J: See I'm a good girl, I not only remembered but this is one of the first things I'm doing after getting home from school. Just a quick note though, this chapter contains a flashback that was written by Mina not me, just wanted to give the credit where it is due :) And if the way the chapter is reading to you is off let me know and maybe I can help explain.

THANKS TO: Dontgotaclue88 and Sounder'sFemme!

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN TFP AND MINA OWNS HERSELF.

The scene ended leaving both girls that had watched disoriented. Blinking to try and focus Mina glanced over her shoulder, DreadWing was consumed in his work, 'Almost a minute at most must have passed.'

'What was that we just saw?...Ow...' Awake Jenna forced herself to sit up to support her back against the wall. Her storage room prison had been cut off from lighting once more, which Jenna saw no problem with since it saved her brain from further stimulus for a while.

'If I had to call it anything, I'd say it was a memory. The shield that large green femme was using is currently being cleaned and polished by yours truly.' Mina didn't want attention drawn to herself and had begun working the buffer on the metal.

Her body was unable to move without causing further agitation but Jenna's brain was already working over-time thinking on what had happened in the scene. 'WheelJack called that Con femme Siren, like a nickname not her real name...I don't want to make things freakier than they already are, but do you think that maybe those two femmes were –'

'Were our original characters? You sure your brain didn't get fried a bit?...Let's not jump the gun on that possibility just yet.'

'Mina we're currently in a dimension where a computer animated TV show actually exists. You're cleaning the shield I wanted ShortShift to own! How could I NOT jump the gun?!'

'Alright point to you there, but until I see proof of NitroSiren existing I'm not agreeing to anything. I don't want to get my hopes up only to be told we're just hallucinating.'

'Riiiiight, I forgot who I was talking telepathically to for a second, you would be excited over that thought. I just don't think I could handle any more surprises right now. Where did you leave that second apple? My mouth is the only part of my body currently not in agony; I want to use it before they decide to try ripping my teeth out.' Jenna's eyes had adjusted enough to the darkness that she could vaguely make out the darker shadows that were the stacks of crates. Using what she remembered from the short amount of time she'd had light in the room she hoped to navigate it for the other apple.

'I think I left it by BreakDown's foot. And they wouldn't try ripping your teeth out; they don't have any tools small enough.' Mina was impressed how much the buffer could take off, the metal she'd gone over was left a sharp emerald green in the center areas with gold trim on the edges.

Assuming she was against the back wall she looked to either side of her trying to locate a shadow that could possibly be BreakDown's corpse. 'That apple better taste as good as the other one after all the pain I'm going to subject myself to to get it. Meant to ask you earlier before we went and played 'Twenty Questions of Hell' did you see any of Silas lying around while you were cleaning KnockOut's lab?' Spotting something large up against the wall to her left Jenna took a gamble on it being BreakDown. Going on her hands and knees Jenna made her slow way over to the body.

Mina smirked, 'Hehe, I did actually. KnockOut has his head, heart and his right hand in jars of some kind of blue-green preservative. KnockOut gave me a funny look when I found the jars and started asking questions about them. Jerk wouldn't tell me what the preservative was.'

'What did you expect after you got him into trouble? Frag crawling shouldn't hurt this much.' Her entire lower half still throbbed from the squeeze treatment KnockOut had done and her right arm stung from Megatron's decision to shut her up. All in all she was just one big hurt.

'Speaking of getting him in trouble, look at this.' Jenna paused in her crawling to watch Mina's memory of her devious plot to sick the Insecticons on KnockOut. Putting her hand over her mouth to stifle her giggles so the Cons wouldn't come back for another round of torture Jenna sent nothing but love through her bond with Mina. 'Please oh please let me see the end results of that one.'

'Depends on him showing his face after it's been rearranged.' Mina was close to being halfway done cleaning the shield, talking to Jenna was making the job go by a lot faster. Her shoulders were joining in the chorus of ache letting Mina know that a break was deserved for her arms. The buffer turned off and put on the floor Mina faced DreadWing to see what he was doing. She was displeased to find him gone, and even more ruffled when his door refused to open. 'Jenna what explanation is there for giant robot feet being able to step quietly on a metal floor?'

'Magic?' Jenna's voice sounded distracted as her hands were feeling around in front of her for the smooth skin of the apple she was trying to find. A quick slide of her hand jabbed her three middle fingers against BreakDown's leg, pulling back to shake the sore fingers she braced herself using her other hand pressed flat against his armour. Another scene came to life in both their minds.

This was a part of Cybertron that she loved. The road was broken, twisted and unleveled. It was the perfect stress relieving race way for a wrecker such as herself.

