Disclaimer: I own none of the Transformers characters. I do own my OCs so if you use them you need to ask me first, please and thank you.

Key:

Sparklings talk/ Cybertronian= bold

Chapter 21

It was decided that for the children's health and safety that the base Jade had hidden in when she first escaped Project M would be bulldozed down and rebuilt. Well, part of that was true, the children were showing signs of extreme cabin fever and the original four had been seriously neglected in terms of their flying lessons. There was only so much height within a hanger. The part that was not put on record was that Jade was becoming vicious in her protection of the children. She had attacked Ironhide several times, even landing him in Ratchet's medbay a few times. Optimus had been on the wrong side of her ire when she discovered that Bumblebee had been sent off to chase after Barricade and came back with large gouges in his armor and a few nicked energon lines. She had also taken to growling at any soldier that got too close to the children after a group of soldiers that fully supported Galloway had decided it would be fun to use Carbonation and Cheatcode for target practice. So it was for everyone's safety that the base was redone and Jade and the children lived there with Bumblebee until the rest of the base could be moved.

Galloway was another new development that actually pushed for the completion of the second base. Apparently the man was supposed to help with relations between the Autobots and the U.S. His first meeting with Jade however was of him barging into her hanger and demanding to have "possession" over the "technology" she had. That had translated to the children which in turn had Jade threatening the man. Said threats lead to Jazz keeping her company and teaching the children about music, both Earth and Cybertronian. Personally Jade liked her country music and was overjoyed when the silver male had played some of the newest hits and then taught her how to access all she wanted. Cybertronian music entranced her though. It was a series of clicks, whirls, and chirps that somehow sounded almost mystical when played. Jazz refused to sing, saying he was bad at it though Jade felt he was just being shy.

With a grin Jade drove off the plane ramp with Bee and Shield right behind her, the smaller children split between the three of them. She opened her doors to let Tech, Healing, Trap, and Sky out before transforming, the others following her example as they did for everything else.

The base looked good. It was still dry and desert like, but gone were the crippled buildings that looked to be on their last legs. Nice new buildings with a dull grey color to them stood nice and tall, tall enough for even Optimus to stand comfortably inside. The kids went running with squeals of delight as Jade quietly ambled her way around the various buildings. There was a main building that had a mess hall, meeting rooms, a medbay, and even several large rooms that looked to be bedrooms for Cybertronians. Exiting that building Jade found the cell sisters and Cheatcode exploring the human barracks if the excited chatter from deep within the echoing halls was anything to go by. With no need to go in there she continued to take stock of the rest of the base. The fence was redone and nice and high, though not high enough that she couldn't jump over. There were guard towers, a rather large one which she guessed a Cybertronian may fit into, and several other smaller buildings that were probably for human use. There was one hanger that was large and off to the side which Jade peeked inside. Seeing a duplicate of the play room from Diego Garcia made the woman smile at the attention to detail since there were windows and two exits.

"Jade," Bee's voice called her attention.

Turning around she found him anxiously shifting his weight from foot to foot. Instantly she knew what he wanted to tell her. With a smirk she put her hand on his shoulder and said, "Go see Sammy, I'm sure your little boyfriend will be happy for the surprise visit."

The yellow teenager sputtered and the woman was sure that if he was human that he would be bright red. He turned tail and ran through the open gate, Autobot friendly humans and Shield and Locator laughing as he transformed and drove away probably breaking several speeding laws as he went. Satisfied with her thorough embarrassment of her oldest child Jade happily went looking for her winged kids. It was time to start their flying lessons in earnest now.

It took awhile to find the four since Trap and Carbonation were trying to find hiding places, Tech was trying to look around for something to experiment with, Healing was trying to understand the human sized medical equipment, and Sky seemed to be trying to figure out where the energon was so they could have some later. She did round them all up though, the prospect of flying lessons dragging them away from their individual pursuits. The four of them tired out after almost three hours of nonstop practice, but the four were overjoyed that they could hover in the air for at least a minute before falling back down into their mother's hands.

After that Jade had gathered the rest of the children in the mess hall and figured out how to get the energon. She gave it to them and then snagged an oil barrel for herself. There was even less energon on this base than there was on the island so Jade absolutely refused to drink any. The children needed it more.

Two distinct sounds reached her ears causing her to tense. One was tires on the road that should have been disguised so no one would turndown it unless they knew about it. The other sound was that of a jet's engines that sounded horribly familiar to her. Huffing in annoyance Jade told the children to stay in the mess hall as she sped out the door. As she got outside she saw what she wished was a hallucination.

The police car rolled through the still open gate, lazy humans, and transformed into the hazily familiar form of the male Jade thought was named Barricade. A jet passed over her head and turned into the unfortunately familiar shape of Starscream. The humans started yelling and grabbing their guns to shoot. She should have let them do their jobs, but Jade ordered them to stand down. Luckily they did, though they looked at her like she was insane as she carefully stepped over and passed them toward the threatening duo.

"What are you doing here?" she growled, letting all of her ire at the two show.

"I don't know about Screamer here, but I thought I'd drop by and see if you were safe and well. I couldn't find the Autobot base so imagine my surprise when you came up on my scanners," Barricade rattled off while holding his hands up in surrender.

"You were not at the cave when I returned, where were you?" Starscream demanded earning himself a vicious snarl from the woman.

"For your information, I was attacked so I had to leave which resulted in me meeting Barricade. Now give me one good reason why I should let you live," she snapped.

"I can teach the sparklings to fly." The damn winged idiot had a point.

"I hate you," Jade groused only to receive a smirk.

"So, how are things? The sparklings doing good?" Barricade's voice sounded somehow easing the tension that hung in the air.

Jade crossed her arms over her chest. At least Barricade wasn't an idiot like Starscream or Ironhide. He seemed to act mature, like he was in his early twenties or something and was out working for a living. He might be a decent role model for some of the children.

"Your paint looks ever worse than when I last saw you, Femme."

There was no verbal response, but there was a cannon blast followed by a shrill shriek that had many cringing, but Jade and Barricade smirking.