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Ever since their existence, Aftermath and Spitfire only craved for one thing : chaos. They weren't forced to do this but there was this feeling in their spark that they were unable to ignore, and it felt right, it felt good, as if it was the only thing they should feel. Forever.
Aftermath wasn't afraid of destroying nature, it was just some organic crap that would grow back anyways. Stomping on flowers subconsciously, punching trees until they felt down and craving stuff into rocks...All of this was fun to him and also satisfying, he mostly did those stuff alone when Spitfire was busy because he lifted weight off his processors of whatever thing Jawbreaker had "infected" him with.
He doesn't get why he still thinks about it, he hates Jawbreaker ! That cyber-sync thing was awful, he hated not having his personal space and he hated how much of his brother's feelings he could feel - Gentle, joy and kindness - crap he did NOT like. But still a part of him was curious, because that was the opposite of him obviously, what he felt could only be described with words meanwhile Jawbreaker's could be represented with...A flower blooming right in his spark ? Yuck !
Meanwhile Spitfire was up to competitions to show that she was better, always trying to find a way to have the first place even if it meant cheating here and there. Of course she had her limits, like when Starscream gave orders she would just listen because in the end she could make troubles and it was fun.
She only realized it too late but when her and Aftermath were brought back online, she felt gratitude. Gratitude towards the ones she hated, towards the ones who were her family (obviously not Aftermath because he did nothing to brought them back to life...), gratitude towards her enemies ! Which she made a temporary truce with just to help so the Quintessons won't ruin their life.
When she realized what she had felt a few weeks later, she was left upset and confused. How could she felt this way ? She should have felt ashamed to be revived by the people she despised ! Not...Not gratitude...It didn't felt right. It felt so wrong and yet her spark hadn't ached, hadn't hurt, nothing. It had did nothing against that feeling that was so alien, so easy to ignore that it felt normal, something casual. It was so strange...
Despite those things happening, Aftermath and Spitfire were confident enough that they could take down an actual person - like killing them - without feeling guilty, hollow or something depressing. Not that they planned to but if they had to, they thought they would do it without hesitation, plus with a twist if they could.
And soon enough...Winter season happened, at first it was just some snow, the two didn't cared because they thought it would go away. Can't really blame them for that, they hadn't been online for long and didn't stayed with their family to learn about Earth plus they had been offline temporally because of Starscream...Just a mess of stuff that left them unaware of the fact the seasons changed throughout the year.
A few days later, there was snow everywhere. On roads, on grass, on cliffs and even falling from the sky. "It feels so weird, I feel like it just...Either disappear under my feet or it's layered with rocks." had said Spitfire when the two had been in the forest, sounding annoyed.
"Well who knows, maybe it ain't that bad." Aftermath had replied, already laying in the snow with a peaceful smile. It was calm, just how it liked, just how...Jawbreaker would've reacted. Urgh...He hated thinking about the fact his brother would have done the same, laying in the snow...Aftermath doesn't want to be like JB, never. But he pushes the feeling aside for now.
Spitfire raised an optical ridge and sideopticed her brother. "You're acting weird." she had commented, as if it was a fact, which technically was...A Chaos Terran, laying in the snow instead of thinking of a way to cause troubles ? Yeah, definitely out of character. Eventually, she had sighed and lay in the snow too but with a slight frown.
It had gone very snowy by December, like the snow was around one feet high or two. Didn't do much to Spitfire and Aftermath but it probably did to the humans, though Aftermath had stopped going into his alt-mode because the snow was making him unable to drive.
As usual, they caused chaos, like purposely placing piles of snow at the entries of the Maltos' house and their barn just to lock them inside - knowing well that they could just get out by the windows so lest say it was just an harmless prank - or just stealing the Christmas decorations during the night just to mess with the humans. The Chaos Terrans didn't even know what Christmas was ! They should really be educated.
