Chromedome was sleeping soundly in his empty cabin under the blue light of an old desk lamb. The menosergeon turned side and hugged his pillow trembling in his sleep. He sighed and crossed his arms around his chest, throwing the pillow down.
Suddenly, the mech jumped from his bed and hit his head on a selve over his circuit slab. Chromedome closed his mouth over the face plate with his hands and didn't scream as he wanted. He sat at the edge of his bed, putting his elbows on his knees and pressed his temple with his fingers. He couldn't bear more flashbacks and nightmares and he had started wondering how Rewind could do it.
"Nice past tense Chromedome. Could" he thought bitterly and got up searching for a rectangular small black dataslug. Rewind's last present was the only thing that prevented him from becoming insane. The message that it was containing was the last memory that he had from his conjux endura. If he wanted, this would be the only one.
"I can put an end to this" he thought and stretched his fingers. His hands started shaking. Ten long white needles appeared inside them and Chromedome played with them, making the long pieces of white metal dance on his knees as he was sitting on the bed. Their sharp edges scratched his joints' paint and the mnemosergeon moved them to the back of his head. It required one single move, just some pressure, so he could inject them in his neck and erase everything. Like Rewind was never a part of his life, and the pain would disappear immidiately.
Chromedome was sitting alone in the fuel tanks. He had no sleep for months and the sadness couldn't make it any better. He lied back on the cold metal surface and looked at the stars. The millions suns of the universe were hanging from the sky for one more night. The frozen cold dark sky made Chromedome dive further in his loneliness as he was stretching his arm to the glass roof. The white needles touched the stars and their sharp edges shined under the cold light.
Rung, the ship's psychiatrist had told him about a human tradition about their dead. Their God, as they called Him, takes the souls of their beloved to the sky and they live with him happily. These "souls" protect their still alive friends and family as they are watching them every night from the sky as stars. Chromedome knew that the humans were wrong, and that the stars were just suns from over galaxies, but he insisted believing in it. The thought that Rewind was watching him from up there made him continue living with the memories. He finally could understand how Fortress Maximus was feeling when he came around after many years in coma. Searching his thoughts as part of his therapy was one of the most challenging surgeries he had ever performed. Fortress was resisting the therapy and his mind was putting walls around the most painful thoughts that were were torturing him mentally for all these years. Chromedome was told by Rung that the last months that he lived in Garrus 9 he had stopped believing in a rescue mission. Because he would rather die than continue living with the memories.
The mech sighed sad and crossed his fingers playing with the needles at his fingertips. The only difference he had with Max was that Chromedome could end the pain and never, ever suffer again. It was a welcoming, pleasing thought that he could escape with just an injection and some minutes of work. Chromedome smiled bitterly and remembered Rewind's last message. He had begged him to stop injecting, saying that this would kill him. Maybe Rewind was wrong about that part, and a small operation like these he did every day, wasn't something. Nothing would go wrong.
The mnemosergeon sat at the edge of the fuel tank and looked at the mirrored picture of himself in the quantum fuel. He moved his legs calmly front and back thinking if what he was going to do was right.
"Of course and it is Chromedome, he is not here to see you doing it. He won't know" he thought and stood up to return to his room. He didn't want to inject under the stars; maybe Rewind could see him from up there.
He ran in the halls of the ship and transformed driving to his room as his engine was humming pleased after so many days of curling in the darkest and smallest corners of the ship without being used. He turned left and drove slower this time, looking out of the glass. The universe seemed as sad as he was right now.
Suddenly an odd sound created an echo in the dark hall and Chromedome transformed back to robot mode frightened. He was sure that he had just heard someone screaming. He looked behind him and saw a really short black and white Minibot curling on the floor with his hands around his head. The little mech stood on his knees shaking and Chromedome noticed that his armor was full of deep scars and his blue visor was cracked. And he had just run over him. The mech stopped the fast route to his room and decided to help the poor fella, feeling really bad for what he had done. He returned to the bot and see if he was ok. Putting his hand gently around his fragile ribs, he sat down and started shaking him to bring him around.
"Hey, sorry buddy I didn't see you... Are you alright?" he tried to apologize and lifted the dizzy bot on his feet. The Minibot looked at him and cracked his neck twisting it a little bit to each side and nodded.
