Hello world! Has it been a while? Well, we're back. roudyredd and I are back with the Cybertronian tales of Scatterblade and Illusory (and their brand new sparkling Silverdust.) We never let the story die, folks, I just became a huge slacker about posting. So there are CHAPTERS to be had. I hope yoou enjoy.

We pick up roughly a year after Illusory and Scatterblade have returned home to California and have settled in with their sparkling and human friend Charlie.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, I kindly request that you buckle down for this ride because it is not a sweet story and it rarely stops for a breather. You have been warned.

Check out the footer for notes and stuff you might find useful at some point.

~*~ Chapter One ~*~

Day 1

Tucked away on the shores of California sat the unsuspecting home of Earth's very first Cybertronian familial unit. Scatterblade and Illusory had settled into the family life decently enough; a few rough spots along the way, but it was starting to look nice on them. The tiny sparkling, Silverdust, had been everything they needed to bring life to their world of war.

The comfortable ambiance of the home was disturbed when the average looking human-sized door swung open, startling Scatterblade. His flinch caused him to cut straight through the wood he had been working. A frustrated scowl on his faceplates, he spotted the small human to blame for the disturbance.

"Thanks, Chuck," he grumbled indignantly. Whatever shape the wood was taking had been cleaved.

Charlie stifled a laugh as she hurried up the stairs to his work bench. "What is that?"

Scatterblade's scowl pushed towards a smile, though he fought to stay 'mad.' "It was a little something. Now it's two little somethings."

"You're such an articulate male," she quipped with a grin, her nose turned up.

"And you're any better?" He laughed. "So where've you been?"

"Shopping," she huffed, fixing him with a glare. "I tried to call you to get some help with groceries, but you wouldn't pick up."

Scatterblade's brow furrowed with confusion. "I didn't get a call."

She held up her hands. "Well, I did. I tried both of you. I thought maybe you were 'busy.'" She flushed a little at the implication.

He grunted and turned back to the broken wood, checking his comm lines at the same time. They all seemed to be working. It could've been a glitch with her phone carrier. That did tend to happen sometimes; especially as far out as they were. He focused back to his project.

Illusory sat on the floor with her sparkling playing beside her. She had found it easier to relax these days and enjoyed lounging with Silverdust. Charlie went to join them, still amazed by the tiny alien 'growing' right before her eyes. It was a different experience to see how their species matured compared humans. For example, they didn't 'grow' but instead they expanded within their frames which caused the illusion of growth. Ratchet had explained to Charlie that as the spark grew stronger, primary systems became more complicated to be able to support the spark and encourage further development, but the frame itself did not grow in the same way human bodies did. At certain life stages, each Cybertronian had to go through an 'upgrade' to a larger frame until they reached adult size. It was weird at best.

"I just got my grades from my professors," Charlie announced with a broad smile on her face.

"All of them good I would assume," Illusory said with a smile.

"I only got one B. The rest were-" she was interrupted as an explosion rocked the house. The concrete that separated the two floors - ground and basement - cracked with a loud concussion.

Scatterblade flew to the three on the floor, scooping up Charlie and shielding his family from the falling debris. "Move! Quickly!" He urged Illusory, nudging her into motion.

Illusory grabbed their sparkling, tucking her close to her chest and raced for the stairs, unwilling to risk the elevator they had installed not long ago. Her spark raced with panic, and she reached desperately for Scatterblade over their bond for support. It wasn't that she had never seen battles, but she had become rather proficient at avoiding them; having one at her front door was unsettling and brought up far too many uncomfortable memories.

Scatterblade reached back to her, keeping the line open for encouragement but closed to his fear. He held tightly to the human as another explosion rocked the home bringing walls crumbling down.

"I didn't see anyone. I swear..." The redhead was frantic, retracing her steps, confident that she hadn't seen anyone near the house. She was so certain...but here they were and what other explanation was there?

"It's not you, Charlie. Relax," Scatterblade snapped. Orns on the front lines came back to him like the air in his vents. There was no room or time for words of assurances or to worry about feelings while under fire. Everyone had to keep focused to keep functioning. He hurried the group to the exit tunnel. He quickly handed Charlie off to Illusory, freeing both hands to open the bay doors.

