Kayla walked down the street, strutting in a denim skirt and snapping her gum as she went to cross over an invisible line that, unfortunately, was between home and school. On the way there, she had to pass an apartment complex which stunk of death and decay, which made her stomach churn. She knew that she would be considered an enemy if she pitied them, but she still begged for her carrier to go to them and do what he could to help. Her sire understood her want to help them, but he reluctantly asked her to stop begging for her carrier to heal the sick.

So she went out of her way to make her carrier mad.

Her sire had given her a different route to walk, but it took her around the entire block and back up the sidewalk instead of a straight shot to her apartment building, which was also in line with the complex her team wanted her to avoid. Optimus was amused to learn that she had disobeyed (repeatedly), and so far that amusement kept him from intervening, so she felt a little bit like she was Starscream and her sire was Megatron, who just liked to watch the skittish Seeker twitch and squirm as he tried to carry out assassination plots. It wasn't a newsflash that Megatron was still (kind of) alive and (sort of) well, and Starscream was still plotting and planning.

Speaking of Starscream and Megatron, Kayla lifted her head and she took a deep breath. Yeah, her uncle was still hanging on and Starscream was as anxious as ever. Since she wasn't a real Cybertronian, she couldn't scent them perfectly, only the leather-scent that belonged to Megatron and the bitter-sweet scent of Starscream. Her sire said that Megatron smelled like the forest, all wild, but that didn't explain why she smelled leather when she was by her uncle. To her carrier, Starscream smelled like suger-coated lemon slices. Kayla had nodded a bit in understanding. The only scent she had gotten right was her sire's, who smelled like a forest after it rained. Her carrier had started to coo as she described his scent and he rubbed up against the Prime. He quickly stopped when she said that Ratchet smelled of a garage with the scents of oil, grease, and paint. Though the scent was appealing to Kayla, Ratchet was offended and Optimus was amused.

She hesitated at the scent of roses and she turned around.

"I heard a little birdy say that you were given a different route to and from school," the large man said as he stroked the raven that sat on his shoulder. The raven cocked its head at Kayla.

"I don't always do as I'm told," she growled. She got ready to run. She knew all about Shockwave. He was a scientist, he liked to expirment with specimens...

And she was a specimen.

"Doesn't take a scientist to see that, my sweet little rebel."

She stopped backing away and she smiled sweetly. She stopped pretending he was the enemy and she reached over to tickle Lazerbeak's neck. He didn't snap at her fingers. Instead, he tilted his head and he let her. His eyes rolled back into his head and he made small noises as she tickled his feathers.

"You should go," Shockwave said as he looked beyond Kayla. "Your carrier looks pissed."

She looked over her shoulder and groaned when she saw Ratchet tapping his foot as he glared at Shockwave, and mostly her. "Don't you just hate carriers?"

"I don't know. I never knew mine." He started to walk away and he cast a glance back at her. Lazerbeak flapped his wings at her, which made Ratchet growl a bit louder.

"Get over here," the medic growled. He didn't give her much choice after that warning. He grabbed her arm and he pulled her into the complex. "You reek of roses! I told you to stay away from the Decepticons, so why do I get reports, and then see you, talking to one? You're lucky your sire seems perfectly amused with this little game your playing, or he would have done-"

"What?"

"Something. He'd probably ignore you for fifteen minutes, or give you the puppy-dog eyes act."

"Sounds like I'm in so much trouble."

"Not with him. With me. I'm taking your commlink."

Big deal. She only ever used it when her sire had some mission for her (to get more food for herself because the pantry was missing a box of her favorite granola bars, not like there was fifty more behind it) or if her carrier had something to yell at her about. But she did use it to talk to Shockwave late at night and she started to whine. "You can't!"

"Why not?"

She bit her lip. "What if Daddy needs something? What if he's injured and everyone else is busy and I have to go out and get parts during my free period again?"

Kayla knew she struck a soft spot. Ratchet started to rub his face and sweep his gold-red hair back, which usually meant that she was right and that she was about to get her way. Just at that moment, though, Ironhide strutted up and put his arm around Kayla.

"Is she in trouble again? Kay-Kay, what is your problem with trouble? Does it dance to your tune or what?"

