Author's Notes:

Sorry it's been so long since I posted! College is hell. But, starting this summer, I'm going to have time to work on this story and stockpile. Which means, no more delays on posts, and I can actually follow my schedule of posting every Friday. Also, I have the story planned out, as in most all of the chapters, so its only a matter of writing them all out. By my calculations, I'm looking at about 40+ more chapters….

…and this smart person may have had a continuation story plan out in my head as well.

So be prepared.

Last note! The Of Hope and Destruction rewrite should be up soon, and when it is, it will have no set posting date. Just know that I want it all up by the end of the summer.

Now, on to the story~!

Check out my profile for links to my opening songs!

Beta: The ever-so-patient and wonderful Mist-Howler~!

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my OCs and weird plot lines. Sadly….

Catch me as I fall
Say you're here and it's all over now
Speaking to the atmosphere
No one's here and I fall into myself
This truth drives me

Into madness

I know I can stop the pain
If I will it all away

If I will it all away

Don't turn away
(Don't give in to the pain)
Don't try to hide
(Though they're screaming your name)
Don't close your eyes
(God knows what lies behind them)
Don't turn out the light
(Never sleep never die)

I'm frightened by what I see
But somehow I know
That there's much more to come
Immobilized by my fear
And soon to be

Blinded by tears

I can stop the pain
If I will it all away

If i will it all away…

Fallen angels at my feet
Whispered voices at my ear
Death before my eyes
Lying next to me I fear
She beckons me
Shall I give in
Upon my end shall I begin
Forsaking all I've fallen for
I rise to meet the end

Servatis a periculum [save us from danger].
Servatis a maleficum [save us from evil].

"Whisper," by Evanescence

Wings twitching irritably, the young femme stalked through the Cybertronian market place, her shoulders hunched and optics cast down, ignoring the whispers flying about her. Some viewed her with disgust, others with curiosity.

All with hints of fear.

Why did they fear her? She had never done anything to them. She had never yelled, never threatened, never warranted their fear. All she did was make her daily trek to the market place, using her father's small allowance of credits to buy a meager ration of low-grade energon for herself.

Yet still, they feared her.

What had she done to deserve this life? She was barely surviving as is, gaining a skill at avoiding her sire's blows, though her spite laced tongue never helped the situation. The amount of energon she could afford certainly shouldn't have been enough for her to survive upon, yet out of endurance or sheer stubbornness, she made it on fumes.

But how much longer till she crashed?

She still had yet to reach a suitable age to be able to leave her sire, which he would certainly be happy to be rid of her when the day came. Her world was slowly crumpling around her. The stress made her thoughts darker, a crueler look on the outside world filled her. Only so much more before she—

"Hey, freak!"

Cracked.

She didn't stop her pace, continuing on into a darker part of the lower districts. The sounds of footsteps followed her still, seeming to pick up the pace. "Hey!" the voice continued in an irritable voice. "Hey, I'm talking to you!" Suddenly, a large hand grasped her shoulder harshly.

And she.

Just.

Cracked.

With lightning speed, she spun around, twisting the mech's arm painfully behind him, he letting out a startled cry. Wild and feral tones passed across her face, her optics glinting viciously. "Don't you know?" she seductively cooed as she leaned closer to his audio receptor. "Freaks have the most fun…"

Either no one heard or no one was brave enough to come, but the mech's strangled cries of agony went unanswered.

Sighing, I just lean farther back against the wall, shifting in an irritated manner while my optics focus on the form in front of me. My father, Lord Megatron, lays on an angled medical berth, tilted slightly from a standing position, his chest slowly rising and falling in his sleep.

"Your crew is foolish," I comment to him in a bitter tone, but another sigh escapes my lips. "Foolish, but loyal." Pushing off the wall, I slowly walk over to him, examining him. His tall, gunmetal gray frame was still sans his steady breathing, and though he barely lives, his face looks… peaceful.

