My lovely readers! Oh... why have I not updated in so long...? Anyway, here you go!

Get ready, get ready!

"F-fan art?" Jack said nervously. What was fan art? Why was it making Jack so nervous? I gazed down at the human, perplexed.

"Uh huh!" Samantha nodded, wearing that disconcerting smile.

"What kind of fan art?" Bulkhead asked, just as nervous as Jack. I am going to assume he has an idea of what 'fan art' is.

"The fan art varies so much that it's better to just not explain it. I'll show you. I'll start with the milder ones. " She literally dived into the biggest box that the two young humans had carried in. All we could see were her kicking legs as she threw things out of the box and onto the floor. She had better clean that mess up. We stood watching her, wondering what she was going to show us. Samantha placed her feet back on the ground and straightened, a large folded sheet of paper in her small hands.

"An anonymous fan sent this. It's called 'We've Missed You'. Look it!" She unfolded the paper and held it up with the help of her friend, Crystal. My spark flared with warmth and slight embarrassment when I gazed upon the drawing on the paper.

It was a picture of Optimus with a surprised look on his faceplates as the rest of us gave him what the humans would call a 'group hug'. I was on Optimus' left. Hugging him directly to the right of me was Arcee, sided by Bumblebee. On Optimus' right was Bulkhead. We all looked serious and relieved while hugging our leader. I'm glad the actual group hug never happened. I would never hear the end of it from the humans (Miko).

"Awww, that was so cute! I could cry..." Samantha sniffed, dabbing at an eye.

"Did that really happen?" Crystal looked up at Optimus, curious as to what his general response was to that picture.

Our leader gave a very small smile. "Though that particular event did not take place, Bumblebee came close to knocking me down while attempting to hug me."

I smirked, remembering the moment. I have never seen the youngling so happy before. Bumblebee rubbed the back of his helm and whirred, slightly embarrassed.

"Aside from that, I highly doubt Ratchet and Arcee would participate in such an activity," Optimus continued, adding a rare miniscule dose of sarcasm to his voice. I scoffed and rolled my optics, being the only one who caught the tone in his voice.

"You never know what people would really do in a certain situation till you're in it. Anyway, let's look at some more mild ones." Samantha cleared her throat and turned back towards the large box from before.

"W-What do you mean by 'mild'?" Rafael asked curiously. I shifted my gaze between the two girls occasionally.

"I say mild to mean cute and fluffy, kinda like this." She reached into the box again and produced another folded poster.

"This one I found myself. " She held up the poster, letting gravity unfold it for her. There was a very well done and detailed drawing of Optimus and Bumblebee. In the picture depicted our leader playing with the sparkling version of the youngling.

None of the pain of the war showed on the bots' faces. It was depicted as if the war never happened. My spark flared again, this time with yearning for the perfect world in the drawing. If this war had not taken place, Cybertron would still be alive. So many people would still be here. Primus could smile upon his sparklings without sadness for the near constant conflict. But, this war did indeed happen. Permanent mental and physical scars are there to prove that. So many of our people have been lost to the energon soaked claws of war. So many that should not have died. There were so many that I couldn't save ...

"That is very nice of you. But what inspired you to search for such a piece?" Optimus asked. I could tell that he liked the idea of playing with a sparkling and forgetting the sorrow of the war. This war has added a sort of weight to his frame that increased ever so slowly over the vorns.

Samantha cleared her throat. "Though you may not have any sparklings, as far as I know anyway, I decided to find this picture of you with a sparkling since it seems like a very realistic situation. You'd be surprised how many people depict you in fanfiction with little ones running around your pedes." Our leader continued to look at her, silently prompting her to elaborate.

"I mean, you seem like someone who's really good with kids and would do well raising them. Now, I'm gonna show you some different fan art. This one is of Arcee and Optimus." The girl leaned over the large box and pulled out another folded poster. Crystal went over and took a peek at the hidden picture. Suddenly she reared back dramatically, hands over her face.

