*So ready to go?*

*Yes dad, I'm ready*

Clair gets back to base and then a few days later heads out to her new temporary home, she had managed to find an apartment at her new location and managed to get a monthly rental agreement since she knew that eventually she would be able to go to the police academy and everyone in the academy lives on campus until graduation

"So what's the plan for you?"

"I'm going to go with the President's suggestion and get a job at the police station, that ways if I run into any trouble I have a place to go to that can help me since I'm authorized to inform anyone I need to about this current assignment"

"Plus they'll already know you which is another thing going for you if you need them"

"Exactly, but I don't know if I should use my name or not"

"Clair..."

"It's not that I don't trust them dad, but this assignment is dangerous, I don't want anything to lead back to you or my Cybertronian family this time"
"You know the law Clair, you were informed of it at the White House by the President himself"

(Sighs) "I know, but still I need some sort of reassurance that the family will be safe while I'm doing what needs done to protect the young people wanting to join the police and possibly Winspector"

"We can take care of ourselves Clair you know that" (switches to Japanese) *I can also ask the three leaders to come to Japan or even leave Earth for a bit if it makes you feel better, besides even though we're officially all family now we haven't really had time to truly get to know one another, and the three leaders have offered more than once a trip to Cybertron to see your second home planet due to adoption. They will listen to your concerns about their safety, they learned that lesson the hard way through losing you for seven years*

*But they didn't know about the threat back then*

*Actually Clair in a way they did know about the threat to them, and the rest of the EDC bases, you left very small clues as to the fact that something was wrong, but they didn't confront you or do anything about it until it was too late*

Clair and Masaki hug and Masaki also kisses the top of Clair's head, something that neither had a problem doing in public since the legal adoption four years earlier, everyone knew that was Masaki's way of calming Clair down and also letting her know he was behind her all the way in whatever she chose to do, then he said something that made no sense to anyone but Clair, it was something the two of them had come up with one day during the year she spent healing mentally and emotionally from the seven years spent with the terrorist group and she had suffered a severe flashback which had her staying inside for several days, going back to the mentality that outside was too dangerous and it best to fortify her current residence in case of trouble trying to come. Clair and Masaki had talked a good long bit after she had calmed down and it was decided that Masaki would learn a little Cybertronian, but that would be all the Cybertronian he would learn even if offered by her Cybertronian family later for a complete lesson

"Le'n'ni kāason'naff kopta lesh fikla"

The regular EDC officers were confused, but the Cybertronians there understood exactly what had just been said, and for Masaki to tell that to Clair meant she really needed that phrase, because that phrase was never used lightly around Clair for a reason. The next day Clair went to the police station and asked for a part time job as a desk clerk, quickly getting said job too due to her experience and she quickly learned the routine, all while waiting for the first of the messages in regards to the group trying to kill young people because of Clair

"Kerenai-Masaki, you seem to know a great deal about police stations"

"You know part of my background, what you don't know is that I've basically lived at a police station for five years, one year continuously and then the other four years for about a half year"

"What kind of station?"

"One in Japan, and your higher ups know why I was in Japan and also why I am familiar with a police station there as well, but you unfortunately aren't cleared to know any more than what you've already been told"

"Oh yes I am because I'm..."

"Unless you're with the EDC in some way I really don't care and even then it really depends on several other factors to see if you're truly cleared to know about me"

"He's not cleared at all, he just think he's important since his father is involved in the state senate somehow, I keep getting onto him about his attitude but he just doesn't listen to me"

"Hello Captain, sorry to say you're not entirely cleared to know about me either"

"I know, but I'm cleared for enough to know why you've been around a Japanese police station so long and also why you have a very strange name"

"So you know about..."

"Yep, I was looking for you anyways since this came in and no one, and I do mean no one can read this, and we have a linguist on hand for written work"

"What's their languages?"

"Not entirely sure, but they know at least five, including Latin"

Clair's given the slip of paper and sees Hiragana on it

"Looks like they don't know Japanese though, because that's what this is"

"I'll ask and double check with them on that, but since it looks like you know Japanese can you translate that for us?"

