((Well, I can say that my muses for my stories are totally out of whack. I had a hard muse for AML, but now I've got them for all the other ones too. It's driving me slightly insane. But! I'm going to belt out a chapter for this one, and then go from there. Anywho, I'm doing a bit of a timeskip. Most of my muse was lost with what I had to do with Nightstrike- she's not a hugely social bot, and I really do need to build up relationships with her. But alas, I'm going to have to skip a fair bit of it. I'm going to do some experiments with skipping, so lets see how it goes.

I do apologize for skipping a lot of relationship building, but I'm trying to keep my muse. I'd rather skip a lot of that, then never be able to plunge through it. I'll try and gloss over everything a little bit- but no promises. I would have loved to explore each of the characters too… But on my own, keeping up with the muse is not something that was feasible. I kind of feel like I'm cheating you guys out of a lot of it, but… there's more important plot bits than here. This is only one stop on the journey, and many years are skipped through out the random blurbs I've written over time. Again, super sorry. I'm trying to get to where I can safely plot again. ))

Try as I might, I was always hunted down from time to time for some form of socialization between the other members of Megatronus' guard. Lithium was a mech I rapidly grew fond of, and I had little trouble spending time with him. He was great company- and had my back when I needed him most.

Time flew while I was down under the surface of Cybertron. The days whirled past, and if not for my chronometer, I would have lost track of the years that soared past.

I didn't get my first mission for several years- I had to work for the right to leave base. There had to be trust established, they needed to hone my skills and build faith between me and my new family. Eventually I came to depend on them- and they on me.

Not that I wasn't active with the other missions- but mostly I was used for my knowledge in toxins. Daze was one who used many of them. She was… scarily good at seduction missions, and she would come back from each mission successful. No one suspected the pleasurebot of poisoning, particularly when she could hide the vials of poison in her valve and keep it from being found upon body searches.

And no- for all of her flirtations, I never did accept a full proposition from her. I found that I rather liked my seals where they were. Curiosity could be sated with my fingers, if I had so desired, and I didn't truly find pleasure to be my cup of tea. Pain would always be my release for a long time. Daze and I had tried- but it just felt… wrong. She'd actually handled it very well, and neither of us had been upset when we'd stopped mid attempt.

Among my other uses, I operated as their main specialist for information extraction. It took time and patience- but I rarely failed. A few weeks with me and broken mechs and femmes soon begged tell me everything they knew, to please me and me alone. I was very, very good at what I did.

I still am.

By the time that I was allowed out on missions, I had been molded into the perfect soldier. I took orders and followed them- deviating from these orders was not something that I did without serious reason.

My first actual mission was a massacre. I had to target a community of miners and eliminate them, with Lithium acting as a watcher to make sure that I did the mission precisely and without error. It was sickeningly easy to slaughter all of them. I don't even know what they did- but I was ordered to kill, so I did. I did not ask, and was not told the crimes that they had committed. They put up some fight- but dents to armor were easy to hammer out.

I returned within a few days, having cleared out the mine for another group of miners to replace the old ones, and then found myself busier than ever. Successful missions put me into another category of work- slaughter. I took missions from Megatronus, and from Prima herself once my talents grew enough for her to have heard about it in passing.

I was the best at what I did- and I proved to be the only one capable of killing anyone. Sparklings, elders, youths, adults, newborns- if it was ordered by Megatronus, the spark was extinguished by my hand.

Perhaps it was this that… well, caused the end of things.

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The world was constantly changing above us- but between my jobs and my work in our base, I got to see very little of it. Every time I went topside, I encountered new and more dangerous weapons than what had been in the old days- and weapons began to hurt as they grew strong enough to pierce my armor.

So armor upgrades were the only thing that I habitually had to get, and that I knew about.

A knock came, and I was mildly surprised when Lithium knocked upon the door of my new room. As time had passed, I'd been given my own private quarters- a reward for all of the good work I'd done, and as a place to work on my more deadly toxins. After an incident with a new blood mucking in the corner of the lab that was 'off limits' to most of the bots, it had been sorely needed. I wasn't often disturbed here for personal visits- and it was out of my 'operating' hours. No one got issued missions in the dead of night.

