A/N: Ha Ha while writing this chapter, I was also watching a StarWars marathon, the irony. Anyways, I've been reading the novelized version of the TF movies; they have some really awesome details not in the movies. So I fell in love with Alan Fosters writing style and I'm sitting here in front of my (poor broken) laptop thinking, "Damn, I wish I could write that well". I mean, I am honestly feeling way out of my league here, some of you guys are so amazing at writing that I'll waste away a whole day reading your stuff without even realizing it. So in my vain attempt to get a little better, I'm asking for your opinions on how I can improve. What kind of detail can I put in to make it more realistic, how's word and sentence flow, anything you want to see in this story? I honestly want to know. :D

One of her most favorite pastimes, Ember decided, was sleeping. Sitting in the smooth leather seat of a plane as it jostled with turbulence, it was pretty hard for anyone to nap, but she was determined. She struggled with Cody's hoodie, which she was using as a pillow, and pushed it up against the window so her head wasn't knocking against the glass, careful of her sore shoulder. Scattered about the plane were several soldiers, most listening to their ipods.

"I don't see why she gets the window seat when she's just sleeping." Shelby crossed her arms. She was sitting next to Cody, across from Ember. "She's not gonna see anything through her eyelids!" Ember threw her packet of peanuts at her. Through the window she could see nothing but blue ocean and white clouds, that is, if she cared to look.

At 12 o'clock sharp, Ember had been woken up by a knock on her door and a shout. She was ordered to be ready to leave in ten minutes. Sitting up in bed, she gazed at her room in bleary confusion. Where was she? The white bed sheets were certainly not hers, and the tacky green carpet was not familiar in any way. When her memory returned she had somewhat shakily pulled on her boots and rushed out the door. Off to the right, Jim waited with her bag in hand and a cheerful grin that did not belong on anyone in the morning. "What time is it?"

Ember shifted in her seat and sighed. Next to her Taylor yawned. The plane had taken off only ten minutes ago and already they were bored and restless. Ember and Taylor had started to fight over the single armrest and after much elbowing; Taylor just threw her legs over it. Now Ember was acting as a footrest. Despite her small victory, Taylor was still bored to tears. "I'm bored."

"So am I, so shut up," Shelby snapped back. Taylor made a face but said nothing.

It was only a matter of time before an argument broke out, Cody decided. He placed his hands behind his head and leaned back in the seat with an amused sigh. Shelby and Taylor fought often; they said it was because they were so alike, Ember said it was because they just liked to argue. They didn't deny it.

Behind them, in the back of the plane, there were no seats. Instead, it was bare with metal flooring and benches that ran alongside each curving wall. Parked in the center was a powerful black Topkick. It hadn't moved or made a sound since it had boarded the plane, and as far as the four friends were concerned, it was just a normal truck. And they continued to think that as Shelby and Taylor threw insults back and forth with Ember throwing a few in herself.

"Will you please shut up?"

All four turned to look at the truck. Their unconscious assumptions were shattered as the truck's headlights flicked on and it rolled forward a few inches. Shelby immediately looked away from the vehicle and stared out the window, trying to hide her embarrassment. She was also fighting the laughter that wanted to escape. She glanced at Taylor whose face was turning bright red.

Ember sighed and pulled Cody's hoodie over her head, annoyed that her one source of amusement was ruined. But who would argue with a two ton war machine? The thought led her down a familiar train of thought. It was honestly amazing how an average and otherwise normal looking vehicle could spontaneously shift into a bipedal robot.

"Your shrill quarreling is irritating, as amusing as you may find it." Ember recognized the voice, and she realized that it was Ironhide who was reprimanding them now. The thought of thanking him for offering to train her entered her mind, but she figured now wasn't the time. Ahead of them, a few soldiers glanced back questioningly.

Cody laughed. "You, my friends, just got told," he stated.

"Thank you, captain obvious," Shelby muttered.

"Why don't you play one of your traveling games?" The bot's voice wasn't as deep as Optimus', but it had a strange kind of accent that Ember couldn't quite place. Despite the gruff tone he used, his voice wasn't altogether unpleasant.

