Decided to update. Hope you all like it. I'm trying to get back on track but we'll see how it goes. There's some dark stuff in this chapter. Read at your own risk.

(Ierena's POV)

Sounada had only been able to stay for a few more hours after we'd broken contact with my Twins and the others back on my Earth. It had been fun interacting with the femme but, as it seemed to be a running trend, she was very cryptic about what she actually did and other such details. I'd tried to get info out of her about 'Strikers' but she was an even harder cookie jar to open than Aurora was, which was saying something. Like Aurora, she had a buddy attached to her chest she fondly called Breilni. It was cute seeing Breilni and Harp catch up with each other. Breilni was more than happy to talk the older bird's audios off. She probably would have kept at it if they hadn't had to leave.

By some miracle Granny was able to open up another portal for her, and with a hug to both me and Aurora, I swear still not used to how weird they felt. She decided to whack Aurora over the head for some reason, before she left through the portal… Afterwards it was just us two again.

And so, seeing as Aurora believed I was now fully recovered, she decided that we should start work on teaching me how to control shadows.

Hopefully this isn't going to hurt anywhere near the level trying to fly did…

She dragged me back to the pond that she'd caught that giant fish in and set us up in a shaded area under the tree line. I stood there awkwardly, not really knowing what was to be expected for my first lesson. It wasn't like I even knew wielding elements was physically possible before I'd ended up here. So I was completely fucking clueless as to what I should expect.

"So how are you feeling? Are you stressed? Are you panicking? Uhhh… are you…" She was leaning back and counting things off on her claws, which was honestly a little weird to see. "Ugh, it was so much easier to teach Emily! All she had on her mind was how to turn all the chandeliers, lamps and tables, oh and myself, into cows! How she got that plant pot to 'moo' still defies science!"

I blinked. "The plant mooed?"

She shook her head. "No, the plant pot. As in the ceramic pot that you put a plant in! No one knows how she even managed to do it! It's made of brick, not organic matter, but brick! Razor's supposed to be the only one who can manipulate earth and he had nothing to do with it! Now we have it locked up in the basement so it doesn't mentally scar anyone! We don't even go down into the basement anymore because it's down there… along with everything else she's made which defies the laws of physics, nature, logic, reality… I'm still trying to figure out how she got that boat to float… without water…"

"How the heck did she get the boat to float without water…? And can I do something like that?"

"Ancients, I wish this wasn't the case but yes. Only different perimeters! Whereas Natures are the mad scientists, Shadows are the Victor Frankensteins."

"Huh?"

"Let me finish." She piped up, tapping her chest. "Now, you know me as me, right? Well, Water Elements, are pretty much the alcoholic 'The Dudes' from the Big Labowski, as in High off our ass and rolling in the dirt going 'the sky, it's... moving!' I should elaborate this is because more than half of our element here on home world has been tainted by those flowers, and as a result, means we drink more alcohol than anything else... I however, as the years on Earth have progressed, have become more and more... stressed? And so it takes a whole lot more to get me under... hence why, I can become... err... oh what's the phrase... ah! Drunk off my ass, from time to time... despite us not having asses."

Well that wasn't exactly what I expected but worse things have happened. "Well I guess it could be worse."

"Yeah the hangovers are worse! Feels like you're having your brain removed via your eyeballs. That is hell on earth!"

"Ok. I'll take your word for it. Now… we uh… came out here to do something important right? Because we went way off course… Like really… off course…"

Aurora nodded and sat down, before prompting me with a tilt of her head to do the same. "The easiest way to begin element training is through meditation. You need to clear your mind of all distractions and try to focus, then, once you reach a state of calm, you'll feel your element entwined with you. There is another way, which I've already used, but I doubt you'd enjoy me shocking you into using it again. So, we're going the safer way. This really should be the priority method of element training... oh well, too late for Cliff and Bara." She shook her head as if to dispel an unpleasant thought, closing her eyes and breathing deep through these slits on her neck. Gills maybe? "Just close your eyes, breathe, and think of nothing. Just feel your essence…"

I copied her and closed my eyes, taking a deep breath to try calming myself. This wasn't something I'd bothered doing before… it was like every little noise, such as the tree leaves rustling in the breeze, or the pattering of little animals as they padded through the trees, sounded so much louder in my head… It was almost as distracting as Sides when he wanted interface and I was trying to do something important.

Aurora huffed. "Drown out the noises, breathe deep and focus on the air as it cycles into your body and fuels your essence. It's a pulsating core at the center of your being. You can feel it if you try hard enough and focus."

Breathing deep, I tried drowning out the sounds again, but they were still a dull humming at the edge of my awareness. Meditation was harder than I would've thought… When I wasn't actively thinking about something my mind wanted to wander to anything and everything, which it was trying to do now. Memories slowly started trickling through my head, little insignificant ones from when I was… human... Or some of the bots and my time with them, their faces flashing through my mind.

My eyes popped open and I groaned. "Ok, this isn't working. I can't not think about anything."

She opened her eyes and looked at me sternly. "Try again, and if you see things it's going well. Let your mind be the maker of what you see and hear, not your eyes or horns."

I sighed and closed my eyes again, focusing on not listening to anything around me. It was hard because, from what I'd learned, Titans that had horns like me, used them to interpret vibrations. It was how we processed sound, and they were hypersensitive. So every little vibration was captured… I had to learn to shut them out.

So I focused on the calming breaths I was taking, each deep, even intake and exhale… I honed in on that sound, and its' calming influence, and used that to slowly start emptying my mind of any and all thoughts. It was like the world around me slowly faded away, not so much like I was floating, but like it didn't exist to me.

As reality faded to a dull hum that I was easily able to ignore, I became aware of a light, pulsating warmth in my chest. I focused on the ball of fire that apparently protected the small gem that was my soul itself.

"Now you need to focus on the thin veil surrounding your essence, and tap into your power on purpose this time. And please don't hit me in the face with it this time." She instructed in a light, quiet voice, so as not to distract me.

I did as she instructed and focused on the thin, tangible veil that I could actually feel wrapped around my essence like a cold blanket on a warm summer's day. It was so cold, like ice even, but I didn't feel the instinctive need to flinch back away from it. If anything it was cold yes, but strangely comforting to me.

A soft, lyrical humming started up, the sound seeming to reverberate at my core. I started swaying back and forth in time with the sound, like a pendulum slowly rocking from side to side. It wasn't even a conscious thought, and the cold veil seemed to rise and pulsate in time with it as well.

The sound suddenly cut off, and Aurora was speaking to me. "There you go, now they're moving with you."

My eyes popped open and were drawn to the thin wisps of shadows arching up off the ground in winding tendrils, each one swaying to the beat of the song that was still stuck in my mind. But as soon as I consciously realized I could no longer hear it physically their rhythmic swaying stopped instantly, and they just seemed to fold in on themselves and expand continuously.

Aurora smiled at me proudly. "Excellent, let's continue with this song for now, and raise the beat in a bit to something more upbeat, ok?"

I blinked. "Ok… Why are we singing though?"

"Because music is a key part of our culture and inner workings, and despite our size dancing was a common practice as well."

"Really? I bet it was bad for whatever structure you were trying to dance in though." I joked.

"The earth and metal elements built everything like tanks, that way they could endure our size and strength. That's why most of the structures that weren't horribly damaged are still standing… including the palace." She trailed off on the last part and scowled, the water in the lake started churning and bubbling, as if she was channeling her ire into it.

Obviously the thoughts of her mother were pissing her off again, so I pushed my own uncertainties aside and carefully approached her. I wasn't sure what to do… it wasn't like I could hug her, and I didn't know what she'd like, or whether she'd like any contact at all. So I sort of hovered in front of her, unsure of what to do so I just did what came naturally to me and rubbed my face along the side of her neck. "You're not responsible for what she did. We all make mistakes ourselves, but that's all we have to own up to. Not the mistakes of others."

