Chapter 6

Sundance narrowed her optics, carefully scanning the dusty caverns surrounding them. Unlike the caves on earth, this place was dry, and was nearly bare of any spear-like stone hanging from the ceiling or sprouting from the floor. They were just wide, tall tunnels that the burrowers had dug beneath the moon's surface over the years they'd been living here.

She walked in silence alongside her mother, both femmes in tune to their surroundings with every sense turned up to catch even the slightest sounds or shifts in the darkness. Neither of them spoke, relying on their bond to communicate to avoid drawing the burrowers towards them. Though they were looking for the burrowers, Sundance really didn't want to tangle with one of them. No matter how fast she moved or how hard she hit, she always came out with some kind of critical damage.

Sundance had come to the conclusion a long time ago that she just wasn't suited for underground battles. Not like her brothers, who took to it almost like it was in their programming. Flashback lived for the battles he could find underground, purposely seeking out the insane 'bots and 'cons hiding in the moon to test his strength. Backlash was more laid back, and often only fought when he absolutely had to. Unless he was dealing with Viral, Backlash would rather turn around and walk away than start a serious battle if he could help it.

'Easy, sweetspark.' Her mother soothed through their bond. Sundance paused when she felt Demona reach through their stretched bond. She forced down a wince when the contact to her spark caused a stab of pain in her chest. Then she cursed Bloodstar and her trine again for starting the whole mess that landed them on the moon in the first place. Her brothers had grown up in darkness, and her family had been locked away up here for decades in their exile, with no one but the burrowers and the occasional decepticon or autobot for company.

Sundance had to put some effort into it, but she managed to respond. 'I've been walking these caverns since we first came here, and they still freak me out.' She stopped when they came to an abrupt 'Y' in the caves. Her mother followed, standing close beside her. Sundance added, 'I don't think I'll ever get used to this place. Which way?'

A sweep of red light before Demona chose, walking towards one of the openings. She said, 'Left. I understand, sparkling. I'm afraid of this place.'

Sundance tensed slightly, glancing at her creator in reaction to her honesty. Demona continued, 'It reminds me of the place I grew up in. The pit Megatron kept me in as a sparkling was very similar to these caves.'

Sundance vented quietly, looking ahead again. 'How long did you stay there, mom?'

'Until he called me to Earth, where I met your mimi and your uncles.' Sundance could almost feel her mother smile, 'where I met your father.'

Sundance's spark coiled tightly in her chest, pulsing with pain and guilt. Her family had been so happy on earth. Here, they were together, but Sundance could never tell if they were really happy or not. Flashback feigned it most of the time, she knew. Backlash rarely smiled or laughed, he had stopped doing both things when he was growing into his second frame. Her father was the same as ever, though he seemed more withdrawn in a sense. Her mother had been the only one that seemed to stay the same, at peace just being with Sundance and her brothers. It was the first time the older femme had admitted to hating or fearing their home, and Sundance despised herself for it.

Out loud, in a whisper that was so soft it could be mistaken for a breath, she said, "I'm sorry."

A hand pressed to her back, warm and comforting. A wave of feelings that was not her own traveled the vast distance between their sparks to wrap around her spark like a warm blanket. It hurt at first, but Demona eased the pain away after a few seconds, 'Not your fault, sweetspark. Don't blame yourself for things that you were unable to control or change.'

Sundance nodded, then stopped short when she heard the scrape of claws on moon-stone. Demona froze beside her, red optics narrowing in the darkness. Sundance's tail curled tight behind her, ready to lash out if someone was coming from behind. Demona extended her wrist blades slowly, the soft song of the sliding alloys echoing faintly in the darkness. Both of them stood, rigid with their bodies bent to move or attack. For several minutes, they stayed that way.

Nothing.

Sundance relaxed just enough to move, clenching her toe-claws in the moon dust. Where? Her processor worked hard, senses straining. Her optics slid up to the ceiling several hundred feet ahead in time to see a pair of bright, bright blue optics flicker online and squint back. Sundance shifted her entire body, placing one foot behind her with one clawed hand raised to guard her chest and the other hand lowering to the silver whip at her waist.

The burrower merely stared back, optics a pair of thin slits in the shadows. They opened wide again, then began to move. Sundance watched as the burrower calmly turned around until they couldn't see it's optics anymore. Instead, a faint blue glow outlined the bot's thick frame as it started to crawl across the ceiling. They remained tense until it vanished completely.

