Random Theatre

by Crystalmaiden62

A work between Aerith the Evenstar and me doing disney and other fairytale stories only with our characters from our stories mostly Transformers characters . And after the stories we have behind the scenes and a few guest stars from our other stories.

1. Chapter 1: Cinderella

A theatre rang with chatter, wondering what the heck is going on until the lights dimmed and a spot light appeared on the stage and Aerith-the-Evenstar and Crystalmaiden62 walked onto the stage. Unlike Aerith, who wore her normal clothes, Crystal was wearing a dress.

Crystal: Hello and welcome to Random Theatre. For those who didn't read the preview, this story is a work between Aerith and me using Disney stories and other fairytales and our characters act them out.

Aerith: Today, we're proud to show you our version of Cinderella: Where The Heart Belongs.

Crystalmaiden: As written brilliantly by Aerith here, and with guest star Silverbolt from Aerith's story Astera.

Aerith: But first, we do not own any of the Transformers Armada characters, the plot in a way, or N and Ventus.

Crystal: I own, Blair, Anna, Alyss, as well as myself.

Aerith: And I own Valerie, Astera, Silverbolt, and Drake.

Crystal: Now, we hold you enjoy the show and please no flames.

They walk off and the curtain began to rise.

Cast

Cinderella – Valerie

Prince – Jetfire

Prince's friend – Hoist

King – Silverbolt

Queen – Astera

Grand Duke – Optimus and Megatron

Stepmother (Lady Tremaine) and Stepfather – Alyss and Sideways

Stepbrother and stepsisters (Drizella and Anastasia) – Drake, Anna, and Blair

Cat (Lucifer) – Thrust

Dog (Bruno) – Starscream

Horse (Stableman) - Scavenger

Page – Red Alert

Fairy Godmother (Godsister) – Crystalmaiden62

Dance Partners – N and Alexis

Mice:

Jaq – Demolishor

Gus – Cyclonus

Hot Shot

Blurr

Sideswipe

Cinderella:

Where The Heart Belongs

Once upon a time there was a peaceful kingdom that was prosperous that followed the ways of tradition and romance. Within that kingdom was grand manor where a widowed gentleman named Thomas, and his daughter Valerie, lived. Even though he was a loving father that allowed his daughter to live comfortably, he believed that she would need a mother to care for her. And because of this he married a woman named Alyss, who he thought would be a good mother to Valerie. With her came her two daughters and a son that happened to be around the same age as his own daughter, going by the names Blair, Anna, and Drake.

But one day Thomas died, a tragedy that caused Valerie much grief and sorrow that equaled the time when she lost her mother, Sarah. It wasn't until that point in time that Alyss' true nature was revealed. The kindness that she had shown Valerie was nothing more than a well developed ruse that masked her cold and cruel personality; he was revealed that she was jealous of the young girl's charm and beauty, and she was determined to do anything she could to give her three children every benefit she was now capable of giving them.

Over time the manor ended up falling in poor shape because Alyss wasted the majority of the family fortunes on her children. As for Valerie she was greatly mistreated and humiliated before being stripped of her birthrights and freedom by being forced into the servitude of her stepmother and stepsiblings within her own home. It was mainly her stepsisters, Blair and Anna, that took pleasure in deliberately boasting about their luxurious lifestyles in front of Valerie, which served as a horribly painful reminder of the happiness and freedom she once had before her father died and slowly it began to attack her confidence and self-esteem. Things only served to get worse when Alyss eventually got remarried, this time to a Transformer by the name of Sideways, a mech that was just as cruel and unforgiving as his new wife. And just like her stepmother and stepsiblings, he made sure that she never forgot that she was nothing more than a lowly maid, which served to dwindle down whatever little self-esteem she had left by this time.

Despite all this Valerie tried her best to persevere and remain the gentle and kind-hearted person she was, hoping that someday she would be free and find happiness. For now that happiness and freedom would remain a distant dream.

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Everything was so surreal as if the area around her was covered in mist. She wasn't sure what to make of this, but then someone suddenly appeared in front of her. She couldn't make out any features except for their silhouette and glowing gold eyes that pierced through the mist. The silhouette of the person appeared to be somewhat bulky and one feature that caught her attention were what appeared to be wings on their back. She couldn't help the sad smile that formed on her lips as tears formed in her eyes. She knew wings symbolized freedom, something she had always wished for ever since her father died 4 years ago. Whoever this person before her was, she knew that they were lucky to have wings both literal and symbolical.

She was surprised when the figure started approaching her, and as they got closer she realized that those glowing gold eyes were actually optics, reminding her of her friends and (as much as she hated to admit it) her stepfather. When the figure stopped in front of her she realized just how tall they were, towering over her by a good foot or two and because of this she had to strain her neck back a bit in order to look at their face. Even then the only thing she could see were the gold optics, those optics that seemed to mesmerize her and put her into a trance; no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't look away.

"Who are you?" She asked.

The person said nothing, but she was taken by surprise when they placed a hand on her waist before using their free hand to take hold of one of her own hands. Before she knew it she found herself dancing with the enigmatic figure before her, causing her to blush from her proximity with them as they held her close. The surreal feeling of everything seemed to take on a realistic sense, and she wondered if she were still dreaming or not; had she really lost her sense to tell the difference between reality and fantasy? Her face got warmer as she slowly began to realize that the person she was dancing with was male. She suddenly felt shy and wanted to look away from the person's face, but again those beautiful gold optics prevented her from doing so. For some reason they seemed so familiar to her, yet she couldn't recall why.

As she continued to dance with this mysterious person they twirled her around one last time before pulling her close to themselves as if holding her in an embrace, like one would do when reunited with someone they really missed and hadn't seen in over a decade or so. She felt so many emotions from such a simple action as the side of her face was lightly pressed against their chest, yet the most prominent one was confusion. Why was her heart pounding in her chest like this? Why was her stomach doing multiple flips? It didn't make any sense to her at all. She looked up at the person's face, but she was taken by surprise when their face was brought closer to her own. Her face heated up to what seemed to be 100 degrees as she suddenly felt something soft lightly brush against her lips. She felt somewhat lightheaded and wasn't sure what to do, but just as she was about to respond…

She woke up.

Valerie found herself sitting up in her bed that was within the small room that was assigned to her 4 years ago by her stepmother. The room was very simple with only the bed she was sitting in, an open window that gave her a good view of the clock tower (along with the royal palace), and a door leading into a bathroom that had a working shower located behind the changing screen in near a corner of the room. Against the wall to her right was a table with a mirror mounted on it, while to her left was a door leading out of her room.

But then she realized that two of her friends stood in front of her, one of them being a blue Transformer (who was balancing on top of the bed post at the foot of her bed) named Blurr, while the other one (sitting on the mattress) was a yellow Transformer named Hot Shot. Even though they were Transformers, they were the size of mice due to a mechanism that changed their size having malfunctioned. It was the same for all her friends, but the thing was that they had to be kept hidden from the rest of her family since they didn't know about them. Valerie shuddered at the thought of what would happen if her stepmother Alyss, or even worse, her stepfather Sideways would do if they were to discover her small friends.

Her friends had always been there for her whenever she needed them and were the only source of happiness she had left in her life. She honestly didn't know what she'd do if something were to happen to them, and so she did her best to keep their existence secret from everyone else. It was because of them that she was able to keep going each and every day for the last 4 years.

"Why did you wake me up?" Valerie asked her the two mice sized Transformers before her.

"If you haven't noticed yet, it's morning." Blurr told her.

At this Valerie hung her head disappointedly. For any other person mornings meant the start of a new day that they hoped would be interesting and provide some good memories, but for Valerie it only meant another day of work as both a servant and prisoner in the place that she had once been happy to call home. Home was a place where one could live happily with their loved ones; this place no longer felt like home to her despite the fact that it was where she dwelled. To her, this place was nothing more than a metaphorical bird cage to her, while she was the metaphorical bird trapped inside and wanting freedom.

"Oh…"

"What's wrong, Valerie?" Hot Shot asked, noticing the change in the girl's mood.

"Every morning is the same for me. It's been like that for the past 4 years." She explained sadly. "It's nothing but work, work, work for me. It makes me wonder if this would've happened if my father was still around."

"Cheer up! You still got us, right?"

"Yeah, Hot Shot's got a point!"

Valerie looked over to see both Demolishor and Sideswipe coming out of their hiding places, which also served as their room within her own room. They both climbed up the blankets on the side of the bed before they joined Hot Shot in sitting on the mattress in front of her.

"You're right, Demolishor." She agreed. "I still have you four with me."

"Besides, who would you be without us around?" Sideswipe asked.

"She'd probably be very lonely and miserable." Blurr answered before jumping down from where he was so he could sit with the others. "But enough of the depressing thoughts. You looked like you were having a good dream before you woke up."

"Yeah!" Hot Shot agreed. "Tell us what you were dreaming?"

Valerie couldn't help but smile at this and shook her head.

"I can't tell you that." She told them.

"Aw… How come?" Demolishor asked.

'If I were to tell you my dream then it wouldn't come true."

Valerie couldn't help but think back on the dream she had before she woke up. Despite how confused it made her it had to be the best dream she had had in her life so far. She couldn't remember the last time she had such a wonderful dream. And whoever that person was that she had danced with, there was something about them that felt vaguely familiar to her, like she had met them before somewhere, but couldn't remember anything about it at all. The person seemed to know her judging by the way they suddenly held her so close.

'Have I met them before?' She thought.

Suddenly the bell from the clock tower suddenly went off and Valerie quietly groaned, knowing what the all too familiar sound meant.

"Looks like it's time to get up and get to work…like always." Valerie sighed before getting out of bed. She grabbed her maid's dress and was about to go into her bathroom when she realized that Demolishor, Hot Shot, Sideswipe, and Blurr were still sitting on her mattress watching her, and she felt her face heat up slightly. "Would you mind…stepping out of the room for a bit?"

They seemed to realize what she meant before they left the room by crawling underneath the closed door. For the time being the four mice sized Transformers decided that they would wait outside. As for Demolishor he decided that he'd do a bit of training, which basically involved jumping down each step until he reached the bottom before climbing back up to the top.

"Hey, Demolishor! I'll race you to the bottom!" Hot Shot said eagerly.

"Count us in as well!" Sideswipe said for both himself and Blurr.

Because this kind of training took place every morning while they waited outside Valerie's room, this was their way of having fun and was something the four mice sized Transformers looked forward to doing. Demolishor nodded before he took his first jump, and after awhile he found himself in the lead. It was when he made it to the second flight of steps that he stopped when he found something, or someone interesting. Trapped inside a cage that was designed to get mice was a Transformer that (like himself and the others) was mouse size, with helicopter propellers on their back.

"What the?" Demolishor said, catching the attention of the Transformer inside the cage.

"Why'd you stop?" Hot Shot asked.

Hot Shot understood why his Demolishor stopped when he spotted the trapped Transformer, and eventually Sideswipe and Blurr ended up joining them as well.

"What are you looking at?" The Transformer inside the cage demanded with a scowl on his face.

"Sorry about that. We're just surprised to find another Transformer that's having the same problems with their programming chip like us." Sideswipe said.

"That's great and all, but would you mind getting me out of this stupid cage? It's bad enough that I'm even in here in the first place."

"We'd love to let you out and all, but we're not able to." Hot Shot told him.

"Then what am I supposed to do? Dance around until someone happens to come by and get me out?"

"Actually, yes." Blurr said before looking up at the door at the top of the steps. "If I'm right, then Valerie should be finished by now."

"I'll go get her." Demolishor said before starting to climb up the steps. By the time he made it to the top he crawled underneath the door and found that Valerie was indeed down with what she needed to do and that she was fully dressed in her maid's dress. "Valerie, you got to come quick!"

Upon hearing Demolishor's voice Valerie turned to find him in the room as well.

"What is it, Demolishor?" She asked, wondering why he sounded so urgent.

"We found a new Transformer while we were outside the room. And he happens to be trapped inside a mouse cage!"

"He's trapped?" Valerie glanced towards the door leading out of her room before glancing back at Demolishor.

"You're going to help him." He guessed, though it wasn't exactly a question.

"Of course!"

Valerie scooped Demolishor into her hands before leaving her room and heading down the stairs until she found the others standing near the mouse cage. Just as her friend told her there was a Transformer trapped in the cage. She sat down on her knees and placed Demolishor on the floor before picking up the cage with care.

"Who the slag are you?" The Transformer asked.

"I'm Valerie. I'm going to get you out of this cage."

"Finally!"

Valerie ignored his last remark and opened the hatch of the cage. Before she could even place the cage back on the floor the Transformer inside transformed into a miniature helicopter and flew out laughing. Valerie was surprised that this Transformer was capable of flying and she couldn't help but be reminded of the person in her dream; she felt somewhat sad since the new Transformer had the gift of flight and gaining his freedom after being released from the cage he had been in, while she was still trapped within her own metaphorical cage.

"Thanks for getting me out of that stupid cage, kid." The new Transformer said and it was then that Valerie realized that he was standing among her friends in his normal form. "The name happens to be Cyclonus, by the way."

"It's nice to meet you, Cyclonus." Valerie said with a smile. "The Transformers you just met are Demolishor, Hot Shot, Sideswipe, and Blurr." She looked at the watch that was on her wrist and her eyes widened when she saw what time it was. "I'm sorry for cutting this short, but I got to go now. Please keep an eye on him, Demolishor. And make sure you tell him about Thrust."

"Got it!" Demolishor replied before Valerie hurried down the stairs. He then turned to Cyclonus. "Okay, you know that we have problems with the programming chips that controls our size, right?"

"Yeah, what about it?" Cyclonus asked.

"The problem is that Valerie's family doesn't know that we're here, and because of that we have to be careful as we go from place to place. It doesn't help that a mech named Thrust lives here as well, and he serves a role similar to a security bot in a way, but it's mainly keeping a look out for people like us while he's patrolling this place."