She wrapped her neck around mine and sighed sadly. "I... I know... but... it's... I don't know why, I just... it feels natural to feel responsible, there's no one else to take the blame... except... except my brother... but he has no understanding of mercy, shame or guilt... so all the deaths my mother caused, rest on my back alone..."

I pulled back and gave her a narrow stare. "No you don't. You're not responsible in any way for what she, or anyone else did. That's now how the world works! The only one responsible for doing something is the person who did it! Evil doesn't run in your blood! It's something you choose for yourself! She willingly chose to do the things she did despite the consequences, well before you were even born! It is not your fault!"

"I was laid though... and... I was the runt of the cluster... Had the virus not been unleashed... I wouldn't be here…"

"Well then one good thing did come of all this death and destruction. Sometimes even in the darkest of moments there's one small glimmer of light, and that's all that's needed to illuminate the darkness."

She looked away dejectedly. "That may be true in your opinion... but being a runt in a royal cluster... especially the 69th, meant I was... meant to be ritually devoured by the eldest sibling... to purge weakness from the bloodline."

Before I could comprehend it my servo was slamming into her face, a loud slap ringing out as I literally bitch slapped the shit out of her. My mouth was running just as fast, without me even having time to form a coherent thought. "Just because those assholes followed that fucked up logic doesn't make it right dammit! I think we've all realized that your mom was a crazy ass bitch, who followed fucking insane teachings because she was a half brained fucking moron! So stop living your life by what that psychotic bitch would've done! She's dead and dying was the only positive thing she ever fucking did!"

She jerked back and cupped the side of her face, which had rivulets of silver blood leaking from between her claws. "B-But…"

I growled. "No buts! Can you sit there and tell me that all the fucked up ritual shit you've seen was right? That it was justifiable? That's what you're saying about what was supposed to happen to you! Would you side with someone that wanted to do that to anyone else? Would you justify it?"

She ducked her head away, pulling back into herself and looking out to the lake instead. "N-no… but… it still… it still hurts so much… to know I had so little value… Kiol couldn't even do anything to defend me… and he'd lost the will to even try to protect us… my own father was too drained… he just let Aunty Lia steal me away, didn't even try and convince her to take my siblings… I still don't know why she chose me… the runt of the nest… the others would have been far stronger and more capable than me…"

"Did you ever stop to think that the reason he gave you up was to save you from that?" I shot back. "Or did you think that maybe the reason that Grandma took you was the same? Just because you're the runt doesn't mean that you were never meant to match any of your siblings! A runt can grow big and strong with proper guidance and care! You're the only one that can set limitations for yourself! Not people who are long dead! Stop letting those stupid rituals and opinions dictate your view of yourself! There's a reason you're still here, there's a reason that we're all still here! Figure it out!" I was so angry, not really at her or anything, but the beliefs she was clinging to so strongly. Things that didn't have to dictate the life she lived now!

The shadows arching up into the air responded to my rising ire, shooting higher off the ground and twisting into one large mass above me. I couldn't seem to calm down no matter how hard I tried, and this seemed to cause more to slither down from the dense undergrowth, like wispy black hands seeping out of hell itself. As they came closer they slithered up off the ground like multiple winding vortexes being drawn to the billowing mass that seemed to fold into itself and become almost solid looking, before it shot forward and slammed into the ground. The impact caused the ground to break and shatter, a large crater forming within a second, as the area plants and life around began to wither and wilt away.

That shocked me, but not as much as cousin's reaction did. Aurora actually jumped back with a startled squeak, staring at the crater with an awed, yet confused expression.

I didn't really understand what the big deal was, besides the fact that the shadows had literally sucked the life out of everything. Now that was scary… But she knew grandma, so it shouldn't have shocked her much right? "Um… are you okay?"

She gaped at me. "You... that... it... it was solid... it left an impact! Ier! You... this is incredible!"

Now I was more confused. "It's… not supposed to do that…?"

"No! But... you did! It! Not even master Shadows like aunty could make their shadows have a physical impact! Oh Ancients above! This... eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" She suddenly flopped down on her side and started rolling and squealing. "Double backup! It... it must be!"

Ok… I was still kind of confused.

She seemed to sense this because she stopped laughing and sat up. "Maybe I should explain. You see, double backup is a theory from way back when. It declares that if a hatchling has two generations of the same element leading directly into them, then the theory is the hatchling has the potential of wielding a greater strength parameter in regards to their element... No one really bothered to look much further into it than that." She admitted. "In truth it's something that fascinates me, being the hatchling of a Light and Lightning element, and my grandparents being... oh Primus... a Light, a... grandfather on my mother's side was a lightning as well... huh... if I was one of their first thirty eggs I would of, in theory, been susceptible to being a double back up too... but that would mean I wouldn't be a water... yeah... nah... I'm happy as I am... and I went on a rambling tirade again... apologies... mind ran away there... let's try getting back to work with this element of yours, shall we?"

"Err… ok… not sure what all that was about but we might as well." I responded, watching as Aurora righted herself and moved back into her cross legged position, seeing as I was still in said position I remained as I was.

"Alright… so… hmm, now we've made the discovery you can solidify your element… err, let's try and see what we can do with it, sound good to you?" Aurora asked, gesturing to the crater at my side and the withered plant life around it.

I just nodded, if this stuff was going to help me protect myself, I'd learn to perfect it, I had to.

I wasn't going to sit on the sidelines anymore.

(One month later)

Aurora was practically watching me like a hawk for the entirety of our flight to the capital. Why were we going to the capital? Mostly me wanting to kick Gia's throne like Aurora did sometimes. It was the closest thing we had to taking our frustrations out on her, and that was better than nothing. If she was alive I would've loved to just drag my claws down her fucking face!

The throne room looked no different than when I was here with my dad, during the period where I fully assimilated… other than the bodies… no more than piles of rubble dotting the floor. Crystallized bones were sticking out of them here and there, and there was a musky smell permeating the room. Luckily bodies that turned to rock had no smell… otherwise it would stink even worse than dust and mildew in here.

"I was here in that… dream. But there weren't any bodies then." I commented as I sidestepped around one of said bodies. We were in our Cybertronian forms so it was much easier for me to move around, seeing as being bipedal was more natural for me at present.

"Most likely because your father didn't want you to see them and be traumatized the first time you two were actually able to talk." Aurora answered, seemingly unphased by the level of dead bodies she was stepping around.

"Well I would like to think that, meeting was already pretty emotional as it is. All the dead bodies would've just given me nightmares about what should be a good memory."

"Likely why he did it then, I'm not going to claim that I have any understanding of what goes on in your father's head though. He's an enigma hat cousin of mine."

I shrugged as we approached Gia's throne, still scuffed all to hell from being beaten on. "Well you probably have a better understanding than me. You've known him a lot longer than I have."

"Not really. You're both incredibly massive enigmas to me if I'm being honest. Your personalities are actually a lot alike, as in you take after him more than anyone else."

That actually brought me up short as I lifted my leg and went to kick the ever loving shit out of Gia's throne. "Really? I never would've thought I acted anything like a God… even if said God is my father. I thought maybe I took after my mom." I put my ped down and sighed dejectedly. How was I supposed to know if I was like her at all? I didn't know the first thing about her… I caught Aurora tensing slightly at the mention of my mom. Why the hell wasn't she being anywhere near as chatty about her? That was why I got the feeling she knew more than she was letting on and didn't want to tell me… "Why is it that whenever I mention my mom you just shut down? Wanna do me a fucking favor and actually tell me what you know about her?!"

