Yeah "Adaption" ultimately crashed and I've decided to replace it with this! I might go back to "Adaption"s idea in the future, but not now.

I hope you like this idea :)

Disclaimer: I own Notestryder, Quick Raid, the youngling and the sparklings. Necessary crew members, I assure you. I do not own the others. And I do not own Transformers.

(Note: this chapter is titled "Alligator Sky" because I thought the song "Alligator Sky" by Owl City sorta suits it. :/ Don't know if you see it the same way.)

Regain What Was Lost

1 – Alligator Sky – 1

Her crimson optics widened in surprise as an explosion threw her up against the outer wall of Autobot Base Alpha 22.09. Her white armor, which used to have black accents, was now scuffed to a point where she couldn't tell what were scuffs and what were accents of her armor.

She got to her pedes and surveyed the Decepticons quickly surrounding her. This war had been long and taxing, and yet the Decepticons didn't seem to be as exhausted as her fellow Autobots felt. They hadn't heard a crackle from either Optimus or Megatron, so why did the "Peace through Tyranny" supporters push on? What if Megatron was offline? Starscream would take his place, but then, what if he was offline as well?

Shaking her helm, she cleared it of all those confusing questions and focused on the mechs that had now formed a tight semi-circle around her, pinning her to the wall with only a few feet separating them from her. She tried to keep the fear from being seen in her optics, but she knew they could see it. She wasn't the brave one of the family, her older brothers were. But they weren't here. She had been a simple data-track jockey back before the war, and had not possessed any fighting skills whatsoever until they had taught her. Now she had the fighting skills, but her bravery wasn't up to par.

But, she couldn't afford to be scared at that moment. There were precious little lives within the base that had big bright futures ahead of them, so she couldn't allow them to fall into the claws of evil.

Her blades slid down from their sheaths on the tops of her wrists with an almost dangerous shing. She hadn't had many chances to use them since the war started and since she had spent most of her time avoiding the war. She had hid, she had surrendered herself to the Youth Sectors, she had done everything to keep herself out of the war and safe so that her brothers could return and still have someone there for them. But when the Youth Sectors had been attacked, she had fought.

She had always had a soft spot for sparklings and younglings. So when the Decepticons had come bursting into the haven that the Youth Sector she had been staying had become, something in her had snapped. She might have had red optics, and the other bots might have looked at her warily from time to time because of them, but the sparklings and younglings looked up to her as she managed to keep the Decepticons at bay long enough for the creations to make a getaway. But not all of them had managed to escape.

After she had been knocked back and forced into stasis, she woke up to see the corpse of a femme with a dead sparkling in her arms lying right beside her.

That kept haunting her, reminding her that she was not good enough to protect everyone.

She raised her blades up; looking at how they shined in the light of Cybertron's dying sun. They somehow instilled something in her that gave her enough courage to lift her helm and look the closest Decepticon in the eye. Then she pounced.

She slashed at that Decepticon's throat and cleaved his helm from his shoulders. She leapt to the side in order to dodge another Decepticon's attack and ran at him as he tried to recover. Both of her blades went through his spark, extinguishing it instantly. She jumped backwards in order to pull her blades from the dead Decepticon as another swung his mace at her. Her cooling systems were working double-time and were starting to hitch slightly. She swung a blade at the Decepticon with the mace, and cleaved the arm holding the mace from its shoulder. She then picked up the mace as smashed it into the side of the Decepticon's helm, ending its howling and flailing instantly.

Without their generals and their commanders, they have grown weak, she realized. But there are still too many of them to risk thinking lightly of them.

::Notestryder, you must return to base. There are too many of them! That goes for you too, Hound, Firestar, and Warpath,:: the leader of the rag-tag band of Autobots said.

::Yes sir!:: – Notestryder, Hound, Firestar, Warpath

She managed to dodge attacks from the remaining two Decepticons that had cornered her, and made a mad dash towards one of the many hidden entrances that lead into the base. So he's planning on taking off then? she wondered. Well…hopefully we can get off the surface…

Their base was really a ship encased in a box of metal. It was done so that they would have a better chance of surviving this war. It was done like that so that in times like this, they'd be able to get off Cybertron as fast as possible, without having to wait for anyone to board.

