Author's Notes: This was written for "The Spook Me Multi-Fandom Halloween Ficathon of 2015" on Dreamwidth. I chose Transformers Animated, my prompt monster was Ghost, and I managed to work in both prompt images, which I'm really happy for! Spoiler warning up to about mid-Season 3, this is set sometime shortly before "Human Error", and is in part my take on why the Autobots never told Sari about the elevator shaft.

Disclaimer - "Transformers" and all related characters, events, and concepts belong to Hasbro, Takara, and any other related owners/distributors/producers. I get no monetary benefit from this. My benefit is the enjoyment of dealing with beloved characters.

Salted Wounds
by DragonDancer5150

Chapter 1 - Echoes

Optimus Prime shut off his computer, glanced briefly around his room - a semi-conscious habit, making sure all was in place as it should be - and crossed to his stasis berth. It wasn't even ten o'clock yet, but he felt extraordinarily exhausted.

Movement in the rafters above him caught his attention, something swaying in the gentle air currents. Even though Sari didn't live with them full-time anymore, since her father had been recovered from Megatron, she still stayed over on occasion. They ran the building's heating and AC as needed for her comfort. Strange, though . . . it wasn't running at the moment. Optimus sat up and sharpened his optical focus on the bit of motion above him . . . and felt himself flinch when he recognized what he was looking at. He frowned.

A cobweb.

He ran a hand over his face. It had been a stellar cycle ago - exactly one stellar cycle tonight - that he had learned that his old friend had survived that fateful excursion to Archa-7, reincarnated as a techno-organic calling herself Blackarachnia. Even knowing now that she was alive, to this day he still had occasional nightmares about that trip and about spiders in general. Thankfully, this time around, neither Sari nor any of his team had teased him or otherwise commented much when he'd declined again to participate as the humans of Detroit prepared to celebrate their favorite spooky holiday, Halloween. Part of him was glad that it had finally come, though. Maybe after tonight, he'd not have to try to recharge with the television down the hall blaring threatening music and the occasional screams of whatever horror movie Bulkhead, Bumblebee, and Sari were watching.

He was just laying back down when he froze at the sensation of a sudden chill passing over him, carrying with it an uncomfortable energy signature, one he couldn't place. It left him feeling even more drained, like something had sucked power from him. He cast about his room but could see nothing out of the ordinary. He was just starting to shift off his berth to investigate further when he heard the machinery in the main room of the factory creak and rumble to life, followed a second later by twin shrieks. On his feet in a spark's pulse, he threw himself out of his room into the hallway. "Bumblebee!? Sari!"

He nearly crashed into Ratchet, the medic backpedaling with a low curse. Optimus caught himself on Ratchet's shoulder, then turned at the thunder of heavy footsteps heralding Bulkhead as well as Prowl emerging from their own rooms at the other end of the hall. Bulkhead's optics were overly bright in the darkness. "Boss-bot! That sounds like the assembly mach-"

"I know. Come on!" Optimus led the way onto the assembly room floor.

The four Autobots pulled up short at the sight of everything in the room running without actually doing anything. The last time the derelict plant had gone haywire, the collection of abandoned equipment had turned into a veritable deathtrap. But now, no rivet guns shot at them, no lasers cut along the floor, and the crushing machine was still. Sari had been picked up by a grabber arm, and Bumblebee hung rather unceremoniously by his skidplate stuck to the lift surface of the electromagnetic crane, but both machines were motionless, merely holding the two in place.

"Let me go, you mechanical menace!" Sari struggled against the clamp, deploying both energy blades, but with her arms trapped at her sides, she couldn't quite reach anything to cut herself free.

Bumblebee spotted them just then, his optics dilated and overbright with alarm. "Uh . . . a-a little help, guys? Yaaah!" He yelped, and Sari with him, as the machinery throughout the room suddenly went dead, dropping Autobot and techno-organic alike.

Optimus darted forward, catching both of them. Before he could ask what had happened, though, Ratchet was grousing. "Sari! How many times have I told you not to mess with-"

"It wasn't me!" Sari protested. "I don't have the Key anymore, remember? And even with it, I couldn't control everything in the room like that! Besides, I wasn't anywhere near it."

"Yeah! Me and Sari were clear over in the corner there, playing-" Bumblebee cut himself off with a sudden, strangled squeak, giving his commander a chagrined look.

Optimus frowned. "Video games," he finished. "Instead of watching the security monitors like you're supposed to be. Again." Bumblebee didn't even bother trying to defend himself, knowing it was futile. He just ducked his head and looked away, tapping his fingers together. Optimus shook his head. "Everyone, look around, see if there's another of those pocket-bots or something else that could have been behind-"

"Uh, B-boss-bot…?"