Demona loosened slowly. Her posture was still wary as she stared after the burrower. Sundance asked quietly, "Why didn't he attack?"

"I don't know." Demona answered in the same tone. She started forward again. Sundance followed without a word. They traveled deep underground, letting their instincts guide them as they navigated the mess of tunnels. For hours, they walked, and not once did they see another burrower.

At the end of the tunnel, where it abruptly closed off, Sundance felt her spark pulse with wariness. She said, "This was supposed to be one of their nests. Why the pit is it closed off?" She stepped closer to the wall and pressed her hands against it, half convinced that it was some kind of holoform or cloaking tech that hid the actual room on the other side. But the wall was solid, a few sediments of moon stone falling loose from the contact. A soft puff of moon dust rose between her claws. "Somethings wrong," She whispered, "this isn't right."

She'd walked this path a hundred times in her years spent on the moon. She knew that a wall wasn't supposed to be here. A cluster of Burrowers called this place their home, this was supposed to be an open pathway to their quarters. Sundance stared at the wall a moment longer before she looked to her mother, "Mom, this isn't supposed to be here."

Demona vented softly, "And we've only seen one of them. If this is one of their nests, their should have been mechs posted in the caverns to guard it. The only one we saw didn't even care that we were here."

"What do we do?"

Demona thought for a moment, optics fixed on the wall like she could see through it if she stared long enough. After a long moment of thought, she said, "We'll return to the ship. Your father needs to hear about this...Do you know the way out?"

"By spark," Sundance said, turning around to go back.

Demona vented softly, "You spend too much time down here. I don't know how the pit you stand it."

"Flash and 'Lash are down here more often than I am," Sundance pointed out, "they could walk you around the entire moon using only the caverns."

Demona shook her head slowly and repeated what she'd said hours earlier, "I worry about all of you."

Sundance smiled.

Jolt vented softly, raising a hand to press to his helm as he leaned over the keyboard to the main character that ran the crucial systems on the ship. It was finally quiet. He'd called Flasback back and sent him out on patrol early when Demona asked him to. Backlash, thankfully, was back in the med bay tending to his injuries properly. That left Jolt by himself in the room, to think in peace and occasionally day dream about crawling back into his berth for more recharge. The daydreaming never lasted though, because as soon as his mate felt it through the bond, she jumped his aft for it.

And as tired as he was, he couldn't bring himself to be angry at her for it, not even annoyed. Really, it just made him smile to himself. So much had changed, his family had been to the pit and back, but no matter what he could rely on his femme. She didn't change, or didn't let it show. She just continued to care for their family, continued to be the one he fell in love with all those years ago.

Jolt reached for her without thought, just to see where she was. His spark brightened when he realized that she was on her way to the ship with Sundance. He'd have her beside him shortly. He could feel through their bond that was was tired. Maybe they could retire to their quarters early. It had been far too long since they'd recharged together.

Jolt tensed slightly when the main monitor brightened and a pinging came from the speakers. At first, he didn't do anything, trying to figure out just what the pit it was. Then he remembered that it was the sound the computer made when someone was trying to contact the ship. Curious, he tapped a code into the keyboard to open the link. They hadn't been called or even used the ships communication system for years. The last time he'd even touched it was to make an emergency call to Ratchet when Backlash got into his first fight with Viral and came out almost completely mangled.

The fact that someone was calling him was a surprise, but what really got him was the mech making the call. Optimus' image appeared on the screen. The mech looked tired at first, but as soon as the connection was made and he could see Jolt on his end of the link, he smoothed his features out. Jolt raised an optic ridge, "...Optimus."

"Jolt," Optimus returned, "how are all of you, mech?"

"Fine for the most part," Jolt answered tonelessly, taking a page out of Backlash's book as he blanked out his expression and dropped any emotion from his voice, "everyone is still online and functioning."

"I was informed that Backlash sustained injuries while he was on earth."

"Minor," Jolt clarified, "he's taking care of them now."

Optimus seemed to lose the serious mask he tended to wear when around his soldiers. His optics softened, "How is Sundance?"

Jolt vented softly, spark tensing at the sudden change. He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest, "She's doing well. She finally finished growing a few years ago, she's taller than almost everyone here now. She's still strong, and she loves her brothers to the pit, but she doesn't sing. And she doesn't fly. She prefers to hunt on foot now."

