A/N: Yay! Here we go! Sorry it took me a minute and a half. I'm studying for my next stage of boards so that's keeping me pretty busy. Leave me thoughts and love! Y'all know how much I love reading your opinions!


Chapter Twenty:

Non-Essential


"Since it is so likely that children will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise you are making their destiny not brighter but darker." -C.S. Lewis


She was ok. She was ok. She was ok. The words pulsed with every beat of his spark. Rattling around in his helm. Sunstreaker was still out cold in the medbay, and that was probably for the best. This would only stress him out further and the last thing his brother needed was that. Besides, everything was ok. She was ok.

Optimus and Jazz were bringing Aj back to the base right now. Prime himself had messaged the base letting us all know that Megatron hadn't hurt her. Guilt swirled in his spark at the reminder that she had been with Megatron of all mechs. He had let her go. He had let that filthy, scrap of a liaison escort his femme to fragging Megatron.

'You said you didn't want to be bonded to me so why don't you start acting like it?'

Sideswipe sunk lower onto his tires, the whine of his engine catching the attention of nearby soldiers. Aj was right. He had said that. She had misunderstood him though. Sideswipe didn't say that because of her, but because of himself. For the longest time now, he had let himself be fooled into thinking things were ok. That he was better, but he was wrong. He was still poison. Sideswipe was still poison to the ones he loved. Regardless of how the words were meant, maybe it was for the best that Aj took it the way she did. As long as she steered clear of him, she would be safe.

'This has nothing to do with you and I don't want you here.'

The words had hurt. They hurt enough to make him pause, to let her slip away. A part of him knew that she had only said the words to get what she wanted. That she didn't actually mean any of it. Still, he had to ignore every instinct to go after her just in case. What if she had meant it? If she had meant it and he had followed that would've hindered him being able to help her. Sideswipe's thoughts were interrupted when Optimus and Jazz sped into the garage. Aj stepped out of Jazz to be greeted by Lennox, Epps, and a few others. She looked ok. She was safe. Sideswipe felt tension seep out of his frame.

'Just get the hell out of my business.'

Aj glanced around the room and did a double take when she noticed Cade slowly approaching the scene. Sideswipe watched as she rushed forward to greet him with a hug that he happily returned. Aj smiled at him, and Sideswipe chose this moment to reverse out of sight.

He was poison. He was poison. He was poison.

Sideswipe needed to follow her request whether she meant it or not.


I had seen Aubrey angry 4 times. Not upset or annoyed or frustrated, but angry.

'Yelling and teary eyed and arms waving' angry.

The first time was when we were little kids and I cut the hair off every single barbie she owned. In my defense, I had been 7 years old and very bored. The next time was when I came back from my first illegal fight while we were in our first foster home. We were both screaming that time and the foster parents had not been happy. We had gotten kicked out the next morning and I had promised her I wouldn't do that anymore. The third time was when she came home, and I had to admit that some shady characters were after me and her kids by association. Understandable. My bad.

The fourth time was now.

And damn, was it a doozy.

"Are you out of your mind!?" Aubrey yelled. Her arms motioned around the kitchen around her as if the appliances had anything to do with my decision to sign up for military training. "A soldier? A soldier!? This might just be the dumbest thing you've ever done!"

I tilted my head and readjusted my grip on the mug of juice in front of me, "The dumbest thing? In my entire life? I mean, Aubs, come on. It's me."

"Don't you sass me now, little sister!"

Without replying to that, I sunk in my seat. Aubrey continued to rattle off her reasons why she was so upset. None of this tirade required me. My sister just needed to rant and let off steam. I nodded along with her words and frowned when necessary. Somewhere between 'This is a mistake' and 'Lennox is going to hear from me', Annabelle bounced down the stairs and into the kitchen with a cheerful greeting.

"Morning, mom. Hey, Aj." She opened the fridge and glanced over at her shoulder at me, "Oh, I have a hoodie for you, Aj! We got it from Disney!"

Aubrey crossed her arms, "No hoodie for you. Hoodies are for people who don't stress their sisters out!"

Annabelle raised her eyebrows with a grin before shutting the fridge and walking away with a plate of fruit calling out for her brother. I didn't blame her for escaping the firing zone. I would try to do it too if I didn't know that Aubrey would follow me out.

"Aubs, I'm sorry." I pleaded. "I should've told you. I wanted to, but I didn't want to do it over the phone. I wanted to talk to you face to face."

"That's sweet, Aimee." Aubrey hummed, but her face did not match her words, "But I know you, which is why I know that you waited to tell me face to face because it's too late for me to stop you!"

I blinked. Wow, right on the money. Sheepishly, I put on a grin and she huffed when my smile confirmed her words. She had been on the same list as Jazz when I first signed up. If anyone could sway Lennox into revoking his invitation into his super cool soldier squad it would be his wife and mother of his child.

"I love you?" I offered peacefully.

Aubrey shook her head and grew silent, stewing on her anger which was slowly morphing into sadness. Damn it. This was worse than Aubrey being angry at me. Seeing the pain on her features kind of felt like a sharp, hot poker stabbing through my heart. I had always been soft for Aubrey. Always.

"I'm sorry." I pushed myself up to walk over to her. "Seriously, Aubs. I didn't want to lie to you or hurt you… I just need this. Sitting on the sidelines has never been my strength. You know that."

"I know. But this is so dangerous." Aubrey was pleading with me now, "Can't you say you changed your mind? That you don't want to do this anymore?"

I shook my head, "I think it's a little late for that, and—and it would be a bold-faced lie."

