The Beginning

"She's waking up…" a voice drifted across the room and filtered faintly through Shade's audios. She moaned softly, cringing at the slight movement of her doorwings. It felt like someone had torn them off, and then stuck them back in, hoping for the best. As she slowly onlined her purple optics, the blackness faded to gray, and then color began to fill her vision again.

A blinding yellow emergency vehicle filled Shade's vision. A moment later, a black and white bot hovered nearby. "Shade?" the black and white asked. The blinding yellow lemon-bot muttered and disappeared to poke and prod at a few wires and tubes hooked up to Shade.

She winced again at the prodding and gave a faint huff at the lemon-bot. "Adopted Opi…?" she managed to whisper before she coughed and her cooling fans kicked on, sputtering a bit.

"Shhh, its ok," the first voice came again, "You're going to be just fine."

Shade immediately recognized it as her danni's.

"That's right, Shade, it's me," the second voice answered. He moved out of sight a moment later and lemon-bot took up most of Shade's vision. "Can you tell me what happened?" he asked as he started to work on getting her cooling fans to work a little better.

Shade coughed again, her mind racing to what had happened just before her fall, "The con… dropped me and… I fell on my… doorwings…"

Lemon-bot was suddenly identified as Ratchet in Shade's HUD. "There," he huffed as her cooling fans finally ran smoothly. "That should help you out, and stop some of your coughing," he said. Then, "He dropped you?"

"That's what I just said. I think he got distracted, I heard someone shooting at him, and he probably decided I wasn't worth it… what happened after that? How long was I out?" Suddenly Shade was filled with questions and a vague fear that she was forgetting something very important. Then it clicked.

"Is Night ok?" she whispered, terrified of what the answer might be.

Ratchet sighed and looked to his right. "He's stable and I think he'll make it. His spark casing was clipped pretty well," he replied. "I had been working on him before we found you and he was somewhat stable by the time you were brought in. The 'Cons all ran off after we managed to recapture Shockblade and shot someone down. I've been freakishly busy patching everyone up though, those 'Cons managed to get us pretty good. You've been out for around three days now," he explained, suddenly looking very tired.

Shade stayed quiet for a few moments and looked over in the direction Ratchet had glanced, and then sighed, "Thank you for all you've done. I'm sorry I've caused so many problems…"

"What problems?" Ratchet snorted, "That shouldn't have happened whether you decided to wander around in the brig or not." A faint growl rose up from Shade's right somewhere and Prowl made a reappearance in Shade's vision. "Why were you in the brig?"

Shade gulped and winced at the growl, "I wasn't in the brig. I was going past to my room, and then I realized I didn't see my opi in there, and then he suddenly grabbed me. I told you I wouldn't go in there unless you or someone else was with me."

Prowl relaxed, his doorwings drooping slowly. "Alright," he sighed. Prowl, as usual didn't show much emotion beyond his doorwings and posture, all of which read tired, healing, and worried. A large gash on his chest was bandaged over with some thin metal until his own body could heal it, and one doorwing was held at an awkward angle. His normally pristine paint was a mess as well. "We were... concerned," he said quietly.

Shade nodded carefully, not quite sure what all she had that was broken, "I'm just glad that… that nobody died on our side." I don't think I could have forgiven myself if… if Night hadn't made it.

Prowl nodded and looked away for a moment before looking back at Shade. "You just injured your doorwings and jarred lots of things. There was a lot of broken tubing and wiring," he said in ways of a reply. It was well known that while Prowl did have emotions, it was nearly impossible for him to talk about them. Often, he would pick a relevant topic and discuss that instead. Across the room, Ratchet was rolling his optics. "What a sensitive husband you have, Star," he muttered.

"I'm sure Shade appreciates the change in subject," Star snorted, her spikes pinned back slightly. Her optics were rather pale though as she glanced over at Prowl.

"I do," Shade huffed at Ratchet, and then directed her attention to her danni, "Danni… did something hit your head again?"

Prowl huffed and wandered back over by Star to stand beside her. "Yes," Ratchet answered for Star. "What was... oh, it was a pipe."

"…Who threw it?" Shade asked.

"Some retarded Con in the battle," Star rolled her optics, "My optics will be fine, don't worry."

Shade nodded, growing a bit sleepy again. I can't wait until I can be up and around… and see Night.

"Those pain-killers I gave you are making you tired," Ratchet called over to Shade. "Go ahead and sleep."

"Yes sir," a small smile crossed Shade's face as she offlined her optics and drifted off into a dreamless and painless sleep.

-0-

A few days later, Shade was finally allowed to get up and start walking around again. She carefully stretched her arms and legs to get rid of the stiffness from disuse, and then looked around, searching for only one specific face.

Oh Night…

The black mech was still unconscious as he lay on a medical table. His older sister, Saber, was sitting near him, sleeping in one of the uncomfortable medbay chairs. Rumor had that Ratchet had had those chairs specially engineered to be uncomfortable so people wouldn't stay in medbay to long and bug him.

