Slanted = thoughts

Underlined = sparkbond

"No, no, no, no, no!" Quickshadow panics, getting up from her rock and pacing around. "Not now! Not now!" Pregnant? She couldn't be! That complicated things too much!

As she paces, she steps on her knife, cutting her ped ever so slightly. She winces and shakes her ped, her mind still on her sparkling. "No," Quickshadow hyperventilates. "No, I wanted to be a carrier, but not now! If Fracture finds out, he'll take my sparkling! My sparkling is in danger! I can't keep him or her safe!"

The white femme groans, closing her optics. "What will Heatwave say if he ever found out? He so badly wants to be a sire! It would be cruel to keep his own sparkling a secret from him. It is not that I don't want to have a sparkling, but I cannot take care of one if I'm going to die in battle with Fracture…"

{Flashback}

Quickshadow sighed, looking forlornly at the humans of Griffin Rock. "What's wrong?" Heatwave asked through their sparkbond.

"I want sparklings," Quickshadow said back, looking at the little children running around Horace Burns's statue.

"Annoying little things," Heatwave said, sitting down next to her. "The humans, I mean. Our sparklings wouldn't be."

"I don't think you know sparklings, Heatwave," Quickshadow chuckled out loud. "Our sparklings will be annoying, but we'll love them anyway."

"How many sparklings do you want?" Heatwave asked.

"How many do you want?" Quickshadow smiled.

"I decide after I hear your answer," Heatwave said, raising his opticridges.

Quickshadow chuckled. "Four or five, maybe. I don't understand how humans can have only one or two. Why don't they want more?"

"A, they don't live as long as us," Heatwave said. "And B, sometimes one child makes up for five. What I don't understand is how Chief Burns had three more after Kade."

"If we had a son, he might turn out like Kade," Quickshadow smirked.

"No," Heatwave said firmly.

"The two of you are very similar," Quickshadow chuckled.

"Not that similar," Heatwave shook his head.

"Would you want a son or a daughter?" Quickshadow asked.

"A son," Heatwave said. "So I can teach him how to be a Rescue Bot and show him how to be a mech."

"So you would be unhappy if you had a daughter?" Quickshadow asked.

"Never!" Heatwave said, shocked. "I would love a daughter. She might not love me in her teenage years, though. No mech will ever harm her. And if she tries to sneak by me, Chase will tattle."

Quickshadow laughed. "So if we had a daughter, you and Chase would try to protect her from mechs, while Boulder would probably try to give her life lessons on love. Blades would encourage her to sneak out and help distract you and Chase. Blurr would, too."

"They would," Heatwave shakes his head. "But none of our teammates would put our sparklings in danger."

"No, our sparklings would grow up with a wonderful family," Quickshadow smiled.

"If our daughter turns out like you, she'd probably kick a** out there," Heatwave grinned.

"That she would," Quickshadow agreed. "I can't wait until we have a family."

"Ugh, gross, stop making mushy faces," Kade groaned next to Heatwave.

"Got a problem?" Heatwave tilted his head challengingly.

"PDA alert," Kade rolled his eyes.

"What makes him think we're being lovey dovey?" Heatwave asked through their sparkbond. "We could be talking about chickens with guns."

"What?" Quickshadow frowned.

"Believe it or not, Chase and I had a conversation about that," Heatwave said out loud.

"Now I'm curious," Kade said, interested.

"We're talking about sparklings," Heatwave said, lifting his opticridges.

"You and Chase?" Kade said, slightly concerned.

"No, no, forget about my conversation with Chase!" Heatwave shook his head. "We're talking about sparklings. Having a family, that sort of thing."

"Ah, talking about ginormous babies," Kade said.

"They're not ginormous, you're just tiny," Heatwave sputtered. Quickshadow rolled her optics as her sparkmate argued with his partner.

{End flashback}

Quickshadow sits down on the rock again. "If I die in battle, my sparkling will die, too. I can't fight Fracture just yet. What if I wait to give birth, give Heatwave the sparkling, and then fight Fracture? No, that would take too long. And would Heatwave be able to take care of our sparkling on his own without a carrier? He certainly could, but it would be so much work. And I don't want my sparkling to grow up without a carrier…"

Quickshadow sighs, filled with dread. She sends a silent prayer up to Primus, asking for wisdom, for clarity, for him to send a rain of fire down on Fracture, anything! Something to help her out. This was dangerous for her and her sparkling! She couldn't kill herself and beat Fracture now. But she couldn't just let him wander around endangering her loved ones. Fracture had to be dealt with now!

"I can't take on Fracture for fear of harming my sparkling, but if I don't he'll harm my loved ones," Quickshadow thinks, trying to think clearly and weigh her options. "Let's see, I could wait to give birth and give the sparkling to Heatwave, then fight Fracture. That would save my sparkling, but it might allow my adversary to hurt one of the humans or Rescue Bots. I could fight Fracture now and kill him. But there's a possibility I won't be able to take him on and die in the process. Or I could succeed and lose my sparkling. I could kill myself, but my child wouldn't live… Would it be possible for someone to be a surrogate carrier? But even if I find someone willing to do it, my sparkling might be too far along. He or she probably already is if I can feel them kicking…"

Quickshadow sighs in anxiety and fear, not knowing what to do.

"Penny for your thoughts?" a voice behind her startles the bot.

She turns around quickly. Fracture stood behind her, casually leaning on the rock she was sitting on before. His sick grin said that he had been there a while. How long he had been listening was up for debate. "You would have to pay more than a penny," she says, trying to regain her composure.