"No problem Captain"

Fifteen minutes later the Captain came back to a translation for him and answers for Clair

"Turns out you were right, they don't know Japanese, they know six languages including Latin, but Japanese isn't one of their languages, they mentioned adding more interpreters or linguists who know languages they don't but as of now we just don't have the funding"

"Well, I know Russian, Japanese, Canadian French, Spanish, Portuguese, American Sign Language, English, Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean"

"Will you translate those for us for your normal pay?"

"No problem Captain, but I will warn you that depending on several factors it might take me a bit to actually fully translate it"

"No problems, and for the spoken language we have special translators with us to help with that, developed a long time ago, but that's mainly because of the fact that we work with the EDC and sometimes have to deal with international EDC officers"

"Oh here's what needed translated, not sure just how high priority it is though"

What the message was, was that it mentioned several officers that the Captain knew that were coming to America for a sort of vacation and to be on the lookout for them because they were also coming to town during a conference and their chief wanted to know if the Captain could take them to the conference to show them the difference between Japan and America in regards to police work

"Okay it's partially personal, partially business, and for some reason I don't think the writer knew I only know English, my Japanese friends are fluent in English but are Japanese citizens"

"Okay, so is there anything..."

Suddenly the power cut out and the emergency power didn't kick in like it was supposed to, and since it was the night shift everything went dark just long enough for Clair to be bound, hooded and taken out of the building, two minutes later all the officers had flashlights and doing a check to see who was still there like they were supposed to be

"Kerenai-Masaki...Kerenai-Masaki answer me, Kerenai-Masaki if you don't answer right now..."

Clair didn't answer but suddenly the power went back on and after everyone's eyes adjusted they knew for sure that Clair was no longer in the building, and there was a note on her desk

Note

We have taken Kerenai-Masaki for our own reasons, expect a call in an hour with further details, don't worry she will remain unharmed during her duration in our care

End note

The Captain called the nearest EDC base per his orders in regards to Clair and they weren't too happy about it either and mentioned to the Captain that it was possible that her captors were lying but that they would be unable to ascertain the truth for the moment

"Understood, by the way we're going to check our infrared security cameras, the ones you guys insisted on us having a while back might give us some new info that might break the case"

The group looks at the video and while it doesn't give them any clues as to who the perpetrators were it did give the Captain a good reason to worry

"This isn't good, she isn't going to be as unharmed as they think, I need to make some phone calls immediately about this"

The Captain immediately calls the EDC back letting them know of the new information that they had in regards to the fact that Clair had been blindfolded and bound, two things that the Captain had been told she was not going to be fond of and to avoid if at all possible, and if the station ever did need to blindfold her for whatever reason to always let her know it was happening first so that she didn't potentially go into a panic attack and to never have her blindfolded for very long. The entire station had also learned early on to never try and sneak up on her, for one thing it hardly ever worked unless she was in a zone like state where she was completely oblivious to her surroundings, the other reason was that if she was surprised it was dangerous for the person surprising her because of the fact that she could fight, now they didn't know her true fighting ability, but they knew enough that surprising her was not a good idea, as such they always did their best to announce their presence to Clair and if she seemed to be in her zone they did whatever they could to get her attention first before getting any closer than two desks ahead of her, because even coming at her with something for her to drink or eat was dangerous if she wasn't aware of her surroundings, which again wasn't very often. The Captain then received some very strange orders from the EDC, they would obey the note, but inform Clair's captors that what they had done might have caused a mental and emotional set back and to make sure she still had a locket on her. What neither the police or EDC knew was that Clair really was okay by the time the hour would pass, she had been taken by military personnel as part of a training exercise designed for both the soldiers who abducted her and for Clair herself, because even though she would never actually be a soldier even in the reserves she was still a high value target due to who raised her and as such the President had decided that there would be surprise abduction drills every so often for Clair, but the President was alerted to Clair's issues so he always made sure that she wouldn't be blindfolded and bound for extremely long periods of time, he put a time limit of half an hour for her to be bound and blindfolded, and if transportation would take longer than a half hour then even if she remained bound she was to be freed from the blindfold until they reached their destination. This time the trip was the half hour limit, but it still took fifteen minutes for Clair to be back to normal once she realized she was with friendlies and heard the explanation of what had happened and why

"Well, at least you didn't take my locket, word of warning, never and I mean never take the locket, real criminals will attempt to do so at their own peril, but since this is a simulation understand that you can make exceptions due to reasons you probably don't understand yet"

"Very well, want to spar?"

