And if you hold on tight
To what you think is your thing
You may find you're missing all the rest...

About 4 days later of sheer boredom and absolute confusion, when night had just begun to fall, Barricade finally relaxed. She relished this time of day, because humans were not as active, which meant she could be more herself, even if she did not leave her impromptu nest. She wondered to herself why she didn’t leave the small building with a frown. She very well could have, but something told her not to. And that something became very apparent when a dull, throbbing pain in her chest hit her. It was nothing like the pain she had been suffering before. The pain was enough to make her stumble on her feet, catching herself on the wall beside her with a gasp through her vents. Her spark also began to feel weighted, as if it wanted to drop right through her body.

What a strange sensation.

At first she only thought it was the strange anomaly that had been plaguing her, so she ignored it, but the pain increase with each beat of her Spark and every ‘breath’ into her intake valves became even more difficult as time went on, sometimes going away, only to return a few minutes more with more intensity. She groaned. With the intensity and pain, her sparkbeat became irregular and harder and she pressed her hand to her chest, hoping it would help to subside the annoyance, but it didn’t.

She began to panic when the pain became unbearable. Unable to actually cope with the pain and the confusion of what was going on, Barricade thrashed her arms angrily, knocking over various things that sat in the warehouse and sent items flying to the other end, her senses seeming to leave her completely. Her body rattled as it shivered uncontrollably. She instinctively did checks on her systems to find the source of the odd thing going on. Her spark was acting as if it was preparing for something and something big. For what, she had no clue. Otherwise it said all systems were go.

Something was wrong, even as her HUD clearly lied to her and told her everything was fine. She was obviously NOT fine! Small moans and screeches made their way from her vocal processors without her even trying to stop them as she tried to gain her bearings. In a fury to relieve the pain, she began scratching at her chest plate, even digging at it with her claws at one point. The tips of her metal claws screeching in the empty warehouse as they carved out deep gouges down her front as she desperately tried to get to the source of the pain and just make it stop! , totally prepared to pry her chest open and pull out her spark, wishing she could at least look at the damn thing to find out what was wrong with it. She wasn’t sure how long the pain would last, but right now it had become so severe that she wanted to die.

It was the bolts of Spark energy starting flying out of her chest were what alerted her to the even more frightening possibilities of what could be happening. At first they were small and harmless, zapping the ground and whatnot in close vicinity to her, but then they began to get larger and started streaming everywhere, shooting bolts toward any metal that was near her. She tried holding her hands over her chest to try to divert the bolts, but they seemed to go right around her hand.

Her panic went to a whole new level when her chest plates suddenly began to part without her control. Creaking as they ever so slowly began to break apart at the seams and the light of her very spark began to illuminate the small warehouse around her. Barricade cried out as she realized what was happening.

What the slag was going on?!

She pressed her hands to the sides of the parting plates, pressing against them firmly, trying desperately to keep them closed, but to no avail. They seemed to be parting at a strength beyond her own that she could not fight as the panels took on a life of their own.

Not only would she be vulnerable like this, but untold things could happen while her Spark chamber was completely exposed like this. She looked around frantically for something, anything, to help her, but nothing was available and she grunted with a hiss of pain as the panels spread apart even further until they could bend back no more as another shudder overcame her.

So now she stood with her chest plates wide open, her spark chamber exposed for all to see, looking around almost stupidly while her Spark discharged energy and sent bolts all over the place.

Lovely. Just Lovely.

After a few minutes, another wrench of pain hit her and it was enough to drop her to her knees and she went forward, catching herself on her hands. Her cooling system kicked in as well to cool down her quickly heating chest, her fan’s whirling at an alarming rate to sooth her burning frame. She started bringing in large amounts of air into her vents to help compensate for her overheating, the Earth equivalent of panting. With another grunt, the pain seemed to ease up a bit for a moment and she relaxed a bit. Slag it all if there wasn’t any coolant around, or even water would probably help at this point.

Suddenly, she let out a very Cybertronian cry like never before, feeling like she was dying as the pain began again. Her body continued to quiver, feeling as though it would collapse right there on the spot. And in all honesty, she believed that she really was dying. She had never felt this before. The pain seemed as if someone was ripping out her spark chamber from it’s place and twisting her chest apart in the process. Her body began contorting to impossible positions as she tried desperately to relive the pain.

