Here's chapter 14 everyone! So, what did everyone think of last chapter? Lots of stuff to think about! Aquafire finds herself in a bit of trouble this chapter and with more confrontations with the twins. Classic moment in this one I think.
I love all of my reviewers right now! You make me so happy when you all review! Keep it up! Oh, and I need sparkling names~ I'm not saying whose sparkling it will be yet but I need names! Femme and mech names to be exact~
Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers, HasTak does. I claim only Aquafire, her trine, Skyblitz, Wildfire, and Lightning Bolt.
Two months passed after that and slowly, everyone became used to the fights between Aquafire and the twins. Whether it was verbal or physical, it always drew a crowd of some sort, though most bots were there to ensure no serious damage was done. Most of the time, they stayed out of each others ways but somehow, they always got into a confrontation.
"Mia, Ah know that look." Chromia blinked up at her mate innocently before turning to lock her optics back on the dancing form of Aquafire. "Wha' are yah thinkin', femme?"
"Just... worried about Aquafire is all," She frowned.
"She can take care a herself," Ironhide grunted.
"I know that but... she's going back to her old ways, 'Hide, and it's worrying me." Ironhide set his cube aside and wrapped an arm around the smaller femme, holding her close.
"Talk to meh," He rumbled.
"When she first started out with us, we thought it was nothing," She began. "She'd slip out of the base and disappear for a few hours before she returned, sometimes overenergized. When we finally found out about her wingmates... it all began to make sense."
"Wha' was she doin'?" Ironhide frowned a bit.
"She was going to the Kaon pleasure houses," The red mech vented sharply at this. "The ones that offered mech's of course. 'Hide, she was recklessly interfacing to hide the pain from her losses and as a way to get over it."
"An' that's wha' she's doin now," He rumbled. "The question is... why? An' don't be tellin' meh it's because o' those blasted pit-spawned glitches either. That ain't it."
"But it is," She protested softly. "Look at her and look at them, see anything familiar?" Ironhide decided to humor his bonded and looked over at Aquafire, who was happily seated in some random mechs lap, before he looked at Sunstreaker and Sideswipe. Each mech had a femme beside them, chatting it up casually as their servos traced their frames in a teasing manner. As Ironhide looked between them, he couldn't help but notice how the twins occasionally looked over towards Aquafire when their femmes weren't paying attention and he sure as Pit didn't miss the looks that Aquafire shot the frontliners and their femmes.
"Primus..." He whispered softly.
"See, 'Hide?" Chromia raised an optic ridge at her bonded.
"Mia, stay outta it," Ironhide growled softly. "Yah ain't got no business meddling in their affairs. If they wanna apologize, let 'em do it on their own. Until then, let 'em yell an' scream at one another, they needa get it outta their systems first."
"All three of them are about as dense as you are," She snorted. "But I still love you."
"Yah had better, femme," He smirked. Chromia leaned up and kissed him soundly. Ironhide kissed back and grabbed her up before hurrying back to his quarters.
Aquafire kissed her current mech with a low purr, groaning as he stroked her wings and rubbed them.
"If you want to continue, I suggest we take this to another room," She hummed as he broke away and cautiously nuzzled her cockpit. Aquafire thanked Primus once again that Bolt didn't have to see her this way. She was disappointed in herself for turning to this but she'd be damned if she stopped now.
"Of course," His engine revved, sending a delightful vibration through the Seeker's frame. Aquafire wiggled out of his lap and followed him, holding his hand with a bright smile. She threw a smug look back at the twins before disappearing with her mech. They both snorted and turned their attention to the femmes now in their laps. It wasn't often that they went for a femme each, usually they shared just one but not many could handle the both of them. Their femmes didn't seem to have noticed the exchange as they prattled on, admiring the twins and fawning over them as they had been doing the whole time.
A mech could get used to this kind of attention.
-X-X-X-
Aquafire snuggled close to her current berthmate and sighed softly, her processor wandering back to what Ramjet had told her two months ago. She didn't often think about it but there were just times when the thought crept up on her. He'd said that her Creators had asked him to watch over her but she simply could not believe something like that. Sure, he and his trine had always been there for her and her trine but she didn't see how it could have meant anything to her.
She vaguely remembered Sunstreaker and Sideswipe promising to help her find out who killed her wingmates and scoffed.
