Yeah, sorry it's taken me so long to update, I've been working on my real-world writing, the stuff I want to actually publish.

Um, right. So… thanks to all those that favorited/alerted, and a special thanks to Silverstorm13, Ninja Star Light, and my lovely Guest, your words made me smile.

Anywho, without further ado, chapter six of Project: Mockingbird. Don't forget to drop a review!

Project Mockingbird: v2.0

Chapter 6: Of Confrontations and Offers Of Fealty.

The base was in an uproar when they arrived, the arrival of two more high-end cars, no matter the fact that one looked like it had been dragged the whole way on its roof, garnered no more than the most cursory of glances. That the cars pulled into the hanger set aside for the Autobots was to be expected.

Lyre shifted uncomfortably in her seat, dreading what was to come. She was not a fool, and she was well aware of Ratchet's temper. He would not be pleased with her.

And she wasn't even done making him angry at her yet.

As Sunstreaker pulled into the hanger she searched for a familiar face, catching sight of her favorite noncom she indicated a stop and leaned out of a now opened door. "Epps! Hey, Epps!" Under other circumstances she might have laughed at the shocked expression on his face, instead she waved him closer. He approached at something that was not quite a run.

"Damn girl, you know how to make an entrance. There's a pool going on about how many individual pieces Ratchet in gonna rip you into." Normally this would have induced a snarky comment in retaliation, it didn't.

"I need you to get me to medical." She paused for emphasis. "Human medical. Please."

Taking in the urgency of her tone he reacted as any good military man would, with precision. He scooped her up into his arms and carried her swiftly in the requested direction, not stopping until he was able to hand her off to a proper doctor. Then he stood back and waited.

It wouldn't take long, he knew.

Any second now, Ratchet would come storming in like a hurricane, shouting at the top of his metal lungs. The embodiment of fury.

It was an accurate way to describe Ratchet's reaction when he learned that the human woman he had taken on as a patient two years ago had not stayed with Sunstreaker until they reached his care. Wrenches were thrown, threats were made, curses were uttered. The CMO was, in a word, pissed.

That he was already angry before hearing this did not bode well for the woman.

The two Autobots that were watching, as Sideswipe had not left his twin's side, were rather amused. It was rare to see the Hatchet so furious at anyone other than them and they were allowing it to keep their minds from less pleasant thoughts.

It was safe to say that the day was a strange one.

When Ratchet stormed from the medbay it was with the twins trailing at a safe distance behind him, intent on getting as much amusement as possible from the moment. That the damaged twin wished to see how the femme dealt with Ratchet in person was kept a private thought, even from his other half.

The two Autobots found themselves standing near a dark skinned human male with whom only the silver twin was familiar. The man had a wide grin on his face; he too was taking advantage of this moment of distraction. "Man, that girl sure knows how to make things interesting around here, probably drove her parents crazy. You guys are in for a treat." Then he fell silent, settling in to watch the coming battle. The golden one may have arrived with her but he doubted either Autobot had seen her in her element.

Lyre was a force to be reckoned with. Even when faced with the temperamental Autobot medic.

"Femme!" That Ratchet did not need to specify a name in order for everyone, human or Autobot, within hearing distance to know exactly who he was shouting at was a testament to his earlier fury. That he was stuck standing outside of a human sized door explained why he was shouting… and not carting Lyre's organic behind back to his medbay.

The humans within the room, having been unable to see him approach, all jumped in their respective places at his shout but only one grimaced afterwards. Lyre tried to ignore him but after the third exclamation she forced her attending physician to pause in his work and bring her to the door, though she had him stop before they exited, not wanting to put herself within grabbing range.

She took a deep breath. "What!"

"Don't give me that! Why the frag aren't you in my medbay?"

"You have a patient. Deal with him."

If possible, Ratchet became even more enraged. "Don't tell me what to do with my patients Femme!"

Lyre tried not to sigh, right now all she really wanted to do was get patched up, fed, and rested; she wasn't in the mood to have a shouting match with her grumpy sort-of colleague. "I'm not. I'm telling you what to do with mine." He did not react well to this statement, she rolled her eyes, interrupting the medic mid-rant. "Look, you saw the scans yourself, same as me. Sunstreaker is heavily damaged, I don't know how long my patches will hold. I had to do extensive repair work in not a lot of time with basic tools and nowhere near enough supplies. Until you can do proper repairs he's critical, which means you have two at-risk soldiers, him and, by extension, his twin." If her knowledge of their connection surprised them –It did, she was just another organic after all, why would she have even a basic understanding of them? Though, Sunstreaker ought to have suspected at the very least.- the twins didn't show it. "That's not a risk you can take at the moment and you know it. You and I are the only beings on base that can perform even the most basic of repairs and I have my own injuries to see to at the moment-"

