Chapter 10: Invidia

(Latin: jealousy)

AN: So, italic text in ::blah:: or "blah" is Cybertronian. ::blah:: is speaking through the bond, and "blah" is normal speech. You know…out loud, or through the comms.

One anonymous reviewer mentioned that they thought Q stood for Quiggly. And I nearly had a heart attack through my giggles imagining it. Quiggly?! Tom Selleck, Quiggly? Quiggly Down Under? I was flattered and horrified. My bad guy comes across as a badass, I can handle. But my bad guy is a good guy? Well…I might need to work on that… Eh heh… (Sorry guys…)

Can I just say that I love this chapter?

Terms: Hics: 0.6 miles

Breem: 8.3 minutes

Astrosecond: .27 seconds

NoBEC-one – Sideswipe

NoBEL-one – Sunstreaker (I love the irony of his name – it fits so well!)

Alex

My shirt disappeared at the same time as the car went still after a massive collision that had me dazed and dizzy. The man wasn't saying anything. I spoke quietly, a slight hint of anger and fear in my voice as the car sat still, hands darting up to cover my chest.

"Where's my shirt?"

No answer. I felt over the driver's side, intent on getting the shirt back. How had they made it disappear all of a sudden? They couldn't have stolen it off my back while I wasn't looking, right?

Loud crashes outside made me flinch, and cower in the passenger's seat.

I paused for a few moments, and then resumed my attempt to feel the guy in the driver's seat, and make him give me my shirt back. One hand was kept across my chest. Nervousness swelled within me, as well as an odd sort of excitement. Like I was happy to be naked. Which I was most definitely not. After this, I was never going to take off any clothes.

Ever.

My questing fingers hit the other door. I blinked once, and then frowned incredulously. That was impossible! Where was the driver?

Frantically, I felt up and down the leather seat, feeling for the elusive driver. Nothing.

He'd been talking to me – there had to be a driver!

I swallowed. I must have been knocked out again. Yeah. And he was just outside, peeing or some other inane thing like that. Maybe he was buying gas. Maybe…

No. I was still on drugs, and I was hallucinating this whole thing. After all, shirts don't just disappear, and neither do drivers. The car had to have a driver. Yeah. I was hallucinating.

I staggered out of the car, after fumbling with the odd, flipping up door. Sure. This made perfect sense in a wacked-out LSD trip.

Soon, the drugs would wear off, and I'd be confronted with reality. Yeah.

Which involved being strapped to a table and dissected while still alive.

That was starting to sound better than this freak show.

Was I insane?

I staggered down the road, still covering my chest with one hand, just in case I wasn't tripping out and this was my reality, however unrealistic it seemed. I mean, really, driverless cars? Disappearing shirts?

No way.

I moved even further down the road, and was thrown to the ground when a loud crash came from behind me, and the clicking-whirring sounds I had come to associate with the robots appeared.

Of course this would happen – after all, a nightmare is only scary when you can't see what is coming, even if you know what it is.

And in my case, knowing was as bad as not being able to see.

There was a weird ringing sound, and explosions. Heat lapped at my face, and a wind blew my hair around wildly. I lifted myself off the ground, and coughed at the smoke and ash in my mouth.

Tires squealed wildly, and the racket of machine guns whipped at my ears.

Through my fear, the oddest sense of glee filled me, like there was no other place on earth I'd rather be, no place than at my brother's side.

But Jace wasn't here. I shook the feeling away and continued my path away from the driverless car.

What was up with the explosions and robot-sounds? Had the scientists found me?

Was I just imagining all of this, drugged out and tripping? Sounded good to me.

Another loud crash right above my head, and heat washed through me again. Pain lanced through my shoulder, and I felt the hot gush of blood across my hand, still wrapped across my chest.

Sideswipe

Once he was back at base, he was going to have Ratchet scan his optics – there must be a virus or something wrong with them, because when he'd first scanned the area, an organic had shown up as Sunstreaker. And not just any organic, but Alexandra Wells. He'd balked at first as a screenshot of the organic came up and he recognized her face, surrounded by a light blue glow, indicating her to be Sunstreaker.

As he scanned the area again, he knew when he had found his errant twin though – a smoking, sporty Lamborghini in a sunshine yellow colour was off to the side of the road, no driver. That had to be him. The clincher was the license plate, caught by sharp optics running in battle-mode. 'SUNSTKR' – no more doubts.

There were no humans, other than the one racing down the road, showing up as Sunny. That was probably due to the road blocks set up behind Sunny that the golden mech had managed to get past. Those S7 people were obviously after Alex. But what did Sunstreaker have to do with any of that?

He'd found his brother – off-lined on the side of the road, the slaggin' lazy fragger. Concern had raced through him, but he knew that Sunstreaker was fine (other than the smoke), so now it was just teasing.

