The Past Reflects the Future
Vivi- This is set before Dodge, but read it first, otherwise this will spoil some of the surprises (:
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A little light blue metal house sat in the suburbs of Praxus. Once in a while, a slender navy femme with a black racing stripe would sit on the porch and watch a little grey sparkling play in the rubber grass lawn. They didn't seem to have made friends with the neighbors, but they were quite happy to stay in their own little bubble of quiet and peace.
Or so it seemed. No one believed the reports they read in their news-pads. The father was accused of domestic violence by the navy femme. The mech was an upstanding citizen, despite his shady past when he was a youngling. Most would have said they had a perfect world, aside from this black mark. Most just said the femme just had a little glitch in her processor that made her lie.
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Why doesn't anyone believe me? Electrostar sighed, a sad, faraway expression coming into her optics. She gently scooped up Shadow, who was getting bigger by the day. He cooed at her, wiggling contentedly and hugging her.
"I love you Danni," he chirped happily, forgetting the menace that would be home in an hour.
Minutes later, acid rain began to pelt the metal ground outside the window, darkening the sky to the point there was only a faint glow where the sun should have been. Electrostar stared out, gently holding Shadow, not thinking of the rain, or of the darkness, or of the duties yet to be done before Shockblade arrived home. She was thinking of the life she was leading. Would her parents have approved of Blade now? She couldn't break the bond. At the time of their bonding, she had meant her vows. Now she questioned the wisdom of staying with a mech who terrorized their sparkling, and beat her when she didn't have some of the chores done.
A resounding 'no' answered her. Her parents would urge her to take Shadow and leave. No one in their right mind would stay in these conditions. Star drooped. Blade was persistent though. He would search until he found her, and force her to come back. Things would be worse than before. She shivered, turned away from the window, and went back to work. The less there was to make him angry, the better it would be for her and Shadow.
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"Why are Shadow's toys out where I can step on them?" the black and red mech stepped on one of Shadow's favorite toys and crushed it, causing the sparkling to sob.
"I was about to pick them up, but you came home earlier than usual," Star replied softly, wary as she scooped Shadow out of the way, soothing him gently.
"Well you should have been prepared sooner," Blade growled, kicking a toy out of his way.
"I've been busy all day with my job," Star growled faintly, "You can't expect me to always have everything ready the second you walk in the door, Blade."
A sharp sound reverberated after Blade backhanded Star.
"Don't talk back to me. Be a good femme and do as I ask, and don't give me any more of that job nonsense. If this 'job' of yours is taking too much of your time, then quite your job, or I'll make sure they fire you," he snarled at her, stalking of to their room. It was his room now. She wasn't going in there today, no, not any day. She stiffened.
"You will come here Star, or the neighbors will talk of the affair you and your little sweet-spark from school had when we were first married. And you know they won't believe you. It's your word against mine," he smiled darkly, reading her thoughts through the bond before going into their room.
Star shuddered, quickly putting Shadow's toys away and picking up the broken toy. She could fix it later, but barely. One more time, and it wouldn't be able to be fixed again. Shadow sobbed softly as he snuggled close to his danni, as Star tried to sooth him. It was going to be another dreadful evening, she could already see that.
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A few months later, Star was rushed to a hospital with a questionable reputation, especially considering it was run by mostly Decepticons, but Blade had reassured her. After an agonizing twenty minutes of labor, the spark of her new sparkling femme transferred to the frame the doctor had built for it. But a minute later, before she could see the color of Starstrike, the tiny femme, the sparkling was rushed out of the room.
Minutes ticked by, and the doctor ushered Blade in for a whispered conference. Then Blade came out, quiet and depressed.
"I'm sorry. The sparkling…didn't make it. The spark was just too weak," Blade told Star. Her sparkmate's dejected face convinced the navy femme, but something felt wrong. Wouldn't she know that the sparkling was gone? She felt a very small bond and tested it. It wasn't to her other sparkling. Suddenly, it fizzled and vanished. She sobbed softly. Starstrike was gone.
Blade gently hugged her for a second, but then backed off, frowning at her.
"It's your fault you know. I told you to eat more energon. The sparkling apparently didn't have enough strength."
