visual, - nothing. She was in total sensory blackout!

Transforming, she had the sensation of falling, and then a solid surface met her feet. Getting down on her hands and knees, she felt around her with her fingers, nothing, just smooth surface. Standing back up, she began walking blindly forward, figuring it was better than just sitting there doing nothing.

"Hello, hello, anybody here?"she called over and over. The sound of her own voice comforted her somewhat; but her calls were merely answered with an overwhelming silence.

It seemed like eons she walked blindly, the terror and loneliness beginning to crush her within. "Well, mom always said, you feel better when you sing," Jaguar said to no one. She then began to sing, her clear soprano voice filling the empty nothingness, spilling hope into her soul.

"Would you just shut up,"a male voice said.

Her jaw dropped in shock, as she spun, probing the mists with her sensors – nothing! "Where are you?"she asked, her voice pleading.

"The same freagin' place you are you idiot! Would you just shut up and let me be,"the annoyed sounding voice said again, seemingly from all around her.

Spinning circles, she tried to figure out where it was coming from. "But where am I?" she asked the speaker.

A sigh of disgust filled her audios. "Sloggers, you're off-lined! Are you stupid or what?'

"But I'm not, I just got lost in teleport," she stammered, "I can't be – dead?"

"Do I have to explain everything to you? You are off-lined. We're all off-lined. Are you just going to leave me alone now?"the voice now had a very disgusted ring to it.

Jaguar decided to sit down, for even if this voice was ticked with her presence – it sure beat wandering through this place alone and blind. Fighting her building terror, she swallowed hard and decided she'd have to be tough. "I'm going to sit here and sing until you show yourself;" she stated, and started her singing again.

The voice cursed, and suddenly she was looking into crimson optics. The bright red Seeker they belonged to, glaring at her with his arms crossed, Decepticon symbols shining brightly on his wings. Strangely, he didn't seem solid. "Ok, are you happy now? Will you just shut up and leave me alone!" he demanded.

Her jaw dropped as she realized who it was! He was her half-sisters' sire! "S-Starscream?" she stammered.

He scanned her up and down, realizing he'd seen her somewhere before. Then he realized where he'd seen her. "You're one of Raptor's squadron, aren't you?"Throwing his head back, he snickered with the sheer irony of it all. "You're one of the ones that attacked the lunar base. I remember chasing you."

She nodded; dumbfounded that she was talking with a dead Decepticon.

Snickering he went to touch one of her wings, his translucent hand going right through her solid wing. "And you're not even off-lined yet!"he stated, cocking his head and looking at her in amusement.

Swallowing her fear, she stood up and tried to touch him; her solid hand going straight through his rather, insubstantial form. "And, you are dead," she stated, her voice trembling.

This elicited more snickering from the red Seeker. "You're pretty good at stating the obvious. That's better than Demolisher could ever do," he insulted.

Looking down at her solid hands then back at the ghost, Jaguar was stunned at the implications. Her mom had been here once, but only her soul had come, her body had been back in her home dimension – Jaguar's entire body was here! "How do I get home?" she mumbled to herself.

Starscream heard her. "Looks like you've got yourself a problem, Seeker," he stated with a dismissive shrug. It was her problem, not his.

"Name's Jaguar," she said as she met his translucent optics. If he was going to keep insulting her, he might as well use her name.

"Jaguar, huh? Raptor sure gave you femmes some strange names when she built you,"he snickered derisively.

Jaguar looked at him; he thought that Raptor had merely built them. Maybe he didn't realize that they were actually hybrid sparks? Maybe he hadn't figured out that her half-sisters were his daughters? Maybe she could use this? "Well, she named us after we were born," she replied calmly, studying his reaction. She remembered how shocked the Autobots had been when Raptor had originally informed them that she had been able to 'get pregnant' after bonding with Cybertronians. And the greater shock when Optimus had realized that he was one of the sires. But Optimus had also been thrilled, perhaps Starscream would also be equally as pleased?

He cocked his head, looking at her like she was crazy. "We aren't born you idiot – we're built!" A curious expression crossed his face. "Though Megatron was always trying to figure out how she managed to animate her squadron without Vector Sigma," he walked around her, and whispered in her audios, "Care to tell me?"

The green femme grinned inwardly. Yes, maybe she could keep him interested, and maybe she could convince him to help her. "Raptor's a human spark, Starscream – she wasn't animated with Vector Sigma," she explained.

He stopped, regarding her suspiciously. "I'm no fool; don't try to lay a fast one on me!"

She shrugged. "I'm in the middle of the dead realm, what would I gain by lying to you?" she replied.

He grunted, still not fully believing her.

"The Starscream in her home dimension was crafty, he built a machine which pulled the sparks out of humans, and tried to use them to animate new Decepticons, to create his own army, to destroy that Galvatron,"she began.

His optics widened slightly, for he knew that Sideways had said she'd been created to assassinate that dimension's Galvatron, but he hadn't known that his counterpart had been the one to do it! Laughter built within him, as he connected some of Raptor's offhanded comments into this story. "So that's why I was her first in each dimension,"he mumbled. Yes, if he'd been the one to 'build' the Seeker, she'd have to obey his commands in all ways – wouldn't she? She'd have been almost a slave to his counterpart in that dimension. He licked his lips. It would've been nice to have had that kind of power over her. Then he could've made her assassinate his Megatron as well. He would've truly been the most powerful Transformer in the Universe with her at his side, doing his dirty work for him!

