I watched Ratchet remove the stitches from my arm. 'It has healed nicely. The swelling will reduce in a couple of days.' I nodded. 'Thanks.' He stepped back. 'So, I see you're making friends?' He asked casually. 'I am.'
I slid off the medical bed and grabbed my jacket. 'Nate was his name?' I stopped in my tracks. 'Damn, he's such a dickhead,' I scolded. 'He has no one else to turn to, and I'm very good at making you feel bad. You should feel bad, though.' I didn't listen. 'If you just give him a change...' I turned around. 'He's a killer!' I hissed. 'No! He's misunderstood,' he hissed back. 'You're not his father,' I scolded. 'No, but if I had been, he never would've ended up as he did. I would've adopted them if I had the chance.' I studied him. 'Right...' I slid my jacket back on. 'Sky, trust me. You won't regret it.'

'He's a killer, Ratchet. You can't change him. Even if you try.' He shook his head. 'Meet me tonight.' I raised a brow. 'Why? I'm not going to talk to him again—' he cut me off. 'Meet me tonight; I've got to show you something. Hangar 3 at 9 PM.' I sighed. 'Fine, sure...' I opened the door and left.

While doing my rounds to collect paperwork, Nate caught up with me. 'Hey! There you are.' He smiled, which I returned. 'So...' he trailed off. 'Have you thought about my offer? Are you coming to the party?' He questioned. I smiled sheepishly. Nate nudged me. 'Come on! It'll be fun,' he purred. I opened my to reply but never got the chance. Nate backed off. I followed his frightened gaze. 'Sunstreaker! Go away.' I turned around, but Nate had already left. 'And you call that a mech, huh?' He scolded. I glared. 'Piss off.'

'Shall we go to Starbucks?'

'No. I'm busy.' He walked after me. 'Yeah, it looked like you're busy. Are you going to the party?' I halted. 'Can you just piss off?' I snapped. No. I'm not done talking yet.' I grunted and started walking. 'Can't I talk to my favourite victim?' He taunted. I didn't reply. 'When is your break?'
'I'm not going to spend my break with you. I was already about to spend my break with Nate.' He rolled his eyes. 'Why are you even chasing him away? It doesn't make me like you.' He huffed; ' I didn't chase him away; he ran.' He pointed in the direction where Nate had just disappeared. 'And who's fault would that be, huh?' I scolded. 'For every time you're being mean, we are going to Starbucks.' I laughed coldly. 'Uhm, no... we are not. I am not your money dispenser, Sunstreaker.'

'Whatever... do you know my birthday is next week?' I shook my head while pushing open a door. 'No, I didn't know you guys even celebrated that.' He hummed. 'Some of us do. I always celebrated it with my brother.' He handed me a small piece of paper. 'What's that?' I took it from him. 'My wish list.' I unfolded the piece of paper and looked through it. 'Right...' I met his gaze. 'Next week, Tuesday.' He turned around and walked off. This didn't help to make me feel better. I would be really cold and mean if I ignored this.

I decided to pay Ironhide a little visit. 'What is it, kid?' I watched him reassemble a riffle. 'Do you guys feel are birthdays?' He shook his head. 'I don't, but some of the younger mechs do...' he replied. 'Which mech is the first to be on the list?' He gazed at me. 'Why do you ask? I don't know; I don't keep track of that. We live so long; you stop celebrating it at some point,' he replied. 'Why are you interested?' I shrugged. 'Just curious.'
I asked a few other mechs the same question and kept having the same result. So Sunstreaker is either lying about his birthday, or they don't know.

I met with Ratchet in the hangar. He was in his bipedal mode this time. 'Just in time.' He crouched down. 'I've been asking this question all day long...' I began and paused for a moment. 'Is there someone's birthday soon?'
'Sunstreaker and Sideswipe, next Tuesday. You think I forget?' He mocked and scooped me up. 'I don't know... no one seems to know about it.' He let me sit on his shoulder. 'Yeah... it's something the young mechs do.'

