Last Survivor: Chapter 4

Hey guys, sorry for taking so long. There was finals, then I had a break before the summer semester began, then I got severe writer's block. I tried to plant a garden and drowned half my flowers . This chapter was so hard to write. It might end up being revised later on. If the characters seem OOC in any way, please let me know and give me ideas as how to fix it.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Transformers. I just play with them. I only own my OC's.

Units of time:

See Prelude

Seeker genders/family members:

See Prelude

Communication:

:: comm. link ::

- Bondmates/sparkmates -

~: creator/creation bond :~

: sibling bond :

Thoughts/memories/flashbacks/dreams

[symbiot/symbiot carrier]

Seeker Cant

= Cybertronian language = except in memories

Bumblebee talk


She ran as quietly as she dared toward her destination. The sparkling in the sparkling pouch in her chestplates squirmed and set confusion through the creator/creation bond. She sent love and reassurance back. The sparkling calmed and settled. The femme leaped over fence and sent a ping to a friend within the Autobot outpost. It didn't take long for a large, triplechanger mech to come out of the outpost. His blue optics scaled the edge of the live fence and settled on the femme. His faceplates lit up as he made his way over.

"Arcee, how are you? I haven't heard from you in a while."

"I've … been busy." She said, lightly grasping her left upper arm, optics down cased.

The mech's optics softened, his field pushed against hers, laced with comfort. "I heard what happened to Tailgate. Are you doing alright?"

Arcee's spark clenched painfully at the mention of its lost mate. She fought to keep her coolant in its reservoirs. "It's hard, not a solar cycle goes by when I don't grieve for him."

"It wasn't your fault. You must accept that."

"Yes. Bladestream, remember when we stormed that base back in Crystal City? And the north wing collapsed?"

"Yeah, you had to bust me out of there. You saved my chassis. But why did you bring it up?"

"Because you said that if I ever needed a favor in the future to come and ask. Now I need one."

Arcee opened her chestplates and reached inside her sparkling pouch. She lifted out a small lavender and royal blue sparkling. The sparkling had blue optic like her creators. She had Tailgate's helm horns and a very small version of Arcee's chevron. She looked like Arcee in every other way, even inherited Arcee's frame. The tiny sparkling would one solar cycle be a two-wheeler. The sparkling beamed and reached for Bladestream. Confusion and concern showed on his faceplates as he took the tiny femme who fit in the palm of his servo, even though she was old enough now to start spending more time outside her creators' chestplates.

"What does this have to do with Moonracer?"

"She's old enough to start leaving my chestplates. I can't devote as much time to her as she deserves with tailgate gone. I know you've adopted twin Seekerlings and a Praxian. You'll take good care of her." Her spark broke as she said this.

It wasn't uncommon for creators to give up their young. In most cases, the sparklings were abandoned, left in an ally somewhere to fend for themselves or offline. Arcee and Tailgate had wanted a sparkling since they bonded. Arcee would never give up her only sparkling without a desperate reason.

"Is this parental protocols I hear talking, or fear of a new personal enemy?"

She hesitated. "Both, I guess. I don't want her harmed."

Bladestream looked at the little one sitting in his servos as she chewed on his digits. He could tell that this was breaking his friend's spark. Arcee was like an older sister to him. Tailgate was a good friend. He sighed. "Alright, Arcee. I'll do it. Do you want her to know about her carrier? And sire?"

"Yes, I hope to unite with her again, after the war. She should know why our bond is blocked."

Bladestream's optics widened for a nanoklik. Then he embraced Arcee. Arcee placed a kiss on Moonracer's forehelm. Moonracer cooed and placed her tiny servos on Arcee's faceplates. Arcee spoke through their bond for the last time, telling her creation to be good for Bladestream and that she loved her. Then she closed the bond. The effect on Moonracer was immediate. Her optics widened in shock. She probed Arcee's side of the bond. When she received no response, her optics began to leak coolant. Her lower lip plate trembled and she reached for Arcee. Arcee turned away, leaped over the fence, transformed, and speed away. Her spark broke into thousands of pieces when she heard Moonracer's desperate cries. Arcee turned off her audios as to not turn back and retrieve her sparkling.

Forgive me, sweetspark. I pray we'll see each other again.