::Sunny! No time for rechargin' now,:: he shouted through the bond, and the comm., as he transformed, leaping into the air and swiping at the lowest flying helicopter. Air washed his armour as he jumped, sword swinging with precision to slice the rotors off the helicopter.

The green-painted machine spiralled down like a leaf, before smashing into the ground and exploding, sending a massive fireball into the sky that his optics automatically dimmed a little.

The silver warrior scanned the horizon, optics flickering as he processed the information at an advanced pace.

One tiny portion of his processor noticed the scarred human racing down the road, again outlined by his CPU as Sunstreaker; which was impossible. She was moving quite quickly for one who couldn't see. He stashed the information, and then discarded it. Right now, that wasn't important, although it was curious as to how she ended up here, in the middle of a fight, of all places. And why she was showing up as Sunstreaker.

Sideswipe whipped his blades around again, slicing through a grey vehicle's engine, flames searing his armour as he whipped through the wreckage, wreathed in the explosion. His optics gleamed in the bright explosion.

The melee warrior had hacked into the human's communications and used it to figure out where the pesky humans were coming from. A quick assessment done on the off-lined warrior in the middle of battle made Sideswipe aware of the problem. Sunny was critically low on energy.

He whipped his blades through the air, and jumped after another helicopter that had gotten too close, guns blazing. 'Jet Judo' was the wrong term for this sort of altercation – he hung on to the bottom of the helicopter with his left, subspacing his left blade, and took a quick look around as he sliced his blade into the underbelly of the helicopter, rending it from nose to tail with a flick of his wrist joint. Gas and fluids dripped over his shoulders and helm. Pale blue optics focused on the landscape, highlighting which vehicles were S7's, and targeting them for destruction.

As the helicopter swirled downwards, he felt small metal pellets hitting him at a high velocity. They stung, but did not puncture the armour. He felt a few of the periphery energon lines, barely hidden in the joints, give way, leaking a thin stream of energon that dripped to the ground.

Something hard and heavy hit him in the back, knocking him from the doomed helicopter that was trailing smoke and going down. He subspaced his right blade as he fell, not wanting to stab himself or the ground as he landed.

He landed heavily, jarring something in his ankle struts. The silver 'bot felt something in his back smoking heavily, causing him to shut down the neural relays from that area. A green truck was racing at him, loaded in the back with a primitive missile launcher. Sideswipe dodged the missile easily, not wanting to become more damaged.

Something seemed off about this whole thing, but he wasn't sure what, and he didn't have time to analyse.

S7 Squad One

"Veer left! NoBEL-one is out of commission for a while – NoBEC-one fast incoming. Watch out – it's fast!"

"I can take him!" Another green truck exploded in a pillar of flame, pieces of plastic melting and causing a foul smell. Small shrapnel bits of metal exploded outwards.

The leader, in Squad One narrowed her eyes at the fire. They were getting ripped apart. But that was the plan – after all, there were only three real people out here. The rest were robotic-controlled machines and vehicles. Q wanted the aliens to think that they had the upper hand in weaponry – they'd be cocky and underestimate the firepower of S7 after this.

One of the tech guys had whipped up a robotics program integrated with a sound-byte system that spat out words that three squads had been saying about NoBEL-one and NoBEC-one, in all sorts of situations. Then the tech would integrate the movements while the other one would crack off appropriate sound-bytes. They didn't actually have to be there, and now there was nothing else they could do. Q had expressly said that they were to try to divert NoBEL-one north without causing harm to humans.

Squads Two and Three were only a few miles off, remotely controlling the helicopters and vehicles, waiting and listening to her in case she needed back-up. She was the only one actually on the scene.

Two and Three could control the vehicles with the freeze-spray – no need for the humans to get close when the silver one was so lethal.

Only it wasn't going as planned. Since NoBEC-one had shown up, they were on to Plan J, which basically stated that the mission was a failure, and to retreat.

She bared her teeth in frustration. Not even the girl had been retrieved. If everything had gone as planned, they'd have come back with two more specimens to study. But instead, NoBEC-one had faster engines than they had ever anticipated, fast enough to reach the base in unprecedented speeds without the use of a plane.

She glared at the screen again, swerving around the gleaming blades the silver alien was wielding.

Q had hand-picked every person on the field today – so for the mission to be a failure of this magnitude…

He'd only been in control for a little while, but in that time, every division had felt his wrath, and seen his brilliance in taking out the aliens. He'd single-handedly reformed the structure of S7 from the ground up, and come in with brilliant designs. He'd taken the confused, unsure, struggling former members of the disbanded Sector Seven, and reformed them into a new Sector Seven. A sort of vigilante group against the aliens that had invaded their home, their territory. They were government-funded, much like the clandestine operations that had occurred before the Defense Secretary was aware of them. She loved it.