"Why not just stay in a room that has a bunch of security footage?"

"Luckily for us, there isn't one in this estate. If there were we'd have been discovered years ago. Despite the fact that he's seen us a few times in the past, the rest of the family doesn't believe him since he doesn't have any proof of our existence."

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Valerie entered the hallway and quietly closed the door behind her before tip-toeing over to the curtains. The morning sunlight filtered through the hallway as she opened them and she could feel it's warmth on her skin. But the serene image was interrupted by the snoring sounds she could hear coming from behind the closed doors of her stepsisters and stepbrother's bedrooms. There were five doors leading into the bedrooms in the estate. Behind the first door happened to be Anna's bedroom, followed by Blair's, Drake's, her stepmother and stepfather's (Alyss and Sideways') bedroom, and the last one being the bedroom Thrust slept in. Valerie quietly made her way to the fifth door down the hallway and slowly opened the door a crack to see that Thrust was still asleep, but he woke up as soon as the sunlight was in his face.

"Wha…?" He said tiredly in his half asleep state.

"It's time to get up, Thrust." Valerie whispered so that she wouldn't wake the others up.

Thrust grumbled before getting out of his bed. Valerie moved out of the way to allow the Transformer enough space to come out of the room. He then turned to glare down at her with pink optics.

"There had better be a good reason for waking me up so early." He hissed quietly.

"It's not my fault that I've got to give you your meal first. After all, those are the orders I got from Alyss and Sideways."

Thrust ended up following Valerie to the kitchen, but unknown to them both Demolishor and Cyclonus had witnessed the whole thing.

"You see, Cyclonus?" Demolishor whispered quietly. "That's Thrust."

"You never told me that he was human size." Cyclonus complained.

"It was sort of implied."

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Valerie and Thrust eventually arrived in the kitchen and the 14 year old girl went over to the door leading outside before opening the upper half to not only let in light in the room, but some fresh air as well. In the corner of the room she could see Starscream still asleep on her bed and she went over to him.

"Starscream." She said in a soothing voice while shaking his shoulder gently. "It's time to wake up."

Starscream groaned tiredly a bit before she saw his red-orange optics activate. He then sad up in his bed before turning to her.

"What time is it?" He asked tiredly.

"It's morning, of course." She smiled. "Are you going to help me get everyone's breakfast ready?"

"Not really much of an option."

Valerie moved out of the way so Starscream could get out of bed before going over and opening a cabinet that contain all the energon cubes that the manor had, including high grade energon. From what she knew about high grade energon was that it was the Transformer equivalent to an alcoholic beverage, and the only people she had ever seen drink it (along with serving it to them as well) were Sideways and Thrust. She grabbed three normal energon cubes, carried them over to the table and setting one of them down before going over to both Thrust and Starscream to give them their energon cubes (Starscream was the only one that thanked her for this).

"I can't stand Thrust." Starscream whispered lowly to her so that the mentioned Transformer wouldn't hear them as they continued to prepare breakfast.

"I know." Valerie whispered. "But we just have to deal with it and continue working until…" She trailed off.

"Until what? You stop living?"

Valerie didn't reply to Starscream's question as she turned away from the stove. She was aware that he didn't mean to mention the truth to her and that it was unintentional, but it still hurt her.

"I'll…go feed the animals outside." Was all she said before going outside with an energon cube in her hand.

As soon as she was outside Valerie tried her best to keep herself composed, but as she went to start feeding the horses (only a few of the animals at the manor, along with the chickens and the cows) she felt a tear suddenly slide down her face. She mentally told herself not to cry, but it proved to be futile since she found herself crying silently. She jumped when she felt a hand on her shoulder and whipped around to find Scavenger behind her.

"Scavenger." She wiped her eyes with her sleeve to get rid of her tears. "I-I'm so sorry. I don't know what came over me."

"It's alright." He told her. "Even though 4 years have passed since that day, the pain you feel isn't something that'll go away anytime soon, nor will it be easily forgotten. You were stripped of your birthrights and forced to life like this."

"I know. It still hurts. But it's never going to change. I'm going to be stuck living like this for the rest of my life in this place. I know that people say home is where the heart is, but this place doesn't feels like home to me anymore."

"Have you ever considered that it might be because your heart knows that this manor is no longer your home?"

This confused Valerie.

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"What I mean is that your heart must've realized that this is no longer your home and, in a sense, knows where you're new home is. You just need to continue hoping is all."

"That's easier said than done. I want to believe that I'll get out of here, but I know I'll never be able to. Where would I go once I've left? What will I do?"

Scavenger sighed as he took away his hand.

"I once knew a little girl who had been bright and cheerful, and not once did she stop to doubt herself and her abilities. Sometimes I wonder where she went to."

"…She's gone." Valerie tried so hard to hide the sadness in her voice. "It turned out that she never existed."

"Don't say that. I know for a fact that she still exists, but is merely hiding from the rest of the world." She averted her eyes at this. "You're father wouldn't have wanted this for you, and I know for a fact that he wouldn't have wanted to see you like this either. I know I wouldn't. I know it probably wouldn't make much of a difference, but over the years that I've served here at this manor, I've come to view you as if you were my own daughter in a way. That's how I know that your father wouldn't want you to life like this."

At this Valerie looked up at Scavenger, feeling somewhat better after having told her this.

"Thanks, Scavenger. I probably needed to hear that." It was then that Valerie remembered the energon cube she had and pulled it out. "That's right. I have this energon cube to give you."

She held the energon cube out to Scavenger, but he merely shook his head.

"Don't worry. I had one already." Scavenger suddenly had a knowing smile on his face and lowered his voice. "Although I believe your small friends might want some."

Valerie was confused, but then she noticed that the older mech was looking at some and turned around to see her small friends peeking out from behind a bush (which happened to be out of view of the kitchen door due to it's location against the wall). She couldn't help but smile as she made her way over to them and placed the energon cube in front of them. At least that would take care of her having to sneak one past her family and up to her room without anyone finding out. Valerie was about to go over to the shed that held the food the animals ate, but Scavenger stopped her.

"Don't worry about the animals. The last time I checked it was supposed to be my job to take care of them, not yours."

"Thank you, Scavenger."

Suddenly Valerie heard the sounds of bells going off from the kitchen, and as soon as she heard the bellowing voices of her stepsisters and stepbrother she rushed into the kitchen. One thing she was glad about when she entered the kitchen was that Thrust was gone and that four trays were already set with her family's breakfast (the one going to her stepmother Alyss having the energon cube she had gotten out earlier placed on it).

"Just in time, Valerie. I managed to finish breakfast and get the trays ready." Starscream told her, and Valerie suddenly felt guilty.

"I'm sorry, Starscream. I left you by yourself to finish everything in here while I—"

"You don't need to apologize. It's the least I can do and we both know how demanding your family can be at times—"

"Valerie!"

"—Like now." He finished. "I'll help you carry these trays since I know you can't carry all four of them at once."

"Thank you, Starscream."

Valerie went over to the table and grabbed Blair's and Anna's trays while Starscream grabbed Drake's and her stepparents' trays as well."

"Valerie!"

"I'm coming!" Valerie called as she carefully left the kitchen.

Valerie could remember the first time she was doing this and how she had dropped the trays at that time. Not only had her stepmother been livid (along with her stepsiblings), but she went as far as to punish her for such a mistake. But after having been 'punished' by Sideways at one point, she would've preferred her stepmother's punishments. Although her stepfather had 'punished' her, it hadn't been for making a mistake or doing something wrong; in fact, she believed that he only did just to see her suffer, leading her to believe that he was very sadistic. Because of that Valerie tried her best to avoid Sideways as much as possible unless he ordered her to do something. She eventually made it to the door leading into Anna's room and she saw that her stepsister had a scowl on her face and her arms crossed.

"Good morning, Anna. Did you sleep well?" Valerie asked. Despite it being second nature to her to say this to anyone, she felt that it was more like it was rehearsed.

'Although, that'd probably be the case.' She thought.

"Oh please! Like I'm going to buy that 'I care about you' act!" Anna sneered before pointing at a basket of clothes on the ground. "I want you to take those clothes and iron them! And I want them back in an hour, got that?"

Valerie mentally sighed.

"Yes, Anna."

With that Valerie grabbed the basket and carried it under the arm that had been carrying the tray she gave to Anna before leaving the room. She went inside Blair's room and found that she, like Anna, was scowling at her.

"Good morning, Blair—"

"It's about time! Do you have any idea how starving I am?" Blair snapped. Valerie mentally rolled her eyes at how dramatic her stepsister was being, but she still placed her tray on the bedside table. "I want you to mend those clothes, and I expect them to be done sometime today!"

"Yes, Blair."

Valerie left Blair's room now carrying a box with the clothes her stepsister wanted her to sew up and the basket of Anna's clothes. She placed her stepsisters' stuff on the floor before taking Drake's tray from Starscream and heading into her stepbrother's room. Valerie was surprised to find that he had a pleasant look on his face (something that he rarely did whenever she came in to give him his breakfast), but then she dismissed her surprise. She knew better than to fall for such a trick that was meant to lure her into a false sense of security.

"Good morning, Valerie." He greeted in a voice that matched the look on his face.

"Good morning to you too, Drake." She replied before going over to place the tray on his bedside table. "Is there anything you need me to do?"

Drake hummed quietly as if thinking.

"I can't think of anything, but I'm sure I'll come up with something." Valerie started heading for the door to leave. "Oh, I got something! How about you go buy yourself some new clothes. You look like a maid. Oh wait, that's because you are a maid!"

Valerie gritted her teeth and resisted the urge to clench her hands into fists. She was tempted to snap at Drake, slap him, or both, but she resisted. She knew that if she did he would run to her stepparents and tell them what she did to him and make it look like she was the bad guy and himself the victim, when in reality it would've been the other way around. Then that would lead to both Alyss and Sideways punishing her in their own way; usually they would verbally abuse her, followed by Alyss assigning more work for her to do and Sideways would either backhand her (which was on his good days) or give her a beating. Her temptation wasn't worth getting punished by her stepparents.

'But the nerve of that boy!' She thought as she stepped out of the room.

Valerie then took the last tray from Starscream before going over and knocking on the door of her stepparents' room.

"Come in." A pleasant female voice told her.

Valerie entered the room and she found Alyss sitting in bed reading a book (and wearing reading glasses), while Sideways merely stood off to the side leaning against a wall. The 14 year old girl felt somewhat fearful as her stepfather's piercing pink optics turned to her. It didn't matter that he'd been married to her stepmother and that she'd frequently seen him around, she still wasn't used to those cold optics. Valerie tried her best to ignore the fear she felt before going over and placing the tray on the bedside table.

"Good morning, stepmother, stepfather." She greeted.

Sideways glared at Valerie, but otherwise didn't say anything. As for Alyss, she just gave her a pleasant smile and the girl resisted the urge the shudder.

'Like mother, like son.' She thought.

"I want you to take the laundry and get started with your tasks for the day."

"Yes, stepmother."

Valerie could honestly say that she was glad to get out of her stepparents' room, and she was also glad that Starscream was still waiting for her as well.

"Thank you." She told him quietly.

"It was nothing." He replied. "Let's get you something to eat before you get started. There's some breakfast left for you, though it isn't much."

"That'll be fine. But afterwards I want to get starting on ironing Anna's clothes."

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Inside a room at the royal palace King Silverbolt and Queen Astera were having a private conversation with Grand Dukes Optimus Prime and Megatron. The issue they were discussing was of importance and concerned the future of their son and heir, Prince Jetfire.

"That we can't exactly delay the issue any longer." Silverbolt said. "Someday Jetfire will have to take over, but before that can even happen he needs to get married."

"But Silverbolt, you know he can't just marry anyone." Astera said.

"She's right, your Majesty." Optimus agreed, stepping forward. "Jetfire can only marry the woman who is meant to be his sparkmate."

"That may be true, Prime, but you got to realize that his sparkmate could be anyone." Megatron stated, causing Optimus to turn to him. "For all we know, she could be in another country."

"True, but then again maybe not."

"That's it!" Silverbolt suddenly said, causing his sparkmate, Optimus, and Megatron to turn to him. "We'll throw a ball! The idea is flawless!"

"…What reason would we throw a ball for?" The femme asked.

"Why else? So that our son can find his sparkmate, of course! We'll invite every family in this kingdom and have every eligible maiden attend. As I said, it's flawless and foolproof!"

"It sounds like an ideal plan. Any ideas as to when you want to hold the ball?" Megatron asked.

"Tonight!"

"Well, that sounds like a great—Tonight?"

"Do you need me to repeat myself? I'd be more than happen to do so."

"We heard you, Silverbolt, but do you have any idea how last minute this idea is?" Optimus asked.

"Of course I do. No one would see it coming right."

That was when all four of them heard the sound of something falling to the floor outside the room and turned to face the large closed doors that led into the hallway. They could faintly hear the sound of hushed whispers as well. Optimus turned to Silverbolt and Astera and they nodded in silent agreement before he started quietly making his way to the doors.

"Eavesdropping isn't exactly becoming of our future ruler, you know?" Optimus said to the person outside the room. "We all know that you're listening in on our discussion so you might as well come in."

Optimus moved out of the way in time just as Jetfire came into the room with Hoist following behind him, the latter having a grin on his face.

"I tried to stop him, your Majesty, but you all know how he gets when you decide to conspire behind his back." Hoist told them.

"Well, that saves us an explanation with what's going on tonight." Silverbolt said casually.

"You know how much I hate these parties. I just end up leaving whenever I get too bored." Jetfire stated.

"We know, Jetfire, but you have to understand how important this is for your parents." Optimus said, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"I know. But I can tell you that she's not in another country." Jetfire saw the confused looks that everyone was giving him so he continued. "My sparkmate happens to be in this kingdom."

"That's great!" Astera exclaimed. "Do you know what her name is?"

