Transformers Animated: Morning Star: Chapter 11: Free
They must have been out on the road for clicks on end, trying their best to mix in with the strange bots around them. For cycles she had been locked up in her room, only ever seeing her parents, mostly her mother, and on occasion, her sister, but no bot else.
The day her sister told her that they were leaving, she didn’t know what to expect, much less so when they boarded a ship that was supposed to take them as far away from their parental home as they could get.
Greenblade had refused to tell her any of her reasons for dragging her along, but then again, she hadn’t tried to find out what the reason was either. She only knew that she wanted to get away.
At first she thought that everything would be fine if she stuck close to her sister and followed her orders to the T, but that hadn’t been the case. When they met the maintenance bots, she had been shy at first, not knowing what to expect, but little by little she felt herself open up to one mech in particular. No, she practically jumped out of her shell, desperate for any other form of communication besides her sister. She loved Greenblade, there was no doubt about it, but she had finally met other bots – interacted with them.
The moment Bumblebee opened his mouth, it was like he shattered all the defences she had built around herself. She had loved her parents, but when she listened to the way they sometimes talked to Greenblade on the rare occasion they were allowed to see each other, it was clear to even her who they favoured more between the two sisters.
She often thought that Greenblade resented, hated her existence, but each and every time they were forced to part, her sister would embrace her and whisper two words that helped her cling on to that thin string of hope. Be strong.
She had never really known what those words truly meant, but each time her sister left, she would find herself standing by the window in her room, waiting and waiting until she saw Greenblade being escorted past with their father, off to the training room where she was to hone her fighting skills until she was her sister’s ultimate protector.
Blueflame had never truly been told what it meant to have her sister serve such a role towards her, but from what she remembered that night aboard the maintenance ship was that even if it hurt her, Greenblade would do everything in her power to ensure that no harm befell her. She knew that she should be happy, grateful for it, but she never could bring herself to thank her sister in a way that she knew she should.
Greenblade had never expected any form of thanks, not in a way she let on anyway. Even with how little she knew about the outside, she had discovered enough during her time with the mechs to know that her sister had given up a life cycle she could have spent on herself instead of acting like some kind of bodyguard against a threat she herself had no idea of.
After the whole stasis lock incident, she found herself often wondering why her sister didn’t just choose to turn a blind optic and run off to somewhere better. Out of the two of them, Greenblade was guaranteed to survive, whereas she didn’t know the first thing about survival other than what her mother had taught her.
That was also something she had no idea about. Ever since she first discovered what she could do, her parents had her locked away in her room and banished Greenblade from so much as looking at her as if she was something precious to protect and Greenblade would be the one thing to destroy her.
It hurt. It hurt to the point where she often found herself sitting in the corner of her room, questioning her life cycle. Was she truly so special that she couldn’t even go near any bots her age? What was it that made her so special? If she could go back in time, she would have stopped herself from her own curiosity and excitement to not show her parents the blue flames that licked at her servos whenever she lifted them.
Perhaps then things could have turned out differently. Perhaps then her parents wouldn’t have shut her away. Perhaps then she could have lived a normal life as a youngling, and gone to school with her sister, interacted with other bots, actually breathe for once.
If she had been allowed to experience the life of a true transformer, then she would have been able to help her sister, and not be such a burden to her on their travels. Greenblade had refused to tell her where they were heading in the first place, but from the recent frown that seemed to be permanent on her faceplate these days, it was safe to assume that she herself didn’t know.
During the day, they chose to recharge any place that they seemed to be less inconspicuous around, and at night they travelled around the city in search of energon, or something to keep their fuel lines running. The energon route had been closed off to them from day one, but they did manage to find oil, which served a temporary purpose.
Ever since leaving the mech base, the two of them had noticed that the alternate modes on the road weren’t like them. They weren’t robotic beings with the ability to transform, on the contrary, they had miniature beings that climbed in and out, telling them where to go and then leaving them out in the weather to await further instructions.
When she asked Greenblade about it, she called them something akin to servants. Something that only had one purpose and no other reason for living. Personally she found that a cruel way to think about it, but it seemed to be enough reason for Greenblade to avoid contact with them.
It was hard trying not to greet one whenever it passed, but a glare from her sister often served as enough motivation not to try. Greenblade claimed that it was for her own safety, and she was inclined to agree with her, up to a point. Back home she would have been inclined to follow her sister to the ends of the planet and back if she had ordered it, but they weren’t home anymore. They were free. She was free.
Transformers Animated, Bumblebee and energon © Hasbro Morning Star, Blueflame and Greenblade © Fang Wolfsbane