Wow, another chapter! I guess this is what happens when you watch the final episodes of Transformers: Prime and you get totally sucked back into the fandom. I found myself kinda drifting away from anything Transformers because of my brother's constant chattering about living robots. But Ah'm back, baby (as Jazz would put it), and with part of my muse (I think Mirage might have had something to do with it as well, but whatever). I'm happy, can't you tell?

Note: my brother has been dreaming that he becomes Knock Out. But the funny thing is, his reaction to it every time is "Yes! Now I have BUZZSAWS!" Yeah...


4 - Familiar Face-plates - 4

"I-I do not understand!" Mirage exclaimed when they sat down at a picnic table in the middle of one of the only parks in Jasper. He decided to play along. "An Autobot guardian? Why would I need one? I handled those Decepti…Decepticons quite well on my own."

Jack gave him a deadpanned look.

"Dude!" Miko piped up. "Knock Out totally had you pinned to that wall! If it wasn't for Bulk and Arcee, you would've been a goner!"

The disguised Autobot could only growl in frustration as he looked away from the three children and fingered the Chameleon Patch in his pocket. He wished that he could just transform in front of them and show them that he was perfectly capable of protecting himself. But he had no idea if that was a good idea. It might attract unwanted attention. "Why are you telling me this?" he asked. He glanced off to his side when he heard the engines of two sports cars and shuttered when he saw two Vehicons in vehicle form drive by, not noticing them. "We are in the open."

He looked back at the trio and saw them nod. "We know," the girl said shrewdly.

"The 'Bots are on their way. They're going to pick us up in a few minutes," Jack informed him.

Mirage's spark squirmed uneasily in his chest. Many questions ran through his head. Would the Autobots that these humans obviously knew instantly know that he's an Autobot as well? The humans couldn't sense who he truly was because they did not possess sensors like Cybertronians did. Mirage had no idea if the form he was in blocked his signal or not.

All he could do was wait.

Soon, a royal blue street bike, with a slim woman sitting astride it, a green Humvee, and a yellow Urbana 500 with black racing stripes pulled up to the curb. Mirage watched with fascination as the woman on the bike dissolved and disappeared. The Autobots.

He followed the human children as they approached the three vehicles. Jack went over to the street bike after he told Mirage to get in the Urbana with Raf. Mirage did so, rather delicately. He was sitting inside one of his own kind, and he couldn't help but feel awfully dirty because of it. He had never thought of the concept of actually sitting in a fellow Cybertronian before.

The Autobot symbol on the steering wheel directly in front of him lit up as the Urbana emitted a series of beeps and other electronic sounds. Mirage tensed when he heard the familiar tones. He knew who he was sitting in.

It was Bumblebee.

"Who's this guy?" the scout asked.

He opened his mouth to reply, but Raf beat him to it. "His name is 'M. Raj'. He doesn't remember his first name," the boy genius said. The brown-haired boy looked up at him and said, "This is Bumblebee, Mr. Raj."

"The pleasure is mine," Mirage said politely.

What the young Autobot said next put the spy on edge. "Why does his name sound so familiar?"

Raf shrugged. The whole time, Mirage held his breath, afraid that they would find out who he really was. He didn't want them to find out because he had no idea how he was going to explain this situation, and he felt his honor and pride had been seriously bruised. But as Bumblebee pulled away from the curb and followed the Humvee and the street bike, the attention of their conversation turned away from him as they began to talk about something called 'video games'. He was relieved.

They drove down the street and soon were on a highway that lead out into the desert. He calmly looked out into the desert as it passed by, allowing his mind to wander a little bit. He didn't quite know how this had happened. He had come to this planet…realized that he had become a human…met Jack and his femme creator…and then ran into the Decepticons. He hazarded to guess that no matter what form, he would always be an Autobot, and he would always attract attention.

The highway eventually ended at a fork, but the sports car he was in continued in the same direction, causing his spark to lurch when they left the pavement and started bouncing across the sand. "Bontà! Are you crazy?!" he exclaimed as the Autobot raced towards a mesa in the distance.

"I'm not crazy," Bumblebee retorted.

"Don't worry, Mr. Raj," Raf assured him. "This is how we get to the Autobot base."

Mirage looked at him and nodded, though there was a slightly unconvinced look on his face.

Once of the massive walls of the mesa was soon looming up in front of them, and Mirage surely thought they were going to crash right into it. But a door opened up in the rock-face, allowing them safe passage into the mesa. This must be the Autobot base, he realized.

Bumblebee drove down a short concrete tunnel before they were suddenly in the large main room. The Urbana stopped, and both doors opened. Mirage stepped out, and found him standing on the Autobot shield engraved in the floor. He couldn't help but stare down at it for a few moments.

"Another human?!" a familiar voice exclaimed. Mirage looked up in astonishment, his eyes widening when he took in the sight of the familiar Autobot medic. It was Ratchet.

The street bike Jack had just dismounted sighed before transforming into the lithe femme that had nearly landed on him during his run-in with the Decepticons. "Yes, Ratchet. Another human," she said with a roll of her optics.

"But if we didn't bring him in, the 'Cons would have gone after him again," Jack added.

Mirage spun around, examining the inside of the main room. "So these are Autobot Headquarters, huh?" he stated, trying to act like he didn't feel at home around giant metal beings, but failing somewhat.

