Cybertron. Sideswipe had just gotten there via the spacebridge. He was glad to be back. He was hoping to start his life all over again. Hoping being the operative word.

"I hope my salvage shop is still there. Wish I hadn't had to close it up when the war started. I was doing real good. Here's to hoping its still standing."

Sideswipe transformed and headed for the north side of Cybertron. He missed his apartment in Iacon City. He was hoping that was still standing too. He had forgotten that it was a long drive there.

"Would have taken me longer if I had walked. Wonder if there's any of the old crew still alive?"

About 2 Earth hours later he arrived in Iacon City. Sides noticed that some places were still standing, some gone and new buildings rebuilt in the places where the old ones were. He was about 30 feet from one of the bots that was working on one of the buildings. Sides transformed and walked up to the mech.

"Hey, what's going on here?"

The mech turned around and noticed who the red mech was in front of him. It had been so long that Sideswipe forgot who the mech was. He knew it was an old friend of his, but couldn't remember his name.

"Sideswipe? It is you!" He hugged Sideswipe tight. He put him back down after. Sideswipe was glad to be released. He felt like he was in a car crusher.

"Forgive me for not remembering your name. I've been offworld for a very long time."

"That's ok. Just glad you're back. Where's your brother?"

"I left him back on Earth. That's where I've been all this time."

"I heard Optimus Prime took a crew offworld with him. You and your brother were on the Ark when it left Cybertron?"

"Yep. Any of the old crew still around?"

"You're looking at him."

"You're the only survivor? I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I hid in one of the neutral cities during the war. I didn't want any part of it. Some of the citizens here ask about your brother. Wondering if he still paints?"

"Actually, he does. With the ceasefire, it gives him time to catch up on his painting. It keeps him calm. That's when I wasn't dragging him into helping me with one of my pranks."

"Are you still pulling pranks, Sides? Thought you would have given that up by now."

"Naw. I had to do something during my down time. When Prime left my adopted sister, Wolf in command of the Earth based Autobots, she let me prank the others a little more. Her former mate stuck Sunny and I in the brig. I had goaded Sunny into helping me."

"Adopted sister?"

"Something Prime brought up to all 3 of us. He wanted her to keep us out of trouble and wanted us to do the same for her."

"Why not take a small part of your spark and merge it with hers?"

"We brought that up to Ratchet and he hit us both upside the head with a wrench. Told us that it was not only risky but stupid. Said that if her spark rejected parts of ours it could either put us in stasis or kill us. After hearing that, we agreed with him. Of course we didn't think of the outcome. I'm glad we didn't do it."

"Wait, Ratchet was with you guys as well? First Aid was wondering what happened to him after the war started."

"I thought he wanted no dealings with the war?"

"And he didn't. He just repaired everyone. Hotspot wasn't happy about First Aid's decision, but allowed him to leave the team anyway."

"The Protectobots aren't a team without First Aid. I'm surprised he let First Aid leave."

"I was too. To each their own, right?"

"Yep. I was heading for the apartment complex just a few blocks over. Is it still standing?"

"Yeah, it is. In fact, its been remodeled. You looking to get back in your old place?"

"Yeah, I am."

"Good luck with that. I heard the new landlord is an afthole. If you don't pass a background check, you don't get in."

"I have a nice extensive résumé that should get me in."

"You are a war hero. I don't see why you shouldn't get in. Just thought you should know that your salvage business is still up and running. Someone took it over after you left. Don't know if they'll give it back."

"Thanks. I'm glad its still going. If I do get into my old place, swing by sometime, Talon."

"You finally remembered my name? Took you long enough."

"Hey, be lucky I didn't call you something else. I could have called you a lot worse than your name. Just sayin'."

"Maybe I'll swing by in a few solar cycles. Still have lots of work to do. Ultra Magnus is wanting this whole block rebuilt within the next stellar cycle. It may take longer and we told him that."

"Mags never wants excuses, just results. Kinda like Prowl."

"By the book, huh?"

"Oh, worse. Prime let him punish us any way he saw fit. The worst punishment we had was cleaning the waste extractors. We had to use Human toothbrushes to clean them. Sunny wasn't happy at all. I was less than thrilled myself, but if I complained, it was an extra week added on to it for every time we did. We ended up doing it for 3 months cause Sunny wouldn't shut his mouth. It would have been longer if Prime hadn't stepped in."

"Sounds like you had a good leader. Prowl sounds like a jerk."