"Which is why you should be in my medbay where I can take care of-"

"Which is why you should be doing your job and why I should be in here with the copious amount of human medics that can see to my non-critical Human needs so that I can return to my job of helping you. You have a good grasp of human biology but lack a certain sense of… scale. You would put off Sunstreaker's injuries until after mine were seen to, due to the inherent fragility of humans in comparison to Cybertronians. That's unnecessary, so I circumnavigated the issue. You will see to Sunstreaker and I will receive medical help and once I am finished I will come to you, you will scan me, grumble with dissatisfaction, and proclaim me 'well enough'. I will then assist you in your repairs on Sunstreaker." That she had just accurately stated how he would likely react was enough to give Ratchet pause. It was enough, even, for him to actually analyze the argument she had presented to him and reluctantly proclaim it sound.

He grumbled. "You will come straight to the medbay after you're done?"

"I promise."

"If you don't I'll put you on bed rest for a month." Unseen to him, she smiled.

"I don't doubt it."

Taking that as the reassurance it was, Ratchet turned to go back to his medbay, glaring when he caught sight of the twins. "What are you doing out here! Did I say you could leave medical? Get your afts back where they belong!"

The poor newbies were in a state of shock.

Someone was having a shouting match with Ratchet.

Someone had won in an argument with Ratchet.

Some little organic femme.

Against Ratchet.

And she won.

It was definitely a weird day.

This time Sunstreaker couldn't write off the anomaly as false bravery from the femme, some false sense of security. She knew exactly what she was doing.

And she won.

That was the part he really couldn't get over.

When it came to anything even remotely medical even Prime lost arguments to Ratchet. And this little organic femme had won.

Without him realizing it, Sunstreaker's respect for Lyre, which had developed (despite him) in the minuscule during the course of their captivity when he realized how useful and intelligent she actually was, grew. It would be some time before he realized this, but when he did it would not surprise him nearly as much as he felt it should have.

For the time being he would just focus of the fact that he finally had his twin back and that, unfortunately, he had repairs that needed to be made. That wasn't even taking into account what he was sure to look like.

His poor paint job.

Epps was still hanging about outside of Medical when Lyre was finally released and so he ended up following alongside her as she headed out, giving her an update on what all she'd missed. "Oh, and Lyre…"

"Hmm?"

"You're gonna want to stay out of the command center."

Her response was puzzled but also relatively amused. "What? Why?"

"Just do it."

Significantly less amused, "Why?"

"Galloway's here."

"Oh." Her tone was appalled and disgusted, she had never hated someone (on principle) without meeting them as much as she hated the despicable excuse for a human being that was Theodore Galloway. "Right, thanks."

"Hey, no problem. Someone has to look after you, right?" He grinned down at her teasingly.

She responded with a coolly lifted eyebrow. "Was that a dig at me?" In response, all he did was laugh.

I have learned to use the word impossible with the greatest caution. – Werner Braun

They weren't feeling jealous.

They weren't.

It didn't matter what old Ironhide said, they weren't jealous.

Just because they felt irritated by her apparent closeness with Him didn't mean they were jealous.

And what did Ironhide know, anyway?

They irritably shrugged off the older mech's amusement and turned their minds to the files of her life instead.

:Access Next File?:

:Yes.:

:File Accessed.:

:File Opened.:

*A Few Days After The Battle Of Mission City*

Optimus Prime and Ratchet were not quite sure what to make of the four humans standing before them. They had already met one of the females, albeit briefly, and so her downright enthusiastic response to their presence, while slightly offsetting, was not wholly unexpected. The blatant hatred from one of the males, however, was. In fact, the glare he was emitting brought to mind a saying that Optimus had heard from the humans, 'If looks could kill…' it was odd that there was absolutely no fear in his eyes what-so-ever, such intense hate like his usually stemmed from fear. The other female's reaction was just as odd, because, unlike her companions, she revealed no emotion at all, only a calm professionalism. The only even remotely normal reaction of the bunch came from the oldest person of the group; he had gone into a state of shock and for a moment Ratchet was concerned that the man would pass out.

The enthusiastic female, Lyre, grabbed ahold of his arm and led him to a chair, speaking words of encouragement that only he and the two Autobots with their sensitive audio receptors could hear. Once the fifty-two year old, Mr. Drake, was settled she went back to standing beside the calm woman, Abigail, and exchanging dark looks with Tony, the angry male, behind Abigail's back.

Abigail, either oblivious to their actions or pretending to be, wasted no more time, instead coming straight to the point. "We have something that you need to see, as it relates to your bio-technology. We believe you have a right to know about it."

"Well, some of us do." The angry Tony interjected in a scathing tone, he was ignored, though the Autobots were fully aware of his outburst.

