Sorry I took so long. I hope this update makes up for it at least a little.
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Zephyr's recovery proceeded swiftly after that, and in no time flat they were ready to begin the long trip home. No words could express her joy as they stepped out into the sun. How long had it been since she had last seen the sky, much less flown? She quietly basked in the sun as Optimus and the others prepared for departure, savoring the moment as much as it was possible to do and sharing her enthusiasm with Megatron, who was just plain happy to get out of the Hoover Dam. The two of them didn't have to plan much of anything, since they wouldn't need to deal with traffic because they'd be flying. Her savoring the moment soon shifted to somewhat childish impatience. She wanted to get going, to just fly already. What was there to plan out?
The first thing she noticed once they finally got going was that both she and Megatron were significantly faster than their earthbound friends… almost ridiculously so. At the rate they were capable of traveling, the two of them would be able to make a round trip between the Hoover Dam and Mission City several times in the time it would take the rest to just get to Mission City in the first place. The way she saw it, the pair had two choices; go on ahead and then wait for the others or just fly very slowly. "This is going to be a boring trip," she said to herself. She only realized she had spoken out loud when Megatron answered her. "On the contrary, it gives us time to do as we please while they make the trip. Before you ask, I already spoke with Optimus about this, so there's no need to worry about asking for permission or alarming anybody by just leaving suddenly. So what do you say? Shall we?" The only response he got was a sudden sense of mischief along their bond… at least until she rocketed skyward, daring him to follow, which he did.
They dove and spiraled over and through the clouds on the Earth's night side, heedless of the landscape beneath them that glittered like a patchwork of stars that almost mirrored the heavens, following the intricate steps of an ancient dance previously known only to Seekers. Sometimes he would chase her, sometimes she would chase him. If anyone saw the two of them in the night sky, they would surely have marveled at what they saw, deeming the two of them flying saucers at play in the heavens. As they passed over the most desolate parts of Africa, where tribes still held to the ancient ways, Zephyr wondered how many tribal mythologies would change because of this night. She remembered certain creation legends that spoke of gods descending from the sky, of chariots seemingly sculpted from solidified flame, and wondered if perhaps Megatron's people… now her own… had possibly visited Earth in the past and given rise to such stories.
They flew fuselage to fuselage through a raging thunderstorm over India's green expanse; a storm that would soon become one of the famously devastating monsoons she had read so much about as a child, tendrils of lightning crackling between their wings as energy and pleasant sensations cascaded from one to the other and back again as they spiraled around each other again and again. Sometimes mere inches apart, sometimes brushing wingtips, they performed aerial maneuvers no sane pilot could ever dream of, much less try to pull off. At times they rose above the storm to where the sun shone unbelievably bright upon a swirl of clouds that resembled droplets of cream poured into a cup of coffee, and sometimes they descended to just above treetop level where raging winds slashed the rainforest's uppermost canopy into green, leafy ribbons beneath cascades of rain.
Alighting for a bit of a rest, they walked side by side through the majestic mountain ranges of New Zealand, Megatron amazed by the fact that such wonders could exist with no one to create them and Zephyr relating the story told in 'Lord of the Rings', concentrating on the tale's allegory on the nature of power and its tendency to corrupt those who held it. It was amazing, in his mind, that such a young race, so seemingly primitive and with such short little lives could know so much about so many things his species was actually comparatively new to… at least until she told him of human history, seemingly just one war after another. No wonder the humans had trounced his Decepticon comrades, in his mind. If there was one thing humans were good at, it was fighting.
They then flew to Hawaii, where they watched the perpetual eruption of the island chain's main volcano while she explained the natural processes that took place within the planet itself, further amazing him with the fact that such complex processes seemingly needed no outside force to guide them. In a way, the planet seemed as though it was alive, though not in the same way they had all recently learned his home was as she spoke to him of such things as plate tectonics and the recycling of material from the continental plates. It had amazed him to learn of earthquakes, for such things simply didn't happen where he was from. He found it a terrifying prospect, the very ground beneath his feet turning against him and shaking everything to pieces. Molten rock spewing to the heavens… previously solid ground turning traitor underfoot… destructive atmospheric phenomena such as hurricanes… All his doubt of humankind's bravery vanished at the realization that they could flourish as they had even as the planet tried to kill them.
Rising far higher than any normal jet could ever hope to try, they dipped in and out of the planet's atmosphere over and over again, swirled scraps of freezing gases trailing from their wingtips like the tattered wisps of a wind-blown cloud on a spring day. Earth's atmosphere was far thicker than Megatron was used to, previously knowing only the skies of his world, and he was still getting used to the difference, even though this was the second or third time he'd passed completely through it. The first time had been a disaster, he remembered, the crash that had started it all, but for once he couldn't argue with the results. If he'd never crashed, the whole chain of events that had led to his meeting Sarah would never have happened. He'd have gotten the All Spark that day, and lived out the rest of his days in a blur of conquest-happy comparative misery.
They transformed to merge sparks in low Earth orbit, the sheer power lent by the All Spark's presence within Zephyr generating a brilliant flash of blue light that astronomers all over the world would debate heatedly for decades to come. In its wake she chuckled, wondering how many minds she'd just blown down on Earth. How big a mystery had she just given rise to, given the fact that the flash she had just generated would have been highly visible to the naked eye from the ground all over the planet, even on the day side? She paused. Scientists, she knew, were always happiest when they had something to research and wonder about, and science could bridge all cultures. It was for the good of all humankind, she told herself. Deciding to really give them something to talk about, she went in for another round with the generation of a second, larger flash in mind.
