I'm not entirely happy about this chapter, though I do like the dream sequence that I wrote. I hope you like it.

Thank you SJSGirl, Californiagirl26, Kaitlyn Thorne, MusicalPrime, Primus's Angel, and Naughtia for reviewing! When I began this story, I never knew it was going to break 100 reviews! Just comes to show how awesome you guys are!

Chapter Twenty-One: Glitched

The three Autobot symbols popped up onto my screen almost in sync. I blinked as I went over this information. Three? Why three? Why not all of them?

I stopped and made myself stand as straight as I could. Were they coming after me? I blinked my optics again as I looked down at myself. I was in robot mode—I knew they were never going to know it was me in this form…but…

I knew explaining would be hard. They wouldn't believe me. They probably thought I was dead. But I wouldn't give up. I would meet these guys and show them I was a good guy.

My pace was quick when I began to walk in the direction the Autobot signals came from. I had stopped when I picked up the signals, but now I was going again. I couldn't form any weapons with my servos yet, all I had were my fists, but it wasn't like I was going to engage them in combat. I didn't want to fight. I just wanted to tell them that I was okay…and I wanted to let Mirage know that he didn't fail. I tried to contact him through the bond. "Mirage, can you hear me? If you can, please answer me!" I said desperately.

There was silence. My heart…I mean—spark, sunk. "Why won't you answer?" I whispered in a desolate tone.

The three Autobot signals grew ever closer, showing me that they were only half a kilometer away. I shoved the thoughts about the bond to the back of my mind and focused on the Autobots. I quickened my pace and suddenly broke free from the forest. I blinked my optics in shock as I looked left, then right, and then straight ahead. My optics landed on three familiar Autobot warriors that made me freeze in my tracks.

It was Bumblebee, Mirage, and Sideswipe.

I couldn't help the gasp at the sight of them. Of course, as soon as I saw them, they saw me, and began to advance towards me. I couldn't help but look at the swords extending from both of Sideswipe's servos, and the wrist-blades mounted on both of Mirage's arms. Bumblebee was the only one that didn't have a visible and very sharp weapon on him. I briefly wondered what it would feel like to have one of those digging into my side… How much would it hurt?

I didn't move a piston. I just stared.

"Well…there's the source of the Cybertronian energy signature," Sideswipe remarked.

Bumblebee looked shocked. "It's the femme from that Canadian city…we…hid in!" he said, so shocked that he used his own voice.

Mirage didn't say anything. He just stared back at me. It was like he was speechless. I stared back at him, right in the optic, as I thought about our bond. He was so close, yet he did not answer me. Out of the corner of my optic, I watched as Sideswipe turned to Bumblebee.

"We should bring her in. Optimus said he wanted to speak with the Cybertronian once we caught it," Sideswipe said.

My optics widened as I looked over at the other two mechs. If they brought me in, they would put me in the brig until they knew they could trust me. I took a step back in fear. I didn't like the brig. It was a prison. I didn't like prisons…

"She might even have glitches she might not even know about yet. Ratchet will need to see her," Mirage added, slowly.

I shuttered. I took another step back as all optics were focused on me again. I shuttered once more as I thought about being locked down in the brig, with captured Decepticons and Autobot soldiers that had to be disciplined…

Before I knew what I was doing, I was running. I ran away from them, back into the trees. I wouldn't be locked in the brig! What are you doing? a voice asked. They're your friends! I leapt over a log.

They don't know it's me, they don't know it's me! I panicked. Seek safety! something in me ordered.

I rushed around a large boulder and used my internal GPS to locate the nearest road. I would go to NEST via another road. I wasn't going to allow myself to be captured. I'd approach the place in human form, need be. I wasn't going to be cooped up in a small space cut off by the rest of the world by a force field when I could be out there, helping the others to find Sam.

Why are you panicking? my conscious asked me. You were never afraid of closed in spaces. You said you could always handle anything like that.

"I don't know what's wrong with me," I muttered out loud.