Aubrey heaved a sigh, lifting her hands to cup my face, "I can't lose you, little sister. Not again."

My mind drifted to my conversation with Megatron. There was so much happening, and despite us wanting nothing to do with it, Aubrey and I were at the eye of this storm. Someone needed to do something, to find a way to meet all of this head on, and it had to be me.

I couldn't ship Aubrey off to war.

"You aren't gonna lose me, Aubs." I grinned. "If you haven't noticed, I'm kind of invincible."

Aubrey squished my cheeks in her hands and I uselessly tried to pull away, "You're annoying is what you are."

"Yeah, but that's what you love about me." I said, my voice distorted by her hands.

She sighed one last time before releasing me, "Just be careful. It's bad enough I have to worry about my kids out there, and now you? Tyler is one reckless mission from giving me a stroke, please do not add to that."

"Aubrey, come on. There isn't a reckless bone in my body."

A warm laugh from the arch leading toward the front hall made us both turn. Jazz's holoform was casually leaning against the wall with his arms crossed and a smirk on his lips, "Sweetspark, every bone in you is reckless. Little miss 'Lemme go visit Megatron while OP is away'."

Aubrey blinked, and her calm went right back to rage, "You did what!?"

"Jazz", I mumbled and pointed to him, "You're a dirty little snitch."

Jazz's features showed no remorse or regret. Only amusement. I guess Lennox hadn't mentioned to her what I was up to early yesterday morning. Oops. The mech pushed off the wall to walk toward us, "I know you wanna offline her, Aubrey, but I gotta take her back to base. Maybe another time?"

Aubrey huffed, "Fine. I'll wake up my husband and murder him first."

"Sounds perfect to me." I shrugged and Aubrey glare at me. "Er—gotta go, Aubs! I'll talk to you later, yeah?"

"Yes. Yes, we will."

Quickly, I backpedaled out of the kitchen with Jazz on my heels. I shot him a glare, but he only raised an eyebrow at me in challenge. I would be a fool to think he wasn't still peeved at me too. When Optimus and Jazz rolled up to pick me up from my impromptu meeting with Megatron neither had been very happy with me. It was actually the first time Optimus had ever yelled at me, and by God was that traumatizing. Luckily, I had been able to distract him with what Megatron had told me. I think that had saved me from Optimus putting me in time out.

"You leaving, Aj? Eli and Lexi will be here soon." Annabelle called out to me when we stepped out the front door.

She was sunbathing on a towel draped over the hood of Ironhide's alt form while Ironhide's holoform pushed her little brother in the tire swing hanging from the large tree in the front yard.

"Yeah, gotta get back to base before your mom slaughters me. Tell 'em I said hi."

"Bye, Aj!" Lucas yelled as he clutched the tire flying through the air. Ironhide glanced over and nodded at us both once. I said my good-byes to both kids before Jazz herded me into his alt mode. I had caught a ride with Ironhide to the house, Jazz just came to pick me up, and something told me this drive back was going to be filled with another lecture for me to nod along to.

"So, the weather is really, really nice today." I said slowly. Jazz stayed in his holoform and glanced over at me with a look that said he was not going to be talking about the weather. I cleared my throat, "What kind of money do I have to pay you to not lecture me on the trip back?"

"Yeah, an' exactly how much money do you have to your name?"

Definitely less than zero.

"I've been told I have a million-dollar smile." I gave him a friendly grin and bat my eyes a few times at him. Jazz chuckled and smirked but began in on his lecture anyways. While he spoke, I nodded and hummed accordingly, but my own mind was miles away.

Optimus and Jazz had both taken the news Megatron told me in stride. It didn't seem to faze them, but I think both mechs were just extraordinarily good at hiding their surprise. Prime had told the rest of the Autobots in some big secret meeting yesterday afternoon after he spent the morning stewing over it. I didn't know if Lennox knew or if they even planned on letting them in on said information. I wondered how Ratchet was taking it all though. He was so busy with Sunstreaker and Moonracer that I hadn't really talked to him yet. Damn, I was gonna be in for another lecture when we got back to base.

The one good thing about all this had been the shit ton of trouble Galloway was in for kidnapping me and carting me out to the desert to be murdered. Apparently, he had acted on his own with no approval from any of his higher ups and that made his actions frowned upon. If he had permission, I guess that would mean kidnapping and attempted murder were ok. Granted, it was hardly kidnapping since I voluntarily left with him. I didn't clarify that though. I was more than happy with the asshole getting in the most trouble possible.

"You're not even listenin' to me right now, are you?"

My head swiveled back around to him with wide eyes, "Uh no. I agree with what you said."

"What did I say?"

"That I'm careless and I need to think before I act and that Ratchet is going to duct tape me to his medbay wall at this rate."

Jazz's holoform paused for a moment before nodding and continuing. It had been a complete guess on my part, but what did it say about the lectures I was getting if they all held the same content. Besides, as far as I was concerned my actions led to us knowing a part of the puzzle that was our situation. The first step in a war is knowing who the hell you're going up against.


Ratchet felt like someone had taken a live wire to his entire frame. Taylor said the human equivalent to how he felt was too much caffeine. He was jumpy, on edge, and it was hardly any of his fault. From Sunstreaker and Moonracer still recovering to Aj flinging herself into danger wherever the femme could find it, it was a fragging Primus born miracle that he wasn't out of his processors.

Primus.

That line of thought had a new connotation to it now and it only added to his jitters. The news from Megatron and Aj had brought every Autobot on Earth to a grinding halt. It wasn't every day that someone told them their deities were playing puppets with a Decepticon Warlord and an Earth born femme. Plus, with the news came the thoughts of Megatron himself. Was it true that this pseudo deity had control over him and forced his hand to commit all those atrocities or was this just his way of trying to justify all the wrong he had done?