"Is she happy?"

Jolt thought for a moment, staring at the slightly blurry image of his former Prime. So much had changed since the last time he'd seen of or heard from the mech. Most of the transmissions sent back and forth from the moon to earth were received and organized by Prowl or sometimes Ratchet. He still considered most of the autobots his comrades, his friends, simply because he had known them all of his life. However, Optimus was not his leader anymore. He respected the mech, but had decided a long time ago that he wouldn't take an order from him again. The choice was childish in a way, but primus, it was better than electrocuting the slag out of him. And that had been Jolt's first choice, before Sundance had claimed that she was willing to leave quietly. A great amount of time had passed, but Jolt still wanted to strangle the mech on some small, hidden level.

So when Optimus asked the question, Jolt thought about lying and telling him yes. Yes, they were all happy. They were all fine and happy with their fate, living on this chunk of rock that slowly rotated around the planet. Surviving in the cold darkness that was space, where the only light that reached them was the tiny dots of stars across the black sky. They were so happy that their sparklings got to grow up in this place, even though it had warped them in a way Jolt would never be able to repair. Jolt answered finally, coming out of his thoughts, "No."

A look of understanding, guilt. Sadness. Then it was gone. Jolt continued, "She still blames herself for what happened, and she hates this place, but she never says it out loud because she doesn't want her brothers to hear it, but they hate it, too. Flashback misses Solaris and Warhammer, and his spark is torn because the moon has changed his siblings. Backlash doesn't even remember anything beyond the point of arriving, and he's become withdrawn. Demona," Jolt paused to watch Optimus' reactions, but the mech said nothing. He finished, "she fears this place. More than once she's woken in the middle of recharge because of the nightmares it brings. No one's happy, Optimus. But we deal with it."

"I never wanted these things to happen." Optimus said slowly, like he was trying to convince himself, "I would have stopped it if I had the power to."

"You did," Jolt said simply, "but there's no use picking at old wounds. You called because you want something. And since you mentioned Backlash earlier, I bet it's because someone caught sight of him and Viral."

"...Yes." The taller mech came back from his thoughts, tone a little strained, "Backlash told Jazz and Hotshot that he knew Viral, and that she was the reason he was there. What are his ties to Viral, and who is she? Why was she on the moon?"

"Viral is a complete mess," Jolt deadpanned, "she's a femme that belongs to a group of bots we call burrowers. Burrowers are made up of mechs and femmes that dug deep underground to avoid the war or enemies, and they slowly lost their processors while hiding. There are ex autobots and decepticons among them, but mostly they were neutrals. There's a handful of small colonies of them on the moon."

Optimus shifted, narrowing his optics slightly like the new information disturbed him, "Why are they on the moon?"

"Backlash suspects that they were drawn here when the battle over the all spark was taking place. There's a lot of wreckage underground where old ships and pods crash landed. He thinks that the first ones landed here by accident, and then others came after when they sensed their energon signals. We agree with him because it's the most reasonable explanation anyone has come up with so far."

Silence fell between them as Optimus processed his explanation. Jolt waited, testing the bond with his mate again to see where she was. She was closer now, their ship was in sight. It wouldn't be long before she'd come find him for a lecture. The thought warmed his spark. As argumentative as the femme was, he knew she could never stay mad at him for long. Maybe he could drag them both to their quarters for a nap. Primus, he'd need it after this conversation.

Optimus focused on him again, and the one question Jolt had been waiting for came out of his mouth, "Why wasn't I informed of this?"

"Theres been no reason to."

Optimus' gaze seemed to harden, the way they did when he was about to start issuing orders in a bad situation. Jolt spoke up before he could start, though, "We keep the burrowers here. They're mean as the pit and they've kicked out afts more than once, but we know how to handle them. We patrol hourly and keep a close optic on all the colonies, and Sundance keeps tabs on all of their nests. Viral was the first one to ever slip past us, and we're working on figuring out how now."

"You need assistance, you should have contacted me as soon as you found out about them."

"Burrowers live in dark, cold places deep underground. They rarely come to the surface, so every battle we've had with them was in confined areas with no light. All of us have adapted to fighting them. You wouldn't know how to fight if they attacked you. Everyone suited to that kind of combat is right here. If you sent autobots up, they'd just get in the way." He paused, raising his optics from the screen and tilting his head to look over his shoulder when he heard the doors hiss open to the room. A tug on his spark told him who it was before the young mech stalked inside.

