To the 7-8 people who review like every time, thank you thank you thank you. You know who you are, you know I love you : D If you legion of non-reviewing folks would review as well, I'd love you too. But only 'if.' My love is conditional.

The point of view and the narrator are important in how a story comes across. So far, where Bravura is present/conscious the story has been from her directly. This means imperfect feedback, one-sided stories on her part, etc. All other characters (aka not Bravura) have been 3rd person. The 3rd person has been from a truthful narrator, so keep all that in mind when the narrative shifts, as it will several times with no warning. Many of you all ready figured out what is happening to Brav, and you'll understand why the narrative is vague, oversimplified, inattentive or downright out of character. If even after it's made clear why it happening it still makes no sense, point it out and I'll see about fixing it.

When you see the line 'I was ok with it' followed by 'the next day' that is where I started playing Make This Go On Forever by Snow Patrol while I wrote :)

We climbed up the side of the nest, where the glimmers of dark sky were easier to see. The stars were bright, explosive across the sky... I could see one quarter moon from where we sat among the leaves and branches, but the way the sky glowed made me think there might be a second somewhere.

"Are there no cities on Predaca?"

"There are small communities, but we have strict rules here regarding light and sound pollution."

"How many Predacons are there?" I pulled myself onto the roof the nest, ignoring the hand Sunstorm offered me.

"Forty-one. Mostly imperfect, but they're all small steps down the great road we walk."

A retort began to form in my thoughts, but the words melted before I could use them. How odd. Maybe it was the night sky, distracting me.

The thought did occur to me that Devcon had been hunting Cons a long, long time. He'd brought in thousands, I was sure.

"Your system is inefficient," I said moodily despite the strong desire I had to simply get along with Sunstorm.

"It's imperfect, much as they are. But every bot we change, we come that much closer to the perfect model for a Predacon."

"So if I would almost certainly be an imperfect technorganic, why would Divebomb want to breed me? Isn't that perpetuating imperfection?"

"With the right mech, you faults may be repaired in your offspring."

"The 'right' mech?"

"Someone much smaller… the rest remains to be seen once you actually take the upgrade. Divebomb hopes a naturally born technorganic will have qualities he has been unable to install himself."

It all sounded so ridiculous to me… but at least Sunstorm was not going to be expected to mate with me. He was too big. That was a huge relief to me. Without another moment's thought I gave in to my need to fly and flung myself skywards, transforming and blasting away from the tree house with a roar that shattered the tranquility of the forest.

Leaves exploded around me and fluttered away, some burning as they fell behind me. Sunstorm followed me, and something told me that if I were to try and race the mech I would beat him. I rose maybe a thousand feet above the trees and took off, relishing the feel of the wind and the way the moonlight shone brightly off the waxy leaves of the forest and the gleaming plains beyond.

I quickly discovered that Sunstorm simply couldn't keep up with me, that or he didn't choose to. I left him behind rapidly, heading north towards the equator as fast as I could without setting myself on fire with the friction…

The coastline appeared quickly, showing me the beginnings of a vast ocean. I turn on my bioscanners, looking for life, and was absolutely shocked at the volume of creatures living there at the edge of the sea. Flocks of birds, each individual the size of a cat, huddled together up the beach, sleeping, while schools of what seemed to be fish the size of my old Lotus Elise alt mode cruised along the edge, the whole mass turning together as a unit as even larger creatures flashed in and through their ranks, picking them off.

I could actually make out the schools and the huge predators with my optics alone. They glowed, fluorescent in the moonlight. I let myself fly low, just twenty or thirty feet over the waves, sweeping down the coastline to watch the phenomenon happening for miles.

Very little time had passed when something burst out of the water beneath me, lightning tentacles bashing into my underside with shocking force and flinging my sideways into the sandy beach.

I hit awkwardly, but the sand absorbed most of the impact. As I rose to my supports, wincing at the painfully gritty feeling in my joints, the creature rose from the depths it had fallen back into.

