Funny how the title of the episode in which this chapter seems to be happening has a title that goes along perfectly with this chapter.

Anyway, I hope you like this chapter! Enjoy!

12 - Inside Job - 12

I sat down and crossed my legs as I prepared to tell them how I had become what I was now. Miko eventually stopped hitting me and stalked off. She sat down, her back facing me, and she crossed her arms. Jack sat down in front of me and crossed his legs as well. Raf looked at me uncertainly, as if he wasn't sure that I wasn't going to hurt him. I smiled softly at him and rested a servo down on the sand, palm up. I watched him quietly, hoping that he would trust me, but he walked over to Jack and sat down next to him. I retracted my servo.

"Start from the beginning," Jack ordered. "When the Vehicon…shot you."

I nodded, and let out a vent. "So…when I was walking home from when I was volunteering at the hospital, I saw this car sitting in front of my house. I admit it frightened me, and now that I think about it, I should have turned around and walked the other way. There was this strange car outside my home, and I should have figured that someone could have been robbing my home. But I walked by the car and approached the front door. And that's when the car transformed into a Vehicon and shot me."

"We saw the place where you were shot. It must have been painful," Jack said before he visibly shuttered.

I nodded. "Yeah. But the next part, that probably will raise eyebrows." I decided that I'd skip over the part where she met Primus and Bumblebee in the Well. It would prove awkward because Raf was Bumblebee's charge. "But I woke up in the Well of AllSparks, which is basically where all the sparklings, or Cybertronian babies come from. Once I got oriented again, I noticed that my body had changed, that I was no longer human with short brown hair and hazel eyes, but a black female robot. I had never been freaked out so much in my life."

After blinking and letting out a sigh, I saw Miko turn her head and look at me. She was still glaring, though.

I quickly advanced the story, telling them how I climbed out of the Well, experiencing my fear of heights the whole time, how I tried being a data-clerk, but ended up becoming a medic, how I met First Aid and Knock Out, how the Decepticons attacked and I got crushed by a wall, how Knock Out and I hid in Praxus with fellow medic Default, and how we were forced into the Decepticon faction because they needed medics."

"Wait, wait, wait!" Jack said, halting my last explanation. "You're saying that you're—"

"Doc Knock's partner?" Miko interrupted as she came to join us, all thoughts of sulking and shunning me gone.

"What she said," Jack finished with a sigh.

I nodded. "We're good friends."

"But he tried to kill Jack! And Bulkhead!" Miko exclaimed.

My eyebrows rose in surprise. "He didn't tell me that…"

"It's probably because he never wanted you to know," Raf pointed out.

I sighed with a sad nod. "But I remember a time where he wanted to help people and not hurt them. But after being forced into the Decepticon ranks, and after Soundwave rooted around in his processor, he slowly changed. I think whatever Soundwave did to him is causing him to act that way…" I rubbed my chin in thought. "I'll figure something out."

"Are you seriously thinking about returning to the 'Cons?" Miko asked dubiously.

I crossed my arms. "It's not like I can go marching into the Autobot base without getting shot at, right? And if I go rogue, like Starscream, the Emperor of Stupidity," Miko snickered at that, "Megatron will try to offline me."

"At least you were forced onto the Decepticon side, and didn't decide to join them because you wanted to. Are you going to try to defect?" Jack asked.

"Yeah," I said. "But I have to do it carefully." Suddenly my sensors alerted me to a Decepticon signature coming down the nearby road. I gasped, leaping to my pedes and backing away from my friends. "Guys, I suggest you run…"

"Why?"

"Decepticon!"

"Scrap," Miko growled.

I dashed away and jumped into the air, transforming as I did.

"Wait! Mikaela! When will we see you again?!" Jack called after me.

I didn't reply, since I was already roaring into the sky.

I stayed out on patrol for the rest of the day and night. I returned to the base the next morning.

I transformed and landed on the exposed deck of the Nemesis. I straightened and walked into the ship, keeping to myself. Inside, my spark was dancing. Jack believed I was still his friend, and I was grateful. I wasn't sure about Miko or Raf, though. Miko had started talking to me at the end, but that didn't mean that she liked me.

Quickly making my way to the med bay, I made sure my visor was down, and I put a smile on my face. Once I was inside the med bay, I looked around to see if Knock Out was there, but realized he wasn't. I scanned the room and even walked around it until I saw his aft sticking out of the wall. I stood there, shocked, trying to process what I was seeing. It was like seeing that Tangean princess from Buzz Lightyear of Star Command being stuck in the wall when her powers faltered.

