The rumble of the engine died down to a low whine, then after a few seconds, the car exploded.

Like an explosion everything flew apart, but it was different as they snapped back towards the metal mass, twisting and flipping in a chaotic rhythm.

With every snap, two pieces joined into one, and another and another, until I could make out limbs forming out. Arms, fingers, feet, a chest... And finally a head, with two blue orbs taking the place of the eyes. The windshield was somewhere on his chest, I could see two tyres behind the knees and I could make out the rest of the parts here and there along the frame.

The robot, thing, whatever it was straightened out to its full height, which was just over two stories high, and looked at us. Its eyes focused on Lennox and gave him a short nod which the Major returned.

"Major Lennox, I hope you are faring well."

"As well as could be. We'll talk later about that later, the floor's yours now," Lennox called out.

"Welcome to Nest. I am Optimus Prime, and along with the rest of my Autobots, I come from the planet Cybertron, a planet which no longer exists. It was ravaged by a war, between us and the Decepticons and unfortunately it could no longer sustain life.

"Our only hope was an ancient artifact, which we followed to Earth. But it perished along with the leader of the Decepticons in Mission City, which is why we are here. The Decepticons are under the command of another, less experienced than the previous but just as dangerous.

"This organization was started with the hopes that together we can keep the Decepticons at bay, and one day even end their threat to your planet. Our differences are our strengths, no matter the race, that we are united is our advantage against the Decepticons so let us put it to good use."

It had such a deep regal tone when it spoke, I wondered if that was its actual voice or if it had somehow copied someone he met… A scenario popped into my head where somehow it had stolen the man's voice, in a very gruesome, bloody way. Which led the current state of shock; my nightmares were real, those monsters at Mission City were real. I didn't imagine those murder machines with red lights. But this one, Optimus Prime had blue eyes. Perhaps it was only the Decepticons who had red lights, or maybe it was an inherited thing or something. If it was the latter, did they inherit anything else? Either way, how was that supposed to make them any different from their kin?

Through my thought process, I hadn't noticed that I was looking straight at Optimus Prime, and it - him, straight at me. His lights were an azure like blue, gentle yet sharp at the same time.

"You have a question, miss?"

"What makes you so different from them? You could just be pretending to be on our side just so you can switch over when it's convenient for you. "

He did not even flinch, if their race could flinch, or look surprised. I got the feeling that either he was expecting a question like this or he had already encountered something similar.

"All life is precious. That is something that the Decepticons do not care about. If we truly meant you harm, we would not be here right now, we would be with them."

He shifted on his long legs, and then he stepped forward and kneeled until his face was just above mine. I could see the little mechanics moving and twitching in his face, so different yet so similar to our own.

"I give you my word as Prime that we are only here to fight with you, not against you. You were never meant to be in our war, and I deeply regret that is has come to this. We will do our best to help in any way we can."

I heard only sincerity in his voice, but that could be a ploy too. I felt a little ticked off that he knelt in front of me like that, like I was some little child in need of understanding. Does he think us that stupid? Or even worse, naïve?

"If Mission City was what you would call your best, then I'd hate to think what would be your worst. Tell me, how many more would die in that scenario? Would your worst actually be killing us yourselves? "

"Schmidt!" Lennox snapped. Everyone had turned to look at me and the Prime, but they were mostly staring at me. I was fuming, how dare he think that he could just win our trust like that? Did they think that I would just forget the deaths they caused?

In the meantime, two of the others transformed as well. The police car transformed in some lean, long-limbed frame with two small wing like appendages on its back and its face had a visor over it leaving only a stern looking mouth to be seen. The ambulance one had the same bi-pedal form as the other two, but its feet were more bird like with the three fingers spread out, but thicker.

The ambulance stepped forward next to the Prime, putting a hand on his shoulder. His voice had a raspy, cranky quality and it seemed annoyed too.

