Wow! Thanks for the great reviews on Chapter 1! They really made my day! XD

Chapter 2

Strike of the Seekers

The little femme had jumped towards Ironhide when the Seekers came out of nowhere. He was, in her optics, the most intimidating of the four mechs. While the Prime was taller, Ironhide had something about him, a roughness that Prime lacked, that made her think he'd keep the Seekers away better, keeping her safer.

"DUCK!" Prime roared in English.

The femme-ling frowned, puzzled as she began to search the word-bank data-chip. A waterfowl. A quick lowering -

She cried out when Ironhide slammed her into the ground. It hurt her first of all, sending countless little alerts to her pain sensor cortex, and it scared her secondly. She lay there, not moving, slightly stunned by the impact, and quite terrified. She saw only darkness, but she could hear the roaring, rattling blasts of canon fire.

"Get that armor back on." Ironhide roared down at her, his blue optics blazing for a second before they turned away.

She blinked, realizing then that it was so dark because she was pinned under him. That was why she'd been slammed to the ground. Unprotected by her light armor, he'd dove over her to protect her. Shifting a little, she found that her door-wings were pinned down, caught, trapped. She cringed as something exploded nearby; then she clawed at the dirt to gain some traction to roll over.

Fear was building up in her spark. Her armor, her armor, she had to get her armor back on, and she was panicking about it under fire. She had no idea how she was supposed to get her armor back on whilst crumpled up under several tons of ancient warrior, and she was terrified that he might give her to the Cons if she disobeyed. That was the things she feared the most: getting sent away.

She whimpered then told herself to focus. She would gain nothing by losing her head. She was just a young little femme, but she wasn't a sparkling. She could do this. She would do this.

She gusted air through her system to cool it and then wriggled to assess how much room she had. Not much. And there was less when Ironhide brought his elbow in. The little femme shifted away. Ironhide had a canon now and was firing back at the Cons. Watch the elbow!

Squirming, she tried to find more space, but between the earth and Ironhide, there was none. Pain sensors in her shoulder screamed at her when she shoved the piece of arm armor in place. She clenched her jaws and wedged her fingers against a rock to latch the armor in place. Now she felt warm life-Energon oozing from her knuckles and made her feel sick.

Ironhide shifted, and she rolled a little, taking advantage of the space and clamped her vambrace on one arm, then flattened and snapped the other in place. She half-rolled again, but then Ironhide moved and her wing got caught.

"Ooow!" she squealed "OWWW!"

"Quiet!" Ironhide bellowed down at her.

She gave him a kick, and miraculously, it seemed, he knew to shift. She jerked her wing free, and tears sprung to her optics at the pain that torn them. She wanted to crumple up and sob right there. She wished she'd stayed on Cybertron and taken her chance there. It might have been better than getting shot at and crushed.

"Armor on yet?" Ironhide yelled down at her.

She bit her lips. "Yes!"

"Have you weapons?" he yelled over the gunfire.

"No; I'm a neutral-."

He cursed briefly, but a blast from Thundercracker's sonic weapon drowned it.

"What?" the femme-ling asked.

"Nevermind! Keep out underfoot and do NOT cut me with these." He rose then, pulling the little femme up to her feet by her poor abused wings and shoving twin knives at her. She took them with a look a horror.

She had no idea what to do with these things. She started to look up at Ironhide with opened mouth and wide optics, but he grabbed her by the shoulder and put her firmly against his leg. "Stay close." He ordered, and from the scared look she darted up at him, he knew there was no way she'd intentionally disobey him at the moment.

He began fired hard and fast at the Seekers then, and the little femme stayed with her back pressed against his leg. She ducked when he moved his arms, and she held the twin knives carefully, being as little of an impediment to her protector as possible.

The seekers began to fly in a circle around the Autobots then, weaving in little by little as they dodged shots.

The femme-ling watched. It was vaguely familiar. She watched carefully, and then realized what it was. It was the Circle of Death. Her old guardian had always left toys for her to play with, and when she'd learned how to read, there were all kinds of books to read. There'd been one about war and battle, later. That book had described this. The Seekers would slowly working their way in, making the circle smaller and smaller, and then they would just kill everybody inside the circle.

It had been interesting to read about the different battle tactics, but… she suddenly realized how real they were.

