A knock. That was all it took for Wheeljack to nearly kill himself with the blade he'd been using to work on his newest invention. His optics were wide, alarmed, frightened, and surprised when he caught sight of Optimus Prime and a newcomer standing just inside the door. "Are you alright?" Optimus asked. Wheeljack had to tear his optics away from the guest and move them over to the young Prime.

"Oh! Wait, you were talking to me. Yes, I'm perfectly fine," Wheeljack responded. He clicked the off button and the energy sword's blade dissolved.

"You're bleeding!" a feminine voice pointed out. Wheeljack looked down and was nearly taken aback when he noticed the trail of bright blue Energon dribbling down his front.

"Oh, I guess I am," he said. He was shocked when this new... femme rushed forward, grabbed a cloth, and tried to help stop the flow of Energon. "What...?" He racked his processor for what this female creature was. A rich blue skin, bright blue optics, wire hair. It was there, but just out of reach. He simply needed a clue. And got one when she made her body shrink enough to allow her fingers to reach into the small gash and force any cut wires back together. "Xyleon!" His sudden cry made her jump.

"Yes," she said slowly, cautiously.

"Primus, this is awkward. My name is Wheeljack," he managed to say. She smiled with a slight laugh.

"I know. Optimus Prime told me who you are. My name's Alexis," she responded. Wheeljack barely managed to get his processor back on track to be able to actually accept the Xyleon's words. Both started when a new voice broke through the silence that had fallen.

"Princess Alexis to you, inventor. Princess, this area's off-limits to you," Megatron smugly commented as he walked up. Alexis bit back a yelp as she cut her hand on a tool that was resting on the table they were standing beside when she turned suddenly to face Megatron. Optimus turned to face Megatron with a slight glare.

"She's with me, Megatron. I don't see the problem with her simply meeting one of the mechs that work here. After all, she does live here," Optimus said. Megatron pulled the smaller mech out of hearing range while Wheeljack tended to Alexis.

The inventor gently took Alexis' hand. The cut didn't look like it was too deep, but with the blood oozing to the surface, it was hard to tell. He led her out into the hallway and glanced over at where Optimus and Megatron were still arguing. "It's best that we leave the brothers to fight it out. It doesn't end well for anyone who tries to help," Wheeljack suggested. It surprised him when she pulled against him and her optics darted to Optimus.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure, milady. The Prime and his protector fight a lot," Wheeljack replied. She allowed Wheeljack to start walking again, and followed with her uninjured hand clamped around the cloth that covered the wound.


Wheeljack watched Ratchet wipe away the thick black liquid that filled a Xyleon before expertly cleaning and wrapping the gash in her hand. The medic had already decided that it wasn't deep enough for stitches. He then turned and washed the blood from his metal as Alexis pulled her hand in. "That should do it. Be careful with that hand until it heals though. Ah, Optimus, nice of you to finally join us," Ratchet said, not even turning at the sound of the door opening. To Alexis' surprise and confusion, Optimus was the one to enter and walk up to her.

The Prime received a heavy glare from the medic. Optimus ignored him, instead taking a seat beside Alexis while Wheeljack took his turn getting cared for by Ratchet. Wheeljack laid down and allowed Ratchet to reach the jagged hole in the top layers of his armor.

"Alexis, are you alright?" Optimus asked. The blue female smiled and nodded. Even with the assurance she was fine, Optimus was still upset that she'd been hurt in his care. "We should get back to our quarters. Megatron's already on his way to report back to our sire."

"Thank you for the help, Ratchet, sir. Nice to meet you, and you, Wheeljack. I hope to see you both again soon," Alexis said. She smiled at both of them before standing. She and Optimus left together.

"That was... strange," Wheeljack numbly stated. Ratchet didn't look up.

"Xyleon culture. Nothing strange about it," he said.

"Compared to ours then," Wheeljack responded. Ratchet made a noise that was neither an agreement nor disagreement. He patched up the wound as quickly as he could and leaned back.

"I don't know much about her personally, but I know about the people of Xylia. A princess is used to get what her parents want. Like peace with another planet," he replied.

Wheeljack absorbed the information with a frown beneath his mask. It sounded so callous, and yet, they were doing the same to Optimus. He was being forced to bond with Alexis to strengthen the fragile peace with Xylia. It wasn't a case of either race hating the other; it was the distrust that stemmed from the difference in views that caused the two to be so close to war. Xylia's population was mainly female, which meant the females ruled, while the opposite was true for the population of Cybertron. Not only that, but Xyleon's saw emotions as a weakness, something to get rid of, while Cybertronian's saw emotions as an important part of a bot. And some despised the organic nature of Xylia and the people that lived there. Realistically, a peace between them would be extremely difficult to actually hold. The bond between Alexis and Optimus could prove useless, and only serve to tear them both apart if they weren't careful.

And yet, even so, Wheeljack had seen the way Optimus looked at Alexis when he'd walked in. The complete concern in his optics and dread at her being hurt, along with something else entirely. Alexis was harder to read, simply because the inventor didn't know her as well as he did Optimus.

Slowly Wheeljack nodded and sat up, swinging his legs over the edge as he did. "She's fascinating," he said aloud to Ratchet. The medic smirked.

"And she's promised to our next Prime. You can't use her as a Science experiment," Ratchet responded. Wheeljack's optics widened in horror at the implied message.

"I wouldn't try! I meant personality wise!" Wheeljack almost shrieked while Ratchet chuckled and rolled his own optics.

"I agree. Especially since she has you flustered, Ironhide trailing her everywhere, Optimus hooked and even Megatron interested," at Wheeljack's look of confusion he continued, "I've been kept updated by Ironhide and Optimus. Even Jazz came by earlier to rub it in that I hadn't met her. Nor did I want to for that matter. She won't last long here." Wheeljack nodded slightly in agreement. Femmes didn't have a good place on Cybertron since they were outnumbered and seen by many as trinkets to win rather than bots to love. A princess from Xylia had no place on the mech-run planet of Cybertron. She would crave Xylia soon enough.