Sweet Child of Mine - 15
Epilogue...
It hadn't taken the Autobots long to come to a decision regarding what to do in order to keep Stormfire safe and in order to save their own race. After three days of talks among themselves and the remaining Decepticon forces, the decision had been made to return to Cybertron. Even now, the group at large had begun packing and storing items inside the Nemesis which Soundwave had given over the location of once the deal had been made. Storm was forced to remain on base under constant guard. No one was going to take a chance on something happening to her before they could leave Earth.
Inside the Autobot base, Mirage was still in critical condition. All his higher cpu functions were active but it was almost as if his body had given out. Stormfire refused to leave his side no matter how much her fathers' begged her to get some rest. It was Barricade who finally managed to pull her away after she'd been threatened by Ratchet on more than one occasion. The twins hadn't known what else to do for her or Mirage at this point and were at their wits end.
Three days before the date they'd planned to leave Earth, Mirage's cpu functions began to shut down slowly one at a time. Ratchet was fighting to get them back online, but after several hours, it became apparent that they were going to lose the sabatour. Stormfire came back to sit with him and Sideswipe stayed with her while the others continued getting things ready for their departure.
On the day before they were scheduled to board the Nemesis, Ratchet conceded the fight and Mirage was pulled off stasis support. His spark managed to stay online for almost three more hours before it had locked and finally stopped pulsing all together. His death had thrown Storm into a bout of depression and she refused to even discuss leaving his body behind. Prime had ordered Mirage's body be placed into a stasis pod for the trip and no one had dared to refuse.
Bumblebee had asked for permission to remain behind on Earth, wanting to stay with Sam and Mikaela, but the humans had talked him into going home saying that, while they would miss him, they knew Bumblebee's true place was with his family. The Autobots said their goodbyes to their human friends and Soundwave closed and locked the doors leading into the Nemesis so that they could depart for Cybertron.
Once the Nemesis was in space, the 'bots moved towards their own stasis chambers. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe had volunteered for first rotation and it was Sunstreaker who led Stormfire to a stasis chamber, explaining to her that this was the easiest way for her to deal with the long trip ahead of them. She begged and pleaded to be allowed to remain awake with them, but in the end, her fathers had refused to back down and the femme had been locked into the chamber and had slipped into a heavy recharge-like state.
With all their comrades secured and the ship's course plotted into the computer, the twins moved into the command room and settled in for the first part of their journey...
...they say time is relevant for many things. Others not so much. Time moves at different paces for us all. By the time the Cybertronians came into orbit around their home planet, life on Earth would have changed and their human friends would have long since been gone and buried... but they still thought of them, wishing now, as they came out of their stasis chambers, that their friends could have seen what they'd helped fight for so long ago.
Stormfire stood with her fathers as Cybertron came into view.
"I can heal this place," she said softly. "I feel it inside of me, the sadness of our home... I know now what I have to do." The twins nodded and Sunstreaker turned to look at Optimus Prime. The leader gave him a rare look of peace and serenity and Sunstreaker turned back to his daughter.
"Welcome home, Storm," he whispered softly.
Welcome home...
I apologize for the rather quick conclusion but, at the time this story was being written, back in 2008, things in RL were rather hectic. I hope to write a sequel to this at some point. Thank you for reading and I hope you have reviewed.