Notes: This story is the follow up to "If that's what it takes". It takes place almost directly after the events of that story. It is rated T on the rating system, however I am going to post a further warning here rating this thing on my own PG-13 due to some violence and other imagery. If it's too bad let me know and I will move this thing to the M category.

Also, I am making some suppositions about the parentage and family relationships of the TF characters that are in no way what so ever cannon, just my own weird little interpretation.

Thanks RP1

Legal Stuff: Don't own the TF's, Don't own the song. All of this is purely for entertainment.

Land Of Confusion: Part 1

The last time that I had been on Cybertron it had been a complete and utter accident. Orion and I had gotten captured in some lame attempt to trade the two of us for a prisoner that the Autobots were holding. Up until then I had always wondered where Orion had come from and how he had become the person that he was. Those few days that we were here I got to learn a bit more about my husband. I had thought that someday the both of us would come back to this world for one reason or another. Never in a million years would I have believed that it would be for something like this.

"Deja vu," I muttered.

"What?"

I looked up to, for once; see Orion at his natural size, fully masked and for the moment looking down at me.

"Nothing," I told him, "I just said deja vu. I was thinking about the last time that we were here."

"Ah," He nodded.

"So?"

"So what," he finished.

"So, who pray tell, is it that you have me waiting for here and how is this person going to help us? And isn't landing right smack out in the open a little bit brazen?"

I could see Him half-smile behind the mask as he turned to look out over the landing pad, "Considering the fact that the Decepticons are focusing on stealth for the moment, out in the open is the best place to be to stay away from them. As for who we are meeting, his name is Ultra Magnus."

"That answers two of my questions," I agreed, "but that still doesn't tell me how this person is going to help us with what we are here for."

"I'm hoping that he can tell us when he gets here."

"So his name is Ultramagnus?" I asked.

"Two words," Orion corrected, "Ultra Magnus."

"And you know him how?"

I was expecting a lot of things to happen on this trip, however I was not expecting a simple question like that to illicit the response it did. He flushed and suddenly looked slightly embarrassed.

"He's my twin brother."

Okay, I hadn't seen that one coming, I have to admit.

"Twin brother," I blinked, "Is there something you forgot to tell me?"

Orion was suddenly doing a good job of feigning complete and utter innocence.

"Not really."

"Uh huh," I took my own look around and then shook my head, "Well he'd better be worth the wait is all I have to say."

"He will be," Orion assured me.

I opened my mouth to say something back to him when I heard the noise pick up off in the distance. For a few moments I couldn't place it and then I managed to identify where I had heard something like it before. It sounded exactly like Orion when he was out on the road. A few moments later the source of the sound pulled into view and all I could do was stand there next to my gear and gape.

This new Cybertronian did indeed look almost identical to Orion, in his alt-mode any how. There were only two real differences. The type of trailer he was pulling, and his color scheme. I managed to get my mouth shut as he finally transformed, only to have it drop open again when I saw his robot mode. I was thinking that the resemblance between Orion and his twin would be something like Sunstreaker and Sideswipes. Close, not identical but very close. So I was shocked and even a little bit disappointed when there turned out to be almost no resemblance at all between them. I just couldn't help but stand there and stare as the two of them greeted each other.

Finally they turned their attention to me. I was suddenly overcome by the urge to crawl under a rock somewhere and hide.

"So," Ultra Magnus grinned down at me, "You must be the Angel I've heard so much about."

"That would be me," I some how got out, "And you are?"

The newcomer grinned and pointed at Orion, "Prime's brother."

I could tell that was an old joke between the two of them due to the fact that Orion promptly made a face under his mask and Ultra Magnus beamed.

"It's nice to meet you," I told him at last.

"And it's a real honor to meet you," he bowed to me.

Suddenly the pleasantries were over and I could see both of them switch into military mode.

"Well, I hate to do this to the two of you," He motioned to where we were, "But despite the fact that they want to stay hidden. Being out in the open this long is pressing even that kind of luck."

Orion and I nodded and answered, "Right," in perfect unison.

"Let me get you two to the base and then we can fill each other in on all the gory details."

So I few moments later both Magnus and Orion had transformed, I had tossed my gear into Orion's trailer, and we pulled out of there almost the second I heard the latch on my seat belt click.

I sat there for a moment wondering which direction we would be going in when I suddenly got my answer. The thing that struck me as the strangest though was that we didn't head back into the city. I had assumed that we would head off in the direction of Iacon, when what we did was take the utterly opposite route and head out into the planet's wastelands.