"Traveling games? You mean like I Spy?" Taylor asked.

"I spy with my little eye, something stupid." Shelby said. She rolled her eyes and pulled her knees up and wrapped her arms around her legs. Shelby had been woken up to early for her liking, and she had a feeling it was going to be a daily occurrence from then on.

"You?" Shelby glared at Taylor who only snickered.

"Arg," Ember threw the hoodie back at Cody, giving up on sleep. "I'm bored too." She crossed her arms carefully and examined the other people who were seated on the plane in thought. "What can we do?"

Cody pulled the sweater off of his head and turned his gaze on the autobot parked in the back. "Hey, can we listen to the radio?" He called out to the truck. If they had some good music he figured their boredom wouldn't be so intense.

Ironhide seemed to sag on his axels. 'Primus, help me.' He was dreading the plane ride home already. The young humans never seemed to stop arguing but if playing a bit of their annoying music would make them shut up then Ironhide was determined to do so. His radio flickered on, loud enough for all to hear, and he sifted through all the stations until all the humans agreed on a rock station.

"I love this song!" Taylor jumped up out of her seat and pulled Ember with her. "Come on, I know you know the words."

"Turn it up!" Ember seemed honestly excited for the song. It was strange to see the usually moody woman wearing a smile that big.

Ironhide snorted and turned up the music grudgingly. He didn't quite like Earth music, it was nothing like what he had listened to back on Cybertron, in fact, he wouldn't even call what the humans created music at all. After discussing it with the other autobots he learned that he was actually one of the only few that felt that way. Bumblebee loved it, and he had sadly pointed out that Jazz had too.

"Well I met an old man dying on a train,

no more destination no more pain,

well he said one thing before I graduate,

never let your fear decide your fate!"

Ember and Taylor sung the words to the song in between their laughter. Cody was sitting in his seat and clapping, laughing when the two girls started to dance in that dorky white girl way only they could pull off. Shelby covered her face in embarrassment, wondering why she hung out with these people, but then again, she was worse when she was hyper.

It was no surprise that the handful of soldiers that were also on the plane joined in on the commotion. It was hard not to when the music was being blasted so loud and everyone was laughing. It was the same kind of atmosphere a person would find at a game or concert, everyone was generally happy and in the mood to act silly. They stood from their seats and moved to the back of the plane to get a closer look.

Cody jumped up and reached for Embers good hand, she stared at him blankly before grinning and allowing him to spin her around. Wary of her injured shoulder, he was sure to not touch it, otherwise he had a feeling Ember's rare good mood would evaporate quicker than a drop of rain in a dessert.

"I say you kill your heroes and fly, fly, baby don't cry.

No need to worry 'cause everybody will die.

Every day we just go, go, baby don't go!

Don't you worry we love you more than you know!"

Shelby watched Cody and Ember with a knowing look, the two had been dancing (pun intended) around each other for far too long. She stood and moved to join Taylor in dancing, feeling a bit left out of the action.

The heavy drumming and electric buzzing of the music was hard to ignore. It was the kind of music that filled a person up and kind of demanded to be danced to. And the four friends were not going to ignore that demand. The youth were drawn to music like bees to flowers; it was a true form of expression.

Ironhide watched somewhat curiously as Cody and Ember danced about.

"Well the sun one day will leave us all behind,

unexplainable sightings in the sky.

Well I hate to be the one to ruin the night,

right before your, right before your eyes."

"I say you kill your heroes and fly, fly, baby don't die." Both Ember and Taylor cried out and laughed, giving each high fives in between their dancing.

The mech was bit stunned by the humans actions, the war had taken its toll on his race, and it was rare for him to see so much joy. Even before the war it had been rare for a bot to act so rambunctious. He was aware of the human's short lifespan, could that have something to do with their vibrant emotions? Did they feel the need to cram as much feeling as possible into every moment because they were aware of how little time they had to live?

"I don't understand why you humans like that mixed up grouping of sound. It doesn't make sense at all." Ironhide shifted, curious as to why all four of them stared at him accusingly.