Something in the apprehensive tone of Bulkhead's voice ran Optimus's oil cold in his fuel lines. The massive construction-bot stood with Prowl over by the television. The set of Prowl's shoulders betrayed a keen level of alarm in the ninja-bot as well, though his voice was calm.

"Prime, you should come see this."

Optimus approached to the back of the concrete couch, frowning. "See what?"

Prowl seemed to realize that he and Bulkhead were blocking the TV. He sidestepped, motioning for Bulkhead to mirror him. The two parted, and Optimus caught sight of wetness on the TV's surface, catching the light with a deep red sheen against the black of the screen. Switching scanners, he looked again and realized there was something viscous painted there. It spelled a word, 'police', the lower edges of the letters dripping slowly down the glass.

Prowl's tone was wry on the surface but tighter than normal. "That couldn't have been there a moment ago. I'm sure they would have noticed." He nodded to indicate his younger teammate and their friend.

Bumblebee shrugged. "The TV and game console both went dead only a nano-klik before everything else went 'alive'."

Optimus shifted around the couch for a closer look, Bumblebee and Sari on his heels. Approaching from the other side, Ratchet slid his monocle scanner down over his right optic for a better look. Almost instantly, he bucked back. "It's blood!"

"That wasn't me either," Sari asserted in a tremulous voice.

Ratchet turned to Optimus. "Commander, you'd better call-" He flinched visibly, cutting himself off to glance around. "Did you feel that?"

Optimus did a second later, the same chill energy he'd felt in his room. He watched the rest of the team shiver and cast around in similar response. Burying a growing dread, he reached up to click his comm on.

"Detroit PD. You've reached Dispatch. What is your emergency?"

"Yes, hello. This is Optimus Prime of the Autobots. I know he's not on shift tonight, but please help me get in contact with Captain Fanzone."

The last thing Carmine Fanzone had expected when he'd gone to sleep that night was to be awakened by a rock through the window behind the headboard of his bed. Startled awake, he sat up, glancing first at his wife Althea to make sure she was all right, then shifting around and up to his knees to look out the window, annoyed that the curtains were open as well. "Who's ther-AH!"

He startled back at the sight of a ghost manifesting just inches from the other side of the broken glass, a young girl with wide, frightened eyes, her hair flowing around her as if she were underwater. The girl reached through the hole to grab his arm, tugging insistently as if trying to get him to follow her through the window.

"Wha-Leggo! What are you-"

More hands grabbed him, tugging on his other arm and shoulder. He jumped at a voice in his ear. "Carmine? Honey, wake up!"

Fanzone startled awake - again? - and looked around. He was still lying in bed, his wife next to him propped up on an elbow as she shook him awake with her other hand. Her eyes were wide in the dim light peeking in between the pulled curtains. "Althea?" He rubbed a hand over his face, feeling drained and chilled to the bone even with the heavy covers still pulled up over him. "Wha-what happened?"

"You were having a nightmare. I woke up and you were thrashing and moaning." She cocked her head at him, frowning in concern. "Who's Ariel?" At his confused look, she explained. "You were calling for her. You sounded scared."

It was Fanzone's turn to frown. Why did that name sound familiar? Why had the ghost in his dream looked familiar? Slowly, the realization dawned on him. "That was her name . . . Ariel." He described his dream to Althea, and even as he did so, he remembered how he knew her. "Missing persons case that turned into a murder investigation. That was shortly before I moved from Homicide to Emergency Services. It's been . . . what's it been now? Twelve, thirteen years, but from what I understand, that case is still unsolved." He frowned again. "From the coroner's estimate, the kid had been killed on Halloween."

Althea shook her head. "Poor thing." Then she gave Fanzone a severe look. "I told you you've been working too hard, Carmine. First you start having nightmares about old cases, next you could develop heart problems or something from the stress."

Fanzone started to reassure her that he was fine, but his cell phone rang before he could say anything. With a groan, he rolled over and snatched the phone from his nightstand. He looked at the caller ID - it was Dispatch. He stabbed the 'Answer' button. "Fanzone. This had better be good."

"Captain Fanzone, this is Officer Manning. I'm sorry to disturb you at home, sir, but I got a call from Optimus Prime. He acknowledged that you're off-duty but asked for you specifically. Shall I put him through?"

Fanzone huffed and sat up. "Yeah, go ahead, Manning."