"Sadly, no. I wasn't able to get that far. At least I know what she looks like."

"And all the more reason to throw a ball tonight. You'll probably be able to find her here during that time."

"You're kidding me! If I wanted to I could just go out and find her myself."

"Okay, Jetfire, I know you want to find her and all, but that idea in itself is just ludicrous." Hoist stated. "You'd end up drawing too much attention to yourself if you went outside the palace, and you're not exactly an easy person to forget when people meet you the first time."

"And you're point being…?"

"Just agree to the idea of you attending this ball tonight. It'd save you some trouble of having to go out to search and end up being disappointed, and we'd have every eligible woman in the kingdom coming so you might be able to find your sparkmate in the crowd. Whaddya say to that?"

Jetfire stared at Hoist before letting out a sigh.

"Fine I'll agree to it." Jetfire then turned to Silverbolt and Astera. "But just this once! And if I don't find my sparkmate tonight, I'll personally go out and search myself, even if I have to change my color scheme or alt-mode! Starting tomorrow!"

"Deal!" Silverbolt said and held out a servo to his son, which confused the shuttle mech.

"Just like that?" Jetfire asked. "No arguing, protests, or bargaining with me for any kind of compromise?"

"Why not? You agreed to the ball, so I might as well agree to your own terms as well."

Jetfire couldn't help but grin behind his face mask before shaking Silverbolt's hand.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Back at the manor Alyss was with her children for their music lessons. She sat next to her son Drake on the piano bench as she helped him play the notes for the song they were about to do. Blair was holding her flute in her hands as she stood in front of the music stand that held her music book, while Anna stood next to her. Both Sideways and Thrust happened to be in the room as well to watch the performance. The song they would be singing was Sing Sweet Nightingale.

"The pear-shaped toes." Alyss said in a sing-song voice.

Alyss and Drake and Blair started playing their instruments just as Anna opened her mouth to start singing.

Oh, sing sweet nightingale
Sing sweet nightingale

The horrible sound of Anna's singing made Thrust cringe. He had no doubt that the girl was tone-deaf or something judging by the way she sang. He turned to look at Sideways and was surprised to see that the mech wasn't cringing at all; in fact he remained in the same position he had been in before the lesson started and it looked as if the horrible singing didn't bother him at all. How was it possible for him to just stand there without showing any signs of discomfort?

High above me

As Anna continued to sing the end of Blair's flute was beginning to get close to her, which caused the older sister to turn and give her a look. Thrust's pink optics widened in horror as he saw a nearby wine glass suddenly shattered to pieces due to Anna's singing.

'I got to get out of here!' He thought. 'And probably get some energon as well. Anything to drown out and make me forget this horrendous noise!'

Oh, sing sweet nightingale
Sing sweet nightingale

And that was what he did. Thrust immediately left the music room and shut the door behind him once he was in the hallway. As he walked away from the door he started to hear someone else singing the song Anna was which caused him to become curious.

High above

Thrust followed the sound of the voice singing and was surprised to find Valerie at the bottom of the steps as she scrubbed the floor. So it was the little maid that was singing. He had to admit that the 14 year old girl was way better than Anna and it seemed to have a somewhat soothing affect on him.

'At least she can carry a tune.' He mused.

Oh, sing sweet nightingale
Sing sweet nightingale, high

Thrust quietly made his way down the steps and as soon as he reached the last step he noticed the dust pan that was filled with the dust that Valerie had swept up before cleaning the floor. He looked up to see if the girl was paying any attention and grinned when he saw that she was oblivious to his presence.

'Perfect!'

Valerie sang along with her stepsister as she scrubbed the floor with only the sound of the instruments being her only way to follow the song. Not once had she been permitted to join in for the music lessons the rest of her family had and she was strictly told not to interrupt them at all during their sessions, but that never stopped her from singing to herself as she worked. It was only when she was alone that she allowed herself to sing.

Valerie stopped singing and thought back to the dream she had before she woke up this morning. She wasn't sure why she kept thinking about it, but for some reason she could hear the sound of someone singing; the voice sounded like it was male and despite how slightly rough the voice sounded it was strangely soothing to her. But what confused her was why did the song the person was singing sounded so…familiar? It was as if she had heard it a long time ago, but couldn't remember where she had heard it. And the voice also sounded familiar as well. And before she knew it, she found herself singing the words.

Beyond the sun

Beyond the moon

There are the stars

In the night sky

Beyond the skies

Among the stars

In quiet wait

Home Cybertron

Cybertron? She remembered hearing about the planet from her Demolishor and the others and that it was where they were from.

Rest in peace

In my embrace

And listen to this lullaby

The song was a lullaby? If so then was it possible that she heard it when she was little? First that strange dream of that mysterious person with the gold optics and the wings, and now this lullaby she just heard in her head? What was going on?

Valerie suddenly heard something clattering to the floor and her head shot in the direction the sound came from, only for her blue eyes to widen when she saw the dust pan she had used earlier on the floor and the dust in it having been dumped on the surface she had just scrubbed. But that wasn't the only thing that left her shocked. Thrust was also standing on the last stepped looking down at the mess on the floor with wide optics. She could feel her face heat up slightly in embarrassment since Thrust had probably heard her singing.

How clumsy of me!" Thrust said. "Not even paying attention to where I was going, accidentally knocking over the dust pan in the process and ruining all your hard work so far! However can I make it up to you?"

Despite the fact that he sounded apologetic Valerie knew that Thrust didn't really mean it at all. She had a feeling he did it on purpose just to be cruel to her. And she had spent most of her time sweeping up the dust too.

"Don't worry about doing that, Thrust." Valerie told him as she got up to get her broom. "I've got…work to do."

As Valerie started sweeping the dust back into the dust pan she heard the sound of someone knocking at the front door. She placed the broom to the side and went to answer the door. She was surprised when she saw a blue transformer with a red visor over his optics carrying a large bag completely full of letters.

"Yes, my I help you?" Valerie asked.

"I have a message from the King." The transformer said in a serious voice before holding out a letter to her. "It's important that this letter be read as soon as possible."

"Thank you."

Valerie closed the door before looking down at the letter in her hand. What was so important about this letter that it had to be read immediately? She was surprised when she spotted both Demolishor and Cyclonus going over to where she was.

"What are you two doing here?" She whispered. "You know you shouldn't be out in the open like this."

"Sorry, Valerie, but we just got curious as to what's going on." Demolishor told her. "I wonder why the King's sending out letters?"

"Forget about that! What I want to know is what it says." Cyclonus said.

"I want to know too, but I can't open it here. I have to give it to the others." Valerie cringed when she heard Anna's voice singing and looked. "I think this would be a good time to interrupt the…'music lesson'."

With that Valerie started heading up the steps just as Demolishor and Cyclonus crawled back into the nearby hole.

Oh, sing sweet nightingale
Sing sweet nightingale-

"Hi-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i..."

Because of Blair's finger got stuck in the flute hole Anna was being hit repeatedly under her chin as her sister tried to get her finger out. All this was done while she was still singing too and as soon as Blair got her finger free Anna immediately snatched the flute out of her sister's hand and hit her over the head with it in her anger.

"You idiot! I know you deliberately did that!" Anna yelled.

In retaliation Blair snatched her flute away from Anna and hit her sister on her head in return.

"Oh, so it's my fault that I accidentally got my finger stuck in the hole, huh?" Blair scoffed.

"That's the worst excuse I've ever heard!"

Drake groaned and held his head.

"Oh, god. Please make them stop already!"

"Girls. Girls!" The sound of Alyss' voice silenced Anna and Blair and they turned to their mother. "I taught you better than this."

"She started it!" Anna whined.

"It doesn't matter who started it, Anna. What matters is that we remember our manners and maintain self-control." Alyss was about to resume playing the piano with Drake when someone started knocking on the door and causing her to slam her fingers down on the piano keys in anger. "Yes?!" As soon as Valerie entered the room Alyss' became livid. "Valerie! I specifically told you to not interrupt our—"

"I know, stepmother, but this letter just came from the palace and it's important." Valerie said as she held up the letter.

"From the palace?" Both Anna and Blair exclaimed.

The two stepsisters ran up to Valerie and snatched the letter out of her hands before they started fighting over who got to read the letter. It wasn't until Sideways stepped in and simply took the letter away from them, which caused Blair and Anna to turn to him.

"Remember your manners, girls." Sideways told them before handing the letter over to Alyss. "Here you go."

"Thank you, sweetie." Alyss said.

Valerie mentally cringed at the sickly sweet tone her stepmother used with Sideways. Something about it was just wrong. From where Demolishor and Cyclonus were hiding as they observed the whole situation they couldn't help but feel the same way.

"Tonight there's going to be a ball…"

"A ball?"

"…in honor of his Highness, the Prince."

"Oh, the Prince!" It was obvious that both Anna and Blair were excited.

"And it says that every eligible maiden is to attend by royal command."

At this the two stepsisters squealed loudly and Valerie saw Drake hold his head while making a face.

"That means us!" Anna squealed.

"And I'm so eligible!" Blair added.

Upon hearing this Valerie suddenly felt…hopeful. She had been miserable for so long that she forgot the last time she ever felt this way. The fact that the letter specifically said that every eligible maiden was to attend the ball was what gave her hope, but for what she didn't know.

"That means I can go, too." Valerie stated.

This caught everyone's attention, but it was Anna and Blair's response to what she said that got to her.

"You? Dance with the Prince?" Anna laughed mockingly. "Get real, Valerie!"

"The Prince would never dance with someone like you! You're just a maid and don't even stand a chance of being noticed!" Blair stated.

Valerie couldn't help the hurt emotions she felt, but she did her best to not show it. They were trying to discourage her, trying to break her, but the hope she had gotten from the letter was holding on to her as if to prevent her from falling into a chasm of despair. She couldn't recall every feeling so hopeful before in her life before and she felt a bit of determination.

"Why can't I?" Valerie asked, causing Anna and Blair to stop laughing. "I'm still a part of this family, and the letter specifically says 'every eligible maiden is to attend by royal command.'"

At this Alyss examined the letter again.

"Indeed it does." Alyss said before turning to Valerie. "And I'm assuming that you want to go?"

"Yes, I do."

"Well, I don't see why she can't go, Alyss." Sideways stated, causing both Anna and Blair to be shocked. "That is if she gets all her work done…" Valerie started to feel hopeful despite how much she was scared of her stepfather. She was about to open her mouth to thank him, but he started talking again. "And if she can find something nice to wear as well."

"Thank you, stepfather, stepmother. I'll get to work right away and find something to wear as well."

With that Valerie left the room. As soon as the door closed behind the 14 year old girl that was when both Anna and Blair started protesting.

"You're crazy!" Blair said.

"You do realize what you said, right stepfather?" Anna asked.

"Of course I do." Sideways answered, smirking behind his face mask. "I did say 'if'."

That was when the two girls realized what Sideways was getting at and smirked.

"Oh. 'If'."

Alyss went up to Sideways with a smirk of her own.

"I like the way you think, Sideways." Alyss said. "You always did have a way with words."

"Never expect less from me."

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

The first thing Valerie did as soon as she was in her room was go over to the chest that that was at the foot of her bed. She smiled down as she gazed at the chest's content before pulling out a light blue dress that had the sleeves coming down to the middle of her lower arm. Just staring at it made her think back on the memories she had of her mother before she died. Valerie turned to her friends that were currently sitting on her bed watching her and held the dress up against her as if to get an idea as to what it would look like if she were to wear the nice and simple dress.

"What do you think, guys? Isn't it pretty?" Valerie asked.

"It is, but where did you get it?" Hot Shot asked.

"It used to be my mother's." She couldn't help the nostalgia she suddenly felt as she remembered her mother.

Her friends noticed the change in Valerie's mood at the mention of her deceased mother.

"It's a nice dress and all, but it's a little old and plain looking." Blurr said in an attempt to change the subject. It worked since Valerie seemed distracted from her depressing thoughts.

"There's gotta be something you can do to improve the dress, right?" Sideswipe asked, going along with Blurr's idea.

"There is." She said, placing the dress on the mannequin before pulling a slightly old book out of the basket next to the chest and opened it to a specific page before displaying it for her friends to see. The picture was that of a dress similar to the one Valerie pulled out, but it had a long bow that tied behind the back, a sort of small poncho-like cape that was connected to the collar hole of the dress, and the hem of the long skirt had fancy tassels. "I'm thinking maybe this design wouldn't be so hard to do at all. Simple, right?"

"It actually looks like a nice design." Cyclonus admitted.

"Not to mention that it'll be easy to do." Demolishor added.

"I really wouldn't have to alter the dress itself, so I can just add what's needed here, like the—"

"Valerie!"

Valerie stopped as soon as she heard Anna's voice and turned to the intercom on the wall near her door. She sighed.

"What could they possibly want now?"

"Valerie!" Now Blair's voice could be heard, followed by her stepmother's, Drake's, and Sideways' voices.

Valerie sighed at this and looked sadly at the dress that was displayed on the mannequin.

"Looks like I'll have to wait before I can even get any work done on my dress."

"VALERIE!"

"VALERIE!"

"Okay, okay! I'm coming."

The mice sized Transformers watched as Valerie left her room and closing the door behind her. Everyone (except for Cyclonus, who was confused) looked sad as they realized what was going on.

"Poor Valerie." Demolishor said sadly. "Every time she finds anything resembling down time they all seemed to have something for her to do."

"I don't get it." Cyclonus said. "What's her story anyways?"

"After her biological father died 4 years ago, her stepmother Alyss and her children maid her light miserable by forcing her to be their servant in this manor." Blurr explained. "You may have already heard about this from Valerie's conversation with Scavenger this morning.

"No wonder why the kid's so depressed. I kinda feel sorry for her."

"What's worse is that they're going to do everything they can to keep her busy so that she won't be able to finish her dress. In a way her stepparents just gave her a false hope of going to the ball." Demolishor said.

