Disclaimer: We do not own Transformers or its canon characters. We do however own our OCs. Please do not use them without our permission.

Theme Song: Fire Fire by Flyleaf

The femme frantically rushed into the medical facility, blatantly ignoring glares that old veteran Autobots gave her. She still proudly wore the Decepticon insignia on her forehelm.

"Help! Please. Is there a psychologist here? Please, this mech needs help."

Emusa glanced over at the femme with Fastback at her side before gasping. She knew what those holofoil bandages hid. Her sire often bragged about the Senate's ways of subduing the rabble.

She turned to her sparkmate. "Knock, where's Rung?"

The medic looked between the group before bringing a digit to his temple. "Rung, do you read? We need you in the medical bay as soon as you are able."

"On my way, Cousin."

Fastback looked to the Decepticon femme. "W-wait, you're not gonna leave me here alone, are you?"

Her expression softened at that. "Of course not. I'll be right here, I promise."

Emusa winced as she met Fastback's gaze before glancing at the femme gratefully. "Thanks a bunch, girlie. Miss Masochist has been stressing me out with how worried she's-" Her optics widened suddenly before they narrowed as she scrutinized the femme. "Wait… do I-?"

The femme had a similar reaction. "E-Emusa? You're… red."

"You're a… Decepticon," she countered, still very much in shock.

During her bleak childhood, the only friend she had in the world was a young femme who lived on the streets named Abyssa. They met when she was running from the Enforcers after stealing a particular expensive part for some obscure device she was working on. Emusa hid her in her chambers and they were friends ever since… at least, until her sire discovered them.

He made Emusa watch as the Enforcers took her friend away and, at that time, the prison system wasn't kind. She thought she was offline.

She shakily reached out a servo and traced the thick scar across her facial plating. "Oh, Aby…" she whispered tearfully. "I thought he'd sent you to die."

"I thought the same," Abyssa weakly smiled. "Now, look at you. Free as a bird." She suddenly threw her arms around Emusa's neck. "Thirty voors and I can still pick you out from the crowd. Primus, it's good to see you."

"It's good to see you too, tinker," she softly replied, squeezing her old friend's frame to her, before pulling away and straightening. "But, we can have a reunion later. Right now we have a shadowplay victim on our servos." She saw Rung run over out of the corner of her optic and she immediately beckoned him over.

It only took him a nano-klick to deduce what had been done. His content expression vanished. "Trepan?"

"Trepan," Abyssa repeated solemnly.

Rung gazed at the youngling with pity in his optics before asking, "How? Trepan should be off world, billions of lightyears away."

"Starscream is behind this and he had us all fooled," she replied bitterly, gently taking one of Fastback's servos in her own. "Is there anything that can be done?"

"It… depends on the length of tampering. How long?"

"Not more than a joor. I got him out of there as soon as I could."

Rung nodded. "Then… have his creators come in. Their presence might trigger a response."

Fastback waved his servos in front of him, pulling the one from Abyssa's grip. "Wait-wait-wait. Shouldn't I get a say in this at all? Here I am surrounded by a bunch of bots I don't even know, and you're all talking about fixing me after only taking one glance at me? Why don't you start by explaining what's going on? I've heard the 'shadowplay' word thrown around plenty - but just someone slow down and explain things."

Rung glanced down at the mech before venting and gesturing to a nearby berth. "You had… better sit down for this."

Fastback took the mech's advice and sat down before venting. "What's the damage?"

His brow furrowed before he too sat down. He paused, inwardly debating on how to put it, before answering, "Not as bad as it could have been, fortunately. There was a way of sedating… what the Senate deemed dangerous to the rest of Cybertron. They endorsed a controversial procedure called shadowplay. Medics were given upgrades on the tips of their digits that allowed them to tamper with one's processor. This femme-" He gestured to Abyssa. "Rescued you from one such procedure. That is why the top of your helm was cleanly cut off and she bandaged you."

Fastback looked to Abyssa then back to Rung. "Tamper with the processor? Then . . . what did they do, delete my memories?"

"Not delete, no. Change. When she rescued you, what were the first thoughts that entered your processor?"

The Praxian lowered his helm as he thought back. "Uumm . . . helping Rodimus, being Decepticon . . ." He looked up at Rung again and shrugged, "My memories with the 'Cons?"

He offlined his optics sadly and shook his helm. "Now, I know why he wanted you for the procedure. He wanted to make you believe that you had always served the Decepticon cause, the cause that he is now apparently affiliated with." He softly placed a servo on his shoulder plating. "You were born here, in Iacon, to two Autobots. You went to that terrible place to help your best friend, Rodimus, in finding out who the leader was of the new revolution."

Fastback hurriedly pushed Rung's servo off his shoulder plating. "D-don't touch me." His digits traced a couple scratches on said plating idly as he looked down again. "So . . . you're telling me that everything I remember - Rodi being taken away, training without him, my memories with him . . . those are all fake?"

Rung slowly retracted his servo. "Not all memories… You were always friends with Rodimus, Fastback, but he was never taken from Iacon. He left here of his own free will and you insisted on going with him, I presume."

Fastback blinked several times. "This doesn't make sense. I can't remember anything about that - well I can't remember a lot, actually." He brought a servo to his helm. "Slaggit . . . what happened? What am I missing?"

