Breaksteel couldn't explain how he knew that the mighty bronze femme was going after his brother. He just…knew. As he stood there in the storm-torn night, feeling his tenuous connection with the warrior wolf growing fainter and fainter, he knew he had to follow her. She was going to need help.
Tarrying no longer, he leaped forward, following the already heavily diluted scent that he had come to know so well and care for so greatly. Lightning snarled and danced in the darkened and stormswept skies but he charged onwards, his spark spinning faster and faster in his chest as his strides grew longer. He found that he was strangely happy, his entire frame filled with a wild joy that he had never before known as the miles disappeared beneath his churning paws.
I was built for this. Me, the seeker of peace, the beast that has despised war for so long…now I want nothing more. I now have the overwhelming desire to sink my fangs into the enemy, to taste his energon and smell his fear. How strange… Breaksteel thought, feeling the air he was breathing growing heavy with the scent of old energon. He knew that his newfound love of battle had been born thanks to Warrior Star and her pack.
The storm gray mech remembered, with stunning clarity, how Warrior Star's cobalt blue optics had lit with a barely-contained hunger as she had looked upon the mechs that Steelbite commanded. He saw again how Moonflight's dark red optics blazed with energy and how he had cut down the mechs surrounding him, in spite of his broken limb. He heard the unbridled joy in Swiftpaw's voice as the gold mech had howled his challenge to the skies before tearing after a fleeing mech, his eager love of battle lending swiftness to his paws. He smelled the energon of fallen mechs as Shadowfang's massive jaws tore them to pieces, his flame red optics glowing madly as he attacked again and again. And he tasted again the dirt flung up by Keystone's mighty paws as the black mech slammed his opponents down, never to rise again.
As Breaksteel saw the trees thinning in front of him, he felt his spark change pace and heard its tone change as it called for its match, and he knew Warrior Star was near. Spotting a big mech with his back to him, Breaksteel cut his stride a fraction, knowing in the depths of his frame what he had to do.
The enemy mech never knew what hit him. Breaksteel's claws ripped through the other mech's armor with chilling ease, and the storm gray mech knew he had Ratchet and Ironhide to thank for that. And as his jaws closed on his target's spine, he heard the mech scream, and somewhere way in the back of his mind, he relished the sound. It was a numbing realization, but Breaksteel pushed it away as the mech fell, hitting the ground with a crash that rivaled the thunder roaring around them.
Every Cybertronian present turned at the commotion, and Breaksteel stood on his kill proudly, his light yellow optics hard and cold as his gaze swept across the faces of those present. Then he found her.
Warrior Star stood proudly, surrounded on all sides with Steelbite a mere paws' length away, but her optics were locked on him. Those dark, cobalt blue optics, so mysterious and so wise, were all Breaksteel saw, and he saw the bitterness and the cold rage in her optics fade when she looked at him. He felt his own optics soften in response, then Steelbite shifted, and Breaksteel's gaze went to him immediately. Instantly the storm gray mech's gaze hardened again, and he looked back to his femme before speaking a few cutting sentences that made every mech present tense up uneasily.
"Finish him, Warrior Star. Leave the rest to me." Breaksteel saw the understanding flash through her optics, and then he was airborne, hurtling into a group of mechs as the bronze femme twisted and went for Steelbite.
The warrior femme didn't need his help to take down the dark mech, but she would need someone to keep the rest of the mechs off her back while she did so. Breaksteel gladly set his sights on a mech, using paws, jaws, and claws to cause a worthwhile distraction as most of the mechs present turned to him.
This foray might just kill me. Primus, it might kill us both. But it will be well worth the sacrifice, if Steelbite dies here today. Breaksteel thought as he reared onto his hind paws, striking out and ripping open a mech's face as another set his dentals into the storm gray mech's leg. Snarling, Breaksteel turned, digging a forepaw into the mech's neck and tearing him off as more of them hit him, some landing on his back while others went for his neck and face.
There are just too many. Too many… Breaksteel thought, feeling his legs trembling under the strain as he raised his head, watching a mech charge at him. He bared his fangs, letting loose with a howl as the enemy got within striking distance. Then came an unexpected turn of events.
Where he came from, Breaksteel would never know, but suddenly, Moonflight was there. The Predacon turned, lashing out with a razor-edged wing as the enemy mech struck. The mech's body stopped but his head didn't, and the dismembered body part smacked into the face of a mech still on Breaksteel's back. Said mech let go with a shocked screech, only to scream aloud when Moonflight's deadly talons sank into his back and snapped his spine.
