Twitchfire plot in the Hero AU

'Sunbird' meets up with Shard as she usually does. He gets a ping for help from her and she says she didn't send it, acting bashful about losing it. The two go to figure out who has her communicator, and find another 'Sunbird' being attacked. She says these villains targetted her claiming she'd attacked them before. Of course, the first Sunbird still claims she is the original, but the other has her communicator. The one with said comms convinces the other two to help with the fight and figure it out afterwards.

After the fight, one Sunbird claims to be the one who kept her communicator. The other says SHE has it, but seems shocked to find she doesn't. Shard trusts the one with the communicator, thinking Sunbird isn't careless enough to just "lose" her comms. He brings her back to AUTO and sends her to get her comms checked out jic.

Wheeljack is confused by Sunbird not treating him like she usually would, so he's onto her. She steals his comms too and locks him in a closet.

Finding Sunbird trying to convince anyone from AUTO of her identity, her copy returns her communicator and dares her to try to save her dad. She of course assumes 'Mockingbird' kidnapped him, and chases her.

...

She laughs at her. “If you can’t beat them, make them join you? I think you’ve got it backwards.” But then her expression sours, dropping the self-assured mockery for once. “No, joining us is a fate I wouldn’t even wish on you.”

“If you don’t like it, why don’t you leave?”

“Do you have a clue how much worse it would be if they got their hands on me after that?”

“We wouldn’t let that happen.”

She rolls her eyes. “Of course you wouldn’t, hero.” The title is said dismissively, but it seems to spark something in her. She leans a bit closer. Sunbird half wonders if she’s going to bite her.

“You are prophesied to stop our ‘great evil’, aren’t you… and you’re not half bad.” The blade is finally pulled away from her neck, much to her relief. “Maybe you’ll actually succeed... with my help.”

“You’re… really going to help?” Sunbird asks, in disbelief that this hail Mary plan is apparently working

“I’ve already given up the best chance I’ve gotten to kill you, so it sure seems like it.”

Sunbird is relieved enough to not be dead that she shrugs off the morbid joke.

Tiana has a bit of a new routine after school, sitting at one of the tables in front of a local café, trying to enjoy her drink while she ignores the growing feeling that she’s being watched.

She’s scouted this place. It’s close enough to the middle of town that she can get just about wherever she’s needed in a reasonable time frame, with dark, rarely traveled alleys nearby where she can disappear to transform and leave quickly.

But the bad thing about a routine is that it’s easy to track. And she’s almost certain she’s being tracked. But she can’t let the enemy know she knows, so she can’t just stop coming here. But they might very well catch her transforming and find out her identity. She doesn’t know who’s watching her, how well organized they are, and what their intentions are.

"Boo."

Tiana nearly jumps out of her chair, just about squealing. The culprit stays exactly where she was when she was half leaning over her shoulder, with her arms crossed and a smug grin on her face. Tiana starts to calm down a bit as she realizes that was the most the prankster planned to do, and then her fear turns to annoyance, and then fizzles out as she looks closer at the 'stranger'.

She’s exactly the same height as Tiana, with the same body shape, the same face shape, the same hair type and the same… just about everything. She was almost identical to Tiana. Almost, except for the way she was dressed, her hair being styled different and dyed a vibrant and almost iridescent blue, and the fact that her skin is white. Her eyes are also dark blue.

She chuckles slightly as she walks around the table to sit at the other chair, eyes on her like a wolf waiting to pounce. She picks up Tiana’s drink as she’s about to sit down, looking at the label. “Is there caffeine in this thing?”

“Yes,” Tiana says, only realizing the audacity of the question after she's answered on reflex.

“Damn,” the stranger says before Tiana can say anything else, putting the drink back down on her side of the table.

She quickly grabs it and pulls it to her chest. “Who are you? Do I know you?”

She makes a ‘so-so’ motion with her hand, leaning back in the chair a bit. “I changed my look a bit, I guess you might not recognize me. I figured you’d prefer this, though.” She shoots her a look like she should understand the implication.

It suddenly clicks. “You?! Why…” She doesn’t know how exactly to word her question, trailing off instead as she looks her up and down.

“I think I look good.”

Tiana clutches her drink a bit closer as her face starts to heat up. "What do you mean...?"

