Chapter Two
Army Brat
Jade Delilah Rivers was one of those rare people that really did have a great many good characteristics about them. Like any human being, she had her flaws - but anyone who knew her could never deny that she was sweet, giving and indiscriminately kind to everyone around her. A rare, shining star in a sky full of determinedly cynical black holes.
Patience - luckily for her companions of the day - was also one of her personal qualities.
"I don't get it," the voice of the young woman on her right moaned for the umpteenth time, dragging her bulging suitcase from the monstrous black pickup truck with an annoyed expression plastered all over her brown, freckled face. "Seriously, Jade, I get that my brother lived with you guys - I get that - but why am I coming to stay in some kind of military base in Wisconsin with you? What's the point? I can just as well go get an apartment. Or go back to Mexico, or something... I just don't get it!"
Jade sighed heavily, dropping her forehead into her hand for a moment and pinching the bridge of her nose to regain some of her rapidly dwindling sanity. "Because your dad wants you to, Leiana," she explained as tolerantly as she could. "I have told you this, hon'."
"Yeah, but -"
"Leiana, ¡basta ya!" a louder, frustrated male voice came from inside Ironhide, and Jorge Figueroa jumped down from the mammoth vehicle a moment later. "Jeez, kiddo, do you never stop talking?" he complained good-naturedly, hauling the remaining suitcases from the back of the truck and slinging them over his muscular shoulders. "¡Callarse, chica!"
Eighteen-year-old Leiana Lopez folded her arms obstinately, her lower lip protruding. "¡No, Papa!"
And entertaining as she knew their banter would have been to an outsider... Jade still had to turn away.
Carlos's younger sister was mischievous, abrasive, and spoke in Spanish at completely random intervals; she had long, dark brown curls, held back by a black headband; dark, suntanned skin - and, as Jade had already seen from the journey from the pickup point, a bit of a foul mouth. The solid gold cross that Jade had recovered from Carlos's broken body still hung around her neck, even three years after he had been put to the grave, and she had an idiosyncratic smirk that graced her face whenever she was amused or pleased by something.
Like Carlos.
She was far too much like her brother for Jade to be entirely at ease around her at the moment, but she guessed that the feeling would fade in the end. She owed this to Carlos... to take care of his sister, when he no longer could.
Now that her mother was sending her out by herself into the big wide world, Fig had asked that his daughter come to stay with the Autobots and their companions, thinking that not doing so would be depriving his daughter of a truly amazing opportunity in life - Optimus had been only too happy to indulge their long-time ally in his request, seeing as there was plenty of room at the fantastic new base that they had been granted.
There was still the... small matter of informing the impish adolescent that most of her new 'roommates' were giant alien robots, of course... but, Jade shrugged to herself with a confident smile, how bad could it be?
Patting Ironhide to convey her gratitude for his being silent and allowing her to drive him back from Missouri - where they had picked Leiana up from, as her mother had driven her there to prevent an gruelling drive from Mexico to Wisconsin for either party - she took one of Leiana's sports bags from Fig and turned back towards the gates.
"So, Leiana..." she began casually, smiling, and the girl glanced at her moodily from beneath furrowed eyebrows. "Are you... um... looking forward to staying with us?"
"I guess rooming with a load of older kids could be fun," the girl admitted grudgingly, adjusting the straps of her backpack.
Fig laughed stridently - Carlos's laugh precisely, right down to the way his eyes crinkled at the edges when it happened. "Dio, Lala - you're in for a heck of a lot more fun than you realise with these guys. Your roommates are... pretty... unica, if you know what I mean, Jade?" He flashed her a knowing wink, and she couldn't help but grin.
"Si, Fig... very unique indeed," she agreed as Leiana looked from one to the other in bemusement, pouting.
"What are you guys on about?" the short-tempered girl huffed, crossing her arms and glaring resentfully at them.
Still grinning widely as he walked, Fig shook his head and hitched the suitcases up from where they were slipping from his hands. "You'll find out, mi tersoro," he assured her candidly, and she muttered something in Spanish that Jade couldn't quite catch under her breath. She could guess from Fig's expression, however, that it had been quite impolite.
