Chapter 38

"Alex!"

Gears stumbled through the wreckage. Panic gripped her heart like a giant black hand, squeezing the life from her, "Alec! Boys!"

Jo was across the hangar, hurriedly digging through what remained of the ceiling. The oldest of her little brothers was right beside her, helping. Shark was searching outside.

"Boys! Where are you!"

Her eyes widened when Jo straightened and held up the crushed wheel of a wheel chair. Gears stayed frozen, her insides turning as cold as ice.

"No," she whispered, tripping through the rubble to the blonde, "no, no, no, no...ALEX!"

She dropped and started to dig.

"He's not there," a metallic voice stated, echoing in her hollow mind. Gears kept at it though. She had to find them, she had to find her boys. Jo hesitated, tears in her dark blue eyes.

The autobot mech named Wheeljack stepped in through a giant hole in one of the walls, "Miss, there's no one there. My scanners aren't picking up anything."

"Then where the fuck are my boys!" Gears snapped, glaring up at him, "where are my kids!"

Wheeljack fell quiet. The black femme was behind him, with the most heartless set of eyes Gears had ever seen.

"You're boy was taken," she said, tone emotionless, "Megatron took him when that useless pit-spawned abomination surrendered."

Gears just stared.

Her brain worked through the femmes words slowly. She didn't move, even when Wheeljack turned to send the other a harsh look. At first, there was a cold shock. Taken. She said taken. Flashes of the battles on base four years ago began to filter past her mind's eye, images and memories that she hated. Her youngest son, spread out broken and almost lifeless in the palm of that stupid fucking jet's hand. How she had gone, as the twins said it, 'slagging berserk' and wrecked havoc on his body.

The shock molded into agony. It was a familiar one, one she had only felt twice and hoped to never feel again. It turned and burned in her heart, tearing holes and canyons like some hell-fire dragon.

And the agony passed on to pure, blackening rage. Because this stupid bitch was insulting her daughter, and NO ONE insulted her daughter.

Before she could process what she was doing, she yanked the wheel from Jo's hands and threw it, as hard as she possibly could. The wheel angled up like a frizz-bee and smacked the black robot right in the forehead. She snarled, "Don't you EVER talk about my baby girl like that again! I will end you! You don't know shit about Demona, so don't say shit!"

The autobot looked stunned, eyes wide. Gears huffed, turning her attention to Wheeljack, "Is it true? Did that evil bastard..."

"Yes...Megatron used your son, Alex, I think, to make Demona surrender...and he took them both."

The anger left her in one breath, leaving her empty and numb. The feeling left her legs, and she started to collapse. Jo stepped forward and caught her, pulling her close and wrapping both arms around Gears' body to hold her up. Jo turned her eyes up to them, "Where's Alec?"

"I don't know."

"Alec..." Gears whispered, "God, where are my kids...wheres my babies..."

"We'll find them," Jo promised, voice breaking, "we'll find all of them."

Gears leaned into her, squeezing her eyes closed, "This isn't...happening..."

Her body hurt.

Every step sent a shock of pain through her. One of her sides was torn wide open, armor bent and shredded. A wing was mangled, hanging down and dragging on the floor because too many cables and wiring had been cut.

But Sundance made herself walk.

What few human soldiers that stayed on base were rushing back and forth, shouting at one another. None of them stopped when they saw her. There was only a passing glance, then they were gone.

Smoke was still rising from the hangar when Sundance made her way inside. She stopped just inside, scanning wide, frightened optics over the destruction.

Where is she?

She strained to spot anything red, hoping with her entire spark that her mother would be there, standing beside the other autobots and tending to everyone's injuries since her daddy and Ratchet were gone. But Her mother wasn't there. All that remained was flakes of her rose red armor, scattered across the rubble.

She continued to look, optics scanning...until they passed across the giant hole Demona had made in the wall. She froze with fear, trembling.

There, directly in her line of sight on the other side of the hangar, was the crumbled pieces of the silver mech that had ripped through her in the skies. Starscream. A decepticon.

Her creators were trying to reach her, to calm her, but they both felt so far away...

"Sundance!" Someone called. She didn't reply. She couldn't even move.

Someone tumbled towards her, and soon the scarred arms of her mimi were wrapped around her. Sundance finally tore away from the seeker, dropping to the ground in a painful heap of sparkling. She looked at the human, "Mimi, where's momma?"

But her mimi was crying, and she wouldn't answer. She just pulled as much of Sundance as she could into her lap and held on.

:'(

Love you guys.

Demona and her family, Ghost, Shark, and the story belongs to me. Transformers does not.