I'm going to warn you now: This chapter is short.

Thanks to my reviewers of course; Xarine, 99luftballonsx.o.x, jgoss, wolfimus prime, CastielLunaWinchester, Lunarburst23, SunnySidesFemme, Alice Gone Madd, Bee4ever, xVentressx, HeartsGuardianSol, and SapphireSpark!


Chapter Twenty: Turning Point

It was only two days after Ratchet finally cleared me from the Med Bay, and also two days since the big fight with Sideswipe and Sunstreaker in the Rec Room. I wished so badly Sideswipe would talk to me about it, but he refused to cooperate. Optimus and Prowl put the whole base on lockdown because of Laserbeak, and they searched for him, but they never found him. Now they had security cameras in every hall, with someone always checking the footage, just incase. But I was always wary.

Currently, I was making my way down the hall, avoiding any dark halls, when a tall, lanky boy with dark brown hair ran into me. He must have been really distracted, because the speed he was running at almost caused me to have a nice little conversation with the ground, but he gripped my arm and hauled me up at the last second.

"Crap, I'm sorry," He said, running his fingers through his hair, "Hide's gonna kill me if I'm late to training again."

That voice, it was familiar. My eyes widened, "Hey, I remember you! You're that boy from my training class!"

His brown eyes widened in return, and his mouth fell open as he stared me up and down before his coppery gaze locked with mine, "And you're that girl who took Hide down on the first day of training."

I nodded, feeling heat creeping up my cheeks and flushing my face warm. I had to admit, when he wasn't an annoying, anxious, and complaining guy fumbling with his gun all the time, he was actually kind of handsome. If anything, it only made the heat in my cheeks grow warmer, and I secretly prayed he didn't notice. If he did, he didn't make any notion to prove that he knew, except raise an eyebrow in confusion and tilt his head slightly to the right.

"Speaking of which...where have you've been? Did you accelerate to a higher level or something?"

I snorted, "No, not exactly."

His confusion was still laced in his features, "Oh...well, uh-"

"I got hurt," I interrupted, motioning to my calf which was halfway healed and the faint bruises running up and down my legs, "Had to get stitches and such. Ratchet would not let me leave that Med Bay without a fight." It sure was a nasty one, he almost threw a wrench at me.

"Oh." He chuckled lightly, and I couldn't help but laugh as well. I then remembered that I was supposed to go help Jenna with some military Jeeps in the hangar.

I scooted over awkwardly to the side, "I don't want to make you late for your class."

He nodded, a smile curling up on his lips, "Not really looking all that forward to getting shot at, but okay." I snorted a laugh as he waved away, turning, and continuing his frantic jog down the hall.

"Tell Hide I said hi!" I called out, listening to his voice echo through the hall before proceeding to walk forward.

I turned a corner, and froze as I stared up at the fuming golden robot making his way down the hall, not even watching where he stepped. Nope, not really in the mood to die today. But before I could even slip back into the other hall, his bright blue optics were already on me, and he stopped his angry traipse.

Well...Crap.

I stared up at him tentatively, not sure if he was going to growl out threats or just squish me. Either one didn't sound too appealing. He just stared at me for a long time, bright eyes narrowed into slits, and I swallowed hard, fear mixed with apprehensiveness brewing in the pits of my stomach.

He stared at me for such a long time. And as the minutes gone by, I thought I was about to explode, when he finally opened his mouth, and I tensed, getting ready for the insult to come.

"I apologize…" He trailed off, before adding bitterly, "human."

He...apologized?

I was completely aghast. For the short time that I've known Sideswipe's twin, I knew he was aggressive, violent, and did not like humans, especially me. For him to give me apology, as vague as it was, is something I definitely wasn't expecting, and that's why my jaw fell open as I stared up at him.

I was confused as hell, and I think I should probably be a little wary, just incase he grins and says, "Just kidding!" before dropkicking me to China. But at the same time, I wanted to feel relieved and a little optimistic. That maybe, maybe Sunstreaker and I could get along.

Still unsure of what to respond with, Sunstreaker just rolled his eyes, muttering something probably crude under his breath before walking away. I turned and watched him, still thoroughly confused. I couldn't really do anything else about it, even though I wanted to. So I just kept walking, finally making it to Jenna's hangar.


(3rd POV. Starscream.)

Do not fail me.

The words echoed through Starscream's processor as if it were being constantly set on rewind, and spoken into a large microphone. How he hated Megatron, with all his spark, but couldn't dare to make a move. Every time Megatron struck him, it wounded him physically and mentally. Starscream wasn't sure if he could take one more time of being called cruel names and being a punching bag. His temper was reaching its boiling point.

He wanted power, he wanted to be the leader. And he wanted it now.

Opposed to popular belief, Starscream was not an idiot. Yes, his greedy conquest for power blinded him sometimes and did not make him the best of character, but he was clever and he had a plan to take Megatron down. Oh, did he have a plan alright. All he had to do was lay low and remain unsuspicious for a few more orns, and finally, he would get his revenge...and become the leader of the Decepticons, which he rightfully deserved. Every ache and throbbing area in his body only had the flames of hatred burning brighter. All he had to do was this last task for him, which in turn, was helping himself.

If he could, he would be grinning wickedly, as his sleek, F-22 Raptor form tore through the air, followed along by a small fleet of Seekers. They were approaching the area of detonation quickly, and he commed his fellow soldiers.

"Get ready to descend. We have reached the detonation area: Kenewick, Washington." He ordered, and they all responded back with "yes sirs" and "affirmative's" before beginning to descend lower to the city.

