Another chapter? So soon? Yup, let's do this. A heads up, there's a scene in this chapter that is quite gory and ideologically challenging. With that little warning out of the way, I hope you all enjoy!


Rome Italy

"Feisty li'l bugger ain' he?" Ira jokes, watching as Scitter tried to attack her waving fingers with his blade tipped forelegs.

Maggie huffed a laugh, Jazz nodded, and Glen was still sending looks to the now healed over wound that was Maggie's ear.

They'd fallen into a pattern over the last few weeks, Jazz and Maggie often spent the days exploring the city, Scitter, Glen and Ira remaining in the apartment.

The former because Scitter didn't really pass as a 'hearing aid', and the later two because Ira had finally coaxed Glen into helping her with her own activities.

They were also joined by Keeley, her mechanical forms head peeking just above the counter now.

A counter she remembered easily walking around on not a few short years ago.

She wanted to do it again, but her higher cognitive processor told her she'd damage the granite.

And her charge hated it when her granite counters got damaged.

Scitter finally gave up on trying to swat at the ever out of reach fingers, and spun on his back bladed legs, sending a little chir up to Maggie and waving one of his forelegs, almost in a beckoning motion.

Maggie, over the last few weeks, had become used to Scitter being indecisive.

Sometimes he wanted to be carried around in the spot a good chunk of her ear had been, the other he wanted to run around the large penthouse apartment.

What she still wasn't used to, was hearing Keeley talk whenever Scitter was fully linked up with her ear.

More accurately, she could hear Keeley, but couldn't understand a word the Red Kite was actually saying.

She'd told Ira of course, and Jazz.

But the red head had just shrugged, and said 'My guess, i's Galic, raise' her on i'', and then went right back to her room to continue doing God knew what on that brand new, Ira called it out-dated, computer system that she'd built up over the last few weeks.

It was strange really, she knew Keeley could talk, albeit illegibly, but the Red Kite rarely ever did, expressing herself much more in gestures than she did in any noise she made.

Speaking of which, Ira's attention had shifted, no longer interested in watching her bring Scitter back up to her ear, instead she was petting the metallic bird, that was more her shadow than the one cast on the ground, muttering something or other in what Maggie had guessed was Galic.

"Oh, before ah forge'. Ah migh' have some business tah atten' to in ah few days, migh', migh' no'. Nothin' serious, jus' some business." Ira suddenly spoke up, jarring her from her thoughts as the Irish Woman rambled for a few moments before nodding her head. "Yeah… so… don' go in mah room, don' brea' anythin', an' if yah wanna incite ah mass rio'... call me firs', ah wanna be here for tha'."

Maggie and Glen exchanged a look, Jazz raised an eyebrow behind his sunglasses.

She didn't infer further, simply shooting them all a knowing smile before turning her holoform around and walking back to where her room was, closing and locking the door behind her.

Maggine grunted, feeling Scitter squirm within the hole he'd carved into her ear.

"Woah li'l fella, go easy on your carrier." Jazz cooed, leaning down just enough to spy the little green dot of the little sparklings optic.

Glen had his attention on the door that Ira had once again disappeared by. "Either of you got any idea what her 'business' might be?"

Jazz, his attention shifted, frowned and shrugged. "Can't say for certain my man, though Optimus reported that those twins vanished off for some 'business' too about… three days ago? Yeah, three days ago." He nodded his holoforms head in affirmation.

With that discussion settled, they went about their daily routine.

Maggie and Jazz headed out with the intention of exploring more of the city, and Glen was eventually summoned to Ira's room for another lesson.

The teen had been, more than a little hesitant in the beginning, but it hadn't lasted long.

Despite her brash demeanor, and somewhat garbled take on the english language, the woman seemed to just, come alive when she was teaching him some new trick for hacking, methods that seemed almost impossible, already she'd shown him how to make two separate viruses, both trojans, that decimated established cyber security like they were nothing but digital wet paper.

It was all very, very illegal.

But it felt so good.

Mostly because what they used it for.