I found the road, and transformed down into my vehicular form on it. I still don't know how to drive yet, but I have to try, I told myself as I willed my wheels to turn. Slowly, my wheels began to turn, and I began to roll down the road. I began to pick up speed, and when I got going pretty fast, I thought I was going to get out of there.

Until a large red and blue semi with red and blue flames suddenly pulled up in front of me.

I screamed and transformed up into my bipedal-mode, not trusting myself to know how to break. I skidded to a stop on the gravel. I stood there, shaking in fear as the semi transformed up into the leader of the Autobots. I twitched when he lowered himself down on one knee. But I froze when he looked into my optics with a searching gaze. I couldn't move as I found him taking in my fear. I didn't object as I felt him take my right servo, and as I felt something plug into something in my wrist.

But I did whimper as memories began to flash by my eyes. Some pleasant and some not so pleasant. I whimpered again as I felt a presence in my mind that wasn't Mirage, and I tried to pull away from the Prime. I wanted to cry, and I did. Make it stop! I silently pleaded.

And it did. Suddenly, the presence left, and the memories settled again. The thing plugged into my wrist was ejected. But before I could blink or even take a step back, I felt strong arms wrap around me. I froze, but after comprehending what was happening, I allowed myself to rest my helm in the crook of his neck. "Optimus?" I whimpered.

"It is I, Twister," I heard him say faintly.

"I've been through too much…" I sobbed.

That was met by silence. "And…I think I have a glitch…" I added.

As I heard Mirage, Bumblebee, and Sideswipe call to each other as they searched for me, Optimus pulled away from me, ending the comforting moment. He stood to his pedes and took a step back. "Can you drive in your alt-form?"

"N-not really…" I said slowly, hanging my head. I slowly peeked up at him. "B-but…I can do this…" and I transformed down into my human form. I shifted in place once before I looked up at him. He looked astonished at my transformation. I went over and hugged his pede as the three Autobots who chased me emerged on our side of the forest. Optimus reached down and picked me up, which surprised me. I just stood there in his servo and looked at the Autobots.

"Autobots," he mech holding me rumbled. "We have a lot to talk about."

The shock registering on the three warriors told me almost everything as they crowded around Optimus' servo in order to look at me.

I sat in Mirage as he followed Optimus, Sideswipe, and Bumblebee. He was deathly silent as I sat in his passenger seat. I could feel the sadness radiating from him, so I reached forward and stroked his dashboard. "Mirage?"

"How are you alive?" he asked quietly. "Are you real? Or is this some figment of my imagination?"

My spark sunk. He doubted that I was actually sitting in him? Was he really suffering from guilt that much? "Ask me a question then, Mirage," I told him gently. "Ask me something that you know only I could know."

Mirage was silent, and I wondered if he was going to just ignore me. People who thought they were hallucinating often did that because they were afraid that someone would see them and call them crazy. But…after a few moments, I knew I shouldn't have worried. "What were your father's exact words when he discovered me in the barn?"

I sighed and looked away from the radio for a second. "He said…he said, 'Did you steal this from someone and hid it here? What did you hope to accomplish?'" a tear escaped when I was forced to relive that memory once again.

My guardian was silent once again. "Optimus knows it's me, Mirage," I told him. "He plugged something into me and saw my memories." I looked at my right wrist.

"He saw your thoughts? He came up to you and connected to your data port?" Mirage seemed shocked. "How could you allow him to do that to you?"

I growled. "I've recently become a Cybertronian femme, Mirage. When I ran into him, I was in the middle of suffering from what seemed to be a glitch that Ratchet should look at immediately, and I was panicking. You, Sideswipe, and Bumblebee were chasing me, promising a week or more in the brig. I glitched at the thought of the brig, so I think that's why I was in such a fit. And he's the leader of the Autobots. I really didn't have the mind to say no…"

"I see."

