randomplaces | Nexus. Somewhere quiet. Painless meeting with Pain

The sky blue Seeker hunkers down to be more at a level and says very softly, "Hello. My name's Jabez."

Victory grins from her comfy chair, scritching Kylie's back. "Hey; I'm Victory, this is Kylie." Kylie leans over, sniffing at Jabez and growling softly.

The young Transformer looks at the feral girl curiously, she still hasn't met very many organic people yet. "Did I do something that bothers her?"

Victory shakes her head. 'Nahh, she's just letting you know she's not scared of you." She rubs the back of Kylie's neck until she settles down to a low rumble. "Shhh, girl."

"Oh... I wouldn't hurt her. I'm not sure I can affect the living like that anymore." Jabez looks a wee bit worried.

Kylie fidgets in Victory's lap, leaning out to look at Jabez again.

"You dead?" Victory asks, looking curiously at the Seeker. "Or you a psi-projection?"

"I'm dead. A free spark." The youngster settles down and pulls one knee up to lean on, looking very much a young girl despite her size and appearance.

Kylie hops off of Victory's lap, skulking closer to the free spark as Victory winces.

"...sorry t'hear that," she says. "What happened?"

Jabez watches the little being but doesn't move. "Keeping an important artifact out of the hands of the Decepticons. My... mother... I think the word is, and I wound up killing the last one in the process. We only found out afterward that he'd killed us first."

Kylie sniffs and skitters forward, reaching out to swat tentatively at Jabez.

Victory nods. "That's rough kid, but at least you got him in the process."

Jabez solidifies quickly, so that instead of a slightly creepy feeling swat through her arm Kylie winds up smacking what almost feels like living metal. "Yes. But he was the last Transformer left alive."

Kylie yelps, drawing her hand back. She looks over her shoulder and chatters angrily at Victory.

"Settle down, kid," Victory says. "You hit her first, what'd you expect?" She frowns at Jabez's words. "You sure 'bout that? 'Cause I seen a lot of your kind around here."

"They're from different realities. In mine there's only the little guy that Bumblebee made from an old laptop computer." Jabez looks at Kylie. "I'm sorry, but I didn't think you wanted to put your hand through me. I'm told it doesn't feel very pleasant."

"Ignore her," Victory says. "She ain't gonna remember which hand she hurt in a couple minutes."

"...Faulty programming?" Puzzled young Seeker is puzzled and concerned.

Victory grins. "Close enough," she says. "Her mind's kinda...dunno if you have a term for it but the damage was kinda built-in to her."

Kylie fidgets, knowing she's being talked about and not liking it. She paws at the floor, punching hard at the ground.

One clawed hand goes out to cover her gently and soothingly as Jabez clicks to her softly. "Glitched. I was sparked with a slight glitch, but it was clearing up before I died."

Kylie lowers herself to the ground as the hand comes down over her. She whines, but when the hand doesn't try to lift her or hurt her, she settles slightly into her hand-cave.

"Glitched...yeah, that about covers it," Victory says. "She was born with a crack an' some folks did some stuff that broke her good."

Jabez looks troubled. "So much hurting... but people always say that they're sorry when they find out I'm dead. I don't understand it."

Victory shrugs. "Dead generally means it's over," she says. "I mean, you don't generally get to get back up and walk around."

Kylie could get used to this hand-cave thing. She hunkers down to explore, peering out between Jabez's fingers.

"It's not over. It's just going home." The young free-spark doesn't look up from Kylie. "When I was alive all I knew was hurting and fear and goodbye. And now that's all over. Even if I didn't get to come back through the veil I'd like things better now than I liked them before."

Victory frowns. She's seen that attitude before; on the faces of humans, fleeing Apocalypse's cullings (and just how she happened to be close enough to those humans she doesn't like to think about these days); on her fellow mutants, tired and worn from fighting to save the humans who by rights now fear them more than ever and from fighting their own kind, lest they end up in Apocalypse's Breeding Pens. She's seen the look in the eyes of her own teammates, even her own son. And she's seen it on Kylie's face. But she doesn't like it, doesn't like it at all. "...if you're alive, kid, things can change. They don't always hafta be terrible."

"Things have changed." Jabez's soft voice goes softer. "Everyone I ever loved and everyone who could ever love me... I know them all now. And nobody cares about where I came from or how I was created. I don't have to worry that people secretly think I'm disgusting or flawed... I know how they feel and what they think, and I'm okay."

