***Carolyn***

Oh, how life changes. One minute it felt like she was just a lowly soldier, just doing her duty. Then she pisses off the right Captain who becomes a Major and all of a sudden she's thrown into the world of alien robot warfare. Now she's being forced to run around on covert ops, finding the enemy, another half of the alien robot race. Which means finding ways to hide weapons in very skimpy outfits and dealing with a very feisty red Ferrari. The Captain who is now a Major doesn't hate your guts anymore, now sees you as a kind of sister. Even though you're one of two girls on the squad (one who is an alien robot) you find life very satisfying. You find it hilarious to toy with the men and you form a very close knit family over the next few and very trying years. Then, you find out you're pregnant, your father is killed and you take over the project he didn't tell you about. You have the kid and deal with what came a little too close to the end of the world for your liking. You finish the project and bring back dead alien robots from the dead. Now…what could top all that? Well, how about becoming a Colonel for starters. Then getting placed in charge of fake security agency that was created to protect the alien robots who didn't want to go out in public as giant alien robots. You think life is going to slow down for at least a few years. You don't relax, you never will, but you feel like life would allow you a few years of the simpler life. After about two months, you realize what you had before was the simpler life. This, what you are living right now, is hell.

"Your Highness, I think you misunderstood our earlier agreement," she glared at the man across from her. He sat in a high backed chair, a huge window behind him showing snow falling heavily. She sat in a similar chair, wearing two-inch black boots and an all black dress with inch thick straps and a v-cut in the front. Her white hair was tied back in a braid reaching her shoulder blades. "I am only here to offer you and your family protection, not to go over a contract for an army. That is not what I do."

"Then what is it that you do, my dear?" his thick Russian accent would have sent chills down a normal persons back, she was used to it by now. "Than not just this sort of thing."

"I provide security to those my company believes needs it. You should feel honored I came personally. Normally my assistants or someone from within the company comes. I felt this deserved a little more….force behind it," she smiled sickly at him. God, she should have sent Will instead. No, Optimus and Will should not have overridden her decision to send Will. Somehow they thought she would be the better one for this mission than a big, buff male. All this Russian diplomat was seeing was something he wanted to see more of….later that night.

"You are a very powerful person, Ms. Williams, but so am I," he smiled right back at her. "I do not need a woman's protection."

"You do understand what you are facing, Your Highness?" her smile slipped away, returning to her usual frozen stare.

"I am facing a civil war in my country. I do not need protection, I need an army to back me."

"You are facing the possibility of your entire castle being massacred, sir," he was too stupid for any other title now. "Do you wish that to happen?"

"My guards will protect all of us," he shrugged, reaching for a cigar. Her frown deepened. "Now, tell me, what all do you wish to do while you are here?"

"Actually, this was all I was planning. I will be returning to the airport now," she stood, looking down at him over her nose. "I am sorry, but I have other clientele who would be more than happy for the services I offer."

"Is there no other services you offer?" he stood as well, looking hungrily at her.

"None what so ever. Thank you for your lack of hospitality. You have been warned," she turned on her heel and exited the room, storming past the guards. Ragi was waiting out in the hall for her, dressed in a long, thick coat, high combat boots and dark pants. He handed her coat to her, falling into step beside her.

"He's an idiot," he hissed as she pulled on the coat. "They will be killed soon. Optimus just called, recent intel confirms that the cons movements place them an hour out."

"Lets hope it stays an hour," she took the hat and gloves from Ragi, quickly pulling them on. "Did you see how he was looking at me? You'd think after two years of providing quality service all over the world I would stop being seen as a slutty figure head."

Ragi chuckled, letting her take his arm as they moved outside to the waiting black Ferrari. Wind bit at her, turning her legs numb in seconds of leaving the safety of the warm hall. Snow blew into her face, making it hard to see, "It doesn't help when I'm forced to wear this sort of stuff either!"

"Again, Optimus thought this would be the best way to approach him," Ragi chuckled again. The long standing argument between her and Optimus was how he thought she should approach people. Well, what she should wear when she approached people. She had a good idea Epps and the guys helped choose some of them.

"When we get back, I am making it very clear that I decide what I wear from now on. Or Arcee helps. You guys can have a say in it, but I need to be able to function," she shot him a glare before focusing back on trying to see the Ferrari. Ragi wasn't having any problems. Damn alien and his new upgrades for cold weather.

"I will warn the others then. And…."Ragi froze, looking around. She instinctively reached inside her pocket, moving closer to him.

"What is it?" she whispered in his ear.

"We don't have an hour," he hissed, scooping her up and racing in what she could only guess was the direction of the car.

"How long do we have?" she wrapped an arm around his neck, her other hand wrapping around the pistol in her pocket.

"We have none," his grey eyes looked at her for a second before he threw them forward, covering her as a nearby wall exploded. They could just barely make out screams above the wind that was shortly followed by gunfire. Ragi yelled into her ear, "We have to get to the car!"

"You go!" she pushed him away. "I'll stay in this general spot."

He frowned before flickering out of existence. She stood, pistol out, waiting. She knew that with the colder weather normally he wouldn't be able to come, but Brains had come up with some new upgrades. Slower starts and what not, but they could at least start. So far, the only problems they had run into were human, but some of the humans had had con tech. There was a con out there, one that had survived Chicago, but they had yet to find him.

She heard a familiar rumble from nearby and turned to see a black Ferrari appear out of the snow, but something wasn't right….

"Pretender!" she yelled into mouthpiece hidden in her jacket as she dodged out of the way of the speeding car. Just her luck, a Pretender! A Pretender working with humans. Humans coming out of the snow with bigger guns than she had. "Ragi, where are you?"

She got off a couple rounds into the attacking humans before she felt something slam into her side, throwing her towards the oncoming charge of bodies. Pain exploded in her hip and ribs on her right side, telling her serious damage had been done. Shit!

She slammed into one of the burly guys, taking him down. Pain could hopefully wait. She snapped his neck before taking his gun and turning it on the others. Something sliced through her right knee as she kicked out at an attacker, blood mixing in with the falling snow. This just wasn't her day! "Ragi!"

Something came crashing through the men moving in on her. Sending them flying. A black Ferrari. She pointed the gun at it as it pulled to a stop next to her, transforming quickly into the familiar red mech, "I am sorry, we were being jammed."

"Pretender," she gasped, lowering the gun and ripping off part of her coat, tying it around her knee. Ragi knelt next to her, quickly scanning her.

"We must get you back to the others," he was worried.

"But, the Russians," she tried to stand.

"You have a rib centimeters from puncturing a lung. We are going back," he growled, transforming. His holoform appeared, carefully scooping her up as the passenger door flew open. He laid her out on the seats, which had convently molded themselves into one surface, before disappearing. The door slammed shut and the Ferrari leapt forward into the snow. She took slow, deep breaths, closing her eyes.

"They are waiting for us at the airport," Ragi's voice jerked her out of semi-counciousness. "Rest, I am driving at a speed that should not jar you. It will be about an hour."

"Compared to the six it took for us to get out here," she smiled a little. "Next time, its gonna be Will and Prowl or Barricade."

"Agreed," Ragi chuckled. "We'll stick to fancy dinner parties and political conventions for a few months."

"And then we'll get bored and go on one of these missions," she let her eyes drift shut, feeling safe.

"And start everything back over again. Oh, Will just called."

"Yeah?"

"He said welcome back to hell."