He felt like a modern merry man, helping the dashing red headed robbin hood rob from the rich, and then distribute the wealth out across the entire population of Italy.

Just a few extra Euros for everyone, a big hole in the 1% bank accounts.

They'd been successful six separate times, and only one of the companies had announced it, and then suffered for it, the stock market turning on them.

Ira always grinned like a Hyena when she saw news coverage of that one company, desperately trying to recoup itself.

And if certain evidence of borderline slave labour as it's work force was revealed?

Well, that was some damn good journalistic work.

Though the Orichiono's helped with that bit, apparently.

To quote his mentor, 'Tha Triage is a union, a union don' wor' if we don' rely on each otha.'.

And so here he was, still somewhat cautious, but warming up to his mentor with each passing day.

She was a fire cracker of emotions, one with a fuse that could be lit by almost anything.

But somehow he'd convinced himself she would never hurt him…

Maybe he should ask her?

"Hey… Ira?"

He'd tried to call her 'Miss', and she leveled him such a look of disdain he'd not slipped up once since.

Ira, it was just Ira.

Ira Halloran if they were ever stuck at a formal event, which was apparently less likely than hell freezing over.

Hell had apparently frozen over a few times in the last two decades.

"Hmm?" Ira responded, her attention still on her monitors.

"I'm… I'm safe here right? Maggie too?"

Ira's tapping stalled.

He leant back in his chair as Ira's head turned slowly to face him, her ever changing eyes narrowing just over the brim of her sunglasses.

God they were so unnerving to look at…

Like pools of half melted coloured glass…

"Glen… Do, do yah no' feel safe here? Ah can understan', some hesitance… regardin' wor'in' with meh… bu' if yah don' feel safe…"

He stared at her for a long moment, knocked off his course by the sudden show of worry, he shook his head and mumbled something she didn't catch, causing her to frown. "Glen, be hones' with meh… please."

He sagged. "I'm… I am scared… I don't know what's going on!" He finally burst.

Ira leaned back a bit, but her slightly wider eyes and raised eyebrows showed her surprise, before it seemed to settle on something.

"Alrigh' then… loo's like ah've go' a few thin's to clear up with yah."

He wasn't sure what that entailed specifically, but he appreciated that she wanted to help clear things up.

So, he settled himself in a bit for the long haul, and they began, their previous work forgotten.


Outer reaches of the Omega Quadrant

By some miracle there had been a starship left behind at the base of the Omega Quadrant.

The starship, whose name had been struck from the side long ago, yet still bared the faded hue of Decepticon purple, was a small ship, meant for at most three mechs his size to be ferried between the distant quadrant and Cybertron.

Now, the course was set for the Milky Way Galaxy, for a tiny planet that Soundwave had driven himself half up the wall trying to find by its solar system.

His younglings had gotten worried for him, muttering under his vents. "Where's Jupiter… Neptune… Saturn… The Sun… where are you… where are you…"

He'd finally found it, and had wasted no more time, loading every dredge of Energon left on the base, it had been abandoned in such haste there was a good bit left behind, and loaded them and his small family onto the nameless starship.

Now, a few cycles later, now that they had settled into the journey, his little ones were getting… pushy… they wanted to know more, wanted to know what had happened to him… why he was acting so… strange to them…

Eventually he relented, the autopilot was set, he needn't worry about piloting it himself, so he rose from the captain's chair, and led them all to the largest of the three berthrooms, which Laserbeak and Buzzsaw had used their boredom to clean.

He settled on the berth as his four present younglings all made their own way up, Ravage easily hopped up the distance, Rumble scrambled up, whilst Buzzsaw and Laserbeak each landed on one of his shoulders, their plated wings folding in on them whilst their thrusters cooled and were tucked back away.

He reached up to pet both on the helm, before doing the same for Ravage and Rumble. "I'm… not sure where to start…" He admitted, it was easy to start from the beginning, but what now?

They'd seen the horrors of war as it consumed Cybertron… but he doubted they'd react well to the organic horror he had witnessed while being one.

