Poisoned Rose (Heatwave x Quickshadow)

8. Lost and Found

The entire team had searched the entire firehouse thoroughly. Twice.

Nothing. Rose was nowhere. Her cradle was empty; no dents, no scrapes, no prints, no spilt fuel, nothing that might suggest there had ever been a sparkling living there at all.

Quickshadow was struggling to keep her composure. The nightmare kept coming back in floods of terror and anger, horrible thoughts filling her mind that she could do nothing to block out. Heatwave was doing his best to comfort her, a servo around her shoulder and one on her waist, and it was pretty much the only thing that was keeping Quickshadow from going over the edge. The femme knew it wasn't sensible to think that anything in her dream could affect reality, but she was, and somehow Heatwave knew how much it was scaring her.

Quickshadow hadn't told him about the dream yet. She didn't think it would be very helpful at the moment, but she had already decided to tell Heatwave at some point. He had a right to know, and plus, she trusted him, which was more that what she could say for most bots.

Quickshadow wrapped her arms around herself, feeling Heatwave's grip on her tighten considerably when Chase reported finding an open window near the firehouse entrance that Rose could have crawled out of. Kade was leaning out of it, checking for any sign that a sparkling could have slipped through the small space.

At that moment the sound of a groundbridge opening could be heard from the opposite room. Blurr skidded to a halt in the middle of the bunker, backflipping through the air as he transformed. Salvage followed calmly after his friend, transforming normally and walking leisurely up to Heatwave.

"We heard about what happened to Rose," he said, his posture steady but his optics alight with fear. "Is she okay? Didn't even get to meet the little one myself."

Blurr stalked up behind the larger bot, leaning on Salvage nonchalantly. "I'm sure it's no big deal; she probably just--"

He stopped dead when he caught the looks Heatwave was throwing at him. "Uh, I mean, I'll start looking, outside, yeah, outside."

He transformed, screeching out the doors and disappearing into the darkening woods.

(little time skip)

"Heatwave! Quickshadow! Can anybody hear me?!?!?"

The call blared through Quickshadow's audials, who slapped a hand to the side of her head to pick up and a fury of questions burst from her lips the moment she got through before anyone could stop them.

"Is Rose with you? Is she alright? Please tell me she's okay she means so much to me! Did you find her? Are you sure she's okay?"

"Calm down, Quicksha--" The com cut of for a split second before Blurr's voice wavered back through the link. "Rose is with us and she's fine."

"Oh, thank Primu--Blurr, did you say us?"

"Yeah, there was a Cybertronian with her. Says he found her in the woods a little while ago and tried to help her the best he could; I'm driving back to the firehouse with him now. Rose is with him."

Quickshadow cut the connection and started driving for the firehouse as fast as she could, notifying Heatwave hurriedly. Rose was okay. That was all she needed.

Blurr came racing through the firehouse doors, followed by a pinkish-red Ferrari that looked like it could have been built yesterday. Rose crawled out of it's trunk, running straight into Blades's outstretched arms. The rotary cooed at her gently, trying to sooth her trembling frame as the cars behind them transformed.

Quickshadow rushed in, Heatwave hot on her heels, breathing a sigh of utter relief when she spotted Rose cradled safely in Blades's arms.

But as she noticed the mech Blurr had mentioned, her spark stopped cold.

The Decepticon from her dream was standing right in front of her.