"You mean they're deliberately giving her a ton of work so that she won't be able to go when the time comes?"

"Exactly. And She'll never get her dress done in time, either."

Sideswipe looked up at the dress on the mannequin and looked back at the design book before his face lit up!

"That it!" Sideswipe exclaimed cheerfully!

In their confusion Demolishor, Cyclonus, Hot Shot, and Blurr turned to Sideswipe.

"What do ya mean, Sideswipe?" Hot Shot asked.

"We can make Valerie's dress for her! It'll be a piece of cake if we work together!"

"He's right!" Blurr agreed. "It's the least we can do for her since she's looked out for us and done her best to keep us all safe from her stepfamily."

"Okay, listen up!" Demolishor said. "We got until tonight to finish this dress so that it can be ready for Valerie to wear to the ball. We're gonna work hard on it and show them that they can't stop her from attending the ball. And that means no dilly-dallying or wasting time." He then turned to Cyclonus. "You come with me so that we can get some materials and other things to add to the dress."

With that both Demolishor and Cyclonus left the room with new determination. As soon as they reached their destination and slowly opened the hole in the living room, they were met with the sight of Anna and Blair talking to Valerie, who happened to have her arms full with clothes.

"And this to, Valerie." Blair said. "And don't forget my slippers."

"Valerie! Here's my dress." Anna said, piling her dress in the 14 year old girl's arms.

"And my skirt too…"

"Valerie."

Valerie turned towards the door and saw Alyss standing there.

"Yes?" Valerie asked.

"When you're done, I have a few things I need you to do before you start your regular chores." Alyss said.

"Very well."

Even if Valerie didn't show it, both Demolishor and Cyclonus could tell that she seemed slightly disappointed that her family was giving her more work to do as she left the room. But that was going to change soon since they were going to make her dress for her.

"Mother, it seems like everybody else has nicer things to wear, but I always end up wearing these old rags." Blair said before throwing a light blue sash to the floor. "This sash is the wrong color and clashes with the dress I'm wearing tonight! I don't even know why I have it in the first place!"

"You're one to talk!" Anna said before throwing a pair of white beads to the floor. "I'm sick of looking at these beads. Complete and total trash!"

Anna kicked the beads away from her before she and Blair left the room while bickering with each other. As soon as the door closed, both Demolishor and Cyclonus knew that it was safe to enter the room.

"Come on!" Demolishor whispered. "We gotta be careful now."

"Gotcha." Cyclonus replied.

The two mice sized Transformers made their way over to where the light blue sash was. Demolishor knew that it was perfect for Valerie's dress. But when he looked back over to the hole they came out of his optics widened.

"Oh no."

"What is it, Demolishor?"

"It's Thrust."

Indeed they saw Thrust laying down on a couch that was near the hole they came out of, but as soon as they heard the sound of snoring they knew that he must've been asleep. Quickly, Demolishor and Cyclonus grabbed the sash and started rushing to the hole as quietly as they could. However, Thrust woke up from his sleep, only to feel confused when he saw a rolled up light blue sash rolling towards a mouse hole.

"What the?" Thrust said quietly. Was he seeing things? "I need to stop drinking too much energon..." By the time the sash unrolled completely Thrust could see the two mice sized Transformers and knew that they were being this. "I knew it! You two won't be getting away that easily!"

Thrust lunged towards Demolishor and Cyclonus in order to catch them, but they both managed to get inside the mouse hole with the sash, leaving the bigger Transformer to run into the wall. He waited by the hole as he expected the mice sized Transformers to come out again, but then he heard a creaking noise and turned to see another hole opening before Demolishor and Cyclonus poked their heads out, seeming to be unaware of the fact that he could see them. As soon as he saw one of them pointing towards the white beads on the floor Thrust grinned behind his face mask before going over to sit down on the beads.

"Hah! Though you could outsmart me, eh? Well it looks like I outsmarted you!" He said.

Both of them looked worried, but then Demolishor started whispering something to Cyclonus before jumping down from the hole. Thrust was ready to catch the tiny Transformer, but was confused as he watched Demolishor walk right by him in such a casual manner. He stood right next to one of the stepsister's hold shirt and started cutting the buttons off. He looked worried as soon as he saw Thrust slowly creeping over to him, but he resumed collecting the buttons and placing them in a pile on top of each other. That was when Thrust noticed something out of the corner of his optic and saw Cyclonus slowly tiptoeing over to the beads. Seeing this Thrust immediately went back to the beads and grabbed them off the floor and Cyclonus ran back into the hole. He looked back over to Demolishor and saw that he had that worried look on his face before continuing to collect buttons. Thrust got an idea and started slowly making his way over to Demolishor. But Demolishor expected something like this to happen and as soon as Thrust was close enough he flung one of the buttons at him.

"Ow, what was that supposed to be?" Thrust yelled before getting blasted by Demolishor's blaster. "OW! THAT'S IT!" Demolishor dived into the pile of clothes on the floor and hid as Thrust tried to search for him. As this had all happened Cyclonus had quickly gone over and grabbed the beads Thrust had dropped when he had been hit by Demolishor's blaster and made a run for the hole, but Thrust had spotted him. Thinking quickly Demolishor got Thrust's attention by blasting him in the face and dove into the clothes pile again, this time with the bigger Transformer following him. Demolishor managed to get away just as Thrust emerged from the pile of clothes, only to have a pair of boxers on his head which successfully blocked his vision as he tried to get them off. "How did this get in here?"

Demolishor and Cyclonus took that chance to get back inside the mouse hole and just as Thrust managed to get the boxers off his head he saw that the tiny Transformers were nowhere to be seen.

"Slaggit! I was so close to capturing them and they got away!" Thrust yelled.

It was at that time that Sideways opened the door and narrowed his pink optics as he looked at Thrust.

"What the pit is all the commotion about?" Sideways asked.

"Well, you see I was trying to—"

"Let me guess, you were trying to catch those ''tiny Transformers' that are causing you so much trouble. What else is new?"

"But Sideways! I'm not making it up! They were in here awhile ago and one of them blasted me in the face! The FACE!"

"Silence!" Thrust immediately went quiet at this. "Enough talk about mouse sized Transformers! You will stop talking about them and do your job, is that clear?" Thrust nodded. "Good. Unless you have proof of their existence, I still won't believe you."

With that Sideways closed the door, leaving Thrust in the room. From where Demolishor and Cyclonus were hiding, they had watched the whole thing and were laughing quietly. Seeing Thrust get chewed out by Sideways was priceless! Now that they had the sash and beads, they could head back to Valerie's room and finish her dress.

When the two got back to the room they found that Hot Shot, Blurr, and Sideswipe had gotten a fair amount of work done on the dress, which (at the moment) had tassels along the hem of the long skirt and a white bow tied around the back with the strings coming down to rest halfway down the skirt. It was a work in progress that would be done before Valerie even got back. They managed to get the white beads around the mannequin's neck before sewing the edges of the light blue sash around the neck of the dress.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Later that night Valerie heard the bells of the clock tower going off and looked at a nearby clock on the wall before letting out a sad sigh. It was 8:00 at night. She had just gotten all her work done, but no work done on her dress at all. Valerie knew it was too good to be true when Sideways said that she could go to the ball tonight, and her family purposefully gave her so much work to do. She went over to the nearby window and saw the limousine pull into the driveway. She went over to the door leading into her stepparents' room where they and her stepsisters and stepbrother were getting ready and knocked on the door. Alyss answered the door and Valerie could see that she was wearing a black dress.

"Yes?" Alyss asked.

"The limousine has arrived." Valerie announced.

"I see."

Valerie started walking down the hallway in the direction of her room before Sideways came to stand next to Alyss.

"Why aren't you ready Valerie?" Sideways asked.

Valerie stopped.

"I decided…not to go." She said as she did her best to hide how she really felt.

"What a shame. And we were looking forward to having you come with us." Anna, Blair, and Drake poke their heads out of the room and smirked when they saw Valerie. "Of course there's always next time."

Despite the fact that Sideways sounded concerned, she knew he wasn't sincere about it. She should've known her stepfamily would do this to her and crush whatever hope she had left.

"I know. Have a good time at the ball." Valerie said before walking off.

Valerie tried so hard to hold her tears back. She wouldn't let herself be sad and give her stepfamily the satisfaction of seeing her in such a state. When she reached her room she found that the lights were off, leaving the only source of light coming from her open window which gave her a good view of the palace off in the distance. It looked so beautiful in the night with the lights making it shine softly like the stars in the sky. She sighed sadly.

"I knew something like this would happen. It was too good to be true that I fell for it." She said as she went over to the window. "The ball probably wouldn't be that great anyways." She shook her head. "Who am I kidding? I can't even convince myself to not want to go."

Valerie noticed that the room suddenly got brighter when the lights were switched on and she turned around to see why, but what she saw made her gasp in surprise.

'It can't be…!' She thought.

"Surprise!" She found her mice sized friends exclaim.

What surprised Valerie was the fact that she was looking at her dress, which was completely finished and designed in the style that was shown in the book she had shown her friends earlier. She couldn't help the tears of joy that were forming in her eyes as she realized that it was because of them that her dress was complete.

"You guys…" She said. "I don't know what to say."

"Think nothing of it." Blurr stated.

"After all, you've helped up out tons of times in the past, so it's the least we can do." Hot Shot stated.

Valerie couldn't stop herself from crying in joy before smiling.

"Thank you. A thousand times thank you. I never thought this could happen."

"Hurry up and get changed! Everyone else will be leaving soon and you don't want to be left behind!" Cyclonus said.

"You're right! I can't waste anymore time!"

Valerie took her dress off the mannequin and went into the bathroom to change. By the time she came out Demolishor, Cyclonus, Hot Shot, Sideswipe, and Blurr were all surprised at how pretty she looked. To think that some make up and a nice dress could drastically change the appearance of the 14 year old girl. For once she didn't look as if she were a maid, and instead looked like the noble girl she was meant to be.

"Earlier today Cyclonus and myself heard you singing." Demolishor said as he watched her get her shoes on.

"Y-you did?" Valerie asked, her face turning red from learning that Demolishor and Cyclonus had heard her.

"Yeah, but what I don't understand is how you know the Cybertronian Lullaby."

This caught Hot Shot, Sideswipe, and Blurr's attention as well when they heard this. This confused Valerie. Why did they look surprise that she sang the song that she just learned was called the Cybertronian Lullaby?

"I heard it in a dream once. Why? Is something wrong?"

"There's nothing wrong with it." Sideswipe stated. "But the thing is that only Cybertronians know about the Cybertronian Lullaby."

"It was a song that originated on our home planet Cybertron and had been around for millions upon millions of years." Blurr explained. "The fact that you heard it in a dream is…peculiar."

Valerie didn't know what to think of what she learned, but she quickly got ready before rushing out of her room.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Alyss, Sideways, Anna, Blair, and Drake were all making their way down the steps on their way to the front door. Alyss was wearing a black dress, Blair a purple dress, Anna a pink dress, and Drake wearing a nice green outfit.

"Remember Blair and Anna." Alyss started as she turned to her two daughters. "When you go up to see his Highness, you are to bow and—"

"Wait!"

They all turned to the direction the voice had come from and saw that Valerie was coming down the stairs wearing light blue dress that had the sleeves coming down to the middle of her lower arm. A white ribbon was tied around her waist with the bow settling behind her lower back while the long strings came halfway down the skirt. The hem of the skirt had intricate looking tassels that made it stand out, while connected to the collar of the upper half and around it was a small light blue poncho-like cape. And around Valerie's neck were white beads, which completed the overall appearance of the 14 year old girl.

"Please wait for me!" Valerie said before reaching the bottom of the steps. "What do you think? Is my dress okay?"

From where Demolishor, Cyclonus, Hot Shot, Sideswipe, and Blurr were hiding they could see the shocked looks on everyone except Sideways (due to his face mask). That was when both Anna and Blair started protesting about Valerie coming to the ball.

"Girls." Sideways said calmly, which managed to make Anna and Blair settle down. "Your mother and I made a deal with Valerie, and she has kept her end of the bargain. Isn't that right, my daughter?"

Despite the fact that that Sideways called her his 'daughter' didn't sound right to her, Valerie still smiled. That was when Alyss started making her way over to the girl.

"That's right, Sideways. You did say she could go if she got all her work done and found a suitable dress. And I know that you never go back on your word." Alyss stated. For some reason Valerie felt very uneasy. She felt like something bad was going to happen soon. When her stepmother came up to her Alyss lifted the beads she was wearing to look at them. "These beads seem too make the color of this dress stand out." She then turned to Anna. "Don't you think so, Anna?"

"No, I don't think they do…" Anna started, but then she noticed the beads Valerie was wearing and become livid. "You thief! Those are my beads you're wearing! Give them back to me!"

Before Valerie knew it Anna ripped the white beads from her neck, causing the all of them to fall off the string they were on as they broke. Valerie's eyes were wide when this happened and clutched her neck.

"No!" Valerie cried.

"And that's my sash! I can't believe you stole that as well!" Blair yelled before ripping the poncho-like cape off her dress.

It didn't stop there. Both Anna and Blair proceeded to ripping and tearing Valerie's dress, all the while the 14 year old girl begging helplessly as she couldn't do anything to stop them from destroying her dress.

"That's enough, girls." Sideways suddenly said. That was when Anna and Blair stopped and walked away from Valerie. "If we don't hurry we'll be late."

Valerie looked down at her dress and she could feel tear started to form in hear eyes; the beautiful dress that her friends made her was completely ruined beyond recognition, and along with it the last thing she had of her mother. She looked up and find that Alyss, Anna, Blair, and Drake were walking out the door, leaving Sideways standing there while giving Valerie a deceivingly pleasant look in his pink optics.

"Good night." He said pleasantly before leaving and closing the door behind him.

Valerie was too shock as she stared wide eyed at the now closed door. She didn't know how to react to what happened and she desperately wished that this was all some sort of nightmare, that none of this was actually happening, that the dress that had once belonged to her late mother wasn't destroy.

