Update right on time, for once! For those who read RS, I can only apologize for this past month... Longer explanation will be in the AN in the new chapter, which will probably be up by tonight.

Thanks for all the faves, alerts and especially your reviews! I appreciate them all and always welcome comments and constructive criticism.

Disclaimer: I don't own it, and any similarities to other fics are completely coincidental. Please don't sue me, I don't have the money for a lawyer...

Chapter Four

Intelligence

Chuckling, Jasmine put the finishing touches to her drawing before looking toward Thundercracker, who hadn't so much as glanced in her direction for quite some time, apparently engrossed with his business, whatever it was. "Look!" she called, trying to draw his attention, and when the Decepticon ignored her, she ran over and tapped his finger until he looked up.

"What is it?" Thundercracker grumbled, annoyed about being interrupted in his work, but Jasmine simply smiled and pointed at her borrowed datapad.

"I drew a picture," she announced proudly, though he had already figured that out upon giving the datapad a quick look over.

"What is it?" he asked, even as he analyzed the crude drawing, which consisted of a small stick figure surrounded by three larger ones with strange triangular shapes sticking out of their shoulders. It's us, he realized in surprise. Skywarp, Starscream and myself, and the small figure must be her. Why would she draw something like this?

As if reading his thoughts, Jasmine answered his second question as well as the first. "I don't write very well, so I decided to draw a picture instead. Do you like it?"

"The-" quality is poor, and proportions are inaccurate, he had been about to say, but something stopped the words before they could leave his mouth. "It is nice," the Seeker said instead, telling himself that humans could be sensitive when it came to criticism and he really didn't want a bawling one sitting among so many important datapads. The noise alone would make it impossible to do any work. "I assume that is my trine and yourself?"

"Skywarp, Starscream and you, Thundercracker," she said, touching each picture as she spoke and leaving a faint thumbprint behind, thanks to the screen's current high sensitivity. "I didn't know how tall you are so I made you a little shorter than Starscream, and Skywarp's a little shorter than you."

"Close enough," Thundercracker said, resisting a smile – he was shorter than Starscream, though not by much. The human's picture made it seem like a couple feet separated them instead of only a few inches. Ordinarily he would be annoyed by the comparison, but since Skywarp's picture was actually a little taller than his, he could tell the human wasn't good when it came to judging distances. "And the other figure is you?"

"Yes," said Jasmine, pleased he had recognized her. "I know I'm too big but I couldn't draw a face if I made myself smaller." The stick figure's head contained two eyes of different sizes and a lopsided smile. "I can draw better on paper," she added, sighing. "This thing-"

"-it's called a datapad," Thundercracker corrected.

"-this datapad isn't very easy to draw on."

"We don't usually use them for that purpose, they are for writing on," Thundercracker said. "Would you like me to clear it so you can do something else now?"

"Okay," Jasmine said, stepping back, and watched carefully as Thundercracker pressed the buttons that would enter a command to wipe the surface clean. "Can I try?"

"If you like," he said, slightly amused. She spoke far too much, but her curiosity was almost too big for such a small form. The human reminded him of a sparkling, always poking into everything. "Shall I show you the sequence again?"

"Yes, please," she said, and paid close attention, then copied his moves once he was done. In order to push the buttons she had to step on each one and lean her weight on it so it would click, then move on to the next one. No wonder her drawing had been slightly off in the dimensions, the screen was too big for her to see all at once when close up, Thundercracker realized. Perhaps a smaller datapad would be better, I could rig one- he stopped that thought before it go any further and shook his head in amazement. Only a little while ago he had been complaining about having a squishy around, and now he was coming up with ways to accommodate it? You're going soft, Thundercracker, he told himself, and turned back to his report, deciding to leave the squishy alone until Skywarp returned.

No sooner had he thought about his brother than the purple mech contacted him. "How's it going?"

"Well enough. She drew a picture of us."