Not a creature. A mech. His marbled optics were beautiful, red at the center and radiating to a lighter yellow, nearly white at the very edges. The rest of him was absolutely hideous. Tentacles of an indeterminate number waved from his shoulders, which were level with his head, supported by a hunched neck. His legs with stumpy and rubbery, the fact that they could support his weight a marvel.

He looked beyond pissed. I turned and leapt in the opposite direction, transforming and blasting inland. His tentacles whistled behind me, the crack louder than my thunderous engines, but he missed me.

Sunstorm finally found me where I'd landed a few miles inland. My fists were clenched, my whole body was tense and Sunstorm immediately knew something was wrong.

"What happened?" he asked, getting a little to close for comfort.

"Some squid mech attacked me on the coast."

He didn't seem phased by my use of English. "Were you hurt?"

"No, just shaken up. I thought you guys were looking for a better kind of life. Why would he attack me?"

"Some of them… have spent too long in their beast modes. They don't remember what they were the way they should." A quick glance told me he was pretty bothered by the admission, looking up at the moon to keep from looking at me.

"Another kink to smooth out, huh."

"Yes." He looked down, forcing a smile. "Have you seen enough for tonight?"

No. I wanted to see Skywarp, Hot Rod, Mirage… I'd even settle for Tracks at this point. I wanted someone to trust.

"Yes. Let's go back."

Sunstorm reached up and touched my shoulder lightly, still smiling, then jumped into the sky and began to fly back the way we'd come. Reluctantly, I followed. If I'd had any guts at all I'd shoot for orbit and let myself be blown to bits… Maybe Hot Rod would jump to me before I died, and I could ask him to tell Mirage that he was right about leaving Earth.

I looked back at the memory with some difficulty. My core seemed… sticky, somehow.

"I'm afraid you'll get hurt out there, and there won't be anyone to help you get out again," he'd said to me after realizing I'd chosen Skywarp.

I'd joked with him. "We're going to fly off into the sunset, presumably."

"It's never that easy, little lady."

Why hadn't I listened? More than I ever had before, I suddenly wished I'd never left Earth, never followed Skywarp. After the way the Seeker had disappointed me… Everything I had gone through, everything that I was going to go through… None of it was worth it.

With a start, I realized that I hated Skywarp. My strained love for the mech had suddenly evaporated, leaving me feeling desperately lonely. It also left me feeling completely hopeless. The only mech who knew where I was would be Dirge… and he'd already made it clear he'd helped as much as he could without getting himself killed.

Even in helping me, the Seeker had taken what he'd wanted from me.

I suddenly broke away from Sunstorm, diving for the ground, landing so hard that grass and dirt flew around me as I slammed to my hands and knees. My fingers tightened into claws and I raked them through the soft earth, screaming my rage and despair.

"I hate you! I hate you all! I never loved you, you bastard! How could you leave me?! God damn it, why did you leave?!"

Sunstorm landed near me and waited while I screamed at the dirt, letting me get the worst of my anger out of the way. I pressed my face against the gouged grass and screamed into it.

"You used me… you both used me. You never cared. I did all the work, didn't I? I followed you, and then Dirge, he… but you only followed me because you thought I was a fertile femme… didn't you. That's why you left. Too nice to let me die, but- but you… you didn't love me."

My logic processor was strangely silent as I made assumption after assumption, but I was in no mood to be concerned.

"I don't understand you," Sunstorm said softly when I broke up, my vents humming with the air I was forcing out.

"Nobody out here does," I said ruefully.

"Primus understands you," Sunstorm said softly. "He is the only one who will never let you down."

The look I gave Sunstorm could only have been shocked and disgusted.

"Don't try to feed me your apologetics."

"It's only the truth, my dear."

"Whatever. Let's go back to the tree house," I grumbled.

"No, you're covered in sand and dirt. I have another place to take you first." He took flight without another word, and I had little else to do but follow again. Maybe Divebomb had a spa with an acid bath waiting.

It wasn't a spa, but it was an incredibly beautiful rock pool. A wide swath of water spilled down in a thin sheet from the lake above, fed by mountain rivers and springs. Giant trees ringed the pool, with huge rocks arranged randomly around and in it.

