Chapter 3: Damaged Case

Dim blue optics fluttered partway, adjusting to the dark surroundings. Audio receptor tunning in on soft crackling sounds from the left. The person, half asleep, tried their best at sitting up, only to be pushed back. "Stay down if you don't want to reopen that gash." a voice spoke from above.

"Skyrider? What, what happened, and what's up with your voice? I mean, I know I said you acted like a femme but-," the mech stopped his rant when he caught a foggy glimpse of a pink frame. "Who are you, and what have you done with Skyrider?" He raised his fists in a drunk-like state.

"Take it easy there, my name is Firespark, and I saved you in a crash. Can you tell me what happened?" the voice, Firespark, replied in a soft murmur.

The mech growled, swinging his fists blindly in the air, "I'm not telling you anything, 'Con, but you should know that since you blew us out of the sky."

Firespark sighed in annoyance. It always seemed that mechs were so talkative when they were defensive. 'Except for Soundwave,' she thought bitterly. "Maybe you should open your eyes instead of your mouth." With a small rag, she washed the confused mech's faceplate, earning a bewildered yelp.

Water trickled down the sides of his face and on the berth as blue optics shown brightly. They locked with a pair of orange orbs, blazing with triumph. "There, that's better. Let's try this again. Do you remember anything before you blacked out?"

Face twisting in disgust as he stared at her, "You're not a 'Con?"

"No, any other questions?"

With a new sense of anger, he barked, "Where's Skyrider?"

"Skyrider? Do you mean that there were others with you? I only saw you in the wreckage." Firespark was alarmed. She never left anyone behind.

"Of course, there were others. That cruiser needs at least two pilots to get it off the ground. Now I won't ask again, where is he?"

"I-I don't know-" Firespark stammered, trying to form a sentence, but the mech grew impatient and launched himself at her.

"Yes, you do. Where!" the mech yelled, servos locked around Firespark's neck cables.

Panic, she gasped out, "I don't know! I watched your ship fall out of the sky, and you were the only one aboard! This Skyrider would be recovering alongside you if he was in there!"

The information and overexertion were too much for the mech as he offlined into stasis. Firespark held him before he could fall onto the ground and dragged him over to the fully assembled stasis pod.

A few hours or preferably a day in stasis would help heal the mech, as well as his memory files. Once she set the timer for a whole Earth day, the femme trekked out into the woods for the destroyed cruiser. If this Skyrider needed help, she would bring him home.

The journey through the pathway of toppled trees was challenging to navigate. If the person wasn't on the ship, then it was likely that they fell out.

The ground was blackened, and ash lined the skidmarks the cruiser left behind. The once lush trees now were broken in half as some were uprooted from their firm holds.

The destruction went on for miles, and Firespark couldn't identify any signs of a body. If Skyrider wasn't inside the ship, then he must have fallen out or maybe jumped out before it crashed. Firespark shivered at the thought of plummeting toward the ground at an intense speed.

Just when the thought of giving up approached her processor, Firespark noticed a glowing trail of blue liquid. Orange optics narrowed in curiosity as the femme crept closer to the base of the trunk. Slowly realizing that the fluid was indeed energon, she lifted her helm. In horror, Firespark took a step back, unable to fully understand what she saw.

A lone pair of white and orange legs dangling from the branches, rocking as the wind rushed through the tree.

Firespark closed her optics shut as she looked at the ground, tears forming in the corners. Slowly, she opened them, and they widened at a small energon trail leading away from the tree.

Troubled, the femme nonchalantly followed the path toward the rock quarry. The crater was an abandoned human mine and a place where Firespark used to find tiny energon crystals.

Skidding down the rocky sides, she followed the energon toward a large pile of boulders. Some of the stones had jagged ends on both the top and around the sides of the mound. A shadow formed over Firespark's optics as she unconsciously moved toward the hill, where a single torso laid.

The body was battered and was orange and white, similar to the pair of legs but tinted with gray. A long sharp rock was impaled through the spark chamber while smaller ones littered his abdomen. His mouth was partially open, and his optics were a lifeless grey. Firespark hoped that his final moments were swift.

Gentle black digits hovered over the pained optics and dragged them closed. In a soft voice, Firespark whispered in Cybertronian, "May I see you again in the Well of Alsparks," in the mech's audio receptors.

~~~~~

The stasis pod opened with a hiss, and the red and orange mech stepped out. Blue optics gazed around his surroundings until they locked onto a pink femme, sitting at the fire, lazily drawing circles in the dirt.

Anger surged through his veins as he approached her but fell short when he noticed the dried tear streaks on her faceplate. He took a step back when mournful orange optics raised to look at him.

"I'm sorry, but I believe Skyrider is dead," her voice was ragged.

"No, no, you're lying." the mech struggled with his words as he approached the femme. "Where is he?"

The pink femme's helm fell to the floor and with, a barely audible voice, replied, "One part of him is in the trees, and the other is in the rock quarry. It's a half an hour walk toward the west from here."

In disbelief, the mech ran out of the cave, mumbling to himself that it wasn't true.

Firespark made no move to stop the mech and wept.