For Disclaimer, warnings, rating, parings, summary and legend, please refer to chapter 1.

Chapter 4.

'Eventually, things quieted down between the humans and the Shifters, but though the Anti-Shifter Terrorist Squad was disbanded, a few of the members struck out on their own, still carrying the ASTS name with them, unhappy that the King was allowing Shifters to live among humans, as equals and not treating them like the animals they were. They hid, taking down shifters in an inconspicuous manner so that no-one would notice, working their way from genus to genus, species to species, aiming to attempt to label the Shifter as an extinct species. However, when they realised that the Shifters were breeding faster than they were dying, the founder of the ASTS, a man named Peter Hangon decided to put something else into effect. He told his men that from now on, he wanted two unrelated males and two unrelated females of every genus and species, telling them that if humans can't kill Shifters efficiently, then an army of Shifters could do the work. This was immediately acquiesced by the other members and they set out to collect the livestock for their farms.

Peter intended to breed his army from the Shifters he caught, keeping the strong and killing the weak offspring that were produced, however, he didn't want defective product, so several male and female offspring were kept and nurtured, because they would be able to breed a new generation of soldiers, whether they wanted too or not. See, he was counting on the basic animalian instinct for mating, placing females who were in heat, in a room with one sexually active male ensured that coitus happened and the male would be kept with the female until she conceived. These matings were watched very carefully, as some times it was hard to tell when the female was due in season. Soon, several hundred young shifters were being born, left to received the colostrum from their mothers and then taken so they could start their training. The men of the ASTS realised at the same time, that when a female was no longer nursing her young, she came into season quicker and they could breed her again almost straight away.

It was horrific, as soon as a female shifter could produce no more offspring, they were killed and their bodies dumped in 3 foot graves outside of the territory of the farm/camp and a new female took up her place. It was a constant circle and only the strong were allowed to reproduce. What's worse, was that the strongest males were decided not by the natural order of things, but by duels that were watched and bet upon by the human men, then the weak males were slaughtered and used to feed the next generation. This happened in secret and is still happening around the world. The humans are oblivious to it, even though it is farming on an incredibly large scale, either they choose to ignore it, or they are too scared of the ASTS to do anything about it.'

(Two weeks later)

Alexx had calmed down around the truck, but only minutely; whenever Annabelle was out crawling around by the imposing black GMC truck, the shifter femme was there, watching like a hawk. A week ago, Will had gone out and had come back with a strange male in tow, claiming him to be one of the guys he fought with when he was doing his tour of duty. The name struck Alexx as odd, Rob Hide. He was a burly man, with a scar going from his left shoulder, down to his right pectoral and he also had several scars on his face too, giving him and even gruffer look. His hair was jet black, the same colour as the truck and his eyes a stunning blue, not that Alexx took any notice, she was more interested in caring for Annabelle and it appeared the male had no interest in talking to her either.

What Alexx also found odd, was that Will, with the help of Rob, was building a large...well if she were to put it into perspective...barn around the back of the house. If she had to guess, she would say that it was at least twenty two foot tall. It struck her as strange, but didn't say anything about it, wanting as little contact as possible with Rob. It was on a hot day, when Annabelle was out in her walker in the front yard, while Sarah was hanging out washing, that Alexx got a strange feeling from the truck, causing her to give it an unseen glare. There was definitely something off about that truck. It wasn't that she was scared of it, it was more along the lines that...she knew that it wasn't a normal truck, she knew that because all other trucks she'd been near, didn't have the strange electric pulse this one had. She couldn't put her finger on it, it was like the truck was alive somehow. She shook her head and watched Annabelle, scowling slightly at how the little girl giggled and cooed as she walked between the little picket fence and towards the truck. This put Alexx on high alert, but more so when Rob came from around the back and glanced down at the little girl, just...staring at her. Alexx growled quietly, causing Rob to look up at her, before he crouched down to get a better look at the infant. All the while, his scanners were trained on Alexx, trying to work out if his systems really were malfunctioning.

(Ironhide)

The human/feline female just watched him as he interacted with the Lennox sparkling, he could tell she was tensing up, even more so when he reached out to touch the human infant. On Cybertron, he never had the chance to father a sparkling, the war had come first before anything else and it just never happened. He was a little put out that he wasn't the only one protecting this family, but then again, at least he won't be the one getting into trouble with Prime if a human got hurt, he could blame it on the overprotective female. Those eyes! He could feel them attempting to bore holes into the back of his holographic skull and he decided that he couldn't take any more of the scrutinisation and he got up, heading back around to where William was.

