A/N: For everyone who is following, liking, and reading this story, please keep in mind that the authors of this story have lives outside of writing, so if chapters are taking a while to come out, it is because John2851 and myself are busy with things in our lives. We don't do writing 24/7, so please, if some chapters take time to come out, bear with us and be patient. When we get reviews asking us what the wait is about or demanding to make more chapters, it is called spam and is not welcome. My co-author does keep in touch with me about chapters and understands when something has come up. So again, please be patient with us. We know you like the story and rest assured, we won't leave the story unfinished. A good story takes time to create.

Thank you. Now, onto the next chapter. WARNING: This chapter shows the abuse Miko went through before Arcee adopted her. It is a bit graphic, so if you guys want to skip the parts with the abuse, where the abuse starts and where it ends will be marked, but it is the majority of the chapter, just to let you all know.

Chapter 22: Miko's Birthday-Part 3

"Alright, here we go, you guys," Windblade told them when pulling up the child's memories.

"Let's watch," Arcee told her while feeling a wave of regret that was passing through her. She knew Miko didn't have a great life before she had adopted her, but she wanted to know what the monsters that had fostered Miko before the adoption had done to her little girl. If anything, she was going to make sure those memories wouldn't haunt her daughter anymore. She swore that on her spark as the memories began playing.

Abuse starts

Miko's Childhood Memories...

"Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Owens! It's my birthday today, so what am I getting?!" A five-year-old Miko asked with the excitement that most children have.

At the table stood Mr. and Mrs. Owens, who had matching blond hair and about the same hazel eyes. They looked at her in a disgusted way. "Do you think we give a hoot about your pathetic life? Be happy that we let live here, you little nobody," Mrs. Owens said rudely.

At that moment, Miko dropped her smile, sad to hear that she wouldn't be getting a present or a party for her birthday, not even realizing that Mr. Owens was behind her until he roughly pulled her out of her chair by her own hair!

"Ow! Stop, stop, stop! You're hurting me!" The defenseless girl cried out as the man dragged her outside and threw her onto a pile of shattered glass that had been broken a couple of weeks ago. The child landed right in it and screamed in pain when a few glass shards made contact with her arms, legs, face, knees and even her bare feet!

"Now shut up! Why don't you celebrate your pointless life outside for the whole day?" He said nastily.

"But...what will I eat?" Miko asked, holding back the pain but couldn't help letting tears stream down her face.

"No my problem, you little waste of life! In fact, you're going to spend two whole days outside," Mr. Owens said, heading back in where it was warm while watching Mrs. Owens smirked evilly.

Miko cried hard during those two days while holding her growling stomach, wishing that she had lived with someone else, but that didn't happen. She was stuck with these two cruel people.

The Autobots and people looked at the screen in horror and anger as they had never known what Miko had went through and Arcee had tears running down her face harder than she had ever before as it was too much for her. June couldn't believe that Miko went through such trama and wished that she had known about it earlier. She looked at her son and Raf, both of who were highly upset and angry, especially Jack. No one even said a word as they continued watching on as the screen showed Miko being hit by a sharpen spiky stick by Mrs. Owens, and it was targeting at the poor Japanese girl's feet.

"Stop! You're making my both of my feet bleed!" Miko, who trying to escape, pleaded, but Mrs. Owens made sure that she wasn't going to escape by hitting her hard and pushed the sharp spike through her feet.

"And that's for looking for food from my fridge," Mrs. Owens told her bitterly before walking out to go shopping.

Miko lay still on the hard kitchen floor, trying to get a towel from the bottom cabinet to stop the bleeding in from her feet while trying to put peroxide on it to heal up the huge, open wounds.

"So that explains those long scary scares on her feet," Jack said in utter shock, now knowing that Miko had lied to him by saying, that it was a weird birthmark. He couldn't be upset at her for not telling him because he could see it was a painful memory, one the girl had been trying to forget.

Windblade shook her and didn't want to see anymore blood and knew the others didn't either. She selected to go to another memory that was in Miko's current age, hoping that it would be less painful, though something told her it would be just as bad.

Miko's Teens...

The screen showed the base as they watched Miko counting her money that she had been saving up for years to buy her very own electric guitar and this time it was Raf with her. He watched in curiosity as he wondered why she had so much money, but then her bruised eye caught his attention.

"Miko, what happened to your face?" He asked in concern.

"None of your business, Raf," Miko said, having her eyes fixed on her money while still counting, being bitter to her only friend.

"Miko, I'm worried about you. Everytime I see you, you looked like someone had punched you with bad intentions," Raf said before finding himself being pinned down hard on the table by a now angry Miko after putting his hand on her right shoulder.

"Don't you ever touch me or I'll beat you senseless. Got me four eyes?" She asked him sharply, getting a nod from the scared boy before letting him go.

"I didn't mean to get her highly aggressive. I was just worried about my cousin," Raf said, feeling ashamed for not telling anyone about that.