So understandably I'd been surprised when Lithium had let himself in after, and offered me a quiet smile. "Hey," He murmured softly.

"Hey." The soft response surprised me, and I rubbed my palm against my cheeks tiredly. I should have been asleep- but I was toying with the toxins in my blood. "What are you doing up so late?"

"I just got in. Sorry I didn't ask if I could come in- I know you like your privacy."

"It's fine, Lithium." A wave of my servo quieted any more of his apologies, and I settled a calm stare at him. "Mission go well?"

"It did." he nodded. He approached quietly, and fiddled with something. Slowly, he offered forth a dagger off of his person, and he seemed almost nervous as he waited for me to take it.

I arched my brow ridge, but leaned a hand up to take it from him. It was well crafted- blade a type of metal that produced very little shine to it, and was sharp. A strange groove ran down the double sided blade, straight down the center of both sides of the knife edge. It gave the knife four technical edges- and it was a craft I had truly never seen done. It was… beautiful. "Very good craftsmanship." I commented softly, offering it back to him with a slightly curious tilt of my lips. "What's this ridge for?"

He motioned for me to keep it. "I got it for you," he admits. "I was passing through one of the town sectors, and… Well, it caught my optic, and I got it for you. The edge is grooved- makes it a bit sturdier for stabbing, but blade against blade wouldn't work well. The groove is for doing more damage on a cellular level- but it can also double as a way to put toxins into the body. Do you… like it?"

I looked over it again, and hummed. I could use it well- I had plenty of spaces to store weapons on my person, of course. Slowly, I nodded and smiled slightly up at Lithium. Behind my visor, my optics twinkled. "I do, yes. It will prove most useful."

He brightened exponentially and flashed me a grin. "I'm glad you like it."

"I don't have a gift to give to you though…" I murmured lightly.

"You don't have to," he flustered lightly, and grinned. "It's not your style, I know. I know you better than you'd think."

I gave him a flat look, and turned to rummage in my desk. I had some books I didn't use- ones on poisons and the chemical make up of some of them. They had private notes that I had written long ago. It would make an acceptable gift- some feeling tingled in my spark and drove me to return the kindness of the gift from him. "Here," I hummed, handing over an older book- and I realized it was one left from my uncle. I bit my lip. Part of me didn't want to give it over, but the other part of me wanted to pass it on. "I don't like to be given things without giving in return. This was my uncles once upon a time- and now I'd like you to have it. You like to read."

He accepted it gingerly, and ran long talons over the worn cover. Humming, the seeker flicked his wings, before giving me another smile. This one was warmer and… Soft. It made me flush, some odd tingle tickling at my toxic spark. "I will treasure it," he assured me. "From now until forever, I'll take the best care of it. Maybe I'll learn a thing or two about poisons, hm?"

"Maybe," I laughed slightly. "Maybe indeed."

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The gifts started out innocently enough, and then began to grow in frequency. It was always something I could use- a new untested compound, new beakers, containers for storage, blades to coat in poison for throwing, types or organic flowers that had their own venomous qualities about them- and for that I was thankful. Had they been useless to me, or some type of bauble or knicknack like Siphon liked to hoard, I probably would have thrown them out.

As it was, I couldn't return each of the gifts. Slowly I was forced to accept them without giving in return- and Lithium enjoyed just giving them. It was… odd. But it wasn't something that I could explain, really. I wasn't used to these emotions- I'd never had anyone to explain them to me, or to explain how… How this in general worked.

The gifts grew from there- as time passed and things changed up top, growing harder and harder for us to actually get work that fell into the category that kept everyone busy, eventually he had to change from gifts of items to gifts of physical affection.

It was hard for me to handle a lot of it- I wasn't… good with such affections. Pleasure was hard for me to take. It was a foreign and alien concept- but one that I was slowly starting to understand.

I couldn't understand his affection for me- or why he was growing to attached. Sure, I had begun to care for everyone as family, but… Love, after seeing how a broken bond had effected my carrier, was not something I really had wanted to delve into. Love was so easily tossed aside and betrayed. Sparks were far too easily damaged by such frivolous things such as love.

