Time Scale: Nano-click: second ; Cycle: Minute ; Groon: an hour ; Mega-cycle: days ; Orn: 13 days ; Steller Cycle: year ; Vorn: 83 year

Chapter 17: Fairy Tales

"Sentinel … Sentinel … Sentinel … wake up," came a soft voice, pressing back the dreamless recharge that had held him. "I know you are awake Sentinel, you can't fool me."

Beside himself, beside knowing that she was nothing but a nightmare that would not leave him alone despite the med chips and medication he was given. He knew she was an illusion. It wasn't like anyone else had ever seen her or heard her soft voice … It wasn't like anyone else had seen the ghost following him around.

And yet, once again, her voice was calling out to him in the dark.

"Go away," he whispered, choking, his hands becoming fists. He did not want her around anymore. She only brought pain, a reminder that the real Elita was offline. "You are not real."

There was a moment of silence, heeled peds stalling on the metal floor as if surprised. For a moment there was no sound, no ticking of rusted gears that seemed to follow her illusion and then, all of a sudden a vent of freezing air fell onto his face, her voice so close she had to be only a hand length from his audio. Frag, a part of his mind even told him he could smell sour energon … and rust, the smell of decay.

"Not real? I'm not real?" her voice was fast and unnatural as she whispered in his audio. "Tell me, was it unreal when you held me and made love to me? Was it not real when you called my name out in bliss? Was it not real when you confessed your love? Was my fear and screams unreal as I fell to my deactivation a few orns later? Did my death not hurt? Tell me … how am I not real?"

Her next words were biting despite how frightening and unworldly her tone had been moments ago, her voice again, sad and sweet, "Is the love you still carry for me unreal then? Tell me, does your spark lie to you so often, Sentinel?"

Swallowing, hating how she just knew what to say and how real her lips felt as she kissed the side of his chin, Sentinel chocked, "I do love you. I always will … You were supposed to be the one, but you are dead now. You are not her. You are just madness now. A bad dream. Go away."

A hand being placed lovingly on his higher chest, a head being placed on his chassis causing him to intake slightly in pain as she pressed on his scarred chassis, she chuckled slightly, "Oh Sentinel. I'm not dead. See, you can feel my touch … I am very real. Why don't you listen to me anymore? Why did you not stay there with me … in the bottom of that cave?"

Teeth gritting, a mantra playing over and over in his mind that she was not real and to wake up, Sentinel spoke as forcefully as he could, "You. Are. Not. Real! Just leave me alone. You are just some sickness that my processor is too weak to notice and fight off."

Hand petting his chassis, digging into a weld mark and making the Prime hiss slightly in pain, the femme chuckled, "And yet I can hurt you? Tell me, do you usually feel all your delusions? You certainly seemed to feel Optimus last night. You really liked him on top of you … you slut bot."

Sentinel wince at Elita's voice, her tone slowly growing lower and unnatural.

"You only think of yourself. You no longer dream of me, showing you my love!" she all but screamed, almost claw like fingers dragging into the weld marks in his arm, digging in. "Now you dream of Optimus and even fraggen Megatron and Soundwave over me! You betrayed me! You were supposed to love me until the end!"

There was a moment of choking on her part, like she was crying. Then, hand removed from the seam she had been ripping into, she started petted his face in a forlorn manner.

"Oh Sentinel … why have you forsaken me?" she whispered as she suddenly stopped petting his face, her form creaking like rusted metal as she seemed to look elsewhere, a hand suddenly on his expanding belly. Beside himself, he twitched away from her touch though he knew he was legless and couldn't really get away.

"I understand now," as she touched his belly again, rubbing it in almost a loving manner. "It's because of that thing inside you, because it's so much more alive than I am. Well, if that is the only thing keeping us apart … I will get rid of it. I'll even let you watch."

Then, before he could even tell her to go away again, his throat voiceless as he struggled to finds the right words, she was suddenly crawling on top of him, bouncing on his cod piece as if they were getting ready to frag. Then, after rubbing his belly for a while, giggling darkly, she was suddenly leaning forward, strapping his arms down before he could even rise them up. Not even wasting a moment more, she was then tugging the cord that had him plugged into the berth from the back of his helm which was watching his vitals. The berth didn't even put up a struggle as the cord came free, the femme likely going to do a sensory link as she whispered, "I want you to see this."

Before he could even put up a firewall to block the images, he gasped … the first thing he had seen in orns nearly making him sick. He could tell he was looking down through another pair of optics and at himself. His ripped up and torn up and weld-scarred self. His opticless helm had to be the worst thing. He looked like he was already dead.