"I don't know whether to be angry at them, or proud of their devotion." Stopping at his side, my servos move to hover over his hand, my mind trying to decide whether or not to grasp it mine. Eventually, my hand simply darts back to my chassis, and I clasp it with the other, turning away from my stasis locked father. "Maybe I should settle for humbled."

That's when my mind wanders to earlier that day, soon after coming back from the incident with Airachnid and the Autobots.

"I don't understand!" I shouted at Knockout. "I'm a traitor! After what I did—"

Knockout cut me off with a scoff and the wave of his hand. "You did nothing wrong. We aren't going to lock you in the brig for something so meaningless."

"Meaningless?!" I screeched. "I revived an Autobot! You saw the tapes Ravage played—"

"What we saw," he continued, "was you being forced against your will by Airachnid to do her dirty work." I slumped against the bridge's railing, rubbing my hands over my face in frustration, my wings irritably shifting against my back. Even though I sensed Knockout move to stand beside me, I refused to look at him. "Don't ask us to be angry with you for preserving your life." His servos clasped my chin and forced me to look at him, his optics serious. "Because no one on this ship would have wanted you to do anything else."

I snorted and rolled my optics, but then I shyly looked at him and smiled lightly. "Well, Starscream might have voted the other way…"

A loud and boisterous laugh came from the side. The two of us looked to Breakdown, as he spoke. "And that's why he's in the brig, and you're running the ship."

I smirked at him before frowning. "I should really go confront him. It's been nearly a week…"

"Let him stew for a few more days," Knockout offhandedly replied. "He's been in there for this long: a little longer won't hurt."

I bit my lower lip, but finally, I nodded. "Alright, but I am going to have to deal with him eventually. We can't simply brush him away. He is too high ranking individual to just forget about."

With a groan coming from the crimson mech beside me, I could tell Knockout felt otherwise, but he changed the subject. "We should have you checked out. Your spark might have been damaged during that—"

"No, no, no!" I shouted, moving in front of him and jabbing a servo to his chassis. "I am perfectly fine, and you are not making me sit through another of your fragging scans!" I could hear Breakdown begin to snicker behind me as I glowered at the dumbfounded medic.

Knockout looked like he was going to say otherwise, but I just lifted myself up on the tips of my pedes and kissed my brother on his faceplate, signaling the end of this conversation. He sighs, resigned that he was not going to win this argument, and kissed the top of my helm before I went and repeated the motion with Breakdown.

Finally, settling on the last of the officers present—and the last officer that wasn't under accusation of turning traitor— I hopped up onto Soundwave's back, wrapping my arms around his neck. "Keep me posted on any changes," I stated before kissing the back of his helm, he never pausing in his work and used to my strange behaviors much like the rest of the crew. "I will be a bit absent the next while…"

Dropping back to the ground, I turned and made my way out of the room, leaving Ravage with his former master and the others staring after me with concerned gazes.

And that's what led to me being here, talking to my father who may or may not be able to hear me. "I'm sorry." I move to sit near his pedes, leaning my helm back to rest against his leg as I look to the ceiling. "I wish there was something I could do to help you, but honestly…" I pull my knees to my chassis and wrap my wings about me. "I don't know what to do anymore."

I tilt my helm to the side, catching a glimpse of his peaceful face, looking almost as if he were sleeping. "You would probably have good advice for me." Another sigh. "I wish I could talk to you…"

Growling, I launch up from the floor, drawing an arm back in a sudden display of rage before knocking a tray of tools to the ground. As soon as I had done so, the rage begins to subside, and I just numbly kneel down and begin to absently pick up the tools.

"I can reanimate an Autobot, but I can't even wake my father…"

As soon as I mutter the words, my helm snaps up in sudden realization. Leaving the tools scattered on the floor, I move to the control panel of the door and override the code, setting it to lock from the inside before turning to the computer station and shutting off the cameras to the room.

With that done, I move to kneel down before my father. My motions suddenly become hesitant, but I steel my nerves away before shutting my optics and calling out into the near silent room, save for the steady beat of his spark monitor.

Airachnid had a teacher.

Maybe this teacher would be willing to help me as well.

