Okay. So, I felt really bad because I put up a poll in A Little Burst of Sunlight advertising a future relationship. The twins won that poll, and then I gave up the story and decided not to have a sequel. So, to make up for that, I wrote this for my Sunburst/twins fans. I'm thinking about doing a one-shot for every bot I offered... So one for the twins, one for Bee, one for TC, and one for Ratchet. *shrug* Don't hold your breath... This was just something I wrote up on breaks and during my lunch hour. The beginning of this has perceived character death. The fluff is all at the end. Yes, the beginning is dark. If you don't want to read the nightmare, skip down to the first line. Once again, this is for my Sunburst/twins.

Sunburst is an adult femme in this fic. ( My little femling's all growed up D': )

Hold

Suggested music: Hold by Superchic[k]

By: Lunar Mist

5,092 words

The base was mostly silent. The good majority of the Autobots were offline, and almost every human was dead, killed in a battle that had lasted far longer than it should have. In the end, though, evil prevailed. Once the battle was fought and finished, Megatron had laughed malevolently as he stepped over the remains of dead and dying Autobots and humans. He had no doubts that there were a few hiding, but he didn't really care. He had succeeded in the one thing he had come for, and well, he didn't have to worry about the counter attack coming from Optimus Prime's lips. In fact, he didn't have to worry about anything ever coming Optimus Prime at all, be it wisdom, hope, or a spark signature. Why? Because the ridiculously noble mech was collapsed on the floor, spark chamber completely ripped out.

Megatron chuckled a bit more, rather proud of his achievements. He had won this war. True, there were a few more Autobots out there, and the Wrecker unit was still up and running strongly, but once one cuts the head off a snake, the body eventually stops moving. Cybertron and Earth were his. Slag, the whole universe was his! Without anybot to stand in his way, he could take over whichever planet he pleased. For now, though, he would just settled with taking Earth's energy to restore Cybertron. In honesty, Megatron didn't think he needed the whole universe under his command. As long as they understood that none could stand up to him, he didn't much care what the other planets and their species did. He glanced around the room one more time before walking out into the night air.

"Return to base, mechs! We have won the war!" Megatron bellowed proudly. Cheers rose from the red-opticed monsters as they retreated from the Autobot's base of operations, unaware that there was a single femme left unharmed.

Sunburst whimpered as she listened to the Decepticons abandoning the base. When she had first heard the gunshots, she had rushed into battle, just as the other Autobots had. Humans and Transformer alike fought valiantly, trying with all their might to defend their base, but it was all for naught. One after one, the Autobots fell, and without the larger allies to even the odds, the humans fell shortly after. Sunburst had been pushed in a storage room at some random time and knocked offline. However, when she came to… well…

Her optics onlined, and she slowly looked around, trying to figure out where she was. A storage room. That much she could tell. Feeling slowly returned to her limbs, and she slowly rose to her pedes. She hummed as she slowly sat up, wondering what was happening. Had they won the battle? Who was she kidding? Of course, they had! The Decepticons had not won a battle of this magnitude on Earth yet, so what were the chances of them winning one now? In fact, the other Autobots were probably cleaning up after the battle and looking for her at this very moment! With that confidence in mind, Sunburst rose to her pedes and walked to the storage room door. The door hissed open, allowing her to leave. She stepped out of the storage, and her body froze up in horror.

Jolt, a mech that worked as an apprentice to Ratchet, was sprawled out on the floor, a huge puddle of energon around him. Multiple humans laid on the floor in similar puddles of blood, and Sunburst felt her spark squeeze in fear and horror. What had happened? Where was everybody? What happened to Jolt? Jolt.

"Jolt?" Sunburst murmured as she moved to his side, scanning for a sign of life from his body. There was no spark signal. Sunburst shuddered as she stepped away from his body. Her door panels flared out, searching for spark signals. There! Command Central! She spun on her pede and dashed down the hall, moving as swiftly as possible to the command room. When the door opened, she had to fight back a scream. The first body she was Jazz's. Her optics filled with tears, as she forced herself to ignore her adopted father in lieu of searching for a bot that was alive. She turned to her left and saw that Ratchet was still very much alive.