Snap.

Ratchet's body jolted at the noise, but he quickly relaxed when he realized he had broken the circuit board Wheeljack brought him in his servos. Frag. The engineer wasn't going to stop whining about that for a while. Ratchet quickly tossed it aside on his desk and rose to leave his office. Sunstreaker was still in a medicine induced stasis. He wanted to wake the mech and let Sideswipe have time with his twin, but the medic had a sneaking feeling that if he woke Sunstreaker up the yellow mech would refuse to go under again. It was better if he just let the ex-gladiator get as much healing time as he could for now.

Moonracer on the other hand was sitting on her usual berth with a human cupped in her servos against her chassis. The moment Aubrey came back with the younglings, Izabella had been glued to the femme's side. Moonracer hadn't seemed to mind, in fact she had grown distressed in worry, so Ratchet let the small girl in.

"Everything is still looking fine here!" Taylor chirped from her perch in Smokescreen's servos. He hadn't heard the mech come in. Smokescreen was holding her up to Moonracer's shoulder while Taylor worked. "The tic must be a neurological thing. First Aid could fix this up really quick, but he isn't on base anymore. I'm sure Ratchet can take a look though."

"Let me look." He called out and all of them seem startled by his voice. Moonracer gave him a soft smile while Izabella slept, and he felt that jittery feeling in his tanks again. "Taylor, can you go look at Sunstreaker's external wounds again. Check for deterioration."

"Roger, roger." Taylor chirped.

Ratchet held his hand up, "Without Smokescreen."

The mech grinned, "Oh come on, Hatchet. I ain't causing trouble!"

"You are trouble." Ratchet grumbled and sat down on the berth across from Moonracer.

Taylor used her booster to jump to Smokescreen's shoulder and press a quick kiss to his faceplate, "Get out before I let Ratchet wrestle you to the ground."

"Fine, fine." Smokescreen chuckled. Ratchet watched as Taylor glided to the berth he was on then to the next until she reached Sunstreaker.

He looked back to Moonracer while Smokescreen left and acknowledged the look of surprise on her features. Ratchet had forgotten she was new around here. He cleared his throat and pulled the medical screen over to him so he could look over her vitals. Ratchet spoke in Cybertronian, "Yes, it is what you are thinking. Smokescreen and Taylor are in a consensual relationship."

"Her energy signal is Cybertronian. Is she a pretender?" Moonracer prodded.

"No, no, nothing like that. Biologically she is human. Her energy is just Cybertronian we believe."

Moonracer paused briefly, "That is intriguing. How long have they been together?"

Ratchet hummed, "A few Earth years now. They were friends for much longer than that."

"Very intriguing."

Moonracer didn't press further so Ratchet left it as is. He felt like it wasn't his place to explain their entire relationship to an Autobot that Taylor didn't even know very well yet. He looked over the screen in front of him but saw nothing out of the ordinary. The tic she spoke of could just be leftover damage from the wound she sustained out in Austin. If it continued, he'd address it again, but for now everything seemed alright.

"You're nervous, Ratchet."

"I'm sorry?"

Moonracer smiled, she was speaking in English again, "The tremor in your servo. You only do that when you're nervous. What's wrong?"

"Nothing, nothing. A lot on my processors I suppose." He mumbled and quickly tried to veer the subject away from himself, "The human. You two are close?"

Moonracer lightly traced a finger down the human's back lovingly, "My charge. Unofficial, I suppose. She helped me in the Hive, and I helped her. We are a team."

"Her human family?"

"Gone." Moonracer shook her head as sadness washed over her features, "In the first attack of that area. Then when the hive settled in, she didn't evacuate with the other humans. She stayed."

Ratchet glanced from the Moonracer's face down to the human, "Why?"

"That's where her family was from. She didn't want to leave it behind." Moonracer said softly, "And I think she thought she was better on her own. She said she didn't want to be looked after by adults she didn't know. Izabella is a child and a human one at that, but she's strong, Ratchet. She's tough and brave and good."

He nodded and chuckled to himself.

That sounded familiar to him.


With a cry, I brought down the training swords made of blunt metal as hard as I could. Bumblebee blocked, but the force sent him sprawling back a step and a half. I spun in time to block the attack coming at me from Smokescreen with one hand and used the other sword to hit his holoform across his chest. He grunted and fell back, and without looking I turned and kicked an approaching Bumblebee in the middle of his chest with my braced leg. He flew back hard, and my eyes widened in shock.

"Shit! Bee!" I dropped the training swords Wheeljack had made me and rushed over.

Bumblebee propped himself up by his elbow and laughed, "Don't worry, Aj. I'm fine. That was a great move. You're getting super good at this."

"Hey, I'm ok too!" Smokescreen called over at me.

I rolled my eyes and helped Bumblebee's holoform off the ground, "Thanks for helping me practice y'all. I really appreciate it."

"Anytime, Aj!" Bumblebee chirped as if I hadn't just kicked him clear across the training mat. He stuck around for another moment giving me the few pointers he thought I should consider and then left to meet up with Jazz for some meeting.

Smokescreen turned to me, "Round… four?"

"Five actually." I grinned and picked back up my training swords, "You just keep forgetting the first one because I kicked your aft so bad."

"That doesn't sound right." Smokescreen argued with a smirk of his own.

