Sweet Child of Mine - 7
It had been fourteen hours since Bumblebee and Stormfire had been taken. Prowl had sent almost everyone off to recharge, including the twins, and was determined to spend as much of the night as he could tracking down the two missing 'bots. Prime walked back to his office slowly. He was hoping to catch up on some of his work but he was worried about Stormfire and about the twins. Sunstreaker had been quiet and Sideswipe had kept right at his side. Prime shook his head. Maybe he'd been wrong in assuming the worst. After all... wouldn't Sunstreaker come to him or Ironhide if something really was wrong?
Mirage had ignored the orders to recharge, choosing to go see Prime instead. He knocked on Prime's door, hoping he was in. This couldn't wait. Maybe if it were only Sunstreaker, Mirage could ignore this. But while Stormfire was under Sideswipe's care... He wanted Prime to know, before she came back. Mirage was not simply letting her walk back to that, not if Sunstreaker wasn't going to speak up.
Prime had just walked into his office and had just sat down when the knock came to his door. He frowned. Hadn't Prowl sent everyone back to quarters?
"Come in," he called out, leaning back in his chair as he waited.
Mirage stepped into the office, choosing to stay standing.
"Have you seen Sunstreaker lately?" Mirage did his best to keep his anger in check, but some of it slipped into the question. He sighed, finally sitting across from Prime. "He's injured. I find it hard to believe that he managed to do that to himself." He sulked a little. "I was talking to him, and Sideswipe walked in. He almost hit Sunstreaker right in front of me." Mirage paused. "What's happening?" Mirage didn't understand why Sideswipe would change, suddenly become so... dangerous when Stormfire seemed to focus Sunstreaker so very much.
When Mirage finally stopped speaking, Prime leaned forward in his chair slowly.
"You said Sideswipe almost hit Sunstreaker, but did you actually see him injure his twin while you were in the room?"
Mirage let the anger show then. "No, but..."
"I don't know what's happening, Mirage. You're the first who's actually come and talked to me. I've only heard bits and pieces around base." Mirage took a moment, composing himself.
"Listen, Prime, I know what happened. If I hadn't been there, he would have hit Sunstreaker." He paused, thinking back. "When I confronted him, Sunstreaker said that Sideswipe had never hurt Stormfire, because he loved her too much. I didn't think about it then, but what I told him was that I'd leave if Sideswipe ever raised his hand to me." Those were his exact words.
"He did a lot of rationalizing about why he stayed with Sideswipe, but he never came out and said he wasn't getting hit. That seem a little odd to you? Because I sure can't figure it out." Prime sighed heavily and leaned back in his chair.
"I pulled Sideswipe in here yesterday to talk with him about what I'd heard around base. I got the distinct impression he was hiding something but I had no proof, nothing to hold against him. I warned him that I'd remove Stormfire from their quarters if I thought she was in danger." He thought for a moment then looked at Mirage more intently. "Do you think Sunstreaker's in danger, Mirage? I mean, serious danger. And did you notice any recent bruises or just the actions you spoke of?" Mirage nodded slowly.
"Definitely recent; on his face; he also had a cut on his lip that was still swollen. On his arm as well, and they weren't faded." He paused. "Look, maybe he hasn't so much as raised his voice to Stormfire. I don't know. But I do know I don't like what's happening to Sunstreaker. And I know Storm's going to put two and two together eventually."
He crossed his arms over his chest, shooting a determined look at Prime. What he had to say next might very well get him thrown in the brig, but Prime was obviously going to wait for things to get worse.
"And I'm not going to wait to see if Sideswipe does start turning his anger on Stormfire. If you and Sunstreaker don't do anything, I will when she gets back." He could take her to another room, at least. Get Prowl to help him find shifts to cover watching over her with no other femmes around. Prime listened to him, giving him the benefit of the doubt for now.
"That won't be necessary," he said quietly. "I think I can get Sunstreaker to move into another set of quarters along with Stormfire and I'll set up a temporary order of restraint as far as Sideswipe is concerned. If you've seen all of this just today, then I'm not about to wait any longer. Would you be willing to help me with this? Has Sideswipe ever done anything towards you? Ever raised his voice or threatened you?" While he waited for Mirage to answer he called Ironhide over the com. "Ironhide, report to my office immediately." They were going to get to the bottom of this...
Mirage shot Prime a look. "When I told you I'd leave if he raised his hand to me, I meant it. And he hasn't raised his voice to me anymore than I have to him." They had arguments, but brief ones; whatever got Sideswipe so angry at Sunstreaker, it didn't seem to affect how the red twin acted towards Mirage. "Same for threatening me as hitting me - if he'd done it, you would have known." He paused again, shaking his head. "I didn't want to believe what anyone was saying about him, and the fact that he didn't treat me any differently made it easy for me to just ignore them." Not that he did listen to rumors, but...
"I should have seen it in him." How exactly had Mirage missed that? He couldn't answer it fully himself. Prime listened to him not sure what to say to the younger mech.
