Hey everyone!

Camp NaNoWriMo June, that's what this story is for. This is a sister story to my Life of a Datsun and To the Academy and Beyond stories. I guess they're all going to be in a universe together. This here is a prologue so take a look-see. I hope you all enjoy it. We're focusing on the twins and the story of their lives before joining the Autobots. This is rated M for a reason. I have written this and more today so there are plenty of spelling/grammar/punctuation mistakes. All part of nano and I'll fix it up after the event. Enjoy!

Mav

Chapter 1

The lights were dim throughout the city. street after street was cast in shadow. Bots of poor upkeep slunk from building to building, keeping to the expansive shadows. Those who were lucky enough to make a living in kaon only made very little, only a meager amount that could just barely support one bot. There were no luxuries here, every building was dilapidated, unkempt and totally barren of any paint or furniture. A bot here was lucky to have a roof over their heads and some energon in their lines.

Existence in this city was hard. Most of the mechs, and femmes, worked within the mines. They worked long hours, stretching on for orns at a time. Their frames became caked with dust, every particle getting into their fuel lines, their joints until each and every bot seemed liked they were thousands of vorns older than they actually were.

Life spans were short here, oh so short. A mech was lucky to live to the age of ten deca-vorns while a femme was even less likely to survive that long. Of course this was granted that they even made it past youngling hood. So many of the sparklings brought into existence would perish within their first few deca-orns and even more would not make it past two vorns of age.

Two young bots, young compared to the inhabitants of any other cybertronian city, walked with slow, weary steps through the streets. Both were covered in the grime specific to those in the mining industry. The femme was small, much smaller than most of the femmes working in the mines. Her frame was delicate and thin. Every part of her design showed off the ideal of being fuel efficient. Her chassis was the customary dull silver that the cybertronian metal was made up of. There was nothing fancy about her, no modifications, no paint and not even coloured optics. The optics that gleamed out of her faceplates were yellow, the colour of the light rod held within them.

The mech walking beside the femme towered over her. His frame was large and heavily reinforced. The even duller silver of his frame showed the hard work the mech had gone through and the hardships of his existence. Mechs watched greedily from alleyways as the two stumbled along, the weariness so clearly on display for anyone watching. No one hassled them though, no one here was new to the city. These two bots were liked by many, if any of them interfered they could be sure of quick retribution.

The femme's designation was Starsun although she herself was utterly confused as to how she had gained such a designation. The mech beside her was Steelwarp, her lover and bondmate. Steelwarp opened the door to their small room within the apartment building. The inside was bare but it was somewhere to shelter for each consecutive night. It was somewhere away from prying eyes, sheltered from the common acid rain caused by the energon mining.

Starsun sunk to the floor, not caring about her frame or the state of the floor. There wasn't a part of her frame that didn't ache. Her tanks longed for fuel to fill them, warnings constantly flashing across her HUD. She didn't need the reminder, it was obvious that she was depleted of energy. The orb rotating around her spark reminded her of that with each little tug. Starsun craved the extra energy, the life within her needing more and more of her precious little fuel to sustain its growth. As it was Steelwarp was giving her everything they could afford. He wasn't getting any fuel and he was the one bringing in more credits. If they kept it up he wouldn't even be able to work in the mines simply due to not having enough energy. Steelwarp brought out a cube of energon from subspace, wrapping his strong arms around Starsun. Bringing the cube to her lips he encouraged her to drink. Repeatedly she shook her head, knowing that he needed fuel. By now the warning signs on his HUD would have to be more prominent than hers. He had been going for three deca-orns now without fuel. She could survive the next little while without the energon, she would have to. Starsun would not let her bondmate suffer so much, the risk just wasn't worth it.

They had wanted sparklings from the time they had bonded, vorns ago. They knew they wouldn't be online for all that much longer. The harsh working conditions combined with no medical help meant that their frames were not up to functioning for the period of time they were intended to. It was not like they had received the upgrades required to keep them functioning at their most efficient. There were no washracks where they could wash their joints free of the soot and grime from the mines. It was hard just to walk with so much muck in their moving joints. Any medic would be horrified at the sight and state of their chassis'.

There was an audible creaking sound any time a limb was moved even slightly. An alarming rattle would sound if their cooling fans kicked on and sometimes their emergency systems would send out beeps if they got too cool-which was almost every orn. They lived in a state of disrepair, knowing that there was only so long their frames could stand up to this abuse. There was such a short time-frame to have younglings within.

Starsun vowed to get a better job to support the youngling if she lived through the birth. It wasn't like there was a medic here in kaon to help her through the difficult and trying time. Pit, there wasn't even a femme or mech still functioning that had delivered a sparkling. So many carriers offlined during the birth or not long after from complications. It was much more likely for a creator to live on-if they weren't bonded. If the couple were bonded then the sparkling would die if not found by another mech or femme in time.