"My, oh my! What do we have here?" Thrust said as he came into the room and approached Valerie. "Is that a dress you're wearing? It's simply beautiful, and the color matches your eyes oh so well! I must admit that you look like a princess." Then Thrust's voice took on a mocking tone. "All hail Valerie, Princess of Rags!"

Valerie couldn't take it anymore and suddenly broke down before running out of the house. She could no longer hold back the tears she had tried so hard to hold back as she ran over to a stone bench in the garden and cried. Demolishor, Cyclonus, Hot Shot, Sideswipe, and Blurr, along with Scavenger and Starscream watched this sad scene play before their optics. They knew that whatever small amount of hope Valerie had left was destroyed by what happened. And the worse part was that they didn't know what to do.

"I should've known something like this was going to happen, and yet I fell for it completely." Valerie quietly said as she cried into her arms that were resting on the bench she was kneeling at. "Now there's nothing left for me to believe in."

During all of this Valerie was unaware of the figure that was materializing on the stone bench she was kneeling at, revealing a girl that appeared to be in her late teens. The girl had short brown hair and wore glasses in front of her brown eyes, and her outfit consisted of a red top hat with a yellow ribbon that had long strands, a red overcoat that was worn over a white dress and a silver sash-like belt to completely the look. By the time she completely appeared she was sitting on the bench with Valerie's head on her lap instead of on the bench.

"Do you really think that?" The girl asked, a soft smile on her face as she gazed down at the crying girl.

That was when Valerie looked up and realized that the girl was in front of her. She hadn't noticed her at all and where did she come from?

"What?"

"I can't believe you'd choose to give up so soon. There must be a part of you that still believes since I wouldn't be here if you didn't."

"Who are you?" Valerie asked, clearly confused by the fact that this girl was even here in the first place.

"Why I happen to be your Fairy Godsister, Crystal. And no, I don't mean Fairy Godmother. Do I seriously look like I'm old enough to be a mother?" Valerie wasn't sure how to respond so Crystal continued. "Besides, I'm here to help you get to the ball, and you can't go like that."

"You're helping me?" Valerie looked down at her dress. "But I don't think…"

"You're going and that's final, and we're kinda have to hurry since using magic takes time."

"Magic?"

"Yes, magic. Most people aren't aware that magic still exists, but only a few know how to use it." Crystal put a hand in her pockets as if to look for something, but didn't seem to find what she was looking for. "Huh? I could've sworn I put it there."

"What are you looking for?" Valerie asked.

"My iPod." Seeing the confused look on Valerie's face she continued. "I don't use a wand in order to use magic, but my iPod. Times have changed, you know. Now where did I put it?" It was when Crystal opened her overcoat that her face lit up upon seeing a pocket on the inside. "There it is!"

Valerie was surprised to see the iPod Crystal pulled out, along with her friends."

"Would you look at that?" Demolishor said.

"I would understand her using a magic wand, but an iPod?" Cyclonus said.

"Now what was I going to do next?" Crystal asked with a thoughtful look. "Oh that's right, I was going to use a pumpkin!"

"A pumpkin?" Valerie was confused. "What do you need a pumpkin for?"

"Simple! You need some form of transportation to the ball, and a pumpkin is perfect." With that Crystal pointed her iPod at a nearby pumpkin behind Valerie. "Now it's time for a good ol' song!"

Crystal then aimed her iPod at the pumpkin before a spell flew out and hit it, and then she started waving it around in the air, all the while a song playing on the speaker of the iPod itself.

Salagadoola mechicka boola bibbidi-bobbidi-boo

Put 'em together and what have you got

Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo

To Valerie's surprise the pumpkin seemed to come to life and started walking on legs made of vines as it made its way over to where they were.

Salagadoola mechicka boola bibbidi-bobbidi-boo

It'll do magic believe it or not

Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo

As soon as the pumpkin came over to where they were Crystal was using her magic to make it grow bigger.

Salagadoola means mechicka booleroo

But the thingmabob that does the job is

Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo

Salagadoola menchicka boola bibbidi-bobbidi-boo

Put 'em together and what have you got

Bibbidi-bobbidi bibbidi-bobbidi bibbidi-bobbidi-boo

No one (except for Crystal) expected the pumpkin to change into the form that it was now since it didn't even resemble the form it originally was.

"A limo?" Hot Shot exclaimed.

"I didn't see that one coming either." Blurr said.

"None of us did." Scavenger stated, glancing down at the mice sized Transformers.

Indeed Crystal had changed the pumpkin into a white limousine that seemed to glow slightly in the moonlight. Valerie was amazed by this and her mouth was hanging open in surprise as she went over to the vehicle.

"This is…amazing." Valerie said in awe.

"I know, right?" Crystal asked before turning to Scavenger. "Don't you think so?"

"I admit that I'm impressed." Scavenger replied. "But what are you going to do for a driver? Valerie isn't old enough to drive, and I don't think it'd be wise for her to go to the ball unescorted."

"Which is exactly why I'm choosing all of you to go with her to the ball."

"Including us?" Demolishor asked.

"Yes, including you five as well."

"Not to point out the obvious or anything, but how exactly are we going to be able to go when we're the size of mice?" Sideswipe asked.

"I'll be changing all of you into humans, of course."

Crystal then aimed her iPod at the Demolishor, Cyclonus, Hot Shot, Sideswipe, Blurr, Scavenger, and Starscream, and before anyone knew it seven men all wearing black tuxedos stood where Valerie's friends had been, but she could tell who was who instantly.

Demolishor appeared to be in his late 30s with green eyes and shaggy looking brown hair. When it came to the shirt he wore underneath his tuxedo the color appeared to be a brownish green color.

Like Demolishor, Cyclonus appeared to be the same age and had green eyes as well, but he had messy dark hair while he wore a gray shirt underneath his tuxedo.

Hot Shot appeared to be the age of 16 with blue eyes and messy blonde hair, and with his tuxedo he wore a yellow shirt.

Sideswipe also appeared to be 16 as well with blue eyes and neat black hair, and wore a blue shirt with his suit.

Blurr appeared to be in his late 20s with red eyes and slightly spiked dark brown hair. The shirt he wore with his tuxedo was blue, but it was a darker shade than what Sideswipe had.

Scavenger looked as if he were in his late 40s or so with gold eyes and graying hair. The color of the shirt he wore underneath his tuxedo was the standard white color.

And as for Starscream he appeared to be in his late 20s with orange red colored eyes and shaggy black hair that was slightly spiked, along with a red shirt under his tuxedo.

Valerie was surprised to find that her friends were now human and she was surprised at how handsome some of them looked. She watched as soon of them were talking to each other about the fact that they were human and she couldn't help but feel like she was dreaming all this. It was just amazing.

"What in Primus' name is going on here?" Valerie gasped when she spotted Thrust standing outside the doorway and seemed to be annoyed when he saw them, but then he spotted the seven Transformers turned humans. "Intruders! You better leave now or I'll have you kicked off this property before you can say Allspark!"

"I don't think so, buddy." Crystal said before pointing her iPod at Thrust and throwing a spell at him that caused him to fall unconscious. "That takes care of one pest. Now Scavenger, you'll be the one driving the limousine tonight with Starscream sitting with you, while the others sit with Valerie."

"That's nice and all, but what about Valerie's dress?" Starscream asked.

"Oh, that's right. I can't forget about your dress Valerie. After all I don't think you'll make a very good impression with what you're currently wearing at the moment." Crystal said before going up to Valerie and looking her over. "Okay, something that'll look nice…and match your eyes." She then smiled. "I got the perfect idea for your dress already!"

Crystal then aimed her iPod at Valerie and the magic surrounding her started to transform and change her ruined dress into something elegant and beautiful. She saw that she wore a long white dress that sparkled had the straps going over her shoulders, but the sleeves were blue see-through material that connected to the white straps while the hem of her dress also had the same blue see-through material as the sleeves did.

"It's…so beautiful." Valerie said in awe as she admired the enchanting dress she now wore. It was then that she noticed the slippers she wore. "Glass slippers?"

"Yes, your slippers are made out of glass."

Valerie went over to the nearby fountain to look at her reflection in the water's surface and she was surprised to see herself staring back at her. It was hard to believe that she was seeing herself and she felt like she was dreaming.

'If this is a dream then I don't want to wake up.' She thought.

"Thank you so much, Crystal. I won't ever forget this." Valerie said, going back over to Crystal.

"No need to thank me, but something you do need to remember is that this magic won't last forever. Because when it becomes midnight the spell will be broken and everything I've done and created will disappear."

"Midnight? That's more than I could hope for and I understand."

"I know you understand, but just to make sure…" Crystal then turned to the human men that had once been Transformers. "I'm counting on you guys to make she that she manages to get away before everything is undone. Am I clear?"

"Crystal… Crystal clear!" They said in unison.

"Good." Crystal then turned back to Valerie. "Now it's time for you to head to the ball. You wouldn't want to waste anymore time here and I'm sure you'd want to have your chance to dance." Both Hot Shot and Sideswipe each gently grabbed Valerie's hands and guided her into the limousine where Demolishor and Blurr were waiting in the back while Scavenger and Starscream sat up in front. "I hope you have a good time there as well."

Soon the limousine drove off and Valerie looked out the window in time to see Crystal use her magic iPod and disappeared. It was only a matter of time before they arrived at the palace.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

At the palace the ballroom was crowded with people that had been invited to the event that night, but the majority of the people themselves were young women both human and Transformer. One by one they came up and were introduced to Jetfire who stood in front of the two thrones behind him, while Silverbolt, Astera, Optimus, and Megatron watched in anticipation and suspense from the balcony that overlooked the ballroom. Honestly Jetfire was bored and hardly paid attention to Hoist as he announced the names of the women written on a very long list; the list was so long that they weren't even a quarter of the way through it. He knew that none of the women introduced to him so far were his sparkmate.

'She has to be here.' He thought. 'I just know it.'

As for the King and Queen, Silver hold just shook his head before resting it on a servo.

"So far none of them seem to be his sparkmate." He said, sounding slightly disappointed.

"This was bound to happen, Silverbolt." Astera said. "But there are still more on the list."

"I get the feeling Jetfire's already bored." Optimus said.

Megatron sighed.

"This is going to be a long night." He said.

As for Valerie she soon arrived at the palace and she couldn't help but gaze in amazement at the size of it after having stepped out of the limousine. It was so grand.

"C'mon Valerie." Demolishor suddenly said, causing the girl to snap out of her thoughts. "We can't waste any time. We only have until midnight, remember?"

Valerie realized that Demolishor was right and he, along with the others that came started to escort her into the palace. The 14 year old girl found it strange that her friends were now human and she had been so used to Demolishor, Cyclonus, Hot Shot, Sideswipe, and Blurr being mice sized for so many years, but she was glad that they were all helping her. As for the inside of the palace it was just a big as it looked on the outside with everything brightly lit up and guards lined up as they did their job.

Alyss, Sideways, and Drake stood off to the side as they watched Anna and Blair being called up to introduce themselves to the Prince. As for Jetfire he mentally rolled his optics at the two sisters, knowing automatically that they weren't the one he was looking for. He bowed to them in respect like he had down for all the other women so far, but when he looked up he felt his spark skip a pulse. In the distance beyond the large group of people was a girl wearing a beautiful long white dress that seemed to sparkle like stars with the sleeves and hem of the dress made of blue see-through cloth. He could tell that she seemed to be a bit lost and had probably just arrived at the palace. Jetfire knew right away that she was the one he had been looking for this whole time. He walked past both Anna and Blair as he made his way over to the girl that he knew was his future sparkmate.

Valerie felt confused as she looked around the ballroom that she didn't notice what was going on until a white Transformer with a red head and a gold face mask came up to her and she was taken by surprise when he suddenly bowed to her. No one had ever bowed to her before and even if they did she couldn't remember.

"Milady." He said softly, his voice sounding slightly rough but to her she thought it suited him.

She blushed slightly when he called her that, but Valerie remembered her manners and curtsied to him in return. He suddenly held out a white servo to her and she hesitated before placing her hand in his (which greatly dwarfed her own). As soon as she did the Transformer started leading her through the crowd of people and before she knew it Valerie found herself dancing with him inside the ballroom.

Silverbolt and Astera had watched the whole thing happen with both Optimus and Megatron and a knowing smile appeared on the Queen's face.

"It looks like our son finally found her." Astera mused.

"See? I knew this party was a good idea." Silverbolt stated. "I wonder who she is, though."

"I wish I could give you an answer, but I'm afraid that I don't know. I've never seen someone like her before." Optimus said.

"This will prove to be interesting, wouldn't you say Prime?" Megatron asked.

"Indeed."

Silverbolt turned to both Optimus and Megatron.

"I want you two to go down there and make sure they're not disturbed. We've come this far already and we can't lose this opportunity." Silverbolt ordered.

"As you wish, your Majesty."

Demolishor, Cyclonus, Hot Shot, Sideswipe, Blurr, Scavenger, and Starscream all watched as their friend danced with the white Transformer from where they stood. So far everything was going smoothly and they could tell that Valerie was happy. Suddenly Starscream felt someone tapping on his shoulder and turned around to find a girl about the same age as Valerie standing behind him. The girl had short brown hair that framed her face and these deep looking green eyes that reminded him of emeralds, and the dress she wore consisted of the colors red and white. He had to admit that she looked pretty.

"Will you dance with me?" The girl asked as she gave him a lovely smile. Starscream was surprised that this girl was asking him to dance with her. And for some reason he felt drawn to her. He found himself accepting the girl's request and soon found himself dancing with her. "By the way, what's your name?"

"Uh…it's Starscream." He told her and he could feel his face getting warmer.

"That's an interesting name. I'm Alexis."

