CHAPTER SIX

Where Are You? Where Am I?

***

I opened my eyes. The first thing I saw was the orange sunlight, streaking in through a window at sundown.

The second thing I saw was the pouch with the Matrix dust in it. I was relieved.

I sat up.

I was in a hotel room I had never been in before, and it was, well, very lavish.

It was so beautiful, but reminiscent of an apartment complex room.

It was nice, though.

I was comfortable.

I was also utterly alone.

I swung my legs over the side of the bed, and stood up. I wish I hadn't.

As soon as I put my weight on my right ankle, my leg buckled. And, when I caught myself after stumbling forward towards the window, my left arm throbbed.

Both were wrapped up in bandages, but I could tell that they were badly sprained.

I sighed. Talk about dejavu. I'd been through this before…

I stared out of the window, in awe at the huge city spread out before me.

I had no idea where I was, but the city seemed almost golden in the afternoon sunlight.

It was…nice.

Wait, I think I did know where I was…uh oh…

Then, I heard the door behind me open, and familiar footsteps come in.

My breath caught in my throat.

I knew those footsteps.

I knew them all too well.

"Emma?" He asked, in a low voice that I had no trouble hearing.

Oh Primus, I had missed his voice so much!

But I wish he hadn't brought me here.

Slowly, I turned around.

*

Bumblebee's P.O.V:

"I told you there was a stasis blaster." Was the first thing I heard when I came to.

Opening my optics, I saw Honey Bee peering worriedly at me, from her safe place in Jazz's arms. Shooting Star, meanwhile, was standing between the Jet twins, one of her hands on each of their legs as she watched me with huge, worried eyes. Her face was white with shock.

I sat up, and shook my head. I looked around. "Where's Barricade?" I asked.

"Andy took care of him." 'Sides said carefully, glancing over to where said fem-bot was sharing a 'moment' with 'Sides's brother.

"Did anyone get hurt?" I asked.

I noticed 'Sides grinning then.

"What?' I asked him.

That was when I noticed the adoring looks Jetfire and Jetstorm were giving my daughter. They both seemed a little bit injured, but she seemed fine, physically.

That could only mean one thin – that they had protected her.

But why..?

I gasped.

"NO!!" I screamed.

*

"NO!!"

I heard the scream and blinked. For a moment, I thought that I had just heard Bee's voice. It sure to hell sounded like it. Then, I shook my head, and turned away from the window.

I turned to look across the room, into the cold red eyes of my formally dead lover.

Starscream.

My breath hitched in my throat painfully, and tears began stinging at my eyes.

He was alive.

How, I knew not.

Why, I could only speculate.

Because of the thing that Megatron had told me about?

Maybe.

It didn't matter.

What mattered now, was that I was facing the man I had long ago thought dead. His holoform stared at me, his red eyes burning as they locked into my green ones.

The class ring on my finger, the ring he had worn many years ago, felt cold on my skin suddenly, and I gulped.

I took a half a step backwards, and began calculating fight or flight.

Starscream must've read my intentions, because he suddenly held up his hands and said: "Emma, please – I didn't bring you here just to lose you again."

His voice…it sounded the exact same as it had the day I'd lost him…the day I'd killed him

He was eyeing me.

I eyed him back, warily.

I took a deep breath. "It's good to see you again too, Screamer." I said in a soft voice.

*

Starscream's P.O.V:

The burning in my spark grew stronger and stronger as I stared at her, taking in every part of her with my starving eyes.

She was still 5'0". She still weighed roughly the same. Her metallic green eyes still shone with a mixture of friendliness and wariness, as she eyed me back.

The only thing that had changed about her was her hair – it was longer.

Other then that, she was still the same girl I had fallen in love with many stellar cycles ago.

"It's good to see you again too, Screamer." She said in the same soft voice she used to use when talking to me before…the incident.

My spark nearly leapt out of my chest then. "Em…it's been…too long…" I stepped towards her, my arms extended.

She put her hands up. "Wait, I can't…"

I frowned. "Can't what?"

"Be with you." She replied, placing her right hand over her left one. Her class ring still sat on her right ring finger. I smiled faintly.

"Why not?" I demanded to know.

She winced suddenly, and drew her right arm closer to her body. "That hurts." She whispered.

Without even thinking, I crossed the room to her, and took her in my arms.

"Screamer, I can't…" She whispered.

"Why not?" I asked her again, holding her at arms length and regarding her carefully. "Em, please, you can tell me Princess – I'm not angry at you anymore."

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, right, after you busted up my arm and leg, thanks a lot, Star."

I huffed a sigh of frustration. "That was an accident!" I told her.

She sighed as well. "Yeah, sure it was." She turned her gaze to look out the window. "They'll come looking for me, you know. You picked a bad place to take me, you know. This I the first place they'd look."

"I don't care," I replied stubbornly. "Let them come. They can't take you away from me again."

She shook her head. "You don't understand." She replied quietly. "It's different for me now…"

"I understand completely," I said. I placed my hand on her chest, and she winced slightly. "I can feel your heart-spark beating."

She gasped. I smirked. She hadn't know that I'd known that she called it that.

Then she just closed her eyes.

Then, I took her left hand, and placed it on my chest. I could tell that she felt my spark warming under her hand, but that wasn't the focus of my attention anymore.

I turned her left hand over in mine, and stared.

I stared at the golden band, glistening brightly on the fourth finger of her left hand.

She said: "I told you so."