In her alt mode the well armoured green femme revved her engine once than twice as her own countdown before she took off onto her course. The first bit was cluttered with debris that she manoeuvred around effortlessly, sometimes just for the fun of it she ran into a chunk full speed to make it shatter even more. Ratchet wouldn't be impressed to see new dents but it was dents or a destroyed building from one of her temper tantrums.

The road was broken in two places up ahead, in the gaps between the road was a five story drop onto more rocks. Kicking up her speed she flew over both gaps without a hitch. Next came her favourite part. A piece of the highway had broken and fallen onto the lower road she currently drove on. With its slant it made a ramp just begging to be jumped.

Higher and higher the ramp went with her tires meeting the incline with no loose grip. Up over the edge she went, for the thrill she switched to bi-pedal mode to turn flips and cartwheels, "WHOOHOO!" As she began to fall back to the ground and the last bit of road she changed back to her alt mode to make a perfect squealing landing thanks to her applied brakes.

Safe and lightly dented she resumed bi-pedal mode smiling at yet another flawless run through. "Bulkhead to ShortShift, where are you?"

"Shift reading you loud and clear Bulk, and do you really need to ask where I am." ShortShift would have thought their favourite play site would be the first place he would think of by now.

"Shift we agreed only to go there together, it's too dangerous for Autobots to be out on their own." 'Big brother bot strikes again.' The worry and concern in Bulkhead's voice had been annoying in the beginning of their friendship, but now it made her feel cared for to hear it.

Rolling her optics none the less she sighed, "How many times do I need to tell you Bulk? Only you, Jackie and I know about this place. You said so yourself that only wreckers would find any interest in this place." Despite her confident tone ShortShift let her optics scan every inch of the race course, paranoia was a welcome thing since the beginning of the war and hers had never failed her.

"I know what I said Shift, it still doesn't mean we shouldn't be careful. Me and Jackie are heading over there now, we'll head back to base together."

'There goes my poor spark spluttering at the mere mention of his name. I really need to talk to Siren about that. It can't be healthy.' "Alright, I'll hunker down here and work on my punches." After this she cut the . She could never concentrate on practice with voices talking in her head.

As ShortShift had been talking on the a shadow of a large form began to creep among the debris, steadily getting closer. The nanoclick she ended her discussion the shadow sprang forward.

A dark blue blur came into her peripheral a moment too late for her to dodge. They tumbled in a mass of large and wide armour until they came to a stop with her being pinned to the ground.

The Con holding her down was one she was vaguely familiar with by name only. The name didn't matter at that time, struggling against his hold her temper flared, "Let me go you son of a glitch Con! I need to introduce you to my fist first!"

He laughed, "Your reputation wasn't lying about you ShortShift. I'm a bit disappointed though, I was expecting much more of a fight from you."

"Nice of you to be paying attention, saves me the trouble of making you remember the wrecker that destroys your spark! Rrrgh!" Using her rage as fuel she managed to raise herself and the Con off the ground a few metres before he pushed her back down with more weight. 'FRAG! He must weigh as much as Bulkhead.'

"You are a strong femme. Of course I already knew that when I saw you destroy 20 drones on your own. Not many femmes can get my attention, and you definitely got it. You're just my type." His face was moving in closer as he talked, the expression made by his facial plates was churning the energon in her systems.

NitroSiren had warned her not to draw too much attention to herself, or the wrong Cons would get ideas. Ideas that lead to pain in ways only femmes experienced in the hands of disgusting mechs such as this one. 'That's it! I'm calling in my shield!' "My comrades are on their way, and once they hold you down I'm going to relish stomping your spark into dust."

"I doubt they can drive fast enough to beat a ground bridge. Did you know that the Con that brings in a prisoner is the one that can interrogate them in any way they see fit? We are going to have such fun." The fragger closed the distance between them to force his lips against hers, he even went as far as shoving his glossia into her mouth.

Feeling her shield on the edge of her awareness ShortShift acted fast. Biting down with her denta she felt the Con's glossia almost come completely off, as he pulled back to yell in pain her emerald and gold shield collided with his helm at full force resulting in a loud 'CLANG!'

Free of his grip ShortShift rolled over backwards to get to her feet and attach her shield to her right forearm. "You just received the kiss of death!" Charging forward she shifted her left hand to her spiked second hand.

His energon dribbling down his chin the Con smirked, his glossia reattaching thanks to the healing nanobots he practically crowed, "This is the ShortShift I want. Come and get some sweet spark."

