When All Lights Go Out I (TFP)

Chapter 6

She nodded in agreement. "Yeah...it does sometimes. But if it was all perfect, it might also be very boring." She grabbed out the crystal from under her shirt and played with it in her fingers. "Though...at least I might have been with my parents. But life sucks...and I don't know what I ever done to deserve it."

"I have no doubt you are not the first one to ever think that, kid," Cliff said in a gentle voice. "And you know? Arcee probably felt the same way after she was forced to watch her previous partner and sparkmate being killed by one of the most ruthless cons out there." Azura was definitely not expecting that and looked at the dash in shock. "Yeah...she shut down a lot after that happened. Arcee made it a point to keep her emotions closed in, not in check like how Optimus keeps his in check."

She had no idea Arcee went through something horrible. "It sounds like she was grieving horribly..."

"Yeah, she was," Cliffjumper said in a soft tone as he spoke about it. "I had seen her from a distance a few times after she lost Tailgate, and anyone trying to help her would get an immediate refusal. Losing a sparkmate is very hard on the spark for us, Azura. Sparkmates are our life partners...like how humans get married. Except ours is permanent, we cannot divorce our sparkmates, unless it is for an extremely good reason. And because it involves our literal spark matter to combine, losing one in that way is extremely painful. For Arcee, it was like ripping her spark out."

Azura was silent as she listened to him, thinking on how Arcee would have felt from losing her sparkmate. Though she was curious now as she had seen Arcee and Cliff kissing once before, and by accident too. "How did she manage to come out of herself?"

"Me." She raised an eyebrow at Cliff's proud voice. "Actually, Arcee and I were captured by Starscream and the con's top scientist, Shockwave, and they both were very interested in interrogating the both of us to try and locate Optimus Prime. At that point, he already had come to Earth." Azura was surprised this wasn't very long ago. "Anyway, while Arcee and I were tied to the berths, I managed to get a little conversation going between her and I, and we eventually managed to work together to get through the space bridge to Earth. After that, Arcee trusted me and she finally opened up about her deepest feelings to everyone. Letting it out was the best thing that she could have done for herself."

She smiled a little as she listened to him, and guessed that Cliff was someone Arcee had needed in her life after so long. "I guess...you were simply the right thing she needed at the time. That's pretty nice...kind of like how you were there to help me."

"Ah, yeah, seems like I have a habit of helping damsels," Cliff joked with a chuckle. "And would you believe it? It was Arcee who asked me to be her sparkmate some months later. I thought she was a wonderful femme and I liked her personality, but I did not think I had a chance at having a sparkmate. Here I am now."

"And well deserved." Azura looked out of the window thoughtfully. "I guess I kind of wished...that I would have a family. I got one...even though I am still...working things out in my head about it all. I am happy that you saved me, Cliff. You saved me from a lot more than just the cons."

"I suppose not all heroes wear capes, right?" The girl started to laugh at Cliff's reply. She nodded that he was right, though the reply made her laugh very hard. "And I like that. Don't worry, kid, I'll make sure to remain one in the future. After all, if you mess with Cliffjumper, you get the horns!"

Azura and Cliff spent another hour just talking to each other. She learned about the races back on Cybertron, and they seemed wilder than the races on this planet. Though Cliff assured her he was one of the best racers out there, and everyone loved him on Cybertron, the way he described the races it was very dangerous. Even though the bots were not human, smashing them up during a race would still hurt a lot. And Cliff admitted he did a lot of damage to the others during the races, but that is why no one wanted to mess with him after that.