She just chuckles a bit. Tiana huffs. It makes her feel weird.

"What, you wanna talk about it?" she asks, leaning on her hand. "Somewhere more private?"

She wonders for a second if she can trust her, but it occurs to her... she could've killed her quite easily before. Why wait just to kill her a few days later?

"...Fine," she says, standing up and slinging her bag over one shoulder.

The shapeshifter stands up too, stretching. She starts walking leisurely, hooking Tiana's arm as she walks past and dragging her along. She lets it happen with a tired sigh.

Her transformation has been changed, too. Sunbird is trying not to stare too close so the shapeshifter won't make another remark implying she's attracted to her own pale doppelganger.

What is red on Sunbird is a light teal on her, and what is yellow is blue. The black is left exactly the same, except for bright teal lining around the eyes of her mask, creating a better contrast against her eyes which are mostly a deep ocean blue with sky blue irises. It looks to be the only artistic liberty taken with the form other than the color changes.

She's sitting dangling her legs over the edge of the building's roof, looking down at the people below. Sunbird is sitting cross-legged a little bit further from the edge.

"So... What's with the colors?"

"What, did you like me better when I looked exactly like you? I figured that would get confusing."

"Well, yeah, but... I just mean... why those exact colors?" Her eyes drift to the exposed half of her face.

She looks down at her arm. "Closer to my colors. My real colors. You could say it's more comfortable." She shrugs.

Sunbird feels kind of relieved. "Oh! That makes sense. It looks a bit more like the real you." She wonders if her transformation somehow reflects 'the real her'... in a less literal way...

"Oh, no. I mean physically. It's just easier. Slightly less to change, a bit less effort." She leans back on her arms to look over at Sunbird with that mischievous smile. "The whole fire look wasn't so bad," she says somewhat ominously, then chuckles and turns back to the street. "But I'll stick with this. For now."

Sunbird grimaces and looks away from her, entirely unsure what to make of her unpredictable new "ally". She'll probably be helpful during the fight against her kin, but what will she do afterwards? As mean as she is, Sunbird doesn't want to plan to lock her up once she's not 'useful' anymore. (She's also kind of worried she would escape at some point and wreak catastrophic vengeance.)

She remembers something. "Oh right! What is your name?"

She glances back at Sunbird. "My name?"

"...Yes?"

She turns back away. "I don't think you could pronounce it."

"I could try," she says tentatively.

"Also it would probably drive you insane."

Sunbird narrows her eyes. "...How?"

She shrugs. "That's just how it works."

"I think you're making that up."

"Are you willing to risk it?"

Sunbird crosses her arms, unamused and somewhat annoyed she isn't looking at her now. "Is it embarrassing?"

She laughs, but it sounds a bit forced. "Even if it was, how would you know?"

Sunbird gives a long sigh, giving up on the conversation and letting the silence sit for a while.

"Okay, I was bullshitting. It's Spitfire."

Sunbird almost asks why her name happens to be an English word before realizing it definitely wasn't. "That's a cool name," she says a bit softer.

"Yeah," Spitfire mumbles.

"Who is that?"

Sunbird tenses up, opening her mouth and saying... nothing.

"Spitfire." She crosses her arms as she stares down the older hero, still hovering in front of him instead of landing so as to be closer to his eye level.

Shard looks between her and Sunbird, realization dawning in his eyes. "Alright Spitfire, can I talk to Sunbird alone for a second?"

"If she can stand you for that long."

He grimaces and gives Sunbird the kind of look you give a pet when they drag a dead animal onto your bed.

"That's just her sense of humor," she tells him with a very nervous smile.

Shard huffs and starts walking towards a nearby room. Sunbird follows him, turning back to look at Spitfire and not seeing her there. She shakes her head and hurries into the room. Shard closes the door. Crosses his arms. Opens his mouth to speak.

A moment of incredibly tense silence. He sighs.

Sunbird starts instead. "Yes, she is that shapeshifter, but–"

"But what?! What could possibly make you think it was a good idea to bring her here?!"

"She turned against them! She's on our side now!"

He shakes his head and looks away. "Of course she told you that, she's a spy!"

"A shapeshifter."

Both of the humans jump at the disembodied voice.

