The Night Within

By Starath

Author's Note: Transformers Animated Blitzwing has captured my attention. I love his character, and I began to wonder, why does he has those three faces? I decided to explore his life story to see what he would tell me. Legal stuff--Blitzwing and TF: Animated characters belong to HASBRO, not me. Quickshadow belongs to Demon Lord Onigawa and my characters are my own kthx. Special thanks to Crab, Shinobi77, DLO and 138Scourge for helping me with this series!

Prologue

Blitzwing stepped to the rooftop's edge and peered down. Nothing. He recalibrated his sensors. Still, nothing. The cool night breeze did little to soothe his growing frustration. The energy signature had been right here moments before he landed. A piece of the AllSpark could not simply vanish.

"Although dot vould be a neat trick," he mused to nobody but himself. It is too convenient, he added in thought. Instantly another voice joined the inner conversation.

"Enough of searching! Time to tear de place APART!" demanded Hothead.

"Ve need to maintain stealth," Blitzwing reminded him aloud.

"Big deal! Ve could do it quietly!" cried a second voice in his mind, laughing. "Ve'll use de small hammer this time."

"No, Random," he said firmly, rubbing his weary optics to clear them of dust. He tried to focus on the scanner readings.

"Vy nooooot?" asked Random, more concerned with the chance to use the big rubber mallet he found yesterday. In the other corner of Blitzwing's mind, Hothead snorted.

"You BROKE de hammer last time testing it on Lugnut's head, remember?"

"It vasn't me!"

"Who ELSE could it haff been?"

"Icy did it!"

"I did not!" protested Blitzwing too loudly, and clapped a hand on his face. Technically he wasn't talking to himself, but this didn't help his already fragmented attention span. "There is no time for this," he chided his wayward personalities. "Ve must find de AllSpark fragment. Vill either of you explain failure to Megatron again?"

Hothead and Random fell silent.

"Didn't think so."

Satisfied, he returned to reading his scanner inputs. Across the city, a clock struck midnight. He listened to the chimes, hanging onto each reverberating note before it dissipated with the breeze.

"I'm bored," whined Random.

Blitzwing face-palmed.

"Ven can ve squish humans?"

"Argh, you are alvays bored, Random." complained Hothead.

"I can't help it!"

Movement to Blitzwing's left caught his optic. "Silence! Both of you!"

Spinning, he had his cannons ready to fire. He halted at the last microsecond. Straightening up, he smiled. "Blackarachnia."

She slid out of the shadows of a neighboring building. "Blitzwing."

"To vot do I owe de displeasure?"

"Having fun talking to yourself again?"

He shrugged. "Megatron has been looking for you."

"I'm sure he has. Been looking for something yourself?"

"Only de last traces of my sanity."

"Really?" She reached behind her and revealed a simmering blue shard in her palm. "Would it look something like this?"

His optics widened a fraction. He willed his emotions mute, but wasn't fast enough and felt his mentality slip. Random's face spun into place and laughed with a jagged grin.

"Possibly, although not as shiny!"

Blackarachnia didn't flinch; he had to give her credit for that. Not many could stand Random's sudden appearances.

"You give me what I want and I'll give you what you want." She flipped the AllSpark fragment between her fingers. "Deal?"

Random scratched his chin in his best imitation of looking thoughtful. "Dot depends. Vot vould you like? A dance in de moonlight? A serenade? A vicious gunfight to de death?"

Her body stiffened, her tone instantly venomous. "You couldn't shoot a protoform in a barrel. And if you sing the "Rubber Ducky Song" again, I'll slagging kill you."

His shoulders drooped. "Aww."

"Do you want this thing or not?" she snapped.

He closed the distance between them in three long strides. Reaching through Random's rejection, Blitzwing regained control of his mentality and his face spun back, cold, straight, but smiling, now inches from hers.

"And vot makes you think I vould giff something to you…?" he made a grab for the fragment. She ducked under his arm and danced to the side.

"Otherwise, you don't get this." She wiggled the shard. "We all know how much Megatron does not appreciate failure."

"Indeed, he does not." Even if he could simply take it from her with force, Blitzwing decided to play the spider's game. "Vot is it dot you vant?"

Her playful demeanor sobered. She stowed the shard away, then folded her arms tightly against her body. She swayed, obviously struggling to recall rehearsed lines.

"Tell me how you got the… you know," Blackarachnia motioned to her head and made a spinning gesture. "Other… faces."

"Vot?" asked Random, amused.

"Now this is new," said Hothead.

"Curious," Blitzwing said aloud, and at her confused expression, he waved a hand in dismissal. "I admit you surprise me. It is not often I am asked, as few care to know or haff de patience to listen. It is…. a complicated story I myself do not haff all de pieces to. Howeffer, vy do you ask, Blackarachnia?"

She swallowed, again trying to recall lines. Finally she spat out, "I just need to know, okay? Did they leave you?"

" 'They'?" he frowned. "No, I vould not say dot. Vy—"

"Look," she said, fists clenching up. "Don't. Ask. Tell me or I'm outta here. And keep it to one narrator."

"Ha! Nice vish!" crowed Random.

Blitzwing's face cracked with the slightest of smiles. "I cannot guarantee dot. As I said, there are parts I do not know. But, I can try."

Turning away from her, he seated himself on the roof's stairway shed. The metal creaked under his weight. He felt the door inside fold in on itself. When it stopped and held, he leaned back a little to make himself comfortable.

"In truth it feels as though I haff always been like this," he admitted, "and I do not remember it all entirely vell."

Blackarachnia stepped closer, stopping a safe distance away. "Was it fast? Did it hurt?"

He rested his hands on his knees, studying the gravel underneath his boots. His mind flew through fractured memories and he shook his head. "You think I voke up this vay? No, no, it vas much slower than dot…"

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To be continued...