I know, I'm terrible, I'm sorry. College came up and planted its foot deep in my backside with no remorse. I had barely any time to breathe with all the homework. Anyway, I'm done now, so I shall restart posting chapters every Friday until we are finished! Anyway, hope y'all enjoy the beginning of the plot reveals with these next few chapters!
Everyone kept throwing hints at Kay as the years went on. She wasn't as dumb as what it seemed half of the troops believed. The idea was, being honest, a bit scary to her. Kay had plans, albeit not incredibly strong ones, before the Autobots appeared in her life. She wanted to be an engineer, get a good job, find a good man, and settle down, working hard to keep herself and whatever family she had comfortable. Her powers were going to be ignored, used just enough to make sure they didn't lash out, and she was really hoping they weren't genetic. If so, well, maybe she'd only have one kid.
Now, though, it seemed three-quarters of the NEST force, every Autobot, and a handful of government officials wanted Kay to become a soldier. It was a hard dilemma, especially as the countdown to her graduation from college grew smaller and smaller.
Neya and Kay had moved into an apartment together, large enough for any 'visitors' but small enough that it didn't break the bank. Their friendship had grown incredibly strong, but Nya's life was developing a far different path for her.
"I cannot believe you have job offers from four different companies," Kay groaned, researching her two assigned companies. Neya smiled lightly.
"Hard work, finally paying off." Kay's mind flashed to her pile of exactly two post-college opportunities: grad school and NEST. "Anyway," Neya continued, "it's really just down to two options." Kay let out a laugh, Neya half-heartedly throwing a pencil at her. Only two of the companies were in DC, the same city as the newest NEST base, and Neya and Sunstreaker were basically joined at the hip. Kay scooted closer to Neya, looking over the pros and cons of each company.
"This one seems the best, honestly. Way higher pay and only slightly further away," Kay said, pointing to the company.
"Yeah, I think I'd have to agree." Neya laughed when Kay hit her lightly on the arm.
Beyond that, Kay had a month to make her decision. She was fully accepted into a nice grad school, the admissions people excitedly sending her emails about campus life plastered with smiles and sunny days and students with their under eye bags missing. The professors seemed incredibly intelligent, the opportunities afterward plentiful. But she couldn't deny the small ache in her heart every time she thought of moving states away from Bee. NEST was really growing, gaining more missions as the months went on, to the point that there was only one Bot with Kay and Neya at a time. Kay usually didn't realize how much the time and distance apart really hurt her until Bee had driven up, scooping her into his holoform's arms and holding her tight. Her heart would physically ache, then, slowly loosening in the pain while she spent time with her mech.
The day of graduation finally came. It was a tense, exciting ceremony, everyone huddled together with friends as nerves bundled deep in their chests. Some were merely glad they made it, others were trying to digest the fact that they were the first person in the family to make it. Kay was definitely a mixture of both, though her 'making it' was mainly her fear of dying of exhaustion along the way.
They lined up, waited some more, then shuffled out into the massive gymnasium physically rattling with the cheers of the graduates' families. Graduates waved excitedly to their family members, smiling wide. Kay's eyes scanned the crowd, not expecting much, but true shock blazed through her when her eyes brushed over a crowd of men with electric blue eyes and bright, vividly colored clothes. Lennox, Epps, Jake, and a few other familiar faces were also there, cheering loudly and waving wildly, while Mrs. Witwicky whistled loudly and furiously clapped her hands together. Kay's eyes locked on Sam's, a knowing smile on the young man's face as he gave his best friend a single wave. Kay let out a single surprised laugh.
"I can't believe him." Kay had a smile stuck on her face for the entirety of the ceremony, her eyes struggling to leave the group of the people she was closest to. She almost missed her name call, even, but the deafening cheers that erupted from the large group spurred her into action.
Kay was beaming as she left the gymnasium, holding the college diploma tight to her chest. It was a difficult four years with lots of stress, pain, and a severe lack of sleep, but she had done it, and she had graduated with an amazing GPA. Kay stopped at the edge of the stream of people, waiting for her friends to shuffle their way out of the gym. Her eyes scanned everyone excitedly, waiting for the first familiar face or set of electric blue eyes.
Kay found a familiar face, but it was not a face she was expecting at all. Even with every ounce of adrenaline her body could handle in her system, her heart stopped. Then it fell a couple thousand feet, pulling the blood from her face as it did so.
The familiar face's gaze caught hers, the man stopping in his movement to stare. Neither person dared to blink. Then he began forward, carefully weaving through the crowd with expert skill. He stood above most everyone else, his black hair filled with streaks of silver that had always been there, his clothes, although casual, crisp and meticulously kept unwrinkled, and his eyes still a vibrant, unnatural red.
He stopped just in front of Kay, a ghost of a smile pulling at the corner of his lips. Kay watched his eyes, working hard to capture every emotion she saw fluttering through them. Pride, joy, happiness, confliction, a splash of guilt. Kay allowed her face to fall into a frown, watching as pain entered the glowing red eyes. Confliction was entering her own heart. How could a Decepticon get hurt feelings from a human?
"Who are you?" Kay asked simply, waiting for an answer.
