Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers, Hasbro does. Please don't sue.

Gemini

By

Fairlady Z

Author's Note: This story takes place sometime in between G1 season 2 and TFTM, around the year 1999/2000 as is a pseudo sequel to The Art of Death. Main characters are Sideswipe & Sunstreaker, Ratchet (who narrates a decent portion of this story), also Fastlane & Cloudraker. But expect a lot of movie/season 3 and even season 4 characters getting cameos as I'm trying to integrate the newer characters with the old as a backdrop for this story as well as some (hopefully) good stuff for the Moonbase crew characters (including the ill-fated shuttle crew, sniff). Also this isn't a songfic, but I had Stan Bush's "When I Dream" from his Shine album stuck in my head (with a few minor lyric modifications from "girl" to "bro") while I was coming up with the plot to this fic so you could considered a sort of "theme song" for this fic I guess. I'm also trying something new, posting these chapters as they get written rather than finishing the story and posting it all at once. I want to see how this story develops more organically from reader comments and suggestions. So consider this a work in progress and enjoy. And hopefully the scene breaks are working now.

Chapter 1

The humans tell a legend of a pair of twins. Warriors born hailing from the city-state of Sparta. If their sister, Helen of Troy, was the most beautiful woman who had ever lived, then her brothers were the most handsome of men. The twins made their living as pranksters, rogues, and fearsome fighters sailing away on adventures to new exciting destinations. One twin a refined horseman, the other a rough and ready boxer. The legend named them Castor and Pollux. They were inseparable in all but two things – war and death. For one was immortal and one was not. And when war came for the dual kings of Sparta, one ruler would lead his troops into battle while the other stayed to govern at home, and each king kept a twin by his side. Even so, the twins were determined to never be apart. When Castor died in battle, Pollux prayed to their father-god, Zeus, to share his immortal gift with his brother. So moved was Zeus, it was granted. As a reminder of their bond of love, the twins were placed together in the sky. The star of Castor burning yellow-white and the star of Pollux burning red-orange forever as the constellation Gemini.

From the personal log of CMO Ratchet:

I know I'll be forever haunted by the moment the twins first heard the orders issuing their separation. I thought the whole idea insane, which was probably how I got recruited to end up there in Prime's office when he told them to help soften the blow. As if that were slagin' possible! Half the command staff needs to smelt themselves over this one! How can I be expected to do my job when I get summarily overruled concerning my assessment of the psychological welfare of my own patients!?

Greater good my aft! Desperate situation? That what happens when you back a pair of twins into a corner and expect the CMO to deal with the fallout. Cowards!

That's why I'll never forget when Prime told them. In that flashing astrosecond before the anger could blaze in their optics, even before the fear gripped them and the disbelief set in, before they could say a word, I saw the shocking question in their mirrored countenances – "What did we do wrong?" "Haven't we been good soldiers?" "Why have we been given this punishment?" They couldn't begin to fathom a reason, only reach out to each other in desperation in the most subconscious and primitive of plans to stay together. In seeing those shocked faces, I missed the moment of their joining, but ebony and gold hands clung so tight they might well fuse themselves together in the hope of anything not separating them. I'm not sure Prime even noticed, so subtle was the initial linking, but that grip only continued to strengthen as their orders were explained. I wondered if it was going to take all my medical skills to pry them apart.

Not in ten million years would anyone guess Sideswipe and Sunstreaker were "just" being promoted.

In some ways, I can't blame Prime for his decision. I know in his spark he agrees with me, but he has to look at the larger picture. What's the sanity of two Autobots when the Decepticons now control over 75 of Cybertron? I don't need to be reminded of that! I see the results every slagin' day in my medical bay that say we're losing this slagin' war! We need the troops to be better trained. We need the twins to be in two places at once. It's even the conclusion an objective CMO should probably come to. Maybe I am finally getting old. Playing favorites? Caring more than I should? When did I stop thinking of the Ark crew as patients and start seeing them as friends…especially those two twin terrors? But I've seen what makes them at their best is being a team. Can a team still function when it's been torn in half?