Notestryder dropped the mace before she ducked into a small tunnel that lead to one of the entrances. It was too cumbersome even though she really wanted to use it as a start for a collection of Decepticon weapons. But she'd have to wait and settle on the weapons she had—namely her blades, blasters, and Energon whips.

She made it to the entrance with no sound of pursuit and quickly typed in the code. The door whooshed open and she entered. It slammed down behind her as she made her way up to the bridge of the ship where she met up with the others and the leader of their band, Prowl, second in command to the Autobot army.

She quickly saluted out of respect to the high-ranking mech.

He nodded in her direction before he began roll-call over the public comm. ::All presently on the ship: mechs, femmes, sires, carriers, younglings, sparklings, and any resident pranksters—say "Here!" when I call your designation.::

Notestryder couldn't help but snicker when Prowl had said 'any resident pranksters'. Yep, that was her. It was something she had gotten from her brothers. Those rascals.

::Hound.:: – Prowl

::Here!:: – Hound

::Quick Raid.:: – Prowl

::Here!:: – Quick Raid

::Warpath.:: – Prowl

::Here!:: – Warpath

::Firestar:: – Prowl

::Here!:: – Firestar

::Minerva.:: – Prowl

::Here.:: – Minerva

::…Notestryder.:: – Prowl

::Here as always, sir!:: – Notestryder

She watched as the SiC fought the urge to roll his optics at her call.

::Alright: younglings and sparklings. Sparklings: Wrangler, Code Red, and Clutch—say 'here.':: – Prowl

The three 'here's, which were said in tandem, made Notestryder smile. She loved the sparklings and were glad that Minerva, their medic, had installed communicators in their little helms. It helped keep an optic on them.

::And our youngling: Skybeat?:: – Prowl

::Here! I'm in my quarters.:: – Skybeat

The public comm. was switched off and the SiC allowed a small smile. "Good, everyone's on board. Quick Raid, if you would take us up?" Prowl looked at the light blue femme in particular and she nodded. She went to the controls and sat down in the pilot's seat. Notestryder watched in curiosity as the femme quickly flipped switches and pulled levers, and soon the engines started up and thrummed loudly.

She didn't expect take off to be so rough, so she was knocked off balance when the ship lurched into the air. The roof that had covered and concealed the ship from prying Decepticon optics squealed sharply as it crumbled to pieces while the ship rose up through it. Notestryder winced at the sound, but having still been used to loud noises from her days as a data-track jockey (some of those songs could get really loud), she wasn't affected by it as much as Quick Raid was, since she was more a technical officer than a field agent.

She rubbed her right audio as the ship continued to rise into the air. "Ow. I didn't expect it to be so loud," she said.

Notestryder walked up to her and patted her right shoulder. "Don't lose your hearing now, femme. You still need to hear your sparkmate and sparkling!" she teased.

Quick Raid quickly flipped a few more switches, and the ship launched forward, rocketing away from the surface of Cybertron, and up towards the stars.

Notestryder crossed her arms and looked at the others that stood around the bridge. They glanced at each other sadly as Cybertron got farther and farther away. Through the nearest viewport, Notestryder watched as Cybertron got smaller and smaller as well.

"I'm gonna miss Cybertron," Firestar sighed.

"We just have to hope that someday we'll be able to return," Prowl told her. "But for now, we just have to avoid Decepticon ambushes and hope we get a transmission from our Prime."

There nods all around and a few "yeah"s. Notestryder continued to watch as Cybertron disappeared from view. She rubbed her chest, just over her spark chamber, as homesickness threatened to sink in. You two better not be still on Cybertron, she thought, thinking of her brothers, because if you are, I'll kick your afts to the Well of AllSparks when I get back

Notestryder couldn't help but think about the two dead bond nodes that rested on her spark. Minerva didn't say that they had broken, they were still there, but they were dead. She couldn't help but think about her brothers though. Were they dead and were just too far away for her spark to realize? Or were they just too far away for her spark to pick up?

Why did they leave her and not take her with them?