Eventually we made it to someplace that I can only equivocate to the Mohave or the Sahara back on Earth. We were for all intents and purposes out in the middle of nowhere. By that point I had given up trying to second-guess what was going on, so I just sat there and waited to see what was in store for us next.

Ultra Magnus stopped before a patch of ground and just sat there for a few moments. Then out of nowhere he gave the loudest sharpest blast on his horn that I have ever heard come out of an 18-wheeler. Again I received another shock when Magnus got a response. The ground in front of him began to open up and with in a few moments there was an opening more than big enough for both of them to go down. Another sharp blast of his horn signaled for us to follow him down. Orion answered this time with his own blast and proceeded to follow his brother down into the unlit depths below.

We sat there for a second just barely able to see Magnus' bumper in front of us despite Orion having his high beams on. Lights snapped on around us so suddenly that I jumped about a foot off of my seat and had to stifle a scream of surprise. I got myself calmed down and slid out of Orion's cab so I could take a look around the place myself.

It was indeed a fully functional base with all the comforts of the Ark, and then some. Any Autobot that I knew would not only have felt at home there but would have been perfectly content to stay there as well. I stood there taking a good long look around, and probably would have gone on staring if not for the fact that Orion managed to get my attention.

"Angel?"

I jumped about a foot again and then turned back to face him, "What?"

"Your bags," he prompted.

"Oh," I grinned sheepishly, "right."

I moved around to the back of his trailer and began working all of my stuff down from there. He waited a few moments and then once again the old debate had to get going again. The world, the universe might be coming to an end, but we would still have to have this discussion yet again.

"Would you please hurry?" He called.

"Well if you'd just un-hitch and transform this would be easier." I yelled back.

"No."

We had had this discussion about a million times in during all of the traveling that we had done with each other. Just like always, it managed to somehow attract a peanut gallery that had to give comments. In this case it was Ultra Magnus. He showed up and looked us over just as I was tugging the last bag down from back.

"Did you have to bring that many outfits?" He asked.

"Outfits," I blinked up at him, "What outfits?"

"That's not what's in the bag?"

"No," I told him flatly.

I finally got the thing down and Orion was able to transform at last.

"So what's in there," Magnus just had to keep going.

I rolled my eyes and looked up at my husband.

"Do you wanna tell him, or shall I?"

I could see the grin go from aerial to aerial behind his mask.

"Why don't you just show him?" Orion offered, "I would just love to see the look on his face."

So I obliged the leader of the Autobots and began to unzip the bags. This displayed just what I had been buying the night that I had wound up in the hospital back home. I can still see the look on the shop owner's face as he looked from the growing pile of munitions to myself and then back again. He finally managed to take a breath and then just had to ask me, was I restaging the battle of Normandy.

I had to smile over the memory just as I had to grin over the look that the big Mech I was displaying my goodies to, got on his face.

"Uhhhh...," Was all that he could manage to get out.

"Gee, that was eloquent." I joked, "You really thought all of this was clothes?"

Orion was still grinning as he leaned against the wall and gloated.

"I told you she was more like one of our Femmes than like a human."

Magnus shook his head and finally admitted defeat.

"Okay, I give!" He held up his hands in surrender.

We all laughed over that for a good five minutes but finally managed to calm down. As the giggles died in me my thoughts turned to the reason that we were here and just how we were going to do what we had come here to do.

"So," I began, "Now that we've broken the ice, I want you to tell me how you're going to help me find the person that I'm looking for."

Magnus sobered and was suddenly all business again, "Well you said that you didn't remember his name correct?"

"That's right," I confirmed, "but I will know the person if I see them."

"That's what Alpha Trion told us when he sent us the warning," he started walking deeper into the base and motioned for us to follow. We walked deeper into the base with him and he did his best to explain what steps that they had taken.

"Well because we didn't know what to do, and mainly because its official protocol to send all the younger members to ground."

"So what," I was trying my best to understand all of this, "So all of those kids we met that one time are in hiding?"

"That's right Miss," a gravely voice answered me from a console chair.

"Optimus, you already know Kup." Optimus nodded to confirm that and Magnus motioned to me. "This is Miss Angel."

"So," I looked at this mech that had to at least be Ironhide's age over, "You're the lil' human femme every one is bragging on."

Now it was official, I was stunned to say the very least.

"They were?" I squeaked, "When?"

