CHAPTER 13 - TALES OF WAR

WINDSWEPT P.O.V

It felt good to finally feel the sun on my armour again, and be able to enjoy it. It certainly has not been the case for the last few weeks since the 'racing incident'.

Out of all us involved, Arcee, Jack, Carly and I faced a harsher punishment than everyone else simply because Arcee and Jack started this mess, and Carly and I allowed it to happen - even though we argued that we were just defending ourselves against a bully. Considering how the situation led to said bully almost getting taken by the 'Cons, that argument was kinda rendered moot. So 'Cee and I were basically stuck doing our patrol duties… and that was it. Nothing else unless it was an emergency.

…In typical fashion, nothing happened that was considered an emergency. Oh well, at least the training room was free a lot.

Bulkhead, Aquastrike and Sunburst all got extra patrol and scouting shifts added onto their rosters to make up for Arcee and I being barred from going anywhere. May've seemed like nothing, but considering that was a lot of extra work did exhaust them. Their rosters had only just gone back to normal starting this week, so they were definitely enjoying the time off when they got it.

I did try to take the blame off Sunburst since I was the one who convinced him to race the second time… but Optimus wasn't having it. Sunburst accepted the blame for his part anyway, even though we all knew I coerced him into it…

As for Jack, Carly, Miko and Raf? Well… alongside the banning of video games for a couple of weeks, they took that Cybertronian History Class Ratchet had offered to host as soon as he got back from that medical training with 'Bee and Star… If you ask the rest of us though, we wouldn't be able to tell you which one was the punishment - having Ratchet as your teacher or having Miko as your student…

It started to make a lot of sense pretty quickly how she finds herself into detention so often.

So the class was scrapped after a week, but the video game ban stayed. At least their parents didn't find out about the whole racing ordeal though. Carly believed the video game ban was a much lesser punishment than being grounded.

I couldn't argue with that when it came to her family. It would be an understatement to say that Mamá Esquivel would've been highly unimpressed with her youngling being part of the situation. And based on what I'd heard from Arcee, Jack was lucky to not have his own Creator know about what happened too.

Everything was slowly getting back to normal now that the punishments were ending. In fact, as soon as a new recon mission had popped up, Arcee had wasted no time volunteering and taking Jack with her. Some bonding time might actually be good for them; they were the 'pair' out of the guardian and human duos that were considered the least closest.

That's an Arcee thing though for... certain reasons.

Every now and then, I could still see the disappointed look on Optimus' face when he reiterated our rules system to us that night. I was more disappointed for having put myself and everyone else in a position to see it. We'd been on this Earth for so long now that you'd think we would all know better… that I'd know better…

I hated letting my leader down.

"I don't think this was what Optimus meant when he said your curfew was over, 'Swept." Starlight's voice made me look over my shoulder-pads.

It looked as if most of the team had gone up the base elevator to come see me. Well. obviously except for Jack and Arcee. Optimus and Ratchet were probably staying in the main control room just in case.

I smirked at Star, "You all know how much I love the sun on my armour." I returned my helm back to face the sun to look down at the light shining on my… faded armour?

Hmph, time for a new coat of paint, I guess…

"You love it more than Sunshine himself?"

I could hear Sunburst's chuckle at Bulkhead's cheeky comment, "No one loves the sun more than me."

"We know," said just about everyone else.

Sunburst snorted softly at their monotone reply. He sounded closer to me than the others, so I looked up and sure enough, there he was standing right beside me, "Looks like you could do with a freshen-up."

"I was just thinking that," I replied.

"Oh? Field trip to the gas station for new warpaint?!" Miko sounded waaaay too thrilled about the idea. "Carly and I have a bunch of ideas for you guys!"

"No one said anything about 'new warpaint', Miko."

"Awhhh, but Bulk! You said Aquastrike would look good in black!"

Huh?

Aquastrike had the same expression of confusion, "What'd'ya mean by that? All'a y'all know whar my dang name is, right?"

"Miko, what did we say about keeping our opinions to ourselves?" Carly looked like she wanted to laugh.

"I was just saying…"

There was really no reason for us to change the colour of our body armour. A crisis that would force us into hiding would likely make us change our colours. At that point would Aquastrike go black, as it's her secondary colour. A lot of us would invert our secondary into primaries if we had too. Hopefully that never comes to pass, because there weren't many of us that would like to have to select that option… for certain reasons.