I lunged forward in an attack and Smokescreen stayed on defense to let me practice my offensive tactics more. In two days, the other trainees would arrive, and my actual, official training would begin. To be honest, I was actually nervous. The last time I was this nervous was when Aubrey asked me to babysit her kids. Practicing my sword skills gave me comfort but not much. Sunstreaker was still in his Ratchet induced coma and Sideswipe had been straight up avoiding me since what I had said. Not that I blamed him. I said some pretty shitty stuff.

The sound of my phone going off caught my attention. I ducked under the swing of Smokescreen's training sword and slammed both of mine into his back knocking him to the ground with a grunt. Smokescreen groaned, "I swear Sideswipe and Sunstreaker planned this."

"Don't be a baby, Smokes." I replied and jogged over to pick up my phone. Aubrey was calling. "Sup, sis?"

"Are you busy? I need some help."

"No. I'm just kicking Smokes' ass." I replied and glanced over at him. He was still on the floor, but he raised his arm to flip me off. "What's up?"

Aubrey sighed, "Well, we have a problem. I've been talking to Lennox and the government isn't going to let Izabella stick around for much longer. I took her with us on vacation because it would buy us some time, but the government isn't budging."

"So, they want to kick her off the base?" I thought aloud. She was in the same scenario I had been in, but she couldn't apply to be a solider like I did. "And I'm guessing Moonracer won't be going with her?"

"Moonracer needs to stay with the Autobots, but even if she did leave with Izabella she still has to go into the system." Aubrey's words made me tense, and I had a feeling she knew they would. She sighed again, "Izabella is against it obviously. I think maybe Tyler should talk to her? He really connected with her. I can't get in touch with him though."

I nodded once, "Yeah, I'll text it to him."

Regardless of who told Izabella the news, this was not going to go over well.

This I knew from personal experience.


"No! I'm not leaving! You can't take me from her!" Izabella screeched. "I'm not going into the system! Not again!"

"We just want to help you Izabella, this isn't the kind of place—"

"I'm not going!"

"We want to find you a family—"

"Moonracer is my family!"

Tyler walked down the hallway feeling like someone had just gut punched him. Izabella was his friend, his little on base buddy, but the look she had given him when he tried to deliver the bad news was gut wrenching. If the little girl had been capable of clawing his face off he was more than positive she would've. His mom and Aj had thought he'd be the best for the job but apparently, they were very, very wrong.

He pushed into the training room, waving hi to Joey and Hemi who were sparring off to the side with some others from the squad, and continued forward to where Aj was beating Smokescreen to a pulp with her training swords. He was in no rush to break the news to Aj that he had failed so he stood off to the side on his phone.

'How'd it go?' Riley texted him.

'Not great.' He replied quickly. Admitting defeat to his girlfriend over text also didn't feel super great. Riley sent him back reassuring words and Tyler read over them twice before exiting out of his messaging app. Him and Riley had been dating a while now, longer than he had dated anyone since… well, since a very long time. Usually by now he'd feel the itch at the back his neck. That nagging feeling that he needed to move on, to make a clean break and find someone new. Things with Riley felt different. Tyler still felt excited to see her. He looked forward to it even. That was new to him.

"Ok, time out, time out. Primus, femme. This is the last time I'm helping you out."

"You know, Bumblebee and Flare-Up never whine like this when they help me."

"Words hurt you know."

Tyler looked up to see Aj stretching out while Smokescreen packed away the training sword he was using. His aunt had gotten shockingly good at swords. The twins had been right when they said she'd work better with that kind of weapon. Aj looked like a natural now. She still was kind of shitty at shooting, but she was working on that too.

"Femme, there is actually something I wanted to talk to you about." Smokescreen cleared his throat and Aj looked up from where she sat on the mat stretching out her legs. He continued, "It's about Taylor."

Tyler felt his entire body go tense in panic. He shoved his phone into his work pants and sprinted onto the mat. Before Smokescreen could open his mouth again, Tyler threw his arm around his shoulders and forced a laugh, "Taylor is working hard with Ratchet on making sure Sunstreaker is healing up right. I think Smokes was gonna tell you the newest update from her which is there is no update. Everything is the same."

"Ok. Weirdos." Aj stood up and picked up her training swords to put away, "Tyler how did that other thing go? You got my text, right?"

Tyler pushed a frowning Smokescreen aside and stepped forward, "Yeah, and it went about as shitty as you expected it would. She didn't like the news… even from me."

"I didn't think she would." Aj undid the straps on her vest and hung it into her locker, "That's a bummer."

"I think you should talk to her."

Aj's eyes widened, "What? How would that help? The last time I really talked to her was… Austin?"

Tyler crossed his arms, "You're good at this kind of thing."

"I'm good at punching things. Heart to hearts are not my forte."

He couldn't help but chuckle at her words. She still had no idea the kind of effect she had on the people around her. Aj was so good at breaking things down, at understanding pain. Tyler could still remember coming home crying with a black eye and wounded ego. He could still remember Aj pulling him into his arms and making every single thing better. His aunt didn't know it, but she was a lot better at heart to hearts than she thought.

"I just think you should take a crack at it. It can't get worse." Tyler pushed again.

"It very well could." Aj mumbled under her breath before clapping her hands, "Sure. I'll go talk to her after dinner. I told Cade I'd meet him in the cafeteria."

Tyler smirked, "Oooooh meeting Cade, huh? Little one on one time. Little—oof."

Aj had slugged him in the gut just hard enough to cut off his words, but not hard enough to keep him from laughing. She shook her head, gave Smokescreen one last smile, then left the training room. Tyler turned back to face Smokescreen who was staring at him in disbelief. He lifted his hand and pointed to the mech's holoform, "I just saved your life. You're welcome."