"Um, well, I don't know what she was like, I just know that she's your mother, and was my father's sister. Hence why we're both cousins, and niece/aunt in the family tree in all of its' crookedness. And well, Praxi and Aunty have never wanted to talk about her, I've just been told to focus on the relatives you can interact with, hence why I don't also mention Auntie's mate, your grandmother. Does that make sense? Or was I just nonsensical in my rambling there?" She admitted, averting her optics to the towering walls around us, and the faint markings of what were, I assume, murals.

My spirits fell a bit at her admittance to not knowing anything about my mom at all… But then something else she said clicked in place in my head, and I gaped at her a bit. "Wait your dad is my Uncle?!"

"Yes, my father, Kiol, was your mother's older brother. He sent her to live with Liara to keep her out of Gia's greedy claws…" Aurora responded, while trying not to step on a notably larger stone mound, which oddly enough had rusted and mangled pieces of metal covering it… must have been iron. "Hi Zyriun." She greeted the remains casually.

My optics bugged out a bit. "That's my Great Aunt's fucking body?!"

"Well her remains had to be somewhere right?"

"You say that so fucking casually!"

"It's a habit of mine to greet her former body."

I glanced down at the mangled remains and was torn between shuddering and… I don't even know. All that was left of my crazy cat lady relative's old body was… shreds! "What the hell happened to her?!"

"She was double teamed by my mother and brother, and torn to pieces… and there were most likely a few other ferals involved as well. But, she held her own for a while and beat the shit out of them, like a badass."

Well shit… the crazy cat lady was a badass! Still… she was in like… a million tiny pieces… What a horrible way to die. "I'm gonna give her some catnip when I go home. She deserves it."

"For the love of the Ancients, please do not do that! Emily once did that and she went on a crazed, drug induced rampage that lasted for months. It was not pretty…"

I held my servos up. "Point taken. No catnip for the crazy cat lady."

"Thank you. Something about the chemicals in that stuff is really bad for us. Who would've thought that something that evolved on Earth of all places, could have such a profound effect on us? Or maybe it's just the catnip that Emily grows… who knows what she does to that stuff?"

"I really don't want to know." It was on a need to know basis, and I didn't need to know. I sighed and turned back towards Gia's throne, staring at it for a moment before I kicked the base of it, hard enough to put a nice sized crack in it. But this thing was fragging huge! It could take us all day to bust it to bits in this form…

"Titan forms would make it a lot easier, but it'll still probably take us a while." She commented, while delivering a harsh kick of her own to it. "Then again, beating on something my mother used so often is part of how I relieve stress. So…"

Leave it for later. "Ok. Something tells me I might be getting use out of it too so I won't break it too badly." But I did kick it a few more times, reveling in the way the damn thing started crumbling where I repeatedly struck it. Given the sheer size it wasn't much, but it sure as hell made me feel a lot better.

After a few minutes of it I grew bored though and turned to look out over the rest of the throne room, more specifically… all the bodies. There were just parts of rock scattered everywhere… well to someone that didn't know better that's all they would see. It was morbid to think that so many died in one room…

A sudden movement from the doorway caught my attention, and I glanced up in time to see something go scampering passed the door… something really tiny. Oh not again…

No sooner had I thought that, a tiny head peeked around the corner and stared at me. This time the little one wasn't all… chewed up and mutilated like the ones in the market town. It was just a tiny, dark red and light blue thing, with these big, gold eyes which stared at me inquisitively for a moment before it emitted this high pitched chirp and came scampering right up to Aurora's peds. And she, of course, did not notice shit… Should I say something…?

Before I could an entire horde of ghostly baby Titans came bolting into the room, like a sea of multiple hues of different colors blurring together as they closed in. I jolted and jumped up onto the nearest pillar, climbing about halfway up it as about half of them broke off and came at me. "Aurora get off the floor!" I screeched at her. They were standing at the bottom of the pillar, staring up at me curiously. But they were freaking dead and this was weirding me out!

Aurora glanced up at me in confusion. "Ier? What are you doing?"

"They're all over the floor!"

"What? Who's all over the floor? It's just us in here… well that and the bodies but…"

"I can't handle seeing dead things!"

"Oh it's that… What are you seeing?"

"Dead hatchlings!"

"Ohhh… right… Um, what colors do they have?"

I glared at her, my claws dripping the pillar for dear life! "They're like red, blue, white… like the American flag! Why the hell does it even matter?!"

"Oh… Oh… my… I, I never knew they were here… Ier! They're not going to hurt you! They're… They're family!"She shouted up, before turning her attention down to the floor. "Where are they! Am I stepping on them? How many are there! There should be sixty seven!" She was suddenly acting like the floor was made of hot coals, turning around and around like a spinning top, looking for the dead hatchlings she couldn't actually see.

"I don't know how many there are! I didn't bother counting!" That was the last fragging thing on my mind at the moment! Of course she wouldn't be freaking out because she wasn't seeing dead infants scampering around by her peds! Uhh… quite a few were still hanging around the base of the pillar watching me… How the pit was I supposed to handle this?!

Then, as if it was the most normal thing in the world, Aurora started making these odd clicking chirps. The little ones all responded to it, and went scampering over to her, following her as she led them to one corner of the large throne room and laid down on her underbelly. Right... like this day couldn't get weirder at this point!

They at least seemed more interested in crowding around her, so I slowly slid down the pillar and put my peds back on the floor. The little ones now much more invested in clicking and chirping right back at her, some even jumping up as she lowered her head down, all she saw was the cracked floor, and ended up phazing her head through the jumping ones as she continued to coo and chirp at them.

I grumbled, still shaking a bit from the fright seeing them had given me. How did anyone ever get used to seeing the dead walking around as if they were still alive? How the hell did Grandma deal with this shit? It freaked me out!

At least she seemed unbothered by it for the most part, probably because she couldn't see anything. If I wasn't the one seeing it, and she didn't know that I could, I might think she was crazy at the moment. Eh… I really needed to get out of this room…

"Uhh… while you do that I'm gonna… go and poke around a bit." That would be easier to handle than being faced with my… dead cousins. At least, from what I'd seen in the last month, there weren't crazed, dead adults hanging around anywhere. Not here either, seeing as there were bodies everywhere and not one sign of anything else.

"Ugh, yeah ok, ok which of you got to see daddy? Was he a good daddy?"

I sighed and slowly made my way out, ignoring her talking to them since I knew she couldn't hear them. But I could, even if I didn't know what they were saying. It was all just a bunch of noise to me honestly, maybe if I wasn't so creeped out it wouldn't have been though.

Not that the empty, dirty, dark and dingy halls were much better… but there weren't ghosts crowding me out here. I wasn't really sure how the ability worked really… and Granny hadn't been back to visit so I couldn't really ask her either. Oh well, I'd most likely figure it out at some point whether I wanted to or not. But for now I just wandered aimlessly through the halls with no real destination in mind in an attempt to get my breathing in check. Talk about almost having another panic attack!

I just had to focus on something else! Like… uh… hmm… the barely visible murals on the walls? As in all over every inch of this fucking place! They were dirty and hard to see, but I stopped once I was a good distance from the throne room and carefully wiped some of the gunk off of the wall so I could see.

It was hard to make it out… I had to squint to see through all the grime that was caked into the crevices, but I managed to make out several forms that looked strangely familiar. Not personally, but their body type itself… Three, each with four wings, two tails, long necks… like me… They were strikers? The colors had long since faded from the mural so I couldn't see what colors they were, but this was the first thing I'd seen about them the entire time I'd been here… They seemed to be bound in chains for some reason… Were they criminals or something?