We landed next to the water, where my bioscanner told me tiny fish lived relatively unmolested.

"Wash off," Sunstorm suggested. "You'll feel better."

Walking into the chilly water was difficult. The rocks lining the bottom of the pool were slick with some kind of algae, so I had to take my time, but I finally made it out into deeper water. I came up to my chest, so I lowered myself in until I was completely submerged. The fish were mostly hiding, sleeping, but the way the moonlight played on the rippling surface was ghostly and beautiful. I could see Sunstorm's orangey opticss glowing from the water's edge. I shifted, swayed in the water until I felt clean again.

With a start I realized I wasn't afraid of being underwater. Hadn't it terrified me once, back when…

Back when…

I exploded from the water with a burst of thrusters, boiling the area immediately around me.

"What's wrong with me?" I screamed, maneuvering until the water would only be up to my knees and settling back in the water some distance from the flyer.

"What do you mean?"

"My memory core is malfunctioning. Something is wrong with me!"

"Calm down, calm down," he purred, splashed into the water, unbothered by the slippery rocks, and took my hands. "Is that the only malfunction you've detected?"

I quivered with anger, but nodded. He didn't seem concerned at all!

"We'll have Divebomb look at you in the morning. No need to go waking him up in the middle of the night."

My fingers twitched in his hands as I tried to find the reason why I didn't want Divebomb to look at me. I just didn't…

"It's probably nothing," I said, forcing an abrupt smile. "Really, we don't need to bother him at all. It's nothing."

Sunstorm stared down at me, confused and maybe even a little… amused? He thought this was funny?

I pulled my hands out of his, slipping slightly on the slimy rocks. I overcorrected and heaved sideways, pitching myself into the shallow water. The rocks didn't hurt me, just my pride, and Sunstorm laughed over me. As he bent down to help me up I splashed him in aggravation, but he only laughed again and swept a handful of water into my face.

The playfulness of the big flyer shocked me for a second, until an equally playful piece of me that had been snuffed for what felt like a long time surfaced. I judged how he was balancing his weight then threw my shoulder into the leg that was holding most of him up. He tumbled into the water with me, a huge splash bursting up as his wings slapped the water.

He reached for me, still laughing, but I dove for the deeper water closer to the waterfall, ducking behind one of the tall thin boulders that stood in the water. He came after me, and soon we were wrestling around mostly submerged.

It never occurred to me to hate him as he was laughing like that. I could even hear him under the water… He sounded so happy.

Eventually they calmed down, and she could see by the way he held himself that he was tired. He was on the day-night schedule, unlike Bravura. Why wasn't she? She tried to think about it, but Sunstorm pulled her concentration away by helping her out of the pool.

One of the thin boulders lay on its side near the edge of the water, so they climbed up on to it so that she could let the water drain from her vents. Sunstorm didn't seem to have a problem with water getting into awkward places.

He looked at her closely, smiling back when she gave him a shy grin.

"You're feeling much better," he said knowingly.

"Oh yes," she said. "I feel wonderful."

I woke up with my processor aching. I gave an involuntary groan, curling on my side and clutching the sides of my helm. The bright light only made it worse.

"Good morning. Afternoon, really."

I gave a jerk, flung my upper body up from where I had been recharging and searched for Sunstorm, my instincts screaming to run.

He was standing right over me, holding a blue energon cube.

"Here," he said, offering me the cube. "We flew all night, you could probably use this."

I checked my levels… He was right, I'd used a huge amount of energy last night. What had I been doing to drop myself below fifty percent?

The solar energon was as good as the day before, and it filled me with the same pleasant feeling. My aching processor even seemed to abate a bit, probably because I was distracted.

"Where did we go last night? I can't… really remember much." It was almost like I'd been over energized.

"We just flew, mostly. You insisted on racing me every chance you got."

"I won," I grumbled, able to recall leaving him in the dust before the squid mech.

"Yes," he said amiably. "Would you like to do anything today, or just stay here?"

"I don't know," I said immediately. I didn't feel like making any decisions right now.