The golden brown thunderbird beat his mighty wings, and then he was airborne, circling in the skies as he channeled the lightning from the storm and turned his most powerful weapon on Breaksteel's tormentors. Breaksteel felt it when Moonflight dove from the sky, his entire frame pulsing with electricity as he slammed into the mechs clinging on to the storm gray mech, most of them letting go as the electricity sent them gyrating crazily across the muddy ground.
Breaksteel himself was mostly unharmed by the Predacon's attack, and he immediately turned his attention to the mechs still attached to his frame. He was in the midst of peeling one off his leg when a stunning howl ripped through the air, and he raised his head in time to see Shadowfang and Keystone arrive on the scene. They headed straight for the mechs surrounding Warrior Star and Steelbite, giving their sister some much-needed breathing room as they bulled through the enemy ranks and sent several mechs tumbling. With Moonflight still circling above and Keystone and Shadowfang tearing through every enemy mech in sight, Breaksteel finally turned to watch the battle between Steelbite and Warrior Star, and he felt his spark freeze at what he saw.
Broken trees and large furrows in the mud were mute witnesses to the battle that had already raged there. Torn and mangled armor from both combatants littered the battleground, and energon was splattered everywhere, still so fresh from the warring bots' lines that it steamed every time the rain hit it. The bronze femme stood undaunted as her energon poured down her frame, most of her armor coated with it as she bared broken and energon-stained fangs at her enemy. Steelbite fared only slightly better, his armor rended and torn as rain and energon dripped off of him like a glowing river in the dark.
Breaksteel stood frozen, unaware of the screams of the mechs still dying around him, barely noticing when Moonflight dove again and slammed a mech to the ground within a few feet of him. The bronze femme, his femme, the mighty and legendary Guardian of the ages, was dying. He saw it, in every tremor that went through her frame as her spark pulsed weakly in her chest. She had lost far too much energon, and she knew it.
For just a moment, Warrior Star's tired optics swept to his, and her gaze softened with affection and a trace of sorrow as she stared at him. From the corner of his optics, Breaksteel saw it when Steelbite noticed Warrior Star's momentary lapse in concentration, and the dark mech charged.
NO! The primal, animalistic scream came from so deep within Breaksteel's processor that it took him by surprise. He was just as stunned to realize that he was suddenly moving forward with a speed he had never, ever moved with before. And yet…everything was going in slow motion. Warrior Star's gentle, loving optics were still locked on his, Steelbite was growing closer to the wounded femme with every second, and Breaksteel was just not…moving…fast…enough.
Breaksteel saw Steelbite's jaws open, gaping wide as he went for Warrior Star's neck, where the armor plates had already been ripped away and the energon lines shredded during the fighting. With one last mighty leap and a roar, the storm gray mech landed, and he twisted sharply to try and cut Steelbite off before it was too late.
The gut-wrenching sound of jaws closing and metal tearing echoed into the night, and following right after it was a chilling scream. Then a crash as someone fell, and finally all was silent in the night.
A/N: And another chapter! I'm on a roll again! Wheeeeeee!
Well. Cliffy. Hmm. Someone died. I just haven't decided who yet. *facepalm* Yersss indeedy...I went there. Aren't I just a terrible tease?
Anyway! I'm enjoying my weekend quite a lot. Hopefully my fine readers are as well!
To all my lovely and kind reviewers, thank you so very much for taking the time to stop in a leave me a note! And Kaylee, I gotcha. Totally. Been at this more than a few years, been in that boat a few times myself. My main problem right now is I've had enough of my platoon leader. Hell, the whole damn platoon's had enough of him. The new sergeant we got just happens to be the platoon sergeant that we've been waiting for for several months now. Trust me, no one was more surprised than me when he told me that the LT wanted to hit me with paperwork on...Wednesday? Yeah, Wednesday, and that he (the PSG) stopped him. I could not believe my ears. Any other sergeant in his position would have stepped aside and let the LT paper me from head to toe, but he stopped him. I'm still trying to figure out why, lol.
And DJ, hey there! Been awhile, old friend! Nice of you to stop by!
As always, love if you will, hate if you must. I will take anything that you care to dispense.
Until we meet again...
Kani