NOTE: Okay so this fic is based off the ENDING of the TF3 movie, so if you haven't seen it, it's probably not a good idea to read this. I do not own Transformers or any of the characters mentioned in this story. I only own Astra. Decal is owned by a friend of mine.

SPOILER: Ironhide and Wheeljack are both mentioned in this story, in my mind neither of them are gone. Yes, I based this fic off the new movie but like I said, in my mind they are still around. I didn't like how Bay killed them off so, fuck that their in the story. If you don't like it ... tough.

Now, enjoy the story. Comment && favorite. Thanks, loves.

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The sun peeked over the horizon, coloring the sky a regal purple with various hues of pinks, red and even blues. Astra stared out of the new Autobot headquarters, a smile making itself known on her faceplate. She was new to Earth and so far she was in love. The planet was so majestic and grand. Unlike anything she's ever seen before. Cybertron was so different. It looked like a giantic metal maze. Cybertron was definitely beautiful in its own way, but this planet was truly something else. Astra could sit on the moon and stare down at the planet forever and never get tired of looking at the millions of colors and textures that make up the earth. At night, she'd leave the base and go to a field, far away from the harsh lights of the city, and look up and admire the stars that she used to live so close to.

Looking at them now, she realized how distant they truly were. That was something she was definitely going to miss. She liked being close to the stars. She used to love sitting outside her quarters on Cybertron and staring at the stars. She usually did it because she needed to clear her mind after a hard days work, especially when the war going on. Nowadays, with the war being over, she escaped to her secret field to relax and enjoy a quiet life. Astra was staying at the classified NEST headquarters in Washington, D.C., or to the humans, the Department of Health and Human Services. Now, she was staying at the NASA base that once held the Xanthium, the ship that the second wave of Autobots came to earth in. Among the second wave was Astra, who was a cybertronian refugee.

Astra was a good, brave fighter who had decided to work under Wheeljack. However, sometime after the war started, Optimus Prime had sent her and a few other fighters off of Cybertron, in the hopes of confusing Megatron. It was basically a suicide mission, that Astra was more than happy to take. She didn't care that she was risking her life for Cybertron. All she cared about was ending the war, and helping the good guys win.

Megatron's army had attacked her ship, along with the ship that held the precious cargo that Optimus wanted so desperately to keep safe. Little did he know at the time that the pillars that left Cybertron, would someday be used on earth to bring Cybertron into earth's orbit. And once that was done, the humans on earth would be forced to kneel at Megatron and Sentinel Prime's feet. It was more than shocking to discover that Sentinel Prime had turned his back on the Autobot, all in a desperate effort to save Cybertron. He had lost sight of what being a 'prime' was. He had taught Optimus that freedom was everyone's right, then he turned his back on his pupil, himself and his philosophy. In the end, it was his ultimate downfall. Optimus was forced to end the life of his teacher and old friend.

Astra knew how hurt Optimus was once he found out that Sentinel was a traitor and destroyed his spark was when he had to kill him. However, there was some light at the end of the tunnel. Optimus had also killed Megatron and Sam Witwicky, the boy who had started this all, had killed Starscream. Ironhide was saved by Ratchet. And Astra was more than grateful to Ratchet for also saving her mentor, Wheeljack. The autobot's had come out of the battle with new scratches in their paint and sore limbs but other than that, everyone was alright. Of course, 'Hide and Wheeljack were on bed rest until Ratchet told them otherwise. Ironhide had been attacked by Sentinel. He was shot twice in the back, no one thought he was going to make it. As for Wheeljack, he was almost killed by some decepticons, including Soundwave, who had taken him and a few other Autobots hostage.

All the thoughts of the war clouded her processors. She sucked in a deep breath and slowly vented it out, letting herself calm back down. She shuttered her optics shut and all was peaceful for a few minutes, until she heard the sound of an engine quickly approaching her. Opening her optics, she turned her head to see Mirage coming towards her. With a raised brow, she removed herself from the soft grass. Mirage transformed and stood in front of her, his larger frame loomed over her much smaller one. Mirage spoke softly, with his suave Italian accent. "Astra, Wheeljack needs you back at the base in Washington. Since I was over this way, he sent me to pick you up."

