I'm so happy last chapter was such a hit! But I think everyone and their mom say this chapter coming XD Forgive my attempt at humor lol, I'm exhausted, got home from work not even an hour ago.
Lots of stuff going on in this chapter~ Can anyone else say suspicious? lol you will once you read this chapter!
Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers, it belongs to HasTak. I claim Aquafire, her late trine mates, Skyblitz, Wildfire and Lightning Bolt.
Remember to review everyone! Reviews are love~ And I love you all so much for sticking with me this long!
Aquafire stood just outside the entrance of the Ark, watching the horizon with a grim expression on her faceplates. She heard someone approaching but paid them no mind as she focused on the sky.
"Oh, its you," Aquafire turned her helm and frowned.
Sideswipe.
"Shouldn't you be getting your beauty rest with Sunstreaker?" She sneered at him.
"Ha ha, very funny," He rolled his optics. "Why are you out here? It's early."
"None of your business," She snorted. "Go back inside." Sideswipe stubbornly stayed where he was and kept his optics locked on the back of her helm. Aquafire ignored him, twitching only slightly when she picked up the sound of jet engines. "We have company," She muttered, blaster already powering up.
"Already alerted Optimus," Sideswipe grunted, moving to stand near her. They heard a crazed cackle and realized Skywarp had teleported ahead of the other Decepticons. Sideswipe leapt at him with a loud whoop, startling the mech horribly. She watched with a blank expression as the red frontliner was taken down by Thundercracker. "Why're you just standing there?" He demanded, struggling to get up. He found a blaster pointed straight at his face and looked up to find Aquafire on the other end of it. "What the frag?"
"Sorry, Sideswipe," She aimed and shot him through the shoulder, barely even wincing when he howled in pain. She looked to the Decepticons and nodded before transforming and taking off with them.
The Autobots came rushing out a few breems later, stunned to find Sideswipe on the ground, seemingly unconscious.
"Out of my way!" Sunstreaker pushed his way forward and dropped to his knees beside his brother, rolling him onto his back gently to get a good look at him. "What the Pit happened?"
"Decepticons..." He panted softly. "Surprise... attack..." He sent a quick databurst to his twin, showing him the visual of what had occurred. Sunstreaker's optics widened and narrowed as he nodded. He helped his brother back inside to the med bay where Ratchet was waiting for them and scowled. Sideswipe told Optimus what he knew while Ratchet worked on him.
"Something's not right," Sunstreaker grunted, leaning against the wall.
"Indeed," Optimus agreed. "This does not make sense to me. You say she willingly went with them?"
"Yes, sir," Sideswipe nodded. "She's the one that shot me."
"She knew where to aim though," Ratchet muttered. "She wasn't aiming to kill you, that's for sure."
"Could she have been forced into it?" Sideswipe held back a wince as Ratchet jarred his wound.
"It's quite possible," Optimus nodded. "The little bit of evidence we have though, is of no use unless we can boost the volume higher than what it already is. Without knowing what was spoken, we cannot know whether she was forced into this or chose to leave on her own." The twins shared a look that was not missed by either bot.
"Whatever you two are thinking, get it out of your processors," Ratchet snapped. "Charging in without a plan is what gets bots killed."
"We aren't going to be saving her aft this time," Sunstreaker snorted. "She wants to be with the Decepticons, let her." Optimus merely sighed and walked out, leaving Ratchet to work in peace.
-X-X-X-
"You had better keep your end of this deal, Megatron," Aquafire hissed at the warlord.
"As long as you remain here, I will," He smirked at her. "You have free reign here, do what you please," He waved her off then. Aquafire sneered and walked off only to run into the Coneheads.
"Aquafire-"
"Be quiet, Ramjet!" She snapped at him. "Why couldn't you all leave me alone? I was fine being with the Autobots! I didn't have to worry about anything and Bolt was safe! You've taken me away from my son!"
"We merely wanted you to be safe," Thrust cut in.
"I was safe," She snapped. "Safe from Megatron. Safe from Starscream. And safe from Shockwave... do you have any idea what he did to me?" The Coneheads shook their helms. "He extinguished my sparkling."