Illusory held Charlie close with Silverdust, unwilling to risk anything happening to her while Scatterblade opened the doors to their escape. Who knew what waited for them on the other side? "We'll keep you safe," she promised, her voice far more confident than she felt. Her spark was all but screaming with fear. She wanted to run far and fast, to hide away her sparkling and human friend. War had come to their front door; she was sure of it.

Debris began falling all around them as explosion after explosion continued to rock the house. Scatterblade rushed the sequences to get the door open. All they needed was to be trapped here under tons of their destroyed home.

"Blade!"

He didn't know if it was from Charlie, or Illusory, or if they had both screamed. Soldiers were repelling into the basement; there wasn't time to wait for the doors. Scatterblade pulled against the slow-moving mechanism, silently begging for it to go faster.

The heavily armored soldiers opened fire on the trapped bots as they hit the floor. Illusory screamed, transforming around Charlie and her sparkling to protect them, her engine roared with fury and fear. A small part of her thanked Ratchet for her upgraded armor, though the bullets the soldiers were using still ripped through her outer armor with little trouble at least her protoform and her cab where she had tucked away her precious cargo were relatively protected.

Scatterblade practically shoved the white car through the narrow opening and blasted the ceiling behind him as he transformed to follow his mate down the escape tunnel. It didn't collapse as he hoped but it shielded them from most of the firefight. He finally brought up his comm and sent out an SOS. No response came. Somehow the soldiers were blocking their frequency.

'What do we do?' Illusory begged through their bond, rushing down the tunnel as fast as she dared.

He didn't respond for several astroseconds. They were most likely running straight for more soldiers. He had to get word to the others somehow. 'We get you three somewhere safe. Maybe back to Logan. I don't know.'

'Why are they attacking us?' She poured on more speed, feeling her mate's anxiety. She could guess there would be more soldiers waiting for them and she knew that her only chance of passing them was to move quickly and not worry about who she may hurt doing it. All she cared about was that those riding inside her cab were safe.

Scatterblade triggered the sequence for the final door; the light marked their exit. As they sped on the door revealed more men and more artillery began pelting them. He transformed and rolled to his feet, firing at the men and their vehicles clearing a path for his mate.

Illusory roared past the men, hardly slowing at all as her bumper clipped one of the soldiers' vehicles. ::Can anybody hear me?:: She called desperately over all open comm lines. ::We're under attack! What is going on? Please help!:: She waited anxiously for a reply, but as every klik passed with no answers, her spark sank with fear.

Scatterblade kept encouraging thoughts flowing to Illusory, pushing her to keep moving. 'Head to Logan. Get to the Canyon. Don't slow down till you're out of California, if you have to slow down at all.' The more vehicles he disabled, the more men came to swarm him. He batted them away, doing his best not to hurt them. Optimus' voice kept repeating at the back of his processor; 'We do not harm humans.' It was making fighting them off all the more challenging.

'We will see you there,' Illusory said, demanding that he survive and come to them in one piece.

The front-liner turned his attention back to the soldiers. They weren't the typical kind he dealt with at NEST. their uniforms were unfamiliar, and a quick search through the network showed no matches. Another secret team to take out secrets. But why? They hadn't been with any of the others. Only NEST knew they were out here. The implications sent a chill through his systems. Either NEST had been compromised, or these soldiers were exceptionally lucky.

Suddenly alarms blared in his audios. That chill had not been imagined or brought on by thoughts of the worst that could be. The soldiers had brought out tanks of liquid nitrogen and were drenching him with it. His systems were preparing for emergency stasis to protect his spark from the dangerous cold. Denying the safety protocol, he drew his blades. "Back off!" He swung at the hose, severing it with one swing, but it didn't stop spraying him. He swung again this time at the men. If he was to get away, a casualty or two couldn't be helped. 'They brought this war to your door,' he thought. 'Go down fighting.' The swords connected with the mass, flat edges throwing the men to their backs. 'Damn your honor,' he cursed himself. Scatterblade wasn't entirely sure if he had been knocked to his knees, or if he had fallen, but he was sure he could feel each system as they caved in one by one.

Charlie strapped herself down and laid as low as she could in the back seat, cradling Silverdust against her. "Who are those guys? Did I lead them here? Oh, God, I led them here.."

