Fay stirred slightly in her unconscious state. Charlie’s head snapped over to where she lay on the ground, where she had been still as a stone for weeks upon weeks now, a timeline that felt endlessly torturous. The blonde girl’s eyes snapped up to large Cybertronian mech only known as Optimus Prime, where his optics were shuttered. Somehow, somewhere, he was in Fay’s mind, and the scenario it had constructed to protect itself from the harsh reality of what she’d done, of all the damage she’d caused herself. Charlie’s mind began to race, her heart pounding. What was happening that Fay was stirring? More importantly, did it mean she was coming back to them? Charlie dearly hoped so.

        She missed her friend. And she certainly didn’t miss the authority their newest addition was showing. While the back-up was appreciated, and much needed in this war, Charlie was less than fond of the way she seemed to behave as though she knew what was best for Fay. As if Charlie hadn’t been here longer. As if Charlie hadn’t been taking care of Fay before this one had come around. She huffed, glaring at the white and black creature. “Bitch,” she muttered under her breath.

        Fay continued to stir, ever so slightly, for the next hour or so. After that, she returned to the stillness she’d held for the last month and a half, longer perhaps. Charlie was losing track of time. The days themselves didn’t matter. She was more concerned with being here when Fay needed her. Work was difficult. Everything was difficult. But Fay needed her. Even if others seemed to think that she only needed them.

        ~~~

        Fay sat on the forest floor, her sobs starting to lighten, her body becoming accustomed to the pain shooting through shin. It was difficult to ignore, but she couldn’t stay here. Fay knew that she had to be strong if she was going to push on and make her way out of this place. If she was going to get better at all, she had to fight for it.

        It wasn’t easy. It hurt like slag. Carefully, she pushed herself up onto her feet, keeping her left foot off the ground, hopping like she was in a bad game of hopscotch as she tried to continue towards the fence. As hard as it was, she couldn’t give this up. She would face serious repercussions, suffer through painful medical procedures and long months of recovery, but it had to be done. ‘Better than not having a leg at all, right?’ Fay tried to convince herself, wincing as she made another hop, bracing herself against the branch of a tree.

        It was ironic how quickly things had made a downturn. Before, she’d been leaping over these branches, and now, well, now she was relying on them to even attempt to get herself back to help. It was humiliating, in a way, and Fay was just glad she was alone. At least, she was glad she was alone for now. But she hated it for the same reason. If someone were here, she wouldn’t be stuck hobbling her way back home. If someone were here, they could help her and lessen the difficulty she was feeling in this situation.

        With a slow breath, Fay tried to ignore the fact that she felt utterly hopeless. She had to push those emotions aside and feel the fire of a fighter build in her spark. If she didn’t fight for herself, no one else had any reason to. Gritting her teeth, Fay let a few more tears slide down her cheeks as she put a bit more power into her next hop, forcing herself over a protruding tree root. She immediately had to brace herself against a nearby tree to keep from toppling over, her spark pounding from the pain that impact would cause, but she stayed steady. Her breathing was heavy and ragged from the anticipation of pain.

        One wrong move, and Fay’s bone would snap right out of the skin.

        ‘Of all things, I do not need blood and energon spurting all over the ground like some crappily funded horror movie,’ Fay thought bitterly, biting her lip. With a deep breath, she thought about it. All she needed to do was fight. All she needed to do was push through it for now. If she could fight it for a little longer, she could collapse when she was safe.

        Safe. That’s all Fay wanted to be right now. But she wasn’t sure where she could possibly find it.

        ~~~

        FarLust snapped her denta at Shockwave, daring him to come closer while threatening him to stay away. Far away. She wanted nothing to do with that mech and single red optic. He was a horrendous being, creating her and her siblings only to take them away from her again. “You are petty in your insubordinance,” he pointed out, unfazed by her threats. A growl rose deep in FarLust’s throat.

        “Bastard,” she muttered.

        “Where did you learn such language?” Shockwave demanded, quick to grab her jaw in his large hand, pointed digits digging into the sides of her faceplates.

        “May as well have been in the Pits for all you care,” she muttered angrily, glaring at him defiantly. “Primus himself knows what an abomination you are. If I could have you in the Pits even he would cheer for me as I ripped out your energon-coated spar-!” FarLust stopped short, yelping in pain as Shockwave’s palm slapped across her cheek.

        Twenty meters away, the Cyberwolf, who FarLust had since dubbed Clawkin, barked, her jaws snapping rapidly as she pulled on the chains around her paws and throat. A primal growl rose deep from its throat, a solid warning to the scientist that if the beast weren’t chained, her denta would currently be wrapped around his neck. Clawkin pulled on the chains again, one of the links cracking under the pressure, her audio receptors pressed firmly to her helm as she continued her warnings, her desire to rip open his throat overwhelming. Shockwave’s helm turned at the sound of the metal straining under Clawkin’s struggling, her denta bared as she snapped at him repeatedly.