"Shiaron!" I call out. "Shiaron, will you speak to me?" Nothing. "Please, will you help me? Will you help me save my father?" Nothing. "Frag it to the pit…" This was useless. How was I supposed to contact her? She was in the Nothingness according to Airachnid: she had no way of reaching me…

…but I had a way of reaching her….

Without a bit of hesitation, I slide my chassis open and reach in. "Hope you know what you're doing…." I mutter before I steel myself for what happens next.

I scrap a taloned servo along my spark.

Much like when Airachnid did it, the pain is instantaneous, and I struggle to hold down a scream. Come the second scrape, my already weak spark is in agony, and a strangled scream comes forward, ripping at my vocals. The room begins to blur in a familiar way, and the white creeps in. "Just one more….just. One. More…."

With a final scrape of my talons, my wings shoot out to my sides as my helm tilts back, a scream coming forth as the white swallows me.

Then, much like before, I awake in the Nothingness, feeling more aware and level-headed than the last voyage here. The first time entering the Nothingness had been disorienting, and though I am still slightly unbalanced, at least I didn't resort to singing to take form.

Why in the frag did I sing to that Autobot? I will never know. My form just couldn't seem to solidify enough in his presence for him to see me, and no matter how loudly I called out to him, he couldn't hear me.

The song had just… formed in the back of my mind. It just seemed… right. And surprisingly, the more confidence I built, the easier calling him had been till I ended up right behind him, finally fully formed.

"It was a Siren Song."

Spinning on my heel, I face the voice behind me, only to find that no one was there. A flutter of wings quickly shifts from next to me to behind me. That's when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I draw a dagger, instinctively, to swing my arm back at whoever was behind me. Unfortunately, a shadowed hand grabs my wrist, only to twist my arm and shove me to the ground. A feminine voice echoes, throughout the Nothingness. "Please, I taught you that move.'"

I roll over from my hands and knees to sit, my arms propped behind me as I glare up at the shadowed figure. "What's that supposed to mean?"

I caught a glint in her silver, glowing optics, when she knelt down to extend an arm to me. "You don't really believe that your fighting skills were natural, did you?"

Hesitantly, I take the outstretched arm. As she pulls me to my feet, I notice that my arm is also shadowed like hers, the little wisps of the shadows wrapping about each other. My gaze locks back onto hers, scrutinizing the femme before me. With no real details visible, I can't help but be unnerved by her presence. And by how she seemed so… used to me. Like she had met me before.

In a hesitant and slightly accusing voice, I tell her, "I don't know you."

"You don't really know much anymore," she snarkily responds. I tense and growl at her, to which she laughs. "Oh, calm down. I am merely stating a fact." While I continue to glower at her, she then adds, "If it makes a difference, you never remembered it when you were human still."

It's then that I notice something about her, even in her shadowed form. Optics widening, my jaw drops, and I dart around behind her to ghost my servos along the familiar structure sprouting from her back.

"They're wings…."

Rather than move away or grow angered, she merely made a sound of amusement and flexed her wings closer to me, brushing them against my servos. I could feel the sharp, razor feathers along the crest of her wing closest to me. "Yes, much like yours… only mine look more, shall I say, intimidating than yours." Then, in an irritated and muttered tone, she adds, "When they aren't bond to these shadows, that is…."

My gaze snaps up from the wings to peer at silver glowing optics, as they seemed to glare at her wings, or at least, the shadows encasing them. The femme so far was nothing like what I expected. But honestly, I wasn't really sure what I was expecting when I came here.

Shaking my helm, I turned back to the matter at hand. "I need your help." She looks up to meet my optics, hers tinged in curiosity. "It's…. It's my father. He was injured, and I was wondering if you knew of something to help revive him."

She studies me for a minute before responding. "Why bother with him? Everyone dies eventually…." Angling her body to properly face me, she crosses her arms over her chassis. "Just keep your throne and mourn the loss."

