"There are many things that I would like to say to you but I don't know how."

Even that didn't create a smile. Not that he could, anyway. "Lyra, open your subspace compartment or I'll force it open myself," Code Red demanded.

"Why don't you just throw me in jail? It's what you want to do." She'd get sustenance and protection. Worked for her!

"As much as I dislike acquiescence, I'm afraid I have to proceed accordingly." The guards were not gentle. They threw her into a room with another bot. A medium-sized bot, with red, bright green, and orange paint. The colors clashed atrociously.

"What are you in for?" she asked. He scowled at her and looked away.

"Oh, right. Jaywalking." She got a puzzled look from him. "Never been to Earth, then. Okay..." She sat on the floor and relaxed. "If you don't mind, I'm going to go offline for a few seconds and have nightmares about Code Red learning how to play with our servos."

Still no response. Creepy.

A huge crash brought her back online. The screaming of the other bot didn't help. "For frack's sake, I'm trying to SLEEP here!" she yelled, pulling out her other blasters and peppering the offending parties. (Hard to do with only a viable left hand.) The first two fell, the ugly bot hid, the next two popped out but fragged if they couldn't find anyone to shoot at. It gave Lyra time to reposition and turn the next two into piles of metal. STILL TWO MORE retaliated. One of them got her good, too. Frag that, she was getting mad.

"ARGH!" she bellowed, jumping on the shoulders of the ugly mech cowering in the corner and flying down on the last two with a hail of blasts.

FINALLY. Peace and quiet. She rematerialized and turned to the ugly bot. "Sorry about your friends."

"F-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-friends?" he had the unholy amalgam of stutter and terror. "Th-th-th-they they they were here to kkkkkkkkkkkill mmmmm-"

The smoke was clearing up and she could see a get away worthy of one of Skyfire's cartoons. "Got it. Wanna get out of here?"

"A-a-a-a-a-a-a-and go wh-wh-wh-wh-where? I was I was I was sssafe hhhhhhere!"

"Then stay here. I have a bounty on my head and no time at all left to get away from it."

"Dddddddddark 'Bbbbot?"

She froze, mid stride. "How do you know about Dark 'Bot?"

The ugly bot only looked shy.

"What did you do? Or not do?"

He sobbed quietly.

"Unicron in the sky, WHAT!"

"I-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-"

Code Red must be at their door any second now. She shoved a pad in his face. "WRITE IT DOWN!"

It was simple: wouldn't marry his 'daughter.'

"Time's up and that's hilarious," she declared. She turned invisible and patted him on the head. "Enjoy prison."

Dauber was near tears. Mercuria was stunned.

"How? Just...how? That should have killed you!"

"Yep!" she proclaimed proudly. She hadn't told them how she did it, and in spite of their inquisition, they didn't really seem to care. Dauber was in full mobilization. "So what's the third task?"

"You're going to need time for this one. To plan."

"Plan what? What am I doing? Do I need help?"

Dauber wasn't paying attention. Mercuria whapped him on the back of the head. "Tell her now, so that she'll shut up!"

"Oh, right. Kidnap Grimlock. Bring him here when you have him." And with that, Dauber tossed another blaster at her and hurried into another room.

Arkvander's "shop" barely registered. It looked like every other retail storefront, with inoffensive signage, decent ingress/egress, and the standard amount of lighting. As she stood there, appraising it, the lights inside went off and the "open" sign flipped to "closed."

Perfect. A little while longer, and he'd be offline or all alone.

She saw a tiny minicon messing with a display. Graphically, it was nice. Not thrilling, but nice. 'Now you're just being mean,' Lyra chastised herself.

Then she saw Arkvander.

He moved quietly, with purpose, even when walking towards the dumpster. She felt heat in her body when he turned around and stared right at her.

There was no way he could see her. She was invisible.

With a start, he snapped out of his reverie and walked back inside, turning off the back lights and turning on the upstairs lights.

It was the easiest of things, to climb up the wall. She wished she could fly but could not. At least the court had given her a restraining bolt in lieu of removing her transforming cog altogether. Small favors, perhaps.

The room had a bed, a table with a LOT of polishes and waxes, a small grooming shower, and a large sound system. How did he keep all of these things and yet not be robbed? He had to have some kind of security system in place. Nothing was going off yet.

Maybe another floor would be better.

(Oops.)

He hadn't seen her, but he might have heard her. His head popped up from the model he was working on to glance out the window. He put it down and opened the sash, and looked upward.

His visor met her optics and he smiled. "You're the 'bot from Tap's."

"So you CAN see me!"

He smiled even wider. "I know things about 'bots that would curl your ailerons."

She swung in without effort. "Do tell!"

He caught her, pausing a moment while she was in his arms. "Maybe later. Would you like a beverage of some sort?"

The room made her energon pump stop harder than it did when he'd caught her. The entire room was models. Models of Autobots, of Deceptions, of Minis...it was terrifying. "Are these all of the mechs you've killed?"

His laughter was gentle and full of comradery. "Nah. The war is a hobby of mine."

"Wasn't a hobby when I was in it," she mumbled, accepting the mug she'd witnessed him pour from the small dispenser on the wall.

"You were in it? Wow. What did you do?"

Telling him should have lulled him into a false sense of security to move her in for the kill, but he was so excited about her tale he kept jumping up and handing her the model of every character she included. Somewhere dreadfully inaccurate, and she felt embarrassed telling him, but he encouraged her input, jumping up to the desk to make notes before jumping up again to grab another. When he handed her Starscream, her voice faded, trailing off into lost longing as she held the tiny toy in her hands and uttered "I wish this were truly him."

"He's dead, though." Arkvander kept his tone lilting. Lyra once again reminded herself not to waste lubricant.

"I know. It was in all of the news mediums." Reported gleefully. Starscream had no loves. Perhaps one...

"You're grieving."

She finished her story as quickly as possible. Arkvander put no more objects in her hands. It allowed for her to hold Starscream as she spoke.

"Who sent you to kill me, strange Autobot?"

"The den's owner. And the bot in the shadows."

He nodded, sipping his own mug of energon. "Dark 'Bot. No one has ever seen him. He has many followers."

"I have to kill you or they'll kill me." Carefully, she handed him back his small Starscream.

He gave a slow grin, taking her hands into his, kissing her knuckles. "They can't get in here, which is why they sent you. If you stay here and help me and tell me stories and fix my models they can never kill you."

No other offer had been made to her. Her entire life she'd been forced into homes or had to force her way in, yet at this moment someone was INVITING her. It was too much. Who could ever resist?

"'Cause maybe you're gonna be the one that saves me."

"I will," she promised.