Ah, so Wheeljack wasn't kidding when he said he was sending someone to retrieve her. He had set up a comm-link with her earlier in the day, telling her that he needed her back on the base so they could work on some inventions of his. He didn't say which inventions or whether or not they were new but, of course, Astra wasn't going to say no. She nodded at Mirage and quickly transformed. Her holoform looked over at Mirage, giving him the thumbs up. Already transformed, Mirage took off in front of her, keeping enough distance between them so that Astra wouldn't lose sight of him.

"Why are you being so quiet?"

Mirage had probably thought that Astra was being a bit odd, considering she hadn't said one word to him since he showed up. There was no real reason for it, other than she was relaxed and words didn't really need to be voiced.

Astra spoke with an Irish accent, something she wasn't accustomed to. Her cybertronian voice was nothing like the one she held now. She didn't hate it, but, being that it was still so foreign to her, she still expected to speak with her original voice. "No reason."

"Are you sure?"

Astra could see Mirage's holoform look into his rearview, back at her. Her holoform smiled at him. She didn't want Mirage to worry about her, when there was absolutely nothing to worry about.

"Yes, Mirage, I'm sure. Thanks for the concern though."

His holoform stared at her for a second more before shrugging and returning his gaze to the road in front of him. Just because his holoform wasn't paying attention, didn't mean that Mirage still wasn't up her aft end. He had began to ask her if the wreckers had tormented her while she was in their care, to which she responded 'no.' If anything, the wreckers had treated her with the utmost respect, probably because she was the only femme on the base. To be quite honest, each one of the wreckers had hit on her, more than once. It wasn't always a picnic being the only femme on the base, due to the fact that all of the mechs were 'sexually frustrated.' It had been so long since they had a femme in their presence.

However, at the NEST headquarters in Washington, there was another femme by the name of Decal. Astra had known Decal for quite some time and she was thankful that she made it out of the war alive. Decal was a serious warrior. She had the mentality of Ironhide. Astra and some of the other femmes, back on Cybertron, used to joke and say that Decal was the femme version of Ironhide.

Astra continued to follow along behind Mirage for a few hours until they finally reached NEST's classified base, in Washington. Once they entered the building, Astra transformed from her light purple 2010 Ducati Monster 696 to her true form. Astra stood about 9 feet tall, give or take a few inches. Her blue optics scanned the environment, seeing only Mirage and Wheeljack. "Where is everyone else?"

Wheeljack had been standing over by one of the Apache helicopters when he looked up and smiled at Astra. "Ah, good you're here."

Astra watched as Wheeljack, and his crazy blue hair, walked over to her. Wheeljack wasn't that much taller than her. He had to be about 13 or 14 feet. Mirage was about 16 or 17 ft. Astra and Decal were the smallest of the autobots. It was kind of depressing. Then again, it was a bit refreshing. She definitely didn't want to be taller than most of the mechs.

"So…what are we doing?" She stared at Wheeljack with an optic ridge raised. She noted that he was holding a boomstick in one hand. He smirked at her as he drew closer.

"I actually want to work on our holoform technology." He motioned for her to follow him into his little lab. It was newer edition to the building. Lennox had decided it was probably a good idea to give Wheeljack and Ratchet their very own spaces to work in. Wheeljack's space wasn't very big, but it gave him enough space to nearly blow himself up in. And Ratchet's space was adequate enough for him to fix up to 4 autobots at a time.

Wheeljack began to walk towards his bay, assuming that Astra would just follow him, which she did. As he walked, he continued to explain why he needed her help. "Currently my holoform technology just projects a driver, or in your case, a rider. The holoforms can't do anything other than make it look like someone is maneuvering us. I want to change that."

Holoforms were what enabled the autobots to fool humans. At their current stage, they couldn't leave the vehicles or bikes that autobots used. They were merely a convenience so that humans didn't think the cars or bikes were driving themselves. Imagine if a human had seen a car driving itself down the street? Automatic catastrophe. Humans would enter a state of paranoia and demand what in the slag was going on. Or they would just think that they were insane and seek a therapist. Either way, it would have turned into a huge problem.

