The Shadow of Kaon

Even at the end

The training room was full of the remains of the training dummies. The vehicons, who had the brave to watch the happenings, were amazed by the little femme's moves. She did this for almost an hour, and her opponents just came and came again.

Darkwing dodged a hit from the dummy, then with a jump to its back where it doesn't reach her, she ripped off its head. The bot fell to the ground with a big noise, and around her, the soldiers clapped.

"Good move, Darkwing!"

The femme dropped down the head and looked into her viewer's way.

"The last one almost got me."

She panted, then grabbed the dummy's leg, and pulled it to the side of the room to make the cleaner's work easier.

"Anybody wants to try themself against me?" She shouted.

The vehicons looked around, but everybody just shrugged.

"We don't want to die."

"Yeah, you're an animal in fight, Darkwing."

"Come on booooys! Really, nobody?" The femme made a sad face.

"Darkwing!" She heard a voice from the other side of the training room.

"Oh, somebody wants to get sliced up?"

Darkwing turned around, just to see the second in command walking towards her.

"Commander Starscream..." A small, dark light came across the femme's optics, then she bowed to the mech. "I gladly see that you are in better shape."

"Yes, yes... Can we talk?"

"Of course."

"Not here, with the... soldiers. It's more of a private matter."

The vehicons came closer to them, but Darkwing stopped them with a glance.

"I understand, commander. I follow you."

Starscream lead her in a side room, where they stored the unused dummies. The place was dark, which made the femme suspicious about his intentions. The commander closed the door behind her.

"So, what's the problem?" Darkwing leaned the back of her hips to the edge of a table.

"Aren't you afraid to be with me alone?"

"Should I?"

"After what we did to each other, I supposed..."

"I don't have hard feelings, Starscream. You gave me cuts, I gave you too. We are even, so what is it all about?"

"I... "Starscream lowered his wings and his helm. "I just wanted to ask for forgiveness."

"You?" Darkwing laughed. "Ask from our Lord, he is the one you tried to overthrow."

"I do not feel guilty about that. I almost killed you, but you had mercy on me when you had the chance to do the same torture on me."

Darkwing observed him. She looked down on him from his wingtips to his heels, then answered with a loosened posture.

"You're an important part of the Decepticons, Starscream. You're the leader of the Seekers, an extremely adaptable mech, and your flying skills are impressive. It would be the waste of metal to hate you. Even if you thought that I'm a terrible carcass user."

"You really didn't know?"

"Yes. Shockwave never disturbed himself to tell me."

They stayed silent for a minute, then in a quiet voice, Starscream asked her.

"Do you... feel them?"

"Who?"

"Thundercracker and Skywarp."

"Sometimes. Mostly when you are close, my wings start to twitch and shiver. Maybe just metal memory, but..."

Just as the wings heard her talking, they twitched on her back. This trapped the mech's focus on them like he was hypnotized.

"Do you... want to touch them?" the femme asked.

"What? Would you let me?"

"Of course. I presume you never had a chance to mourn them."

Darkwing turned her back to the commander.

"But I hope you know, if you try to hurt me, I will kill you. Slowly."

Starscream stepped to the femme He hesitated, then to not hurt her, he used the palm of his hands to stroke the edge of her wings. Darkwing shivered under the commander's touch and remembered the last time when he hurt her. The fear was still inside her, but she knew that they need to put an end to this tormenting game.

"The upper pair was Thundercracker... And the lower is Skywarp." he whispered.

"How do you know?"

"I remember this mark." Starscream pointed to an almost completely faded scar on the upper left wing. "An Autobot shot down Thundercracker from the sky." The commander pulled his servos back, then leaned close to Darkwing's audio receptors. "Thank you Darkwing. I appreciate the gesture that you did now."

"We should always have the chance to respect our dead comrades."

Darkwing turned back to face Starscream. "From now on, I hope there will be no interference between us, Commander Starscream."

She bowed, then walked past the mech, and left the storage room without any words .

Outside, she bumped into the vehicons, who waited for her with growing nervousness.

"Are you alright, Darkwing?" One of them asked.

"Of course. We just had a little talk, that's it. You don't have to worry, sweet sparks."

The femme smiled at them, then left the training room.