"Nah..." Silent Shadow quietly groaned, the pain of Rainstorm's separation preparations almost too much to hold any screams. She shakily stood up and started clenching and unclenching her servos, releasing some stress as she slowly staggered over to the door, feeling the separation upon them and Silent Shadow was sure of it.
Leaning her weight against the door, she shut her optics tightly, trying to control her senses. Something in her plating started itching, her optics slowly opened, some stray particles were starting to drift away from her frame but snapped back to her plating immediately.
Many would feel fearful if this was not natural for them, but Silent Shadow knew that her frame wanted her to do something so natural but only obtainable when in extreme pain and calmness. She closed her optics, thinking only of the pain and envisioning herself on the other side of the double-barred door. The familiar sound of whirring and whines reached her audials as she felt her strength seep away.
_____________

"Meow?.." the curious meow of Peanut translates clear to Thunder Claw,

What's that?

Thunder Claw chuckles, turning her attention to the symbiote beside her, "I'm just looking for signals silly, I thought you knew how to read."

I do, Just... lazy

"Hehe, well at least you admit it." Thunder Claw smiled, realizing once again how fortunate she is to have saved Peanut.

A faint beeping caught the Thunder Claw's attention, snapping her optics back to the screen, she read the screen out loud,

"Energon signal detected, origin: Cybertronian source, caution: recent activity..."

Thunder Claw turned, hurrying over the commlink.

"Feary, come in.," she spoke, hoping Feary wasn't busy,

"What?"

Good

"Feary, I picked up an Energon signal and I was hoping if-" "on it, send the coordinates." was the fast reply.

"Okay, but I need to tell you that there has been some recent activity, we can't risk uncovering ourselves until the war's over. Okay?"

"You should know me already, they aren't going to even know, they never do..."

The static of the comm returned and Thunder Claw relaxed, realizing it would all be fine. Faery was the best at stealing Energon, this she was certain.
_____________________

The pain continued, it would not stop, Silent Shadow could not bear it.

"Aaaahhhhhhh" The long, drawn-out scream finally found its way to the surface of Silent Shadow's throat. She had held it back so long and was glad that releasing it brought her mind to clarity for a klik.

Do not worry, it is almost over.

Silent Shadow could barely focus on the voice but found it brought some relief to her confusion.
The ringing she had hardly noticed, as well as the phasing, continued to a point where she could no longer touch anything except the floor without falling through it.
She started feeling nauseous, collapsing on the ground between her temporary quarters and the outside hallway on the other side of the double-barred door.
The pain increased, she felt her systems start to shut down from the overstrain, the world around her started blurring, thinking she must be about to recharge she relaxed as much as the pain allowed her and laid still, waiting for it to end.

________________________________

The forest was mostly quiet, the wonderful scenery this planet offered was one of the reasons Faery stuck around, it was one of the only peaceful places she could find. Wyvern's thundering pedsteps stayed alongside her, he was on edge as his enstrils were picking up strong smells from an approaching civilization, but that didn't stop him from following Faery, she was his only family and he was never planning on losing her too.
Faery spotted a glimmer past the thinning trees. She stopped, throwing her servo up to stop Wyvern, she crouched, trying to get a better angle to see past the dark grey wall that jutted out from the trees.
Wyvern lightly growled, attempting to decipher his family's actions, but was cut short when she gave him an obvious answer,

"There are humans beyond this wall. I am going to have to cloak you or something so we don't end up on the news or anything..."

Faery turned as she stood, starting to lightly step towards Wyvern, noticing his tense frame. She brought one servo up towards his helm and watched as he started to relax.
"I'm going to put a light bender on you okay."
Faery gently slide her other servo into her small subspace and quietly rummaged through until she got the light bender. She slowly brought the light bender out and closed the subspace.
Lightly brushing her right servo along the side of Wyvern's helm she quickly locked the light bender into place beside Wyvern's neck components and stood back.
Wyvern gave a puzzling look as he adjusted to the slightly annoying light bender, questioning Faery's intentions but let it go.
"That's it, see, now we can cross the city without them noticing."
Faery reopened her small subspace and searched for a second light bender, which she found in no time and attached it to herself.
"Alright, lets go... follow me."
________________________________

She felt the pain lift, the world stopped turning and she felt like she would finally have peace. Her frame was still phasing but she could feel almost no pain. She quickly realized that she was still in between the double-barred door and found that it was locked so she would need to move to one side to end the phasing.

Hallway or quarters?

The thought was not meant to be expressed and she didn't want Rainstorm to hear it, but she soon realized that he was no longer there.

For Celestial's sake...

She rolled towards the hallway, the transformium threatening to lose shape.

Was I supposed to recharge?

She turned towards the door and gently started to stand, finding she no longer had the same clawed servos as before, she relished in the return of completeness.

No claws, no scars, no spikes, no blades, and no Rainstorm. Just her, complete as she always wanted to stay.

What happened?

Where is Faery, Thunder Claw had mentioned her?

Silent Shadow made her way down the hallway, noticing how oddly silent it had gotten.

Perhaps the Twilights are busy.

She walked towards the closest exit, deciding it would be wise to waste no time and check on what was going on with the Decepticons.

Silent Shadow locates the flight deck easily.

Normally Wyvern is here

The beast is nowhere in sight, meaning this part of the base is unprotected for the time being.
Silent Shadow activated her visor catalogue, scrolling through her list of programmed alternate modes, she looked for a fighter jet. Once located, she scanned it through quickly and made her way over to the local control panel. She pressed the operator key once, then twice, then a few more times.

Open the door!

Silent Shadow's temper grew short at the panel before realizing that it was turned off.

How stupid do I get...

She turned on the panel and tried again, the door reluctantly opening to the command.

Great

She loaded up the completely downloaded alternate mode and ran towards the edge of the desk, trying to gain momentum for the lack of practice in transformation.
Leaping off the edge, Silent Shadow willed herself to transform into the fighter jet she had selected, feeling the transformium start to separate, she shut her multi-coloured optics and focused on flying.
When the feeling of incompleteness left, Silent Shadow rose from her free fall and turned on her thrusters, internally smiling at her success and wished Rainstorm had seen it.

Alright, where are the Decepticons...

Silent Shadow turned on her signal scanners, already assuming they were in North America and presumably flying in that direction.
Two signals came at once, both in the same area.

Why are they at a military base near Nevada?

She flew into the clouds, out of the sights of humans and accelerated towards the location.
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(Next chapter is, unfortunately, going to be a little short, but please understand I enjoy leaving cliffhangers and hope you are content with this style of writing.)