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⋆꙳•❅*°⋆❆.ೃ࿔*:･*❆ ₊⋆꙳•❅·*₊⋆☃︎·*❆₊ ࿐ ࿔*:･ﾟ
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In the forest, Aftermath was breaking down trees as usual, not watching where was he stepping. He was about to run toward a trunk to tackle it down he heard the sound of something being crushed. He stopped dead in his track and looked down just to see a puddle of...Red fluid ? It was oddly warm, even a bit dark and a scary contrast to the white snow.
He slowly lifted his pede and took a step back, the thing he had stepped on was strange...He had never seen that before. Brown, weird shaped horns thingy and wasn't moving anymore, just laying there as if asleep. He didn't felt relieved nor confused, he felt hollow. He felt follow because he didn't know what to feel. Yes, he broke something, destroyed it, but he doesn't even know why is it the only thing that leaked once destroyed. What are even those weird pinkish wires coming out of it ?
He wanted to reach out, touch it, to know if the rest felt oddly warm too but he's frozen in place. For the first time, he doubts the consequences of his chaotic behavior, it feels wrong just because he isn't familiar with whatever he just did. Usually, he would have just break down what's discomforting him or say that he doesn't like it but now, he feels like he can do none of these. He's stuck. Forced to watch. It's...Mesmerizing.
He doesn't know for how long he had been watching but apparently long enough for Spitfire to go search him. She was flying at a low altitude because of the snow, she went back into bot mode and came from behind her brother. "What are you_" she started speaking but paused when noticing the red puddle, despite never having seeing that red thing in her whole life before she immediately understands that something feels off, and it also explains why Aftermath was feeling hollow. She recognizes the animal, thanks to her alt-mode I guess. She continues hesitantly, though doesn't shows it. "_up to ?" AM gets out of his trance and looks at Spitfire, a bit startled by the sudden sound. "Wha- Uh, nothing, I..." he trails off, glancing between his sister and the animal, now not feeling like he wants to reach out anymore. As if it would be wrong to end up doing so... "I stepped on it..." he finally admits after a minute of two.
All of this is...Foreign. It's foreign to the both of them. Nobody made them learn how to react when stuff like that happened - accidental or not - so of course they had thought they wouldn't care, that it won't do any damage to their pride and confidence but now they're left "abandoned". Chaos Terrans against the unknown. And it's scary...Spitfire knows scary, she has been scared of Starscream after seeing what he had done to her brother. But Aftermath ? He doesn't know scary. Startled ? Yes. But a "I'm scared for my spark", never because he hadn't got time to react.
"Well...Why do we- uh- why do you care about it anyways, uh ? It's like...Nothin ! Doesn't matter, sis, let's just move on, OK ?" Aftermath crouched to his sister's height and tapped her on the shoulder, smiling nervously. The actual first time he ever felt nervous. She didn't responded, she was frowning and clenching her servos into fists, of course her brother noticed and his smile quickly faded - she was the only one he cared about and vice versa. "Are you alright ? Do you need some cave water ?" he thought to himself that it was probably because of the organic laying in silent, still he thought that his sister was probably overreacting.
"It was a deer." Spitfire said abruptly as she turned around, not feeling like she could watch it any longer. She felt remorse, sad even. Deep down even she thought she was overreacting. Aftermath got back up and took a step back from his sister, she probably needs the space because their sparks would probably made them feel like a hug is gross. A silence stretched between the two, AM's pede was still stained with blood. Blood. It's not warm anymore. The fact of whether or not the blood remaining in the deer is warm doesn't matter. She started to walk away, she could've fly away but she felt like she didn't deserve to do so even thought she's not the one who killed the deer, her brother quickly followed, falling into steps next to her.
Aftermath gave a few glances to his sister before deciding on looking forward. "Do we...Talk about it ?"
"No."
No.
No because how is she supposed to admit that because of this, because of what happened, she now hates being a Chaos Terran ?