Disgusted ShortShift went at him with everything she'd learned from Bulkhead and Wheeljack. She met him first with her shield to block his hammer hand then went for his face with her left jab. He stepped back out of the way then charged forward to knock her back a few feet.

She managed to regain her footing fast enough to brace for his blow with his hammer. The vibration that travelled through her arm caused her arm to briefly go numb. He swung at her again laughing, "You may be a wrecker but you're still a femme who will slow down in no time, just like the rest of them."

Violating her was one thing; calling her a weak femme was a whole different matter that sparked the worst of her temper. "No more fooling around!" Her spiked hand shifted out to her plasma blaster and fired at his face and spark chamber. She'd moved too quick for the Con to follow, allowing her shots to hit dead on.

The shot to the face flung him back, the shot to the chassis was strong enough to double him over. Seeing her opportunity she shifted her shield to two parts that covered her entire arm, allowing her free use of both hands. Both switched out to spiked hands she ran full tilt at the slagger with the intention to rip off his head and rip out his spark.

ShortShift had nearly reached him when WheelJack in his alt mode slammed into the Con sending them out of her reach. Bulkhead reached her in his alt mode two nanoclicks after, "Shift, you alright?"

"NO! HE WAS MINE!" Shrugging off the hand he placed on her shoulder she took off after the Con and WheelJack. The impact had sent them into a gap that lead to the lower level. Peering down she found WheelJack and the Con locked hand to hand with WheelJack slowly crushing the Con down.

The lower level was ten stories down putting them out of her audio range. WheelJack was saying something to the Con that had him glaring. The Con suddenly smiled, kicking forward at Wheeljack's leg he unbalanced Jackie enough to throw him over backwards. A ground bridge appeared in the next nano second. Looking up to meet her glare the Con had the ball bearings to yell up to her, "YOU'LL BE MINE SWEET SPARK!" The Con ran into the ground bridge as Jackie showered him with plasma shots.

ShortShift said nothing as WheelJack climbed out of the lower level to join her and Bulkhead. Concerned he asked the same thing as Bulkhead, "Are you alright Shift?"

Her response was a glare that even showed her denta that were stained from the Con's energon, with a sweep of her arm she slapped WheelJack across the face. His stunned expression meant nothing as she screeched, "You glitch head! HE WAS MINE, I WAS GOING IN FOR THE KILL! AND NOW HE GOT AWAY! URRGGGHHHHH!" Unable to take any more physical frustration out on her teammate she switched to alt mode and drove away back to base.

"Son of a glitch! That fragging, argh! I am so HAPPY he's dead right now!" This memory had caught her completely off guard and the content of the memory was entirely unexpected. 'You saw that too right? You saw and heard her thoughts and they called her ShortShift! NitroSiren and ShortShift are...or maybe were...real.'

'Yes I saw it, not sure why I did since it was ShortShift's memory. That other memory made sense since it featured NitroSiren AND ShortShift. You do remember that our stories about them stated that WE are THEM reincarnated?' Mina was staring at the shield her mind racing to keep up with all the possibilities these flashbacks were presenting. The concept of them being Cybertronians in a past life and then reborn as humans had been started with a simple idea that had been bounced back and forth between them until it had developed into this fantastical story idea that spawned multiple creations. The existence of their spark sibling bond had happened in the beginning of their friendship and had strengthened the belief of their previous lives.

'I actually did forget that part of it...Maybe you want to explain the whole "we are relics" thing. That could tie into this.' Jenna finally found her apple; she put it in her mouth to hold onto then shuffled backwards to the corner she'd first woken up in. She wanted to be away from BreakDown and everything she now hated about him. 'I'm throwing my apple core at him when I'm done eating.'

'That's not very respectful of the dead Jenna.'

'I don't care, he deserves it and worse and you know it. Now please explain how exactly we are relics when relics are tools and weapons.' Jenna's back hit the corner, easing down to sit she glared in BreakDown's direction and ate her apple with a bit more gusto fueled by rage.

The buffer back to work Mina thought about the explanation for a second before answering, 'We have an energy signature similar to the relics they've been hunting down.'

'Energy signature? What energy?! If we had some kind of energy don't you think we'd...oh...'

'Oh? Oh what? Tell me Jenna, I can't read your mind , okay I can't read everything on your mind.' Mina pulled the buffer off the shield, her attention solely on Jenna's sudden realization.

'The energy they saw in us, it's got to be what's causing these memories to come up when we touch something connected to NitroSiren or ShortShift.'

'The way you phrased that makes it sound like the memories are in us and they're just being resurfaced.' The door to DreadWing's room opened, she heard the mechanisms but ignored it thinking it was just DreadWing returning to tinker with his explosives some more.

