Chapter Text
The city was stifling. Air humid and cloying, filling her vents with soot and crusted energon, yet the heat refused to slow the icy drizzle that settled, thick with ash, along her back.
Ravage had never liked Kaon City, you would be hard pressed to find anyone that truly did, but the alleyways were dark and beasts could roam without a second glance. No matter how much energon seeped into the city, rusting the ground pink, Kaon was more of a safe haven for her kind than anywhere else.
Metal shards prickled her pedes as she picked her way through the shadows, tail grazing the alley walls in her irritation.
‘Gah, we can hear you grumbling from up here! Can’t you sulk any quieter, we’re trying to concentrate!’
Amidst the towering buildings it was impossible to get more than an occasional glimpse of the sky, smog obscuring even that, as acidic water spilled down the decaying walls.
‘How about you come down here and say that to my face you overgrown turkey.’
The fluttering in her spark danced along in time with affronted caw from above. The sky was shielded from her but Ravage could feel Lazerbeak and Buzzsaw gliding in sync above her, the bond warm with mock offence as Buzzsaw’s voice replied with shrill.
‘OVERGROWN TUR- it’s not all sunshine and rainbows up here either litter breath!’
With a roll of her optics Ravage pushed forward, easily keeping pace with the flyers above her, gaze never straying from the surrounding shadows for too long.
The three had been patrolling long enough for an ache to settle in her struts, warm air and cold rain setting her sensors alight.
‘We’re not seeing anything from up here, too much smog.’ Lazerbeaks’ voice was saturated with fatigue as it cut across the comms softly,
‘And we’ve seen next to no flight alts at all, so, either we’re really lucky, or this storm is going to be worse than we first thought.’
Squinting up at the sliver of sky, dark clouds pooling in and settling thick, Ravage let out a strained huff. Her tanks growled in time with a soft roll of thunder, static carrying in the wind.
‘Alright, you two head back, I’m not quite finished down here yet.’
‘Want Beaks and I to join you on the ground?’
‘No no, best get back before the lightning sets in, I’ll be quick and under cover so no need to worry.’
No more words were spoken as she prowled forward once more. A quick wave of -thanks-staysafe-home- spilling over the bond as her pack mates caught the wind back to the rundown hideout that stood as their home.
Despite her brave face, Ravage found herself longing to follow, only the drive of hunger pushing her forward.
Despite how frequently it splattered the residents of Koan, Energon in any digestible form was hard to come by. The city bred a certain desperation, straight from the fuel tanks, that left mechs willing to forgo any merger morale code they may have prided themselves on beforehand, and left others as cooling frames on the road.
The gladiatorial pits were the only consistently reliable way to get fed, the winners earning daily rations, the losers… the pits certainly lowered the competition for food’s numbers.
With a growl Ravage slipped through a small vent panel, the air ducts well trodden by retrorats, the rodents slipping through the city without a care. Ravage had made the other two agree that they would never participate in the pits, no matter how desperate they got, leaving the trio forced to settle hunting for rodents instead of any meaningful meal.
A choice, even now, she wouldn’t regret, —a flash of memory, a white pelt, a litter mate, burning in her mind— once you entered the pits you never left, winner or naught.
The sound of a scuffle up ahead snapped her out of her reprieve, sensors dialing up in alert. Light filtered in from around the corner, the end of the vents, echoing with a panicked screech of a cyber mouse, suddenly cut off with a wet crunch.
Hackles raised, the panther crept forward, optics scanning the vents for any movement, audials straining against the rain.
Muffled sobs were not what she was expecting.
Rounding the bend she paused, letting her optics readjust to the watery light as she took in the scene before her. The grate of the vent lay a short distance from the opening, dented and discarded as if yanked away in a hurry. Energon splattered the ground in tiny drips, already being washed away by the downpour.
What really drew Ravage’s attention however, was the shaking form pressed against the alley wall, mere pedesteps away from her position.
The mech was young, a sparking most likely not older than a few joors, the way it’s frame glistened and shifted with each breath, still a watery blue, betrayed the soft metal of a newly sparked, barely more than a protoform.
It was hunched over itself, golden eyes glistening with coolant as it choked down sobs, energon dripping its denta and leaking from its servos. The remains of a glitch mouse slipping from its shaking grip as it swallowed the last of its scavenged meal.
Ravage felt her vents hitch as she processed way lay before her. Kaon was an evil city, to spit out a sparkling into the middle of it? The doomed mech before her would surely offline within the next few groons, it would not be surviving the storm.
