Victims of War

Legal Stuff: Dun own the TFs :This is written for entertainment only "Ooooh....I wish we were out there!" Misty grumbled as she paced the room. Hotrod looked up from playing a video game with one of the other 'inmates' and grinned. "Yeah, so you can go get slagged like the rest of 'em! Right Ariel?" The little femme in the corner didn't respond, instead she cuddled her kralin pup closer. "I wanna go home." She told him. Rift, a white and black femme of unknown origin....like the rest of them, marched over. "Oh quit whining you big baby!" She snapped. The kralin growled at her and Ariel had to hold it tight to keep it from attacking. Misty stalked over and gave the girl a shove. "Leave her alone! Can't you see she's scared?!" "So what?" She retorted. "We're all scared in one way or another. If she keeps this up it'll spoil morale, and-" "This is a safe house, not a military base. Leave her alone Rift. They rest of you; I don't want any more fighting." An older voice commanded gently. "Yes Skyknight." They all replied sullenly. The big white and silver spacecraft nodded in approval, and left to check on their fellow 'inmates'. That's how they thought of themselves, prisoners of war.....with no memory of their parents or the faction they had come from. Skyknight assured them the memories would be returned as soon as the war was over, or when they were old enough to join the ranks of their respective factions.

Skyknight paused along the corridor while making his rounds, listening carefully. Hearing nothing, he continued on his way. His thoughts wandered to those poor kids in the lounge....if only they knew.... He stopped dead in his tracks as a high pitched whistle blew somewhere outside. It was an odd sound....almost like- "Oh slag!!!" He didn't even have the time to sound the alarm before the missile hit. The safe house affectionately called 'The Last Resort' by its tenants was reduced to a smoldering crater in mere seconds. According to reports, no survivors.

Optimus stared at the readouts. Ultra Magnus had personally sent him the news. Rodimus and Ariel.....the two most precious things in the world to him....were gone. His optics dimmed, and the massive Autobot leader shook with rage and grief. The console bent under his clenched hands. "Hey man, you okay?" Jazz asked, then noticed the report on the screen. "Oh no....I'm so sorry man, anything I can do?" "I'm fine." Optimus responded harshly, and then composed himself. "I....apologize for the outburst. Jazz? If I may have some time alone?" The porsche nodded. "If ya need anythang, just call alright? I'll make sure no one bothers ya." Optimus collapsed in his chair the instant the door slid shut. The mighty Autobot Commander put his face in his hands and cried.

"Incoming transmission, Megatron." Soundwave intoned. "Neutral safe house containing youth of both Autobot and Decepticon origin....." He stopped. "Well? What about it?" Megatron prompted, walking over to his communications officer. "....destroyed. No survivors found." Soundwave finished, and the Decepticon leader almost thought he heard the tape deck's voice crack. He wasn't surprised, his own voice almost cracked when he asked, "The one housing Rift and...." "Affirmative." The blue decepticon shut off his visor. "Request permission to return to quarters." "Granted." Megatron said, almost without thinking. They had all taken heavy losses in this war.....but this....this had to be the worst. Whoever had done this would pay.

"Hey! We got a body over here!" A rescue worker yelled, pulling debris from the battered remains. "Poor thing, looks like she got chewed up pretty good." He reached out to pull the body from the wreckage, when a whimper made him jump. "Well whaddaya know a survivor." The mech rolled the body away to discover a kralin puppy curled up beneath. It whined pathetically. "C'mon, let's get you out of here..." He scooped the poor injured creature up in his arms and backed away from the body as others lifted it into a transport mech. It whined and tried to follow. "Shh, sorry boy....she's gone. But I promise we'll find you a nice home..."

