Before you guys start reading this chapter I just wanted to let you guys know that this is not exactly what I originally wrote. I was a little worried about some of the content I was including and as I'm not entirely sure how well one of the original scenes would have been taken on this site, I have written this version. I will, however, likely post the original version of the chapter (along with the rest of the story) on a different site around September/October for Halloween. I'm really sorry you guys aren't going to get the original version, but I feel it's better safe than sorry right now. There might be a few other scenes in later chapters that will require this treatment as well.

If you guys guess which scene it is you get cyber-cookies.

As always I don't own the characters and didn't create this universe. Please let me know if there are any continuity errors or grammar and spelling issues. Thanks for reading!

"Wait for me!"

Thundercracker laughed as he chased after his older brother. Their carrier had brought them to a small park near their home in the southwestern district of Praxus. It was close to the Vos boarder, and provided an opportunity for Thundercracker to interact with other seekers. Today though, the park was empty except for their small family.

Grayscale had run behind some of the play equipment. Thundercracker tried to keep up, but he was still a lot smaller than the lanky Praxian. "Grayscale!" he called as he turned another corner.

His brother must have run ahead because he wasn't behind the play equipment anymore. Thundercracker stomped his tiny ped and pouted. Grayscale always ran ahead of him and never let him catch up. It wasn't fair. Their sire liked to say that one day Thundercracker would be a lot bigger than Grayscale since he was a seeker, but he still hated being so tiny now.

"Little mech," sang a voice.

Thundercracker twitched his wings and looked over to where the voice was coming from. A mech with red and blue plating stood behind a large crystal bush. He was waving at Thundercracker, asking him to come closer.

"Little mech," said the voice in the same sing song fashion. "Won't you come here? I have something to show you."

There was something off about this mech. Thundercracker knew that red and blue were the colors of Primus, but the colors on the mysterious mech's plating seemed different somehow. Thundercracker's wings twitched again.

"Come here little mech," said the mech as sweet as an energon treat. "Would you like to see the rarest crystals in all of Cybertron? Of course you do. These are very special crystals. They are the most beautiful red color you will ever see. Come over here little mech."

Thundercracker didn't realize he had started shaking his helm. This mech was creepy and his parents had always warned him to not go off strangers.

"Come with me little one," said the creepy mech. He took a step closer to Thundercracker.

Thundercracker didn't wait for the mech to take a second step. He turned quickly and bolted away from the mech. As he rounded the play set a huge cloud of dust whipped up and blinded him for a moment.

When he was able to clear his vision he was face to face with a small grey Praxian. He leveled a large riffle at him.

"Seeker scum," he yelled and just as the Praxian pulled the trigger Thundercracker felt another mech wrap his servos around him. There was a small pop and Thundercracker felt himself being pulled into one of Skywarp's teleportations.

He landed in a crystal garden. It was beautiful and the crystals sang with joy at his arrival. There were so many colors. He looked behind him and saw his family sitting on one of the picnic benches in the center of the gardens. Blue crystals surrounded them. Thundercracker started towards them, but was stopped by a small laugh.

"Silly seeker," said a small grey Praxian. He looked strikingly similar to the Autobot sniper. "You can't be with them anymore. You belong in the deepest of the pits."

Thundercracker slowly started backing away from the laughing grey Praxian. As he did, he saw the crystals start to change from their beautiful colors to a deep dark, crimson red. The color spread like an evil infection.

Thundercracker tried to run, but the red crystals spread their disease so much faster. The joyful song the crystals had been singing before changed to an awful humming noise that beat against his wings. In kliks the red crystals engulfed his family, causing them to scream in agony. Thundercracker closed his optics.

When he opened his optics, he was on the battle field. Starscream was crouched down at his left. "Slagging Autobots," snarled his air commander. "How the frag did they find a way to knock us out of the sky"

Skywarp took that moment to materialize next to Starscream. "That fragging inventor is becoming a bigger pain in the aft than those twins."

"No one is a bigger pain than the twins," said Thundercracker in a slight daze.

Skywarp turned towards his blue wing mate. "TC, are you still dazed from the fall?" he asked.

Starscream paused and looked over at Thundercracker. "Get your helm together," snapped the air commander. "We're not leaving you behind and you know how Megatron gets about fallen comrades."

"Frag Megatron!" snarled Skywarp. "Don't worry TC, we won't leave you behind."

There was another blast and Thundercracker felt himself falling backward. His wings hit soft mesh padding. A mech's faceplates filled his vision.

"Hey sweetie, how are you feeling?"

He knew that voice. It had been a very long time since he had heard it, but he could recognize his carrier's voice anywhere. "What happened?" Thundercracker asked.

