Chapter One

She crouched low in the late orbital cycle, blanketed by buildings as she scurried away from sight. There weren't many civilians around at this time of the cycle, especially where she lived. Still, she liked to keep a low profile. Not many even new she existed. She liked it that way.

There was movement behind her. She spun around and took her usual fighting stance, bringing her twin blades that connected to her black armor along her arms into a defensive position. Her battle mask covered the bottom portion of her face, as it always did. She hardly ever removed it. There wasn't anyone in sight, as far as she could see. She was in between two small buildings, maybe only one story each, so it wasn't much cover. She was facing a dead end, so there couldn't possibly be anyone there.

She knew better than that though.

"Show yourself," she ordered, managing to keep her voice low.

Someone lowered themselves from their position on the roof of one of the buildings. He or she wasn't a flier as far as she could tell, but he or she still landed gracefully in front of her. It was hard to see without any light, but it appeared to be a forest green and navy blue mech. He had a slim mold. His chassis was mostly green as well as his legs. Navy blue accented both said parts as well as colored the rest of his armor. His helm was black and his skin plating grey. His pedes were also black. She could see the wheels on his feet and shoulders, proving him to be a ground mech as she first suspected. No weapons were visible. Not yet at least.

She hated his blue optics though.

"Who are you?" She demanded, not moving from her stance.

"Designation Forward," the mech answered in a calm voice. "And you're Shadow I take it?"

"How do you know that?" Shadow asked, slightly worried.

"It is my job to know stuff. Now, don't worry, I'm not here to harm you." He took a step forward. She didn't lower her weapons.

"I don't trust strangers, sorry." She backed up, planning on simply flying away. She had been so close to home as it was.

"I have information for you."

That halted her plan, but didn't delete it. So many had used that one on her, but nothing ever turned out to be valuable. "I don't care. You can't trick me with your fake promises. You're just trying to bring me in. There's someone waiting to catch me if I run for it, isn't there?" There always was, but they never won. That was mostly because she could fly. Usually they were far more superior combat-wise.

"No, there isn't."

"I'm not going to fall for that one. You're just stalling." She took another step back, not out of fright, but her eagerness to leave.

"It's about your creators."

That halted her plan even more, but she still didn't cave in. "What about them?"

"And your brothers."

That completely stopped her. Her optic was wide as she mulled that over. No one ever mentioned the twins before. It was always her creators they tried to trick her about. She didn't rule out it being a trap, but hardly anyone even knew they existed. "Tell me all you want to so I can leave."

"They're online."

It could easily be a lie, but she wanted it to be true so much. No, she had to remind herself that they were gone forever. They would never come back. "You could easily be lying."

"True, I could. But I could also be telling you the truth about Glyde and Cloud."

He knew their names? That was pulling her even further into wanting to stay. She couldn't give in though. "They're not online. They were offlined by that big-chinned slagger."

"Not true. I happen to know them very well."

Another easily constructed fable. "Alright, tell me all you know and I won't harm you." That was partially a bluff, as she knew that she herself wasn't good at fighting. Of course, however he fought was a mystery to her.

He chuckled at that. "As you wish. After they were taken in by the elite guard, you would normally expect something drastic to happen. You and your family aren't very popular or well known, so why would they be taken?"

"To be experimented on." She glared at the memory.

"No, that isn't completely true."

"What are you talking about? It's all the truth I need. The slagger even said in front of me when my sire asked what he was doing. He said that he was going to conduct experiments. Use them as lab rats. Reconstruct them. He said that since they were no one important, it wouldn't matter to anyone. Well, it matters to me. You must know that." I kept my glare, even though it wasn't directed at Forward.

"That's a lie."

So now it's his turn to accuse? "You don't know what's a lie if you weren't there to here it."

"No, but I know for a fact that he lied to you and your family. It wasn't for experiments. You know that your family are Seekers."

"How could I not? I'm a Seeker, for Primus sake."

"But your parents weren't real Seekers."

"Ha, liar. That isn't making much sense to me." How could they not be real? They were right there and created her and the twins!

"What I mean is, they were just clones of someone else."

"Clones? You keep making less sense with every sound you make, you know that?"

"Look, you've heard of the Decepticon Starscream, I take it."

"Yeah, that fragger kept trying to offline Megatron." Traitor.

"He made some clones, and not all of them were found. Three were left unidentified until recently after Megatron was brought to justice."

You mean offlined. "So? You saying two of those were my creators?"

"No, not a chance. None of them seemed to get a long. But apparently the three met up at the crash sight of the Nemesis. There they found broken Seeker shells that they rebuilt to make their own clones. As far as we know they each made one. However that worked, we don't know the details. Starscream's femme clone created another femme. One of the two mech clones created your mech creator. You can figure out the rest."

"I'm not a clone!"

"What I mean is, those two clones settled down with each other and had sparklings like yourself. You and your brothers."

Shadow heard another movement, this one behind her. She kept her position, still feeling someone else's presence. She narrowed her optics, although only one could be seen by Forward. The other was hidden under her helm that covered the left side of her head. "Why are you telling me this?"

"Just to give you a little detail so your aren't so confused as to why the Elite Guard is trying to bring you in." The bot behind her shuffled closer.

"Who's behind me?" Shadow asked.

"Just my partner. She's been here much longer than you might think."

Suddenly losing interest, Shadow leapt into the air, hovering above the two. The unidentified femme shot a grapple hook that wrapped itself around her knee joint and started to pull her down.

No, she couldn't get caught like this. Ever since her creators had been offlined she had avoided all contact with anyone suspicious. They had made attempts at capturing her, though she never understood why they were so persistent. Even after Forwards little story it still wasn't clear as to why she was a target. Not her, but her family. She was just the last one left.

Using her blade on her right arm she cut through the metal rope and broke free of the pull. She didn't want to leave yet; Forward had told her so much and yet so little. She knew she had to leave, though. It wasn't safe in this area now.

She transformed into a Seeker jet and flew away as fast as she could. Glyde was faster, but the last time they'd raced she had been a much younger youngling. She still was technically a youngling, but older than before.

She wanted to go back and force Forward to tell her more, but that wasn't going to happen soon. She had learned of her creator's origins, even if it sounded far-fetched. She had never known another Seeker. Her parents were always neutrals. The war was long over now. The Autobots were the victors, let's all give a sarcastic yay!

Shadow hated the Autobots for breaking up her family. No, even before that she had despised them. For as long as she could remember, all the civilians looked down on her and her family like they were inferior. Just because they were Seekers. Just because the could fly. Just because they were different. She was always glad to know that her creators had never been Autobots and stayed neutral, and now she seemed to know why. It was because they were clones of Decepticons. What did that make her and the twins though?

Shadow continued to fly until her system was telling her she needed to recharge. She managed to find an old building that seem deserted before settling down into the peace of recharge.

She remembered when it was actually peaceful.

So, hey there. This is my first fanfiction, and I welcome any comments you have. I tried not to make Shadow seem to cliche an OC, so I'm sorry if she seems that way. I will say that she's not that perfect character that everyone will like. Also, this story is in third person, but the POV for it changes between four different characters. It should be pretty obvious at the beginning who's view it's from. And yes, I'll tell you now, that there will be OCs, more than I'd like, but it's necessary.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this story! Reviews would be nice :)