But any arguments the twins offered up in their defense Prime had already steeled himself against, maybe because I'd already made most of them already myself. The orders still stood. Sunstreaker would come under Optimus's command (along with myself) up to Cybertron, while Sideswipe would stay under Ultra Magnus's command here on Earth at the newly constructed and almost completed Autobot City. So I have to slagin' wonder if the real reason Prime needed me in his office was to fix him in case the twins decided on a double team mutiny right there. However, the truth is, once they realized the futility of their argument, they couldn't tear out of that office fast enough. Maybe they just didn't want to waste an astrosecond of the time they had left together.

--

Sideswipe sped a little ahead of his twin in such a tight formation with his brother that he appeared in danger of pulling off his namesake at any moment. Yet, the vain, golden Lamborghini showed no fear of such a move happening, completely trusting in the steadily remained closeness of their proximity at speeds of 280 mph. A sight sure to marvel the best of human stunt drivers. Sunstreaker's only concern was to overtake his brother and regain the lead of mere inches.

Just as Sunstreaker tied up the lead, Sideswipe spun out away from his brother. Sunstreaker shifted into reverse to compensate, feeling the wear on his tires as Sideswipe's spin kicked up a cloud of dust. That would cause them both to need extra polishing later, one more thing to sour Sunstreaker.

"Watch it!" Sunstreaker yelled, but it came out half-hearted, a concern so small in light of everything else.

Sideswipe transformed off his spin, clicked on his pile drivers, and pounded them into one of the great standing rock formations in the desert canyon they'd driven to. Sideswipe swore as he worked, throwing out every curse he could think of until they echoed nearly as loud as his pile drivers off the canyon walls.

The twins knew the canyon well. It was a place many Autobots came to race without rules or to blow off steam. Sunstreaker had even drawn the canyon once in one of his notebooks, but that had been years ago, the yellow Lambo remembered as he settled himself down on a large, flat boulder. He lay back with his legs dangling over the edge, staring out at the canyon walls. Sometimes he would get up and practice movements from a combat kata.

Some might wonder why Sunstreaker didn't share the open fury of his brother over their current predicament. But the twins were a contrast of movement and motion. If Sideswipe lashed out, Sunstreaker inwardly seethed. If Sideswipe made a loud protest, Sunstreaker silently stared you down. If Sideswipe pounded relentlessly, Sunstreaker pounced with calculated strikes. Sideswipe knew that whatever he dished out to the canyon rock wasn't half as scary as what currently went on in Sunstreaker's mind. He glanced at his brother lying on his slab, face up, appearing like he was peacefully tanning like a human in the baking heat, while in reality his twin reviewed how to take apart opponents in his mind. It seemed a gift of Sunny's sparked from his history as an artist and knowledge of anatomy to spot the structural weaknesses in someone's armor, sometimes within astrominutes of meeting them, and deduce how to then use that knowledge to produce the most surgically deadly of attacks. His imaginary slaughters today did not focus on Decepticons, Sideswipe surmised.

"A lousy mess!" Sideswipe yelled, quoting one of his favorite movie lines, after countless hours of pounding and swearing. It seemed a lackluster conclusion to all his other words, but the phrase spoke code to his brother that signaled they were in the worst of twin situations. "So who do we blame for blame for our slagin' promotions anyway?"

"Does it matter?" Sunstreaker didn't budge from his deceptive state of recharge on his rock, optics dark and off.

"It does if I want to know who gets spared these pile drivers through their head."

Sunstreaker smiled at the thought of his brother's crude but dirty and effective methods. It was worth humoring him. "Shall I tell you who's first?" He didn't need to look to know Sideswipe's ready for blood response as they engaged in their speculations. "Ironhide?"

"Check!" A pile driver pounded the air hard and firm. "Rustbucket always hated us anyway. Always has had Prime's audio. Probably hates the idea of promotion though and just wanted to break us up."

Tougher than most on exostructure, but old, slow, go for the joints with multiple swift attacks, Sunstreaker calculated. "Perceptor?"

"Any doubt?" Two quick swipes to the air. "Slagin' science department head has no business voting on us anyway. Probably thought he was doin' us a favor with 'promotions' too, being high and mighty since Magnus promoted him over Wheeljack."

Shatter the lens, take out that canon weapon, then doesn't stand up well in hand to hand. Delicate parts. A easy takedown. "Prowl?"

No sound. A hesitation. "It's not logical to break us up."

