XXXII - Waves

"Seven!" Smokescreen's shout went unanswered as I dove off the Omega Lock. I ignored him and transformed, relishing the sensation of my chassis folding into a jet. A loud BOOM announced the sound barrier's submission, followed by a flash of white as I jetted through a vapor cone. I blasted my thruster so much and pushed my engine to the point where I was sure mechanisms were going to fail. Hopefully not critical ones. I poured on speed until I crested above Mach three—faster than I should have been able to go in my jet mode—and shot away, the Nemesis already out of sight. Of course it was. I could hardly see in any direction, thanks to the torrential rain. But I knew that I was closing in on the Autobot base. The one that I had blown to smithereens.

Five minutes later, the rain had almost completely dissipated and the ruins of our base came into view. My turbine was smoking, a sure sign that my engine was damaged. Mach three was something I shouldn't have been capable of, and I was paying for it. I turned my internal fans on and landed heavily at the base of the ruins of our old base, staggering. My legs almost gave out beneath me.

"Why did… I bother… flying… here?" I snapped to myself between pants, remembering the ground bridge remote tucked in a gap between my thigh plating. "Ah, well, at least I won't have to fly him back…"

I plodded over to the mound of dirt with stiff strides, hesitant and nervous. What would his chassis look like? But I steeled my nerves and kicked the headstone away, not even reading the three words I had etched into it months ago. It certainly hadn't felt all that long.

I scraped dirt away, forcing myself to go faster and faster with thoughts that the Lock could have been deactivated or destroyed, or Megatron could've won the battle…

My train of thought was brought to a screeching halt as I hit something soft. The quilt, I realized, feeling stupid. I slowly folded a tattered corner of it back and was met with his faceplates. Averting my gaze, I quickly uncovered the rest of his chassis. It wasn't pretty. Every inch was caked with rust from overly friendly rainwater that had seeped into the ground, and grit from being buried, but that was the least of it. The virus—that's what I guessed it was—had ravaged his chassis after death. But I couldn't tear my optics away. His frame was emaciated and the metal brittle, so much so that when I dragged his chassis out of the dirt, bits of it flaked away in my grasp and left a streak of silver in the path he had made. His joints and optics were clotted with dried earth. He couldn't have looked more dead if he tried. It was too much. Revolted, I turned away and dry heaved.

I took a few deep intakes and clenched my denta, trying to force my roiling tanks to rest. I heaved him up under his arms and fumbled with the ground bridge remote with one servo. I was exhausted from flying that fast and wasn't fond of touching a corpse, no exceptions to whom it had been.

I finally got the portal open to the same coordinates I had used previously and dragged him through. Once I emerged on the circular ring of the Omega Lock, I quickly closed it and dropped my emaciated twin. I was relieved to see that the cyber-matter was still there, glowing and spinning about, shimmery bubbles occasionally bursting on the surface. We were far above the planet now; I could see its curvature from where I stood, probably within the stratosphere.

No one on either side appeared to have noticed my less-than-exciting entrance, but it was just as well. They were all battling on the other side of the ring, Bumblebee among them. My spark rose, seeing the scout fight.

Puffing, I dragged Starscream over to the edge of the cyber-matter across the slick metal. "This is on you," I whispered, leaning in close to his faceplates, his dark optics. "wherever you are, keep fighting." But as I frowned into those orbs smeared with grit, the ballooning hope in my chest suddenly got a puncture. My double had passed on far longer ago than Bumblebee, could the Lock even restore his chassis? Or worse yet, his spark? We had all seen the latter fly off, or perhaps it was a figment of my grief-stricken imagination at the time. No one had spoken of it ever again. A tremor ran through my frame and I tried to force myself to believe the Lock would work, that it had to. That the universe owed it to us all.

With a kick, I shoved him in. The cyber-matter splashed and frothed as he sank in slow motion, the strange liquid's thickness and his large wings slowing him. The bubbles all flitted away at once, as if they had other matters to attend to. My intakes were snatched right out of my throat. His chassis was restored—so much so that it would've made Knock Out squeal and lock him in a glass case. My spark seemed to beat faster and I leaned over as far as I dared, waiting for his optics to online.

But my twin's chest plate remained immobile, and his chassis slipped out of the cyber-matter in a final fall to Earth. Flashes of lightning lit up the thunderheads far below, silhouetting him as he shrunk to a pinprick of shadow against a smear of grey.

I made a split-second decision and dove after him, abandoning the battle behind me.