She lifted to her knee while her Spark erratically discharged to various places and another scream emitted from her. Along with the discharge from her spark, was another type of discharge. This discharge didn’t come as bolts, but it dropped to the ground with a strange almost wet plopping sound. Barricade just stared at the strange… seepage.. It was blue and glowing. Immediately it registered to her that it was Energon, and all she could feel at this point was annoyance mingled with a faint curiosity. Why was she suddenly leaking Energon? Somewhere deep down in all of the confusion, she swore she was going to get the attention of someone with all the noise she was making, but the pain being as it was, she couldn’t help it, nor could she really care. All she really cared about was what was going on.

And to top it off, if things couldn’t get any more freaky and scary, her Spark chamber suddenly opened even further, and she looked down in surprise as she felt it. The Energon leaking from her core itself increasing in volume as it hit the ground and spattered about, even landing on her. This in itself got her even more terrified. She never randomly leaked fluids. Now she knew she was dying… for sure!

‘No! Nononono!’ She thought to herself as she cried out verbally with an animalistic cry mixed with a metallic sound at the intense pain. She’d never in her life heard about a Spark leaving its body, and she swore that it is what was happening to her for whatever reason. She barely even registered that her spark was larger than it was supposed to be as she bordered on panic.

Again, pain seared through her chest, causing her to arch back, with a roar like thunder, the Energon spurting on the wall on front in her. She screamed and she could only watch helplessly while panting like some kind of earth pet between the Cybertronian screams, ‘Well, this is it. It sucked knowing you, world.’

She had sensed someone coming around in close proximity of her hide out, but in her position, she couldn’t do anything about it. She didn’t know who it was, and personally, she really didn’t care. She was dying for all she knew; hell couldn’t she even die in peace? She vaguely sensed the being walk from the side to the front of the building, but she was in far too much pain to do anything about it. She just hoped that the creature wouldn’t come in. The sight of a giant robot dying would probably not be kept quiet and she would prefer her shell wasn’t dissected by the Earth fleshlings.

As her Spark discharged bolts once again not only was it also expelling the blue liquid, this time her Spark was discharging in an odd array of different colors. She looked back down at it and the puddle forming beneath her. Her optics widened when she saw that her Spark was… splitting? It soon looked like it was splitting into a pair of binary stars. What in Primus’ name was going on? She dropped to her hands again as the pain became too much.

She barely registered that the being who was roaming around finally had gone. She randomly hoped he fell down a pothole as he left.

Well into the night, what seemed to be hours, her Spark continued to split until her chest now held not one but two complete, whole sparks. There was a tiny spark right beside hers and hers reduced back to its normal size. Her blood red optics were glued under her large body in fascination and awe. Her HUD relayed tidbits of information that she didn’t even pay attention to while her body continued to run its cooling system in overdrive to cool down her chest compartment, which was severely overheating and in the first starts of a Stasis lock. She saw how her Spark was still slightly connected to the smaller one by a small energy thread. She also noticed how the thread seemed to pulse, going from her Spark to this other new one, and stared in wonder at the thin stream of light.

Whatever was happening, she would soon find out, that’s for sure.

Her Spark discharged painfully again as Barricade’s body jerked again and this time the Spark that had separated itself started to grow metal around itself, pulling at her own alloy from different places within her body. If the femme’s optics could go any wider, they would pop out of her head. When she went to move, she also found that her body was locked in this position, as if every part of her froze as it was. Well this was sure different, but being she couldn’t do anything about it, she only watched in horrified silence. The pain seemed to dwindle slightly, but not enough to warrant relief as she watched, afraid for her life.

Then something miraculous happened. As it grew, it started to take on a form. Bolts of energy danced over it as it began to build into a small metal ball and then more details started to form around it until it looked like a perfect Cybertronian pod. She now was watching with morbid curiosity as it continued to form. She felt her body loosen up once again, and she almost collapsed from her own weight bearing down on either on her arms.

She barely registered that the sun was starting to come up as she watched the form under her. Having lost near ninety percent of all of her strength in the mayhem, she couldn’t even push herself up to a kneeling position. She just continued to watch as the form twisted and wriggled within her body in fascination. When it was done forming, it dropped to the ground unceremoniously with another splatter of Energon that was all over it, completely separating from her own Spark as her Spark slowly moved back to her chest and back into its own chamber and the chamber closed.

To her relief, the pain was finally gone, which allowed her processors to wonder what was lying there in pod form. She used what strength she had and forced herself to lean up on her knees once again to star down at the pod.