"Only if you have training robots, I don't get to use my true form often anymore due to where I am currently working, don't want to reveal anything until later, I have to keep hidden for a reason and until that reason is revealed I can't practice like I normally would, and the EDC base is just far enough out of my way that getting to it can't happen on a regular basis"

Clair would be able to get in five minutes and then the hour passed and the group called the police station as promised and had it on speaker phone

"This is the station who is this?...this is the group that took Kerenai-Masaki...I see, you might have accidentally harmed her mentally and emotionally, and I've been asked by others who care for her to make sure she still has her locket on her, it's important...this is Clair Captain, turns out this is going to happen occasionally per Presidential orders, due to reasons that only you know I am considered a high value target, basically the military abducted me per a simulation order...understood, will the EDC be informed of this?...yes they will be, in fact it's probably already happened and you're unaware of it Captain...okay then, is there a place we can pick her up?...just come to the base we'll have authorization for whoever picks Kerenai-Masaki up to enter the premises...okay we'll take a vote and call you back at this number when we know who's going...understood bye...bye"

Three hours later Clair was back at the police station, it was originally only going to be about an hour unfortunately an accident caused a two hour delay in someone coming to get her from the base and when she got there she saw a military officer in Coast Guard uniform

"Okay I'm going to ask, what's Coast Guard doing here?"

"Are you Clair Kerenai-Masaki?"

"Yes"

"I have papers for you, and I also require a signature of receipt"

"Understood"

Clair takes the papers and signs for them and then reads them, and when she does she pales which has the nearest officer coming right to her side in case she suddenly collapsed, which is ultimately what ends up happening which meant that the officer also made sure to get her to the nearest seat available

"Clair?..."

"Captain, can I use your office?, it's the only one private and secure enough to make a phone call"

"Of course, take as long as you need"

Fifteen minutes later Clair comes out of the Captain's office looking decidedly worn out

(Sighs) "I already know you have questions, so before you ask I can't tell you a lot, but I received some unexpected news regarding some family and also very close friends in the Coast Guard, Captain you know what I am talking about when I mention that my family was hurt bad enough to be taken home after emergency stabilization was done, and they may never be fit for full duty ever again, as for my friends...well I have issues to deal with because of it and if I sleep overnight might come up screaming so that's fair warning to everyone before it actually happens. Here's some rules to lay down that I should have from the beginning if I ever need to sleep here, never touch me to wake me up at my normal time for work, never and I do mean never have someone lean over me if you need something from where I happen to fall asleep if it's not at my desk, if I am tossing and turning and sounding distressed don't yell and that is also a don't touch me to wake me up, especially shaking motions, if I am covered and suddenly you notice I no longer have my covers don't try and put the covers back on, even if it's freezing and I really need it, and if I do suddenly wake up after sounding distressed, if you need to talk to me talk in calm, soft, soothing voices as best as you can manage because I might be a bit disoriented. The rules are for your safety since, and you all need to know this so don't try and stop me Captain, since I have PTSD that means if I have a flashback or nightmare while asleep and I always wake up disoriented from a PTSD episode, and daytime is just as bad in regards to disorientation depending on just how severe a flashback it is"

"Why do you even have PTSD?"

"That only your Captain is cleared for, but let's just say that it ties in with how connected I am to a Japanese police station and also why I easily fit in here, even without that connection I have"

"Hey Kerenai-Masaki, got a letter for you marked urgent, since you told us your schedule at the post office for whatever reason decided to give it to you in person, rest of your mail is at your place"

"Two letters in such a short period Clair?"

"Don't ask me Captain"

Clair opens the letter and realizes it from the undercover assignment she was involved in by making sure that what was gathered was really the evidence that was needed against the group trying to kill kids by having them join certain groups too early just to get back at Clair for something some people still didn't know or understand what it was about, she nodded to herself and then went over to the paper shredder that the police station kept. A few hours later her phone rang and since it had been decided that Clair would indeed stay at the station that night she answered it

"Kerenai-Masaki...I see...I see...when did that happen?...okay...I see...how bad?...okay...have you informed...that's good...what about the...okay...what about your people?...yes I am giving you authorization since it's needed...can you repeat that?...okay I'm surprised at that...oh okay then I'll be ready just in case...okay...okay...will do...bye"

Clair hangs up and sees that everyone was looking at her wanting more information