"I needed to talk to her. Taylor and I have decided—"

"Yeah, yeah, decided to tell her the truth about you two. I know. I talk to my sister, thanks." Tyler shook his head, "And I'm really happy for you guys, but telling her now? When she has two, heavy metal swords in her hands to beat the shit out of everyone with? Read the room, Smokes."

Smokescreen paused, "Good point. I'm only in holoform though, the damage wouldn't last."

"If you think she wouldn't have left this room with those swords to chase down your real form, you're dumber than you look. The damage she would've done would've given the drones a run for their money."

"Better point."

Tyler clapped Smokescreen on the back, "Give it time. The right moment will come. Also, maybe tell my sister to break the news to her. Aj wouldn't touch a hair on Taylor's head. You on the other hand? She's not that attached to you."

"Again, mean. Did you learn that from her? How to hurt feelings?"

Tyler smirked and walked away to join his squad in hand to hand training. He felt better knowing Aj was on the job. If anyone could handle breaking the news to Izabella it would be her.


I found the picture on my phone and turned it around to show the man sitting across from me. Cade took in the photo Peter had sent me of little Amy and chuckled, "Now she's a cutie."

"I know. I have the cutest grand-niece in the world." I hummed happily and glanced back at my phone itself. Peter was spending time at home with his family, but I told him to send me photos every hour, on the hour. To say I was obsessed with this absolute precious child was an understatement. As soon as I wasn't busy with training and all this nonsense, I was going to spoil that baby like no Grand-Aunt had done before. "She's perfect and will do no wrong ever in her entire life."

Cade chuckled again, "That's how I felt about Tessa when she was born. She's still perfect, but damn if she doesn't know how to get in trouble."

"From what I hear, she seems to get that from you. I mean look at the shit you've gotten yourself in now."

"You aren't wrong." Cade shook his head.

"So, what about Tessa's mom?"

"We were high school sweethearts. Tessa was… a bit of a surprise." Cade shook his head, his mind stuck in a memory. I couldn't help but smile at the soft look on his face. "She died a long time ago. It's just been me and Tessa."

I tucked a loose piece of hair behind my ear, "God, I'm sorry."

"It's ok." Cade cleared his throat, "It was… a long time ago. What about you?"

"Me?"

"Yeah, any past husbands or boyfriends or whatever." Cade coughed awkwardly as he tried to stay nonchalant. It wasn't working. I glanced down at my phone to see we had been sitting here for longer than an hour now just talking.

I shrugged, "Nope. Nothing of the sort. I've been too busy fighting anything that moved and babysitting a bunch of Cybertronians. Plus…"

It just hadn't seemed important. The last time I had a crush was Kyle, which turned out absolutely terrible, but even that had been minor. Realistically, the last time I had true feelings for someone was probably Josh back in high school. There had been no one in college. I was too closed off and dead inside to even consider it.

Unlike a majority of the rest of the world, I just hadn't made time for love. It wasn't high on my list of priorities, and now I was beginning to wonder if I even knew how to romantically love someone.

"Plus?" Cade pressed.

I shook my thoughts loose and let out a chuckle of my own, "Plus nothing. I just—there was no one. But, um, hey, I gotta go."

"I hope I didn't cross a line there; I really didn't mean to press." Cade lifted his hands in mock surrender.

"No, no." I said quickly, "Nothing like that. I have to go talk to Izabella. The government is trying to kick her off base and she isn't taking the news well."

Cade nodded, "I don't blame her."

"Dinner again tomorrow?" I asked while picking up my trash. Cade nodded and we shared a quick goodbye before I tossed my garbage and went looking for the young girl. The base was its usual degree of crowded and I tried to stay clear of anyone who looked like they were doing anything relatively important.

My best bet at finding Izabella was probably the Medbay since that's where Moonracer was. On my way there I saw Sam Witwicky talking to a group of soldiers in his typical suit. I gave him a wave that he returned, but he seemed deep in the conversation he was having so I didn't try and jog over to talk. Though I did need to talk to him soon because if anyone knew Galloway's fate it would be him and boy was I curious.

I was halfway to the Medbay when someone set their hand on my shoulder. I tensed and my hands twitched, but it was only Sam. He gave me a smile, "Sorry, didn't mean to spook you. Are you on your way to the Medbay?"

"Yeah, what's up?"

"I just think you might want some back up."

I opened my mouth to question why, but as soon as we opened the door to entire the Medbay the voice of one Galloway drifted over me. This was my own fault. I had thought his name and now he had manifested in my path.

Him, the soldier with him, and Ratchet all looked toward us. Ratchet was using his holoform to speak to the asshole liaison and I didn't see his alt form, so I suspected it was downstairs with Moonracer.

"God, I was kinda hoping the President fired your ass." I groaned.

"Excuse me?!" Galloway barked.

Sam put on a calm smile and lifted his hand, "No need to lose your temper, Galloway. What seems to be the issue?"

"The issue is this wanna be doctor won't tell me where the girl is."

"Wanna be doctor?" Ratchet barked.

I crossed the space to stand in front of Galloway, "What do you want with her?"

Galloway sneered at me, "It's my job to deal with her. She isn't welcome on this base."

"What's your plan? Kidnap her and drop her off in the desert?"

"We have a foster home already set up for her."

I crossed my arms as Sam spoke up again in his 'keep the peace' voice. My eyes drifted over to Ratchet who gave me a knowing look. I glanced down, motioning to his downstairs Medbay, and Ratchet seemed to catch onto what I was asking. The medic shook his head once and then glanced behind me at the door I had just come in. I gave him a tight-lipped smile and began to leave.