When Arcee was far enough away, she found an abandoned building and transformed. She leaned against a wall and sank to the floor. Then for the last time for many vorn to come, Arcee cried for the loss of her sparkmate and her sparkling.


Arcee looked at the small datapad with a picture of her, her offline sparkmate, and sparkling. It had been taken shortly after the sparkling's emergence. Her spark ached for Moonracer. She had to be a youngling now, with her own vehicle mode. She wondered if Bladestream ever did tell her creation about her creators. Arcee wished deeply to once again hold her sparkling close. Giving her up had been the hardest thing she had ever done, but with Arachnid now on Earth, it was best that Moonracer wasn't here.

She heard an alarm ring through the base. She subspaced the datapad and ran to the main room. The kids had gathered at the main computer. She watched as Optimus answered the hale.

= This is Autobot Outpost Omega One. Identify yourself. =

She heard an older youngling answer in an urgent voice. = Optimus Prime, sir, our ship has crashed and we are under Decepticon attack! Our leader and a neutral are trying to hold them off. We need immediate assistance! =

= What are your current coordinates? =

= Hold on, I'm sending them to y- =

= AAAAHHHH! Wing Saber! =

Arcee's spark clenched as the scream of a small youngling ripped over the comm. Her creator protocols flared to life. That scream belonged to her sparkling.

= The neutral has been shot down! Here are the coordinates. Please hurry! =

The comm. ended and Optimus turned to Ratchet. "Ratchet, ready the ground bridge and prepare the medbay."

Ratchet entered the coordinates and activated the ground bridge.

"Autobots, transform and roll out!"

Arcee collapsed into her motorcycle mode and sped after her leader. They pulled out of the portal and transformed, weapons online. But all they saw were retreating Decepticons and a wounded triplechanger standing in the middle of the field. The triplechanger turned and his optics widened.

= Arcee? =

Arcee put away her weapons and approached the mech.

= Bladestream, where is she? =

= She's in the ship, and she's going to throw a fit when she finds out they took Wing Saber. =

Arcee cocked her helm. = Wing Saber? =

= Bladestream, = They turned toward Optimus. = is Wing Saber the neutral one of the youngling spoke of? =

Bladestream looked at him in confusion, then it changed to realization.

= Yes, sir. She is, but it is much more complex than that. I would rather explain things in more private quarters, I have younglings on board and I don't want the ship to be found by any locals. =

= Our current liaison for the race of sentient beings that reside on this planet will help take care of your ship. Meanwhile, let us get you and the youngling back to our base. = Ratchet, bridge us back."

Bladestream looked at Arcee. = What language is he speaking? =

= English. It's the dominate language of the country we currently live in. You might want to download it before we get there. We have humans at the base. =

Bladestream nodded. = I'll go get the younglings. =

Arcee reached out and grabbed his arm. = Oh no, you won't! Ratchet will not be happy if you make your injuries worse. If you can comm. them, that would be best. =

He looked at her for a moment.

= She's right, Bladestream. = Bulkhead interjected. = Ratchet ain't called the "Hatchet" for nothing. Not even Optimus is safe from his wrenches. =

Bladestream looked at Bulkhead and nodded. He placed a digit to his audio receptor and contacted the ship.

= They will be out in a nanoklik. I'd like a klik with them before entering the base. They need to know what happened to Wing Saber, if they don't know already. They became quite attached to her. =

Optimus nodded and walked through the ground bridge that Ratchet had sent. Arcee lingered behind for a moment before entering the ground bridge herself.

Jack, the human teen that Arcee was guarding, greeted her as she came through the bridge. "You okay, Arcee?"

Arcee opened her mouth to reply when Ratchet asked where the newcomers were. Optimus told him that they were still there, Bladestream was talking to the younglings and helping them download the English language.

"Any injured?"

"Yes."

Ratchet looked at Arcee and raised an optic ridge.

"Who?"

"Bladestream. Those younglings always come first."

Ratchet offlined his optics a few times and then stormed through the still open ground bridge, grumbling.

Once he was threw, there was a moment of silence before Bumblebee let out a loud buzz that was the equivalent of a whoop of excitement.

Raf, Bee's charge, ran up to the railing nearest to the scout.

"What is it, Bee?"

"Some of the newcomers are younglings, which means that there is a high chance that I won't be the youngest anymore!"

Miko came up to Raf. "Wha'd he say?"

