"February Song"

"Let me Fall" both sung by Josh Groban

Author's note: Both songs mentioned above played a major part in inspiring me to write this chapter. I don't think I can repost lyrics here, but I highly recommend listening to the songs if you get the chance. You'll get a good sense of the mood I was trying to accomplish here. (Hey, that's what happens when you have a professional musician attempt writing!)

Darkness surrounded her. A misty, tenuous here-but-not-here sense permeated her spark's passage. Keeping her attention focused on the fading bond-thread, Flamestrike didn't notice anything but the icy-blue light streaking through the not-here following a path only he could know. She reached out with ethereal "hands" as she sensed Prowl's spark slowing, finally aware that he was being followed. Turning, he too reached out as the two bond-mates joined sparks, glowing brighter with their union. Two became one.

Time was of no consequence here. It could have been a moment, or a thousand years before Flamestrike felt the opposing tugs on their separate selves. Flamestrike and Prowl again separated into their own sparks, visible only by the delineation of green- and ice-blue stars. The two, while joined, had drifted slowly closer to a bright light now manifesting to their senses. She felt the immense luminosity's pull on Prowl's spark, but not her own. "Looking" behind her, she barely detected the faint trail she followed; the trail that still held her bound, however tenuously, to her physical shell. Other sparks in varying shades of blue streaked towards them, passing by to join with the radiance.

"The All-Spark," she whispered, tightening her hold on Prowl and feeling his grasp match hers. The All-Spark scintillated a gentle blue, gradually fading into the warm misty darkness that surrounded the bond-mates.

"You can't stay here," Prowl said, reluctantly. His spark pulsed with a certainty not matched by hers. The difference in rhythms further separated the two mates a fraction at a time.

"Prowl," she began.

"Flamelet," he murmured, calling her by the endearment used only in their most private communication. He pulled close once more. "I never wanted to let you down. But it's my time, not yours, to go. You and I are slipping away as we find different paths."

Flamestrike clung with fading strength. "I want to go with you."

"You can't. You have to go back. You don't have a choice." Prowl's grip slipped ever so slightly.

Flamestrike felt a sudden tug on her being. For a moment, one scene, but two sets of sounds juxtaposed- -

"Finally! Over here!" called a voice, rough with strain. Vague sounds of approaching steps reached her senses. "Skyfire, get your aft over here and help, quick!"

"Primus, she's a mess!" from a second voice, gentler, but breaking. "Trailbreaker, what happened?"

"I don't know!" lamented the first voice, overshadowing a third voice's murmuring. "We were headed back from the base. She kept soaring higher and higher, 'enjoying the scenery' she said. Suddenly, she cried out, transformed, and plummeted like lead shot! I tried, but couldn't quite catch her with my force field. She fell so quickly…" The voice trailed off as the sounds faded into quiet darkness…

Flamestrike could feel Prowl's regard. "You're already being pulled back," he said sadly.

"No," she pleaded with the inevitable. "No, Prowl, I don't want to be alone. I need to go with you. Bondmate, my love." Now she felt again the increasing gravitation drawing them apart. Desperately, she tried to hang on, feeling his strength also fading.

Again, Flamestrike held on to Prowl's spark as another tug, massively stronger attempted to pull her back to her physical shell. - -

"I think I have most of the critical areas stabilized. We'd better get back to what's left of Autobot City." Uninvited, the third voice came to the fore of her senses.

"What do you mean, 'what's left?'" demanded the overwrought first voice.

"Decepticon attack," explained the second voice. "Megatron took over the shuttle and tried to sneak into the City. Kup and Hot Rod saw the damage to the shuttle's side and managed to alert the City residents in time to transform the defenses. Blaster got a message out to those of us on Moonbase One and we hightailed it here. Prime took off to deal with Megatron about the same time I received your distress call."

"Slag it! Things had been going so well for so long, too."

