Ok, chapter 23 has to a record for the fastest chapter I've written, in a very long time, three days, three days and I cranked out a whole chapter... whew... Anyway, hope you all enjoy this latest chapter!


"Explain to me why exactly you thought of it as higher priority to give the mechs functioning dicks, than it was to get our damn tastebuds right?!"

"Aria, darlin', we both know yah couldn' tell a modem from a TV remote if ah labele' them, yah thin' it's fun tryin' tah digitize ah brain an' then tweak the code enough tah match yah specific chemical reaction to each individual taste on this damn plane'? Sometimes ah jus' needed ah break from tha' mess, so yes, ah completed tha' par' ah the program firs', so fraggin' sue me for wanting a break from codin' all yah favourite dishes!"

"Alright, fair, how long until you arrive,? I doubt you'd want a repeat of you flight from Europe."

"We'll ah caugh' up with yah by tonigh', see yah then."

"Understood, and Ira."

"Yeah?"

"Take care of yourself."

"Ahh shove it up yah ass."

Sunlight peeking through the porthole was what roused Maggie from the light slumber she'd found herself in.

Groaning as the persistent light coaxed her into the waking world, she grimaced at the feel of the hangover she was now the less than proud owner of.

Served her right for trying to drink away her stresses.

Outside the hangover though… she did feel better, a lot better.

The soft silken sheet that was draped over her was warm, and with a incoherent mumble she rolled away from the light with the full intention of sleeping off the rest of her hangover.

The motion had her rolling half onto the body she hadn't noticed next to her.

Suddenly much more awake she took in the mocha skinned man laying beside her, the sheet half down what looked and felt like rock hard pecs.

Slowly her gaze went up and she found herself looking on the peacefully resting features of Jazz's holoform.

Feeling a dawning realisation creeping up on her, she slowly looked back at herself and lifted the sheets just enough to peer down at herself.

Naked as the day she was born no less.

A glance around the room revealed articles of clothing scattered everywhere, one of which being Jazz's top somehow caught on one of the gold lined mahogany looking fan blades that hung down from the ceiling.

Her gaze moved back to her guardians holoform, she didn't need to look to know he was naked too, the memories from last night gave little reason for why he would be wearing anything.

Alongside that realisation came what felt like a rush of adrenaline, that one, did not help her hangover, and two, made her realise something.

Last night had been the best sex of her life, and yes it was a dramatic statement, but a truthful one, and her partner in the act that she realised lasted well into the early morning, was an alien.

Tick that one off the bucket list.

She almost laughed then, but caught it before she risked waking her guardian.

She knew she got horny when she got drunk, but for once she honestly didn't regret it.

She would without a doubt be sore once she tried to get up though.

Jazz had been an incredible lover, and after a glance back and over the headboard, she noted the impact markings left from where headboard had met wall repeatedly the night before.

Forget sore, she doubted she'd even be walking in a straight line after what they did last night.

Hopefully their hosts wouldn't be upset about the damage to the wall.

Glancing back to Jazz she noted she'd left a few marks herself.

Apparently holoforms could show bite marks.

It was right around then that the ship seemed to dip on the waves and sunlight that had woken her jumped a bit.

Hitting Jazz right in the face, lighting up his darker skin in a warm glow.

She was fairly certain she was blushing now, yes she remembered last night, but it still felt embarrassing that she had propositioned him while as intoxicated as she had been.

Her cheeks were really feeling hot now, she ducked her head back down against the soft pillow and barely held in a groan of embarrassment.

She'd gone and drunk herself silly, and fucked an alien.

A really hot, really kind, possibly really skilled killing machine, transforming alien robot that could become a sports car at will.

It was official, human men were ruined for her, no man alive could compare to that.

She was so buried within her own musings she didn't realise that Jazz was waking up.

It was only when an arm was thrown over her and she was pulled into a warm and very naked hug with Jazz's holoform, his chin coming to rest against her bed head that she peeped out a noise of surprise.

A low sleep heavy chuckle answered the little noise. "Mornin' sweetspark."

Startled she opted not to trust her voice and just groaned quietly, opting to just enjoy the hug and deal with consequences later, reaching up to wrap an arm around his waist, good god those holoforms were accurate...