Ravage shifted to drape himself over his pedes. "I want to know where that fleshbag took you." He hissed out the word 'fleshbag' like it had poisoned him.

Yes, that was a good idea.

Jack had been his saving grace in those early days, and he tried to express that, but they were hesitant.

Showing them should convince them.

He hoped it would at least.

So, he began opening up the bond, letting the memory bleed back out of him.

His younglings accepted the teether, and he took them back.

Back to that day he'd woken up human, in a pile of trash.


Sendai Japan

"Well… here we are kid, home sweet home." Jack announced, killing the engine with the twist and pull of the key that bad been in the 'ignition'.

As they continued down the 'highway' he'd pointed at odd things inside the car, enquiring about things he didn't recognise.

It was strange… like asking about the internal functions of a bot, whilst inside them.

But this wasn't a bot, it was inanimate, a machine, used from getting from one place to another, with not a single shred of sentience to it's existence.

Now, he was slowly easing himself back out, Jack had already made it around to his side of the car, already grabbing at him to make sure his p-legs didn't give out on him as he stepped out of the car.

He looked over to the large building they'd pulled up to, out in the 'country side' the same sloping roof style as he'd seen in the city, but it was broader than those buildings, with multiple floors in fact, each getting smaller and smaller as they went up, following the tapering of the sloped roofs.

A number of humans had been running around in the green that surrounded the building, around the trees that spotted the grounds.

More than one had noticed their arrival, and were flocking to the double doors of the building, waiting anxiously as Jack lead him out, round, and up the flight of stairs.

And then the questions began, the youngest looking ones going off like a shot, their attention specifically on his arm.

The older ones, more his height, just regarded him with acute curiosity and Jack tried to stem the excitement of the young-children jumping to flock him from all sides.

Eventually the you-children calmed, the older ones, teenagers, all stepped forward, bowed, and introduced themselves.

He tried to remember, he'd likely be living her for a while, it was best to know who was who.

There were seven children, four teens, him and Jack.

He was led inside, and Jack shouted up. "KIDS! WE GOT A NEW ONE!"

What came next could be at best described as a stampede, the sounds of sliding doors and footfalls racing down flight after flight of stairs, each joined by happy shouts and exclamations he couldn't of kept track of.

Soon enough he was swamped, himself and Jack surrounded on all sides.

Apparently his panic had been evident, as Jack had brought two fingers to his lips.

The sound the man made was shrill, like a whistle blown at the end of a cycles work.

Silence fell.

Jack clapped him on the shoulder and looked to one of the teens. "Miko, be a dear and take this young man to one of the empty rooms, he ain't got a voice so I ain't got a name out of him yet, so be gentle."

The girl who stepped forwards was a head under him, black hair up into two bunches that became neon pink at the tops.

At least she'd be easy enough to spot.

Miko nodded, jumping forwards a step and offering her hand. "Miko Nakadi! Pleasure to meet you new guy!"

He took the offered hand, and before he could even properly react, she was pulling him through the parting crowd.

"Make way! New guy coming through!" She exclaimed as she reached the stairs, and took them two at a time.

He had to exert himself to keep up.

Six flights later, and she finally, blessedly, stopped going up the flights of stairs, and instead pulled him down two separate corridors, before finally reaching a door and pushing it open with a bang of her hip. "This is your room now new guy, hope you like heights, my room is three down that way, need anything, just come over, bedding will be brought up later yadda yadda yadda, just pull your weight with chores and try to get a job and you'll be fine."

And with that, the vibrant haired girl was gone.

Leaving him with a spartan room, lots of floor space, a cupboard to the left…

And a sprawling view of a snow topped mountain in the distance.

It seemed to take his breath away for the moment, the hills between him and that distant mountain like that out of a surrealist painting…

Surrealist for Cybertron.

It finally hammered something home for him.

