Reconciliation

A few days later found Alex and Charlie in their rooms trying to do laundry in the bath tube. The autobots did not find it fit to equipment their quarters with a washer and dryer.

"I really appreciate modern appliances right about now." Alex was wearing a blue bandana and a white tank top and blue sport shorts, all of which were wet. She scrubbed at her jeans and wiped her forehead. Charlie leaned back and stared at her mass of clothes. She had clipped her hair back and was wearing sweatpants and a blue tank top, their only clean clothes.

"Hey, isn't today September 13?" Charlie looked over.

"I think so, why?"

"Well, it's been over a week since the last time you've been to your house." Charlie jumped up in alarm.

"Oh my gosh, you're right! Skittles!" With that she raced out of the room. Alex blinked and followed her. "Bring the laundry we can do it at my house. Oh my gosh my cat better be alive." Charlie started looking around the base trying to find Sideswipe, luckily her leg had healed and she was now out of her cast, thanks to Ratchet's nifty light treatment thing, which he finally repaired. "Sideswipe! Thank goodness I found you we have to go feed my cat!"

"What?" He just stared down at Charlie, as she was waving her arms wildly in the air. Sometimes he wondered why he was paired with the weird one.

"Transform red, we got stuff to do." Sideswipe transformed and Charlie climbed in, Alex walked over to Sunstreaker, and waited. He did nothing and she started tapping her foot waiting for him to get the hint. Sunstreaker looked down at her.

"Well, come on transform."

"You are not getting inside me with all those dirty things, they smell bad."

"Its laundry and you always complain when I don't ride with you so open up and deal with it." Sunstreaker reluctantly opened his door and Alex got in holding her laundry, he followed Sideswipe and took off for Charlie's house.

Twenty Minutes Later…

"Oh my gosh Skittles I am so sorry it will never happen again." Charlie was petting her cat trying to get her to forgive her, Skittles just rolled over and meowed at Charlie. "You're right it was entirely my fault."

"Charlie I need a hammer."

"What the hell do you need a hammer for?"

"Hitting nails."

"Oh, well okay." Charlie went into her garage to find a hammer, she squeezed past her freezer and went over to the work bench. She found what she was looking for and walked back inside, looking curiously at the beat up black car sitting in there. Her eyes widened and she stopped. She walked back and stared. Nelly was there, looking like he had been hit by a semi. Charlie threw the hammer and ran back into her house.

"Alex, Alex come here quick!" She got up from her place on the floor by Skittles and walked over to her.

"What?" Charlie gestured wildly.

"Come here, I don't know what to do…." Alex followed her curiously into the garage to see Blackfire sitting in his alt form. Her hands covered her mouth in alarm and she shushed Charlie.

"Shhh, be quiet, the twins are right outside." Charlie broke out of her grasp and ran over to Blackfire.

"You came home! I knew the fliers would do the trick!" Both Alex and Blackfire stared at her incredulously, she was really unbelievable sometimes. She kept on going on and on about how this was just like Homeward Bound until she got a better look at Blackfire's injuries.

"Are you okay? What happened?"

"Charlie be quiet the twins are going to hear you, then they'll go into battle mode."

"What are you doing here?" Charlie examined the damage on Nelly. "How did this happen? Are you going to be alright?"

"I will be girl, as soon as you stop talking." Charlie didn't shy away from him, she just grumbled under her breath about him being nicer when he was a girl. She looked back up at him.

"You need help, you look like shit."

"I have all the supplies I need to repair myself here, why else would I come back?" Alex scoffed.

"Sure you have the supplies, but are you actually able to repair yourself?" Charlie remained silent; she looked over when she heard her garage door open.

"Oh fuck." How the heck did that happen? Before the garage door could open all the way Charlie raced outside and tried to distract the twins. "Hey guys what's up?"

"We have to get you girls out of here, there are decepticon traces around here and they're fresh." They transformed and Charlie looked around nervously, praying the neighbors wouldn't notice.

"Oh really, why don't you guys go patrol the area and I'll tell Alex. Okay sound good? Off you go." Charlie tried shooing them away, but it was too late, her garage door was open and Nelly was in full view of the twins. As soon as they saw who was in there, they both took on battle stances, and noted Alex was behind him.

"Step out of the garage now decepticon." Sunstreaker aimed his cannons at him. He couldn't shoot because Alex was in the way; they had to lure him out of there. But Charlie jumped in front of them.