But it hadn't gone that way at all. Raptor had steadfastly refused to join the Autobots.. Refused to even fight unless there was no other choice… She'd abandoned all of the Cybertronians.. Even himself.. Even though he had thought there was some kind of emotional bond between them. The possibility of being permanent mates.. She'd stomped his own hopes and desires into the dirt with her thruster when she'd abandoned him.. He felt a strange mixture of loss, sadness, and rage flow within him.

Not understanding what he meant by that statement, Jaguar continued; "Well, it turns out that her human spark can combine with Cybertronian sparks of our dimension. This causes new hybrid sparks to grow within her. Then she builds new chassis, and we are born."

He stared at her, the wheels turning in his mind. He knew at the time Raptor's new squadron had showed up, the femme had only bonded with two Cybertronians: Optimus and – him. His mouth dropped as he now realized the strange references to her 'daughters' and 'children' she had made to Megatron – while looking directly at Starscream - in that battle at Autobot Headquarters. She had been trying to tell him that some of them were his! He was too stupid to realize it! Too blinded by Thrust's empty promises to realize she had offered him a way out! He grumbled in frustration as the full realization of what he had lost, due to his own blindness!

Raptor had abandoned the Cybertronians in order to protect these new hybrid offspring. She had known the danger that Cybertron was in. She hadn't abandoned him because she didn't feel anything for him – she had done it to protect his offspring.. HIS sparklings!! The enormity of it all, caught the ghost by surprise. The fact that part of his spark still lived. Still functioned in the realm of the living through his sparklings! In a sense, he was now somehow 'immortal'. His descendants continuing his spark through the eons…

Looking at the deep green femme, he wondered if she was of his spark. She was Raptor's daughter. Born at the same time his sparklings would've been. Was he talking to a Seeker of his own spark?? "Are you, from my spark?" he asked her. His tone had changed, he was no longer ridiculing her. The softness of wonderment and hope filled it now.

She shook her head, "The smaller yellow and red Seekers are, as well as the silver Seeker."

He staggered back in shock! He remembered the strange looks those two femmes had given him as he watched the other Decepticons torture and rape them. Something within him had told him not to touch them. He tried to grab Jaguar's intakes, to shake her with his frustration, but his insubstantial hands went right through her. "Why didn't they tell me!? I wouldn't have let Megatron…I would've stopped it!" Anguish filled his voice, not only had he always let Megatron down – he had even let his own offspring down the one time he could've helped them.. Could've protected them..

Jaguar looked at him, sympathy in her optics, she could see what her mother had seen within his soul – he had the capability to feel both guilt and compassion. Megatron had forced most of it to be hidden, but her mother had seen it, had tried to bring it out within this first mate she had chosen. "They didn't tell, to protect the family from Megatron. If he had known.." she said softly, her amber optics filled with empathy for the ghost's angst.

"We would've taken all of you as captives and bred more,"Starscream stated simply, disgust for the truth of all this, filling his voice. "Why didn't Raptor just take me with her – when she left the Autobots. Why?" His frustration flowed over him; things would've turned out so differently had she.

"She said you had an oath. She said you would've drawn us into the pointless war;" Jaguar's voice was soft, "she wanted us to live separate from both – taking neither side."

"She knew," Starscream muttered as he began to pace back and forth. The certainty that his suspicion was right… That Raptor had to protect the sparklings from their own sires – in order to keep them from being drawn into the pointless war.. Guilt spread through him. For if he'd just somehow convinced Megatron to change his ways at an earlier time.. He'd still be functioning. He'd still have Raptor at his side. He'd have been there for his sparklings. "She knew about Unicron the whole time. She knew that we had to be at peace with each other to defeat him. And she didn't think it'd happen," he said glumly.It was all making sense to him now. Raptor had started a new mech species, and if the Cybertronians were killed off due to their inability to work together – they would still live on in their offspring – in peace.

He looked up into Jaguar's amber optics, realizing that she was Optimus's daughter, and he was the only leader to have ever shown Starscream any respect. He had even tried to keep Starscream from pulling the Saber out of his own core, he had actually - cared. "Is there peace?" he asked the femme softly.

She nodded, "Optimus now leads again, he takes care of Raptor's family."

"Does he know that some of you aren't his, your mine?" the ghost asked. He wondered if he would've been able to raise Optimus's sparklings as his own. If he'd still been functioning.. Been at Raptor's side.. He would've had to.

"Optimus knows which are his, and which are yours. He speaks highly of you to them. He treats them as his own," she told him, seeing in his stance that this meant a lot to him.

"So they are now bond mates? Optimus and Raptor?" Starscream asked. In a strange sense, he somehow figured that that would happen once the war ended. Well, if Prime managed to survive that is. For even though Raptor had always refused to be drawn into the war.. To choose sides.. She'd done it simply because she was sick of the fighting.. She wanted peace. And that's what the Autobot leader had wanted as well – wasn't it? So with Starscream off-lined, it made sense that eventually those two would get together.

True, he was a tad jealous that Prime now had Raptor at his side. But he was dead wasn't he? So why should the femme stay single and 'wait' for him? Could he blame her for taking another? After all, they'd never sworn oaths to each other. So he and Raptor had never officially been bond mates in the first place… Starscream sighed inside, it was so damned complicated!

Jaguar hoped the ghost wouldn't be angry that her mom had taken a living bond mate, but she nodded her answer to his question.

Starscream silently thanked the big red mech, wishing he'd originally given his oath to Prime – not Megatron. But he couldn't change what he'd done. Now he was faced with this femme, and her dilemma was now his – since he owed Prime at least that much.

He offered his hand to her, shocked when he actually could feel her take it; his airframe seemingly more solid now that he'd decided to face the pain and regret of returning to the world of the living, for he had to lead her back there, and fulfill the debt that he owed to Optimus.

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