"Optimus," Nightstalker heard Ratchet as they entered the main room. "Prepare to initiate phase two. Five miles ahead to the south you will reach the rendezvous point."

"What's up, Doc?" Cliffjumper cajoled to him. Ratchet jumped, then sighed heavily. Eager to be free of her burden more from being uncomfortable with the humans yet than anything, Nightstalker let Miko and Jack down to their couch. Cliffjumper deposited Raf and bounded up to Ratchet. "So I hear the bots have been having a busy day?"

Nightstalker stood uncertainly behind them, watching the dots on the computer that tracked the Autobots. "You have no idea," Ratchet muttered. "It seems there is a human group called MECH that wants to harness the most innovative technology. They're trying to apprehend the DYNGAS from the bots, and they're currently strapped down with orders not to transform—"

Ratchet cut off suddenly, frowning deeper. "Optimus," he warned, "you have company!"

That was when Nightstalker saw the six extra blips on the screen. Decepticons. And by the speed at which they overcame the Autobots, they had to be seekers. She crossed her arms guiltily. If she were a better fighter, she could help the Autobots fight them off in a dog fight. However . . . she wasn't trained in arts like that.

"Engaging," Ratchet reported. Nightstalker's head jerked back up. That meant the Autobots and Decepticons were attacking each other.

There were several minutes of nothing as they waited for the Autobots to scrap the Decepticons. Nightstalker watched Cliffjumper pace agitatedly, muttering things like, "I should be out there . . . Love to scrap me some 'Con scum . . ." and various other things.

"Prime!" They heard Fowler's voice through the open channel. "Silas got wise to phase two!"

"I understand! I—" A burst of static interrupted Optimus's voice. Nightstalker's wings twitched uncertainly, and Cliffjumper whirled around, blue optics narrowing at the screen.

"Prime?" Fowler repeated. "Do you read me? Prime!"

Miko was the first to state the obvious. "Optimus is down!" she burst.

"MECH's gonna grab the DYNGAS!" Jack exploded as well. "We need to think of something quick!"

Nightstalker bit her lip. The other three were too busy fighting off the six 'Cons that had them outnumbered. Optimus was out a little ways, currently locked in a temporary stasis. What could have caused that?

Raf's little voice was a bit hysterical with worry. "You mean . . . like a phase three?"

Cliffjumper growled, stomping up to Ratchet. "All right, enough is enough! Bridge me out there, Doc, I've gotta help!"

Ratchet whirled on him with severe eyes. "NOT against Optimus's orders," he snarled back, "and NOT with only one blaster while both aggressive forces of humans and Decepticons are out there! You are not properly equipped yet!"

Nightstalker quailed away at their anger. She wasn't enough for this either. She couldn't fight.

Jack was mumbling to himself as Cliffjumper fisted his hand in anger. "All right," he said, talking it out, "if MECH wants the DYNGAS, they have to get ON that train."

"What if we get on board first?" Miko cut in excitedly. "You know? Run some human on human interference?"

"Absolutely not!" Ratchet barked out.

Jack nodded. "Yeah. That would be suicide . . ."

"Hel-LO?" Miko burst. "The United States of Meltdown? Lives are at stake!"

"Yes!" Ratchet exploded. "YOURS!" His scowl was terrible to look at. "You not only want me to bridge you into a confined space, but one traveling at ninety miles per hour!" He shook his head with frustration. "I can't even count the number of ways that could go wrong. Mass displacement, trauma, twisted limbs, metal burn!"

The three humans blinked at him slowly, making him backtrack a bit sheepishly. "Well . . . maybe not the last one . . . Regardless! It is nearly impossible to fix ground bridge coordinates on something moving at that speed!"

Nightstalker's optics were fixed on Raf who was typing furiously on his computer. Cliffjumper still paced, furiously grumbling about how he wasn't helpless. "Would it help," Raf asked, squinting at the screen, "if we had access to the train's coordinates?"

Within a few moments a yellow bleep that represented the train showed up. Nightstalker felt pride surge in her chest—the boy was a genius.

Ratchet made a disgruntled face. "Well . . ."

Nightstalker watched with worry while Cliffjumper watched with brewing agitation as Ratchet and Raf calculated the coordinates they needed in a complex math problem. Nightstalker spark twisted apprehensively as both Miko and Jack jumped through the bridge. This wouldn't work, they were sending kids up against full grown men . . .