"Are you insane if you shoot you're going to set my house on fire! Besides he's injured and didn't do anything to you." Sideswipe stepped in front of her to shield her from Blackfire, but Charlie just ran around his legs.

"NO! He's really hurt, he's not going to try anything. You can't just shoot him!"

"Step aside Charlie he's a decepticon."

"He's my car and he's injured. We should take him to Ratchet!"

"No, now move." Charlie stepped in front of Nelly, and Alex joined her.

"No! You two are better than this, the autobots are better than this; don't hit a man when he's down."

"Girls move. This is Blackfire, he's one of the most dangerous decepticons in the universe."

"And for five years he didn't harm me, he didn't harm either of us. Five years! Five years and Alex and I are alive, five years, he's probably the only reason I'm alive right now, and I've seen the way I drive. Let Ratchet fix him, then you guys can blast each other to hell and back."

"No he's—"

"I don't care! I don't care about your prejudices I don't care what he's done. I don't! I'm not involved in your war, I don't have your hatreds I don't have a past with any of you, and the only one I do have a past with is Blackfire!" Charlie turned around and opened Blackfire's door, she got in the drivers seat.

"If you're going to kill him, you're going to kill me too." Alex opened the passenger door and sat down next to Charlie.

"Kill them you kill me too."

"Slag it girls! Fine you win, we'll go to the base, and repair that lousy decepti-scum."

"Good, now transform before my neighbors see you. Can you still drive and stuff?" Charlie was now talking to Blackfire.

"I'll be fine." Blackfire pulled out of Charlie's driveway and was led to the autobot base, with Sideswipe in front of him and Sunstreaker behind. Charlie and Alex sat in silence, neither one knowing what to say now.

"So um…how have you been?"

"How do you think?"

"Ah, well okay then…" This was awkward. What do you say when your car is evil and you never noticed? Charlie shook her head. "I really am the most oblivious person in the world."

"Yeah, no argument there."

"I agree, not that it's a bad thing, if you had been more observant than I would have had to kill you." She didn't know either to be happy at her lack of observation skills just then, or ashamed she never saw the signs.

"You never did answer my question; why pose as a teenage girl's car?"

"I had not planned on it."

"The autobots thought you were dead. Will you tell me why? What about how you got here?" Blackfire sighed, both girls were now on the edge of their seats and he knew they weren't about to give up.

"I was a gladiator on Cybertron, long before your kind even existed, that is where I first met Megatron, and he was the only one to ever beat me in the gladiator games. I followed him when he began the war, I quickly rose up through the ranks of the decepticons, Soundwave, Starscream and I became the highest ranking officers. When the all-spark was lost and Megatron left to follow it, Starscream took to leading us. He was a bungler, for every moment of brilliance he had a moment of foolishness, he used terror and his rank to inspire fear and prevent mutiny. Soundwave was no better, using his telepathic abilities to blackmail everyone into submission; they were not made to be leaders.

"When Megatron never came back Starscream decided it was time he truly be made the decepticon leader, he even ordered himself a coronation. It was disgusting! I opposed him, and when I was about to leave and search for Megatron, that is when he struck. He had paid mercenaries to kill me, six of them attacked me at the same time, I was able to kill them all, but I had been heavily injured. I left, letting Starscream think I was dead, if he knew I was alive he would stop at nothing until I was terminated, so I allowed them all to think I was dead, until I could have my chance for revenge.

"I landed on your planet, five years ago as you know. I took the alt mode of a vehicle I saw parked in a lot and I destroyed the car and took its place, at the time I had no idea that the car I destroyed was for sale. You and your family bought me." Blackfire spit out the word like it tasted bad, and Charlie imagined that to someone like Blackfire being bought would be the most disgusting thing in the world.

"I was still injured and decided to heal and lick my wounds while I was with you, and when I was well again I had planned on killing you. Things did not go according to my plan and I stayed with you for longer than I anticipated. When I learned Megatron had been destroyed I knew I had to act. Starscream or Soundwave would try to take control and I could not allow that to happen. The decepticons would be extinct in less then a vorn if either of those two were allowed to lead. I sent out my own message calling all the troops I knew to be loyal to me, and any others who also hated the idea of those two leading. When I received word that they had arrived, well you happened to be with me, and I couldn't have that." The girls were quiet for a moment, letting everything sink in, when Alex thought of something.