"Where do you think you're going!?"

I glanced over my shoulder at Galloway with a thumbs up, "Gonna go hang out with Megatron, you wanna come again?"

Ratchet narrowed his eyes at me, and Galloway tried to follow, but Sam stopped him to talk more. I mentally thanked the Autobot liaison and quickly rushed out of the room. Ok, so Izabella wasn't in the Medbay with Moonracer. Tyler had pissed her off earlier, so she probably hadn't run off to him. She needed to stay out of sight because she was a wanted girl on base.

If I was hiding from the world, where would I go?

It was nearing evening, so the sun was starting to dip below the horizon line. I was outside the hanger closest to the Medbay because it was the least busy hanger at the moment. There was barely anyone outside since most of the soldiers were indoors working on their task. I glanced upwards at the hanger's roof and traced it with my eyes until they landed on a girl sitting by the edge staring up at the sky.

"Hey!" I called out and she glanced down at me, her face drawn in irritation and annoyance. I put my hands on my hips hoping to look more commanding than I felt, "Are you gonna come down or you gonna make this difficult?"

She stared at me a moment before looking back up to the sky without a word. I let out a huff of annoyance and began to look for the stairs, "Cool. Difficult it is, then."

There was a metal ladder on the side of the building that would take me to the first roof but from there I didn't see a second ladder. Quickly, I climbed up while quietly singing to myself to not look down. The first roof was small and two stories off the ground. It was probably covering the small room on the side of the hanger. Izabella was sitting on the roof of the main portion of the hanger which was still a story above me.

"How the fuck?" I scoffed and began to look around again. There was a gutter off to the side that looked like it could be climbed by someone her size, but I don't think it would hold my weight. "Izabella with a 'z', I swear to God if I fall to my death, I am going to haunt your ass for eternity."

I took in a steadying breath and looked straight up to the edge of the roof above me. Wheeljack had said this brace would give me a boost and I had seen what it could do when kicking. Here's to hoping it had increased my vertical by 9 feet. Focusing most of my weight to my braced leg, I pushed up in a jump and reached out to grab the edge of the roof. My fingers caught the guard rail and I hung there in surprise for a moment.

"Shit." I sucked in another breath and began to pull myself up. I was halfway on the roof when I glanced over to see Izabella staring at me in surprise. "Please, don't move! I can do this all on my own."

She rolled her eyes and looked away as I dragged myself all the way onto the roof. My light gray shirt was covered in black dust from the roof and I huffed in annoyance. I crossed the roof and sat down beside her. Izabella shook her head, but still didn't look at me, "Nobody asked you to come up here."

"That's not true, actually. Aubrey asked me and Tyler and Ratchet and I assume if I had spoken to Moonracer she would've too."

"Like Moonracer even cares!" Izabella snapped, there were tears in her voice, "She's ok with me being stuck in a prison without her."

I hadn't expected that response, but I could connect the dots myself, "Moonracer wants to stay with the Autobots. You're upset she doesn't want to leave with you."

"We don't belong here!" Izabella yelled again. "We were doing just fine on our own."

I rubbed the back of my neck, "Izabella, you and I haven't talked much since you got here."

She scoffed, "Yeah, well, you're always bleeding to death or passing out or training. Doesn't leave much time for talking."

"That's- uh, that's apt."

"Plus, all of you forced me to go on that stupid trip to Disneyland."

"Most kids don't see a trip to Disneyland as a hostage situation like you do, but I'm a bit out of my time so what do I know?"

Izabella finally turned to look at me, her dark eyes narrowed in a glare, "Exactly. You don't know anything. None of you do. If I leave here, they'll take me away from Moonracer forever. They'll put me in another stupid foster home where I'm nothing but a ticket for money. I hate those homes. I hate being around all those other kids, I hate the way they look at me like some pity case, I hate it!"

Her words pushed me back into memories I had shoved down. Foster homes that didn't even acknowledge me beyond handing me food. The dirty looks of disgust or shame. The other kids who thought by putting others down they'd look better. When Aubrey was with me it was a little better, but Aubrey had only been around for two of the foster homes. She was gone when I went through my unmanageable stage. Where I was kicked out of 6 different homes before Granny got stuck with me.

"I think you'd be surprised how much I understand." I said softly. Izabella looked like she wanted to start arguing, but I cut her off, "You know what I always hated? The garbage bag they'd hand to us to keep our stuff in. I never understood why they couldn't hand us a hand me down duffel bag or hell, even a box. It always made me feel like I wasn't even worthy of that. I was garbage so why be vague about it, huh? Eventually, I just lost all my stuff so I wouldn't have to carry one around."

"You were…?" Izabella's features softened.

"Yupp. From age 15 to 18." I gave her a grin, "Aubrey too for one year. She aged out though and left with Wes—"

Izabella shook her head, "Aubrey left you there?"

"Yes, but it's a long story." I chuckled, "I'm totally over it now. The foster homes definitely left their scars though, but that wasn't her fault. I didn't handle anything during that time well."

"How many homes?"

"Nine total. My ninth home was good. It was the one I aged out of, and there was a woman there who showed me I was better than I thought I was." I smiled at the thought of Granny. Too bad she wasn't here. Izabella could use some Granny love right now. "In my 4th home, I got kicked out before the first night."

Izabella's eyes went wide, "How?"

"I already had a reputation. They knew I was gonna be trouble, and when I first walked through the door, I saw they had this tall, fancy vase in their foyer." I laughed at the memory, "I grabbed the rim and just shoved it over. That vase shattered into a million pieces, I swear, and they just pointed out the door."