Her spark and wings fluttered nervously. Cliffjumper paced, continuously arguing with Ratchet that he should be out there, not some kids. Raf hacked the train to help, but was kicked off within a few minutes. This was not good, not good . . .

Mustering every ounce of courage she had left in her, Nightstalker came up to Ratchet. "Use the last coordinates," she said to him, struggling not to stutter. "Let me out there."

He turned with a flabbergasted expression to her. "What? You barely have any functioning to fight with! And you're a Decepticon!"

"WAS a Decepticon!" she fought, wings twitching nervously. She was pretty sure the medical officer could dismantle her in a few seconds. "Just because I haven't got . . ." she let her claws scratch at the symbol on her chest, "this thing removed, doesn't make me a Decepticon! I changed sides, and now I want to help! They're just kids, Ratchet, let me out there!"

The medical bot hesitated, distrust in his eyes, but Jack's distressed voice filled the room. "Ratchet! MECH blew the train tracks! You need to bridge us out of here! The soldiers too!"

"We've lost access to the train data!" he said back with incalculable frustration. "I can't bridge you back without your coordinates!"

"Ratchet!" His blue optics collided with hers again, and Nightstalker threw a furious gesture to the closed bridge. "Open it up! I'm a jet, I can beat that train!"

His optics hesitated for half a second before he locked the last coordinates in and the ground bridge flared open. Nightstalker transformed right in the room and with a blast of her engines, shot through the open bridge.

Wind gusted her immediately, and her spark howled—she was free! Flying! It took all the restrain in the world to hold Nightstalker back and focus on the extreme matter at hand. Dashing in between the mountains, Nightstalker saw the train in the distance and a Peterbilt truck revving its engine desperately to catch up.

Her spark stilled. Optimus. His back was too her, open for clear shot with her machine gun. How easy it would be to abandon the kids and take the shot! Her spark howled in fury when Nightstalker refused to take the shot yet—she doubted her little guns were enough to take him down, and she was going to save Jack and Miko!

Nightstalker darted past Optimus, gunning it straight for the open door of the train where she had caught the sight of pink hair. Transforming, Nightstalker landed on the top of the train and knelt down, looking inside.

"Nightstalker!" Miko burst. Without giving them any time to thank her, Nightstalker grabbed both humans and flipped off the train, using her jets to slow them before her feet hit the ground.

A Peterbilt truck hurtled past, and Nightstalker set the humans down. "Nightstalker, the soldiers!" Jack shouted up at her.

She blinked. "What?" That meant she would have to make multiple trips. "How many?"

"I don't know!" he burst, giving a helpless shrug. "There was one in with us! And the DYNGAS!"

Atomic meltdown—Nightstalker looked back up to see Optimus grab the head of the train and pull back with all his might, struggling to slow it forcibly.

Without much thinking, Nightstalker jumped up and transformed, engines kicking loud as she raced back towards the train. She hovered uncertainly above Optimus and the head. She couldn't do what he was doing—she'd snap her legs because they weren't strong enough to hold back something moving that fast. All she could think—actually, remember—was Cliffjumper that morning saying, "You've got weapons, you've just got to be inventive in the way you use them!"

Thinking wildly, Nightstalker swarmed through her weapons. She could latch her whips to the front of the train and pull back, but she'd strain her thrusters so quick she was sure she'd never be able to fly again. With a start, she saw the wheels of the train kicking up massing amounts of sparks. The wheels! They were still trying to go forward! Her mind switched thought patterns to her lava, but that wouldn't melt it quick enough—

Airachnid's venom.

It was instantaneous. Nightstalker didn't debate the idea any longer but transformed and landed on the second length of the train. Yanking out the half full vial number two of three, Nightstalker unscrewed the cap and leaned over the side. Using it as sparingly as she could, she dropped several drops on the wheels.

The effect was automatic and she felt the train lurch a bit to the side, metal shrieking against metal as the venom ate up the churning wheels. Leaning over the other side, Nightstalker did the same, feeling the train slowing more and more as Optimus strained against the speed. Leaping to the next one, Nightstalker let Airachnid's venom eat up those wheels too, and before she knew it, she and Optimus were out of time; at the end of the tracks, the train slowed to a halt.