She knew they loved her. They loved her dearly, actually. When she was little, and she had a nightmare, they would always allow her to sleep with them. Her big, strong, older brothers, who had been in their adult frames for as long as she could remember, took care of her and loved her and allowed her to touch their paint. They had shared red optics up until a few orns after the war had started, but the last time she had seen them, they had just changed their optic colour to blue.

She got up and looked at herself in the small-ish mirror that hung at the end of her berth. Her red optics looked at her worriedly—not looking harsh or angry or evil like the ones the Decepticons bore. That's what made her different, Skybeat had once told her. Her optics might have been the same colour as the Decepticons', but they looked different somehow.

As the war progressed, she had heard about them. They were the Autobots' frontliners, some of their strongest most skilled warriors. They were warriors not just soldiers. Notestryder looked up to them, though they probably never thought about how she could more than she already had, and studied their every move and how they fought Decepticons. But she was never going to be as ferocious as they were—she'd never be able to lose herself in a battle like they could until there wasn't a single Decepticon left on the battlefield.

Maybe that's why she had been in the data-jockey caste and had not become a gladiator like they had.

She smiled. They used to always admire how soft her spark was.

Notestryder sat down and began to clean her blasters slowly as she thought back to way before the war, back to when her creators were still online. Her danniluk had been a beautiful femme, with white optics and silver armor. Her opiluk had been a handsome mech with red optics and black armor. She had had a happy life, even though most bots outside of Kaon rejected her, her brothers, and her opi because of their optics. Pompous bots from the pompous upper castes.

But some liked them, especially the femmes looking for handsome mechs. Her brothers had been pretty handsome, and her grumpier brother had attracted a lot of attention when he decided to start selling his paintings.

Danni had been a data-track jockey for the Wildatron club in Helix, along with some mech named Blaster (who later became the Autobot Communications Officer when the war started). Her opi had been a guide for out-of-towners that had come to watch a gladiator match. Both had died when a mech broke into their housing unit.

Notestryder shuttered and closed her optics as the memory was brought up.

…

Youngling Notestryder sat at the table sitting at the edge of the living room. She was quickly colouring a picture of their family that her brother had drawn for her. As she finished her danni's armor, she put the silver airbrush down and picked up a red one. She moved on to one of her brothers as she waited for the paint to dry on the picture of Danni. She slowly began to paint her brother's armor as both of her brothers leaned in to watch.

"Careful, you don't watch to smudge it. If you do, it won't look as glossy," her gold-coloured brother advised her.

"I won't," Notestryder chirped.

"Eh, she'll make me look good either way, bro," her red brother piped up.

"Yep!" she said as she finished her red brother's armor and moved on to paint her gold brother's armor.

Her twin older brothers chuckled. Their danni came over and set three Energon cubes down on the table, and Notestryder put down the gold paint-filled airbrush pen that she had been using. She picked up her cube, and fiddled with a corner for a while before struggling to open the cube. Her gold brother reached over and cut off the corner for her, and for a brief moment, she wondered how he could be so patient with her when he could be so impatient with other mechs and femmes. Maybe it was because she was his sister?

She slowly began to sip her Energon, like her mother had told her to, as she listened to her danni clean. Her opi was upstairs, doing something, but she didn't know what. She felt safe, though, with both her creators at home and both of her brothers sitting across the table from her. Her brothers were the bestest gladiators in all of Kaon, after all. No bad bot would dare come inside and hurt anybot in her family unit. They'd be diced and sliced before they could get across the threshold, anyway.

Suddenly, the front door blew inward and a tall mech, as tall as opi and taller than danni, walked in. He turned his red optics, which were full of evil and malice on her before turning his attention to the room danni was cleaning in. Her brothers were instantly on their pedes and charging the mech, but he pulled out a gun that shocked them and sent them reeling to the floor.

She could remember her danni and opi's anguished screams, and would never forget them.

…

"But my brothers are not gone," she said before she subspaced her blasters and lay down on her berth. "They are out there somewhere…"

Notestryder was a tall femme, and she had two brothers. One was red and the other was gold. They were twins. She was a former data-track jockey who had sworn to protect sparklings, younglings, and anyone (other than Decepticons) around her.

And her brothers' names were Sideswipe and Sunstreaker.