"None of us saw it, Mirage. This is no one's fault but Sideswipe's and hopefully it's something we can fix." There was a knock at his door and he sighed. "Come in." Ironhide walked into the office and looked between Mirage and Prime, frowning slightly.
"What's happened?" He was more than aware of Sideswipe's relationship with Mirage and while he didn't approve, he'd kept his opinions to himself. Prime stood slowly and walked around his desk.
"I need you to remove Sunstreaker from his quarters for the time being and get him in here. If Sideswipe causes a scene, you're to call Prowl and have him put in the brig." Ironhide's gaze narrowed slightly. Mirage glanced at Ironhide, letting Prime deal with him for now. He met Ironhide's glance, then turned to Prime, feeling so very... small. He got the feeling Ironhide was, somehow, not very happy with him. Then again, it might have just been that Ironhide wasn't happy with the news in general.
"What's happened?" Prime looked at Mirage then back at Ironhide slowly.
"I'm issuing a temporary order of restraint against Sideswipe as of now. He's not allowed anywhere near Sunstreaker at all and he's only allowed to see Storm when one of the officers is present." Ironhide nodded slowly.
"Understood. I'll be back." Throwing one last glance at Mirage, the weapons specialist left the room. Prime turned back to Mirage.
"Can you help me with something?"
Mirage turned his attention back to Prime as Ironhide left the room, and Prime spoke again. Mirage nodded.
"Sure." He paused. "What exactly am I helping you with?"
"It seems as if the only one Sideswipe is acting remotely normal around is you. I need to know if you can talk with him, maybe find out what's making him so angry, why he's lashing out at Sunstreaker so much. By no means do you have to do this, Mirage. It was just a suggestion." Mirage nodded slowly.
"I'd like to know myself. And I can do it, but give me a little time. I don't want to come right out and ask him. Anytime someone does that, he gets all defensive. I have to pretend I don't think anything's going on..." Mirage looked away for a moment. What he hated the most was that some part of him wanted to try and defend Sideswipe... This felt like a betrayal. "Like I said, give me some time, and I'll get you your answers."
Prime nodded slowly as the door opened and Ironhide returned with Sunstreaker who was weak, his protoform's face stained with energon and his gaze somewhat unfocused. Prime quickly moved to help Ironhide.
"Sideswipe wasn't there when I got to the room," Ironhide said quietly. "But Sunstreaker was on the ground..."
"I told you, I fell. Why can't you leave it alone? Why am I here?" Prime watched him for a moment, his look obviously worried and somewhat sad.
"Sunstreaker, we know what's happening..." Sunstreaker laughed but it was bitter and painful.
"You know nothing..."
"Maybe that's because no one is telling us anything." Mirage clenched his fists. Why wouldn't Sunstreaker say anything? Sunstreaker turned and looked at Mirage.
"You did this? You came here and told him all of this? Why? You're not involved in this. He's done NOTHING to you... why couldn't you leave it alone? I told you he'd never hurt Storm... he loves her..." He dropped his head and slowly shook it back and forth. Prime watched him and moment then looked up at Ironhide.
"Find your other son. Now." Ironhide nodded and left the office, closing the door quietly behind him. Prime looked back at Sunstreaker. "Sunny, if he's been doing this to you all this time... at least a year since I started hearing rumors... why haven't you said anything?" Sunstreaker looked up slowly, his gaze moving between Prime and Mirage both.
"Because he's my bondmate, Prime. Because he's my brother and I love him. It's not his fault... it's mine..."
Without turning to face Sunstreaker, Mirage spoke.
"Yeah? How's it your fault?" He sounded intrigued, hiding his disgust at how Sideswipe had manipulated Sunstreaker into taking the blame. But if that was what Sunstreaker wanted them to believe, they might get more answers if they sounded like they might actually believe him. Confronting him hadn't worked so far for Mirage.
Prime understood what Mirage was doing and, for the moment, kept silent. He'd asked Mirage for help... maybe this would work. Sunstreaker looked away for a moment, faltering at whatever he wanted to say then trying again.
"That's the only explanation," he said softly. "If I weren't doing something wrong, this would never happen..." Mirage finally turned to Sunstreaker, standing in front of him.
"That must be what Sideswipe says, too." He paused. "You know I trust Sideswipe. I reacted too quickly earlier. I was upset about not finding him, and I judged him too harshly." He kept his gaze on Sunstreaker; Prime wasn't stepping in so far.
"I just don't understand. That's all I want - all any of us really want right now." Because once they understood, they could help both of the twins. "What does he tell you? I need to know." There was a longing in his voice. He really did need to know, to understand, because he cared too much about Sideswipe not to know.
Sunstreaker looked up at him, confused, not understanding why Mirage was suddenly acting like this. Earlier, 'Raj had seemed concerned about him, had tried to get him to tell him what had happened and now the saboteur was defending Sideswipe... it only served to make Sunstreaker believe it really was all his fault. He looked away and slowly shook his head.