He was on an alien planet… and alien world… with an alien culture similar enough in broad strokes to Cybertron that it wasn't too difficult imagining himself living here…

No war… no endless fighting…

No younglings…

Rumble, Frenzy, Ravage, Laserbeak and Buzzsaw… he already missed them, like another hole in his spark, twisting and warping with the one already there.

A knock on the still open door drew his attention away from the view.

Jack, he assumed it was Jack behind that mountain of what he could only assume was his 'bedding'.

Which was dropped out onto the floor where it formed a somewhat impressive pile.

Jack sighed with relief, liquid, sweat pooling on his furrowed brows and within the scars that decorated his face. "Alright kid, I'll help you set this all up, you remember how to make a bed?"

He'd never even heard of a 'bed' before a few minutes ago, so he shook his head no.

Jack nodded. "Hella bout of amnesia you got there kid, don't worry, Miko's the same, some brute banged her head in with a rock a few years back, found her wandering the streets half collapsed from blood loss.. poor kid… tried to find her family, found them, but they wanted nothing to do with her, so, she's here."

The bit of exposition was helpful, he would seek Miko out.

Jack looked at him expectantly, already kneeling in front of the bedding.

Realising he was supposed to follow, Soundwave carefully eased himself back down, he'd barely gotten used to standing upright yet, getting back down without his right arm giving out and sending him face first into the pile was just as difficult.

Thankfully his prosthesis seemed to take the weight like a champion, and he was soon enough kneeling next to the far older man.

Within three minutes the 'bed' was made.

If you asked him what the different pieces were called, he'd blank, he hadn't been paying attention to the names of the pieces.

Jack clapped him on the shoulder. "C'mon, it's almost time for food, you've got to be starving?"

Apparently the question didn't need him to vocalise an answer for.

Something in his lower abdomen did that form him, letting off a growl akin to a rabid cyber hound.

It made him jump, and Jack just chuckled. "I'll take that as a yes… maybe we can see if any of the kids have any name ideas for you, they've done decently enough before."

He was moving to get up, but a sudden urge compelled him to grab the older mans arm with his prosthesis.

There was a moment of silence then, and he lifted up his organic arm, and mimicked where Jack's scars were on his own face.

He was curious, he'd always been curious.

He wanted to know all he could about this world.

And finding out just what did the damage he could see on the older mans face was paramount.

He did not want to end up being mauled by whatever had done that to Jack.

Knowing what it was, meant he knew how to avoid it.

Jack stared at him for a few minutes before sighing and sitting back down. "You really don't have any memory… do you kid?"

He shook his head no.

Jack reached up to rub at one of the scars on his left jaw. "War's hell kid… no… war's worse than hell… hell is where the sinners go… the sinners are punished for eternity for their sins… war… war doesn't discriminate… young… old… women… children… innocents… whilst the pigs who caused it sit pretty in their war rooms and send good men to their deaths… for gains… all for gains… land… resources… sometimes to destroy another nation outright…" Jack sighed and shook his head again. "I was a ground soldier… stationed here in Japan… forty years ago… my nation… it did something horrible… and I… in my foolish belief that we were doing the right thing… I didn't drop my gun… I didn't walk away… I kept training… fighting… we were supposed to move in on the one we attacked… to flank it from all sides… they said it was because the Australians had made a deal with the Russians, our enemy… and this was us preventing our enemy getting stronger…"

Jack trailed off, his gaze becoming shadowed, haunted.

"They didn't tell us what they'd ordered done… when we landed in Melbourne… there was nothing left kid… the bomb destroyed everything… every building… school… park… but you know what haunts me kid?"

He shook his head, but urged him on.

"The shadows… bombs like that… they make a flash… one so bright… so blinding… everything it hits gets bleached white… But for that single moment… if there's something in front… it captures the shadow… a snap shot of what was there… then wasn't… Anyone who wasn't… atomised instantly… God above… that was when I threw my gun down… we all did, my entire troop… Australia lost two thirds of it's entire population that week… Not everyone with a gun saw what they did to Melbourne… We didn't all put down our guns until we stopped getting orders… when the News came through… that we were being called back, the home front was being attacked from all sides by their Allies… we made it to Japan when home fell… and I've been here ever since, a soldier of a nation that no longer stands..."