"Of who?"

"Herself and our trine. It seems your pet is becoming rather attached to us, Skywarp. Couldn't you take it back before it forgets what species it is?"

"Jasmine's a she, TC, stop calling her 'it', and tell Screamer to not call her that, either. Did he get the generator done?"

"Yes. I had to wipe the video so no one would see the trailer. You are lucky Megatron didn't see any more of the base than he did, he might have requested to see the security vids and you would be scrap."

"I know, but it won't happen again, I promise. I'll find a safe place for Jasmine to hide and everything will be fine."

Coming from Skywarp's mouth, those words were more worrying than soothing. "All right," Thundercracker said reluctantly, not wanting to argue any further at the moment. "But don't pull that stunt with your spark chamber again. You could have both been killed."

"Yeah, I know, Screamer already gave me that lecture. Twice, in fact. Got to go, I'm getting Autobot signals on my radar. Be back within a joor."

"Don't be late." Thundercracker terminated the link and set an alarm to ring a few astroseconds after the next joor was over. If he's not back, I'll go out looking for him.

"Thundercracker?"

"What now? I am busy, human, in case you hadn't noticed."

"Sorry," said Jasmine, clasping her hands behind her back. "I just wanted to show you my portrait of you."

This picture was far better than the first. He could see himself, his chair, the table and even the datapad he held. His wings were a little crooked, and he knew for certain that his face didn't look quite that flat – no way was his nose that large, either – but otherwise the picture was well done. "Looks good," he said, with a little more enthusiasm than he had had for the first. "Perhaps you'll become an artist when you get older."

"No, I'm not good enough." Jasmine looked down and scuffed one foot against the desktop. "The matron – the woman in charge – at the orphanage said my pictures are just worthless scribbles and I should be trying to learn something useful, like math." The human made a face to show what she thought of that subject.

What kind of creatures are humans, to speak to their younglings like that? Thundercracker wondered, spark pulsing faster than normal with anger. Not even Megatron would say something so harsh to a sparkling.

Hearing the mech's cooling fans kicking in, Jasmine guessed she had said something wrong and hastened to apologize. "Sorry, I didn't mean to complain, I mean, they gave me a home there and you're giving me an even better one, and I really should spend more time with important stuff like ma-"

"No," Thundercracker said, grabbing another blank datapad. "Come here."

Jasmine stepped forward cautiously. "What is it?"

"I want you to copy this symbol over and over until you can draw it from memory," Thundercracker said, brushing his finger over the upper right hand corner of datapad until he had drawn a simple Cybertronian character. "Can you do that?"

"Is it Cybertronian?" Jasmine guessed, squealing with delight when he gave a short nod – the Decepticon dimmed his audio receptors until the noise quieted to bearable levels. "What does it mean?"

"It's your name in Cybertronian," said Thundercracker. "Sort of. Jasmine is an earth flower that we don't have on Cybertron, but the name literally means flower, which is translatable."

"So this means flower?"

"Yes."

"How do you write your name?"

Thundercracker sighed, but drew a series of complicated symbols. "I can't explain what each one means, some are too difficult to translate, but that's my name in Cybertronian." He sighed again when the girl continued to watch him expectantly. "If I write down the others' names as well, will you be quiet and let me work?"

"Yes," she said promptly, and watched as he jotted down Starscream's and Skywarp's as well. "Why do you all have these symbols?" Jasmine indicated two of the simplest that sat side beside within all three Seeker's names.

"The first means Seeker, the second is our personal trine symbol."

"Sort of like a last name," Jasmine said, drawing a circle around the subject of her attention.

"Yes," Thundercracker agreed, returning to his work in hopes of actually getting it done. "Now, why don't you practice drawing those and let me do my work?" Considering how complicated those symbols are, especially Starscream's, she's going to be there for a while, which will give me plenty of time to work in peace.

"THUNDERCRACKER!"