"But Optimus said that Megatron was killed seven months ago, if you were here for five years, why didn't you go to him then?" Charlie smiled sheepishly.

"That's when I hit that SUV remember? He was totaled." She pointed to Nelly and he bristled, if that were possible.

"Yes, and lucky for you I still had some of my armor around the cab, or you would have been killed for sure." Charlie winced.

"Yeah…" She trailed off and no one said anything until they arrived at the base to see Optimus Prime's massive form standing in front of the door with his arms crossed. Sunlight glinted off his red and blue form and he walked forward to meet them. The twins must have contacted him and informed him of their arrival. Blackfire stopped with a clunk, and the two girls got out, to be immediately grabbed by Sunstreaker and Sideswipe, who held them protectively and glared suspiciously at Blackfire. He slowly transformed and stood before Optimus. He looked terrible. His black paint was scraped, his cannons were smoldered, and his wiring was sparking all over his joints, but he stood tall.

"Optimus Prime. I wish to speak privately with you." Optimus looked him over and nodded slowly.

"This way." He walked around the base and Blackfire followed him. The twins looked at each other nervously but Optimus held out his hand.

"Peace. Take them inside, I will join you shortly." They nodded and carried the girls inside, where they were intercepted by Ratchet.

"What were you two thinking? You could have been killed!" Ratchet looked at the twins and hit them over the head. "You could have let them be killed!"

"They wouldn't listen to us!" The twins tried defending themselves.

"They don't listen to anyone!" The girls were going to object, but they realized Ratchet was right.

"Ratchet you have to fix him! He's going to die if you don't!" Ratchet didn't say anything to Charlie. "You have to! It's what you do, to heal and preserve life that's your code right? Well Blackfire's life is on the line, he's kept Alex and me alive on multiple occasions. Please Ratchet you have to help him." Ratchet sighed.

"…Alright, where is he?"

"Right here, Ratchet." Everyone turned around and faced Optimus, Blackfire was beside him looking worse for wear; Ratchet scanned him and assessed the damage.

"To the med bay with you, if you don't get fixed up soon, you're going to go off line."

"Not that that would be a bad thing." Sunstreaker muttered under his breath, Blackfire shot him a glare before following Ratchet to the med bay. The doors shut with a bang behind him and for a moment everything was silent. Everyone looked to Optimus for an explanation, but he shook his head.

"Later." And he walked into the control room where Ironhide and Jazz were waiting. The twins didn't move and the girls looked at each other. Alex tapped Sunstreaker's chest.

"Ummm, can we maybe go….somewhere else?"

"Yeah, um let's go to the rec room maybe we can find something to do?" The twins nodded and took the girls into the rec room. When they entered they saw Hound, Bluestreak, and Mirage and they set the girls on the table and went to get some high grade.

"Um…hi?" Charlie cautiously waved at the 'bots, she didn't know how they would react when they found out she brought a decepticon to the base. They weren't as friendly as usual.

"Charlie, why did you bring Blackfire here?" She winced inside, how was she going to explain her inherent trust of one of their sworn enemies?

"I trust him. I've known him for years and he even led me to Bluestreak. He said he didn't want to hurt Alex or me." They looked surprised.

"Why would he care about humans? It doesn't make any sense." But Mirage was watching Alex again and she scooted next to Sideswipe when the twins sat back down. Mirage was nice, but she didn't know what he wanted.

"He's really never harmed either of you?"

"No, not once, I don't think he wants to kill all the humans like Starscream and Soundwave do."

"No good comes from trusting decepticons."

"But…I'd be dead without him."

"Charlie's right, he never hurt us and he kept Motormaster from killing us. I trust him too." Mirage was giving Alex that look again and she was starting to get uncomfortable.

"Do you really?" She looked him in the eye and swallowed, hesitating for only a moment.

"Yes." Hound and Bluestreak looked at them curiously.

"Well, he might not kill you two, but he will certainly kill an autobot." They looked down.

"Yeah, sorry." A pair of arms suddenly wrapped around Alex and lifted her off the ground.

"Sideswipe? What the hell?" He put her down and gave her a puppy dog expression.

"I was giving you a hug. I read that they make people feel better. Here, you have one too." He walked over and bear hugged Charlie, then stood back, proud.

"Now it's all better!" Both girls looked ruffled and gave him a disbelieving look.

