Disclaimer: I don't own it.

Note : I don't know anything about Epps' family, so I'm making it up as I go along. Also, if you wanna know how I imagine any of the bots' human holoforms, I'm going to give you actor names, and/or the character I'm associating them with for various reasons. LOL Some are based off actors/characters because they suit to me, and others are just based off models with the look I imagine. Any I don't name, I don't have a visual for,

Optimus Prime = Misha Collins as 'Castiel'.

Barricade = Ian Summerhaulder (I might have butchered his last name) as 'Damon Salvatore'.

Sunstreaker = ...Think of a kinder, blonder, younger, less evil looking 'Damon Salvatore'. I don't have a name for the face I see on him. -.-'

Ratchet = David Conrad as 'Jim Clancy'.

Prowl = ...whoever plays Isabella Swan's dad in Twilight. 'Charlie Swan'. (If and when I bring him in, but I probably will MUCH later on)

Ironhide = ...I just picture him as strong, all in black, muscular, with a bushy moustache, bald head, and lots'a scars down the one side of his face, with cold blue eyes.

Hope you enjoy the visuals as much as I did. XD

(With The Autobots, Normal POV)

Optimus growled. They'd finally realized that the Barricade and Dead End they were dealing with were nothing more than complex holograms. The energy signatures, the weapons, the explosions were all real, yet somehow kept missing his soldiers. Both human and Cybertronian. By the time they figured out the ruse, and destroyed what was hopefully the only complex hologram producer, it was far too late, and they arrived at the caves only to find three Decepticons off in the distance, with a fourth Cybertronian reading with them.

The human soldiers had rushed into the caves, only to find Rika screaming for Bella to answer her, and no sign of Bella herself. Then it had taken several of the soldiers, and Ironhide's towing capacity to move the boulder blocking her cave. To say the femme was less than pleased would be an understatement.

"How could you? They were holograms!" Her eyes were huge, and she snapped at Ratchet when he used his holographic form to attempt to tend to the scratches and cuts she suffered. "Ow! Watch it, butter fingers!"

Pulling back with a huff, Ratchet shot her a look. "If you do not watch your tone with me, youngling, you will be tending to your own injuries." The bot stood rigidly, about as tense and disappointed with the lacking personelle retrieval as everyone else, and the human form was mimicking that tenseness. "I do not have the patience to deal with your lack of patience at the moment."

"When do you have patience?" Maggie groaned a little, a towel wrapped tightly around her body and her hair dripping down her back. She shot Mikeala a look, the other girl refusing to react. "And that's the last time I'm swimming to one of the bouys with you. I thought I was gonna drown!"

"Well, it worked, didn't it?" Mikeala frowned at the girl, looking more tired than annoyed. She sighed, curling up in Sam's arms, and shaking her head. "I can't believe they got her. I mean, what was she thinking, facing them alone?"

"We didn't know she was alone." Rika glared up at Prime. "What took you guys so long? Oh-" She shook her head with a groan of annoyance, hissing and glaring at Ratchet as he bound the injury by her knee. "That's right, you were playing with shadows."

"We will retrieve her." Optimus' tone was distracted. He glanced around. He could see flakes of metal and rubber where Sideways must have been pounding on the small mountain, and he thanked Primus the femme wasn't more badly injured. He frowned, his optics landing on a rather annoyed looking Ironhide, and guilty looking twins, venting at their look more than anything. 'It wasn't your fault.' He sent to them alone, watching as their heads snapped up towards him immediately, in sync.

'But we's were s'posta watch her.'

'Yeah, we promised Sunny.'

'It is not your fault.' He added more emphasis, making his voice stronger, more stern, so they'd understand. 'No one could have predicted this attack. Bella warned us the humans might be targeted, and now we know this for sure. Our main task now is to see to our human allies, and plan for a retrieval mission.'

'If Sunny lets us keep our sparks that long.' Skids shook his head with a huff. 'Bot won't admit it, but he's got a thing for the femme.'

Mudflap nodded, venting worriedly. 'Cute little femme like that? I don't blames him, man. Ya can see it in his optics when he looks at her.'

'He won't admit it, though.

'Of course.'

