1.April.06

Dreams

By: Blackbolt52003

She cried out in pain as her arm was twisted the wrong way. The stranger then proceeded to continue to twist it even further. Tears streamed down her face in pain. She wanted it to stop. The pain. She wanted the pain to stop. Suddenly, she felt another arm pull at her arm, and another pulled the stranger’s arm off hers. Looking up, she saw her savior was her big brother. And he wasn’t happy…

She clamped her optics shut as her big brother began to fight the stranger. She heard shouts of pain; even felt splashes of mech-fluid fly in her direction, clashing of swords and weapons. One loud scream erupted and all was silent. She opened her optics. Her big brother was wiping off the mech-fluid on his sword on the grass.

She struggled to get up, but the pain in her left leg and her twisted right arm stopped her. She yelped in pain, making him look up. Her big brother walked up to her and hoisted her up. He carried her on his back, his hands gentle and careful of her wounds.

“Are you ok?” he asked, once she was safely on his back. She shook her head, tears still streaming. It hurt. She just wanted to die. Perhaps she should. But she didn’t want to leave her big brother.

“I wanna die.” She said, sobbing. Her big brother turned his head to watch her as she fell unconscious, still wanting to die.

Tree-Climber’s optics snapped open and she sat up immediately, banging her head on the ceiling with a loud, “Ow!” She rubbed at the spot her head hit the ceiling and jumped off the hologram. Even though it was only a hologram, the tree was real enough for her to climb it, and sleep on its branches.

She jumped down and headed out the door. She walked quickly, so she would be less likely to be spotted. Fortunately, when she reached the Control Room, Rattrap was snoozing away. She considered playing a prank on him, but didn’t feel like it. She needed to talk to someone about the dream, but who?

She thought about the elderly red squirrel she had met the day before when hunting for acorns. She found that she had quite a liking to them. Perhaps it was her red squirrel Beast Mode. She’d never know. She sneaked out of the base, careful not to make any loud noises. It was easy. She was a small transformer, hardly big enough like Rhinox to wake anyone up.

Once she was outside, she Beast Moded and scampered up the tree where the elderly she-squirrel had been. She was there, sleeping in a hollow left by an owl of some sort. She knocked, climbed in and waited. She didn’t have to wait long. The old she-squirrel was suddenly bursting with energy. She chattered away.

“Vat do you vant?” the old she-squirrel asked in their language. She was an old fortuneteller and could tell that something was troubling the youth before her.

“A dream.” She answered. “It’s only that, it was… I don’t know how to explain it…” she trailed off in thought. The elder knew that even though this youth wasn’t a real squirrel (it was all in the scent), there were some tributes that she couldn’t help having.

“Dis dream…Vas it like a memory?” she asked. Tree-Climber nodded. The old squirrel took some nuts from her storage and cracked them with her teeth and she crushed them under her thumping tail. After doing so, she mixed it in water and handed it to Tree-Climber. “ ’Ere. Drink dis and den lie down somevhere.” Tree-Climber obeyed.

She drank it all, even though it tasted foul and found a pile of leaves. She added a few more to the pile and lay down. It wasn’t long before the sleep concoction took over.

“Please! Don’t take big brother!” she begged with tears in her eyes. “Let me see him, please!” Two soldiers held her back.

“I’m afraid we can’t. Your brother has broken the law. He killed the son of an Elder of the Council. There is nothing we can do about it.” Said a stern looking mech.

“Yes you can!” she shouted. “You can let me see him! Anyway, it’s not my fault he made big brother angry!”

“We can’t do that, we’d lose our jobs.” Retorted one of the soldiers holding her back. The Elder watched this from behind afore mentioned stern mech.

“I’ll make a deal with you,” she said meeting the mech’s optics. “I’ll kill myself right after I see my big brother once more, and that way, you’ll have revenge. But I’ll only kill myself if you swear an unbreakable swear that no matter what the consequences, you’ll let my big brother go, free of all accounts.”

“You’re willing to commit suicide for him?” said the other soldier astounded. He was a few stellar cycles older than her and was stunned at this youth’s willingness.

