The Day We Hailed The Heavens

Chapter 26

She wished, at this point, that she had asked Skyfire or one of the other Autobots to teach her a little Cybertronian. The closest foreign language she could think of to the strange, extraterrestrial symbols on the buttons was probably Japanese or Chinese, but she couldn't even understand either of those, let alone any of this jargon. If she had been capable of reading it, she might have been able to get the gist of what each key and dial controlled - but there was no chance of that happening any time soon.

Perhaps she could try contacting one of the others? Sunstreaker had been atrociously unhelpful, as always, but Ratchet or Ironhide might be able to help her with the hieroglyphs. If she could verbally describe each one... but they were busy fighting! It wouldn't do to distract either of them - they might end up dead, and it would be all her fault!

No... she was on her own in this.

After a few further seconds of fruitless examination of the flashing control panels, Jade slumped over them in despair, covering her ears to block out Blitzwing's deranged raving.

She thought of Skyfire, and all the wonderful things that he had brought her. He had descended down from heaven and given her the adventure she had always wanted; not only that, but he had graced her with a deep, abiding love that she could no longer do without. He had showed her sunsets, daybreaks, the stars, her homeland from a bird's eye view... even the Northern Lights. If he died, everything inside of her would die with him... whether her body survived the crash or not.

Wait.

Her head snapped up, her doe-like eyes darting from button to button. That time when Skyfire had flown her over California, when Rose had first come to the base - after she had piloted him for a while and done a roll, he had showed her the weapon controls. A small, bright purple key... that Cybertronian symbol... she was sure she would recognise it again...

An ecstatic grin spread across her face when she spotted it.

With not a moment to waste, Jade slammed a hand down on the button within a split second of seeing it - and two handholds protruded on either side of the panel with a quiet whirr, unfolding and activating themselves on her command. There were triggers on each one, as well as further push buttons, but they were definitely the weapon joysticks that Skyfire had indicated on that day. Seizing them in her hands, Jade wrapped her index fingers around the triggers and pulled back on them, gritting her teeth determinedly as Blitzwing appeared again.

A barrage of brilliantly blue bullets shot from the white machine guns on either side of the cockpit, and Blitzwing was forced into a dive to avoid the unanticipated assault. Finding herself somewhat exhilarated by her sudden aptitude, Jade reached for the pilot's controls and pushed Skyfire forward and down in pursuit of the interceptor jet.

"So ve are trying to be a heroine, are ve, little Jade?" a chillingly calm voice said almost amiably, and she realised that she was hearing Blitzwing's third personality for the first time. "If you surrender now, I vill not harm you. But if you choose to fight... zen I will have no choice but to terminate you."

"Whatever, Blitzwing," she snorted, glad that he couldn't see her hands trembling on the controls. "Like you wouldn't shoot me down anyway."

"Vell..." Blitzwing responded almost thoughtfully as he pulled up, halting one of Starscream's Mirage fighters with a missile as he did so. Jade mimicked his movement at once. "I suppose I vould have to kill you anyway, as Lord Unicron has said that all ze Autobots must be killed... and I vould have to kill you to kill Skyfire. Zat is a pity... you vould have made a lovely pet for me... but no matter. Auf Wiedersehen, meatbag."