"You fell and dislocated a wing," came the voice of his sire. "The doctor said the shock knocked you right out."

"Oh," said Thundercracker. He was too numb to really feel his frame, but his sire and carrier wouldn't lie to him. "Where's Grayscale?"

"Sleeping," said his carrier. "What made you try jumping out of the second floor window like that?"

"I wanted to fly," said Thundercracker. It was the most obvious answer. He was a seeker. Seekers needed to fly.

"Don't worry son," said his sire. "You'll be able to fly soon, but not now."

"Rest now, but not too long. You're needed," said his carrier.

Thundercracker smiled. He was warm and cozy. He allowed his optics to slide shut again.

"I said kneel!"

No, it couldn't possibly be that mech. He'd been dead for vorns. Thundercracker opened his optics. The room he was in was small. Two Praxians knelt in front of him, their servos behind their helms.

"Now, now, cadet," said the smooth voice of Air Commander Vox. "It's a very simple act. You just level your blaster and squeeze the trigger." Vox demonstrated the movement with his blaster.

Thundercracker felt like he was screaming, but no sound came out of his mouth. The two Praxians tried to act calm, but their shaking gave away their fear. Tears blurred Thundercracker's vision. He could barely keep hold of the blaster.

Vox smacked him. "Seekers don't cry," snarled Vox. "Finish your job Thundercracker."

Thundercracker felt frozen to the spot. He couldn't do this. It was wrong.

"It's alright TC," said one of the kneeling mech. "It's alright."

The room was spinning. Flashes of color filled Thundercracker's vision. He couldn't think straight. He wanted to forget. Starscream and Skywarp were there for a second, offering him comfort and support. Then a young grey mechling stared at him with accusing optics, demanding answers that Thundercracker couldn't give. Then he saw his brother with cold dead optics whispering to him.

"I forgave you a long time ago, brother," whispered the dead mech. "You need to wake up. These are just nightmares. Please stop torturing yourself."

Thundercracker awoke to darkness. It was difficult for him to tell that he was actually awake and not still dreaming. Perhaps his entire existence was a dream.

Sitting up, Thundercracker felt a brief flash of pain from his wings. He must be awake if he could feel physical pain. His processor felt heavy and it took him a moment for everything to come back to him. Yet something still felt wrong about his situation.

Thundercracker pulled out a cube of energon from his subspace. He silently thanked Gunner again for the supplies and took a long drink. It was then he realized what was wrong. He was alone, completely and utterly alone.

"Little one?" Thundercracker asked. He started patting the area around him in search of the sparkling he had found in his brother's townhouse, the sparkling that looked so strikingly familiar. "Where did you go?"

He was growing worried. They were high up off the ground. Way too high for a sparkling to climb down, but the young one was most certainly not in the alcove with him. Thundercracker quickly subspaced the remainder of his energon cube and started climbing down. His mind was supplying with all sorts of horrific scenarios.

Quickly, Thundercracker found himself on the ground floor. There was nothing on the ground. "Little one!" Thundercracker called out again. The sparkling had never given him a name and Thundercracker had never bothered to call him anything other than "sparkling".

"We can't play hide and seek little one!" Thundercracker yelled again. "It's too dangerous."

He remembered the creepy red and blue mech from his dream, the one who had looked similar to Optimus Prime, but different. That mech had been a product of his imagination, he had to have been. There was no way that a mech who had the reverse colors of Optimus Prime was out and about looking for a tiny grey sparkling. He wasn't even sure why his processor was jumping to these conclusions.

In a blind panic, Thundercracker stated crawling around on the dark floor. He could barely see and he wasn't able to feel anything on the ground. Where had the little sparkling gone? He couldn't have just disappeared!

His wings twitched. There was a slight shift in the still air. Was it another of the grey mechs coming for him? He took a couple of deep vents to try to calm his nerves. He pulled out his blaster from subspace. There was a bright light in his peripheral vision.

Thundercracker easily shifted into a defensive stance. He tried to shield his optics from the bright light, but he had been in the dark too long and was blinded. His finger flew to the trigger on the blaster.

"Woah, woah, I'm not here to hurt you," said a voice within the bright light. Thundercracker froze and slowly lowered his blaster.

The lights dulled a bit and Thundercracker reset his optics. It was a little difficult, but eventually the image of a small yellow mech came into focus. He was familiar.

"Thundercracker right?" asked the yellow mech.

"Yeah," said Thundercracker. "Do I know you?"

"I'm Bumblebee," said the yellow mech. "We were on Earth together during the war, though not exactly on the same side…"

"Yes, I remember," said Thundercracker. He had been a bit of a nuisance, especially with his human friends. "One of Prime's scouts. What are you doing here?"