"I think you'd look like an angel, Starlight!"

"You're very sweet, Carly." They must've moved on to talking about Starlight inverting her armour colour.

"Ahh cain' b'lieve the ol' frien' don' think ah look good…" Aquastrike was actually quite funny when she'd sulk. Pouty, and always folding her arms like a youngling.

I didn't have to look at Sunburst to know he was highly unamused - his disinterested sigh gave it away too.

"Someone's a little over-dramatic today." Raf was giggling and glancing between Aqua and Sunshine from 'Bee's shoulder. "Or two."

"And they say they're nothing alike-"

"I'm not like her!"

"Ah ain' like him!"

I swear they're secretly twins with how often they align with speaking sometimes. Poor Miko looked like she just had a gust of wind blown at her face.

"B'sides, ol' Sunshine don't've nothin' on my guns now!" Aqua held up her arms and began flexing in front of us

Sunburst looked at me, "Don't tell me she'll pull out her weapons."

I couldn't tell why he was nervous about Aquastrike; because whether she was just going to show off her weapons or muscles, Aquastrike would win in both categories… but don't tell him I said that.

"It's just an expression, Sunburst!" Raf told him. "'Bee taught her about using that word in that sense."

Bulkhead raised an optic ridge, "Something tells me he didn't learn that all on his own."

"I taught him!" Miko looked so proud of herself for that one.

"It's beginning to feel like you teach us about Earth customs and slang more than us actually teaching you and the others about our Cybertronian lifestyle," Sunburst mused.

He wasn't exactly wrong... but I don't know if I wanted the humans to know about our life prior to this war. Even so, for some of us, we were created during the war. There were no lives for us to even create a lifestyle for…

I still haven't told Carly about certain things in regards to life at Iacon. I wish I could, but how do I tell her all the trauma we went through?

"I don't really think we've actually sat down and talked a lot about our lives on Cybertron with you guys."

"Yeah 'Swept!" Thanks Starlight for speaking it into existence for Carly to jump on… "You haven't told me anything in a while!"

"Don'tch'all get too excited now. 'S'not all sunshine and rainbows, ya know."

"But we already know that!" Miko was shrugging before she was looking up at us. "I wanna hear more stories from Cybertron!"

"I don't know, Miko…"

"It's not like we have anything better to do right now! Come on Bulk!" Miko wasn't totally wrong.

Most of us didn't have patrol until later tonight, and Arcee already took the first scouting mission that appeared for today. I could only presume Optimus and Ratchet were still inside the base. I wasn't exactly sure of what they were doing, but considering they would've let us know if either of them planned to leave, it was safe to assume they hadn't left.

"Are you sure you can handle the brutal war stories we could tell you?" Sunburst crossed his arms snarkily.

I looked over at Miko placing her hands on her hips, "I once watched Bulk pull out the wiring of a 'Con!" I flicked my optics back to Sunshine… and he looked surprised. "If you think we can't handle tough stories, you should go join the elder 'Bots downstairs."

Carly elbowed her friend roughly, "Don't be disrespectful."

Miko half-shrugged, but her posture towards Sunburst remained, "Point still stands; we're tougher than we look, Sourshine."

Well… It's not like she was wrong…

I could see Sunburst's folded arms loosen a little, "Hmph." His helm turned towards me, where there was a glint of unamusement at someone not named Aquastrike calling him her chosen nickname for him in his optics.

I looked at everyone else, "As long as everyone's okay with sharing stories, there's no reason why not, right?"

"Sweet!" Miko's cheering grew closer as she approached where I was sitting, "Gather around everyone and everybot! It's story time!"

Sunburst and I shared a look as he sat down beside me. I saw Carly approaching me, so I pulled my legs off the ledge of the base so she could climb onto my leg and take her seat. Starlight sat down beside me, while Bumblebee, Bulk and Aqua sat closer to where our roof would usually open into our elevator.

Aquastrike clapping her servos together suddenly made me jump in my seat. "Who's goin' first?!"

"I'll go!" Bulkhead sounded like a youngling ready to tell a story. "Before Ultra Magnus came, us Wreckers were a group of madness. Hah! Trigger happy 'Bots eager for a fight, and we got ourselves one when the Stunticons turned up."

"'Con trash," Aquastrike growled, "Nasty lil' bugs."

