Welp, another chapter ready to go, back at Uni now for my final year, so I have no idea how frequently I'll be writing this year, but we'll see.


Somewhere on the North Sea - Triage Earth

"Do I even want to know, how the captain's wife knows you?"

Ivan looked up from the bear bottle he'd just popped the cap off, courtesy of the captains daughter.

A daughter who's head of pitch black hair didn't match either of her parents browns.

Not like it did Ivan's when it wasn't starting to salt an pepper.

Ivan huffed in good nature, gesturing to the fact he'd been handcuffed to one of the many air-conditioning units by his left hand in the hull of the cargo ship they were now on board. "Why do you think the captain handcuffed me down here?"

Derrick pinched the bridge of his nose, Epsilon was perched on his shoulder, content in just preening the vibrant blues of his breast feathers.

Ivan chuckled at the young man's exasperation. "You know, the girl looked pretty interested in you… or the bird… couldn't tell which."

Derrick wanted to slap the man, but knew better.

Ivan had a temper, and one that sometimes made him forget important details.

That aside, the smug bastard…

He put down the plate he'd brought with him, leftovers from the dinner he'd been invited to, the captain's daughter had already left, heeding her fathers warnings about the older man.

Ivan grunted his thanks. "Make sure to eat well kid, I'll be fine down here."

Derrick knew it to be the truth, but he hesitated for a moment. "What if…"

"Kid, there's forty people on board, and as far as they know, you James Ryker, my nephew, you'll be safe here, you and the damn bird."

With nothing really to say to that, Derrick turned and headed back up and out of the cargo hold.

"James!"

The call of his latest fake name had his attention snapping to the captain's daughter, Serene.

She was waiting for him by the stairs that led up out of the belly of the ship and further up to the main deck and crew quarters.

Serene locked arms with him. "C'mon! I have a tone of games we can play up in the main rec room!"

He was being dragged up the stairs before he could even get out a coherent answer, looked like he was going to be entertaining Serene for a while.

Soon enough, he'd been coerced into game of scrabble with Serene and her mother.

The captain was busy with steering the ship, and much of the crew had already retired for the night.

"So James, you're Ivan's nephew…" The captains wife, Juniper stated, looking over her tiles.

Derrick nodded. "Yes, I am."

"Hmm… odd… he never mentioned having any siblings… alive ones at least…"

Derrick chuckled. "Yeah, I was quite a shock to him when I managed to track him down. My mother hid her pregnancy and died of 'complications during a..."

"Appendix removal surgery… yes I remember him mentioning he'd lost a sister to the operating table… And your father?"

Derrick sighed. "He hung himself… turns out my mother was a… mistress of his…"

"Oh that's... terrible? And his wife?" Serene asked, her attention rapt.

Derrick bit his lip. "One of their... chefs poisoned her drink… that's why my father brought me into the house, I didn't need to be kept a secret anymore… and that's how I met my half sisters, they helped me track down Ivan when we were older."

"And you said they've gone missing?" Juniper asked, finally putting a word down on the board.

Serene was quick to add her own onto her mothers.

Derrick nodded. "Yeah… they were working in London at the time, we've looked everywhere we could think of, and we've found nothing… they always talked about going on vacation to Norway, so that's where we're heading now… hopefully we can find a clue or something, but so far we've found nothing, ain't that right buddy?" He cooed to Epsilon, who had just hopped up to join him on the stiff bench.

Epsilon cawed back, enjoying the chin scratch Derrick was giving him.

Serene reached over for a moment, as if going to pet the vibrant bird, but it ducked back away from her, causing her to pull back in turn. "Not fond of people?"

Derrick shook his head, finally placing down a word of his own. "No… no he's only ever liked me, I raised him from an egg, I'm his mother basically."

Juniper exchanged an impressed look with her daughter. "You're a rare thing James…" The older woman remarked.

Derrick gave a half hearted chuckle. "Well… my sisters certainly didn't raise a fool."

Not five minutes later, the game of scrabble was interrupted, much to Derrick's relief.

Juniper had been slowly creeping into more and more personal questions, ones he'd rather not answer.

The one who interrupted them, happened to be the captain himself. "Curfew, everyone to your cabins."

No one complained, Derrick easily hefting Epsilon up under his arm, bidding the family a goodnight before promptly departing.

