Hello! I'm sorry it's taken me so long to update. I'm at a crossroads in the story and I haven't entirely decided which route to take. Please hang in there! Thank you to all the reviewers and PMers who messaged me. I promise I won't abandon the story! In fact, I have another one-shot that will come out before the end of the week so keep a look out!

Thanks to the reviewers, .Princess, SolusPrimeLightblast, KEZZ 1, Jaebi, and angel9507. Also, thanks to the PMers!

Chapter 27

"Damn robot." Erin sniffled weakly, trying to regain composure. Her face felt raw from tears. If anyone saw her in such a pitiful state, she'd probably have to kill them. There was no way she would let news of her crying like a child get loose.

It was not until after an hour of sitting against the hot metal hanger was Erin convinced that Sunstreaker wouldn't return for her. A wiser human way have run off, but she was too stubborn. Scared or not, she'd stand her ground 'till it killed her. And she was scared.

Sunstreaker had always been a name that gave the soldiers on base pause. It was a powerful name, dawned by a 'bot equally so. Sideswipe had once told her that the literal translation of his brother's name from Cybertronian would be 'he who races across the stars with the fury of a sun'. When Erin pointed out that a sun and stars are the same thing, Sideswipe had only said cryptically, "That's a matter of prospective".

Erin always held an air of caution around Sunstreaker, she did have some survival instincts after all. But she had never before feared him as much as she did in that moment.

It was as if he blamed her for everything that had gone wrong in his life. He hated her. She replayed each venomous word in her head. What caused this?

"Brook?"

Erin whipped her head up to see Franky, looking far more timid than he had earlier. She narrowed her eyes, scrutinizing the caution on his face. Her voice held more control than she appeared to possess, "Tell anyone about this and I'll hang your body as a prop in the cityscape."

To his credit, Franky looked unaffected by her vivid threat. "Someone's feeling dark today." He smiled lightly. "What happened?" he queried, glancing an accusing stare in the direction of the hanger entrance.

"Nothing that you should be concerned about." She quickly deflected.

Not taking the hint, the man pressed on. "If that Sideswipe guy did anything…" he trailed off. Erin assumed stating he'd report the mech to a superior would sound weaker than allowing the threat to be perceived.

Quickly, the young woman shook her head and threw herself up onto her feet. "I haven't spoken with Sideswipe recently. He had something important to deal with so we parted ways." It was only a minor lie, one which Franky shouldn't be concerned with.

"So the silver one abandoned you." he summarized, looking ticked- though Erin had a feeling any confrontation between the two would look like a chihuahua yipping at a bull. "What happened then? You can tell me, Brook." He shuttered slightly, "This has nothing to do with the yellow one, right?"

"No." Erin lied sadly. She didn't want to stir up any problems by Franky reporting the mech to Prowl. Trying to change the topic she asked, "Actually, what are you doing here?"

Franky was, in short, terrified of the autobots. She couldn't blame him, they were intimidating. On the other side of base he could talk about them like they were any other soldiers, but whenever he was face to faceplates with one, mainly Ironhide, he'd shake and become nearly incoherent. Of course he did not make it so obvious, but Erin could easily tell. Which begged the question, why was he outside the autobot hanger while wearing civilian clothes? He was only holding a manila folder with no visible water markings on the exterior.

He raised said folder, casually displaying it, "Sargent Epps asked me to bring these to Captain Lennox."

"You're going to hand in a report while wearing a t-shirt and shorts?" Erin glared at him disbelievingly. "Epps asked you to do that?"

"Well," he elaborated, "Sargent Epps was watching Que and the guy's doing somethin' in the rec room. I wanted to get out of there so I offered to help deliver this." Erin could at least believe that part. Most humans were wary of anything the eager scientist touched. "Besides," he waved the contents in front of Erin, "it's just some personal letters. The Captain missed mail call."

"So you are meeting him in the autobot hanger." Erin reiterated for him.

"Yes." He said with confidence.

"You know you are probably going to walk into a few autobots on the way, right?" after a moment of not seeing it sink in, Erin outright asked, "Have you even had a conversation with one of them without shitting yourself?"

The man looked indignant at the accusation but did not deny it. "Actually, I saw you setting here and, since you're so close with them, I thought they wouldn't mind as much if you went in and…" He offered Erin the folder with an already grateful smile.