Victory hates to admit it, but the kid makes death sound almost nice. "Yeah, well...I got reasons not to want to go to the other side," she says, scowling a bit. "If people're waiting for me there; the ones who are gonna be happy t'see me are outnumbered by those who're gonna want to pound my butt about two thousand to one."

Kylie is seriously thinking about getting some curtains, maybe hitting IKEA for some shelving units, 'coz this hand-cave is comfy!

"I don't know how it works for humans. But that's not how it goes in the Well of All Sparks." Jabez moves one finger to make the cave a little more snug. "But even my male creator is there, and the only person who wanted to hit him was Ironhide. Most people just don't even notice him."

Kylie squeaks, sticking her head out to makes sure Victory is still out there.

Victory chuckles at her partner, then frowns. "I got a lot of blood on my hands," she says. "Lot of people I killed 'cause I...I din't really have a good reason for it, y'know?"

"Starscream killed for power. And he created me without my female creator's permission. No one liked him. Not even Megatron. Megatron killed our homeworld. But Starscream betrayed it."

She looks up finally. "And the Greatest Creator has probably forgiven worse people than you. I don't know. I haven't met Him yet. But if He's anything like Primus, He's good like that."

"I killed 'cause I could," Victory says. "Some folks, yeah, they deserved it. But when I ran with Apocalypse, I did it 'cause I wanted to hurt people. I had fun doing it." She looks down at Kylie, who is batting at Jabez's hand. "Her too, but...hell, I think she had better reasons than I did."

".... I wish I knew more about humans." Jabez sighs apologetically, then moves her hand a little more to see if that's what Kylie wants. "I don't know enough to be able to tell you what's what with that. But it's not really my function. I'm an Allspark Guardian."

Kylie clambers out from under the hand to perch on the top of it. She looks back at Victory, whining at her partner. "M'okay, girl," Victory says. "Keep playin', s'okay." To Jabez: "What's an Allspark Guardian do?"

"Guards the Allspark. Actually, I just keep Bumblebee company so that she's not alone on this side of the veil, and help her train Surfer."

"Surfer?" Victory asks as Kylie warbles from her perch on Jabez's hand. Kylie appears to be in one of her chatty moods as she babbles at Victory and Jabez in turn.

Jabez clicks to the young feral, then replies to the question. "The first new Transformer."

Kylie chatters back at Jabez, seeming to speak with great solemnity though in truth she's saying nothing at all.

Victory nods. "No pressure there, huh?" she says. "Havin' to be the first; he gonna be your leader?"

"Leader?" Jabez blinks. "...I don't know how things will work out. Right now he's only a curious rookie who spends most of his time learning, talking to Primus, or riding on my own or Bumblebee's shoulders."

Victory nods, smirking as Kylie attempts to run up Jabez's arm, still chattering to herself. 'Yeah, I know that feeling," she says. "You want her down, just give her a good swat. She's fallen farther than you an' she's needing to learn that the world ain't her jungle gym."

That gets her a surprised and puzzled look. "...She isn't offending me."

Victory nods. "Good, glad she's not but if she starts bugging you, just knock her down."

Kylie attempts to sit on Jabez's shoulder, in hopes of looking down at Victory 'coz she can!

The young Seeker spark's alien face goes troubled as Kylie settles on her shoulder. "I... don't think I can do that. It's in my programming to never harm life unless doing so will protect more life."

"Kid, unless you stomp on her, I don't think you could hurt her," Victory says. "Not permanently, but s'okay; if she starts bugging you, I'll take care of her, just let me know. I didn't want you thinking you had to let her walk all over you --" she smirks. "Literally or figuratively."

"Alright...." It's plain Jabez is still confused, but then her head goes up as she hears an inaudible call. "Ohh, I have to go."

Victory whistles, slapping her leg. "Kylie! C'mere, girl!" Kylie giggles and grins, leaping from Jabez's shoulder, into Victory's lap, where she lands with a "WHOOF!" from Victory. "...you did that on purpose..."

Jabez pauses, concerned now, though she's fading visually even as she hesitates.

"I'm fine, kid," Victory says, giving Kylie an affectionate hug -- and a serious noogie, much to the smaller feral's displeasure. "See you later, huh? And if not, good luck!"

That gets her what can only be a smile despite the strangeness of the Seeker's face. "God bless!"

And she's gone.

((co-written with

kyliencreed))