"Shadowplay is a difficult thing to recover from but… I do believe this femme rescued you in time. Now that we are telling the truth however, it is entirely your choice whether to believe it." He paused before adding, "And, as I previously stated, it would be prudent to have your creators come to see you. Surely you remember them, don't you?"

He shook his helm, "I just remember living with the Decepticons and Rodimus." He motioned to Abyssa, "Then her 'rescuing' me, I guess."

"Then it is imperative that you see them, if not for your sake then for your carrier's… She has been terribly stressed as of late. See how they react to seeing you here and then you will see."

Fastback vented deeply before nodding, prompting Knock Out to activate his comm again. "Elita, can you send Plasmarift and Silverblaze to the med bay, please? There's someone here I think they'll want to see."

Optimus' sparkmate wasted no time. Almost as soon as they received the message, Plasmarift and Silverblaze entered the medical bay. As the former walked through the doors, she spotted the young mech.

"Thank heavens!" She and her sparkmate all but ran to the young mech, who hurriedly tried to hide behind Rung. Plasma looked to the psychologist, confused.

Rung looked increasingly uncomfortable and pained. "Please, be gentle with him. He… has been through much."

The couple looked from Rung to Fastback, with both their expressions showing fear and relief. Plasma knelt in front of her son. "Fastback, sweetspark, are you okay?"

He slid away from Rung, albeit slowly, and his optics darted between the snipers. "H-who are you?"

One could watch Plasma's spark breaking through her facial plating alone. She looked to Silverblaze as though asking what they could do, before said mech put a servo on Fastback's knee joint.

"We're your creators, bud. You're home, you're safe."

Fastback shook his helm, "I don't remember you . . ."

Blaze vented, his expression showing his dejection. "Don't worry about it, kiddo." He vented as he looked to Plasma then back to Fastback, "It'll be fine."

Plasma looked to Rung, "Is there . . . a-anything you can do?"

Rung took off his goggles and began to fiddle with them out of nervous habit. "Shadowplay is a difficult thing to cure… but he did have help." He turned to Abyssa. "What was your name again, dear?"

"Abyssa," she replied before venting and turning to Plasma sadly. "I'm sorry this had to happen and I'm sorry that I came too late. If I had known that Trepan was there, I would have never let him anywhere near your son."

The femme looked from Abyssa to her son again, her expression creeping towards despair. "The Decepticons took my first child, I refuse to lose my second to them. There has to be something - anything we can do." Coolant pooled in her optics as her servo clamped around one of Fastback's, "I found Silverblaze, I won't give up on you either."

Silverblaze stood and turned to Abyssa. "Despite . . . circumstances, thank you for bringing him back."

"I know what it's like to feel helpless," she half smiled sadly. "I vowed when I entered the war to never let that happen to anyone else again. We may have been on different sides but I think we all wanted the same thing in the beginning."

Blaze smiled, though it was wrought with fatigue, "I think I would agree." His smile dropped as he looked to his son, "Slag like this was supposed to be done away with, not embraced." He turned towards Rung, "Doc, you say shadowplay is 'difficult' to cure, but not 'impossible.' Can you help?"

Rung vented before putting his goggles back on. "I can… certainly try. But, it will take time, even with the little amount of time he was exposed."

Both snipers nodded to him, but were distracted as Fastback gasped and looked at Abyssa. "Not to change the subject, but do you think Rodi and the others are okay?"

"I'm sure they are. Starscream can't stand against Megatron and Optimus and your best friend is brave and strong. They will return to you, I'm sure of it," she smiled down at him encouragingly. "But, in the meantime, you should worry about yourself. The top of your helm is still missing and you're probably starving, hmm?"

The young mech vented and lowered his helm. "Mmm I guess . . ."

"Of course you do, little brave warrior," she patted his shoulder lightly before turning to Emusa. "I guess I'll be stuck here for a while, Lilith. Care to give me the abridged version?"

Lilith, the name given to Cybertronian bird-like creatures, and Emusa's codename when they were children. She tried to maintain her sarcastic facade but it fell short. After all she had been through, her life was starting to be pieced back together again. "Anytime, Tinker."

D/N: Man, between all the drama and the reunions, this was feely to the max for me~ Also, I hope you liked Abyssa. One of my headcanons on Emusa's Tumblr blog was that she had a childhood friend that was a street thief who stole electronics to make inventions, kinda like G1 Wheeljack. However, Emusa's sire caught her one day and turned her into the Enforcers. Emusa thought she had died and so she eventually stopped trying to make friends, until Knock Out that is xD

Teh feels!

And don't get me starting on Robots in Disguise. If you haven't watched it yet, you need to! It is totes adorbs!

"And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" Philippians 4:7

We really hoped you liked this chapter and may God bless you and your day!

Until next time, Dream'sRealm

B/N: Ey guuyys. Sorry to kinda put the juicy "oh noes what will happen to them?!" feels on hold, but maybe fellow Rung fans will appreciate it?

And I have to totally agree with Dreamy's assessment of Robots in Disguise 2015, it's legit. I admit I was worried when we just got a few short clips several months ago, but . . . Yeah let's just say that I've already rewatched all 13 eps multiple times now :'D it's smart, it's fun, the animation style is kinder to 2D fan artists, and the actors and characters alike are pretty much amazing. Seriously, I'm in love xD

Aaand me thinks that's enough blabbering for this time. Catch you guys next time - oh and have a lovely week 8D