"I will be with you, Domey"
Chromedome froze, feeling his vital fluids stop running in his veins. He took a better closer look of the Minicon and put his needles again inside his fingers ashamed. He backed away shaking his hands in front of his chest plate and panicked.
"REWIND?" he yelled and glued his back on the nearest wall searching for a handle or at least someone to ensure that the bot standing in front of him was just one more flashback. Rewind walked closer and the mech heard the joints of his cheeks moving. Rewind was smiling widely as he sat in front of him and held his hands. He looked at his fingertips and shook his head disappointed.
"Why Domey? Tell me why do you want to forget me?" he complained and his visor shined with a slight blue-ish light. He lowered his head and left his spark mate to answer the question, as he was picking a small dataslug from the ground. Chromedome sat in front of him and said nothing more, scared. He couldn't still believe that Rewind was sitting alive in front of him. Instead of asking from his conjux endura to forgive him he stared at him as Rewind was picking his dataslug and waving it in front of his visor.
"This meant nothing to you Domey? Not even Brainstorm's words made you change your mind? I thought that you really cared about me, and that you would keep me forever in your mind and spark. It was the best place for me to pass my time; the sky is a scary dark place. I don't want to live up there when I know I can have a better place. Can you please make some space in your spark for our memories? I don't want to end up as your former Conjux Enduras you know. Forgotten, with my body travelling in the universe as scrap metal."
Chromedome had frozen in his position still staring at Rewind. Without saying anything more he stretched his arms and hugged him, squeezing Rewind's spark on his. He sat down leaning on the Minibot's shoulders forgetting for a moment how short and small Rewind was and petted his back sighing sad.
"I'm so sorry Rewind, I did some very stupid things, and I know it. Please forgive me, I still love you and I always will. Don't leave me now, I need you. Your message isn't enough for me, I miss your hugs, your voice and words" he said and lowered his face his chin touching his chest. Rewind pushed him gently back breaking their hug and started filming after placing his camera's lens on his head carefully.
"It doesn't matter. Com' on, we don't have much time" he said and stood up holding Chromedome's hand. The mnemosergeon followed after standing up and walked next to him like they always liked to do. Rewind told him to close his optics and whispered that he had a surprise for him.
The two bots were lying outside the ship, with their backs leaning against the white floors of the ship. Chromedome was holding a small glass of Engex with a yellow curling staw hanging from the corner of the glass. Rewind had picked it for him, saying that it matched perfectly his paintjob. Chromedome smiled when he remembered that he had added that he loved his new colours and polishing.
Rewind was trying to concentrate on the stars, forming a picture for his partner to guess. He finished and pointed the sky to gain Chromedome's attention.
"Well, Domey. Do you see that shinny star on the north? Yeah, yeah that one. Connect it with the other two and form a triangle. Now take these stars..." he said and pointed at the stars that he would use to form the picture we wanted. He moved his finger like he was drawing the sky and Chromedome imagined a white light coming from his fingertip, leaving a line as he was passing from each star. "...and connect them. Well, I have almost finished. If you form the head and the cockpit with these stars..." he stopped for a moment for his partner to think "...you make this! What is it?" he asked putting his arms behind his head.
Chromedome pressed his forehead his hands and after a while he gave up. He turned to Rewind who was playing with his curly yellow staw and nodded "What is it? You tell me"
The Minibot smiled and raised his shoulders "It's that Decepticon Acidrain shouting something. Isn't it obvious?" he added and Chromedome looked up again "Now that you said it, it is..."
Rewind gave him his drink and pushed away his empty crystal glass, with was full of pink Energon some minutes ago. He crossed his fingers on his chest and looked at Chromedome. The tall mech was still trying to figure out how these stars formed the green Decepticon Rainmaker on the sky. His yellow visor was shining under the stars' light and he seemed so concentrated on mapping the constellations that Rewind didn't want to disturb him.
So, he slowly slipped away, just like he did some months ago. The Minibot turned his back to his spark mate and walked silently away, as Chromedome was still looking at the stars.
His disappearance was noticed some minutes later.
Chromedome smiled and looked around him searching for his partner. He had formed Optimus Prime trying to balance the Matrix on his shoulders, using the nearest stars and now he was ready to describe the picture to Rewind. The mnemosergeon stood up and saw a shadow behind a near wall. He laughed thinking that his conjux endura was trying to play tricks on him. Maybe he had passed so much time bored that he was willing to prank him. Chromedome stood behind the wall and breathed out slowly trying to calm down. He counted down to three, and when he reached zero, he jumped revealing his position and landed in front of the wall.
