Disclaimer: Transformers © Hasbro
Units of Measure: 1 vorn = 83 stellar cycles; 1 stellar cycle = 1 year; 1 joor = 6 hours
Never Again
Nearly one stellar cycle had passed, and even now the Decepticons were still looking for any sign of their missing comrade. There was nothing coming out of Iacon, although they were positive that if Optimus Prime had gotten hold of Cliffjumper he would have arranged a public execution long ago.
Plus there was the fact that Sideswipe was still online and... functioning.
The mech was almost a shadow of who he had been, however. Sideswipe would go into battle, of course - the Autobots were still hanging onto the footholds they had, unwilling to compromise with the Decepticons in spite of them controlling the majority of Cybertron - but it was clear that his ember just wasn't in it. He tended to forget to make sure his backstrut was covered, and as a result he kept coming back with more injuries than the rest of the army.
It was becoming a chore to make sure that the mech was properly refueling, a task that had been delegated almost fully to Dead End by this point. Dead End was the only mech who didn't let Sideswipe's depressive state distract him from his task, and he wasn't above using the phrase but would Cliffjumper want you to do this to yourself? in order to make the Lamborghini listen to him.
The thing that frightened Galvatron, though, was the fact that Sideswipe seemed to be on the verge of giving up. The Constructicons assured the Decepticon commander that his frontliner's ember was still as strong as ever, reddish-black shot through with the brighter blue that told them Cliffjumper was still online wherever he was, but the mech himself was drifting into apathy without his mate.
The fact that they'd managed the bond was almost miraculous in itself. Cliffjumper's ember was positively charged and there were still trace amounts of tachyons in his energy field even after three vorns, while Sideswipe's had held the negative charge like all mechs and femmes from their universe. Hook had supposed that the chances were good that their embers would not only repel one another but would quite likely deactivate the pair of them in the attempt.
They hadn't listened, though, and gone ahead with it anyway.
The bonding process had knocked them both into temporary stasis for nearly ten joors, but when they came back online Mixmaster confirmed that the bond held. Both Sideswipe and Cliffjumper now possessed proton-and-electron-charge embers, and for the next two vorns there were very few times that they didn't utilize their bond as a tactical advantage against the Autobots.
Then Cliffjumper vanished without a trace on a routine patrol, and Sideswipe was slowly slipping away from them.
Starscream had a theory and was desperately working on a device with Shockwave that would hopefully track the minibot's energy reading across not only distance but time and space as well. Both scientists thought it possible that Cliffjumper had somehow inexplicably slipped through a temporal displacement much like the one that had brought him to their world in the first place, and if they could pinpoint his location they could attempt to open a portal between his current location and Cybertron to bring him back home.
Galvatron desperately hoped that his science officers were right. He didn't think he could bear losing another soldier after finally coming as close as they were to peace.
TBC...