There was no way that she could have returned to normal, civilian life, and she knew it. She'd tried for a few months, and then had decided that she couldn't do it.

They had taken away her pension without so much as a 'sorry, and thanks for your work for the country.' She'd considered joining the army, but it wasn't enough. Going from studying aliens and working with top-secret weapons to protect the country, to working as a waitress? No thank you.

Q had been a life-saver. She'd come home from a job interview for a secretary of a small firm, to find a letter sitting on her desk. It had been brief, and succinct, as well as in code. Signed only with the letter Q.

She'd had to decode it – curiosity was too engrained in her to not. As she deciphered it, it became apparent that someone was starting S7 up again. She'd been hooked instantly.

Once she met him at the debrief, which she had managed to make it to, she had known that he was worth following, despite his younger age. She had faith in him, enough to follow the man wherever he went, and whatever he wanted.

She'd had the clearance to know this much about him – he was an enigma, appearing like a ghost a year ago.

She was sure that he had a plan to destroy them. Another pillar of flame as the silver alien took out another vehicle, snapping her thoughts back to the mission.

Her eyes caught on the girl, running down the road. One of the contingency plans sprang to her mind, immediately solidifying. The mission wasn't a complete failure…

She barked out a command. "Missiles hurt it, use them to take out NoBEC-one – Squad Two, Three, do it. Squad One, to NoBEL-one. Let's wrap it up!" The only part of the words that had any meaning were the words, 'Let's wrap it up.' Code for: getting the girl, no help needed.

Q had told her to make sure she got the girl, if at all possible. Squad Two and Three were standing by in their own vehicles, ready to assist, but right now, she didn't think that it would be worth it to lose two agents. The human girl was blind, for heaven's sakes. One contemplated how she'd get the girl into her van with minimal fuss.

NoBEC-one was distracted by the other vehicles, and NoBEL-one was smoking heavily by the side of the road, so now was the best chance she'd get at nabbing the girl.

The freaked driver method, running from the giant robots? Nah – she wouldn't stop for a person, she'd get the hell out of there.

Police, there for assistance? She had the sirens…no, S7 had been experimenting on her only hours ago, she wasn't going to trust random strangers, regardless of who they said they were.

So, the old snatch and grab? Worked for her.

No…she had a better idea.

Q had told her that as long as the girl was alive, it was fine. Delicate handling didn't matter.

Q wasn't known for being a sympathetic guy.

Her grey van whirled towards the running girl with no shirt on, listening to the radio chatter that permeated the airways, and the alien was no doubt listening to, easily hearing all their moves. Well, the moves they wanted them to hear.

Alex

There was another loud crash from beside and behind me; a massive noise that had me cowering into the nearest available patch of dirt before racing along the highway. I was still much too close to the explosions for my comfort.

I threw myself forwards again, legs pumping ferociously.

An engine noise behind me – was it the kidnapper again? I contemplated running off the road, but knew that I couldn't possibly get far, and that it would be monumentally stupid to race off into the dirt and grass with no way of anyone finding me, or me finding my way back.

The engine noise grew louder and louder, until I felt like it was nearly on top of me, about to crush me.

Air wafted across my face, and my pants rubbed against my legs as I ran faster, hoping that I didn't slip and crack my head on the ground, hoping that some other car didn't get to close and turn me into a smear on the asphalt. Brakes squealed and something hit me from behind, making me fall forwards and hit my head hard against the pavement. My head swam for a minute.

I felt blood oozing down my forehead as I tried to lift my head up past the spinning feeling. Had someone just…hit me with their vehicle?

There was a bang of a door opening, from right behind me.

"Oh my g- Are you okay? I'm so sorry, I didn't see you…"

Warm hands were on my shoulders, and I felt like screaming as their fingers brushed against the wound on my shoulder. Loud noises echoed from behind me, and I ducked instinctively. I could hear flames cracking somewhere.

"Honey, what happened to your shirt?"

I couldn't answer, still breathing in huge gulps from running so far. Or maybe it had only been two hundred yards, and I was really out of shape.

They were gone for a moment, feet crunching on the ground. I shivered, clicks and weird noises running through my mind. It felt like I could almost understand the noises, that there was more to them than I was currently comprehending.

Something covered me, and I tugged it to myself gratefully. A blanket, I surmised, wrapping it tightly about me.

Then they were tugging at my shoulder, urging me to get in, get in quickly, the robots were coming.

I was helped swiftly into the vehicle, and relaxed in the front seat, feeling much safer than before. I was going to be safe, helped by this nice person (even though they hit me with their vehicle).