Chuckling, Elita didn't look at his chassis long enough for him to take in all the grisly details as her shared optics looked down at the belly, Sentinel's swollen belly. For a moment all Sentinel could do was take in a vent of air. H-he was getting so big. He knew before the spark dropped the shell would expand tremendously, but was he supposed to be that big?

Frag, forget that, if he was that big … why hadn't the sparklet dropped down to join the shell?

Maybe it already had.

Primus … please don't do that to me.

"Primus has no say in this," suddenly interrupted Elita, somehow having heard or known his thoughts. "But don't worry … I'll get rid of it for you. And then we can be together … forever."

Her helm titling, Sentinel was greeted by the sight of a tray full of tools. Tools likely used by Aquila to put him back together … and some of them were rather sharp. It seemed that Elita had noticed this as well because suddenly a partially rusted hand was reaching towards one of the laser scalpels, her vocals laughing in near hysteria.

"I'll cut it out Sentinel. I'll cut this little beast out and eat it! Then you will only have me! And will only love me!"

"W-hat!" whimpered Sentinel, finally finding his voice. "Elita what are you talking about? P-please don't get near me with that thing … Stop. STOP!"

Suddenly struggling, a part of him now believing that she could hurt him, he watched in horror as the scalpel flicker to life, the femme's rotting hand suddenly coming down to his belly despite his thrashing. He couldn't help but scream as she started to make an incision, blood pooling.

Sentinel wasn't sure how long it had lasted though it felt like cycles when it could have been astro-cycles as she cut into him, warm energon pooling onto the berth as she opened him up. And all he could do was watch, her optics still plugged in and allowing him to see down into himself, a hole in his belly. And yet the worse seemed to come when the scalpel finally stopped cutting, Sentinel collapsing on the berth. The dripping torture tool placed to the side with all the clean medical tools. It had done its job, a slit in his belly. Then, rusted-long-horrible fingers waving as if excited, she reached down inside of him, prying him open and pressing the soft metal apart with squelching noises so she could see … so he could see the thing inside him.

A squelching noise louder than any of the others filled the medical room and then she pulled something out of him with a wet plop. It-it was small and tiny covered in energon and other fluids; its metal so thin that he could see its inner components clicking away, but most notable was its golden spark which was just like Optimus'. In fact, it looked like Optimus.

And despite the reminder of the little thing's sire … he found he did not hate it.

"Oh, look at you," suddenly interrupted Elita's voice, reminding him again how much pain he was in. "Beautiful and so full of life. I can see you are meant for great things."

She chuckled darkly, her voice no longer sounding like her own as long fingers, claws even, that no longer even looked like her hands petted the smile off of the sparkling so she could get a better look at the sparkling's face. Soon those black fingers were no longer happy with just looking at the sparkling. Her pets had become tugs her vocals now laughing in a voice that was most certainly was not Elita. Its words dark as the sparkling finally started to online its blue optics, the sparkling's first cries echoing in the room.

"My … look at you," chuckled a deep voice that was most certainly not Elita's. "You look pretty enough to eat. Tasty even."

Then, the sparkling moving up, the sound of a jaw opening, the feel of warm drool dripping down onto his chassis, Sentinel listened to the crunch of soft metal meeting denta … his sparkling's cries snuffed out.

…

Aquila, Skyfire, Graph and Sonic Trip were all in the Rec. Room of the ship that doubled as kitchen. Unlike Cybertron, Docker City's citizens couldn't survival only on Energon given they didn't have the resources. So crystals and digestible metals were usually added into the diet with oils and energons. Thus … someone had to be volunteered as the resident chef tonight.

Graph, wandering about as he tried to find all the materials he needed, was the only thing moving in the kitchen, the others all sitting around the table as they waited to see what concoction would be supper.

"So, how long until Restart gets here? He's still meeting us halfway, isn't he?" asked Rift Ring as she watched Graph slam one of the cabinets shut, seeming frustrated about something.

"Yes. He was worried about the dose of depressants and the age of the sparkling … Apparently, it should have dropped already," murmured Skyfire, seeing no reason to keep it a secret since everyone knew about Rift Ring's condition.

Sonic Trip, frowning for a moment, softly asked, "Do you think it has anything to do with the accident … or the sire? I know larger Cons … take longer."

Frowning, ignoring an irritating mumble from Graph in the kitchen, Skyfire shrugged, "Rift Ring hasn't said much if anything about the sire, so it is a possibility but if a mech that big had raped him someone would have noticed. It's not something one can hide easily when they are Rift Ring's … size."