He looked back at her with eyes she didn't get to process before they both looked up to the sight of a helicopter, blades beating the air. The helicopter hesitated before turning and fleeing, and it suddenly occurred to Nightstalker that that had to be MECH.

Nightstalker quaked on the top of the train, feeling drained from the excitement. She tossed the empty vial away, curling up in a ball. Optimus looked back on her with warming optics, saying, "Intact, Ratchet. Crisis averted." His optics frowned though as he looked back at the disappearing helicopter. "But the world in which we live is a different one than previously imagined. One which has spawned its own Decepticons in human skin."

"Hey!"

Miko's voice was faint, and Nightstalker looked up to see both her and Jack running towards them. A bit sheepish that she had forgotten them, she followed Optimus when he headed towards them as well.

His broad back was turned towards her again. Nightstalker's hands twitched in the effort to hold back, desperately wanting to attack him and bring him to his knees. She wanted to use that last vial of Airachnid's venom to pour it down the back of his neck to incapacitate him from retaliation. Still, now wasn't the time. She quaked in hatred, but bottled it up, forgetting all the kindness he had showed her before.

However, Nightstalker's mind once again turned to the fact that she was outside. In the sun . . . and the gentle breeze . . . Her orange optics looked up to the beckoning sky, endless blue without the hint of a cloud in sight. Her spark rate quickened. Her wings twitched and fluttered, and her metal hinged up.

Flight—it was so close! She was right here, free! Right now, ready to fly! Nightstalker literally began to tremble with the undying urge to give in. After months of being locked up inside the base, she quivered so hard in desperation for the skies that her metal tingled together.

Nightstalker jerked hard out of her day dream when the ground bridge blasted open near them. The other Autobots had rendezvoused with them at some time, each bot carrying their respective human. They began to pass through the ground bridge, and Optimus's blue optics collided with Nightstalker's longing orange ones.

The killer of her brother. The angry thought slashed through her mind, but he didn't go through the bridge yet, and he didn't order her to go through either. His optics warmed. "It has been quite some time since you have flown," was all he said as they stood there together.

Nightstalker's pulse quickened. Unbelieving, she looked up to the beckoning sky and back to the Autobot leader. He gave a nod, and Nightstalker didn't hesitate any longer.

Giving a shout that echoed from the hollow recesses of her body, Nightstalker transformed and shot into the sky, thrusters blasting on full force. She howled with the gift of freedom, twirling in the open skies and gunning herself as fast as she could possibly go. The wind caressed her body, and the pent-up craving for flight that had plagued her for weeks in the Autobot base exploded and faded away.

"Ratchet, you may close the ground bridge until I send for it."

Cliffjumper looked up in shock. He and Nightstalker weren't through yet. Ratchet was equally surprised.

"Optimus?" he asked.

Optimus's voice was warm across the line. "It has been quite some time since our captive seeker has flown."

Cliffjumper's blue optics widened. He was letting her have some freedom—he was letting her fly! Cliffjumper turned from Arcee's leaking arm, eyes pinning with lusty desire at the open ground bridge. Freedom—it was just beyond the pearly gates!

"As you will," Ratchet said with a hint of bewilderment. Cliffjumper transformed, gunning his engine as he drove towards the ground bridge, and with a loud hoot, he dashed through just as it closed behind him.

"Freedom!" he howled, feeling his wheels tread on the dirt. He was absolutely sure he had kicked up a cloud of dust behind him and into Optimus's face, but he just pressed his gas pedal to the floor, tearing off into the distance. He whooped loudly, vaguely hearing Optimus telling them not to go too far. "Freedom!"

THIS was what he had needed! No stuffy base to constrict him, but a good race! He wished Bumblebee were out with him, but instead contacted through the comm. the only one there.

"Hey, Nightstalker!" He turned his eyes upwards to see the jet eagerly flying through the air, twisting and turning with excitement. "Let's have a race!"

For once, he heard a true laugh spill from her. "A race? You couldn't keep up with me!"

Cliffjumper slammed on his breaks, sliding to a halt and turning around. "Ha! You just try me! 100 yards out and 100 yards back!"

The black jet zipped down and hovered above him. "Ready? You won't see anything but my aft!"

"A good view, I must say so myself," he laughed at her. "Ready? On your mark, get set—GO!"