Wordlessly she ripped it from his grip, sending him a dark glare. The man really was a coward. Well, she'd at least prove herself. It didn't matter whether Sunstreaker returned, she would stand her ground. And perhaps this distraction would pull her from this dark mood she was in.

Franky offered some kind of quick thank you as Erin turned the corner for the main hanger entrance, on the opposite side of the barracks. She never saw where he ran off to after that, he probably just ran back to the human side of the base.

Focusing solely on the task at hand, Erin marched indignantly through the oversized halls. She was not going to let some pompous mech push her around. If he wanted space from her, fine, but she wouldn't hide away. Slowly, her head began to fill with overt analysis of the yellow mech. The more she thought about it, the less fear she felt.

Erin was used to Sunstreaker's moods, so this could just be one of them going haywire… again. And even if he was serious, she had enough experience with the mech to defend herself. Especially once she got her new e-blade from Que.

When she stepped through the heavy blast doors that led to the scientist's lab, she wished he was present to speak with her. Apparently her new weapon was slow coming. She had discussed designs with Que after cornering him in the human rec room one night. The mech had seemed all too eager to get started. But since then, he had announced there would be delays in production of her new blade. The soldier wanted to discuss was what the issues were, and when she could expect them to be resolved. Que had assured her that the designs were approvable for a Specialist and he had ample time to work on it. And since speaking with him, the mech had become cryptic in his responses to her hails. Unfortunately, she never seemed to be able to catch up with him. She needed energon based weapons for her job and only pistols and rifles were standard issue. All blade weapons were created for specialty combatants per order.

Besides, even if he was in his lab, there was no guarantee he would come out to speak with her. Ever since the incident with mech, no human from the enlisted ranks had been allowed inside. It only made sense. Somehow, Que's designs landed in the hands of the enemy. As to how this happened, Erin was unsure. All Cybertronian weapon designs were encrypted using their native techniques and in language that even humans who were learning Cybertronian wouldn't be able to understand. Someone would have had to study the weapon themselves, have ample time to do so, and had to subvert any security measures.

Silas would not have the opportunity to do so, it would be too suspicious for a General to disappear for any extended period of time. That left an agent hidden among the ranks. It was possible that, since the discovery of Silas's treachery, this secret agent was pulled from his mission. After all, the command staff had yet to make any announcements of the issue. Erin could only hope this meant the threat of Mech had been handled.

Erin moved on to the main hallway where the command staff were located. She hadn't asked where Captain Lennox was located, a testament to how put off she was. However, rather than ambling through the hanger in search of the man, Erin pulled out her data pad.

The display showed one new message. In native Cybertronian text, she recognized Sideswipe's name. Ironhide had been the one to encourage her to adjust the language settings. The simplest of glyphs would replace English in whatever text she read. The intuitive program helped accelerate her education in the complex language.

She quickly send a query for Lennox's location before tapping open the silver mech's message, which had been sent only a couple minutes prior. It read, "Hey, Rin, I'm sorry I drove off like that! Could you please forgive me? (づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ Can we talk about something, not over txt? I'm in the 'bot barracks if you're nearby!" Erin had practically forgotten about the incident with Sideswipe, she had other things on her mind. But she paused at the invitation, remembering Sunstreaker's words, 'If I see you anywhere near Sideswipe, I will grind you to paste!'. Numbly, the soldier deleted the message. She needed to start focusing on the goals she had set for herself. She was to climb the ranks. Being on Team Prime gave her the boost she needed, but it was time to get back to reality. Befriending the mechs would only be a distraction, a dangerous one apparently.

Just as the note faded to cyber blue, a new notice appeared. Recognizing the glyph for Lennox's name, as it translated to "From the planet earth, at the approximate coordinates of 55.974 north, negative 4.206 east", she opened the message. It was short and completely in English, "Med bay". Secretly, Erin was relieved she wouldn't have to go to the barracks. She was not ready to see Sideswipe yet. The young woman was going to have to move past whatever friendship she formed with him, for her own sake. But to do that, she would need a bit more time, and some well-coordinated space.

She hurried to the tall door near the middle-end of the hall. The soldier could not hear any yelling or clanking of metal, signifying it was acceptable to enter. She crossed through the threshold, eyes adjusting to the brighter light.

