Back to base

Disclaimer: I only own Peaches, Abby, Crystal and Snowball. Any other OCs mentioned here belong to their respectful owners, the Transformers belong to Hasbro, and the song belongs to whoever owns it.

After a week, Peaches had returned from the mini-mission to provide aid to the tornado-stricken areas in the U.S. She was now in her robot mode sitting down, holding the now five month old human infant Abby and the two month old sparkling Crystal while at the computer in her family's quarters on NEST base. Sideways had been "forced" to play in tonight's video game tournament and knew that his sparkmate would be okay…physically anyways.

Though still upset about the passing away of her cousin Seth, Peaches wasn't feeling as bad as before. She was feeling slightly better knowing that there were worse ways any of her relatives could have died. She then started wondering, why was it that she didn't have a tattoo or something that marked her as part of a specific Cybertronian clan, like Optimus had to show that he was a member of the Dynasty of Primes? Who were her Cybertronian creators? She knew it was not likely that they were online but if the Pretender could only figure out who they were, regardless of whether they were important figures in Autobot history or not. She wasn't going to ask out loud because no one else on base had been able to answer it before. Ratchet had run tests long ago to confirm that "biologically" for lack of a better term, Peaches wasn't related to any other Cybertron, sans Crystal ; there was also her bond with Sideways and of course Abby who still counted even though she was adopted. That was it.

Peaches turned towards the door to see Jolt walking in. "Hey Peach, Sideways is getting creamed by Sideswipe in Halo and he wants you to be in the room cheering him on."

"No thanks man. I'm not in the mood and I don't do video games." The red and orange femme replied.

"What's wrong?" Jolt asked, with a hint of concern in his voice.

"Not much; just thinking again. I wish I did know which clan I had belonged to on Cybertron. Ratchet never had time to look at the markings on the stasis pod that my human parents had found me in, besides the ones that were printing the message 'please take care of our child as if she were your own' and everything else that was said with it." Peaches sighed. "Maybe Optimus would know but I can't bother him with that; he's leader and has way too much to do already."

"I think you need to get your mind off of this; go cheer on Sideways, I'll take care of Abby and Crystal." The blue Autobot insisted as he took the human child and Cybertronian sparklings and shoved Peaches out the door.

"Gee, you're such a great friend." Peaches said sarcastically, as she walked down the hallway towards the main room. As she entered it, she heard Sideways shouting with a lot of enthusiasm.

"Yes! I'm finally creaming you!" the ex-Decepticon shouted.

"Oh you're just as bad as my brother when he gloats." Sideswipe replied, clearly unimpressed by the whole thing.

"Hey!" Sunstreaker shouted.

Peaches sat down on the couch next to the mechs, and looked around; it was just Arcee, Flareup, and Auri as well as some humans who were also watching the "tournament". Everyone else was either on duty in another part of the base, on patrol, or on a mission. The Pretender knew that Optimus was currently doing a Skype meeting with Galloway, the U.S. president, and a few other world leaders. He didn't need to be bothered with anything. She convincingly seemed to watch the two players, occasionally shouting "Come on Sideways, you're doing great!"

Finally when the round was over, everyone was cheering as Sideways won and opted to go against Sunstreaker next. Peaches took the opportunity to sneak out and into the room where the stasis pod she had traveled in as a not yet "born" sparkling was. She once again read the message that had been left for whoever would find her, in this case her human parents, and let a few tears flow freely before finding something else; it was a very small inscription that Ratchet and Optimus had probably missed when they first looked at the Cyber-glyphs on the pod, and then Peaches began reading it. Translated into English, it said:

To our daughter is this message: do what you think is right, don't be ashamed of where you really came from if you ever find out, and always know that we love you and haven't stopped just because we're no longer with you. As you grow up, please remember that we may never know the reason why certain things happen the way they do but whatever the reason is, it had to be a good one. Love-

Peaches stopped reading, then looked again at the names: Slipstream and Thundercracker. She immediately got onto her computer and looked up the two names; they had been two of the most deadly Decepticons in Megatron's army, and had been tasked with raising the hatchlings that were to be the newer recruits but both had become dissatisfied and were reported to have "launched an unusual object towards the stars" just moments before being killed by a squadron of Autobots.

"My parents were-the enemy?"