Shade quietly set another chair on the other side of Night and settled there, studying him. You shouldn't have gone at my opi… Oh Night…Shade didn't risk touching his hand, but just stayed in her spot, her doorwings drooped. If only I had taken a different route and avoided the brig like the plague…then Night wouldn't be in this mess and be safe and sound and chattering away with Shadow…

Night's chest was a complete mess, as well as his back and left side. He was completely missing paint in those areas as well. The only area that had really escaped damage on the poor youngling was his face. "He's stable," Ratchet tried to reassure Shade as he shooed her away so he could work on her friend.

Shade only moved far enough away that Ratchet could work without her in the way. She wasn't going to leave him until he was conscious, and even then, she would probably be staying around until he was out of medbay.

"Your opi is that way," Ratchet gestured to somewhere behind him. "We're turning him into a sparkling today, now he's healed."

Shade jerked and stared up at Ratchet. "Great to find out now…" she muttered to herself, sent one glance toward Night, and promised herself that she would be back as soon as possible. She made her way to where Blade was, unsure and cautious.

Blade was strapped down to a medical table with the restraints that were reserved for the most violent patients or prisoners. He was in good shape and his paint was even clean and mostly scratch free. One would never know he had been smashed against multiple, hard objects last week.

A faint fear glimmered in his optics, and Shade knew he knew it would be the end of his life in a way. He had seen how turning Cons into sparklings had drastically changed their attitudes. Even Cade had changed ever so slightly, even though he remembered his past. He had defended his adoptive Autobot Danni.

Quite frankly, Blade was terrified.

"Opi. You're getting another chance."

"That may be, but how about how I feel?" Blade growled.

"Opi, don't you think this is more humane than dying? You get to continue living."

"Not as myself…"

"Yes as yourself. You have the same genetics, but you'll get a better upbringing."

"By my brother. Cade doesn't know the first thing about caring for sparklings."

Wheeljack hurried in with the sparkling-machine and started adjusting the settings, humming slightly. Barricade followed him in and leaned against a wall. "Bye," he said simply. He had made it obvious to everyone that he had never liked his abusive older brother.

"Bye Opi. It'll turn out for the best," Shade replied quietly, knowing that there was no way to reassure her opi, not anymore, "Love you."

Blade clenched his fists tightly, knowing that anything he did would be futile. His fear was obvious as he closed his optics, just waiting.

Wheeljack connected the machine to Blade and stood back. "Alright," he sighed, "Sorry pal..."

He punched a button on the machine, which instantly whirred to life. A moment later there was a blinding light and everyone in the room shut down their optics until the machines humming died off. Barricade was the first to online his optics and look at Blade. He was instantly shocked by the tiny sparkling lying on the table. He had expected this, of course, but still... that was his older brother. He had a kid. At some point he had a complete family. Barricade remembered shoving him off of things and laughing at him as a sparkling. It was weird.

Blade looked around, his red optics wide with curiosity. Then he chirped and glanced up at Cade. His little doorwings perked up instantly and wiggled as he gave a cheerful coo.

Shade stared at her opi. She couldn't call him opi any more. She stiffened slightly, trying not to cry. She knew no one liked him. No one would want to sympathize when he had hurt an Autobot youngling to boot. She still had cared about him. He had raised her. He had some sort of affection for her, whatever was possible for him.

Barricade just stared, wide opticed. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he wished Frenzy would come in and act like a retard to break the tension. "He's pretty cute!" Wheeljack grinned, ever cheerful. "Wouldn't think he would be, huh?" he chirped as he took the wires off little Blade.

"Huh," Cade said, at a loss for words. He was beginning to realize he was... actually sort of upset at the turn of events. He wouldn't show it though, and looked away, feigning disinterest.

Blade chirped more insistently, looking around, starting to look scared. He moved his doorwing agitatedly and finally chirped out, "Opi?"

Shade finally let go of what Blade once was. She now had an adopted opi who cared about her and would take care of her better than Blade had. She would still miss the Blade of the past from time to time, but he had another chance to become a better mech.

Barricade quickly looked over at him. "Yeah?" he asked as he scooped up Blade. "You wanna leave this place?" he asked, optics darting around the medbay. Ratchet was watching them carefully, and the machine had woken Saber up as well. She blinked and looked away politely.

Blade chirped and whined a bit, rubbing his stomach, a pitiful hungry expression resting on his face. He looked up at Cade trustingly, waiting. Star was nearby and stoically handed Cade a small cube of sparkling energon, recognizing that Blade needed. Shade turned away and returned to her seat by Night with a somewhat sad sigh.

Barricade handed the cube to Blade and let him drink from it. "Here you go, demon," he muttered and walked off with his new sparkling. Everything reverted back to the normal silence of the medbay, aside from the sounds of Night's monitors chirping or beeping and Wheeljack putting away his machine so he could cart it back his lab.

No one had much to say.

Then Night's optics onlined.

-0-

Vivi- And now we conclude the drama of Dodge: The Choice. NO, this isn't the end of Dodge's story, BUT there will be a wait until we finish with Backwater Planet. Never fear, faithful readers! It will be continued :D

Athena: We would appreciate any reviews with praise, constructive criticism, and ideas for the next story. Thank you all who reviewed on this, we really appreciate it!