"Hey, you alright there 'hide?" Will asked.

Ironhide looked at him and grunted, before getting back to work. He wasn't a mech of many words, in fact he barely did any talking with the humans, he didn't understand them and their customs enough. However, if said human was talking about guns, well now...that...was a conversation he could easily fall into. There wasn't anything that Ironhide didn't know about guns, frankly, if he didn't know about it, then it wasn't worth knowing about. His holographic self vented deeply, his processors still trying to work out how the shifter could be, according to his memory banks and the human world wide web, not only were shifters meant to be legends, but said legends told of how Shifters were practically wiped off the face of the planet, that only a few, if any survived. He heard Will clear his throat and looked over at him, to see the human watching him with a smirk on his fleshy lip plates.

"What?" He asked.

Will shook his head and chuckled.

"Nothin, just wondering what you're thinking about, can practically see the cogs whirring in that head of yours" he said.

Ironhide furrowed his brow and glanced at the human.

"I don't see how that would be possible-" he began.

Will held up his hands in a motion that stopped Ironhide from speaking.

"Its a figure of speech" he said.

Ironhide grunted and muttered something about humans and their speech patterns before getting back on with the task at hand.

(Normal)

A few hours passed and Sarah had been slaving away in the kitchen for about twenty minutes, before she came out with three plates of sandwiches, three glasses of her homemade lemonade and a bottle of milk for Annabelle. Will accepted the food and drink eagerly, taking several gulps of the lemonade before thanking his wife and taking the sandwiches. He encouraged Ironhide to do the same, telling him when Sarah had gone, that he would eat the food and drink the lemonade and all the mech had to do was say that it was lovely. Alexx took her sandwiches and climbed up her tree, sitting on the roof to eat them, being sure to keep watching over Sarah and Annabelle, as well as watching over Will. As she sat there, she thought of how she could prove that the truck wasn't a truck, though she had a feeling that Will already knew that. She'd often been out here when Will had come out and he'd been talking to the truck, like it could understand him, it confused her and made her all the more suspicious.

She also had the feeling that Rob knew something about the truck too, because when she would be sat out here, watching the sun set, she would often glimpse him going to the truck and getting into it, but she would rarely see him get back out of it. There was also the fact that when Rob spoke, he didn't make any sense, talking about a person called Prime and Hatchet...he and Will once caught her on the roof and tried to play it off as people they served with in the army, but she knew the scent of a lie, even if Will was trained to be able to lie through his back teeth, she could smell it. She never called him out on it though, because she felt she could trust him. She looked over her shoulder and glanced at the truck, maybe she should try and trust that too...but then again, maybe she should just attempt to get some answers. A small plan formed in the back of her mind and she felt a small smirk adorn her lips. She would find out the truth tonight.

She finished her sandwiches and climbed down the tree, putting the plate in the sink and drinking her lemonade, before going to check on Annabelle and Sarah, the former of which was beginning to get tired after her lunch.

"I'll go put her to bed" she said.

Sarah smiled and thanked her and Alexx plucked Annabelle from the walker and took her into the house, putting the infant in her rocker and beginning to slowly rock her until she fell asleep. Being a cat, she was able to get back out of the house without waking the sleeping baby and handed the baby monitor to Sarah, who was getting ready to go and watch the two men work. Alexx then climbed up into her tree and, making sure that no-one was looking, she shifted to her panther form, before laying down on a thick branch and taking a nap, unaware that Ironhide had just witnessed the whole thing.

(Later that night)

When Will, Sarah and Rob had gone into the house, Alexx shifted back to her human form and climbed down the tree, before looking around and walking up to the truck. She circled it, sniffing the entire time to see if she could maybe smell anything on it, but all she could smell was the distinct scent of Ozone, metal and oil, nothing really out of the ordinary. She gave a growl and stopped at the front of the truck.

"Do you think I'm stupid?" She asked.

No answer. She knew she must've looked stupid, but she didn't care, her arms crossed under her breasts and she narrowed her eyes.