"Leave her be Optimus, she's experiencing symptoms of shock right now, her heart rate is elevated as well. It won't do any good to try to reason with her right now, she won't listen. "

I recognized what he said to be true, and that allowed me take control of some of the anger that had crept up on me. I didn't regret speaking my mind, but I could have done it more subtly.

"What Ratchet says is correct, Major Lennox. There is no need to punish her, "the police car said, and its voice clipped and short, more factual sounding than anything else.

The yellow muscle car switched on its lights and lowered its windows, where the radio could be heard flipping its channels, bits and pieces of words flickering out before it stopped on a song, which still was cut into clips.

"And I never meant to cause you trouble – never meant to deal you harm-"

The police car's wings flickered at the yellow car and he explained seeing as most of us sported a confused expression. "That is Bumblebee, he cannot speak like us and uses radio channels and recordings to form up sentences so that he can communicate."

I was a little surprised at first that it did that, but seeing as it was Bumblebee's way of speaking I still managed to get the gist of it. "Well you did. All of you, not just your psychotic cousins. Playing nice now doesn't erase what's been done."

"Schmidt," Lennox said again. "That's enough. "

"Do not berate her Major. She is only speaking her thoughts, she is well within her rights to do so. The rest of the population would have similar ones, and she just found out the truth," Optimus Prime said, turning his gaze back to me. "I believe I would not be wrong in saying you have experienced loss in Mission City, would I?"

"No, you would not be. "

"I apologize. It must be difficult for you to face us, the battle was only six months ago."

I just glared at him. Who did he think he was?

"Just who the hell do you think you are? Of course it's difficult, I lost my family in that hellhole, what do you expect? That I'd just accept your apology and get on with my life? You brought your war to our planet, it wasn't enough that we had to deal with our own shit , now we have to deal with yours too which happens to be two tones larger than ours and twice as crazy!" I spat. I was surprising myself as well as those around me, I never lost control like that. Being here in their presence just lit a fire that I thought had died out, but apparently I really wasn't over the death of my parents.

"Hey, hey, calm down Schmidt. Take a deep breath, just relax."

Ford was in front of me right now, he was holding my shoulders and blocking my view of those things. He kept murmuring the same things over and over, with his thumbs circling slowly over my shoulders. I wanted to shout at him too, but one look at his eyes made me bite my tongue. He was sad. Not just that unhappy sad, the grieving type of sad. Then I remembered that he had lost his girlfriend there too and all of my anger disappeared. I wasn't the only one who lost family, but I was the only one starting a tantrum. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. And then another, and another, until I felt that fire die down.

"That's better, are you feeling better? "

"Yeah… Thanks."

"Don't worry about it."

He moved next to me, and surprisingly I saw Crocker looking from behind his shoulders at me, his eyebrows squinted slightly. Ford gave me some space, but he still kept one hand on my shoulder.

"Youngling."

It was the white one, Ratchet I think, that spoke. They had moved backwards during my meltdown, but now he stepped closer again. His voice was still raspy and grouchy but it was kinder now, like some grandfather's.

"We are truly sorry for your loss, but you must understand that this is a war. You words are justified, but we never expected you to just take our apology and get over it. As Optimus said, we are here to prevent that from happening again. However, we cannot promise that there will be no more casualties, on both sides. War does not choose who is innocent and who is not, you are not the only one who has suffered loss."

"Schmidt, they lost people- eh, bots-too," Ford murmured next to me.

Once again, it was Ford who grounded me. Now I felt stupid and ashamed along with guilty. The war didn't just revolve around me.

"I'm sorry. I was out of line."

"Given the current circumstances, we don't really blame you. Although, it was wrong of you to assume that we are uncaring. We had loved ones just as you did, "Ratchet said, his tone turning a bit accusing.

I shut my mouth, it was best that I didn't talk anymore. I had just made an entire fool of myself, what a great introduction that was.

