"Sam, Sam! Wake up!"

"What?" Sam said groggily. He sat up and turned on a light. His eyes widened, heart racing. Mikaela was breathing heavily on the edge of the bed. Her hands were placed firmly on each side of her body, pressing down hard into the mattress, her brows fused upwards.

"It's time," she managed between quick breaths.

And with that, he rolled out of bed, falling flat on his back as air gushed out of his body.

"Sam?"

All he could do was blink.


The baby arrived weighing six pounds and four ounces. Sam's misconceptions about the child were quickly forgotten when he held the newborn. A very small, very flat faced boy who after gripping firmly to his finger looked him straight in the eyes. There was such a look of awareness in those small, dark depths that happiness unlike anything he had felt in all his years throttled Sam quick and hard.

Family. He had a family.

Cindy, the wife of Pastor Michael, assisted in the delivery. She was an affable woman and nurse who for the last three weeks had been watching and helping Mika with her pregnancy.

"I would feel more comfortable if I had a woman helping me." Had been Mikaela's only explanation about Cindy's sudden arrival into their lives. A distressed expression in her eyes waylaid the questions on his lips.

That was when Ratchet stopped coming by. The Autobot medic had been with the two and supporting them since the start of the pregnancy. Sam thought he had been doing a rather awesome job. But whenever he brought the medic's name up, his wife would pale, fear flashing in her tight closed mouth before she changed the subject.

Did something happen between the two? That was the only explanation. And since his wife was unwilling or unable to give him any answers, Sam went to Ratchet.

But Ratchet had been as confused as Sam, or so he thought at first. The longer their conversation went on; the more Sam had been aware that something was being held back, something that created suspicion in Sam. For the first time since he had met the Autobots, he started to see a line that was supposed to separate their worlds.

But Sam had not come that far to be pushed aside with half answers and over saturated words that hid truths.

"Ratchet," Sam said calmly, interrupting the medic, "you know why she chose someone else. Whatever the reason is, I want to know."

Suddenly, the pretenses were dropped. Uncertainty emerged in the medic, such a strange occurrence that Sam's suspicion doubled.

"That, Sam, you will have to ask Mikaela," was the medic's prolonged reply.

"So you do know."

Ratchet nodded his head forward, optics dimming. "I believe so."

The softness of the medic's tone had anger rising in Sam. Impatience pushed his legs upwards and down as he walked away. Sam had the strange urge to slam or throw something against the wall on his way out of the medical quarters.

His steam, however, ran out as soon as he made his way back home. When he saw Mika going through her breathing exercises with Cindy, puffing and exhaling loudly as she kept a firm hand on her belly, his resolve lessened.

Whatever it was, Sam realized then, it didn't matter. And when Mikaela wanted to, she would tell him.

But now, sitting in bed with his wife and the baby snuggled in her arms; the thoughts came back. What she said next did not help things.

"I love you, Sam. No matter what I..." she corrected herself. "No matter what happens, remember that."

Cindy came in, interrupting, "Your parents are here again, I told them that both mother and child are happy and healthy, and that you are resting now."

"Thanks," Mika smiled. "I want to see them, but later."

"Of course." The slender nurse agreed. Checking a couple of data pads, she appeared puzzled.

"Is something wrong?" Sam wanted to know.

"Nothing at all. That was just the easiest birthing I have ever done," Cindy explained with amazement.

"And that is bad?" he frowned.

"Not at all, just with everything Ratchet told me about this special child, I was prepared for, well, special circumstances. Mikaela didn't even need medication for pain."

"I wasn't in any pain," Mikaela spoke up. Her hand traveled down the small expanse of her child's face, such fascination in her face that Sam snuggled closer.

Now that he looked back, it was rather easy. And over so quickly, that before he could go into his next level of panic about not knowing what to do, the sound of his son crying as he announced his arrival, filled their home.

"I mean there was discomfort, but I have had cramps worse than that," his wife added.

Cindy tucked back her pre-matured gray hair. Brown eyes narrowed in deep contemplation. Catching Sam's gaze the nurse smiled back with assurance.

That was when Ratchet appeared on the scene. Sam tensed, paying close attention to the way the medic tended to his wife. But he saw nothing unusual even as Sam displayed rather subtle signs of possessiveness.

Doing whatever tests he had been there to perform, Ratchet left. Breathing out a sigh of relief, he caught Mikaela staring at him. His hands started to shake with what he saw there, his answers in such a simple gaze. Walking out of their room, he crashed before the living room wall, tears welling in his eyes as he stared at the high ceiling above.