"You cannot show them that! What would Bumblebee think?!" Crystal cried. Samantha gave her that same slow forming, disconcerting smile.

"Mechs, femmes! Ladies and gentlemen! I present to you... romance fan art!" She unfolded the paper and revealed the work within. What th- Oh, Primus.

I facepalmed hard enough to hear the metal plates clank. On that accursed poster was indeed of Optimus and Arcee. Only they were in a dark room.

A very dark room.

Arcee might have been in Optimus' berth room. The look in his optics (he was wearing his battle mask) could only be described with the words, 'What the Pit?' as Arcee lay directly on top our leader with the most innocent look on her faceplates, one servo resting on Optimus' windshield. I dared to look over at Arcee. Surprisingly, she didn't have the murderous look in her optics that I expected. Instead, she looked almost smug by the sight of the position she was in. I swear to Primus, I could see a smirk on her face! That smirk let other... images crawl their way into my processor. I shook my helm slightly, quickly squashing those unsightly things.

"Heh heh heh, I'm not even gonna bother asking for comments. You two's expressions are so priceless. I am so glad I invented the Inter-dim Transporter!" Samantha looked to the ceiling at the last sentence, looking as she was thanking a divine deity for her success. Jack stepped forward.

"Before you show us anything else, what even made you invent that?"

Samantha looked pleased to have been asked the question. "There's an interesting story there. You see, five years ago, the first of the Transformers movies came out. At that time I was considered an engineering prodigy and could care less about the Transformers, despite the hype surrounding it. I decided to watch the movie anyway with a few friends. In my opinion, just about all the humans were annoying but I was intrigued by the entire conflict between Optimus and Megatron. Plus I was immediately drawn to Ratchet and Ironhide."

I gave a confused look. Ironhide hasn't been heard from in a very long time. I last saw him doing what he does best. Scaring the slag out of an entire fleet of Decepticons and chasing them off. Interested, I gazed at Samantha, who continued speaking.

"I did some research and discovered the rich back story for each of you guys. But what really kicked off the construction of my project was the sight of Optimus in his flame adorned Peterbilt form in my dream. Look." She held up yet another poster. It was a picture of a red and blue flame adorned truck parked in a grassy lot.

"He didn't even say anything to me but, I swear, the clouds parted and I heard a halleluiah choir. From then on I was a diehard Transformers fan and worked full time on the prototypes for the travel device. Thankfully the Transformers fan base saw that the stuff I invent usually works and supported me all the way. "

"And what other things have you invented?" I questioned. Samantha gave a toothy smile.

"I'm glad you asked. I invented something I like to call the Es-Tran. It's essentially a device that can allow two people to switch bodies. Crystal, do you mind getting it for me?"

"Yes I do mind. You got two legs that aren't broken."

Samantha shot her a glare. I shuddered, armor rattling quietly. If looks could kill...

"Anyway, we have to keep this plane on course. I have some more fan art to show you guys. This one is one of my personal favorites."

She folded up the other pieces of fan art and placed them back in the box she retrieved them from. She returned with yet another folded paper.

"I picked this one just because I love Ratchet." She smiled sweetly at me and silently unfolded the paper.

The title was Roid Rage Ratchet. Arcee was holding onto my arm, trying to hold me back. She said, 'I've had it, Mister! I'm taking you to rehab right this instant!' while I shouted loudly, 'COME GET SOME!'

"They will never leave him alone about that, will they?" Crystal asked.

"Nope! Moral of that episode: Just say 'no' to drugs." Bulkhead couldn't stop snorting as Samantha answered her friend. I facepalmed yet again.

"Everything was boosted up by that stuff! And I mean EVERYTHING. 'How's it humming?'" The young human quoted. At this rate, I may have to hide in my berthroom and not come out.

"You were awesome in battle the first time but you went from kickaft to jackaft really fast. " I can't say that I disagree with her. Samantha placed the posters back in their respective places.

There's alot of fan art and I'll show you more as we go along. Right now, I want to show you all your fan selected theme songs."