"Starscream, how many times must I tell you, don't shout over our trine bond! It still hurts my audio receptors. What's the problem this time?"

"Skywarp is a slagging-" Starscream spent several minutes using every word he knew and several Thundercracker had never heard to describe their brother. "And, worst of all, he just had to steal the heiress to an enormous fortune!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Check any human television channel you have available right now, because they're almost all playing the same story. Skywarp's really done it now, and we're all slagged if Megatron finds out. Do you have any idea what he would do to us for blowing our cover like this?"

Thundercracker's spark skipped several pulses as he followed his brother's order. The news was even worse than Starscream had made it seem. "Are you going to tell Skywarp about this?"

"He already knows and is headed home as fast as he can warp. Thundercracker, she has got to go."

Not ten minutes ago, Thundercracker would have agreed, but after their recent conversation and the news that he was collecting as rapidly as possible, he wasn't so sure that was a good idea. "Are you sure that's the best thing for her? She's only a child, and they don't have much proof."

"It's for the best. She'll live a nice long life, instead of hiding all the time, waiting for Megatron to find and slag her."

"You can't make her leave," Skywarp protested, having gotten within range so he could communicate with his brothers even as he warped, which made his voice bouncy and transmit with strange short pauses. "Please, Starscream, don't make me take her back."

"She has to go back."

"At least ask her what she thinks."

"You can, but I am sure she will agree that it's for the best. Wake me when you come to that conclusion, too."

Soundwave's surveillance of the human television stations was often boring and he spent a good portion of time comparing how many channels ran the exact same 'exclusive' report with the only difference being that their reporters were not the same. There were even more than he would have believed possible, but when a new one popped up, it did more than catch his attention for a brief instant. He skipped past it, then went back, startled by what he was hearing.

"An orphan went missing not long before lawyers arrived at the place she had been staying, seeking her because she was the sole heir of an enormous amount of currency. Although the woman in charge refused to speak with us on camera, she did say a metal monster snatched the child earlier today. There is now an FBI-led search taking place, and as the hunt for the poor girl begins, relatives already begin to bicker over who will be taking her in-"

Soundwave lowered his monitoring to a sublevel part of his processor, where things would simply be recorded to be reviewed later. Running the woman's voice through his mind again, the Decepticon mused that something about it sounded fishy. After Megatron's abrupt return from his visit to Starscream's base, something had been bothering the communications officer, and now that slight anomaly in his processor began to make sense. However, before he told Megatron his suspicions, he was going to need to look into the matter himself. More information was needed, and he began studying the television signals with more interest than he had had for a long time.

When Skywarp popped into Thundercracker's office, Jasmine covered her ears at the sharp sound. "I don't remember it being that loud," she said, wincing.

"Sorry," Skywarp muttered, before turning to his brother. "Are you crazy? Why does she have to leave? It's not fair."

"Leave?" Jasmine's head shot up, her eyes wide with horror. "What do you mean, leave? I'm not going anywhere."

"Wait until you hear all the facts," Starscream said, walking in. "Then you can decide if this is really the better choice."

"Of course it is," Skywarp protested, but he fell silent upon receiving sharp looks from both his brothers. Quietly he held out his hand, setting it down on the desk, and Jasmine scrambled into his palm without hesitation, still glancing from him to the other two with a worried look stamped into her features.

"Why do I have to leave?" she whispered, feeling tears pooling in her eyes. "I like it here."

"You'll like it better when you return to your people," Starscream said. "Some people came looking for you not long after Skywarp took you away. Apparently you've inherited a lot of money, and there's a family that comes with it. Aunts, uncles, cousins, that sort of thing."

"I don't want to leave," Jasmine insisted, folding her arms, then glancing up at Skywarp. "You won't make me leave, will you?"

"Of course not," Skywarp replied, ignoring his brothers' exasperated ventings. "You only have to leave if you want to, no one is going to make you leave. Right?" He gave his brothers a look that made it clear he was, for once, serious about what he was saying. "She doesn't leave unless she agrees to."