"What?" Ramjet was outraged at this. Extinguishing a sparkling's spark was something that was unforgivable but to do so to a Seeker? Most never remained online long enough to tell another why you should never do so.
"Now do you see why I didn't want to return?" She scowled. "Now, kindly leave me alone." She turned and stormed off, angry at herself and the others.
"Hello, Aquafire," A raspy voice caught her attention.
"Starscream," She scowled at him, not really up to fighting him at the moment."Still sore about that beating I gave you?" She smirked at his sour expression.
"Still unable to hold your glossa I see," He sniffed. "Why Megatron had you return to us, I will never know. You are of no use to the Decepticon cause."
"I don't understand why he did this either," She snorted. "I left the Decepticons for a reason, Starscream." She offered him no further explanation as she shoved past him. Starscream stared after her, optics glinting with anger though his attention was quickly torn away from the femme by Ramjet and his trine.
"Stay away from her, Starscream," Ramjet growled. "We made the mistake of allowing you near her in the past and we will not make the same mistake again."
"I am your commanding officer," Starscream hissed. "You have no right telling me what I can and cannot do."
"Even you cannot defy Vosian law," Thrust snapped at him. "The old ways are not yet dead."
"What the Pit are you squawking about?" Starscream sneered at them.
"Under Vosian law you cannot harm a Seeker under the protection of a fully formed trine," Dirge smirked at him. Starscream's optics widened for a fraction of a second before he narrowed them and growled in frustration.
"We didn't want to enforce it before but you forced us to," Ramjet grunted. "So stay away from her." The Coneheads each gave the SIC a dirty look as they walked by and disappeared down another hallway.
"One of these days..." He growled. "She will suffer the same fate as her trine."
-X-X-X-
Sideswipe pushed himself up and leaned back against the wall in his and his brothers quarters with a sigh. Sunstreaker was pacing in the center of the room, growling and muttering to himself as he did so.
"Bro, you're going to wear out your joints doing that," Sideswipe snorted. "Why the frag are you so upset anyway?"
"She shot you," He snapped. "She shot you but without the intent to offline you."
"So? What's your point?" Sideswipe rolled his optics.
"If she was really going to betray us and rejoin the Decepticons, she would have offlined you," He growled out. "Something isn't adding up and its frustrating!"
"We've already established that," Sideswipe sighed. "We can't do anything until we know for certain if she left us of her own free will or not." The red twin looked down at his servos then, scowling. "Bro... what if... what if we're the reason she left?"
"That's ridiculous," Sunstreaker snorted.
"No, not really," Sideswipe shook his helm. "We were pushing her kinda hard, bro..." The red frontliner thumped his head against the wall then. Sunstreaker collapsed onto his berth with a heavy sigh.
"We fragged up," He grumbled. "Big time."
"Yeah, we did," Sideswipe agreed with a groan. "Hasn't even been a day and I already sorta miss her. Ain't the same when she isn't here messing with us or 'Hide."
"I don't miss it," Sunstreaker snorted, though Sideswipe was not convinced.
"Whatever you say, bro," Sideswipe wheezed out a laugh, wincing when his freshly repaired shoulder was jerked from the movement.
"We need to prank Ironhide," Sunstreaker suddenly said. "Haven't done that in a while." Sideswipe knew his brother was bored and utterly frustrated if he was the one suggesting they prank Ironhide, especially when that prank could involve something that resulted in his paint getting slagged.
"Yeah, we do," Sideswipe agreed after a moment. "Tomorrow, though, I'm still pretty tired."
"Right," Sunstreaker grunted and swung his legs over the berth, getting himself comfortable so he could rest.
Sideswipe watched his brother and shifted to lay down as well, just staring up at the ceiling as he did so. They would find a way to make things right with Aquafire, if and when they got her back, no matter what it took.
"We'll get her back, bro, you'll see," He muttered before falling into recharge. Sunstreaker caught what his twin said and snorted softly, offlining his own optics a second later.
-X-X-X-
"Why am I not surprised?" Hook grumbled when he came out of his office to find Aquafire settled on one of the exam berths. It had been only a few days since her return and he'd been praying that she would stay out of trouble, yet trouble always seemed to find her. "Femme, what trouble have you gotten into this time?" He stalked up to the berth, visor dark with a scowl.