"He doesn't tell me much of anything," Sunstreaker said quietly. "We argue... opposite patrols, we hardly ever see each other anymore... when we do there's either something I forgot to do, or something about Stormfire I didn't tell him about... things I forgot to put away, things I forgot to leave out... we just argue. We always have... why is everyone so concerned about it now?" Prime did step closer then, kneeling down so he could see Sunstreaker, making the younger mech look at him.
"Because before now, he never left marks on you like he has recently. He's never intentionally hurt you just for the sake of hurting you. And Stormfire knows what's happening." Sunstreaker looked at him in fear then at Mirage.
"She knows?" Mirage looked back at him slowly.
"Truthfully? I don't know. But my guess would be she suspects at least, given the advanced coding Prowl gave her. She spends enough time with you that she has to have noticed the dents, and the bruises." He stopped. There was no need to make this harder on Sunstreaker than it already was. There is no telling what Sunstreaker would have said next as Prowl came barging into the room.
"We found them. Let's go..."
It had taken half an hour for the group - including both twins - to make it to the sight where they'd picked up Bumblebee's signal. Bumblebee was in protoform, Stormfire lying in his lap just beginning to wake as the group arrived and returned to protoform. The twins made their way to Bee and Storm reaching them first. Bee looked up at them and there was a small amount of fear in his optics.
Sunstreaker bent down first as Storm's optics flashed and came online.
"Sunny?" she whispered softly. Sunstreaker nodded and the femme threw herself into his arms, crying, shaking and just holding on to him for dear life. Sunstreaker stood, holding her tightly against himself. Sideswipe stepped closer, brushing a hand along Storm's back. Sunstreaker grabbed Sideswipe's arm and pulled him closer, just holding on to them both. Bumblebee stood slowly and moved slowly, Ironhide and Prowl coming closer, Prime right behind them. Prime pulled Bee towards him as Ratchet approached, scanning the young scout for any injuries.
"What happened, Bumblebee?" Prime asked quietly.
"We got ambushed," he said quietly. "I held them off as long as I could before Starscream hit both of us with some kind of stun weapon. When I woke, Stormfire and I were in a makeshift cell inside their temporary base."
"I will kill every last one of those bastards," Sideswipe growled softly. Prime looked over at him but said nothing for the moment. So long as Sideswipe behaved, Prime wasn't going to call him down; yet. He turned back to Bumblebee.
"What happened?"
"Barricade came in and spoke to me, wanted to know who she was, how she'd been created without an All Spark. I told him I didn't know. But he was… I don't know. It was creepy. It was like he honestly cared about what happened to her. Anyway… Soundwave came for her and Barricade went with them. He said Soundwave just studied her systems, ran a bio scan, searched her memories… they both came back and then they brought us here and let us go." Prime looked over at Prowl.
"Let's get back to base before they change their minds," he said quietly to the sub commander. Prowl nodded in agreement turning towards the twins. Nearby, Ironhide had already reverted back to alt mode and Ratchet was moving towards the twins as well.
"Sunny, Sides, I'm going to take Stormfire with me inside of Ironhide's bed. I don't want her trying to transform or drive at the moment. She's obviously exhausted." Sideswipe pulled away from his twin and his daughter as Ratchet came closer. Sunstreaker pulled back a little, hands resting on the sides of his daughter's face, making her look at him.
"Hey, Ratchet's gonna ride with you back to base, okay?"
"Okay," she whispered softly. Sunstreaker leaned in, pressing a soft kiss to her forehead before turning her towards Ratchet. Ratchet wrapped an arm around the young femme and walked her over to Ironhide. Sideswipe followed them and helped Ratchet get Stormfire settled. Leaning down, he kissed his daughter on the cheek and she smiled up at him.
"Thanks," she whispered softly.
"Love you," Sideswipe whispered before stepping back. Ironhide turned and headed back to base, Smokescreen and Bluestreak following after him. Sideswipe walked back over to his twin and the two stood there just watching each other quietly. Bumblebee looked up at Prime and the leader could see the young scout was exhausted as well. Prowl came up to them both.
"Prime, take him back to base. I'll keep an eye on the twins." Prime pulled Prowl closer.
"I've issued an order of restraint against Sideswipe," Prime told him softly. "But I haven't informed him yet. I don't want him left along with his twin." Prowl nodded slowly. He'd known it was coming…
"Understood." He stepped away as Prime and Bee both transformed into their alt modes and headed back to base. Prowl remained with the twins, Jazz and Mirage who both stood off to the side as well.
"Let's get back to base," Prowl ordered quietly. Jazz and Mirage quickly transformed, engines revving quietly. Prowl walked over to the twins. "Hey, that means to two of you as well." Sideswipe turned, glaring at Prowl for a moment before he finally relented and stepped back. Prowl nodded and turned away. Sideswipe looked back at his twin.
"We'll talk later," he said quietly. Sunstreaker nodded as they both transformed back into alt mode as well. Prowl was last and they headed back to base.
TBC…