Here's chapter 8 everyone! This chapter is kinda serious, but it has a great ending :D One hint: involves a question that all younglings eventually ask~
I want everyone to pay close attention to the interaction between Prowl and Bolt, as it's going to play a somewhat major part in this story.
Thank you for the reviews! I hope to get more!
Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers, it belongs to HasTak. I own Aquafire, her trine, Wildfire, Sky Blitz, and Lightning Bolt.
P.S: Only four more days until the new season of Transformers Prime! How excited are you all?
Remeber to review everyone! Happy Valentines Day! Love you all!
"Watch it, Powerglide!" Aquafire growled as she roared past him.
"How about you watch it?" He grumbled. The two continued their patrol in an uneasy silence before they were called back to the Ark. Aquafire grumbled to herself as she headed inside, making a bee-line straight for Prowl's office. Bolt preferred to stay with him, Jazz or the twins whenever Aquafire went on patrol and today he was with Prowl. When she walked in, she found her son studying a datapad with Prowl pointing things out for him. It was common knowledge that Bolt was being taught by various members of the Ark but it was mostly the officers who gave him his education.
"It seems our lesson will be cut short," Prowl informed the youngling when he finally caught sight of Aquafire.
"No, you may continue," She told him. "I was just making sure he was here," Prowl nodded and continued teaching Bolt. The Seeker turned and left, heading for the rec room this time.
"Can we interest you in," Sideswipe fell into step with her.
"Some high-grade perhaps?" Sunstreaker finished, walking on her other side. The twins had somehow wormed their way into her spark to become some of her best friends.
"High-grade sounds great," She muttered. Without a word, the twins accompanied her to the rec room and got three cubes of the potent energon. "Touch me and I will break your servo," She growled at Sideswipe. The red twin groaned at having been caught and drank some of his energon. Now that they'd gotten past the 'come near me and I'll kill you' phase, the twins had made a game of trying to see who could touch her before she snapped. So far, Sideswipe held the record. He'd managed to hug her for a good Earth minute before she threatened to blast him.
"Why are you so grumpy?" Sunstreaker asked.
"Yeah, why are you so grumpy?" Sideswipe echoed.
"Haven't had a decent frag in a while," She growled out. It was no secret that Aquafire had slept with a few of the Autobots since getting the all clear from Ratchet but not everyone trusted a Seeker femme in their berth.
"We would gladly help you with that," Sideswipe grinned.
"Uh.. no," She snorted at him. "You've used Jet Judo on me so many times... still don't trust ya."
"Oh come on," Sunstreaker whined at her then. "That was like a millinia ago!"
"Yes but it doesn't mean I haven't forgotten about it," She grumbled. "You two molested me in my jet form!"
"It was a harmless grope," Sideswipe smiled wickedly.
"Lies!" She burst out laughing along with the twins. "We've got a good thing going boys, I don't want to ruin it," It was a half-truth. They actually just reminded her of Steel Wing and Storm Ridge, which brought up painful memories for her.
"Keep telling yourself that," Sunstreaker scoffed. "When's the last time you waxed?"
"Last week I think," She shrugged. "Why?"
"A femme should never look like that," He snorted at her as he flicked a dirty piece of armor on her shoulder.
"I don't like being the center of attention, and waxing would most certainly put me in the spot light," She grumbled.
"You love being the center of attention, don't lie," Sideswipe teased her.
"Only when I dance," She corrected him,
"True," He nodded. "Go dance," He smirked then.
"No, and I will not dance for you in private either," She cut Sunstreaker off before he could get a word in. The twins groaned and continued to chat with the femme. "I'm going out for a flight," She stood up, making the twins grumble angrily though they didn't protest. Aquafire ran by Prime's office to tell him she was leaving the base before she did so. Like the Decepticon Seekers, she'd chosen to take the form of a jet, though it was slimmer because of her femme build. Once she was in the air, she felt most of her worries melt away and gave a sigh of relief. No one would bother her up here.
-X-X-X-
"Mama, you still haven't told me who Megatron is," Bolt commented once she picked him up from his weapon class with Ironhide. They'd thought it best that he begin learning some self-defense and Ironhide thought it would be good if the youngling knew how to identify weapons should he be faced with a 'Con who had a weapon that could kill him rather than stun him. Aquafire sighed and sat on their shared berth, offlining her optics to gather her thoughts as she absentmindedly stroked his twitching doorwings.