"No!" I snap. "No, I refuse to consider him dead. He isn't dead!" Then, in a whisper, I add, "Not yet…"

With a shake of her helm, she sighs. "Parents are more trouble than they are worth." Her optics hardened. "Especially fathers."

"Not him—"

"And what makes him so special?" she asks with a laugh as she throws her arms into the air. "You already condemned one father based on the words of Cybertronians you can't remember, and for all you know, you could have hated this one during your human life!" Stepping forward, she moves her face just a few inches from mine. "So, why care about this one?"

I wish I could have said that her closing the distance between us allowed me to see slightly past her shadowed face, but honestly, it was just as clouded as it was before. All I could see were the shadows wisping along the contours of her face, her two glowing optics staring directly into mine.

With a deep breath, never once backing down, I respond as if it's the most obvious response in the world. "Because he is my father. And it's my fault this happened to him in the first place." My voice becomes a hollow whisper. "Please…"

She stares at me for a moment longer, and then she whispers back, "So innocent…" With a sudden step back, she continues. "Well, my little girl, I guess it's time to resume your lessons." Her wings spread wide, the shadows flowing and dripping along the shapes of the massive wings, making her look sinister. "Try and keep up."

With that said, she took to the sky, darting off before I could realize what happened. Quickly, I follow suit, trying to keep up with the faster femme who had a larger head start. Where she was flying to, I had no idea, but I trail after her and the shadows flicking around her form like ebony flames.

"What's the point of this?!" I yell after her, finally gaining a bit of ground on her.

"Aww, come now, my little girl," she yells back, arching her flight to circle back beside me, our wing tips ever so close to the other's. "Are you not having any fun?" Dipping closer, I have to drop a few feet to keep her from colliding into me. "You need to loosen up."

Sighing in irritation, I snap at her as she flew directly above me. "Will you please just help me?"

Her optics roll at me, but she relents, diving down in our blank surroundings to land upon the unseen ground, the movement nearly taking my helm off. My descent is slower and more cautious, not as accustomed to finding a landing site in this realm as she is. "For someone as innocent as you," she states, arms once again crossed over her chassis as she stood a few feet from me, "You can be quite a killjoy."

Shaking my helm, I say, "Look, I'm sorry. I just really want to help him." She scoffs, and I press more. "Please? You are probably my only hope for finding a way to bring him back. Please, I just want my father back—"

"Fine, fine!" she snaps. "Just stop with the chivalrous slag. I will teach you a healing technique for Primus' sake."

Not even trying to hide the grin on my face, I move to thank her profusely. However, she cuts me off by raising up a single servo, which causes me to halt. "Don't. I don't take thanks, nor do I need it. I take favors, ones that I will call in one day." She strides up to me, grasping my chin between her servos as she stares into my optics, looking for the slightest bit of hesitation from them. "Understand?"

My mind spins, thinking of all the reasons I should say "no", reminding myself of the favor Airachnid had called in, and of how badly this could turn… but in the end, all I could do was eagerly nod my head. As I watch the amusement grow in her optics, I can't help but vaguely begin to agree with her opinion about my innocence….

"Now, healing your father should be quite simple," she tells me, stepping back and releasing my face. "The only difficult part will be teaching you how to find your bond to him."

"Bond?" I ask, tilting my helm inquisitively. "But I thought you only have bonds between mates?"

"Your medic brother must have left this bit out," she comments as she drops to the ground, lounging back on her forearms before tilting her helm in a way to signal me to follow suit. I kneel down carefully, keeping my wings drawn against my back while she allows hers to spread out wide behind her. "Cybertronians are born with bonds to our sires and or carriers. It's a natural process from being created from bits of their sparks."

"But I was human—"

"And yet you still had, and have, a spark, one created from the Prime and the warlord." A dark laugh escaped her. "Would love to see your family reunions…."

"It's called a battle field," I deadpan. "Now, this bond?..."

Sitting upright and straighter, she keeps one leg bent up close to her chassis that she casually draped one arm over while the other propped on the ground. "Just listen to your spark. Try to sense him." I look at her questionably, and she sighs in an irritated way. "Primus, girl, its not that hard!"

