Chapter 1

Mirage was seriously starting to get sick of the way the others were treating him. He could understand them being weary of him for the first several orbital-cycles, as most Tower bots had supported the Decepticons during the first few vorns of the war. But the Iaconian Towers had fallen, reduced to rubble. And Mirage had been a loyal Autobot for over half a stellar-cycle now. And his fellow Autobot's, even those in Special Ops, still didn't trust him!?

This is just ridiculous. Mirage thought to himself as he listened to Cliffjumper go on about 'that Towers mech' again. The slag that the mini-bot was babbling on about was so wrong it was almost funny. Did the other bots really believe that all Tower bots went turbofox hunting on a regular basis?

Mirage watched the others Cliffjumper was with shoot him dirty looks from the reflection of his datapad. Yes, yes they really did believe what the red pitspawn was saying.

Mirage inwardly sighed. There was a reason that Mirage didn't like to socialize. And that would be due to the amount that other bots would make assumptions about him. Some of the slag that bots came up with about Tower bots was astonishing, to say the least. From turbofox hunting, to purging their tanks when full to refuel more, to overdosing on Syk on a regular basis.

When another bot laughed loudly - for the third time - Mirage realized that he wasn't going to finish his datapad anytime soon sitting in the Rec. Room. Irritably, he stood up and made his way to leave.

"Yo, Mirage!"

Against his better judgement, Mirage turned to Cliffjumper's table.

"Why's your face blue?" Cliffjumper called, "Ya too noble for us!"

Mirage felt his optic twitch as the others laugh.

"You guys! Don't be rude." Bumblebee scolded, as he sat down with his evenings energon.

"Seriously though," Powerglide asked, "what's with the mask?"

Mirage almost blew them off. However, the curious way that Bumblebee was looking at him - which painfully reminded him of another - had Mirage feeling inclined to answer.

Mirage pinched the bridge of his nose, and with an audible click, removed the thin blue mask from his face. He placed it on the table, the inside facing the others. In between the optic holes was a small unknown glyph, and below that were two more glyphs. "It's a Praxian mask that was worn in ancient times. It's name means, 'to be worn during a time of change'."

And snapping the mask back into place, Mirage left the room.

While the others shrugged it off and went back to their conversation, Bumblebee remained confused on Mirage's answer. Why was Mirage wearing a Praxian mask? And an ancient one at that. To be fair, the Towers had only fallen just under a stellar-cycle ago, and it must have been rather hard on the mech. But wearing a mask from another culture - another ancient culture - was a little odd.

"You look a little zoned out there buddy."

Bumblebee turned at the voice behind him. "Oh, hi Smokescreen. I didn't see you there."

Smokescreen pulled out a chair and took a seat next to the yellow Nyonian mini-bot. "What's got you thinking so hard?"

"Just something Mirage said." Bumblebee replied.

"Mirage?" Smokescreen asked, confused.

"Yeah. He's really nice once you get to know him." Bumblebee said.

Huffer snorted. "And you know him?"

"Actually I do." Bumblebee glared, before admitting. "Well… sort of."

"Right, I keep forgetting you're with special Ops." Hound said as he took a seat across from Smokescreen.

"What was it Mirage said?" Smokescreen asked as he took a sip of his evening's rations.

"Well, Powerglide asked why Mirage wears that blue mask of his. And he said that it was a type of mask worn by ancient Praxians, and that it's name meant 'to be worn during a time of change'... And I can't wrap my head around why Mirage would be wearing an ancient Praxian mask!"

All optics turned to Smokescreen. He had set his cube down onto the table, and was sitting with a sad, far off look in his optics.

"Do you know what Bee is talking about?" Hound asked the psychologist.

"I do." Smokescreen started off slowly. "I was unaware that Mirage was wearing one. And it's… Not as old a practice as some think. It was common practice in Praxus before…"

The others let Smokescreen compose himself, as the massacre of Praxus was still a painful subject for him.

"The type of mask you are talking about is called a Aru'hitan. And a better translation of the name would be 'to be in grieving'."

The table fell silent.

Smokescreen sighed, before continuing. "On the Aru'hitan, one often carves an ancient Praxian glyph into the inside to symbolize what grief they are experiencing. If someone close, like say a family member or a close friend, is in a state of grieving, one will carve the glyph outside of the mask to symbolize they are helping to carry the other's burden."

The others turned their full attention to the Praxian. Bumblebee looked at Smokescreen, wide opticed. "What else?" He asked in a whisper.

There was a pause, before Smokescreen spoke again."By carving the glyph in a certain area, it symbolizes where one is feeling the grief in a certain part of the frame. Placing the glyph on the top of the forehead symbolizes grief of the processor. Placing the glyph on the left cheek ridge symbolizes grief of the tanks, such as a life changing illness. Placing the glyph on the right cheek ridge symbolizes grief of the wings. And placing the glyph in between the optics symbolizes grief of the spark and soul."

Smokescreen's explanation had attracted several bots passing by. His audience was silent, listening to him recite the tradition.

"It is possible to be suffering from multiple types of grief at one time. If a bot is suffering from multiple griefs in the same area, than the glyph representing the strongest grief is placed, and then the others are placed below it in descending order. If a bot is suffering from multiple griefs in different areas of the frame, than the strongest grief is placed in the area affected the most, and then the others are placed either below it, or on different areas of the mask getting smaller and smaller in size."

The gathered bots looked at him and Smokescreen sighed, knowing what they were cautious to ask. He raised a hand, a removed a thin mask that blended into the colour of his face plates. The others were surprised, having not known that he had been wearing it.

"Before you ask, yes, Prowl is wearing one too. Just… don't bring it up with him. He's taking it harder than you'd think." Smokescreen said.

He placed the mask down onto the table, turning it so the others could see several small glyphs carved around the inside. Smokescreen pointed to the ones in the middle. "These mean 'loss of one's home', 'loss of family', and 'loss of friends'. The family and friends are side by side as they are equal. The one up top here," Smokescreen pointed to top of the mask, "means 'loss of normalcy'."

"Mirage had the 'loss of one's home' and the 'loss of normalcy' under a different glyph in the center of the mask, between the optics." Bumblebee said quietly.

"Do you remember what it looked like Bee?" Hound asked.

"Yeah. Hold on, I'll draw it." Bee said as he pulled a datapad out of subspace. The others waited anxiously as Bumblebee slowly drew the glyph. After a cycle, Bumblebee handed the datapad to Smokescreen. "I think this is what it looked like."

Smokescreen took one look at the pad, and his face paled. He felt his spark drop into his tanks.

"Smokescreen?" Hound asked, concerned. "What's the glyph say?"

"I-It means… Loss of a child."

I have been rather busy since December, due to school, dance, and various injuries (thank you, fibular heads -_-). I have also had writers block for my other two (three if you count Drabbles in G1) stories I am suppose to be writing.

Bad me! ^ ^;;

Not to mention I have started three million other stories, and have not written enough to publish yet. So I decided that "Hey, you know what. I really need to post something so people don't think I'm dead!"

So here we are! I will try to update this, and my other stories, soon. Most likely, Unexpected Surprises will be updated next... But we'll see.