"Starscream started it," She snorted.
"You baited him," Ramjet scowled at his charge. He'd kept close to her since her return though he wasn't as suffocating as the twins had been. The two began to bicker though they quickly stopped when Hook growled at them to mute it. He quickly set to work repairing the femme Seeker, grumbling to himself as he did so.
"If I see you in here again any time soon I will personally dismantle you," He threatened. Aquafire stuck her glossa out at him and yelped when Ramjet smacked her helm, causing her to bite her glossa.
"Serves ya right," He smirked at her. Hook rolled his optics behind his visor and growled at them to leave. He watched the two Seekers dart out and wondered just how long it would be before Aquafire was back in the med bay.
Aquafire grumbled as she trudged through the Decepticon base, wings held high and stiff on her back as she did so. Many of the Decepticons were learning, or rather re-learning, why they shouldn't frag off a Seeker, specifically a femme Seeker who had been taken from her son.
"I heard Commander Shockwave is coming here to Earth," She froze then and listened.
"Really? Why?" Another Decepticon asked, slightly shocked.
"Dunno," The other responded. "I've only heard rumors from the command centre but I guess it might have to do with that Seeker..." Aquafire vented out harshly and kept moving.
Shockwave.
Just his name alone had the femme growling with anger. He'd taken away her sparkling, destroyed it without her knowledge. If she'd even suspected she was carrying back then, she would have fought him harder. He'd destroyed the only remaining piece of Storm Ridge, destroyed his memory entirely.
'He will pay for that,' She thought to herself angrily. Aquafire was drawn from her thoughts when she once again ran into Starscream, who, as usual, sneered at her.
"Back for more, femme?" He taunted, narrowing his optics.
"No," She growled. "But if you don't move, you'll be the one in the med bay instead of me." The Air Commander scowled at her and opened his mouth to retort when he caught sight of Thrust.
"One of these days, your guardians won't be around to protect you," He snarled. "And then, you will join your trine in the Well of Sparks." Aquafire moved to strike but was held back by Soundwave.
"Desist." Aquafire scowled and wrenched her wrist from his grasp before stomping away.
"I did not require your assistance, Soundwave," Starscream growled at the TIC.
"Starscream: unable to filter what comes out of vocals." The monotone pointed out. "Do you wish to alert her to-"
"Enough, Soundwave!" Starscream hissed at the mech then. "She could still be within hearing range." Soundwave knew she was not of course, Thrust had already escorted the femme to the far side of the base by then. "I suppose you were right to step in when you did, if you had not..." Starscream grimaced a bit.
"Starscream: be advised. Aquafire: on edge and volatile."
"Tell me something I don't know," He snorted.
"Femme: Wants revenge against Shockwave for termination of sparkling." Now Soundwave had his attention.
"Shockwave... terminated a sparkling?" Starscream was beyond shocked. Had it been a groundpounder's sparkling, he wouldn't have cared, but that wasn't the case. He may not have gotten along with Aquafire, or liked her for that matter, but she was a Seeker, sparked and raised in Vos, the same as he.
Seekers were viciously protective of sparklings and younglings, to the point that they would kill a bot if they dared to harm a sparkling. They had deep coded protocols regarding sparklings and the most basic one was to protect the young spark from harm. If a Seeker or other bot was sparked, any Seekers in the vicinity would instantly know and would practically latch themselves onto that particular bot, helping them in any way possible, though this was rare as mates tended to get jealous and even threatened by the Seekers presence.
"Thank you, Soundwave," Starscream made a sound similar to that of a human clearing his throat. "I will... keep that in mind," The Seeker turned and left, heel-thrusters clicking a steady rhythm as he did so. Soundwave left as well, heading back to his own quarters, visor glinting in the dull light of the base. He knew how protective Seekers were of sparklings and knew that not even Starscream would be able to hide his disgust and horror at what Shockwave had done to the Air Commanders fellow Seeker. He would use this to his advantage of course, to keep the mech in line when he started running his mouthplates again.
For now though, he would sit back and watch as the two Seekers went at each other. He knew it was only a matter of time before a mistake was made and everything went to the Pit.
It was merely a waiting game.