"Why would I bother to earn your trust when I had the perfect chance to steal it?" With a brilliant shimmer she makes herself visible again, back to looking like Sunbird with a very disapproving look. "You never would've known the difference. You didn't before."

Sunbird gives Shard a confused look. He looks horrified, and a bit guilty.

"You don't know what you're up against. You don't know how we work, how we fight, how we think. And no one we've caught off guard has ever won. Unless you want to count on a deus machinae showing up, you need my intel."

She pulls out her weapon, extending the blade (which is blue, despite her otherwise still using Sunbird's palette). "And I can use her abilities better than she can." Her form shimmers and the rest of her colors switch back to her own. "I know exactly what she needs to do to improve. I know exactly how good she needs to be. She needs me."

Sunbird looks really tense, blush just barely visible on her face. Shard just stares at her, still looking very disturbed but maybe, just maybe, considering it.

She thinks to retract her blade so she seems a bit more safe, putting her hand on her hip instead. Shard sighs, and Sunbird looks up at him, but nothing else happens quite yet.

Spitfire half wonders if she could convince Sunbird to leave these goons. Just the two of them, taking on the Kalat mothership. It would be ridiculous, but if it worked, it would be one of the most impressive things any two people had ever done.

"I think we should give her a chance," Sunbird says, kind of quiet but not actually whispering.

Shard shakes his head a bit, looking away. "... Fine. But I wouldn't trust her completely."

Sunbird perks up a bit and nods sheepishly, then smiles at Spitfire.

She doesn't show it, but she feels a little relieved. This will make things easier. For Sunbird at least.

There’s something about the sound of her laugh. She’s not sure what it is, but even when she’s laughing at her, it makes Tiana feel a little giddy. It makes it hard to actually get mad at her for her teasing, because at least she gets to hear her laugh.

“Hey, Sunshine, can I ask you a question?” she says, with a mischievous look on her face.

“What is it?” Tiana asks, playfully cautious.

Spitfire turns to face her head on, leans in, and asks, “Do you have a crush on anyone?”

Her immediate thought is to say ‘No,’ but it doesn't come out. She just stares at her, mouth hanging open, face heating up. She’s not sure why. There’s no reason for her to be so nervous right now. It’s just Spitfire.

She giggles at her. “Good to know. How about this one…” She leans in closer, and her voice drops to an oddly gentle whisper. “Do you want to kiss me?”

Tiana barely squeaks out a strangled “Huh?”

“You don’t have to say it,” she whispers, as her eyes flutter shut. “You can answer however you want.”

For a second, Tiana just stares blankly at her. She thinks that she should move away, say no, she’s fine.

But she’s leaning in. Something burning bright inside her chest pulls her closer, a force she can’t fight. Her hand is cupping her cheek, and Spitfire leans into it, so certain she’s going to get exactly what she wants.

Why is she so sure? ... Why is she right? Why does it all feel so right?

Tiana wakes up suddenly, vaguely aware there was a sound that woke her up. She listens carefully to the falling rain for a second before hearing rolling thunder in the distance. That must’ve been it. She rolls over to stare out at her room, groaning a bit. She was having a nice dream...

Then she remembers what exactly she was enjoying. Her breath hitches. What was that?

Spitfire’s random flirting had put her on edge at the beginning, just another thing that made her question her intentions. As she got used to her, it became just another off color joke she rolled her eyes at. But even as the real Spitfire had slowly dropped it, the Spitfire in her dreams had kept it up. And lately, it had gone back to making her nervous, but in a different way.

A distant strike of lightning just barely reveals a figure outside her window. Her second floor window.

She’s instantly trying to think of how to do this. If she can escape down stairs, the figure wouldn’t see her transforming, but it would look awfully suspicious that she showed up so quickly to danger at this random rural farmhouse in the middle of the night.

But maybe just being caught will be enough to scare them away. She slowly sits up, eyes locked on the barely visible shadow. It doesn’t react. She stands up and moves to the foot of her bed, and flicks the light switch on.

Spitfire instantly turns around, eyes wide at the sudden light from inside the room. Despite mostly being in her civilian form, her eyes have the dark schlera of her hero form.

And of course, she’s thoroughly soaked.

She looks miserable, but as her eyes lock on Tiana staring at her in shock, she perks up. Hopeful.