Sunstreaker snorted, air passing through his exhaust ports. "His trash compacted logic would never take our bond into account."

"Prowl has a brother. And a cousin."

Sunstreaker paused from his mental consideration of how to best tear off a door wing for an astrosecond. Prowl was an odd lot in that he too fought alongside family in this war – Smokescreen and Bluestreak. But Prowl had no emotions as far as Sunstreaker could see, guided only by logic and strategic victory. Sides was grasping at straws 'cause he couldn't understand the coldness of Prowl. It wasn't logic that could separate them, it was insanity! As one often accused of insanity himself, Sunstreaker knew the grim irony that gave no comfort whatsoever.

"Same creator only, it means nothing more. You know that."

A chuck of the rock Sunstreaker lay on shattered close to his head. Sideswipe did know and responded in kind startling his brother. Sunstreaker abandoned his mental mangling of Prowl as his optics snapped on wide and blue. He'd leave Prowl to Sides as he held up an arm to prevent any rock chips from pelting his helmet, only to worry about the dents and scratches they'd leave on his arm instead.

Great! He scowled. Was he really going to miss getting collaterally damaged by his brother when he went up to Cybertron…? Slag, yes! Was anyone on the command staff on their side? Well, a few. "Jazz?"

"No way!" Sideswipe arms lowered for a moment, Making Sunstreaker's slab temporarily safe again. "He knows we'd never last alone."

Sunstreaker could only nod. Jazz was a true friend. "Blaster?"

Sideswipe paused for an astrosecond, but decided, "Safe. Mr. Loud & Proud wouldn't let us down. The communications department likes us."

"And the medical department, apparently."

Sunstreaker sat up from his slab. The twins looked at each other and burst out in mirror images of raucous laughter. Their staunchest defender on the whole base might just be the one who claimed to hate them the most. Someone who truly did know them inside and out.

"Primus bless Ratchet," Sideswipe said as their laughter died down.

The twins could only imagine what the spitfire medic must have said in those command sessions or privately to Prime. Despite being there to back up Prime, it was clear whose side Ratchet was on.

So far, the scales determining the twins' demise seemed evenly balanced, but then there were the newcomers. In all the transferring of troops between Earth and Cybertron in recent months and the building of Autobot City, the establishment was changing. The days of the Ark crew being Earth's lone defenders were long gone. Case in point, Autobot City's soon to be city commander, Ultra Magnus.

"The ringleader!" Sideswipe wagered before Sunstreaker could say the full name.

"You think?" Sunstreaker would have thought their separation spearheaded by an old adversary like a certain Datsun already mentioned, but the way Sideswipe's pile driver pistons pumped again, he listened to his brother's theory.

"He doesn't even know us! He's just staking his claim, changing the guard like he did with Wheeljack. Command wants us in two places at once, so sure, promote us, rip us apart. What does he care!?"

The pile drivers sounded louder, ready to tear into something again. Sideswipe was done talking and their little guessing game, and finishing off Sunstreaker's slab felt like a good place to start. Sunstreaker stood and placed a restraining hand on Sideswipe's forearm. The red twin gave a dangerously quizzical look to the yellow one, Sides wasn't going to be held back. Sunny whipped out an energon blade from subspace and they smiled in unison. Sunstreaker needed a release. This rock was a particular resting favorite, not just of him, but of quite a few Autobots. Being assigned to Cybertron, who knew when Sunny would ever see this rock again, or this canyon, or even Earth?

It felt cathartic to destroy something he wasn't going to be coming back to any time soon. The brothers made quick work of the slab boulder all too swiftly, something to remember them by. Whoever came out to the canyon next would notice a few changes from their redecoration (as they always did after the twins' latest trip out here.)

Sideswipe dropped to his knees, exhausted from all his pounding. Sunstreaker sat down beside him to rest. The pile drivers slid back, but Sideswipe wasn't about to rest when he still had anger to work out of his system. He whipped his flare gun out of subspace and gave a wicked lopsided grin. Sunstreaker shook his head at the though of his twin who couldn't stay motionless for more than two astrominutes. He unsubspaced his electron pulse gun and grinned back with a "think you can beat me, punk" expression.