Once Derrick was out of earshot, the Captain turned on his wife. "What did you find out?"

Juniper petted her daughters hair. "He's perfect… we're keeping him."

Serene practically glowed at her mother's confirmation.

She'd make 'James' hers, no matter what.

Even if she had to keep him in a pretty little cage, just like his pretty little bird.


Rome Italy

Ira grumbled to herself, looking over another grocers store, her holoforms arms didn't strain under the weight of the bags she carried, but the insistent muttering from Glen was starting to grate her nerves.

She tried to be reasonable, far from home, not understanding a word of the native language, and under the watch of someone who could so easily kill them and make it so their body was never found.

She'd been in the exact same place as him at the ripe old age of fifteen.

She hadn't however, made a habit of muttering.

With a sharp intake of breath, she turned on the large teen and hissed. "Will yah shut up!?"

Glen froze stiff instantly.

Better. "Good, keep followin' me."

She wasn't in a good mood, period.

Not after what had happened the night before.

As well as the looming fact Jazz and Maggie would be arriving at her apartment soon, and she still hadn't found what she was looking for.

Was it really so hard for people to just… sell the food she needed?

Groaning in frustration at another stall in the market that didn't have what she was looking for, she spun on her heel and began to stride back out of the market. "C'mon, we're gonna be la'e."

Glen scrambled to keep up.

Sure enough, when she kicked the front door of her apartment open, Maggie and Jazz, who'd been 'enjoying' themselves on the sofa, jumped.

Quite literally, considering the impressive backflip off the sofa Jazz did.

It got a much needed laugh out of the Irish woman. "Ah've hear' ah breakin' in tha' bed, bu' mah bran' new sofa? Heh. You two have fun."

She walked over to the kitchen area and dumped the bags from her arms, causing their full mass to clatter to the counter top.

A few moments, Glen finally came through the door, and spotted Maggie. "Maggie?!"

The Blonde cracked her neck she spun so quickly. "Oh my god… Glen!"

The two met in the middle, Maggie nearly falling back when Glen pulled her into a desperate hug.

They were rambling nonsense, so Ira left them be, only bothering to acknowledge the intrigued look from Jazz that he sent her way.

Maggie's attention only shifted to Ira a few minutes later, after Glen explained how he'd woken up in the apartment, and that the last thing he remembered before that, had been getting a look over from the full size Harpy out in the middle of nowhere in America.

Ira met her gaze for a moment before shrugging. "He's go' potential, both ah yah do. Li'e ah'd let tha' go tah waste." She'd already started preparing some food for lunch, and to emphasise her point, she slammed the clever she was wielding down one of the slabs of steak she'd bought earlier in the morning.

Maggie spoke then. "What happened… to the one who shot the twins?"

Glen glanced to Maggie and Jazz.

Ira pursed her lips, bringing the clever down again, the suspense built again, but she held it even as she set the clever back down, the scrape off razor sharp steel against granite causing a shiver to jump up the spines of the two humans.

"He's dead."


Barcelona two weeks later

"One more! One more!" Kia cooed, clapping her hands together as Mikaela spun once more, allowing the flaring skirt she now wore to spin outwards, the colours dazzled, bright flowers that would make a bouquete rot with envy, and decorated with beads, gems and other such finery.

It was a gift, from the Estrada to the Barnes.

One Kia liked to see on the young teen far more than her raggedy mechanic clothes.

Which were up in the teens new wardrobe, nestled in a villa not far from the warehouse.

Bumblebee clapped along, and Ratchet watched the affair before him with humour.

Things were peaceful in Barcelona, and it had granted Kia the free time to visit her employee and her other guests after her first week of work.

At Mr Barnes request for his daughter to be as safe as possible, which Kia had agreed to without hesitation, Mikaela had been placed at one of Kia's sports car dealerships, where she was being trained as an accountant and, at her insistence, given full rein of the show cars.

They themselves would not be sold, so allowing the teen to have her way with engine blocks that would barely ever turn over, and brake systems that were fated to lack of use was something of a no-brainer for the Estrada.

And from what she had heard from the manager, Mikaela, despite her grasps of spanish, was quickly becoming a hit with the staff, who knew to be patient with the girl.

It was why they were training her as an accountant, numbers needed no translation.

