chiv-id: Hello everyone! I see that there were some more reviews, but only like one or two responded on whether I should work on a JazzXOC or BumblebeeXOC next. Please respond in your reviews and if there are more than...maybe 6? 7? I'll decide who's the winner for the next fanfic. Anyways, I'm getting Starscream to do the disclaimer in apology for what I'm going to do to him in this chapter! Okay, you're on!

Starscream: What did you mean an 'apology for what you're going to do to me'? Answer me fleshbag!

chiv-id: WHO YOU CALLING FLESHBAG, YOU BUCKET OF BOLTS! (throws pot at his head and turned him off-line) (sighs) Jazz, how about you? You're coming back soon, but not this chapter, so I'll just let you get in here to get the itch out.

Jazz: Yeah, you better be puttin' me in here! That pot hurt ya' know? So, here we go:

Disclaimer: chiv-id doesn't own Transformers, but she does own Leanna, ya'll! Aw yeah, on with this shit! (Ironhide enters randomly)

Ironhide: Where is Leanna? I was in stasis when she disappeared.

chiv-id: (smiles mischieviously) Oh...I have a feeling she'll turn up sooner or later (sniggering at thought in chiv-id's head)


What It Means To Be Human

Chapter 7: It's A Custom Paintjob

Leanna woke up and felt as though she were dreaming, floating almost. Light headed, she sat up, only to go flipping forward as if she were in zero-gravity. Ending up with being upside down, she struggled to right herself and looked around.

"Whoa…" Leanna said, dizzy, "I know someone must have either slipped me a rufee or got me high." What she saw was clear blue sky, clouds, and the occasional surprised blue bird or two. She was floating a ways up from the ground and stared down with an unsettling feeling in her stomach. Leanna looked a little more closely and found that she was perhaps a few hundred feet above the warehouses of the Autobot base. She gulped and wondered how the heck she got up there. She closed her eyes and rubbed her temples a bit before her eyes snapped back open, remembering turning to see where the missile was heading and pulling the Allspark in defense just before the missile exploded at her feet. She cringed at the memory, then her eyes slowly widened to realize that she had actually died.

"So…now I'm a frickin' ghost, is that it?" she wondered out loud and looked back down again. She took a moment to figure out how she was going to get down and just willed her body to move a little to the right. As soon as she shifted to the right a little, she smirked and willed herself to fly back down. It was exhilarating, flying through the air. Leanna saw the warehouse coming into view and she tried to slow down, but was going too fast. She braced herself for impact as she kept trying to slow herself down. She zoomed through the ceiling of the warehouse and stopped with her head poking out of the ground. She pulled her arms away from her eyes and blinked. She laughed a little in surprise when she realized that she was just a head.

"Well…that was weird," Leanna remarked, pulling herself. Brushing herself off, she looked up and smirked again. Being a ghost wasn't so bad…until she glanced towards the place where she was blasted. Ironhide was cradling her body in his arms, just staring at her with dim optics. Energon, the liquid that kept his life going, was still leaking out onto the floor, but it seemed that Ironhide didn't care in the least. He bent down and nuzzled her head again, but with dim optics still staring at her body. He seemed to be trying to do the impossible: wake Leanna up from her death. Leanna walked over and put a hand on his body, even though she knew he couldn't feel it.

"Ironhide…" Leanna whispered, stroking the metal, though her hand went through him a couple of times.

"I see we are both in a predicament," a smooth metallic voice floated over to her and she jumped a little and turned around. She was surprised to see a small white ball, glowing, the source of the voice.

"You another ghost?" asked Leanna, unwary of whether she should go over to it or not.

"In a sense…yes. I am what you call the Allspark, or at least what the Autobots call me as you've been told," the white glowing ball said, floating a little closer, "My form in that piece of scrap was destroyed when you held it up to that Decepticon's blast…my, my how my children have grown…and so violent."

"You're…the Allspark?" she said a little incredulously and in a low voice.

"Yes, but if you'd rather have me differently…" the white glowing ball suddenly grew into the form of a girl. The white faded away a little, but the glowing didn't. The girl had short silver hair and it was spiked so that it was spiked out in the back. Small antennas were on the side of her head, making them remind Leanna of Optimus' own antennas. She had markings all over her silver body, markings that had once been on the fragment of Allspark. She was short, only coming up to Leanna's chin, making her about 5'7" about or so. A black visor covered her eyes, only small white twinkles clued Leanna to what color the Allspark girl's eyes were.

"Well…you look nice…" Leanna said lamely, still a little bit disoriented from the whole deal still.

