All Mine

Chapter 16

One year earlier…

The teen ducked, a fist whizzing over her head. She glanced up at the angry face of the older boy she had goaded into fighting her. He had a flat face, like someone had already punched him a long time ago and his features had pushed back like clay.

Yelling she popped upright, socking him in the jaw quickly before bouncing back. Blood seeped from a cut over her eye from when he'd actually gotten a punch in, and her knuckles were weeping.

“You're gonna regret that you little bitch!” The boy rubbed his face, lip curling with disdain. His friends leapt around them in a circle, hooting and jeering.

The delinquent girl shrugged, smirking and gesturing for him to come at her. Right as she tried to dodge his next punch someone pushed her from behind and she went sprawling. Her temple connected with the concrete and she was out cold.

When Skyler had woken up it was dark, and there was nobody to be seen. Her head throbbed, and when she tried to move congealed blood kept her stuck to the road. She had to pull a bit and she let out a pained groan as the scab pulled away. A new trickle of blood ran down her face, and she hesitated before wiping it away.

People asked her why. People always wanted to know why she fought- why she ran- why she lied.

It was a stupid question.

She took off her over shirt, holding it to the bleeding goosegg. The girl made sure she hadn't been beat up any further or raped and once satisfied she began to wander down the road. She wouldn't head home. Not yet.

Skyler fought so that she would have a distraction. Pain numbed her to her own intelligence and awareness. It was a drug she'd found in the back of an alley and it was one she was hooked on.

Skyler ran because she didn't belong anywhere. Why would you stay somewhere that would never truly be home? She also ran because it too was a distraction. If she was always planning on how to escape she wouldn't have time to think about where she was or where she'd been.

And lastly, Skyler lied because the truth scared her. If she lied to herself long enough maybe the lie would become reality.

She rolled her shoulders, trying to loosen them. She'd get the older boy back. He had a motorcycle and she had a hammer and some rusted nails.

---

Many decades earlier…

Breakdown had barely just finished getting the door to the run down apartment closed when the buzzer went off. He stared with disbelief at the door, before resigning himself to opening it back up.

It was supposed to be automatic- it had been automatic. But as of late the door had refused to swish and instead you had to manually slide it open and shut. Breakdown was embarrassed to say that he had underestimated the difficulty of forcefully opening an automatic door, and had learned to be humble quickly.

“Give me a nanoklik will ya!” Breakdown yelled when the buzzer went off again. He gave a firm shove and the door slid back open. It had the nerve to still make the swishing sound.

A white wrecker stood outside the door, one servo on his hip. He had a scarred face, and his stocky body was familiar to Breakdown.

“Wheeljack?” Breakdown had only seen pictures of the wrecker- ones that Bulk shared with him.

“One and only.” The mech smirked, his gravelly voice surprisingly soft.

Trying to shake his deep rooted wariness for anymech he hadn't known for longer than five decacycles Breakdown let Wheeljack inside, pulling the door shut behind them.