Starscream's chassis gathered speed as it streaked through several cloud layers towards the planet below. A teeth-jarring crack of thunder split the air not too far off as the clouds opened. In seconds, his chassis was drenched: a sopping, silvery blur that was near-impossible to pick out from the surrounding clouds.

A wiry bolt of lightning met the Seeker without warning, and the massive clap of thunder that followed nearly blew out his audials. Having nowhere else to go, tremendous amounts of raw electricity coursed through his systems, the rest through his armor and the water coating that. The Seeker's chassis reflexively seized up, optics flickering on then back off an instant later.

High above in his jet mode, Seven screamed down towards his double. He would not allow the Seeker to die a second time, not if he could help it. Starscream fell out of sight, through a thick, lighter colored layer of clouds.

Seven pushed his engine, feeling it overheat so badly that he was sure it was melting into his struts. He screamed—though whether it was from pain or fervor, he wasn't sure—spearing the clouds. The jet transformed, now in freefall, watching as Starscream crash-landed into an arctic lake with a massive splash and plume of steam.

"STARSCREAM!" his clone shouted, diving in after him. The icy water was so cold, so Primus awful cold, but he shook his helm and kicked deeper once he'd recovered from the shock. Starscream was still sinking.

With a quick, distracted jab of his thoughts, Seven shut off all his internal fans and stilled his coolant. He needed all the heat he could get down here. The Seeker flapped his wings and strained down, reaching for Starscream's fingers. He clasped onto his double's wrist, and a flurry of bubbles shot out of his mouth in excitement. The mech kicked furiously and flapped his wings, but the pair's combined weight was only dragging them deeper. And by the looks of things, Starscream wasn't about to offer aid any time soon.

Seven looked up and a silent shriek escaped his mouth. His audials were shorting out, and his grip on his double's wrist was slipping. The Seeker snarled at himself, kicking harder, refusing to go down without a fight. But the sky had never looked so distant, not even when he couldn't see it.

The slight mech struggled up towards the surface, what felt like miles away. But his spiked pedes were not made for swimming, and his large, sodden wings had begun to drag him down along with Starscream's dead weight. The frigid water was inducing his systems' shutdown sequences, and his optics were failing him now. He screamed in a panic and chokingly swallowed gallons of the icy water, lashing out as his double slipped out of his grasp and down to the lake's dark, unforgiving floor.

He was so tired. All the fighting and flying, not to mention swimming Seven had done in the past few hours had drained him past his limits. The Seeker gave one last feeble kick and started to cry as he felt his very limbs beginning to resist him. He couldn't save Starscream, not even himself from the cold clutches of death. It was inevitable, he thought as he stopped fighting the water. Who could fight a force of nature? The cycles of life? He supposed that this was his punishment for trying to bring his double back. The universe didn't owe him anything. The cruel irony of fate could kill him itself.

But you owe it to Starscream, a voice seemed to pipe up in the back of his processor.

He did. After several millennia of waging a war—or at least having the memories of doing so, Seven wasn't ready to bow to the inevitable just yet. He forced his limbs to move and grit his denta, just managing to grab Starscream's fingertips. The mech couldn't hear the water swirling around him as he churned his limbs, but he wasn't getting anywhere except closer to death. But then his thruster sputtered and coughed to life, beginning to propel him and his lifeless double towards the surface.

The Seeker broke the surface with a sputtering gasp. He fumbled with his thigh plating, but his fingers were too stiff to pull the ground bridge remote out, much less operate the thing were he able to. The mech pushed his thruster—painful as it was—and kicked feebly towards the shore, which fortunately was not too distant. He went under a couple times, optics shorting in and out, but finally managed to sink his pedes into the muck and dragged himself halfway out of the water. Starscream's fingers slipped out of his stiff grasp, but Primus was he exhausted. He felt like he'd never truly been cold or tired before in comparison to this. Which included that one time he'd been caught on top of the Autobots' base in that rainstorm. He collapsed in the shallows with a splash, knowing with every fluttering beat of his spark that he was on the brink of joining his double in either the Allspark or Pit. His systems couldn't handle the drastic temperature change from melting his armor to freezing it.

Seven opened a comm link to the Harbinger's frequency, feeling a staggering surge of relief that his unit still functioned. But the mech had no idea if anyone could hear him. He couldn't even hear himself as he begged for a ground bridge.

His optics shorted again, and suddenly he found himself washed in a familiar, all-too welcome greenish glow. Ratchet ran through and froze, taking in the nearly-identical pair, one of which was still fighting to stay alert. The medic let out an audible gasp when he saw Starscream in the water, waves lapping gently against his armor and splashing over his faceplates and dark optics. The white mech shook himself and sloshed over to Seven, tugging a thermal blanket out of his medical kit.