I rushed out of the med bay and around to the hall where I thought Knock Out's front half would be sticking out of the wall. I found him there, staring listlessly at the wall across the hall. "Oh my Primus! Knock Out!" I exclaimed. "What the heck happened to you?"

He jolted, and blinked his optics a few times. "Oh, Wavelength! The Autobot Soundwave captured escaped, and got me stuck in this wall. Megatron refuses to get me out of here. Can you please get me out?"

My wings drooped. "If Megatron won't let you out, I'm not about to take a chain-saw to the wall. I'm the only remaining available medic. You don't want me to anger our leader, do you?"

"No—"

::WAVELENGTH! REPORT TO THE BRIDGE IMMEDIATELY!:: Megatron's voice suddenly thundered over the public comm.

I pinned my wings to my back and I cowered away from the voice. "I…I…have to go…" I whimpered before quickly making my way to the bridge like a kicked puppy returning to her owner. When I entered the bridge, Megatron was at me. He picked me up by the neck and threw me across the room.

I landed below the deck Megatron was on, amongst the Vehicon grunts. "Hey ST-3V3…hey M-4RK…" I said to a couple of Vehicons I recognised before a couple of Soundwave's tentacles came down and grabbed me by my shoulders. I was drawn back up to the main floor of the bridge and set on my pedes in front of Megatron.

"I'm very disappointed in you, Wavelength," Megatron said to me in a condescending tone. "Very disappointed."

I dipped my wings in respect. "What did I do, my lord?" I asked quietly.

"Vehicon GR-3G reported seeing you conversing with three Autobot allies. I see that as a traitorous act, but you have been with the Decepticon cause for so long with no acts of insubordination, I would like to see what compelled you to speak to such lowly carbon-based organics," the Decepticon leader said.

I gaped at him from behind my visor.

"Dreadwing! Remove Knock Out from the wall so that he can set up a cortical psychic patch evaluation!" Megatron ordered before grabbing me between the wings like he had back when he destroyed/invaded Praxus. I couldn't help but shutter.

I was laid out on a berth only a few feet from the berth Megatron stretched himself out on. Knock Out approached me with the cortical psychic patch, and looked at me worriedly. "You know that Megatron will have access to your processor in a completely different way as to if he was going to use your data-port…" he warned.

With a brave intake of air, I squared my jaw. "Y-yeah. He'll see my thoughts as though they are happening, not as files that he'd have to open…" I said.

"And I'll see everything," he told me in a soft voice.

I grabbed one of his servos, suddenly realizing how much of a mental anchor he had become. "Whatever you see on the screen, please do not judge me because of it," I said desperately.

His optics widened. "What do you—"

"Knock Out!" Megatron shouted from his berth. "Commence!"

"Y-yes, Lord Megatron…" the medic stuttered. He went behind my berth and crouched down. I heard him shuffle something around before something clicked and dug sharply into the back of my helm. I couldn't bite back the gasp of surprise. Knock Out then made his way over to Megatron and attached the other end of the patch to the back of the warlord's helm.

Quickly, everything plunged into darkness, and for a moment before I sank into oblivion, I wondered if Knock Out thought it frankly creepy watching my visor fade to black.

A memory opened up, and I suddenly found myself reliving the time where Knock Out and I decided to go racing back on Cybertron, just as the war was starting. It was in a city-state called Helix or something like that, and the track was really only one big oval that you went around and around and around so many times until someone crossed the finish line first.

Me and Knock Out had transformed, and once my tires touched the ground, we took off. We were laughing, playfully bumping into one-another, trying to make each other spill as we tried to make sure to pull ahead and win. But my attention was pulled away from the memory as a large servo grabbed my shoulder and whirled me around to face Megatron.

I was mortified. He was inside my head!

"W-what are you doing inside my processor, Megatron?" I growled angrily, half thrown off that I had just referenced to my helm as my head. I was reverting back to human terms!

"Ever since you came to Earth, Wavelength, you've been acting a little strange," the leader of the Decepticons informed me. So he had been watching me… "Before coming to this planet, you were ruthless, cunning, a true Decepticon. A Decepticon that was never afraid to charge helm-long into battle!"

That was how I made myself look during the time I was with the Decepticons on Cybertron.

"But of course, I should expect you to waver now because of the way you became a Decepticon," Megatron smirked.