He gestured to his face. "Radiation sickness… they didn't tell us what was there… didn't tell us we'd be irradiated in minutes… lethal dosage apparently… it didn't kill me… just cost me a good chunk of my flesh… Dr Angela saved my life… I was the only one of my troop she was able to save…"

Soundwave had listened to every word in rapt focus, fascinated, he gestured outside.

"What? The radiation? It's half life's long gone from the atmosphere… at least… that's what the scientists say… no one trusts them… the sickness is still with us… still poisoning all of us… save the lucky bastards hiding in their bunkers…"

"JACKKKKKK! WE'RE HUNGRY!" A shout came from a few floors down.

"Shit… completely forgot… Hold up kids! I'm coming!" He pushed himself up, gesturing for Soundwave to follow.

He did, he wanted to know more, Jack knew more, and was willing to give.

He was also really, really hungry.


He ended the memory share there, his processor and spark feeling taxed.

"A soldier… you were taken in by a soldier." Ravage mumbled, coming out of the haze himself.

Laserbeak and Buzzsaw chittered, but Rumble looked… perplexed…

"Never heard of a bomb like that…"

Soundwave chuckled at that, but it was a hollow one. "Because Humans have done things we Cybertronians never have."

That earned a debauched looks from his younglings.

He answered the unspoken question, but the comparison he was to make was a harrowing one. "They found a way to split the atom… The force released… Is much akin to the Tarn Refinery…"

Suddenly everything became much clearer to the younglings, or at least they thought it did.

Their sires haste, his near panic, to get Frenzy, to go to Earth…

If these flesh bags had weapons of the magnitude their sire suggested…

The war could very well end on Earth.

And neither side would be left standing to claim victory.


The Mountains of Petra

The night winds had been kind to them, carrying them on their journey like a helping hand to the back.

Their guest, however, did not fair so well in those same night winds.

Said guest was where he'd been for the last two days, caged within Wren's talons.

The bladed edges bit into flesh and clothes alike, staining her talons in a fair deal of the iron filled blood.

He should be thankful though…

If Aria had been the one to grab him, she wouldn't have been able to hold back her curiosity, which pinged around even now in their shared headspace.

But Wren was firm, he was to live, for now.

Not that that statement was going to run much longer.

Already they could spy their destination on the horizon, ancient stones, cut by man eons before standing out against the barren landscape around.

The one bit of shade their guest would receive as the dawn broke to their left, bathing the world in it's sun bursts and painting the clouds with a thousand different colours.

A beautiful sunrise, their guest should be happy.

A sunrise like that was perfect for one's final day.

Then again…

They ducked their helm down, looking past their chassis, wings shifting into a hover.

Just a quick check…

Yes, still alive, they could pick up his heartbeat with their protrusions, they'd forgotten that for a moment.

He'd screamed himself hoarse the day before, it was no surprise he was quiet now.

There was no use speaking with a dead man any way.

The sunrise continued to be beautiful, giving them the first kisses of warmth after the long night flight from their stop off point in Turkey the day before.

It wasn't wise to fly over too much water.

Their guest hit the dust and sand covered ground just outside the temple.

If he hadn't torn his voice box, he probably would have made a noise past a pained rasp.

No matter.

One more quick wingbeat, Wren's pede settled first, followed by Aria.

They tilted their helm to the left, regarding their guest.

No, he wasn't their guest anymore.

He was the halfway snack.

Yes Ira had joked about eating humans, but that was Ira.

It wasn't something they liked to do, far from it.

But this was a, kill two birds with one stone, issue, and that was enough for them.

"Sit." They spoke, their resonance easily snapping their snack to attention as he stared at them.

It took more than a single word.

"Sit down Attinger. You have not the energy to stand, and we'd rather not see you as a drunkard fool like the one we found the day before yesterday."

Slowly their snack moved to sit, legs out in front of him.