"I think you're listening wrong." Shelby stated uncertainly.

"What?" Ironhide was questioning the human's intelligence. How can you listen wrong?

"Yeah, I think our music must be different." Taylor fiddled with her bracelets self consciously. She felt a bit out of place disagreeing with the mech. "We have music, and then the music has lyrics. It sounds like your just combining it all into one giant mess." She attempted to explain. She finished lamely and her shoulders slumped in defeat when Ironhide remained silent.

It made sense, since the two separate species no doubt evolved differently, they would have discovered music differently and it would most certainly not be similar. Humans had learned music from nature; the wind, rain, thunder, birds and other animals. Taylor wondered if the Cybertronians had anything like that on their planet, or did they learn it from the sound of metal; blades sliding together, metal crashing into metal as they charged into battle, and canons powering up. It was sad to think that they had been warring for so long that it affected their culture. Had they ever been peaceful?

"Why would you put words in you music?" He asked after what seemed like ten minutes of silence. Replaying the song quietly, he made the correct adjustments while processing it and perked up. Now it made more sense, but why was it that the others seemed to take to Earth music so quickly? For a moment he thought of bringing it up with Ratchet, but almost immediately dismissed the idea. All four humans glanced at each other questioningly before turning to face the truck and shrugging in unison.

"Why not?" Cody countered.

After their dance session, the friends dug through their bags for the single deck of cards they currently owned, and played a game while sitting on the cold metal floor right in front of Ironhide. They decided on a game of BS, since it seemed to be the only game Shelby would agree to play. Sitting cross legged in front of the three girls, Cody shuffled the deck expertly and handed them out.

The game was slow going because Ember had only one hand; she couldn't hold her cards and search through them at the same time. She sat with her legs crossed and her deck of cards between them so no one else could see them while she shuffled them about to find the right cards.

"So the purpose of this game is to lie," Ironhide stated. It wasn't a question since the autobot had been watching them play. He rolled forward a couple of inches so he could see Embers cards. She glanced back at him with a playful glare.

"Don't be giving them any hints," she warned. She lifted them higher so he could see while she sifted through them with her thumb; after the last round her hand of cards had become considerably smaller. There was an amused rumble from the truck.

"Three twos." Shelby placed the cards down on the ever growing stack. As she did so Cody, Taylor and Ember glanced down at their own decks.

"BS!" Ember said dryly. She had two of said cards in hand.

Shelby groaned and pulled the huge pile on the floor into her lap and shuffled them into a reasonably neat deck. "I hate you guys," she muttered darkly. Cody chuckled and glanced over at Ironhide who was resting significantly close to Ember. Curious, he filed away the information in his brain and reminded himself to do some snooping later on why Ironhide had taken an almost immediate liking to Ember. The fact that he had offered to train just her so she wouldn't be stuck behind desk was strange, especially since he hadn't even officially met her. Of course, Cody could just be reading too much into it and might just be the slightest bit jealous.

"Two threes," Taylor stated. Cody searched through his hand and pulled out two cards.

"BS."

They all turned to look at Ironhide. Taylor raised a brow with a cheeky grin and picked the cards up. "Wrong!" She flaunted the two threes happily. Ironhides holoform flickered in existence between Ember and Cody. Taylor and Shelby blinked up at the bald man, more than a bit intimidated. If this was how scary he was as a human, the two girls didn't want to know what he looked like as a full on robot. Ironhide sat down and reached over, plucking the cards from Taylors grip.

Thus the autobot was brought into the game, but despite his superior processing power, it was Cody who won the game. As a kind of victory dance, Cody had gathered all the cards neatly and then flung them in Taylors face shouting "52 card pickup!", After that the girls lost interest and started talking about maturity which led them to boys, more importantly, the ones they would be leaving behind once they started working with NEST. Cody met Ironhide's eyes and shrugged, they would later be found playing a game of slapjack (Ironhide won every time).

….

"I feel kind of bad for Cody." Taylor sat in the backseat of the black truck. On one side of her sat Ember and on the other was Shelby. Up front were two soldiers who had been on the plane with them just minutes before. They had landed at a small private airport where they split into groups; the girls with Ironhide and Cody went with the majority of the soldiers.