"Megatron... I used to admire him, I still do," She began. "He is the leader of the Decepticons."
"Those bad bots with the purple marking?" Aquafire nodded and watched as Bolt looked to where her own Decepticon marking had once been. "Mama, you used to be a Decepticon, right?"
"Yes, I used to be one," She nodded.
"Why did you leave?" She inhaled sharply at this. She'd been hoping to wait until he was older to tell him but it seemed fate had other plans.
"My... my wingmates died in battle," She told him softly. "Do you know what wingmates are?"
"Um..." He scrunched up his faceplates as he tried to recall what they were.
"Wingmates are the ones who would fly with me and protect me," She explained gently. "They were my family and the ones who kept me in check." Bolt giggled softly. He knew she had a wild streak, he'd seen it before many times while back on Cybertron. "I loved them dearly."
"But what do they have to do with you leaving the Decepticons?" Aquafire sometimes cursed his youngling curiosity.. and today was one of those days.
"Well, sweetspark, when they died I... became unstable," Her vents hitched a little. "I blamed myself for them being offline, I still do. I'd lost my Creators back before I joined Megatron so that weighed heavily on my spark as well. I didn't think of myself as worthy to be alive..."
"But then you found me!" He chirped with a big smile.
"Yes, then I found you," She kissed his helm. "Primus gave you to me for a reason, Bolt, and I feel blessed that he gave me a second chance like this." She felt a longing ache in her spark then. Bolt was not her own creation, no matter how much she wished he was, and because she now knew she'd had a sparkling terminated... it only made the ache that much worse.
"Mama?" Aquafire jolted and realized she'd stopped talking. From the expression on the youngling's faceplates, he was obviously worried. "Do we need to go see Ratchet?"
"No, sweetspark, I'm fine," She assured with a smile. She would wait until he was in recharge to go see the medic, she saw no reason to worry the youngling. "I left Megatron because I had no other reason to follow him and because I knew he would take you away from me if I went back to him."
"I'm glad you left," He mumbled, rubbing his optics tiredly. "I like being with the Autobots. Do you?"
"I'm getting there," She told him honestly. This seemed to satisfy him as he offlined his optics and fell into recharge, exhausted from his exciting day. Aquafire kissed his helm and settled him on the berth before she slipped away. She headed for the med bay and went inside, yelping as she dove to avoid a wrench. "Ratchet!" She hissed when she stood up.
"I thought it was one of the pit-spawned twins," He grunted though Aquafire doubted his words. "What's wrong?"
"Just a bit of ache in my spark," She sighed, getting on one of the exam berths. Ratchet walked over and began a quick scan of her before he asked to look at her spark. Aquafire reluctantly allowed him to and waited patiently for him to finish.
"Well, nothing seems to be wrong," He finally grumbled. "Just take it easy, that's all I can tell you."
"Alright," Aquafire got off the berth and moved to leave. A red servo clamped down on her own white one and she whipped around.
"Aquafire, I know it's hard but you have to move on," He told her gruffly. "As far as I can tell, the pain is just residual and perhaps even a bit of an illusion from your memories."
"I'll try," She sighed. Ratchet only nodded as he released her servo and watched her leave.
"Leave her alone you two," Ratchet snapped as he turned around. The twins stood at the door leading to med bay 2 and both wore matching frowns. "She doesn't need you both fragging up her life anymore than it already is."
"We just want to help," Sideswipe's frown deepened. "We want to find out who really offlined her wingmates."
"It couldn't have been an Autobot," Sunstreaker grumbled as he recalled the memory of watching Steel Wing being shot down.
"Don't discuss this with me," Ratchet sighed. "It's Aquafire you want to talk with about this. I don't know if she wants to let you help but you can try."
"Hatchet, we'll help one way or another," Sideswipe's frown turned into a grin. "You of all mech's know just how persistent we are." He ducked to avoid a wrench.
"When she decides to tear your arms off, I'm just going to laugh at you!" Ratchet growled at him.
"Just watch us work our magic as the humans say," Sunstreaker smirked.
"Come on, Sunny! We've got planning to do!" Sideswipe cackled as he raced out of the med bay.
"Don't call me Sunny!" Sunstreaker snarled as he went after his brother. Ratchet only shook his helm as he went about cleaning and organizing the med bay. Those two were just asking to be offlined.