"¡Maravilloso! Querida, te ves divina!" Kia cooed as Mikaela finally stopped spinning.

The teen, somewhat dizzy, chuckled as Bumblebee's holoform easily caught her. "Thanks 'Bee."

The scouts holoform just smiled and helped her back fully upright before letting her go, somewhat slowly.

Kia chuckled to herself at that, switching back to english seamlessly. "Well Mikaela, what do you think?"

Mikaela laughed herself at that. "Um… I love it? Like, where did you even find this?"

"Oh once I had your measurements from the tailor, I sent a few rough sketches to this fashion house I bought a few months ago… You can thank Wren for the suggestion of all those bits of finery, and Aria for the colour choice, I was just fine with you having a fun skirt!"

Mr Barnes glanced over at the group and spoke up. "You're spoiling my daughter."

Kia waved the man off. "Oh hush! She deserves to have some nice things to show off!"

Before Mr Barnes could reply, Kia turned on the medic. "Ratchet, may I request your presence at my villa post haste? I have something to give you that is somewhat time sensitive."

Ratchet raised an optic ridge and gestured to the skirt Mikaela was now wearing.

"Oh I wanted that out of the way first, now, can I expect you at my villa in… let's say thirty minutes?"

The CMO went to ask why this matter was so 'time sensitive' yet not, but Kia's holoform had already flickered out of existence.

He looked to Bumblebee and their human wards, all three just shrugged and he let off a vent of exasperation.

They'd all grown accoustomed to this, Kia wasn't 0ne to waste time, departing with just the same haste as she arrived.

He'd be up at the villa soon enough, there was little reason to say goodbye.


Estrada Vila

She'd not been back two minutes when her com-link went off, it was a group call from the twins, for both her and Ira.

Ira had joined immediately, her acceptance taking a few moments.

"Yes?"

"We're doing it…"

"We're going to the mountains of Petra to secure the Matrix…" Wren detailed.

Kia felt something inside her drop. "Arien…"

"Yah jokin' righ'? Tha' thin' coul' fuck you righ' up!"

"We appreciate the concern Ira, but we've been sitting on this decision for a while…" Aria clarified, conviction was in her tone now, though even now Kia could sense the hesitancy.

"Aria, Wren… you're certain about this… I mean… what about Derrick?"

"... Can… Can I be brutally honest about something? I know that's normally your thing Kia but…"

"Oh woul' yah jus' say i' already!" Ira snapped.

"Eh...We don't think Primus is going to just… let us go home… this isn't a commitment with an end…" Wren declared.

"We're stuck, and the longer we drag our heels… the longer we're left in the dark."

"All fair… bu' how tha' flyin' fuck are we suppose' tah fin' the Omega Keys then?! Las' ah chec'ed they weren' in Bayverse."

"They're not, they were only in Prime and Cybertron… so either they're scattered across Earth, or we're going to have to go on an intergalactic egg hunt."

"An' raise Atlantis."

"Find, not raise, we're made of money, but not that much money Ira." Wren replied.

Kia didn't like this. "You're going alone aren't you… I don't think I can put into words how much I think that's a bad idea."

"If we all go, the Autobots will suspect, if it's just us 'going to take care of some things', they'll suspect less than all of us up and leaving at once."

"Kia, they don' wan' tha bo's fin'in' ou' abou' tha Matrix."

She paused at that. "Why not? Aria? Wren?"

"... Mmmnn… it's… complicated… we know we have to take it on… but the cultural implications…"

"Yah don' wanna be ah Prime?" Ira sounded almost incredulous at that.

"Ira, you've known us for years now, we're… we're not that kind of leader, and we certainly aren't fond of the idea of taking Optimus' job."

"Migh' wor' ah little differen'ly here if yah as' me." Ira muttered from her end, she seemed to be doing something now, tapping away at the computer hub she'd already set up, and bitched about a number of times because it 'wasn't up to snuff'. "Consi'erin' Prime is ah Prime, an' the Matrix is in ah cave in tha middle of fuck all nowhere."

"We appreciate the sentiment Ira… wait, you're agreeing with us?"

"Yah alrea'y decide' an' we shoul' all know by now yah two are the stubborn ones here."

Kia huffed, just as she could hear Aria laugh over the link.

