The last Seeker

Author: Arken

Translate by: Taipan Kiryu

Note: I´m very grateful for your help my friend, this fic it´s dedicated to Taipan Kiryu

Chapter 1: The beginning or the end?

Ending always arrives. That's what everybody asserts. It's impressive how everything can change so drastically as time goes by and how the past simply gets lost as it turns into a simple phrase written in some forgotten place.

Nobody cares how or why things happen. It's all about surviving another day… A sad reality, but our reality after all.

Former times of greatness and pride are so far away, leaving place only for the desperation of a race tormented for the sins of those who leaded them. To follow a bad leader, to not being able to foresee what would happen… that has been their penalty. But I suppose I should stop talking like if I weren't responsible of this bloody reality.

I wish so much I could turn back time and redeem those mistakes, change everything I did wrong… but would that be enough?

Probably I would've only rushed my own departure, but at least I would've rested in peace, ignorant of the destiny that was waiting for my kind. A slight smile brightens my face as I think in that word… my kind.

In times like these, any sentient being would reject origins as twisted as mine. But I'm tired of denying, I'm tired of hiding from the truth.

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I slowed my steps, admiring the ruins of the place we used to call home. Before my optics, there were only remains of shattered and faded structures, marked by oxide and corrosion.

I lifted my hand in an attempt to appreciate its colors. I noticed the absence of my former blue painting.

"You are not the same," I repeated to myself before continuing my way.

A path full of monuments, cursed figures condemned to a lame destiny… how ironic to get to the end through such a shameful way.

But what was honorable for us, after all? In battles, only the strong survived as the weak were abandoned to enemy's hands. I should've been ashamed remembering that, but I had crossed that line long time ago. I knew better.

All I wanted was to be allowed to end my days with the rest of my dying race, not as a foreigner, exiled and lonely mech… but I know destiny wouldn't allow me even that.

I haven't said my name and I have tried to remain unnoticed. I tried to hide my presence within the shadows of this reality. However, I knew sooner or later my identity would be discovered. I could feel it clearly behind their optics, within their glances.

But I wasn't afraid as I was standing right here, willing to face the same destiny despite the insignias of my renewed wings.

Some of those survivors looked at me when we crossed paths, but I wasn't desperate to reveal my presence or my true self.

A Seeker… that's what they saw. That's what I am and I won't deny it… a creature from the sky, an eternal lover of freedom. Maybe that's what made me a traitor, arrogant, ambitious… I know I was a fool, I have accepted that.

"Don't look for reasons or justifications to your actions and words," I muttered to myself as I glanced upward.

Anxiety filled me as I saw what I couldn't reach anymore. It didn't matter if you could fly or not, if you would fight or hid behind peace… everyone who steps on this devastated planet is condemned to the same fate that the rest of us. There was no escape.

At least suspicions are only that, not accusations or screams. Those died with the mates I abandoned so many vorns ago.

"I shredded the hopes of my kind because of an unjustified ambition… I condemned them…" I continued falling, no matter where. Nobody would intervene.

Many died the same way, unable to go on, their remains left behind in the shattered streets, where others were waiting to rip their corpses, to take whatever they could get in order to survive.

That's what future generations are, a bare shadow of their past. Maybe, if they would have listened, they could have learned the truth.

Memories continued to pass beside me until a familiar figure approached, analyzing me with coldness.

I could sense he thought he knew who I was, a ghost from the past, but he wasn't sure.

"If you would know you are not hallucinating, my friend, you wouldn't hesitate to take me to Cyclonus so he could finalize my renewed existence," I said to myself as I glanced at the lack of grace of the Sweep.

The sad evolution of true greatness… reduced to something so basic and absent of elegance.

"This is also your fault," I continued, my voice so low that not even him could listen.

"Seeker," he finally spoke, his voice deep and aggressive.

He wasn't wrong. I am a Seeker, though my figure is very different from the former mechanoids addressed by that name. My wings are more refined and aerodynamic, fast and deadly in the air; those turbines on my shoulders, accompanied by a pair of twin cannons; those ailerons on my legs that didn't exist before…

Indeed, I look different now, but at the same time similar as, in essence, I will always be the same with those red and silver colors painting my structure.

Those colors permanently remind me of the past, which still remains as present for me. Even though many ignore who I am or how I died, there are still some mechanoids left, like this one who is my enemy now, who knew about the existence of a certain treacherous Air Commander… known for the rarity of his color scheme, the speed of his maneuvers, the perfection of his attacks, and treason as the definition of his soul.

The Sweep was already beside me. He raised a hand and closed it brutally on one of my wings. He was trying to prove a theory, to look for a weakness that for me was no more.

"Your optics announce you, traitor," he said tightening his grip.