The Stunticons had been a fierce force; they were considered the Wreckers of the Decepticons. Their lack of regard for anything unless it was a good fight even made Megatron struggle to keep a tight leash on them… I'm certain that if they'd ever set foot on Earth, they'd destroy this planet within nanokliks.

"I remember this one time they came to us when we stormed the Decepticon side. Another teammate of ours Seaspray, Jacky, Aqua, and I were ready to pound some serious scrap into them. They nearly got us with a sniper attack, so Jacky chucked a grenade and knocked out the 'Con scum from his post!"

"One grenade, one shot Jacky!"

Bulkhead chortled loudly with Aquastrike, "Wildrider hated how good his aim was!"

"Who's Wildrider?"

I had heard his name by reputation only. He preferred to wreak havoc on his own accord; overly violent and uncooperative. Megatron apparently had difficulty keeping him under control, let alone giving orders to him that he would listen to.

"Jacky's enemy. He always wanted to settle old scores with him. I don't know what Jacky did, but it was pretty bad," Bulkhead explained, "He was that determined in beating him, that he had a throwdown with him so bad, his own spark had to be transplanted into a new form."

"Hmmm," Sunburst's hum sounded thoughtful, "It was rumoured Wildrider's spark was transplanted into a clone of Wheeljack himself."

He was?

"How's that possible?" Carly was immediately skeptical.

How did the 'Cons even have a protoform of Wheeljack ready to go?

"Ol' Jacky-bot hadda mission with Kup once!" I remembered him; I always knew him as an Elite Guard mentor, but prior to that, he was part of the Wreckers. "Ol' Kup was tryna bring Jacky-bot back to the Wreckers when Magnus took ova. Went after some scientist 'Con everybot knows!" Aquastrike leaned forward slightly. "Now, lemme tell ya sumthin' about us Wreckers; we don't do stealth stuff."

In other words, you could imagine how that mission would've gone down...

"I heard some of the commanders visiting Iacon and talking about their history once." I turned my helm at Starlight piping up. "They said no one understood the hatred Wheeljack and Wildrider had for each other." She looked at Aquastrike curiously. "Did you ever ask why?"

"You'd've got ya head torn off if ya did!" Aquastrike snapped her denta together as if she meant it in a literal sense…

I swear I saw Starlight shutter a little.

"What happened next, Bulk?!" Miko asked excitedly from his shoulder.

"After Jacky took the sniper out, the 'Cons tried to counter-attack us. They were pretty mad about us stepping on their territory, so we gave them a good fight!"

"In the end?" Miko sounded hopeful, looking between Bulk and Aqua.

"They ran like lil' young'uns!"

"Awesome!"

Aquastrike leaned back in a relaxed manner, "Jus' what we do best."

"Causing chaos and destruction does sound right up your alley." I rolled my optics at Sunburst's quip.

"Ya know Sourshine, if ya broke some rules once an' a while, you might actually have some fun!"

"I did. Look where that got me."

…Well, in his defense it was my fault… I wasn't going to argue with him.

"So who's next?"

"What about you, 'Bee?" Rafael asked.

"I only got to go out on the field a few times before I got my voice-box torn out. Everyone became cautious with me after that." I smiled sympathetically towards 'Bee. I guess his team were worried that he had become a target for the Decepticons.

"What'd he say?" Miko had her body turned towards Raf on 'Bee's shoulder.

"He said that he doesn't have many stories to tell because of his voice box getting taken out."

"That sucks 'Bee!" Carly looked sad for him.

"He became known for being the Autobot who faced Megatron and got his vocoder ripped out as a response." Bumblebee's doorwings drooped suddenly. I elbowed Sunburst hard into his arm, and turned slightly in his direction. He was hissing at my sudden attack, but his expression made it clear he knew he had soured the mood accidentally. "But… 'Bee's also known for being one of the very few Autobots to come against Megatron and live to tell the story."

Bumblebee's doorwings picked up ever so slightly, "That's war for you. We fight, we hurt, we recover, we move on."

"Absolutely 'Bee," I nodded in agreement, "We shouldn't allow our injuries, disabilities and horrors of this war stop us from fighting. You're one of our best fighters now!"

'Bee's doorwings perked up in a flutter.

"So… who's next with a war story?" Carly wondered.