Reaching forward, she shifts to sit on her knees, much like me. A hand extends from her and was placed flat against my chest, which I flinch from but went ignored by her. "It feels like an anchor. Something that keeps your soul tied to your spark. It's what makes you feel stable, makes you feel sane. Find that."

So, after sending her one last cautious glance, I shut my optics and search for that. I feel along spark, the faint pulse keeping a steady beat in the back of my mind. Along that pulse, I found… something. Something that was… not mine. And upon further examination, I realize there were two.

"I…I think I found it," I whisper.

"Good," she responds firmly. Feeling her servos placing upon my shoulders, she continues, her voice serious. "Now, you need to determine which is which."

My optics flew open, and I stared at her as my spark sped up, realizing what she meant. "The Prime. I don't want anything to do with his side of the bond."

"Well, well…" she says with an amused tone. "Someone has some daddy issues…." Growling, I move to snap at her, and she says, "Its so much fun to upset you… and you make it so easy."

Sighing in resignation, I ask, "How do I tell them apart?"

Her optics seemed almost as if she were smirking. "How am I supposed to know?" I begin to snap at her, but she continues. "They are your bonds. Only you can tell them apart." She lightly presses her hands to either side of my helm, and it takes all of my willpower not to flinch away. "Just relax… Focus on them. Try and listen to them."

With an exasperated sigh, I shut my optics and do as told. I listened. I focused on my sparkbeat, the steady yet distant sound that existed in my realm rather than this one. I felt myself fall into some state, where I could feel myself both in the Nothingness and my realm. And then, I could see it.

A bluish glow within my mindscape, one riddled with various pale and jagged cracks. Branching off of it were two strands, like thin, woven silk that emanated two different shades of blues, one pulsing towards the center glow, yet only faintly receiving anything, and the other…. It looked weak, almost as if it were barely hanging on, though the center glow steadily tried to feed it, but the energy seemed blocked.

I could immediately tell that the starving one was my father's, was Megatron's. With his coma, he would be the weaker strain, the one unable to draw out or return any of the pulsing glow.

"I found it," I whispered, staring at the strange sight in awe.

"Good," came her response, sounding like a whisper right in my ear, but her voice was distant and faded while she remained unseen. "Now, you need to send energy along the strand. But be warned. You are still weak from reviving that Autobot. This could cost you more than just a bit of energy…"

I don't even hesitate. With a determined gaze, I focus on the weaker strand, willing my energy to it. My spark rate in the other realm seems to rise slowly, but I don't back down. My form slowly feels weaker, but I don't back down.

I couldn't afford to back down.

Soon, The pulsing energy from the center bluish glow begins to work its way along the strand, at first a weak trickle that slowly rose to a rapidly increasing flow. Strength left my frame as it entered the bond, but I didn't slow my process.

"You're going to get yourself killed." Her voice sounded panicked, maybe even worried. "He needs too much energy. Are you really willing to die for him?!"

My only response is to continue the process, feeding him still.

The other bond, the one belonging to the Prime, suddenly pulsed a bit brighter to me. It quivered, one that suggested fear or panic. My astral form collapsed to a knee, my image flickering from the realm, being too weak to remain but too stubborn to stop. The Prime's bond responded to try and send me energy, but he had realized what was going on too late.

Megatron's bond seemed to explode in a blast of light, the light fading to reveal a healthy and solid bond. But, as he regained himself, the bluish glow in the center flickered faintly, suddenly dropping and hazing out, like a screen flashing as it died.

And then, my body flickered from the realm, Shiaron's voice floating after me.

"You are mine."

The femme's sire groaned as he woke from his high-grade induced slumber. Standing slowly, he grunted and stretched his joints, reaching behind him to casually scratch his lower back. Pivoting with a slight stumble, he moved to go get ready for work when the sight before him made him freeze in his tracks.

Casually sprawled across one of armchairs, his daughter, hidden in the shadows of the dimly lit room, played with a dagger between servos, a small smirk crossing her features. The dagger's mate rested on the arm of the chair on which she had draped her legs, the pose both dangerous and alluring at the same time.

