SUMMARY: A sparkling loses the only remaining family she has left, only that isn't all that true as she suddenly finds herself in the care of her Creator. Now she understands why her aunt was so sad at her similarities to her Creator—to Soundwave. But being with the Decepticons might not be as bad as the Autobots claim.

Set within the G1-ish universe but incorporating Bayverse.

Disclaimer: I only own OC's and my storyline.

The story inspired by Different Pebble by Decepticon Chick

Characters might appear out of character, but I will work on that as time goes on.

I've never written a Deception-centric story before and wanted to take a bite at it while adding a twist to it.

Astrosecond: .498 seconds

Breem: ~8.2 minutes

Joor: ~1 hour

Deca-cycle: ~3 weeks

Nano-klik: ~1 second

Orn: 13 days

Solar-cycle: 93 hours (Cybertronian day)

Orbital-cycle: 24 solar-cycles/93 days (Cybertronian month)

Stellar-cycle: 20 orbital-cycles/480 days (Cybertronian year)

REMNANT

Chapter 1:

Unexpected

Within the no-man lands of one particular neutral and deserters camp, sheltered away from the majority of the fighting that had taken over Cybertron, was a young—possibly one of the only remaining—sparklings left on their dying planet.

She was a small thing, could fit in a single servo for most bots, and she was currently playing with an old beaten-up toy that she had had for as long as she could remember. A gift, if the femmeling recalled, from a towering red and blue mech.

But she had not seen the mech since, he was nothing but a distant and fuzzy memory for her.

She whirled and clicked, mimicking the movement of her toy cyber-cat. Then—

"Res."

The tiny sparkling glanced up from her playing to look at the femme that called her shortened designation, the sparkling made a peep of confusion, unsure about the sudden addressing. The green and white femme smiled at the sparkling with an agonized look in her optics, but the Resonate knew it wasn't aimed at her—she'd long since learned that it was because of her creator; a mech she had never met nor knew the designation of.

The femme crouched and held out her servo, and the sparkling pushed herself to her pedes and crawled into the waiting servo. The femme swooped the sparkling up into her arms and a soft purr was the response as Resonate smuggled into the warm frame.

Orange optics watched over the femme's shoulder as they walked.

Resonate could hear the concerned humming of her carer's spark and gave a chirrup. Her carer had been worried about something a lot recently but Resonate wasn't sure what it, the sparkling nowhere near coherent enough yet to make any sense of the dangers that surrounded them.

But had she been, the sparkling would have known Hexen was worried about their safety. The news of other camps taking hits and being invaded had reached the camp's audio receptors; it was only a matter of time.

Yet the indigo and white sparkling carried on oblivious to the impending danger.

The sound of her tanks rumbling made Resonate cheep, patting her stomach.

Hexen chuckled at the action, "Yes, we are going to get some energon, Res."

The duo reached the energon ration stand without any further trouble. But Resonate wiggled her digits in some vain attempt to stop the way her spark fluttered nervously as she was going to be forced to drink normal-grade—something sparklings weren't supposed to drink.

The camp didn't have the right recourses to be able to make her a low-grade every solar-cycle and the time between was getting longer and longer—it made her tank feel upset for a few joors and it was often accompanied with nausea with the higher and higher chance of her just purging it back up again.

Of course, the sparkling didn't understand why this was happening, why her tanks got upset, why she was struggling to keep it down. But she was hesitant to take the cube all the same.

The mech at the stand smiled, it was a dim thing, and handed them their energon and even the idea of downing the liquid made Resonate's tank twist with unease.

She resisted the urge to whine in distress as she forced herself to drink.

Hexen gently rubbed up and down her back strut and Resonate allowed a sound between a whine and purr to escape.

Then—

BOOM

The ground shook and screams followed. There was shouting and blasterfire. Resonate felt her frame tense, plating clamping down in distress at the sounds bombarding her audio receptors.

Instinctively she dropped her cube and covered them in a weak attempt to block the sound out. A panicked warble escaped.

Hexen hissed and also dropped her energon cube in favour of rushing off in the direction that the explosions were the quietest in an attempt to flee the scene.

The next several breems happened fast and with flashes of bright lights that left Resonate's optics stinging, she remembered Hexen curling Resonate to her chassis, drawing her blaster and firing at bots all the while making sure Resonate was hidden.

There was another explosion close by—too close and the duo went flying.

Resonate's helm jarringly hit the ground and she was sure something within it rattled. She blinked, shuddering her optics in an attempt to clear them. Her entire frame hurt.

She whimpered; reaching out and trying to drag herself towards the green and white frame of Hexen. The femme was pushing herself up, helm snapping towards Resonate and scrambled towards the sparkling.

Resonate whined lowly as Hexen lifted her. The sparkling easily spotted the energon on her carer's frame—it was dripping badly.

The thought sent the sparkling panicking.

She couldn't lose anyone else!

Hexen turned sharply and fired her gun. Resonate heard the sound of a frame hitting the ground heavily. Then Hexen was running and Resonate could feel the way her carer flinched and winced at every movement.

At some point, the explosions and fighting between the neutrals had died down and Hexen couldn't run anymore. She set the tiny sparkling down and allowed herself to slide down a piece of rubble to sit.

Resonate peep in distress. In some weak and pitiful attempt to stop the leaking, Resonate tried to cover Hexen's wound with her tiny servos and put pressure on the worst one but it did nothing to stop the energon from seeping through her digits and staining them.

