Chapter 2:

This really wasn't a good way to start off my morning.

Yeah, this definitely wasn't in my top ten list of ways to start off the day. Screamer's ugly faceplates in my faceplates was bad enough; add him screeching as high as he can and it was just a really fragging terrible way to start off the morning.

Not that Starscream cared. He just kept talking like one of those really annoying parrots that someone would train to randomly cuss at people.

"-don't see any puny Autobots around to protect you now, girl."

I blinked, pulled out of my daydreaming. "What? I wasn't really listening to you."

The Decepticon SIC growled lowly and his grip around my frame tightened.

I winced. My knee joints were completely shot thanks to Starscream and hurt like hell despite my AllSpark powers repairing them already. I was having trouble turning off the pain receptors, too, so that added to the unpleasantness of it all. But having your body squished isn't pleasant, no matter how much armor you might have. And my armor may have been pretty strong, but it's really thin. My holoform is like a backup armor, but it's designed for protecting against blasts and flying shrapnel, not being slowly squished to death. Plus, I'm pretty sure I'm the only Autobot that is the right size to be squeezed like a doll.

…Sometimes being human-sized really sucks if you're surrounded by giant robots.

Ah, I was daydreaming again. Screamer's mouth was running, but nothing came out. At least, it seemed that way to me. It was actually pretty funny to watch.

But I needed to get back to base before Prowl started to worry and sent someone. After all, just because my morning is getting suckier and suckier by the minute doesn't mean I have make it bad for some poor recharging bot.

I wiggled in Screamer's grasp, which was really pointless. "Look, could you just let me go? I really need to get back, and it looks like your all alone, so-"

Starscream laughed (not a pleasant sound, trust me) and grinned like it was the funniest thing ever. " 'Let you go'?" he echoed. "How stupid do you think I am?"

Very stupid, I thought. Out loud, I said, "Why are you even out here by yourself? Last time I checked, you had a trine."

He suddenly scowled, his grip loosening just a tiny bit. I took the chance and slowly started to wriggle my arm out while his attention was somewhere besides squeezing me to death.

"That is none of your business, girl."

I tilted my helm a little. "I think it is my business. You decided to hang out near my base and pick on whatever Autobot came to check on that sensor you so kindly crushed." I paused, then added as an afterthought, "And don't call me 'girl'. I'm a femme."

Starscream totally ignored what I said, too caught up in his own thoughts as the rain came down. Whatever he was thinking, it obviously made him mad, because his grip was starting to get tight again. I tried to wriggle my arm out faster while still being discreet.

It was only then that I noticed the bad dents and smalls cuts leaking Energon covering the Air Commander's body. I frowned. Surely it wasn't from an Autobot, because it would have been reported at base. Unless-

"Megatron got mad, didn't he?"

Starscream's optics refocused on me, the red glare lighting up more of the dark clearing. "That's none of your business," he repeated flatly.

I stared back, wondering why in the Pit I felt the tiniest bit of pity for Screamer. This was my enemy, SIC of the Decepticon army, a mech that had killed so many and had tried to kill me and my family on various occasions. The AllSpark in me unhelpfully pulled up memories of a seekerling on Cybertron. A seekerling that looked suspiciously like Starscream.

I blinked, trying hard to clear my helm. Not easy.

I sighed. Being AllSpark isn't easy. Say, if I shot at any D-cons, I'd end up seeing memories of them before the war in my recharge. It made it really hard to shoot at any one of them, let alone kill any of them.

Well, except Megatron. If I ever got the chance, I'd kill him without a second thought. There was too much hatred there to be affected by memories.

I blinked rain out of my optics. "Look, Screamer-"

He growled.

Oops. Shouldn't have used the nickname. "Look, Starscream, just this one time, could you just nicely set me down and not try to kill me? I'm tired, it's been a shitty past 24 hours, and you could probably use your trine right now. So could we just forget this whole thing and go our own ways?"

The Seeker watched me with calculating optics, the gloom of the early morning making the glow from his optics look almost dim. Thunder sounded off somewhere.

After a few long silent moments, Starscream said slowly, "I should kill you."

You should. It would be the smart thing to do, I thought. But I nodded anyways like I was trying to urge him on. "You should, but you won't, right?"

He hummed and I could almost feel the vibrations. "No."

I smiled. Maybe there was some good left to Screamer.