Cliffjumper slammed on his gas pedal, sinking it to the floor as he took off with a roar of his engine. Still, the jet above him had her thrusters blast on and she darted out over twice as quick. Refusing to lose so easily, Cliffjumper forced himself faster, darting past Optimus as Nightstalker already turned around and zipped back. Hardly a few seconds later he heard her cajole, "Finished! How about you?"

He didn't answer, focused, but his concentration was broken when the black femme jet passed overhead again, making it back to the end and flipping around before he could even make it to the first turn. "Hey now!" he hollered back at her. "That's just showing off!" Her laughter sang out again, and if Cliffjumper had been transformed he would have been grinning from audio receptor to audio receptor.

Instead, as he braked and whipped around, he heard Nightstalker's energetic laugh as she stopped at the opposite end, flipped around, and shot herself into the sky, twirling all the way up until she was speck.

Giving a warm laugh, Cliffjumper bellowed at her, "C'mon, give the grounder a bit of respect!" Feeling more than playful as he shot past Optimus again, Cliffjumper blasted his speakers on with Aretha Franklin's RESPECT, laughing with Nightstalker when she heard it through the communicator.

Cliffjumper sang along, definitely off key and off note, but he couldn't give a flying frag as he jumped the train tracks over and over just for the hell of it. When the most well-known part of her song began to play, Cliffjumper laughed and drove right over the train tracks.

His voice rattled with his body as his suspension jiggled as he flew across the tracks. "R-E-S-P-E-C-T! Find out what it means to me! R-E-S-P-E-C-T! Take care, TCB!"

His voice broke horribly on "care" but it didn't bother him. Cliffjumper just laughed and laughed as the sun beat down on them in a great summer's day.

He didn't know how long they stayed out there, but he couldn't give a flying frag. He jumped the train tracks over and over, feeling his suspension shock every time he landed hard, but it was an innocent blast to envision jumping over a river of lava or salt water teeming with sharks. He raced as fast as he could and swerved in between the few trees lining the tracks and tore doughnuts into the dirt.

Finally, Optimus spoke to them through the open communications. "I think it's time to wrap it up, you two," he said to them with underlying warmth. "You've been burning energon swiftly."

"Aw, c'mon, Op!" Cliffjumper laughed, finally noticing that the sun was going down. "Five more minutes? Another hour? Please? We've just got out!"

"Please?" Nightstalker echoed, still soaring giddily through the air. "Nighttime flights are fun and pretty! Please? Just a little longer?"

When Cliffjumper heard the silence of hesitation from Optimus he let out an energetic whoop, hollering, "Drink up the freedom now, Nightstalker! We've got it for just a bit longer!"

She echoed his shout with a yipping cat-call, and Cliffjumper laughed freely at how eager and relaxed she became when she flew. They needed to get her out flying more often!

Still, Cliffjumper found himself running tired and thin long before Nightstalker. Exhausted from messing around the whole day, Cliffjumper transformed up from his alt mode and walked up to stand next to Optimus.

A smile teased his lips as he looked up into the night sky, only able to see Nightstalker by the orange glow on her thrusters. "She's something else, isn't she?" Cliffjumper said to the boss bot.

Since his eyes were glued to Nightstalker still twirling and spinning in the sky, he didn't see Optimus's lips twitch into a smile. "That she is."

Cliffjumper leaned against the wall of the small valley, watching as Nightstalker suddenly turned her nose up to the sky and go far up until he lost sight of her. Then, after a minute, Cliffjumper saw her in a steep nosedive towards the ground. His spark rate picked up when he thought she should pull up, but she kept that vertical plummet to the ground. He chanted to himself that he trusted her, but he was still relieved when she pulled up and skirted just feet off the ground, zipping forward with speed unparalleled. She halted in front of them, performing a backwards flip before her thrusters kicked in hard and shot her back into the sky.

These antics continued for a long time yet. Cliffjumper watched her black metal blend in with the black skies, stars twinkling as her backdrop to a presentation of grace and agility. She would perform endless barrel rolls, triple back flips, and skim the ground with the merest of inches to spare. She would laugh and throw herself into countless front flips, but transform back into her bi-pedal mode in the air like a diver through aerial waters before transforming back and catching her own fall.