They regarded him with a sympathetic gaze. "We are sorry for your family… but your rage at the world is unfounded, the world was not what killed your family, and all those others that night. Nor was it our fault. Though you don't care that their deaths weren't our fault, and your rage has clouded your senses in a way we cannot afford, you are a threat, and one we plan to remove."

He didn't move, just stared at him, his gaze was dead, whatever was left of his intoxication and hangover was gone, now there was only reservation, acceptance, for their words cut through the haze, and destroyed his will to keep going.

They smirked then, optics narrowing slightly behind their visor. "Good, now, hold still."

He did.

Their snack didn't flinch, not even once.

Aria's wing rose high, catching a sunburst with the very tip as the end scythe snapped out, slicing the tips of a few feathers on it's razor sharp edge.

Their snack only flinched when his head was removed, the body twitching and jerking as a body does when the head is removed.

There were a few spurts of blood, neither of them cared, watching and waiting for the body to fall still.

Hera, who was attached to their front, reached into their subspace for them, and tossed a single white rose down onto the freshly slain corpse.

It took a few minutes, but their shadow, and that of the corpse began to warp and twist, before pulling itself from the ground.

The twins shifted back, taking one step and then another, ducking down to fit snugly into the shadow of the temple.

They didn't want to shock Grim straight away.

Grim finished her rising, scythe at hand as her skeletal form regarded the body, and the rose, before looking to the shadows of the temple, where she could make out a form, but no more details. "Girls?"

They nodded from the shadow. "Hello aunty." Aria cooed, her voice melting a bit at seeing Grim again so soon, the time before, when she had found them was too long ago already.

Grim looked to the body. "You summoned me… why?"

"This temple." Wren stated, extending a wing to let it bang lightly against one of the stones, there was a hollow resonance from beyond. "The Matrix… our relic… is here…"

The situation came to Grim then, even as she knelt to pull the soul of the departed free. "I… I see…"

What Grim likely hadn't expected, when she pulled the soul free, was for a sudden rush of wind, two fast heavy steps, and two giant metal shears to slam shut around the still upright torso of the departed.

She watched in morbid horror and fascination as her girls… her girls… that giant metal amalgamation of bird, human and machine… stomped one of those massive talon tipped feet down onto the legs, crushing them in a splattered of bone, muscle and sinew, and with one quick motion, a brutal jerk back and up with their helm and torso, tore the human torso down the middle, ribs, spine, lungs, all visible in their now decreased amount as the rest was thrown into the air, only to fall into the wide open maw of the mechanical creature that now stood before her.

She felt the dagger that had slowly been twisting in her jerk sharply further in it's twist.

They'd thought Primus would make them fully Cybertronian… claim them fully as his…

As she watched them tear the rest of the body to ribbons, swallowing each like some rabid animal… she felt her dread grow.

What was Primus planning for them… if this is what he'd made them?

The body was already gone, the severed head was the final piece to be tossed up.

There was a splatter of blood and grey matter, before it was licked off the sides of their faces as well as a metal tongue could, leaving their lower face stained red and flecked with tiny bone fragments.

It was a sickening sight…

Not because of the gore, no, she'd seen far worse a trillion times before…

No… it was because it was her girls… who'd just performed the act she had witnessed with her own glassy eyes.

She stepped forward as their attention snapped back, and the pitch black visor they war shifted up and out of sight.

Were she able to cry she would of wept openly.

The terror in their gaze, even as they flinched, forced to close their optics as the light of the sun blinded them, unable to see her standing before them, felt like a second dagger had been plunged into her, vicious and serrated in it's nature.

That damn Celestial God…

Damn him for all eternity…

Her girls were breaking.

Primus had struck a foul blow… one that had left cracks…

Cracks that were growing ever further from the impact, and ever wider.

She cared not about the blood staining their lower face, or the bone fragments stuck within the gore.

When they'd nearly doubled over, when her bony hands touched the sides of their face, cold hard metal met her touch… a mockery of their warm, peach fuzzed skin, she felt the urge to weep, one stronger than she had even thought possible.