Still, I didn't push him away. More so that it didn't change our dynamic- he was the best partner in the field that I could possibly have. He proved to be the voice of reason that I sorely needed at times, and he had the morals and control where I did not. It came in handy when we went to remove problematic mecha.

He invaded my room often- and tonight was no different. He curled across my legs, wings draped over my thighs, as he watched me idly injecting various concoctions of poisons and actual drugs into my lines.

"So you're immune to this one too?" He inquired lightly, drifting his fingers up to brush my cheek.

I blew warm air over his fingers, and nodded. This drug was a newer one on the market. It created a sense of euphoria and peace when one was at the peak of the high, but caused a violent need for more with the addictive nature of it. It was a problem among the lower ranking scum of the new metropolis. They were being so strung out on it that they were literally decimating their numbers as they killed each other for more and more tastes of it. My job was finding a poison that worked with it without canceling out either the toxin, or the drug itself. It was causing a massive problem for Prima- and Megatronus wanted it solved swiftly.

And to solve it, I was going to be taking out the suppliers, and the ones addicted to it. That was the point of the poison- making the drug itself was beyond easy for our group. Once I had a blend that worked- that combined with the drug and actually changed the genetic makeup of my energon- I was to disperse this poisoned blend to the dealers in the cities, and wait for the mass death that would soon be erupting amongst the lower mecha.

Prima didn't know my method- and it was probably for the best. She didn't approve of how Megatronus handled a lot of the situations. Death was the easiest option, after all.

"Hm…" His thumb brushed over my visor, and he nudged it lightly. It didn't budge, but it drew my attention down to him. Optics glimmering at me, the mech smiled up. "Can I see under your visor?"

I shook my helm lightly, idly paying attention to the sensations inside of my arm. So far, no luck with the toxins. "No."

He looked perplexed. "Why not?"

I shrugged, uncomfortable. "I don't like showing them."

"Well… Can I see them someday? It doesn't have to be today. It can be whenever you're ready to trust me with whatever they look like. I bet they're beautiful."

"Hardly," I snorted. Leaning down, I bumped my helm to his, and then sat back up. "But thank you for understanding."

He simply smiled at me, and ran a hand up and down my lower leg. Touch came easier- he'd started simple. Little things like that didn't bother me much. He kept his servos professionally away from any erogenous zones on my frame, thankfully. "So is there a story behind this visor? Is it like the story of your toxic energon?"

A dry look flitted over my face, and he gave an apologetic touch to my leg. "Sorry, Strike. I know you don't like to talk about that stuff."

"I don't." I vented softly. A soft burning entered one of the injection sites, and I grimaced. Drugs are not something I enjoy in my systems. "But… I suppose I should share something with you. I know more about you by now, than you do about me."

"Well yeah," he chuckled softly. Gray fingers massaged at my plating, and my legs relaxed under his digits. "I'm a bit more open than you are. Not that I mind- it just gives me more to learn. I am a patient mech, after all."

A snort escaped me, and I patted his chest softly. Making note of the concoction of poisons that created the burning in my arm, I took a moment to relax back against the top of my berth. My doors felt cramped in their casing, but I didn't bother to let them out. They only came out for sleeping and for cleaning.

"Still, it's only fair. Hm… How about this. Yes, there is a story behind my visor, and my dislike of my optics. It's pretty boring though. You still want to hear it?"

"Of course," he scoffed. "Why wouldn't I? I always listen when you tell me things, don't I?"

He did- he was very good at listening when he could goad me to open up to something. It had not been an often thing- but over the years, it had begun to grow in frequency as he wormed his way though more and more chained layers of my spark.

"Alright… Well, lets see. I share a unique… condition with one of my makers. It's the reason that I keep my visor in place. The last time I withdrew my visor, I was informed of my status as a monster in society." I patted his chest lightly. "It's not as long as the story about my energon, I promise."

He blinks. "That was shorter than I thought it would be. I don't see how you're a monster- you're no more a monster than any of us. You're rough around the edges- and that's what I love about you."

I grimaced. "I wish you wouldn't say that."

"What? Loving you?"

"Yes. Nothing good ever comes from loving someone, let alone me."

It was an old argument- having stemmed from the first moment it had uttered from his lips.

