Cross My Spark; Hope To Die

Hope NOT To Die

The floor was more comfortable than she let on. It was free of electricity and the coolness even offered a little bit of comfort on her burning hot armor. Nothing was hurting her actively, although a pitched ache washed over her entire protoform with the slightest movements or shift in the air.

Sparkbeat: naturally high, but still in the relatively normal ranges, all things considered. Stillness was the best option and quite the most comfortable one. No movement equals...less pain. Not no pain, but a lot less of it.

Starscream paced back and forth, "so, what'll it be? Are you going to tell us the location?"

Firm resolve crushed with instant regret shot through the bond immediately. Frag it, lightweight. Don't crack now. Differing opinions within her processor decided to make their own points clear as well.

Who am I kidding? She wouldn't. She won't. Convincing herself? Probably. Sure she was right? Well...positive. She promised. They promised.

It was back a...whole bunch of cycles ago.

Sitting in their quarters, late into the cycle. Way past curfew for soldiers with only the lights of their own optics and light glow of their data-pads (in which they were supposed to be logging battles), they kept their voices low and laughs as quiet as they could. It was the third time they had been moved due to noise complaints.

What? It wasn't their fault they were party animals by nature. Not tampering it down wasn't an option anymore, though; it was a requirement. Optimus finally got tired of their scrap (even though they knew that they were two of his favorite lieutenants and treated them as such, although he'd never let that on. For fear it'd get to their processors) and told them that he'd split them up if they gave anyone much more trouble late at night.

All of a sudden BBop got serious. This wasn't a usual thing or even a thing that happened anywhere close to often. The only time she ever was serious was in battle when she was reaching through chest-plates and yanking out the innards of some Decepticon or some neutral that rubbed her the wrong way.

"You've gotta promise me something," the entire atmosphere stilled to a somber stop.

With optics refocusing and a light, honest shrug and little actual attention paid: "depends what it is, sis."

"Streamline, I'm being serious."

Uh-oh. Her real name. That one wasn't used often. Usually, it was something like" Scraplet, Buckethead, Fragger, Stupid, Idiot, some variation of the real name, or, the most used: Lightweight. She's actually serious. Focus up, Streamy.

"Okay, BBop. Sorry...I'm paying attention."

"I overheard Ultra Magnus talking to Optimus earlier this cycle. I know I shouldn't have been eavesdropping and, yeah, I know I get onto you for always listening in to other conversations and stuff...but they were talking about us."

"You and I?"

"Yeah. The Decepticons must've learned some things we didn't exactly want them to learn. Communications were intercepted and apparently the Decepticons were sending a transmission to the wrong place at the wrong time. They know things about us that we may not even know about and--"

"Stop dancing around the subject. I could care less that they knew how fast I can run or how hard you can punch. It's not like we've kept a tally of Decepticons we've snuffed or anything. What's the catch?"

"We're now big targets on their interrogation list, and they're even potentially talking to some of the DJD officials to hunt us down. I believe that the possibility of this being true to be even more of a real prospect due to our previous desertion."

"They've...been on our tails since the beginning," It simmered for a little bit. The darkness within the room settled a little heavier than previously, and it took a moment for her to recover. After her voice caught in her throat once, she finally was able to get out a: "What..why?"

"You recall what I said about how they know a whole lot of things?"

"Yeah, you said it like a klik ago."

"Just making sure," BBop paused, "that's kind of important to what I'm trying to tell you."

A nod. "BBop, just tell me what the frag they want us for."

"Our newly pronounced Amica Endura bond works in their favor. As we were educated about before we made our decision to set it in stone, it's obvious that the sparkbond has been completely amplified. We can feel pain in a more amplified, specific way. Emotion can be transferred, reciprocally felt, and detected. Separation triggers all sorts of issues. Y'know, that sort of stuff."

Her previous tone dropped, "How does that work in our enemies' favor?"

"Well, apparently due to the pasts we've had and the unique conditions we developed during our earlier times, our bond is somehow stronger than all of the others he's ever investigated."

"So the Decepticons know this, too. But Ratchet hasn't told us this?"

"That's not the point. We can sort out our annoyed feelings about how we weren't told something we basically already knew. Frag that science. Tell me you didn't feel it, too. We're eternal best-friends for crying out loud! Isn't it pretty obvious?"

All of the dots finally connecting and everything fell directly into place. The last statement was all but acknowledged, "So, they're going to try and capture us. But why us? Cool, we have some stupidly-strong bond that causes us to be able to transfer and detect emotions and feel pain directly from the other in a quicker or stronger way than everyone else. Big whoop."

"They want to know where the weapon is."

"You're kidding. They've hacked lab results but haven't figured out where our stupid weapon is?"

"Not kidding," Simple. To the point.

"Yeah...that wasn't super bright of me. But, what the frag..?"

"They guard our weapons secrets more closely than our medical ones."

After staring off into space, "so do they think that they're going to make us crack because of our bond?"

"Bingo. That's the last thing Prime and Magnus mentioned to each other, well, before I bugged it out of there. Prime speculated the same thing and expressed concern that the Decepticons may move to very...unconventional interrogation methods. Ones he certainly did not want us to experience."

After an awkward pause and the silence settling in the air like a weighted blanket, Streamline stood up abruptly and held her servo out, with her pinky digit extended. "So you want a promise to never crack? No matter what?"

"Exactly," BBop stood and held out her own pinky digit and they officially shook on it, "cross my spark."

"And hope to die."

"Well, I think we should amend that last statement."

After a long shrug: "That's how it's pronounced on Earth."

"How about: 'and hope not to die'."

"What about: 'and hope to kill'?"

BBop punched her shoulder armor with a huge grin, "since when are you so violent?!"

*     *     *     *     *

Okay, it feels really weird to actually be back into the groove of posting consistently. Let's see how long we can keep this scrap up. 

Finals are going to kick my aft tomorrow so that's that. 

BBop belongs to my most wonderful sister, and my real-life Amica Endura (which is Cybertronian/Camien for eternal best friend! BBop and Streamline are also now confirmed canon Amica Endura's as made clear in the chapter :) )

Yeah, I love you guys. Random depressive spells have been hitting lately...just out of nowhere. It feels like, for random brief moments I just wanna disappear but then they're gone as quick as the spells come. This has helped through the spells. I love u. It'll get better soon. 

Now, take your right servo and place it on your left shoulder-plate. Do the same with your other hand and shoulder. Squeeze. Oh, look. You received the hug I sent :)...It finally got to u. Geez...express mail.