The lady beside me chatter one about how sorry she was about hitting me, how she'd just been so freaked out about the robots fighting in the road, and how in the world did I end up out here, without a shirt, and covered in blood?

"It…it's a long story," I finally muttered, hoping I wasn't getting too much blood on her blanket.

She merely continued chattering about feeling bad and getting as far away as possible. She asked me where I was going, and I didn't answer.

As far away from the giant robots as possible was sort of a strange answer. Other than that, I didn't know.

My extended family lived far away, almost in Canada. Mom had moved down here with Dad years ago for his job, and we'd never moved back.

My family was still with Sector Seven, so I couldn't go back to the house – I didn't have keys. And it would probably be locked.

I had about a dollar left, if I was feeling my change right, and mentally deducting my purchases of water and chocolate. I didn't have enough for a hotel room.

The lady chattered on pleasantly, and eventually managed to talk me into accepting a meal and some first aid for my shoulder and back.

Suddenly, the vehicle rocked back and forth and I heard a large pow, and I threw out my hands to stabilize myself. "What was that?" I asked, voice slightly panicked.

She whispered something softly, her voice oddly tight, but I missed what it was. I heard a small crunch from her direction only a few seconds later.

Sideswipe

He slashed at a red truck, cutting it in-half horizontally, the engine exploding in a flare of bright yellow and red flame. The flare of battle filled his spark, creating a raucous chord of sheer thrill. Optics dimming automatically, he scanned the area again, finishing in a few astroseconds.

No hostiles remaining.

The silver warrior shut down his battle-mode and reset his optics, scanning the area swiftly.

After only a few astroseconds passed, he raced to Sunstreaker, and smacked a hand down on the scorched paint, dinting the top of the Lamborghini's hood.

"Primus, Sunny, flashy enough?" he joked.

A golden hand shot out and grabbed his neck, Sunstreaker transforming in a flash of glistening yellow paint, streaked with mud and ash. He was gripping the main energon line to Sideswipe's head. Pale icy blue optics flashed. The silver warrior stayed calm, even though inside he was exalting that he could feel his twin again. His spark was thrumming in its casing, resonating more evenly even as he stood beside the (now dented) transformer.

"Sunny, it's me – Sideswipe." He would have added something more joking, but Sunstreaker was a little prone to ripping and tearing in this state if he heard something he didn't like.

The golden 'bot's voice was slightly crackly and hoarse, yet it was cold.

"Sideswipe?" he asked, not releasing his grip on the delicate energon lines. The voice was dangerous.

"The one and only," he joked, feeling more calm. The hand tightened.

"And you felt it necessary to dint my roof why?" The golden 'bot snarled, gripping the lines tight enough so that Sideswipe's optics dimmed with not enough energon to run them in battle-mode.

He grinned at his twin. "Hmm? Me?"

After another snarl, the golden twin let go. "You're giving me an extra wax for that, bolts-for-brains."

"Yeah, yeah, sure," Sideswipe said. He sent a thrill of happiness through the bond, and felt the slight reciprocation from his emotionally stunted twin. Sunstreaker shifted backwards, and Sideswipe glanced at his twin fully. He whistled.

"Frag me sideways and trade my processor for a bolt, what did you do to get that much damage? Jump into a blender?"

The golden yellow twin merely glared, then grunted out, "Re-entry."

Sideswipe travelled around the battered yellow mech, swirling on his wheels. Energon was streaked all down the yellow sides, turning them a strange greenish colour, and the armour was filled with tears and rips, some covered with thin patches of metal hand-welded on. The Hatchet was going to blow a gasket when he saw this.

Sideswipe grinned.

"Seriously, bro, you must have been really moving to get that much damage."

Sunstreaker didn't reply out loud, but Sideswipe felt his annoyance through the bond. Primus, but it was good to have Sunstreaker with him, back together again.

The silver twin swivelled on his wheels, subspacing his other blade and scanning the surrounding area for organic life-forms.

No organic humanoid life-forms recorded within five hics. Something about that seemed odd to him, but he didn't have time to figure it out – where was Alex?

He scanned the area again, searching by using the last available data he had on the human girl, using her specific biometrics.

No organic humanoid life-forms with this data recorded within five hics.

He widened the range. No organic humanoid life-forms with this data recorded within ten hics.

Sideswipe felt a frown crease his faceplates. Where was she? She couldn't have just disappeared – he'd seen her only a few breems ago, racing down the road as if Ravage was after her.

Sideswipe scanned the surrounding area, looking for the human's organic signal, but widening the search parameters to twenty hics and merely looking for life-forms.

He widened the scope of his scanners, and got a multitude of hits. He narrowed it down to the one closest to Alex – ninety-seven point two percent matching biometrics.