"Well… it should take us three days of night flying to reach Petra… if we're not back in… say… three weeks, come and find us." Aria explained.

Kia felt herself frown. "Three weeks? I was down for at most an hour, why do you think the Matrix would take so long?"

"Call it a hunch." They said in unison.

"Fuuucckkkk… Twins… if yah come bac' spoutin' hollier than thou bull crap, le' i' be known now ah'm gonna dec' yah in tha' face ah yahs."

"Message received Ira, we're flying out tonight." Wren confirmed.

She and Ira chorused their surprised.

Kia took a moment to roll her eyes, of course they'd wait till the last minute to tell them, damn mad women. "How about this, in a week, Ira flies out, that gives you a day to be late flying back."

"Mmmm, Ira?"

"I'm with Kia on tha' one, if somethin' is wron', we're callin' in tha big guns tah carry yah ass bac',"

"Not a trailer, please, we beg of you."

"Twins, if I fin' yah ah grey husk, yah two bein' stuffe' in ah trailer is gonna be tha' las' of our problems."

"Alright fair...fine, if we're late by a day, you can come hunt us down Ira."

"Fly safe you two, and watch where you land."

"... That was a horrible excuse for a joke if that was your attempt at humour."

If she rolled her eyes anymore her holoform might just send them bouncing along the floor.

She made the note not to suggest that to Ira.

She opted to cut her part of the call there, she had things to do.

And one of those was getting the body on the coffee table out of its body bag.

It had taken a while to find a candidate that was suitable.

No close family, good body structure, and most importantly, a member of one of the local gangs.

One could never put too much fear into the smaller groups.

It was like her momma always said, keep the iron hot, and they'll always flinch.

The call had eaten up more of her time than she'd expected, she'd barely gotten the body prepped when Ratchet's holoform walked through the open double doors that lead out into the corridor, and promptly froze in place.

She looked over, hands occupied in pulling on a set of rubber gloves, yes it was a holoform, but she still wasn't the keenest on getting blood on it specifically.

Seeing the need to break the silence she spoke. "Surprise! It's time for your first practical lesson on organic biology Ratchet!"

She caught the holoforms eye twitch. "Please tell me that is a very accurate replica of a corpse…"

Kia shook her head, pulling out a knife. "Nope! Killed fresh this morning!"

Ratchet went to rebuke her, but she cut him off. "No, no, you are not throwing a fit about this, I already gave you the text books, but you need something to work on that won't die if you fuck up." She gestured to the corpse. "You can't kill someone that's already dead, so, until you know the in's and out's, you're gonna be working on Cadavers like they did back in the Victorian era."

Ratchet wanted to refute the logic, he truly did… but something about how Kia worded that… it threw him off for a moment, something that took him right back to when he was first being trained as a medic…


"There… in that rotary valve, do you see it?"

He leaned in to where his mentor had pulled something free from the offline frame on the operating table, sure enough, it was a rotary valve.

She tapped the opening of the valve with the back end of her scalpel. "What does that look like to you Ratchet?" His mentor asked, bending over a bit so that she was holding it just in front of his view.

"Umm… it looks like a blockage ma'am." He flinched, realising he'd fragged up.

No reprimand came, just a roll of the optics, how many times did she have to tell him that 'Dust' was just fine, no 'ma'am' no 'Chief Medical Officer of the Senate, and by proxy Iacon', just 'Dust'.

"Exactly, now, let's see what that blockage is." With a skillful flick of the wrist, she'd flipped her hold on her scalpel, and tapped lightly against the side of the valve with the handle of the scalpel.

A few more light taps, one more insistent hard hit, and the blockage popped free.

It was a ball of blue, congealed energon, and now free from the confines of the valve, spread out slightly, revealing the tiny pebble that had been hidden inside.

Placing the scalpel down, Dust picked the tiny pebble up, and scowled, like the tiny bit of rock had just insulted her. "Unbelievable… do you see this Ratchet? One pebble, one pebble, was all it took to take this mechs life... Alright, you're supposed to be learning from this, how do you think this tiny pebble…" She gestured to it, and then to the offline frame on the operating table. "Took this mech offline, go."

In a brief moment he panicked, trying to think back to what he'd learned from the tutors he'd had before… what was it… how could a pebble offline an adult frame miner from Kaon? How? How?