"Why?" Ember asked curiously. She was searching through her contacts on her cell phone trying to find her mother's number.

"Because he doesn't get Ironhide," she stated simply. "He'll have to shove all his stuff into that tiny jeep thing those guys drove off in." She crossed her arms and glanced out the window, watching the familiar town go by outside for possibly the last time.

"In Ironhides defense, I wouldn't want to carry his stinky clothes anyways." Shelby commented. She too was staring out the window with her chin propped on one hand. The truck's engine rumbled in agreement and Taylor snickered.

Ember stared down at her phone nervously. She was unsure about even letting her mother know that she was going to be gone for an extended period of time. That woman was one of the few humans who could actually cause Ember to feel fear, that, and she was extremely good at figuring out lies. Ember swallowed, her thumb hovering over the call button. Taylor leaned over in puzzlement. She glanced at the phone, then at Embers face, and came to a decision. She snatched the phone from Embers hand and pressed the call button.

"Taylor, no!" Ember struggled to get the phone back with only one hand. She slid across the leather seat, reaching for the device that Taylor was holding out past Shelby who was watching in amusement. "Give it back!"

"No way! You would have sat there forever trying to decide what to do." Taylor pushed at Ember, trying to get her away. Ember growled and pushed back, forcing Shelby up against the door. After that they were all shouting and arguing and the two men up front looked back in confusion. There was an audible click from the phone and they all froze, then a female voice answered, "Hello?"

Ember smacked Taylor and took the phone from her angrily. She glared before putting it to her ear, "Hi mom!" Despite the cheeriness in her voice she was still glaring at Taylor, who at that moment, was fearing for her life.

"Hey Ember, how are you?" Her mother sounded happy to hear from her. She always was, Ember realized, and it was probably because she was the only one of her children who had moved out of state.

"I'm good," she replied. It wasn't a complete lie, she was in reasonably good health. She picked at the hem of her frayed shorts nervously. "Listen, Mom, I was offered a chance to study abroad…" She trailed off, wondering how her mother would take the news.

"Well that's great! Where to?" Mrs. Willows sounded excited and so, ever so gently, Ember laid out an elaborate lie that she had settled on just minutes before. Yeah, right.

"Paris." She stated simply. She noticed that the trucks engine had fallen unusually quiet for a vehicle his size, and she silently thanked Ironhide again. He seemed to sense the mood and understood.

"When are you leaving?"

"Today," Ember answered sadly. "It was kind of out of nowhere, otherwise I would have come to visit first…" She sighed. She wondered when she would honestly get a chance to see her family again. Next to her, Shelby and Taylor listened intently. Ember spoke to her mother for a little while longer, trying to assure her that she would be fine. When Ember hung up she shivered, "God that woman scares me."

Ironhides voice came over the speakers then, "Why?" It was strange for anyone to fear their own creator.

"Because," Ember began, "even with that convincing performance, you can bet your tail pipes she knows something's up." Shelby and Taylor were both lost in the memories of their first meeting with Ember's mom. She had been cool, and really nice, but the second they had gotten up to mischief she had been right on top of them.

"Female humans seem to be quite a force to reckon with when it comes to their offspring." Ironhide commented.

"You're telling me." The soldier sitting in shotgun complained. His was probably the same age as the girls. Light brown hair and grey eye that held an enormous amount of humor in them glanced in the rear view mirror at the girls. There was a general mood of agreement.

"My mom could care less," said the other soldier, His eyes were a light blue, and his hair was dark blond and shaggy.

"That sucks, I hate douche parents," Shelby stated.. Now that the two had spoken up, she could look at them as actual people instead of just beings made to follow orders and act all broody.

"To quote Austin, 'you're telling me'." He sighed and shifted in the driver's seat. It was strange having to sit in a car that not only drove its self, but kicked alien aft on a daily basis.

"Ok, so he's Austin, and you are…?" Taylor prompted.

"I'm Tanner, nice to meet you." Tanner chuckled and nudged Austin with his elbow. Austin looked at him and rolled his eyes. He turned back and examined all three girls.