Still in a partially drunken stupor, the mech only stared as the femme began to speak, the low light casting darkened shadows across her face as her silver, glowing optics locked remained locked on the dagger. "You know, I get where you're coming from. A daughter you never wanted suddenly thrown upon you, leaving you with only two choices: to dispose of her, or to raise her."

Shifting to sit upright, one hand grasped the dagger she had been toying with and moved it to point at him, while the other hand picked up the mate, holding it tightly in her fist as she leaned her faceplate against it. "You tried the latter, only, you didn't account for the looks. For the judgment from your peers." Her small smirk fell. "So, in retaliation, you turned to drinking."

She slowly rose. "Which turned to anger."

Her optics, brimmed with hatred, locked onto his fearful ones. "Which led to violence."

Stepping forward into the few streaks of light that entered their tiny abode through the dirty and grimy windows, the shadows fell from her form to reveal what they had hidden. "And don't you know that violence only breeds violence?"

A feral grin slowly encompassed her face, showing off her lightly pointed teeth as the mech began to quake in fear at the sight before him. Her frame showed caked and smeared lines of energon, covering from her pedes to a perfect splattered streak across her face. And her wings… the razor nature of her feathers stood more prominent than ever, energon dripping from them slightly as the rest were crusted over and dried.

None of it was her own.

"What's wrong sire?" she cooed as she approached him. "You let me go get energon everyday since I was little." Her hips swayed dangerously, the grin still spanning her face. "I just found a funner way to get it…"

The mech backed away as she continued her approach, the slow pace drawing at his fears as his spark hammered away in his chassis. Soon, he found his back pressed against the wall with nowhere left to go. She grasped his shoulders and pressed herself close, pulling herself up on the shocked-still mech so as to wrap her legs around his waist.

Leaning in close to his audio receptors, she spoke in a venomous purr. "Don't be scared sire…" Her wings flicked against her back, stretching out before settling back into place. "All I did was play with the mech. And then I met others, and we played hide and seek…"

In a whisper, her lips brushing the side of his helm as she tightly grasped the back of it, her chassis pressed close to his, she said, "I caught them all… the femme who looked at me funny… the mech who tried to save her…" A sound of amusement escaped her as she paused for effect. "The mechling that was too curious…"

She pulled back, her face splitting in a grin at the look of horror across his faceplates. "And now for the sire who failed his daughter."

His scream cut short as the daggers plunged into either side of his neck, her dropping to the floor, stepping back as he choked on his own energon. She watched with a tilt to her helm as he fell to his knees before crumpling into a pile on the ground.

"What a mess."

My optics slowly adjusted to the bright light of the med bay room. Vaguely, I could hear Knockout and Breakdown yelling for me from the other side of the door, the loud sounds of them trying to simultaneous break it down and cut through it.

Frame shaking from weakness, my wings slump to either side of me as I lean forward on my knees, hands supporting me. That's when I hear a gruff and worn voice, one showing signs of lack of use, come from in front of me.

"Who are you?"

I slowly and weakly lift my head to see Megatron staring at me as he shifts off the berth he had been tilted up upon. His optics met mine as he moves to stand, towering above me with his impressive height. A look of shock crosses his face as realization dawns on him. All I could do was faintly smile, the sounds of the door finally being broken down.

"Hey, Daddy."

And with that, I collapse to the ground into blissful unconsciousness, except for the faint voice whispering, taunting me in the background.

"Hush little baby… don't say a word. Mama's gonna buy you a mockingbird… And if that mockingbird don't sing, Mama's gonna go and clip its wings. And if that bird goes and tries to fly, Mama's gonna go and burn the sky.

"And if that bird begins to cry, Mama's gonna let its spirit die."

So, what do you think? Any opinions are welcome!

Also, check out my page for links to pictures of Shadow and Everon! The amazing Mist-Howler made a gorgeous portrait of Everon, so you should really see it!