"Ratchet!" she exclaimed as she hurried to where he was leaning up against a wall, trying to weld his legs back on to his body. He had multiple lacerations on his frame, but nothing fatal. When he heard his name, he looked up, and relief filled his optics at the sight of her.

"Thank Primus," he said, his voice hitching a bit. "I thought I was alone." Sunburst knew what he meant by that. She had feared the same thing.

"Wha-what can I do?" she asked shakily, kneeling by his side.

"I can repair myself. I want you to search the base. Find any survivors, close off any leaks, and bring them here. There is no living bots in here, aside from myself," Ratchet ordered. Her noticed Sunburst's optics straying back to where her adopted father was sprawled over a console. "Sunburst!" she said sharply, regaining her attention. "We cannot help him, but if you move quickly, we may be able to help somebot else."

"Okay. I won't let you down," Sunburst promised shakily. She rose to her pedes and pointedly ignored the dead bodies as she rushed through the halls, door panels sweeping back and forth in search. She took a left when she sensed a signal nearby, and she skidded to a stop when she saw Ironhide, barely functioning with a puddle of energon around his body and still leaking from a hole in his chest, a hole that was much too close to his spark for safety.

"Ironhide?" she murmured as she knelt by his side. Dim optics met hers slowly. A small, affectionate smile rose to his lips.

"Hey, runt…" He trailed off with a groan. "What's the score?" he grunted.

"We lost," she confessed as she started sealing off lines, wondering just how she was supposed to get this huge mech to Ratchet.

"Slag," Ironhide said on a groan. "How many wounded?"

"Well… Ratchet and I survived," Sunburst replied, vocal processor glitching in the middle of the sentence due to distress. Ironhide swore again and lifted an energon-soaked hand up to rest against her cheek as she worked. "Okay, I have everything sealed. Now, I need to get you to Ratchet in Command Central."

"Okay. I think I can stand, if you help me a bit," Ironhide rumbled as he maneuvered his pedes under his body. Sunburst placed his right arm over her shoulders, holding it with her right hand as her left arm wound around her waist. She aided him to his pedes with a small grunt of effort and held a good part of his weight as they started making their way back to Command Central. Sunburst pointedly ignored the fallen mechs around them as she assisted the elder mech beside her.

"Sunburst, Ironhide!" Ratchet exclaimed as they finally shuffled into the command room. "Primus," Ratchet added when he saw Ironhide's injury. "Gently lay him down right over here. I'll start work on him now." Sunburst nodded at the instructions and slowly lowered Ironhide to the ground on Ratchet's right. Ironhide groaned as he lay back, grimacing in pain.

"I'll be back when I find more," Sunburst promised as she hurried out the door, ignorant of the blue energon stain on her cheek. She went back to her previously-used system of sweeping her panels around in search of online sparks. With every offlined friend she found, a little part of her seemed to die. It wasn't fair for them to be offline. They had only done good in their lives. They had protected the weak and defended the defenseless. They accepted orphans and protected femmes. They cared for a completely different race without a thought of themselves. Where was the justice in these deaths?

She turned when she sensed a spark signature and turned into the entrance hall, where a good portion of the battle had taken place. Horror filled her spark when she saw the corpse of Optimus Prime. His optics were blank in death, mouth twisted in a frozen grimace of pain. His energon blade was still unsheathed and fused to his arm. He had gone down fighting. Sunburst moved forward in silent agony, approaching her dead leader with tears in her optics. With careful reverence for his dead body, she opened his chest plates and gingerly lifted out the Matrix of Leadership, glad that Megatron didn't know that Optimus stored it in his spark chamber.

"In your end, may you find peace. May the Matrix allow you to feel hope and love in the afterlife that you did not know during this fight. Your sacrifice will be documented and revered, and your legacy will live on through the acts of courage and honor you performed. May you wait in peace until the rest join you, until the day that all are one," Sunburst murmured, remembering the Autobot tribute speech from years ago. She put the ancient relic into her subspace before remembering that she had sensed a spark signature in here. She glanced around, trying to use her optics and sensors to pinpoint the spark. Her visor flicked over her optics and onlined, taking in information with ease. She heard a pained groan and hurried over to its source. She froze in shock.