All the mechs at the table shared a sour gaze, knowing all too well that if a mech that large had raped Rift Ring … he probably wouldn't have been able to walk away from that. In fact, he would have been a bloody mess between his legs so it was unlikely, because someone would have noticed. It had been a private affair given a medic would have done a pregnancy test.

An awkward unspoken silence filtered into the room, no one knowing what to say until Graph's slamming about the kitchen suddenly stalled, the mech growling, "Hey … has anyone seen the baster? I can't find the dang thing anywhere."

Aquila, who had opened a light energon filler as he waited for supper, actually choked on his energon, sucking it into his vents. The large mech then started to choke, Skyfire getting up quickly to pat his sibling on the back. Graph and Sonic Trip both watched the twins curiously for a moment before Graph put his hand up, grumbling, "Hold on, one of you didn't use it for an experiment, did you? That's cookware!"

The two brothers (Aquila finally stopped chocking) gave each other a guilty look at they struggled to find the right words to say when suddenly a scream echoed down the hall. Every bot went still and turned to look down the hall … Rift Ring's room just down the corner.

It wasn't the first time they heard the poor mech scream when he was pulled from recharge … it wouldn't be the last.

Predictable as of late, Sonic Trip was the first to her feet. She needed not excuse herself because they all knew where she was going. To comfort one lost soul. The three mechs were all silent until she was completely gone, the screams ending a few moments later.

Graph, sighing in gratefulness when the screaming ended, gave the two brothers an incriminating glare, "So … what did you two do with the baster."

Aquila, finally clearing his vents, gave Skyfire a look and then both mechs murmured in unison, "We have no idea what you are talking about."

…

Sentinel had screamed and screamed and screamed as the Not-Elita devoured a part of him: his sparkling. He knew that the true horror should have been when she-it cut him open, but the only thing that really haunted him was … her devouring his sparkling, hearing the slurping and the crunching as well as a small wail his sparkling gave: a gurgling noise.

And then the Not-Elita was gone.

He was surrounded by darkness again, a soft warm hand far too large to be Elita's entwining with his own, a warm hand wiping the tears away. A soft voice.

An alive voice.

"Shh, shh, it's okay Rift Ring. Everything's fine. You are safe … no one will hurt you here," whispered the femme, as calm and as strong as ever, her hand coming to rest on his helm. "Everything's fine, just fine. Just let your systems boot up and those feelings should go away."

Struggling to breathe, a hand coming to rest on his still bulging belly, Sentinel stumbled over his words, frightened as all hell, "It wasn't Elita-1. It was some kind of shape shifter, some kind of monster, and she cut me open and she … and she ate my sparkling! She ate it and I could only watch …. I could only watch. I'm going crazy, aren't I? I'm going crazy!"

Shushing the other, hand petting his helm, Rift Ring spoke softly, a part of her glad Rift Ring was now calling the pregnancy a sparkling instead of an it. It was a good sign as far as she was concerned. Though she was concerned about what Rift Ring was telling her about the dream.

It sounded like an old fairy tale she was told, a creature that survived off the deaths of the bright and hopeful: Unicron's shadow. Unlike Primus, his brother could not create life for he was the Unmaker. So, as the story goes, Unicron became jealous and angry. He could not take it out on his brother though, because of his thirteen powerful Primes, so he decided to make something else do his dirty deeds for him. Something the Primes would not see coming. Yet, since Unicron could not make life, he instead he tricked a heart-sick Prime for his great weapon: the Star Saber.

And then he cut off his own shadow.

Said shadow has ever since slunk about like the monster it is, under sparklets' berths and dark corners plotting and planning. It does so with its shadow skills. Beside's stealing the form of other people's shadows, especially those of the offline, it has the ability to see the stings of fate … and how he likes to cut them short; how he likes to end lives before they can be lived, to destroy the light of the bright and hopeful.

It likes to end lives before greatness can be created by them.

Remembering the stories all too well, trying to ignore the feel of a shadow glaring at her back, she placed a hand on Rift Ring's belly as well, soothing him slightly, "It's okay. I don't think you are going crazy. In fact … let me tell you a story about a trickster and plotter who liked to frighten carries like yourself to see if he could get them to miscarry. In fact, he was Unicron's shadow but he liked to be called … Sideways. Would you like to hear the tale?"

And so, she told the story like it was a fairy tale met to warn and yet calm sparklings before bed. All the while, her hand rubbed his swelling belly, the femme thinking of how important Sentinel's sparkling would be. After all, Sideways only came for the unborn and young that were promised for greatness.

XXX

Paw07: Just a short chapter, but important for Sentinel in its own way. Also, I wanted to hint a little bit more about what Elita really is.