"Do they have to be war stories?" Starlight looked between us curiously.

"Well, the theme was war stories, but if you have something else to share, why not?!" Miko shrugged, "Ooooh! How about your rivalries!" She jumped up onto her feet suddenly. "What's up with you and Lugnut?"

Bulk chuckled, "You mean Breakdown?"

"There's a 'Con over yonder called Lugnut if ya wanna hear about 'im too!"

There was definitely a Cybertronian designated Lugnut in the solar system somewhere. I had very rarely heard his name though. I knew nothing about him.

"Maybe one Decepticon at a time?" Starlight giggled.

"How'd you and Breakdown become arch-enemies?"

Bulkhead shrugged at Miko, "He was part of the Stunitcons for a while too. Got into it a few times. He wasn't always the big lunkhead he is now. That's a little on me." He rubbed the back of his neck cables awkwardly.

"You bashed him up that good?" Sunburst sounded like he was in disbelief.

Bulkhead had the brute strength to cause serious damage when - and if - he wanted to, but he didn't seem like the kind to really push so far to nearly take another's life so cruelly…

"Woah! Bet he deserved it! Right Bulk?" The look of awkwardness on his face suggested that perhaps Breakdown didn't exactly deserve the beating… "Bulkhead?"

"Uhhh, who's next?!" He definitely didn't want to answer the question. I've never seen him move his helm around so much before. "Starlight!" My poor friend looked like that saying about being caught in headlights… What was that Earth animal again? "What's with you and Moonlight?"

…Bad person to deflect onto, Bulk.

Star looked ready to push the question onto someone else… "I… well…" But I knew she wasn't like that. She'd rather take things on herself than have the others be uncomfortable.

"Ya don't hafta say nothin', Twinkle." Aquastrike's tone was comforting.

The only 'Bots here who knew about Starlight's background with her sister were Aqua, Sunshine and I. Alpha Trion certainly knew and there were a few others who did as well. I didn't blame Starlight if she didn't feel ready to talk about it again after so long.

"It's… it's complicated…" Her voice wavered. "She… tried to make me become a Decepticon when she joined their side. When I refused, she… used force to make me a prisoner instead."

"Your own sister did that to you?" I looked down at Carly. "What made her so evil?"

"No one knows. I… struggle to figure it out all the time," Starlight softly replied, "I wonder sometimes what could've happened to me if I wasn't rescued."

"Is that how you got to Iacon?"

"She was one of the last to join us," Sunburst answered Rafael, "Iacon acted as a refugee center for the ones who didn't have a team to go to after being recovered from Decepticon territory." He glanced at Star, Aqua and then me. "It's how our team was formed, in a way."

Our team consisted of five main members. Sunburst and a friend of his had always been at Iacon, there to protect Alpha Trion after they completed their Elite Guard training. I joined them after my escape from the Decepticons, and then Aquastrike came along not too long afterwards. Starlight was the last one of us, and even though she had been wary of us to begin with - for all valid reasons of course - she became an invaluable member of our group. We all were.

We didn't get to fight the Decepticons forces on the real battlefield like the others did, but we served our piece to protect Iacon, and even that had become a battle in itself.

"So all of you were together?" Miko stood up suddenly again and faced Bumblebee. "Where were you guys? Bulk was with the Wreckers, but what about 'Bee? …Arcee, Ratchet and Optimus?!"

"Arcee was with her own squad called Delta. I saw her sometimes when she was in trouble."

"Arcee getting into trouble? That doesn't sound like her at all." I smirked at Sunburst's drawl of sarcasm.

"Well, there was this one time when 'Bee and Cliffjumper had to save her fro-"

"Shhh Bulkhead!" Bumblebee was whirring angrily.

I would be too. Arcee had told me about that mission Bulkhead was beginning to refer to. She didn't tell just anybody about it without being comfortable to do so. There was no doubt that she wouldn't be thrilled about Bulk sharing that without her permission.

"From who?" Starlight looked confused.

"It's… not my story to tell…"

Arcee only shared things when she was comfortable. Bulkhead and I only knew because she told us about it when she got to that place with us. 'Bee and Cliff were the ones that saved her, and from what I grasped when she explained it, Ratchet had been her routine doctor. Optimus had been informed through her public service records her superior would've uploaded.

That 'Cons' gonna pay for what she did one day…

Sunburst nudged my shoulder softly, "I know about Tailgate."