It was just how it was in Kaon, a harsh and cruel existence. The bots living through it did not question what went on only following the pattern which had existed for tens of thousands of vorns. Kaon always was and would be a mining city, the city dying in its shadows as the profit reaped from the mines was fed back into the Iaconian and Praxian communities.

Steelwarp pulled Starsun close, lifting the energon to his own lipplates. Her dim optics looked up with him, the background pain clear in their light. It anguished him to know that there wasn't enough energon for the two of them, not enough to keep her fully fueled throughout her carrying stages. Their energon shortage would only worsen once the sparkling was born. He knew, in his processor, that unless they both started working many more hours they would be unable to afford the upcoming expenses. Energon in Kaon was just so expensive, one cube was ten orns worth of work. One extended shift would get one energon cube between the two of them.

Steelwarp knew that if they got too desperate then they would have to start making dark or even black energon. The two alternate forms of energon were common enough here, so common the act of making it wasn't even frowned upon. Anywhere else on cybertron you would be offlined for even attempting to make the substance but here in the darkened city where poverty ruled, trying to keep yourself online by any means necessary was the rule. There were no other rules. Or rather, there were other rules but they were never enforced. There was no real enforcer team here, no one to police the rules. The government was as corrupt and downtrodden as the city itself. No longer did representative from the mining city travel to Iacon for the meeting of the Cybertronian council. The views and the needs of the depleting population were never presented, never brought to light in the optics of the general public profiting upon their hardship.

"It will be okay Starsun, you will see. I'll start working the triple shifts if I must. Our sparkling will be fine and so shall you," Steelwarp whispered the sound so loud and profound within the empty room. The energon cube and the light of their optics was the only illumination within the confined area.

"Steel...how are we going to get enough credits for energon? Energon just keeps going up in price but we are earning the same amount. I'm scared, how are we going to get through this? Even working the triple shift we won't make enough credits. I'll have to quit my shifts to look after the sparkling," Starsun said softly, trembling ever so slightly.

The future ahead of them seemed so hard, so rocky. They though they knew everything that this woud entail, all the difficulties that could be presented to them. Starsun just hadn't thought it would be this confronting, this upfront. She hadn't thought she would be so stressed, so sick with the sparkling. She hid it well enough from Steelwarp but she could feel it within her, the date for her offlining coming ever nearer. Something was wrong in her systems but Starsun couldn't pinpoint it exactly. It wasn't just the lack of energon or all of the exertion, there was something else, something that would effect the sparkling.

"Starsun, we will get through this I promise you. Now, just open your chest plates and I'll check the sparkling. Then we can get a bit of rest, you've got to be tired. I know that you need more recharge than you are getting." Steelwarp's voice became morose at the end, the mech blaming himself for the situation they were now in.

Starsun relunctantly triggered open her chest plates, cautiously removing herself from Steelwarp's strong and protective embrace. Steelwarp's eyes peered into the cavity in her chest where her spark gently spun. Instead of one orb floating around her spark there were two, joined together slightly and seemingly chasing one another in an endless loop around the pale purple spark.

A flurry of emotions flew across Steelwarp's faceplates, horror, awe and love in quick succession. Starsun's emotions roiled, something was wrong, so very wrong if the look on her bondmate's faceplates was anything to judge on. She thought over the past shift, had there been any unusual feelings around her spark? Had she fallen harshly or just worked herself into pure exhaustion? Had the spark collapsed and rejoined her own?

Thought after thought rushed through the femme's mind, only one particular point in time sticking out to her processor. Her spark, for just one short astrosecond, had felt like it was tearing and the bond fluctuating. Was that what the issue was? Had something horrible happened to her sparkling?

"Starsun, there's two sparks, two sparklings," Steelwarp whispered, as his optics connected with those of his bondmate's.

Starsun gasped, shock running through her body. This would change everything. They only had one frame currently and so little time left to create another one. What about credits? If they were going to struggle to support three how would they deal with four? So many thoughts played out through her mind, emotions plain to see on her flaceplates.

Steelwarp just looked over her features, holding Starsun close. Quietly he murmured to her that she needed to close her chestplates and she quickly responded, shutting them with ease. Her optics stayed very dim, a customary sign that she was processing this information.

Starsun's optics returned to normal as she snuggled into Steelwarp's arms. Helm locked under his chin she sat there listening to his spark hum and his frame whirr. Together they laid down, as close together as possible to preserve warmth. Laying there together they thought of the future, the struggles that would be presented to them and knowing in their sparks that they would be able to get through this, if only for their unborn sparklings.

Here you all are! Please review now that you have read it!