Cheetor stood at his place the command center. The last few megacycles had been stressful. The mysterious femme, had lashed out not too long after she was first brought online, and her claws meant business. The situation had actually gotten so out of control that Rhinox had to sedate her. Which led to the said emergency meeting he was now in to be called.

The young catbot's emotions were currently nothing but a tangled festering hot mess. There was confusion, grief, anger, sorrow, and even longing was joining the messed-up party. All he could think about was that poor femme who had woken up so confused, so scared. Even if she wasn't Chicory, she still looked like her and that made him want to help her. He wanted to be by her berth side, be there when she woke up, let her know that she wasn't alone. But he couldn't do that at the moment. He had to be at this meeting, he had to know what happened.

"So, Rhinox, Rattrap, what don't you give us a run down on what exactly happened?" Optimus said, rubbing upper face plate, like he was having a helm ache.

"Well, After the entire fiasco not long ago. I decided that I need to check on what kind of changes the protoform had obtained in the initial…experiment," Rhinox started.

"And boy…! It was certainly some changes!" Rattrap chimed in, "Ya should've seen Rhinox's face when he found dat the pod, the blank pod, now 'ad a life signal."

"It certain was shocking," Rhinox said.

"Life signal? So does it-she, have a spark?" Optimus asked.

Rhinox nodded solemnly, "It's smaller than average. More unstable. But it's a spark."

"Meaning dat da new dame in the da ship, isn't just some freaky Frankenstein's monster but an actual, living cybertronian. How in da fragging universe did da preds pulled dat off? I have no fraggin clue, but da sons of glitches did it," Rattrap stated.

"You have any idea?" Optimus turned to Rhinox.

"Either it's a miracle from Primus, or the predacons actually found a way to convert an organic life force into a cybertronian one," the maximal engineer explained.

"So, are you saying that she could really be Chicory?" Cheetor quietly and hesitantly asked.

"It is still more likely that pod was miss labeled," Dinobot spoke up.

"Actually, I believe this could go in any direction at this point. We'll only get our answer when she wakes up," Rhinox said.

Cheetor tuned out of the conversation, and eventually slipped out of the meeting. He couldn't take this anymore. He was quiet as he walked into the med-bay, and up to her berth. She must have stirred slightly in her obviously not restful sleep, as she was now in more curled up position the berth then the last time, he had seen her. A looked of agony written on her faceplate.

She really was a pretty little thing. Her frame while a little smaller than Cheetor's was quite similar to his, thought that could be contributed to the similar beast mode. And there still were many differences between them. She had crests on her helm, similar to his, but they were painted jet black and were companied by cat ears that would twitch from time to time. The torse was probably most like his, just a little slimmer. Her servos were much more paw like, compared to his normal gold-plated ones, still retaining the sharp black claws they would have in beast mode. Her thin legs stared out normal, but from just below the knee joint, they were entirely beast; covered in fur, completed with small paws instead of peds. She even got to keep her tail in bot mode.

Their colors were different at well. Sure, they were both cheetahs. Meaning their furs should have been similar, but her shade leaned over to the pale sandy side while his was a bright gold. Not mention due to her spot pattern she has much more black fur then Cheetor did. The spaces in-between the patches of fur, where the metal was visible, was colored a deep raspberry maroon, rather than the pale periwinkle blue that his metal was. And her faceplate, oh her faceplate. It was beautiful, with its painted patterns that looked so similar to whiskers. So young. So innocent. In so much pain. It made Cheetor want to cry.

He wrapped his servos around on of her own. Praying to what ever God was out there that who ever this was would be okay. He shut his optics trying not the let oily tears leak, he was tired of crying. He took a shuttering vent. Then he heard the low threatening growl…Cheetor's optics snapped open, to find her optics, her beautiful amber optics, piercing through him.

"Chicory?" he tried to call out to her.

It happened faster than his optics could see. The growl erupted from her throat, and her claws flashed across his faceplates. The scratches were burning, and he could feel them leaking warm and sticky energon. He flinched away for a moment, hearing her fall from the berth and clatter to the floor. Opening his optics, he watched her confusedly and clumsily scurry to the far corner of the med-bay. Her venting growing harsh and oily tears flowing from her optics.

And he saw it. The spot, shaped like the flower of which she was named, it wasn't exactly on her shoulder anymore, but he would recognize it anywhere. The tears came back with a vengeance. It truly was her.

This was Chicory. His sweet, fierce, beautiful Chicory. Curled up in a corner on the floor, ferally shaking and sobbing in fear. Her tail wrapped protectively around her body like it was the only thing keeping her from falling apart. Cheetor's spark was shattering at the sight, he wanted nothing more than to run up to her and comfort her, and he almost did, but…

"CHEETOR!" Optimus shouted as he and the other rushed into the med-bay, causing Cheetor whirl around, and Chicory to curl up into an even tighter ball.

