Disclaimer: We do not own Transformers or its canon characters. We do however own our OCs. Please do not use them without our permission.

Theme Song(s): In My Arms by Plumb, Never Alone by Barlowgirl

A young femme raced through her surroundings, leaving little more than a gust of wind in her wake. Iacon was growing in population, but there were still plenty of parts of the old city that remained in ruin - the perfect playground for the young daredevil.

Not that she referred to herself by the term. What Calypso and Dawnbringer called "daredevil," the young techno-organic would call "bored by the prospect of spending her days sitting around." "Exploring" worked too, just anything that allowed her to breathe the open air at high speed.

"Raine, where are you?"

The femme rolled her eyes with a small smile as she skidded to a halt. Her energon-fueled visor retracted as she put a finger up to her ear. "Out for a run. Since when did you get so nosey about my whereabouts, Fastback?"

"I didn't, I just can't find you anywhere and figured comming you would be better than wasting all cycle hearing 'I dunno where she went' from anyone I'd ask."

"And you were looking for me why?"

Even before he said anything, she could tell he wasn't in his usual cheery mood. "Just wanted to make sure you were doin' okay. Ya know, since today's-"

"I know what today is. Why'd you think I'm not in the complex right now?"

She could hear him vent over the comm line, "Since when do you need excuses to go riding through Old Iacon?"

A small smile pulled at her features. "And since when do you sound like Rodimus?" She sighed as she looked to the sky. She'd probably been out long enough . . . "Seriously though, I'm fine. Just needed some time to think is all."

"Okay then, if you're sure."

Raine nodded, "I'm sure. Buuuuut if you wouldn't mind opening up a ground bridge for me I'd be much obliged."

"Pfft ha! You got yourself out there, I'm sure you can find your way back."

She smiled and shrugged, "Eh it was worth a try. I'll be back soon." She lowered her hand and started making her way out of the ruins of the old city and towards the rebuilt complex she called home.

She knew exactly what today was. Her sire would be lacking his usual wit and quick smile today. He would listen to that recording again. Aaaand she would get everyone asking if she was okay. She was fragging fine. She hardly remembered her carrier, so "Mother's Day" didn't affect Raine as much as it did her sire. It was like someone asking her to celebrate Earth Day when Cybertron was her home. Or . . . at least that's what she wanted people to think.

She turned her focus to her surroundings as she made her way through the ruins and towards the rebuilt city. If she was going to break down into an emotional mess, she'd much rather not do it here.

Raine took light steps as she moved through her home, hoping not to attract attention to herself or to disturb her sire.

As she moved past his room, she heard an all-too-familiar sound.

"Smokescreen . . . I don't know what I can say here that will help but . . . it's worth a shot, right? Smokescreen I know you, and I know that my absence hurts you, but I ask that you not think of me and remember only the pain. I don't want you to only remember seeing me wittle away. I want you to remember our life together and the incredible things we've seen and done. You won the war for your home. We have a life here and a family all our own. I'm not making this video to make you re-live any pain you're feeling, but to remind you that I'm leading an incredible life because of you. And if you ever find yourself feeling guilty over anything, remember that I'm happier than I ever dreamed I could be because of you."

Raine didn't realize she'd stopped until she redirected her attention to the hallway. Why did she stop? The recording was no different this time than every other time he listened to it, though . . . it seemed it had been a while since he last played it.

She sighed and continued down the hallway, hoping to retreat to her room before she got all emotional - or worse, before someone saw her get emotional.

After a moment Raine reached her quarters and slipped inside, then she all but flopped onto the berth. Before she thought to do anything else, she deactivated her comm; she needed time to think, not be pestered by everyone.

For a long time now the others asked if she was doing okay. If not days like today, then the anniversary of her carrier's passing. Sometimes Raine heard others mutter that she was the spitting image of her, other times it was a look of happy recognition before they remembered that Skye was gone.

Usually it didn't get to the young femme. After all, she'd dealt with this for a long time - plus she didn't remember her as vividly as the others did. So yeah, most of the time she didn't even think about it. If she seemed cold or something because of it, so be it.

There were times that she did get an ache in her gut thinking of it, though. Like when she saw young Cybertronians cling to their carriers, or run to one after hearing a frightening sound, or laugh with their creators. Everyone was nice to Raine, but no one, not Plasma or Elita or even Darkstorm, could replace Mum.

The femme turned her head and her eyes landed on her computer terminal, and she immediately thought of the video message her carrier had left her. She'd only tried to watch it once, and that was a long time ago. She hadn't even seen all of it - she started crying only a few seconds in and turned it off, telling herself she couldn't ever look at it.

But what was on that recording?

Raine got up and approached the console. A part of her kept whispering that she'd only cry and shut it off again but she wanted to know what her carrier had left behind for her.

She took a deep breath, then let it out as she activated the console.

Skye situated herself in front of the screen, trying to think of what to say. She sighed, brushed a gray strand of hair from in front of her face, and pressed the command to start the recording.