"I FOUND YOU!" he yelled smiling and prepared himself to see that he had ran over his partner again. But Rewind was nowhere to be seen. Only a cracked empty glass was left some meters further, near the door they had used to come out there to play with the stars.
Chromedome looked around him worried this time and called Rewind to come back and stop having fun with him. Of course no one answered and the mech panicked. He ran to the open door on the floor and jumped inside the Lost Light again. He heard Rewind's steps coming from the sixth floor, right over his head. He left the small door open and rushed to the stairs. He jumped them two by two and ran them up falling on his knees when he reached the sixth floor. Rewind's shadow disappeared in a corner and Chromedome stood up and followed him running and calling him back. He turned the corner slipping on the cold floor and stretched his right strong arm and grabbed Rewind from the shoulder. Before managing to find the words and ask him why he is running away from him, his conjux endura slipped through his arms like a shadow and started running again. The Minibot turned around and escaped again from Chromedome's arms by running and drifting from his left weak side. He kept running and got down the stairs before the mnemosergeon could catch him.
Chromedome followed him running. He wouldn't let him slip away this time.
The next morning Nightbeat woke up really early in the morning, before his alarm would ring. He stood up and rubbed his optics humming something about the noise that didn't let him sleep the whole night. He deactivated his alarm and opened his personal datapad to see if Rodimus had arranged a meeting today for him to join. He looked through the dozens of annoying messages from Whirl and erased them all with the simple pressing of the button "Delete" at the top of the screen. The messages disappeared and the ship's detective smiled widely. No work for today, and no more annoying pop-ups from his datapad. He opened the door of his cabin and appreciated the silence that was kept the last hours. Someone had been running up and down the whole night, preventing him from sleeping as much as he wanted.
Nightbeat got out of the room, closing the heavy door behind him and headed to Swerve's. In the hall, he met a furious Ultra Magnus working with Perceptor on his shoulder. The scientist was repairing a hole on the roof that seemed to be leaking a black liquid from its edges. The blue and yellow mech greeted Ultra Magnus and the enforcer of the Tyrest Accord nodded frowning. Frowning even more than usual.
"Magnus, you can let me down now" said Perceptor and replaced the blue lens on his optic. Magnus left him get down and Perceptor held his tools crossing his arms. He greeted Nightbeat and turned again to the huge blue, white and red mech talking to him.
The detective walked away and pushed gently Ten, the huge yellow Legislator, to get inside the room. He took a seat near the barmech, Swerve and sat on a stool ordering a warm glass of Engex. Swerve brought him his drink and yawned.
"You didn't have a good sleep, right kid?" asked the short mech standing behind his bar.
"You can say so. Someone was screaming all night long" he murmured and stood up taking his drink. Swerve looked at him odd and started wiping the remains of the drinks from his bar with a piece of clothing.
"Where are you going Sherlock?"
Nightbeat smiled and nodded goodbye "To investigate it, what else?"
Swerve wished him good luck and the mech nodded scratching his chin. He left the bar holding the glass between his fingers and rubbed the thick glass thinking silently.
After some aimless wandering in the halls of the ship Nightbeat found at least some hints about what had happened the last night. A door to the utter armor of the ship was hanging for hours open. The detective smiled, thinking about Ultra Magnus' reaction when we learned about this. A broken glass from Swerve's bar was left broken into pieces in a corner. Nightbeat kneeled down to get a better look of the glass, and noticed a curly staw some meters nearby. He picked it and examinated the colour of it. Mustard yellow, and the remains of the drink were Engex for sure. "Who would pick such an ugly colour for his straw?" he thought and looked around him murmuring something to himself. The mech stood up and returned some minutes later with a set of pink magnets to wear as he was getting out of the ship. He wore them and deactivated the ones on his feet. He jumped and the magnets dragged him violently to the roof, gluing on the grey metal with the hands.