They stepped into his bay. The lights shone brightly, bouncing off many beakers and bottles of various colored liquid. Wheeljack had specially made Bunsen burners, since the human versions were far too small for him to handle. Wheeljack's lab looked like a typical science lab, except everything was a lot bigger. Astra always loved science. It was a weakness of hers. She loved finding out how things worked, what chemicals made what and what inventions would make a difference in the world. It was all very fascinating stuff.

Wheeljack walked over to a large table and plopped down into the char. He motioned for Astra to join him. She stepped over to the table and gently hopped up into a chair and looked at her mentor. "So, where do I fit into this?"

"Well, I want you to be the first to test it out."

Astra stared at Wheeljack for a moment. She recalled what Roadbuster had said to her. Just as she was leaving, he called out, 'Wheeljack wants to see you? Someone obviously wants you to get hurt!' It was true; most of Wheeljack's inventions blew up in his face, or another bots face. And that was if he was lucky. However, he has also had some great successes. If you ask any of the autobots, they would all agree that for every successful invention Wheeljack has, there's always one that requires him to be patched up by Ratchet. That's what Astra loved about her mentor though. No matter how many times he's told he can't do something, he still tries to prove everyone wrong. Even if some of his inventions are complete failures, he never gives up. Astra always thought that because of his can-do attitude he was a great role model and someone that she always wanted to become. Maybe not every aspect, but definitely the ones that counted.

"Okay…and how exactly do you plan to do that?" Astra had an optic ridge raised as she stared at him. She was slightly afraid of the answer he was going to give her. Who really knew how this technology was going to change. All Astra knew was that, in order for them to have a holoform, Autobots had solid-light projectors installed into their bodies.

"Well, we need to upgrade the projections, that way the holoforms are able to walk around. The holoforms will then be able to walk in and out of their vehicles, in and out of buildings. We'll basically be like a human."

"So the holoforms will be solid?"

"Well as solid as they need to be. I want us to be able to control the solidity of the holoform."

Astra nodded, understanding what needed to be done. It wasn't going to be an easy task of getting all of the autobots back to the base to upgrade their projectors. In fact, it was going to be a right down pain in the aft. Each one of them would have to be offlined for a certain amount of time, while Wheeljack worked on them. Of course, Ratchet would have to stand by and monitor. That was going to be another problem, when it was Ratchet's turn, Astra and another autobots would have to monitor what was going on, incase Wheeljack messed up. The autobots couldn't afford to be killing off one of their own, especially if it was the only medical officer they had at the moment.

"Okay then. Shall we get started?"

That comment immediately brought a smile to Wheeljack's faceplate. He always loved how enthusiastic Astra was about her job. No matter what he asked her to do, he knew that she would do it, usually no questions asked. "I love your readiness to work."

Astra smiled at him as she hopped off her chair. Wheeljack followed shortly after and led her over to the examination chair. It looked like a large doctor's chair, but built for giant robots. Astra sat in it and made herself as comfortable as possible. She would be lying if she didn't say she was a tad nervous. She knew that Ratchet wasn't around and the only other bot that was there was Mirage. She looked around the room and saw Wheeljack futzing with something on one of the large lab tables. He looked up from the table and called Mirage into the room. Astra's optics widened a bit at the sight of Mirage. She was sort of hoping Wheeljack would turn around and tell her that Ratchet would be there shortly.

Mirage looked over at Astra in the chair, with just as much surprised. "Uh…Wheeljack…"

"Don't worry, you won't have to look after her. Ratchet shall be here shortly. I just need you to make sure that no one steps into the room while I'm working. I can't distracted. If I mess up, I might permanently offline her."

Astra's optics widened even more at the comment. Mirage rubbed the back of his neck. Wheeljack turned around and saw the expression that Astra wore on her faceplate. He laughed nervously and ran a hand through his crazy hair. "Uh…don't worry. There's a very rare chance that that would actually happen."