There was an inscription below the mural, all faded yet I could still make out the claw marks that made it up. 'As the first decree of the new mighty queen, all Strikers, unworthy fusions of the great Speed and Stealth classes, are to be arrested and brought to the great palace, and be executed , in response to the assassination of the late queen.'

My optics widened as my servo started shaking after reading it. They… made it illegal to be a striker? How the hell did someone say that you were to be executed just for being born a certain way?! That was fucking insane! Wait… was that why no one would tell me what the hell a striker was exactly? Well if it were me… I don't think I would want to talk about that topic either… unless I had to.

I slowly stepped back and turned to look down the hall, still shaking as everything clicked into place in my head. If I would've been born before the virus I most likely would've been executed at birth or something! I wasn't sure which was worse! Someone being a slave because of their element, or being executed for what they looked like! Was anything in this damn society not twisted beyond all fucking hell?!

I shook my helm and let it fall back against the wall, trying to calm myself down from the whirring mess of emotions I was feeling. What was I even feeling right now? Disgust? Fear? Maybe some twisted kind of betrayal? Why that last one? I didn't even know… All I knew was that things were even worse than I first thought…

Something from further down the corridor caught my eye… claw marks, long and frantic… like someone had been dragged away...

A shudder went down my back and all the way to the blades which tipped my tails. What crime had they committed? A striker? Or someone with a mentally unsound mind? Grandma?

I didn't want to know the answer… yet I began moving, following the claw marks, trying to ignore the ever more ominous and threatening murals on the walls… what looked like hatchlings being sold for whatever currency they had, what looked like a speed class packed high like a pack mule, following similarly built brethren as one, decorated with lightning bolts struck them. Behind my eyes a flash, someone screaming, a bark and order to move faster… get up… leave them, take their haul as your own.

I tried to shake the image away, a mural further down looked like it had been torn apart and partially melted. Another flash, a dark ruby and grey Titan, his eyes wide as he set the mural ablaze when one of the ones dragging him jumped out of the way.

A moment later a club tipped tail was brought down between his… four wings… he went limp after the sounds of cracking bones ended.

They dragged him down the corridor.

The next mural I didn't dare look at, but there was still a flash… a mother screaming as her hatchlings were carried away down this corridor.

I didn't want to know what was down here anymore… light didn't reach here… ancient torches had long since burnt out… the darkness tried to comfort me, wrapping around me like a blanket… like grandma… but like my body was in a trance… I kept walking… the air of death was quickly growing as the corridor continued to dip downwards… how long had I been walking? Why did I leave Aurora and her dead siblings? She would of stopped me going down here…

Would she?

Did she know about this?

Unless Grandma told her I seriously doubted she knew in exact detail what happened here… Kinda would explain why she never wanted to talk about it… But it was getting harder to focus on her or what she was doing, as more flashes of fragmented images passed through my mind so fast that most were a blur. I found it hard to keep thinking straight… it was like when you kept speeding through the channels on a TV and only caught brief snippets of what was actually happening, only this time I was walking… almost like I was both here, moving down the corridor, but in two different times as they melded into one. I could see it then in my mind, and even as if the images were festering in my eyes, yet I could still see, as if I was trapped in an out of body experience. That was when I spotted the towering archway ahead, decorated with… teeth… horns… claws… I was strides away when I heard it… chanting… there was no one there… just me… Ro… and her baby brothers and sisters… right?

We were alone… on a planet scarred and torn by an event which all but wiped out our kind… yet… why was there chanting? What were they chanting?

Another flash… it was the ruby and grey again, his body wrapped in chains as they hauled him through the arch way… the two dragging him looking like daddy… only with markings like lightning bolts adorning their bodies in random places… and armored… just like Auntie…

Had she dragged people away? Down this corridor which reeked of death even after all this time?To me, trapped in this moment, I'd been dragged so far into it that I couldn't discern reality anymore… so I could smell the stench… of something… the only thing I could compare it to was rotting flesh. It gagged me because it was so strong…

I followed them… I probably shouldn't have done it… If I was smart I would've turned back, because I had a sinking suspicion as to where this was going. But, as if I was being pulled by some force I couldn't break, I followed them all the way outside… The bright sun from up above, completely absent from the Valuma I knew, cast a bright glow on a courtyard that was overflowing with more Titans than I cared to count. All of them roaring and cheering as the red and grey was dragged out to a slab of cracked and punctured granite like block.

Around the courtyard were the skeletal faces of Titans who'd died, pierced by pikes that were sticking out of the ground… It didn't escape my notice that a good majority looked like me… and the Titan they were chaining to the block… There were holes all over their skulls, like something had torn through them… How the fuck did they die?!

I whipped back around to look at the block when an unholy screeching nearly shattered my mind from the sheer volume of it. The one they had in chains was screeching and snapping at the two who'd dragged him out, one of which was holding a long, cylindrical piece of metal. I wasn't sure what they were planning to do with it, but the look in the male's dark green eyes spoke of pure terror. He was in a frenzy, clawing and struggling to get away now that he had apparently recovered from his injury. But it did him absolutely no good, as the other grabbed his face and forcefully pried his jaws open and turned to present his gaping mouth to the other one. While he continued to thrash, belching another burst of fire until a harsh kick to the chest cut him off.

"Last words?"

"Ugh… yeah… I'll be waiting for all of you in the underworld! Especially you Gia! You're the one who should be chained here! You monster!" He was kicked in the head this time, and his jaws pried back open.

"You useless welp! Speak not such filthy words to our mighty queen!" The one holding the pole yelled, before ramming it down his throat.

I took a mortified step back as he gagged and thrashed, trying to dislodge the pole as they pushed it further down, as a sickening sound began screeching across the now dead silent courtyard, like metal on metal being forced at a high rate against each other.

I felt something in my throat twist when I realized what was making that sound. It was the blades, the rings of butcher knife sharp rotating pieces of death which sliced up whatever we ate into tiny little pieces of mush.

And for some reason, they weren't breaking the pole like they would a boulder.

He was beginning to really scream now, thrashing and bucking under the heavy chains which gave him no true movement.

It went on for a few more agonizing moments, before something snapped.

I could only watch on as his throat was torn apart from the inside out… ripping through the heavy duty scales like paper, splattering the ground with silver blood as the blades shot out in all directions, some heading for the crowd, but were quickly stopped mid air by some of the ground members… magnetisms I believe…

I wasn't interested in the crowd though, only watching as the pole was ripped out of the now lifeless body and dropped into a bucket of water to clean of the blood and flesh. Not a single part chipped.

Then, his body twitched.

One of the two huffed and looked up to a balcony which towered over the courtyard. "Apologies my queen, he still moves."

My head snapped up, and took in the sight of a smirking snow white and ocean blue Titan, her horns curved around her head like bull horns which were lined with what looked like ornaments which shone just as much as the rest of her.

It was Gia, her smirk was something so crooked it made my furnace flicker painfully as she rolled her shoulders and glanced down with her stormy blue eyes to the one at her side, a smaller male of the same design, only with red markings. "Oh… it's alright, Uras would love to see a closing act, as would I Do whatever you wish, but I want to dine on his tongue tonight, such a foul organ should hold quite the exotic taste." She purred, staring at his body like a starved monster.

"Mother! Mother! I want his face! I want his face on my wall!" The male, who I now knew to be Unicron looked up at the bitch with a twisted smile…

"Of course! Skin him of his hide! And feed the scraps to the Lake guardians, they haven't had such a delicacy in a while." She called after nuzzling her son.

Oh fuck… they were even more twisted than I thought!