"No. No, no, no. Please, Primus, no," she whimpered as she approached the mechs. Sideswipe and Sunstreaker were both seated against the wall and leaning against each other for support. Both were leaking streams of energon from multiple places, the most obvious one being the hole through Sideswipe's gut, which matched the hole through Sunstreaker's chest. At the sound of her voice, two sets of optics onlined dimed and focused foggily on her. Sideswipe gave a weak grin, but he didn't appear to be totally with the program.

"Sunny, baby," he murmured. She knelt beside him and started sealing off his wounds, hoping to save his life. "Sweetspark, what're you doing here so late? Your opi's gonna jump ta conclusions," he slurred.

"I'm saving you," she muttered, focusing on her work. A scratched-up golden hand rubbed one of her door panels, and she had to fight to keep her focus under the pleasurable feeling. She gently smacked the hand away. "Stop it, 'Streaker. I gotta help you two."

"I always thought you had a beautiful frame, dear femme," Sunstreaker murmured as he reached out for the wing again. Sunburst smacked his hand away as she continued her work. Sadly, the seals weren't working. The damage was too severe, and both twins had lost too much energon. She wouldn't be able to save them.

"We've lost the fight, Sunny," Sideswipe hummed as he gently grabbed onto on doorwing.

"So let our last moments be worthwhile," Sunstreaker finished as he grabbed onto the other. Together, they pulled the femme into their weakening arms, and Sunburst allowed herself to be doted upon. Gentle hands caressed her wing panels while soft lips pressed against her face.

"We love you, Sunburst," Sunstreaker murmured as he snuggled her close.

"Don't forget us," Sideswipe added as he nuzzled his face against hers. Sunburst whimpered in distress.

"Don't die. Don't leave me. Please, please. Don't go. Don't leave. Please, please," she whispered, tears flowing from her optics. Sideswipe met her optics behind her visor.

"You are never alone. You have to find any other survivors," he said seriously.

"Don't leave me alone. I need you. I can't live without you. Don't leave me," she begged.

"We can't live…" Sunstreaker paused to groan in pain before continuing, "forever… Live long and stay safe."

"Find another mech that will love you like we do, and… and…" Sideswipe's optics flicked once before fading into blackness. His arms went limp and fell from her body. Sunstreaker grunted in agony, drawing Sunburst's attention. He caught her optic and gave a small smirk.

"Here," he grunted, pulled a small bag of something from his subspace. "These are cans of my best wax. Keep that beautiful frame beautiful, okay?" Sunburst gave an electronic wailed when the golden twin joined his brother in death.

"NOOO!" Sunburst screamed. She lurched into a sitting position on her berth with a wail of agony. She looked around in confusion, not knowing where she was, before it clicked. It was a dream. None of that had happened. Energon tears filled her optics, and she broke down into sobs, terrified of the situation that had not happened. Her infatuation for the twins was something she recently decoded, and this hadn't been the first time she had night terrors of their death. In fact, this was the fifth one in four days.

The series of events in the nightmares weren't always the same, but the ending always matched the one before it. She would stumble upon a mech that she loved the most, whether it be Jazz, Blaster, Optimus, Prowl, or Ratchet, she would see that they were dead, and she would give the Autobot tribute speech. Once she turned away from the dead Autobot, she would see the twins with some serious injury. She would attempt to repair them while they gently touched her wings, but she would be unable to save them. The dream would continue from there with loving touches and sweet words and proclamations of love that had come too late. Then they would die. They would die, and she always watched the light fade from their optics.

Then she would online, and recharge would become impossible.

She glanced around the dark room and, as she did after ever nightmare, decided the darkness was too dark. The blackness seemed to close in on her as she sat in her bed, knees hugged to her chest as she sat in the middle of her berth, like something was going to attack her. She sent a wireless command to the room, and the lights dimly lit, effectively scaring away her monsters, assuming there were any physical monsters hiding in the dark. The light did nothing for the monsters that skipped around her mind.

What if they weren't nightmares, but were some sort of vision? What if the twins were going to die, along with every other mech she held dear? What would she do if she was the last Autobot alive? What would Megatron do if he found her when the others were killed? Would she be given over to his mechs? Would she be tortured and killed? What if he made her his personal slave?