-X-X-X-
For the next several solar cycles, or days as Aquafire learned to call them, the twins pestered her, asking various questions about how her wingmates were taken down. Each time they asked though, she would either become extremely distraught and begin crying or she would aim her blaster at them, threatening to kill them if they continued on.
"Mama, Sunstreaker and Sideswipe are here again," Bolt yawned after having answered the door. Aquafire grumbled tiredly and checked her chronometer. It was about 3 in the morning! What the frag did the twins want?
"Tell them to go away," She rumbled.
"Kay," She heard the soft shuffling of his pede's as he walked to the door and opened it. "Mama says go away."
"Not going to happen," Sideswipe chirped. "Tell your mother to get her lazy aft up."
"Don't you dare repeat that, Bolt," Aquafire growled. Angrily, she got up and walked to the door, telling Bolt to go back to sleep as she glared at the twins. Her wings were held higher than usual, a sign they knew meant she was completely slagged off. By now, they knew most of what each wing position meant but some still escaped them. "What in the name of Primus do you two want? It's early!"
"Tell us what happened and we'll gladly leave you alone," Sunstreaker grunted. Exhausted, Aquafire stepped outside the room and closed the door.
"Fine, I'll talk," She finally gave in. "But if we're going to do this, I want to go to the rec room to get some energon." The twins nodded and basically escorted her to the rec room before all three got some energon.
"Start talking," Sideswipe hummed once they found a place to sit. Aquafire flicked her wings as she sipped at her cube of energon and then slowly set it down. She explained all that she knew to the twins and they listened quietly, waiting until the end to ask any questions and give their opinions.
"Sounds like the shot that took down Storm Ridge came from the Decepticon side," Sunstreaker grumbled after hearing how the two had been positioned. "He was facing the Decepticon side when it happened, correct?" Aquafire nodded. "Most of the fighting was occurring on the Autobot side from what we know so not many Autobots were present on the side he was facing."
"It might have been accidental friendly fire," Sideswipe cut in. "It's sometimes quite hard to distinguish one another in the middle of a huge battle like that."
"Sideswipe, I doubt anyone from the Decepticons took him down," Aquafire muttered.
"Femme, did anyone have anything against you and your trine?" Sunstreaker snapped at her.
"Sunstreaker, none of the Decepticons are what you would exactly call friends," She frowned at him. "While it's true that many other Seekers hated my trine because we fought better than them, none of them would even think of harming us. The Coneheads were similar to what one would call a guardian and no one wanted to deal with them on a rampage."
"What about the Elite trine?" Sideswipe looked at her.
"Never was Starscream's favorite," She snorted. "Slagger had an issue with me from the moment we joined the Decepticons. Hated the fact that a trine led by a femme could actually be useful and powerful for that matter."
"We'll add Starscream to the list," Sunstreaker crossed his arms over his chest. As they'd been talking, they'd made a small list of bots they suspected to have been the ones to down the two Seekers and Starscream was now at the top of that list.
"If that is all, I'll be going back to my quarters," Aquafire moved to get up but Sideswipe stopped her. She looked at him curiously and let out a small squeak when he yanked her down.
"When do you have a day off?" He asked, stroking a servo down between her wings as he'd seen Jazz do to Prowl at one time. It had the desired affect as she instantly relaxed and slumped in her seat.
"Tomorrow is my off day," She muttered. "I haven't spent much time with Bolt lately and I think he might have something to do with that day off."
"Always knew Prowl had a soft spark," Sunstreaker smirked.
"Then again, who can resist a youngling?" Sideswipe hummed and smiled. Sunstreaker nodded in agreement to this and looked at the Seeker femme.
"Why do you want to know?" She asked wearily.
"Just wondering," Sideswipe smiled at her. Aquafire scowled and wrenched herself away from the red frontliner before she left. The twins looked at each other and smirked before they wandered off to their own quarters to get some recharge in before the day officially started.
-X-X-X-
"Mama, what was that about?" Bolt asked a very flustered Aquafire. The twins had, without warning, pinned Aquafire and grabbed her aft before running off with matching grins.
"I'll tell you when you're older," She bit out. She honestly didn't feel like explaining to him why the twins thought it was appropriate to grope a bot in front of a youngling.
"They like you," He giggled at her.
"The twins like anything that moves," She grumbled quietly.
"Mama, what does it mean to 'face someone?" Aquafire sputtered and looked at her son in shock.
"SUNSTREAKER! SIDESWIPE! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" Bolt watched as his mother tore off through the Ark in search of the twins who were howling with laughter.