Izabella laughed alongside me. She shrugged, "I've been in 4 homes now. Then Austin was being evacuated. I told Moonracer I stayed behind because I didn't want to leave the city."

"Why did you really stay behind?"

Izabella paused before crossing her arms tight across her body, "The foster parents didn't have room for me. They packed their car, got their real kids in, and then they thanked me for helping them pack before driving off. I guess I wasn't essential."

My hand tightened in a fist against my thigh. That was the feeling that had started my downward descent. Granted, a lot had added to the fire and Granny had done her best to teach me otherwise, but the homes I had been in before her left me feeling just like Izabella had described. Non-essential. A leftover.

"Fuck them." I said firmly and Izabella's eyes widened at my words before she let out a small chuckle. I smiled at her, "For real. You are essential, Izabella. I don't know who those assholes were, but you're worth a hundred of them. Don't ever let anyone tell you otherwise."

She gave me a sad smile and looked back up at the sky. I stared at her as the wheels in my mind started turning. Izabella was young enough that she would still have to wait a while before she could age out, but she was old enough to be considered trouble. Parents liked adopting the real young ones, the ones that could still be molded and shaped.

I pulled out my phone and fired a text off to Jazz before pocketing it. I cleared my throat, "Other than feeling like a kidnap victim, how was Disney?"

"It wasn't bad." Izabella admitted. "Everyone was nice, and I was... pretty mean. But I had been before. I remember. My parents took me before…"

I nodded, "Right. Gotcha. You liked them though? Aubrey and the other kids?"

"Aubrey was nice. I like her less now knowing she left you alone in a foster home."

I laughed, "No, no, no. Don't hold that against her. She's paid for those sins."

Izabella smiled and shrugged, "Annabelle was really cool. Eli and Lexi too. I like Ironhide too. He's funny."

"If by funny you mean terrifying, maybe." I scoffed and Izabella argued with me on that. I quickly shook my head, "You haven't sparred with him, ok? The guy is scary."

"Ratchet is the scary one. I'm grateful he helped Moonie, but he scares me. I saw him yell at Tyler once."

The thought of Ratchet being scary was absolutely hilarious to me. I could see why she would feel that way, especially since the medic was probably ripping Tyler a new one for being irresponsible, but I knew Ratchet too well to be scared.

I grinned, "Ratchet is all bark and no bite. He yells because he cares. The guy is a giant fluffball."

"Youngling!"

I jumped in surprise, a startled yelp leaving me, and glanced over the edge to see Ratchet standing below us. The roof we were on was about ten feet taller than him. He had his hands on his hips and a glare on his features, "Are you out of your processors!? A fall from that height will offline you both!"

"Yeah, well you nearly scared me off the side, Ratchet!" I barked back.

"If you don't get down right now…"

I looked back at Izabella who was giving me a 'told you so' look. With a roll of my eyes I countered, "I'm not scared of him. I'm just scared of getting lectured again. He technically hasn't yelled at me for hanging out with a Decepticon Warlord yet so this will probably only add to it."

"So, we have to get down now, huh?" There was a defeated tone in her usually confident and bold voice and it only solidified the plan in my mind.

I stood up and offered her my hand to help her up. Ratchet was yelling for us to be careful. My phone buzzed and I glanced at the screen before offering it to her, "It's up to you, but… I don't want you to go back into foster care. I think you should stay."

"W-What?" Izabella breathed and took the phone to read over the words.

I had asked Jazz to work a little magic for me, and the fact that it had taken him less than ten minutes was proof to how plausible this could be. Izabella didn't have a birth certificate anymore or any documentation since basically everything she owned or had was destroyed. The Autobots had forged documents for me ages ago so I could fit into this universe.

What was one more document?

"That's your new birth certificate. If you want it." I shrugged. "It states that I'm your mom and that means they can't take you from me. Obviously, you can't live on base, but you can stay with Aubrey in their home in Vegas. That'll at least give you visiting hours with Moonracer." Izabella looked up at me with wide eyes and I wasn't sure how to read her emotions. "I'm not exactly mom material and I'm not trying to replace who your mom was, but I think you'd be a good fit in our family. We're kind of a mess, but that's what makes us fun. You don't have to call me mom, of course, I mean you can call me 'greatest human alive' if you'd like, but I won't enforce that—"

Izabella tackled me in a hug, and I stumbled back in surprise. Ratchet barked at us again, but I ignored him and lightly rubbed her back in a comforting motion. This seemed like the kind of thing Granny would want me to do. It's what she would've done. Granny gave me a chance when the situation was all sorts of messed up and terrible. The least I could do was give Izabella a chance.

"Thank you, thank you. I promise I won't let you down. I won't make you regret this."

Her face was still buried in my chest as she hugged me tightly. I chuckled and lightly pat her head, "It's the least I could do. You sort of saved me in Austin, remember?"

She pulled back with a face splitting grin. I took my phone from her and sent Jazz a quick thank you text before stepping towards the edge. Izabella tried to walk past me to the rain gutter, but I caught her arm, "No way. I'm taking you down myself. I don't need my kid busting her ass on my first day of mom-hood. I'd never live it down."

Izabella smiled again, and I scooped her up into my arms before jumping down onto the roof below us. Ratchet cursed loudly and I shot him a grin as I set her down beside me.

"Youngling, you are pushing me into an early grave."

"Sorry, Ratch." I shrugged and motioned to Izabella, "Oh hey, by the way, this is my new child. Izabella meet your grandpa." I looked back to Ratchet who was definitely malfunctioning to some degree. "Congrats!"

