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By the time I woke up from recharge the next morning Mirage had left for patrol. That meant Hotrod was back, probably asleep.

I went to the rec. hall for a little energon. I could drink enough to last me a week or so, if I didn't mind the wild energon high it would give me, but Ratchet wanted me to drink small amounts often until I learned my body's needs. I whistled to myself as I walked, the sound coming out shrill and rippling with electronic tones. Humans were already up and about, doing their duties.

I backpedaled mentally. I was thinking of them as 'different' already? Not just people, or soldiers, or men, but humans? I groaned, earning an odd look from a pair of soldiers as they walked by. I gave them a weak smile, and they shook their heads and looked away pointedly.

I'd already turned into the rec. hall and started for the energon cooler when I realized someone was watching me. I looked, and with a start met Hotrod's electric blue eyes. Funny, they were the same blue as everyone else's… They just seemed so much brighter on him.

"Uh!" I stuttered instantly. "Oh. I thought you- I mean, not that- I just- Oh." I ground into silence.

His blank expression didn't change. He was slumped, a cube of energon in one hand. He seemed preoccupied, and somehow he looked worn down, even though his paintjob was as shiny as ever.

"I know, I'll go," he said, starting to get up, but I walked to him, motioning for him to sit back down.

"No, no. Sit back down, you need it." I stopped after a few steps, and when he settled heavily back onto the bench I turned back to the cooler and plucked out a small cube. I shut the cooler and looked back to Hotrod, who was holding his own cube to his lips. I made my decision.

"Do you mind if I sit with you?" I asked shyly.

He made a coughing sort of sound, lowering the cube and looking at me in surprise. "You want to sit with me?"

"Uh huh." I approached the bench, moving to a spot a few feet down from him. I waited, and finally he nodded incredulously.

I sat, sipping my energon and pretending not to want to look him over. His vents sighed quietly, and the dejection in that sound tugged at my heart. Ah, my spark.

"I'm not mad at you, Hotrod."

"That's what Mirage said." I waited, but he didn't seem to want to elaborate, so I continued.

"Maybe after you get a chance to recharge we can watch a movie? Like old times, back when Bumblebee and Sam were here?"

"How can you even stand to say that so easily? It'll never be like old times," Hotrod said, his voice rising just a little. "Back then, you trusted me. I'd never given you any reasons to doubt me. I was your Guardian!" He finally looked at me, something like anguish in his expression. "And now, all you'll see when you look at me is the mech who tried to use you almost before you booted your logic processors!" The energon cube in his hand made a strange creaking sound as he squeezed it.

"You weren't using me. You were trying-"

"NO, Bravura!"

I shrank under the intensity of his outburst and the room got quiet, the absent chatter from the smattering of soldiers eating their breakfast silenced.

I looked away, rubbing my arm. I hadn't known he was so angry with himself. I felt him looking at me, and then he began again with contrition in his voice. "I was being selfish. I wanted it so badly, to prove we were spark mates. To show them all. I wasn't thinking about you, I just wanted to rub it in that slagger Skywarp's face."

I gathered my courage, reached out and touched his arm. "Stop it. You messed up, so what? It doesn't change that you saved my life, or that you rescued me in the very beginning. If it weren't for you the Autobots would never have even known about me and I would've never been happy like I am now. You think you're the worst thing to happen to me, but you're one of the best."

Hotrod smiled faintly, but he didn't look convinced. He downed the rest of his energon and put the cube down on the bench to rest his hand on mine. "A movie later sounds good."

Relief flooded me as he got up, putting his empty cube in the recycle bin. He turned and looked at me. I could tell that the worst of his gloom had lifted, even though his outward appearance hadn't changed. He nodded to me and left the rec. hall.

I sipped at my cube, amazed. That had gone remarkably well, better than I could've expected.

I made my way to the sickbay a little later out of boredom. Ratchet and Perceptor were there as usual, along with Dr. Peyton, who was talking to a soldier as he sat on a human-sized exam table. She seemed like a nice lady. Ratchet got along with her, anyway.

Ratchet saw me and rubbed his hands together with what I interpreted as anticipation. "Bravura, excellent! I've been meaning to ask you to come by!"

"Yes, Perceptor told me," I said, crossing the room.

"Care to have a seat on the exam table?" He gestured to the table I'd woken up on that first day in my Cybertronian body. I swallowed my mixed feelings about this particular table and climbed up, using a set of rungs probably there specifically for shorties like me.

Devices began popping out of Ratchet's hands and wrists and I watched as he began pointing them at me. "Have you been having any difficulties? Coordination, system malfunctions, weakness, pain?"

I shook my head. "I've felt great, especially since you put me on the regular grade."

Ratchet made a grinding hum in his throat. "Ah, regular grade? When did I do that?"

Uh oh, Mirage! "Ah… I thought you said you wanted me to try it the day after I woke up, so I've been on it ever since. By the way, I know I have solar panels pretty much built in, am I ever going to get to use them instead of using up so fuel? I know it's a pain in the neck to make."

Ratchet looked annoyed, until I asked about the solar panels. "The problem there lies in the safety measures of getting you outside. You've no alt mode, and no weapons. You probably don't even know how to mask your signature, do you?"

I shook my head. Mirage had tried teaching me, since it was sort of his specialty, but I was just no good at it.

"You see the problem?" He asked. "Lay down, please, I'd like to get a full diagnostic. You don't know how your systems are supposed to act, they need a looking over."

I did as he asked, getting a sense of déjà vu as I stared up at the ceiling, the first thing my new optics had ever taken in, along with Hotrod's face.

I jerked when Ratchet touched my chest. He froze, looking at me warily. "I can't run a systems check without opening you up. I'm a medical professional, Bravura."