What in Primus’ name was that thing? Was she invaded by some unknown alien species that implanted itself in her Spark? Barricade frowned as this thought rooted itself in her processor and she became worried. She didn’t know any better! This situation was something she was clearly not familiar with! Never had she heard any of the other Decepticons, mechs or femmes ever mention something like this happening! Not that she ever really conversed with them but still; she should have heard something about this. No, this cranky Decepticon was on her own and she preferred to keep it that way.

Her chest plate closed slowly with a soft click as as she watched the thing on the ground curiously, wondering what it was. Her optics never left it as she slowly went to touch it, poking it, seeing what it was. When she did poke it, it twitched and she quickly withdrew her claw cautiously.

What was that thing?!

She warily reached out and poked it again, and it moved again, but this time, its movements were more fluid than just a twitch. It began to unfold. She reeled back from it, landing on her aft in an ungraceful heap,, watching with slight alarm and apprehension as it continued to unfold. Energon dripped from it’s little body in rivers and the fluid quickly merged with the large puddle already coating the floor. . Tiny legs began to form and arms began to poke from it. Then, to make matters even more confusing, a head appeared with tiny red optics. It didn’t even try to get up, looking curiously up at her. She leaned forward and brought her face closer to examine it and it reached out and touched her face with tiny hands, smearing her face with Energon. Again she reeled backwards, glaring at its black and silver form. As she examined it from afar, she noticed its little arms were mostly black with silver decoration and its chest was black, along with its spindly legs – Legs like Starscream’s. Was it a flyer? It was fascinating, no matter what it was.

Click.

…Wait a minute, did that thing just click at her? Clearly it was Cybertronian as well. She instinctively clicked back at it with a few other chirrups. She jerked in surprise at her instant reaction to the thing’s clicking. Where had that come from? The small creature seemed completely unfazed by her sudden internal confusion as it t clicked and beeped at her even more and she responded to it as if it was second nature. Why was this happening? It was as if she could understand what the little creature was saying!

It was almost like… Wait a minute. Barricade paused to process the information. Her optics grew wide as she stared down at the little black and silver critter in realization. She then gasped, air hiccupping through her systems.

Was… was this a Sparkling? Her Sparkling? Had she just Spark-birthed and not even known it?!

That was it! That had to be it! She lightly shifted her weight as she reached out tenderly this time and the Sparkling grasped her clawed finger in its tiny hand and held on, beeping and chirping happily. Without even thinking, she cupped the Sparkling into her hand and lifted it to herself not even caring about the now drying Energon that was being transferred onto her. Her other hand lightly came across it and she touched it and it seemed to lean into her touch. When she brought it close to her chest, her Spark responded to the Sparkling when it touched her chest lightly. The Sparkling twittered with a few more beeps, and she clicked back to it.

“So you’re the reason for all that agony.” She said to him in English. He only looked up at her with innocent optics.

Just then, her senses went on high alert and Barricade was instantly tense as she moved her observations from the sparkling to her surroundings. She sensed other Cybertronians near.

Great. Just slagging great. This was all she needed.

She stayed huddled in the corner, knowing well that these were Autobots. The other Decepticons were not smart enough or even organized to find her this quickly. Deep in her chest, she snarled, angry that they had come around her claimed territory. Hopefully they would just leave her alone, but knowing Autobots, they would get nosy. Couldn’t they just leave her alone as she bonded with her new little one? She heard the doors open, but didn’t turn around, still mumbling to the Sparkling gently as she bonded with it. She read the signature and found it to be the Autobot’s medic. Quickly she turned her head and snarled at him. Warning him to leave her be.

The thought that Barricade was very much alive was amazing enough, but to try to show that he no longer wanted war, Optimus had wanted to try to defect any remaining Decepticons or ones that came to Earth to the Autobots. Barricade personally thought this to be a bit of a crackpot idea but the softhearted Autobot leader seemed so adamant on the subject. So of course he sent in Ratchet to speak with the Decepticon that had taken refuge in this run down building. Sending the medic was a wise idea. Not only was he calm enough and important enough that it ensured that Barricade would at least listen to his words, it also would allow the Autobots to know what Sam had witnessed and to make sure everything was all right.

When Barricade heard Ratchet come closer she lightly set the Sparkling down, telling it to stay silent and she quickly turned around and knelt down in place to protect the little one and without even thinking about it, brought out her flail to use if necessary. No matter how weak she was, she would still protect her Sparkling from any danger or intruder. In this case, to her, it was both. If anything, the medic would get the hint that she was not playing around and would use the flail if he did not heed her warnings. She growled, furious at being interrupted and intruded upon, “Back off Autobot!”