Seekers were a forthright species. They developed strong feelings fast, and stuck with them stubbornly. A loyal seeker was usually loyal until their death- one who loved you would give his spark for your safety.

"Loving you wont be the end of me," he promised with a warm smile. "Just like loving me wont be the end of you. You've changed a lot since you got here."

"You've tamed me." Scrunching up my face, I give him a nonplussed look. "All of you have. A century ago I wouldn't have cared about any of this. But now… I am… helpless but to care for you all. It is a hindrance, but I find myself less and less bothered by it as the days pass."

"Caring for someone just means that you'll do your best to make sure that they're taken good care of."

"Caring for someone can leave you weak and incomplete."

"You cant run away from the pain," He touched my cheek gently again, and guided my down for a soft kiss. Those were rare and far between- but it warmed my spark none the less, even in as awkward a position as we were in. "I know you've witnessed a lot of backlash from love. But… loving someone isn't a bad thing."

"I don't know that I can, Lithium." I sighed softly against his lips, and leaned back up.

He shifted and rolled, moving so he could sit beside me. He lifted an arm and tucked me against him, careful of the needles and injectors that I had on the other side of my frame. "Everyone is capable of love. One day," he thrummed, "you'll feel it too. Seekers just find love easier than you silly grounders do, right?"

"Right…" I wasn't totally sure… But only time would tell.

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The greatest threat I had ever encountered came several centuries later. It wasn't something that I got to see a lot of- I took a spear of dark energon through the middle during one of the massive showers of the toxic crystals during a mission, and went into a coma as my energon had coped with the sudden influx of something that was literally an otherworldly toxin. It had flooded my body with power- but as it had digested into my lines, it had sickened me. The darkness that had flooded me… It had over taken me.

I woke several after the ordeal ended, and it turns out that I had literally been possessed by the darkness. They'd had to chain me down, and I woke up imprisoned in massive, heavy chains, and heaving up loads of purple-black gunk from my tanks. It turns out that it had been Unicron- and that the Primes had to stop him. The unmaker was something I had never believed in. But the paintings, the photos… They all depicted the exact same thing, with no variations to it.

It didn't help that there had been security feeds of the dark glow over taking my body. I had been a menace for the time that I had been under his control- and a sharp ruffling of my plating had me swearing that I would never again be swayed and controlled like that again.

My energon was never the same again though. The dark taint made me doubly toxic- and no amount of purifying from the few remaining Primes left could fix it. The bright spark inside my chest propelled a thick mixture of liquid death through my veins.

Being over taken by a massive evil god took it's toll. It wouldn't be the end of me though.

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I was called to the Lady Prime's office, on the topside world not long after the incident. Not my leader's, not the archivist, not anyone but the 'lady prime', as people called her. Prima was the figure head, while most of the others lurked in the shadows.

Not that I minded; I quite liked the shadows, and those few primes left enjoyed them too.

"Nightstrike," Her voice ghosted to me easily. She sounded tired, drawn. She was far too overworked then she probably should be. But she still made time to call upon me, apparently. How she got my comm, I will never know. "Please, Sit. I have an order for you, that goes above what Megatronus demands."

"I would rather stand, thanks." I sighed.

"I think you'd like to sit." She said once more. When I didn't move, she sighed. "I need you to eradicate Megatronus."

I sat.

"You want me to what?" My mouth slid open, completely perplexed upon learning that I was supposed to kill the one who gave me a new chance at life.

Prima scrubbed a hand down her face and crossed the other over the thin planes of her abdomen. It was vaguely swollen- and I recalled that she had recently had a sparkling. Very recently, in fact. She was still swollen, and seemed very tired.

She leaned back in her chair, and her optics glimmered at me with unhidden emotion. Doing this was killing her. "Our world is changing, Nightstrike. The people are beginning to cry for a more advanced government, with a member from every city on a senate. The senate would lead the Prime. Not the Primes. Just a Prime. And not one of us. It is time for a new era; the time of the Primes is coming to an end, femme. Megatronus is set in his ways; he will kill anyone to make sure this change doesn't happen, including innocent civilians. It is just myself, him, and our archivist left after Unicron, femme… I do not wish to start a war like there was almost before. Killing civilians… it is not below him. Which, as I have understood from enforcer reports, is what your squad has been doing anyways under his orders, hasn't it?"