"Love... What ever is the matter? You look pale..." She then cooed to the crimson red and dark blue one standing on her other side… Kiol. "You should be used to it by now, after all, I love showing you what I plan to do with that dear sister of yours you slipped behind my back. Don't worry, I'll let you keep her skull once she's been dissected for all of her uses. You know, her hide to replace your old book coverings, her claws as a lovely necklace I plan to commision, and her horns a new crown maybe? Uras broke my old one, didn't you my sweet little thing?" She cooed the last part, I'd flown up to listen to her words as they didn't carry down to the block where they were already stripping his corpse of its hide as the crowd watched on in silence.

He looked a mess, his chest heaving and a tormented grimace on his crimson and dark blue bolt marked face. "Gia… I wish to go inside…"

"Inside? Nonsense! Fresh air is always good for you while you're carrying!" She took a deep breath then and sighed in something akin to ecstasy. "Just smell that, freshly spilled blood has to be one of my favourite scents… well… after your musk mid passionate bought!"

"Passion? Gia the only reason I allow you near me… no… I don't, you have your minds immobilize me so you can do whatever the fuck you want with me!" Kiol suddenly snapped, a charge of electricity running through his body, namely from the his horns which ran down his neck like daddy's.

Gia snarled in response. "Because you're still so damn hung up over that useless pile of flesh that is my sister! I have given you everything Kiol! Power! A son! And the love of the most powerful Titan in existence!"

"Power?! I'm your pet! That's what you treat me as! Or do you see me more as a breeding bitch so that you can feed our 'sons' love for eating hatchlings!"

I gagged and nearly threw up at the implications that Unicron ate his younger brothers and sisters! What the fuck was wrong with these two?! And my poor fucking Uncle had to live with this?! Shit! I didn't even really know the guy and I wanted to kill everyone here but him, just so that he could get away from this hellhole!

My head was starting to spin, and my breathing was speeding up from the panic slowly creeping through me… Seeing all this happening, and hearing the twisted things Gia and Unicron were spewing was just… it was making me sick! They were monsters! Who could eat their own siblings like that?! And what kind of mother just smiled and let it happen?!

This was Aurora's mother… now I understood why she felt like she did, had she hatched, that freak would have made her his lunch… those babies she was playing with… oh Ancients…

They were her brothers and sisters.

They hadn't been as lucky as their sister.

I looked to Kiol again, his body slammed up against the wall and her jaws on his neck to hold him there as he stood frozen, the impact having forced his neck, well they were more like twisted spikes, against the wall, causing him to let off a hiss of pain as they were pushed into an unnatural position.

"The only reason you're not dead, is because of how much I looovvveeee you! And those hatchlings you cling to whenever they hatch? I was just going to sell them anyway! I'm being merciful Kiol, remember that." She declared when she let him go, leaving him to crumble to the ground before she walked over him and away from the balcony.

He looked so broken… I was filled with such sadness when I looked at him… laying there like he was absolutely defeated… I just wanted to snatch him from this horrid place and take him back with me to the present, where he didn't have these monsters surrounding him, hounding him.

I almost wanted to stay here with him… but the world around me seemed to shimmer, then shatter completely. The last thing I saw and heard was Kiol clutching his chest and emitting this pained keening sound…

Not the most comforting thing to witness…

There was no more time to contemplate it as I came back to the present, still standing on the same balcony… I actually looked right at where he'd been, like I still thought he'd be there but… he wasn't… And the structure was decrepit and dirty again, from trillions of years.

I wanted him here… to show him that at least one of his hatchlings made it, and grew up, got to live a moderately decent life from what I could tell, and I wanted him to be able to love something he created which didn't end up as the chaos bringer. But I knew it wasn't possible… Everything was just so… fucked up…

Tears welled up in my optics and I shook my helm sadly, not even trying to stop it as they spilled down my cheeks.

A presence behind me had me turning to see grandma, and it took only moments to realize she wasn't covered in her normal smoke cloud, allowing me to see her fully.

She was identical to Gia, except for her color, the scars she bore all over her body, and the sorrowful expression on her face.

"I know what you saw." Her voice was just as hea-essence breaking as her expression as she brought her wings up to wrap around me. "I'm sorry this is how you found out… I guess you should know the truth then… about your mother…"

I pulled back and shook my head, I didn't want to hear it, but grandma wasn't backing down.

"We hid her, so deep into the void beyond the kingdom… we thought she'd be safe. It was only days after you were laid that they attacked one of our colonies. We were trying to fight them off… then they suddenly retreated… it had all been a diversion… the caretakers for the nursery were able to protect yours and your siblings eggs but… they dragged her away... Afterwards, Praxi took on the role of protecting you all, day in, day out… but we still lost her… on that plinth…"

I took a step back away from her and shook my head as I tried to shake off the memory of what I'd seen happen… The thought that it happened to my mother… I didn't even know what she looked like, yet my mind was already trying to conjure up the horrible images of what happened that day even though I didn't know what she even looked like. So my mind ran rampant and was overwhelmed with the scene of another Titan suffering the same fate, only it was warped to what my perception of what she would look like was. Even if it wasn't right, the image of her body being held down was even too much, flashes of red and blue patches appeared in my peripherals. Higher pitched screeches echoing through my head as if I'd been there and heard them myself…

I backed further away from the plinth, then, turned, and ran.

I couldn't be there anymore, couldn't think about what had happened there… to my class… to my mother… to anyone who was given such a sentence.

"Ier!" I heard Granny shout, but she didn't follow, probably wanting to give me space…

I ran through the balcony door and smashed into the first thing I came into contact with, a wall that I ended up crashing right through, stone exploding outwards as I tore off down the corridor. I didn't have a real destination in mind… my thoughts and emotions were so out of control. Disgust, pain, sorrow, loss, and a twisted sense of guilt that I couldn't seem to control.

All I could think was that her death was somehow my fault, that I'd done something wrong! If they'd never had us then they wouldn't have had to stay in one place! That made it so much easier to find her! Our existence had been her downfall… her end...

I let off a bellow, slamming my fist into what used to be a mural, getting an odd sense of satisfaction at watching it crumble to the ground. The words were unknown to me, but I didn't even want to know what horrid truth it held.

I was sick of it, sick of what my kind were like, what they could become.

Monsters…

We were all monsters, just waiting to lash out and destroy everything…?

Were we?

They weren't all bad, Granny fought for her freedom and the freedom of her element, and all others from the Lights.

Hariun and Zyirun went against their Queen to save Granny.

Daddy created the Cybertronian race to try righting the wrongs of his own. He tried creating something good…

Ro… I'm not sure what kind of things she's done, but creating a safe refuge for humans who deserved far better than what they were given by their own kind had to mean something right?

And Uncle… all he wanted was be free to love who he wanted. He just wanted to get away from Gia and be with his sister, with Granny… All he wanted was family… Yet Gia had taken that all away from him, in every sense of the word.

That tyrannical, evil, vindictive bitch… All I wanted to do was get a hold of her so I could force her to feel the pain of hopelessness! The same thing she'd subjected my family, and everyone else to just because she felt she had the right to decide someone else's fate just based on the circumstances of their birth!

I raked my claws down the wall, leaving a deep trail in the cold stone that sparked when I suddenly sped up and swung at a pillar and smashed it in half, snarling and kicking a piece of rubble that fell at another mural down the hall. As sad as it was, seeing it smash the aged etching made me feel even more satisfied, though anger quickly burned it all away as quickly as it'd come…

What good would destroying old paintings or furniture do? It wasn't going to change anything! Wasn't going to bring my mother back! It wouldn't change anything in this place, not the memories, the pain, nothing…

I deflated a bit and closed my eyes, shaking my helm and whimpering a bit. Doing it made me feel weak, and for the moment I was at least glad I was alone. Everything about this last month or so left me feeling like I was out of place, or not meant to belong. I didn't want Aurora or Granny to see me having a breakdown like this… What a disappointment I was turning out to be...Crying like a child, like it would change anything.