The three of them began to make their way across the dirt path that led up to the entrance to the grounds; Ironhide had other things to do, so Jade knew that he wouldn't be following them. Leiana and Fig bantered in their native language all the way to the large, foreboding sign that in front of the gates, and Jade vaguely wondered to herself whether she ought to try and hide it before the kid was put off for life. She realised that she'd left it too late, however, when she heard Leiana's colourful cry of alarm from behind her.
Well... it was pretty unwelcoming to newcomers.
'TRESPASSERS WILL BE SHOT'
Promising.
She glanced over her shoulder to see Leiana's dark eyes widen in astonishment, her jaw dropping.
"Dios Mío - ¿qué carajo?" she exploded indignantly, staring from Jade to her father and back again with discernible fury. "'Trespassers will be shot'?! What the fuck kind of place is this?!"
"Do you want your padre to wash your mouth out with soap and water, Leiana Lopez?" Fig threatened in jest, grinning yet again and making as if to clout his daughter on the head; she ducked at the double, looking as if she was quite used to doing so, and pulled a face at him. "Yeah, you're damned lucky that Mr. Chan used to give you a smack if you swore, señorita - otherwise I wouldn't have missed just then."
"Mr. Chan?" Jade asked curiously.
"I used to work at a dojo," Leiana explained airily, putting particular emphasis on the second word and scowling, "Before I was forced to this dump. Mr. Chan was my sensei, you know; the guy that's in charge of the martial arts. He used to slap me round the head if I didn't make his tea right."
... Why did she get this overwhelming feeling that having this girl as a roommate was going to be a heck of an experience?
Clearing her throat and giving the short-tempered teenager a quick smile and a nod - as was the general practise when speaking to those who were obviously beyond the ream of sanity - Jade hurried the two of them along swiftly, chivvying them past the ominous-looking sign and into the open grounds of the New Autobot Base, Wisconsin.
After the events at Mission City, Defence Secretary Keller had surprised them all by presenting them with the massive base and its vast grounds: a gift of gratitude, he had said, for the assistance that each and every one of them had provided during mankind's darkest hour. The complex was absolutely enormous, with a number of extremely spacious buildings; not only that, but human quarters had been provided on the upper floors, and each of the Autobot allies had their own fully-furnished room, as well as proper recreation and hygiene facilities.
The buildings were set in the centre of a thick, lush circle of trees; this ring of greenery hid it from the eyes of passers-by very well, particularly when coupled with Ironhide's ingenious 'trespassers will be shot' notice and security-coded gates. The fact that Keller had marked the place as a no-fly zone also prevented anybody catching sight of it from the air, although it made it difficult for Skyfire and Starscream to land without suspicion.
The dirt path soon gave way to the substantial grass and undergrowth beneath the trees, and Leiana began to complain again almost immediately as the laces of her black All Stars were caught up in the foliage.
"Hell, am I moving into a jungle now?"
"Lala..." Fig warned.
Jade smiled at the younger girl in spite of her snappiness; Rose had been just as prickly and bewildered when she had first come to the base, but she was a really lovely person now - one of Jade's closest friends among the group, in fact - and, being the team's self-confessed optimist, she was certain that Leiana would go the same way.
She vaguely wondered how Leiana would react, if and when she discovered that two of the girls at the base - one being herself - were dating giant alien robots; admittedly, the thought of this fine detail being made known to the teenager made her sweat in spite of herself. Although Rose was more than fine with the idea now, she had been frightened and bewildered by it at first, and it had started a terrible fight between her and Alexis - the last thing Jade wanted was for any conflict in the base if Leiana reacted similarly.
Silver lining, she reminded herself sanguinely, her smile reappearing as they climbed the slight incline towards the central structure in the complex - the Communication and Reconnaissance building.
"Nice place, huh, Lala?" Fig asked positively.
"Es muy grande," was Leiana's short response, and Jade saw that she was looking up at the base with a glimmer of reluctant interest in her eye.
The warrant officer made to slap her again, though she dodged it expertly. "You'd better quit with the Spanish now, young lady," he warned, and her mouth dropped open in outrage. "Hey, You know that half of these older kids won't understand a word of it, right? You want to make friends or not, little alborotadora?"
"You speak Spanish all the time!" his daughter pointed out, visibly infuriated. "What happened to all that mierda about 'our heritage' that you've been lecturing me about since forever?"