"Here," he held it out to the Seeker. Seven got up and shakily took it, nodding with a grateful expression, though it could have just as well been a violent shiver. The blanket slipped out of his grasp and he tried to retrieve it, but the mech fell into the water and didn't get back up.

Ratchet dragged Starscream onto the land where he wouldn't drift away, then helped his clone up. Seven nodded in thanks, clutching the blanket tighter, wings lowering

"You tried to save him, didn't you?" The medic asked in awe. Seven's optics flickered, perplexed.

"I-I can't hear you," he said, his voice's pitch somewhat off, his denta chattering, "the c-cold d-d-did something t-to my-my audials."

Ratchet nodded, he knew to expect that Seven's systems would experience glitches or partial shutdowns due to the frigid temperatures of the glacial lake. He got the silver bot to his pedes and after making sure that he could stand on his own, went over to Starscream. The latter had a jagged black streak that wound its way down the right side of his faceplates and across his chest plate, ending right over its center, cutting a slash through the Decepticon insignia. It was a stark contrast to his otherwise largely light-colored paint job, save for tidbits like his dark shoulder plates, tubing around his midsection, and the vents on the sides of his helm.

The medic sighed to himself, wanting to bombard Seven with questions, frustrated at the Seeker's present inability to answer. Oh well, he conceded. It can wait.

The water pulled at Seven's legs and he struggled towards the ground bridge as Ratchet gathered up Starscream's chassis, and the pair walked through.

I lazily watched the humans chattering amongst themselves, my audials ringing. At least I could hear that. Will was grinning and making animated, swooping gestures while the others ringed him, rapt. His hands suddenly shot outwards as if imitating an explosion, and Raf jumped back, his glasses askew. The others laughed at the young boy, who smiled sheepishly and chuckled, straightening them.

Jack saw me watching them and said something to me, earning the others' attention. I said that I can't read lips and shrugged, tapping the side of an audial on my helm. He gave me an apologetic smile and turned back to his friends. Oliver's gaze lingered, worry shading his features. I shook my helm and jerked it slightly at Ratchet, mouthing "I'll be fine." I just prayed that my present deafness wasn't permanent.

The medic was stooped over Starscream. The latter's chest plating was opened up, though I couldn't make much sense of anything I saw. And I couldn't exactly ask questions either, until I was able to hear an answer.

It was infuriating.

Ratchet straightened slightly and frowned even more slightly at a screen in front of him, connected to a cable which was in turn connected directly to Starscream's spark chamber.

"It's as I feared," Ratchet's voice trailed off, his voice crackling with static. I started at the noise.

"Something up, Sev?" Miko prodded, flicking a strand of pink hair out of her mouth.

My optics widened and I looked at her, "I c-can hear you!"

"Feeling better?" the medic asked, his voice less staticky this time.

I shuttered my optics in relief for a brief moment and pulled the blanket tighter, allowing my wings to flutter. "Maybe," I smirked, opening my optics, "I haven't quite decided yet."

"Glad to hear it." The medic said. I frowned at him and he let out a quiet chuckle. "Come here, let me inspect your optics."

As if on cue, they shorted in and out. "You okay, Sev?" Will asked, seeing this.

"I'm doing b-better than Starscream." I replied as I leaned against the wall, snuggling into my blanket a bit more, wanting the shivers to go away. "What d-did you say you f-feared?" I prodded, looking to Ratchet.

"I'm jealous that we can't have one, that looks so comfy!" Miko groaned loudly.

I smirked and pulled it tighter, "Take a dip in a g-glacial, f-f-freezing lake and I'm su-sure it'll happen."

"Why not just go outside? It's over ninety out there." Raf suggested.

"No," Ratchet corrected, "you still have yet to completely regain your full range of motion, and at present, the sunlight could damage your optics. Speaking of," he plucked a spindly tool off a table next to him, "get over here."

"Control freak," Oliver stage-whispered to the other humans.

"Wh-what is that?" I asked nervously, but obliged. "And you d-dodged my question, R-Ratchet."

"Noninvasive," he assured me.

"You, d-dear doctor, know how t-t-to answer a question." I conceded wryly, not feeling too reassured as I wrapped the blanket more snugly around my shoulder plates.

"As for your earlier question, I would prefer to explain when everyone is present. Speaking of, where are the others?" The medic asked, raising the tool to my optics. I scowled and blinked furiously, but slowly got used to it, occasionally biting my glossa to keep from spitting insults.