"Not always. I gotta get going. I wanna get unpacked and get some decent recharge."

"Alright. See ya around, Sides. Good to see ya."

"You too, Talon." Sides waved then transformed. He headed for the apartment complex he lived at.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Earth. Autobot HQ. Elita didn't like how Sunny was deteriorating since his brother had blocked him out of the bond completely. She called Ratchet and told him what is going on with Sunny.

Ratchet sighed. He knew it was his fault for what's happening to Sunstreaker. "I'll be right there, Elita. Just don't let him do anything that could end his life for good. I don't want you ending up like me."

"Maybe you need to sit down with Optimus later and talk about what's bugging you."

"I'll think about it." Then the call ended. Ratchet couldn't believe what's happening to Sunstreaker. He really hated himself now.

Sunstreaker and Elita's room. Ratchet knocked and Elita opened the door and lets in Ratchet. "He's getting worse by the minute, Ratchet. Unless we can get Sideswipe back here, Sunstreaker could…"

"I know. This is my fault, Elita. I shouldn't have pushed Sideswipe away." Sunny had walked out of his room when he heard Ratchet's voice.

"You're damn right its your fault, you psycho medic. All my brother did was love you and you turned him away. You broke his spark. How could you do that to him? My death will be on your hands and on your conscience!" They could tell Sunny was pissed. Elita carefully stepped up to him and grabbed his hands in hers.

"Please calm down, sweetspark. I can't lose you." Sunny looked at his hands in hers then looked at the femme in front of him and smiled. Sunny hugged Elita and apologized.

Ratchet had already left their room feeling worse than he had before he left med bay.

Elita and Sunny had sat down on the sofa and talked. "What's really bothering you, sweetspark?"

"I miss my brother. I miss him a lot. He won't let me through the wall he put up. I've done everything I can to break through, but he's adamant about keeping me out. I want him to come home…to me. It kills me that I can't feel him in the bond. He won't even answer my calls."

"We definitely need my daughter to bring him back then."

"Did you really talk to her then?"

"Yes, I did. She still doesn't believe Megatron. That will take some time. Something her and I have to talk about. She is on her way here, though."

"It's going to be nice to see her again. I've always thought of her as a sister. She was a great commander. Why Jazz would say that leaving her in command of the Earth based Autobots was a bad idea is beyond me."

"Maybe he was jealous."

"I wouldn't put it past him to be jealous. As long as everyone stayed civilized and didn't cause problems, she let everyone do pretty much what they wanted."

"It had nothing to with Optimus or myself being her parents?"

"Nope. She earned the respect all on her own. Even Prowl respects her, and he's hard to please."

"Yes, he is. At one time, Optimus was too. Don't tell him I said that."

"My lips are sealed. I'm glad we're talking. I'm feeling better. I was never very social, whereas my brother was."
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

About an hour later, Wolf showed up at Autobot HQ. Both Elita and Sunny had been outside, enjoying the day. After I landed near there, they stood up and couldn't believe who was here.

I ran to them and hugged them tightly. I was so glad to be home. I missed my mom and my adopted brother.

"Its so good to have my baby girl home. I've missed you so much, sweetie."

"I've missed you too, mom. Why does Megatron keep telling me that he's my biological father? He can't be. He's a Decepticon. I'm of Autobot parentage. Not Autobot and Decepticon parentage."

"Optimus isn't your biological father, sweetie. Megatron is. I was on an undercover mission. Megatron figured out who I was and instead of interrogating me, he seduced me in his personal quarters. It wasn't meant to happen, but it did. I have a beautiful daughter cause of my undercover mission."

"So, you cheated on dad?"

"Yes, but I never told him 'til after you had passed away. He had remembered that it was the undercover mission that he tried to stop me from going on. He still considers you his daughter even though you're not his biologically."

"He's the reason why I had died. My energon pressure never came down after he left the shower area. I could hear everyone, but I couldn't wake up. Sides brought me into med bay and Ratchet did everything he could to cool my systems down. I didn't wanna leave you like that, mom."

"I know sweetie. I'm just glad you're back." I looked at Sunny who didn't look happy when I mentioned Sides' name.

"Bro, what's wrong? Where Sides? I wanna thank him for trying to help me."

"He's…he's not here."

"You mean he's not here right now?"

"He means Sideswipe isn't here at all. He left his brother and Ratchet. He's blocked Sunstreaker out of the bond completely."