It was quiet between us for the rest of the trip, and I had the feeling that my guardian was mad at me. I didn't want him to be mad at me. I felt the glitch coming on again as we pulled up to the base, and I had to force myself not to think as I jumped out of Mirage and dashed inside. I rushed towards the med bay, now knowing the route perfectly, even though the glitch was eating away at my thought processes. I blasted my way through the human sized door, and I heard the door hit the wall it was attached to loudly as I transformed up into my robot-form and laid myself down on a berth. I twitched as I forced myself to not think as I waited for Ratchet to come in.

"Primus!" I heard the green mech curse as I heard him walk over to the berth at a quick pace.

I felt him fiddle with the top of my helm. "Optimus said you were suffering from the glitch. Let me take a look at you," he said.

I tensed when I felt my helmet fold back so that the medic could look at my processor. "D-did Optimus tell you about me yet?" I asked shakily.

Ratchet nodded. "Indeed he did," he said. I felt him touch a few things on the surface of my processor before I heard him gently say, "Now, Twister, I need to put you in a short stasis while I fix your glitch, alright?" I nodded slowly, and he smiled softly before he pricked one of my Energon lines with something. I laid there, looking up at him as my processing began to slow and I suddenly found myself falling into the abyss called sleep.

I opened my eyes and sat up quickly. Ratchet was done already? I looked around at the room I was in and found that I wasn't in the med bay, laying on a berth, I was in my room back at my home in Oilfield, sitting in my bed with my royal blue comforter laying across me haphazardly. I looked between my feet at the sound of purring, and saw my kitten, Pebbles. She looked at me as she blinked her yellow-green eyes owlishly. Numbly, I reached down and picked her up. I cuddled her to my chest as I tried to figure out why I was here. I couldn't remember any of my parents or any of the soldiers bringing me here.

What happened?

I quickly put Pebbles down and looked over at my side table. My old iPhone 3 was resting on it. With unfeeling fingers, I picked up the phone, and recalling the only number I knew off by heart from my time at NEST—Jazz's number—I quickly dialed it. With a now shaking hand, I brought it up to my ear and listened to it ring. It ringed three times before a feminine (but obviously recorded voice) state: "We're sorry, but the number couldn't be completed as dialed…" I quickly turned off the phone and placed it on the side table again. I then jumped out of bed and rushed to the full-length mirror mounted to the back of my door. I looked at myself, taking in the very baggy moss green t-shirt and white PJ pants with little black Scottish terriers on it I was wearing.

This didn't seem real. What happened? Who did this to me? If I walked out to the house, Dad would surely whiz me off to the police station once again.

Next I tried the bond I had with Mirage, half remembering that it might not work. "Mirage, are you there? Someone's taken me back home! I need you to bring me back!" I said through it. As I suspected it, it didn't work, so I tried the last thing that could work.

I tried to transform.

I crouched down, knowing if I tried to do this, I would end up destroying the roof. I prayed that the floor would hold me as I willed myself to transform.

After a few seconds of intense silence I opened my eyes…and found that nothing had happened.

I screamed in frustration and punched at the wall. A few pieces of plaster floated down from the ceiling as the door opened and my father stepped into my room. "Good morning, daughter," he said placidly. I glared daggers at him, hating him for doing this to me.

"What did you do!" I screamed at him, my voice filled with venom. "Why can I not transform? I why can't I call Jazz? Why am I here and not at the NEST base?" I got right up in his face. "What. Did. You. Do?"

"I did nothing."

I jolted awake, this time in the real world, and sighed when I found myself laying on the berth where Ratchet put me under. I looked around from my vantage point and saw that I was alone in the med bay. I turned my attention back on the dream, and wondered why I had dreamed it. Was it because of all the stress that I had gone through, and the slight homesickness I would feel from time to time? I slowly sat up and looked around again. I jumped when I suddenly saw Bumblebee sitting on a chair next to my berth.

He looked at me and chirped. I smiled softly. "Hello-o-o, hello again!"

I chuckled. "Hello to you too, Bumblebee!"

"How…are you…feeling?" he asked.

I stopped, and focused on myself for just a second. I felt fine, though a little shaken up by the dream and how my day had gone. "Pretty good, 'Bee," I said. "How are you?"