AN: Sam and Bee getting together, y or n? Some of you may have read It was Only a Kiss where there's a strong hint towards it, and well there's ideas soooo... I'm torn between putting it in here or continuing it in there.

Sidenote: I do have reasons for their abilities, some of which Optimus explains, and calling them powers was just for fun. So no it's not just a completely random thing like most of my stuff is, haha!

Also, imma be lazy this chapter and not do reviews. So there! Thanks to everyone who reviews, and reads this story!

Chapter 39
A Little Change

It was quiet, for once. Barricade and Miles sat outside, the ex-con in bipedal form, and the human beside him, both looking up at the night sky. There was going to be a meteor shower, and they weren't the only ones out to watch it. Graham and Trailbreaker were just a few yards away, and there was others besides them. The teen had been less talkative that day, but not enough to cause concern. The silence wasn't uncomfortable, so the two had just been basking in it.

"What were your Creators like?"

The question had come out of the blue from Miles, which in itself wasn't odd. The subject matter was. Before the teen had seemed to draw some unspoken line about delving too far into Barricade's. He wasn't sure if the teen was just weary about what he would find out, or what, but Barricade wasn't going to complain. He never did like answering a ton of questions, and once a human got on a new subject, there always seemed to be a lot.

"I do not remember. One died in a work involved incident, and the other followed after, I was told. I was given to my Caretaker instead, a mech."

"What was he like?" The teen asked.

Barricade thought for a moment, "He was very practical. He enjoyed experiencing what he thought were the finer things in life. To this day I am still not sure how raising a sparkling got in there with his idea of that, but it had. He gave me what I needed. Energon, shelter."

"The basics." It was a statement, not a question.

"Yes. I was encouraged to find a way of getting whatever else I wanted on my own. There was encouragement to not do anything that he would disaprove of."

Miles turned his head just a bit so he could look up at the ex-con as the mech continued to talk. The caretaker: A mech that adopted for nothing more than to say he had raised a Sparkling, and given it what it needed. Love and affection were wanted, but not needed.

Energon and a berth to sleep in, a place to call home, with the use of it's most basic definition. A place that one lived in. The mech never really bothering with Barricade unless he had gotten himself in trouble, he had deemed it appropriate for a check up, which usually involved asking Barricade a few things or just examining whatever he had in his room at the time, or at meal time. Barricade realizing the fact that he could steal to get what he wanted, that he could watch and listen to find out how to live, and that living where he did meant being tough and crafty just in case you were caught.

If he was caught then he would be punished, and it was as simple as that to the Caretaker. The suggested need to fill the role of a disciplinarian for what some saw as a bad action, though never actually bothering to drive the point home. The Caretaker never personally expressed an opinion over these things, though when he never said anything about stuff magically appearing it was made evident he didn't care.

Miles was silent throughout, just letting the ex-con talk. He wasn't sure what seemed like the sadder fact to him: that Barricade had probably never realized what was missing with how his life continued, or that he had a life like that in the first place.

Barricade felt it was his turn to ask a question, "What brought that on?"

"I was thinking, but I drifted off from my original course."

"Wondered why I smelled smoke."

A beat of silence as Miles took that in. The teen huffed, but then couldn't stop a little snicker leaving him.

Miles huffed again for good measure, "Aft."

Barricade smirked, and the two fell into silence again for awhile. Like usual, Miles was the first to break it.

"My biological mech creator died, and I was invited to his funeral. I've been trying to think of anything that I could even think that wouldn't be slightly insulting to him if I did."

The ex-con shuttered and unshuttered his optics, then thought on that for awhile. With what little he knew he came up with nothing.

Miles grinned, "Right? I just keep thinking: Thanks for not using protection and ditching me, I like how my life turned out!"

"That's what you've been thinking about this whole time?" Barricade asked, incredulous.

"Well, no. I just tossed that out there because you're a slaggin' super computer." A small pause, as he let Barricade rev his engine in annoyance. "I've been trying to think of a convincing way to get Will to let me off base without my parents finding out just yet. I want to surprise them."

Barricade revved his engine in an angry manner. Surprise them with what? Surely not that his biological mech creator had died.

"You're leaving more questions than answers."

"Right, sorry. Okay, so it turns out that my biological mech creator ended up cleaning up his act and getting married to Alexandra and had some more children. He ends up dying of cancer, leaving this wife and children behind. She's going through his stuff and finds this whole entire box of stuff about me. He'd been keeping tabs on me anyway he could, and there's apparently a lot of letters he's written that were never sent saying how ashamed he is and all that good stuff, right? Well she finds out how to get my contact information and writes to me. She leaves me this number, and of course I call, and she lets me talk to my siblings. They're beyond Chuck Norris awesome, it's so unbelievable.'

There was a longer pause this time, and the teen sounded almost hesitant when he spoke again.

"Mom and Dad are old, Barry. Dad's only three years older than Mom, and they didn't have my biological femme creator until Mom was thirty. My biological femme creator had me and died in the same year, when she was twenty. That made Mom fifty and Dad fifty-three. It's been seventeen years since then, almost eighteen. They shouldn't be here on a military base with giant aliens from outer space when things may or may not be escalating to another Mission City battle. It's safer for them here than it was in Tranquillity when they could be easily connected to me, yes, but it's still dangerous."

"And you want them to go to this femme and the sparklings."

Miles nodded. Barricade vented softly.

"Good, I've been going a little stir crazy on this base."

Miles stared in surprise, and then grinned.