"I still can't believe that little runt!" Flashback snapped, "how the slaggin' pit did he know when to record my voice?"

Jolt smiled at his son, who was still acting hurt and angry over Backlash's prank. Jolt could feel through their bond that Flashback was really just in awe, asking the same question over and over. Jolt said, drawing his attention, "It looks like you've finally been out-pranked, Flashback."

Flashback vented heavily, then grinned widely, "I taught him well, didn't I?"

"Thank Primus it's the only thing you taught him," Jolt muttered, turning back to Optimus. He was still addressing Flashback when he asked, "How was patrol?"

"Boring as slag. Absolutely nothing happened. It was a complete waste of time...Hey, is that Optimus?"

Optimus was staring back at the mech through the screen, optics a little wide as he took Flashback in. He greeted, "Hello, Flashback."

"Sweet Primus, it is Optimus!" Flashback flew forward, nearly shoving Jolt out of the chair as he leaned in, "Man, it's been way too freakin' long! What's up at base? How's Solaris? Did Warhammer ever develop a processor? What's Jazz been up to? When was the last time Wheeljack blew something up? Have you heard from mimi? Is-"

"Flashback!" Jolt vented, "slow down, sparkling, you'll burn out his audio receptors!"

"Right, right." Flashback drummed his fingers along the back of his chair impatiently. A few seconds passed as Optimus tried to sort through the load of questions. Jolt glanced at his oldest son then rolled his optics when he saw the mech was about ready to crawl out of his armor. He thought, and he'll start in three, two, one...

Sure enough, Flashback couldn't keep his mouth shut, "So, uh, right." His optics brightened and he leaned forward again, "how many battles has Solaris been in? I bet he's one hell of a tough warrior now!"

"None," Optimus answered smoothly.

Flashback blinked in complete confusion, "None?"

"Theres," Optimus glanced at Jolt before returning to the younger mech, "been no reason to."

Flashback frowned deeply, then straightened and crossed his arms over his chest, "That doesn't make sense. 'Lash and I were practically fighting in our second frames."

Jolt's spark curled with anger when Optimus raised an optic ridge in his direction. Jolt explained, "There's no 'peace' on the moon, Optimus."

The larger mech was focused on Flashback again. He asked carefully, like he was afraid of the answer, "And how many battles have you been in?"

"Hundreds." Flashback shrugged at the look Optimus was giving him, "hey, mom and dad can't do everything by themselves. Someones gotta step up and start beating the slag out of the burrowers. Sundance has seen more than I have, and Backlash is the only mech alive that can keep up with that slagging crazy ass Viral..."

"...I didn't know this was happening."

Again, Flashback shrugged, "We can handle it. We're tough like that." He blinked and looked up towards the doors, then grinned down at Jolt, "Moms here. She's not very happy with you right now."

Jolt vented heavily, pressing a hand to his helm. "Nice talk, Optimus, but Demona wants to speak with me."

"I would like to speak to all of you again," Optimus said softly, "even Backlash if he'll allow it."

"We'll talk again," Jolt promised, then added when he saw the strained look in his optics, "next time something happens, I'll call you. I'll make sure we keep you updated from now on."

Optimus nodded, "Thank you, Jolt. Flashback, I'll tell Solaris you said 'hello'."

Flashback grinned, "You do that, Optimus."

The link closed with a final bleep, and the screen dimmed again. Jolt rubbed at his helm, "Primus, talking to that mech makes my head hurt." He blinked when he sensed Demona approach the room they were in.

Flashback leaned down and draped an arm over his shoulders. He was still grinning, "Mom's about to make sure that head ache get's a lot worse."

"She's going to have a bigger one after I tell her about your false identity," Jolt said, "miss 'pretty little femme'."

Flashback vented sharply, "Primus, I'm going to slagging strangle him for that."

And last but not least, a look through Sundance's and Jolt's optics. I'm about to climb out of my skin because I really want to get the plot going, but I need to establish family bonds and personalities.

I can already tell that Flashback and Backlash are going to be the easiest characters to write in this one.

Awesome reviews guys, please keep 'em coming.

Much love, tell me what you think.

Sundance and her family, Viral, the burrowers, and the story belongs to me. Transformers does not.