Inside, Erin found Ratchet and Ironhide, only the latter of whom turned to see the soldier's approach. They were both standing over a berth, Lennox was clearly visible atop it, sitting casually off to the side. In the center, however, Erin could see curly golden hair.

"Erin." the weapons specialist greeted gruffly. He had long since retired formality between them, off the training field of course.

The woman was admittingly relieved to see the oversized mech. While he was not openly caring, she felt a sense of trust in him. Briefly, Erin considered confiding to him what happened with Sunstreaker, but she pushed the thought away. Erin needed to distance herself.

She nodded respectfully to Ironhide before turning her full attention to Lennox. "Captain Lennox," she called crisply, "I have a package from Sargent Epps." Out of the corner of her eye, Erin saw the mech tilt his head quizzically.

The Captain only paid half attention to Erin's hails, he turned his head towards her but his eyes were focused on the small girl at the center of the berth. "Right, thanks, at ease." Erin had not been saluting.

Annabelle, who had been patiently facing Ratchet turned in a flash, thick hair whipping her face. "Erwin!" she called in a happy squeal. "Did you come to pway with Iwonhide?"

The soldier cringed at her choice words. It was Captain Lennox who had told the young girl their sparring matches were games safe only for adults. After Erin quickly shot down the child's phrase of 'adult games', she settled with just 'playing'. Erin rigidly accepted the juvenile description of their rather serious battle exercises.

Annabelle's father quickly tried to calm the girl, who was about to crawl to the edge of the high berth. "Hold still for Ratchet, honey." He cooed. "He's almost done."

"Perhaps," the medic interjected, irritation dripping from his vocalizer, "this would go much faster if I didn't have you too fidgeting around me." His tone made it very apparent that, if Annabelle had not been there, he would gladly clock both of them over the head with a wrench.

The blond haired girl coughed loudly. By the way both Ironhide and Lennox snapped their necks towards her, it was apparent why the child was in to see Ratchet.

The weapons specialist looked accusingly to the medic, "I told you, it's gotten worse."

"It's a sore throat." He snapped back. "Specialist Brook," the medic addressed the soldier, "why don't you, William, and Ironhide discuss your business outside?"

Realizing the mech was nearing the end of his patience, the human and black mech wisely moved to step away, but not before assuring Annabelle they would be right outside.

Ratchet had other plans, "You two attend to your duties, I will deliver Annabelle to her mother once we are done here." His tone left little room for argument.

Finally, all three exited, giving Ratchet what seemed to be some much needed space. Erin never really understood how Lennox and Ironhide could obsess over one child so religiously.

"Captain." Erin called courteously, offering the folder.

"Thank you." Finally, he allowed her to complete her mission, taking the folder and flipping through the envelopes. While doing so, he conversationally asked, "So how's it going with the twins? You keeping them in line?"

Voice caught in her throat, she quickly tried to refocus her thoughts. Images of Sunstreaker's black and yellow pede crunching down on her flashed behind her eyes. Questions once again bounced around in her head. What had she done? Did he really hate her? Does Sideswipe feel the same way? Swallowing her sudden influx of panic and confusion, Erin ensured her features were schooled. "Everything is as well as it can be with them."

"Sounds about right." Lennox nodded in agreement, only half focused on the conversation. "Hey," he hooked a finger over his shoulder, "feel free to come by for some beer tonight, Sarah would love the company."

This was a rather common invitation from Lennox. Whether it was a family dinner or a late-night drink, Erin was often invited by either the man himself, his wife, or Ironhide. Erin had a feeling that Mrs. Lennox enjoyed having another girl around. It was not uncommon for Epps or the occasional other soldier to join them. Either way, she almost always abided their requests. There was a benefit to gaining the social favor of one's superior officer. At times, she even found herself enjoying the company. Ironhide had increasingly grown to be a mentor of sorts to her. He not only shared battle advice with her, but was always willing to discuss more personal issues as well, not that she pulled too far from the realm of the professional. But the occasional tip on how to better get along with the mechs on base never hurt. He was the one who explained what the loss of Arcee meant for the 'bots.