I whipped my helm to him so fast I'm pretty sure he was concerned it would snap off my neck cables. I didn't think Arcee would tell any of our new arrivals just yet… After all, it took so long for her to even open up to Bulk and I… Maybe she found it easier to trust him? They have been sparring in the training room often these days.

"When did she tell you?" I asked through our private communications link.

"Recently. It doesn't take a genius to figure out why someone wants to punch someone else's lights out."

Oh, we all did. It was how we dealt with them that can define us sometimes. I know for a fact that Arcee has her moments. I definitely do, and so does Aquastrike…

"They're doin' it again, ain't they?"

"Doing what?" I wanted to glare at Sunburst for our sychronised timing.

"The private comms. thing, right?"

"We all have them, Miko." Bulkhead's tone suggested that he was reminding her of this fact. "'Swept uses them the most, though."

…That was probably true.

"What're ya guys talkin' about? Me again, innit?"

"Whatever fuels your ego, Aquastrike."

"Ain't me who got that ego now, Sourshine."

"Who's next to talk about stories or anything?" Trust Starlight to be the mediator between those two. "At all?"

"Sunburst!" Miko suddenly yelled. "Jack said you really don't like that slick sportscar that chased you guys? What's up with that?"

I could feel my Energon run cold.

Sunburst started humming so lowly, it sounded like he was growling.

"Ya hafta go there, don'tcha Missy Miko."

"What'd I say?!"

How the scrap do we get out of this one…?

"I'm assuming he's done something really bad to you guys?"

"Quite the understatement, Rafael."

"Hey, whatever he's done gives you no right to speak to my brother like that." Carly's snappy tone was scarily similar to Sunburst.

"You would act this way too if Knock Out and Slipstream had tried to murder someone who acts like a sibling to you in cold Energon."

"Sunburst." He needed to calm down. There was a coldness within his optics. "Intake, and exhale."

He did just that. I watched his optics close and then reopen. The hardness that had formed disappeared slightly. "My apologies, Carly."

"It's okay, Sunburst, but if you don't mind me asking-" No Carly, please don't… "Who did they try to kill?"

Sunburst looked like he had decided he no longer wanted to talk about why we hated Knock Out so much. Instead of brushing it off and trying to deflect, he had a bad habit of just going mute.

"Ya sittin' with her."

Carly's head shot up at me rapidly, "What did they do to you?!"

"Do you want to talk about it, or should I?" Sunburst's tone and posture suggested he didn't really want to talk about it.

I don't blame him. He was the one that had to go through and watch everything happen. I had little memory over the whole ordeal… probably because of how long I had spent in stasis during my recovery.

"What happened to 'Swept?"

I looked up with a deep intake and exhaled. I felt ready to tell the story…

My optics suddenly locked onto Starlight… and it felt as if the courage I had to talk about it had gone.

"Maybe… maybe I can talk about what happened?"

I could feel a rush of relief in my systems at her wanting to speak on our behalf. I gave a nod towards her, "Please."

Star was smiling softly - that sympathetic kind-of look she often held when something bad happened to someone - before her facial expressions suddenly hardened, "The Decepticons would come to bomb Iacon often to scare us or offline us. They wanted to break into our home and grab everything we stored there. It happened so often that when they suddenly stopped, we knew something was amiss. Alpha Trion did too. He sent Sunburst, 'Swept and I to go spy on them… But we - well, Sunburst and 'Swept - got caught on their territory. I managed to escape back to Iacon to tell the others."

It was mine and Sunburst's fault for even thinking we should've got closer onto enemy lines to be fair. Starlight was always the more cautious one, but we weren't in a place to risk splitting up and getting separated permanently.

The prison was horrible - full of other Autobot prisoners as well, and only a small amount of them Neutral. Not all of them were online though… And for those that were, you could hear their tortured screams pleading for mercy…

"I don't really remember how long we were stuck there." Surprise overtook me at Sunburst speaking up. "It was…" He was struggling to even speak. "Slipstream visited often to torment us in her verbal ways, saying we were never going to escape or even see daylight again. On some joors, she tried to pry information out of us too. 'Swept and I wouldn't crack; that was the only entertainment for me." He sighed deeply. Maybe he could feel some sort of weight lifting from his shoulderpads? He's barely been able to talk about this for so long… "A part of me hoped that 'Swept and I would be able to break ourselves out on our own and be able to escape. It just… wasn't possible."

