Because I'm just feeling so generous I decided to update again~ This chapter is a bit lighter than the last and has a bit of added cuteness in it. Shockwave... is an aft, that is all I can say about him.

Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers! I claim only Aquafire, Steel Wing, Storm Ridge, Skyblitz and Wildfire.

Warnings: Mentions of attempted suicide.

Fourteen vorns had passed since that day and Shockwave had since lost contact with Megatron. He remained hopeful that his lord was still alive though and dutifully continued controlling Cybertron in his absence. He kept a close optic on Aquafire as he'd been instructed to do and over the many years, he'd stopped many of her suicide attempts. He'd also had the gleeful task of terminating her sparkling in the early orns of her stay in his tower. He'd found out about the young spark after stopping yet another attempt at taking her own life and placing her in the sick bay. A medic had called him in after examining her and he'd happily instructed the bot to terminate it. Shockwave wasn't sure if she'd been aware of the sparkling but ever since the termination, he often found her rubbing a servo across her cockpit, a look of confusion on her faceplates.

"Cease this at once!" Shockwave restrained the femme as she thrashed and wailed, having woken up from a very bad flux. He'd walked in at the exact moment and had immediately caught her before she attempted anything else. Aquafire slowly calmed herself and went limp, vents working heavily as Shockwave let her go. He observed her carefully as he took a cube of energon from his subspace and handed it to her. She drank it slowly and set the cube aside before sitting down. "You have a sick bay appointment today," He informed her. She barely reacted outside of a slow nod, something he'd gotten used to over the years. He grabbed her arm and dragged her out of the room, down to the med bay where he left her in the capable servos of the medics.

A joor passed before a medic rushed in, optics wide.

"Commander Shockwave! She's escaped!" He gasped out. Shockwave spun and clenched his servos.

"Incompetent fools!" He growled. "Megatron will have my helm if we do not find her!" He turned to the screen and began commanding his drones, ordering them to find and retrieve Aquafire.

-X-X-X-

For once, Aquafire was glad that Shockwave had not seen any logic in disabling her flight systems. She pushed her thrusters hard, getting as far away from Tarn as possible before she was forced to land or risk crashing from a lack of energy. She ran a parameter check before she deemed it safe enough to walk around. As she walked, she slowly came to realize just where she was.

Praxus.

It had been one of the first few to fall but the Autobots had made a brave stand in that battle. No one was certain of exactly which side won. Aquafire knew by now that Praxus had been abandoned long ago, around the time Megatron and Optimus took their troops off-planet actually, so she knew she would be safe here from Shockwave.. at least for a time anyway. She began recalling memories of all the times she'd come to Praxus before the war broke out and a small smile tugged at her lip components. The city had been beautiful and the Helix Gardens... Primus, nothing in all of Cybertron could match their beauty, though the Crystal City was a close second in her processor and the Crystal Gardens of Iacon a close third. The lone femme found herself walking through what was left of the Helix Gardens and couldn't help but stare. Even in the wake of the war, the remaining crystal structures were still as beautiful as she remembered, though the effect was lessened because of how damaged the crystals were. Wings twitching, Aquafire moved on, leaving the gardens to once again travel the city. Her audials picked up on a faint sound, almost like a clicking sparkling...

'Impossible,' She thought. 'Any and all Praxians are gone, offlined or otherwise.' And yet, the sound continued. Moving, Aquafire hurried towards the sound and the sight she was met with had her entire processor nearly crashing.

A young sparkling was sitting beside its offlined Creators, letting out distressed clicks as he desperately tried to wake them. He was black and white with a small red chevron adorning his forehelm. He had little blue patterns running along his body as well. His barely formed doorwings were dropped and twitching as he shook the still forms. Aquafire saw then that he had the biggest and most beautiful blue optics she'd ever come across and it made her spark clench as she watched him. The sparklings helm shot up when she moved, crushing a piece of glass beneath her pede in the process. He chirped and looked her over, thinking her to be the same as he; a Praxian. But... her wings were different, too wide and flat to be doorwings. She seemed to be too streamlined to be a grounder like him and her optics... they weren't blue like his and his Creators were. And she had that weird purple insignia on her wings, though they were kind of faded and scratched up.

Aquafire watched as the sparkling began to tremble in fear, his optics still locked on her. She gazed at him sadly, knowing he would only suffer with no one around to care for him. Her Decepticon training began to kick in and she raised her gun, taking aim at the sparkling. As she continued looking at him an odd feeling rose in her chest and blanketed her spark, tugging painfully and she lowered her weapon, unable to offline the small being.