        “What sorcery have you worked on that beast?” Shockwave demanded. “No such creature has given a slag if one of ours has been wounded before! What have you done to that thing?” He asked, his processor beginning to work around the situation. “I need you to do it again . . . We can have a second army . . .” His gaze returned to the femme whose face he held again, a bit of energon leaking from where his digits were digging in a bit too harshly. “Tell me how you caused that thing to give you its loyalty!”

        “Because I’m not a bastard like you!” FarLust shot back, her denta bared in a snarl quite similar to Clawkin’s. That was one of their deep-rooted similarities: both were primal, instinctive, even though they knew plenty better. Shockwave prepared himself to strike FarLust again, far less than remorseful for the harsh gesture.

        It was while his back was turned that he was attacked.

        Not by FarLust, who held his full attention.

        Not by Clawkin, who was still snapping her jaws, barking harshly at the scientist.

        But by CatClaw, who leapt onto Shockwave’s back, hooking an arm around his throat and pulling as firmly as she could, causing the large mech to tumble backwards. His weight toppled onto CatClaw’s, but she didn’t much care. All the bright blue femme knew was two things: FarLust was her sibling. Shockwave was a danger to FarLust. Therefore, Shockwave had to be dismantled as a threat before he could be allowed to touch her again.

        “You are not honorable,” she hissed near his audio receptor as his hands gripped for her helm, seeking to dismantle her before she could cause him any serious damage. While she showed no interest in harming him as much as she did from redirecting him, Shockwave hardly processed it.

        She had become a threat. She had to be taken down. It was that simple.

        Wasn’t it?

        Shockwave rolled over, grabbing CatClaw by her helm, throwing her off him and into the far wall. “Cat!” FarLust called out the, the blow her sibling had suffered echoing through her form. FarLust felt every iota of pain that CatClaw had. By now, Shockwave was completely blocking out the barks and snaps of Clawkin. It was a mistake of his.

        All he focused on was the threat CatClaw was posing. Her programming had gone awry. She had to be dismantled before she would destroy every last one of them. That was his goal. That was what had to happen.

        That was his train of thought when Clawkin broke free.

        The wolf tore across the room, paws gliding over the metal floor in a rush as she made her way to the vulnerable CatClaw, her chains dragging behind her. Shockwave turned to see the source of the noise though he had already hypothesized the cause. His theory was confirmed when Clawkin leapt up, her sharp denta sinking into the mech’s shoulder plating, tearing through to the servo itself. Shockwave fought against her, with the intent of murdering the troublesome thing. It had caused him far too much trouble already, and Shockwave hadn’t been fond of it to begin with. Now, it had to perish. It had to pay.

        Perhaps it would help teach FarLust her lesson without sacrificing another one of his magnificent creations. Shockwave drew his weapon, a cannon that blazed brightly as he aimed it straight for Clawkin’s helm.

        “Shockwave!” FarLust called out, the demanding tone of her voice barely loud enough to grapple for his attention. It was barely enough to actually get his helm to turn to her, ever so slightly. Her optics made contact with his.

        Shockwave went down. But not before his cannon fired.

        The aim was far less than centered, and the blast still struck Clawkin, but it wasn’t the fatal shot it would have been just seconds before.

        Now, the blast ripped through Clawkin’s left hind leg rather than her helm. The wolf let out a loud yelp, her faceplates creasing from the pain that was shattering through her form. She struggled to move out of the way as the large cyclops-esque mech toppled over, the light fading from his optics.

        FarLust was venting quickly, heavily, nervously as she looked from Shockwave’s fallen form to where Clawkin was whimpering on the ground, her ferocity having faded. “Kin!” FarLust called out, still stuck to the wall, Shockwave’s spark returning to life. CatClaw slid over to where Clawkin had collapsed, wires exposed and energon spilling from her wound.

        “I can’t fix her, Far,” CatClaw muttered gently, turning her helm to look where FarLust was still stuck. “I don’t know any of this.”

        “I-I . . .” FarLust shook her helm, sensing the clock would soon be ticking on Clawkin’s spark. Soon enough, all of her energon would spill onto the floor, and Clawkin would go offline. She wouldn’t be coming back. To increase the pressure, Shockwave was beginning to come to, and when he realized just what FarLust had done again, he would be far less than pleased with her behavior.

        FarLust took a sharp intake, her spark panicking in a way that her original programming didn’t quite allow.

        Thing was, Farlust, while she still retained plenty of the things her programming had originally caused, she was becoming something outside the programming itself.

        It was part of the nature of her catalytic spark. Even when borders were created, firm and demanding, her personality would find ways to adapt past it, push further and further, becoming something else entirely. No matter how they tried to fight it, FarLust would always become something outside the logical boundaries. Herself and her siblings. It was the very reason they felt things that the programming would not have allowed in the early stages.