"Yeah, don't ever get stuck with this creep alone." He smacked Tanner upside the head before turning back around in his seat. Aside from discovering that Tanner was some kind of pervert, the ride to their apartment went by rather quietly. When Ironhide pulled into the parking lot Ember felt a little embarrassed; their complex wasn't exactly nice. Across the street three men stood and exchanged money shiftily. Ember grimaced and opened the door, slid out of her seat, and hurried to their apartment.

Everyone else vacated the autobot turned truck quickly.

"So you guys have an hour to pack what you need, which would be; clothes, toiletries, and any personal items you would like to keep nearby." Austin followed them up to the front door where Ember was just fitting the key into the lock. Behind them, Tanner waited with Ironhide. He was actually keeping an eye on the three men across the street who were all now watching them suspiciously. Tanner was certain that Ironhide wouldn't have any trouble at all if they got to close, but it was important to stay on the D.L. He would probably get an ear full from Lennox (or worse, Ariella) if he didn't keep things under control.

Ember opened the door and they stepped inside, Austin following last. He scanned the apartment curiously, wondering what kind of place the girls lived in. Yes, he could be a bit on the nosey side, but hey, he was only human. Ahead of him, the girls had already run off into their rooms to gather their things.

Ember stood in the middle of her room and sighed. The only sound was the muffled voices of Taylor and Shelby who were giggling excitedly in the other room. The room was just as she had left, still a bit dusty and with the perfect amount of clutter; not too much, but enough to let a person know someone actually inhabited the place. She hadn't lived here for too long, five years tops, but a lot of memories had built up in that time and she was finding it hard to let go. She rolled her bad shoulder hesitantly and winced before opening her closet and pulling down her suitcase and duffle bag. Austin had said to only pack what was necessary, but the poor guy probably didn't know half of what was necessary to a girl.

Ember smirked while she packed as much clothes as she possibly could. She made sure to bring lots of shorts and tank tops, as well as underwear. She shoved all her makeup and other toiletries into her duffel bag before zipping it closed and dropping it onto her bed next to her half filled suitcase. She grabbed four pairs of shoes; her converse, black and cork wedges, a pair of sandals, and her nice dress shoes. Speaking of which, she stared at one of the few dresses she owned. She highly doubted she would need to wear a dress, but the idea of not having one seemed wrong. Ember wasn't really all that girly, but she did love her fashion. 'Just in case' ,she thought while pulling it out of her closet. She stared at the black dress lovingly; it had been her mothers, but Mrs. Willows had given it to her when she was younger. Almost every day little Ember had pulled that dress down and tried it on to see if it would fit, it never did of course, she had been too small, but on her sixteenth birthday it was presented to her and fit perfectly.

"What do you need that thing for?"

Ember turned to her doorway and stared at the holoform blankly, still holding the dress in hand. Ironhide raised a questioning brow, much like he had seen Epps do when he and Will would argue. He was leaning against the frame with his arms crossed. Ember vaguely wondered if he even needed to lean at all. Did they even need balance?

"A girl can't be without a dress, no matter how tough they are." Ember turned away and placed the dress in with the rest of her clothes. "My mom told me that. I never doubt my mom's words….." she paused, "Or my sisters for that matter." She paused in thought. Staring at the floor she tried to figure out what else she could fit into her suitcase. "Sooo, why exactly did you offer to train me anyways?" she asked while crouching down in front of her dresser. She opened a cabinet door to reveal a DVD collection that had been carefully stored an alphabetized.

"I'm bored." The alien man shrugged. Ember turned from her crouched position and raised her own brow. "There isn't much decepticon activity." His reasoning was short and simple, but Ember had a feeling there was more to it, but she didn't want to push the guy when she barely knew him.

She 'hmm'ed' and turned back to her collection of movies. Ironhide scowled but said nothing.

"So what happened to that decepticon from last night?" She asked purely out of conversations sake. She had a feeling Ironhide was going to be standing there for a while since he had nothing else to do, and she didn't want to sit there in an awkward silence the entire time.