Jazz seemed content in his post slumber to snuggle, and she was fine with that.

But it was as he shifted to nuzzle the side of her head that it hit her.

Jazz, an alien, may have no concept of a one night stand.

And for all she knew, she'd just agreed to be his mate for life in his culture.

And there went her heart beat, hitting quite the tempo as the realisation of the fact she had no idea how badly a mess she might of fucked herself into, literally.

Yes Jazz was an amazing guy and a great lover, but she doubted her dad wouldn't get the family shotgun if she brought home an alien robot.

A finger catching the underside of her jaw coaxed her up to lock eyes with Jazz, who's expression was one of concern and perplexion. "C'mon sweet spark, what's eatin' at yah?"

Caught off guard she blurted out the first thing that came to mind. "Do you mate for life?"

Three blinks, he blinked three slow times as dead silence held them both.

Then his eyes seemed to widen in horror. "Yah do?! I thought yah got 'married' first!"

"What?! No!" She exclaimed back before catching herself. "Well sometimes, it's more a cultural thing there."

The horror in his expression seemed to only grow as he rolled back onto his back and pushed the palms of his hands into his face. "Prime's gonna kill me."

Maggie jolted at that and pushed herself up onto her knees, barely noticing that the sheets now pooled around her ass. "What? What do you mean?"

Jazz pulled his hands away from his face to look at her, surprisingly face only, before he spoke. "Ah though' humans were pretty lax with their frag partners…"

Maggie couldn't help herself,she snorted. "I… I think we've both gotten a bit confused."

Jazz looked at her for a few moments before pushing himself up to lean against the headboard. "Oh? How so?"

Maggie pursed her lips for a moment, thinking over her response. "Well… this…" She made a quick gesture between their naked bodies. "Is pretty normally… letting off some steam that is."

She almost missed the 'thank Primus' he muttered under his breath. She knew who 'Primus' was, apparently even hyper advanced races of alien robots had a God.

Maggie kept going. "So, you didn't do anything wrong. And we both enjoyed it. Right?"

The doubt was creeping into her voice by the end, yes Jazz had been amazing, but had she been able to return the favour?

Apparently Jazz caught that, his expression becoming one of a frown as he shifted forwards, moving onto his own knees.

The mantra she had going about not looking down wasn't working.

His voice brought he attention back to his face. "Sweet spark, you were incredible."

It was a statement, said with such a conviction she couldn't find it within herself to argue.

His lips pressing against hers and sending a bolt of electricity down her body was more than enough to seal that as resolute fact.

One kiss became two, then three, and soon enough she had her arms around his neck and she'd pulled him over her, the world outside the walls of the room vanished again not long after.


The main dining hall had a much different air.

Where the humans dug in happily to the wide spread of food provided for the morning meal, the present Autobots and the twins holoforms all seemed to be in their own worlds.

Wren was holding an odd digital device, a portable interactive screen she merely referred to as a 'tablet', and seemed to be reading something of utmost importance of, it had an interesting resemblance to a data pad.

Aria was still half asleep, the edges of her holoform seemed to flicker as her focus wavered back into oblivion before snapping back for a moment to alertness.

Optimus seemed to not be in the present, staring out the wide span windows out to the Gulf beyond, expression unreadable.

The rest of the Autobots remained quiet, eyeing the spread before them with mild confusion and slight repulsion.

All except Bumblebee, who was too busy talking to Mikaela as she wolfed down another slice of toast.

Ratchet and Ironhide were locked in a debate over their com-link systems, with glances thrown across the table repeatedly to the rest of those present.

Though most seemed to land on their Prime, who's attention remained elsewhere.

Lena and Leeroy were also present, the woman helping the young boy reach some of the assortment of fruits, breads, meats and cheese that were laid out in front of them.

A rapping at the open door that lead deeper into the ship drew the attention of some sitting at the table. One of the crew stood stoically, waiting to be addressed.

Wren looked over the lip of her tablet. "Yes?"

As if triggered by the reply the crew member spoke. "My ladies, Mrs Estrada reports an estimated arrival time of eight hours, they are approaching the coast now."

Wren nodded. "Is there anything else?"