Lyre tore her glare away from Tony and looked at the suddenly wary 'bots, a seriousness in her eyes. "We would prefer that you keep it just between you two. If you will allow us to explain ourselves and present our proposition I'm sure you'll understand why we want it that way."

Optimus responded, voice as regal as ever. "In that case, lead the way."

The Autobot Leader and Chief Medical Officer were stuck somewhere between alarm and admiration for what lay in front of them.

Three, near perfect, faux-Cybertronian bodies.

There was an instinctive, ingrained sense of horror and regret at seeing those young bodies lying, without a spark of life, on their large metal tables, the feeling only made that much more powerful by the fact that two of said bodies were femmes. Two so very rare femmes. Intellectually there was nothing to be distressed about, they weren't dead because they were never alive to begin with, but that knowledge only went so far in controlling their emotional distress. And even if they overcame that emotional problem, there was still the alarm stemming from the mere existence of those bodies.

Those human-made bodies.

Those human-made bodies that functioned as if they were Cybertronian.

"You built these?" Only Optimus, who had spent many a century working, fighting, and living alongside him, recognized the shock in Ratchet's voice for what it was.

Lyre bristled angrily, hearing the shock but registering it as doubt instead. "Yes we did. Is that so hard to believe?"

"It's not so much unbelievable as it is extraordinary. Most humans cannot comprehend our make-up with any kind of clarity, nevertheless…" He ran yet another medical scan on the bots and felt just as surprised by the results as he was the first time. "Quite extraordinary."

One could almost see her preen under his amazed tone, and her ruffled feathers settled back into place as she shot a mischievous smirk in the 'bot's direction. "That's not even the cool part." She turned to Abigail, still with that mischievous smirk scrawled across her face. "May I do the honors? Please?" Abigail hesitated for only the briefest moment before nodding her assent, a reaction the Autobots caught but decided they would contemplate at a later time, instead choosing to study Lyre's actions intently.

She grinned, moving energetically to the other side of the ridiculously large room where there were three human sized cots laid out in a way that mirrored the metal tables, next to each cot was a set of identical medical equipment, most notably, a breathing apparatus. She slid into a cot with practiced ease, quickly and efficiently attaching the equipment to her person. The oxygen mask was the last thing to go on before she removed her pendant and made it split into three disks.

Ein was curious, he knew what was happening, he had seen her do it before and she'd explained what occurred on the other end but he'd never seen that part, and that curiosity got the best of him as he scuttled quickly onto her stomach for a better view. He was met with many a startled gaze, all present had heard of the incident involving the use of the Allspark's energy to create a being, and they had heard of her reaction, but they hadn't quite realized that that being was with her at the moment. She paused in her preparations to give Ein an encouraging pat, an action meant to tell everyone else that she knew he was there and that she was okay with that, she tossed in a threatening glare at them for good measure, warning them to lay off. She finished prepping and carefully placed the last disk in position. Optimus and Ratchet were alarmed to note that the human femme seemed to suddenly malfunction.

They were more alarmed to realize that the femme knew she would malfunction.

A fact they realized when the machines at her side picked up where her body left off, taking up the slack.

There was a mechanical whirring behind them and they were astonished to see that one of the previously lifeless mechanical bodies was sitting up and grinning widely. "So, what do you think? Like I said, wasn't even the coolest part."

It was lucky, really, that neither of the 'bots were prone to malfunctioning due to shock, otherwise there would have been a problem; as it was, they came pretty close.

Lyre settled her back against the wall, an absent-minded expression on her face, and carefully, if mechanically, removed the medical equipment. She then proceeded to stretch and twist her body, causing various joints to sound off with pops and crackles, she ignored the medical aids that had appeared to monitor her health sometime while she was out, instead looking at the small bot that now stuck to her like glue.

She suddenly grinned and hauled herself out of the cot, ignoring the unhappy protests of the medics, scooped Ein up onto her shoulder, and headed to her personal workroom where she locked the door behind her. "Contact Abigail." Ein let out the cool chime she had learned meant agreement and conformation, and the relatively empty room filled with the sound of a ringing phone as she grabbed her toolbox and shuffled towards the robotic form that was now in its proper place. There was always something she could make better and she hated having her other body resting anywhere other than her workroom, where someone could tinker with it without her permission, not that she'd ever give it. She allowed no one to work on her other body, not even Abigail.

"Yes?" The voice was as controlled as usual and Lyre couldn't help but smile faintly when she heard it.

"That went quite well, don't you think?" She released a quiet grunt at the end as she pried part of the paneling off of the right leg, exposing the more delicate wiring and circuitry of the ankle underneath, and began digging in almost gleefully.

There was a quiet snort that was quickly covered by her words, not that Lyre was paying enough attention to notice anyways. "I would have perhaps handled it a little differently, but overall I would say that, yes, that went quite well. I can see why you respect them."

