...xXx...

Epilogue

...xXx...

One year later...

Prowl stretched out his right arm and examined the new weapon that Ratchet had just installed. It was a light weight, short range blaster. He activated it with an unspoken command and fired two test shots toward the targets at the far end of the range. They vanished in a puff of smoke and bits of flame.

"Nice shooting, Prowler," said Jazz, who was lounging at a desk behind the tactician. "I swear your aim got ten times better once you became an Autobot again."

"I was never anything else," said Prowl, deactivating the blaster. He turned to his brother.

Jazz's wounds had long since mended, and his armor was polished to a sharp gleam. They hadn't encountered any more fighting since the manic rescue mission. The whole year had been spent recuperating and keeping on the lookout for more trouble. It had been almost dull with the exception of that car thief who had tried to steal Jazz. That incident had produced a rather impressive amount of paperwork.

The invasion had stopped as quickly as it had started. The drones fell like ten million flies right out of the sky. The cleanup was still going on, and it would likely continue for years. The amount of destruction the drones had wrought in such a short period of time was staggering, even by cybertronian standards. But slowly and surely, Earth had settled back into normal modes of operation.

The world leaders had praised the Autobots for their contributions, and even the humans who had once sought to destroy them were slinking back into the shadows. Jazz and Prowl could now drive virtually anywhere without worrying about being assaulted. It looked like a new dawn for human-cybertronian relations, and Prowl felt more than satisfied with how the whole fiasco had turned out.

There was only one thing left to sort out.

...xXx...

"I do not need a job," Barricade growled.

Barricade and Prowl were in their alt modes together in the basement of a Los Angeles Police Department building. They blended in perfectly among the other pristine police cruisers. Prowl had been outfitted with heavy armor that added a substantial amount of bulk to his frame. By the time Ratchet was finished with him, he was almost equal in size with Barricade, and so had chosen a nearly identical form. The 'To Protect and Serve' proudly emblazoned on Prowl's side being the only noticeable difference.

"You were incredibly vocal about your restrictions on the Autobot base and your own boredom," said Prowl. "Optimus has agreed to let you stay on Earth, but it is at your own insistence that you are not treated as an Autobot comrade. Taking a position within the human world will give you the freedom you desire and should provide some measure of entertainment."

"Playing with the squishies is not my idea of fun," said Barricade.

"Your options are exceptionally limited," said Prowl. "Do you have any alternative ideas?"

The only real alternative that Barricade could think of was to leave, but in the end, Barricade had stayed. Oh, he'd tried to leave several times, but after vanishing for a few weeks, he inevitably found himself back on the Autobot base with his brothers there to comment on the sad state of his paint job or the fact that his report was now a week overdue.

Barricade only grumbled.

"I did not think so," said Prowl. "Now behave, your new coworkers have just arrived."

Sure enough, a group of four humans appeared at the bottom of the stairwell. The one at the forefront was a large, beefy man with a very thick mustache. The two men on his right were younger and leaner with close cropped brown hair. The last was a smaller woman to his left who seemed very petite compared to her companions.

The large man stopped in front of Prowl's bumper.

"So, you're the one the President wants me to hire?" he asked in a brusque tone.

"No," said Prowl. "I am Prowl, and this is my brother, Barricade, who wishes to join you. I am merely here to see him settled in."

Prowl flicked his headlights over to the other surly police cruiser.

The man grunted and took several steps to stand in front of Barricade.

"Well, Barricade, I'm Jordan Michaels, Chief of Police," said the human. "I know why you're here. I know what you are. I know what you've done, too. The President himself came down to give me a briefing, and I gotta say, I don't know if I want to trust you. But it's my job to protect the people of this city, and if you can help me do that more effectively, then I'll just have to give you a chance. But I'm warning you, one mistake, and you'll wish there was enough left of you to send to the trash heap."

The fact that a lowly organic lifeform was deigning to threaten Barricade with death and destruction was almost enough to make the Decepticon burst out laughing. But he just managed to contain his mirth.

"Just give me a squishy that can keep up, and you won't have any problems," he said. "That is, if you have any that can."

Michaels narrowed his eyes, but rather than respond, he gestured to his three subordinates to come forward.

"These are officers Brown, Jackson, and Darling," he said, pointing to the two men and woman. "Normally, we would assign you a partner based on your personality, training, experience, and so on. But since you're something of a special case, the President has asked that you be given your choice of partner. You have their files, I trust?"

Barricade grunted his affirmation.

"Alright then," he said. "They have already been briefed on you and your kind. They're it. No one else wants to work with you. If you don't like them, then you can high tail it out of here. So make up your mind and let me know."

He turned and left, his heavy footsteps echoing loudly though the whole parking garage. The others were left to stare uncomfortably at the Decepticon.

Barricade glanced inward at the digital files Prowl had sent him. Brown had been an officer for seven years, had a spotless record, and good recommendations. Jackson, conversely was fairly new with only two years of experience and had a record so bland, he seemed destined for mediocrity. Darling was...Barricade frowned. Officer Fiona Darling. That name sounded familiar somehow, which was odd since he was sure she had never been on the Autobot base before. He did a quick internet search on her, but that yielded nothing but a famous father.

:Prowl, does that squishy femme look familiar to you?: Barricade asked privately.