We only stayed for a few more minutes, just enough time for them to tell us what they did. Optimus was the leader, Ratchet the medic and Bumblebee was some type of scout, but he also had guardian duties, someone named Sam Witwicky. There was another one of them named Ironhide who was the big black pick up, some weapons master from what I understood, and he was usually off base tracking deserters.

The police car turned out to be the second in command after Optimus, he took care of almost the whole Autobot faction the same way that their leader did, his name was Prowl. The silver one was one of their soldiers, a front liner they said, called Sideswipe. He didn't stay long, in fact he sped off out of the hanger as soon as the introductions were done. Ratchet explained that he was a twin to another Autobot who he had got separated from on the way to meet up with the others. Twins on their planet apparently shared a deeper bond than the average cybertronian, so the separation and all the anxiety was taking a heavier toll on the silver bot.

Once that was done, we were dismissed, but Lennox called me to his office. It was no surprise why he wanted to talk to me.

"That was unprofessional. Especially from you. Did you know that they rank higher than you? Higher than even me? You were lucky it was them, yes lucky. Don't give me that face. They are not what you think they are. If Optimus was any less understanding you would be facing a serious suspension right now, do you understand?

I kept looking at my shoes and just nodded, too meek to say anything.

I heard him sigh. Looking at him I saw that he was once again rubbing the bridge of his nose, and I felt even guiltier that I was causing him more stress. His tone softened before he continued.

"Look. I understand what you're going through. I felt the same way at the beginning, when I first met their kind. And it wasn't the Autobots. There was this thing, some type of scorpion, the size of a horse. It took down one of my squad before we knew what was happening and getting rid of it was a nightmare, we had to call in an air attack to just cut its tail off. That was how unprepared we were, we barely made a dent. And a few hours before, a Decepticon had destroyed one of our bases all on its own. An armored base. We were practically defenseless against them.

"It was when I fought side by side with the Autobots that I realized I was wrong about them being monsters. We were not alone, and they were nothing like the Decepticons. The fact that they even tried to protect us spoke volumes on its own. They had no obligation to protect us or fight for us. They could just have taken their artifact and went back to their planet. But they knew that Megatron would kill us off, just to take revenge. So they stayed. And they lost one of their own in the process."

"I'm sorry, sir. I just couldn't control myself."

"I know. Honestly, I would have probably done the same thing under different circumstances, "he admitted. " The thing is, I still can't let it go. You, I know to be level headed, you'll get the picture once you think it through, and I know you will. There are some on base however , that are not in favor of the Autobots, and if they find out that I let you go without some type of punishment, they'll think its allowed , and I really don't want to deal with anymore shit. I've got enough to take care of. "

That stung a bit, even more since I knew it to be true, the real question was would I still be allowed to stay?

"I'm not kicking you off base, you just got here and I need good people here so that wouldn't be practical. But I'm afraid I'm going to have to suspend you. I'm sorry, but I think it will help you too, give you some time to clear your head at least."

My mouth felt dry. I was starting my career and I was already suspended. "For how long? "

Lennox pursed his lips. "Two days. It wasn't a real offence and as the big guy said you were well within your rights. But it was against a higher ranking officer. "

I bit my tongue before anything came out. At least it was just two days, it could have been a lot worse.

"We're still understaffed, and there's plenty to do. So I've decided to only suspend you from your full time duties. In the meantime, you're going to be helping with stocks, help them sort out and the likes."

"Sir, what full time? I never heard anything about that."

"Right, forgot to tell you, reminds me that I need to tell the others as well. In your file I read that you have some experience with medicines, am I right? Something with pharmaceutics?"

"Yes, sir. I started my third year last year, but I never finished."

"Still, that would give you more experience than someone who's never studied that field. When we're not on a mission, you'll be working with the doctors, an assistant of sorts , making sure that they have all the medicine they need , that's it's all up to date , stock take etcetera, etcetera and I'll have someone teach you some basic medical training. Given your suspension, you'll be starting two days from now. That's your full time, what do you think? "

"Thank you, sir."