Fears and terror rose up in her processor, as they did every night at after her nightmares. Her mind was very good at conjuring up such negative and frightening thoughts. This was the main reason she was never able to fall back into recharge once she woke up. This and the fear that if she fell back asleep, she would have more night terrors. It had slowly worn her down. She was tired and grumpy during the day, unable to function well without the recharge, and it was pretty noticeable.

Ratchet had scanned her and threatened her with a medically-induced recharge. Ironhide had all but demanded to know what her problem was. Jazz and Blaster had both told her how worried they were. Optimus frowned and told her that if she needed to talk, he was willing to listen and council her. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe had observed her from afar, mentioning to her every now and again that they were willing to stay with her if she needed the mental support.

The twins! That's it! She grinned as she hopped off the berth. She could go to them and ask… She grimaced. No, she couldn't wake them up like that. Primus knew they didn't get much recharge nowadays. What right did she have to steal what little recharge they got away from them just because she had a few night terrors? Slag, they'll probably be torqued at her for being so weak as to let a few nightmares rattle her. Honestly! She was an Autobot saboteur, one of the best, and she was letting a few nightmares slow her down?

Stupid. That's what she was: stupid. That was why she refused to talk to anybot. They probably had nightmares in their past and had just ignored them like the warriors they were. They would probably laugh at her, or roll their optics. She didn't think she could stand that kind of reaction.

A sudden sound above her made her jump and screech in surprise. She whirled around to find her intruder, only to notice that the noise had been the AC unit coming online. She sagged, door panels drooping as she debated her current situation. She could either suck it up and go wake up some unlucky bot from recharge or she could sit here, jumping at shadows and dreading the next moment of recharge.

"Right. Let's see who I should wake up…" Sunburst said to herself as she exited her room. The hallway was dark, the only light being the red emergency exit signs that the humans put up in case of a fire or something. Sunburst slowly walked down the hall, glancing at the doors and rejecting them as she passed them.

Hound? No. He didn't get time to get all that mud off his chassis before going to recharge. Mirage? No. He'd make her sleep on the floor. Bluestreak? No. He would accidentally tell everybot her nightmare problems. Jazz? No. He just got back from a long-term mission. Prowl was working. Blaster was working. Ratchet was tending to Gears in the medbay. The Wreckers were too loud and were prone to snuggling, something that was awkward when you were caught in between to Wrecker mechs. Thundercracker had just left for a flight, and Dreadwing was on a mission. She paused at Ironhide's door, but almost immediately moved on. He wouldn't understand. He probably never had a nightmare in his life, and he wasn't afraid of anything. She approached the last door in the hallway.

Optimus Prime. Did she dare wake him? She knew he rarely got any sleep. The mech worked himself to the struts, and he never complained. Did she really have the right to wake him for something so trivial? Her wings fluttered at the indecision. Optimus had always welcomed her, allowing her to take comfort in him when she was afraid as a sparkling and youngling. Since then, he had pulled back, becoming more of a leader and confidant than a caretaker and comforter. He obviously didn't want the role she had been planning to force on him. Her door wings sagged, hanging limply from her back as she turned around and started making her way back up the hallway. She walked past her room and went back to looking at the closed doors.

Trailbreaker: too big. Wheeljack: she didn't want to lose a body part if he spontaneously combusted while she slept. Tracks: she didn't want to be a comfort doll during the night. Skidz and Mudflap: just no. Sideswipe and Sunstreaker…

She stopped by their door, going through nearly the same debate she had while standing before Optimus's door. She shuffled in place a bit, wings rising and twitching as she debated whether or not to knock on the door. Should she really be asking them for this? Did she have the right to request to invade their personal space just for her own comfort? How selfish of her! No, they wouldn't want her in there. Slag, Sunstreaker would be so torqued at her for interrupting his beauty sleep, and what's more! She was asking to stay in the same berth as them. He would, no doubt, worry about his paint job. His gleaming gold paint was always most important to him… more important than her… And Sideswipe would probably need the recharge so that he could wake up early enough to set up a prank. The humiliation of others was more important. He needed to keep his reputation.

Her door wing drooped again as she convinced herself that it would be best for her to return to her room, where nobot else would be bothered by her nightmares, by her irrational fears. But were they irrational? The death of one's comrades was a legitimate fear, right? But that didn't make it okay for her to force those fears on others who didn't need the extra stress. And that was what she did: she added stress to everything.