The Pretender was so shocked that she fainted. There was no way this could be true, absolutely no way…

Sideways had opted to stop playing in the video game tournament and look for Peaches. He knew that Jolt was watching his daughters and that they would be fine. He just couldn't stop worrying about his sparkmate until he knew she was okay. He walked into the room that had an open door, then saw Peaches on the floor. He gently shook her "Peaches, can you hear me?"

Peaches stirred a little bit and mumbled something sounding like "how could they miss that? How could they miss that?"

"Miss what?" Sideways asked, suddenly curious about what the orange and red Autobot was dreaming of.

Peaches optic sensors immediately activated and she simply said in an attempt to hide the emotion in her voice "Read the small letters."

He had to squint but the ex-'Con was able to read it, photograph it, and then help Peaches back to their quarters. Sideways then put the image on the computer and enlarged it. "Peaches, you shouldn't be upset-"

"Is that why I was attracted to you? Because I was originally going to have to be on the same side as you were?" Peaches screamed angrily. "How could Optimus and Ratchet not be able to read that? What the hell were my creators thinking?"

"Peach calm down and don't scare the kids." Sideways said as he took Abby and Crystal back from Jolt, who promptly left the room when the first of the two mechs explained that the Pretender would be all right after she "let it out" as humans would often say in this type of situation or something similar to it, and then he sat down on the berth with the two younglings.

Peaches sighed sadly. "I'm sorry; it's just that I don't' know who to tell next about it. You didn't tell Jolt the whole thing and I don't want anyone to think I'm a traitor since I would never leave the Autobots even if you were still on the opposite side of the war."

"Peaches, you're not perfect, you never will be and you can't overreact about that fact. I still love you anyway." Sideways replied in an attempt to keep her calm long enough to be rational.

"Prove it." The Pretender insisted.

The ex-Decepticon started singing

Her eyes, her eyes, make the stars look they're not shining

Her hair, her hair falls perfectly without her trying

She's so beautiful and I tell her everyday

Yeah, I know I know

When I compliment her she wont believe me

And it's so it's so

Sad to think that she dont see what I see

But every time she asks me do I look ok

I say

When I see your face

There's not a thing that I would change

'Cause you're amazing

Just the way you are

And when you smile

The whole world stops and stares for a while

'Cause girl you're amazing

Just the way you are

Peaches had tears flowing down her face again, this time they were tears of relief and happiness. She couldn't believe that anyone would think that about her but of course she wouldn't have chosen Sideways as a sparkmate if he wasn't telling the truth.

Her lips her lips

I could kiss them all day if she'd let me

Her laugh her laugh

She hates but I think it's so sexy

She's so beautiful

And I tell her every day

Oh you know you know you know

I'd never ask you to change

If perfect's what you're searching for

Then just stay the same

So don't even bother asking

If you look ok

You know I'll say

Sideways kept singing that song that he thought described his orange and red femme very well even though he might not have had the best singing voice compared to how he sounded when he was speaking to everyone. Then again, he didn't care about that. When he was done, he noticed that Abby and Crystal were both asleep and that the dog Snowball was whining to be let out.

"Okay." Sideways put both the infant and the sparkling into their cribs then took Snowball out so that she wouldn't leave a mess for himself or Peaches to clean up. Soon he was back in and giving Peaches a hug.

"Do you really think that about me or were you just singing that to get me to calm down?" the Pretender asked, now calmed down.

"The first reason is it." The bluish mech replied reassuringly. "Nothing will ever change that no matter what anybody knows or doesn't know about you."

Both dimmed the lights in the room, to avoid either of their two girls screaming out of fear of the dark, and then got into their berth. Sideways did not care that he automatically forfeited the video game tournament; he could always play again later on but he could not always just ignore any feelings that he had whenever he somehow got the sensation that something was happening to Peaches or his daughters. He couldn't help wondering just a little bit about how everyone else was going to react to this recent revelation about his sparkmate's origins; he knew that he couldn't control their reactions and knew that it wouldn't matter if anyone passed out then and there just as they had when Peaches had revealed that she had been dating him. Sideways decided not to worry right then; he needed a good recharge after all and was determined to get it…

Author's note: Yeah I don't know how I got this idea but I do want to write out the whole story. If I don't finish it before seeing Transformers: Dark of the Moon, then I'll incorporate the movie storyline in somehow and how Peaches reacts to everything that happens then. 15 days until I actually see it but hey, I think it will be worth the wait...