It really wasn't without someone deactivating our bonds that kept us trapped in that cell we shared, and since Slipstream certainly wasn't willing to release in a hurry, there was nothing we could do except hang around and wait for rescue…

…Or death… whichever option came first. At that point, I much preferred the idea of offlining… even if I wasn't very keen on offlining in a prison cell.

"It was the seventh cycle when it felt like any day after that was going to be my last. I was at peace with the idea." I glanced up at Sunburst; he was already looking at me. "I was at peace of dying with you by my side." I had to look away from him so he wouldn't see the lubricant in my optics. "On that day, I really thought we were." I could feel Sunburst's posture stiffen up suddenly. "It was when we met Knock Out."

The sassy, sarcastic prick that was Knock Out…

"He tormented us about Iacon, about Whirlwind. Everything and anyone were close to us, he brought up and made a smart comment about. He's in the field of medicine so you can imagine the scrap he'd say. He even described how he could tear us apart and still leave our sparks beating, but in so much pain imaginable, you'd wish you were offline." Sunburst's movement made me look up at him. "I nearly ripped my own arms off trying to free myself." I could still hear him screaming at his pain in my nightmares. "He left us with those thoughts and came back later… with Slipstream, and a weapon they both described as being 'the turning point in the war' if they could reform it into the lethal weapon they envisioned for us."

"Not only did Slipstream want to be the first to test it-" It was like the courage I had found before had come back to me. "-She wanted me to be the first test subject so... she made sure of it."

I could remember the dizziness we had been overcome with when they first came back to us with the weapon. Honestly, that's the only thing I can think of when I do think about that time… when I wanted to think about it…

I looked towards Starlight and Aquastrike, "At the same time, these guys showed up to scare Slipstream and Knock Out off. It… it was too late by that point, but they managed to bring us home."

If it weren't for our small, brave team… Sunburst and I would've never made it home…

"So…" Carly was looking up at me with concern. "Obviously, you survived your injuries… You are okay, right?"

My optics were immediately drawn to Sunburst, Aquastrike and then Starlight. It wasn't the easy road to recovery, and there were even times where I think the others thought I wasn't going to make it…

"Yeah, I'm okay." That was a story for another time. "I have the battle scars to prove it." I looked down at the armour on my mid-body - underneath it lay a scar from that day.

"Sorry to bring the mood down," Miko pouted.

"Ahhh, it's okay, Miko. Iacon weren't always doom an' gloom, ya know."

"Aqua's right! We managed to find some happiness there…" Starlight looked as if she regretted her words. "When we weren't defending Iacon from the bombings."

"How often did the 'Cons come for you guys?" Bumblebee's bleeps and whirrs were softly spoken.

He was always like that in his communication with Starlight. She doesn't talk often and he… Well, he can't really talk. It's like they have this mutual connection and understanding over being the 'quiet ones' of the base. Rafael was a bit like that too. No wonder those three get along so well.

"Too many times if you ask me," Sunburst answered in her place, "Like Starlight said earlier, Iacon was home to a lot of things Alpha Trion said that, in enemy hands, could be weapons of pure and mass destruction."

"Some paid the ultimate sacrifice to protect them… and us…" Too many to count to be honest.

Spitfire, Raindrop, Mecha…

Well… let's just say I'd be lying if I said I missed Mecha. She wasn't willing to trust me like the others, and certainly gave me a hard time about it too… At least everyone else I had met wasn't like that.

"Haven't we all?" Bulkhead huffed loudly.

I think the Wreckers were said to have taken on a lot of dangerous missions that the other Autobot subgroups weren't willing to go on. From what I've gathered, they were also the same subgroup who also lost much of their team.

I could see the anger on Bulk's face. Aquastrike looked just as frustrated, and Sunburst did too beside me. They had a right to be angry - this war that Megatron started came at the cost of so many lives who shouldn't have had to give themselves up to keep the fight going. Innocent lives were taken without a second thought too.

It just wasn't fair.

"Are you guys alright?" Raf's voice sounded distant, as voices usually do when I get stuck in my own thoughts.

"'Swept?" I looked down at Carly. "I haven't seen you this angry before. What's wrong?"