"How… c-considerate of you, d-doctor." I said acidly. "We were fairly evenly matched, but Megatron t-terminated Bumblebee." My wings drooped, and Ratchet nearly dropped the tool.

"No," the medic breathed, looking me square in the optics.

Raf sniffled, "He can't have…"

I cut in hurriedly, not wanting to be the cause for grief. I knew firsthand how much it sucked. "Listen—Megatron threw his chassis into the Omega Lock, which is comprised of raw cyber-matter. I fell in, but when Arcee pulled me out, my chassis was good as new. And Bumblebee was over there—" I waved my servo vaguely, feeling a wave of exhaustion crash over me as I did so and had to stifle a yawn, "—standing tall, good as new. And Rafael," I smiled down at the small human, "he got his voice back."

Raf gasped and rushed over to hug my leg. I stiffened, but relaxed and ran the tip of my talon through his hair. Ratchet lowered his tool, ushering the boy away. "And you were attempting to resurrect Starscream?!"

I looked at my double's supine chassis on the other berth, "That was the idea, yes; however, it seems it was foolish one. A desperate act that almost cost the team another bot."

"Hey, it's not your fault that you nearly froze!" Oliver pointed out.

I looked down at him, too tired to properly argue. "I wish it wasn't, however, whom am I to blame? Starscream?"

"Do you have any knowledge of what happened to his helm and chest plate?" Ratchet inquired, "It could very well be the reason that he is–" the medic cut himself off.

"… is what?" I gasped excitedly, my weariness forgotten. "Alive?" Ratchet remained silent and my wings drooped, "He—the cyber-matter worked on his chassis, I can see that much. What aren't you telling us?"

The medic sighed, "Is there no keeping it from you until a better time? The others have a right to hear it–"

"Then I am willing to listen twice, doctor." I scowled, discarding the blanket.

He stepped up to me, "No. My word is final."

My wings flared up, "Then allow me to return to the battle. I need to give my former master the respect he deserves."

"You almost just offlined from the cold, are you really trying to risk your spark so soon after that?!" he spat.

"The fate of both Earth and Cybertron hangs in the balance of this battle, so yes, if it means sacrificing myself to ensure the safety of both, then so be it." I unsheathed Valor but held it by its spiky crossguard, not wanting the speed boost just yet.

"That isn't exactly the best of both worlds," Jack pointed out somberly.

"I know," I grumbled in resignation, "but there's never a panacea for anything, is there?"

Ratchet's eyebrows furrowed, "Very true, Seven, and though I'm sure the others could use another set of blasters, yours are not the ones I have in mind."

My wings sank, "Who else is there upon this planet, doctor? Besides you and myself–"

"Wheeljack."

"Oh, so you're looking to replace me, is it? How do you even know if he will cooperate?" I spat, my wings fanning out. I slid Valor back into its sheath on my thruster, scowling at the medic.

"Don't be such a party pooper, Sev! Jackie's a good fighter, but I'd like to see him against you. You could fly circles around him!" Miko encouraged.

My wings fluttered and a smile tugged at the corners of my mouth at the compliment. "Indeed, however, that would sound a bit more impressive if he was also blessed with flight capabilities."

She blew a raspberry at me. "C'mon, you know what I mean. And once he and Bulk are back in business, then the fun's gonna start! First night: party! I'll bring my guitar and we can lay down some raw metal while you bots get a lob game going!"

"Note to self," I muttered, "go for a flight and don't return."

Ratchet and I shared a glance, "Don't fly too fast, I'll need to keep up. And I'm adverse to this idea as well, but I am not 'fighter material' and you need to recuperate."

"I'm fine!" I protested, wings flaring up. "I'm not even shivering!" It was only partially true. I wasn't shivering anymore, yes, but the awful cold still had yet to fully leave my frame.

The medic sighed, "You are cleared for duty. But keep in mind that I might not give you a blanket next time you decide to go swimming near the ice caps."

"Take care, doctor." I smirked.

I emerged from a ground bridge, my sword's hilt wrapped tightly in my grip as I stepped onto the ring of the Omega Lock. Everyone's weapons were lowered, though both sides seemed to have acquired a few more dings and scrapes than I remembered.

I froze, my pedes feeling cemented to the metal. Optimus and Megatron stood center stage, shaking servos. Shockwave was here too, standing just behind the silver warlord.

"We stand at the dawn of a new age," the red mech began.

"One of peace?" the warlord affirmed.

"Indeed, Megatron."

Valor clattered to the floor, my jaw with it.