"Yes My Lady, the construction crews have already begun the bunker process at the designated locations, estimated completion time, two months, barring any delays."

"Good, dismissed."

The crew member bowed and disappeared back down the corridor.

Wren took the moment of silence to reach out and grasp the glass of water that had been sitting before her to take a sip, attention already returned to the tablet.

Taking that as a cue, Mikaela went back to speaking with Bumblebee and her father, though kept their voices quiet.

Not long after Aria seemed to come into full waking and groaned, a sound echoed from where their frame shifted on the main deck.

"Morning all." She grumbled out, her holoform looking like she'd just rolled out of a bush.

"Morning." Was the chorus that replied.

Aria looked around at the table, then to the spread before them and scrunched up her nose, without a word she got up, patted her twin on the shoulder, and walked off.

No one really batted an eye, and went back to what they'd been doing previously.

Optimus' holoform flickered out of existence not long after, no longer paying enough attention to the program to keep it running.


The day went by quietly, the twins kept to themselves, and everyone else followed suit.

Jazz and Maggie finally made an appearance around lunch, the later looking very disheveled and in a far better mood than previous days, the former just seemed to be very proud about something or other.

No one made a comment, but Wren did raise an eyebrow for half a second before looking back at her tablet.

The day continued it's peaceful trend into the afternoon, when dark clouds began billowing on the far horizon and a shrill cry cracked open the silence like a thunderclap.

The twins bipedal form snapped to life at the sound, as did Optimus', who's attention went almost immediately down to the twin Harpies as they tried to push themselves up into a standing position.

Every part of them seemed to protest the sudden motion, hydraulics hissed and gears groaned in a distressing cacophony of noise, and that was before they even tried to move their damaged pede, the pained hiss that came when they tried causing him to flinch for a moment.

Taking a bit of initiative, Optimus bent down enough to hook his arm around their middle, and, mostly thanks to their light frame, hoisted them upright, eliciting a startled warble from them.

Their pedes scrambled, and the razor sharp talons of their left pede dug harshly into the deck, but finally, with a bit of support from the Prime still holding them, they seemed to right them, Aria taking the majority of their weight on her pede and leaning the rest onto the Primes supportive arm, as Wren carefully held her own just off the decking.

Their attention went skyward as humans and holoforms alike quickly arrived.

Descending towards them were the forms of Kia and Ira, their wings spread wide to catch the wind in their decent, talons extended ahead of them for landing.

Not a few moments later the two Harpies touched down on the ship in a cloud of whipped up seaspray.

Ira landed on the roof of the bridge, leaving her towering over all, whilst Kia opted to landing on the roof of one of the upper levels.

Each one folded in their wings and turned to regard their comrades down on the main deck, all four bowing their helms in greeting before Kia spoke. "How's the leg Wren?"

The twins looked down to the aforementioned mangled pede before Wren answered. "Well I can feel the bastard again, so that accounts for something I guess."

Ira seemed to be amused that the remark and shook herself for a moment.

It drew attention to her armour.

Even Optimus couldn't quite hid his wince, the amount of heat warping was a distressing sight all it's own, mixed with the tattering of her wings and the marks left from bullets hitting her thin armour, some piercing, others bouncing off. There was also the worrying tell of faded dried energon running in narrow windswept streaks down her frame, as well as how much was splattered across her chassis.

It brought back to the present that while they had been at the dam, Ira had fought off a Decepticon attack.

"Bloody hell yah lookin' a' meh like ah'm tha walkin' dead!" She huffed, having noticed their attention on her. "Besides, ah'm already feelin' a lot betta alrea'y."

Kia spoke then. "Besides, there's more pressing matters that need to be attended to."

Not waiting for a reply or an inquest into what she had meant, the plating on her back seemed to suddenly transform, dropping something to the roof behind her.

After a few more moments and a burst of grey white and black feathers erupting from the moving seams, Hera rose, the Harpy Eagle chirped before taking wing and gliding down to the lower deck to be reunited with their docks.

The twins huffed as a wing reached out to tentatively brush the side of the creatures helm. "Hi there little one, get bored of Ira and Kia huh?"

Hera just trilled and with one strong jump vaulted herself upwards and transformed again.

