It'd been 5 months since they were discharged from the hospital. Two since a group of 'spies' began tailing her, and one since she heard Heatwave's voice again.
As soon as she was discharged, she left for another city. Fortunately, she had several safehouses scattered throughout Cybertron, so housing wouldn't be an issue. The real challenge was adapting to being a carrier and figuring out how to properly care for a sparkling. She wasn't exactly given a manual, and she didn't have any experience with sparklings unless you counted the few months she spent enduring Blurr's constant complaints about his training exercises.
Thankfully, Hotshot didn't complain in so many words. He was a calm sparkling and didn't really make much of a fuss, though His cries did keep her up sometimes, but as the weeks went by, she found a routine and was starting to get her life back under control. Being a carrier wasn't as hard as she imagined it would be.
Once they were settled for the time being, she decided it was time to contact Optimus but noticed she had misplaced her datapad. Rewinding her memories, she realized she'd left it in her room at the base.Anotherthing to worry about. There were terabytes of classified data entrusted to her by the Prime, as well as sensitive personal information on the device.How could she be so careless?She feared what Eclipse would do if he found out about Heatwave and the others. She didn't want to jeopardize their safety too.
The only thing that kept her from spiraling was knowing the device was heavily encrypted. It would take months to hack, so she tried not to worry too much. In the meantime, she used her build-in-monitor, sent the Prime a vague distress signal, and hoped he wouldn't take too long to respond.
As time went on, she developed a system of moving from safe house to safe house to throw Eclipse off her trail, and so far, to her knowledge, it was working. Aside from constantly moving, she never left the building unless it was to restock on supplies or fuel. At three months old, Hotshot had a growth spurt, and supplies started running out faster than Quickshadow anticipated. She decided to restock before they were completely out of fuel and left once Hotshot fell into stasis.
Refraining from transforming into her vehicle mode, she merged with a crowd of other bots to blend in, but as she went about her task, the burning feeling of being watched suddenly struck her, and she kept her guard up. Disconcerted, she chose to take a different route home and was glad she did because she caught 3 bots following her midway back. However, what really unsettled her were their insignias, or rather lack of insignias. But she didn't give it much thought. Fearing they may have gotten to Hotshot, she wasted no time and ran just slow enough for them to chase after her and led them through a dark alley where she seemingly disappeared without a trace.
Finally making it back, she practically kicked down the door and bolted to her room. Relief washed over her as soon as she heard the sparkling's hungry cries and no signs of any unwanted visitors. She picked him up and rocked him back and forth. "Shh, I'm here..I'm here," she held him close, taking a second to catch her breath. Hotshot eventually settled down and fell asleep to the rhythm of her racing sparkbeat.
After that experience, she had a few other similar encounters with the same insignia-less bots, but they kept their distance and only watched from afar. Initially, she suspected Eclipse sent them to spy on her but wasn't too convinced. As bad as he was at sneaking around, Eclipse wouldn't send someone else to spy on her for him. This was too personal. Furthermore, aside from the fact that she didn't recognize any of them, something felt off about those bots. On a more recent encounter, she got a better look at them and realized their insignias were painted over, leading her to believe they weren't Autobots at all.
Above everything else, she feared for her son's safety. If those bots were who she thought they were, sheneededto speak with Optimus.
One particular day, she found herself scrolling through her inbox, hoping to find a response from Optimus, but it was completely empty, save for a few voice messages from Heatwave sent in the span of the past seven months.
She stared at the screen for a while, tempted to open them. Usually, she'd scroll past them, but for whatever reason, she couldn't. She missed hearing his voice.
Her mind went back and forth, debating whether or not it was a good idea. She bit her glossa, hoping she wouldn't regret her decision. "Only one,"she murmured, finally giving in.
She opened the first one, sent just after she started ignoring his calls. 'Hey,' hearing his voice sent a small electric surge down her spinal strut, accelerating her sparkbeat. 'Is this a bad time? I'm free for a few more hours if you wanna talk later.' Hotshot perked up at the unfamiliar voice and stirred in her arms but didn't wake.
Repositioning the sleeping sparkling, she moved to the next one, sent 3 days after the first. 'Are you busy?... We can always reschedule for next week.'Guilt began to cloud her mind. She felt awful for cutting off connection with him so suddenly and out of the blue. Knowing him, he probably thought he'd upset her. She didn't want him to blame himself, but she couldn't do anything about it now. It took every fiber of self-control in her not to smash the call-back button, but she knew she couldn't risk contacting him, not until she heard back from Optimus and explained her situation.
The next one was two weeks later.'Hey..'His voice was audibly raspy, meaning he hadn't been getting much recharge. There was a short pause in the voice message where Heatwave had spaced out. 'Primus, it's late..' he murmured. 'Oh, erm...Chase, let Chief know I'll drop by tomorrow to help with Earliween preparations.' She wondered if her cutting contact affected him that much, and a knot formed in her throat.