Miko perked up. "Theme songs? The Autobots get theme songs? What songs are they are the metal or rock? Who made them an-" Samantha raised a hand, silencing her.

"Yes, the Autobots get theme songs, chosen by myself and the fans. I'll start with one of Bulkhead's. Miko, do you mind if I plug up my MP3 player to your speakers?"

"No, go ahead."

"'Kay, thanks." Samantha reached into her back pocket and pulled out the small device. Soon enough, it was plugged in.

"This one is called A Warrior's Call by Volbeat." Bulkhead smiled a bit, liking the title of the song already. Suddenly you could hear the beating of drums and other instruments, growing more and more climatic as the time goes by. The music was intense and seemed to anticipate a fight. Then the music stopped for a moment.

"LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE!"

A bell sounded loudly and the pace picked up. I have the strange feeling that Bulkhead will play this song quite frequently.

"Feel the fire he's entered the ring.
His mindset only knows how to win.
This Danish fighter will break you in two.
You will feel all his power."

Yeah, that's Bulkhead, alright." Jack commented from near Arcee's pede. We are not even a minute into the song and already the others agree with the fans' song choice. I wonder what other songs they have for us if they did this well with the choice Bulkhead. Optimus wore his usual unreadable expression and Bumblebee nodded his helm to the beat of the song. Loud rock music ensued as I turned the volume down slightly on my audio receptors.

"Feel the power of the warrior.
Fight, fight, fight, fight!
Let's get ready to rumble.
Fight, fight, fight, fight!"

"Breaking your record and breaking your bones.
Born a warrior with a code.
A champion feeding your face with a fist.
You will feel all his power!"

Now that I think about it... this song truly does fit Bulkhead while he's in battle. During the few times that I've actually seen Bulkhead fight, he is certainly a formidable foe for the Vehicons as well as any other Decepticon. Some of them don't even have time to engage their weapons before the mech takes them out. The lyrics 'You won't even hear the bell' is very fitting for the Vehicons that face off with Bulkhead. Suddenly the song and music calmed down and seemed to smooth itself out.

"Behold here comes the son.
Believe it, he was born to be the chosen one.
The call is for a warrior.
His name will echo on the sea and on the ground."

All of us unconsciously and simultaneously glanced in Optimus' direction.

"Feel the fire he's entered the ring.
His mindset only knows how to win.
This Danish fighter will break you in two.
You will feel all his power!"

I don't particularly care for this sort of human music but it reminded me so much of the strong Wrecker on our team it frightened me. Soon the song ended and silenced filled the silo for a brief moment.

"So what do you think?" Crystal and Samantha said simultaneously. All of us in the room looked at Bulkhead, who looked pleased with himself.

"Ha ha, what can I say? It fits me perfectly. Now I have a new song to download." Bulkhead's optics brightened a bit. Crystal clapped her hands once, drawing our attention back to her.

"Alright, next song: Halcyon by Owl City. This is Bumblebee's song, chosen by his fan base." Samantha jabbed the buttons on her music player.

"You hear that, Bee? You've got a theme song!" Rafael reiterated excitedly. Bumblebee was equally excited, seeing that he was almost bouncing on his pedes, doorwings perked.

A moment later cheerful, musical beeps flooded out of the speakers.

"I mean, hey, if Pac Man affected us as kids, we'd all be munching magic pills and listening to repetitive electronic music, am I right?"

More musical beeps followed and sounded eerily like Bumblebee singing. When he was bored around the base, Bumblebee liked to create cheery little songs and sing them aloud to whomever would listen. Though I must admit that he has a great singing voice for somebot with no official training, I am fairly confident that Bumblebee didn't go off and record a song with the humans. The song was incredibly short but did not fail to capture Bumblebee's friendly, easy-going, and fun-loving personality. The ending lyrics made no sense to me, however.

"Yeah, it was just a dream."

Bumblebee beeped, buzzed, and whirred in approval of the song. He had started to move to the rhythm of the music and bounce on his pedes. I could tell that he was all smiles at this point.