"Ratchet?"

"Ratchet?"


"RATCHET!"

Snapping back to the present was like a rubber band breaking, and he promptly realised he'd been standing there, stock still, for a good few minutes, earning the building ire of his host.

Whom, upon realising he had finally snapped out of it, huffed. "Finally back from La La Land?"

He shook his holoforms head. "I'm sorry… what?"

Kia huffed again, arms crossed in front of her. "Just… use the textbooks, don't get blood on them, and let one of the staff know when you're done, I don't care if by the end you've sewn his head to his ass, just… try and get a basic understanding from this, Wren's getting all paranoid that you, the medic, only have what you can look up on the internet in regards to human anatomy… Now if you'll excuse me, I have other things to do, I've riffled through enough corpses in my day, this one's for you."

With that, Kia turned and left the room.

Leaving him with the body on the coffee table.

He opted to com-link Optimus, Ironhide was taking a nap and he somehow hadn't woken his mate with his internal turmoil.

"Prime…"

"Yes Ratchet? Is something the matter?"

"There's a body on the coffee table…"

"... I'm sorry, repeat that."

"There's a body on the coffee table Prime, Kia told me to come up to her villa, showed me a body on the living room coffee table, and told me to, in effect, 'figure it out'..."

"... Ah… They are quite… odd aren't they?"

"Yes… yes they are… and Prime… I'm afraid to inform you, you are no longer alone in being taken on jaunts to the past…"

"Ratchet... what happened?"

"Just… an old memory, from the golden age... of Dust… we were doing an autopsy on a miner from Kaon… part of a general survey of the health of the masses…"

"Ah… And the body on the coffee table brought this back?"

"Yes… at least… I think so…"

"Alright, as long as the jaunt has passed, I'd like to inform you that the twins had no objections to sending out a hailing signal to our scattered forces, though they did gripe a bit about having to expand the bunkers so soon."

"That is… good to hear… signing off Prime… the body is already starting to smell…"

"Very well, dismissed." And the call ended.

Ratchet sighed, rubbing the side of his face, feeling the simulated stubble that was forming.

Might as well get started he figured, locating the autopsy style equipment that Kia had placed on the plastic covered sofa.

After only a few moments of hesitancy, and opening the first of the medical textbooks to where he'd gotten in his last reading… one on the organic blood pump, he made the first incision.

It was somewhat unnerving how easily the skin gave way to the blade.

They truly were a fragile species…

He could understand the Harpies concerns.


Beneath the Villa

The bunker was nowhere near done.

Kia stood, though she did not need to hunch, a good few more feet would have to be taken out of the floor for Optimus to be able to stand without hitting the roof himself.

Her attention was not on the bunker at large though.

No, her attention was on the shipping container that had been brought in that morning, and was now finally being opened by some of her men.

The heavy locks came loose, the seventeen bolts on the front door being unlocked.

The door swung open, and Kia stooped to look inside, then had to drop all the way onto her wings and roll back on her haunches to be low enough to properly look inside.

The now thawed helm of Megatron stared lifelessly back, face still held in a roar.

He certainly hadn't left a peaceful corpse.

But it mattered little.

If she had knuckles in this form, she would have cracked them as the helm was unfastened from its moorings, and wheeled out of the container.

A look had her men dispersing, almost instantly leaving her alone with the decapitated helm of the tyrant.

Well… almost alone.

"I don't like this idea…"

Kia huffed. "The American Government has Blackout, which means this son of a bitch is the only Cybertronian corpse I currently have access to. If I'm going to keep everyone online, I need to know how to cheat death."

"But…"

"He's a head, there's little he could do to hurt anyone. Now realax, I don't plan to start work on him yet… Ratchet has a lot to teach me."

The little voice fell quiet and Kia sighed in relief.

She knew who that little girls voice belonged to…

Coming to terms with it had been… surprisingly easy…

Telling the others, less so.

Something kept her quiet, she wanted to tell them…

But that first time that little voice had begged she not tell, not tell, not tell… she'd made a subconscious promise to not tell…

Not ever…

She turned her back on the decapitated helm.

Megatron wasn't going anywhere, and she had a growing empire to rule.


And it's done! Hope you all enjoyed, see you all next time!