She waved a hand airily over her shoulder, not that it could be seen by anyone other than Ein. "Not just respect, I genuinely like them. I have a good feeling about them. You could sense it too, couldn't you?"

Abigail's eyebrows lifted in surprise at the other end of the phone call, she was aware that Lyre felt that way, she'd always been quite good at reading her friend, unless she was intentionally lying of course, but the fact that she herself admitted such feelings aloud? Abigail allowed the Autobots to rise a bit in her esteem for making such a strong impression on her usually almost paranoid friend. The 'almost' was kind of debatable, to be honest.

It seemed she was taking too long to answer because Lyre continued, her voice taking on a hint of nervousness she would not have shown with anyone else. "You agreed with my decision concerning Tony, right? It was the proper choice?"

"Yes, it was a wise decision." There were times when Lyre had to be reassured, much like a child, that she had done well. "He will remain on base, his contact with the Autobots as limited as possible. Maybe if he can learn to at least contain his hostilities, I will consider giving him another trial run."

"He's going to be even more angry with me." The quiet, tired statement was not really a question.

"He will." The conformation was unnecessary.

Lyre dug into her work with a bit more vigor.

"Has the incident with the information leak been solved?" It came out a snarl, and Lyre didn't need someone to tell her for her to realize that she was channeling her frustrations, she was just glad it was in a constructive direction for once.

She could hear the displeasure that leaked oh-so-slightly into Abigail's voice, though she was still as cool as a block of ice. "Unfortunately, we've hit something of a roadblock."

Lyre sat back with a frustrated groan and pulled her hands away from the delicate mechanics she was tinkering with, the moment she dropped her tools her fingers began curling in, creating fists that quickly went white in the knuckles. "Don't tell me." The violent frustration and irritation that was in her voice felt almost tangible.

"What I've been able to trace leads me to suspect one of the governmental… aids as the culprit, though whether they're working alone or not is still an unknown."

Lyre openly laughed, bitter though it was. "I knew it was a bad idea to let the government have even the slightest hold on this project. Their little spies are more trouble than they're worth."

"Even Tony?"

Lyre looked sharply up at Ein, an expression of pain and uncertainty flickering in her eyes before they hardened into a sharp metallic glare. "…Especially Tony."

Optimus replayed the incident in his possessor yet again, still completely astounded by all that he had seen and heard in such a short time. He had been able to tell that humans were a special breed of organic from the moment he met them, their species had a great amount of potential, but he could never imagine they were so ingenious, not so early in their species' development. His scanners were nowhere near as detailed as a medic's, but to him the bodies had been so very real.

And to see them move.

Primus.

It was only the lack of a Spark signature and the fact that there were slight discrepancies, he was only able to see them after an intentional Deep-Scan that went to the sub-atomic level, that allowed him to even begin to believe that they were man-made. Even so, part of him felt that they had to have had help, it just seemed so impossible otherwise. But he knew, in his Spark he knew, that they told the truth.

Ratchet seemed to accept them rather quickly, perhaps it was due to the nature of his programming, to the grouchy CMO all beings that landed on his surgical table were the same: his patients. It left him rather open minded in such matters, although he was no less irritable about it than he was with anything else. The short-tempered old mech even seemed to like the femmes, not that they were able to tell, but Optimus had known the mech for a long time and he could tell. The giveaway had been when Ratchet had disapprovingly noted aloud that Lyre's armor was lighter and less abundant than it should have been.

Optimus chuckled, recalling her very arrogant response stating that the strength of her armor hardly mattered if nothing was ever able to hit her, it reminded him of a few Cybertronian younglings he'd encountered before. Memories of his former compatriots brought to his processer the small number of 'bots under his command here on this planet, which in turn brought the recent meeting back to mind. The femme had offered a deal, the conditions of which had been greatly surprising.

In exchange for battling side by side to defeat the Decepticons and helping with the government in any way they could, though they warned that not even humans of their standing could really overcome the evils of politics, all they asked was that their human origins be kept a secret from the other 'bots. This was so that they would be treated no differently than any other Autobot, a concern which Optimus could understand from an objective point of view, though knowing his subordinates as he did, he doubted it would really be a problem. They would be two different entities, the human and the cybertronian.

Only the medic, who would have undoubtedly noticed something was amiss the moment he started working on them, as he most likely would at one point, this being a war and all, and the leader, who it just seemed wrong to lie to, would know what they really were.

Abigail, while in her Cybertronian guise, would be Codebreaker.

Lyre would be Windfury.

And they would be Autobots.

:File End:

They felt a strange sense of pride.

The hurt was still there, and the previous irritation, but for the first time they really comprehended just what a monumental task she'd accomplished.

And a part of them couldn't help but be proud of her.

They hadn't forgiven her though, not yet.