Optimus had to pull his arm away as their lower chassis seemed to break apart, plating shifting to allow the smaller Avian frame to wrap around their upper abdominal plating while wing and talon alike merged into the secondary arms that both Kia and Ira had already.

Had he not been holding them Optimus would of likely missed the shiver that went down their frame, apparently not yet used to the docking procedure of a symbiote.

He had to remind himself what Ratchet had told him, human civilians, not Cybertronian Neutrals.

Ones who belonged to a race that's symbiosis was molecular, not two separate individuals merging conscience to work together.

The twins had the added fun of it being three when put together.

Ratchet had made it quite clear that until he was able to run a full diagnostic on the Harpies, everything was speculation.

Finding a way to perform such an admittedly invasive scan on their hosts was going to be interesting, and preferably with the Harpies go ahead.


"Hold still."

"Ah'll hold still when yah stop pokin' meh!"

"Ira."

"... Oh fine. Jus' hurry i' up!"

Optimus watched from his height attributed vantage point as his CMO's holoform continued to route around under one of Ira's right shoulder plates for a ammunition round that had, during the attack on the Cosmopolitan, gotten jammed between armour and protoform.

Apparently the Harpy had been flying with a number of said rounds jammed between components for over a week.

Ratchet had had some choice words about that that the Prime would rather not repeat in pleasant company.

Once again time was against them, the thundering tropical storms winds were already hurtling across the deck, the storms rains already beginning to patter against their armour and the sides of the ship, the hull shifting more sharply with the churning waves.

Ratchet had only been able to dig out a few, and there were more still to hunt down.

He knew his CMO would loathe the idea of being stopped by the storm, but he could feel the twins becoming restless as the storm approached, and Kia's gaze had not left the billowing clouds for more than an hour, those protrusions of hers flaring with every crack of thunder that reached them.

Flashes of lightning danced within the storm, a warning that danger was growing closer and closer.

It was difficult to gauge Ira's personal reaction to the storm, her attention was primarily on his CMO.

It was with a pained yelp from Ira and a jerk from his CMO that announced the medics latest victory, a bubble of violet energon dribbled from the gap between the armour whilst the energon stained round was dropped to the decking.

It looked similar to the rounds used for a gatling gun, Energon had long become to scarce too be used in ammunition, forcing both sides to return to alloy based rounds for their weapons.

"Alrigh' enough ah tha', Prime, get yah ass below deck." Ira suddenly snapped, shoving herself back up to her full height.

Jolted by the sheer fact someone had ordered him to do something, he stared blankly at the Red Kite Harpy.

Said Red Kite looked to the twins he was still holding up.

He barely had time to react as the twins suddenly lurched forwards, their wings coming out and the struts tips making contact and piercing through the decking with the force of each impact.

With one surprisingly quick motion they had lurched themselves across the deck, where Ira and Kia moved, extending their wings out to catch their larger companions.

The twins twisted their helm round to look back at him. "Head below deck Optimus, we don't need you getting hit by Lightning. Captain! Full speed ahead!" Aria called up towards the bridge, Optimus caught a silhouette salute before he felt the ships engines started powering up even further, and the ship lurched forwards towards the storm even faster.

He went to object but the decking he was standing on was already lowering back down.

He was already half way back below deck when he called out. "What of you?"

The Harpies didn't reply, just kept watching him to make sure that he didn't try to clamber out as the decking slid shut over him.

Almost instantly he reactivated his holoform back on the deck.

Just in time to hear Ratchet let out a warning shout as the twins launched themselves into the air on their wings.

Just in time for a powerful gust from the storm to catch the broad underside of their wings and send them hurtling upwards into the air.

"YOU CAN'T LAND!" Ratchet's holoform screamed upwards, but already they'd broken into the full force of the storm, and the winds howl was a truly deafening force.

Ira actually barked out a laugh. "Like tha's eva stopped em! Come on Kia! Race yah tah tha top!"

Without any more hesitation her own wings snapped open and caught the wind, sending her back and shooting upwards.