The Seeker suddenly sneered, looking very smug. "But Megatron will."

...Damn.

I could practically read Starscream's mind: give Megatron the AllSpark that had made him look like a fool by coming back from the dead, and get forgiveness.

Half of me felt crushed that the Decepticon SIC had not gone with the good path and just let me go. The other half of me was beating that crushed part senseless for even thinking such a thing. And then I remembered something:

Hey, I could read Transformer's minds.

As Starscream's thrusters kicked on, I hurriedly delved into his processor. The experience isn't something I like. The feeling of my intrusion into another beings mind is one I can't shake for several hours after, which is why I don't do it a lot. But during certain situations, it calls for it. Like, battle and such. But… I seriously hate it. Once, Jazz joked about me using my processor-reading abilities to interrogate any Decepticon prisoners we might have, and I…took it the wrong way. Looking back on it now, I guess I overreacted some, with not speaking to Jazz at all for two weeks. It took Barricade and a lot of reasoning to get me to see my mistake.

But either way, I still hated even thinking of trying to read someone's mind, let alone actually doing it.

Starscream's processor was unusual. The thoughts weren't wild and random like Jazz. It was neat and ordered, which was disturbing on a certain level. How the heck do you keep your mind sorted? I had a hard time keeping my own sorted, let alone in order.

My objective wasn't to try and control the Seeker. I was just going to distract him before he got high in the air. After all, what's more distracting than someone in your helm?

By now, Screamer had nearly cleared the treetops. He suddenly veered to the right, clutching his helm with his free servo. "Wha- Get out of my helm, girl!"

I scowled, having a hard time focusing on staying with reality and not getting sucked into his processor. "I'm a femme, not a girl!"

The Seeker howled as I delved in deeper and started playing Katy Perry's Peacock as loud as I could from my memory. We shot up in the air, high above the treetops. I cursed loudly and yanked my arm the rest of the way out of Starscream's grip. The holoform covering my servo disappeared as it transformed into a cannon that had taken me weeks to get adjusted to.

As many times as I saw it, I never got used to have my servo change into a lethal weapon powered by AllSpark power.

But I didn't have time to be amazed by it now. Now, I had to keep Screamer from flying off. Barricade was going to be here in a few hours, and I sure as hell was going to be there when he did.

"Starscream," I said in a flat voice, "let me go or I will shoot you."

Apparently Katy Perry was too much for him, because he didn't hear my warning. I sighed as the charge in my cannon began to build fast. Why could things never go the easy way?

I took aim. I fired.

And missed the target.

The target being between Screamer's optics. With him flying around in a very un-straight pattern, I missed and hit his left optic. Oh, well. It had the desired effect.

Starscream dropped me with his signature audio peircing screech. In mid-air, I transwarped back to the ground before I went splat. I was reminded all-too-painfully that my knees were completely shot. And that it was raining, too, after I landed in a mud puddle.

Sometimes I didn't transwarp in the most pleasant of places.

Looking back to the sky, I half grinned. I didn't have to worry about Starscream anymore, at least.

Then I saw the sensor and sighed. But I would have to worry about telling Prowl this all. And Ratchet. And Optimus.

Again, I sighed.

Transforming my cannon back to a normal servo, I transwarped.

Unexpectedly, I landed in the wrong spot. Where I had meant to land was Ratchet's Med Bay. Instead, I ended up landing short, just a 100 yards from the closed hangar doors.

"Frag," I hissed as I tried to drag myself into a sitting position on the soaking wet tarmac as the rain came down around me. I didn't have enough Energon to complete the rest of the trip, so my transwarp had been cut short. Wonderful. Of all times, it had to be now.

Luck seemed to do that sort of thing to me. ALL THE TIME.

I checked my comm. again. I had left Screamer and his jammer far behind, so my reception was back to working.

But…Prowl would not be happy.

I sighed, but opened the comm. anyways. ::Prowl?::

::Nicole, did you just now reach the sensor?:: he asked. Just by the tone of his voice I could tell he was frowning.