Once again, the darkness of the hall seemed to close in on her as tears rose to her optics and her wings went limp in misery. Why was she still standing there? Why didn't she walk away? She could fight her fears on her own. She didn't need help. Slag, it wasn't like they wanted to help her or even knew of her problems. She vented a heavy sigh as she forced herself to turn so she could return to her room, her prison and place of torment.

"Sunny?" a deep voice called gently from a few doors down. She froze, wings rising to a rigid position as a physical show of her shock and internal panic. "Baby?" he called again as he approached her. "Sweetspark, what're you doing here so late? Your opi's gonna jump to conclusions."

Both were leaking streams of energon from multiple places, the most obvious one being the hole through Sideswipe's gut, which matched the hole through Sunstreaker's chest. Sideswipe gave a weak grin.

"Sunny, baby," he murmured. "Sweetspark, what're you doing here so late? Your opi's gonna jump ta conclusions," he slurred.

Sunburst winced, wings dropping as she forced the scene from her mind. A small whimper made its way from her throat before she could stop it, and she prayed he didn't hear it. Of course, that was asking for too much.

"Sunny? What's wrong?" he murmured as he approached her from behind. Her sensory panels easily picked up the heat coming off his frame, and she could sense that he was still a bit wet from a shower. He placed a hand on her shoulder and walked around so that he could look at her. She refused to meet his optics. She stared at the ground in shame, panels limp as she didn't have the desire to hold them up. "Sunburst, look at me," he ordered. She hesitantly obeyed, slowly moving her optics up to his. He frowned at her, taking in the dimness of her usually lively blue orbs. Her face openly showed her fatigue to him, though it hid such weariness around the other bots.

"Sunny, what happened?" he asked, rolling closer on his wheeled pedes to get a closer look at her exhausted face. He hated seeing her like this. He was so used to seeing her full of life. He had noticed the change a few days ago when she had stopped laughing at his jokes. She would give him an indulgent smile and would say something to the effect of "yeah, that's funny," but her optics no longer lit up in mirth. He missed seeing her happy and hearing her laugh at his jokes. She got worse, though, as the week went on. She would snap at bots that invaded her space, she would walk away in a fit of temper when Ratchet scanned her and threatened her with forced recharge, and she ignored the concerned questions and statements from her friends and family. It had taken everything in him not to grill her and force her to tell him what was wrong so that he could fix it. Sunstreaker, being the more patient and observant of the two, had told him not to approach her, but to let her approach first.

Well, it appeared that she had approached, and they had almost missed her!

"It's nothing, Sideswipe," Sunburst murmured, though the tears in her optics spoke different words. The silver mech frowned as he cupped her cheek.

"You know better than to lie to me," he rumbled. He gave a sad smile. "Don't you trust me anymore?"

Sunburst looked up at him, tears gathering at an alarming rate. She fought against her emotions, not wanting to show her weakness in front of him. She was fine. Everything was okay. Nobody was dead. Nobody was dead. She wasn't alone.

But she was. She had effectively secluded herself, and nobot cared. The darkness in the hall grew blacker.

"Whoa, baby. Talk to me, sweetspark. I can't help you if you don't tell me what's wrong," Sideswipe informed her. She looked into his optics, and he hated the blank look in hers. It was as if she was dying, like her spark was sinking. "Fraggit, femme," he cursed as he grabbed her arm. He gently pulled her toward the door, sending wireless passcode to allow them access to the room her shared with his twin.

"Sunstreaker, wake up!" Sideswipe ordered as he closed the door behind him and Sunburst and the lights dimly lit up. He sent a sharp prod through their bond, causing Sunstreaker to jerk from his recharge with a curse.

"Primus fraggit, Sideswipe! Do you have any concept of recharging at a godly hour…" Sunstreaker trailed off when he finally noticed Sunburst, who was openly crying now and hiding halfway behind Sideswipe. He immediately rose to his pedes and moved to stand in front of the femme.

