Chapter 3

Of course we all had to introduce ourselves to the sparklings, find out exactly who they were, and get into a full discussion with them about what we were doing here, and the difference between Autobots and Decepticons. The only highlight was when Gracee dropped her water crystal on Ironhide's head, blasting him back into the Main Control Panel. That was pretty funny, but then the MCP blew up completely, almost killing all of us. Rogues came up once in the conversation, and Jazz, who seemed to have taken an instant dislike to me (the feeling was mutual), saw fit to insult me and the entire race of Rogues. I did the natural thing and tried to murder him. Optimus had to hold me back.
"Clara, leave him be."
I went limp in his arms. Part of him sounded angry, part of him disappointed, part of him exasperated, and I didn't like the feeling that I'd let him down somehow. He let go of me, and I couldn't even bring myself to go after Jazz to try and cheer myself up. I stood where I was while Optimus finally managed to get rid of the sparklings, and the other Autobots went off to do their own thing. It was late, so that was probably sleeping. Finally Optimus and I were the only ones left. He wasn't looking at me, doing something at one of the other control panels.
"I'm sorry." I said quietly.
Optimus looked at me, tilting his head. He seemed to realise what had happened and pulled me into his arms. I clung to him tightly, resting my head on his chest.
"Clara…." He said quietly, "I'm sorry." He rubbed my arm comfortingly and rested his forehead on my head. "I didn't mean to hurt you."
I held him a little tighter, but didn't say anything. I felt him tilt his head slightly.
"I actually would've done the exact same thing. That I'm holding you back makes me feel like I'm turning into Sentinel." He commented. "Whoa. Not a good sign."
It worked. I started laughing. My laughter was short-lived, but he'd cheered me up a lot. I was scared though. Scared because my spark ached whenever I thought about him, when I wasn't with him. Scared because it leapt in joy whenever he was near. Scared because of the pain I got whenever I was alone with him like this, that seemed to be increasing as time went on. I guess it was safe to say I was scared of him. Well, not him exactly. I was scared of the effect that he was having on me. I'd never felt anything like it before.
I closed my eyes and allowed myself to go limp in his arms. He was running his hand through my hair comfortingly. I felt more comfortable here with him than I had in a long time, even with the pain. There was nowhere else I wanted to be.
After a few minutes Optimus pulled away.
"We should make sure the ship's safe if we don't want to be murdered while we're recharging." He said cheerfully as he went back to the control panel he'd been at.
"How can you say something like that so cheerfully?" I demanded playfully, coming up behind him to see what he was doing. Optimus rolled his eyes and pushed a few buttons.
"Do you mind helping me with the security cameras?" he asked, grabbing an armful of them and heading towards the door.
"Sure."

We'd finally found the exit to the caves. I worked my way up the tunnel towards it, putting camouflage cameras up on both walls as I went. Optimus was trying to reboot the ship's camouflage systems, which, along with the cameras, was controlled by the security panel rather than the MCP. After a while I got to the exit. I stuck a camera on the wall next to it and barely watched as it disappeared, blending into its surroundings. I was looking at the sky.
"It's not so different here as to Cybertron." Optimus commented, coming up beside me.
"The stars are further away. And the constellations are different." I pointed out.
"And the sun's closer."
"And there's only one moon, which is further away."
"You miss home?" Optimus asked me, wrapping his arms around my waist.
"A little." I admitted. I don't know why, but it was the truth. Like I said, I don't really form attachments to places – or people – so I didn't usually care where I was or who I was with. I found myself homesick though. We didn't belong here.
"I miss it too." He muttered soothingly. "Don't worry though. We'll be home soon."
I nodded and pulled away so I could put another camera on the opposite wall.
"They're just kids, Optimus."
"Hn?"
"This isn't their war. They have every right to run away. Are you sure it's a good idea to have them here?"
"If the Decepticons find out they have a crystal, they'll be in danger. It's best to keep them close where we can make sure that doesn't happen. We can protect them that way." He smiled at me comfortingly. "Don't worry. I know what I'm doing."
I blinked at him.
"That's not what you were saying on the ship yesterday morning."
He gave me an annoyed look.
"You know, as soon as you've finished your training, your safety is no longer my responsibility, so I can quite happily murder you and not get in trouble for it." He said jokingly.
I laughed as he led me back to the ship.
There was only a tiny little problem when we got back,
"Where the hell is it?" I demanded.
"Er….I think it's in this room."
"Optimus Prime, I spent 20 years building that ship, if you've lost it…."
Optimus gave me a sheepish look.
"It was your idea to use the camouflage."
"Yeah, but not so we didn't even know where it was!"
After a few minutes Roxy opened the door for us, almost crushing us beneath it in the process.
"Sorry!" she called to us as we came back on board.
I was tired, so I headed straight upstairs to recharge.
The next morning the kids decided to get to the ship at 12. Jazz, Bumblebee and I were the only ones on the ship. I was putting up some speakers as an alarm system, since we'd decided to set the ships drones to looking for the crystals.
"Where is everyone?" Andi asked, running over to me.
"Ironhide and Arcee are outside, Optimus and the others are making sure they've covered all the exits to the caves." I replied tiredly. I hadn't been able to recharge much at all last night, and it was showing. "Don't you sparklings have school or something?"
"We had a half day today, since it's the last day before the holidays." Andi said, shrugging.
Gracee was giving me an irritated look.
"Why do you keep calling us that?" she demanded.
"Calling you what?" I asked, not really paying attention.
"'Sparklings'."
"No, I guess you wouldn't understand that." I muttered to myself. "It's the Cybertron term for….kids."
"You're calling us kids?" Andi asked, shocked.
"Yep."
"We're not kids!"
"How old are you?"
"14."
I snorted.
"If you're not sparklings, then your planet must have a really low life expectancy rate."
"Actually, it's quite high."
"How old?"
"About 80 in this country." Alex replied.
"That's low."
"How long do you live on your planet then?" Andi demanded.
"Don't have a clue, since no one's really lived long enough to die of old age. It's high though."
Andi blinked.
"Really?"
"Yep."
I half-glanced at Jazz, not daring to actually look at him. I'd already pounded his head against the wall since Optimus had left, just for last night, and I was sure I would find another reason to cause him even more damage if I looked at him, but I didn't want to have Optimus mad at me again.
"What can we do?" Andi asked, bored.
"You can help with the work if you want." I suggested.
"Work? No way!"
"I thought not. Optimus said you can look around if you wanted to."
"We can look around the ship?"
"Not upstairs. And unless you have a wish to die excruciatingly painfully by burning to death, then sure, go into the engine room."
"Why only this floor? What's upstairs that you don't want us to see?"
"Our bedrooms. We don't want you looking through all our personal-"
"Just ignore Clara. She's homesick." Jazz called from across the room. "Look around if you want, but stick to this floor."
I glared at him as the sparklings left, and he pulled a taunting face at me. I made a mental note to ask Optimus for permission to murder the tiny Autobot when my teacher got back in from the caves.
I crossed to the corner furthest away from Jazz to put up the final speaker, watching the sparklings out of the corner of my eye as they went over to Bumblebee. Well, that was some real great exploring. Bumblebee was a real find. I rolled my eyes and went back to work.