It was then Cliffjumper understood Optimus's never-ending patience through the day and why Optimus hadn't been strict in making them return to the base. He . . . enjoyed watching Nightstalker. She was having so much fun he felt like he could feel it through his own suspension, and he realized that Optimus had been having fun by just watching them play like kids again. Cliffjumper's lips slanted up in a small smile as he watched Nightstalker twirl.

It was finally Optimus that had to break the spell, contacting Nightstalker through the communicator. "All right, Nightstalker. It's time to come down now."

Still, Nightstalker didn't come down immediately but soared for a bit longer. She stopped her avid tricks and flips and instead just coasted languidly through the sky, circling slowly as she stalled. Cliffjumper felt his mouth twitch in rare sympathy as she struggled to let go of the brief freedom she had earned.

Finally, she glided slowly down, circling at a sparingly steep width, slowly making her way to the ground. Cliffjumper was sure she had swindled five more minutes until she suddenly darted back up into the sky. She disappeared out of sight again, too high up to be seen, and then she came plummeting back down at her suicidal speeds and steep drop.

Nightstalker pulled up at the last second, flipping back around as she transformed. She let out a small sigh of contentment, and her orange optics flicked up to the two mechs at the side.

Cliffjumper's spark stopped in an uncannily unknown way. His blue optics widened at the sight of her as she stood straight, energon flushed high in her cheeks and glowing slightly in the darkness. She was bolder, somehow, freer, as if she had lifted a veil that had been oppressing her, and Cliffjumper was now just getting a peek inside at the true Cybertronian femme she had hidden so deftly. There was a cute mischief about her—a sparkle in her eyes, a slanting twitch in her smile—that he'd never seen before. Somehow, the intimate caress of the winds had transformed her from the heartless cruelty he met in the torture chamber or the paranoid coward in the Autobot base. She was . . . different. Stronger, liberated . . . beautiful.

Cliffjumper jerked back to the world hearing Optimus's voice say, "Ratchet, bridge us back."

With the effective jump-start, Cliffjumper realized that his spark had ceased beating before, but now it was rapidly making up for lost time, slamming hard and fast in his spark chamber. Primus, what had he been thinking? What had possessed him to even let his thoughts run off in that direction?

However, he was swiftly reminded of exactly what made his head turn when Nightstalker lifted her face to the soft breeze, sighing away her troubles. Her wings drooped a little with relaxation, not sorrow, and her orange optics closed as peace engulfed her tiny frame.

"I needed that," she whispered quietly to them.

Cliffjumper jolted harder than he meant to when the ground bridge suddenly blasted open near them. Sweet Primus he needed a recharge if he was as jumpy and sappy as this. Giving his central processor a firm shake, Cliffjumper let his lips tip into a smile, effectively hiding his anxieties.

"I needed it too," he echoed, giving a last stretch. "That was fun—refreshing. But now, I'm ready for an energon cube and to hit the sack. I'm exhausted." He saluted to Optimus and Nightstalker. "See ya in the next vorn."

Passing through the ground bridge, Cliffjumper found an empty base save for Ratchet—ah, that was right, the rest had all gone home with the humans.

Ratchet was trying to look grumpy, but his optics were warmer than meant to be as he asked, "Did you enjoy yourself?"

"Sure did," Cliffjumper said with a tired grin, hearing steps behind him. They were light—they had to be Nightstalker. "I'll be back to annoy you in the morning." Cliffjumper left the room, glad Ratchet even stopped to ask Nightstalker because once he hit the hallway he fled like Unicron himself was snapping at his heels.

Retreating to his berth, Cliffjumper all but slammed the door and pressed his one palm flat against it, letting his helm rest there as he tried to control his sputtering spark. His splayed hand slowly fisted.

My spark is mine.

He had yet to give it to Arcee, and one measly flip from a pretty femme wasn't going to change his mind. Cliffjumper sighed and shook it off, contemplating that energon cube he had forgotten to grab. However, a stasis was beckoning him to just forget it until the morning.

Giving in, Cliffjumper flopped down on his berth and took a deep breath. The best thing about sleeping would be he'd forget all about that pretty face by the time morning came. The worst thing about sleeping was he may or may not wake up—no, worst thing was possibly getting himself locked into stasis because he didn't refuel.

Cliffjumper made a face. Ratchet would have his head if he didn't wake up . . .