"It would safer for all of us if she did," Starscream said. "She spent a little time with us, had an adventure she can't tell anyone about, and now she should go back before something happens. We were lucky today, but Megatron won't always announce his arrivals, and what will you do during a battle? Take her with you? It's too dangerous for her to be with us, you have to send her back."

"No," Jasmine screamed, jumping to her feet. "I don't want to go back! You can't make me!"

"Skywarp, take her out of here for a bit, let her calm down," Starscream ordered, and before the human could say anything else, the purple mech warped away, ending up on the landing strip outside the base.

"You've done it now," he sighed, looking down at Jasmine. "Starscream doesn't like people yelling at him. He'll probably force me to take you back now."

"But you won't, will you? I want to stay with you, I don't want the money, and I don't want to go live with strangers." Jasmine was crying in earnest now, large tears dripping out of her eyes and running down her cheeks in a steady stream.

"You're going to stay," Skywarp promised. "Hold very still for a moment, okay?"

Jasmine nodded and froze in her seated position.

Very carefully the Seeker transformed into his altmode, ending with the human sitting in the seat in his cockpit. He brought the seatbelt across her lap and snapped the buckle shut. She flinched a little, but otherwise didn't speak.

"Hold on," he said, and raced down the runway, taking off a few astroseconds later. Heading in an almost vertical path, he waited until he was about sixty thousand feet above the ground before leveling out. "Listen, Jasmine, I won't let Starscream take you back. He'll yell a lot at first, but eventually he'll come to like you. Thundercracker already does, I can tell."

"How? He was really mad when I kept asking him questions."

"That's because he's always grumpy when he's doing reports and gets interrupted."

"Oh. I guess I better apologize."

"That can wait until we get this current problem sorted out." Skywarp's voice sounded a little strained. "Unfortunately, my brothers are arguing with me right now about all the cons involved in keeping you here, and they keep insisting you'd be better off-"

"No, I wouldn't." Jasmine snuggled down in the pilot's chair and dried her face. "You won't let anyone hurt me, will you?"

Skywarp was insulted by the very idea. "Of course not."

"Then I'm safer with you than with the people who say they're my family. All they want is the money."

"How do you know?" Skywarp asked, surprised at the girl's comment. It could be true, but didn't orphans usually want a family? He must have spoken the last bit aloud, because Jasmine laughed.

"Of course I wanted a family," she said, patting the dashboard, which tickled.

"What about now? If you stay with us-"

"You're my family now," said Jasmine, smiling. "Right?"

Skywarp considered the suggestion for a moment. "Right," he said at last. "We agreed that pet was a bad idea, and friends don't live with each other all the time, so family would make the most sense. Which makes me no longer the youngest sibling." He laughed.

Jasmine chuckled. "How old are you?"

"Much older than you, and that's all you need to know," he replied. "I make the pyramids in Egypt look young."

"Who's oldest?"

"Thundercracker, but not by much."

"Why not?"

"We were sparked in almost the same moment, all trines are."

"What's a trine?"

"A group of three Seekers who are related and can communicate with each other through a method that most other Cybertronians don't understand and those that do wish they could communicate in the same way because it's impossible to hack."

"Hack? Isn't that something bad that happens to computers?"

"Actually, the word has a slightly different meaning in Cybertronian, but that's the best translation I can come up with. Starscream could explain it better but I wouldn't ask him about it until he's had a chance to calm down about the other thing."

"Why does he want me to leave?"

"Having you here is dangerous for you and us. Remember my leader, how I had to hide you from him? If he found out you were with us, he'd kill you and punish us badly."

"Oh." Jasmine's eyes went wide and she fell quiet. Skywarp didn't bother her for the rest of the flight, knowing she needed time to think. He did, too, but first he had to convince his brothers to let the human stay.