Tiana is standing in front of the window before she can have a second thought, and her only ‘second thought’ is to signal for Spitfire to be quiet, which she fervently nods agreement to. It feels so strange to see her acting desperate. Tiana quickly opens the window, reaching out to help her in. She’s so eager she doesn’t even seem to notice.

Once she’s inside and the window is back closed, an awkward silence settles over them, both unsure what to do now.

“Thanks,” Spitfire mumbles, wrapping her arms tight around her chest.

Tiana nods, then realizes Spitfire is still dripping wet and probably cold. “Stay here– in this room, you can...” she looks for her desk and pulls out the chair. “You can sit down, I’ll go get you a towel.”

Spitfire nods, looking pointedly away from her.

When Tiana comes back into the room, she feels a little sad to see she’s opted to lean against the wall, still next to the window, instead of taking the seat. She sighs a little.

Tiana sits on the bed, thinking of what to do next, as Spitfire dries herself off. She doesn’t want to make her sleep on the ground, but after the dream she just had… sharing the bed feels… almost dangerous.

She can’t let Spitfire sleep on the couch because her family might find out, and if she gives Spitfire her bed and she sleeps on the couch, there will be questions about that.

She looks up as Spitfire approaches her. She looks uncharacteristically nervous. “… I hope you know… This is… kind of a big deal for me,” she whispers.

Tiana nods. “I’m glad you trusted me, though.”

Her face scrunches up, as if it only makes her even more nervous. “I don’t want you to think of me differently,” she whispers, voice sounding a bit more strained.

“I won’t, I promise,” Tiana tells her, with a reassuring smile.

Spitfire looks away, then closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. Her form shimmers, in a way Tiana most associates with her turning invisible. But this is very different.

Most of the mass in her abdomen is moved to some kind of thick tail, leaving her chest tapering down to an impossible narrow waist. Her limbs almost stretch, becoming thinner and longer, giving her just a bit of height over Tiana. Long, narrow wings unfurl from her back. As her form solidifies, the shimmering ends and the nature of her transformation becomes more obvious.

She has two sets of antennae, laid back against her head like the ears of a scared animal. Her wings quietly buzz with nervous energy, the translucent membranes naturely shimmering even now. She’s some kind of humanoid insect.

But the first thing Tiana can think to say is, “Your eyes are still… the same.”

“…I’m still the same,” she says, her voice also unchanged. “This has… the whole time, as long as you’ve known me, this was… the truth. Nothing’s changed, you just… know. Now.”

“That’s why you’re so nervous?” Tiana asks her, “You were worried I would… be afraid of you?”

“...You seem a little scared.”

“I’m not, I just…” She sighs, trying to find the words. “I was worried… It seemed like it was important to you, I didn’t want to respond wrong and upset you.”

She huffs. “I’m not that sensitive.”

“...Is this… uh, body, more sensitive than… the human one?”

“It’s still the same body,” she says with a dry laugh, “but uh, no, other than the antennae. Parts of the abdomen…” Her ‘tail’ curls up a bit.

“Oh...” She just barely remembers the backmost body part of an insect being the abdomen. It makes a bit more sense than a tail. Rather than stripes, she has thick white streaks on the sides of her abdomen. The very tip is a darker blue. “Do you have a… sting?”

“A what?”

“I mean, I don’t think you would sting me, I guess I was just curious…”

“Oh, I guess some of your Earth insects sting, huh? No, I don’t have venom.” She gives a sly smile. “I hope that’s not too disappointing.”

Tiana smiles back, relieved to see her lightening up. “Of course not. You’re fine the way you are.”

“God, you’re so cheesy.” She sits on the bed next to her and wraps her arms around her, totally catching her off guard. She gently hugs her back, and Spitfire laughs at her, squeezing her tighter.

“I never would’ve thought you’d be more scared of breaking me if I showed you this,” she teases.

“I don’t want to damage your wings,” she says in her defense.

“We’re warriors, Sunshine, we’re not that fragile.”

She sighs in defeat and shifts closer to her. Most of her body is covered in fur, which is long in places but surprisingly light throughout. It’s really soft, too.

“I think I understand. Though.” Spitfire leans her head against Tiana’s as she speaks. “It’s scary, when you care about someone and you don’t know what to do.”