"Thank you, my dear, now I'd like to offer you a proposition," the Allspark girl said, speaking as though she were much older than she looked, "I see that you've been chosen by that black mech as a spark mate, is that correct?" Leanna turned her head to Ironhide a little confused then remembered what Ironhide had said about Chromia being his spark mate. She nodded her head a few seconds later, making the connections.

"I have a solution for both of us to live. If you consent, I will bind myself to you and we shall live together in the same body. I shall support you upon Cybertronian energy while you sustain me with your soul. I cannot regenerate unless I have a willing host. When I have regenerated enough, I shall expel myself from your body in my original cube form and you shall have your human body back," the Allspark girl explained, Leanna's head spinning from the amount of info crammed into her head. She shook her head to shake away the dizziness and continued to listen.

"Do you understand?" asked the Allspark female, seeing Leanna look confused several times during her little speech, "Do I need to repeat myself?"

"You want me to let you live inside my body while you put yourself back together…kind of like trying to reverse the effects of Humpty-Dumpty, got it!" Leanna said, confusing the Allspark girl this time who had no idea who this "Humpty-Dumpty" of which Leanna spoke of.

"You do realize that there might be…consequences of taking me in, don't you?" asked the Allspark girl in disbelief, "Never once has a host been so willing." Leanna looked at Ironhide who gently put her body down and turned with his head down a little, but Leanna was smaller and could see his opticals. They were now a deep violet, red seeping into his blue and mixing to create a raging swirl of purple within the once trademark Autobot blue.

"For Ironhide…anything!" Leanna said firmly, "Just do it already!" She opened her arms, not knowing what to do really, but the Allspark girl understood what Leanna wanted her to do. The Allspark transformed back into a white ball and she rushed forward and plowed into Leanna's chest, knocking Leanna back a bit. Leanna screamed as she felt the pain exploding through every ounce in her body, the Allspark forcing its way into her little by little.

"Stay with me!" the Allspark yelled, knowing how painful it was to bind for the host, "Leanna, if you fall unconscious, we won't be able to bond!" Leanna just screamed and her body began to convulse rapidly as the pain just increased. From another viewpoint, Ironhide just walked away from the damaged body of Leanna with revenge displayed prominently in his eyes. He didn't notice the strange little twitch that went throughout her body every so often. He walked over to Ratchet who had restrained Starscream, the yellow medic using his saw to keep him there.

"Pathetic Autobot scum! Look what you made me do!" hissed Starscream in anger, struggling despite the vicious whirring of Ratchet's saw, "The Allspark is gone!" Ironhide said nothing but kneeled down and looked straight into Starscream's optics, for once quieting as he saw the revenge and rage within Ironhide's burning optics. Ratchet also knew that look, the same when Ironhide had found Chromia lodged between two rocks, the rocks smashing her middle to section off her lower body. This was not good.

"Ironhide…don't," was the only warning Starscream got when Ironhide suddenly ripped him away from Ratchet's grasp and slammed him on the wall. Ironhide repeatedly punched him furiously with all his strength, energon flowing freely from his wound and splashing at their feet. Ratchet knew that Ironhide would most likely die from energon loss if he didn't patch up his wound, and Ironhide's beating was only made his time come faster.

"Ironhide! He's not worth it!" Ratchet exclaimed, trying to pull Ironhide off, getting energon on his feet from Ironhide. He also tried to ignore the energon also flecking all over his face, grimacing as he realized how violent Ironhide was getting on Starscream. Starscream was just coughing and moaning a little, his face literally being dismantled by the ferocity of Ironhide's brawl. Ratchet was thrown back by Ironhide as he finally managed to pull off Ironhide for a brief moment, Starscream slipping to the ground in complete defeat. Ironhide wasn't about to go easy on him, though, coming over again and pulling out his cannon. Ratchet was about to go and stop him when he noticed the now rapidly twitching of Leanna's body.

"In the name of Primus…" Ratchet asked, bewildered. He was about to touch the body when the gray dust that had been scattered over the floor from the destruction of the Allspark suddenly whirled around her body and a white light blinded him as the dust gathered in a swarm above her body and plunged in. Ratchet's opticals were blinded and for a few moments, he could only see white and he pulled himself up and rubbed at them. When he recovered, his metal jaw dropped at the sight he saw. A beautiful chrome-colored femm was standing before him, white armor covering her sleek silver exterior. Her abdomen was shown, predominantly silver, her chest and her shoulders covered in the white armor. Her lower body was only covered by what seemed like a white bikini, her silver thighs gleaming ending in white armored leggings that encompassed her feet as well, black flame decals shooting up them. The decals also adorned the armor on her chest and her shoulders. Long, thin, white wires protruded from a silver head like hair, which matched her opticals, also white. A small black flame decal ran up the left side of her face, starting from the middle of her cheek to the metal plating above her eyebrow ridge. Her white opticals blinked once, then twice as she registered where she was.