"We can just stay here and relax. Normally I'd have a few duties to attend, but Divebomb's given me leave until you're settled in."

It occurred to me to wonder where I'd fallen asleep. I was on the single large pallet.

"The recharging arrangement isn't going to work," I informed Sunstorm cautiously. "I need a place to myself."

"Yes, I realized that last night. I'm sending for one to be built and installed, until then I'll rest on the floor."

What? The freak mech was being chivalrous? I rebelled against letting him seem like the good guy.

"No, I'll take the floor. It's your tree house."

"As my nest it is my responsibility to see that you are comfortable. It will only be a night or two, don't fret."

Don't fret. I sighed and looked down at the almost empty cube of energon in my hands, swishing the glowing liquid from corner to corner. I lifted the cube to my lips and drained the last little bit.

Every time I seemed to get anxious throughout the day, Sunstorm would simply offer me a cube and a meaningless piece of robot scripture before picking up a datapad from his extremely orderly desk.

I was ok with it.

The next day, Bravura left the nest early to watch the sun rise. It sounded so pretty and nice, and the way the cool night air felt on her wings, she was glad she'd done it. The sun made beautiful colors on the clouds, painting them brilliant orange and cotton candy pink.

Rotating her view slightly, she pondered the strange markings on her wings. Red crosses. She rather liked the white paint, but without knowing what the marks meant she didn't know how to feel about them. She'd ask Sunstorm, he always seemed to know what she should do…

Time flew by for Bravura. She drank two cubes of energon a day, one after watching the sun rise and one before recharging. Sunstorm had installed her pallet near the door to the deck, because she liked the feeling of open air.

Sometimes she would remember things that confused her. Flashes of mechs, usually, but sometimes strange organics of varying colors but all the same species would appear in her memory and go away again just as fast.

There was also the matter of her uncontrollable emotional problem. She couldn't seem to get a handle on herself: Sometimes this other set of emotions would be happy like her, sometimes very, very sad… It was when the emotions were at their most miserable or angry that the memories were the worst.

A black mech with wings smiled at her while the sun made it difficult to make out his details… A smaller red mech cradled her to his chest before handing her to a blue one… She got the vague feeling that she should know them, should have an emotional response to them…

But all she could feel was happy.

Except when Sunstorm talked about upgrades. She didn't like that. It made her uneasy, because a little tiny voice would rise up and scream that to upgrade was to die. Don't fight, but never give up!

She didn't understand, but she couldn't imagine why she would lie to herself… So one day, when she'd been with Sunstorm a long, long time, he asked her if she was ready. She'd told him no.

Sunstorm had been very angry. He'd yelled at her, even picked her up by the neck and shaken her, then tossed her to the floor and flown away.

She'd failed her very dear friend. She felt awful, but… the voice had been so certain. Bravura didn't want to die.

He'd come back later, all apologies, and she'd gratefully accepted. She didn't want to make her very dear friend unhappy. He'd been nothing but kind to her.

She was glad they were friends. She loved when he talked about Primus. Primus loved her, and she loved Primus. She was sad that she disappointed Primus when she refused the upgrade, but she thought he might love her anyway, because that was his way.

She liked the rock pool very much. She'd fly there alone sometimes and just watch the waterfall, try to catch the darting fish in her bright fingers.

One day, her second emotions were reaching a fever pitch of anger and anxiety. The thunder of the water seemed to reach into her very spark, straight through her chest, and without knowing why, she stepped into the thin sheet of water and raised her face to meet the rush.

The vibrations woke up something in her that had been sleeping. She stirred a little, then felt the emotions do something they had been tried to do several times before, but she'd never understood why. All of the sudden, she felt a mind push into hers and seize her body.

Bravura! What the hell is wrong with you?!

She was surprised, to put it gently. He'd cursed, and in a language that wasn't Cybertronian. She understood it, but…

What… you… you're like a sparkling, the voice choked, suddenly horrified. It lifted her hands to her face, one finger lingering on some marks she hadn't been aware of. You can't remember anything, can you? Bravura, honey, it's Hot Rod. Your brother. Back on Earth.

