Stepping On Shattered Glass

Chapter Five- The Return

Screaming and crying. That's all that Caretaker could hear as they bolted through the crowd of terrified cybertraonians. They had several things running through their processor at one time.

One, find the younglings, they had all scattered when they had discovered that the mechs who had tried to kidnap them before were back.

Two, get them back to the home safely, if they lost a single one of them they would be fired. They would lose their job and have a permanent negative mark on their record, they would never be able to work stably again.

Three, talk to the seeker. Caretaker had yelled at her, which they had never done before. That probably scared the poor seeker to death, Caretaker knew that they had been her only friend for ten long years, her entire life.

Caretaker made for the exit with great haste. Yes, the people of Kaon were panicking around them, but they needed to remain calm. They were pushed and shoved several times, almost falling to the ground and sustaining serious damage.

When they made it through the exit, they stopped in the middle of the crowded streets of Kaon. They rummaged through their subspace, looking for something of dire importance, something that would make finding the younglings easier.

They were looking for something that they had not used in a long time, but felt was necessary now. Under the datapads of old drawings they had stored, was what they were looking for; an aging flare gun.

Caretaker pulled the weapon from their subspace, reminding themself what they had told the younglings before coming here: If you ever get lost, just follow the flare, it will lead you to me.

Caretaker raised the gun above their head, shooting the bright red fire ball that was the round into the sky. It caused everyone around them to look up, it was an obvious sign, a marker. It floated in the sky for a good twenty five kliks before falling to the ground in a fading red streak of smoke.

It didn't take too long for the younglings to begin to find their way back to Caretaker. They stumbled tiredly, some of their faceplates tear stricken and some of their armor dented.

But what really got them stuck was the fact that only nine out of ten of them came back. Dammit, they had lost one, but who? Caretaker looked at the little group that had formed at their feet. Yes, the three seekers and the six grounders were here, but where was the half-seeker?

She was gone, the blue seeker must have ran away after Caretaker yelled at her. Primus damn it all to the pit, they had lost one. This was the first time they had ever lost one of the younglings and a deep, sick feeling began to swirl about in their tanks.

What could have possibly happened to the little creature? Could she have died? Or been kidnapped by those crazy mechs that had tried to kill them. They needed to look to the positive side, needed to stop seeing the darkness in everything.

The seeker was probably fine, or laying down somewhere. All Caretaker could do was hope at this point, for there was none in rooting through the crowd of cybertronians now.

All the way back to the home, that feeling in their tanks refused to disperse. It was guilt, guilt for the one they had left behind, guilt for the one they probably killed.

(-*=*-)

Cartaker was unafraid. Yes, they knew that there would be consequences for throwing their employer's warning to the wind, but there was nothing too horrible that Blore could do. Yes, she could terminate Caretaker's job, leaving a permanent mark on their record, but it would have been worth while in the long run.

The other caretakers swarmed them when they arrived back at the house. They asked questions about the accident at the arena as they took the injured younglings to the medic and the uninjured younglings to bed.