He put down what he felt to the after delivery high of his son, that panic and paranoia that had been there. Whatever his dark thoughts were trying to make him believe; Mikaela wouldn't ever do anything to hurt him. And as the first week shared with his new family passed by, Ratchet dropping by here and there with nothing out of the ordinary taking place, Sam started to see how foolish he had been.

And the conversation he and Mika had had certainly assured him as well. Finally, she let him know about her sudden awareness of the Cybertronians and how it was affecting her reasoning and that, with the over emotional tide that the pregnancy brought with it; she had no other option but to limit her contact with them.

Of course, the stray thought that Bumblebee was at their side the entire time, and had not been pushed away, entered Sam's mind. However, that was quickly forgotten when his new responsibility as father overshadowed whatever destructive reasoning was trying to take root in him.

Changing diapers, cleaning the house, making meals, by the time Bumblebee came over one day, catching him in his mother's borrowed apron, Sam didn't know whether to laugh hysterically or cry.

Others came to help as well, his mother, Alexis' mom, Julia, Cindy of course, and so many other faces that people seemed to blur one into the other. He was grateful for the meals and grateful when he was given opportunities for naps. Sleeping away the day, he was not even bothered anymore when Zade Cal Espirit Witwicky woke up every several hours and demanded to be fed.

His father joked that they might as well add his name to the child's, or at the least his grandfather's. And while it had actually been considered, the thought of calling his boy, Archibald, or even Archie, made him see visions of his son being chided and teased. Life was hard enough without having your name as leverage for harassment.

Shooed out of his home, Sam was forced to get air. He walked through the base, wandering feet taking him here and there. It was the first time he had been out of the house since his son was born, and everything looked better somehow. Sam walked with a spring in his step and a smile on his mouth. Making his way to the Operation's building, he decided to see Optimus. Taking a shortcut, he pushed through the narrow passage between two buildings.

The sounds of footfalls following behind didn't mean anything. Nor was he alarmed when they picked up the pace. Sam was alarmed when someone grabbed him from behind, a hand tightly clinging to his hair, his face pushed forward and crashing against the wall. Lights exploding before his eyes, and he found himself oddly fascinated by the bright crimson that splattered on the wall. Struggling to stand he was kicked on the back of his leg. Sam's shoulder grabbed once more, he felt something small and sharp enter his neck.

Darkness spreading, he felt himself being dragged off while the ground clawed at his unprotected skin.


"Wake up!"

Someone struck him hard and by the tenderness of his face, Sam was sure it wasn't the first time. Waking up with a jolt of life, he was forced back down to a chair that he was tied to. Wiggling his hands, he found them enclosed in some sort of thin strap. No one was before him as he expected. A small light teetered high above that illuminated what looked to be one of the bases many storage facilities.

"Stop struggling. The more you do, the more you will hurt yourself."

Relief came, but not the revelation of the oddity in regards to whose voice he heard. His brain was twisted. He couldn't think straight. The world was still spinning and turning. Sam felt as if he was on sort of axial, stuck in the middle of it as everything flashed in and out.

"Alexis?"

Saying her name out loud was when he realized how wrong it was. He had not seen the girl in well over a month, not since she left after Starscream had been killed. But Sam wanted to believe, no matter how far fetched it was, that Alexis came back and just in time to help. However, even he saw a problem with that.

"Finally. What a weak body you humans have. A little tap, little prick and your out. I am surprised so many of you manage to survive."

Sam had never seen LX for himself, but he knew it was her instantly. She had an unnatural lightness to her tread along with a predatory expression in those strangely flashing eyes. She wasn't even trying to deceive him as far as who she was and that made him gulp tightly. Once more, he struggled against his bonds.

"What do you want?" His speech was garbled, and his mouth tasted of copper. Dried blood tickled his flesh while a throbbing ache grew behind both his eyes.

"Simple." She smiled sweetly, hand patting his shoulder gently. LX leaned in before her voice lowered with calculated malice. "You are going to help me gain access to the information I need. You do that, and I won't kill you. If you try to escape, if you try to warn anyone or even attempt at being clever, I will make sure you suffer before I kill you. And your family... I won't forget them either." The discordant smile remained on her face, her hard eyes studying him.

Backing up, LX drew the light around her. Unnatural shadows flowed behind her body and grew. A knife appeared in her hand before she disappeared behind him. The blade cut through his restraints, deliberately nicking him in the process.

"Now stand, Sam," she ordered forcefully. "We have work to do."


"Something is going on." Windglider shifted on his berth. His optics swiped over his small room before finding the steady gaze of his roommate and friend, Foresight. "I haven't seen Starscream or Thundercracker in many a cycle. You think they are planning something?"