"I know - and then you said you didn't like Mexican food, and I lost hope in you."
Well, that was one way in which she differed from Carlos, Jade thought to herself with some surprise as she made towards the retinal scanner at the base's main, human-sized entrance, with the two Mexicans trailing tardily in her wake. She smiled to herself faintly when she remembered how he had used to load up her tacos with hot sauce, just to see her face screw up - she hadn't eat them since then, but it was an affectionate memory that she still held dear.
Fig interrupted her reminiscing with a light tap on her shoulder as they drew closer to the door. "How many of you kids speak Spanish, Jade?" he asked her curiously, giving Leiana a pointed glare, and she paused to think.
"Hmm... well, I speak a little, and Rad's pretty good. Rose speaks a lot of it; she's not fluent, but getting close to it now."
"See?" Leiana said triumphantly. "I can speak plenty of Spanish, idiota."
"No me hablas así," Fig growled, obviously a little sore at having lost their miniature contest. If he was anything like his son, then losing wasn't something that he was particularly good at.
Jade leant down rather quickly to avoid being burnt by the glare that Leiana sent his way, staring into the entrance's technologically ingenious retinal scanner - an invention of Skyfire's, of course - and trying not to blink as it scanned her eyes. The familiar words scrolled across the screen in Cybertronian hieroglyphs before automatically translating themselves to something more comprehensible.
'Identity confirmed: Jade D. Rivers, human ally. Identification verification: Autobot Skyfire.'
She had missed Skyfire during her brief absence. No matter how short the space of time that she was away from him, she always found herself feeling somewhat lonely if they were apart. Her kind, science-loving spark partner had volunteered to pick Leiana up from her home in Mexico, but apparently Catalina Lopez was extremely distrustful of any kind of plane, and had no wish to expose her daughters to the 'evils' of aerial travel - hence Ironhide's excursion to Missouri.
The doors opened with a soft hiss, and a voice - Rose's voice, in actuality - greeted them.
'Welcome to the New Autobot Base, Wisconsin. Newcomers and visitors, please report to the communications suite to state your business and authorisation code. Oh, and please feel free to proceed to the kitchen area if you fancy a cup of tea once you're done.'
Oh, that never failed to make her smile...
"Who the heck was that?" Leiana asked, one eyebrow ascending again as Fig chuckled in the background, clearly amused by Rose's dry introduction to his daughter's new residence.
"That was Rose," Jade explained brightly, leading them into the corridor that connected them to the rest of this particular building. "She's British, if you were wondering about the accent - she moved over a few years ago from London. She's really nice - she's the one that's good at Spanish. I'm sure you'll get on great with her, and the others, too."
The teenager shrugged offhandedly.
In spite of her external cheeriness, however, Jade was beginning to panic a little on the inside.
Optimus had given Ironhide and herself orders to retrieve Leiana from the checkpoint at Missouri and bring her straight to the communications room, where he intended to introduce himself, Skyfire and Bumblebee to her - himself for obvious reasons, Skyfire to get the biggest out of the way first, and Bumblebee because he was known to be the best at interacting with humans. In an idyllic situation, Leiana would remain calm as the situation was explained to her, and Sam would transfer her baggage to her new room.
Having seen Leiana's short fuse and easy irritability, however, Jade was almost one hundred percent certain that the girl wasn't very likely to 'remain calm'. 'Calm', in fact, was the one word that she probably wouldn't use to describe how she was likely to react.
Mercifully, Sam appeared at that moment.
"Hey, Jade," he greeted her with a grin, giving her a one-armed hug. "Road trip go okay?"
"Just great," she assured him cheerfully, pleased to see that he hadn't been killed by Ratchet during her absence - he pranked the poor medic with the twins every chance he got. "Sam, this is Leiana Lopez - and I think you already know Fig, right?"
Fig answered the question for her by moving forward to put his fist against Sam's. "Sam, my man! How you doin', bud?"
In spite of having been friendly with Captain Lennox and his team - including Fig and Robert Epps - since before Jade had even known about the Autobots, Sam still looked awestruck whenever one of them spoke to him. "Y-yeah, man... I'm doing good," he grinned bashfully, rubbing the back of his head. "And hey, Leiana - nice to have you here. The name's Sam - Sam Witwicky."