Tiana hums in agreement.

Spitfire’s voice drops even quieter, barely audible. “This is the first time I’ve ever cared about someone. It’s terrifying. I just have to trust you to not get hurt whenever I’m not there? How do you do this?”

Tiana thinks of a few things she’s sure Spitfire would dismiss as dumb platitudes and shrug off. She finally settles on saying “I think it’s worth it.”

Spitfire pulls back to look at her. This close, she thinks her eyes might actually be a bit bigger in this form. Or maybe it’s just this particular, vulnerable look. Tiana moves her hand to gently caress her cheek, and she closes her eyes and pushes into it, tilting her head down so Tiana’s hand brushes the base of her antenna.

“You’re worth it,” Spitfire purrs.

There’s a moment of silence as Tiana processes what was said and Spitfire quietly enjoys her touch. Somehow, she made it sound like caring about her was a victory she was bragging about. Like she was worth that fight.

“I… I’m glad…”

“Mm… I’m tired…”

“Yeah, we should go to sleep,” Tiana says, reluctantly pulling out of the embrace to turn off the lights.

She can just barely make out Spitfire watching her in the dark of the room, still sitting on the side of the bed. She can see where this is going. She slowly walks back to the bed. Sits down beside her again.

Spitfire giggles at her. “C’mon,” she mumbles, laying down on her side. Her wings hang off the side of the bed, and her abdomen curls up. Tiana pauses for a moment, then sighs and lays down. Spitfire snuggles up closer, and she feels her feathery antennae drift across her face and neck. It tickles a bit and she giggles. Spitfire sleepily shushes her.

“Good night,” Tiana whispers to her.

Spitfire makes some noises that could be interpreted as ‘Good night’.

The first thing she noticed as the door opened was that the dust stopped abruptly at the threshold. As did the rust. It was as if not a second had passed for thousand of years.

“Wow, this place looks nice,” Spitfire remarks, looking down at the cutoff as she steps over it without a worry. “I guess the cleaners still do their job.”

Sunbird scowls at the disrespect but keeps pace with her. “This place was a tomb, Spitfire.”

Spitfire half laughs at her. “Why are you whispering? Afraid you’re gonna wake the dead?”

Sunbird huffs and rolls her eyes. “It just feels more respectful, I guess.”

“Who did they bury here, anyway? Maybe they’ll be happy to hear anything after all this time.”

“From what we know, it was someone very important, related to the royal–”

“Sunbird.” Now Spitfire’s voice is hushed. It immediately puts Sunbird on edge. “Who buried them?”

“An ancient, highly advanced, pre-history civilization.”

“On this planet? Holy shit– you’ve dragged us into a Xenobot structure?!” she whisper yells, despite getting quieter.

“You know the name of–”

“The Xenobotic Empire are one of our– the Kalat's most fearsome foes. And they’re robots. They don’t just ‘die’! Someone destroyed them.” She mutters something indistinguishable at the end, but Sunbird guesses it was something like ‘Probably one of us’.

Spitfire points to what Sunbird had taken for a statue placed against the wall. There are identical models flanking the door, painted in shades of gray. They almost look like anthropomorphic wasps. Maybe like Chalyri.

Their eyes are open, pitch black, unseeing. For now.

“That’s what they look like. One model, at least. Similar to what one of their royals looks like, actually… I always heard he was the only one who looked like that. And maybe he is now… Fuck, this place is old…”

“Are they going to wake up and attack us?” Sunbird asks, afraid to look away from them.

“...They would’ve done it by now. Besides, Xenobots tend to be more colorful than that. I think these are dead units.” Sunbird breathes a sigh of relief. “I’ve just never heard about them being… kept like this. I guess they were important.”

Sunbird nods, finally looking around the rest of the room more.

Spitfire chuckles quietly and leans her head on her shoulder. Her voice overly sweet, she says “Whatever we find down here, you don’t have to worry. You have me to protect you.”

Sunbird feels her face flush as she realizes how close she’d gotten to her. She half pushes her and half pulls herself away. “You were whispering!” she says, justifying the proximity. Spitfire laughs, knowing her too well to accept that excuse.