He descended as well, transforming mid way and raising his null ray to blast many buildings in his way. The buildings lit up in a multitude of red, yellow, and orange. The small fleshes were already shrieking, running out of the burning buildings like little scattering ants, and Starscream chuckled darkly. Other Seekers hit the ground, crushing buildings and objects in the streets, causing more and more mass panic.

The pandemonium made his spark flutter in excitement, as he blasted more buildings and kicked cars, street lights, and lampposts out of the way. He noticed a human male, stuck hanging on to a broken window about twenty feet off the ground, and he smiled immorally down on the tiny, unfortunate victim.

"Help!" He screamed, his voice breaking, "Help me, please!"

"Oh, I will help you," Starscream purred, stroking the petrified human's back. The human male shrieked looking up at him with wide blue eyes and dark brown hair. Starscream's voice turned dangerous, and his ember optics narrowed into slits as he glared at the tiny male, "I will help you by ending your pathetic existence."

It bothered him that he chose to use the same words Megatron threatened to him once before. He shook away the guilty feeling seeping into the back of his helm, and using one hand, flicked the human off the broken window, as if an annoying bug was on him. He screamed loudly as he plummeted, and he payed no more attention to the soon-to-be-deceased human as he met up with his other Seekers near the point where the energon mine was located.

And as he ordered his bots to start hunting for it, Starscream couldn't help but share a small, wicked smile with himself. It was time to start putting his own plan into motion.


"Hand me the socket wrench, clamps, carburetor cleaner, and a nut driver." Jenna ordered, extending her free hand out to me while she installed the new carb parts and mounted on to the engine. So far, the only thing wrong with this Jeep is it's carburetor needed to be replaced.

"Alright." I responded, scanning through the neatly organized tools out on the workbench, before picking up what she asked for, and also grabbing a 4 in 1 screwdriver. "I think you're gonna need that, too."

Jenna scrutinized the screwdriver for about a second before nodding and getting back to work. It was amazing how completely serious she became when she was working, it was like a whole different person. The ginger had her hair tied back in a lazy ponytail, and her mechanic's jumpsuit on, but the sleeves were as usual, rolled up to her tanned shoulders. Even in a jumpsuit with various oil and fluid stains, she looked gorgeous.

While I on the other hand was paler than pale, wearing an old Nirvana t-shirt she lend me, and jeans that I cut at the knees a long time ago. After cleaning all of the new parts, and installing the final touches, Jenna stepped back.

"Charlie," She said excitedly, turning towards me. Some of the Jenna that I'm accustomed to came back to her and lit up her bright green eyes, "Start the engine! Let's see how it runs!"

I smiled softly, walking over to the opened driver's door, and starting the engine. The Jeep revved smoothly, and I got out of the car and high-fived her.

"And Violà!" Jenna cheered, "My job here, is done."

We both laughed as we left the hangar, turning off the lights. We headed down to the Food Hall, and my eyes widened when I found out they were serving spaghetti. My absolute favorite dish in the world.

We sat down with Lennox and Epps as usual, but they were talking about football, so I ended up ignoring 's when that feeling came again. I was staring into nowhere blankly when the bad feeling started brewing in my stomach again, like I knew something horrible was about to happen. Honestly, it scared the crap out of me.

"Boo." A male voice whispered, and I flinched in surprise. Turning around, I met the stare of teasing pale blue eyes, and a devious smile on his handsome face, "Ooh, you should see the look on your face. Didn't know you were such a scaredy-cat, Schelmeil."

I rolled my eyes, turning back around and tried to shake off that bad feeling, "I wasn't scared."

"Sure you weren't." He drawled sarcastically, sitting down in the seat next to me. I twirled the spaghetti on my fork, relieved as the feeling started to fade away. I glanced at Sideswipe, and his face contorted to a look of curiosity, and then disgust as he slowly brought out a finger and poked my spaghetti.

I glared at him, "Really?"

"What is that? It looks so...messy." I could've sworn I saw him shiver.

I snorted, picking up a sauce covered noodle with my fork, "It's called spaghetti. A popular human dish."

He stared at the noodle for a long time, poking it gingerly, before taking it off my fork and dangling it in front of his face. Has he never seen spaghetti before? Why the heck was he acting like it was a new species? He started to swing the spaghetti back and forth, and I choked on a laugh when it hit him in the middle of his holoform's forehead.

His eyes widened in completely fear, and I think his voice wavered, "Get it off! Get it off!"

I couldn't help but break into tiny fits of giggles as he squirmed with the piece of noodle stuck on his forehead. Finally, I decided I had enough pleasure at his expense, and flicked the noddle off his forehead. He sighed in relief, relaxing back into the seat. I took Jenna's napkin and wiped his forehead softly, making sure to get all of the pasta sauce off his face.

He seemed surprised when I did this, because he went still for a second, before relaxing even more at the gentle touch. I smirked, pulling my hand away, but he caught my wrist gently. I flushed with instant heat at the touch, his holoform's contact on my skin sent tiny, buzzing tingles up my skin. Just like his fingers did in his true form. It was his pulse, I realize as his thumb rubs in small circles on my wrist. I was drawn to his pulse, because it was always vibrating in a way that felt so comfortable and vigorous.

It was nothing like the human pulse.

It was such a pleasant feeling, that I momentarily forgot about the bad feeling in my stomach, the fight with his twin, and every other bad thing that has happened in the past few days. And then Sideswipe froze, and the hand that was wrapped around my wrist went rigid.

"Sides? What's wrong?" I asked.

"Optimus just commed me," He then gave me a sad look, "Cons are attacking in Washington."


Oops...I ended it on a cliffy. This chap is pretty much what the title of it says, a turning point, so yeah, that's why it's so short. But hey! You can still review, right? Please review!