::Um… No. But I need a little help.::

There was silence, then, ::What do you need help with? I can come-::

::Prowl, I'm in front of the base. I need help getting to the Med Bay.::

Another pause, this time shorter. Then in a clear, alert voice that told me he was already running who-knows-how-many simulations on how I got to my current situation, he asked, ::I'm on my way. What happened?::

The million-dollar question, I thought. I sighed. ::Long or short version?::

::Short will have to do for now.::

I looked up at the dark, stormy sky, letting the rain run down my faceplates. ::Trap. Starscream. Totaled sensor. We're going to need a new one.::

::Are you okay?::

I nearly said, "Well, I'm not dead. So, yeah, I guess so." But that would have been the wrong thing to say. The very wrong thing to say. ::Depends on what you count as okay.::

::Able to move? Not leaking Energon? No processor damage? Able to walk? All limbs accounted for?::

I would have laughed, but Prowl wasn't joking. ::Yes to everything except being able to walk and leaking Energon.::

Just as I finished speaking, the hangar doors started to slowly open with a whirr like a giant garage. Then again, seeing as the Autobots were all vehicles, maybe it was the world's largest garage…

Light spilled out across the wet pavement, the rain distorting it. The silhouette of Prowl stood there like a looming presence, reminding me of just what I was about to get myself into. And before I knew it, the SIC was kneeling down to me in the rain with his servo open. For some reason, this made me feel awfully childish, but I crawled in his servo anyways and made myself comfortable as he stood up.

Prowl paused, staring at the ground. I followed his gaze to the puddle of Energon that had leaked from my wounds, mixing with the rain. I looked back to Prowl and snapped my fingers. "Prowl."

He blinked, then murmured a "yes", and turned back towards the hangar, rain sliding down his armor.


::Why in the Pit are you comming me at this hour, Prowl? If you're two steps from stasis lock from overworking yourself, then you'll have to tough it out 'til morning! Got that, fragger?::

I snickered at the look on Prowl's faceplates. He openly sighed. ::Ratchet, Nicole is in need of medical attention.::

::Tell that idiot of an AllSpark that she can tough it until morning! If she isn't bleeding Energon-::

Amusement suddenly gone at being called an idiot, I opened my own comm. and stopped eavesdropping on Prowl's. ::I am bleeding, for your information, and I am not an idiot.::

::That second statement is a contradiction of itself.::

::Hey! Not nice-::

::Who said anything about being nice?::

::Fragging medic-::

Prowl growled out loud, which also carried over the comm.. ::Both of you, stop arguing. We might have a possible Decepticon attack coming, and you're arguing about Nicole's intelligence, which is questionable half of the time.:: He shot a glare at me just as I opened my mouth, effectively shutting me up. ::Ratchet, please prepare the Med Bay.::

The Hatchet snapped back that he already was, but it had a lot of Cybertronian cuss words and human cuss words in between.


"-ever pay attention to what I say? No, of course not! Which is exactly why I'm here again, repairing your aft again! Now turn off your holoform from the knee down."

I groaned. "But that drains nearly a quarter of my reserves, Ratch. And I haven't had any Energon in…" I paused to think about it, then said, "A very long time. I'll be super tired."

"We'll get you a cube and some recharge later. Now do it or I'll force it."

I sighed, but did so anyways and the holoform covering my legs disappeared. I winced at the sudden drop in my energy. Turning off the holoform always drained me, and the longer I kept it off, the more it used my reserves. Which is why I hated checkups. And I secretly think Ratchet loved watching me squirm.

I winced suddenly as Ratchet dug his holoform's fingers in my knee joints. "Did you have to turn on my pain receptors again?"

He shot me a venomous glare. "One: Yes, I did. Two: Suck it up. Three: You did a horrible job of turning them off yourself."

"I know I did!" I snapped. "I just haven't gotten the hang of it yet. Being AllSpark doesn't mean I can automatically do everything perfectly."

Ratchet snorted. "Obviously. If you did everything perfectly, we wouldn't be in this situation, would we?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"As Prowl said before, your intelligence is questionable, which means the AllSpark didn't change anything there."

"Hey!"

The medic ignored me as he pulled the bullet out of my joint, fingers covered in my Energon. He dumped it in a tray and set to work on the other knee.

I clenched my servos as he reached into the wound, pain making it hard to sit still. "Can't you use some pliers? It'd be easier to reach in there and get it."

"And risk disconnecting a nerve relay? Not unless you want to undergo surgery, which I doubt you do."

I sighed, because he was right.

Prowl, who had been silently watching the whole time, stepped closer, and by the look on his faceplates I knew what was coming next. "Now would be a good time for the long version of your story, Nicole."