Meanwhile Alyss, Sideways, Anna, Blair, and Drake were all watching as the mysterious girl danced with the Prince, but for some of them it was hard to tell who the girl was at all with all the people standing in front of them.

"Mother, who is that girl?" Blair asked.

"Better yet, do we know her?" Anna asked.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd bet that the Prince does."

"But we've never seen her before." Drake stated.

"Neither have I." Alyss said.

"I'd have to agree. She certainly seems to have a certain—" That was when Sideways noticed something as the Prince and the girl danced by them. "Hold on. There's something…familiar about that girl."

Sideways walked away as he tried to get a closer look at the mysterious yet familiar looking girl. He saw them dance outside, but just as he was about to follow them a curtain fell over the doorway in front of him and he turned to see Optimus and Megatron standing to his right.

"I'm sorry, but I must inform you not to disturb them." Optimus told him. "Why don't you go and enjoy the rest of the ball while you can."

Sideways quietly growled before walking back over to his family. Alyss gave him a confused look.

"What's wrong, sweetie?" Alyss asked.

"Nothing, dear." Sideways told her.

Blair couldn't help but feel bored as she watched other people dance around in the ballroom, but that all changed when a boy who appeared to be 18 with long light green hair that was tied back in a ponytail and blue eyes and wore the standard black tuxedo with a white shirt underneath came up to her. She blushed slightly when he smiled at her and held out a hand.

"May I have this dance?" He asked her.

"…Sure." Blair said before placing her hand in his.

As the boy led her to the dance floor Blair was surprised when she heard him speak.

"My name's N, if you were wondering." He told her.

"I'm Blair."

With that they both ended up dancing together.

Valerie couldn't help but feel like she was dreaming as she dance with the white Transformer before her. There was something familiar about him and for some reason dancing with him felt familiar as well. That was when she took noticed of two features she had overlooked earlier.

'Wings.' She thought as she spotted them on his back. She brought her blue eyes back to his partially hidden face as her gaze was drawn to his. 'Gold optics.'

Valerie was suddenly reminded of the dream she had before waking up with morning. She had danced with someone in her dreams that had wings and gold optics just like she was now. She suddenly wondered if the Transformer before her was the one she dreamed about, the one that had kissed her. Valerie blushed as she recalled that part of her dream and looked away from his face.

"Is something wrong?" He asked, sounding genuinely concerned for her.

"N-no, nothing's wrong." She replied, feeling slightly embarrassed that she stuttered slightly. "It's just that I haven't danced with anyone in so long, that's all."

"Really? How come you feel that way?"

"I've been busy for the past four years that I hardly had any time to practice." It was mostly true.

"I think you're doing just fine for not having danced in four years."

Valerie looked up at him, feeling surprised by the compliment he gave her.

"R-really?"

"Yep!"

Valerie seemed to be drawn to those gold optics of his and she couldn't seem to look away from them either. The more she looked at them the more familiar they felt to her until she was convinced that the white Transformer she was dancing with was the same one from her dream.

"Who are you?"

"Huh?" He suddenly showed confusion in his gold optics, but there was also something else that showed in them as well. "Why are you asking me that question?"

It was then that Valerie realized that she had said that question out loud and blushed.

"S-sorry." She said sheepishly. Valerie couldn't help but notice how handsome the white Transformer was and she felt attracted to him for some reason. "You seem familiar to me and I feel as if I should know you."

"Familiar, eh? Maybe we do know each other or it could be a sense of déjà vu." He admitted. "How about we rest for a bit?"

Valerie found herself agreeing to the Transformer's request and he led her by the hand over to a fountain that was in the courtyard.

Jetfire mentally sighed in relief from having to be vague when talking to the girl. He had no doubt that she was his sparkmate since she had said that he felt familiar to her and he knew she was referring to the dream she had when he appeared to her and danced with her. There was only one thing left to do to see if she recognized him. He started humming the Cybertronian Lullaby.

Valerie's eyes widened and quietly gasped when she heard the white Transformer humming the familiar tune that she had recently learned was the Cybertronian Lullaby and turned to him. Now only did he seemed familiar to her, but the way his voice sounded when he was humming the song…it was the same as the voice she heard in her head earlier that day.

"The Cybertronian Lullaby…" She said quietly.

The white Transformer stopped humming before turning to face her.

"You know it?" He asked.

"Sort of." Valerie lowered her gaze as she felt her face heat up slightly. "I've heard it before awhile back, but during that time I didn't know what it was called until a friend of mine told me. Where did you learn it?"

"I learned it from my mother. She used to sing it to me when I was little so I've practically memorized it." He looked upwards towards the sky. "The sky looks beautiful tonight."

Valerie wondered why the Transformer said this, but when she looked up she saw why. The night sky was littered with stars and it was quite the sight to behold. She had never gotten such a good view of it like this before and it was so beautiful.

"What are your dreams?" The white Transformer suddenly asked.

Valerie was confused by his question, but then she thought back to what Scavenger told her that morning and how her heart might've found its new home somewhere else. She noticed that she faintly felt that she might've found it here.

"My dreams are to find where my heart really belongs, but I'm not sure where that is. Maybe someday I'll find it."

Jetfire couldn't help but smile behind his face mask at this. She was the one he was looking for and it was apparent that she recognized the song. For once he was actually glad he agreed to have the ball held that night.

"Are you ready to continue dancing?" He asked, holding his hand out to her.

Valerie nodded before placing her hand in his to continue dancing. The longer she continued to dance with the white Transformer she found herself wishing that this night would last forever; she knew that as soon as it was midnight she would be forced to go back to the life she led for the past four years. Tonight was the first time she had truly felt happy and she didn't want it to end. Before she knew it Valerie found herself sitting beside the Transformer as they faced each other. She felt her heart flutter and her stomach do flips as she gazed into his gold optics, and there was something about him that she found…attractive.

"This is the first time I've actually enjoyed one of these balls." He told her. "Your family must be proud to have you as their daughter."

At this Valerie felt sad and looked away. Her family wasn't proud of her and treated her as nothing more than a servant. They even ruined her dress that her friends worked so hard to make for her just so they could stop her from coming here tonight.

'I don't want to go back to that life.' She thought sadly.

Jetfire noticed the change in the girl's mood and how sad she looked from mentioning her family. Was there something wrong with her family that caused her to be this way? At first he wasn't sure what to do but eventually got an idea.

"Could you…close your eyes for a bit?" He asked.

She looked back at him with a clear look of confusion in her blue eyes, but then she closed them. Jetfire removed his gold face mask before slowly bringing his face closer to hers.

Suddenly the bell went off and Valerie turned her head to he left before opening her eyes, only to tense up when she was what time it was.

"It's midnight." Valerie gasped quietly.

"Yeah, what about it?" Jetfire asked after quickly getting his face mask back on.

"I have to leave."

Valerie got up and tried to leave, but the white Transformer stopped her by grabbing her hand.

"Where are you going?"

"I need to leave!"

"Why?"

"It's—" The bell went off again and she felt desperate to get away. "I have to go!"

Valerie managed to pull her hand away and started running towards the stairs.

"Wait!" He cried, causing her to stop and turn around to find him standing at the foot of the steps while she was at the top. She could see confusion and disappointment in his gold optics. "I'm Jetfire! At least tell me your name!"

Valerie's eyes widened in surprise (not having expected this), but then a sad look appeared in her eyes as she gave him a sad smile.

"Jetfire…" She said softly. "I'm—"

"C'mon, we gotta get going!"

Valerie turned around to find Demolishor and Cyclonus standing at the doorway before she turned back to Jetfire.

"I'm sorry…"

With that Valerie ran off as Demolishor and Cyclonus helped her get through the crowd of people. She heard Jetfire's voice call out to her and she looked over her shoulder in time to see a bunch of women swarm around him and block his way. Optimus and Megatron saw that the girl was running away and started to chase after her. As Valerie was rushing down the grand steps she suddenly lost one of her glass slippers and went back to retrieve it, but as soon as she saw the two Transformers gaining up to her she abandoned the idea and continued running away with her friends. By the time she got to the limousine she found Hot Shot, Sideswipe, Blurr, Scavenger, and Starscream already waiting for them and they sped off as soon as the door was shut.

After awhile Valerie looked out the window to see that they were being pursued by a bunch of vehicles, but luckily they managed to get out of their line of sight before the magic of Crystal's iPod wore off. They quickly hid behind a bunch of bushes in time to see their pursuers pass their hiding place. Valerie sighed sadly now that the magic was gone, leaving her in her ruined dress and her friends back to their original forms (along with Demolishor, Cyclonus, Hot Shot, Sideswipe, and Blurr return to being mice sized Transformers).

"I'm so sorry, guys." She told them.

"Hey, don't sweat it!" Hot Shot said. "We were still able to get out of there in time."

"That's true." Valerie looked up at the moon. "Tonight felt like a wonderful dream. It's too bad that it had to end."

It was then that Demolishor noticed that despite the fact that Valerie's dress was gone she still had one of the glass slippers she wore.

"Valerie, look!" Demolishor said. "You still have a glass slipper."

"He's right." Cyclonus said as he noticed it as well.

Valerie looked down saw that Demolishor and Cyclonus were right and that there was indeed a glass slipper on her foot. She was surprised by this and bend down to take off the delicate shoe and held it in her hands. She smiled a soft smile as she thought back to when she was dancing with Jetfire just an hour or so ago before looking up to the sky.

'Wherever you are…' She thought. '…thank you, Crystal.'

A hand landed on Valerie's shoulder and she turned to find that it was Scavenger that did it.

"It's been some time since we've seen you this happy." Scavenger told her with a warm smile. "I get the feeling that things are going to be okay from here on out."

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

"She got away?"

Optimus and Megatron merely nodded to Silverbolt after they had told him and Astera about what happened earlier.

"Everything was going fine until she ran away." Optimus told him. "But luckily we managed to find this glass slipper that she lost during her retreat."

Both Silverbolt and Astera couldn't help but gaze at the glass slipper as soon as Optimus pulled it out. They had never seen anything like it before. That was when Jetfire came into the room with Hoist.

"Hey what's everyone looking a—" It was then that Jetfire noticed the glass slipper everyone was looking at and felt slightly confused. "Where did that come from?"

"This slipper happens to be the one that girl wore, the same one you were dancing with." Megatron answered.

"You mean this whole time she was wearing glass slippers and dancing in them?"

"Precisely." Optimus answered. "She lost this one as she was running away. Do you know why she ran away?"

"Not a clue. She got worried when it was midnight and looked as if she was in a hurry. It was so strange."

"Do you know who she is?" Astera asked.

"No, I didn't even get her name. She was about to tell me when these two guys came and escort her out. But what I do know is that she's the one."

"We knew it!" Silverbolt said. "And I think we both know what we have to do now."

"A search, I presume." Optimus guessed.

"If that's the case then I'm coming as well." Jetfire declared.

At this Astera turned to Jetfire with a surprised look.

"You want to be a part of the search? But why?" She asked.

"I happen to know what she looks like so I'll be able to confirm if we found her or not."

"And interesting idea." Silverbolt mused. "We'll start the search tomorrow."

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

In Valerie's dream she found herself in that misty looking place she had been in before. And like last time she saw the figure from before appear in front of her, but this time she recognized the wings and gold optics just as his features became clearer to her.

"Jetfire?" She asked, feeling confused yet happy to see him again.

Jetfire's optics seemed to smile at Valerie as he held a hand out to her. She placed her hand in his and before she knew it she found herself dancing with him. It was then she realized her surroundings had changed to the courtyard at the palace (the same one they had danced in), but there was a thin mist in the air that gave the area an ethereal and dream-like appearance; she also noticed that the PJs she wore to bed had been replaced with the dress she wore to the ball. Yet even after these changes Jetfire didn't seem to notice or he was aware of them but wasn't saying anything about them.

{Why did you leave?} He asked her, and she could hear the curiosity in his voice.

"It's…complicated and hard to explain." She told him. "But if it means anything to you, I honestly didn't want to leave. I would've stayed if I could."

{I figured as much from your expression before you left. Although you never did tell me your name.}

Valerie blushed when he said this.

"My name is Valerie." She then remembered the one question that had been in her mind ever since this dream started. "But why are you here in my dream? You're not something I've dreamt up after going to the ball, are you?"

It was then that Jetfire laughed and just hearing it made Valerie's stomach do a flip.

{Primus no! I'm not something your mind dreamt up in your sleep. I'm actually here, yet at the same time I'm not.}

This confused Valerie.

"I don't exactly understand what you mean." She admitted.

She heard Jetfire give off a humming sound as if he were thinking.

{Let's see…} He started. {Okay, think about a bridge for a minute here. We both know that a bridge connects one end to the other, but the bridge I'm telling you about connects from point A to point C.}

"Point A to point C? Don't you mean point A to point B?"

{Ah, so you noticed!} Valerie had a feeling that if Jetfire's face mask hadn't been covering the lower half of his face she would've seem him grinning. {Point A would be one end of the bridge while the other end is point C.}

"But where's point B?"

{Point B is in between points A and C, but point B would be a platform that connects point A to point C.}

"What does point B have to do with the bridge?"

{Everything, as a matter of fact. Point A would be your end, while mine would be point C. But when the right circumstances are met we're able to cross that bridge and meet halfway at the platform that's point B, which happens to be the case right now in this dream.}

Valerie thought about Jetfire's explanation in her head and noticed that it made sense.

"Are you saying that we have some sort of connection?" She asked.

{Now you're starting to get it!}

"But what kind of connection?"

Jetfire chuckled.

{If I told you it wouldn't be a secret.} It was then that they suddenly stopped dancing. {But don't worry about it for now. I promise you'll find out about it eventually.} Valerie started feeling a little lightheaded for some reason and she felt as if her eyes would close at any second. {But right now it looks like you're starting to wake up.}She was surprised when he suddenly held her close as if giving her a hug. {I'll find you. So until then I'll see you later.}

This confused Valerie but before she could voice her question…

She woke up.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

That morning Alyss was in the living room channel surfing for something interesting to watch on 70 inch plasma screen TV that was hanging on the wall across from where she sat on the comfortable couch. So far she hadn't found anything that caught her attention and it showed with the bored expression on her face. Right after she changed the channel she suddenly became curious when she saw that the news channel was going to cover something important that concerned the Prince and the incident that happened last night. Seeing this she stood up and went to look for Valerie.