"Mm," Leiana mumbled warily, eyeing him suspiciously as if the jean-clad, Misfits-band-shirt-wearing young man might leap forward and attack her with a pickaxe if she didn't keep a sharp eye on him. "Hey..."
"So you're Mexican, right?" Sam questioned for confirmation, and she nodded stiffly. "So what, you say 'hola'?"
Leiana pouted, glowering. "I say 'vete, raro'."
Clearly none the wiser as to what that might mean, Sam nodded with a shrug and extended a hand to Fig to help out with Leiana's gear. Jade recognised the first term as one of Mrs Lopez's favourites back in Spanish class at Tranquillity High - meaning 'go away', or similar, if she remembered correctly - but she was just as confused as Sam as to the meaning of the second. From the way Fig frowned at her again, though, she took it that it had been another insult of some sort.
"Okay," she continued where she had left off before Sam had come, approaching the door to the communications suite, "Leiana, you're going to meet Commander Prime now. He's our... um... landlord."
"Huh. I figured he might be a military guy."
Fig snickered.
Leiana turned to him with a glare that would have burnt the eyes out of any normal person, gritting her teeth and snarling the ensuing words through them impatiently. "What?! Will you quit laughing at me?"
"Ah... it's nothin', cría."
Jade shook her head, finding herself fairly exhausted by the pair of them, and opened the door.
Bumblebee and Skyfire were there, as planned - the two of them were standing next to the colossal computer systems that lined the left-hand wall of the gigantic room, talking in low, curious voices. However, one particular mech that she really didn't want to see at this particular moment was also there, lounging against the far wall arrogantly with his long arms folded, glaring at the ceiling in a rather bored manner.
"Oh, jeez - Starscream! You're not meant to be in here!" Jade hissed wildly, waving him away as if he was a huge, mechanical wasp, and all three of them looked down at her with obvious surprise. "Aw, hell..."
Too late.
Sam was the first to appear behind her, and he stopped dead as soon as he entered the room, also gawping at the incredibly intimidating form of Starscream - really not the sort of guy that a new person would want to see, especially when she had no prior knowledge of the Cybertronians. Fig and Leiana were caught up in a new quarrel of some sort by this point - and so didn't see the trio of Autobots straight away - but it wasn't very long before they did.
Leiana was ranting at Fig, forcing a fresh batch of complaints down her father's throat. "And you're always friggin' telling me to stop swearing and -"
She stopped.
Jade winced, catching Skyfire's eye, before she turned around and looked at the suddenly silenced young woman, who had frozen on the spot mid-sentence. Open-mouthed and wide-eyed, she gaped at the towering trio, colour beginning to drain out of her mocha skin, giving it the unhealthy hue of rather milky coffee.
Oh, hell.
"Where's Optimus?" Jade whispered to Sam frantically, but he shook his head.
"I have no friggin' idea."
Leiana took several sharp, gasping breaths through her mouth as if she had been struck down by an asthma attack, her intensely dark eyes as wide as dinner plates as she stared into the three sets of electronic optical sensors that she was facing - two sets of blazing blue, and one particularly unfriendly pair that were flaming, hellish crimson.
... And then she started screaming.
"OH MY FUCKING GOOOOOODDDDD!"
Both Bumblebee and Skyfire jumped as if they had received an electric shock, exchanging stunned glances as Leiana launched into a speedily rising crescendo of hysterical shrieking, frozen in her position as the high-pitched screech came from her mouth. Starscream, on the other hand, merely dropped his head into one clawed hand and let out a low, exhausted groan of what sounded like a mixture of pain, fatigue and annoyance, followed by a string of muttered Cybertronian.
"Whoa, whoa!" Sam tried to calm her bravely, though he gulped. "Kid, you gotta -"
"WHAT THE FUCK ARE THOSE THINGS?!"
Jade sprung to the rescue at this point, taking over from Sam and standing in front of the screaming Mexican girl. "Leiana, chill out!" she shouted over the racket. "They're not going to hurt you, okay? I promise -!"
Another round of shrill screeching was her only response.
Bumblebee - bless him, Jade thought forlornly through her personal panic - had clearly decided that hands-on intervention was necessary at this point. He took a small, but positively earth-shaking step towards the noisy human female, obviously intending to introduce himself.