Misty woke up with a sever pain in her throat, like she hadn't had any energon to drink in days or weeks. Truth was the young female had no idea how long she had been asleep or even why she had gone to bed. The last thing she remembered was fussing with Rift and then a loud sound and some one grabbed her. She was so tired and so sore that she could barely remember all of this. She could feel some one's arms around her and she was laying on her front pressed against who ever it was. She wanted to turn on her optics but try as she might she simply didn't have the energy. She was about to give up and go back to sleep when she heard it, someone talking.
"I dunno Hotspot, We were sent to clean this place out but to be honest..."
"I know Firstaid, it feels like waking the dead."
There was a long pause and the she heard the one Hotspot talk again. "There can't be any thing left Firstaid, there just can't be."
That was when the tiny female, despite the fact that she barely had the energy to stay on line, somehow found the strength to begin to scream and pound with all her might, where ever she was those voices would come to help her if they could only be made to hear her.
"Hotspot?"
"Yeah Groove?"
"Boss I know how this is gonna sound but I heard something just now.... It sounded like someone...screaming."
Misty heard that and began to pound and scream again with all of her might, doing her best to make them know that she was alive.
"See there it is again!" Groove paused, "This way, its coming from over here!"
She heard feet above her and then a loud scraping sound, and suddenly bright light intruded on the small dark place that had become Misty's world.
"OH....primus...." Hotspot gaped for a second then, "FIRSTAID!! GET OVER HERE NOW!!"
With that the emergency trained mech bent down and gently pulled the small body out of the hole. Then looked down to see that there was another one, this one a male, also in what looked to have once been a recharge couch or pit. Firstaid made it over and gapped.
"SLAG... how in the... who?"
"I don't know, but I think they are alive."
The medic leaned down and placed his audio against the tiny femme's chest for just a second and listened. Then his head snapped up.
"She's alive!" he quickly checked the other one and found that this young man was also functioning as well.
"Hotspot, we need to call Prime and..."
The leader of the protecto-bots put his hand on the medics shoulder.
"Fristaid... There where dozens of kids here... the chances that these two were..." he trailed off.
"I know... it was a thought. But your right." He motioned to his medical kit, "Hand me that will you? This poor kid is so low on energy if she'd been down there any longer her spark would have gone out."
Misty didn't really hear all of this, all she knew is that a grown up had come and that she was safe. The grown up that was holding her was very gentle and while she couldn't understand him she did feel like he was going to help her. She leaned back against the grown up as he held some thing up to her.
"Come on honey," The grown up told her, "You need to swallow this for me."
She did as she was asked and the pain in some parts of her lessened. The grown up gave her some more of what ever it was and then carefully handed her off to another one. She managed to get her eyes on line long enough to get a look at the white and red mech helping Hotrod. That grown up looked up to the one holding her.
"I just can't believe that the Decepticons would do this?"

The one holding her shook his head, "It was Shockwave too. He had some thing to do with this, probably the one that masterminded it."
She leaned back and closed her eyes again, Decepticons, Shockwave. Those two words and the sense of helplessness that she was feeling were something that she, despite how sick and weak she was held on to.
"Never again." She silently promised her self. Vowing to never let her self feel that helpless again and firmly etching the words decepticon, and shockwave in her mind for the rest of her life.

Elsewhere:

The pink and white female stood near the memorial that had been erected to them. Her shoulders were draped in a long black cloak symbolizing her mourning. For the moment she had her hands folded beneath her face, praying for those that this marker had been placed here in the memorial gardens for. There had been no bodies to place in to the crypt, indeed there had been nothing left for many of those who were grieving alongside her. Two of them the mates of some of her bitterest enemies, the bonds of grief here stronger than any thing else that existed between the two factions. The incident, the destruction of the "Last Resort", had been found to be attributed to neither of the factions. This had been done by some one who sought to get rid of the heirs of both sides. And so now both sides mourned together, an armistice had been called in honor of those who should have been full of life, but were instead marked by hard cold stone. The marker In front of the pink female was for two children. It had both of their names and the days they had come on line etched in to the front of it, underneath that a four simple words.
"Yes, You WERE LOVED."
This had been placed there due to the fact that none of the children had any knowledge of who they were, this done to protect them, and there for had no idea if they had been sent away because they were not wanted, or for some other reason. They had died not knowing of how much their parents care, and so the female wanted to make sure that at least in death they knew.
Further down were two more females, the first of these a pale blue beauty, which stood and stared at her child's stone with a look on her face like the world would come to an end any moment and that she would not care. She had given up her child in order to make sure that the child was safe. Now she was looking back on that choice and labeling her self a miserable coward for not taking her responsibility. A femme whose life was sound was now as cold and silent as the stone before her. She took a good long look at the results of her perceived cowardice, a memorial stone that listed her child's name and activation date and had its own saying.
"A song that ended, too soon."
The blue female set her mouth and swore that no matter what, no matter what shape form or fashion the war might take in the future she would never abandon a child again.
Finally there was the third femme, this one a complex mixture of dark colors and swirls that made her look as if she had been carved from the night sky its self. The dark colors that made her seem so mysterious and alluring normally now only seemed to mark her grief that much more. She was not praying as the pink femme, or staring coldly as the blue one, the dark beauty was on her knees her hands pressed into her face bawling. She had always been in control, the Ice cold, hard as cesium steel mate of the warrior lord. And where had that gotten her? Of all the things that mattered in this world to her half of them were now gone. The more and more she looked at what remained the more and more she wanted to rant rave and scream at some one how unfair it was. But she couldn't so instead she knelt on the ground and wept in front of a stone that like the others had name and activation dates, and a small saying.
"She who would have ruled."
That pointing out that much more to the mother what the cost of this war would ultimately be. The realization of that cost pushing the female transformer that much closer to a choice that she, who had been so in love, would never have considered making when she still had a future.
The pink female, Elita one finally raised her head as she heard her own mate approach.
"Optimus."
"'Lita I..." the leader of the autobots trailed off.
"Do you know what they have done?" she asked him softly, "They did more than just kill them. They have destroyed the only being that could have saved us all."
"I don't understand." The leader blinked, "What...?"