"Spots, ya face..." Rattrap gaped.

"Let me look you over. She didn't get you anywhere else, did she?" Rhinox said, imminently grabbing his tools.

"No, no. Rhinox I'm fine," Cheetor tried to say.

"Fine? Kid ya leaking," Rattrap said.

Another snarl shattered through the med-bay. All attention turned back to the feral femme, whom Optimus was trying to approach. Said commander back up the moment the snarl was expressed, before glancing at Rhinox.

"Rhinox, get the sedative," Optimus ordered.

Sedative! This snapped Cheetor back into the present. What was a sedative going to do anyway? It would wear off eventually, and then what? Would they drug her again? Chicory wasn't deranged, she was just scared. Cheetor pulled himself out to the crowd of on edge maximals, and started towards the terrified femme.

"Cheetor!" His commander called after him.

He slowed down the closer he got. Lowering himself down to her level, he could now hear the sobs that were escaping with every vent. She didn't lash out, by the time he was practically in front of her.

"Chicory?" Cheetor whispered, trying not let his voice crack.

She shifted gently lifted her helm up just enough, for him to see her optics. Her pained golden optics. So, feral, so trapped, so clouded, so scared.

"Chicory? Can you hear me?"

Her gaze broke from him, a pale spark of recognition flashed in her optics, before more fear creeped up and drowned it out. As if she was scared that she could understand him.

"Hey, it's okay. You're okay. I know it's a little…weird…right now, but you're okay. You're going to be okay."

Her stare returned to him. She uncurled slightly, slowly raising an awkward servo toward Cheetor's faceplate. Everyone in the room froze, as she shakily traced the freshly made wounds. She stared at the scratches in horror, as if what she had done finally set in. New tears began to flush out of her optics, as she pulled her servo away and also stared at the appendage.

Cheetor grabbed her servo gently, "It's okay. You didn't mean it."

She sobbed non-the less, curling back up into her ball. Deciding to just bite the bullet, Cheetor reached out and pulled her into a warm comforting hug. She tensed, but eventually melted in his embrace, sobs continuing to flow from her. Cheetor didn't try to stop her, only allowing her to figure out everything that had happened.

"h-help…"

Cheetor froze. The word was so quiet, so distraught, so confused. As if she was scared of her own voice. He stared at the poor broken femme in his arms, and only hugged her tighter. His own optics now weeping.

"I will. I promise I will, Chicory. I will help you," He vowed.


The heavy rain of the monsoon, pelted against the Axalon's hull. The drought had finally ended and the rains came back with a fury. The storm wasn't shy from inviting it's partner in crime for this welcome back party. Thunder and lightning continued to make their presences known, through a show of clashes and flashes.

The maximals were on high alert, prepping the ship in case if it became the next victim of the lightning's bite. Storing the much more sensitive items in the lower hull, checking the monitors and activating the lightning rod. It was chaos, and every so often, every resident of the ship would flinch at the roaring crack of thunder. And most weren't scared to admit the fear, they did have a good reason, being creatures made of metal.

"Bigbot! All the extra batteries are charged and safely stored!" Cheetor said running into the command center.

"Good. That's means we won't have to worry about the power if the lightning hits the generator," Optimus primal said, just when another thunder clap clashed, causing everyone to flinch.

Rhinox sighed, "Cheetor go check on Chicory, if this thunder is making us squeamish someone needs to be there to prevent her having another panic attack."

"On it Rhinox!" Cheetor said, taking off to run to the ship courters.

The Axalon's barracks was large as it was built to be able to house all of the pods after their activations. Meaning they had plenty of room to house Chicory. Thankfully, the room just next door to Cheetor's had been empty, as waking up in tears had become a common occurrence for her in the past week or so. The worst of it though wasn't tears from nightmares of the butcher's procedure she went through, but from good dreams of her old life as a normal cheetah. From those she would always weep because every time she woke up, she would be in this nightmare. The nightmare of reality.

Cheetor was practically the only one who could help calm her down whenever her nightmares of panic attacks happened. The other maximals could barely get close to her when she was calm, much less when distressed. The catbot carefully knocked on her rooms closed door, trying not the startle her, before opening it.

"Chicory?" Cheetor asked quietly and cautiously.

Chicory was curled up into a delicate ball, sitting on the head of her berth. Her gaze fixated on the nearby window, watching the water falling from the sky. She was perfectly still, maybe her ear would twitch every now and again, but other than that she was perfectly calm.