"Sunny? Sweetspark, what's wrong?" he cooed. The femme before him was the only bot, aside from his brother and Bumblebee, that he could get along with perfectly and the only one that every received this type of attention from him. He gazed down at the femme that he had known since she was born and felt his spark stir, as it did any time he was near her. He crouched down a bit so that he could look into her optics. He was shocked to see how haunted and distressed they were. Her tears fell, and a sob escaped her vocalizer.

"I'm sorry!" she burst out. "I didn't want to wake you up because I knew you needed to recharge, but I didn't know what else to do, and Sideswipe saw me before I could leave, and I don't even think I'll be able to go back offline, so I'm wasting your time and Sideswipe's time, and I hate that because I don't really matter, and when the Decepticons finally kill me, I'll—" She broke off when she was suddenly hugged from both sides.

"Don't talk about your death," Sunstreaker ordered gruffly.

"We can't handle that thought," Sideswipe added. The two mechs moved in unison towards the berth, dragging the crying femme along with them. Sunstreaker released the cherry red femme to hop up on the berth, and Sideswipe turned her around and lifted her so that she was sitting on Sunstreaker's lap. The golden mech wrapped his arms around her waist, cuddling her comfortably into his chest. Sideswipe stood before them, looking down into Sunburst's optics.

"Now, my spark, tell us what has you so fritzed," Sideswipe ordered gently. Sunburst gave a shuddering vent as she stared up at the mech she loved.

"You died…" she said, voice cracking at she forced the two words out.

"I… died?" Sideswipe repeated, looking confused. Sunburst nodded.

"You all died. Jolt, Bumblebee, Hound, Mirage, Tracks,Trailbreaker,Dreadwing,BlasterJazzWheeljackSkidzMud flap… Optimus." Though she started out slow, her words sped up as her distress and agony grew. She broke off with a sob at the last name, remembering the Autobot tribute speech she had spoken for her leader, a mech that she had always thought to be immortal for some reason. He always exuded that calm confidence, as if he knew nobot could take him down, and Sunburst had always accepted that. After all, he had been prime for longer than she had been alive.

"They all died, and-and I didn't, and Ratchet and Ironhide were hurt so bad, and I went to-to find more survivors, and I found you two… I watched you die…" The two mechs were silent before they crushed the femme to their chests.

"Oh, sweetspark," Sideswipe groaned, hating that they hadn't address this earlier. "You've been having these nightmares all week, haven't you?" Sunburst nodded miserably.

"Primus, femme," Sunstreaker cursed. "Is that why you've been so tired? Is that why you keep brushing up against every bot you pass?"

"I haven't been—" Sunburst started.

"Yes, you have," Sunstreaker interrupted. "We've been watching."

"Oh…" she mumbled. She looked away again. Sideswipe vented heavily as he glanced over Sunburst's helm at his brother. They spoke through their bond for a few kliks before the silver mech spoke.

"We have tomorrow off. You will stay with us tonight to keep your nightmares at bay. Any time you have a nightmare, you are to come here. We will not get angry with you, nor will we turn you away," Sideswipe stated. Sunburst squeaked in surprise when Sunstreaker scooted back on the large berth that the twin shared. In reality, it was two berths pushed together to make a single large berth, but that hardly mattered to Sunburst. Sunstreaker leaned over until he was laying on his side, and because his arms were still wrapped around her waist in a gentle, yet firm grip, Sunburst was forced to lay down in front of him, not that she really minded. Her doorwings pressed against her back comfortably as she allowed Sunstreaker to cuddle close to her. Sideswipe hopped up onto the berth in front of her and settled down in front of her, facing her. He snuggled up, allowing his engine to purr a bit.

"Sides, stop that!" Sunburst ordered, blushing. She squeaked when she felt a hand gently rub her door panel. "Sunny! Stop!" she gasped. Sunstreaker obeyed her, chuckling as he nuzzled his helm against the top of hers.

"Sleep, my spark," he crooned.

"We will be here in the morning," Sideswipe promised.

"You have our protection," Sunstreaker stated.

"And our love," Sideswipe added.

"So fear no more."

"We'll keep you safe."

"We love you, Sunburst," they confessed in unison. Sunburst purred happily when Sunstreaker went back to caressing her doorwing. Her optics dimmed before going offline, and she fell into recharge, safe between the two mechs she loved.

See? Angsty and sad, but cute and fluffy at the end. ^-^ Review, folks!