"Valerie! Valerie!" Alyss called out. "Where could that girl possibly…"

"Yes? What is it?" Valerie asked after coming out of the kitchen.

Upon hearing Valerie's voice Alyss turned to the girl.

"Where are Anna and Blair?"

"Uh, I think they're still asleep."

"Of course!" Alyss scoffed quietly as she rolled her eyes. "Don't just stand there! Bring their breakfast up immediately!"

Valerie went back into the kitchen to get Anna and Blair's breakfast ready to bring to them. As this happened both Demolishor and Cyclonus had been watching the conversation between the two from where they were hiding in the mouse hole.

"I wonder what's going on." Demolishor said.

"Any ideas?" Cyclonus asked, turning to his companion.

"Not a clue, but let's go find out.

With that both Demolishor and Cyclonus started making their way to where Alyss was going. At this time Alyss had already entered Anna's room.

"Anna, get up now!" Alyss demanded as she opened the blinds to let the bright morning light into the room.

Anna groggily sat up in bed and yawned.

"Why do I need to get up?" Anna asked before yawning again.

"Don't question me, just get up this instant!" Alyss didn't wait to hear Anna's response since she quickly left and went into Blair's room. "Wake up, Blair!"

Just like with Anna, Blair was just as tired as she was woken up by her mother.

"Huh?" Blair asked as she yawned. "What could be so important that you have to wake me up?

That was when Anna came into Blair's room appearing to be half asleep.

"I don't see why you should be so anxious, mother." Anna stated.

Suddenly Drake appeared in the doorway looking slightly tired and irritated.

"Could you three keep it down? It's kinda hard to sleep when I can hear your loud voices as if you're standing right next to me yelling into my ears." Drake said irritably.

"Hush!" Alyss snapped when she turned to Drake before grabbing the remote to the TV in Blair's room. "There's some news on the incident that happened last night."

Sideways walked into the room just as Alyss switched the TV on and went to the news channel where they just started discussing last night.

"Starting early this morning the King announced that a search party, consisting of Grand Dukes, Optimus Prime and Megatron, and Prince Jetfire, have gone out to find the girl who had lost what appears to be a slipper made out of glass. This was what the Prince had to say about the details of this search."

Valerie entered the room with a single tray that had both of Anna's and Blair's breakfast on it and she couldn't help but turn to the TV that was showing the news. She had overhead that the Prince was going to discuss details about something and she help back a gasp when the TV showed Jetfire just as he was leaving a house with the Optimus and Megatron.

"We've been searching since this morning and we still haven't found the girl who lost the glass slipper." Jetfire said. "But I can tell you this: I'm not giving up until I found her and when I find the one who can wear this slipper, she'll be the one that I want to marry."

In her surprise Valerie dropped the tray she was holding that contained Anna's and Blair's breakfast, the glass plates shattering upon impacting the floor along with the food as well. The 14 year old girl didn't have time to react when she suddenly got slapped painfully in the face by Sideways and was knocked down to the floor from the force of the blow. The side of her face stung so much (she knew that it was going to bruise), but it was nothing compared to the icy dagger-like glare that Sideways was giving her with his pink optics. If looks could kill, she would've been dead even before she looked at his face.

"You clumsy impudent wench! We've told you time and time again never to drop things!" Sideways sneered. Now clean that up!"

Valerie quickly started picking up the broken pieces of the two dishes and the food she dropped.

"And afterward I expect you to help my daughters get ready for when the Prince arrives!" Alyss added.

"We have to get ready and quickly!" Anna exclaimed just as Valerie placed the tray with the broken dishes on a nearby table. "Valerie! Get my things ready!"

"No, get my stuff ready instead of her!" Blair ordered.

"My things need to be cleaned!"

Both Anna and Blair were piling their things into Valerie's arms as they argued, but then she suddenly smiled.

"What's wrong with you?" Blair asked, noticing her smile.

"Don't just stand there! You know we gotta get dressed!"

At this Valerie looked down at what she was wearing.

"Dressed." Valerie said before handing the pile of clothes in her arms over to Blair. "We need to get dressed. It wouldn't make a good first impression if they see me looking like this."

Valerie left the room, completely unaware of the shocked expressions Anna and Blair had as her stepparents and stepsiblings watched her walk down the hallway while she made her way to her own room upstairs. Both Anna and Blair turned to Alyss and Sideways.

"Mother, did you see what she just did?" Blair complained.

"You're just going to let her get away with that?" Anna added.

"Shush!" Alyss ordered.

They could faintly hear Valerie humming quietly as she went through the door that led upstairs. Sideways noticed Alyss' eyes narrow into a glare and turned to her.

"I'll take care of this." He told her quietly before he quietly started to follow the 14 year old girl.

Both Demolishor and Cyclonus didn't miss this as they had observed everything that happened.

"This doesn't look good." Cyclonus commented.

"We gotta warn Valerie!" Demolishor declared.

Demolishor and Cyclonus quickly crawled into the nearby mouse hole in the wall in order to get to Valerie's room before Sideways. Upon getting into the girl's room they found her still humming as she stood in front of her mirror stand while she brushed her hair. Valerie was about to pill out some foundation so she could cover the area where a bruise was beginning to form on her face.

"Valerie! Look out!"

Valerie looked down to find both Demolishor and Cyclonus standing on her mirror stand, unaware of the fact that Sideways was slowly opening the door that led out of her room.

"What's wrong?" She asked, but when she looked up at the mirror her eyes widened when she saw Sideways' reflection just as he was using a key to lock the door from the inside. She gasped as she quickly turned around in shock and tried to stop her stepfather, but she was too late since Sideways slammed the door shut just as she was about to reach it. Valerie tried to open the door, but it wouldn't open, which caused her to start pointing her fist against the wooden door. "No! Let me out! Let me out! You can't do this!"

Behind the locked door Sideways gave off a quiet chuckle when he heard Valerie's desperate cries to be free. He then started making his way down the stairs before Alyss came up to him.

"Did you do it?" Alyss asked.

"Yes, I did. It was too easy." Sideways replied before handing the key to Alyss. "You hold onto that key for now."

Alyss nodded before playing the key into her pocket. From where they were hiding Demolishor and Cyclonus were livid as they watched this exchange between the two.

"We gotta get that key!" Cyclonus said.

"We will, but we'll have to be careful." Demolishor told him. It was then that he noticed the limo pulling up in the driveway. "And we better do it quickly.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Jetfire was more than ready to get out of the vehicle as soon as it stopped, but the hand that Optimus placed on his shoulder prevented him from doing so.

"Patience, Jetfire. We don't need to rush." Optimus told him.

Jetfire glanced at Optimus before turning back to the window. He could feel a familiar presence coming from the manor.

'She's here.' He thought.

Optimus turned to Megatron, who was currently carrying the glass slipper on a plush looking cushion which had a piece of cloth over it to hide it from sight. As soon as they got out of the limousine Megatron handed the slipper over to Hoist to carry. All four of them went up to the front door and rung the doorbell.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

From where she was within the room she was locked in Valerie heard the doorbell go off and she felt her heart sink in sadness as a few tears silently fell from her eyes.

'He's here.' She thought sadly while she bowed her head in defeat.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Anna, Blair, Drake, Alyss, and Sideways all came downstairs. Alyss went over to the door before turning to face her two daughters.

"Now remember, this is you last chance and I expect you not to waste it." Alyss told

Alyss opened the door, only to have a trumpet sounding right in front of her face which caused her to flinch as she backed away from the door. Hoist was holding a plush cushion that was covered with a cloth in one hand while he pulled the trumpet away from his face.

"Announcing his Highness, Prince Jetfire, and his Imperial Grace, Grand Dukes Optimus Prime and Megatron." Hoist said before stepping out of the way to allow the three Transformers to enter the manor.

"It is an honor to have you in our home, my lords." Alyss said politely.

"Likewise." Optimus agreed.

Demolishor and Cyclonus were watching from their hiding place in the wall, and seeing the cushion with the cloth on top (which they knew was covering the glass slipper) made them remember just how important it was to retrieve the key Alyss had in order to free Valerie.

"These are our daughters, Anna and Blair."

Both girls bowed in respect to Jetfire, Optimus, and Megatron.

"Your Highness." Blair said.

Jetfire frowned behind his face mask. Despite feeling her presence within this manor she wasn't among them. He was aware of the fact that neither Anna nor Blair was the girl he was searching for, but he couldn't just leave the home and continue searching until he found her (which was something he had been tempted to do since the search began) since it would seem suspicious. It would be like going to a store and instantly leaving since you couldn't find the item you were looking for. So that left him with having to stay and see if the glass slipper fitted anyone's foot before he could move on to the next place.

'Something's up.' He assumed before bowing. 'Just grin and bear it.'

Hoist went up to him with a folded scroll and Jetfire knew what he had to do. When he opened the scroll Jetfire grimaced at the words written on the paper that he was beginning to become more familiar with. In fact he could probably recite the whole thing by now.

"You know what? I'm just going to summarize it all." Jetfire said.

"You know you have to read the whole thing word for word." Optimus told him.

"How about one of you read it instead?"

Jetfire then held the scroll out to Megatron. Megatron grumbled quietly before taking the scroll from Jetfire and opening it. Demolishor and Cyclonus took this chance to climb up the table that Alyss was standing next to so they could get the key.

"All loyal subjects of his Imperial Majesty have been made aware of the royal proclamation that involves a certain glass slipper." Megatron started, and Hoist took that as his queue to unclothe the glass slipper that seemed to shine in light. "It's announced today that—"

"That's my slipper!" Anna exclaimed, pretending to be surprised.

"No, it's my slipper!" Blair exclaimed, and like her sister she pretended to be surprised.

Jetfire frowned at this, knowing that they were both lying. He mentally sighed as he watched the two sisters argue over the glass slipper and almost tried to snatch it away from Hoist, but his friend was able keep it away from them.

"Girls! Remember your manners." Sideways said before turning to Megatron. "We're sorry about that little interruption. Please continue."

"Of course." Megatron said quietly before turning back to the scroll and reading aloud. "It's announced today that a quest has been commenced to search the whole kingdom. The sole purpose of this quest is as followed: Every single maiden in the kingdom is to try on this glass slipper, and if said slipper should fit properly on their foot, the search will end and that maiden shall become the wife of his Royal Highness, Prince Jetfire." As Megatron read the royal proclamation Demolishor had managed to get inside Alyss' pocket where the key was. Jetfire didn't miss the sideways glance that Sideways gave towards the top of the stairs, serving to further his suspicions. "That maiden shall then be viewed as the Prince's betrothed and rule by his side as Queen should the current King and Queen pass on."

Megatron sighed. Demolishor and Cyclonus managed to retrieve the key without anyone noticed and tried to quietly sneak away with it.

"You all must be tired." Sideways said. "May we offer you some energon?"

"Thank you for offering, but no." Optimus replied. "We have to move on to the fitting."

"As you wish." Alyss said before turning to her daughters. "You shall be first, Blair."

A chair had been pulled out for Blair to sit in and she did so before Hoist proceeded to slipping the glass slipper onto her foot.

"I told you it was my slipper. It's my size after all, and I always wear the same size." Blair said. Hoist lifted up the foot that was wearing the slipper to show everyone that it fit, but to everyone's surprise it barely covered a toe. Blair gasped quietly in surprise before starting to play with her hair nervously. "Uh, well…it might be a little snug today. It wasn't like this at all last night when I was dancing." Hoist tried again to make the glass slipper fit, but it wasn't working. "This is ridiculous! It always fit before. Are you even trying?"

"Are you sure you're trying it on the right foot?" Alyss asked.

"I'm quite sure, actually." Hoist replied. "And I don't think a slipper meant to be worn on the left foot can fit on the right foot."

Demolishor and Cyclonus finally managed to get the key out of Alyss' pocket and managed to quietly sneak away. Jetfire noticed something out of the corner of his optic and spotted two mice size Transformers sneaking away with a key, but he did nothing to alert the others of their presence as they started to carefully and quietly climb the stairs.

'First I feel her presence in this manor but don't see Valerie around, then I noticed the father quickly glancing upstairs, and now I notice two mice size Transformers sneaking away with a key and going upstairs.' He thought.

If what he was thinking was true, then there was something that this family was hiding from them, or someone.

"But he is trying it on the right foot." Blair stated. "There must be something wrong with the slipper itself. Or you must be doing something wrong."

"Okay, that's enough." Optimus said. "The next young lady, please?"

Demolishor and Cyclonus had just managed to get to the top of the steps when they heard Optimus announce that it was Anna's turn and suddenly became worried as they saw her sit down in the chair.

"Did you hear that, Cyclonus?" Demolishor asked.

"Yeah. We need to hurry." Cyclonus replied.

The two mice size Transformers quickly carried the key with them as they crawled underneath the door leading upstairs to where Valerie's room was. Seeing all the steps they would have to climb Demolishor turned to Cyclonus.

"Can't you fly up to the top with the key?"

"I wish! The key's too heavy for me to carry by myself and it'd weigh me down."

"You might not be able to do that, but you can at least fly a bit as we climb each step."

And that was what they did as they climbed up the steps.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Valerie sat on her knees in front of the door as she continued crying silently. Having found out about Jetfire had been looking for her since this morning had given her hope, but just like any other time she got her hopes up they were soon turn down without any effort. It wasn't fair that she was being denied her chance to be happy. She suddenly heard something and stopped crying in order to listen, and sure enough she heard Cyclonus' voice before looking through the keyhole. She saw both Demolishor and Cyclonus climb up the last step.