"Ratchet?" questioned a familiar voice, issued from the beauty in front of him and he shook his head to get rid of his hanging jaw.

"Leanna?" Ratchet said in disbelief, wondering what the heck in Primus' name had happened. Her skin reminded him of liquid mercury, the stuff a metallic silver liquid.

"Yeah…" Leanna replied, finally looking at herself and turning this way and that way, "Wow, I don't think I ever looked this nice…wait, where's Ironhiii…holy crap!" Ratchet just remembered Ironhide and looked back to see Ironhide blasting off small pieces of Starscream's wings one at a time, making the Decepticon jet pay for what he did to the supposedly dead Leanna.

"Ironhide!" they both shouted, making him stop and turn when he heard the voice of someone he thought had died. Instead of seeing the human girl he fell in love with, he saw the white and silver femm that was a merging of Leanna and Allspark. He knew the voice, but he couldn't quite compute that this was his Leanna…perhaps it was from the energon loss…yup, he knew it was from the energon loss. With that, he collapsed and finally Starscream blacked out, the pain now not as bad as when Ironhide had been literally torturing the evil yet pitiful Decepticon. First, Ratchet went over to Ironhide since Starscream was fine, lucky to only have a messed up face and two now almost non-existent wings. Leanna couldn't help but feel sorry for the beat-up Decepticon, despite the fact that he just killed her a few minutes ago. She kneeled by Ironhide's side as his side was repaired and the energon stopped leaking out.

"He'll live, despite the amount of energon he lost, the old slag," Ratchet sighed with a tired tone, patching him up as best as he could, so that at least he wouldn't leak energon on the way to one of the recharge beds, "As will Starscream, though I bet he has only seen the kind of beating Ironhide has given him from Megatron." He chuckled a little at this thought, but was silenced by Leanna's presence, her slender chrome hand resting on Ironhide's shoulder plate.

"How...?" Ratchet asked as he proceeded to pull Ironhide up and place his left arm around Ratchet's shoulder. Leanna sighed a little, pulling Ironhide's other arm over her own shoulders, and told everything that happened, wincing as she got to the binding.

"The Allspark is now bound with you? And you were willing in this?" Ratchet stated incredulously, setting Ironhide on the recharge bed, "No sentient being would do that, it has been known that often their bodies and sparks, in your case soul, would be ripped apart to shreds! And yet you managed to survive what many mechs have not." Leanna just shrugged, getting down and laying on the recharge bed with Ironhide, her legs bent and out (think mermaid…don't ask why I just used that in comparison).

"I don't know, to be honest…the pain I felt definitely felt like I was going to be ripped apart but I kept thinking of Ironhide and all you guys and my friends and I knew that I had to pull through…especially for Ironhide," Leanna responded, stroking Ironhide's face. She found it amazing that she was now almost as big as him and her hand could cover his metal cheek.

"What are we going to do with Starscream over there? He looks worse than road kill," Leanna questioned, her face scrunching up a little at the sight of the broken bot. Ratchet himself had no idea what to do, so he just dragged him outside and bound Starscream with chains and set up a perimeter around him, lasers guarding Starscream from running away since flying was definitely out of the question. Coming back, Ratchet walked over to Ironhide whose hole still needed some patching up. Ratchet shooed Leanna, despite her being the new object of affection for Ironhide, away so that he could work in peace. She sighed as she walked out, the doors slamming shut behind her. She ran her hands through her new hair and sighed again.

"I have hair at least…even though I'm now prematurely white," she joked to herself, admiring her new look, "Jeez, I didn't think I'd look this good as an Autobot."

"Like it?" asked the Allspark, who had melded with her mind. Leanna was a bit startled at first, then smiled and nodded her head, to which the Allspark replied happily, "Good. You're going to have it for a while. Might as well enjoy it while I repair myself." Leanna was snapped out of the internal conversation when she heard the soft humming of engines and she realized that the other Autobots had returned. She pondered on their expressions, laughing a little.

'I wonder if I can change into a car,' Leanna thought and then thought of a car she'd want to transform into. She remembered doing a sketch a while back on the car she'd want to be. A 2009 Chevrolet Camero with a silver paint job, a big strip of white running from the hood to the back of the car with black flame decals on the sides. The car would also have fins on the back with a hole in the hood to allow air to cool the engine. She would have done the custom paint job herself when bought the car first. She looked at herself as she realized that she was perfect for it.

