Airachnid's Story

Chapter Three

It had been several years since Airachnid left Cybertron. She bounced from planet to planet, occasionally receiving word on how the war was doing and where it was. It seemed to have bounced from planet to planet just as she did, though they had much different purposes than she did.

She was merely trying to collect trophies for her ship, whereas the Decepticons were trying to win a war. The latest she had heard was that they were on a planet called Earth. She heard that Starscream had killed Cliffjumper, who she learned through the constantly updating information on her ship was that Cliffjumper was another partner of Arcee.

It made her sad, and she wanted to give Arcee her condolences, but she knew that the femme would not accept them. Not after what Airachnid did. Not after she killed their mutual friend, even if Arcee doesn't know that. Airachnid sighed and did some research on the next planet she was approaching.

Earth. The dominant species were humans. Airachnid stared at her screen in surprise. Earth. That's where the war had been for the past several years. She didn't think she would be going there next. She started navigating her ship towards the planet. She didn't get very close to it when her ship started to overheat. She tried to pull away from the planet, but by then, gravity had taken hold and she couldn't escape. So she turned all her systems off and hurried to the stasis inducer. It would keep her safe until they crash landed. 

Once inside the stasis inducer, she drifted off, thinking of running into the blue femme she still loved after all these years.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Arcee smiled down at her human friend, who was swatting at a mosquito, whilst complaining about it. "Quite the outdoorsman, aren't you, Jack?"

"You wouldn't be making fun of my survival kit", Jack smiled at his newfound friend. They hadn't been friends long, only a few weeks, but they were already close. Even with Arcee's recent loss of Cliffjumper.

"Maybe", Arcee glanced away from her device long enough to respond to Jack, who laughed at her short response.

"I may not have stinger-proof metal skin, Arcee, but in a pinch, I can use my multi-function pocket knife and magnesium fire starter to cook up some freeze-dried mac n cheese."

 Arcee shook her head in amusement, not knowing what mac n cheese was, but she assumed it was food of some sort for Jack. Her mind went back to her two former partners, and her best friend, all three deceased. They had been on her mind lately, and she missed them dearly. Especially Elita-1. She had loved the femme and never got to tell her. Arcee sighed, catching Jack's attention.

"Arcee? Are you okay?" His voice startled Arcee out of her memory, and she looked down at him.

"Yeah. Just... thinking." The blue Autobot focused back on the device she held. "Let's focus on our mission."

Jack nodded, uncertain on whether or not to believe his guardian, but choosing not to focus on it in fear of making her even more upset. Arcee continued walking, and Jack followed, not wanting to get left behind, though he knew he could take care of himself if he got separated from her. Of course, he still worried for the femme, but he wasn't going to let her know that. Not yet anyway.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Airachnid groaned as the stasis pod opened. Even waking from stasis, she could tell it was a rough landing. She hurried to the bridge of her ship, hissing in annoyance when she realized everything was offline. She needed to find the dominant indigenous species on this planet, get one of their heads, and then fix her ship to what it used to be so she could move on. She didn't want to stay on Earth longer than she had to in case of running into any unwanted guests. Like Arcee. The spiderbot didn't know what she do if she ran into Arcee here.