"We're coming, Valerie! We're gonna get you out of there!" Demolishor said.

Valerie's eyes widened when she saw what the two mice size Transformers were carrying.

"You got the key!" Valerie said as she started crying tears of joy just as Demolishor crawled underneath the locked door. She was just about to ask them how they got the key when she spotted Thrust and gasped. "Cyclonus, look out!"

But it was too late. Thrust slammed a bowl down on top of Cyclonus, trapping him underneath it with the key. The bigger Transformer laughed.

"I finally caught one of you troublesome cretins! Four years I have waited for this day to come!" Thrust exclaimed.

"No!" Valerie cried as she banged desperately on the door. "Let him go, Thrust!"

"I rather not."

"Please, I'm begging you! Just let him go!"

"You can beg all you like, but it still won't change my mind in the least bit!"

From outside the room Hot Shot, Sideswipe, and Blurr crawled out from the nearby hole in the wall after hearing what was going on. Demolishor also crawled out of Valerie's room to join them.

"Let him go, Thrust! Or else!" Demolishor demanded.

"Or else what, mouse? You're going to stab me with a fork?" Thrust asked in a mocking tone before laughing. "You're the one that's clearly at a disadvantage here!"

"Think again, squid head!"

Suddenly a barrage of blaster fire was being shot at Thrust by Hot Shot, Sideswipe, and Blurr, followed by Demolishor doing the same. During the distraction Demolishor quickly tried to move the bowl away from Thrust the bigger Transformer ended up stopping his efforts to help his friend. Thrust merely laughed during all this, but then Valerie realized something.

"Starscream…!" Valerie said quietly before turning to the door. "Quick! Someone get Starscream!"

Luckily for the 14 year old girl Sideswipe managed to hear Valerie's plea and quickly crawled through the nearby hole in the wall in order to get to the kitchen. As soon as he got there he instantly found Starscream sitting at the table looking bored out of his mind and Sideswipe didn't hesitate to run over to him.

"Starscream!" Sideswipe yelled, causing said Transformer to turn his attention to the mouse size Transformer.

"What's going on?" Starscream asked.

"Come quickly! Valerie's locked in her room and the key that both Demolishor and Cyclonus managed to retrieve is trapped underneath a bowl with Cyclonus because of Thrust!"

Starscream growled before getting up from his chair and scooping up Sideswipe as he made his way to a door, but it wasn't the one that led into the hallway. Instead this door happened to be a secret passage that led to a storage room on the second floor, which was perfect for this kind of situation when the two needed to get by the stepfamily without being noticed.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Anna was getting frustrated with Hoist as he tried to get the glass slipper on her foot.

"You stupid idiot!" Anna yelled before snatching the glass slipper away from Hoist. "If you're not going to do it right then I'll do it myself and make it fit!" Anna struggled a big, but eventually she managed to get the slipper to 'fit' when in reality her foot was just really cramped in it. Despite the pain her foot felt she held it up for everyone to see! "There!"

"It fits!" Alyss exclaimed excitedly.

"It does?" Optimus asked, unsure if that was the case.

"You're kidding, right?" Megatron asked.

Suddenly Anna's cramped foot came out of the glass slipper, which caused the delicate shot to me flung into the air. Frantically Jetfire, Optimus, Megatron, and Hoist all tried to catch it before it could hit the floor and shatter, and luckily Jetfire managed to catch it just in time. He sighed quietly in relief.

"Apparently he was." Jetfire answered, referring to Megatron's question.

"We're so sorry, your Highness." Sideways apologized. "It won't happen again."

"I would hope so!" Jetfire said, thankful that his face mask was hiding his annoyance.

Jetfire realized that that was the 'last' young lady to try the glass slipper on, but he knew that Valerie was still somewhere in this house. He knew what he had to do.

He had to start stalling for time.

'I just hope this works…' He thought.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Starscream and Sideswipe ran out of the storage room as soon as they got there and down the hallway towards the door leading up to Valerie's room. It was surprising how Starscream didn't manage to trip as he ran up the stairs, and upon seeing Thrust (along with Hot Shot, Blurr, and Demolishor trying to attack him) he gritted his dentas

"Thrust!" Starscream growled.

This caught Thrust's attention and his pink optics widen in surprise.

"Starscream!" Thrust squeaked. "What are you doing here!"

"I think the answer would be obvious! To take care of you!"

Seeing this Valerie quickly pulled her head away from the keyhole and shut her eyes tightly as she could hear the sounds of the conflict between Starscream and Thrust. When the sounds died down she slowly opened her eyes and was about to peek through the keyhole again, but then she noticed something and looked down to see the key was being slid underneath the door. Valerie didn't have to think twice about unlocking the door and as soon as she was outside she hugged Starscream, which took him by surprise.

"Thank you! All of you!" She said gratefully. She then pulled away from Starscream as she realized something. "Wait. Where's Thrust?"

At this Starscream merely smirked.

"Oh, he's probably hanging around somewhere." He said cryptically. Seeing the look on Valerie's face he knew that she wanted a better answer. "Trust me, you don't want to know."

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

"Are you sure you're the only ladies living here?" Jetfire asked.

For the last few minutes Optimus, Megatron, and Hoist had been standing in front of the door with Jetfire as he kept stalling. After having known Jetfire for years Hoist knew that his friend wouldn't do something like this unless it meant that he knew something that everyone else didn't. And judging by the questions he had been asking it was likely that Jetfire knew that Anna and Blair weren't the only ladies in this household that needed to try on the glass slipper.

"For the 100th time, your Highness, there's no one else." Alyss stated adamantly.

Jetfire knew that he could only keep stalling for so long and already his time was coming to an end. He sighed at this.

"Fine." He said in defeat. "I just had to make sure that there wasn't anyone else here that could try on the glass slipper."

"But seriously, did you have to ask us the same question 100 times just to be sure?" Drake asked.

Jetfire turned to Drake and stared at him, hoping that appearing to be thinking about his answer would work towards stalling for more time, but then he felt her presence getting closer to where they were and he couldn't help but smirk behind his face mask.

"As a matter of fact, yes." Jetfire turned towards the door looking as if he were about to leave. "But it looks like I'll have to continue my search somewhere else."

"Wait!" Jetfire stopped and everyone turned around to see Valerie standing at the top of the stairs. "Your Highness, please wait! I would like to try it on."

"Don't mind her. She's nothing more than a maid." Alyss said dismissively as the 14 year old girl descended the steps.

Jetfire frowned behind his face mask. A maid? She didn't look like she was supposed to be a maid at all. In fact she looked as if she were supposed to be of nobility. The maid outfit she wore did little to mask her appearance.

"She's no one of importance." Sideways added. "Just an insignificant girl."

No one of importance? Everyone had value despite who they were. He almost missed the slight hurt expression on her face from Alyss' and Sideways' words, but he saw that they were affecting her even though she did her best to hide it. Jetfire also noticed something on the side of Valerie's face, but he wasn't sure what it was.

"Yeah, she's just a nobody." Anna said.

"A completely plain person." Blair stated.

"There are times when she's kinda out of it." Drake said.

Jetfire started to approach the staircase but Alyss blocked his way by stepping in front of him.

"Yes, so you have no reason to pay attention to her!" Alyss said.

"Ma'am, you do realize that my father and I gave the order that every maiden is to try on the glass slipper." Jetfire told her before approaching Valerie. However, when he stood in front of her he was shocked that what he noticed on the side of her face turned out to actually be a bruise, but then he gritted his dentas in anger. She must've gotten it earlier since it was showing. Jetfire was tempted to lightly place his hand on the side of her face where the bruise was and ask her who was the one to hurt her, but he pushed that idea aside for now (he could worry about it later) and instead held his servo out to her. "Come."

Valerie blushed slightly when she heard how gentle Jetfire's voice was, but she placed her hand in his larger one before he led her over to the chair she was to sit in. He then turned to Hoist and gestured for him to come over with the glass slipper. Sideways looked around and when no one was paying attention he stuck his leg out and caused Hoist to trip, along with the glass slipper shattering into pieces on impact with the floor. Jetfire's gold optics widened in shock (along with Optimus, Megatron, and Hoist) in response to seeing the delicate shoe rendered to nothing but broken pieces of glass.

"No!" He gasped, kneeling down to tentatively pick up one of the larger pieces of glass. He suddenly thought of last night when he danced with Valerie under the stars while wearing the same glass slipper that was now in pieces. "This…this can't be happening. This was the only one we had."

Sideways smirked behind his face mask as he and everyone else watched. Valerie, however, wasn't upset about this at all. In fact she had a feeling something like this would happen, which is why she came prepared.

"This isn't the end." Valerie said, causing Jetfire to look up at his with sad and confused looking optics. Just seeing the emotions his optics expressed made her want to hug him just to give him some comfort.

"What do you mean?" He asked, unsure of what she meant.

"I mean to say…" She reached behind her. "…that I have the other slipper."

Everyone was shocked when Valerie brought out the other glass slipper and she held it out to Jetfire. She watched as the sad and confused emotions in his optics turn to relief and joy and he carefully reached out to take the remaining glass slipper from her small hands. Valerie blushed slightly when he took her right shoe off, but it disappeared as soon as the glass slipper slid effortlessly onto her right foot. Watching from the top of the stairs were Demolishor, Cyclonus, Hot Shot, Sideswipe, and Blurr as they cheered. Jetfire took Valerie's hands in his and gently pulling her out of her seat before he pulled her close to him in relief. He soon pulled away to look at her face before he carefully traced the bruise on the side of her face with a light touch of his digits.

"Who did this to you?" Jetfire asked quietly, glad to finally be able to ask that question.

Valerie averted her gaze in slight shame and didn't say anything, but he heard her answer in his processor whether or not she was aware that he was now capable of hearing it.

Sideways.

Jetfire turned to look at Sideways before glaring at him. He knew exactly what he was going to do with him and the rest of the family, but right now he was going to take her away from this place, along with her friends both small and normal size. Speaking about her little friends he looked up at the top of the stairs to see them there. Valerie was confused about what Jetfire was looking at and turned to look in the same direction and that was when she saw her friends and she couldn't help but smile at them. It was thanks to them that she was here right now.

"Anyone else you'd like to bring with you?" Jetfire whispered to her.

Valerie felt her face heat up at this, but she already knew her answer. She explained that she also wanted to bring Starscream and Scavenger with her and Jetfire agreed since there would be enough room in the limousine. So in the end she was able to take her friends with her and that they would be heading back to the palace. At first Valerie thought that they would get inside the limousine, but they just stood there. Optimus noticed this and turned to them.

"Jetfire? Aren't you going to get in?" Optimus asked.

"No." Jetfire answered as he shook his head. "We decided about taking a different route." He turned to look down at her and he could see that there was a twinkle of joy in his optics. "Isn't that right?"

"Wait, what?" Valerie asked, feeling confused.

"I understand. Just be sure to get back in time." With that Optimus got inside the limousine, but then he poked his head out. "We'll be sure to help your friends so that they can be normal size."

With that Valerie and Jetfire watched the limousine drive out of the driveway and away from the manor before Jetfire turned to her.

"Are you ready?" He asked her.

"Ready for what?" She asked.

"To take that different route I mentioned."

"…What do you mean by 'different route'?"

Jetfire chuckled lightheartedly.

"If you make sure to hold onto me and not let go then you'll find out soon enough."

Valerie wasn't sure why he said this but she wrapped her arms around Jetfire as best as she could and he did the same, but more securely. She was about to ask him about what was going to happen next, but suddenly she heard a quiet blasting sound before they started to ascend upwards. She looked down and her eyes widened when she realized that they were flying, or more like he was flying. She tightened her hold on him since she was afraid that she would probably fall, but Jetfire just chuckled.

"It's okay. I'm not going to drop you, and even if I did I'd just swoop down and catch you." Jetfire told her.

"Really?" She asked, turning to look at him with her blue eyes.

"Really." He then leaned forward a bit and Valerie blushed. "I told you I'd find you, remember?"

Valerie's eyes widened at this.

"I-It wasn't a dream!"

"Of course it wasn't a dream. I told you that before you woke up, remember?"

"Why didn't you tell me you were the Prince?"

Jetfire merely shrugged.

"You never asked." Jetfire's optics seemed to brighten up slightly in happiness. "But since we're almost to the palace you'll learn more than just me being a prince and meet my father and mother."

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A few days later Valerie and Jetfire's wedding was held at the palace and there was much rejoicing. Silverbolt and Astera where happy to finally see their son marry the one he loved and it showed with the way he treated her. Demolishor, Cyclonus, Hot Shot, Sideswipe, and Blurr were able to get their programming chips fix so that they could be human size instead of being the size of mice (which was something they were really grateful for); they were able to attend the wedding along with Scavenger and Starscream. Speaking about Starscream, he was surprised when he saw Alexis at the wedding and despite the fact that she learned that he wasn't really human she still accepted him (which left him feeling relieved).

Valerie's stepfamily eventually got what they deserved; Blair ended up having to work for N (much to her displeasure), Anna was forced to go to a boy named Ventus for lessons on being nice to others, and Drake eventually became Cyclonus' moving target for practice. But it was Alyss and Sideways that ended up getting the short end of the stick since Crystal had appeared and turned them into worms with her magic iPod. She would've ended up feeding them both to a baby bird if it wasn't for Valerie taking pity on them and stopping her godsister from doing so.

As for Valerie herself, she finally got the happiness she deserved now that she by being with Jetfire. When they got inside the white limousine she couldn't help thinking about the dreams when he came to her. Jetfire pulled her close to him, had her close her eyes, and just when they kissed Valerie realized something: her heart had found her new home.

THE END

Aerith: Thank you for joining us today and we hope to see you really soon.

Crystal: Yes, because next time will be the after party with special behind the scenes stuff as well as a few bloopers from the different practices.

Aerith: We hope to see you then.

Aerith and Crystal: Bye for now!