"Barricade? He got away." Ironhide replied gruffly, obviously he wasn't too happy about the fact. He glared down at the innocent wooden floor while Ember sorted through her movies, trying to decide on which ones to take with her. She didn't even know if she would be able to watch them on a TV, but she was taking her laptop too…Her thoughts took a turn for the worst when real life came crashing down. She had bought that laptop for college. Anger reared its ugly head and she threw a DVD case across the room with little care for where it landed. Ironhide watched with a deadpanned expression as it landed on her desk, knocking over several picture frames and fragile looking trinkets.

"I can't just up and leave!" She groaned and dropped her head into her hand. Sitting cross legged on the floor she had never looked so pitiful. "I have school! Do you know how much that costs? If I leave, then I would have wasted all that hard work. I busted my ass for nothing. Mom would be so disappointed. Ugh!" She pushed herself onto her feet, stumbled, and righted herself in time to see Austin stop next to Ironhide, who had yet to move. She growled and kicked at her computer chair, which rolled across the room as if to escape her rage.

"You don't have a choice," Ironhide stated. "So stop thinking about it." He couldn't understand why she was making such a big deal about it. His war hardened processor just couldn't wrap itself around how petty humans could be. Why was she so upset over this? She was still alive, and now she had an even better paying job. What was so horrible about that?

"You-," she started, but stopped. The anger left her in a rush and she sighed, dropping back onto her bed. The mech was right of course, but still! She groaned and pushed her suitcase away from her, which was also resting on her bed. Ironhide moved away from the doorway and out towards the living room, probably going to go see what the other girls were doing in a futile attempt to get back to base quicker. Austin stepped into the room tentatively and picked up the scattered movies Ember had left on the ground.

"It really sucks, but I'm sure it won't be too bad if you give it a chance." He dropped the movies into her ever fattening suitcase. He felt a little awkward standing in the bedroom of person he had just met that morning and in military fatigues at that. Ember sighed and nodded. She continued to pack while Austin followed Ironhide's example and left.

Trying her best not to reminisce on the past while she stuffed personal belonging after personal belonging into her bag, she finished quickly and pulled it all out into the living room where she found the two men (one alien) talking. Austin of course was sitting on the couch, while the holoform of Ironhide stood. Shelby and Taylor were still packing, and if Ember listened hard enough she could hear the sound of them throwing stuff around and generally making a mess.

"So what's gonna happen with all our stuff that we can't take?" she asked.

Ironhide looked over at her and cocked his head strangely, it was more of a sideways nod. Ember took this to be an alien shrug.

"They'll probably clean it out and put it all in storage," Austin put in.

Ember sighed. It felt like a whole was being hollowed out in her heart, and she had no control over it. She took in her living room for what would probably be the last time for a loooong while. The black rug, the old beat up coffee table that was hidden under newspapers and text books, the black couch that had doubled as a bed so many times it was a wonder they hadn't just gotten a blow up mattress. "I better get this stuff back when this is all over." She warned and turned to the kitchen. She looked inside the fridge idly and was a bit surprised to find a piece of chocolate cake left over from Taylor's party. She pulled it out just as Taylor and Shelby joined her in the kitchen.

"I think we should have a toast," Taylor exclaimed. They all got a glass of milk, and while Austin and Ironhide watched they made a quick toast. "To our new jobs!" Taylor started.

"To friendship!" Shelby threw in.

Ember sighed and thought hard about what her new life would be like. Helping a bunch of fighting alien robots win a bazillion year old war by doing god only knew what. She rolled her eyes in exasperation; she should have realized it earlier. Writing books was one way to change the world, but working with people like the Autobots could save one. "To adventure and success!"

They tapped their glasses of milk together before taking a sip and digging into the last piece of chocolate cake, each with their own fork. It was certainly a moment none of them would ever forget.

Ironhide stared at them in confusion, "Is this normal?" He asked Austin curiously.

"Uhhhh…..yeah." Austin replied oh so intelligently.

A/N: So, review and tell me what you think. :D I could use the input! Thanks to the handful of you that do review