AN: Ravage arrives on Earth about a decade after the events of the first movie. She finds out that the Allspark has been destroyed, Frenzy is dead, and that Soundwave isn't there. Wandering around the northern portion of the US, she ends up getting hit by a drunk driver and taken to see a vet. She loses one of her back legs but meets Miles Lancaster and decides to stay with him. Fed up with the war and just wanting to enjoy some peace, Ravage sets off a chain of events that ends the Civil War and brings hope to the Cybertronians once more. (this is now part of a series on ao3 under energonbunny)

"-an' I know yous gonna yell at me about the drinkin' and drivin' but I need ya to save—save the kitty!"

Miles stared at the sight in front of him with a furrowed brow. Doug, the town drunk, was openly sobbing on his knees with his arms wrapped around the chest of some robot creature that just sat there staring at Miles with red, unblinking eyes. The thing looked closer in size to a cougar than it did to some little house cat but it was definitely supposed to resemble a feline, so Doug was right in that regard even if it wasn't actually alive.

"Doug…" Miles scrounged up all the patience he could, "What the hell, man?"

"I didn't mean to hit the kitty!" Doug was beginning to drip snot with the force of his crying.

Miles took a long moment to stare at the pair and debate what to do. He had been moments away from locking the door to his little veterinarian clinic so he could return home for the night when Doug had walked in. Or, more accurately, when Doug had been dragged in by that beast of a thing he kept referring to as a kitty. Despite Doug's own impressive size, the robot cat had been more than capable of walking with him wrapped around their midsection and had just dragged him along as the drunk hollered for Miles' help and nearly gave him a heart attack.

The robot cat was missing one of their back legs, and Miles had to assume between Doug's sobs and the large dent in the man's trunk that he could see out the open door that it was because he had hit the thing. The stump that remained had some kind of pink liquid dripping from it and a loose wire that was giving off occasional sparks.

"Alright, alright." Miles took a deep breath, "Give me your keys, Doug. I'll call your brother to come and pick you up and then I will help the…"

He couldn't actually refer to the thing as a kitty, but Doug was drunk enough that it didn't actually matter. The man dug in his pocket and tossed his keys to Miles, and then came over and hugged him and kissed him on the cheek, smearing snot on him and making him shudder.

"Oh, gross, just-" Miles shoved him away, "Go wait outside, you drunk bastard!"

Luckily, a drunk Doug oscillated easily between pure despair and pure happiness, and with the knowledge that Miles was going to take care of the little 'kitty' he had hurt he was already too happy to remember being sad and just hugged again before practically skipping outside. Miles wiped the snot off his face and then sent a text to Doug's brother, knowing he didn't have to bother with a call because the poor man was probably already waiting for it.

He closed the front door, locked it, and then turned to the robot cat that had half turned their head to keep an eye on him. The thing was large and obviously very strong, so Miles doubted he could actually get it to move anywhere that it didn't want to move to. And while he was a vet and the thing looked distinctly feline, it was still all metal from what he could see and he barely had any idea what to do with that.

"Okay, well…" Miles felt a bit stupid for talking to the thing but he didn't know what else to do. "Doug brought you to me because I am a vet and I take care of animals, which you look like. But you're a robot, not an actual living animal." Which made him feel even stupider to say, but he had no idea how advanced this thing was. He'd never seen anything like it before, "I have some stuff in my garage I could maybe use to help you out, but nothing here. So, uhm… wanna come home with me?"

The robot cat nodded their head.

Two hours and a lot of cussing later, Miles had mostly patched up what remained of the robot cat's back leg. Miles had brought them home in the bed of his truck and had repaired them there, figuring it made things easier. He'd had to borrow a welder and other related safety equipment from a neighbor, but RC had sat patiently through the whole ordeal and hadn't attempted to bite and claw him. The patch wasn't perfect, but RC was no longer leaking and there were no more wires sticking out of them, so he figured it would have to do.

"Alright," Miles used his shirt to wipe the sweat off his safe. "You're good to go, now. So you can…"

He made a shooing motion with his hands, because he still had no idea how much RC could understand. RC very deliberately sat up on their haunches and brought one of their front paws up to their face, flexing their claws and examining them in apparent indifference.

"You can totally understand me!" Miles accused, unphased by the implied threat. "You already gave yourself away by nodding once and now this crap? You're not a normal robot are you?"

RC gave him an extremely unimpressed look, which was quite impressive given the robotic feline face they had to work with. Miles tossed his hands up with a snort.

"Fine, whatever. Do what you want. I'm going to bed."

When Miles woke up the next morning, he felt safe in the knowledge that RC should be long gone. So when he went out to his living room and saw RC instead laying on his couch with their head resting on their paws he had a rather rude awakening.

"Oh," Miles said, because he didn't know what else to say. "You're still here."

RC opened one red eye to stare at him.

"You're on my couch," Miles noted dully. "You're on my couch even though I locked my doors and windows last night… how did you...?"

He walked a little further so he could peer into the kitchen and saw that the backdoor was wide open and the doorknob was hanging askew.

"Of course," Miles wandered back into the living room and slumped into his recliner, rubbing a hand over his face. "Just invited yourself in. Might not be a normal robot, but you've certainly got that feline attitude down pat. Are you planning to leave any time soon?"

Miles watched as RC stood up and stretched themselves out, butt high in the air and front legs fully extended. RC took another moment to jump off the couch and walk over to sit at his feet, shaking their head. He'd already guessed that, given he'd woken up to see that they broke into his house to sleep on his couch, but it was still annoying to know for sure. It wasn't like Miles was capable of chasing them off, nor did he think if he put his foot down that they'd bother to listen to him.

Just thinking about what they could get up to was beginning to give him a headache, but it was workable with a white lie or two if they behaved. And stopped breaking his door.

"Okay…" Miles sighed, "Well, I can't just keep calling you RC in my head, then. Do you have a name?"

RC nodded.

"Can you communicate it to me in some way?"

RC nodded again and Miles waited. A minute ticked by and RC just stared impassively at him.

"Would you communicate it to me in some way?" Miles corrected himself, rolling his eyes.

RC rested their head on his knee and just continued to look up at him.

"I'll take that as a no," Miles muttered, lifting a hand up and stroking the smooth metal in between RC's ears without thinking. He paused when he realized but RC actually bared their teeth when he started to remove his hand so he went back to petting. "You're a bossy little fucker, aren't you?"

RC looked as smug as a robot cat could.

"Alright, how about Cleo?" Miles grinned, "Short for Cleopawtra."

Cleo didn't need words to tell him that they detested the pun because they just bit him on the thigh instead. Miles jerked and yelped, banging his knee on the underside of their chin.