I lashed out again, my tails slicing through a wall, leaving an 'x' shaped mark, then, I spun, and slammed my fist through it, letting off an anguished cry at my own internal turmoil, as the wall cracked and crumbled away.

It didn't even phase me when it crumbled away and revealed a dark, closed off space, at least until I stopped panting and took note of the moderately sized room that was now before me.

Especially the fact that a shredded body lay before me, tucked away in the corner of the room, curled up on a slab of stone and preserved unlike the others. Meaning I could see his face, even his closed eyes and pained grimace.

The colors were unmistakeable, the markings… the shattered egg shells whose colors had long since faded. I realized with a start that this was Kiol… and those must've been… his hatchlings… Or what was left of them. This was all that was left of Aurora's clutch...

It was clear to me that he didn't fight whatever happened here. There was no real sign of a scuffle, just claw marks in the immediate area where his body lay. Meaning, he just laid there and endured whatever ripped him apart. Why…?

Had he really just laid down and let them kill him? It was sad to think that he'd just given up and let it happen like that… but then again, with that bitch for a mate and the world going to hell why would anyone keep fighting? Especially when he'd continuously lose hatchlings to his own son's demented hunger? That sick bastard…

A thought occurred to me and I turned to look back out into the hall, hoping that Aurora didn't come looking for me and see this. I wasn't sure how she'd react to it honestly, and I didn't want to be responsible for her suffering more. I glanced down at his body and sighed, kneeling to run my claws over his face in a gentle touch. "You know Uncle… Aurora made it. I don't know if you know that name or who it is, so I'll explain I guess. You see, that egg that Granny Liara took actually hatched. Bet you weren't expecting that huh?" I smiled shakily, tears trickling down my cheeks. But I was beyond trying to stop it now… "I think Granny has been keeping an eye on her, and so has her adoptive mother Harp. She's got lots of siblings too, so there are lots of people that are watching out for her so you don't have to be worried." It occurred to me that I was actually having a conversation with a corpse… and he couldn't even hear what I was saying… I felt a little silly but it kind of made me feel a little better. I shook my helm and sighed, picking up what looked to be one of his horns that had been ripped from the top of his skull. For a moment I held it in my servos and stared at his face sadly. "I don't know whether to be happy that you're not suffering anymore… or sad to know that all you ever did was suffer. I hope you're okay wherever you are."

I stood up and cradled the piece I had of him to my chassis. Maybe I should give it to Aurora? Would she want a piece of her dad? Or would that upset her even more?

"Ier! Ier! Where are you!?"

My helm snapped up when I heard Aurora's voice, and I reflexively stuck the horn in my subspace and raced out of the room and down the hall, trying to get as far from that room as possible. I turned a corner and nearly ran face first into her, but at least the dead ones weren't following her anymore. "Hey… I uh… got a little lost."

She stared at me. "I heard the crashes… I followed your scent down to the lower levels, you don't have to pretend you didn't see what you did, Aunty was still there when I got there."

"I'm fine." I didn't try to make myself look like it, but I wasn't going to talk about it either. If I did I might cry and I already felt like a pathetic disappointment as it was.

Before I could take in what she was doing, she'd pulled me into a tight hug, our two metal bodies clashing at points, but otherwise felt far better than our real forms when we tried to hug. "I know it hurts Ier, I'm sorry I didn't tell you about the Strikers… what happened to them… but I didn't want to reveal too much at once, I didn't want to hurt you..." She mumbled, rubbing the side of her helm against mine in an attempt to comfort me.

Honestly, being angry at her was the last thing on my mind. If I was her I wouldn't have wanted to tell someone else that either, especially given the ramifications. It did hurt… seeing it, hearing it, knowing. Just remembering the screams I'd heard in that vision, and imagining my mom being the one tied down to that damn block again… Or thinking of Uncle and how he died so willingly because that was better than facing another day living… I tried not to, but I started crying again. My lips quivering as thick rivulets cascaded down my cheeks, as I keened and sobbed quietly. I wanted to go home… I didn't want to be surrounded by all this anymore… I wanted my twins… I wanted my Opi and Dad… I wanted my human family… I wanted someone that I didn't feel like a burden to, to tell me it was ok. Even if it really wasn't and I was slowly starting to realize that the Universe was far more fucked up than anything I could've realized.

Aurora just held me tighter, swaying from side to side as her wings came down and wrapped around me. "I think it's time I took you home… you've been through enough."

"No. I'm not ready to go home remember?" I sniffled and wiped my optics. "Sire told me how dangerous untrained Titans can be…"

"Ier, I will carry you on my back if I have to, actually that would probably be preferable. If that's your concern, I'll stay on Earth with you for a while, to ensure you're able to settle back in, explain as much as I can to the… Autobots, I have faith in you Ier, you're strong. You'll be fine."

I scoffed at the notion of me being strong. "I'm not strong. Ask anyone."

She just huffed and pushed back to stare me down. "Really? Well they certainly have a warped perspective on life now don't they?"

"Maybe."

"Ier, trust me, I know what strength is, I've had the luck of knowing thousands of people, humans or otherwise, with such strength in their beating hearts, that they could of done anything they set their mind to, and so far, all I've seen, is a young, brilliant and beautiful Titan, rise out of the fear of the unknown and learnt faster, accepted more, seen more and done more than I ever could in the same amount of time. I'm proud of you, Lia's proud of you, heck Praxi was proud of you the moment you jumped off his head mid hatching and never stopped for a second!" She chuckled the last part. "My task, was to teach you how to be a Titan, and get you ready, well, I think you're ready. Maybe not for the full flight, so, I'm going to go grab Aunty, I can still feel her nearby, let's see what we can do about getting you and me a lift to your home? Ok?" With that she let go and broke into a blinding sprint down the corridor, crashing into the wall when she took a harsh turn, not even breaking her stride as she disappeared from view.

I slowly ambled back in the direction I knew the courtyard to be, briskly walking since I was in no hurry to get back. It took me a minute or so to get there, and Aurora was talking to Grandma when I got there.

"It's time Aunty, she's seen enough, we can't keep her here any longer when all it's doing is distressing her. I'll stay with her another week or so then I'll come home, and from what you've just told me… about the Amazon, and all that, I don't think we should stay at this stage any longer then about three seconds. Ancients I'm going to have Emily's helm when I get back, but Ier still needs to adjust to her own world." Aurora was pressing.

Liara stood listening, before turning to me when she noticed me. "Say no more child, I agree. Ierena, pack your non-existent things, I'm opening a vortex to your world. That is, if you believe yourself it is time for you to return to your home. Either decision, we will not judge you for."

"Would you run away? Because that's what I feel like I'd be doing. Even if I go back now, I'll probably continue to see things right?"

"To a far lesser degree, and less… dramatically horrifying visions. This land has been tainted with the evils which occurred here, resulting in an increase in the visions you have seen. Not all visions result in one wishing to rip their own eyes out."

I slumped a bit dejectedly. "If I can't even face this… how am I supposed to be useful for anything at all? I'll just keep letting you both down."