"¡No - atrás!" Leiana cried out in horror when she spied his attempt at an approach, stumbling backward - she promptly tripped over her untied shoelaces and landed on her backside on the hard floor, but it didn't stop her from continuing to scramble away from the towering forms of Bumblebee, Starscream and Skyfire. "Oh my God, oh Dios Mío - Papa, por favor! I want to go home, right now - stay away from me, you freakin' - oh, Jesus, what the hell are you, you freakin' Terminators?!"
"Trust me," Starscream sneered, looking revolted, "I certainly won't be coming near you."
Jade grimaced; this was going exactly the same way it had when Rose had arrived at the base, with Starscream immediately launching a personal attack on the newcomer, and then beginning a personal vendetta against them. "Starscream," she pleaded, "Please try and be nice for a change..."
"No."
Why did she bother, again?
"Leiana, no levantes la voz..." Fig groaned, putting his head in his hand. "Starscream will squish you, kid - no joke."
Leiana promptly let out another ear-piercing scream when Starscream bared his long, gleaming teeth in her direction, and positively hurled herself into Fig's arms, making a frantic grab for the pistol that was hanging from his belt. He reacted with an immediacy that took Jade by surprise - his hand flew out to grab his daughter's wrist, twisting her arm into a slightly more manageable position as Starscream snarled deeply, obviously having noted the fact that she had been planning to shoot at him.
"¡Quítame las manos de encima!" Leiana screeched, wriggling violently in Fig's burly arms and aiming a kick to his shins that made him grimace in pain. "What the fuck is this?! Get me the hell out of here, right now!"
"¡Estate quieto!" Fig yelled at the teenager, dragging her away from the three mechs forcefully. "Leiana Jimenez Lopez, I swear to God -"
Jade could only watch with a desperately sympathetic expression as the poor girl was hauled out of the room, kicking and screaming, and Fig slammed the door behind them.
Great.
Bumblebee, who had watched the entire episode unfold with wide, shocked optics - akin to those of a stunned newborn's that had only just seen the light of day - turned to her with a wretchedly miserable look across his dark face. His mouthpiece trembled slightly, and Jade's heart ached for the bemused Autobot. She had always had a soft spot for Bumblebee - the way he played song clips in place of words and his adorable little expressions were just so endearing, and had won her over very early in their friendship.
"Did we... do something wrong, Jade?" he asked her hoarsely, looking quite a long way up at Starscream and Skyfire, who were each wearing rather different expressions - Skyfire looked perplexed and somewhat disappointed, Starscream... well, pissed.
... what else was new?
"Aw... no, 'Bee," she reassured him speedily. "She's just, um, a little freaked out. It's not you."
"No," Starscream smirked exultantly, folding his arms across his cockpit-shaped chest. "It's me."
Jade rolled her eyes at the conceited second-in-command of the Autobots, pushing her long locks over her shoulder and making towards the door that Fig and Leiana had gone through. "That's right," she sighed to herself, just about loud enough for the jet to hear her. "Starscream... putting the fear of God into innocent people, one kid at a time."
Pregnant.
Preggers.
Knocked-the-hell-up.
He's actually going to kill him, Mikaela decided uneasily as she watched her guardian pace to and fro about the medical bay, a thunderous look on his wizened face as he aimlessly snatched at tools before depositing them in unusually chaotic heaps on the worktops. But maybe that's a good thing - if he's dead, I won't have to tell him.
"Right," Rose proclaimed assertively, flourishing a clutchhead screwdriver at her like some kind of conductor's baton, "Let's go through this again. Starting from a very casual 'hey, Sam'."
"No," she moaned, throwing her head into her hands. "Not again... I can't take it anymore!"
This was bad enough as it was without having to think about telling Sam - and the rest of the base - about the unanticipated bun that was steadily baking in her personal oven. She knew that she was at a respectable age for having a kid of her own, but the thought of having a little life growing inside her made her want to shit herself with absolute, sweat-wringing terror. This was some actual child, with a real heart, and tiny hands and feet, and everything... a potential person.
In her stomach.
Her stomach.
Shuddering uncontrollably, Mikaela wrapped her arms around herself and felt tears welling up in her eyes again. Her hand strayed to her belly almost instinctively, palming the flat, toned surface of her tanned abdomen. Jeez, there was something in there... she didn't know whether to be freaked out, or happy, or what.