'Which is why we must focus on retrieving her before they can do irreperable harm.' The faint tickle of amusement was nearly invisible in his optics, but Optimus raised an optic ridge, ever the strong leader. 'I am assigning you, Skids, as personal guardian to Mikeala Banes, for the time being." Jazz or some other, more mature bot would have been a better choice, but at the moment, with the numbers they had, he had to make do. "Bumblebee cannot afford to be strained between two human charges, unfortunately. Mudflap, you will take Maggie.'

'Yo, what's about Ri-Ri?'

Optimus turned to Ratchet, opening a link to include him in the conversation. 'Ratchet will be given guardianship over Rika, for the time being.' In any other situation, he might have laughed at the black glower he was given for that. 'I apologize, old friend, but we need to gather our human allies and their families, and bring them to the base as soon as possible. Until this is done, we cannot afford to let any of them travel without Autobot guidance. This was too close. Rika could easily have been permanently offlined.'

The glower faded, and Ratchet nodded silently. 'Understood. Her injuries are mostly superficial. Nothing serious beyond some bruising to her back, which I am guessing she got when she reported Bella pushed her further into the small cavern she was hiding in. I estimate full recovery within an Earth week.'

'That is the first good news we've received. Mikeala? Maggie?'

'Minor hypothermia. Their waters were not meant for humans to spend a long period of time swimming. Especially at this time of year. No injuries, but Maggie's scans show a small amount of water in her lungs, which should take a day or two to clear, with a minor treatment of antibiotics to prevent an infection.'

Optimus nodded silently before venting again. "Alright. First thing we need to do is to retrieve Samuel and his family, along with the Lennox family. Epps, I do not suppose your family knows about us?" He did recall the man being one of the few soldiers involved who didn't bring his family in with the others. He wasn't questioning why. It was a relief not to have even more humans knowing about them, with all the risks involved.

"Nah, most of my family's pretty spread around. Mom and Dad are vacationing in Hawaii, and my sister and her family live in LA."

Optimus nodded, before turning to Mikeala.

She shook her head. "Dad doesn't know anything, and I want it to stay that way. He's finally clean and living a decent, real life. If I have to come live at the base, so be it." She looked more resigned than anything. "Just leave him out of it."

He nodded again, turning his gaze to Sam. "I'm sorry, Samuel, but your family knows. They will be in danger as well. It would be best if we can bring them to the base, until we can find a more permanent decision."

"Really? I mean, seriously? They just lost a massive battle, and they're causing issues, already? I was just looking into colleges!" Mikeala pulled back and gave him a look of both incredulous annoyance and understanding. He sighed. "F-Fine, but you're the one whose gonna tell them! I'm not opening that can of worms!"

"Worms?" Optimus tilted his head, and several of the humans trembled slightly with muffled laughter. "Another human saying?" At Sam's sigh and nod, he turned to Maggie.

She shook her head. "My family's in Australia and knows nothing about this. I moved to the U.S. for schooling, then was planning to move home for work." She shrugged a little. "As long as I call them once a week, and visit once every six months at least, we're good."

He nodded again, before finally turning his optics to Rika, who only shook her head. She didn't voice her reasons why, or even meet his optics for more than a second. She just stared into space, dully, shaking her head. "Alright. We will sort this out back at the base." Venting sharply, he grimaced. "We must come up with a rescue plan first and foremost." And I have to inform Sunstreaker of our failure to rescue his charge. Primus help me.

(Bella's POV)

Out of the three of them, I was damn lucky I got stuck with Barricade. I sure as hell wasn't going with Sideways. I wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him, and Dead End didn't even offer, thankfully. When I asked if I could transform into my vehicle mode and drive with them -my only other chance, really- they laughed and I knew I was done for. Sideways wanted me to go with him, but I'd rather make out with The Fallen after Prime ripped his face off, frankly.

"You are silent, femme."

I glanced to the dash, frowning. Truthfully, he'd been quiet himself, his holoform staring broodily at the road ahead of him. "Is that what your age would translate to, if you were human? I thought you were closer to Bumblebee's age."

There was a growl, and the holographic form's eyes flashed darkly. "Do not compare me to the bug!" He all but snarled. The car was silent again, but I could see the thoughtful look on his face. "I am... Would the humans really take me seriously if I appeared as a boy barely entering adulthood?" The form flickered, fading briefly. When it returned, the man I was faced with was almost shockingly beautiful. "Is this better?" He raised an unimpressed eyebrow.