Jenna rubbed her left temple, she doubted the train of thought she was running along was true but it was making sense to her, 'If we're having memories of interactions between certain Bots and Cons then I think they really are there in our own minds. All the stories we wrote of being taken to this dimension were supposed to be just fiction, but it's become fact. So what's to say that our idea of once being Cybertronians wasn't just randomly inspired? What if we were just breaching our energy and making a brief realization that we changed to fiction?'

This was a large thought with a lot more to consider than Mina had anticipated; she would have to give Jenna a response to it later after it had been broken down and fully comprehended. She intended to continue buffering but was stopped by a slender black tentacle wrapping around her waist. The buffer dropped from her hands as Jenna's mouth ceased chewing.

Asking for help was not something the femme took lightly. It meant admitting weakness or realizing a flaw, a character flaw. She had no flaws. She wasn't some weak femme needing to be taken care of….

But Lord Megatron did need these databases decoded. 'Fragging Autobots and their codes'. She nibbled nervously on her bottom lip, purple optics drifted from the screen as her clawed digits idled over the keypad. She had bitten off more than she could chew. Lord Megatron was looking for someone with experience in codes. He had a dream to restore the balance of power over Cybertron. She didn't care much for politics. If she got what she needed she was fine. But right now, she was slagged. A glance at her internal time system revealed she only had a short amount of time before Megatron came back.

She pinched the small bridge of her nose, relieving built up pressure and vented softly. She'd have to disappear off the grid for a time and maybe come suck up to Lord Megatron later. She couldn't keep doing this though. Eventually Lord Megatron would grow tired of her failures.

She gritted her denta, glaring at the screen. What kind of coding test was this anyways? The small of her back ached slightly from the still newly branded Decepticon insignia, pledging her to his side. She'd needed energon. She'd been literally dying of starvation. It'd been simple. He'd brought her to a chamber with a few others watching and asked her to terminate an Autobot. How badly did she want to stay alive?

The door swished open and she froze, but relaxed slightly. It was Lord Megatron's silent right hand mech Soundwave. The Communications Officer that ironically did not talk. He was a sturdy built flight-framed mech. Slender in all the right places. He scanned the room before focusing on her. It was hard to tell exactly what he was focused on with his full face visor. She had a visor, and used it on occasion for tracking people and storing information. She'd considered tweaking it for data streaming, perhaps that would pick code out easier but she hadn't the faintest idea how.

The option of leaving was still available to her...

Soundwave stepped further into the room, allowing the door to close behind him and even moved slightly to the side as if to let her know she was free to go. She wouldn't make it far that was made clear during the debriefing that then lead to the open execution of the Autobot, Lord Megatron didn't look highly on deserters to the cause.

She had only seen this mech from a distance. Up close he was magnificent. Sleek and powerful, a complete aura of mystery. She was enthralled by his very presence. A timer pinged on the second screen, notifying her that she was running low on time. She tapped a finger over her audio receptor and there was a slight hum as a violet band of energy wrapped around her face in front of her optics. It solidified in a matter of nanoseconds as she studied the screen. There had to be something she was missing here. Some key—

Something slithered across her arm sending light sparks through her core. She tensed, and the sensation froze. Out of her peripheral she could see some kind of tentacle, its ends shifted open revealing smaller strands. An open invitation to a hardline connection if she'd ever seen one before. She had a smaller port not accessible by normal data cords connected to her visor, and she gave a small nod of permission. The connection was smooth , his presence within her mind was not overbearing. She had no firewalls or protections and would've been completely at his mercy if he'd chose to cripple her. Instead, he merely tweaked the coding to her visor, allowing her to see exactly what she'd been missing as she pulled out strands of the code. It was almost like it'd decoded itself.

His presence was soothing in an odd way, as if she were safe with him. She'd heard rumours that he was a carrier-bot though, which would explain it. The connection remained until she had all but the last line decoded. The door opened and there was a slight tweak of pain at just how fast the other mech ejected from the connection. She was going to be pained in that area for a long while now. Lord Megatron stepped in and greeted her with a cold smile.

"Ah, Soundwave," He said, his eyes lighting up," I see you've met our newest recruit. I do believe you will find her area of expertise similar in nature to your own." He turned back to the screen, and she fought not to tremble from the combination of exhaustion and fear she was experiencing. Hunger gnawed at her systems, causing alarms to flare up that she quickly ignored. So what if she went into stasis lock, she had to know what was about to become of her fate. Lord Megatron was silent as he read over the translated data. "We move tonight." He snapped, turning to leave before seeming to remember her. "Ah…yes…Soundwave, this is Nitrosiren…she's going to be your predecessor in the event of your early termination…see to it that she is trained well." He tossed her a small cube of energon with a growl," Drink that…next time I see you, you should do well to appear fit for duty." He stalked out and the door slid shut.