Ever nosy, and more likely by orders, the Autobot stepped forward again. He seemed curious and she knew she was scanning, something she could not help, “What are you hiding?” he wondered aloud, trying to peer around her bulky body at what was in the corner that he could see clearly moving, trying to figure out what he had stumbled upon. Perhaps it had been that Barricade was trying to repair Frenzy? If anything, he could offer his assistance.

“Nothing! Leave!” Barricade demanded darkly, spinning the blades of the flail dangerously and lifting the flail to strike.

Ratchet scanned the area and to his surprise, it was not Frenzy that she was hiding. It was something far more shocking. Ratchet backed away and left the building as abruptly as he had entered. Believing she had scared him off, Barricade smiled inwardly. However that was not the case. She did realize that the he medic had just found some alarming news and went to report to the others. She just wanted them gone, no matter the reason.

Finding that the Autobot must have gotten her message, she turned back around to the Sparkling, who was watching curiously. It still had not gotten up. She assumed that its programming was far too new for it to know how to walk. Lightly she cupped it in her hand and offered it to it’s small legs, but it went right forward. She caught it before it hit the ground. Personally, she didn’t know the first thing about Sparklings, but she knew she would find out first hand.

Then, if life couldn’t get any more complicated than it already had, a new development had her panic once more. Her already tired and aching spark raced as she looked down at her chest to find that she was leaking energon from between her places.

‘What in Primus’ name is going on now?’ She thought to herself as she ran a finger over it and lifted it to her face to examine it. She thought she was done with the leaking of Energon. Now, after all of this, she really had to be dying. Femmes didn’t just randomly leak Energon! She did notice how the Sparkling was eyeing it however, and she quickly wiped it away. A few seconds later it dripped again. She growled, however the Sparkling was now moving towards its creator, still eyeing the leaking Energon as if it was the best thing it had ever seen.

She clicked a few times to it and put her hand out for it. Quickly it scrambled into her hand once again and she brought her hand to her chest. The Sparkling leaned on her chest and began… trying to put its face into the leaking Energon? Barricade was baffled but the Sparkling seemed content. She allowed herself to smile as she held it close, even though she was confused as to why the sparkling was apparently trying to eat the Energon.

For the first time in all her long years of being, not only had she Spark-birthed, but now felt the need to protect this little one, with her own life if she had to. It went beyond her Decepticon programming to help and protect this life – any life in fact. That was fine with her. She didn’t even know if she could still call herself a Decepticon now that her programming had derailed and been severely altered like this. However nothing could change her mind as she held the Sparkling close to herself, now ignoring its strange behavior. Seeming happy, the Sparkling sat back and looked up at her, clicking merrily at her even as Energon leaked from its tiny jaws. Barricade instinctively parted the compartment where Frenzy used to hide and gently placed the Sparkling there and closed it.

There, she felt the weirdest thing! Air hiccupped in her vents for a quick second at the surprise. She felt her Energon lines being tapped. When she scanned inside of herself to find out what was going on, she found the sparkling latched onto an Energon feed. One she hadn’t even known she had! The strange thing about it was she was happy that the Sparkling was siphoning off her own Energon supply. Clearly not a Decepticon feeling.

She felt such comfort with it so close to her Spark chamber, however. She clicked gently to it as it fed, and soon found it unresponsive. Instantly thinking something might be wrong, she did a scan and she found it had gone into recharge. Apparently the birth had taken a lot out of it. Hell, it had taken a lot out of them both, including her own armor. She smiled again when she felt it snuggle up to her Spark chamber.

She knew she was weak and tired and needed to leave this place. She also knew that she would need the time for her body to replace the missing metal from her own body. It would only be a matter of time before this entire place was swarming with Autobot scum, something she surely did not want. Slowly she transformed, careful not to hurt the precious being within her subspace. She made sure the Sparkling was moved to her interior as she did so where it would be safe. She then positioned herself towards the front of the building and spun her tires hard. Gaining speed, she suddenly broke through the wall and sped off, throwing dirt and stones everywhere. She barely saw the Autobots standing around and with any luck a large rock would hit the Autobots, not that it would slow them down. Barricade prayed that they would not chase her down as she decided to find another place to hide and now… now raise her new Sparkling.

Well she ran up into the light surprised
Her arms are open
Her mind's eye is
Seeing things from a
Better side than most can dream