I tilted my helm back, elbows holding me up as I stared at the ceiling as Ratchet's fingers dug around in my knee. It really isn't a comfortable feeling, but tiredness was making me drowsy and partially blocked out the pain. "Well, where do I start?"

"How about as you arrived at the sensor?"

"Okay." I let myself drop the rest of the way back on the medical berth, which had recently been installed with blue gel pads to make them more comfortable. There was still two med berths that didn't have gel pads, and were specifically for two certain twins that got themselves slagged because of stupidity. (As Ratchet had put it.)

"Well, when I got to the clearing, I saw the tree had fallen over the sensor and crushed it like a pancake. So we're going have to replace that, by the way. And then I started feeling really sick and I…" I trailed off as I remembered purging. That had most certainly not been normal.

"You what?" Ratchet asked as he pulled the second bullet out and dropped it in the tray. Without out looking at me, he started scanning both joints, probably looking for and torn wiring or broken metal from where the bullets had entered my knee.

I frowned at the ceiling. "…I threw up."

This got both of their attention. "What?"

"I threw up any Energon I had in my tanks."

Ratchet frowned at me. "I haven't had any other bots coming in for purging, so it wasn't a bad batch of Energon. Have you been feeling bad recently?"

"No, not really."

"Have you been consuming two cubes of Energon at every meal?"

"Um, three, actually."

"And you're still tired?"

I shut my optics, sighing. "Yes. Maybe it's just because Barricade is so far away and our bond still hasn't set in yet."

"But you didn't feel this way when you were still human, did you?"

"No, but I was human then. Things are a bit different now, if you haven't noticed." While saying this, I gestured to my legs, which still didn't have the holoform covering them.

Ratchet hummed, but said, "Maybe." He didn't sound like he believed it.

Prowl cleared his vocalizer, interrupting our conversation. "I still need the rest of your story, Nicole."

"Oh, yeah." I muttered sleepily. Pain had started to fade from my joints, making way for the stress of the past 30 minutes to set in. "Well, after I got done purging, I started looking at the tree that had crushed the sensor. I tried to comm. you to tell you what had happened, but there was something blocking it. That's when I looked at the tree's trunk and saw it had been cut. That's when Screamer shot me."

"Was it just Starscream there?"

"Yeah. He was by himself. No trine, no Megatron, no other 'Cons. Apparently Megsy had got mad at Starscream and beat him, who left the base afterwards. I think he just destroyed that sensor because he knew we'd send an Autobot for him to pick on."

Prowl nodded, optics dim as he filed it all into a report. "So they weren't planning an attack."

"Nope. But Screamer got it in his helm that if he gave Megatron me to kill, then he might be forgiven. I shot him in the optic for it, too." I smiled as I heard Ratchet laugh sharply. "And that's basically it."

The tactician sighed and I opened my optics to look at him. "Well, I'm glad you aren't seriously hurt."

Ratchet snorted, still scanning my joints. "We don't know that yet. Starscream picked you up, didn't he?"

"Yeah, and he sure as heck wasn't gentle."

The medic nodded. "Turn off the rest of your holoform, Nicole. Your armor's probably dented because he picked you up."

I bent both arms. "I feel fine."

"Do I look like I care that you feel fine? Now, do as I say and I'll put you into stasis lock so I can fix the wiring in your knees and get those dents out."

"But I need to get some Energon-"

"Then I'll give you an Energon line," Ratchet said with a glare at me. "Now do as I say."

I glared back but turned the rest of my holoform off. Instantly, I felt exposed. It was uncomfortable to have my protoform exposed. But as I looked down at my own body, I knew Ratchet was right. The metal was all dented inwards, making the gaps between my armor even smaller and hiding the wiring and Energon lines.

No matter how many times I saw it, I never got used to it.

"Remember to turn my holoform on when you're done, Ratch."

"I will, Nicole."

I laid back again, already initiating the stasis lock protocols. Dread hung in the back of my mind as I thought of the nightmares, but I reminded myself that this was necessary and that Barricade would be back in a few hours. A small part of me cheered up at the thought.

As I closed my optics and let myself relax, I heard Prowl suddenly curse in Cybertronian before what sounded like the Med Bay doors open and an angry Jazz start shouting very obscene things at Prowl about where he was going to be recharging for the next week.

I went into stasis lock smiling.


When I opened my optics, prepared to see the Youth Sectors, I got a surprise.