"Chaos will come someday Optimus. He will come and now," She looked at the stone, "Now there is NO one to stop him." She turned and buried her head in his chest and arms. "They've doomed us all."
The leader of the autobots took his female in his arms and held her, he could feel that some part of her had died with the children, that and she honestly had believed that one of them was the chosen one. The great leader who had fought so many and survived so much held on to his mate in the mist of the garden, as the two of them cried for all that had been and would be lost.
Audiowave looked up as her own mate Soundwave came toward her.
"They never should have been sent away."

"Audio...."
"NO! Don't start with me! I was too scared, too scared to be a good mother, too scared to be a proper mate! NEVER again!" She whirled and faced him.
Soundwave's normally impassive visage a mix of emotions as difficult as those on the female's face.

"IF we ever have children again," she wailed, "YOU AND I will be the ones to rear them."
Soundwave suddenly realized that she blamed her self and placed his hands on her shoulders. "None of this, was your fault." He pulled her to him, "If someday though, we do have other children, I will honor your request."
Finally Megatron made it over to his mate, now to the point where she was little more than a crumpled heap. With gentleness that most would never suspect that he had he bent down and lifted her up in his arms.
"Steel Tallon." He whispered her name softly to her, "Please forgive me."
She came slowly back to life and looked at him, "I can't do this any more. I can't this is a cost that is too high my lord." She pulled her self to him. "Please, I beg of you, let me go."
He held her for a moment longer then replied, "I will never let your heart Go Steely, but if you need time then take it. I swear I will be here when you return."

Underground:

Rift's optics flashed on when she suddenly felt something cold and wet splash on to her face. She powered them up to full and took a slow look around her self. She was at the bottom of what looked to be a very deep chiasm, what she had felt hitting her face where drops of Oxygen, Hydrogen composite fluid. It was falling on to her from some where above and she was lying in an even larger puddle of the substance. That was when she realized that she also felt cold; being in the stuff must have caused her internal temp regulators to malfunction. She took stock of the place one more time and then pulled her self into a sitting position, and tried to remember what had happened.
There had been a loud sound and then some one was screaming, then she felt her self falling and then nothing. She looked up to the top of the pit she was in and could see a crack in the roof of it, shining through that crack was a single star. Rift realized that some one must have attacked the house where they were all staying, despite all of the best intentions of those who had sent them there; some one had still crossed the line and set about seeing to it that all of those with in that house were destroyed. The white and black femme took another look at that star and then at the place around her. It was a tunnel one that she remembered now, from the one time she had been able to get a look at the designs of the place. She made it to the top of the rock and she heard voices coming down.
"And are you sure none of the brats survived?" a cruel hard voice asked some one.
The mechanical drone answered him, "Yes lord Shockwave."
"Good, Megatron's heir as well as the next Prime are both gone, the morale of each side is shattered. It's time to take control."
"If you do not mind my asking Lord Shockwave, why did you destroy them?"
"It was the only logical course of action that I could find to assure my own power. The next recipient of the Matrix no longer exists, and the one who would have lead after megatron is no more. After I destroy the two of them there will be no one to take their places, as well as the added benefits of bringing the fighting sprit of each side down to non existence." The one called Shockwave paused for a moment, "Come then drone, its time we go back and continue working on our plans."
With that both the drone and the speaker moved away and Rift lowered her self back to the bottom of the pit. She was the only one to survive but had no way to know which side she belonged to and after hearing this she truly no longer cared. A moment spent fumbling to open her subspace pocket and she found what she had left in there. A rather large sum of credits that whomever had sent her to the safe house had provided for her. She had never once touched the funds due to the fact that where she had been staying provided all she needed and so she had a large amount there for her to use. The tunnel she was standing in lead to the closest space port, she would head there and find a way off of this planet. A world with beings like the one that she had just heard, beings willing to sacrifice innocents just because of what they might become some day was no place that she had any desire to call home any longer. Rift paused and took one last look up at the star she could still see through the crack. She had always been the oldest of the group that much she did know, so she had always been the one to look after the other kids. Though she had known that Misty liked Hotrod she for some reason, despite the fussing, always looked after "her" Misty. Now every thing she valued was gone. She supposed she could try and find her way back to one of the factions but they held little meaning for her now. She shut her eyes as the last tears she would cry for a very long time flowed down her face and said her farewells.
"Misty, Hotrod, Ariel," her voice cracked, "I will always remember you my dear friends. Where ever you are now, I hope it's a better place. I hope some one there is able to take care of you the way that I failed to, all of you will always be my friends, goodbye."

With that she turned from her past and headed down to the space port and her future.

Some time later: Weapons Lab D:

One of the techs looked up from the form he was working on and faced his partner.
"Do you really think we can do this? Get away with what we have done I mean."
The second Tech grimaced and then looked up at his co-worker.
"DO NOT start that again. This thing was nearly dead when she came here. There was barely a spark left in her. If we hadn't done what we did she would be dead now."
"But she's just a child, and if Prime ever finds out we programmed some one to be..." he couldn't finish.
"What? Programmed them to be an assassin? What's the goody, goody boss man going to do? How many of us have the Cons' killed because he's not willing to be more ruthless? Even his own..."
"I wouldn't go there if I were you." The first one said bending down to make another adjustment.
"Well, I can't help it if the truth hurts now can I?" He returned to working completely unaware that several autobots, this time lead by the brother of the leader they had been sniping about, Ultra Magnus, had along with his "Wreckers" gotten wind of what was going down here and had come to stop the experiments.
The first tech was about to say more when the main doors flew open and the Special Forces unit came rushing headlong in to put an end to all of this.
"OH SLAG!! We can't fight them..."

The second tech looked down at the creation that was lying on the table before them and smiled. "We don't have to."

"Your not gonna.... But the programming isn't complete!! Her old personality may show through!!"
"That's a chance I'm willing to take!" He hit the activation button and the being on the table eye's flared to life, staring up at those who had modified her with the ice cold red optics of a killer. The second tech points at the door.
"There are people coming here! GET RID OF THEM!!"
How ever the unfeeling cold optics fastened on the people that had been working on her. The next thing the tech who had activated her knew was that something had sliced through him and She was standing over him energon stained blade in hand.
Twenty minutes later when Ultra Magnus and the rest of the Wreckers make their way into the lab all they find is a young female autobot on the floor unconscious and the remains of two techs surrounding her.
"We need a medic in here now!" The commander instructs as he goes over to check on the girl. As he picks her up blue optics flash on and she stares up at him in a slightly dazed manner.
"Wh...what happened?" she asked him fuzzily.
"I don't know. We found you in here and two others." He looks at the bodies, "I'm sorry they didn't make it."
"I-I don't remember..." She tells him.
"That's okay honey; can you tell me what your name is?"
She blinks and looks up at him, "Charade." It was then he noticed the small gold band around her wrist with the words "Test Subject #46, Serial Number: 27493840398."
He almost dropped her in surprise. "You're....an experiment?!"
She looked up at him blankly. "I...am...? I....don't remember....anything...." The small femme curled up against him and started to cry. "I....want..."
"You want what?" He prompted, his mind churning. She was an experiment, precisely the thing he had come here to stop....but she seemed so harmless.....
"I...I don't know....it's, something I had once......and when I held it, it made me feel better......" More tears trickled down her face. "But I don't know what it is!"
"Shhh...it's alright. We'll get you to a medic and see what we can do." He stood, lifting her up, and carried her out of that dreadful place.