It hadn't been that hard to convince the Captain to let Miles go, especially since he would have Barricade with him. It was harder to come up with an effective cover story as to why they were leaving base, but Ironhide was surprisingly helpful in coming up with one after Miles showed him a picture of all of his newly discovered half-siblings. The Weapons Specialist was a stickler for children, even tiny organic ones. It was almost funny, seeing as he had never actually had any himself.

Prowl sat in Optimus' office, drinking some of the Energon he had brought for himself and the young Prime. Both looked out the window.

"It seems quieter." The SIC commented, and Optimus chuckled, nodding.

"Epps is sick. Miles and Barricade are gone so no insane laughter over something stupid, or growling and snarling. Will is busy keeping his mouth shut about whatever the two are really doing, Sam is busy trying to find out through Will what the two are doing, and Sideswipe is in the brig. No wonder." The Prime replied, grinning openly. He did enjoy his troops, especially the more prominent members. Organic and Cybertronian alike.

"Sam hasn't helped him?" Prowl asked, slightly surprised.

Optimus shook his head, "That only works sometimes."

"True. I still wonder how they got those abilities, though. How do they relate to the Allspark at all?"

"I suspect Primus has a reason behind this all. Communication is important. The ability to understand and be understood by those around you is a trait the Allspark also had. That it appears through a comm link is probably because of the nanobots inside of Miles, which are Cybertronian in origin and make it easier for him to do."

He let Prowl take that in, before continuing.

"The Allspark gives life, and would occasionally heal it. Healing is generally a step down from giving, but the two are entertwined. Medics are often seen as holy beings, being close to Primus almost. Bumblebee could speak with the Allspark, which many saw as slightly holy, too, though less so than Medics. Bumblebee being this perhaps left Sam in it's favor, or just letting it connect the healing ability to Sam easier. As far as we know he can only heal humans from minor things, and half the time he ends up giving whatever it is to himself. If he doesn't he becomes extremely tired."

Another pause.

"It is said that the Allspark is a direct way for Primus to meddle with his creations, and as a creator he would want to protect us, no? Will is Ironhide's charge, and Ironhide is my bodyguard as well as one of the mech's with the strongest Guardian protocals. Not to mention he's a captain in Earth's military, and used to finding ways to protect his men. The few times he's successfully managed to use that is always when he actually feels in danger, and someone else is there with him. Like when Wheeljack's drone lost control and Keller was visiting."

Optimus was doing well so far, in Prowl's opinion. "And Epps?"

"That's another I suspect is more linked to Primus than the Allspark. Naturally you have to be able to get things done."

"To meddle." Surprisingly enough, Prowl seemed to catch on to what Optimus wasn't saying.

The Prime made a sound like coffing, though he was clearly amused. "Perhaps."

Prowl eyed his commander warily, trying to decide whether or not he was serious.

"You know what the real reason for them leaving is, don't you?"

"But of course." A grin. "Who do you think gave Ironhide that good cover up story to cover for them?"

Prowl felt his doorwings twitch, "Meddler."

Outside the window they could see Swoop fly down and capture Sunstreaker. Again. Optimus laughed, and grinned.

"Not always." He then proved this fact by doing nothing to help his soldier, and ordering Prowl to do the same.

Miles turned on the camera, setting it on a tree stump. He turned around and had to bite his lip to keep from laughing. His little half siblings were all climbing Barricade like he was a tree. Fred and Rose, the twins, were clinging on to his legs, and dancing around his peds. Millie, the youngest, had latched herself on to his thumb, and was talking at the mech at a fast pace.

"Well, well, Barry. I think they like you." Miles grinned, he thought the ex-con was doing extremely well. He hadn't growled, snarled, or snapped once.

"So it would seem." Barricade replied, shifting Millie so she was in his palm instead. He activated his holoform again and had it standing on the ground.

"Remember guys, we don't tell Mommy, got it?" Miles asked, grabbing Fred as he ran around.

"But why not?" Fred whined, struggling to get free.

"He's family." Miles grinned at Barricade, "Never had a chance to escape us, the poor sap. We keep family's secrets."

Barricade grinned internally, he could already see this going badly.

"Mommy's family too, Mi!"

Miles fumbled for something to say, "Mommy's not directly related to me, while Barry's uhm..."

All of a sudden Rose clapped, and squealed. "A prince! He's from another world, he's your Guardian, it makes perfect sense! And you're his princess, cuz you have longer hair! That's how he's family!"

"What? No, we-"

Millie gasped, "Tha' makes us pwincesses, don't it?"

Miles gaped at the girls, while they looked at him with innocent eyes and a hopeful expression. He couldn't even see how Rose had come to that conclusion, but she was just a child. Alexandra had said that she did adore anything that could lead to princess/prince or something similar. He could almost feel himself giving up. And he could hear Barricade snickering lightly. He turned to glare at the Neutral.

Barricade smirked, "Rose, do you think he needs a nice gown? Every nice princess has one."

"Yes!Yes!Yes!"

"Barry!" Miles hissed, "You're evil!"

Elizabeth and Bob were less then pleased to learn that the story their son had given them for why he was leaving the base was a lie, but they weren't upset over the information they found out because of it. Elizabeth was down right excited, she loved children, and these were family. Never mind the fact that she wouldn't be sure what to actually call them, but they were all going with grandchildren just to make it simple.

Barricade was family, too, apparently, and that was fine with the both of them. While he wasn't family the way Rose and Millie wanted, their son and the mech were still close. There was nothing wrong with adopting a giant alien robot from light years away, was there?

It wasn't long before NEST was a little bit emptier, Elizabeth and Bob leaving to help Alexandra with their grandchildren. Miles spent more time with Judy and Ron the first few days, which was fine with them. They had already taken him in as family long ago, as Elizabeth and Bob had done with Sam.