It was slow in coming, but Sideswipe blamed it on the return of normal processing speed – after all, he'd been operating at double-speed for a while, and anything less than that felt abnormally slow.

Transforming into his silver Corvette Stingray mode, he swerved around, and fixed the new scan in his processor.

"You coming, Sunny?"

He could feel the irritation in his other half, but it was dulling, not as sharp and acrid as normal.

"Sunny! Where were you that you got so…cuddly and soft?" He joked, watching pale blue optics flash.

The silver car darted forwards, but wasn't quite quick enough to avoid the hand that smashed down on his trunk, leaving a massive indent.

He ignored it, hopping up and down on his tires, bouncing. Sunstreaker laboriously transformed, smoking and popping. Both dented vehicles started off down the road, the golden yellow one a hair behind the silver Corvette.

"Where are we going?"

"I need to get something, and then we're going to the base."

S7 Squad One

The nice thing about the roadblock behind them was that there was no traffic – she was free to go as fast as the specially modified van could. Unfortunately, that meant that the alien robot could go just as fast, once it had disposed of the controlled helicopters and vehicles. It would be a race, to see who could reach S7 first. She intended to win.

The girl was an idiot. She'd willingly come into the van, and had relaxed completely once the agent started blathering on about whatever she could think of – like her aunt had used to do.

She'd just managed to take the turnoff that would lead them to S7 headquarters when she looked again in the rear-view mirror, and seen a silver car following them, catching up fast. A smoking golden car was behind it. They'd met up. Damn it. She hadn't gone more than eight miles.

Mashing her foot into the accelerator again, she raced forwards and pulled a few small levers under the dash to release some surprises for the pursuer.

Slick oil dripped down on to the road as well as some small spikes designed to puncture tires – but nothing stopped the Corvette from hell. She swerved, trying to avoid the car but the gold one was on her other side, tight to the van's flank. She was pinned.

The silver one transformed, whipping out blades that sliced her tires like they were a sheet of paper.

The woman wrestled with the unruly steering wheel, fighting to keep control. She ignored the squeaks that the girl was giving off.

She activated a button under the seat, hidden for such purposes, and spoke to Q.

"They've met. They have the girl," she said and then let the button release again, automatically activating the explosives rigged in the back of the van, set to explode in twenty seconds. The rules were clear. If Q couldn't have the girl, neither could they. She wasn't that important. Merely an anomaly.

"Sorry, Q," she said aloud, softly – so soft that the girl would have no chance of hearing her. "I failed."

The protocols were quite clear in this area. With that, she slipped one of the drug capsules from the compartment under the seat in, and broke it with her teeth, swallowing swiftly.

Alex

The vehicle wavered back and forth, and I could hear a faint noise outside, like the humming of fast and powerful engines. As the other tires blew out, the vehicle immediately slowed, and continued to swerve from left to right.

The woman spoke, but I missed what she said. Something about meeting up.

My head was spinning, buzzing even. What in the blue hells was happening now? Was this whole surreal dream about to end? Was I going to make it out alive? Or would I wake up on the table, under the knife?

A shiver raced up my spine at the thought of it.

Anger, hot and heady, mixed with a chill sort of rage at the thought of all of my efforts to this point being for naught. When would the insanity end?

Never, a small voice whispered. Until you're cold and grey, melted down for scrap.

What?

The vehicle veered to the left, throwing me into the middle. My fingers landed on the driver's hand – jittering and shaking like she was having an epileptic fit.

Another jolt of the vehicle, and I lost my grip on her hand.

"Are you alright?" I managed, trying to stabilize myself by gripping the handle on the door.

She didn't answer, and I got a sinking feeling in my stomach a few moments later when I heard her rasp out a breath.

Something smashed into the front of the vehicle, throwing me forwards harshly, seatbelt strap cutting into my shoulder. Thankfully, the injured one was on the opposite side.

I felt something crusty on my cheeks when I bit my lip. Dried blood, probably.

An odd noise came from the vehicle's engine, and then the door I was hanging on to was ripped open – or off. I heard it hit the ground a few moments later, softly.

Instantly, my worst thoughts came back. The robots? Had they found me again? Damn it all, what the hell did they want me for?

A giant hand ripped me from the seat, and I squealed a little bit in fear. A wash of hot air raced over my face, and the sound of a close, loud explosion made me shriek. What was that?! Why oh why did they keep on hounding me? I hadn't done anything! Were they blowing things up now?

Unless they were here to kill me for telling those scientists. But then the other one would have… My head was spinning with all the confusing thoughts.

Could I really put this all down to a hallucination? It was too vivid, too real…

The hand tightened around me, and I choked slightly, feeling a rib threaten to give.

"Put her down, Sunny," a voice I knew chirped out, slight aggravation in the tone. It wasn't quite like I remembered – a little more metallic and strained – but that was Sides' voice alright.