Flabbergasted, I stared at her more. What the frag was I supposed to say to that? "Yeah… but… it's… It's always been for you, Prima. He loves you. He always has." As time had passed, it became clear that everything Megatronus did, it was to keep Prima in power and safe from anyone who would dare challenge and hurt her.

A single glowing tear fell down her face, optical lubricant having welled up via an emotion wrought leak. "I know, Nightstrike. It is part of why I simply cannot do this myself. I love him too. Forever and always, I will love him. But it is for the best. He would kill for me, femme. He would kill the people we swore to protect, and they in turn would tear him apart. I cannot watch that. And I feel, that you wouldn't either." Her vents hitched in something between a sob and a cough. "When you love something, sometimes you have to let them go."

I groaned and stared hard at the desk between us. Indeed he would… "It… It's just Megatronus, right? Just him that I have to take care of?"

She was silent, observing me with a kind of knowing look that I had grown to dread when it came to these Primes. "No." She said. "Everyone must be removed."

Everyone. I had to kill everyone. "Why?" My voice felt thick. Suddenly too thick. It was hard to talk, like my vocals had suddenly forgotten what speech was. "Why do you Primes take away everything I grow to care for? Why?"

"We do not mean to," her words are more drawn then my own. "It makes you stronger, and it means, when the time is right, you will find something that you love that will be something you will die for. Only when your time is right, will you know what my words mean. Even I know not what I mean at times."

"What if I don't? What if I tell him you wanted me to kill you, and I told you no?"

"You would die before you left the room, and I would try the next candidate, just as I have prior. You are not the first, Nightstrike. I have asked three others here before you. Bashdown, Daze, and Circuit. All of them refused, and all have been removed. You are the best at silence, femme, and you have grown obedient. You always have been the best choice for this. I know they know you sometimes roam the rooms and check up on them. I need you to use that trust against them, and put them to sleep for good." Prima murmured. "It is an order, Nightstrike. You are a good little soldier. Will you disobey a direct order?"

"No…" I sighed. Bashdown, Daze and Circuit were supposed to have left for a mission earlier that day… It was… it was little wonder that they hadn't returned back. It hadn't been a very difficult mission, or so I had thought. My spark pulsed tightly. "No. I won't. What of myself, when the deed is done?"

Prima stared quietly for a time, seeming to ponder that herself. "When the deed is done, you will be given the title of head of Spec Ops, until such a day when your services are no longer needed."

"Special Operatives…" A soft snort left me. "I thought that's what we were."

She shook her helm at me. "No. You were the rough draft. But it takes the rough draft to make the perfected version. You will serve the Prime, and the Prime only. Protection, investigation, surveillance. You won't kill an innocent. My Son will need you, when it is time for him to take command. I will remain in control until he is grown enough- and then you must come for me as well. Leave our archivist be. He, like you, will act as a pool of knowledge for the younger generations to draw upon."

"I will do as my new prime commands. Be that killing an innocent, or not." I mused. I eyed her. "Send for me when you're ready for death."

"Good… When you handle Megatronus, tell him this for me. 'What if our love never went away, and it was just lost behind words we could never say? This broken heart can still survive with the touch of your grace. The shadows fade into the light, and I am by your side when love will find you.' He will know what it means."

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It was dark, when I slid out of my quarters in the compound. I knew the first one I needed to handle. The one who I had become good friends with. Lithium. I needed him to numb me. The first pain, the first loss, would help. It needed to be him, or I couldn't do it. I couldn't… I don't even know if I can.

He was awake when I crept in, reading some stupid novel that I had gotten him some time ago. His optics flicked to mine when I entered, and he seemed to read the emotions glimmering behind my visor without even seeing my optics. "Nightstrike," His words were soft. They flicked to the dagger that I slid out of a slot in my armor, and acceptance and understanding flitted across his face. It was the same dagger that he had given to me a long time ago. "The time has come then," He murmured. A smile pulled at his lips, as he motioned me forwards. "I knew it would. I understand that you're under orders?"