She giggled and leaned against her uncle, which made Ratchet's face redden and she chanced to look down. Of course, her uncle was shirtless. And pantless. Pretty much the only thing he didn't lack was his favorite boxers with kittens on it. She smiled. Cybertronians weren't shy about themselves, not even Bulkhead or Leadfoot, who were the heaviest ones. They were even public about what they did with their mate, and some stories amused Optimus to the point of actually starting to share before Ratchet would squirm in his seat. She knew that if she wasn't present and taking in every detail, her carrier would share every detail, too. She admired her family for that, being so open with each other. She wished she could be a Cybertronian, so she wouldn't blush and stammer every time she asked her sire for "products" during her "special time of the month", which would earn a lot of squeals and "ooooh"s from whoever was present. Optimus would hush them, but he wouldn't stop them entirely. It was his way of getting his adopted daughter used to the Cybertronian life, which practically revolved around humility in Kayla's opinion. Nothing like dripping blood down your thighs in front of a crew of men and your adopted sire while he dug around in a cabinet (a very public cabinet, of course) for your "products".

"Ironhide, would you please get some sort of clothing on? Does Prime walk around like thaaaaaaa...whoa..."

Ironhide and Kayla looked back to see Prime strutting by, everything visible. Ratchet looked ready to do two things: scream or drag his mate to the berth.

Optimus saw them and he smiled. "Ah, I see Kayla is safe and back in our complex. Ratchet, love, would you mind grabbing two towels for us?" He touched his mate's cheek and Kayla smiled when she saw her carrier's eyes roll back into his head. Optimus looked Ironhide up and down. "Nice boxers," he whispered.

Ironhide looked his leader up and down, stared at "down" and whistled. "Nice rod."

Ratchet was snapped out of his state and he swatted at both men. "GET CLOTHES ON NOW!"

"Kayla's a big girl now. She knows aaaalll about us, don'cha, baby?"

Kayla smiled sweetly at her carrier. "All but one."

That seemed to amuse Prime more than anything and he wrapped his arms around Ratchet. "You should tell her how you beg into the pillow," he murmured as he kissed his ear.

"Or how you tend to squeal at the tail-end!"

Kayla laughed as her carrier twitched in discomfort, which was only present because she was.

Ratchet pulled out of Optimus' arms and slapped his chest. "Go shower. You reek."

Optimus scoffed. "And you do not smell like roses, either."

Kayla's eyes widened and she excused herself. Ironhide smiled back at her, and she managed a small smile back. Then she thought back to Shockwave. She had smelled roses, and then Ratchet said that she smelled like roses when he pulled her into the Autobot complex. She gasped into her hand. She could smell Shockwave's scent. Did that mean she was getting better at deciphering scents? Or did it mean something else entirely?

Shockwave tended to Megatron, who weezed and coughed up blue. He soothed his master, growling lowly as he swept an eye over his master's crippled body, which was suspiciously shiny. "Knockout, when I told you to tend to our master, I did not mean that you should bathe him."

The red-haired medic rolled his eyes. He was far too busy sitting in his mate's lap to care, and Shockwave was not about to let the pair irritate him.

Starscream stepped in, his heels clicking off the wood floor since they couldn't afford carpet, not like the Autobots. Shockwave could not understand him. He had the chance to change his appearance the moment they took on human forms, but the Seeker still chose to wear his heels. Was it a comfort thing?

Megatron growled at Starscream's prescence and he waved his arm, as if to slap him, but Shockwave tucked the arm back against his side. "Hush, master."

"Is he going to pull through?"

"Eventually," Shockwave said. Lazerbeak hopped off his shoulder and settled on Megatron's chest. Lazerbeak wasn't his pet, as he belonged to Soundwave, but Soundwave was injured as well, and the raven had imprinted on him, as well as the jaguar that was Ravage. Ratbat was still perching in the rafters, and refused to come down unless Soundwave managed a small clicking sound that meant he had caught a fly, or a moth, or something else that appealed to the bat. Rumble and Frenzy sat huddled in the room with the crow Buzzsaw in their arms. Those three needed extreme coaxing. Shockwave was not positive that Frenzy would survive much longer.

Starscream walked up to his master and he gently reached down to touch his face. Shockwave expected Megatron to bite his fingers, but the Decepticon warlord laid still. His spark-rate picked up, though, and Shockwave frowned.

Everyone in the blasted apartment complex seemed to have someone keeping them alive.

Except for Shockwave.

Kayla was sitting on her window-seat when Optimus walked in. He was wearing a loose white T-shirt and a comfortable pair of jeans, which meant Ratchet had forbidden him from walking into Kayla's room without them. He swept his blue-tinted hair back as he smiled at her. "You still enjoy the stars," he whispered. He sat beside her and he pulled her into his arms. She buried her face into his chest and she clung to him like she had when she was younger. Optimus stroked her hair and the next thing she knew, he had pulled it into a thick braid.

"I was thinking about the Decepticons..." She rested her head on his shoulder so she could look up at him.