My heart gave a great leap.

The metal hand around me tightened a little more.

"Sides?" I rasped out, forcing my voice past the tightness of the hand.

"In the flesh, Alex… Or, well… Not quite flesh exactly… Primus, another weird saying."

I was confused. It would probably be handy to be able to see him, and actually know what he was talking about. But no.

Apparently, it was time to play hot potato with the human, as 'Sunny' (weird name for a robot…) dropped me. I shrieked as I fell, expecting to become a splat on the ground when another hard surface hit my flailing feet.

"Relax, I got you."

His calming words did nothing to ease my mind, even though I was delighted to hear his voice again, and to be with him.

I played his words back, trying to determine why I felt like I was missing something.

"Relax, I got you." I'm sure my face paled. "You…you have a robot?" I whispered, hardly daring to breath in case this turned out to be a huge joke that the universe was determined to play on me.

He laughed. Laughed. Like my impending heart attack was something to laugh at.

"What? I'm a mech. Not a robot."

I swallowed, clutching the blanket to my sides as tightly as possible, hoping to hide away in it so they couldn't get me.

"Not a robot? Then…who controls the robot?"

"Are you glitched? No one controls me."

"So… You're the controller?" I managed, feeling like my stomach was about to come through my mouth.

"No, I told you. I'm a mech. Made of metal, and I have a processor. I'm not a robot."

It still made no sense – people would have run screaming if a giant robot had escorted me to and from classes. And driving…

I swallowed, feeling like the world as I knew it was shifting, twisting into a shape that I didn't recognize. "But…how did you come to my classes?"

"Holoform."

"And the car?" I managed, feeling my head spin crazily, those insane shivers and odd, almost-hearable chatters going through my body.

"The…oh, that's the best part! We can transform into whatever car we want! Cool, huh?"

My stomach was threatening to churn out the chocolate bar I'd managed to eat when I was with the crazy robot and car-dude. Who were one and the same.

I wasn't on drugs. They'd been following me, albeit much longer than I had anticipated. For over a year.

"Which country do you…are you allied with?" I managed, hoping that somehow this was all within my subconscious, and I wouldn't be able to come up with a reasonable answer. Because these extremely advanced robots were almost acting like they were alive.

Which was absolutely impossible, and no country would be this far ahead in creating giant AIs. Not to mention that they wouldn't just let them escape, and run around the country-side.

My mind flashed back to the robots I had seen in the café that had initially blinded me. The causes of all my current problems.

I almost missed Sides' reply due to my hyperventilating. "Well, I'd have to ask Prime that one to be sure, but I think we just hang out wherever."

Okay, I was crazy, and this was the best my mind could come up with. Flashbacks to the insane, battling silver robots that I had seen a year ago. And somehow it had decided that the TA was a fabulous person to robot-ify. Yup. I was crazy, maybe even dead – unless I had dreamed the whole thing up. But I was past that – there was no way that I dreamed this whole thing up.

I almost failed English, for heaven's sakes; I wasn't this creative.

"So, how've you been for the past year?" Sides asked in a nonchalant tone.

"I'm pretty sure I'm crazy," I told him truthfully. "There's no way that this can all be happening."

Step one was admitting it, right? Or was that for things like addiction? Could it work on insanity?

"Why?" He sounded curious.

"Giant, AI robots? I'm not clever enough to come up with something like that. I must have simply projected what happened to me a year ago and extrapolated."

After a few moments of silence, Sides spoke, apparently answering my previous question.

"Alex, you wound me! My intelligence is all natural!" I heard the other one snort softly, before Sides' voice continued, along with a bang and my surface tilted a little. "We are…Frag, how does Optimus put it? 'Autonomous robotic organisms?' Yeah. Sounds right. Autobots. From Cybertron."

"Aliens?" I squeaked out.

"Uh…Yeah, I guess you could put it that way. But really, that's pretty rude. Autobots is much better."

"So, you're actually an alien?" I managed, about to keel over. How much more could a girl take? That's it; I was so completely dead or insane. My poor parents. Poor Jace.

Another voice spoke, cold and quiet. I shivered at that voice; it promised pain and violence and darkness. "Sideswipe, the organic isn't worth our time. I need a new paintjob something fierce, let's go."

"But Sunny! Wait, how do you know her?" Then, the hand holding me shifted a little. "Did you meet Sunny?"

"Don't call me that, fragger!" The cold voice snapped, sounding angry.

I was silent, whimpering in the palm of some giant robot's hand.

"Sunny, how'd you meet Alex?"