They spent the next hour or two shooting up the canyon. When they got bored challenging each other with their own weapons, they switched and came up with a whole new set of dares until they expended the energy packs of both weapons. Examining their handiwork, Sideswipe volley shots covered a wider area of damage, but Sunstreaker's precision bursts caused more pinpoint accuracy.

Sideswipe passed the depleted electron pulse gun back to his brother. Sunstreaker reached out for it, and then decidedly pushed it back into the red twin's hands.

"Keep a part of me with you."

Sideswipe's face hardened, mouth set in a thin line. "We will - "

" – fight this! I know." Sunstreaker gave a small nod and a reassuring countenance. He raised up the flair gun a little keeping it close to him and motioned. "Just in case."

The red Lambo let out an angry snarl and grabbed for his gun with one hand while shoving Sunny's gun back at him with the other. The yellow Lambo was just as determined not to accept or relinquish. They struggled for a few astroseconds before deadlocking, both with a hand on each gun, and stared each other down.

Sideswipe's impatience caused him to shout out first. "I am not lettin' them take you way from me Sunny! I won't!"

"I won't either, Sides!"

"Then why act like they've already won!?" Incomprehension laced Sideswipe's face.

Sunstreaker's optics darkened to a royal blue so cold they were almost black. Was Sides accusing him of cowardice? Him!? Teeth gritted and jaw servos ground. He paused to make sure he had his brother's attention, but the silence only agitated Sideswipe more.

"Because, I. Don't. Beg!" Sunstreaker leaned in close and hissed. "They've made up their minds. Our orders stand. That's not gonna change. I am not gonna play their smeltin' game!" Sunstreaker saw his brother looked ready to pound something, pile drivers or no, such was the vibrating tension of his frame. "What would you have us do!?"

Sideswipe's face pained in reflection of everything his body felt at that moment, wanting some sort or release, but not sure who or what to target.

"Leave! We could just leave! You and I, and never come back!" the red Lambo blurted in desperation.

"Desertion?" Sunstreaker asked giving it half an astrosecond of serious thought before steeling himself again with his own ideas of no compromise. "I. Don't. Run. Either!"

Was Sunny accusing him of cowardice? Him!? Sideswipe swore a shouted litany in Sunstreaker's face in rage at everything which Sunstreaker endured with an immeasurable, dark expression.

"I AM NOT GONNA LOSE YOU!" Sideswipe's last word came out as a half choked sob, still staring into his brother's optics.

He suddenly felt a hand on his. Or was his hand on Sunny's? He couldn't tell.

"You never will." The bitter shade of blue and intensity of Sunstreaker's optics didn't change. However, their coldness wasn't for Sideswipe but for those that had done this to them, the red Lambo now knew.

Sideswipe also knew that when they promised each other something, it always came true. The tension filled vibration and need for movement, to lash out, that filled his frame, vanished. It took him an astrosecond to realize.

"We will beat this!" Sunstreaker said.

"How?" Sideswipe looked questioningly at his twin.

"I don't know. "But we will always - "

" – be together!"

The word "somehow" lingered between them.

They both looked down, neither sure of just how ebony fingers had ended up intertwined with gold ones again or who had started it, only that neither wanted to let go. They saw the guns they had been fighting over too.

"Take it…" Sunstreaker held out his electron pulse gun.

Sunstreaker would never beg anything…except of his twin.

"For luck?" Sideswipe reached for his brother's gun with his free hand.

"Yeah, for luck." Sunstreaker accepted his brother's flare gun in turn. They both subspaced their new weapons.

"Of course, what you really should have asked for is this!" Sideswipe pulled out his rocket pack.

"I am not taking that gaudy, unpredictable, flying piece of slag to Cybertron!"

"Come on, try it!"

"No way!"

"Then we'll go for a ride together!"

"Forget it! You're nuts, scrap-for-brains!"

"Since when has that ever stopped me?"

Sideswipe's lopsided smile should have been a warning. The red Lambo flipped a switch on his rocket pack. Before Sunstreaker knew what was happening, Sides had somehow strapped on his pack one-handed and Sunny found himself yanked into the air by the hand he still had fastened to his idiot brother's. They kept going up until they hovered about 100 feet above the canyon floor.

"Put me down!" Sunstreaker kicked about in the air.

"Let go!" Sideswipe suggested.