"What?" Charlie started laughing, she was becoming really fond of Sideswipe, Alex joined her and started laughing, the autobots stared at them when Optimus walked into the rec room followed by Ironhide and Jazz. Everyone started talking at once and Optimus held up a hand, and they quieted.

"I have made a deal with Blackfire and his faction."

"What?"

"You can't be serious Prime!"

"I am very serious." He came forward and bent down so he was level with Alex and Charlie.

"We have a mutual goal, and have agreed to work together for the time being." The autobots looked outraged, but Optimus turned to Alex and Charlie.

"It was his actions concerning you two that convinced me I could trust him. He has not harmed you or any other human to our knowledge the years he has been here, and he has helped you several times when it was not necessary to do so. I believe he does not have any malicious intent toward the humans." But the autobots were not convinced.

"We can't trust a decepticon Prime, it'll come back to haunt us." Hound nodded.

"I agree with Ironhide, it must be a scheme to overthrow us." But Optimus pinned his gaze on him.

"Do you think I didn't think of that?" He asked quietly, and Hound looked down in shame.

"I'm sorry sir." Optimus nodded.

"Once Ratchet has repaired Blackfire he will leave the base, and I must ask none of you to fire upon him, he will be free to go."

"You can't be serious! We have one of the decepticon leaders and we're just going to let him go?"

"I will explain everything later. All that you need to know is that so long as Blackfire is here he is not to be harmed." The autobots started objecting, but Optimus held up his hand and shook his head. "No arguments."

"Optimus, can we go see Blackfire?"

"No, Charlie I don't think that would be best, why don't you and Alex return to your room and I will inform you when he has recovered. Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, please escort them." The twins grabbed the girls and took them back to their room. Charlie and Alex sat down on their couch.

"What do you think they talked about?"

"They made a deal of some kind."

"Yeah, but about what? What if they turn on each other? I don't want to see any of them get hurt, I love all the autobots, but I can't watch Nelly get hurt, I just can't."

"I'm sure Optimus will tell us."

"Yeah and if he doesn't I'm sure we can weasel it out of Bluestreak." Alex shook her head.

"If he decides not to tell us then we will respect his decision." Charlie stared at her, but stayed quiet.

====---------=====

"Wait, you WHAT?" Blackfire held up his hands and Wildrider stepped back. He had met his faction at their makeshift base in the Badlands, and they had been surprised to see he had been repaired. They had been even more surprised when he told them the autobot's CMO was the one who did it.

"So what, you just walked up to them and they welcomed you with open arms?" Astrotrain scoffed at the idea.

"I sustained heavy damage and none of us are medics, the autobot CMO was the only one that was qualified to repair me, the humans helped me prove this point."

"You held the organics hostage in order to get repairs?"

"Something like that." Blackfire smirked. They relaxed, of course their leader wouldn't make a deal with the autobots.

"I was, of course, interrogated by Optimus Prime, and we discovered something rather….interesting."

"And what's that?" Blackfire looked over at Breakdown and went over to the control panel and pushed a button. An image came onto the screen and all the decepticons looked on in shock.

"This."

Two weeks later…

"Do you think he's alright?" Charlie had been worried about Blackfire for some time now. She was in her room with the twins when Ratchet had repaired him. He left right after that, without giving her a chance to say anything to him.

"Who?" Alex looked up from her book, and saw Charlie staring blankly at the TV in their room.

"Nelly, do you think he got attacked again when he left, he never said good-bye."

"Did you really expect him to?"

"Well no, but still..."

"I'm sure he's fine, and if he's not then maybe the autobots will forgive you."

"You were in on it too. They really haven't been as friendly as normal….Do you think…?" Charlie panicked, what if she made enemies out of all the autobots?

"Come on." Alex grabbed Charlie's hand and pulled her towards the door. But it wouldn't open. She frowned and they switched it to manual, but it was locked, from the outside.

"They locked us in! Why would they lock us in?!"

"I don't know! Did we do something wrong?" They looked at each other helplessly. Guess the autobots were really mad.

"Wait!"

"What?"

"Wheeljack built these doors, there's a chance we can get them to explode then we can get out!" For once Charlie was happy everything around Wheeljack had a tendency to explode.

"Okay how do we get them to explode?"

"I don't know!" Charlie exclaimed. "Usually when something of Wheeljack's explodes he's around or it's by my face and I lose an eyebrow, I wonder if he does that on purpose?" Alex ignored Charlie's last statement.