Before Raf could answer, Ratchet returned, dragging a mech at least the size of Optimus by the scruff bar on the back of his neck through the bridge. Ratchet was grumbling under his intakes something about not being on earth for more than a few hours and the mech was already taking after Optimus. He unceremoniously dumped the mech on the floor of the medbay with a gruff "on the berth". Bladestream looked at Ratchet for a moment before following the command.

Four more bots came through the bridge, all younger than Bee. The mechs were twin Seekers, the older femme was a Praxian like Bee, and the youngest was hiding behind the older femme's stabilizers. Yet she kept studying Arcee. Arcee's spark recognized the small youngling as its creation, but she held back as not to scare the youngling.

As Ratchet repaired Bladestream, Optimus asked about the neutral.

"Her name is Wing Saber and it turns out that she is the future Empress of the Lost Islands of Vos. We came across a destroyed star ship that belonged the royal Cauldron. I searched the ship, but found no survivors. Hard Wire discovered that Wing Saber was sent with all the carriers, sparklings and younglings in escape pods off the ship. But the Decepticons who attacked the ship destroyed all of them except the pod that held Wing Saber. We searched for her for vorn. When we did find her, I had to tell her what happened to her family. She, … still grieves."

"That many spark bonds cut that abruptly should have offlined her." Ratchet said. "But if she was in stasis at the time the bonds were cut off, then it would make sense that the worst of the pain would be over by the time she came out of stasis, allowing her to survive."

"We came very close to losing her, but Moonracer managed to pull her out of it. When we received your message, Optimus, Wing Saber let us use her family's space bridge, which was still online, to get here. When we crashed and the Decepticons came, she helped me fight them off. She actually beat Starscream pretty good before Soundwave showed up and took away."

"CARRIER!"

All optics and eyes turned to see Moonracer running into Arcee's outstretched arms. Moonracer flung herself onto Arcee, nuzzlings her neck cables, purring. Arcee was trying not to leak optic coolant. Arcee hugged her sparkling tight as Moonracer began to plant kisses all over her faceplates. Ratchet sighed and shook his helm.

"Take care of your youngling. Just bring her to me when you're done so I can examine her."

Arcee looked at him, then stood and led Moonracer to the back where her quarters were. Jack stared off after her.

"Arcee gave up her only child after her sparkmate was killed in action, kid. She brought the sparkling to me once Moonracer was too old to be carried onto the battlefield. It was the hardest thing Arcee had ever done."

"Then how does she know Arcee?" Jack asked.

"Spark bonds. All creators and creations share bonds. They can communicate over these bonds. That would explain Moonracer's strong reaction towards Arcee. Her spark recognized its carrier.

"Alright, you're clear. You are to stay here overnight so that the welds set. Who's nex- … Override?"

Override's doorwings dipped in nervousness and a small smile formed on her faceplates.

"Hi, Ratchet."

Ratchet stared at her in shock. It had been ages since he had seen her. "The last time I saw you, you only a sparkling."

"Actually, Ratchet, I was getting my second youngling upgrade. It was just after I lost my creators."

Miko leaned toward Bulkhead.

"Psst! Bulk! What's a sparkling? What are creators?"

"Our creators are our parents, Miko. Sparklings are our infants and younglings are kids. The father figure is the Sire and the mother figure is the Carrier."

"While all femmes can carry sparklings, not all mechs can. Among grounders, gender is only spark deep. Every frame type has, what you humans would call, male and female reproductive organs. Genetic coding in mechs determine if the mech is more of a carrier or more sire. Optimus and Bumblebee have more carrier coding and thus their frames are built more toward the ability to carry verses bots like Bulkhead or myself, who would not be able to carry very well and are built more towards siring sparklings instead." Said Ratchet.

"Seekers genders are far more complex, but now is not the time. Bladestream, if Optimus wants a report, he can come here to get it. Override, get on the berth and I'll run some scans."

Override nodded and laid on the berth. Optimus turned to Bladestream. "Bladestream, we will do our best to find Wing Saber. I knew her sire well. Although his people were neutral, he and many of his older creations and trusted bot under him were Autobots. Wing Saber will most likely be highly train to operate many different types of weapons, but I am concerned about how she will fair in Megatron's care. If we don't find her soon, he will offline her if she refuses to join him."


Once again, so sorry about the long wait. Hopefully things will go faster now.