:Indeed, she is the human you saved just over a year ago: said Prowl. A shadowed memory passed over the bond, and suddenly Barricade recalled the femme who had been attacked by a group of males. She had introduced herself as Fiona. :Jazz mentioned her. Apparently she went on a talk show and described your rescue, which prompted Jazz to drive to LA. We should be thankful for her intervention, or else we might not have escaped the invasion:

:Feh, like I care: said Barricade before closing the link.

"Beat it, Jackson," he growled. "I don't need a partner who can't haul his own slag."

Jackson stiffened, and stepped forward, mouth open to object, but Brown caught his arm and pulled him back. They exchanged a few tense words that Barricade didn't pay any attention to. And then Jackson was gone in a huff.

"Well, Brown, I don't need a goody-two-shoes either," said Barricade. "I get enough of that slag from this fragger," he flicked his headlights, indicating Prowl. "I don't need it from a fleshy partner, too."

Brown frowned. He too seemed to want to object, but whatever advice he'd just given Jackson, he apparently decided to follow it himself.

"That is unfortunate," he said formally. "Thank you for taking the time to consider me."

He gave a very slight nod, turned, and left. Yeah, that one had Prowl written all over him. But he made a mental note that, if worse came to worse, Brown might not be too bad.

Finally, the only one standing there was Officer Darling, who was looking extremely nervous after the abrupt dismissal of her companions. But still, she stepped forward and squared her shoulders in an almost comical display of bravado.

"So I guess it's just us then," she said. "You, uh, probably don't remember me..."

"My memory isn't glitched, femme," he said. "Though I wonder why you think you can keep up with me."

"Oh...well," she cleared her throat. "Look. I'm new. I've only been at this department for four months. I don't have a lot of experience, but I want to become good. I want to become strong."

"Wanting isn't doing," said Barricade. "Why are you even here?"

"Right after you saved me I...well I," she sighed loudly. "Alright, I'm here because I wanted to thank you. I mean, you didn't have to save me, right? But you did. I don't know what would have happened to me if you hadn't been there, but I know it wasn't good. So, I decided to change my life around. I didn't want to be the person that needed saving. I wanted to save others. I wanted to be like you. So I worked out every day with a personal trainer and spent six months working my but off every day so that I could become a police officer who could help others. And when I heard about you, and the fact that pretty much no one wanted to work with you, I just knew I had to offer. I know that you've got some imperfections, but I've seen your good side too, so if you'll have me, I want to be your partner."

Barricade regarded her for a long minute. A year ago, he wouldn't have believed that he could even consider this offer. But one year of living on the Autobot base must have driven him even crazier than he had thought, because when he compared going back to the Autobots to working with the humans, the humans actually managed to win out.

"You've got a lot of work to do, that's for sure," he said. And he popped open the passenger side door. "But you're not quite as bad as the others."

Fiona stared at him and then grinned. She stepped around the door and slid carefully into his seat. It was the first time that Barricade had willingly allowed an organic into his body, and the added heat, the softly beating heart, wasn't nearly as unpleasant has he had feared. He closed the door with a snap. "Alright, let's go check out our beat."

Prowl followed them out into the street.

"Be nice, Barricade," he said, and then he turned and began the trip back to Tranquility.

"So, anyway, I was thinking about your alias," said Fiona. "We can't call you 'Barricade' without it being obvious that you're not a normal police officer, and the Chief wants to keep your presence under wraps, right?"

"Get to the point, squishy," said Barricade.

"Well, I was thinking for your alias, that you would make a fine Bartholomew," she said, grinning. "Bartholomew Cade, aka 'Barry' Cade. Get it?"

Barricade was beginning to regret his decision already, but he couldn't quite bring himself to reject it.

...xXx...

Jazz stared out over the Lookout. He was settled low on his wheels. Prowl and Barricade sat on either side, all three of them in their alt modes just in case a random human decided to come along. It was a rare occurrence when all three of them had a break in the schedule, and when Prowl could drag Barricade back from LA. The former Decepticon seemed to have settled in fairly well after a few weeks. Prowl was back to doing patrols, and had considered taking up a similar position within the Tranquility police force.

Jazz was just thankful to sit back and relax with the two of them on a quiet Sunday morning. He occasionally traded a few words with either of his brothers, but for the most part, they just sat there in the warm sun with a cool breeze on this foreign world that had become their home. Their bonds pulsed the strongest when they were together like this.

Already his past seemed to fade. It was hard to imagine how he had survived without his brother. He didn't even want to think about trying to do it again. But even as that cold thought crept into his processor, Prowl's spark hummed against their bond, and he was reassured.

Yep. Life was good. And no one would ever steal his brother away again. Either of them.

...xXx...

The End.

...xXx...

Note: Well, this is the end. I hope you all enjoyed the story. I want to thank everyone who reviewed throughout the making of this story, and if you enjoyed it, let me know what you think! Also, I know that Barricade's personality seems to have changed rather abruptly at the end, but that is mostly due to the fact that he's lived with the Autobots for a year, and they've managed to rub off on him. I wish I could show a more subtle transition, but there wasn't much that happened between the end of the invasion and the epilogue of this story, so there wasn't that much to write about. As it is, I hope it's not too jarring.