#skyburner

Skyburner’s optics had widened a bit in surprise. He’d never really felt affection much before, but it felt nice. He found himself pushing back into Limelight, enjoying his arms being around his body. “I’d like to be called Skyflight in private places. If the police hear my actual name, then they’ll immediately interrogate me. I can’t handle the anxiety that come with it. The last time I was in one of those interrogation rooms, I nearly shut down from the sheer amount of stress.”

Limelight hugged tighter, “I’ll keep that in mind. Since you’ve told me your story, I’m willing to join the ‘Cons. I just need you to take me into a med-bay to get the mark.

He knew every time he had it that it was just a dream, but with how vivid everything was, it just seemed too life like to be faked. All of those faces of everyone he’s ever hurt still etched in to his processor.

Limelight stood leaning against the doorway, still attempting to talk to him. Every word he said seemed to fall on deaf ears.

“You know, you’ve wanted a chance to prove your father wrong, right? Now’s your chance. What’s your story anyway?” Limelight shifted himself to face Skyburner.

Skyburner didn’t respond. Instead his optics moved to look over at him quickly before focusing back on sewing. The only noise left in the room was the vents blowing cool air in and the occasional clank of the needles against Skyburner’s digits.

“Look, I’m tryin’ my best here. Give me a chance. I get that we’re of the opposite faction, but I might be willin’ to join you if you talk to me. I’ve never had the chance to get around a ‘Con’s head and you’re my only chance at that. I promise you we ain’t spilling anything about what you’ve done, just talk to me.”

A small huff of air left Skyburner’s vents. “And how do I know you’re not lying? All you Autobots have ever done is ruin lives and you claim that you’re not going to ruin my life further. How can I believe you?”

“If I wanted to ruin your life, then I would’ve done it by now. I have so much information against you and I can give it to the authorities whenever I want, but I haven’t. That’s how you know.” Limelight pushed himself off of the door-frame, going over to Skyburner and sitting in a chair nearby. “All I want to know is what happened to you.”

Skyburner looked up at him, sighing once more, “Do you want the long version or the short version?”

“Either one you want to tell.”

His optics shifted to the wall. He wasn’t looking at anything in particular, rather he was trying to focus on what words he’d use. “I started off living a rather good life. My carrier was a very nice femme and my caretaker was a hard-working mech. I loved both of them equally. Problems began arising once my caretaker was caught cheating. They got into a really violent back and forth argument.

“The kind of argument that went like ‘well if you hadn’t done this then I wouldn’t have done that’ or ‘well if you had done this I wouldn’t have had to do this.’ My carrier had locked me in my room as protecting and left me with a key in case she had to walk out of the house to get away. It went on for hours and all I could do was hide in the closet crying.

“The last thing I heard from her was her screaming in pain after my caretaker hit her over the head with something and then the front door slamming shut. My caretaker decided to come back to my room to vent some of his anger onto me. He couldn’t get in. I didn’t leave that room until I was on the verge of dying from starvation. He fed me and faked his love for me. He started calling me ‘Skyburner’ rather than ‘Skyflight.’ He gained my trust only to beat me down.

“He began mentally destroying me. It lasted up until I was 13. After that he began to physically abusing me and raping me. I was slowly breaking. Million years of this abuse caused me to plot out his murder.

“I--- I killed him. I stabbed him repeatedly in the abdomen. His energon splattered everywhere with every stab and soon enough I was covered in his blood. I was lucky since the war had just started and bots would show up in the wash-racks covered in other bots energon. My caretaker was found days later and everyone suspected it to be my carrier, but no one knew who or where she was.

“They assumed I was kidnapped by her and no one managed to find me since I changed my frame and began going by ‘Skyburner.’ I was undocumented in the system at that point and to show my caretaker that he was wrong about every word he told me, I went into the black market to make enough money to support a family. I was told by many bots that hobbies would get me nowhere and that sometimes a bot has to do something they don’t like to get somewhere in life. If I had known that I could just do what I was good at and be happy, I would’ve done it after escaping.

“I’m sorry for all the pain I caused you and all the pain I caused others. If I could go back and change anything, I would go back and change all of that...”