"Your father." His voice was as deep and warm as she remembered, adding another wave of confusing emotions to the roiling sea deep within her.
"No, I know that." Her mind stuttered over the thought every time it encountered it, entire foundations of Kay's life collapsing with each stutter. "I mean, which Decepticon?" The duo glanced to their left from a mild swelling of voices. A trio of teenagers was distracting her group, keeping their attention away from the situation.
"My designation is Soundwave." Kay took a slow, deep breath in, sending a probing question to the knowledge locked deep within her mind. The memories of the AllSpark flooded her senses, informing her of all she needed to know of the Decepticon in front. She opened her eyes again, catching the glowing red orbs. There was curiosity within the orbs as well, now, a desire to understand the sensations that flooded his sensors that was held back by the maturity of age and a series of emotions that he had found annoying but impossible to ignore.
"Why now?" Kay was also struggling with her own emotions, switching her attention between the holoform that she had associated with being her father and her group of Bots and soldiers getting increasingly annoyed by the teenagers with glowing eyes.
"Watch out for Shockwave." Kay snapped her head back towards Soundwave, a serious, firm frown creasing his features. Kay sent another probe for the information, this time in the background.
"Why'd you leave?" Soundwave's frown lessened, but it was still there.
"Because you would have been in danger with me around." Kay let out a light snort, followed by a sigh.
"Yeah, okay, whatever. I get that." The holoform in front of her appeared conflicted, thoughts flying through his eyes at dizzying speeds. He opened his mouth to say something else but quickly snapped it shut, looking up. Kay followed his gaze, watching Bee firmly push his way through the crowd towards her. The younger teens that had been holding the group back vanished in a cloud of sparks.
"Please be careful, sweetheart." And with that, Soundwave was gone, the sparks that remained of his holoform harmlessly floating to the ground. Kay watched the sparks float away in silence, only moving as Bee appeared at her side.
"Are you okay?" he asked, looking around at the crowd. "Who was that guy talking to you? Where'd he go?" Kay kept quiet for a few moments, lacing her fingers through his own and using his presence to try and calm the raging storm still deep inside her. "Kay?"
"I'm good," she finally responded as the last of the waves of strong emotion passed over her. She looked towards Bee and gave him a bright smile, truly feeling happiness as she pushed the encounter out of her mind, to be talked about later. "Really, I am. Let's go celebrate, eh?" The rest of the group finally appeared, not asking many questions once Kay brushed the topic off. Sam gave Kay a look, but he didn't say anything, especially after a small threat from Kay over the fact that he brought such a large group of people.
By the end of the day, Bee, Jazz, the Witwickys, and Kay were stopped at a hotel a third of the way back to Nevada while everyone else had returned to a base for a flight back to Diego Garcia. Judy had even planned a few stops for all of us along the way at some landmarks and large malls. Kay was genuinely excited for the time with the Witwickys and two of the Bots she felt closest to.
The newly graduated woman dropped face first into the bed she was to share with Sam, letting out a sigh of relief as she kicked her shoes off and pulled the fluffy down comforter around her shoulders. Judy and Ron were still swimming for the last hour the pool was open and Sam was watching TV while lying on his parents' designated bed.
"Hey, Kay?" he prompted simply. Kay hummed back her acknowledgment. "Who was that man you were talking to at the ceremony?"
"Yeah, I want to know that, too." The bed dipped as Bee's holoform wrapped around Kay, planting a light kiss on the top of her head even as he waited for an answer. Kay let out a light sigh, this one of annoyance rather than relief. Another form appeared near the end of the bed, Kay glancing to see Jazz lounging with his legs over hers and his torso over Bee's legs. She had two options for her way forward. Well, three, but she had been through too much with Sam and the Bots to lie. Sometimes her brute honesty would get her in trouble, or could be something hard for someone else to get over, but it was also the basis for any strong relationship; at least, in Kay's mind.
"It was the holoform of a Decepticon named Soundwave." Kay watched Sam closely, half-heartedly reassuring Bee and Jazz while the gears visibly turned in Sam's head. Slowly he turned his head towards Kay, his eyes locking in hers. Kay didn't waver, waiting for the inevitable question.
"But wasn't that your dad?"
"Wait, what?" Jazz immediately countered, turning to sit up and fully face Kay. Bee's arms around Kay's waist stiffened lightly in surprise, though he kept himself quiet as he waited.
"Yeah," Kay finally replied quietly. "It was. But," she quickly added, looking towards Jazz and Bee, "you guys need to know that I didn't know this until today, either. I haven't seen my dad since I was seven. And anyway," she added, turning in Bee's arms to watch his reaction as well, "it's not like he could be my biological father." The prolonged silence from the holoforms, the room only filled with the sounds of the quiet TV, worried Kay. "Right?" Finally, Bee blinked, giving Kay a small, reassuring smile.
"Ratchet said it's highly unlikely." Kay opened her mouth to continue worrying. "He also said the highly unlikely is a scientist highly unlikely. Whatever that means." Kay closed her mouth, nodded once, then carefully curled into Bee, letting the information roil around in her mind. Everyone else was also quiet, doing the same.
"You're just weird, Kay," Sam finally said after a solid fifteen minutes of quiet. Kay laughed.
"Tell me about it."