"Damn" he whispered and curled his back, his chin touching his chest and passed his legs through the door and hung upside down. Nightbeat moved front and back until he managed to grab the edges of it and lift himself up. He activated the magnets on his feet and gained his balance landing with his feet on the utter walls of the ship. He walked relaxed admiring the view and looked around him for any evidence that would saw what had happened last night. Turning a corner, he saw one more full glass of Energon and a pink piece of equipment was hiding in the shadows. He walked towards it and picked it up with difficulty. It was a magnet like these that the crew used when they were walking around the ship in order to stay on their feet without flying into deep space. Nightbeat crossed his arms and left it there searching for something more. He was sure that at least two bots sat over there and maybe chatted last night. But the fact that someone was screaming inside the hallways of the ship, while the other bot hadn't even touched his drink made him wonder what had happened.
The ship's detective went back to Swerve's and stayed outside of the bar examinating the door's lock. Swerve as he learned wasn't open at the hours that the incident happened, and the only way someone could get in there, was to break the lock or have the permission to get into the small bar. He leaned over the lockpad's light green screen and tried to find any evidence that would help him in his investigation. Nightbeat couldn't make out something important, except some scratches that Whirl had made the last week hitting his head to prove that nothing can stop him, even a lock like this. The mech stood up and went some floors down to Ratchet's medical facility. He opened the door watching for any flying wrenches and got inside the room rubbing his blue visor to get used to the bright light. Whirl and Trailcutter were lying on two of the clean beds around him. Whirl was trying to chat with Ambulon, who was rolling his head with bandages and Trailcutter was waiting for a small patch up job on his hands. As it seems he had tried to keep a small fire from being spread up all over the Lost Light's decks and now his hands were half burned. Nightbeat nodded to the Outlier and he nodded back rolling his optics to Whirl who was balancing a small bottle of Engex which was left here be Swerve. Nightbeat knew that Trailcutter's systems couldn't stand a moment without a soft or even a heavy drink. Sooner or later, the bot would grab the bottle from Whirl's head and drink some or all the bottle. Ratchet came in blowing his fresh spray-painted hands. The shiny red polish got the detective's attention as soon as he saw and wished "Good morning" to the medic. Ratchet intrigued be his appearance even though he hadn't bear any viewable injuries pointed at the exit with his thumb and murmured something like "Go to Rung". Nightbeat smiled at his temper and nodded raising his shoulders.
"I just came to borrow a torch." He explained before Ratchet could open his mouth again. The doctor sighed and led him to his office forcing the door to open using his shoulders. Nightbeat followed and Ratchet pointed at some cupboards around his desk.
"I always keep one somewhere in there, in case of the energy levels of the ship going under the normal limits. Why would you want a torch? Are you searching for the last night's ghost?" he smiled and shook his hands for the paint to dry faster. Nightbeat sat down and opened the cupboards throwing boxes full of datapads and tools out of them.
"Well, you can say so. I am curious finding out what this thing was last night." He sighed and looked at a small red wrench with yellow stripes. "Why are you asking?"
The old red and white mech looked at his fingers clenching them into fists.
"Many others are trying to find out what happened last night. Trailcutter…" the doctor laughed slightly "Trailcutter borrowed from Brainstorm a scanner that our beloved flier named "Ghost Searching Machine". And as you guess, he was literally searching for a ghost" Ratchet added and Nightbeat stood up as he had found what he wanted. "He went to the fuel tanks and the scanner glitched. You can guess the rest" he said leading his friend outside and pointed at Trailcutter's burned fingers. The yellow and blue mech nodded, thanked Ratchet and left silently avoiding the bottle that Whirl threw on his head with his optic closed to show Ambulon his skills in his blind bottle sharpshooting techniques.
Nightbeat closed the door behind him and returned to the bar's door. He illuminated the lock and noticed some scratches around the lockpad. The long lines on the green surface seemed to be glowing in the bright white light and shined playfully like the moonlight on Rust Sea. He placed his finger over the lockpad without touching it. He worked out as many ways as someone could have placed his hand on it and finally found a way that matched perfectly the scratches on the green. At the edge of each fingertip, the scratches on the glass formed shapes like lines coming from his fingers. Like needles. It was obvious that only Chromedome could have left these marks. If not him, who else had needles on his fingertips? Nightbeat sighed and moved to his crewmate's hab suite.
He walked slowly passing his fingers on the walls without knocking the doors in his way and reached the floor where Chromedome had his room. Outside the door, in the hall, marks of burned tires where left on the floor. Someone was driving like crazy over there and Nightbeat followed the black cloudy marks. The bot who had decided to start drifting in the hallways of the ship had turned the corner after going up the stairs. At the corner, the mark of the tires turned around and led back down the stairs. The detective glanced at them curious wondering why someone would run like this so fast. He opened slowly Chromedome's hab suite and got slowly inside.
