Thank you to Alex Maria Johnson for being my first review! You rock! On to the next chapter then, and thanks to all who viewed/favorited/followed as well!

I have also decided the theme song for this fic (which I DO NOT own)

Into the Nothing – Breaking Benjamin (go look it up, it held a lot of meaning for me relating to this fic)

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Hayli followed Drift's white frame through the bridge, feeling a dull ache in her leg but ignoring it without so much as a limp. On the other side, she took in the military-type command center they'd entered. Doors lead off the semi-circular room, where they went she didn't know. The front curve of the room was almost wall to wall windows, sunshine was beaming in as well, bright contrast to the darkness of the very early morning time she'd just come from.

A handful of mechs were standing around the room, the sunlight glinting off their frames made their flaws that more obvious. Not a single mech wasn't battle scarred, and though their optics held curiosity as they looked at the femme, their faces were hard. Drift himself had old wounds still visible in his frame; at least in the injury department, Hayli didn't feel out of place with these mechs. Her obvious missing optic and heavily scarred face usually prompted stares, but none of the ones in the room seemed to notice. Drift walked in front of her, joining the group of mechs.

"What are you thinking bringing a stranger here, Drift?! And a femme at that!" a pale blue-green, old looking bot said. He'd been leaning on a console smoking a cigar and now had removed it, casting a pointed glance towards the femme.

"Save it, Kup." A larger deep green mech chided, turning his attention to the femme standing tall in the command center. She kept her chin raised in defiance, her face not showing any emotion. The green mech's posture and voice carried authority as well, she assumed he was in charge and was correct.

"My name's Springer, I command these bunch of rust buckets; you know Drift, apparently; the old timer over there is Kup, Perceptor's the red mech over there at the other console, and Blurr is out on patrol. He'll be back soon I'm sure." Springer explained, his voice was authoritative but gentle. He sensed there was something broken in this bot, much like there was in all of his soldiers. He gently prodded her for information.

"What's your name, stranger, and rank, if you have one?" Springer asked. Hayli adjusted her posture slightly to an 'at ease' position, showing Springer she had a military background.

"My designation is Hayli, rank sergeant in the Elite Guard and graduating 3rd in my class at the academy. I possess extensive knowledge of cyber-ninja training and my battle rating was ranked above average. My soldier identification number is 033-945722." Hayli rattled off. Springer was impressed that a femme such as her worked so hard to get a military position after years of difficult ninja training, he wondered what happened to the female bot standing before him to end up here.

The Wreckers always needed more recruits, ones that were tougher than the rest and preferably had nothing to lose. They were as close knit, if not closer, as a family and always had each other's backs; to be a part of the Wreckers meant that your unit trusted you whole-sparkedly.

"I see, that all sounds impressive, but... Drift wouldn't bring you here unless you had nowhere else to go. May I ask what prompted your arrival?" Springer asked. Hayli felt her spark clench and she dropped her head away from the commander. She spoke clearly but was too ashamed to look in his direction.

"I... I lost a sparkling about ten days ago. It was supposed to be a small skirmish over some energon, she fought at my side for most of the battle...but none of us knew the cons would bring in their Seekers. It was...a slaughter..." Hayli trailed off. Springer didn't offer any false apologies or try and sympathize, he knew all about loss like the rest of his team and also knew empty words held no value.

"I see... yes, I heard of that battle, there were a lot of casualties." Springer said. Hayli nodded silently.

"Too many... I lost contact with my spark mate a short time before that and I suppose without either of them...I lost my will to keep going. I...I tried to take the coward's way out." she said guiltily. When Springer raised an optic ridge, Drift stepped in.

"I caught her when she tried to fall into a spiked crater, I'd been watching her from a distance for some time, my judgment was to prevent her from taking her own life and give her the option to join us." Drift said, adding quickly to Springer, "That is, if you find her of value." Springer gave a small nod to the white mech, stepping up to the femme, who was a bit shorter than him but not much, and he noted it.

"You're tall for a femme," he said, walking in a circle around her, "sturdier too. Definitely a four-wheeler." he said, stopping in front of her again. He'd noticed the small gash on her thigh, though she seemed to ignore it completely despite the energon that was still tacky and not finished clotting.

"It was my choice to be of a bigger stature, it allows me to subdue my targets with greater ease." Hayli said in vague explanation. Springer cocked his helm a bit, a small smile playing on his face. He liked this femme and her spunk, and he didn't doubt her ordeals either, that was one thing he new for sure. Her value, especially as an assassin, could exponentially increase their odds, and besides, a sister in a band of brothers was always a welcome addition.

"I see..." he said. Springer was interested in her as one of the few femmes he would consider as a true Wrecker at Spark, but he wanted to test her first. Without another word, he drew his sword and gave a backhanded slash at her. His slight shift in his center of balance had alerted Hayli to his going for his weapon, and she ducked smoothly backwards, the blade missing her by a safe margin. She was slightly confused as to why the seemingly kind mech had turned hostile, and searched for an answer in his optics, but they held nothing.

The other Wreckers backed to the outsides of the room, giving their leader space. They'd seen Springer's initiation methods more than once, and knew they must not interfere. Hayli drew her own katana and held it in a two handed grip in front of her, shifting into a battle stance and assessing her opponent. Springer noted the bright and intelligent intensity the femme regarded him with, and could tell she was picking him apart with her gaze. He made a feigned leap for her, trying to bait her into coming after him, but she didn't do much more than flinch when his charge fell short.