"That went well," She murmured and faced the officer beside her," You really don't have to show me anything…I'm just here to survive." She finished and was startled when Lord Megatron's words were played back at her.

"See to it that she is trained well," Was the reply. She shook her head.

"Whatever," she purred, and drew a finger across his chassis. She received no reaction but shrugged as she tore into the cube and tried to savour the pitiful amount she'd received. This wouldn't sate the hunger for long. Soundwave turned to leave and hesitated as if thinking on something. There was a small ping from her visor and a simple message.

'More energon cubes in bay 662. Ask for Medic Knockout. Tell him Soundwave sent you. You will be well fed.'

She smiled slightly, watching as his form disappeared. 'Things were looking up from here after all.'

SoundWave's sensors had shrieked at the sudden spike in the energy levels Mina radiated. This was the third spike from both relics in the last three Earth hours. Each spike had been noted in the logs with time stamps for closer investigation at a later time. Coming back to reality Mina shrugged it off, "Oh hey SoundWave, sorry about that. I had a daydream of how Earth is after Lord Megatron gets rid of the Autobots." Mina didn't like lying to SoundWave but without a full understanding of what the memories were she didn't want to put herself or Jenna under KnockOut's knife for examination.

'What's going on with you?' Jenna was surprised she hadn't heard some happy comments from Mina about the memory they'd just seen, it was solid proof that NitroSiren had some history with SoundWave, something that should have sent Mina off on a fangirl spree.

SoundWave had not provided any voice clip explanations to where he was taking her, that question was answered when they arrived at the bridge and Lord Megatron stood with a more tilted frown than normal. 'I believe I got busted about the Insecticon attack on KnockOut.'

'It was nice knowing you. Hey maybe if you're lucky they'll just stick you in here with me.' There was a small trace of true hope to Jenna's joke, the older girl really did want some more physical interaction with her spark sister, seeing as their first and only encounter had been cut short.

SoundWave didn't let Mina go, he probably knew she'd try to claim illness and bail out. Raising the tentacles she was wrapped in SoundWave put her closer to Lord Megatron's optic level. "Tell me Probationer, why is KnockOut currently locked in his quarters attempting to repair the damage done to him by one of my Insecticons who claims to be told by you that KnockOut had insulted them to the highest degree?"

If there was one thing Mina had plenty of practice in, it was making a bad thing sound good. "In all due respect Lord Megatron, I felt my actions were acceptable. Would you not agree that KnockOut is nowhere near as efficient as he should be in the field? His vanity keeps him distracted from the true mission you seek to fulfill. As well I felt a personal debt was in need of paying. As a human I cannot function without food, food that I had plenty of until KnockOut saw fit to burn it. In comparison would that not be the same as me burning his supply of energon? Sending the Insecticons to 'talk' to KnockOut appeared to be a decent enough way to bring things to an even stand between him and myself."

"Your reasons may seem acceptable to you Probationer, but the discord among my soldiers while under my rule will never be tolerated. This will be your only warning." Lord Megatron's arm blade came free from its holding, the promise of its use should this happen again were clear as crystal.

Bowing Mina swore, "I swear this will never happen again my Lord...Not without permission." Lord Megatron gave her a minor glare for her attempt at suggestion.

Dismissed SoundWave placed her on the floor, she didn't need to hear the voice clip to know that she needed to return to DreadWing's quarters and complete her task.

'You get into huge trouble or did you pull off another Wonder Tongue moment and clear yourself using words?' The fatigue Mina was feeling over the bond and the less energetic tone told Mina that Jenna was just about ready to fall asleep, something that she wouldn't mind doing herself at this point.

'I'm still alive aren't I? Go to sleep sis, after everything you've been through you need the rest.' DreadWing had been waiting for her return, was what she assumed as he was working at his table and had opened the door for her.

'Right I need to have a bit more energy for KnockOut when he wants to make me scream some more tomorrow. Not going to get much pleasant sleep I know that much, BreakDown is going to haunt my dreams.' The sarcasm had waned off towards the end as Jenna drifted off to sleep.

Fighting off a yawn Mina got back to work. The buffer seemed to weigh 50 pounds more as sleep tried to take over her body. By the time she'd finished the shield Mina was just about asleep on top of it.