"What did you do?"

"Technically, Jazz did it. I just supplied the idea."

Ratchet scooped us up, and rather than immediately putting us down he carried us into the hanger toward the elevator. I figured he'd be taking us down to his medbay. The moment we got down to the Cybertronian level, the doors opened up to reveal a grinning Bluestreak. His doorwings fluttering happily.

"I heard the news from Jazz! Congrats, new mom!" Bluestreak chirped then turned to Izabella. "And congrats to you as well, little one. I hear being adopted is a moment of celebration. Although, I guess you weren't adopted since documents were forged to make the government believe that Aj was your birth mother. Still, the congratulation still applies!"

"Take her to Moonracer." Ratchet handed Izabella over to Bluestreak and I shot him a glare at his bluntness.

"You good, Izabella?" I called out and she nodded.

"I'll take good care of her on the way there, Aj!" Bluestreak reassured me and then began to animatedly talk to Izabella about something or another.

Ratchet turned the opposite direction and began to march toward Wheeljack's lab with me in hand. I twisted my lips in annoyance, "You know I hate it when you tote me around without telling me where we're going."

"We're going to Wheeljack for an updated knee brace."

"Oh, cool. New kid and new brace all in one day."

"Are you out of your fragging mind!?"

Ratchet cursed in a direct statement to me. He meant business. The mech breezed into Wheeljack's lab. I gave the engineer a slight wave. Wheeljack began to greet us, but Ratchet set me down on the counter and began the mother of all lectures.

"First you run off to your death! Meeting with Megatron was stupid and reckless!"

Wheeljack shifted in place, "I'll, uh, just tinker over here quietly."

"And now you're adopting human children out of the blue!? Aj, what is going on? You are—"

I held my hands up, "I'm sorry."

"You are— wait, what?"

"I'm sorry, Ratch." I said firmly. "Leaving with Galloway was selfish. I should've talked to one of you about it first. I just didn't want to put anyone else at risk, and deep down I had this feeling that I needed to talk to Megatron about all of this. Still, that's my bad." It was quiet a moment as Ratchet took in my apology. Wheeljack watched curiously, not tinkering like he said he would. I moved my hand to touch his, "Really, I'm sorry."

Ratchet sighed, "And Izabella?"

"I meant that. She needs someone in her corner. Someone other than a Cybertronian. Granny did it for me, and the least I could do is do it for her." I crossed my arms, "Yes, the decision was made on the fly with not much forethought. I didn't wake up thinking I was gonna have a kid, but it was a good decision."

"And what exactly is your plan there?"

"She'll stay with Aubrey. Granted, I should call Aubrey soon and let her know, but I can't send her back to a foster home, Ratchet." I clenched my jaw before continuing, "I don't know if Cybertron has an equivalent, but knowing what I went through… I can't put her in there myself. I can't be a part of that."

Ratchet nodded once, "Fine. I understand that. You know you can't take this back though?"

"I know."

There was a silent moment where the tenseness between us melted away. My face broke out into another smile as Wheeljack wandered over, "I did hear about that. Congrats, Aj! Jazz sent us all the memo."

Ratchet scoffed and rolled his eyes at that then scooped me up again to carry me over to Wheeljack's main workspace. The knee brace they had for me this time was more compact in a way. The metal was thinner, thin enough I could slip on a pair of jeans over it without much issues, but longer. I guess that's what I had to trade in order to wear skinny jeans again. The brace went from above my ankle all the way up to mid-thigh. It clamped around my leg, Wheeljack made sure it locked tightly, and then the locks smoothed over entirely.

"Wow, Jackie, you outdid yourself." I murmured and stood up to test it out. The cold metal was solid black and from a distance it would look like I was just wearing some sort of weird cut up legging. "This is incredible."

"What's special about this is that it fits beneath your new battle suit."

"It's done!?"

"Not quite yet." Wheeljack shook his head, "I'm finishing it up now, but with this brace you won't have to swap out. I added an extra brace to the suit to wear over this one. Double protection."

Ratchet nodded as he looked over the specs on a screen off to the side, "Everything looks ok. No pain or weakness?"

I jumped in place and squatted a few times, "It feels good. Natural. Is this one waterproof too?"

"Waterproof, fireproof, and resistant to all forms of electricity!"

"You the mech, Jackie." I lifted my hand for a knuckle touch and Wheeljack cheerfully brushed his much larger fist against mine.

This new brace had come just in time. I'd be able to train with it for a few days just to get used to it and then I'd have it broken in for the official work. Both mechs in front of me froze briefly, a comm coming into both of them. Worry washed through me briefly but it went away when Wheeljack began to laugh and Ratchet barked in Cybertronian and rushed out of the room, murder in his eyes.

"What's going on?"

Wheeljack, between laughs, pressed a few buttons on the screen my brace specs had been on and then turned it so I could see, "Sideswipe sent it to everyone on base."

It was one of those electronic cards you could send to people. The card was decorated with flowers and bells, and across the top it read 'Congratulations, New Grandpa!'. Beneath the bright blue words was a picture of Ratchet and all around his picture were signatures of people around base. Ironhide, Hound, Lennox, Epps, and even Optimus Prime. It had nearly everyone's signature.

"I was wondering what he had me sign." Wheeljack continued to laugh.

The fact that Sideswipe was sending out jokes and pranking Ratchet was a good sign, right? I smiled in amusement when my phone began to ring. Aubrey. Lennox had signed the card, he must have also told her about what happened.

"Hello—"

"Did you just forge a document claiming Izabella as your child!?"

"Oh, so you heard…good...um, speaking of…"