"Oh, in that case, I'll guess," Fracture shrugs. "Thinking about how you can protect your loved ones?"

"No," she crosses her arms. "How I can kill you. It's between you and me, and only one will come out alive. That will be me."

"Even at the cost of your loved ones?" Fracture tilts his head questioningly. His red optics blink innocently, as if they were having a casual conversation about the weather and not about death and the murder of her family and friends.

Quickshadow stared at him hollowly, as if his betrayal had made her dead inside. It had killed a part of her spark, but she had never shown that to anyone; never dropped the act before in front of anyone. "I don't have loved ones," she says, depressingly. "Merely helpful assets who grew too full of themselves. Everyone I used to love is dead."

Fracture chuckles and shakes his head. "You're an amazing actress, Uncia, but I don't believe you. What character are you imitating, huh? Katniss Everdeen? That depressing, everyone-is-dead tone seems very girl-on-fire-ish."

"What? Don't believe me about what? That I don't care about Griffin Rock and it's citizens, or that I'm hollow inside?" Quickshadow narrows her optics, anger starting to rise. "I will protect the innocent lives who don't deserve to die at your hands, but whether that makes them my family or not is up for debate. I keep them at a safe distance emotionally. As for my spark, parts of it are missing. Maybe I'm not imitating the fictional girl. Perhaps her plight resonates with me in a way you can't understand."

"Oh, really?" Fracture raises a pointed opticridge, amused.

"That's what happens when you're betrayed," Quickshadow says saltily.

"Well, you've done a fantastic job at keeping your sparkmate at a distance," he sneers. The white femme mentally kicks herself. "Of course, you care about them," he continues. "You're the type of bot who craves friendship. Your type needs the affirmation that after all they've done, they're still loveable. You would be crushed if your loved ones died."

"You're the type of bot who's only out for himself," Quickshadow retorts. "You land yourself in a predicament because you want attention, but your attitude causes others to hate you."

"It's still attention," Fracture grins. "And I wasn't always out for myself, Uncia. I cared about you."

Quickshadow scoffs.

"Had you just given the Decepticons the information they needed, they would be ruling the planet and we would've been together," Fracture says in a sickeningly sad voice. "We could've been happy together and found love. Had a family together. We would've lived together and been cared for by the Decepticons. You just had to fall for the stupid Autobots, though!"

"So you were a traitor from the beginning," she snarls in hatred.

"I was lost in the beginning," Fracture frowns. "Believed the treacherous lies of the Autobots. "Help others and you will feel good about yourself!" All that gets is pain. Sacrifice. Is that really good for you? To give yourself up for someone else who probably doesn't even appreciate it?"

"You are so sick," Quickshadow gags in disgust.

"Oh, I tried their ways," Fracture says matter-of-factly. "I tried to sacrifice myself for them. I tried to be good. But all that got me was flashbacks and nightmares. As Soundwave and Starscream pointed out, as an Autobot, I was fighting for a life I might never live. A life I would have to give up, over and over again for the greater good. As a Decepticon, if I lived through the war, I would have a secure life. A good life that I created for myself."

"So you're saying you would rather save your worthless—" she shoves him back, "—hide than the future generations? You would rather care about yourself than help others have a better life?"

"What is the point?" Fracture hisses. "It's not like I'll ever get recognized for it. I'll just be another nameless bot who suffered. All for what, huh? Just so that another generation later the bots get ungrateful and start another war?"

"It's your type that starts it," she growls. "Your type wants power and money and will do anything to gain it! Your type who does not care for anyone but themselves!"
"I cared for you!" Fracture shouts, shoving her back. "I went against Decepticon ideologies to try to carve a better life for us! I rose through the ranks to give our future family a better life! But you threw that away when you attacked me on the field and stole my upgrade! You took away my spot in the ranks because I didn't have the same worth to the army without my powers! You ruined my work and my life all for what? A stupid cause that would've gotten you tortured anyway? We could've had a family together, but instead you go with some grumpy, I'm-a-selfless-hero-who-does-it-for-the-weak bot!"

"You. Did. It. For. Us?!" Quickshadow shouts, outraged. "Torturing me? Lying to me? Trying to kill my loved ones? Deciding what was best for me without asking me, for Primus sake?! That's what you did for the good of me?!"

"Yes!" Fracture yells.

"Look me in the optics and tell me that lie ONE more time!" she growls. "Let's get the story straight, we both know perfectly well that you were in it for yourself. Any care you had for me was aesthetic! You wanted a pretty sparkmate to show off to your Decepticon mates and sparklings you could raise up for appearances! You never actually cared about me! All you wanted was the image!"

"Well, I can't lie that you're not a pretty bot," Fracture shrugs, basically admitting what she said was true.

"You were the one in the wrong!" the white femme yells, pointing a digit in his faceplates. "You were the one who tortured me to save your own hide—"

"Actually, Megatron and the Decepticons did most of the torturing," Fracture butts in.

"You sold me to them!" she slaps his face. "You left me broken! You gave me nightmares that haunt me to this day and ruined my relationship with everyone else! Don't you dare think for a second you narcissist git that I ruined your life by removing an upgrade! Don't even try to put the blame on me! It's you! You and your horrible lies!"

Fracture sputters. "Of course you blame it all on me."

"What did I do?" Quickshadow shouts. "It's not me, you're the one who broke our relationship! I didn't betray you! I didn't torture you! I didn't lead you on and make you think that I loved you! You never loved me!"

Fracture swipes at her face with his claws, leaving blue wounds on her faceplates. "I used to love you," he says gravely.

Next chapter: Hero