"Okay got it." Alex grabbed Charlie and pushed her face up to the doors.

"What the hell are you doing?" Charlie shooed Alex away and got out of her grasp.

"You said Wheeljack's things explode in your face." Charlie struggled out of her grasp. It would have been her luck that the doors really did explode at that moment.

"Nevermind, let's find the control panel." They felt along the walls until Alex found a panel.

"I found it." They opened it and a lot of wires and buttons met their eyes.

"Okay, we just need a……pool stick!" Alex blinked. There was one in the corner, Hound found it and thought it was a great gift. She grabbed it and upended the couch. Alex helped her push it near the door and they crouched behind it.

"Okay!" Charlie extended the pool stick and with it began pulling out the wires and hitting all the buttons. The door made odd noises and the wires sparked. They sped up the button pushing and suddenly, the door exploded and blew right off its hinges. Both girls ducked and covered their heads. They stood up cautiously to see smoke everywhere and the remains of their door outside in their corridor.

"Wow."

"Yeah, everything Wheeljack makes does explode!" They peeked around the corridor, but there was no one guarding their door. They walked around cautiously, their footsteps echoing down the empty halls.

"Oooooo spooky." Charlie started humming the theme song to a horror movie.

"Charlie shut up!"

"Fine spoilsport." The girls looked around the base trying to find the autobots. "Where are they? They never leave the base unguarded."

"I don't know, let's try the control room." Alex and Charlie headed into the control room intent on figuring out what was going on. "They're not here either." The door slid open and they walked inside. It was empty, but an image on the screen made them stop. Optimus Prime was locked in battle with Blackfire, and it was recent. The girls looked at it in horror.

"No, they're fighting them. Why didn't they tell us? Why did they lock us in?"

"They must really be mad." They looked up at the control panel; it was fifteen feet above them. "How do we get up there?" Charlie shrugged.

"Why do you want to get up there?"

"So we can see what's happening! And we might be able to contact them!" Charlie looked up.

"So, how do we get up there?" Alex frowned, then punched the air triumphantly.

"I know! That ladder looking thing in Ratchet's med bay!" Charlie snapped her fingers.

"Yeah, I remember seeing that thing; it's for when he has to hoist an autobot's limbs up!"

"Let's go get it!" They returned an hour later lugging a ladder between them. It was heavier then they thought, and they had to stop multiple times to take breaks.

"Okay, we set it up against the wall first, then we move it over." They heaved and finally got it against the wall, after it hit Charlie twice on the head.

"Now just move it over….easy now…" They carefully maneuvered it so that it leaned against the control panel and steadied it.

"Yes! Finally!" Alex held on to the ladder and Charlie made her way up carefully. She reached the top and gave Alex a thumbs up. Alex climbed up and she and Charlie walked to their normal place on the control panel. She looked up at the screen and watched the battle. Ironhide was tearing into a con she'd never seen before. He was brown with black legs and a purple body and a large rifle. Charlie looked back at the screen and saw Optimus battling Blackfire, she got up and started walking around the control panel, she didn't want to watch this part. She headed back to where the ladder was, she thought about leaving, but decided against it. Charlie sighed and sat down again watching the battle, Breakdown had just shot Hound in the chest. She leaned back against the ladder, it moved and she almost tumbled off the control panel.

"Shit!" Charlie regained balance and leaned over to look at the ladder, she knocked it down. "Oops."

"What happened?"

"I um kind of, well the ladder fell over."

"You knocked the ladder over?"

"I didn't say that!"

"And now we're stuck up here! Good going Charlie."

"Sorry?" Alex sighed and sat back down. They'd just have to wait for the autobots to get back, but from what they were watching, who knew when that would be. They sat down and watched as the autobots subdued the decepticons, and bound them in energy cuffs. Alex stretched and accidentally hit a button. The screen changed to show CNN and Charlie groaned.

"Alex!"

"What, they captured them."

"What do you think they're going to do with them?" Alex shrugged.

"Interrogate them? I don't know, but not anything too bad, Optimus is too nice." Charlie nodded.

"Yeah." They sat back and watched the news, their autobot friends were okay and they had won the battle. Now all they had to do was wait for them to get back. After a few hours the girls were dozing when they heard the door slide open. They sat up and rubbed their eyes.

"Optimus?" He strode in and looked at them in shock. To their surprise a familiar black mech walked in behind him.

"Nelly?" He smirked.

"Girls."