The massive, scary one was silent. I felt like my heart would explode in fear. There was the sound of air blowing out, and then more of the strange feelings in me. Amusement – I was in no way amused. Excitement. Jealously. Rage. I was so confused – and that one was all me. Hell, I was terrified! Maybe that was the insanity cuing in?

Suddenly, it all came to me like the grotesque pictures of a puzzle, one that I had been too naïve to put together for the last year. The language. The oddly expensive car. The weird replies to some of my questions.

"Oh…oh…oh my- You… You're real! Like, actually, honest to- Oh my- I'm going to be sick," I moaned, throwing a hand over my mouth. Sounds from the last year swept through my head.

The guy that kidnapped me from the terrorists – how his voice had come through the radio. The empty seat when I leaned over.

"What? Frag that – I mean…um…I like teaching…"

"You've got no idea, human."

"My car is my life – I'd die without it."

No wonder he was so alright with me driving his car…him? Geez, that sounded so…dirty…

Well, they certainly weren't out to kill me – they could have done that ages and ages ago.

My thoughts rattled around in my head like ping pong balls. The most predominant being, 'why?'

I was shivering uncontrollably now, more thoughts and images rushing through my mind than ever before.

"What do you want from me?" I managed, still clenching the blanket tight.

Sides sounded confused. "Want? Well… Hatchet wants you to stay safe, and wants me to scan you… Prime just wants you to stay safe… " He rambled off into muttering.

Holy hell, how many of them were there? There were two here, and then… "Four?"

"Huh? Oh, no – around a dozen, I think. Haven't counted recently."

There was another frantic buzz of noise around my head, and I shivered again. The events of the day were catching up to me. Alien robots that could talk. I wasn't crazy. Or maybe I was, and was too crazy to know it – soon I'd think everyone else to be crazy. No, I wasn't crazy. This was real.

It felt like the world had tilted on its axis, had stretched too far and snapped, resulting in these odd creatures who were saying they were robots. Who could transform into vehicles. Who were from Cybertron.

The universe's version of word vomit.

"Did you kill her?" I choked out. "The woman who saved me?"

A small pause, in which my head burned from the amount of ambient noise and then Sides spoke in a deceptively cheerful voice. "She was taking you back to the place that Sunny rescued you from."

My heart felt like a small, fluttering bird, about to launch from the nest and splat on the ground. The stress from the last day, all these excess emotions, plus not eating and drinking was just too much.

I passed out.

Sunstreaker

Right when the fleshy passed out, his bond to Sideswipe dimmed. The golden yellow warrior's optics narrowed. What in the Pit was going on here?

The desire to just off-line the thing with a blade to the chassis was strong, warring with his desire to chuck it out a window doing three hundred miles an hour. Or he could have just left it in the exploding vehicle, and been done with it. But Sideswipe had been insistent, stating that he needed to get her out, right now.

Sunstreaker didn't like it. Sideswipe was acting weird around the little scrap of human flesh.

The golden yellow 'bot ran an internal scan as they moved down the highway, in the direction of the base, checking for more ripped lines and damage sustained. His alt-mode was smoking, and leaving blue smears on the road. The golden-yellow paint was chipped and scratched, and coated in a slick covering of energon. His paint was hideous – it was annoying him.

Text ran across his HUD as his processor completed the scan.

Scanning…

Numerous lines in peripheral energon lines compromised. Flow to peripheral lines disabled. Main energon line in right arm and left arm compromised. Reduced energon flow to arms. Energon levels critically low. More energon required.

Coolant lines in arms and legs compromised. More coolant required.

Frame damaged. Require repairs.

Functioning at 14.29% power. Stasis lock will be initiated in 1.63 joors.

Sunstreaker had managed to siphon off enough energy from the surrounding vehicles to have a little bit of charge – enough to possibly get back to the Autobots. He'd have to immediately go to the Hatchet, and let him have his way with the yellow mech to fix all the dents and rips in his lines, but he'd make it.

"Sideswipe, ditch the organic." Sunstreaker sounded annoyed, and slightly frustrated. For some reason, the bond-talk wasn't working, so they had to make do with private comm. linking. He'd been arguing with Sideswipe for over a groon, telling him to get rid of the needy organic in Sides' passenger seat. The silver twin seemed oddly attached to it, and had made a point of snatching the thing up once it had passed out in his servos.

Sideswipe was defensive. "I like her, she's…oddly endearing, like a pet of some sort."

"Pets die." Sunstreaker was annoyed, and made no secret of it.

"But she's still got easily a half-vorn left in her."

"And you think it wants to spend it with you?" His comment to the silver twin was filled with derision.

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?" Sideswipe protested.

Sunstreaker felt like smashing a fist into his idiot twin's faceplates. He would have, except that another transformation could be lethal – the patches could tear even more, and he'd leak out. "What it means, idiot, is that a biological creature doesn't want to spend the last few astroseconds with a creature that isn't even its own species."