When Prime exhaled, his breath brushed across her face and she shivered. It was a human thing to do, breathing, but it felt wrong for her sire to do, especially after seeing him as a huge alien robot from the planet Cybertron.

"You know how your carrier feels about that," he said. He moved his legs so she could be cradled in his lap and he smiled down at her. "But he is resting."

She looked up at him with shining blue eyes.

"And since the Decepticons are still too weak to fight back..."

By Primus, was he saying...?

"Would you like to come with me to visit them with medical supplies?"

She hugged his neck tightly and she nodded into his neck.

"Then get your nicest clothes on, like your pretty blouse and your denim jacket and your denim skirt. I will wear close to the same thing."

She giggled and she pressed her forehead against his, which she learned when she was a child that it meant love, affection, and respect like it did to cats. Optimus kissed between her eyes, then he stood.

"I will leave you to change," he said as he touched her chin with his thumb. She jumped off the window-seat when her door shut behind her sire and she ran to her closet. She pulled out the denim skirt, her denim jacket, and her blouse that Optimus had given her when she was registered for school. She got dressed quickly, then met her sire at the door.

He looked her over, then tied a necklace around her neck. She looked down at the crystal pendant and she touched it. It was cold, which surprised her since her sire had been clutching it in his fist.

"It's an Energon crystal." He watched her. His smile had disappeared. This was her sire as a warrior, and not a father. She became a warrior, too, or tried to at least.

They walked silently to the Decepticon apartment complex and Prime opened the door. It swung open, which surprised her. They had posts on their door in case someone decided to just walk in and take a look around, but Kayla reminded herself that the Decepticons were injured, and they didn't have a lot of people to spare. That thought was confirmed when she heard a soft squeal that could only belong to Soundwave, who had taken a beating from Hound. Ratbat fluttered pathetically down from the rafters and went into a room to Kayla's right. Optimus stopped to hear the soft murmurs and the crunch of bugs in Ratbat's mouth before he started to walk up a flight of stairs.

She followed him, peeking into each room. She saw Starscream pacing with his trine mates sitting on the small bed that must belong to all three of them, Ravage laying in a large dog bed in Shockwave's room, Rumble stroking Frenzy's helm as Buzzsaw laid in his lap... She gripped her sire's hand, whining.

Optimus shook her away, but touched her cheek and looked at her with sympathetic eyes. He brought his lips against her forehead and he stood straight as he walked into the last room at the end of the hall, the one with the most commotion.

They just slipped right into the choas.

Knockout was setting up an IV drip, Breakdown as gathering flat pillows and ratty blankets, Shockwave was bent over the patient, Lazerbeak was flapping his wings and shrieking in a way that was not raven-like at all, and Megatron was laying pathetically thin in the center of it all.

Optimus stood in the corner of the room with his arms crossed and he took it all in, his eyes narrowed. Kayla tried to imitate the pose, but she couldn't perfect it, so she settled with leaning back against the wall.

Shockwave scented them first and he looked at them with his one eye. It narrowed.

"Prime..."

"Shockwave."

The other Decepticons stopped and stared at them in surprise. Then they moved to protect their leader.

"You need medical supplies?" Optimus stepped forward, and Kayla expected them to get defensive. But they slowly backed away and let the enemy bend over their leader.

Megatron smirked up at Optimus and tried to spit at his face, but the blue-tinted saliva just trickled down his cheek from his mouth. "Come to end me?"

Optimus said nothing. Instead, he pressed his fingers to his enemy's neck and he murmured quietly in Cybertronian. Hello, old friend.

Kayla knew enough of the language to know that Optimus greeted him as a friend, and not as an enemy, or as a patient. Megatron started to choke and he slowly looked away. He replied in Cybertronian, but the words were garbled and hard to understand. Kayla slowly moved closer as her father replied with no.

She frowned in confusion. Her sire sat down in a chair that creaked under his weight and he looked down at it with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm sorry our equipment disgusts you," Megatron growled in English.

"I was worried it would leave me sitting on the floor. I can help you, my friend, if you permit it."

Megatron just glared at him and he bared his teeth at him. "Never."

Optimus slowly nodded, then he started to stroke Megatron's arm. Kayla almost missed the gleam of metal as the syringe needle plunged into the Decepticon's skin.

The Decepticons jumped up, screaming and cursing, but Optimus just tossed the syringe to Knockout.

"It is safe. It will accelerate his healing. I have a crate of those back in my room, but you must trust me."

"Is that all?" Knockout set the syringe aside and gave Shockwave a look, who nodded in confirmation after checking Megatron's vitals.

He was getting stronger.