So, for this chapter, I skipped ahead about four years. Jack is now fourteen, and somewhere around 8th or 9th grade. Some familiar humans are going to be introduced, and I think that after this chapter we can maybe get into Season 1. I don't want to spoil anything, so that's as far as I'm going to go with introduction.

Hasbro owns Transformers, not me.

Ok, I do have a heck of a lot of transformer figures. But that doesn't count, sadly.


Somewhere over Earth, 2011

It had become a ritual.

No one ever spoke of it, or strayed from the pattern. It was merely their way of life. Nearly every morning, June and Jack ate breakfast together in Knockout's laboratory, then the medic would drive them to work and the bus stop respectively.

After school, Breakdown would bring the boy back to the Nemesis, where he and Soundwave and Starscream would monopolize the training chamber, to the occasional irritation of other Decepticons.

At 5:00, however, Pax would stop whatever he was doing, gather up his homework, and head to the one truly quiet place on the ship: Megatron's quarters. Airachnid would stop to check in on him once or twice during the hour or two he would spend there. More often than not, she would find Megatron bent over the tiny desk she'd made for her grandson, attempting to explain a particularly difficult math problem to the boy.

Airachnid wasn't jealous, and if Breakdown was, he never let on. They knew that the Decepticon leader needed the peaceful moments as much as Pax did. The homework itself was usually completed fairly early on, but Pax would stay in the room, asking questions and listening to stories of Cybertron before the War. They weren't the funny stories Pop told, or the old fables Rani knew, but Pax loved them nonetheless.

On this particular day, he was finding it difficult to focus on his math—normally his favorite subject, thanks to his unorthodox tutor.

"You are distracted, Pax Minor," Megatron glanced over from his pile of datapads to the smaller desk, where Jack was staring off into space.

He jumped guiltily and returned to his homework. After restlessly tapping his pencil on the table for a few more minutes, the boy looked up and asked, "Lord Megatron, is it ever okay for me to fight with other kids?"

Well. That was out of deep space. Megatron thought, and turned in his seat to ask a question of his own. "Do you mean verbally or physically?"

Pax dropped the pencil and ran both hands through his hair. "I don't know; like if I see someone hurting a fellow student, am I allowed to step in, or is that breaking Priority 1?"

Megatron frowned. "What happened, Jackson?" he sighed.

Slowly at first, then increasing in speed, the story tumbled out of the human. There was a little girl in the grade under him, he said, and she wasn't very friendly. You could say hello and wave, but she usually wouldn't even acknowledge the greeting. Pax thought maybe it was because she was homesick, seeing as her parents had sent her to Jasper on her own for some sort of medical procedure. She always traveled with this older girl who was in his class and they never talked to anyone.

Megatron had assumed at first that this was the student that Jack had been in the altercation with, but was further surprised to hear him defend the girl.

"There's this other group of kids from other grades, all from the same family, and they're jerks!" he burst out, "The Esquivels bully those two all the time!" He scowled and gripped the sides of his chair to keep his fists from clenching. "They're like the school Autobots around anyone smarter or weaker than them."

"Be careful, Jackson," Megatron cautioned sternly, "They are certainly bullies, but the label of Autobot should never be applied to humans without an overwhelmingly good reason."

The boy ducked his head, with a sullen "sorry" escaping his lips. There was an uncomfortable silence for a while. Pax stubbornly worked at his math problems, stinging slightly from the rebuke. He had nearly forgotten his original question by the time the Decepticon warlord answered it.

"What?" he asked, unprepared for the sudden conversation.

"Try to befriend the girls," Megatron repeated, "Perhaps their tormentors may think twice about disturbing them if they are not alone." He smiled in wistful remembrance. "I met your namesake that way."

Pax stared incredulously at him. "Orion Pax was bullied in school?"

"No," Megatron laughed, "I was!"

The twinkle faded from his optics and he became serious once more. "If a confrontation arises, do what you can to defuse it. Do not respond with violence, that is not our way." He appeared to consider something, then added, "If, however, a day comes when you are faced with a fight and no adult is available or willing to aid you, I give you my permission to defend yourself and your friends by any means you deem necessary."

Megatron's words still rang in the young human's ears the next day as he sought out the bullied girls. He found them in their customary spot, the stairwell between the gym and the library.

The older girl had been assigned to the younger as a helper the day she had arrived. Sierra took her job very seriously, and even had a few bruises to prove it. The moment she saw the Darby kid approaching, the thirteen year old stepped in front of him, blocking his view of the ten year old exchange student.

"What do you want?" Sierra asked suspiciously.

Jack raised his hands in a gesture of peace. "Take it easy, I just wanted to ask if I could sit with you guys during lunch," he took a step back, trying to put them at ease. From behind Sierra, a round face appeared. Brown, almond-shaped eyes sized him up critically before the little girl offered him a shy smile.

"You must be Miko," Pax nodded in greeting. "I'm Jack."

The Japanese exchange student's smile fell and she tilted her head to the side, looking confused. She squinted at his face for a moment, then turned to Sierra and moved her fingers in a series of rapid shapes.

The red-haired girl translated, "She can't understand you. You didn't move your lips very much."

Suddenly Jack understood why Miko never acknowledged a greeting when someone was behind her. Sierra made a series of gestures to the younger girl, whose eyes widened in recognition. She waved timidly at Jack. Then Miko moved her hands horizontally sideways, pointed at him, and brought her hands back towards her with her fingers curled in, facing upwards. One hand spelled out what Jack was sure was a word, and the other tapped her chest. She stared hopefully up at the older boy, who looked to Sierra for translation.

"She says, Will you be my friend?" Sierra explained, surprised.

Jack nodded, grinning widely, then copied her question as best he could, directed to both Miko and Sierra. His clumsy efforts left the girls smirking, but he managed to get the point across.

"Jack Darby," he said, holding one hand out to Sierra.

Blushing, she shook it, muttering, "Sierra Cody."

When Breakdown arrived to take Jack home that day, the boy announced that he wanted to learn sign language. "I want to be able to talk to them without making Sierra translate, Pop," he said resolutely, "Do you think you could help me practice?"

Breakdown chuckled through the radio. "Have you seen the size of my servos, Small Fry? You're better off asking your Mom or Rani."

Pax shook his head. "I'll ask them, but I want you to help too," he said stubbornly, "What if someday I bring them to meet you guys in holoform?"

The grizzled hologram in the driver's seat looked startled. "Aren't you a little young to be bringing girls home?"

Pax's face turned bright red. "Pop! I didn't mean it like that!" he howled, dropping his forehead to meet his palm with a resounding smack. His grandfather's laughter shook the entire vehicle as they sped through the Ground Bridge.


I watched a video of someone saying "Will you be my friend?" in sign language several times before describing it as best I could, if you were wondering where I got the motions Miko made.