*time skip to midnight brought to you by broken fangirls*

-Dream-
Only darkness surrounded me. I thought nothing of it until I heard a little giggle.

"Come find me, mommy," I heard a voice that belonged to a young sparkling girl say.

"Come find me," she said again.
"Hello? I can't see you. Are you lost?" I asked.

The voice giggled again as whiteness appeared in the distance. I started to walk towards the light.

"Help! Mommy! Don't let them take me!" came the same voice, but terrified.

I started to run.
"Hang on, I'm coming!" I called.

I may not be the girl's mom, but it was still my job as an Autobot to help those in danger. I got there just in time to see some Decepticons an unconscious red and blue girl away. Then, they vanished before I could get to them.

'No,' I thought, sadness mixing with anger.

I studied the scenery more and recognized it immediately.

'The Battle of Chicago! But that was 13 years ago. Why now?' I wondered.

The scene faded to blackness again. After a few moments, I heard voices.

"We should just kill her now!" I recognized that as StarScream.

"No. We will raise her as one of us," came Megatron's reply.

"But what if she encounters her parents again?" StarScream questioned.

"We will lead her to believe that her parents abandoned her when she was just a sparkling. That will fuel her hate towards them, so if she does meet them again, she won't hesitate to attack them," Megatron explained.

'Botnapping a child and brainwashing them into becoming a Decepticon? That's low, even for Megatrain,' I thought just before screaming and crying could be heard.

Then, all grew quiet.
-Dream end-

I woke up and checked the time. 12:47am. I saw Optimus and Orion sleeping peacefully. I smiled as I carefully got up.

What was that dream about?

I quietly walked around base for a bit until I came to the science storage room once again. The odd craving I had for Synthen was back. I tried to resist, remembering the burning pain in my throat as I drank it.

Okay, maybe just one more.

I finally gave in. This time, the pain wasn't as bad. I was about to drink one more, but the alarms went off. I ran out to the main room. In moments, the rest of the team appeared.

"We got Decepticons less than a mile south of here," I told them.

Cascade and Remix ran up to Bee and Star.
"What's going on?" Remix asked.

"Decepticon activity. Nothing we can't handle," Bee replied.

"Jane and I can help from the command center. That is, if she ever wakes up," Natalie mentioned.

I gave her a nod.

"Alright let's roll out," Optimus said as he transformed.

"We rollin'" I heard Jazz say as I transformed too, along with the others.

It didn't take very long to get to the battlefield. When we got there, everybot transformed and started fighting. Optimus made his way over to Galvatron. I took my swords out and started to follow, but a black and blue female Con landed in front of me. I froze and just stared at her.

-Flashback (normal POV)-
"Help! Mommy! Don't let them take me!" a 5 year old, red and blue sparkling girl cried.

"Quarre! Hang on, I'm coming!" her mother called back.

The blue and green female bot tried to save her daughter, but there were just too many Decepticons.

"Mommy! Daddy!" Quarre called again.

"Shut up!" the Decepticon that was taking her away ordered.

"Let me go! Mommy! Daddy!" the little sparkling kept yelling.

"I said shut up!" the Con said before knocking her out cold.

"No! Quarre!" BlueStreak called.

-Later that evening-
"Her energon signal is...offline," Ratchet said sadly.
"I-It's all my fault," Blue sobbed.

Her sparkmate held her close, tears falling from his optics, too.

"No, it's not your fault, beautiful. It's mine. I should've been there to protect both of you in the first place," he said.

"I was right there, Optimus, but I still couldn't save her! I couldn't save our daughter!" Blue told him, crying even more.

Optimus sighed.

"Ratchet, do you think you could erase her memory?" he asked.

The medical officer shook his head.

"Too risky. However, I might be able to block the memory," Ratchet replied.

"Then let's do that. Block it from my memory, too," Optimus said.

Ratchet hesitated for a moment, but then nodded.
-Flashback end-

"Quarre? Is that you?" I asked, even though I knew that she was my lost daughter.

"I...I don't know who you're talking about. My name is Blaze," she replied hesitantly.

"Quarre, listen to me. I know you know who I am, so I won't fight you," I said as tears ran from my optics, all the memories suddenly coming back to me.

"Please remember, butterfly," I added when I remembered the nickname I had given her as I dropped my swords.

"I do remember. You abandoned me when I was a sparkling!" she shouted, her confusion suddenly turning to anger.

"What? No, we would never abandon you! You were taken from us," I told her.

"Listen to me, Quarre-" I started, but she interrupted me.

"My name is Blaze!" she said, her optics filled with hate.

I sighed.

"Your father and I love you very much. When your signal went offline, we thought you were...please, don't do this," I begged.

"Lies!" she exclaimed as she attacked.

She tackled me and slashed her battle ax across my chest. I winced at the pain, but I didn't fight back. I looked straight into her optics.