She takes her hand and starts walking, so Sunbird follows, hoping that her partner knows this culture well enough to navigate the halls better. She’ll gladly forgive the teasing if it means she doesn’t have to be here alone.
She forgives it every time, but still.

Spitfire is uncharistically careful as they continue down the halls. On the one hand, it’s nice to see she can be careful when she thinks she needs to be. On the other, the thought of what could possibly make Spitfire think she should be careful fills Sunbird with dread.

She carefully watches every monochrome corpse, waiting for one to finally spring to life. Their shapes are greatly varied, most resembling some kind of anthropomorphic animal. The moving shadows from their lights gives them an eerie facsimile of a second life, especially when it happens to catch on something particularly reflective.

Another door stands before them, a panel like the one which first let them in on either side. Sunbird looks to Spitfire, who studies the door for a long while before looking at Sunbird and hesitantly nodding. Sunbird squeezes her hand before letting go to move to open it. Spitfire moves to the other side of the door.

Sunbird thinks of the wasp-like bots “guarding” the other door. She can almost imagine them with her and Spitfire’s colors respectively. A matching set. A pair.

She shakes the thought from her head and plugs her weapon into the slot on the panel and turns. The door clicks and slides open, even quieter than the other.

Her breath catches. In the dead center of the room stands yet another bot, this one positioned with an eerie sense of authority. It has a very slender build, standing at attention with hands folded on a scepter or cane of some sort planted against the ground. It’s mostly painted black, with a white mask over the face that extends back into two symmetrical twisting horns.

But as Sunbird studies it more, she notices the golden bands around the limbs. They’re… golden. She freezes, glancing at Spitfire who is watching it like a hawk, body so tense she can hardly see her breathing.

Sunbird looks back at it. There’s red markings on the mask, as if mimicking closed eyes. Even the black might actually be a very dark blue, straining her eyes in the dim lighting. It catches the light like a thousand tiny stars.

Eyes open. Black, for a moment, then cyan stars flare to life.

Across the robot’s body, pale blue LEDs light up six-pointed stars on the balljoints.

The skeletons of wings wrapped around the robot come to life. Red light pours down between them, giving the appearance of membranes stretched between the bones. They unfold and hang delicately behind them for a moment.

Then their grip on the scepter tightens, braced against it, wings flared, and electricity cracks from their hands, coursing through the scepter and into the ground. Previously hidden lights web out from the center of the floor, surging toward Sunbird and finally startling her out of her trance.

“Sunbird. We can not win this fight.” She looks over at Spitfire, already holding her blades with a look somewhere between absolute horror and grim determination. “But xe’ll attack me first. If you run fast, maybe xe won’t chase you outside. If xe catches you, we both die today.”

“What? You want me to leave you to die?!”

“It’s that or we both die! I–“

“Interloper.” The robot’s voice is very commanding, but sounds completely natural. It reminds Sunbird more of an upper class woman in a fantasy show than a murder robot. “You drag another into this affair. I wonder what you’ve told them.”

“I’m not scared of you,” Spitfire tells them, pointing one blade at them with a shaking hand.

They respond by picking up their scepter and, with a quick flourish, extending a double-edged light blade from one end. “Have your kind changed in all these many years?”

“Wait, this is a mistake! We didn’t mean to disrespect anyone!”

“Sunbird, go!”

The robot moves with a surprising speed despite their height, sprinting across the room in a moment. Sunbird quickly levels her blaster and tries to land a shot, but the holographic wings make it harder to judge where the actual target is.

She extends her blade instead as they close in to melee range. She swings for around where she thinks their torso is, but her blade instead connects with theirs with a startling amount of force and she’s thrown off balance. Before she can steady, her leg is literally yanked out from under her, and she sprawls on the floor.

“ Sunbird! Leave her out of this!” The bot’s attention flits back to Spitfire, their weapon moving to block hers like it was the natural continuation of their swing. She’s knocked back, but manages to keep her balance and continue the backwards movement to avoid the next rapid swing.

Sunbird looks down to try to figure out where her weapon went, then remembers how it works. She curses her inexperience and summons it back to her hand.

Her attention jerks back to Spitfire as she cries out, both her weapons falling to the ground and dissipating as she spasms, involuntarily shifting to her native form. The bot’s weapon sparks ominously.