A more distressing cheep escaped and Hexen gently caressed her helm, "Shhh darling."

Then in the near distance, there was sound, Hexen tensed as two seekers flew overhead.

"Resonate," Hexen wheezed. The sparkling glanced up at her, "Hide, and don't come out no matter what, you understand?"

Resonate clicked once more but nodded. Her mask and visor hid her confused and worried expression as she did as asked. She looked left, then right as she scanned the area before her optics landed on some debris that she was small enough to slide behind. She crawled into the gap and managed to manoeuvre herself to be able to see her carer still.

The sparkling flinched as the sound of multiple pedes got closer and closer to their location, frame silently trembling. Eventually, they stopped and Resonate dared a peek to see a large grey mech with red optics. To his right was a red seeker and to his left was a grounder—faceplate hidden by a red visor and mouthguard.

She found herself frowning—what was it about the indigo and white mech that made him seem… familiar?

She pushed that thought aside and focused back on the towering grey mech (he was the tallest, but she had to crank her neck for all three!) as he crossed his arms, looking down at her carer.

"Hexen," He greeted—his voice was gravelly. But what made Resonate curious was that they knew her carer. Of course, the sparkling was aware the planet hadn't always been at war, but…

"Megatron," Hexen answered with a humourless chuckle.

Megatron? Resonate bit her bottom dermas—he was the leader of the De-cep-ti-cons. Then… the red seeker was…Starscream? It must be—it was only logical after all. The Leader never went anywhere without his Second in Command.

"To be truthful," Megatron continued, and it snapped Resonate back to the conversation, "I hadn't expected to see you within a neutral camp."

Hexen scoffed, "Well, plans change."

I happen, Resonate realised.

"And what would those plans be?" Starscream questioned, a smirk curling into his dermas, "You seemed pretty hellbent on being Autoscum."

Hexen set her head back against the rubble. Resonate didn't need to see her faceplate to know she held a sardonic smile, "My sister was murdered."

The indigo and white mech's frame gave an aborted flinch. It made Resonate frown again.

"Well that got you here and leaking now, didn't it? How close are you to offlining?" the seeker sneered.

Hexen snarled back, "Watch it 'Screamer, I think you'll find I have enough to at least take you with me if you don't shut that trap of yours."

Resonate felt her derms quirk upwards childish with humour.

Megatron gave a hissy chuckle, "What is the real reason, Hexen."

Hexen said nothing and it set Resonate on edge, the sparkling shuffled in her spot. Megatron crouched, a cruel smile curling onto his dermas, "Come now, friend."

Hexen vented, hitting her helm against the rubble she was leaning on. She turned her helm in Resonate's direction. No words are needed.

Resonate moved forward. Her movement caught all three Decepticon's attention.

She poked her head out and all three froze at the sight of her.

"Tha-that's impossible, right?" Starscream stuttered, then glanced between the two other mechs when neither answered. "…Right?"

"This is Resonate," Hexen spoke softly, and so the sparkling crawled the entire way out of her hiding spot.

She was tiny (they were so, so, so big) compared to the three mechs but it didn't deter her from staring them down, biting back the curious chirp that wanted to escape.

Megatron chuckled, glancing at the other mech that hadn't spoken a word, "Soundwave?"

Resonate turned her optics back onto her carer and crawled back to her side, clicking.

"Fine," Was all Hexen said—but they both knew it was a lie. Resonate tilted her head, and Hexen scoffed, "Don't give me that look."

Resonate continued to frown, pouting.

"So this is the reason then?"

Ah, right—Resonate nearly forgot about them for a moment. She turned her visor back to Megatron to see his own optics on her. Even crouched he was still over triple her size—it made her tug her field close to hide her sudden wariness and fear at the fact he could easily harm her if he wished.

"Yes," Hexen hissed, "I've been caring for her the last three stellar-cycles."

Soundwave crouched suddenly, Resonate snapped her gaze to him, "Age?"

Resonate's digits twitched, curling in her lap, visor darkening before lighting again once she realised she had done so.

"She's ten stellar-cycles," Hexen informed.

He vented quietly, Resonate found it was a bit odd because of his previous stoic exterior.

For a moment, the femmeling thought he was going to reach out to her, but he didn't, so she turned her attention onto her carer, dismissing the three altogether.

She whirled; she wasn't sure what was going to happened now. Hexen was slowly leaking out and if she didn't get any medical attention…

Hexen vented and set a servo on Resonate's helm.

~Carer?~ Resonate asked over the faux bond. Hexen's optics were slowly dimming, and it was setting the sparkling more on edge each astrosecond.

The green and white femme hissed sudden, not answering Resonate, and instead turned to Soundwave. She didn't speak aloud—doing so over her commlink and so Resonate had no idea what was being said but Soundwave straightened his back strut a moment later.

"As you wish," He answered and held his servos out to Resonate, "Come."

Resonate eyes him warily but Hexen nudging her made the sparkling move. She shuffled into the waiting servo and the other curled around her entirely, where he lifted her as if she weighed nothing (it was likely so, she was tiny after all).

It was odd—she only had very vague memories of being held by mechs, but as he held her against his chassis and her audio receptors picked up the quiet hum of his spark behind his armour, she felt at ease.

Her frame slowly loosened until she lay limply in his arms and a soft purr escaped her.

At the back of her processor, as she dropped into recharge, she was aware of the new fledging Creator-Creation bond being created between them. She sleepily poked at it and in return was smothered in adoration. Her purring grew louder before she dipped into recharge.