'You didn't…' Leanna spoke to the Allspark, wondering if the Allspark had purposefully read her mind and transformed her body just to fit her dream car's design, only receiving a sense of smug pride from the Allspark. Leanna had to smirk back and she concentrated on becoming one with the car (I know, zen right?).

"Sweet…" Leanna said through her new stereo system, leather seats, her silver paint job gleaming in the sun. She loved her new self because, frankly, it rocked. She revved her engine and drove around the warehouses to meet with the two other robots.

"Jeez, I can't believe that Starscream launched an attack on us…and we won," Sam remarked, looking at the unconscious jet through the energy bars of his new cell.

"Yes…it is remarkable, but what worries me is his condition…I have only seen this brutality from one robot and one robot only. Could Megatron be back? And why would he be at our base and not destroy it?" Optimus wondered out loud to himself, also observing the jet in his bot form. Mikaela was leaning on Bumblebee who was standing by Optimus to look at the Decepticon, like watching a caged animal sleep in the zoo. They all turned around to hear a revving of an engine and saw another 2009 Chevrolet Camero zoom up next to them. They all looked questionably at each other, Sam approaching the car first. When he didn't see anyone in the car, he backed up a bit.

"O-okay, who are you and what do you want?" asked Sam, holding his arms out so that Mikaela wouldn't get too close.

"So…you don't like me?" Leanna asked, everyone shocked to hear the familiar voice come out of the radio, transforming as she went and shook her white hair after, "It's a custom paint job." She giggled a little and again the other two bots' jaws dropped. Ratchet opened the doors to hear the others coming and had to chuckle a little as he saw his commander and the scout just staring at the beautiful chrome femm.

"I see you've found Leanna, come, I think it's better we tell you the story from in here. I still have to work on Ironhide," Ratchet advised, drawing concerned glances from the recent party of Autobots and humans. Everyone went inside and Ratchet and Leanna told the story from the beginning to the end, everyone again in shock.

"So…you actually died?" Mikaela said, her eyes widening a little to Leanna's nodding, "Then…you came back with the help of the Allspark which led to you looking…like that." Leanna nodded again and pretended to put on a hurt face.

"Oh, so you're saying you don't like me looking like this? After all the times we shared…you hurt me!" Leanna proclaimed dramatically, earning a laugh and a playful glare from Mikaela.

"You are too dramatic, Lea, you know that right?" Mikaela joked, laughing. Leanna also joined in and nodded.

"Finished!" Ratchet exclaimed, retracting his laser and rebooting Ironhide. Ironhide blinked once as his opticals came on-line, groaning as he held his head and sat up.

"What the slag happened? One moment, Leanna was dead and I was beating the slag out of Starscream and the next thing I know I'm out," Ironhide groaned out, but then turned his head in confusion as he saw a slender chrome hand reach out and cup his chin. His optics widened as he took the femm's sight in.

"I'm not dead, I'm right here," Leanna said softly, smiling and using her other hand to rub his metal head. Ironhide just stared in disbelief and it was too much to take in. He saw her die and then come back to life all in one day, this was too much stress for the poor mech and his optics dimmed as a heavy thud was heard when he "fainted" back onto the recharge bed. Everyone stared at the reaction and then looked back to Leanna, just as shocked at his reaction as everyone else was.

"I've heard of drop-dead gorgeous…but that was way too much," Leanna joked, making them laugh and shake their head.


chiv-id: See! I told you she'd turn up sooner or later!

Ironhide: (wakes up again) Primus...what happened?

Leanna: That would be me! (walks in with new look as a femm, strutting and drawing everyone's opticals on her and giggles) So, Ironhide, how ya feeling?

Ironhide: (gapes and faints again)

Leanna: ...Is he going to keep doing that?

chiv-id: (shrugs) He needs to get used to you, but there's some energon leaking from his nose...he's getting a nose bleed! HAHAHAHA! (rolling on floor from laughter) Please haha review hahaha! Need them! Hahahahaha!

Leanna: So...he thinks I'm hot? (runs hands over exterior and checks herself with poses)

chiv-id: (stops rolling around and wipes tears from eye) Duh! (heavy thuds heard through out room as the other Autobots and remaining Decepticons also get nose bleeds and faints) OH MY EFFING GOD! HAHAHAHAHAHA! (rolls around floor again, drowning in laughter, along with Leanna who sees everyone twitching) Reviews!