"It's alright, Raf, you were just scared and it's not your fault," Prowl said, trying to make the boy feel better while placing a gentle hand around him in comfort, something the boy appreciated and gave the Praxian a grateful look.

Their attention came back up to the screen once again, showing Miko had brought her guitar and was playing happily in her room. But then, it showed about a year that both Mr. and Mrs. Owens had found the guitar underneath the girl's bed while Miko argued back to them to return it to her since she was the one had paid for it instead of buy something to eat at school or dinner.

"Oh, you want it back?" Mr. Owens asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, please," Miko said, keeping her voice polite while defending herself and having her arm stretched out to grab it.

"Okay."

With that, he whacked the girl's face with the guitar, causing her to fly off the ground and hit the floor with blood coming out from both her nose and mouth while both the foster parents had took turns beating her with the guitar until the thing was completely destroyed.

Arcee watched in horror as she now learned that Miko had left the part about them breaking her instrument by beating her with it. "Miko!" The femme cried, breaking down crying while Grimlock pulled her in for a comforting hug, holding her head with her face turned into his chest so that she wouldn't have to see any more horrifying images of her daughter's abuse. He felt like he was going to be sick to his stomach himself and if the grimaces on the others' faces were anything to go by, they felt the same way.

Abuse ends

"Remove those evil memories from the child...now," Ultra Magnus commanded, his voice filled with anger.

"Yes, Sir!" Windblade said as she knew this was too much for the Commander as well as everyone else, including her. "With pleasure."

Thankfully, it didn't take long for her to gather all of the evil memories from the girl's brain and put it inside a locked file that only the Autobots could access to it, making sure Miko had nothing but happy memories in her mind. "I hope this works," the femme Wrecker said softly as Bulkhead placed a hand on her shoulder in encouragement. She gave her sparkmate a grateful look before nodding. "Okay, let's wake up this special little girl," she said, turning off the machine and pulling the plugs from both her head and Miko's head. Everyone watched as a moment later, the birthday girl began waking up. She stood up and looked at her family, wondering what had happened as she blinked her eyes to adjust to the light on the base.

"Miko, do you remember anything about your past?" Arcee asked, hoping the machine worked, but worried it hadn't.

The Japanese girl shook her head no. "No, Mom, I don't, but...," she smiled brightly. "I do know that today is my birthday!"

With that, she walked up to her family and smiled happily while everyone couldn't believe that it had worked as she motioned everyone to celebrate with her, running up to Jack and Raf and pulling the two boys down the stairs so the three could play in the bouncy house.

"Let's party, everyone and everybot!" Miko yelled happily while Arcee wiped the tears away as this was exactly what she wanted to see from her little girl as she filled with great relief.

Eventually everyone partied for the girl's big special day as they could tell that she was a whole new sparkling, something they were relieved about.

Miko smiled completely while actually be a kid for once in her life and Arcee was getting the food ready for the kids to eat while Windblade helped made special food for the Autobots to enjoy. They ate happily as Miko hugged her boyfriend sweetly than she did every before.

Jack smiled back before eating his burger while Raf ate happily with his food as he was so happy that his cousin was finally free from her evil memories and now could only remember the good ones now. Jack kissed Miko sweetly while still keeping in mind that Arcee was watching, but while the blue femme was watching, she was too happy to be stern, though she did give the boy a knowing look and he nodded to show that he would be a gentleman with his future wife, making Arcee smile.

The party was a great success after Miko blew out her candles and had her cake while everyone ate happily, enjoying the day. After a bit, the Allspark caught the girl's attention by telepathy and she decided she had to go to it while everyone hadn't noticed her leaving the room, save for one, who followed curiously.

Miko went over to the open storage unit and saw the Allspark glow while she went up to it. Suddenly, it glowed brightly and a small ball of light appeared before her, morphing into what looked like a cyber key that looked really cool. As she held out her hand and the key landed gently in her outstretched hand, Evac's voice came from behind her, startling her a little.

"Huh, well what do you know? The cube is giving you the Spark Key. It has the same power as the Allspark and it can heal an injured bot from either damage or near death," he said, smiling at the girl.

She looked at her new key before an idea hit her. "Can it help fix Bumblebee?" She asked hopefully, remembering that the scout had lost his voicebox a long time ago.

"It just might," Evac said with a smile, picking her up in his hands. "Do you want to go see?"

She nodded eagerly and they headed over to Bumblebee, who looked curious until seeing the Spark Key in Miko's hands. Everyone else was amazed too and the girl looked up at the yellow bot. "Bee, I wish for you to have your voice back," she said. "Can I...use the Key on you?"

He nodded, accepting her in his hand and holding her up to his face. Miko took a deep breath. "I hope this works," she whispered softly before the bot opened a port in his neck and the key morphed to fit the port. The Japanese girl carefully inserted the key into the port and closed her eyes, hoping this would really work.

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GoldGuardian2418