Half Moon

I wake up and stretch. I feel my back pop, which feels really good.

Nightshade is still asleep, but I wake him up by gently shaking his head.

He lifts his head, looks at me, huffs, and lays his head back down.

"Come on, Nightshade. We have to leave early today. Ratchet needs to check my wings." I grumble, attempting to shove him to make him get up.

But that wasn't happening with a ton and a half of pegasus.

He looks at me, annoyed. But I walk out of the room, and that makes him jump up and follow me.

"Made ya get up." I smile, scratching underneath his chin as he nuzzles my back.

I take him outside where he eats and does his business, which I clean up afterwards.

"Come on. As soon as we get back, you can go back to sleep. Sound good?" I say, hopping on his grumpy back. He huffs, but I know he can understand me.

I make a portal, and he flies through. We have to go a ways away from the base to not attract immediate attention, but it's not that far. Only 5-10 minutes.

We soon land on the roof, and we both go down the elevator.

Fowler is there, arms crossed. He had another bone to pick with Optimus, no doubt.

"Hi, Fowler." I say, waving.

"You look better." He says, smiling.

"If Ratchet clears me, I am officially un-grounded." I smirk, walking down the stairs as Nightshade investigates Fowler.

I sit down on the gurney, and Ratchet scans my wings, looks down at me, and frowns.

"What?" I say, seeing the expression growing more and more severe.

"You're all healed." He smirks, closing the scan.

"Don't scare me like that!" I say, getting up and stretching out more.

I grow to autobot size, and hastily comb my hair with my fingers. Luckily, I didn't move much at all last night, so my hair isn't that messy.

"I'm gonna go up for a test fly." I say, pulling my hair up in a sloppy hair tie.

"Well, let us go with you." Arcee says, walking up behind me.

I smile. I walk up the steps, and everyone shuffles into the auto bot-sized elevator. Even Fowler.

Nightshade decided to stay, laying down beside the couch with his head on one of the cushions. He started nodding off when the elevator door closed.

I could barely keep still. I would finally be able to fly again. To feel the ground off my feet. To feel the wind go through my hair and feathers.

When the door opened, I jogged to the edge of the rock face.

I stretched out my wings and took a few flaps, just to get my feet a few inches off the ground.

Everyone was watching, anxious.

I turned around so I was facing them. They looked at me, grinning. Except Optimus. He never smiled.

I jump backwards, my head towards the ground. I pull up when I get close to the ground, and shoot upwards. The wind was whipping through my hair, my lungs stinging.

I loved it.

I climbed higher above base, going to the clouds. I spiral downwards, arms compressed to my sides.

I open my wings, slowing my fall. I land, but my ankles strike the rock the wrong way, sending me tumbling.

But I brace myself for a faceful of rock, but it doesn't come. Smokescreen is holding me up.

"Got to work on my landings." I smirk, rubbing my ankles.

"That was amazing." Fowler says, arms crossed, like usual.

I smile. "You should have seen me jumping out of a plane."

"Already have."

"Darn!" I laugh, remembering something.

"What is it now?" Arcee says, eyebrow raised.

"Almost forgot to tell you that I'll look completely different for the ceremony. Just ask around if you need to find me." I say, brushing off dust from my pant leg while still leaning on Smokescreen for support.

They all nod.

"I like the ring." Fowler says, nodding towards the blue jewel.

"Im never taking it off." I smile, twisting it around my finger.

We go back inside, and we decide to play basketball. Autobot size, of course.

The ball is made of scrap metal bent and welded together awkwardly. But we had no issues with it. Until I hit it.

I touch it, and my hand burns. It feels like someone put a flame on it.

I scream, my flesh burning. I drop the ball, letting it crash to the floor.

My hand is red, some parts of my flesh burned off. I breath through my teeth, holding my hand under my arm, hoping it will stop the pain. I sink to the ground, not knowing where to go from there.

I look at my hand, and my skin is regrowing on its own. My hand gets less and less red, until it is pale again.

I get up, my head spinning. My hand still stings, but not as bad.

"What happened?" Bee asks, picking up the scrap ball.

"I... I just touched it..." I say, staring at it. "What's it made out of? I could have an allergic reaction."

"Scrap metal. Iron, nickle, anything that is a metal." Miko says, listing off more metal that could have been in the ball.

"That is no allergic reaction." June said, Jack's mother.

She was a human nurse, so I respected her opinion.

I jumped a small bit, my hand still aching.

Ratchet grabbed the ball from Bee, spinning it around until he found my handprint. But it was only on one strip of metal.

He took it to his desk, and analyzed it.

He stared at it, intrigued as his scanner clicked over the metal.

"It's iron." He said, tossing the ball back to Bulkhead.

Bulkhead caught it, inspecting the handprint.

Iron. It seemed ridiculous, but it sent a shiver down my spine. How devious and evil it sounded.

My teeth chattered.

I stared at my handprint, feeling something familiar.

Why did the orange rust make my teeth chatter? Why did it scare me?

My wedding. My brother. My husband.

I saw the whip raised, coming down on my shoulder, splitting it open.

I felt the pain. Burning throughout my body, my past scars igniting into flame.

I scream and clamp my eyes shut, not knowing what else to do.

Everything stopped. The pain. The memories.

Everything....

Just....

Stopped.