AN: Sorry for the delay today! FF wasn't working earlier, and I only now had the chance to upload today's chapter.

Also, this chapter directly follows the last :)

A Drone Named Jeffrey

Chapter Seven

Mother

"Did you have a family?"

I paused scratching symbols into the ground and looked over at Riley. She sat hunched by my side, knees pulled to her chest and eyes on the road below us. I shrugged and kept scratching. "No."

"No one?"

I paused again. "No."

We sat in silence. I finally vented and moved to mimic her position. "Vehicons don't really have families like you humans do."

"Why not?"

"Because." I glanced down and found Riley staring back up at me with interest. I vented again. "Life with the Decepticons wasn't really the…nicest thing. Remember when I told you that Vehicons were considered just mindless drones?"

I waited until she gave me a hesitant nod. "Well, a lot of us really thought that. We never really had any reason to get close to one another when we never knew who was going to walk away from the next battle. Some Vehicons never even lasted longer than the first day they were forged. I guess some of the older Vehicons may have formed a tighter group than anyone else, but even they never really felt anything when they found out that the guy they had shared Energon with for so long wasn't there anymore."

I vented harshly, and Riley jumped at the loud noise. "It didn't help that everyone in command treated us like we were expendable morons. They couldn't even tell the miners apart from the soldiers half the time! And being told from creation that you're nothing but cannon fodder can shape a mech's mind real quick. You focus more on whether the next battle will be your last instead of figuring out who to cuddle up next too when you experience a bad memory flux when you recharge."

The wind whipped up the top layer of sand surrounding us, and I glared at the granules of dirt that stuck to my armor. My scratches from earlier were already being covered again. I don't even remember what I had been drawing.

"My mom left us today." I turned my attention away from the dirt to Riley. She had moved closer to me without my realizing it. "Well, not today today, but on this day a few years ago. She didn't leave a note or anything—just up and left."

Riley pursed her lips as another gust of hot wind rushed around us. She turned towards where she had set up the boxes earlier, and I turned to look at the remnant smudges with her. "You ever hear from her?"

"No."

"You want to?"

"No."

We turned back to watch the road below, and I decided not to comment on the waver I had heard in her voice.