"Alex is a friend, Sunny – she's funny."

"So are Wheeljack's experiments, but I don't keep them in my interior."

"She isn't going to explode, you half-bit." The golden twin swerved into the silver twin, probably for the half-bit comment. The contact left a smear of energon on Sideswipe's flank.

Sideswipe shoved back, and if he had been transformed, he'd have been fighting a grin off his faceplates.

"Anyways, I'll just keep her until she wakes up again – I can't just leave her on the side of the road."

Sunstreaker's anger was nearly palpable. He didn't verbalize his anger, knowing that it was irrational to be jealous of a squishy, disgusting biological creature his brother was infatuated with. He couldn't help it though – Sideswipe was just so concerned about it. It made him want to squish the little thing under one of his pedes, watch it scream and flail until its fluids gushed out and it was still.

It had made a mess of his interior.

He glared at the little thing in Sideswipe's passenger seat again. He'd felt it while it was awake, polluting the bond with Sideswipe. How it had access to their bond was a mystery he didn't care to figure out – he just wanted it gone.

And now that it was off-line, he could barely feel Sides through the bond. What the frag had his idiot twin done? How much of this was Shockwave's doing? After all, the creepy fragging scientist had told him that he'd never be able to feel the bond with Sides ever again – and he was able to.

What had this little organic done?

Hatred swelled in him for the biological creature.

Sideswipe hadn't come after him when he was stranded on this planet, and he came after this little flesh-bag? Hatred filled the yellow Lamborghini, smoke rising from his hood as he moved down the highway. His engine sputtered momentarily as the dregs of gasoline ran through it.

If Sideswipe brought that thing to the base, he'd make sure it was in a regrettable 'accident.' After all, the fragging thing was defective – its optics didn't work. And it was weaseling into the bond between him and Sideswipe.

No.

That was unforgiveable. Even for something that didn't even come up to his knee joints.

If he could convince Sideswipe to get rid of it, however, then he wouldn't have to try and off-line it – the world was a hazardous place for defective flesh-creatures.

This was its last chance to survive. If Sideswipe gave it up, he'd leave it alone and hope that it died due to other flesh-bag interventions. If it didn't and Sideswipe wouldn't leave it alone, he'd make sure it didn't last much longer.

No one was allowed to be that close to his brother. No one other than him.

"You think Prime is going to let you keep an organic? A biological, sentient being?" Sunstreaker snorted. "Think again, idiot."

"But she'd want to see the base, and the Hatchet would probably want to scan her…"

Sunstreaker would have rolled his optics if he weren't in his vehicle mode. "It can't see."

Sideswipe started pouting. "But, Sunny-,"

"But nothing, you glitch. Leave it out of this. It didn't look like it considered you a friend, shaking in your servos. And don't call me that!"

He'd get rid of it; one way, or the other.

The Lamborghini's headlights flashed more brightly, and his engine revved.

Sideswipe

Sideswipe scanned the human as she lay sprawled out in his interior, scanning only superficially before being overwhelmed with the urge to stop, to chuck her out on to the side of the road. The silver car became increasing unsettled the longer he tried to scan her, and the more thoroughly he tried to scan her.

It was a strange, tingly feeling that made him feel like crawling out of his protoform.

He remembered her fear, her shaking, muttering out, "Did you kill her?" The girl's optics were such a different colour – he remembered them being more reddish-brown, not quite as red. She'd been shaking in his grip, almost to the point of falling to pieces.

His headlights winked as he increased his speed. She didn't trust him anymore. It was surprising how much that lack of trust actually hurt, considering she was just a tiny little life-form he could squish with one digit. Abruptly, the silver warrior revved his engine, making up his mind.

Sunny was right – he should let her go back to the humans. She didn't trust him anymore. And she was an innocent; he had no right to involve her in all the Autobot craziness.

He'd drop her off with the police – they could help her out, right? He didn't know of any other family she had, and police were supposed to be trustworthy members of human society, right?

Yeah. And then he'd make sure Sunny got to the Hatchet, and then he'd check on her, make sure she was doing alright. He would just make sure that she didn't know he was helping her.

Sunstreaker followed behind him, car mode smoking as the Lamborghini limped down the highway, barely doing twice the speed limit.

AN: Oh man…Sunstreaker could be more of a problem than I thought… I hadn't anticipated such homicidal jealousy… Although, now that I think about it, it completely makes sense that he'd think that way. Thoughts from the peanut gallery?

NOTE: I do not have the next chapter written, as school/life/insert-life's-weapon-of-choice-here has been terrible, and I don't think I'll be updating again for about three weeks. Bear with me – I'll do my best, but no promises guys. I will definitely update as quick as I can though.