"That's not all. Megatron," and here the second voice roughened with suppressed emotion, "killed everyone aboard the shuttle when he took it over. They're gone, Trailbreaker."

Hearing that admission, Flamestrike wrenched her senses away, back to the soft, misty darkness.

Prowl's spark wavered in strain. "You won't be alone. There is another who also cares for you, as I do. Go to him." Prowl's voice stilled for a moment, as if hearing a far-off speaker, then resumed, "I promise you this, love. We will be together again, someday." The sense of Prowl's shy, loving smile bathed her spark as he spoke. "Go."

"Who?" came the reluctant question.

"Flamestrike." A whine of jet engines sliced through her senses, hauling her back. Still she fought to stay.

"You'll know him when you decide to open your optics. Flamelet, love," Prowl's golden voice faded as their weakening grasp proved too little to stave off the increasing pull. A sudden wrench ripped them apart. Shreds of their bonded selves silently erupted into the darkness leaving gaping, ragged edges on both sparks, ruthlessly attenuating the bond beyond either lover's ability to recover.

"No! Not yet, not yet!" came the anonymous cry. With one last effort, both bond-mates tried to reach…one last touch…

"C'mon, Flamestrike. Wake up. Please, wake up."

Flamestrike's world shifted violently - - darkness remained, but her perception of it radically altered.

A tender, fading kiss brushed her facial planes as she rushed back the way she came. Overwhelming pain returned now, and the memory of her ethereal conversation faded fast into her unconscious programming as waves of agony shattered her senses. She screamed, her cry echoing powerfully into the darkening mist.

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

A barely audible moan echoed through Flamestrike's audios. She recognized it as her own vocalizer, critically damaged. She couldn't think past the wracking pain pulverizing her receptors from every last micron of her body. She thought she writhed violently, but the only motion was a feeble twitch of her shattered limbs. Darkness still permeated her optics.

"Flamestrike!" the gentle mech's voice echoed painfully through her overcharged senses. "Flame, don't move. Skyfire's taking us back now. Just stay still for half a tick and we can get you to medbay."

"What.. happ-ened? Where-" was all she managed before her vocalizer cut out in a hiss of static. She couldn't quite remember. She hurt all over, feeling strangely light and… empty. A hand gently held hers, squeezing the mangled extremity slightly, tremulously. Willing her optic circuits into functionality, her first impression was a crazed misty greyness overshadowed by oily pinkish rainbows. A cloth gently cleared away the sheen of seeping Energon from the brightening emerald glass, mazed with impact fractures. Hazy at first, her vision tunneled to focus on two mournful blue optics framed in a square white face, fuzzily bordered in dark green.

"Trailbreaker said you suddenly fell from the sky." A murmured assent came from another voice outside of her limited optic range. "You two were on your way back to the City to meet the shuttle."

The shuttle. Primus! Muddy memories swirled up into her central cortex; she reached out for Prowl and felt… nothing.

No! Panic swept through her system, momentarily forcing back the pain in a burst of crystal-clear anguished clarity. She wrenched herself upright in a burst of despair, her systems fading dangerously at the action.

Firm pressure fore and aft forced her back down onto the flat bunk. "Flamestrike, don't move! Please, stay down," urged the gentle voice, rough now with the scare he received. Blearily, the blue-white-green framed optics re-entered her field of view.

"You have to tell her," said Trailbreaker from behind her. It was his hands holding her broken shoulders to the padded surface.

The green mech in front of her leaned in slightly, recapturing Flamestrike's hand. "Flame, I don't know how to tell you. The shuttle… Megatron attacked it on the way here. He," and here the gentle murmuring voice faltered. Taking a deep, steadying draught of air, he continued, bending down to meet Flame's gaze.

"Megatron killed everyone on the shuttle. Brawn, Ironhide, Ratchet. And Prowl. He's gone, Flame. I'm sorry." The green mech's voice dropped, unable to continue.

Flamestrike felt her world shatter all over again. Her vocalizer sputtered to life.

"Hound. I already know."