She swallowed hard. "If you say so…"

Within a few minutes, Ratchet appeared in the large doorway and greeted Astra with a 'hello' and 'how are ya?' Mirage had moved outside the door and shut it behind him. Before they could get started, Ratchet checked Astra's vitals and everything else, to make sure that she was a hundred percent okay to do the experiment. Once he was finish, he looked over at Wheeljack and nodded once. "She's good to go. So…whenever you're ready."

Ratchet moved behind her, and Wheeljack moved to her side. He told her that she would be fine and once she woke up, her holoform should be able to move about freely. She was nervous but also excited. She had always wondered what it would be like to be human and in a few short hours, she would find out. Or she would hopefully find out. If the experiment didn't work, she knew she was going to be at the base helping Wheeljack out until he got the damn invention to work, or blow up in his face.

Wheeljack leaned over her and within a few minutes, her optics shuttered closed and she was out for the count. A few hours later she woke up in the chair. Her optics fluttering back to life. She looked around the room and saw Wheeljack sitting at the table, looking over his notes. Astra removed herself from the chair and went to join him at the table. She hopped onto a chair and looked at him. For a moment, it seemed like he didn't notice her, as he continued to scan his notes.

"Glad to see you're awake, my dear. Ready to try it out?"

"Yeah, of course."

"Alright then. Just activate your holoform like you normally would."

Astra hopped off the chair and moved to an area of the lab that was cleared, so that she can transform. Transforming into her light purple 2010 Ducati Monster 696 was a breeze, as usual. But now here was the real test. She activated her holoform, like Wheeljack had told her. It worked, like it always had. She was a bit skeptical at first but then she moved her holoform, kicking her right leg over the bike so she can hop off. She stood up and moved a few inches away from the bike and looked over at Wheeljack with an excited, satisfied look on her face. She opened her mouth, hoping that she would be able to speak with no problems. "Looks like it works pretty well. Shall I keep walking? Maybe walk around the base?"

Wheeljack nodded enthusiastically. Astra walked over to the large door and waited for him to open it up for her. Since her real body was in the room, she wasn't able to pull a casper move and walk through the wall. At least she didn't think she could. Once the door opened, Astra walked out into the main building and looked around. The autobots had made it back. Her appearance made a few of them turn around, including Optimus. She saw Ratchet speaking with him, probably assuring him that Wheeljack hadn't killed her in the process of his experiment.

Bumblebee was the closet to her, besides Mirage who was still standing close to the lab door. Bumblebee used his radio to communicate with her. "Wow…that…looks so cool."

Astra smiled up at him and thanked him. She had no idea what she looked like. She had no idea whether or not she looked the same as her old holoform or if this was a completely new one. She walked over to a window and looked at herself the best she could. From what she could see, she had her original holoform. The long, dark brown hair, the brown oval eyes. Her body was slender and she wasn't all that tall, about 5'6". She looked down at, what were techinally her breasts. They hadn't changed either. They were a decent size, nothing too big and definitely nothing too small. When Wheeljack had first made her holoform, he made sure she looked like a human she had seen in a movie. The actresses name was Gemma Arterton. Of course, Wheeljack didn't make her look exactly like her, but most people wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

Astra turned from the window and began to circle the base. She was pleased that the holoform didn't flicker or falter in anyway. It seemed like Wheeljack had done an amazing job and that his invention, or re-invention was a complete success. It wouldn't be long now until all of the autobots had upgrades to their projectors.

Wheeljack stepped out into the main building and Optimus congratulated him on a job well. They spoke for a few minutes as Astra circled the feet of Bumblebee and Ratchet. Ratchet asked her how she was feeling and if she felt something wasn't right, she was to tell him right away. Soon afterwards, Wheeljack turned to face the other autobots, a smile on his faceplate. "Form a line, we're going to upgrade you all now."

He turned to Lennox, for a brief moment. "Get the wreckers here, they'll need to be upgraded too and I can't do it anywhere but here."

Lennox had given him a nod and went off to call the NASA base, in order to inform the wreckers of their upcoming upgrades. Astra went back into the room and got back into her alt mode and turned off her holoform. Now it was time to really work.