And she was going to die!

She whimpered as the realization sunk in. She'd been hungry when she'd left Cybertron, and the traveling hadn't been fun, and now, now she was going to be killed in the Circle of Death on a strange dirty planet.

"They are going to kill us…" she whimpered, crumpling to the ground at Ironhide's feet, "Th-they are going to kill me…" Her body and wings trembled, and she started to cry, "I d-do n-not want to die-!"

"Get UP!" Ironhide ordered.

She whimpered and curled up into a small ball at his feet. "No die…" she sobbed softly.

Ironhide blasted at the Seekers again and then stooped quickly to pull the trembling little femme to her feet and out from under his. "We're not gonna die, 'cause I won't let them kill us. Stand up!"

She hiccupped but did as she was told, clinging to him.

"They're getting closer!" Ratchet said, cursing.

"LAND, YOU PUNKS!" Ironhide roared at the Seekers. "FIGHT ON YOUR FEET LIKE REAL MECHS!"

"I have a proposition for you, Prime!" Starscream shouted as he whizzed by.

"WHAT!" Prime yelled back.

"You give us Ironhide, and then everybot else gets to live, and we won't devastate the peaceful little town that lies fifty miles away from here."

"Hold your fire then! I can't think with you Seekers blasting away like this." Prime answered.

The Seekers stopped firing but kept up their circling.

The Autobot mechs were quiet for several moments, conferring with each other over intercom. The little femme hid her face against Ironhide so she couldn't see the sickening Seekers. Her intercom was down. It had never worked well. It didn't matter anymore, she supposed, since the Seekers were going to kill them all.

"Whhhhelll?" asked Starscream, too sweetly. "I'm waiting!"

"I don't know…" Prime said, sounding hesitant. He transformed. "Why don't I just leave?"

Prime gunned his engine and leapt out, and the Seekers dove in on him. The other three mechs went after the Seekers.

"I THINK NOT!" Prime shouted as he slashed Thundercracker across the wings with his sword.

The little femme started to pick herself up then stopped and crouched down. Ironhide had pushed her down before he'd jumped after the Seekers, so she decided that she should stay down. There were four Autobots and three Decepticons, she counted, so she supposed the odds were good.

Something blasted behind her then. She squealed as she ducked her head then peeked to see what had happened. Nothing good had happened; Skywarp had teleported in a couple yards away from her. She rose and backed away.

"Come, come; don't be shy!" Skywarp cooed. "I just wanna hug," He snickered, moving towards her.

She screeched with all her might, emitting a high-pitched scream that could work as a weapon, given some practice. It drew Starscream's attention, and he found that Skywarp wasn't being helpful.

"Help US, Skywarp!" Starscream ordered, as he twisted Prowl's door-wing, "NOW! OW-!" Ratchet slashed his leg with a medical laser. "Yeeeeeuuu!"

Skywarp teleported back into the fight and proceeded to get his hind-plating kicked by Ironhide.

The little femme huddled on the ground, hugging her legs to her chest and trying to not shake so hard. Teleporting Decepticons lived here? How did anybot stay alive, she wondered. That Con could come out of nowhere. She pinned her wings down. Maybe, maybe this was a bad idea, she thought. It was this or trying to fend for herself on Cybertron, and, frankly, she couldn't decide which place was worse.

Then she sensed something quiet and looked around. Another Transformer was coming, floating almost soundlessly through the evening air. He was a deep blue color and of a huge size, perhaps Prime's size. He had a calm look, calm to the point of indifference. His feet touched the ground, his gaze never deviating from the little femme. She gazed back, mesmerized by how quiet he was. His visor gave the impression that he never blinked, and it was a little disconcerting.

She suddenly realized that it wasn't the visor's effect that was troubling: it was its color. Scarlet.

She jumped up.

"ANOTHER CON IS COMING!" she howled to the Autobot mechs, running to be a little closer to the mêlée.

Starscream was yelling for something; Prime had rolled on top of him, pinning him down. "LET ME GO, PRIME-!"

"Yeah, yeah, Starscream! Just try to retreat." Ironhide jeered.

Thundercracker kicked and stumbled his way out of the fight while Skywarp simply teleported out. They soared up into the air and hovered, looking rather dinged. Starscream was still trying to break Optimus Prime's strangle hold.

