S

  She kept falling and falling.

  I had to get over my fear of her knowing what I did.

  I flew up to her, catching her.

  I glided to the ground with her, eyes glossed over.

  I set her down on the floor, and her eyes went normal again.

"You see? He hid this from you. A thousand years he hid this from everyone. And do you know why, Half Moon?" The Empress asks her.

"Enough." I say, spreading my wings out. I didn't want her to ruin everything.

"Be quiet." She snaps at me, glaring at my Mate.

  I hated her more than anything or anyone else in the cosmos.

"S? Wha-" She asks.  Then she pays closer attention to my feathers.

"Moon.... It's not what it looks like..." I say, holding her up.

  She doesn't need to know what I did.

"What did you do? What did you do!?!?!" She screams, forcing me to let go as she stood.

"I.... I..." I look away. I can't tell her. I can't. 

"Do you remember your parents? How they went missing? Well, he is the reason." The Empress said, digging the dagger deeper into my heart.

Moon paused for a moment, her back to me.

"You... You killed them..." She said, her voice welling with tears.

"I did what I had to." I say, remembering the torture she went through before I ended them.

I go closer to her, trying to make things right.

She turns on her heel, shoving me away. "It was you? You did this to me?!?!?"

  I can't hide anymore. If I want this to work out, I have to tell her the truth.

"Moon, they knew. They were going to kill you. Sell your body to the old museum. Or they were going to use you for..." I shiver.

  I remember her parents talking about dissecting her alive, sending the bits and pieces all over the world for some sort of...  Freak Show.

Her eyes glossed over again, showing me what I had done to her parents.

  I had enough that day.

  I refused to let her be tortured to death. So I did the only thing I could then and there.

"NO!" The Empress shouted, her Energon-tipped claws going for my heart.

  I braced. I deserved what I was going to get.

She steps in front of me, her chest turning to solid metal.

The Empress' manicured gold talons shattered like glass against stone, and she screamed as golden blood spilled from her fingertips.

  Moon's chest returns back to flesh, the blue light in her chest almost consuming her body.

Moon rips her dagger out of the holster, diving for the screaming Empress.

She slashes at everything her blades can reach.

  She uses her wings to pin the Empress to the ground.

  I wanted to break up the fight.  But if I did, I would probably be cut to ribbons.

She puts the blade to her throat.

The Empress coughs, saying something. But I can't hear it.

"If you dare come back to torture anyone that I love, I will not spare you again." I hear Moon growl with fangs out, letting go.

  The blue light coming from her chest fades away.

  The Empress disappears in a plume of golden mist.

She breaths heavily.

  How much strain had she gone through?

Don't expect me to back down so easily.

The Empress' voice ricocheted off the metal walls.

Moon glances at Anti. He was hiding behind Miko's leg.

She walks closer, and he cowers further into Miko.

"Go away, mean lady!" He shouted, backing up further.

  I can see her heart shatter.

  I go behind her, putting my hand on her shoulder.

  She needed someone to help her, after all that shock.

  I didn't even know what she went through before I came here. And that was draining on her already.

"Get away from me! Please... I don't want to hurt you..."

She rips away from me, her eyes full of fear and confusion.

  She opens a portal, tears spilling from her eyes and dashing through faster than I had ever thought she could run.

Nightshade bolts after her, knocking me flat on my back.

  "Moon!  Come back!" I get up, trying to go after her.

  Her portal slams shut before I can go through.

  "I have to find her. Before anything happens." I say, folding my Sets back into my shoulder blades.

  Anti steps out from behind Miko.

  "Where are you going?"

  I look at those emerald eyes of his. "I'm going to get your mother back."

  "S, she needs to be alone for the time being." Optimus says.

"Optimus....  Did you not just see what happened?  If anything does go wrong... I'll never forgive myself."

  I ignore his comment before, leaving in shadow form.

  I sense where her dagger belt was.

  I didn't have a tracker on it or anything...  I just...  Felt it.

  I could only teleport half-way.

  I could only teleport so far until I ran out of Shadow Power.

  Kind of like running out of gas in a car.

  I had to wait until my Shadow Powers were recharged. I just needed time.

  I had a bad feeling that she didn't have much left.

  I just flew the rest of the way.

  I sense her dagger holster.

  I was a little more than five miles away.

  I speed up.

  Something about this just doesn't feel right.

  It is a forest, the trees neatly lined up.

  This must be one of those sites where one tree was cut down, several more were planted.

  I see her belt buried in the leaves, looking like it was ripped off.

  I take it, squeezing it in my hand.  If anything happened to her...

  I follow the disruption of leaves, leading me to a tree.

  I see her silver blood on one of the branches.

  I see the black feather of Nightshade.

  I see little pellets in the leaves.

  I pick one up, and it is a bullet.

  More disruption in the leaves.

  I see tire tracks and a few snapped trees a little further away.

  I can tell which way the tire tracks were going.  North-West.

  I look closer at the bullet in my hand.

  A Bounty Hunters insignia is carved into the black bullet. Great. And she was un-armed.

  Usually this wasn't a problem, but she could be wounded pretty badly, and that didn't work well.

  It's like trying to run a race with a dislocated ankle.

  I have to find her.  Fast.

  That won't be so hard, considering I had tire tracks and a line of distruction in front of me.

  If those Bounty Hunters hurt my Mate....

Even harming a single hair on her head........

Prepare to get dismembered.

  No mercy until she is in my arms again.