They exchanged a concerned look before Granny stepped forward, and it was only then that I realized only parts of her were solid, her upper arms, legs, torso and wings were already fading. "Ierena, I want you to listen to me, shadow, to shadow, these visions, may seem painful now, for they are both blessing, and curse, but you are still young. When I was first receiving my visions, all I ever saw was the moment my mother was murdered, and as morbid as it may sound. The day I died on that newly formed planet from the wounds my sister put upon me, I knew of my demise, yet I still fought, I refused to let my death be in vain. And now, you have the chance to use your visions like I used mine, yes they are painful, but they will also steer you in the right direction when all seems hopeless and lost. I saw, only once, but I saw you, believe it or not, not as how you are now, but ahead in time still. I saw you, right after we discovered your mother had been taken from us, and ever since, that glimpse of you standing tall and proud, has given me a hope like none other, for you were not bound in chains, you were not hiding from oppression, you were standing out, strong and defiant. You may feel like you cannot go on, but I know, you will. You have an essence in that chassis which pulses so fiercely underneath that shell, and I cannot wait to see when you finally discover who you are. You are not weak, you are strong. You are not a burden on us, we are all equal in this, you, me, Aurora, Harp, Praxi, Aurora's unstable mess of a family for crying out loud, and all the ones waiting for you to come home so they can hold you in their arms and try their hardest to never let go. Trust me, it'll take four days for your twins to so much as remove themselves from your hips!" She chuckled that last part, her face so close to mine, that, despite how it was fading, I could still see the mirth in her eyes, the fang baring smile, and the look of absolute faith.

I glanced off to the side at Aurora and shifted nervously, before leaning closer to Granny. "Were you ever… scared… of what you saw…?"

"Ier, fear is something perfectly natural, and a defense of ourselves in body, mind and soul. At times in my life I have been terrified of every flicker in my peripheral, when at any moment my sister could lunge and end me with the snap of my neck. But, in all the time I have existed, alive and dead, I have learned to use my fear, to aid me, it can also be used as a weapon, as shown by that comic book character… Batman correct?"

"You've heard of Batman?" I ended up snorting a bit at her. That wasn't exactly what I was expecting but… "Yeah I think you have it right."

Granny chuckled. "When you watch over the dead, you get used to their wild stories and their desire to tell them so not to be bored senseless." She admitted. "So, do you want to go home? Both I and Aurora here believe you are ready. But again, it is your choice."

"I do but… I feel like I need to face it, otherwise I'll never be able to face anything at all." It was hard to put into words what I was feeling. That was the best I could come up with at the moment. But then again… she did say that this place was worse than anywhere else… They effectively threw me into the deep end right off the bat. So if I went back… would it really be a testament to my weakness? Ugh… I wanted Opi right about now… "I want Opi…"

"That is all the answer I need." Granny responded, turning to the open courtyard before seeming to concentrate on something, Aurora grabbed me and pulled me back a few steps, just as a flicker of black appeared in the middle of the large courtyard, before exploding outwards into a swirling black vortex which looked really more like a Black hole, and was quickly sucking every loose thing into it.

Yup, Blackhole.

Well shit.

Aurora patted my shoulder and gave me an oddly happy smile despite the swirling vortex. "It'll feel a bit funny the first time, but that's what happens with all giant vortexes across vast distances!" She yelled, having to over the roar of the black swirling monstrosity in front of us, she'd apparently caught on to my distress at the realization of what this thing was a miniature version of.

"Let me get this straight! You want me to jump into a black hole?! Are you fucking insane?!" I yelled. Oddly enough I didn't feel like I was being pulled into it…

Aurora actually chuckled. "I had the same reaction first time! If I could shit I would of! Now come on! Aunty can't hold it up forever!" She declared, before giving a light tug on my arm, trying to pull me towards it, I took note of the fact that Granny had little to nothing left of her solid, and was beginning to get closer and closer to the ground, now on one knee to keep her up.

Awww fuck it! I said screw it and jumped into the swirling mass and prayed that I wasn't going to end up dead somehow.

I heard a whoop behind me and a squawk from Harp, who I guess had been on Aurora's wing bases for old times sake or something.

Not a moment after I heard it, there was a flash, then nothing.

(Washington DC)

When I came to it was at the moment we were both hurled out of a gaping hole in the sky… over a large white building that looked vaguely familiar… THE WHITE HOUSE?!

I didn't even have time to scream before I slammed face first into the ground and ripped up grass and dirt as I skidded a good distance, coming to a stop after a moment or so. Ow...

Aurora, wasn't so lucky.

When I looked up all I could see were her head and torso stuck in the roof of the room above the Oval office. It wasn't exactly a dignified pose with her aft and tail sticking up in the air like that.

There was a good deal of screaming too as Aurora managed to get herself free from her hole through the roof of the White house, mostly from the tourists and men in black, the later of which were quickly surrounding us and loading their weapons. Oh shit… Wait could those even hurt us at all? And why was that the first thought I had?

I shook the thought off and scrambled up from the ground, jumping over all the humans present and landing next to her. "What now?! And if I get shot will it hurt at all?"

"Well, run like crazy and try not to add squishing humans to the damage to Earth? Although I will admit, that's already been something on my list of activities on Earth for a long, long time." She chuckled, before grabbing my arm and bolting, forcing me to try and keep pace as she leapt over the walls of the White house courtyard and bolted down the street.

Ok so bolt, run, try not to squish people! Got it! The last one was really freaking hard actually because my feet… peds were so much bigger than I was used to, and they kept trying to run and ended up getting right in the way! "Why don't we fly?!"

She shrugged and then spread her wings, and together we took to the air and got as far from the area as possible. Well we weren't exactly inconspicuous so… maybe we should change shape when we got a chance and hide?

She seemed to catch onto my thoughts, Harp jettisoning from her back as she she suddenly spun and transformed, her body reforming into a large Hawk before banking a hard right towards the Smithsonian Museum. Harp was quick to follow, shifting into what I guessed was her organic Harpigornis form.

I quickly followed suit and transformed into a hawk as well, for lack of another idea on the fly and went after them, landing next to Harp, who for once towered over both of us, on a large tree branch.

Aurora shook herself, puffing up her feathers before clicking her beak and chuckling. "Well, good thing Obama wasn't home, although, last time I did that, there wasn't a secret service to worry about having my name put down as a number one priority!" She joked.

"Well that's good I guess." I sighed and tried not to feel weird since I'd never transformed into a hawk before. Well I'd only ever transformed into my Cybertronian or Titan forms. So this was a first for me, but at least it'd come easily. "So… why are we at the Smithsonian Museum?"

"I felt like visiting it. And we could pretend we're stuffed animals until the panic dies down!" Why was she suddenly in such a good mood?

Harp nudged my side. "It's the impact, it's rattled her head a bit, she'll be back to normal in a few hours. Mind you she's also suffering from a concussion so it's also affecting her."

"Weeeeeeeeee!" And now she was using her claws to swing round and around on the branch like a bloody gymnast.

"Would you like to take point?" Harp asked, reaching over with her wing and wrapping around Aurora to still her. "Daughter, steady, let your mind recalibrate, I know that impact knocked a few screws loose but we must focus and get somewhere out of sight."

"Yes momma!"

I shook my head and flitted down from the tree, hiding behind it so that I could shift into a human form. It felt weird to feel my hair suddenly falling against my back, just as long as it used to be. I looked down at myself, after forming something suitable to wear, and everything seemed the same. Once I was set, I looked up and waved them down.

Harp lead Aurora down before shifting into her human form, and I was surprised, she looked like an old lady sure, but the figure of an athlete mixed in with it. She was a little hunched, but alright, she even had a cane to add to the effect, with an eagles head on the top, fitting.

Aurora, seeing herself as the last one out, shifted, reforming as a… blonde in an orange dress?

"Wrong form dear, you're not out to kill someone. Hopefully."

Should I be concerned about that?

Aurora huffed and pouted before forming again, this time with long black waving locks, blue tipped, and wearing a simple sports shirt and knee length shorts and those leather strap sandals. "Mean."

"Well, at least you didn't shift into your politician form first."

"And why can I not be Rosaline thine mother?!" She exclaimed, oddly with a Shakespearian accent.