Some help they were.
Aquafire was tempted to return to the Decepticons if only to find out who killed her wingmates but she quickly brushed it aside. She was never going back to them.
"Something wrong?" The mech who was holding her whispered. Aquafire shifted a little and kissed him, humming.
"Nothings wrong," She assured. "Just... thinking is all." The mech, named Quartz or something like that, only smiled and ran his servo along her back struts, relaxing her greatly. "Thank you for the great time."
"Anytime, babe," He smiled and savored one last kiss from the Seeker femme before he reluctantly released her. Aquafire smiled and slipped away, heading for the public washracks, humming a lively tune as she did so. Once she finished, she decided to go outside and relax.
She felt at ease knowing that Bolt and the Spec Ops team were out training. Relaxing out in the late afternoon sun, Aquafire allowed herself let go of all her worries and fears.
"Why can't it always be like this?" She murmured to herself softly. She stared out over the horizon and watched the serene landscape before her, just basking in its beauty. Earth was certainly full of strange and wonderful things as she was quickly coming to learn. "I wish everything could return to how it was before the war..." She drew her legs up and wrapped her arms around her knees, resting her chin on the joints with a soft x-vent. "Primus... why did you give me yet another chance at life if all I have done is suffer? Why must you be so cruel? No mech here wants me for more than a simple frag..." She felt a small tug at her spark and sighed, a small smile tugging at her lip components.
Finally, she got up and stretched, turning to head inside before the sun went down. Aquafire went to her own quarters and settled down for the night though she didn't fall into recharge just yet.
"Mom?" The voice made her stir from her half-recharging state and online her optics.
"How was training?" She hummed softly, watching as he scurried over and climbed onto the berth with her.
"Jazz worked us hard today," He grumbled. "I'm gonna be sore in the morning."
"That just means you did good," She teased him. The young mech grumbled and curled close, wrapping his arms around his adopted Carrier with a soft sigh. "Get some rest, Bolt, you deserve it," She kissed his helm gently.
"Love you, mama," He rumbled softly.
"Love you too sweetspark." She smiled, optics softening as she watched over him. She wrapped her own arms around the young Praxian and held him close to her. Aquafire once again silently swore that she would always protect her youngling, even at the cost of her own spark...
-X-X-X-
Ratchet could only stand back and stare at the femme now sitting on the exam berth, wondering if he should be smirking or scowling at her.
Aquafire, it seemed, had no trouble with smirking and boasting over her latest conquest. Aside from the dents and scratches in her armor, she had no lasting damage but the thing that really caught Ratchet's attention, was the item held tightly in her servo.
Sunstreaker's arm.
"You realize you'll be going to the brig for this with them, right?" Ratchet drawled, crossing his arms over his chest, lips still attempting to turn up in a grin.
"I know, but it was worth it," She snickered. "If the others hadn't interfered, I probably could have gotten Sideswipe's too."
"As entertaining as this is, I need you to give the arm to me so the drama queen next door will shut his mouthplates." Aquafire only giggled when she heard the yellow warrior howling in the next room, swearing revenge on the Seeker femme for not only ruining his paint job but damaging his frame and removing his arm.
"But I was thinking of mounting it on the wall in my quarters," She hummed. "As a trophy. 'Hide even thought it was a good idea."
"Just give it back," He rolled his optics then. Aquafire scowled and handed the severed appendage to him before he marched into the next room to reattach it to Sunstreaker.
The fragger deserved it anyway, with how he was taunting her that day.
He'd been trying to goad her into a fight all day, purposely brushing against her, shoving her, throwing things at her, saying things in a not so quiet voice. She'd done her best to ignore it but she'd just snapped and threw the first punch. The rest as they say was history.
"She can try all she wants to hide it but the fact remains that she was and always will be a Decepticon." Aquafire winced when she heard this from the next room. "Can't change your true colors."
Maybe he was onto something...
She was drawn from her thoughts by Ratchet.
"Don't be listening to him," He grunted softly. "Fraggers just mad."
"Maybe he's right, Ratchet," She grumbled. This earned her a wrench to the helm and a scowl.
"You've made a lot of progress, Aquafire, don't turn back now," He frowned. He set to work repairing what needed fixing before he sent her off, wanting her to be out of the room when he released the Lamborghini twins.