"I ate enough. I was full even…" Star whimpered. How could he blame her? She had done her part and cared for her sparkling. Why did he blame her? It wouldn't bring Starstrike back. It couldn't bring her precious femme back.
Shadow, who was waiting in another room was brought in and set beside Star. Sensing his danni's distress, he immediately hugged her neck. He purred softly as Star sobbed.
"Little sissy…gone?"
"She's gone to the Matrix…Shadow…She…she's gone…" Star hugged him tight. It wasn't her fault. It wasn't her fault at all. Why was Starstrike gone? Why did Primus let her spark fade? The navy femme sobbed brokenly.
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A few years later, the Decepticons had finally begun making their move. Towns and cities all across Cybertron were being destroyed. Star shook her head as she read the news-pad update and sipped her morning energon. Blade was still working at his job, which Star now questioned whether it was truly a job, or just orders from Megatron. She had seen crimson optics when he came home one day. Just before he walked in the door, they had flipped to blue. Maybe he was pretending to be a Con, but in her spark, she doubted it. He always was angry, always beating her when something wasn't the way he liked. She focused back on the news-pad and took another sip of energon.
Then an explosion rocked the entire house on its foundation. The energon cube fell to the floor, splattering energon all over the floor. Star screamed as the ceiling began to break, and chunks fell, barely missing her pinned back spikes as she began dodging and heading for the basement. If she could make it to the basement, she could ride out the bombing. She slammed the door open to the stairs and slid down, not stopping for anything. She hoped the teachers would hurry the sparklings to safety. If only Shadow had stayed home today, then she would know he was safe for sure. It was too late now. He was healthy, and he had to go to school by law. It was his second year in school, and he was bright. The stream of sunlight through the storms that beset her life from the day she got bonded to Blade.
She cowered in a corner of the basement, waiting, watching, and hoping.
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A few hours later, silence reined. She had hidden her spark signal when she heard course laughter of Cons roaming the streets, checking for survivors. Now, she finally made her way up the ruined stairs, shoving debris aside and finally breaking through to street level. Her house was destroyed, but she was alive. She kept her spark signal cloaked; terrified the Cons would come back again, to find and to destroy her. Then she noticed Praxus. Or what was left of it. She began scanning, and her spark cringing against the weight of grief.
Star stared blankly across the destroyed city. No survivors. Not one. Even her sparkmate had died. One thing stayed in her mind. Why hadn't she died with Shockblade? She felt the bond die. She knew she only had a minute before she would meet him in the Matrix. Her offlining never came. She kicked a torn metal wall, causing a cloud of metal dust to rise up. This made her cough and her fans whirr to life to get the dust out of her systems.
The bond had been a sham, a fake, all along. She should have known there would have been more of a connection. She should have felt his presence in the back of her mind. The bond had only been a telepathic-like link. Just so he could read her mind. He had been a 'Con all along. The information hadn't done him much good anyway. He was dead.
"Good," she rasped harshly in the still air. All he was to her was an empty shell of what a true sparkmate should have been. He hadn't loved her. He had used her, beat her, and lied to her. Her Starstrike was dead because of him. He helped the monsters that tore apart the city.
The only thing left of the school where Shadow had been that day was the flat metal foundation. She choked at the thought with a heartbroken sob. Her precious, kind, good Shadow was gone. She would never see him again.
Then another thought came. Shadow wasn't dead though. She felt the bond. Faint, but he was alive. She would see him again, and she would fight with every last ounce of her strength. The Cons would pay for what they had done to her family. They would pay.
She scanned the horizon one last time before making her way out of the rubble and toward the city her sisters lived. They would help find Shadow. They would join the Autobots, and stamp out the scourge of the Decepticons.
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Vivi- Sorry guys, this is depressing to write, so I kept it somewhat short. 0_0 I thought I'd give you some of her back story so everyone could understand some of her stuff in Dodge and Dodge: The Choice. Tell me what you think, please and thank you! :D
Athena: hey, after you're done drooling over Vivi, I started a small series of Saber drabbles. Go tell me if its crap and I should never write again or what XD
Vivi- Ew, quit drooling on me :C :P