"Raine, if you're watching this . . . I am no longer with you." She paused as she lightly shook her head, her gaze lowered from the screen. "I know you must be hurting from my absence, and I'm sorry I can't be there for you. Believe me, if it were my choice I'd stay with you and you'd never have to go through this. But I'm afraid age and illness are beyond my control."

Skye looked down at her shaking hands. The pain was coming back. But she'd already tried to do this recording twice and had to stop to tend to it - she had to finish it this time.

"I don't know how much you'll remember or what you've been told, but I never had a good relationship with my family. My father never seemed to take an interest in me, and probably would have left had certain events not transpired. And my mum . . . she certainly tried to take care of me, but her efforts to make up for my father left her emotionally exhausted, which was hard for both of us. I pray that you will be in a better position than I was. In fact I'm certain you will be - the ones taking care of you spent thousands and thousands of years fighting a war to get their home back. They know what's important, and I hope they can teach your generation the same.

"You are surrounded by family who will help you through whatever you may face. Dar'sain is an excellent listener and something of a sister to me. I know she will come if you ever need her, and I'm sure the same can be said of any of the others you'll meet in your life. Please don't shut yourself off from them, they will need you as much as you will them . . . and you won't find a better family anywhere else in the universe, I can promise you."

She paused and leaned forward as the pain got worse. Skye took a shaky breath as she righted herself.

"I don't know how much longer I can be with you, but if there's only one thing you remember of me, or if there's only one thing you take away from this message, I want it to be that I love you so very much." She smiled and a tear coursed down her cheek. "And I look forward to someday meeting the beautiful woman you will grow up to be."

The screen went blank, showing Raine only her own reflection on the black monitor.

Tears streaming down her face, Raine bowed her head. "I miss you, Mum."

A light knock at the door awoke Raine. She didn't remember falling asleep . . .

The young techno-organic sat up and lazily rubbed her eyes. "Who is it?"

"It's me, kiddo," Smokescreen answered softly. "You doin' okay?"

Raine idly fiddled with her hands. "Yeah . . . I-I'm okay . . ."

Smokescreen creaked open the door slightly. "You sure? I uh got some movies and energon goodies, if you want 'em."

She sighed as she lowered her gaze. "Okay."

Her sire offered her an encouraging smile as he entered the room with a large stock of compact discs and a jumble of energon goodies in tow. He set them by her bed before sitting next to his daughter with a compassionate gaze. "You want to talk about it, Raine?"

She bit her lip as she tried to maintain her strong exterior. She'd just cried herself to sleep, she wasn't keen to do it again. After a moment of silence, she sighed. "What was she like?"

Smokescreen vented and turned his gaze towards the floor. "Your mother?" He was silent for a few moments before shakily chuckling. "She was like a force of nature. Despite all that she went through, she was so quick to encourage others and even stood by me when I was a total screw up. Pit, I still am. She was loyal to a fault and never hesitated to protect the ones she loved. And she was patient." He half smiled. "She had to be to choose me for a sparkmate. I… actually see a lot of you in her."

Raine looked up at her sire, tears in her eyes just threatening to spill down her face. "Do you think she . . . is watching us?"

"Yeah, I do," Smokescreen nodded softly. "Darkstorm and Skye always talked about heaven and God. And, you have to believe in something, right?"

"I guess . . ." She brought her hand over her mouth and looked to the monitor on the wall. After a moment her hand started shaking.

Smokescreen, who noticed this, frowned and drew closer to her, wrapping a servo around her. "Hey, I know. I miss her, too. But… I have faith that we will both see her again someday." He shakily smiled. "She'd be proud of you."

That did it. Without warning tears started rushing down the girl's cheeks as she leaned against his servo. "I wish she was here."

"Me too, kiddo," Smokescreen answered thickly, fighting back tears of his own. "Me too."

D/N: *sobs* Yup, all this angst was thanks to blondie. I love it but I kinda hate it at the same time, ya know? Poor Smokes!

But, we do hope that you guys enjoyed this :33 May God bless you all!

Until next time, Dream'sRealm

B/N: Okay so I started this in February, right around Skye's birthday, but kinda lost the muse for it until recently. I randomly opened it, read what I had already written, and stuff in real life kinda gave me ideas for finishing. Well, mostly finish. I called in Dreamy for this last bit :'D

Skye experiencing pain here is my fault, or rather influenced by things going on at my end of things. Nothing life-threatening, I assure you, just . . . y'know, painful ;-; then the horrible person I am decided to run with it

Aaaand the reason I decided to go with the flashback for the video recording is because of Mass Effect 3 xD I recently did another playthrough (well most of one, I still have a few hours left of it) and there are a couple parts where it shows communications between two parties as a flashback. I figured it'd work here

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing" (Ecclesiastes 3:1-22)

So Happy (late) Mothers' Day, guys~ thank you so much for your support and for hanging with us through this dry spell