It was cruel, but she couldn’t help it, just the three minicars by themselves was too much to keep fed, they couldn’t reasonably look after a sparkling on top of that. Glancing back to make sure her way of retreat was clear, she felt a shift in the air, prickling along her neural processors like ice.
Two golden optics were staring at her in horror.
Her tanks twisted as the sparkling stood shakily, stumbling back, voice box splurting static as it raised its servos in surrender, EMP field flooding the alley way with -sorry-scared-sorry-sorry-hungry-don’twanttodie-.
“No! Please don’t be scared, I’m not going to harm you!” Without thought Ravage pushed herself from the vent, keeping low to the ground in any attempt to seem less threatening.
“I was merely searching for food, just like you, I would not hurt a kit.” -relax-honest-calm- pressed against the sparkling’s field as she spoke. Watching as the other continued to shake, her own gyros churned, now in the light it was more obviously energon deficiency than just simple terror. It was horrible to think, but she hopped the others' death was soon, starvation was a wretched way to go.
Another burst of static as the other choked on its own vents, finally finding its words,
“Liar! Y- you just wished I would die.”
Her processes shuddered, optics narrowing in confusion,
“I’m not sure what you’re talking about?”
“You were thinking it before too, in the vent, you said I was going to die in the storm, I heard you.”
“That’s not possible.”
She hadn’t spoken a word, the one thing that had kept her functioning for so long was that she knew when and how to be silent. Gaping at the mech before her, stained in energon and glaring, yet still so obviously terrified, an ugly picture began to form before her.
Outliers were rare, but not unheard of, every mech knew stories of those that flew too fast to be normal, that held more strength than their frames were built for, that could dance with electricity like silk.
“You’re reading my processor?”
It’s mouth opened again, hesitant, suddenly aware that whatever it was doing was not normal and shouldn’t have been a secret spilled so easily. It was cut off, thunder splitting the sky overhead, a booming roar from the clouds that had Ravage turning down her audials.
The sparkling made an aborted warble, vocaliser fizzing as it dropped to the floor like a rock, servos pressed over its audials in distress. Ravage watched the writhing form before her, a silent scream frozen on its face as it twisted in a futile attempt to get away from the sound.
Realisation dawned on the feline as she stood frozen. Not reading her processor, listening.
She should leave, she should turn tail and run back to Buzzsaw and Lazerbeak, force this experience out of her memory banks and go. Outliers were dangerous to even be around, people would come looking for it, they would stop at nothing to tinker and experiment with it like a shiny new toy, it was better to just let the sparkling offline now and keep her family safe. Her pedes refused to turn.
A keening sob bubbled from the sparkling, it’s field grasping hers in desperation, -scared-dontleave-pain-pain-pain-please-
It would not survive the storm, it’s tanks were more than likely already eating itself in hunger, it would die alone and in pain and only knowing the worst of the world.
…
She couldn’t do this.
Her pedesteps were light across the cracked ground, quiet in the now wailing wind.
It would not survive the storm but, as she curled around it's crumpled form, she swore it would at least get a taste of kindness.
Her vocaliser warmed as a soft purr sputtered from her tanks, a mere whisper against the cacophony of the storm, but a lifeline for the sparkling to grab on to.
It took a bit, the shaking slowing as it’s sobs hiccuped into quiet weeping, her field settling over the two. -understanding-wontleave-safe-safe-
The storm continued to rage, soaking the two as they lay huddled in the alley, the younger gripping onto Ravage with terrified fever.
Slag it, she was attached now. A few soft swipes of her glossa over it’s helm got the last of the wailing to fall silent, memories of her own sires care for her when she was but a kit bubbling to the surface. She nearly startled when the sparkling’s vocaliser sprung to life again, choppy growling sounds filling the air. It took a few clicks for Ravage to recognise the sound of purring, a twisted and wonky sounding mimicry, but purring nonetheless, her spark warming despite her resignations.
It was cruel of Primus to hand her a kit now, one she had so desperately prayed for in her early vorns, before she had learnt how horrible the world truly was. No, now she would be forced to watch it die before even learning its name, she should have left when she had the chance.
Curling around the sparkling tighter she let herself mourn. For the kit now in her grasp, for the life she would have given it if not handed such twisted cards, for the family she will never get.
And for the kits own life, only born to experience suffering and then to die slowly in the worst city on cybertron, for no one to even remember them apart from a selfish old cat.
As the sky darkened she found herself cursing Primus. How dare he.
She would love this kit with all her spark, no matter how ill fated her parentage was doomed to be, they would not go to the allspark forgotten.
This was her kit now, and the universe would be damned for even trying to take them from her.