"Aquafire." Prowl's clipped tone had the femme grumbling as she stopped and turned to face the SIC. "I cannot show favoritism.. you must serve brig time with Sunstreaker and Sideswipe."
"I know, Prowl," She sighed. "I'll go there now," The Praxian nodded and escorted her to the brig silently. She sat on the provided berth with a heavy sigh and just willed the time to go by quickly.
She'd only just fallen into recharge when the alarms around the base began to wail, signaling yet another Decepticon attack. She ran up to the energy bars and started shouting, asking someone, anyone, to release her. Jazz and the others were out in the field training and she wanted to be out there to protect Bolt. Not that she didn't trust Jazz to do so that is but she would have felt better if she were out there as well. A pop was heard from behind her, followed by a familiar giggle that had a shiver traveling down her back struts.
"Skywarp!" She turned around, optics wide as she stared at the grinning black and purple jet.
"Hiya, Aquafire!" He chirped, waving happily. Aquafire gave him an incredulous look, baffled by his sudden appearance, in the Autobot brig of all places.
"What the frag are you doing here?" She hissed at him. "Have you knocked a few chips loose?"
"Nah," He giggled. "Megatron wants you back." This gave the femme pause then. Why in the name of Cybertron would Megatron want her back? Especially after what she'd done. "It's an order, Aquafire, and I don't think you'll enjoy the consequences of going against it." The look in his optics was all she needed to figure out exactly what would happen.
"He won't lay a single digit on my son," She snarled lowly.
"Let's talk then," He grinned viciously.
-X-X-X-
"Optimus, you need to see this!" This was the comm. Optimus received when he returned from the fight.
"What is it, Red Alert?" He walked into the security office, glancing around at the various screens. He would never understand why any sane mech would want to spend all of his time confined in the security center, doing nothing but looking for intruders... among other things.
"It's an outrage is what is is!" He vented sharply, typing in a few commands to retrieve the data and video he wanted to show his commander. "I knew she was a security risk!" He pointed out as the video began to play. Optimus was fairly shocked as he watched the exchange between Aquafire and Skywarp. He could tell that the femme was tense and troubled by the other Seekers sudden appearance, though Skywarp really didn't seem to notice or care for that matter. He watched as Aquafire stiffened up and her wings flared out in sudden aggression and fear.
"Red Alert, can you boost the volume at all?" Optimus murmured. He had to know what was being said...
"I can try," He muttered. Slowly, the volume increased but it wasn't enough, he just couldn't catch what was being said as Red Alert played it from the beginning once more.
"Whatever was said definitely upset Aquafire," The large mech rumbled. "Is she still currently in the brig?"
"Yes, sir," Red Alert brought up the video feed. "I say we just keep her there."
"That is not your decision to make," Optimus gave him a look before marching out. The Matrix-bearer headed straight for the brig, noting with some amount of relief that the twins were already gone, probably having gotten out during the attack. Oh well, Prowl would simply punish them later.
Right now, Aquafire was his only focus.
He stopped just outside her cell and typed in the code to deactivate the energy bars before he stepped inside.
"Aquafire." The femme looked up and suddenly stood at a stiff attention. "I would like to ask you a few questions, if you don't mind?"
"Not at all," She shook her helm.
"Red Alert found a rather... disturbing video feed," Aquafire held completely still even though she was panicking on the inside. "During the attack, Skywarp was here, was he not?"
"Yes," She answered quietly.
"I was unable to pick up what was being said between you, would you like to clarify?" Aquafire couldn't bring herself to look into his optics then.
"Sir, even I could not make sense of his words," She murmured. "He... was taunting me is all." Optimus knew it was more than just mere taunting but he also knew that the femme would not tell him otherwise.
"Aquafire, when you are ready to tell me the truth, come to my office," The Seeker felt like she was a sparkling being scolded by her Creators at that moment. "For now, you are free to go."
"Thank you," She hurried away, pump working hard in her chest. Primus that had been close! Aquafire rushed to her quarters and fell onto her berth, helm in her servos. Too many thoughts going through her processor... Finally, she just fell back and let out a heavy vent. "Guess I really can't change who I am..." She stared up at the ceiling blankly. She offlined her optics and forced herself into recharge. Tomorrow... everything would change.