I looked at Sunny, who nodded. I gave him another hug. "I'm so sorry, Sunny. Anything I can do to help?"

He stepped back from me and nodded. "Can you go to Cybertron and bring him back, please? I miss him so much."

"I can do what I can, but you know there's no guarantee, right?"

"I know. I just want you to try. We'll keep tabs on you from here." I looked at my mom.

"Its your call, sweetie. It hurts my spark seeing Sunstreaker like this. I don't know what I would do without him."

I looked at her in shock. "I'm sorry, what?"

Elita was about to tell me when Sunny stopped her. "Let me do it, Elita. I need to talk to her about something privately anyway."

"You are so going to explain this, Sunny."

"Don't worry, I will. Come on. We'll talk in the Rec. Room. No one's there."

I nodded then followed him into the base.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

The Rec. Room. We were glad that no one was in there when we sat down at the farthest table.

"Would you like something to drink while we talk?"

"Naw, I'm good. Please explain why you and my mom are together? She cheating on my dad again?"

"No. She ended it with him after you passed away."

"That explains the open grave. But doesn't explain you and my mom."

"It wasn't meant to happen, but it did. I was just being a friend to her. Ratchet suggested I stay with her for the day. She was so spark broken. Her and I both watched you pass away as did Ratchet."

"What did my mom mean when she said Sides left Ratchet?"

"Sides was dating Ratchet, but he was also in love with you."

"Is that what Sides was trying to do?"

"He told me that he confessed his love for you."

"I wasn't in love with him, though. Not like I wanted to. I knew he had a thing for Ratchet. That's why I never confessed my true feelings to your brother."

Just then, Ratchet walked in and caught the tail end of our conversation. "He left cause of you, Wolf. I broke up with him cause he wanted you."

"Ratch, I never wanted him. I knew he wanted you. I wasn't going to compete with you."

"You were never really in love with him even though he was head over heels in love with you?"

"No, I wasn't. Regardless of what I did to Jazz, I still deeply love the mech. I always will. Maybe I'll go look for him after I look for Sides."

"Where is he? Where is my red firecracker?"

"That's the sign of someone who is still in love. Come with me to find him, Ratch."

"He left for Cybertron, Ratchet. He couldn't be in the same place with you. He told me he needed to distance himself from you. Which meant distancing himself from me, too."

"Tell Elita I took her advice. I went and saw Prime. I'm on administrative leave for now. I have time to kill now."

"I'm glad he did the right thing."

"I didn't mean to interrupt your conversation."

"I'm glad you're here, Ratchet. I need to talk to you about this as well."

"What are you talking about, Sunny?"

"I wanna merge part of my spark with yours, Wolf."

Ratchet smacked Sunny upside the head. "Autobot Gibbs. I'm tellin' ya."

"You too?"

"Yep. I'm the reason you guys watch the show."

"And the medical shows?"

"Me, too. Face it, Ratch. You learned more about the human body watching them then working with a hospital."

"That's true." Then he looked at Sunny. "You are out of your fraggin' mind if you think I'm going to merge part of your spark with hers. Especially if you're dating her mother."

"Yeah, bro. Think about it. You get bonded to my mom, plus making me your biological sister would end up you being my father-brother. In some states, that's called incest. Its one or the other. I understand why you wanna merge part of your spark with mine. You need to have someone on the other end of the bond so you don't die. I get it."

Ratchet was shocked to find out why Sunny wanted it done. "Do you mind if I sit with you 2?"

I smiled and nodded. I felt something weird and put my hand over my spark. It didn't feel right. Both Ratchet and Sunny noticed and got worried.

"You don't look good, sis." I looked at him.

"I don't feel good either. My spark isn't pulsating right."

Ratchet pulled out a scanner and ran it over my spark. He looked at the findings and shook his head. "I have no idea how you're still alive. My scanner barely registered your spark pulse. We need to get you to med bay immediately."

"If I die again, don't bring me back. Just lay me to rest like I should have stayed."

Sunny didn't like hearing that. "Don't say things like that! You're not going to die! I won't let you! Then I really will be alone." I went to stand up and fell over. I wasn't drunk, either. Sunny caught me in time. He picked me up and carried me to med bay as fast as he could. Ratchet was right behind him.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Med bay. Ratchet told Sunny to lay me down gently. Ratchet knew I didn't like when my paintjob got scratched. Sunny noticed my optics were getting dimmer and dimmer. "Ratchet…"

"I know Sunstreaker. I'm doing everything I can. Let me do some quick research. I'll be right back. Stay with her. Let me know if anything changes." Sunny nodded and grabbed a chair. He sat down next to me.