It was hard to tell what was louder after that, Sunstreaker's swearing or Sideswipe's laughing. Then, in a crazier move, Sideswipe cut the power to his rocket pack sending both twins plummeting to the ground with a terrible double smack cushioned by nothing but rocks and sand, just enough to cause a stimulating shock to the system, but no real damage done. It didn't stop Sunstreaker from complaining for ten minutes about potential dents, damaged paint, etc. etc, etc, as Sideswipe laughed with a maniacal quality from the sudden rush he'd just experienced.

"You really are slagin' crazy!" Sunstreaker said. "Maybe getting sent away from you for a while has its bright side after all!"

The brothers had landed flat on their backs, making a "V" shape between them. Sunstreaker expected another dent in his helmet from an attempted slugging by Sideswipe for that last comment, but it didn't come. Instead, he felt Sideswipe's head rest on his shoulder.

"Don't even joke about that!" the red Lambo said.

Sideswipe raised his left arm up bending at the elbow and Sunstreaker felt his own arm rise too, his hand still attached to his spark-brother, still connected even after that crazy scare. Sometimes the subconscious depths of their bond amazed even them as he felt Sides's squeeze. Sunny squeezed back, and though he couldn't see it, shared his twin's smile.

By now, the day was late. Neither of them wanted to return to the Ark yet, so they stayed there in unspoken agreement watching the sunset and then the stars come out. Sunstreaker loved the beauty of it all. He knew it would be one of the things he'd miss most about Earth. He wondered after a while how Sideswipe could remain still for so long. Perhaps the exhaustion of his earlier activities had finally set in. Or maybe his stillness was just the lingering melancholy of their situation. Or maybe he had some unknown injury from their fall, but a quick inquiry if Sides's was okay met with a cheery "just fine" with Sides still resting peacefully by his side. Still, to entertain his brother, Sunstreaker found himself pointing out the shapes of the Earthling constellations and telling of their legends.

Sunstreaker pointed with a finger off their joined hands, dragging his brother's arm across the sky with his. Right now, he moved them above the belt of Orion and a little to the left, pointing out what looked like two stick figures connected by a crossbar with two stars of similar intensity for their heads.

"The humans call this one Gemini."

"What's that mean?"

"The Twins," Sunstreaker said as casually as possible.

He felt a shifting and lifting off his shoulder as Sideswipe sat up to stare back down at him.

"It's true." The yellow Lambo hoped his attempts to keep from chuckling at Sideswipe's surprised expression didn't make him think he was joking.

Sideswipe lay back down against Sunny as before and studied the constellation again. "Why?"

Sunstreaker told him the legend.

"Just like us," Sideswipe mused when his brother finished.

"Yeah, I always thought so."

"Why didn't you tell me about this one before?"

Sunstreaker wasn't sure. Stargazing had never been Sideswipe's thing and when Sunstreaker gazed at the sky and remembered he wanted to share the story, he'd always been alone. The stars weren't just something you told someone about, not stars this special. They had to be seen in a place like this canyon. He'd come to see Gemini as some sort of guardian, watching over the two of them. He knew it was silly, but he couldn't help thinking of Castor and Pollux's eternal promise and how those stars might as well have been named after them. Yes, something very much appealed to Sunstreaker about being placed next to his brother in the heavens, shining eternally bright enough for the whole universe to see.

Sideswipe felt his brother's shoulder rise and fall in a shrug beneath him.

"We needed a night like this, together."

"So which one's me and which one's you?" Sideswipe squinted at the stars above him.

"Pollux-red and Castor-yellow."

"So I get to be the immortal one? Cool."

Sunstreaker pulled their joined hands to the left with a satisfying jerk on his brother's arm and pointed. "That one's you."

Sideswipe jerked just as hard to the right in retaliation. "And that's you."

"Yeah, that's us," Sunstreaker murmured. "So we'll always be up there, together, looking out for each other…even if we're apart."

The twins in the sky looked down at the twins on Earth, or maybe it was the other way around, pondering their existence in two places at once.

"Just promise me you'll come back to me from the stars, Sunny. I don't want the sky to be the only place I see you again."

"Only if you promise me you'll stay immortal till I return, Sides."

Gold and ebony squeezed harder, shaking on that deal. The Autobot Gemini then drifted into recharge hoping life in the sky together would be bearable in the meantime until their eventual reunion.