I wasn't at the Youth Sectors. I was back in the room where I had first met Jazz, the gray room with glyphs moving all over the walls.

I sat up, confused. This was…different.

"Confused, Nicole?"

I jumped, body automatically tense and my weapons coming online. But as I turned around, my spark sang with joy as I saw the mech I loved with all my soul.

Barricade.

I leapt up and practically jumped in his arms, hugging him with everything I had. In my dream, he was my size but still in mech form. I had my legs and arms wrapped around him, squeezing him like I was afraid I would be pulled away.

He laughed, running a servo through my holoform's hair. "Miss me?"

"Frag yes." I murmured into his neck. I reached for him through the bond-

And felt nothing.

I froze, feeling my spark go cold. I pulled back to look into Barricade's faceplates. Same faceplates, same quirky half-smile–

But his optics were blood red.

Instantly I let go of the mech who was not Barricade, scrambling backwards as I hit the floor. The mech looked exactly like Barricade. Every detail screamed Barricade. Except the red optics. Fear and shock started to take hold. This wasn't Barricade. This wasn't my sparkmate. This was someone else, something else entirely.

Not-Barricade took a step towards me, arms open and still smiling. "What's wrong, Nicole? It's me, your beloved sparkmate."

I shook my helm, optics wide. "You're not Barricade."

The mech laughed, sounding just like Barricade. "What do you mean I'm not Barricade? Of course I am. I'm right here, Nicole."

My back hit the wall. I just kept shaking my helm. "You're not him. You're not Barricade."

His expression turned a bit concerned as he got within reaching distance. "Are you alright, Nicki? You don't look very well."

He reached out as if to touch my face, but I slapped his servo away. "Get away from me," I growled.

Not-Barricade's concerned expression turned to looking hurt. "Nicole, it's me. Barricade. Your mate."

Anger started to burn in me as I pulled my legs up to my chest so I was as far away from the mech as possible. "I know who my bondmate is, and you aren't him."

The mech watched me for a moment, his expression frozen, before he suddenly smiled.

There wasn't any warmth to the smile, just cold, cruel joy. His ruby optics sparkled with malice. "Maybe there is some ounce of intelligence in that pretty little processor of yours, Nicki."

I suddenly found it hard to breath as the mech leaned closer into my personal space. That voice. It sounded exactly like that one that had spoken to me in the cemetery over a year ago when I had visited my grave. The words still echoed in my nightmares sometimes, always reminding me.

Even good can be corrupted, femme.

"Who are you?"

"Wrong question," he said with Barricade's voice, and yet not Barricade's voice at the same time. "Besides, what matters is who you see me as. Now, you see me as your bondmate. Am I the real thing? How can you tell?"

I tried to melt into the wall. It didn't work. Feeling very sick to my stomach, I said, "You aren't him. You don't look like him."

"Do I?" The mech smiled gleefully and tapped beside his ruby optics. "Barricade had these at one time, too, sweetspark. You've seen them before, both in that field and in your dreams."

He stopped, looking thoughtful. "But those weren't dreams, were they, Nicki? They're memories. AllSpark memories." The mech suddenly smiled again, looking as if it was all some joke. "Which means that, yes, you're mate was once a killing machine."

The anger that had been growing slowly flared brighter. "That was a long time ago."

I might as well have not said anything. "Barricade killed sparklings, younglings, femmes, caretakers. You saw that all and still make up excuses for it."

If I wanted, I could have punched the mech in the faceplates. But he looked too much like Barricade for me to do that. I swallowed, feeling cold. "If he's such a monster, then what are you? You aren't exactly a saint either if you're parading around in peoples' dreams and screwing with their mind."

Not-Barricade just stared at me for a second before laughing out loud. I just stared at him, wondering what the hell he found so incredibly funny about any of this.

After a few moments, the mech looked back to me, ruby optics glittering. " 'What am I?' That was the right question to ask. But do you really want to know, Nicki? You may not like what you learn."

"I do want to know, fragger, now tell me!"

The mech with Barricade's body shrugged, holding his servos out. "Your slow spiral to insanity, then."

Yes, I thought, maybe I am just going insane. That would explain a lot.

He snorted. "Trust me, femme, you'd be able to explain the universe if everyone was simply insane."

I glared at him. "Don't read my thoughts."