"Yep!" Miko chirped happily. He watched as she dashed up a set of human-sized stairs and disappeared into some sort of loft or platform. He decided to follow her, and did, but at a much slower pace. At the top of the stairs, he followed the railing until he was standing a few meters away from them. He swept his gaze over the room from his new vantage point and watched as the Autobots that had brought them in scattered about.

Once they stopped moving, the former noble noticed that the floor began to tremble with the sound of pedesteps. He trained his orange gaze on the large tunnel entrance on the other side of the room, where his audios told him that the footsteps were originating from, and watched as the largest robot of them all walked into the room. He was blue and fire-truck red, and wore a solemn expression upon his faceplates.

Optimus Prime.

His leader.

"You must get to the Ark now! Do it by any means possible!"

Mirage blinked and looked down with a sigh. He should have listened to him. He should have used the Chameleon Patch in order to get to the Ark in time. He just had to be so retro-pig headed about it. And now, it looked like the Autobots had lost a lot of those who had been on Ark. He probably could have saved them if he could have made it to the ship.

The Prime walked over to the loft with only a few short strides. Mirage looked up at him, clearing his face of any emotion. He couldn't give himself away. Not now.

"I am Optimus Prime," the Autobot introduced himself.

Mirage held out his servo to the Prime, slipping back into his habit of accepting an introduction in this way. "It is an…honor meeting you, sir," he said in the most respect-filled voice he could muster. "I…" he caught himself before he could blurt out his real name. "My name is 'M. Raj'."

"He can't remember his first name," Bumblebee added.

"I see," the leader of the Autobots said.

Mirage couldn't help but feel so small in Prime's presence. When he was an Autobot, he had been around Bulkhead's height, making him smaller than Prime by a lot, but not as much as Arcee. He held very still as Optimus allowed him to shake one of his large index fingers.

"Do you know why you are here?" Prime asked.

Mirage nodded. "I ran into a couple of metal giants who wished to see me harm. Jack told me that I needed to be under Autobot protection."

"Indeed," the Autobot said gravely. "Now that you have been put in danger, it is paramount that you are to be protected."

"Jack said I would need an Autobot guardian," Mirage pointed out.

Optimus nodded. "That would be the case for the children. But at the moment, we have no Autobots to spare. If need be, you will need to stay here at base."

"Non c'è problema, sir," he said. "Though, I do work on a ranch, where I get up and go to work. I cannot afford any commute time. My boss would have my hel—head." He blinked when he tripped over his words. He had almost said helm instead of head.

The mech's eyebrows furrowed, but otherwise no other emotion was shown. "I see…" he said, contemplatively.

Mirage cleared his throat. "But I can assure you, sir, I can take care of myself quite well. You do not need to worry about me."


It took a while of convincing, but Optimus eventually allowed him to return to working at the ranch and living a normal life. Except, this life Mirage was now living was not "normal" to him. He was used to being in the thick of battles or being sent to sneak around a secret Decepticon base.

He was relieved to know that he was not the only Autobot on this planet, but he was also relieved to be out of their base. It felt wrong to be deceiving his own faction, but he could do nothing about it. Or could he? He didn't know if he could even transform back yet. What if the Chameleon Patch was damaged and wouldn't allow him to?

That was absurd. It had given him the ability to lift Knock Out's Energon prod in that battle when he met the two Decepticons. He would eventually have to test it.

Evening, a few days after he met the Autobots, found him sitting on a boulder in one of the pastures on the Darby ranch. He was gazing up at the stars, searching for the one that Cybertron could be orbiting. A strange feeling, something between a mix of sadness and loneliness washed over him as he imagined Cybertron's lifeless husk floating through space.

It also made him think of the core, which was actually the creator of the Cybertronian race. What was the deity going through? Was he aware, or was he floating in some sort of oblivion?

Mirage rubbed his optics. He was only thinking like that because of how stressed he had been lately. Between work, spending time at the base, and wondering if he would ever be a Cybertronian again (if he ever got the chance), he hadn't had much time to wind down.

He sighed again. The sound of gunfire echoed in his helm and he shuttered. Could he go back to that? Could he go back to the war?

Yes, I can, he thought determinedly.

Reaching into his pocket, he drew out the Chameleon Patch and stared at it, taking in the symbol representing the Special Ops force of the Autobot faction. He rubbed his thumb digit over it. It was now or never. Could he really change back? Would it hurt? He had been in stasis at the time of his first transformation.

A determined gleam appeared in his fleshy optics. "I am ready," he said out loud. "Chameleon Patch, I would like you to change me back into my Cybertronian form."

There was a flash, and the pain was almost immediate.


Italian/Tyger Paxian to English Translation:

Bontà! - "Goodness!"
Non c'è problema - "No problem"


Girl Supersonicboy: "Sir Red Scrap Metal" was the best insult I could come up with in Italian XD But at least it was funny. Glad you liked the chapter! Did you like this one?

San child of the wolves: Glad you liked the contents of the chapter. I try to get it to draw people in. It doesn't look like 'Raj is going to get a guardian, but you never know. :3

Topkicker26: Don't we all love him? He's epic!

KeepingThemAtBay: Well, my muse is back! Let us celebrate! I shall be a Transformers fan for another year!

Birdroe: Strange how a noble working as a farm hand makes people laugh. Glad you agree that it's funny, because I killed myself laughing because of it.

jarrah (guest): I have updated! Did you like?