"Return to Base." The new Con ordered the two Seekers. He spoke with cold, indifferent monotones "I shall attend Starscream."

Starscream broke away from Prime and ran to the new Con. "Soundwave," he greeted, "You've come in the nick of t-! AIGHHHH!" his yelled as Soundwave pinched him up by one wing.

"Quiet." Soundwave said and refocused on first the femme-ling then mechs.

The mechs had all risen and were facing Soundwave, ready to blast him in a nanosecond. The femme-ling had run to Ironhide and half hidden herself behind him. Her little wings were shaking and her optics were wide as she peered out at the Cons. Ironhide felt a tremor run through her body, and he put a gentle hand on her shoulder to reassure her.

Soundwave regarded the Autobots in silence. The dark red of his optical visor glowed above his battle-mask, his face showing no expression whatsoever.

"This Con is the one that gives me the most creeps; I like it better when they're screaming about their great big plans" Ratchet murmured. Prowl nodded ever-so-slightly. His frame was completely ridged, his wings and face betraying nothing.

"What do you want, Soundwave?" Prime asked deliberately. He knew that the Con had fairly willed him to speak first.

"Trade."

"What?" Prime asked although he highly doubted Soundwave had anything to trade.

"Con femme."

The femme-ling jumped out from behind Ironhide. "I'm not-!" She started, but Ironhide clamped a hand over her mouth so hard that it hurt. She whimpered, and he loosened his grip. When she didn't say anything further, he removed it.

"I would trade Starscream for the femme." Soundwave said," Starscream: more valuable to you. I become second in command."

"WHATDOYOUTHINKYOUARESAYING-?-!" The Con in question started to yell. Soundwave silenced him with a twist of his wing.

"Whoa…" Ironhide sounded stunned. He and the other mechs stared at the Con.

The femme-ling stared as well, feeling felt sick at the thought. This Con would trade the second-in-command for her. Anybody could imagine how valuable a prisoner the Decepticon SiC would be: a whole lot more valuable than a little nobody who just showed up. Fear clenched her spark. She didn't want to be traded, but would these high-rank officer strangers care?

She found Ironhide's hand and slipped hers into it. "Don't trade me, please…" she whispered. Ironhide's hand tightened gently around hers, and his other hand settled on her shoulder. She wasn't going anywhere.

"You are mistaken." Prime told the Con. "She is a neutral, not a Decepticon."

"Neutral; I offer choice."

"You do have that right to offer choice of side" Prime said, sounding unwilling but diplomatic and gesturing that the Con could ask. Ironhide audibly gnashed his teeth and growled a low, threatening growl.

"Fair femme, join the Decepticons?"

"N-never!" She forcibly. "Never, ever, ever in two blue moons." Ironhide winced; she was going to need help with English phrases. "Your creepy kind tried to wrong me!"

"Not I. Come; I give protection, care, Energon, training; you request, I grant."

"You fraggin' liar." Ironhide snarled, "You Cons don't even know how to treat femmes. The ones who aren't tough enough or hard enough for the battlefield, you-" his optics swept down to the little femme. Maybe she wasn't young enough that she didn't know. She didn't need to know, "You enslave or offline. How dare you even put the word 'care' through your vocalize. How dare you even process making such an offer."

"You over-generalize. Few ever receive that treatment."

"I still turn off your request." The femme-ling said, eyeing him darkly. She didn't have the correct word, but the meaning was still conveyed.

"Prime,"

"No deal." Prime said firmly. "I will never trade a femme for a Con."

Soundwave hesitated, not willing to accept defeat.

"You are gonna be sooo slagged when Megatron finds this out." Starscream said, smirking.

"No. Recall files 234 and 695."

"BLACKMAIL! Youuuuuu…"

"Have a nice night, Soundwave. We'll see you later, no doubt." Prime said dryly.

Soundwave ground several gears. "Tend her well." He growled. He gave her one intense look before taking to the sky and disappearing into the dark.

"Those Cons get stranger ever time." Ironhide said, staring after the Decepticon.

"It everybot alright?" Ratchet asked.

"Functional, only exterior damages except for my door-wings." Prowl answered.

"I'll fix them –again- when we get back to the base." Ratchet answered. "Prime? 'Hide? Femme-ling?"