The smile I tried to put on for her didn't feel genuine, "Just thinking about this war. It's hard to not be angry at everything we've gone through and witnessed."

"I'm sorry." Miko looked like she was pouting on Bulkhead's shoulder. "Shouldn't have forced you guys into talking this stuff."

"Sometimes talking helps."

Only time would tell whether the weight of that mission would ever lift from Sunburst's shoulders.

"Ratchet, requesting Groundbridge. Need to get my partner far away from any oversized insects."

Partner?

"Partner, huh?"

"Junior partner. I can still pull rank."

Bulkhead hummed, "Well, sounds like those two finally sorted out their issues."

It was no secret that Jack and Arcee still had some… denta issues with their guardian-charge relationship. Yes, they got along really well, but Arcee had always been struggling with seeing Jack as more than just a 'liability'. …Honestly, I think she just doesn't want to get too attached to someone she could lose in a snap of our digits.

That was always due to her losing Tailgate. She got attached to him and lost him right before her own optics… Then Cliffjumper got snatched away from us too… She was much closer to him than I or the rest of the team were… None of us had any idea of how deep their bond ran, but there was one thing we all knew that we never spoke aloud with them; they were more than just partners.

I think Bulk, Bee and I all had accepted that Miko, Raf and Carly were more to us than just our charges. We adapted easier, but it's different for everyone. I sometimes picture what Sunburst, Aquastrike or Starlight would be like with their own human partners - not saying that would ever happen again, of course. We have more trouble with our ones than we would like sometimes… Another Miko-like human would be terrifying.

I could imagine Aquastrike and Starlight being the most willing for human companionship if the situation forced them into it; Aqua certainly would have a blast with a human friend of her own. Sunburst was hard to imagine because I truly believed he would be similar to Arcee. I think because Jack, Carly, Miko and Raf were already in our lives before he arrived, he just simply adapted to the roster. But if it had been him that met and accidentally revealed his true self to a human… he probably would've been a little skeptical of having that human become someone he would've had to become responsible for.

He and Arcee were similar in a lot of ways. It was like they had formed some kind of understanding that even I didn't really know why, and next to Carly, they were my closest teammates.

…Maybe when Sunburst told me everything about Whirlwind, he hadn't told me every little thing.

Laughter brought me back to my senses. Aquastrike was posing for some reason… and so was Sunburst?!

When did he get up?

Was I stuck in my thoughts for that long?

Primus, I know I have a bad habit of doing it, but it's like every time I do, it's like joors have gone by when I come back to the real world.

The sounds of camera flashing made me look at Miko. She was on the ground now with Carly, and they had their phones out. They must've been taking photos of Aqua and Sunshine.

I couldn't help the smile on my face; I was happy to see Sunburst loosen up a little. Sure, he could be a rules-only 'Bot and be a little reserved. He just hadn't always been like that. Time could do that to someone quite easily though, especially when you've gone through a lot of things that have given you demons.

"Ahh told y'all ol' Sunshine got nothin' on me!"

"What I lack in outright appearance, I make up for in strength, Aquastrike."

"Wharever ya say now, Sourshine!"

"Listen cowbot." Oh boy… "You know that if we were to spar right now, I would be the victor."

"Ya wanna prove that wrong right here, right now?"

"Maybe not!" Starlight suddenly stood up. "We are standing on the roof of our base."

Thank Primus for Starlight, truly.

"Ahh, ya right, Twinkle. I woulda made Sourshine fall through the dang roof anyway."

Sunburst's rolling of his optics had me laughing.

To be fair, they were actually quite evenly matched. Sunburst really did make up in strength. He's been training with Arcee too since he arrived, and she probably has been putting him through the ringer; her training simulations were very intense.

"You lot." There's only 'Bot who would address us all like that. "Are any of you up there currently standing on the elevator doors?"

"If we are?" Aquastrike sassed to Ratchet.

"Unless you wish to fall through the base, then I recommend moving. We're coming up."

Aquastrike couldn't have scrambled off the elevator doors fast enough.

"As if Ratchet would randomly open the doors and let you fall," Sunburst scoffed as he walked off.

…It was Ratchet we're talking about.

The doors opened almost immediately after Sunburst got off the roof. I wonder how the recon mission for Arcee and Jack did go? The sun was a little lower now than before we started talking about the war on Cybertron. Based on its position, I would say it had been a few joors actually…

Hmmm… too long for it to be a simple recon mission…

The platform of the elevator stopped. Arcee and Jack looked exhausted; her armour was scratched and his clothes looked messy.