Pain… I laughed. Was he thinking he actually could cause me suffering with his foolish game?

Mi red optics focused in him, reflecting my mockery.

"You dare to challenge the one who has known pain in ways no other being has faced?" Words escaped through my mouth before I could think.

I knew my words have only revealed what his mind was still asking, but that wasn't important anymore. A Sweep wasn't going to terminate me.

"I knew it was you, Starscream," replied the new generation ship, proud of his catch, the eternal fugitive under his grip.

"You may look different, but you still emanate those bad vibes," he continued.

"I never thought you would believe in nonsense like that," I replied as I lifted my hand and headed it toward my free wing, avoiding to touch its sharp edge. I knew my sword could destroy him. But was that what I wanted?

"Shut up, miserable! You have no right to be here, you have no right to exist!" was his reply.

I could see his envy through his optics, accompanied by frustration and pain. What was that familiar feeling? Treason?

An image arrived to my mind, as clear as the shattered landscape before my eyes. Three jets flying… three Seekers… enjoying freedom, flying through the sky of a foreign planet, making it theirs with their proud wings… our proud wings… The sun caressing our metallic fuselages as it plays with the terrestrial ocean beneath us.

Priceless memories of ancient times. Precious moments for any flier.

Why things had to end this way? Suddenly, I understood everything.

"It's my fault, I know… I'm sorry for being the instrument of your condemnation. You didn't deserve that ending…" I muttered in repent.

He listened to my words astonished perhaps by their honesty. I wanted him to know the truth, why I didn't leave, why I was still there… Inside of me there was no going back, no redemption from my past decisions. How was I supposed to repair the damages I have done?

We both knew that, at that moment.

I didn't want to kill him. I didn't want to raise my weapon against him. But I owned him something.

What do you want, my friend? Do you want to live like this forever, or do you prefer to be free and be able to reunite with the Matrix? Primus, please… don't punish anymore this desperate spark. I'm the one to blame, not him…

We were wingmates once, long time ago.

"Why haven't you killed me yet? I betrayed you! I turned you into… this. Why don't you fulfill your vengeance?" I pleaded.

"The last one…" he muttered as he raised his other hand. His red claws glazed my structure leaving slight marks.

"Leave… now," I ordered as I freed my wing from his grip.

"I won't be the one to kill the last one of the Seekers. It won't be me who extinguishes the greatness of our past," he said sadly as he walked away from me.

Strength came back to me, thanks to him.

I didn't look at him as I prepared to leave. There was no reason to turn back. My optics glanced upward, to the darkness of the sky above the structures. I knew if I flew away, returning was not an option.

"I don't want things to end like this," I claimed finally, unable to leave.

I knew that wasn't what he expected to hear.

He was not the same anymore, and not because of that new body that was trapping him. Now he was forced to report my presence. He wouldn't be able to help it. He was a slave.

Something had allowed him to give me those moments of peace, something I couldn't keep ignoring anymore.

I didn't wait for more words. I jumped to the air and transformed. Mi alternate figure elevated with grace and precision as I remembered again those times in which we flew together as part of an undefeatable trio.

I didn't hesitate and turned to him, my cannons pointing at his motionless figure. He was waiting. He had made his choice and I would honor it.

"I hope we will meet again, my wingmate!" I cried, opening fire.

I don't know if it was my imagination, but I could swear I saw him smiling, just as he used to do when we were friends. I could see his real structure seconds before the end.

Thundercracker…

"I'll never betray you," he replied as he left behind nothing more than a destroyed body, his spark finally free from the terrible destiny I had condemned it to.

I rose through the sky, dodging hostile shots from new enemies who noticed what happened. They knew already, my speed announced my identity.

The last Seeker had returned. The hunting was about to begin, but I didn't care.

It had been worth as I freed a tortured and hopeless prisoner.

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The red and silver jet flew away as he escaped from that tomb, his colors shinning as stars, as the greatness of his denomination.

Beside him, the ethereal figure of one of his own accompanied him in that flight. Blue and grey colors shinned brightly in the sky for a moment as their former owner flew for the last time beside his Air Commander. Both Seekers shared the sky for some minutes, just as they did for so many vorns with their black and purple wingmate, his spark also departed.

Was the ghost being thankful? Was that his way to say goodbye?

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Thundercracker and I flew with the powerful and impressive precision we used to have. I entered the black space and he just vanished, his spark already resting in peace. All I knew was that I wouldn't be so lonely anymore.

I knew it wasn't the end. I still had a lot of work to do if I wanted to change the destiny of those who hadn't shared the fate of my deceased wingmate. That was just the beginning.

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Note: Thanks for reading!. And thanks to Dantasia too.

Arken Elf and Taipan Kiryu