Lennox looked a little skeptical, he closed his files and looked straight at me. "Listen, job aside, I was expecting someone to … be surprised, I just honestly thought that it wouldn't be you. You're normally level headed. But I don't really blame you, neither do the others, I know that. But you really surprised me. You were really angry, and I don't think I'm wrong in saying that you've been bottling it all up."

"I've never really talked about it. There were some therapists that were recommended by the hospital, but I never expected to come face to face with them again. I thought I made it all up somehow, "I said. I had talked to some therapists from the hospital, but they never really empathized, they were only doing their jobs.

"I believe you. There is an on base therapist if you ever want to talk to her. I'm not ordering you, but as a friend I would recommend it. Also as a friend, if you need to talk to someone about all this, I won't turn you away. There's something about sharing the same experience that helps, I know, "he said. He had this small smile on his face now, the kind one that was a contrast to his major persona.

"Honestly, Major Lennox, thank you. But I think it's just something that I have to deal with on my own."

And that was it. I was dismissed and allowed to go back to my room. The past hour had emptied me of any energy that I came with, and I just wanted to crawl into bed and sleep it all away. On my way back to my room, I passed by the hanger with the intention of apologizing to the red and blue leader if I saw him. Once I got there, I found only the second in command present and the medic, Prowl and Ratchet if I remembered correctly.

I caught snippets of the weird clicking language I remembered from my dreams and I didn't move a step further. The wings on Prowl's back, which I now recognized to be the doors from his police car cover, flicked a couple of times before he turned towards me. Ratchet seeing this, turned to me as well. Their combined gaze left me unprepared and all I could manage to do was open my mouth but I had trouble thinking of the right words to speak. They didn't look hostile however they weren't particularly welcoming either.

It was Prowl who spoke, his tone even and professional. "Is there something we can assist you with, Ms. Schmidt?"

"No-no, I mean, I just-looking for my room-"I stammered. I was still embarrassed from earlier and I had no idea how to talk to them now.

"Keep going down the corridor, youngling. The cafeteria is just at the end of it, I believe the barracks are close enough." Ratchet was the one who spoke this time, his tone still grouchy, but not unkind.

"Yes, yes – thank you."

I slipped away, trying not to look too much that I was running away. I heard them resume their clicking once I left, who knows what they were saying. As Ratchet said, the cafeteria was just down the corridor and I managed to find my room from there. I fell on my bed as soon as I got in and closed my eyes ready to take a week long nap , but with all that was going through my head I was doubtful that I would find any sleep tonight.

The youngling femme hurried out of the hanger as if she had scraplets coming after her. Ratchet looked at his friend, his irritated features easily falling into place.

"This femme is nothing like Mikaela, her I can handle but this one irritates me."

"Many things irritate you, Ratchet, "Prowl responded. "What is it about this one that vexes you?"

"Mm, she's moody for one. Before she left she was angry at us, now she's scared of us stammering to speak a single sentence. Mikaela's easier to get along with, she's a tough one."

Prowl's lips twitched for a second. "Perhaps it is that you are more used to Mikaela? It makes you biased, I know for a fact that she also suffers from bad moods at times. I had a dent to prove it."

"I remember that,she wasn't being moody, you irritated her so you deserved that"

Prowl stared at Ratchet and even with the majority of his face hidden Ratchet could tell that the second in command was giving him a dry look.

"Fine. Mikaela can be moody as well, happy?"

"Very much."

So , that's the fifth chapter out. I hope that anyone reading this is liking it so far and if there's any criticism I would like to hear it, be it good or bad :)

I'm hoping to include more Autobots ( It is Transformers after all :P) but it depends on how the story is shaped , so we'll see later.

Anyway , thank you for giving this a go and I hope you enjoy the rest - X