"Damn!" I shook my head, catching his attention. "Too bad you're a total dick, if you were a good guy, you'd have all the femmes all over you." Not that I was interested. He was beautiful, but then again, most of the Cybertronian alternate forms were beautiful. On the other hand, their real forms? Barricade's was more intimidating than cute or 'pretty'.

I wasn't sure if the flash of emotion across his face was amusement or not, it was gone again too quickly. He had pitch black hair that hung in a shaggy style similar to that of Sunstreaker, only not quite as shaggy. His jaw was strong and chiseled, more squared than Sunstreaker's -why am I comparing them?- but he had the youth of a young man, roughly my age, maybe a little older. He was lean, looked like he'd be tall when he stood, but he had a fit body, what I could see of it through his uniform. What got me were his eyes, though.

They weren't black. Or red. Or any variant of the two together.

They were a cold, icy blue.

"Like what you see?" He smirked, his voice almost seductive as he stared ahead. His smirk didn't last long, however, as a silver Audi R8 cut him off. He growled. "Stupid, arrogant Sideways." Slanting me a quick glance, he spun back forward again. "Did you mean what you said? About him being a traitor? And trust me, you don't want to lie to me, femme."

I shuddered a little at the dark promise, sinking against the door. Barricade had been surprisingly docile and accepting of me in my presence. Cold, demanding, but not as mean or nasty as the others. There was almost a thoughtfulness about him, like...like he was always contemplating something. "Well, he was in the cartoons that were made over twenty years ago. He, uh...didn't live long enough for anyone to know in the second movie. Sideswipe actually kills him within the first like..fifteen minutes."

He frowned deeply. "Sideswipe... How can he manage that when we have him locked up?"

I blinked a moment, a cold sense of dread filling me. "When you... What?" It couldn't be. If he was on Earth, Sunny would have sensed him, found him by now. He's lying. He has to be. "He's not even on Earth yet, how could you possibly have him-" The slow look he sent me stopped me cold. "Sunstreaker would have sensed him."

"If he was strong enough to send a signal out, perhaps. But enough of that slagging waste of metal. Tell me something..." He shot me a look. There was no smirking, no joking, no condescending, just...blankness. "How does it feel to know there's been a spy on the Autobot side?" I had no idea what he was talking about, and my look must have shown it, because he sped up to smack almost pointedly into Sideways' ass.

"Jesus! Enough with the kissing ass!" I hissed, gripping the edge of the seat tightly, even as the Audi revved it's engine audibly, honking it's horn angrily. "I wouldn't know! He wasn't there when I was, okay? And unlike the Decepticons, the Autobots trust each other with their lives!" I shot him a glare, feeling my heart twitch nervously. "How else do you think the Autobots have survived and always managed to win in the end? Let me ask you something, Barricade." His eyes narrowed, but he didn't say a word. He didnt have to. The angry revving of his engine was warning enough, but not quite enough to silence me. "How does it feel to know you're on the wrong side?"

"What?" He nearly barked that single word, spinning to glare at me. "The wrong side?"

"Think about it. Decepticons are evil, and it's a universal truth that good always wins over evil. You're destined to lose the war, I've seen it." I watched his optics narrow dangerously, the way every inch of the car seemed to tense, and he gripped the steering wheel tightly, his holographic knuckles turning white. "I've seen Megatron die. I've seen him come back, and bring the Fallen to Earth, only for The Fallen to die."

Now his eyes widened. "Impossible! The Fallen is the oldest Decepticon! He's a former Prime! No one can defeat the master!"

"Optimus will. He did it in our movies, and he'll do it here."

"Not if you tell us how."

It was my turn to sneer. Despite the brave front I think he knew I was putting on, I knew I'd die before I told them jack. "No, I won't, and I think you know that. How does it feel, Barricade, Runner, to know that no matter what kind of good work you do, you'll only ever receive insincere thanks? You fail in a mission, everyone calls you a moron, bags on you about it, and may even try to kill you." His eyes turned to the front, and he glanced away from me as a red...well, I'm pretty sure the car was alien and not an Earth model. Or Dead End wanted to be several different things, and butchered his alt form trying to incorporate them all into it. The form worked for him, but was hideous and indescribable to me. "Even when you do good work, Starscream will just take credit for it. Or brush it off."

"So what? You want me to change sides? That's ridiculous!" He was all but snarling.

