-1Whatever had happened, it had to have happened at the battlefield. Blazing through the night like a star come down from the heavens, she was there in minutes, descending and transforming in midair to land in a catlike crouch. All was silent, save for the crumpled, ruined body that lay at the center of it all. Sarah thought her spark had burned out in her chest as she ran over to kneel by the lifeless corpse… only to discover that it wasn't who she initially thought it was. "…Starscream?" The head was gone completely, but she would have known that lean frame anywhere. But who could have killed him? This had to have happened after she left, and to the best of her knowledge one alone had weapons powerful enough to do this kind of damage. "Megatron killed Starscream? He told me not to… and then did it himself? But… why?" The only one who could answer that question was Megatron, and he wasn't there. Where could he have gone? Could she track him? If her dreams were any indication, he couldn't have flown anywhere. Looking around, she remembered Western movies she'd seen, how Indian hunters tracked prey, and decided to try to do the same. Not bothering to stand back up, she sort of crept along the ground on all fours, closely examining every inch of ground until she found the clues she sought.
A patch of torn-up dirt looked as though something heavy had landed on it, and the moonlight reflected off tiny metallic shards littering the dust. Scooping up a handful of that dust, she looked closely at those little shards. That same silvery metal had lost none of its lustrous sheen, even despite the abuse it had taken, because it didn't look as though it had been shattered at all. Rather than being broken off of whatever it had been part of, it appeared to have been melted off, falling into the dust to cool and re-harden there. That silver metal… looking so highly polished, even in such a damaged state… glossy sheen reflecting in the moonlight in the manner of light dancing upon gently rippling water… A momentary memory came to her, of the moment of the first time she had really seen him, the way the sunlight had played upon the crippled aircraft as it limped through the sky. And she knew. Her hands shook as panic fought to rise in her. "Oh, Megatron…" No wonder her dreams had been so painful! The trail, she had to focus on the trail…
The moonlight was her ally as she scanned the ground with a critical eye, as it reflected off more of those tiny metal shards, making a trail of sparkling stars in the scuffed dirt. Once again fighting the urge to panic, not really doing too well this time around, she stood back up and flat out ran as she followed the trail. "Please let me find him, please let him get through this all right…" She wasn't sure who she was praying to, or why she was praying at all, but it seemed like the right thing to be doing in this moment. He was alive, he had to be alive because she still felt that sensation of energy leaving her and flowing along the bond between them, but some unreasoning insecurity in the depths of her soul nagged at her that she wouldn't get there in time to save him no matter how fast she ran.
She heard him before she saw him, in that his delirious pleas for mercy from some hallucinated enemy were already loud and clear before she saw his crumpled form. "Megatron!" Crying his name, she would have run to his side in an instant if her voice hadn't drawn both his attention and a weak cry of fear. "No! S-stay back!" The dim glow of his eyes showed her that his mind wasn't wholly there. No, he was lost in a waking nightmare, just as her dreams had shown her. For the first time ever, she tried to consciously access their link. "It's all right, Megatron," she said with something more than merely her voice. "It's me. Sarah." His frantic cries abruptly stopped as her presence cut through the haze in his mind. She wasn't a hallucination after all… He'd initially thought her arrival a product of his tortured mind, his inner demons taunting him with false hope. But no, she was here, she was real… A faint smile took shape as he weakly called her name as if to confirm to himself that she was indeed there because her very presence was soothing the guilt that had been raging inside him, quieting his inner demons for a time. She was by his side in an instant, her hand gently coming to rest over the gaping hole that had been carved into his back as she called forth the All Spark's power to reverse the damage done. A momentary shudder of disgust ran through her when she realized she could literally see his spark chamber. Mere moments later the damage began to reverse itself as energy poured from her to him. Both of them felt it when his central motor relay system was restored, for as he regained sensation and mobility in his lower body, the numbness she had been feeling in her lower body faded away as well.
Her power could repair the damage done, but she could do nothing about the fact that his systems had taken enough of a shock to render him too weak to so much as stand up. They would have to stay there for a while. It was all he could do to move onto his back, but he managed, and Sarah gently took his hand in her own. He smiled up at her. "I long ago lost track of how many I had killed by hand… let alone how many I killed indirectly through starting this war. Now I wonder… How can there be anything left worth redeeming in this spark of mine after what I've done? I already know what answer you would give, but I suppose I just need to hear you say it." Leaning in closer, actually embracing him, she spoke the words she knew he needed to hear. "You're worth saving."
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