Moving on to the next one, Heatwave seemed to be wide awake this time. 'Damnit, Quickshadow! Please answer.'she flinched at the distress in his voice.'...I'm worried.'Hotshot startled out of his recharge, letting out a few irritated whines. Quickshadow subconsciously rocked him back and forth while taking in the message. She felt a twinge of pain in her spark and forced a shakey breath before playing the rest of the voicemail.'I need to know that you're okay.'
As bad as that one was, the next one really got to her. Sent around the time were Hotshot was still in intensive care.'Hope you're doing well...whereveryou are. Be safe and take care of yourself.'
She replayed the last message over and over again, addicted to his voice. For his part, Hotshot now sat wide awake, attentive to the strange voice coming from his carrier's monitor, wondering who it belonged to.
Quickshadow whipped her tears, smiling sadly at her sparkling's curiosity. Hotshot reached for her arm, sputtering incoherent sounds, but Quickshadow understood. "That was your Sire." She proper him up on her lap and replayed a few messages for Hotshot.
Though he didn't fully comprehend what was going on, he realized whoever was behind the voice was important to his carrier. In an effort to cheer her up, he mustered a wide, denta-less grin and nuzzled his helm against her arm.
Quickshadow melted at his affection, and for a brief moment, her spark felt full.
Months passed, and Hotshot grew, but there was still no response from Optimus. At this point, it had been six months since they'd gone into hiding, and Quickshadow was growing increasingly anxious. What if Eclipse or those bots got to her first? What if Hotshot got hurt again? She shook those thoughts away and tried to remain positive. Optimus would respond soon.
Refocusing her attention on the sparkling sitting on her lap, she grinned at his futile attempt at holding his toy up. Hotshot was playing with an old cube he found lying around one of the safe houses, and although he could barely pick it up, it quickly became his favorite toy, or rather, his favorite item to gnaw on.
"Hotshot. Don't chew on that." Quickshadow gently chastised and tried to take the cube away. Tried being the keyword. As she wrestled him for the object, wondering how a mere sparkling could be so strong, her arm buzzed with an incoming transmission. Leaving the sparkling be, she opened the monitor, sparkbeat racing in anticipation, expecting it to be Optimus, but she slammed the monitor shut as soon as she saw the caller ID.
She stilled momentarily, watching Hotshot fumble with the cube until her arm started buzzing again. Minutes passed, and she grew more agitated with each incoming call, but she wouldn't answer.
After the 6th consecutive call she ignored, the transmissions stopped altogether, but just as she started to think he would leave her be, she felt a hum signaling a new message. Sighing, she thought about checking it and ultimately caved.
'We can do this virtually or in person. Your call.'Her energon ran cold. He found them.
Another call lit up the screen, and she hesitantly answered. A brief frame of static later, Eclipse appeared on the screen, servos laced together as he stared back. "Slipchain." he greeted with an air of feigned professionality.
"Eclipse." she returned the formality, masking her unease with her nonchalance. "Couldn't find any Autobots to do the work for you?" she jabbed, referring to the spies she encountered in Cyber City. She was testing to see if she'd been right.
"..Um, What?" Confused and a little taken aback, his body language confirmed her suspicions. But if he hadn't sent those spies after her, then who had? "I think you've been stuck indoors too long." he chuckled dryly.
She shook her thoughts away and turned back to the unfolding conversation she didn't want to have. "What do you want?"
"How about ahow are you?OrI missed y-."
"Cut the slag, Eclipse. What. Do. You. want?"
"Always direct to the point with you." He let out a sigh and shrugged. "I'd like you back here by tomorrow afternoon."
Quickshadow scoffed and sharpened her glare. "Mhm, and I'd like you to leave me alone, but you didn't quite get the message, did you?"
Eclipse ignored the snarky quip and continued. "..OrI'll release thisrawfootage I found for investigation."
Her helm tilted to the side. "What are you going on about?"
His grin sent a shiver down her spinal strut, and his face was replaced with footage from a security camera dating back about 5 years ago.
She stared at the screen, wanting to look away but was paralyzed.
Screams and blaster fire echoed throughout the room. She saw lifeless bots fall to the ground and accumulate into a pile..with her energon-stained frame standing over it.
The loud sounds startled the youngling, but she couldn't move to calm him down. She was in catatonic shock, reliving everything from that mission.
Except..it didn't happen like that. The feed was wrong.She hadn't..she wouldn't...
"What? Now you're playing dumb?" Eclipse's face reappeared on the monitor, grinning at her horrified expression.
"..I-I didn't-.." she bit her glossa, optics narrowed in a killer glare when she realized what he'd done. "..You."
Eclipse laughed through the screen. "I'm quite the editor, huh?"
"You piece of—"
"Uh uh, not in front of the little one." his grin widened, seeing Hotshot hiding his face with his tiny servos.
She clenched her jaw while Hotshot shifted in her arms. Silence loomed over them for a moment, Quickshadow reviewing her choices and Eclipse waiting for a response.
"So, I'll see you tomorrow." His voice held an undertone of victory that only added to Quickshadow's rage, but she was out of options. Eclipse knew her location, and it was only a matter of time before those strange bots found her too. She couldn't run from both parties, not with a sparkling slowing her down.
A slight nod was her only response before the screen faded to black.