…

I struggled to breathe as the bot, a mech that was easily three times my size, bent down and grabbed me by my back, between my wings, with one massive hand. I shrieked as the mech turned me around so that I was looking at him in the optic. I whimpered when I took in his red optics and his Decepticon symbol. "L-let me go," I pleaded quietly. "Please."

"I heard that you are a medic, young femme," the mech said. "Resources also tell me that you live with two other medics. Take me to them and I will spare your life."

"W-what's your designation…sir?" I asked, my voice still quiet as the mech set me down and a couple more mechs that must have been following him came and put a pair of wing-cuffs around my wings and a pair of stasis cuffs around my wrists. I knew the cuffs would knock me into stasis if I did anything against this mech's wishes.

"I am Megatron, and I am now your master," the mech proclaimed proudly before one of the mech's prodded me forward. I could only whimper like a scared cyber-cat as I was forced to lead my mortal enemy to my friends.

…

Megatron looked at me. "Indeed, the orbit you became a Decepticon was the orbit Praxus fell. I still revel in the feeling of pleasure at the look of fear in Default and Knock Out's optics!" he said.

I growled. "What happened to Default, anyway? I've been wondering about him."

"I killed him myself," the warlord said to my faceplates. "When you chased the Autobots off into space, he began to defy orders. One day, he tried to offline me, but for his trouble, he got offlined instead. I cleaved his helm from his shoulders! I watched with glee as the optics behind his transparent visor flickered out!"

My spark felt like it was melting as sorrow tried to overtake me. Default had taught me how to transform…he was a good friend.

…

"I am Default," he said in an almost monotone voice that carried a hint of what I would call a British accent if I had been living back on Earth. "And I will be your tutor on the basics of transforming."

…

"You think aloud, femme," Megatron growled, glowering at me. I gulped. "And what was that about Earth?"

I began to shiver. I didn't say anything because I didn't trust myself not to sound ridiculous. Megatron pinned me with a look as he began to circle me. I stood straight and made sure to not move a muscle. My wings were drooped as I sensed him stop behind me.

"Another thing I've seen is that you are not disgusted at the thought of mingling with the inhabitants of this world. Your holoform seems to be like a 'second skin' to you, and you know quite a lot about this planet. I want to know why." The silver mech gripped my shoulders so hard that it was painful. I cringed and nearly buckled underneath it.

"W-why so suspicious, L-Lord M-M-Megatron?" I asked, stuttering.

"I want to know if you are hiding more than I think you are. So tell me, why do you like Earth so much?"

"Because," I whispered, "it's my home…"

…

I lay stretched out on the grass, looking up at the sky. I was human and I was only seventeen.

It was silent, I couldn't hear anything other than the wind, which lightly played with my chocolate brown bangs. There were black circles under my eyes because I hadn't got much sleep the night before. I was worried for my parents because they had been stranded in New York because of a snow storm. Even though I was angry at my mother because she had slapped me right before they had to leave, I still loved her—somewhat—and my father too. It was warmish here in Nevada, even though it was winter, so I was wearing only a t-shirt and some jeans.

My eyes were only half open as I lazily watched the clouds make shapes. One looked like a heart and another looked like a horse.

I heard footsteps and lifted my head. Jack walked up the path leading to the front door of my home, but stopped when he saw me. "Hey, Mikaela! What's up?" he asked.

I sat up and looked at the raven-haired boy. "Hi, Jack," I smiled. "What are you up to today? Out for a walk it seems."

"Yeah, yeah," the boy smiled. "Just checking up to see if you're okay. You know how Mom is, she sees you as a second daughter."

I nodded. "Yep, and I'm glad. Makes me feel less alone, makes me feel more in touch with humanity."

…

"You were human?!" Megatron roared.

I nodded my head firmly. "Yeah—and I'm the same human that you ordered the Vehicon to terminate! And yet, I still follow your orders…" I growled.

Megatron began to laugh, and I took a step back in surprise. He continued to laugh and laugh and laugh, and it rang around inside my helm until I wanted to scream my spark out. But then he stopped suddenly. And he looked at me. I stilled, unsure about what he was going to do. I watched him silently as he seemed to scan me. What was he going to do?

Dragonmaster789: That's great! Thanks!

Taboo22: Thanks!

SJSGirl: Miko is okay, I kinda like her actually. She reminds me of my brother because they're both hyperactive. And she's free spirited, and I like that. So I'm a rare Miko-fan, I guess.

markzilla6895: In a few chapters. Just a few more. Or maybe I'll skip over the rest and mention the events of the episodes? I dunno.

zrexheartz: I know...