"Yes," the words croaked from my lips in a near solemn and silent whisper. Sliding towards him, I slid up alongside his berth. I took my seat next to him, our hips brushing. My helm thunked gently on his shoulder, and I took a stabilizing and shuddering vent. "Yes, it has. For everyone."

"I see." He gently patted my helm, and reached up to pet my cheek. I leaned into it tiredly, desire to turn away and just not do this pulsing in my spark. "Can I make one final request?"

No matter what I wanted to do, I couldn't stop. I nodded though. I could handle one last request.

"Can I see your optics?" Lithium stroked his hand to my visor, and gently nudged it. "Please? While you finish me, can I see your optics? I want them to be the last thing I see. You promised I'd see them one day."

Emotion broke my vocaliser and kept me from speaking. Instead of answering, my visor slid up almost of it's own accord. Without my voice to speak for me, the multihued and storming tones of my optics spoke for me.

"They are just as beautiful as I thought they'd be." he sighed. He settled back against the blankets, optics never leaving mine. "Don't let them die, Nightstrike. Let the pain help them flourish. And one day, when you can love someone like I loved you, you'll let them sing for you."

"Yes." I rasped.

"That was weak," He murmured. "We've tamed you, femme. You need to grow stronger again. Let our death's strengthen you. Let us live within you. We'll protect you now." He guided me down and I rested against him, one arm remaining free from his grasp. Pressing myself close, I listened to his spark quietly as something broke down inside of me.

The knife was raised, and carefully pressed to his chest. He didn't fight me, as my arm tensed and slammed it down. He went with a quiet gasp, a soft whimper as his fingers jolted against my cheek, and slid down to rest on my leg. I held him close as his frame trembled, and he gasped raggedly against me.

Once his optics faded to dark, and the glowing slit that my knife had punctured eased to black, I let my visor slide back into place, and I slipped from the room just as silently as I had entered. I had a task. I had… I had to do it. I could do it. I know I could.

I could because I had to live for them now.

One by one, they fell to my blade. I crept from one room to the next, taking them out with a single slice. I didn't leave until they faded though. I held their hands, spoke soft words to them, until they faded. Once the last of my family died, I would become the bot I had been before. Once they were gone, then I would truly live again, wild and free. I wouldn't let myself be tamed again.

Megatronus was last, and he, like Lithium, was awake when I slid in. His optics slid to my visor as I slid from the inky depths of the shadows, energon coated blade in hand. Energon splattered up my arm, and along my chest. None of it was mine- and it was obvious.

"What are you doing?" He rasped lowly, ruby optics leering at the blade with a sneer upon his lips.

"My orders," I cracked softly. "I am sorry, Sir. But I have my orders. Please, don't resist."

"Orders from whom?" He sat up slowly, optics trained on the dagger as he set aside the knickknack he had been fiddling with. He, like the others, were wary of my toxins. No one had the immunity like I did- and any I had tried to train had not been able to withstand it. I had even tried with younglings. Every one of them parished.

I shuffled around to the side, wary of him but braced for an attack should he launch for me. Others had tried, and had been swiftly snuffed with kind words and gentle touches to guide them back to bed. To lay them to rest for one final time. "The one who told me to tell you this. 'What if our love never went away, and it was just lost behind words we could never say?'" His optics quietly widened, and the fight seemed to bleed from him. "'This broken heart can still survive with the touch of your grace. The shadows fade into the light, and I am by your side when love will find you.'"

"Prima," he sighed. "She wishes this then. She is the one who gave the order. I assume the other's are dead?"

"Yes." I nodded softly. "I killed them first."

"Save the hardest for last, no?"

I shook my helm with a rueful smile. "No. The hardest was the first. The rest came easier and easier. Are you going to fight me, Sir?"

He looked thoughtful. "I should fight you, shouldn't I? But… I don't want to. I am old. So is she. It wont be long before she joins me in the Well." Megatronus leaned back in his berth, and offered me his chest. "Make it quick. We don't linger with the kill."

"Only with the game," I finished softly. I stepped close, and drove the dagger down to seal the deal.

He faded faster then the others; he was almost gone as soon as I lifted the dagger.

It was done.

The old days were gone. Now, the new golden age was coming to be. Whatever came, whatever happened… It wouldn't be the end of me.