“No, wait, Spitfire!”

The bot grabs her by the neck before she can collapse, holding her up against the wall. Weapon pointed to her neck.

“Please, don’t do this!”

“She... isn’t part of this,” Spitfire strains to say, tears in her eyes. “Just… throw her out. She won’t come back. She hates upsetting people.”

The bot tilts their head ever so slightly. “You’ve traded your life for hers.”

“No, please, just let us both go! We’ll tell people not to come here!” Sunbird begs to no avail.

“...You’ll kill me either way,” Spitfire chokes out, . “At least she can go…”

Sunbird fumbles with her weapon hoping to catch the bot off guard. But before she can even aim…

The bot gently places Spitfire back on her feet. She immediately falls to the ground anyway, quickly dissolving into tears while still nervously eyeing the bot, her hands around her neck. Her antennae are folded back, blending into her hair.

They even take a step back. “Perhaps your kind have changed. Or perhaps you are an exception. Either way, I apologize.” Their voice seems softer now.

Sunbird looks up at them, still a bit nervous this is some kind of cruel trick, but they do look kind of sorry… somehow. Sunbird glances between them and Spitfire before finally moving over to Spitfire.

She reaches out kind of hesitantly, not wanting to startle her if she doesn’t want contact right now. But Spitfire grabs her hand and pulls her close enough to wrap her arms around her in a vice grip. Her wings are tense against her back. Sunbird isn’t sure if she’ll find it reassuring, but she isn’t sure what else to do, so she rubs her wings.

It’s heartwrenching to see Spitfire stripped of her pride and reduced to crying on the floor, but all Sunbird can focus on is how relieved she is that she’s alive. As long as she’s still alive, she’ll have a chance to be happy later. Sunbird will have a chance to make her happy again.

“Sunbird, is it?” the bot asks softly, immediately drawing both of their attention. They’re now sat cross-legged on the floor a few steps away, their blade retracted. Spitfire whimpers a bit, her wings buzzing softly under Sunbird’s arms as her grip tightens.

“...Yes.”

“You don’t seem surprised. You knew your companion’s true nature.”

“You knew? Is that why you attacked her?”

“There’s no fooling one of them,” Spitfire mutters. “ ’S why I knew xe’d attack me first.”

Sunbird thinks for a second. “I do know her true nature. All you knew was her species.”

They blink, then nod. “True. I have never known a Chalyr to endanger themself for the sake of another, especially one of another species. You’ve found a valuable ally.”

“Who are you, anyway?” Spitfire asks them, almost sounding calm despite her heart still racing in her chest, so hard that Sunbird can feel it. “I always heard the Empress was the only who could use electrokinesis like that and you’re not… blue. Not as much as xen…”

“Ah… No, though xe might be the only one left with the Empire who uses it. It was a symbol of our line. I am Princess Starlight, and I was once next in line for the throne. If your people have lost record of me, do you even know what this place is? What importance it has to my people? To yours?”

“They’re hardly ‘my people’ at this point,” Spitfire mumbles.

“No, we didn’t even know this was a Xenobot structure until Spitfire recognized the…” Sunbird glances around to see if there’s a statue to point out.

“… I overestimated the record keeping of Chalyr. I would expect they would remember this as a great victory. A pyrrhic victory, perhaps, but one nonetheless. For us...”

Spitfire flinches as they move to stand up, then scrambles to get up too. She offers a hand to Sunbird, which she knows is usually her teasing. She lets her ‘help’ her up, though, just happy to see her being a bit more playful. Spitfire gives her a small smile once she’s standing, then turns to follow the bot.

“Are you going to let go of my hand?” Sunbird asks her quietly.

“My hand now,” Spitfire tells her.

Sunbird shakes her head as she looks away, unable to supress a small smile.

Until she realizes the princess was watching the whole exchange, and is now giving her a knowing look. She feels her face heat up. She’s not sure what it is about her relationship with Spitfire in particular that gives everyone this impression. Even someone who isn’t from either of their cultures and might have a very different concept of romance! Is that proof there’s something there; maybe even something deep enough to transcend culture?

She tries to push those thoughts out of her head, reminding herself that this place was seemingly the site of a vague tragedy for the robot princess and the understandable lingering distrust just nearly got her partner impaled.