( gn!usr; tw: wounds; angst)

The mission ends with a resounding, obvious success. But victory does not come easy: Cliffjumper is severely wounded. But the result is worth it. Right?

The voices of the Autobots blend into a cocktail of indistinct sounds. But after the explosion that shattered her audio system, these muffled conversations seem mundane. Something tolerable. Arcee barely notices Bumblebee's buzzing and Bulkhead's joyful exclamations echoing off the walls. All that spins in her processor is dissatisfaction with Cliffjumper's recklessness.

"You're an idiot, Cliff," Arcee says, but Cliffjumper just laughs. A thin stream of energon flows even more strongly down his damaged face shield. "What were you even thinking? What you did was pure recklessness and stupidity, not bravery."

Ratchet's medbay is awful—Arcee has to force herself to think of it as a medbay, each time remembering the infirmaries on Cybertron—but it still instills in her a strange, barely noticeable feeling of awe, binding her in chains and preventing her from raising her voice and yelling at Cliffjumper.

Listening to his strained excuses that since he's alive and not out of commission, there's nothing wrong with his actions, Arcee feels her jaw clench from a sharp flash of anger. She felt like shoving him sharply. But it wasn't necessary: Primus had already punished him. The damage sustained on the last mission was proof of that.

"The fact that you're alive doesn't mean you're right," Cliffjumper's wide, encouraging smile didn't even flinch under Arcee's piercing gaze. "You jumped into the thick of the enemy. Alone. Not following our plan. Yes, that maneuver allowed us to extract more energon from the mine, but it was dangerous. We could have managed without serious damage!"

Arcee isn't sure if she should even be telling him all this. Cliffjumper is stubborn and always does what he thinks is right.

And that frightens Arcee the most. Cliffjumper believes in the necessity of fighting the enemy to the last breath, without retreating, even if there is no chance of victory. What if this trait of his becomes the cause of his demise? Arcee has already lost Tailgate. The loss of Cliffjumper is her new, enduring fear.