A dry sob escaped her throat as the scent of death reached her nose. She retched, but managed to keep down the last bit of energon in her fuel tanks. She didn’t want to survive, but she had too…she really didn’t have a choice. Her optics looked around the smoking rubble that was what was left of Autobot City. All Autobots had been killed or captured and then separated from each other to be tortured or ripped apart of spare parts.

She gulped softly; footsteps neared. She looked up and saw Skywarp nearing, energon smeared all over his hands and arms, some even splattered on his chest plate. She whimpered in fear and tried to back away, but her wall was already pressed against the wall. She hissed softly in pain as the ragged wall ripped some of the exposed wires in her pack. She arched and cried out softly, but her voice came out ragged and weak. She had spent all night crying for her lost friends; her lost family.

Skywarp grinned and grabbed her injured shoulder, yanking her to her feet. Another whimpering cry tore itself from her cracked and bleeding silver lips as pain shot from her shoulder, energon flowing out of the wound and through the seeker’s fingers, down his arm. She looked up at him with pleading optics. There was nothing left in her, no fight, no spirit, no hope. She just wanted him to get it over with, but highly doubted that he would even consider letting her off easy.

The seeker looked into her empty optics and frowned; he knew this wasn’t going to be any fun. She had already been broken; broken by the carnage and the pain…and the hate she had seen today. He put a finger under her chin and forced her to look up at him, to which she complied, fear in her spark. She yelped softly as she pulled into the air, feet dangling as the seeker pushed her against the wall. She felt something break in her leg.

“S-S-St-Stop i-it…” She begged, voice husky.

Skywarp only grinned and moved a hand to her chest and started to rip the armor off; the femme through her back and screamed so loud and so long that her voice cracked. Her optics flickered and then died out as her screams did as well…

Kit suddenly shot up, screaming, as tears ran down her cheeks. She looked over and suddenly clung to her mother’s chest, crying. Her shoulders trembled with every sob; Alpha shushed her gently, stroking her head and rubbing her back. “It’s alright, Kitten, it was just a nightmare…nightmare’s can’t hurt you, remember? You’re safe…you’re safe…”

“B-But…it felt…so real…” Kit sobbed, clinging to her mother like a lifeline. Alpha gently tried to calm her down, still stroking the cub’s head gently.

“I know, hun, I know…but it’s not…you’ll be okay…just go back sleep…”

Kit whimpered, sniffled, but snuggled into her mother’s chest. After a few moments, the cat inside took over and she purred, falling back into a gentle recharge. Alpha looked up at the mech across the room from her and frowned. “She keeps having this nightmares…of the night the City was attacked…it’s been two years…”

Red dimmed a bit. It came back on. “Maybe it’s due to the fact that old memories are being dragged up…”

“How?”

A shrug. Alpha sighed and laid her daughter back down onto the berth, but she laid down next to the cub. Sometimes, a daughter just needed her mother…sometimes, a child needed attention…and sometimes, sometimes, a mother needed to give it to the child.

Alpha was all for that.

Mother and daughter slept together that night, mother giving her daughter the protection she needed from the bad dreams that plagued her mind.