"It was all over the place Lass," he continued to smile, "after you were here, all those kids could do was go on and on about what a great couple you and Prime were. Arcee keeps on saying that she hopes she can find a love like that some day. All of 'em are really fond of you."

"Whoa." I was still shocked.

"Now then," Orion brought all of us back to the task at hand, "So you sent all of these kids out to hide. How do we find them?"

"Well," Kup scratched the bridge of his nose and continued, "The signal we sent out ordered all of them into hiding and each of them into a different location. When the time comes for us to find them each one of them has a homing signal to activate. It's a closed channel so only we will be able to track it. Plus each of the kids has orders to activate their signal exactly 24 hours after the one before them in the sequence goes off."

"So we track that signal to find them then?" I finished.

"Exactly."

"Hold it," I stopped him, "How do we know that the Cons can't trace these signals?"

"That's why it's a closed channel," Magnus finally chimed in, "Only we know what to look for and how to interpret it. Any one else who might see it would think it was just more static, just one more sensor ghost from space."

It sounded to me like a good plan, for all intents and purposes these guys up here seemed to have thought of everything that they could.

I turned and looked up at Orion, "Well, do you want to get settled into the base first or do you want to start now?"

"Well we need to go after them as soon as possible…" he trailed off.

"But," I prompted.

"But, I need time to go over the layout of the plan and you need time to unpack."

I sighed and rolled my eyes, "If you think that we need to take the time to rest before we start the mission then just say so! Don't sit there and make up lame excuses."

Now it was his turn to look slightly embarrassed, "Alright fine, I think that we should take the time to rest and collect our wits before we start out on the mission."

"See now?" I shot back, "That didn't hurt did it?"

"Yes," Orion answered flatly.

While all of that discussion was going on Kup and Magnus were there watching us gaping ever so slightly.

"I need to get my bags," I called up to Magnus.

He promptly snapped out of it and shut his mouth quickly in an attempt to hide his "DUH" expression from a few moments ago.

"Of course," He nodded, "Let me show you and Prime to your quarters."

We turned to head out and I caught the look on Kup's face. Somehow I had the feeling that I was going to be the hot topic for scuttlebutt around the base for the next few days.

We finally got to our room and I started pulling out all of my gear, for all intents and purposes setting up camp there in the room. Orion watched me for a few moments and then had to comment on it.

"Well you certainly came prepared."

"Hey," I growled back, "Last time I was here I had on nothing but a tee shirt and jeans. I bloody near froze my ass off. I wanted to be ready this time."

He laughed a bit, "Well I suppose you were roughing it a bit last time."

I was about to answer him when I found something in my bag that I knew I hadn't put there. I pulled the little brown package out of the bag and gave it the once over.

"Orion," I held it up for him, "Do you have any idea what this is?"

"What?" he leaned down for a look, "Oh THAT!"

I could hear the grin come back again under his mask.

"Open it and find out."

Now I was intrigued, so I pulled off the brown wrapping paper and found yet another package with in that one. This time there was a note attached. I

I unfolded the thing and immediately recognized Prowl's English scrawl. Mr. Logic and Perfection turned out to have some of the worst handwriting of any one person that I had ever seen before. I managed to finally decipher it and read what it said.

Now your protected by the Gods…Make sure that you stay alive so that you can bring these back to us.

It was signed by Prowl, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker.

I froze for about three seconds and then tore the inner paper off, gaping at what I found on the other side.

Orion had changed down to his human size and came up to put his arms around me as he looked over my shoulder at them.

He laughed softly, "Those three agreed to split a set. I guess they wanted you to have them for good luck."

I continued to look at the gift for a few more moment an then it happened. Just like that that was all it took for all of my hard won resolve to fall apart and the mask that I had so carefully constructed for myself to fell to pieces.

"HEY NOW!" Orion spun me around to look at him, "They didn't give you those to make you cry."

I looked up at him, "I know, it's just…"

"Hush," He put his arms around me, "You never have to explain anything to me."

I buried my self in his arms and the two of us sank down and sat there on the floor of our quarters until I managed to regain my composure. Somehow I got myself ready to go out and face the world again but I couldn't get that simple gift out of my mind.

All of the guys back home cared about me, and all of them believed in me. I realized right then that I had all of their faith and love as well as Orion's. Now all I had to do was to prove that I was worthy of that.

I swore right then and there that I would find a way to live. I may have wanted to die in the past, but now I had no choice. I was going to see this through to the very end, no matter what.