Elita had walked in while Ratchet was doing some research. Sunny was so focused on me that he didn't feel Elita's hand on his shoulder 'til she shook him a bit. He slightly jumped.

"I didn't mean to startle you. I didn't get an answer when I called out to you. Everything ok?"

Sunny shook his head no. "Wolf's spark isn't pulsating correctly. Ratchet went to do some research. Probably on the suggestion I mentioned."

"What would that be?"

Ratchet had walked out of his office when Elita had asked a question. "Sunstreaker wants to take part of his spark and merge it with Wolf. It may be the only way to save her now. Normally, energon doesn't expire, but I think what Megatron had his medic use to reactivate you, didn't agree with your systems. Its effecting your spark pulse. Its pulsating at 5%."

Elita couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Is merging part of his spark with hers safe?"

"No, but unless you want to lose your daughter again and for good, I have to do this."

Sunny stood up and gently took Elita's hands into his. He brought them up to his chest and pulled her forward. "Whatever happens, know that I will always love you, my pink petunia." Then he hugged her. She hugged him back and kissed him passionately in case it was the last time. She was hoping it wasn't, but just in case.

Sunny got up on the other repair table and laid down. Ratchet manually shut him down and opened his chest. He carefully opened the spark casing where Sunny's spark resides. He used his laser scalpel to carefully cut a small piece of his spark, then closed his spark casing and his chest plate. All while holding a piece of Sunny's spark in one hand with the cyberforceps.

Elita watched in silence as Ratchet placed the sliver of Sunny's spark into Wolf's spark. He wanted her to be awake in case of any side effects of the spark merging.

During that time, Ratchet brought Sunny back online. He told him that the spark merge was done but waiting to see if there will be any side effects from it.

"Every spark has its own data and once its been rewritten into another body, like part of your spark was merged with Wolf's spark, it will rewrite itself and match her data."

"So, it should save her life?"

"That's the plan. We just have to wait now."

"I'm right here, you 2. I can hear you."

"She was awake the whole time you merged part of my spark with hers?"

"I followed what I read. You needed to be shut down while she didn't. I don't think you could have handled that kind of pain directly to your spark, Sunstreaker."

I put my hand over my spark and could feel Sides on the other end. "Sunny, I can feel Sides. He's confused."

"You can feel him on the other side of the bond?"

"Yeah. How did you and him talk through the bond?"

"Let me show you."

Sunny reached through the bond to me and I reached back at him.

~What do you think?~

~Weird. Is this how you and Sides did it when your comms. were turned off?~

~Yep. It's the one thing Prowl couldn't stop us from doing.~

~He's reaching out to me? What do I do?~

~Just like you did with me. Reach back out to him.~

I reached out to Sides when he reached out to me through the bond.

~What the fuck is going on? How…?~

~Don't freak out, Sides. I was dying…again. The only way to save me was Ratchet merging part of Sunny's spark with mine.~

~So,…~

~I'm biologically your sister now. You need to come home, Sides. Sunny misses you so much.~

~Like I told him. I need to distance myself.~

~You're really going to distance yourself from the mech who calls you his red firecracker?~

~He…no, I'm not going back. I've got my business up and running again, I have my old place back and I'm doing good. I don't plan to go back there.~

~Not even to see your twin brother or me? Are you going to be that cold to us?~

~Tell Ratchet and Sunny I'm sorry. Tell Sunny I'll always love him. He's my bro.~

~Why don't you do that yourself, Sideswipe. Its painfully obvious you don't love Ratchet anymore.~ I put up a block after. I couldn't believe it.

"Asshole." I had muttered it under my breath.

"I'm guessing it didn't go well?"

"I don't wanna get into it right now. I need to go calm down before I do anything else."

I left med bay shortly after. My mom followed behind me.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

My room. My mom was adamant about finding out what happened. "Mom, please. I don't need my energon pressure skyrocketing. I need to calm down first. You need to be with my brother right now. After what Sideswipe is going to tell him, he's going to need you."

"That bad?"

I nodded my head. "That's all you're getting from me. I have some calls to make. I'll swing by Sunny's room later. I love you, mom."

"I love you too, sweetie." Then she gave me a hug. I returned the hug, then watched her leave my room. I closed the door shortly after.