"Is it? Then why is Jetfire currently settling in, cosying up with the Autobots? Why did I see another Decepticon switch sides in the second movie?" I wasn't about to name who. Chances were, he'd just as soon spill it all to Screamer, who'd offline Wheelie before the bot got a chance to get away. Speaking of Wheelie, I'd have to try and find him, if I was allowed to move around at all. Chances were... I wouldn't be. I'd be locked up and made a prisoner in every sense of the word.

We'd been driving for what felt like forever. Barricade fell silent after my question, and I watched cities come and go. I had no idea where we were now, we were moving so fast, other cars looked like they were standing still, which made street signs all but a nameless blur. All I knew was we were exiting the desert, entering forested roads, and heading towards one of the largest mountain ranges I'd ever seen.

"Jetfire... I thought he was offlined." Barricade's eyes were narrowed with some undescribable emotion I couldn't name. "The reports stated he left to follow the Allspark, then simply disappeared. No reports were ever received..."

"He was offline. The Autobots used a shard of the Allspark to revive him, and brought him to their base for repairs." Maybe I shouldn't have said anything about Allspark shards, or base or Jetfire for that matter, but none of it was specific information. None of it would tell them where the base was, who all was there at any given time, or anything like that.

"They brought a Decepticon to the base? As a guest?"

I shrugged, catching his attention. "He helped in the movie, giving his life for Optimus'. He proved himself an ally there, and I told Prime that much. I don't know if he's a guest or a prisoner, that much they didn't tell me, but last I heard, he was being given the tour and Ratchet was treating any injuries he had." I sighed and shook my head, staring at him warily. I had no idea what to make of this mech, but I wanted, more than anything, for him to be a good bot deep down. "Do you know... No, of course you wouldn't." I frowned. "A lot of people in my world wrote you as a good bot deep down in your spark. You supposedly hide it with a rougher exterior, but you're not a true, sparkless Decepticon."

There was a low growl, and before I could blink, my arm was seized in a painful grip that had me crying out. With a shock, I spun to find Barricade glaring at me with a look of loathing I'd never imagined he could have, but...there was something else there, too. Was it desperation? Fear? I couldn't name it. Not with my mind focusing only on the rage he was displaying at me right then and there. "Don't dare to presume to know me, Auto-sleaze!" He hissed, and I winced as he twisted my arm even more. "I'm a Decepticon through and through! I've killed before, and I'll kill again, it's what I am!" He then almost recoiled from me, holographic eyes widening slightly, and a new expression forming on his face. It might have been shock tinged with guilt, but before I could be sure, his expression turned min-numbingly cold, and he just stared, giving me a cold look, before twisting forward.

I couldn't help but stare in shock. Any hope I'd had of saving him, converting him, just dropped to the faintest spark in an endless darkness. If he was capable of being that cold, and if he wanted to be, maybe everyone was wrong about him. Slowly, I pressed my back against the door, the silence almost deafening. My breathing picked up, that damned burning was back in my eyes, and I stared blindly ahead at the looming mountains.

What did I get myself into?

Dear Diary,

Screamer was all too happy to see me when we arrived. Did I ever mention how creepy he was, looking like a giant, malformed dorito, and sounding like a complete and total lunatic? Well, he was. Why did the Decepticons even follow him? It just didn't make sense. They were all smart bots, and half the crap out of Screamer's mouth was just that. Crap. He had designs on power. That's all there was to it. Frag everyone else.

Did the 'Cons care so little about themselves, that they'd follow this lunatic, quite possibly to their own deaths?

What was I saying? Of course they would. After all, they did so in the second movie, didn't they?

-Bella

Author's Note : I don't own the name 'Runner'. I have actually read it in more than one fiction, but I don't remember which ones. I don't know if it's a term given to him by a fan, or if it's actually something about him I just didn't know. It's all just a guess, as is his 'family history'. I also don't own the 'malformed dorito' thing, Primesbaby007 has used that one multiple times.

GoldenCompass90 : Longer chapters? Well, there's a bit of an issue with that. All my chapters are the same length, with the exception of up to 5kb (about 700 words?), and they're already written up to chapter 83 so far. LOL And these are the longest chapters I've ever written for a story, that I know of. I'm already rambling in places, if I made them longer, I'd probably ramble on a lot worse.

Written : August 29, 2010

Hope you like it.

R+R Please

Thank you

Tenshi