Something was really knocked loose in her head. "Alright how about we just go into the museum and not debate like characters from a Shakespeare play?" I grabbed her hand and tugged her into the museum after me.

"Why can I not speak the tone of which I spoke during the Elizabethan and Stuart era!? My! I've gone back in time! And I didn't even need a light!"

"Because you're drawing attention to us. Stop." Too late, people were already staring at her like she was a freak.

Harp just rubbed the bridge of her nose between two fingers. "Granddaughter, I understand you just hit you head on that lamppost, but please try and maintain some decorum and not go ranting about your Drama project like that."

Before she could open her mouth and start running it again I slapped my hand over it and gave her a look. As amusing as it was, we had things to focus on and to be honest I wanted to get home as soon as possible. "Just behave and we'll go look at whatever you want…"

"Bowhead whale! Oh the Hope Diamond's apparently here too! Oh and a giant Elephant… eh, seen bigger, oh there's a human exhibit of their history! Wonder if they have the race I set fire to when I first landed here? You remember that mum? That was how we first met!"

Just don't ask questions… Don't ask any questions… Why we were wandering around inside a museum instead of calling someone to come get us? Oh right, because I didn't have money, Aurora was acting high as a kite… and Harp… well she might have some money. "Hey Harp?"

She glanced at me. "Yes?"

"Got a quarter or maybe a couple?"

She nodded. "Thinking of calling someone?"

"Yeah Lennox. Now that we're disguised I figured we could call for a pickup. But I don't have any money."

We stopped, while Aurora ran over to look at the exhibit she wanted to see. Harp reached into her pocket and pulled out a small change purse, don't ask me why she had it, and she pulled a handful of quarters out and handed them to me, I took a quick peek at the inside of her purse, and quickly realised it must of been the equivalent of her subspace, so many different coins, weird, didn't peg Harp as a coin collector. "Hurry up please. Aurora is going to be a handful until she settles."

I nodded and quickly ran over to a payphone, popping a quarter in and dialing Lennox's number. It rang a few times before his familiar, and very welcome voice picked up. "Major William Lennox here."

"Lennox! Oh thank fuck! It's me Clare!"

"Clare? How the hell are you calling me? Where are you calling me from?"

"I'm at the Smithsonian Museum! Look, I know that you probably got called out when we uh… crashed into the White House… so you know I'm not fucking around. We really need a pick up! Can you send one of the bots?"

There was a moment where all I could hear was murmuring, probably him talking to one of the bots or soldiers. Then he came back. "Yeah, we're on our way to the White House now. I just commed Boss Bot and he's sending someone to get you. Just hang tight ok?"

"Yeah thanks Lenny! Also, thanks for believing me! I swear to shit I'm about to blow a gasket! My cousin put a hole through the roof of the White house and now she's pretty much off her rocker and will be until her head gets back to normal."

He chuckled. "Well I might not have believed you if I hadn't met your Grandma. Well that, and the bots have been going on and on, and on some more, about your return. Trust me I was confused but I'm only human so what do I know about anything?"

I sighed and chuckled a bit. "Yeah true. Well thanks Lennox. I'll see you and Epps when you get back. I've gotta go now! Tell them we're at the Bowhead whale exhibit! Bye!"

I hung up before he could say anything else, and made my way over to watch as Aurora gave poor Harp a run for her money by climbing all over the exhibit, how did she even get up there? Instead of trying to help her keep my overexcited cousin from raising hell, I leaned against the wall and waited for a familiar face to appear. Luckily the museum was mostly empty at the moment anyways.

It didn't take long either…

Not for four familiar holoforms to come sprinting around the corner, all looking around until their bright, electric blue eyes landed on me. I felt my chest tighten as I pushed off of the wall and took a few shaky steps towards them. It felt like years since I last saw them…

Harp seemed to take note of their appearance, giving Aurora just enough time to somehow perch herself in the mouth of the Whale exhibit. "HEYO! I BROUGHT THINE DAUGHTER OF THINE GOD!"

"Aurora!" Harp and I sighed in exasperation. "Would you just enjoy your whale exhibit and shush?!" I shook my head at her and turned back, only to jump in surprise when a broad chest was like an inch from my face. I stumbled and almost fell on my ass, before the familiar golden haired holoform grabbed my arm and pulled me the other way, and thus I ended up crashing into his chest and getting hugged senseless.

"Yay! Lovebirds reunited! Oh, they have a heart in here! Now that's detail!" Harp just let off an exasperated groan and gave up, there really was nothing to be done about my cousin until she recovered from her hit to the head.

I ignored her for the most part, since I was more focused on the warmth radiating off of Sunny, and Sides who had boxed me in. After a moment he tugged my chin up and pressed his lips against mine in a fierce, desperate kiss.

When he pulled back it was only to growl at me. "Don't you ever fragging die again! Do you hear me?" Sunny hissed between clenched teeth as they both held me. I could feel they were shaking, but I wasn't much better as I wrapped my arms around him.

"Trust me, it's a lot harder to do that now." I tried to joke but I wasn't really into it. Honestly, almost losing them had shaken me up too. But before I could contemplate it, Sides all but yanked me away from his twin and slammed his lips onto mine, ripping a startled squeak from me because I wasn't expecting it right at that moment.

He pulled away and smiled warmly at me. "If you ever get shot again I'm gonna spank you."

I snorted. "Really?"

"Yes really. You have no idea how much we all missed you."

As if some silent que had been given, Sides was suddenly shoved aside by Opi, who practically tackled me down to the floor and hugged me senseless. "Sweetlin'! Ah missed ya so much!" He literally hugged me so tight that I almost couldn't breathe!

I felt something in my chest, it took me a moment to realize it was the bond I was feeling. Almost as if it'd never been gone at all, and I could feel the emotions of my adoptive creators even more strongly than before.

The sense of relief and happiness was so strong it almost made me feel drugged. They really missed me that much?

Opi pulled back and smiled at me, allowing me to clearly see Dad's holoform hovering. "How coul' we no' miss our lil sparklin'?"

I shrugged and sat up, taking the hand Dad offered so he could pull me up and I ended up being pulled into another hug, nearly being crushed by his muscular arms. Once again, I could not breathe… "Dad… I… can't… breathe… Human form… breakable…" I wheezed.

Luckily he pulled back before he crushed me, cupping my cheeks and staring down at me with the warmest expression I'd ever seen on his face before. "You had Jazz and I worried beyond belief Clare! Don't you ever do something that foolish again!"

"Gonna lecture me already? I've been with you for all of five kliks!" I joked.

"Oh I fully plan to give you such an audio full that you'll be hearing it echo for quartexes… But we can do that later. For now I think we should get you back to base. We all have a lot to catch up on don't we?"

"Yeah we do." But first… I turned to make my way over to Harp, who was standing in front of the mouth of the whale exhibit. "She's in the fucking whale isn't she?"

She turned to look at me. "Yes I'm afraid so."

First things first…

I had to climb into this and drag her ass out of it…

Real comforting how I could hear her singing something from inside its' stomach…

"Put him in the bed with the Captain's daughter! Put him in the bed with the Captain's daughter! Early in the moooorrrrrrnnnninnng!"

I shook my head and climbed in after her.

Another thing off the list of weird shit I'd done lately…

R&R! Ok so, I know lots of readers are confused but I promise everything in the chapters does have something to do with the Cybertronians and the reason for the war and all. Basically the things that have been spoken of, and shown, were events that show how Unicron and Primus were shaped to be who they are, and what they stand for on a more personal level. For Unicron (We'll call him Uras for short), being on the top of the food chain respectively, made him a ruthless and cold being. Whereas Praxi was raised on the opposite end of the spectrum, by someone that stood against what Gia did. So that's that. Ask questions if you want to. It'd be easier that way.