Chromedome had left a desk lamb open on the floor. A warm blanket was left at the edge of the circuit slab, curled in a small grey ball. The room was dark and full of used dirty glasses. A big bottle had broken on the floor in the corner leaking some of the liquid that it was containing. Nightbeat kneeled in front of it and looked closer. The drink had opened a small hole in the wall and floor. The liquid was burning slowly the metal that formed the room and Nightbeat assumed that the bottle was containing Nightmare Fuel. He stood up and crossed his arms thinking about his crewmate. One was for sure; Chromedome never drank so much. He picked the mnemosergeon's personal datapad and opened it leaning on the door. The bot hadn't opened his files and messages for many days, and as it seemed, never mattered to him since his love Rewind had passed away. He started reading the titles of the messages scrolling down with his fingertip.
Message from: Ship's Captain
Containment: Ask to give Report
Message from: Ship's Captain
Containment: Immediate need for Report
Message from: Ship's Captain
Containment: Where the heck are you 'Dome?
The detective surprised hummed and coughed leaving the datapad on his desk looking around him. Maybe he had just found who had been running up and down all night long in the ship. Nightbeat sighed shaking his head and went to find Chromedome. Before leaving, he picked carefully the bottle from the corner and placed it on the desk closing the desk lamp. He stood at the door and closed it worried, and followed the tire marks on the floor down the stairs.
Nightbeat reached the engine rooms, at the lowest level of the ship and cracked his fingers. The marks that his crewmate had left stopped some meters in front of the first engine, like Chromedome had jumped inside the cold quantum engines and disappeared. Schock was still stuck in the walls, with this creepy expression drawn on his face. Nightbeat ignored the corpse and walked to the engines humming a simple boring tune that popped up in his mind. He played with the joints of his fists and sighed in the thought that the mnemosergeon was somewhere in the room. He started searching with his optics around the room, walking in circles like he liked to do and gave up this method after some minutes. He had to try harder; the mech wouldn't land on him. He had to find some help to search all the ship.
After a short call, a small team was formed for him to lead. Rodimus was informed, and tried to help from his office sending reports to every bot in the crew to inform them, if they had seen Chromedome. Nightbeat looked at his small team, aparted from Hoist, Nautica, Brainstorm and Firstaid, and gave them instructions. They got separated and each one headed to one floor. Nightbeat stayed in the engine rooms and while the others were leaving, he sat down and asked himself. "If he was him, where would he hide?"
The answer came some hours later. The mech had just returned from the seventh floor, where he helped Hoist with some reports, so the bot would search without something bothering his mind. He got in the fuel tanks and walked to the platform looking down in the black fuel. He was ready to sit down, but his audio sensors, received a small sound wave and he got up again. Nightbeat followed the sound that looked like a sigh and walked towards it opening his torch.
The detective smiled relieved when he saw Chromedome's figure lying at a dark corner. The mech had curled himself into a small sphere, hugging his pillow tightly, like a stuffed animal. He was placed his head on his right strong arm, trying to find comfort in the coldness of the fuel tanks. A small dataspug with an Autobot insignia was left on the floor next to him and Chromedome seemed like he was using it during the night. Nightbeat kneeled down and balanced on his heels to pick and open the dataspug. Rewind's last message played silently in the huge empty room and the mnemosergeon murmured his name in his sleep as soon as he heard the message. He held the pillow closer to his chest, hugging it like it was a small living creature that needed his protection more than anything.
The blue and yellow mech smiled bitterly, understanding what had happened last light. His friend was having more and more visions as the nights passed and Rung had started a new secret therapy to heal his broken soul. He was trying to find something that would fill the empty gasp in his spark and give him peace, at least for the night that he missed his conjux endura the most. Rung had tried everything, from long walks talking with him, to endless sessions and pats on the back. Nothing helped Chromedome, and as Rodimus said, it made him worse. So, the psychiatrist had played his final card, which was still the best idea he had.
The detective sighed and left the room grinning slightly.
Hound's holograms were so helpful at times like these.
The word Asylum has two different meanings.
It's a madhouse, a place where you can't let go.
It's also place to hide and find peace and safety.