Another thunder clap shook the room, making the elder catbot flinch once more, but Chicory remained completely unfazed. That kind of shocked Cheetor, as she would always be quite skittish around louder noises. Yet, she didn't seem bothered by the lightning's scream.

"I just came to see if you were having any trouble with the rain," Cheetor said walking inot the room.

"R-rain?" Chicory whispered, turning to him.

Talking was another struggle that Chicory had. Chicory didn't talk much and when she did it was usually quiet, slow, short, and sometimes broken sentences. Sure, she had basic programming in her processor, meaning she could understand everything. But understanding and talking back were two very different things. Adding to her struggle was that fact that the animal instinct she had was much stronger than the others, which constantly was at war with the programming she had, making talking feel unnatural and muddle up her words.

"Yeah, rain. You know water that falls from the sky," Cheetor continued.

"Rain," she repeated. Often her vocabulary would lose and gain words at different times. The battle between instinct and programming made it easy for certain words to get lost in the tussle.

Another thunder clap roared.

"That seriously doesn't bother you? The thunder," Cheetor asked.

"t-thunder…is…familiar." She mumbled, trying hard to speak clearly.

Familiar. Cheetor remember Rhinox teaching her the word. Chicory used it often, usually when talking about her time as a normal cheetah. She was usually very calm with things that she called familiar, because she remembered them. Cheetor was glad that thunder was one of those things, as Rhinox said that this storm could last for a few days, and he didn't want to be chasing around panic-stricken femme all that time.

"How?" Cheetor asked, wanting to give Chicory a chance to practice speaking more and genuinely curious.

"I…watch-ed it…back…in the…d-den."

Cheetor nodded, feeling a little stupid for not figuring that out. Chicory had lived almost to adulthood as a cheetah on this planet of course she would be used to the weather here.

"I watched it…with…mother…"

Those words made fresh tears silently slip from her optics. Cheetor pulled, the weeping femme into his arms, and began to rub her back. He knew that Chicory missed her mom, it was one of the first things her processer allowed her to fully understand, and it was one of the first things she mourned over. Due to her now heightened consciousness, the realization that she was merely born out of instinct and not desire for a sparkling, was like a hot blade to the optic. Sure, her mother cared for Chicory like she was supposed to, but at the end of the day, she was still a wild animal, with a new litter, and not searching for her lost scared cub.

If Cheetor had ears in his robot mode, like her, they would've flopped down. He could see Chicory wasn't happy. She was confused, scared, overwhelmed and probably going stir crazy in this small room. Due to her lack of mobility, she hadn't been able to leave.

Cheetor racked his processor, for some way to cheer Chicory up. He looked around the courters. It was quite empty. Nothing of notice, nothing of her, just a blank slate. Until his optics went to the window. Outside was a wonderful view, the large ravine that the Axalon sat on, the cliff sides, all of it covered in a veil of rain. Wild and free. That gave the catbot an idea.

"Hey, I have an idea," Cheetor said.

Cheetor, hopped off of Chicory's berth, then carefully coxed her onto her feet. Walking on two legs was certainly an experience for Chicory. While her body had the strength to walk, her balance was completely non-existant, leaving the femme stumbling, and tripping over herself constantly. Though, she had made a few good strides in her practice the last few days.

Cheetor lead her down the halls of the Axalon, going slowly so that Chicory's shaky uncertain legs could keep up with him with out stumbling. Finally reaching the elevator to the outside, they stepped inside. Chicory tensed up at the smaller enclosed space, and even further stumbling once it started moving.

"Got you," Cheetor said lightly grabbing her shoulders, so she didn't fall.

Once the outside came into view, the sound of the rain became louder than the little pidder-pats it had been from the inside of the ship. And a gust of moist wet wind, blew into their face plates.

Cheetor noticed an instant change in Chicory's stature. She held herself with a dusting of confidence, the cute ears on her helm pricked up, and like the first time they exited the Axalon together her steps were much surer on dirt, or mud. She walked over to the edge of the ship and reach out a servo to touch the falling water.

"Thank y-you," Chicory said, as she turned back to Cheetor.

Her words still soft, but in them sounded an inkling of happiness, and Cheetor was positive that there had been the ghost of a soft smile on her faceplate. Sure, they could only stay out here for a little while, due to the storm, the energon levels, and Chicory's trouble with switching to beast mode, but it would be enough to tell Cheetor one thing.

Chicory belonged out here.


A/N:

Okay, that was a little shorter than I would like but, the next chapter will probably be longer.

We're starting to come close to the end of this story, I honestly think I can have this done in 2-3 chapters. And maybe an extra part for cut scenes, if y 'all would want that.

Anyway, read review and have a good day!