Bumblebee nodded. "I'm here looking for my friend Bluestreak along with Commander Prowl."

"Prowl is here with you?" asked Thundercracker.

"He was," said Bumblebee. "But, now I don't want to alarm you, but these grey mechs took him. I don't know where, but I know he is still alive."

Thundercracker swallowed thickly. "You need to get out of here. I assume you have a ship that you can use for escape."

"I'm not leaving without Prowl and Bluestreak," snapped Bumblebee.

Silence stretched between them.

"I understand," said Thundercracker. "I'd do the same for Skywarp and Soundwave, possibly Starscream, but that would depend on how badly he's pissed me off that day."

It was a weak joke, but Bumblebee let out a soft chuckle. "I'm glad you understand," he said.

"On a different note," said Thundercracker. "Have you by any chance come across a small grey sparkling? He has a Praxian build."

Bumblebee shook his head. "You're the first mech I've seen since Prowl was dragged away," he said. "What's a sparkling doing down here?"

"I found him," said Thundercracker. "In one of the destroyed buildings." He couldn't bring himself to admit he had gone to his brother's old home. "I had us hiding in one of the alcoves up there." He pointed up the wall. "I fell into recharge and when I woke up, he was gone. I was worried something had happened to him."

"Thundercracker," said Bumblebee slowly. "There's no way a sparkling could have survived a fall like that, let alone climb down from there. Are you sure you didn't imagine it? There has been a lot of weird slag going on."

"No, he was real," said Thundercracker. "He had to have been."

Yet the more Thundercracker thought about it, the more he realized how absurd he sounded. There was no way a sparkling could have survived in this city without anyone else around. Not only were the dead grey mechs around, but the lack of resources would have killed the little one long ago. Then there was also the fact that he had looked so achingly familiar.

Bumblebee hit the ground with his servo. He then checked the area with his headlights. "Thundercracker," he said. "There's no sign of anyone but you and me."

Thundercracker rubbed the side of his helm. "Maybe I did imagine it," he said. "I never should have come back."

"Why did you?" asked Bumblebee. Thundercracker was obviously stressed and Bumblebee wouldn't be able to find Prowl or Bluestreak without first calming the seeker down.

Thundercracker bit his lip. Could he tell Bumblebee the real reason he had returned or would he think he was crazy? Well zombies were apparently real, so why not ghosts as well?

"I had a dream," said Thundercracker slowly, "where a mech asked me to come back."

"A dream?" asked Bumblebee.

"I know it sounds crazy," admitted Thundercracker. "But it made sense at the time."

Bumblebee nodded. "Needed some sort of closure before we start rebuilding?"

"Atonement," said Thundercracker. "I grew up in Praxus. It was my home."

"And yet it was the Decepticons who destroyed it," said Bumblebee.

Thundercracker shuttered. "I've regretted my actions every orn since, so has Starscream. And if you're wondering about Skywarp, he wasn't here that day. He was too young to fight back then."

"A child of war," said Bumblebee. "I've known more than one."

"If I remember right, you are one as well," said Thundercracker.

"I don't know what you're talking about," said Bumblebee defensively.

"Maybe it was a different yellow minibot sparkling and grey Praxian youngling that Soundwave found in a crashed ship," said Thundercracker. "My mind has been playing a lot of tricks on me lately."

Now that Thundercracker had calmed down, Bumblebee was ready to continue his search. He quickly scanned the seeker for any signs of injury. "Are your wings the only things that are damaged?" he asked.

"Yeah, I can't fly," admitted Thundercracker.

"Any ideas as to where to go right now?"

Bang!

"What was that?" asked both mechs at the same time. Their optics met.

Bang!

Thundercracker felt something stir in his spark, feelings he hadn't felt in a long time.

"Hello?" called Bumblebee. "Is someone there?"

Bang! Bang!

"I'm guessing that's a yes," said Bumblebee. "Can you tell us who you are?"

The feeling of love and sadness grew in Thundercracker's spark. He didn't want to feel like this anymore. His brother was dead and only ever visited him in his dreams.

Bang!

"Can you at least come here?" asked Bumblebee.

Bang!

"He can't," said Thundercracker.

"Excuse me?" said Bumblebee.

"He can't come here," said Thundercracker.

Bang! Bang!

"Can you lead us to where we need to go?" asked Thundercracker. The emotions flooding his spark were answer enough. He was overwhelmed with his own sadness.

Bang! Bang!

Thundercracker started walking towards the source of the banging.

"What are you doing?" asked Bumblebee. "That could be one of the grey mechs!"

"He's not one of them," said Thundercracker. "He's a ghost."