"This... sucks," she mumbled limply, and a tear rolled down her cheek. It slid into the corner of her mouth, and she tasted the sharp tang of salt before she smeared at her eyes with the back of her hand, smudging mascara all over it.
Rose's exasperated look softened and she shifted up a little closer, abandoning the implement. "What's up with you now, woman?" she asked with mock impatience, patting her on the shoulder lightly and making Mikaela smile, if only faintly. "You were okay with this earlier. Still thinking that it might be some dreadful mistake? That the test might've been faulty, or some such miracle?"
"Hoping. Yeah."
"I have scanned you four times upon your insistence, Mikaela," Ratchet pointed out tersely. "You are most certainly, without a doubt, one hundred percent expectant. There is an embryo developing inside of your uterus, and that is the truth of the matter."
A dry groan escaped her. "Thanks, Ratch'."
"Enough of your sarcasm, Mikaela. I truly am not in the frame of mind to have my patience tested today."
Mikaela immediately felt a surge of guilt wrack her, and she lowered her eyes to her hands, steepling her fingers restlessly. She knew that Ratchet had been the butt of about six of Sunstreaker and Sideswipe's pranks over the past two days, and had had to repair an entire arsenal of Ironhide's weaponry after he had gone a bit overboard with his daily target practise, and she felt awful for imposing this burden on her overworked guardian on top of all the other crap he had to deal with.
Not only that, but she knew that every second that Ratchet spent in Rose's company - so every second of this conversation - killed him on the inside. Even now, she could see that he was trying not to look at her friend, his sapphire optics averted from the English girl.
God, she had tried so damn hard to convince him over the past four years. The fact that he hadn't spat it out at Mission City had upset and angered her, and she had done nothing but berate him for it since that day. He had claimed that he didn't deserve her, that he could never make her happy, and that she would be torn apart by the three-way spark bond - which she still didn't know about, thanks to him being such a stubborn old killjoy - and had sworn that he wouldn't 'destroy her life' by telling her.
But Mikaela knew her guardian. Better, she often suspected, than he knew himself.
She knew that Ratchet longed for Rose... wanted her, more than anything in the world. She knew that he had accepted her offer to act as another tyro mechanic because he enjoyed her company, rather than because he wanted to discourage idleness in the base. She knew that he would treat her better than anyone else in the world ever could.
She knew that he deserved her.
But he didn't.
Sighing heavily, she drew her knees up to her chin and leant her forehead against them glumly. "I'm sorry, Ratchet... I'm just... scared. There's some... little... well... someone, like, in me. I'm not... totally... cool with this."
"You seemed more at ease with the idea earlier," Ratchet murmured, looking sorry for his bad mood. "What has changed, my dear?"
"Yeah, okay... I was comfortable. Kind of," she added pointedly, pulling a face at him when he raised an optic ridge. "But then I thought about it for a bit, and I really don't think I'm ready to be someone's... mom."
Rose frowned. "Why not?" she asked gently, keeping a hand on her back soothingly. "I know it's a shock to the system - of course it is - but it's not like Sam's going to up and leave you. You know better than that. He's a good guy, and you've been together... what, eight years?" Mikaela nodded dumbly. "I mean... at least you have... someone. Someone that loves you."
Mikaela could see Ratchet tense out of the corner of her eye, but he avoided her gaze.
You big idiot.
"... Yeah. I guess you're right."
The other young woman nodded encouragingly, smiling. "So... you're going to tell him?"
Slapping a palm over her eyes and feeling the cold touch of one of her faux diamond rings against the bridge of her nose, Mikaela muttered a string of vaguely coherent swear words before she nodded reluctantly. "Okay, okay - I'll friggin' tell the guy that he's going to be a poppa. Satisfied?"
Rose's grey-blue eyes sparkled mischievously. "Just about, love." She stood up, extending herself to her full height and brushing a copious amount of general grime from her denim shorts, flicking in vain at an oil stain before she shrugged and released her now long, red-brown waves of hair from their loose ponytail. "Alright. I think Jade should be back with the new girl, so I'm going to go and see if she needs help showing her around. Will you need me back here later, Ratchet? I know you've got a truckload of cannons that need fixing."