Orbiting side by side, they took in a sunrise together, watching the edges of the planet's atmosphere refracted the sunlight into a thousand tiny little rainbows, and successfully resisted the urge to buzz the International Space Station for kicks as its own orbital path brought it into their view. At first he scoffed at the sight of it, such a clumsy, clunky thing cobbled together from so many dissimilar parts… At least until Zephyr swatted him. He was looking at her former race's best hope for peace, in her mind. Where his world, now hers as well, had been split in two between Autobots and Decepticons, Earth was, had always been splintered into literally thousands of separate factions divided by all sorts of things he could barely comprehend. What he could comprehend, however, was the need to find common ground, a dream they could all agree on and rally around.
Soaring higher still, their next stop was the moon, an almost ethereal vision painted in ten thousand shades of gray, where they watched the Earth rise in silence over the cratered plain before Zephyr showed a somewhat confused and thoroughly not-getting-it Megatron how to make dust angels that would surely give some poor astronaut a serious fright someday. They pelted each other with moon rocks for a short while, introducing him to the concept of snowball fights, before she walked with him to the sites of several moon landings, Apollo 11 in particular because it was the first. Stooping down, she picked up the flag the astronauts had planted only to be blown down by the force of their departure, and stood it up again. Much better, in her mind. Some lingering sentimentality made her pause at the plaque they had left behind, kneeling to wipe it clean of any dust that marred its surface. How many dreams had been born from that day! It had been long before her birth, a great journey undertaken for the pettiest of reasons but no less grand for what had started it. She'd loved reading about astronomy as a child, daydreaming about alien life on alien worlds… She looked to the one she now called her mate, for a moment allowing her inner child to marvel at the joy she had found through passing beyond all human knowledge. She'd dreamed of someday seeing a spaceship capable of traveling between stars, and now she was one. It was then that she made a promise to herself. Someday, maybe in ten years, or twenty, perhaps fifty, a hundred at the most… Someday she herself would pioneer an alliance between both the worlds she had called home, or at least sneak them the schematics for a propulsion system that would allow for feasible, even practical travel between stars. She owed the world that had given her birth that much, at least.
Heat and friction turned the two of them into a pair of brilliant red-orange falling stars as they reentered the planet's atmosphere from a trajectory nearer the equator at Megatron's insistence, Zephyr whooping unashamedly as they went, thinking of how many so-called 'extreme sports' the pair were putting to shame. Veering left in an arc over parts of Texas, then bearing right over the Indian Ocean, she tried to mimic the maneuvers undertaken by the space shuttle as it did as they were now doing. She found herself sparing a moment of concern for her heat shields and those of her beloved as she realized they were seemingly retracing the path taken by the ill-fated Columbia, before mentally slapping herself for forgetting that she and her mate were constructed from alloys far stronger than any space shuttle. No clumsy ceramics there, just technology tweaked and improved over and over again for eons beyond all human conception. If they'd had those alloys that day…
Megatron led her to an isolated beach in Newfoundland, the very place where he had first come ashore after crawling out of the sea… and soon the beach was veiled in steam as they bathed in the crashing surf, cooling down from reentry. He demonstrated a little reluctance at the idea of wading out into deeper water, as the chill of wind and water put him in mind of dark things he thought were best forgotten. Returning to his side, she sat beside him on the beach to let the sun evaporate what little water still clung to their metal bodies. It was a quiet moment. Nothing to worry about… No one to bother them…
Their return from their little outing was well-timed, as they landed just as the convoy of Autobots pulled into the city, heading for the fairly isolated grassy hill they had all come to think of as their preferred hang-out. "Hello, brother," Optimus called out to the sky. Megatron returned the cheerful greeting even as he touched down and transformed, perfectly synchronized with the equally happy Zephyr. The other Autobots had already transformed to sit down and relax in the safe, secluded spot they had chosen… except for Jazz, who had opted for a quick nap in car form instead. "We all had a talk on the way here, and we've decided that we need a break. We will be staying here for a few days instead of just heading straight to our old base to use the space bridge to get home." Even Megatron was hard-pressed to argue with that logic. "You know, a break sounds pretty good about now…" Zephyr nodded at that. "I initially came here for a vacation. Now I need a vacation… from my vacation. How utterly… uh… is there even a word for this? Exasperating? Ironic? …Stupid?" Megatron chuckled at that. "Personally, I'd go with all of the above. But, then again, that's probably just me." Shrugging, she had only one thing to say to that. "Either way, I'd say he has the right idea at this point," she said, pointing at Jazz. Megatron nodded, suppressing a quiet yawn. "Indeed he does. A bit of rest would be quite nice at this point." A moment later, two jets, one a gleaming, burnished chrome and the other an impossibly glossy black trimmed with electric blue, rested side by side on the grass, quietly snoring in near-perfect unison.
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LOOKING FOR SOME HELP HERE! SERIOUSLY! This story's near an end and the next real installment can't begin until TF 2 comes out. What am I supposed to do in the meantime? I can't just leave you folks hanging…
Read and review, please!