        But as their sparks developed, so were their boundaries pushed and nearly broken, bending them further and further to lengths the scientist had not anticipated.

        “Y-You may not remember, you slagging fiend!” FarLust exclaimed, pulling at the chains, wishing she could somehow comfort Clawkin, wishing she could reach her. This was truly part of her punishment, wasn’t it? For her insubordinance to the Decepticon cause, she was being punished by watching her companion perish in front of her, helpless to stop it. Except, she could do something, couldn’t she? Something incredible that made her spark surge and her optics glow. “But we may,” she muttered.

        ~~~

        “What the slag have you done, Optimus?” Ratchet’s holoform asked, eyeing the broken shin of Fay, and her unconscious form on the forest floor. “I understand you have affections for the poor girl, but is it truly necessary to begin breaking her bones if she does not return your feelings?” Ratchet’s humor was dry, but his words were far from serious, and the Prime knew as much, though he didn’t know what to think of the medic knowing of emotions for Farrah. It had been far from a wise decision to allow himself to become this close to the girl, and he was still wondering about her.

        When Optimus made no remark, Ratchet merely rolled his eyes, approaching the wounded Fay, scoffing. “Oh, please, Prime, don’t you think I can tell what you smell of when you return from these cursed ‘visits’? Don’t you think I can tell what she smells of during these visits? I recall a particularly hormone-fueled visit where her pheromones were nearly off the charts.” Randy, the holoform, turned his attention temporarily back to the Prime. “I recall that you smelled of a very similar concoction.”

        “Ratchet, that is not our current concern,”  Optimus told the medic calmly. “You instructed yourself that Farrah’s fictional wounds she be treated as they would in the physical world. And so we ought to focus our attentions on healing her before she wakes in a panic due to the pain she’s experiencing.”

        “Fragging femme,” Ratchet muttered. “Healing make-believe wounds. You really ought to keep better tabs on this one, Optimus. She’s going to become a problem if we can’t keep her under control. And if we can’t keep her under control, then this is going to happen far more often, and she is going to become far too easy of a prey for the Decepticons to pick apart. As if leaving her with those monsters wasn’t nearly enough.” The medic’s hands moved deftly, repositioning the splintered bone in Fay’s leg, snapping it back in place. As he did so, Fay winced in her doubly unconscious state, the pained expression lasting only a moment before she began to relax again. Ratchet promptly began to bandage the bruised, but otherwise undamaged skin.

        “I did not mean to leave her on her own, Ratchet,” Optimus explained evenly. “As I told you before, I simply went to fetch water for her. When I returned, she was gone. I didn’t know where she was until I heard her screams.”

        Ratchet huffed, shaking his helm as he wrapped the bandaging between her knee and her ankle, tight enough to hold firmly against her skin, but loose enough to allow circulation. “What would we have done if it was something worse than a simple broken bone? What if it had been Megatron who had taken it upon himself to attack her? Worse yet, abduct her?”

        “Ratchet, I apologize if you take offense, but you are beginning to sound like Ironhide,” Optimus pointed out. “While I respect you and take your opinions with the utmost caution, Farrah is being watched. She is also capable of caring for herself. You know as well as I do that even we do not know her full capabilities, but she has proven herself able-bodied and able-minded.”

        “I certainly hope so,” Ratchet murmured, leaning close to Farrah’s ear. “You leg is no longer broken,” he told her, waiting for the suggestion to work its way into Fay’s mind. After a moment, her bones began to shift together, repairing themselves slowly but surely.

        In the unconscious realm of things, the power of suggestion was far more powerful than it was in the physical realm. It held far more powerful, and the medic was more than aware of how to utilize that to his advantage. More importantly, he knew how to use it to the advantage of his patient. With a slow vent, the medic stood again. “She’ll be fine now,” Ratchet told Optimus with a nod. “But I’d suggest you think of some way to explain it to her, assuming she remembers it at all.

        ~~~

        Inside her mind’s comatose dream, Fay relived the moment of her fall over and over. She was forcing herself along, fighting back the tears. Her hands were raw from gripping the bark-covered trees, her right ankle aching from her weight crashing down on it every hop. It was painful and maddening. Her focus was so scattered, that she hardly noticed when she took her next step, next hop, really, that a tree root covered in dirt and surrounded by grass was waiting to trip her up.

        She didn’t notice it at all, actually. Not until it was too late. Fay’s toes caught on the root, and she went down, hard. For a moment, her hands fought desperately to find a branch, the trunk of a tree, something to steady herself, but it did her no good. Fay crashed against the ground, her broken shin crashing against the packed, dirty ground of the  path she’d taken.

        Fay screamed. She screamed and screamed and screamed until she passed out. It had only taken a matter of seconds for her to lose ‘consciousness’.

        ~~~