"I can manage them capably unaided, thank you, Rose," was his routine reply.
Mikaela shot him a glare that screamed 'murder'.
"... but if you would like to return and try your hand at the more advanced techniques," he continued carefully, shooting the now smirking Mikaela an equally homicidal frown, "Then I have no objections. I would be... most grateful for your assistance."
"I'd like that," Rose smiled softly, tucking her ring spanner into her pocket. "I'd... um... really appreciate your help, too. I'll see you both later."
"Later, hon'."
As soon as Rose had left the room, Mikaela rounded on her guardian, her eyes positively hurling sparks at the neon-yellow Autobot. "Ratch' - seriously, I could just about kill you sometimes!" she exploded, vaguely wondering whether actually shaking a fist at him would result in premature death or not. "You are so frustrating! I've stood here for over four years and been forced to watch this torture, and I really don't think that I can take it any more! Will you just tell the girl?!"
To her surprise, Ratchet didn't snap at her; nor did he go all defensive on her, as was his tendency. Instead, he lowered his optics and turned away from her, looking somewhat ashamed of himself as he laid his wrench to one side and put a hand to his head, looking as if he might be in some form of pain.
"... I know, Mikaela."
She blinked. "Uh... what? You know?"
"Yes. I know that I should have told Rose how I feel about her by now." He clenched a giant fist on the workbench. "... Every moment that I spend in her company is excruciating. I cannot think straight when she is sharing the same space as I am... my spark seems to... to burn whenever she is close to me. Close enough to touch."
Mikaela remained silent, dumbfounded. Ratchet was always very open with her, or at least more open than he was with anybody else - he sometimes had a little vent about the twins in the evenings, when she was helping him pack up his tools or whatever - but he'd never come out with that much... well, intimate information about his feelings for Rose.
"Okay... wow," she said warily, wondering whether this was some kind of trick. "So, what... are you... like... going to tell her?"
"... No."
She let out a frustrated growl through her teeth. "Ratchet - so help me God, I am going to friggin' fry you if you don't work with me here," she threatened. "I'm pregnant. Pregnant women get pissy."
Optic ridge up. "Are you threatening me, youngling?"
"Yes, you infuriatingly self-demoting old scrap heap!"
"I see," Ratchet said frostily, folding his arms and looking at her intently. "Well, I would be very careful before you attempt to intimidate me, Mikaela Banes. I have no doubt that this has escaped you, due to your poor young mind being occupied with the potential horrors of your discovery, but I will endeavour to enlighten you. Expectant human females, as you undoubtedly aware, often suffer from strong cravings for all but unattainable items of food or beverage. Who do you think will be the mech that Sam drags out to get those rations, Mikaela?"
She got it. "... You."
"Precisely. And who do you think will be the one to scan you each month, run diagnostic after diagnostic to check the health of the foetus, and stand around analysing the results of said diagnostics; who do you think will be the one to provide you with painkillers when you come to me complaining of backache, heartburn, swellings, carpal tunnel syndrome, or any of the multitude of possible ailments you may experience?
The young woman swallowed. "You?"
What the hell is carpal tunnel syndrome?!
"And who, Mikaela," Ratchet asked with a pleasantry that was almost threatening, kneeling down and pointing an enormous fingertip towards her abdomen, "Will be the one to deliver your infant after nine months have passed?"
Mikaela paled.
"Y-you?"
"Quite. Now, I highly suggest that you go and inform Sam of his pending paternity, whilst I research the best forms of diet for a healthy pregnancy. But know this before I begin, young woman - I do not care what the Internet has to say about it, but there will be no more of these customary 'takeout nights' during the approaching pregnancy cycle. If I see a single carton of that vile, greasy excuse for food that Miles brings back to this base in batches, you will be in isolation for a week."
I hate my life.
Darkness reigned absolutely over the soundlessness of the approaching night. A single streak of red light across the horizon marked the end of the disappearing day; other than that, the world seemed black and dead in those areas uninhabited by intelligent life. The stars had been covered by the thin layer of cloud that had blanketed their faint, silver light - a traveller wandering the place would never have been able to see where they were going. Especially not here, in this desert wasteland.
... if that traveller was human, that is.