"If they were, you would be the last to know," Foresight said truthfully. "Besides, there is a rumor going around that Starscream has been terminated."

Windglider startled at that. Rising from his berth, he jumped down. "Impossible, Starscream will never die!"

The entire reason for him even joining the venture to Earth was due to the Supreme Air Commander. For so long, even before he got his first pair of wings, he had heard rumors of the Seeker. Then he sought out new stories and then, putting all the information he found together; he managed to correlate Starscream's relative position. It had been Foresight that stopped him from going after the elite Seeker.

"You would be foolish to blow away your non-affiliated status, especially considering you probably wouldn't get as close as a wingspan before the Seeker. Not to mention you would ultimately be working for Megatron. And everyone knows that 'Con only has one thing in mind: galaxy domination and to the pit with any mech that stands in his way."

"Surely the rumors can't be that bad," Windglider argued. "Decepticons are merely fighting for their right to survive."

"That's Decepticon propaganda and you now it. Stop being soft sparked. Say that you did eventually join up... even against all odds worked with the Supreme Air Commander. You think all he would be teaching you is how to fly? They don't call him the decimater for nothing. And what is the point of learning new flight skills when the first chance you got he would use you for the only thing you would be good for, a shield."

Unfortunately, he wasn't able to argue against that. But when the news came that Starscream was looking for fliers, nothing his prudent friend said was able to deter him from trying to join up with the Seeker. And when Skywarp and Thundercracker appeared on the scene, completing the infamous Trine as the three stood wing to wing, it took all that Windglider had been capable of not to shriek out in extreme excitement as he bounced off the walls.

But joining up was not as simple as all that. And he had been nearly deflated entirely when the Seekers finally looked him over. Windglider saw the utter incredulity in their scrutinizing optics. Standing firm, giving over his data pad that held all his statistics on it, he nearly burst his vents when they agreed to give him a try.

So he was small for his size. But he was fast. And being left on his own since a sparkling made him capable. Meeting Foresight only increased his knowledge and skill, since once more he had to acclimate to a totally different existence altogether.

While Windglider took on the alt form of a Berilion dart hybrid, Sight was a Cybertronian mid-plane. His friend was larger and capable of stunning, near impossible maneuvers that made sense when he finally revealed that he had enhanced cognition processors.

The two had been together for longer than either could remember. So, Windglider was not surprised when Foresight joined him on his mission to get picked by Starscream. His friend spouting that he had to to make sure Wind didn't get himself slagged.

Now here the two were on Earth, a strange planet with tremulous air currents and steady bouts of shifting weather. He had to work harder than ever before to even make it that far. On several occasions during the tests the Supreme Trine threw at the hopeful recruits, he had thought failure was to be his conclusion. But his long-sought ambition was powerful enough to keep him going. The idea of flying along side Starscream one day fueled his drive.

"Who are you going to obsess over next now that Starscream is gone?" Foresight looked at him with the corner of his mouthpiece shifting ever so slightly upwards.

"Stop being an aft. Its just a rumor. Starscream is not dead."

"And if he is?"

"He isn't!" he said more firmly, emphasizing his words with a blast from his canon. The shot ricocheted off the thick walls before it fizzled, falling down on the floor it twisted, turned and then stilled.

Both their coms went off.

"Skywarp to Foresight and Windglider. Report to me immediately."

Foresight shrugged before easily kicking the missile under the nearest berth. Smoke trailed behind the small canister, and the stench of acid filled the bunker.

"Well." Windglider looked at the mid-plane, his friend already shaking his head in perturbation at his overly enthusiastic mood. "What are you waiting for! We have been summoned!" he chirped.

"Yip, hurrah," Sight said dryly. "Someday remind me why I feel the need to watch out for your aft."


He wasn't nervous. He wasn't. It wasn't befitting anyone who had survived the trials of the Seekers, or a flier who managed to join their ranks.

Windglider snapped to attention. OK. He was nervous. And the way the Seeker was analyzing the two, stripping them to their base components as his optics surged, was enough for the small dart to tense all the way down to his pediforms.

"I have something for the two of you to do for me."

Skywarp paused. His hands shifted behind his back before his impressive cockpit pushed forward. "You will be delivering a message to Thundercracker," he said. "Behind Decepticon lines," he added ominously. "And you will be leaving immediately. Do not deviate from my plan and do not get slagged. Just get in and out and there will be a barrel of high grade for each of you upon your return."

Without wasting any more words, Skywarp uploaded the encrypted data and instructions.

They made their way outside, stopping a moment before the ledge below.

"Wipe that grin off your face, Wind," the mid-plane demanded, "we are about to get fragged."