The tiny voice that always spoke against the upgrade shrieked from somewhere deep within her, and the new one seized onto it, pulled it up and through and around her and shattered her…

I exploded into consciousness, standing in the waterfall. Hot Rod was with me, and he was holding me firmly. I could tell that as soon as he let me go my mind would slip back into sleepy silence…

Bravura, he choked. What's happened to you?

I don't know, I told him, scared out of my mind. I think… I don't know! I gave Hot Rod what little memory I had, a few random and seemingly inconsequential flashes, but I felt his outrage as he watched me lift an energon cube to my lips…

You're being drugged.

What are you talking about?

He shared his memories with me, showed me what I'd become for what had apparently been months. I'd been a simple-minded child, entertained by leaves blowing in the wind and idolizing Sunstorm's every move without understanding even a fraction of the scripture he quoted to me. A subconscious remnant of me had prevented me from accepting the upgrade, had occasionally tried to show me the only images I could still remember of the mechs I loved to shake me awake…

But the drug was too strong.

Don't let go, Hot Rod, I sobbed, suddenly horribly afraid. I'm alone. I don't want to be alone!

His intense sorrow wrapped around mine. Something had changed for Hot Rod in his duties, in his life, and I knew instantly that his responsibility was bigger than me. He would have to leave me, and I couldn't simply follow him. But he was hiding what that new responsibility was…

If you can't stay… kill me.

Hot Rod rejected the idea instantly. No.

I don't want to be a slave to these maniacs. Hot Rod, save me from this!

I won't kill you!

A moment's thought seemed to give me answer enough.

Ok. You just hang on to me, and I'll do it. I let my absolute terror flood our connection, not fear of dying but fear of falling into the darkness again. I don't think anybody is going to save me.

What about Skywarp?

My confusion prompted him to show me an image of the tall black mech with purple detailing, the mech I'd tried to show myself over and over.

Skywarp…

I couldn't remember it all, but I knew he'd betrayed my trust, given me reason to hate him. He should have saved me, but he never would now! My will rose up in a rage and seized my arms from Hot Rod, leaving the rest under his power. I freed my knives, which had been laying in wait all this time, and plunged them into my chest, my stomach, my neck. Hot Rod's tremendous will tried to stop me, but I was like the fox that chews its foot to free itself of the trap…

Energon rushed from my lines, staining the pool below me a foggy blue. Hot Rod was horrified, and I remembered vaguely in my growing emptiness that he couldn't be inside me when I died, or he would too.

How could you? How could you, Bravura?

As a final act of love, I thrust him back into his own body, accepting my fear and letting myself drown in the drugged mind of a child.

She hurt! Oh, she hurt! She stumbled away from the waterfall, frightening blades instead of her delicate fingers waving about… She activated her comm. and screamed her distress to Sunstorm, begging for help just before blackness welled up through her and pulled her down into the water.

I came to slowly, painfully, flat on my back with voices around me.

"She was nearly gone. She stabbed herself, she had the knives out and everything, Divebomb! But she sounded like she had no idea what happened when she called me!"

"Sounds like she broke through the drug. Increase her dosage."

"Are you sure that's wise? She's already drugged senseless."

"Do what you must, Sunstorm. It's for the greater good. Is that transfusion done yet?"

"Yes… she's conscious, Divebomb."

"Dose her before she becomes lucid."

There was a sting in my neck, and the terrifying darkness swept over me again even as I felt a happiness suffuse my thoughts.

Divebomb didn't waste any time in cutting off her knives. It hurt very much, but he said she had done a crime against Primus with them and they had to be taken away. She hadn't even known she had knives, so aside from the pain she didn't really care. She was just happy to be visiting Divebomb.

Did the narrative shifts make you uneasy? Did they just piss you off? Did you get what was going on? I'm being pretty experimental here, so feedback would be appreciated!

Also, I'm thinking of going back and editing First Impressions for errors and some inconsistencies, no big plot changes. Just a mention. R & R, lovelies!