'Anyway, what are we doing here?'

'I'm going to show you something that will cha he your perspective.' I raised a brow. 'Really?' He hummed. He projected an image on the wall. 'What's this?' I raised a brow. 'This is Kaon, before the war.' I hummed and studied the picture. 'Looks beautiful. So different, yet it has something familiar,' I mumbled. 'It's the industrial heart of Cybertron and three times the size of Lacoon. He explained that many low casted mechs and femmes used to live here.

'A lot of Decepticons as well,' he added. He showed me some images. 'That looks like a gladiator arena,' I muttered. 'It is. This is the place where mechs and femmes battled each other. This is where Sunstreaker and Sideswipe were held for years and forced to fight.' He projected another image on the wall. It looked like a dungeon. It was dark and filly, the cells were small, and other creepy stuff made me shiver in horror. 'They used those hooks and chains to torture their prisoners if they didn't want to fight or tried to escape. A lot of people died before they even got to see the area. Sunstreaker is one of the few survivors.'

He showed me some other graphic images. 'Yeah, I get it.' I closed my eyes. 'Open your eyes.' I didn't want to, but I peeked through one eye. I was looking at another poor-looking mech. Injured, exhausted and almost dead, hanging upside down from the ceiling, wrists and ankles all tied together to bend the back and neck in a painful angle.
'That's Sunstreaker.'
'No. That can't be.' I shook my head. 'Had I been there half an hour later, he would've been dead.' Again, I shook my head and looked away. 'He would've been 15 in humans years here. They had stripped him from his armour; you can see how fragile he is here.'

'I get it.'

'Sad, huh?' I bit my lip. 'They already broke him here.' He showed me other photos of the poor conditions they had lived in. One image got me. The twins had huddled together in a cell, trying to comfort each other. 'These are pictures I got later when the war had already started, just before we were about to leave Cybertron...' I was looking at two tiny mechs walking on the streets. 'Stop, please... stop showing me these pictures.' He stopped projecting. 'Put me down.' He scooped me off his shoulder and placed me in the hallway. 'Do you finally believe me? He's not a monster, just misunderstood.' I turned around to hide the emotions on my face.

'I am going back to my uncle's place...' I left without saying anything else. The horrible images were still engraved in my mind. Once at home, I was greeted by Suzan. 'You're late...' I nodded and removed my shoes. 'You're okay?' I nodded. 'Y-yeah... I am fine; I am going to take a shower.' I walked upstairs and closed the door of my room behind me. I broke down. I collapsed on my bed and buried my face in the pillow. I cried myself to sleep.

When I woke up the following morning, I felt like shit. I hoisted myself up and strode into the bathroom. After a shower, I tried make something off myself before I left. I made a pitstop at Starbucks before heading for the base.

'Sunstreaker?'

He turned around. 'For me?' He took it. 'Yeah.' I passed. 'Why are we being nice?' He questioned. I turned around. 'I can take it if you don't want it,' I grumbled. 'No, it's mine now. Just trying to figure out why the hell you're doing this.' He gestured at the paper bag and coffee. 'And you look like shut,' he added. 'Thank you,' I scolded sarcastically. 'Did uh... someone hurt you?' His questioned surprised me. 'N-no, don't worry about it.' I waved my hand to dismiss it. 'Alright.' He sat down on his hood.
He looked up, catching me staring. 'Something else?' I cleared my throat and shook my head. 'No...' I left him sitting on his hood and headed for the locker room.

During my rounds, I felt my phone buzz. I usually don't look on my phone while working, mostly because I never get any text messages, but now I got one. I looked around before leaning against the wall and opened WhatsApp. From Ratchet? I opened the photo he had send me. It was that same horrifying image that I hoped to wipe from my mind. I shook my head and pushed my phone back in my pocket.