"You look like a mess." Carly covered her mouth suddenly like she wasn't meaning to blurt out what she said.

She and Jack haven't really made much progress since a few weeks ago when they decided to not interact with each other much. He'd made a lot of progress with whatever he was doing with Sierra, which she - and all of us - were happy for, of course. I could tell she was still frustrated by how everything had panned out. At least she had Miko and the rest of us to lean on.

You can't help the way you feel. It takes one to know one… or however that saying goes.

I returned my optics to Arcee and Jack, "What happened?" It was quite obvious something had gone down.

Jack was looking up at Arcee as if he was asking for permission to tell us what had happened. She gave him a nod so he looked towards us, "We ran into an… overly large insect."

Bumblebee's whirrs were low enough that he could've been growling, "Airachnid."

That nasty spider-con?! The same one who slaughtered Tailgate?!

The concern that flooded through me made me stand up, "Are you okay?"

"We're both fine 'Swept," Arcee reassured. Her facial expressions suddenly morphed into anger, "Unfortunately, so is Airachnid."

"So she's on Earth, and you ran into her," Sunburst summarised.

"Who's Airachnid?" Rafael asked innocently.

No one made a move to speak. I guess some of us were thinking about earlier when Bulkhead nearly spoke about Arcee's run-in with Airachnid on Cybertron. After all, it was something we definitely shouldn't talk about without Arcee being comfortable for us to do so.

"You all look like you've been scolded by your educational teachers," Ratchet remarked.

"Well… we've been talking war stories with our 'Bots, and…" Miko looked uncertain, a rare feat for her.

"We started talking about some deep stuff," Bulkhead continued for her, "'Cee came up and we thought we shouldn't talk about your stuff unless you wanted to."

The only ones who didn't know were Starlight, Aquastrike and the humans. I could only imagine that Jack was well aware of who Airachnid was now and what she meant to Arcee. As had been established earlier, only she got to decide when she felt it was right to share her demons.

I was certain there was still stuff about Bulk and 'Bee, Ratchet, and maybe even Optimus himself that I didn't know. Obviously, I would never pry unless they wanted to be open with me.

Arcee's expression's showed she appeared to be… unfazed? She shrugged, "Depends on what you want to hear."

"What did Airachnid do?" Starlight was the only one brave enough to ask.

"She took away my partner, Tailgate, because I wouldn't tell her something I couldn't."

The only times I had ever heard about Airachnid was when Arcee had talked about that whole ordeal once, ages ago. She was said to use physical torture to gain the intel she wanted, and pry it out from her victim in any way possible. She makes mine and Sunburst's capture and torture with Slipstream and Knock Out a mere walk in a park…

Airachnid had captured Arcee at one point in the war and was trying to gain coordinates on an attack site for the 'Cons. But Arcee was a lot stronger and resilient to physical torture, so she scarred her psychologically instead by capturing Tailgate, and murdering him in cold Energon right before her optics. It left her with a struggle to let people in and trust them, as she always feared something similar would happen again.

Cliffjumper got under her armour somehow though…

"How'd it happen?" Aquastrike asked.

Arcee was sitting down with us now, "Well, it was back on Cybertron. We were on Team Delta…"

Everyone had gathered around… except for Ratchet and Optimus? I looked over to the edge of our roof where they were standing. They looked like they were in deep conversation with one another, so I walked over towards them… because I was a little nosey like that.

"I didn't think it was possible to have hope in this war, Optimus." Classic Ratchet. "I don't know if you could have found a team as diverse and strong-minded as this one." His words made me freeze in my step. "I… can feel hopeful that this war will someday be over."

I didn't think it was possible for Ratchet to say something positive, let alone something nice about us as a whole.

"Perhaps, old friend. Anything is possible."

A warm feeling spread through my spark; that kind of fuzzy feeling people get when they feel happy or something like that. I glanced back at my teammates.

In our own, unique ways, we were strong. We all possessed qualities different from each other, and for some of us, we actually were similar than we thought. To be honest, we are all the same in terms of what we want - for this war to be over.

As Ratchet had said, maybe one day… we could succeed. It could be possible, as long as we had this team, and each other…