"Awww, I could listen to that on a loop all day!" Samantha cried happily.

"Did you go and make that yourself, Bee? 'Cause it sure sounded like you!" Bulkhead patted Bumblebee hard on the back, making him stagger forward a bit. Bumblebee's cheerfulness never faded, however.

"Next in line: Ratchet!" Crystal dramatically pointed at me. "Samantha, turn on Citizen/Soldier by Three Doors Down, please."

"Will do. Just... give me a minute... here we go! We give you Ratchet's theme song!" I caught a flash of curiosity in Optimus' optics. I prepared myself for something I didn't expect. But the lyrics that met our ears were something I could not have prepared for. The song sounded steady and stable, yet awaiting the unexpected. What sounded like the ghosts of the past whispered behind the music. Then, the lyrics began.

Beyond the boundaries of your city's lights,
Stand the heroes waiting for your cries.
So many times you did not bring this on yourself,
When that moment finally comes,
I'll be there to help.

On that day when you need your brothers and sisters to care,
I'll be right here.
Citizen soldiers holding the light for the ones that we guide from the dark of despair.
Standing on guard for the ones that we sheltered,
We'll always be ready because we will always be there.

Optimus stood very still, only thing moving were his optics spiraling occasionally. The rest of the group listened intently, straining to catch every word said. The girl as well as the fans picked the other songs well, but, this one does not fit me at all. I pressed my lips firmly together and continued to listen. One set of lyrics stood out to me, however.

Right here underneath my wing,
You can rest your head.

I do whatever I can to make sure that all of the bots are well and healthy. I was the same way back on Cybertron. I found creator-less sparklings and elderly bots and tried to take care of them all at once. But, I could never truly save them. Many of them offlined eventually. Those who survived lost their minds, unable to handle the stress and trauma of war. I begun to think it was better to not try to help them.

On that day when you need your brothers and sisters to care,
I'll be right here!

But, there was the solar cycle when I became Optimus' official medic. Though he may be among the greatest leaders the universe has ever seen, he can't take care of everyone and everything, as muchh as he'd hate to admit it. There have been several times when the Autobots felt completely and utterly hopeless back on Cybertron and Optimus' speeches were of no help. The Decepticons had terminated several respected bots and that put our morale at an all time low. Once I saw that Optimus was starting to lose hope, I took it upon myself to boost the morale. Having been a politician at one point, I utilized those skills I had learned so long ago. The Autobots could obviously tell I was acting out of character when I called them instead of Optimus. Seeing my attempt to bring hope into their sparks, they all realized how hopeless they had truly gotten and embraced the comfort I tried with all my spark to give them. I could tell Optimus was thinking back to that time when I saw a miniscule smile creep onto his faceplates. He and I both knew that if we gave up hope, that if we gave up hope... We would never return home.

Hope and pray that you'll never need me,
But rest assured I will not let you down.
I'll walk beside you but you may not see me,
The strongest among you may not wear a crown.

In my line of work, I was rarely honored. Bots expect me to do this with no reward. And I accept that. This is my job. This is my duty. My role in this sickening war. Though it can be very hard and sometimes I feel a powerful urge to give in to emotions, I have to pull it all together and complete the tasks at hand. Though, I am certainly not the strongest. Yet again, I disagree with this chosen song.

The song ended. There was a moment of silence before I spoke up.

"I don't think that you chose a suitable song for me. It seems to praise more than what is due." Everyone in the room except Optimus let out some sort of protest. But before any could try and reason why the song fit me, Optimus raised a servo, silencing everyone. He looked down at me, a deadly serious look in his optics. I stepped back a bit, shocked. He has never given me that look before!

"I disagree, Ratchet. I cannot think of another mech who deserves this song more. You have been there since the beginning and never wavered in your purpose. Many Autobots own their lives to you. Though many have died under your care, those you could not save, your skills and determination saved countless other sparks from being extinguished. Your self-sacrificial ways are to be commended. Had you not been with us, I highly doubt I would be standing before you. Overall, one thing shall remain true. The strongest among us may not wear a crown."