Please, my little butterfly. Leave the Decepticons at least.

She stared back at me. For half an astrosecond, I saw fear in her optics before the fiery hate returned. Then, she backed off.

"Next time, I won't be so merciful," she growled as she walked off.

I slowly stood up as more tears ran down my face, not from the pain across my chest, but from the pain of losing my daughter again.

"I love you, Quarre, more than you know. Please come home," I whispered.

After a moment, I wiped the tears from my optics and made my way over to Optimus, even though I could feel energon slowly dripping from the gash in my chest. I saw Optimus tear off Galvatron's arm and stab him in the shoulder using his own blade. The Decepticon leader then spun around and stabbed his blade into my sparkmate's side.

"Hey scrap head!" I called as I took out my blaster.

"This is for stealing my daughter away from me all those years ago!" I said as I shot him in the back.

Then, I got between him and Optimus, kicking him away.

"You...okay?" I asked, breathing heavily.

"I'm fine but did you say Quarre is alive!?" Optimus asked.

I smiled and nodded as tears started to run down my face again. I heard a Con coming up behind me, so I spun around and shot it in the chest. I turned back to him just as he turned and shot a Con coming at him from the side.

"Where is she?" he asked.

"The Cons led her to believe that we abandoned her as a sparkling," I replied sadly.

The Decepticons retreated after a minute. I sighed and put my blasters away. Tiredness fell on me, but the only thing I wanted more than sleep was my daughter to come back. I walked over to where my swords were, picked them up and put them away, slightly cringing from the pain. I walked back over to my sparkmate and saw that Star and Bee had come over as well. I wiped the tears from my face.

"Girls we need a ground bridge back to base," Star said over the com.

When it appeared, she ushered us inside. She pushed Optimus and me to the medbay, where Ratchet fixed us, despite Star insisting that she could. After he finished, I wrapped my sparkmate in a hug and hid my face in his neck. He held me close.

"We will get her back," he whispered.
I looked at him, tears running down my face silently.
"What if we're too late again?" I asked worriedly.

"That won't happen, not ever again will we let her get away. Especially without meeting her brother," Optimus said, rubbing my back lightly.

I nodded and rested my head on his shoulder. I closed my optics and soon found myself starting to fall asleep.

*time skip to morning brought to you by The Last Knight*

I woke up the next day with the same odd craving for Synthen. I checked the time. 4:30am. I saw Orion sleeping soundly in the middle. I smiled and carefully got up. I went to the science storage room.

Okay, just one.

However, I soon found that one turned into two, then three, all the way to six. With each vial, the burning feeling slowly disappeared. After, my mind was foggy and I couldn't think clearly.

A drive should help.

I went out for a drive, only to come back a few hours later. I climbed back into bed and fell asleep again.

~~~~~~~~~

I woke up at about 8:30am with a major headache. I smiled at my son before gently waking him up.

"Time to get up, Orion," I said.

He opened his optics and yawned as he sat up. I slowly got out of bed and noticed that Optimus was already up. Orion got up, too and gave me a hug before running off. I smiled and went out to the main room. I sat down on the couch and closed my optics to try to get the headache to go away. After a few minutes, somebot came over and sat beside me. I opened my optics and saw that it was Hot Shot.

"Hey, you okay?" he asked.
"Yeah, my head just hurts a lot right now," I replied.

"Have you had Star or Ratchet check it out?" he questioned.

"No," I answered.
"Maybe you should. It wouldn't hurt," he suggested.
"Maybe," I said with a sigh.

I stood up after a moment and went to the medbay, only to find the door closed.

"If you two are working with lasers again, I'm not coming in," I said.

"It's safe," Ratchet replied.

I opened the door and saw the old medical officer doing something with chemicals.

"Uh, I'll just come back later," I told him as I turned and walked out.

I went back to the main room and sat next to Hot Shot again.

"So?" he asked.

"Ratchet was busy doing something with chemicals," I replied.

We talked for a bit until I noticed that Optimus was at the main console.

"Well, I'm going to go train. Take care of yourself, okay?" Hot Shot said.

"I will. Don't over do it," I replied with a small smile.

He smiled back and nodded as he stood up. When he disappeared, I slowly stood up and went over to my sparkmate. I wrapped my arms around him and rested my head on his shoulder.

"Morning beautiful. You okay?" he asked as he wrapped his arms around me.

"Yeah, just another really bad headache," I replied.

"You should rest today. This is like the third day in a row right?" he asked.

"Yeah, but it goes away after a few hours. Fresh air usually helps. Speaking of which, we haven't been on patrol in a while," I mentioned.

"Okay, I'll come with you," Optimus said.

I gave him a nod. I knew he wouldn't stay even if I asked. In all honesty, I was actually glad that he wanted to come along. I went outside and transformed.

"It's been awhile since we did patrol together," he said as we drove.

"Ye-" I was cut off by an explosion in front of us.