Kia didn't rise to the bait, instead regarding the rest of the group who'd amassed out in the rain. "Don't worry, we'll catch them." Only then did their own wings stretch out again with another wind gust and they went rocketing upwards after the other Harpies already disappearing into the billowing black clouds.

Whatever Ratchet had been planning to shout up at them died in his processor and the CMO's holoform just threw up his arms in defeat before storming back inside and out of the rain.

His own gaze remained focused on the sky, trying to spot glimpses of the Harpies as Kia slipped out of view completely.

A tap on his soaked jacket turned his gaze down to a beaming Lena.

Somewhat startled by her positivity he tilted his head to the side, giving her the cue to speak. "Don't worry, they've done this before. It's perfectly safe for them. Just… don't touch them for a while after they land."

With that said her own gaze went skyward, the look of pure joy on her features somewhat alarming. "It's amazing isn't it? Being able to fly…"

Seeing an opportunity for some insight, he asked the woman a question. "Why do you follow them?"

Lena seemed to think that over for a few minutes before answering. "Their drive."

He regarded them for a moment. "What do you mean?"

Lena pursed her lips for a moment before answering him. "They have a goal, to return home… you haven't been around them long… not long enough for them to get attached. Once they're attached to you, they'd fight God himself to keep you safe… And I can say that from… personal experience." She admitted, left hand rubbing her right wrist in an almost subconscious motion. "All while going full force to their ultimate goal of returning home… so they can return to their own war."

He came up short there. "War? Against who?"

She glanced to him out of the corner of her eye. "Not who… what…. You did hear them didn't you? History went differently… there wasn't NATO to keep America and Russia from fighting… no global treaties… when the bombs dropped… their world… it became sick... they're all sick… the Harpies are together because they agreed to combine their powers and abilities to try and heal their world… To find a cure for the sickness… then… they wound up here… and they've done everything in their power to try and find a way back… they even snagged the attention of aliens for crying out loud!"

That was true.

After a few moments he asked another question. "How do you know this?"

Lena shrugged. "They told me… me, Winston and a few others… The twins even let us listen to their hearts."

That stopped him again, hearts… the plural term for the organ that pumps blood through the humans body, also referred to as where the human 'soul' resides. "I'm sorry… did you mean?"

"I meant what I said… they have two hearts… even now. The sickness hit everyone differently, don't ask Ira about it, Winston made that mistake and she went catatonic for four solid days."

"No… Are you telling me that the twins… were born with two blood pumps? What you humans often refer to as the place where the 'soul' resides?"

Lena nodded, though looked a little alarmed at the terminology he used, heart probably would of been better.

He turned to look back up to the billowing clouds above. "Primus… Split spark… same frame… Mrs Oxton do you understand how impossible what you just told me is?"

She shrugged. "They're from an Alternative reality and time-line, anything's possible in the grand scheme of things."

He couldn't really argue with that.

He opted for changing the topic and bringing up what he learned with Ratchet later. "What are they doing up there?"

Lena smirked then. "Riding the lightning of course, whenever a storm would roll through Vegas, they'd take the chance to get a good charge, it gives them a boost."

He nodded along to her explanation for a few moments before what she'd implied hit him… another thing to bring up with Ratchet.

She patted him on the shoulder. "Head inside, we won't be seeing them again for a while."

She took that as her own cue to depart, her human body already soaked to the bone.

He stayed out in the storm for a few more minutes, watching the lightning crash and roll amoung the clouds, some striking the water in the distance, others striking much closer to the Gilded Falcon.


The Harpies only returned when the storm was breaking on the horizon again, Ira landed first, letting off a triumphant screech as arcs of electricity jumped across her frame.

Kia's landing was heavier, letting out an appreciative groan as she stretched.

They each gave themselves a moment to gain their bearings before turning and stretching out their wings.

The twins glided down, their right pede tucked up and their left reaching out for the decking.

Their landing into their companions outstretched wings took only a moment, but the sudden added weight of the twins caused both of the smaller Harpies to grunt as both the weight and their combined charge jumped between them.

All four were venting laboriously, exhausted from the work out they'd gotten riding the turbulence far above.

The twins let out an especially satisfied puff of hot air as their sagged against their friends, helm craning up to knock their helms together in a show of appreciation before they allowed themselves to sag downwards.