"It probably wasn't you; that was too well planned for them to have just followed you." Illusory did her best to keep her voice calm, but there was a bit of a bite to it. "We're going to go hide in Logan Canyon and wait for Blade to join us there. We'll figure it out then."

"If they found us here, what stops them from finding us in the mountains?"

"Because now I know what I'm hiding from, " she stated with confidence. "Hiding is what I do. Don't worry Charlie. "

Illusory raced as fast as she dared with her passengers, taking back roads and avoiding any cities she could, even going so far as to leave the road entirely when they were still several miles away to keep witnesses to a minimum. She didn't stop until she was as far in as she could drive, then transformed and carried Charlie and her sparkling even deeper still. They were far from any trails, roads or campsites that could be easily traveled by humans.

Illusory paced nervously. She was so far from her mate that their bond felt weak - surely that was the reason it felt as though he were fading away, wasn't it? 'Blade?' She called out nervously.

Scatterblade had held on as long as he could, he was defenseless and had fallen to the human attack. He could only hope that his mate had gotten far enough away with her precious cargo. He wanted to tell her so much; he needed to say so much. Just a single word got through before his systems turned to self-preservation. 'Sorry.' Whatever his fate was to be, it was now completely in the hands of his captors.

'No, no, no, Blade?' Her whole frame froze with fear as she felt him slip away. That final thin line of awareness she had been holding onto so firmly over the past several hours just faded into the silence. She reached and grabbed at their bond with intense fear and was only slightly relieved to discover he was still there. "Stasis..." she mumbled out loud. Her armor tightened down against her frame as her possessor scrambled for thoughts on what she was to do now.

"What?" Charlie hurried to get back to her feet, disturbed from a light doze. "What's wrong? Where's Blade?"

"In stasis," Illusory said before she could stop herself. She was in shock and torn between rushing back to find him and staying to protect what was so precious to both of them. "I don't know what happened; he's in stasis!" Panic was clearly rising within the femme.

Charlie raised her hands. "Sit for a second. Take a breather."

::Any bot who can hear me, please respond!:: She screamed over every comm link she had ever known in her entire function, ::Ah don' care who ya are, if ya can hear me - th humans are attackin', please help!:: Her armor rattled with her rising anger mixed with her fears. "Ah have ta help him..." her optics locked onto Charlie and Silverdust sitting close to her. "Ah can't." She finally gave in and sank to the forest floor, disparity overwhelming her.

Charlie came close to her and leaned against her frame. "At least be strong for Silver. She needs her mama."

Illusory scooped the little femme back into her arms and held her tightly. She curled herself over Charlie, shielding the human with her frame. "Ah don' know what ta do," she admitted finally, "but ah can keep ya safe at least," she promised.

"We've got to find the others." Charlie said, "that's what we need to do. If Blade's out of commission..."

"No one's answerin their comms, we'd have ta go ta NEST...but those soldiers, if they knew where ta find us they either come from NEST or they got connections there."

"Weren't there any backup places? Something only the bots knew about?"

"There's a place Jazz showed me. They may have gone there. It's a long drive."

"Then we'll rest for tonight and set off in the morning." Charlie covered a yawn with her hand. "Even though it's probably morning already."

"Three fourty-six AM."

"Yuck."

Illusory transformed, wrapping both of her treasured beings into her cab. "This will be more comfortable."

Charlie leaned back in the seat and sighed again. "Try to rest. You know the minute he gets back online, he'll tell you."

"Yes," she vented, but recharge would not come to the femme. She spent the time with all her sensors on high waiting to catch any sign the human soldiers might have found them, or waiting for Scatterblade to come back online. 'I need you,' she begged over and over.

TIME

Cybertronian Actual Equivalent

Klik 0.21 seconds 1 second

Astrosecond 10.15 seconds second

Breem 8.12 minutes minute

Joor 6.50 hours hour

Orn 13 days day

Metacycle 130 days week

Groon 1.71 years month

Vorn 82.06 years year

TERMS

Shift/Cycle: the equivalent of 8 hour 'shift'

Off Cycle: The down time that we would consider 'night' but isn't defined by light or dark

SPEECH

"Talking."

'Bond Speak.' (or private thought)

::Comm line.::

~Other~