"I'm BORED." Andi moaned after a few minutes as the three came back to me.
"Go and explore then."
"We have."
"I'm not stupid. I saw you talking to Bumblebee."
"You saw that? But that's impossible!"
"I'm almost nine million years old, it's entirely possible."
"So is there anything else we can do? All that's on this floor is this room, and we can't go anywhere else."
"Why'd you come to me?"
"Bumblebee told us to." Andi replied before either of the others could stop her.
"Did Bumblebee tell you why he was so eager to get you to talk to me? Or is he just trying to shrug you off on somebody else." I frowned. "How'd he even tell you anyway?"
"Through the radio."
"He said you might need cheering up." Gracee cut in uncertainly.
"Why?"
"Because you're a Rogue." Andi answered cheerfully. "So you're not as used to living away from home as the Autobots are."
"I don't have a home." I replied, not looking at the three sparklings. "I haven't had a home since I was 7."
The three of them were looking at me curiously.
"What actually is a Rogue?" Alex asked eventually.
"Someone who refuses to fall in behind the Autobots or Decepticons, or even fight at all in this war. Most people are Rogues because they got sick of the war. I was born into it. I'm directly descended from the first Rogues, so I don't really have a choice."
"But you chose to be an Autobot." Gracee said, confused.
"Only because my dad got sick of me hating 'home'. He stuck me in Decepticon territory in the hope that I'd start enjoy being at home, and it didn't work. So now he's stuck me on the other end of the line. Only this time I actually became an Autobot."
"Er, we passed Ironhide and Arcee on our way in, and they were fighting. Are you gonna sort that out before they kill each other?" Andi asked.
"No."
"Why not?"
"They're training. They're not gonna hurt each other."
"Why are they training?"
"Because Arcee's not a proper Autobot yet. She needs to train, and Ironhide's her teacher, so he has to train her."
"What do you mean, she's not a proper Autobot?"
"You don't become a proper Autobot until you finish your training and are allowed to wear the Autobot symbol."
"You don't wear an Autobot symbol." Alex noted.
"Training lasts a year at least; I've been doing mine for almost a week."
"Who's your teacher?" Gracee asked curiously.
"Optimus."
"But he's leader." Andi replied.
"So?" I looked at her. "Actually he's only leader for this mission. He's the first lieutenant."
"So who's your real leader?"
"Sentinel Prime."
"Who?"
"Optimus' teacher."
"So if Sentinel is leader, and Optimus, his student, is first lieutenant," Andi was saying, "Since you're Optimus' student, doesn't that make you his first lieutenant?"
"No. Only if he makes me first lieutenant. It's his choice; the title isn't given to someone automatically."
I was hounded for at least ten minutes more, though it felt like ten years more, before I was finally able to shrug the sparklings off on Jazz, who gave me his 'I'll kill you later' look – a look that he seemed to have made up and reserved especially for me.