Not-Barricade shrugged. "Can't help that, sweetspark. See, what I am is just the darker side of you. Every little greedy, jealous, malicious thought that goes through your helm makes me what I am. I'm your every fear, doubt, and nightmare, rolled into one. I am that darker side of you that just wants to kill everything. When ever you think of something that makes you angry, that is me. So I can't help the fact that I hear your thoughts."

I stared at him. This mech that looked like Barricade…was my evil side. Jazz had told me once that everyone has an evil side, some people just keep theirs under lock and key better than most. This mech was all that anger I ever felt, every fear, every tainted thought that went through my mind.

Oh, God. He was me.

"I don't believe you," I said shakily. "This didn't happen when I was human, and just started happening now. For all I know, you're another nightmare."

He held up his servo, counting on his fingers. "One: I technically am a nightmare, just one with a mind of it's own. Two: the only reason you didn't hear me when you were human was because you weren't completely AllSpark."

"But the AllSpark didn't tell me about you."

"Because I didn't ever bother the AllSpark. You created me, with all your anger and doubt. Your emotions are too human. As the humans say, I'm your inner demon." He flashed a quick smile, showing off sharp, pointed dentia. "Now, three: the only reason I'm popping up now was because I was waiting for the right moment to push you over the proverbial cliff."

"And why would now be the right moment?"

The manifestation of all my nightmares laughed, the sound anything but pleasant. "Trust me, you're about to find out."

I didn't trust him, no matter how much he looked like Barricade.

I took a deep breath, trying to make myself calm. If what he said was true, then he was feeding off my anger. "I'm going to wake up now, and never see you again, in my dreams or reality."

As black started dance around the edges of my vision, he leaned closer, smiling. "But tell me this, Nicole: If I really am your inner demon appearing in your dreams, then what really is reality?"

And I ignored him, not out of spite, but because I didn't have an answer.


I felt myself slowly coming out of stasis lock. I held myself still, resisting that nearly overpowering urge to jump up and find Barricade so I could make sure it had all been a nightmare, that my mate still had beautiful blue optics.

In my opinion, this had been the worst nightmare yet. It left my spark feeling like a chunk of ice in my chest.

But I couldn't help but wonder. If the mech that said he was my inner demon was real, then how could I tell between reality and dreams?

Again, I had no answer.

"Nicole, I know you're awake, so open you're optics."

I jumped at Ratchet's tired voice, my optics snapping open. The neon yellow mech was looking over a datapad, optics flitting back and forth over the data. I stretched, pausing to make sure that the Energon line feeding in my arm wasn't twisted up. "Okay, so I'm up. What's the news, Docbot? All good to go?"

He scowled at the name, but still didn't look up. "You have an anomaly."

I stopped, already halfway standing. "A what?"

"Anomaly. There's something out of the ordinary in your spark chamber or around it. I can't see it clearly on the x-rays I took, but whatever it is, it's not supposed to be there." He tapped something on the datapad and sent an automatic ping to the lights to go dim. I watched as he projected a hologram of my x-rays into the air.

How interesting. My internals look like that old box computer that Taylor's mom ran over after she got a new one, I thought with a slight amazement that I even remembered that 'old damn stubborn computer'. As Taylor's mom had put it.

Ratchet pointed to a small blob on the x-rays, so close to my spark that it might as well have been part of it. "That. That's the anomaly."

I squinted in the darkness at it. "It's a blob."

He made a small noise that reminded me of Prowl when he was dealing with the twins. "It would appear to look like that, yes."

I looked at Ratchet now, optics wide. "Ratchet, it's a blob."

He scowled at me. "We just clarified that, Nicole."

I gestured back to the x-ray. "Exactly. A blob."

The medic sighed. "I fail to see the point here."

"Are your scanner lens clean? Because it could just be a blob on the lens…"

Ratchet looked like I had just insulted his title of CMO. Then again, I sort of had.

"Nicole Witwicky, I assure you that my lens are clean. Besides, a blob on the lens would not even look like that." He emphasized on 'that' by pointing at it with a little more enthusiasm than necessary and his finger went straight through the hologram.

I was torn by a sudden urge to either scowl in irritation or start giggling like Taylor after too many glasses of wine. My laughter ended up winning.

Ratchet gave me quite an odd look, but went on. "I am the medic here, and if I say that is more than a blob, it is. Got that?"