She pulled them in as best as she could, their face, all the stuff on their head that fluttered and bounced, sunk and rose again… it dwarfed her.

But they were still her girls.

As scared for their lives as the day she had first met them all those years ago.

The moment ended when they pulled away, their body twisting in a way that wasn't human, before they stepped to follow their torso. "The Matrix…" Wren reminded, but her voice, as stoic as she tried to make it, still wavered in her hesitance.

She reached out and grasped the wing that belonged to Aria, that barrier between them, that possessive claim, that too mocked her. "Come… I mean not to rush… but death cannot be delayed too long."

They nodded, and stepped back into the temple.

For once in her paradoxically immortal life, Grim had to run to keep up.

Empty, the temple was completely empty.

Grim huffed. "Tomb raiders I'd bet."

Her girls nodded.

Aria raised her foot, talons flexing up.

A moment later those same talons met the stone with an unholy screech.

Grim winced from the sound, but her girls were not done.

Not a moment after Aria had set her foot down, Wren's had pulled back behind them.

The sound of metal meeting the weakened stone was jarring, but as the dust cleared, the wall was no more, and a breeze rushed past them to fill the once sealed chamber.

Bodies… giant metal ones, all fused and twisted around one another like some horrid game of twister gone wrong.

Yes she and Lucifer had played Twister, more than once.

Nestled in the palm of one of the metal bodies, was a shape, twisted and pointed in a way unlike much other, glowing a faint blue hue.

"Grim, step back a bit please." Wren spoke, their frame shifting down onto all fours.

Grim did as suggested, stepped back to the entrance, the sun now framing her shadowy physical form in an aura of gold.

The twins paid no heed, they'd already jammed the sharp overlapping plates their covered their back against the upper half of the hole.

They pulled back, and more of the wall gave way, the stones crashing to the ground around them, sliding off their flat sharp plating.

Metal groaned, but the sandstone buckled, giving way bit by bit until the hole was large enough for them to fit through.

Just enough to tap the relic with the hooked end of their wing strut.

In a moment mixed relief and disappointment, the twins huffed.

Wren tapped it again, a bit harder.

It didn't turn to dust, but it also didn't react.

Grim had moved again to enter the hole, stepping up to the palm holding the relic. "Hmm… curious… I've felt this energy before…"

Wren raised an optic ridge. "Considering you're literally death personified, and this relic had a habit of causing violence, that's hardly a surprise…"

They shifted back onto their haunches, and Aria reached out her wing, their upper frame and wings barely fit in the hole, but it was just enough for her hooked wing to tap the matrix as well, Wren's still pressed to it.

That was when time slowed for Grim.

She had no control of time, but it felt like she'd been saved from the world becoming half frozen.

Yet at the same time, time moved too fast.

Too fast for her to react, to call out, to do anything as the relic suddenly shattered into a thousand little shards, and rushed for the seams in her girls body.

They heard a scream, a scream that belong to all of them.

She watched frozen as her girls convulsed, optics sparking to a blinding white as more and more of those shards forced their way inside, piercing them like a thousand diamond tipped arrows.

It all happened too fast.

The very next moment, their body shone, every seam lighting up like a neutron star.

The barrier, once held taught to her girls, shot out, it's intention one filled with malice.

Grim, for the first time in her paradoxically immortal existence, could do nothing but flee.

And pray her girls would be alright.

That they'd get up.

That they'd still be her girls when they did.

But she knew that energy.

If her girls had not been stolen from her and Lucifer before… they had been now.

Death started again, no one really noticed, deaths came a few minutes late sometimes, they just gave the passing and the suffering a few moments more…

It was hardly a positive she wished to dwell on.

Not now…

She had to get to Lucifer…

She had to tell him…

The Matrix had taken their girls…


Phew! Another chapter done! Sorry if anyone felt uncomfortable with the scene between the twins and Attinger, hopefully the rest of the chapter made it up for you all, until next time! Moon out!