Charade huddled in the corner of her recharge berth, wishing for something, anything, to keep her mind off of what she'd been told. She was an experiment. She shouldn't have ever been created. The techs that had looked her over after Magnus had brought her here had quickly become stumped by the vast amount of strange machinery within her. They could tell enough to make repairs, but as to what half the stuff inside her did they had no clue. The council didn't know what to do with her, it was obvious she was senient, and that gave her full protection under the humanity laws, but no one could know what the experimentation had done to her.....it was possible she could be designed to blow the planet to smithereens. She herself had no memory of anything before waking up after being discovered, though on occasion things....tattered bits of her 'self'....would come shining through. Still, even this wasn't enough to keep them from debating her fate, should she be allowed to live among the Autobots? Or.......terminated.... She cuddled the large stuffed animal Magnus had given her and cried. Ultra Magnus..... He would protect her, wouldn't he? He seemed to care....would he stand by if they decided she was too dangerous to remain functioning? No, he had saved her....he would protect her. Her sniffles lessened and she slowly uncurled herself and stood. Her quarters were locked from the outside, she wasn't allowed out without express permission.
She pressed the comm. "May I....speak to Ultra Magnus...please?"
"One moment." Came the reply. There was a minute or two of white noise, and then her rescuer's deep voice answered.
"Ultra Magnus here."
"It's....Charade..." She said meekly.
His voice softened. "What can I do for you honey? Everything alright?"
"Yeah....I'm okay....um....Ultra Magnus?"
"Yes? What is it?"
She hesitated, fearing the answer. "You...won't let them hurt me....right?"
There was a long pause. "Let who hurt you?"
"Those people....they said they might have me....terminated...." Her voice cracked. "I'm scared....don't let them hurt me! Please? I'll be good, I really will. Please don't let them...."
"Shhhh......calm down. You can bet I'm going to fight this all the way. Don't you worry, you'll be fine." He soothed.
She sniffled. "O-okay....sorry for disturbing you..."
He made sure she wasn't crying anymore, then told her he had to go. She turned off the comm. and curled back up into a ball. He had said he would fight for her.... He hadn't promised he'd stop them from terminating her.

Two Weeks later:
The light blue and white femme looked on as the older mech held something out to her. She stared at it for a second and then looked back up at him.
"So what do I do with this Kup?"
"Well, you said your name was Misty right?"
The child nodded and he smiled and continued.
"Honey, we don't know who your parents are, but you..."
"I what?" she blinked up at him innocently.
"Well, you have red optics sweet heart."

She blinked at him again, "What dose that mean Kup?"
The Mech sighed. "It means that your parents, at least one of them were probably a decepticon."
"NO!!!" The shout got the attention of the other two that were in there and she snatched the visor away from Kup.
"I'm NOT a decepticon! NEVER EVER!" She snapped the thing into place on her helmet, "I want to be an Autobot when I grow up! The decepticons nearly killed me and Roddy, they murdered my best friends too! I'm NOT one of them! Do you hear me!"
Kup gapped at the little female for a moment and then nodded, "I think you'll make a fine autobot one of these days Misty Blue." He patted her on the shoulder.
"thank you."
She stared at her self in the mirror on the wall and smiled her normal optics where now covered by the blue visor, it went much better with the rest of her and she liked it a lot. Roddy and the older boy Springer, that was watching them for Kup, came over and looked at her.

"Wow!" Roddy grinned, "That's much better!"
"Really?"

Springer nodded, "Now you look like a real autobot." He winked.
He looked them over for a second then headed for the door, "I've got some things to take care of, Think you two can stay out of trouble while I do that?"