I tried hard to stop laughing. I really did. All I could really do was grin. "Sure, Ratchet. Whatever you say."

"So you'll open your spark chamber so I can look?"

I got a little more serious at that. Absently, my servo reached up to stop right above my spark. I trusted Ratchet, of course. But no bot likes the feeling of having their spark chamber open and exposed.

I sighed, but accepted my fate and laid back down. "Fine. Go ahead."

I shut my holoform off (another sigh at that particular part as I watched my recently full Energon reserves drop a quarter) and sent the commands to unlock my chestplates and open. It took a bit longer to open my spark chamber, since there's just about a million pop-ups that appear on my HUD, warning against opening my spark chamber. But as I did, I heard Ratchet send a command to the doors to lock so no one could walk in unexpectedly. The lights remained dim since he would be able to see from the light of my spark. I half wished he'd turn them back on, because it gave me an ominous feeling and that was never good, especially since it was making me feel sick to my tanks again.

"Are you ready, Nicole?" Ratchet asked. I was barely able to see him through the pop-ups.

"Yep," I said with a slight smile as I continued shutting the pop-ups.

My spark chamber opened and bright white light lit up Ratchet's faceplates. In the year and a half since I had died, I'd come across quite a few differences between me and every other bot. One of the things I had learned was the difference in sparks. A regular bot's spark was a bright blue color, almost like the Autobot's optics. Even the D-Cons had blue sparks. The Primes had silver-colored sparks, so Optimus had a silver spark. And me? I had a pure white spark, the color of fresh snow. That was how Barricade had described it.

Something about my spark seemed to enchant anyone who looked at it. The few times I had spark merged with Barricade, I had had to snap him out of a trance. I didn't know why it did that, but it made me feel uncomfortable to think that I had that power over a bot.

The only other bot who had ever seen my spark was Ratchet, and he seemed to have enough willpower to snap out of the trance himself. I was glad, because it felt awkward for me to have to do it myself.

I held myself still as the neon yellow medic leaned closer, humming in thought. He suddenly went still, very still. It was enough to scare me. Was it bad? Frag, I didn't even know what 'it' was!

Ratchet suddenly lurched back, bumping into the med berth behind him and scaring me enough to make me jump. "Ratchet?" I asked, starting to worry about the blank look on his faceplates.

The CMO wouldn't look at me. Instead, he was still staring at my spark. I strained to see it, but could only see the bright white glow. I gave up and looked back to Ratchet, frowning. I started to sit up. "Ratchet-"

"Don't sit up," he said sharply, servos coming to cover his faceplates. "Lay back down and just…give me a moment."

If there was ever one thing I never expected to hear from Ratchet, it was 'Give me a moment'.

But I did as he said, mostly because it was worrying me so much.

One minute passed. Then two minutes. Then three.

"Ratchet?" I asked, wondering if I should call Prowl or someone. "Please answer me. What's wrong?"

After a few moments, the medic lowered his servos from his faceplates.

And he was smiling.

"No," he said, optics bright as his smile. "This is most definitely not wrong, it's right! Nicole, you've sparked!"

"Wha?" I said as my processor struggled to process that last sentence.

Ratchet bent closer to me, still smiling in a very scary, non-Ratchet way. "Nicole you've sparked! Do you know what this means?" When I didn't say anything, he said, "A sparkling! Nicole, you're going to have a sparkling!"

...And the world abruptly stopped.


Me: *grins* Well, who expected that?

All Me's: *raise their hands*

Me: Besides you all.

All Me's: *collective groan and put their hands down*

Me: Good. Now, honestly, tell me if any readers expected it. Don't be shy! Even you lurkers out there!

Random Me: I don't see anyone.

Abusive Me: No shit, Sherlock. Can we add 'Stupid' to your name?

Me: Guys, would you all just shut up for a moment? Jesus, it's like trying to talk at a monster truck rally.

Random Me: OOOOH, I like monster trucks!

Abusive Me: No one cares.

Nice Me: I do!

Abusive me: You don't count.

Me: ...Right. But, anyways... So, if you liked this, REVIEW! I love reviews! More than anyone. And it you want to makes bets on the gender of the sparkling, go ahead. I'm going to put a poll up for it. And I swear, Barricade will be in the next chapter! Fluff... Yay. ^_^

All you LURKERS out there, I challenge you to review! Got that? Just drag your mouse and clicky the button there...