Black Rock Desert lay in silence beneath the starless sky. The dry lakebed in northwestern Nevada seemed to stretch onward forever to the untrained eye - spacious, dusty and unpopulated, it was barren but for some dry shrubs and the occasional cricket. Tonight, however, there were two life forms crossing the desert in stealthy silence... following a radio call.
"This is the place?"
Eight pairs of blood red, heat-seeking optical sensors swivelled in a helmeted, mechanical head to face the Cybertronian that had spoken. Sharp fangs glinted in the fading sparkle of the sunset, bared out of irritation at their owner's companion.
"What do you think?" a soft, rasping voice hissed from between the fangs, vaguely recognisable as female. "We followed the co-ordinates exactly."
The hulking silhouette of the outsized Decepticon behind her raised its colossal fists upon hearing her confirmation, shaking them to the heavens triumphantly. "Then this is the new realm - the realm of Almighty Megatron!" the giant roared to the empty sky, and the creature at his side muttered something irritably under her breath, snapping a pair of bronze-coloured pincers as she clicked forward sinisterly on eight long, mechanical legs. "All hail to His glorious name!"
"... Shut up, Lugnut."
Stalking forward as the giant continued to rant exultantly, the arachnid-like automation that called herself Blackarachnia probed the desert ground with the serrated end of one of her front legs, stabbing at a desiccated plant that had struggled free of a crack in the dry earth.
"This planet grows more and more revolting by the day..." she muttered disgustedly.
Clattering over the dying weed deliberately on all eight legs and switching her night vision on, Blackarachnia scanned the surrounding area, narrowing her many optics. A massive rock formation of some sort was crossing her visual range in the distance, dividing the desert into eastern and western arms; this, she realised a split second later, was where the radio signal was originating from.
Turning her head, she let out an aggravated hiss and slammed a sharp appendage down furiously on the ground, cracking the thirsty earth. "Lugnut, get moving!"
"You cannot command me, insect," was the throaty response from the motorised Cyclops, who had only just finished his triumphant string of deferential praise for their newfound leader. "Only Lord Megatron can command me!"
Blinding rage tore through the femme's fuel lines at the name he had given her and she sprung forward unexpectedly towards her tormentor, a glob of bright green, toxic energy shooting from her maw and striking Lugnut hard in the chest, just above his Decepticon symbol. He let out an angry bellow as the acidic fluid sizzled on the surface of his armour, lashing out at her with one incredibly powerful hand and sending her staggering backwards, spitting and snarling.
"Don't you dare call me 'insect', you oversized fool!" she rattled out gutturally, hating the sound of her own voice as her mutated vocal processors struggled to release the angered words. "I will make you pay for that with worse than venom next time!"
"We will see what Lord Megatron has to say about that, Blackarachnia."
"Lord Megatron, Lord Megatron..." the spider snarled to herself angrily, clicking her way forward again and ignoring the sting in her faceplate from the blow he had given her. "I'm surprised you haven't already taken your precious Lord Megatron as a mate, you simpering slag heap... why I had to find you on my way here..."
The single, spiteful word had injured her more than her Decepticon pride would allow her to show. It was hideous that the word should have - dare she even think it - hurt her, but she could feel her spark jerking to and fro in its appallingly fleshy core, hating itself and what it lay within. From the moment she had awakened back to consciousness, and the moment that Unicron had infused life - his life - into her suddenly altered body, she had loathed herself... she was disgusting.
Megatron would most likely reject her when he saw her techno-organic form, but she had to try. She could not be as hideous, as ugly as this, and not have a purpose to make her own unsightliness worthwhile.
She knew what she wanted to do, and she would need other Decepticons to aid her.
If it hadn't been for one Autobot, she wouldn't be in this ghastly body. If it hadn't been for the actions of one Autobot... she would still be in her original, Amazonian femme's body, tall and imposing, and beautiful in her own dark, terrifying way. And if it hadn't been for one, single Autobot... one miserable excuse for a soldier, that she had somehow allowed herself to be slaughtered by... she would still have her mate, and her original body, and a place in the kingdom of Unicron at the side of his second-in-command.
That Autobot would remember her name when she tore him apart from the spark casing with her new, blade-like limbs. Oh, yes... he would remember her name as she saw the fear in his optics.
Her true name.
Thunderblast.