Having little strength left themselves, Ira and Kia sagged as well, soon enough becoming a tangle of exhausted wings, bodies and talons.

Ira let out a slow sigh, lifting her helm to bang the side of it against Wren's shoulder.

Aria was the one who spoke, a wing shifting to rest over the Red Kite, shielding her smaller frame from the some of the rain that hammered against their frames. "How have you been holding up?"

Kia shifted closer, throwing her own wing over the Twins. "We've… managed."

Ira nodded in agreement, shuffling closer against Aria and Wren to tuck her helm under their jaw, she didn't fit, but it was as close as they could get with these forms."We're gonna be starvin' in tha mornin'."

All four seemed to let out both a sigh of exhaustion and groan of agreement at the same time, the faint light reflecting on their rain soaked faceplates fading away as each one slipped into oblivion, too tired to even try and stay awake, even with the freezing rain continuing it's deluge.


Peering out from within one of the higher floors, Ratchet found himself caught between being angry that his patients had gone against his warning of flying on their injured pede, and merely watching the Harpies bundle together into a pile on the main deck.

There was no illusion that they were close, he'd seen Ira and Kia catch the twins, how the cabling and pistons in their pedes had struggled to carry the extra weight for those short moments before the twins were able to mostly support their own weight on Aria's pede.

He knew that this wouldn't be the only time the Harpies would take to the air on this voyage, he just hoped he didn't end up with all four Harpies being grounded and needing repairs.

It was obvious they were still learning their own limits.

So lost in his musings was the CMO that he didn't notice Jazz walk over to him, the First Lieutenants stealth so ingrained that Ratchet didn't even hear the mechs holoform coming up until he was tapped on the shoulder.

By sheer force of will and having spotted who it was in the reflection of the glass did he prevent himself from spinning and trying to punch Jazz in the face, he knew full well he'd be the one on the floor if he had acted on his first instinct. "Yes Jazz?"

Jazz seemed to be, for once, hesitant. "Me and Maggie are fragging."

Honestly Ratchet had suspected as much, to actually hear it from Jazz was a bit of a surprise, given his previous observation subjects seemed to of all slipped into recharge, he turned to regard Jazz. "Jazz…"

"Already got tha 'endangering ah charge with personal involvement' from Optimus, I don' need tah hear it twice in one cycle Ratch'. I wanna re-assure Maggie that, despite… how realistic tha holoforms are, ah ain' gonna be gettin' her carryin'. Bu' she wan's tah hear it from a medic."

"Ah…" That was not where he thought the conversation would go, after a few moments of thought he glanced back to the Harpies. "May I suggest asking instead the ones who created the Program? I'd need to run a number of… tests… I doubt Mrs Madsen would be fully onboard with an 'alien' examining her. I am also yet to finish studying human anatomy." He added for good measure.

Jazz sagged a bit at that, before reaching up rub at the back of his neck. "Damn… was hopin' tah fix tha'... we both wanna keep… lettin' off steam bu' she's worried… ah don' wanna be tha cause ah tha'."

Ratchet huffed out a vent of air from his holoform. "Considering the fact neither of you showed yourself until after lunch, I'm going to take it that you performed the act a number of times."

Jazz's holoform actually darkened with a blush at that statement. "Well yeah… she's amazin' so soft an'..."

"Spare me the details, please Jazz." He interrupted, he did not need to know the details of the first lieutenants 'activities' with Mrs Madsen.

"Righ', sorry Ratch'... but it really helped her unwin' an' ah don' wanna her bein' all upset again yah know?"

Ratchet hummed under his breath, he'd never had to have a charge like Jazz did, but he could understand the desire to try and make someone in your care feel better, that was one of the reasons he was a medic, even now after so many millennia of war. "Speak to the Harpies tomorrow, they'll have a better answer than me in all likelihood."

Jazz just nodded and turned to head back in the direction Ratchet assumed was Mrs Madsen's room.

He should probably retire to his own.

He wouldn't admit it outloud, but there was a certain appeal to sleeping and waking up in a bed so soft it made him feel like he was floating.


Welp, that's another chapter down, hope you all enjoyed the latest addition! Until next time, ta ta!

Moon