Silence followed after Optimus shifted to gaze at all the bots and humans. I could only blink dumbly. Had he just said that I was the strongest...?

"I am so glad I got that on tape." Samantha mused happily. "But seriously, I honestly do believe that Ratchet has the strongest spark out of all of you. No offense, Boss Bot."

"No, I do indeed agree with your statement. Many see me as the strongest, but I wasn't the one who had to repair my broken and beaten comrades on a regular basis. Had I become a medic, my value of life would be much lower. Ratchet, however, reversed that effect that happened to so many on Cybertron and valued life more than ever before."

Well, he's not wrong.

Bumblebee buzzed and beeped, agreeing with our leader. He knows more than most how caring I can be when one of my teammates is hurt. He found that out after the incident at Tyger Pax. I didn't let the youngling leave the med bay until he was back to full health. Granted, he was rather irritated at the moment with me.

"Well, time to move it along. Up next: Arcee! Your song is Cinderella by the Cheetah Girls. Me thinks you might like this one."

"When I was just a little girl,
My mama used to tuck me into bed,
And she'd read me a story.

It always was about a princess in distress
And how a guy would save her
And end up with the glory.

I'd lie in bed
And think about
The person that I wanted to be,

Then one day I realized
The fairy tale life wasn't for me.

This is definitely Arcee. I caught Jack smiling up at his femme guardian. Many femmes, because of their fragile appearances, were overprotected by the mechs around them. Arcee and Cliffjumper were extremely close but I know he could be overprotective of her at times. And that bothered Arcee to no end.

Don't wanna depend on no one else.
I'd rather rescue myself.

So, so true. Arcee hated having to be rescued. She did some rather reckless things early on in the war to prove that she didn't need help from anyone. At first she hated the idea of a partner, thinking that it would make her appear weak. Contrary to that, the experience strengthened her.

I can slay (I can slay) my own dragons. (My own dragons)
I can dream my own dreams. (My own dreams)
My knight in shining armor (shining armor) is me.
So I'm gonna set me free.

Though she had come to appreciate Cliffjumper's help, certain missions she insisted she could do on her own. On one particular mission, she was nearly captured by a squadron of Vechicons. They completely surrounded her and grew overconfident, seeing her size. There were fourteen of them around the femme.

Apparently, fourteen wasn't enough.

I arrived myself with my medical kit, along with Cliffjumper and Bumblebee , having recieved a message from Bumblebee that Arcee was in danger. Arcee walked past us through the Ground Bridge we had just exited, leaving us to gawk at the gory aftermath.

I don't wanna be like Cinderella,
Sitting in a dark, cold, dusty cellar,
Waiting for somebody (oh -Oh)to come and set me free.
I don't wanna be like someone waiting
For a handsome prince to come and save me
On I will survive
Unless somebody's on my side
Don't wanna depend on no one else.
I'd rather rescue myself.

The song concluded abruptly and I gazed at Arcee, optics gleaming with curiosity.

"All I can say is: perfect." She smiled gently, pleased with the humans' selection in songs. "Well, it's your turn, Optimus."

"Right on! Crystal, hit the play button! My support team went through many, many songs sent in by the fans to find this one." Samantha said that last bit in a singsong voice. Optimus unconsciously tilted his head to the side slightly, no doubt curious about what music choice he would get. Unfortunately for him, he didn't know very much about human music.

"Yes, ma'am!" But before Crystal could even move a very loud voice sounded.

"PRIME!"

I am saddened right now. Oh, so sad. School starts tomorrow for me. Anyway, I wanna give a special shout out to Starcee138. You really helped me out with these theme songs. Devil-O-Angel, Thanks so much for the fan art suggestions! I'll use them where ever I can.

And for the rest of you guys, thanks for your suggestions! I plan on using the animals for later. ;)

Well, if ya got a question, comment or gift for the Autobots, don't be shy! Now I'm looking for more thought provoking questions. Do you have any?

See you in the next chapter!