In the one moment Springer was off-balanced, the femme rushed. She could have easily stabbed him through the spark, but her sword was flipped into a backhand position in her left hand as she drove the heel of her hand upwards under the bottom of his chin with more force than he thought she would exert. His denta clacked loudly together with the impact, and in the next movement she'd grabbed his sword arm and spun behind him, twisting his hand painfully as she swept his leg out from under him, forcing Springer to kneel with his arm pulled behind his back. A swift kick to the end of the hilt of his sword sent it out of his hand and his weapon spun across the smooth floor. Hayli released the larger green mech's arm and shoved him forward with her foot.

Springer stumbled forward and spun around to see the femme cast her own sword away and widen her center of balance, beckoning him forward. The ache quickly left Springer's arm, but he was impressed. The femme was fast and she knew how to fight. He could tell she was trying not to seriously injure him, but she wasn't holding back much more than that. He'd made the mistake of underestimating her, but now he'd be ready. Springer also noticed something that could be a weakness of hers, not to mention the minor wound she'd come in with.

As he circled her, looking for an opening, Springer noticed she subtly tried to keep him out of her blind side, even if she didn't turn her whole body or even her head. Using this to his advantage, while he was behind her, he dodged to her blind side and like expected, she turned towards him. Ducking to her other side, he used his bigger size and shouldered into her hard, expecting to unbalance her, but instead of pushing back like he was used to, Hayli went with the hit and leaped lightly to the side, landing on her toes and springing forward to her once-again unbalanced foe.

Springer ducked aside, his pedes skidding on the floor as he whirled to face the femme again. As she herself was regaining her balance, he sprung and landed a hard jab to her face, followed by a punch in her stomach plating, doubling her over instantly. He was meaning to incapacitate her, and see just how much she could take in battle. She went forward with her shift and planted her hands on the ground, planning on springing off to a safe distance. As she did, Springer was faster and grabbed her foot as her heel was on a planned trajectory for his helm. Twisting, he spun and brought the femme's entire body over his head, slamming her into the floor, which cracked slightly on the impact.

Hayli lay dazed for a moment, trying to shake off the blow as Springer approached. With effort, she heaved herself onto one elbow, watching with a fire in her good optic as her opponent approached. He stepped close to her, looking down.

"Yield." he said. She narrowed her optic at him, not in malice but in cunning, and deftly swiped his feet out from under him. Springer didn't go down, but his unbalance gave Hayli enough time to do a reverse somersault and spring to her feet once more. Amused at her display, Springer charged once more, getting a hard punch in her chest plate and causing Hayli to stagger a step from the pure force of the blow. She reciprocated by swinging a roundhouse kick to Springer's chest, and her bladed heel sliced a shallow trail along his armor.

Hayli jumped for him again, thinking to make him yield to her.

This time he was ready for her and as she leaped, he seized her arm and attempted to throw her over his shoulder onto the ground. It was then that she executed a move he'd never seen anyone do before.

Instead of slamming into the ground like expected, the femme arced her body with the momentum and clutched Springer's arm with her free hand, tightly. She ended up pulling Springer over backwards with her and landing in a tight backbend, which was forced to be reciprocated by Springer. He looked into the femme's one bright blue optic, and she gave a small smirk before wrenching her hand free and grabbing Springer's arm.

In a feat of strength and skill he'd only seen in a few battles and among his own troops, she pulled up from her back bend, hauling Springer's heavier frame with her, and as she straightened, threw him over her head onto the ground in the same manner he'd meant to do to her. Springer groaned slightly at the impact, and Hayli grabbed Springer's sword from the ground as well as sheathing her own. She walked over to the downed mech, placing one foot on his chest and leaning down with a small smile on her face as she panted from exertion. Springer was doing the same.

"Do you yield?" she asked. Springer knew, she'd proved her grit. He nodded, and she removed her foot, doing so much as to offer her hand and help him up. She returned him his sword, and he in turn faced the rest of hisWreckers.

"Whoa... I've never seen anyone go that long against you Springer, save Drift here." Kup said, still holding his cigar between two fingers.

"Well, I drew more blood in my fight if that means anything." Drift said with a smirk. Perceptor smiled from his perch.

"Yes well, I think this femme has more than proved her worth, eh Springer?" he said. Springer nodded, looking at the tough femme that had managed to throw him. He could have continued the fight, but there was no reason to excessively injure each other for a simple test. Even so, as he panted in tandem with his worthy opponent, he noticed his chest plate was oozing a small amount of energon. Hayli also had a thin stream running from the corner of her mouth, his hit to her face had crushed the edge of her mouth into her denta.

"I agree, Perceptor." Springer said, then spat into his hand and held it out. Without hesitation, the femme did the same, the fluid mixing with the blood from her mouth. Springer clasped her hand tightly and looked into her good optic.

"Most important are the rules to being a Wrecker, I can fill you in on those in the near future." he said with a wink. Hayli gave a small smile, the energon stained corner of her lips twitching upwards. Springer raised her hand over her head and turned to the others.

"This femme is one of us now!" he called. "Hayli is now as one of our brothers, I expect she'll be treated as nothing less than family, and I look forward to the advantage of having another warrior at our sides!"

The mechs in the room all raised their fists in the air, congratulating and cheering the femme. All of them gathered round, stacking their hands on top of Hayli's, counting to three and then shouting in unison,

"WRECK AND RULE!"