This is a series of short fics I wrote up for the 13 Days of Halloween Challenge on the Transfiction LJ back in 2006. It is based in my Mechamorphosis AU. All human characters, Static and Slipstone are mine. The rest I borrowed from Hasbro and Fantasy Flight Games. I'd return them when I was done but they don't want to leave. ;D
The challenge themes are as follows:
01. Darkness
02. Black cat
03. Ghost
04. Pumpkins
05. Costumes
06. Crescent Moon
07. Orange
08. Trick
09. Spider webs
10. Fog
11. Treat
12. Graveyard
13. Thirteen
The stories won't be posted in this order. I'll be posting them in the order they make sense. On to the fics!
Title: #01 - Darkness
Series: 13 Days of Halloween Challenge...
Ratings: General
Summary: Mirage does some soul searching.
He sat in the darkness and contemplated it. The absence of light; soft, warm and enfolding, like a blanket or womb. Cold, harsh and deadly, like the vacuum of space. Many descriptions, poetic and otherwise, most conflicting and subject to mood and opinion.
The darkness had once been a refuge for him; an escape from the pressures of the world and the press of people around him. Warm, welcome solitude. Now it was the opposite; cold, barren and more than a little bit lonely.
For darkness without its opposite is endless. He realized that truth too late. As he had realized how much the others had come to mean to him. How much their light had enriched his dark existence.
It was his own fault, he knew. He couldn't deny it. He had betrayed them. Undermined their trust and sold them to the enemy. Enfolded in his darkness, he had told himself he didn't care.
But as he was confronted with the aftermath of his actions, he felt a gnawing pain at the edge of his spark. As he saw the worry, the anguish, the fear over the missing members. His own partner was inconsolable over the disappearance of his wife, so very near her time.
Unable to take the turmoil, he had fled to the Tyrant base. To be among his own kind. But he was again confronted with the consequences. Sideswipe was forced to fight battle after battle, one on one, as he had on Mecha Terra. But when he had defeated one opponent, another, stronger one took his place and the battle began anew. Champion though he was, this was a contest he would ultimately lose. And he knew it, yet he battled on. It was the only way he could keep his friend safe.
But she wasn't. Due to give birth anytime, actually past her due date, Gwen had gone into labor at the worst possible time. And she wouldn't be able to give birth without assistance. Her first pregnancy had had complications at birth and it appeared this one did as well. She needed to get to a hospital immediately or both she and the baby would die.
That was what decided him. Sideswipe and Gwen weren't innocents and had lived their lives, but the child was innocent and hadn't a chance unless someone did something. So he had acted. He took Gwen from her cage and sped to the nearest hospital. Just in time.
This, of course, had quite thoroughly burned his last bridge with Starscream. And Gwen, of course, had directed the other Exiles to the Tyrant base to rescue a battered Sideswipe. Then the inevitable questions were asked and he couldn't doubletalk his way around them this time. So here he was.
But that wasn't the worst.
Once rescued and given proper medical attention, Gwen, the baby and Sideswipe were fine and recovering. His human partner, Brad, had distracted himself with fussing over his family and was recovering from the fright he had received. Sunstreaker had promised to pound him into the ground at some point. This was all normal.
No, the worst was Hound.
When his duplicity was revealed, the scout had been too shocked to say anything. At the time. The words came later when Hound had visited him in his cell. The hurt, betrayed expression on Hound's face was almost too much to bear and the words seared his spark to the core. He had become fonder of Hound than he had realized and this, their fight and apparent split, was the final blow.
So now, he sat in the darkness of the room, contemplating his darkness within and longed for the light.