I nodded, straining to control myself. I didn't want my chest open again, but this was Ratchet. The doctor.

He touched me again. His fingers reached under a plate and I felt something release, then my chest opened, covering Ratchet in a bluish white glow.

"Hmm. You're still displaying both male and female characteristics…" He leaned closer, a hand on his chin.

"Huh?" I crank my neck up, trying to get a look, but I couldn't see much.

"Oh, yes, we didn't explain that to you. You're outward appearance is that of a femme, probably a product of your psyche imprinting on your spark. However, your spark is made from Hotrod's, so it is in its essence male, though it seems to be trying its hardest to seem female." He smiled. "You must identify strongly with your sex."

"Ah… yes?"

"Of course… In terms of reproduction, I would guess that you're unable to carry a sparkling." I tensed, and Ratchet shook his head. "Oh, I'm not implying that you'll be trying to breed any time soon! Simply that if you ever do, you might do well to… ah, not get your hopes up."

I nodded, forcing myself to relax, even when he reached into my chest. I felt something click, and out of nowhere I felt a rush through my system much like when Skywarp had interfaced with me. There was a difference, though. Ratchet wasn't stroking through my system, targeting sensitive areas. He was methodically checking through my core, avoiding stimulating me at all.

Even so, my vents let out an involuntary sigh of relief when he detached and straightened up, closing my chest with another click.

"Everything's shipshape, young lady. That regular grade's still a little much for your circuits, maybe switch to low grade every other time you fuel up, alright? Physically you're barely past being a youngling. You just don't need all that energon, especially since you don't use up much fuel on an alt mode."

I sat up, dangling my legs off the edge of the table. "Speaking of alt modes, Ratchet…"

Ratchet folded his arms and gave me a stern look. "Stop right there. I don't like the idea of you running around looking for an alt mode, as vulnerable as you are."

I sighed, twiddling my thumbs. "I thought you'd say that."

His expression softened and he patted my shoulder. "You'll get one, maybe in a few months. Maybe we'll have Sam drive something up for you to scan when the time comes? Don't get the idea in your head that you're getting an alt mode any time soon, but you might start looking for something to fit your size, something small. Generally we Autobots pick native-friendly modes, but you can pick whatever you feel is appropriate, of course."

I nodded. "All done, doc?"

"Yes, but come back if anything, even something little, goes wrong."

I hopped off the bench, having no trouble staying upright this time around. My time with Mirage was paying off.

"I will. Thanks, Ratchet."

He nodded and went to speak to Perceptor, so I headed on out into the hall to look for something to do.

It didn't take me long to realize how much I'd relied on Mirage to keep busy. There wasn't much for a loner to do in the base, so I headed back to the rec. hall to watch some TV. It was still midmorning and there wouldn't be anything on, but at least there wouldn't be very many people.

A couple of hours later I was watching Days of Our Lives, practically in recharge. I'd shoved the couches aside, and was lying on my side, head propped up in one hand.

"Oh Marlena, you know you can't trust Stefano!" I mumbled.

"Yeah, you can't trust anybody around here."

I lazily twisted to look at the source. "Oh. You again." It was Zeke. "Don't you have a job to do?"

"Lunch time. I heard your name is Bravura."

My logic processors suddenly screeched to a halt, then spun out of control. He remembers! He knows! How could he know? He doesn't know anything! Just ask him! String him on!

"Yes. If you wanted to know you should've asked."

"That's just it, I didn't want to know. I heard some people talking about you. I know what you did."

I didn't do anything. What does he think I did?! "And what would that be?"

"You killed that girl! There was a girl named Bravura here a month ago, and the last time anybody saw her she was sick out of nowhere. Then that Phillips lady disappeared. You were pissed she had your name, and you hated that the Phillips chick was the Colonel's daughter so you offed them both!"

He thinks I killed me? Oh. Ohhhh. Ok, think, Bravura.

"I don't know who this Phillips person is. As far as the Bravura 'girl' goes… You don't recognize me, Zeke?" I smiled in what I hope he would see as a playful way.

He started when I said his name, like I'd shocked him with a cattle prod. "How do you know my name?"

"We've already met. You were talking to my hologram a few weeks ago. I was visiting the base before I decided to move in. That's all."

He crossed his arms, a vein pulsing in his forehead. "Why didn't you just come here yourself?"

"Do you really think it'd be safe for a femme like me to go running around Nevada? There isn't exactly much cover, and I am a neutral. That means I don't fight."

His eyes narrowed. "Prove you're that girl."

"The last time you saw me we were watching Williams fight. You called me Bravo. I had to leave because my hologram was starting to malfunction. I sent it to the sick bay for the Autobot medic to look at, but it wasn't salvageable."

"Why'd almost every single robot in the base take off right after that?"

Crap! Ahh… Uh… "They thought something was wrong with me, since my hologram shorted out at a bad time. So they went to find me."

"Why didn't you tell me you weren't a real chick?!" He looked pissed.

"You didn't ask." I looked back to the TV, trying to buy some time to calm down before my vents started working overtime.

He cursed, and then walked away. I sat up and left the rec. hall as soon as I felt like I wasn't being stared at, then took off down the hall, headed for the upper deck. That was close, you have to be more careful, my logic processors warned me. You can't pull that on Colonel Dicer. You'd better hope those two don't ever get to chatting.

When I got to the upper deck I went and sat in front of the glass. I could access the Internet up here, so I settled in. I felt a little pitiful. I couldn't think of anything to do, so I just waited for Hotrod to wake up. I'd gone from avoiding the mech at all costs to counting on him to brighten up my day, practically within minutes of seeing him. Must be a record.