The two younger ones nodded and waited a full two breems before he was gone, to sneak out of the room.
"So?" Misty asked, "Where are we going?"
"Out... I've been cooped up in that room so long I'm about ready to scream."
"No kidding." She sighed, "I miss home, this place is so boring, and there isn't any one else our age, there's nothing to do..."
"You seemed to get a thrill outta the weapons training?" The flame mech grinned.
Misty got huffy, "Is it my fault if I wanna learn how to defend my self?"
Hotrod grinned at her, "Wanting to learn to defend your self is one thing, drooling over Kup's fire arm collection is another."
"Oh, go jump in a black hole."
They were three quarters into the base when they heard it, it was Springer, returned to find them gone and on the war path to get them back.
"Aww crud." Roddy griped, "Now what do we do?"
Misty looked up and saw the door that they were standing by, "We hide!" She hit the switch and the door swooshed open, she tugged Hotrod through and the door swished shut behind them.
"That was close." He told her.
"No kidding, Shhhh!"
That was when the two of them heard it, they turned and they found another youngster like them selves sleeping on a recharge birth.
"Whoa." Hotrod just gapped and suddenly felt the strangest sensation. "Have we met her before?"
Misty shook her head, "uh uh... I've never even seen her before." She walked over and gently prodded the femme on the couch with one hand.
She stirred and looked up into the face of people her own age.
"OH! Did they lock you up too?"
Misty blinked, "They keep trying..." She grinned, "But Hotrod and me keep getting out."
She looked hopeful suddenly, "you know how to get out? They won't let me out."
Hotrod flashed his trademarked grin and went to work on the door, "We can fix that." A few moments later the thing was open and all of the kids were now sneaking around the base.
About an hour later the place was in an up roar, misty and hotrod were gone, and so was charade. They still had no idea what the child was actually capable of and so they were now in the process of tearing the base apart trying to find the girls and boy.
"I'm Sorry," Springer said for the tenth time, "I had no clue those lil monsters had the door wired! It looked locked; it was supposed to be locked."
Ultra Magnus shook his head, "Primus save us from young would be geniuses." He sighed, "Well they have to be around here some where, and three kids can't have gotten very far."
"Magnus," The green mech asked, "What if that other girl...?"

"I'm aware of that Springer, but there's nothing we can do understand?"
That was when someone else came running up to see them, another younger mech named Blurr.

"Magnuswefoundthekidsinthecommisary,theywerejustsittingthereeatingmindingthi erownbuisness. Thenwefoudnthemandnowtheydontwanttogobacktothecenterwithouttheothergirl."
"SLOW DOWN Blurr." Springer muttered.
"What you mean you found them, show me."
They all took off at a dead run after the blue mech and when they got to the commissary they found Hotrod and Misty braced up against the wall with Charade hidden behind them and Kup unsuccessfully trying to coax them back to the place where they stayed.
"NO IM NOT!! NOT WITH OUT HER!!" Misty shouted.
"but..."
"She's right, we already lost our friends once, what right do you grown ups have to take this one away from us?" hot rod demanded.
The older mech opened and shut his mouth a few times trying to come up with something when Magnus walked in.
"Magnus," he told him, "Help me get these two back we don't know what that girl could do."
"YOU leave her alone Kup!" Misty nearly snarled, "She's all alone, they've been keeping her locked up, and she doesn't have any one. Well now she has me! And I'm never gonna let her be alone again!"
Magnus stood there and gapped at the fierce lil femme for a few moments and then got on the com.
"That's right; connect me with the council... ASAP."
A few moments later...
"You heard me the issue is closed, Charade is now in the care of Misty Blue and the other members of the youth group. You don't have to like it just live with it. She's got her rights and I'm standing up for them."
A few more moments of arguing and the blue and white mech turned back to the kids.
"Okay you three, you can go on back to your rooms now. Misty you don't mind sharing a room with Charade do you?"
"REALLY? She can stay!?" She shook her head, "NOPE, she can stay in my room forever if she likes... just don't lock her back up!"
Magnus smiled, "I promise we won't lock her back up. Now go on back with Kup and try to behave."
Roddy had a big grin on his face and had been watching this all along.
"And you, I'm counting on you to keep those two out of trouble. Think you can do that Hotrod."
"I'll do my best sir."
The commander nodded and watched as all the kids were lead away. This war they were all fighting had seen many victims, for once in his life it was good to see some one that went on living. He hoped that they, the kids would be able to work things out after all. He got a good feeling from all of them. That they were destined for great things and in time they would fulfill that promise.