Shadows (A prequel to 'Burn')

Chapter Ten: Aftermath

Nightstar woke up and saw that Stormblazer was still in recharge on the berth next to her, she grabbed his hand and smiled as she heard him breathing normally. Nightstar climbed off the berth then made her way to the control room, she knew Megatron would want a full report on the Autobot attack.

"You.." Nightstar stayed calm as Megatron walked towards her in a angry stance, she closed her optics as she was punched in the chassis by her leader. Nightstar went to get off the ground but Megatron grabbed her and pinned her against the wall, his grip around her neck tightened until she could hardly breathe anymore.

"What happened out there? Why is it that my second in command is still unconscious while you, a waste of space, is alive and well? I should offline you for failing me like this!" Nightstar stayed calm on the outside as Megatron ranted about her failure but it didn't take Nightstar long to crack.

"I respect you Lord Megatron and I will follow you into battle but you have to believe that I made the right decision out there! I did my best to save the remaining families! I dragged my commanding officer halfway to the Decepticon base while leaking energon but I know that if I had to I would do it all over again!" Nightstar was yelling at Megatron as she got angrier by the second.

"Lord Megatron we were ambushed. Our scouts saw nothing coming our way until it was too late, the Autobots must of seen our scouts and decided to use air units instead...I-..As a ex Autobot I just can't believe that the Autobots would bomb a city like that. It isn't the Autobot way," Nightstar's voice was confused but full of honesty.

Megatron sat in his throne at the front of the control room and sighed, he knew the femme was right in her own way. Megatron waved his hand giving Nightstar the signal to leave the control room. As soon as the femme left she made her way to the bottom floor and started walking to Frost Park, she had a strong feeling that she would find something of importance there.

"Nrg.." Stormblazer sat up and saw he was hooked up to a energon line and had plenty of scars on his chassis. He smirked as he heard the two medics snickering at the look on his faceplate. Stormblazer unhooked the wires and got up to leave the medbay in search of Nightstar, he couldn't remember what had happened after the bomb dropped in the city.

"Commander Stormblazer, Lord Megatron has asked for you in the control room at once," Stormblazer rolled his optics as he made his way there. He could already hear the lecture from his leader but he didn't mind it, Megatron was practically his father. Stormblazer knew everything that Megatron did was for their benefit.

"You wanted to see me?" Stormblazer walked into the room and was greeted by his fellow Decepticons, all seemed glad he had recovered. Megatron made everyone leave the room so he and Stormblazer could speak privately. Soundwave was the only mech allowed to stay in the control room with the two.

"You have found a femme with true feelings for you Stormblazer...Do not let this become a problem. I know you protected her. She is a femme that can be replaced...I mean it Stormblazer, one more incident like this and she will be removed." Stormblazer nodded then left the control room, he hated how cold the warlord had become since Zircon had been disappearing more and more.

Stormblazer sent a private comm to Nightstar but got nothing in return, all he asked was that she come to his berthroom at some point today. Stormblazer didn't care what his leader had to say about Nightstar anymore, if Megatron were to get rid of Nightstar he would have to get rid of Stormblazer as well. It was a simple fact.

"This place is a complete mess"

"Yep. You know that Optimus Prime has no idea that this even happened! Sentinel Prime said he wanted revenge on the Decepticons for something and this is what happened! I heard that there was a sparked femme that offlined here..Such a shame," Nightstar felt her spark ache as she listened and recorded the conversation on a spare datapad.

Nightstar couldn't believe the destruction that her very own father had caused, she couldn't believe that her father took the lives of the defenseless families. Nightstar pulled a datapad out of her subspace compartment and took various pictures of the destruction and lifeless bodies covered in rubble. She was going to ruin her father's reputation for what he did.

Nightstar transformed and sent a private comm to Elita One in hopes she would respond to her. Nightstar could feel hatred and anger flowing through her as she flew towards Iacon, she was still trying to process why her father would do such a thing behind Optimus Prime's back. It made no sense to her at all but she knew her father had quite the temper.

"..Who are you?" Nightstar smiled and hugged the young mech as he opened the balcony doors to Elita One's berthroom. Nightstar had missed Smokescreen and her other friends but as of right now she wasn't in the mood to see anyone else.

"I'm a friend of Elita's, listen I need you to give this to Optimus Prime or Elita One. This is very, very important. Can you do this for me?" Smokescreen nodded then watched the femme transform and leave Iacon. He ran out of the berthroom and straight into Elita One and Optimus Prime, he handed it to Optimus Prime and smiled.

Optimus's faceplate fell as he scrolled through the images of a broken down city, on the very last page there was some text that he read out loud to Elita One.

"Optimus this is coming from your spy on the inside..Two nights ago there was an attack on a family oriented city. Multiple children and femme's were slaughtered by a large bomb. I just found out that it was my father that did this. He went behind your back to get revenge on the Decepticons. I am an Autobot and I know this isn't the Autobot way. I hope you deal with this situation in the best way," Optimus threw the datapad and heavily sighed.

"Optimus, what are we going to do?" Elita One asked as she rubbed his back in a tender way.

"I am going to demote Sentinel Prime. He is going to lose the privilege to give war orders since he seems to have revenge in mind. He is now another soldier for us to fight along with. Come with me, we have much to discuss with Sentinel," Optimus and Elita left with sorrow in their sparks. This was a disgrace to the Autobot ways, something that they both hated.