While she was not a carrier, a cybertronian capable of having a child, most femmes were. The loss of their final femme symbolized the loss of their species' future. Unless a carrier mech comes around, which apparently exists in some cases, or a femme managed to survive in hiding, there would be no hope for a natural revival of their species.

Ironhide was the one who really taught Erin how to be sympathetic with the 'bots. Perhaps, he would be the best person to approach about her problems with Sunstreaker. However, Erin had already decided to emotionally separate herself from her teammates. There was no benefit in being close with them. The yellow mech had indicated that he would still work with her on the field and that was all that she should care about.

The soldier shook her head. "Thank you for the offer, sir, but I already have other commitments for tonight." She was not in the mood, not that night. "If, you'll excuse me, sir." She saluted and waited for Lennox to dismiss her before heading back through the hallway.

For a moment, Erin thought she would be able to return to her barracks unimpeded, but the ground shaking footsteps behind informed her otherwise. "Erin." Ironhide's gruff voice pierced through the soldier's thoughts. Suppressing a sign, she turned to face the superior officer. The mech's optics darted down for a second, as if he was thinking his words over. "Is everything… alright?"

The discomfort in the weapon specialist's expression almost made Erin smile. While he was reasonably comfortable listening, he was not the best in expressing himself, or showing concern. She schooled her features to appear calmer than she was really feeling. "Everything is fine, Ironhide." She answered smoothly.

The black mech's optics narrowed suspiciously. "Have you seen Sideswipe or Sunstreaker today?"

A chill rushed through Erin's veins. As far as Erin could tell, Sunstreaker hadn't returned to the hanger since their last encounter and it was unlikely that he poured his spark out to Ironhide over the comm link. Sideswipe, on the other hand, may have run into the black mech. And if the silver twin looked anything like his brother, Ironhide would have cause for concern. Trying to ease her beating heart, Erin replied, "I saw Sideswipe this morning, and Sunstreaker a little over an hour ago." Cautiously, she added, "Why?"

"Sideswipe was in the med bay earlier, it looked like he and Sunstreaker had gotten into it, did they say anything to you?"

This was the last thing that Erin wanted to talk about at the moment, but denying the event could lead to trouble in the future. "I'm not sure what happened. I was with Sideswipe when he started acting… oddly. He drove off to his brother. When I saw Sunstreaker later, he looked like he'd gotten into a fight. I only saw him drive off, but I don't know where he went. I haven't seen either since."

"Did Sunstreaker say anything to you?"

"Nothing that made sense." She replied quickly, "He just yelled as usual before storming off. I don't think this was much more severe than their usual fits." Pausing, she realized that she could not remember Ironhide's tone, she had no clues as to what he already knew. "Did Sideswipe say anything to you?"

"No, he just wanted to know whether I'd seen you today." It was apparent that the old 'bot was reading more into this than Erin would have liked. "Sunstreaker didn't, hurt you, did he?"

It started to dawn on Erin that, whatever the twins were arguing about, had to do with her. A sudden wash of guilt flooded over her. Whatever she said to Sideswipe must have set him off, but she couldn't figure out what. Did something she say mistranslate? Sideswipe must have expressed some kind of concern to Ironhide. Perhaps the silver mech knew Sunstreaker would go after Erin. So, she hadn't been at the wrong place at the wrong time. The yellow warrior really had it out for her. This was precisely why Erin had to pull herself out of this situation. She didn't understand their culture and it was too risky to make another mistake. All Erin could do was focus on her career. Besides, even if the situation was her fault, there was no forgiving Sunstreaker's actions. He shouldn't target his rage at her over whatever misunderstanding occurred.

Before Erin could answer, Ironhide's optics flashed bright with surprise. "I have to go." He said quickly before transforming and zipping past towards the end of the hall. He took a sharp left turn, heading towards the command center.

Erin's relief to finally be alone was overwhelmed by a distinctive sense of foreboding. Something was going on. There were no alarms, no drills were being called, so the danger couldn't have been immediate. Erin pulled out her data pad and saw two alerts, both containing messages… from Sideswipe.

Out of curiosity, she checked them. The first read, "OR, I could pick you up? I really need to talk to you". The second was more noteworthy, "By the way, Sunny is upset right now, I'd give him some space to cool off." That was an understatement. So he knew Sunstreaker would go after her. Frowning, Ern dismissed the two messages and continued for exit.