"Cause you know, I'm not stupid at all. I know you're not a truck, I don't know what you are, but I know you definitely aren't a normal truck" she said.

She sensed someone coming out behind her and she froze at the danger in the aura she could feel.

"You ain't all yer cracked up to be either femme" Rob said.

Alexx turned around and looked at him, narrowing her eyes.

"What?" She asked.

The butch male stepped towards her, making her tense in preparation to fight, for she wasn't the type of animal to embrace the flight response.

"I ain't the only one who's hidin somethin'" Rob said again.

Alexx growled and stepped forward, attempting to be threatening.

"Just what do you mean by that? How dare you! You walk into my territory and accuse me of hiding something. You have no right" she hissed.

Ironhide narrowed his holographic eyes at her and met her stance, practically standing chest to...well...throat with her.

"I got every right, I have been stationed here to protect the Lennox family, that means all of the Lennox family, including your sorry aft" he said.

Alexx growled again, not backing down, it wasn't in her nature to back down.

"I was doing perfectly well protecting this family before you came along, you don't need to be here. And I don't need protection, I can take care of myself" she snarled.

The man in front of her narrowed his eyes and stepped forwards once more, trying to intimidate her with his size.

"I doubt that for a nanosecond femme, you have no idea what's out there" he said.

Alexx bared her teeth and her eyes turned to golden brown as she shoved him backwards, surprising Ironhide with her strength.

"And you do?" She asked.

He glared at her and growled a little too.

"More than what you know femme" he replied.

Alexx glared at him and then growled again, before shaking her head.

"Whatever, I don't care. I don't need protecting and nor does my family" she said.

She walked off, leaving the male stood there, glaring after her.

(Ironhide)

His optics watched as she walked into the house and then he let a growl escape from him before his holoform disappeared. As he sat there, he replayed the image just before she had shoved his holoform away and there was no faulting this, her eyes had shifted colour, going from hazel to golden brown. Couple that with the image of her turning into a large, black feline in the tree earlier...his suspicions were correct.

:Ironhide to Prime:

There was a moment of static on the other side, before the deep baritone of the Autobot leader filled his audios.

:Prime, what is it Ironhide?:

Ironhide was quiet a second.

:It appears the Lennox family is already under protection Prime:

A tone was heard across the link.

:William has not informed us that he already has a protective detail on his residence:

Ironhide sent a tone back.

:That is because it appears that the protection has come in the form of a femme Optimus, and not your usual human femme either:

Silence.

:Decepticon?:

Ironhide sent a negative tone.

:Negative Prime, I am unsure of what the female is, scans of her show no sign of her being a cybertronian yet I plainly saw her shift into a different form in front of my optics:

This time a surprised, yet suspicious tone was sent back.

:Are you sure about this Ironhide?:

An affirming tone.

:Yes Prime, the femme shifted her form in front of me, when she thought I wasn't looking:

Silence again before the baritone was back.

:Is the femme aware that you know of this event?:

Ironhide replayed the argument earlier in his processors, before negating.

:No:

More silence before speech.

:Make sure it stays that way. Is she aware of your true form?:

Another negating tone.

:Good. Keep an optic on them Ironhide, if the Decepticon find the Lennox family, they may be after this mysterious femme:

Ironhide sent an affirming tone before he closed the communications and drifted into an alert recharge.

~Shifting Hearts~

A/N: Aaaaaand...here's another chapter for you wonderful people to feast your eyes upon, I hope you enjoy this as much as you hopefully enjoyed the last three chapters. So...I wanted to put some interaction between Ironhide and Alexx in, as it would be the first step of a medium length journey that will end with them becoming mates, as well as Alexx mating with the other 3 Autobots too. I really hope I have Ironhide in character here, I don't want to be getting his character all wrong when faced with a situation such as this, and considering he's never going to be in a situation such as this, it was pretty much guesswork, taking his gruff personality and his imtimidating demeanour and putting it into words really. Anyway, I'd like to hope that this is really whetting your appetite for more, because it will hopefully start to get good from now on, with more interaction between Ironhide and Alexx and things like that. So...I hope you enjoy this chapter and please don't forget to review.

Thank you for reading and enjoy.

Vampyrex1

Date Written: 27 June 2014

Word Count: 2940

Upload Date: 09 August 2014

Next Chapter Due: 16 August 2014