"May Primus have mercy on you," She whispered before leaving. The sparkling watched her, confused, and soon resumed his distressed clicking and wailing before crying himself into recharge. Aquafire knew sparklings could come about a few ways, whether it be by Vector Sigma giving the sparkling form life or two bots creating life themselves. She could tell by the sparklings build, he'd been created naturally but she didn't allow herself to linger on this as she moved away.

-X-X-X-

Aquafire found herself unable to leave the ruins of Praxus after that. Time and again, she found herself watching the little sparkling, even going so far as to bring him sparkling grade energon that she'd managed to find. He never took it from her and she soon found that leaving the cube outside the doorway of his home always got him to come out of hiding, though if she was there he would go and hide again. She'd playfully nicknamed him Bolt, as he had a tendency to bolt whenever she showed up. He was pretty fast for a sparkling his age. She'd have to place him at around a decavorn old. Aquafire had taken it upon herself to give his Creator's a proper burial, something she hadn't been able to do for her own Creators. The more time she spent in Praxus, the more Bolt seemed to trust her.

"Bolt?" She called out his nickname and she suddenly found the young mechling attached to her shin plate, wailing rather loudly. It had been at least two orns since she'd started caring for him (though it had never been her intention to do so) and not once, had he ever done something like this. Awkwardly, Aquafire lifted the sparkling up and held him, instinctively pressing him close to her chestplates so he could listen to her spark beat. It took Bolt a moment to realize he was safe and another klik to realize he was hearing another spark beat against his audio. It wasn't like either of his Creators but it calmed him, it sounded familiar... like she had a broken spark too.

Bolt pressed a tiny servo against her chestplates and looked up at her, chirring softly as he asked his silent question. The Seeker smiled softly as she realized what he was asking and nodded.

"Yes, I'm alone too," She whispered. Bolt cuddled close to her chest then, tiny servos clinging to her armor, not wanting to let go. Aquafire felt a pang of sadness as she walked into the destroyed home and headed for where she knew Bolt liked to recharge.

His Creators' room.

She slipped inside and sat on the berth, the little mechling still clinging to her for dear life. Too exhausted to do much else, she tucked her wings close to her body and laid down, holding Bolt close as she drifted into a fitful recharge.

-X-X-X-

Another orn passed and Bolt was beginning to worry for the femme that was now the only constant in his young life. Aquafire seemed to be pulling away from him, never staying longer than needed and never responding to his worried clicks and chirps. Her optics were always dull and lifeless when he saw her and he always heard her muttering something about wanting to join her wingmates in someplace called the Well of Sparks. His Creators had told him stories before to educate him since it wasn't safe to leave home and he was beginning to understand those stories. One day though, something changed between them.

Bolt woke from his normal midday nap to find Aquafire missing. Worried, the little mechling got off the berth and tottered out of the room. In the darkness of another room, he saw a beautiful blue light. Curious, he went over and peeked in. He saw Aquafire and realized the light was coming from her chest, more specifically, a blue orb within her chest. But why was she exposing her spark? Papa had always told him that bots never exposed their sparks unless forced or wanting to be intimate. Bolt didn't see anyone else so what was going on? It was then that his optics caught sight of her gun, shaking in her servo as she lifted it.

"Primus, I've don't many things but grant me this one thing. Take me to the Well of Sparks to be with my trine, I've suffered enough..." He heard her say as she moved the gun, aiming it at her spark. Bolt became alarmed and let out a loud cry as he burst in and lunged at the femme. Startled, Aquafire jerked her weapon back and looked at the tiny form now clinging to her free arm. "Bolt?" She gazed at him, shocked. Bolt clung to her, nuzzling her arm as tears spilled from his optics. He didn't want her to go! He needed her still... Aquafire dropped her gun and scooped him into her arms with a pitiful sound, clutching him close as tears spilled from her own optics. Bolt clung to her, wailing, telling her in his own way that he wanted her, bad deeds and all. "Shh, it's okay," She whispered, wiping at her own optics. She saw now that Primus had bestowed upon her a gift in the form of this sparkling. Both were alone, without anyone else in the universe to care for them and yet... Primus had twisted fate and brought them together. They needed each other and she was not going to leave Bolt here alone. "We'll survive this, Bolt, together." She hummed for him and he slowly settled as she stroked his back and placed a soft kiss upon his chevron.

Bolt looked at her, seeming to understand, and nodded, curling close, still letting out tiny, terrified chirps. He was afraid she would try to kill herself again.

"I won't leave you," She promised him. "Never," Her vocals cut off then as she tried to stop herself from crying again. She wouldn't leave Bolt, she just couldn't not when he needed her.

Not when he was her reason to live.