The Route less Traveled
The cool plasma of warp phase flowed around her fuselage, as she flew between the pulsating skins of the dimensional bubbles. The sensation of flying blindly, without locked coordinates, terrified her; but she trusted the spark that now controlled her body.
It seemed like eons that she flew through that plasma, darting around a multitude of dimensional bubbles, as Starscream looked for the bubble that was her home dimension. She felt the heavy drain on her cores, the port core now depleted, and starboard core half-empty; still they flew. The ghost telling her to be patient, he'd get them there.
As her primary core began to be drained, she felt Starscream's spark fill with excitement, as they headed straight for the translucent skin of the bubble in front of them. This was her dimension, this was home..
The warm flow of its skin flowed over her wings as they penetrated the bubble. Suddenly, the thick atmosphere of a planet assailed her intakes, gravity pulling against them. Starscream dampened the flow into her intakes, and activated her afterburners, lifting her nose and getting the lift back under her wings. He knew her cores were very much depleted, so desperately he scanned with her long range sensors, looking for a place to land safely.
Descending rapidly, he caused her to transform and land VTOL. A feeling of satisfaction flowed through the ghost as he felt her feet touch lightly on a rocky beach. Her cores so depleted that she fell forward onto her knees. Commanding her body to lay down on her belly, he tried to angle her solar-cells to catch the full radiation of the sun. Yes, Earth's sun! He had brought her home!
Reluctantly, he began to release her body from his control, preparing his spark to leave her, for his job was done.
"Don't leave." He heard through her audios, as she whispered to him.
'But I'm done here,' he said within her head. He didn't really want to leave, but was there here for a ghost? To fly around pointlessly and haunt the living… The functioning.. What type of existence was that?!
"Do you want life?" she asked him, her voice soft.
His spark pulsed in indecision. To live again was so very tempting, but he'd have to face the very Decepticons and daughters that he'd let down so many times. He didn't know if he could face their rejection again. Her wings trembled as the ghost within her trembled in indecision. He didn't want to fail again.. For the first time in his worthless existence he had been successful.. He had brought Optimus's daughter back to him.. They would now remember him as a success.. But if he lived again – would he just fail again?
"I will fly by your side Starscream. I'm your friend, I will never leave you." Jaguar's voice promised him, as her warm living spark surrounded him with warmth. Her emotion of welcoming, of acceptance of him for all he was – flowed through her systems. Filling the ghost with it's strength.. Conviction.. She WANTED him to choose life!
The ghost trembled within her. For her to offer to not only give his spark the strength to be reborn, but to also give her oath to stand next to him in this new life – was more than he'd ever dreamed any one would care to offer him. For he had been nothing but a total failure; until now, until he'd brought her back into her own reality, given her life back to her. 'You'd carry my spark, give me life.. And.. Be my friend?' his ghostly voice stammered within her.
As her emotions flowed over him, he knew this was truly her offer. Sinking within the beautiful warmth of her charging starboard power core, the ghost accepted her offer. Her life force flowed over him, caressing him, strengthening him – as if he were one of her unborn sparklings.
A Mother's Love
The sound of the muffled engines of a stealth fighter blended into the soothing sounds of the ocean waves. Too energy-depleted to even lift her head, the green Seeker laid there, hoping it was her mother she heard. The sound rumbled closer, and then she heard the jet transform, its thrusters scraping lightly on the rocks of the barren shore.
A light touch on her wing, as the Seeker went down on a knee next to her recharging form. "Jaguar?" her Matron's musical voice asked softly.
"Mom?" Jaguar murmured in happiness.
Her mother's arms surrounded her, lifted her and gently laid her depleted air frame across those gleaming black legs, angling her solar-cells even better to catch the solar radiation. She felt Raptor's gentle caresses as the Seeker checked her fuselage for damage. "It's been so many orbit cycles my love, I was afraid I'd never see you again. When I got a lock on you today, I couldn't believe it, I couldn't.." Raptor's musical voice broke in a sob of emotion; both the grief of all those cycles spent missing her daughter, and the elation of that missing daughter coming home. She rubbed her daughter's helm with a loving tenderness, her airframe shaking slightly with her emotional sobs.
Jaguar sank into her mother's loving warmth, as her spark sang in joy; she felt the uncertainty within the strengthening spark residing in her starboard core. "Mom, he led me here, he saved me," she whispered weakly.
"Who led you here?" Raptor's voice asked in curiosity.
She knew her mother would understand. She'd loved the red Seeker once. Bonded with him, raised his sparklings. So Jaguar didn't energon-coat it, she didn't think she needed to. "Starscream," she replied softly. Jaguar weakly rubbed her fingers on one of her mother's thrusters. "Starscream brought me here, he said he would, and he did."
Raptor was silent for a minute, her thoughts in turmoil. "So you ended up in the afterworld?" she asked softly.
Jaguar weakly nodded.
Her Matron sighed, remembering that confused red Seeker fondly. "We always told your half-sisters that he was good inside. We never lied to you all about him. He was good inside, just confused," she said softly. Her voice trembling in her elation at what the deceased Seeker had given her back. "I hope he knows that I thank him for everything. For teaching me in this dimension, for giving me three daughters..." she squeezed her fingers on one of Jaguar's wings. "And for giving me back a daughter I thought lost!"
Jaguar felt the pulse of Starscream's spark within her starboard core, as he heard Raptor's comments through her audios. Smiling, she knew that this was what the ghost always wanted; just simple respect and understanding. "Mom, he knows. He hears you because he's inside me," she murmured.
She felt Raptor stiffen in shock, and though she couldn't see the Seeker's face, she could imagine the look of shock that was on it. "He's..He's INSIDE you?" her mother's incredulous voice asked.
Weakly, the green Seeker nodded. "He took me over, flew me through the plasma maze here," she sighed, "When we got here I asked him if he wanted to be reborn. He accepted. Now he's growing in strength in my starboard core. I owed him that."
The crashing of waves was the only sound as Raptor digested the news. Her loving strokes across her daughter's fuselage resumed as she came to a decision. "I will help you build his air frame. We will make him like he was, if that's what he wants," she stated. Her tone telling both daughter and ghost that she meant every word… She would accept Jaguar's decision without question.. Would help the ghost re-enter the world of the living.
The elation that flowed from her starboard core told her that Starscream was more than happy with that idea. Smiling against her mother's leg, Jaguar's emotions matched that of her ghostly friend's. "Can we build him more of a stealth Earth Seeker type model? I promised him he could fly at my wing;" she asked her mother. The ghost within her increased his emotional glee, now knowing that he would be fully accepted by the transformers, if he was Jaguar's wing mate. She was Prime's daughter, and Prime was now the sole leader of the Transformers.
Raptor chuckled, happy that Starscream would have such a good guide as her green Seeker daughter. Although it would be awkward at first to see the two as a team, she knew with herself having been living by Optimus's side – Starscream would need a close friend to help him adapt to this new reality. And with Jaguar not having a bond mate and already seemingly accepting this ghost fully, perhaps the two of them would eventually become more the friends.
"Yes,Jaguar, that's a wonderful idea.."she murmured happily.
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