“Will you swear an unbreakable swear?” she ignored the young mech and glared at the mech behind the one who had sternly told her she couldn’t see her brother. The Elder nodded a jerky nod.

“I swear an unbreakable swear that I’ll let your brother go, free of all accounts after you see him once more and commit suicide. It was, after all, my son’s intention for you to die.” An evil smile crept onto the Elder’s face. “And to think all we had to do was put your brother in jail and sentenced for death for you to do it so willingly for us.”

“You swore it, now let me see my big brother!” she growled so menacingly that two soldiers’ grips slackened and their hands trembled with fear. She shook off their hands and waited, glaring at the Elder.

He sighed and clapped his hands. The door to the cell in which her brother was in opened, and she stepped in. It was dark but after a few cycles, her optics adjusted to the darkness.

“Big brother?” she said, in an almost whisper, stepping forward to a mech. His optics opened to reveal their crimson colour.

“Little sister? Is that you? How did you manage to get here?” he asked her, his voice hoarse. She took out a recharge microchip and opened up a panel on the wall. She stuck it in a slot and her brother (attached to chains, which in turn were attached to the panel) was fully recharged. She closed the panel.

“I’m here to say goodbye.” She said softly, sitting in front of him.

“What do you mean?” he said. She avoided his gaze.

“Well you see, I made a deal with the Elder. I see you, I come out, I commit suicide and then you’re free of all charges.”

“COMMIT SUICIDE?” exclaimed her brother. “ARE YOU INSANE?”

“Maybe yes, and maybe no.” she said, standing up. “My time’s up. Goodbye big brother. If I can come back and be reformatted, first thing I’ll do is see you, ok?” She didn’t wait for his answer but walked out of the cell instead, the door closing behind her.

She took out her vaporizer gun and crushed it in her hand. Mech-fluid streamed through her fingers. She groped for the light. It was night now.

Even though she had been in the cell for 5 cycles, 5 megacycles had passed outside the cell. Her brother’s cell was between time and space. For every cycle spend there, a megacycle happened in the outside world.

The light turned on and she opened a drawer. It contained weapons, she knew that. She had ‘borrowed’ some weapons to help break some of her father’s friends out of jail. She had never been caught, and no one knew that she had been the one that let them all go.

Big brother had said that her father was dead. She had never even seen him. He had died before she was born. He had also told her that her mother had died after her birth, the stress of losing her husband too much for her.

Her hands closed around a knife handle. Even though it wasn’t turned on, it was an energon knife, she could feel it. She had trained herself to know each and every kind of weapon imaginable without having to even open her eyes.

“Goodbye, big brother.” She whispered one last time before turning on the knife and sticking where her spark was. Her optics widened from the pain but gradually, yet slowly, the pain subsided and she slipped into death, her spark ready for the Matrix and ready to be reformatted.

A solar cycle later, she was found dead, and her brother was released from prison. He wasn’t proud about his sister’s committing suicide and some say that even though he knows that his little sister is dead, he still goes out looking for her, hoping to find her again.

She was shook roughly awake by someone. Her optics opened and she saw the old squirrel trying to wake her.

“What’s wrong?” she asked in squirrel, getting up and cocking her head.

“Your friends are looking for you, yarr, they are. You vere asleep for… Let’s see… In your time it’s… Vive megacycles.” The old squirrel answered. Tree-Climber immediately jumped up.

“Oh no! I’m late for Scout Patrol!” she shouted worriedly. “I have to go, Elder. I’ll tell you later about the dream I just had.” She promised. The old squirrel nodded and the youth scampered out the hollow and down the tree, rushing to her friends.

“I’m-sorry-I’m-late, I’m-sorry-I’m-late, I’m-sorry-I’m-late, I’m-sorry-I’m-late!” she said very fast and all in one breath to Optimal Optimus.

“Where were you?” he demanded. “You’re late for your Scout Patrol. I know you’re still learning but, you know you can’t just walk away from your duties!”

“I know! I know! I’ll make up for it right now!” she told him, turned and bounded off to Grid Delta, where she had originally intended to go for Scout Patrol. ‘First I bump my head on the ceiling, and then Optimus tells me off! Why can’t I just listen to orders? …………  Uh…I don’t wanna answer that so…never mind…’