"A little scorched armor here and some scratches, but I will be fine." Prime answered.

"Same here." Ironhide replied. "Mostly. Nothing Chromia can't take care of."

The femme-ling was quiet, looking down.

"Femme-ling?" Ratchet prompted. They needed to hurry up and get going.

Her head lowered further.

Ironhide gave her a nudge after a couple moments. "Answer Ratchet." He told her gently but firmly.

"All me hurts." She said softly, looking distressed. Ratchet saw a tear well up in one of her optics. "Mine shoulder especially when Ironhide squashed me down… dented my first armor, and it pinches nerves. And here hurt," she indicated her hands then knees. "And… my wings ouch."

Ratchet came close and knelt down, taking out his scanner. "For starters, duck next time Prime says 'duck' and you won't end up getting crunched up under a five ton mech." He said as he scanned her shoulder.

"The word 'duck' has lots of meanings." The femme-ling said quietly.

"I guess it does…" He said, "Take off your shoulder armor, and I'll take care of you shoulder."

She removed the heavier outer armor and then the dented light preliminary armor. Ratchet shorted the pain relays in her shoulder then and focused intently on repairing the pinched nerve-wires in her shoulder. She kept her head tilted to the side a little, keeping her mouth shut tightly. "Done there." Ratchet said presently. He took the light piece of armor and gave it a firm rap with his first, flattening the dent so it wouldn't pinch. "There." He said, giving it back to her. She took it without a word and put both armor types back one.

He focused his scanner on her knees. "Just bruised." He said, "Hands,"

She held out her hands. They were bruised, too, and the one hand had dried life-Energon on it from where she'd gashed her knuckles.

"We'll need to clean this thoroughly later, but it will be fine for now." Ratchet said after holding his scanner over the hurt hand. "Now the fun part. Turn so I can scan your wings."

She turned obediently but not happily.

Ratchet knelt and scanned the wings and wing connectors. Part of the repairs could wait; he'd leave them and do them in Med-Bay. Other repairs needed to be done so further damaged wouldn't be done when she transformed.

While Ratchet assessed her wings, the little femme looked up at Ironhide, since she was facing him, and saw that he looked sad. She looked down. Mech didn't like anybody seeing them sad, she thought.

"Femme-ling," Ironhide said gently,

She looked up at him again.

"I am sorry I was so rough with you." He said, "It was a battlefield, and it's rough on a battlefield, but I should have been more careful." He looked down. "I would never hurt a femme-ling. I only meant to keep you safe."

The femme-ling nodded. "It is okay." She said slowly, hoping she was getting the right words. "I know you were meant to protect me."

Ironhide smiled. He knew she meant "you were meaning to protect," but the way she got the verb form wrong made it sound like she knew he was meant to be her guardian. Maybe he would be, he thought. She had gravitated towards him.

"Okay," Ratchet said, "This is going to pinch a bit and it will probably hurt some as well."

A little look of dread crossed her face, and Ironhide knelt before her, gently taking her hands in his. "It'll be alright." He told her. He would be there for her, to reassure her.

Ratchet spent quite a few minutes tending to the little door-wings. He did his best to be gentle, but the little femme cried out in pain several times and squeezed Ironhide's fingers. She whimpered several time, and at one point she'd howled.

Ratchet finished as soon as he could and rose. "Do you mind needles?" he asked, holding up a pain-killer shot for her to see what he meant.

"Okay." She said, not sure how to answer. "Okay" seemed like a pretty general word for yes, fine, do it, etc.

Ratchet gave her the shot, and much of the pain in her body faded away. She thought she would probably be happy now if she had some Energon and wasn't so tired.

"Here," Ratchet said, handing her something smallish and round.

It looked like candy. She took it hesitantly. 'Never take candy from strangers.' She eyed Prime. Surely the medic who served right under Prime wouldn't give her bad candy.

"Put it in your mouth." Ratchet told her. "It will help with your energy levels." He explained as she slipped in cautiously into her mouth, "We need to get moving now. We'll get you some Energon later."

"Okay." It didn't taste like candy, but she was hungry enough that it tasted fairly good.

"Alright." He said. "Let's hit the road now – If you're ready, Prime."

"I am ready. Let us go."

"Rode. Road. Rhode. Rowed." The femme-ling said. "What's road? Error, uh, which road?"