Again, I'm sorry it took two whole months to update this fanfiction. I hit a minor writer's block, that's all, and school has followed me into the summer. But now, the story is going to be a little easier to write, since Wave's with the Autobots now. Some are going to have trouble trusting her, but now she's on the road to redemption.

She's just come back from Cybertron with Magnus, and she's ready to set things right :D

17—Standing in the Middle—17

After Ultra Magnus explained my presence, Ratchet managed to fix the force field door on one of the cells in the belly of the wrecked ship, and I was locked up, left to sit in front of the far wall on the far side. The field made sure I couldn't even be visited by Jack, or the other two kids—if they even cared half as much as Jack did.

I often got up and paced around the cell. I had never really been affected by sky-sickness before, probably because I was a triple-changer and I had a land mode that kind of kept me from getting twitchy after having been unable to fly for a while, but the small space I was in felt like it was it was slowly beginning to close in on me.

Taking deep breaths, I sat myself back down and forced myself to immerse myself in my thoughts in hopes that I would forget about how small the cell was. Slowly, I thought back over the life I had as the Cybertronian I was. Of how it consisted mostly of sparkache, being forced to do things that went against my moral code, watching those I maimed die by the servo of another Decepticon or by Energon-loss, etc. But I also remembered the better times, like how I could feel Bumblebee though our bond every once in a while, or how I found solace in the company of Knock Out, Breakdown, and Default.

I scowled. Both Breakdown and Default were dead. There was only Knock Out left, and he betrayed me. He didn't show any worry or concern about me when Megatron nearly killed me.

Narrowing my optics, I made up my mind. I wouldn't concern myself over Knock Out any longer. He could rot with the Decepticons for all cared.

I drew my knees up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them as I rested my lower face on my knees, right between my knee-guards. I let out a long, weary sigh as I closed my optics and wondered how my life would have turned out if I hadn't become Cybertronian. I would have probably grown up, matured slower, married a man, and had children. I still, even to this day, couldn't figure out how many I would have wanted to have. As a Cybertronian, I had adopted one—Bumblebee—but barely ever got to see him except when I dreamt dreams influenced by the bond I had with him. Now he was all grown up, and he could take care of himself. Some mother I turned out to be.

Against my wishes, a sob escaped me, and my whole frame shuttered as tears welled up in my optics. I didn't like to cry, especially when there was a chance that someone could be watching, but I was past the point of caring.

The emotional drain on my being caused me to feel unbearably tired. With a yawn, I gently lowered myself onto my side and stretched out my full 27 foot length. Running my glossa along my lips, I closed my optics and offlined them. I engaged my recharge protocols and allowed myself to sink into the realm of oblivion known as sleep.

Someone suddenly tapped my shoulder from behind, causing me to jump in surprise and slight terror. Quickly, I whirled around and pinned the intruder of my space with my gaze. The finger that tapped my shoulder wasn't sharp and pointy like Knock Out's, so I wasn't surprised to see a mech I didn't recognise. He was mostly white with black, gold, and pearly accents. He looked at me with clever red optics as he smiled a nervous smile.

"Don't. Touch. Me," I hissed venomously. I was very picky about who touched me now that I was immersed in the Decepticon ranks. The only one that was really allowed to touch me was Knock Out…and sometimes Breakdown when it was only a handshake or one of his friendly, brotherly, hugs. "Who are you?!"

"Easy there, femmefriend," he drawled. "I'm Deadlock. Sorry for bursting your aura field." He crossed his arms—or tried to—as his left arm was missing from the elbow-joint down.

I bit my bottom lip. "S-sorry," I said softly. "I don't like it when bots touch me, that's all." His elbow-joint sparked once. "Ah, let's get you to a berth, and get that fixed." I quickly lead him to an empty berth in my area of the medical bay, and instructed him to lie down. Plugging a datapad into the side of his helm, I turned off all the pain receptors in his damaged arm before I got to work.

Something niggled at the back of my processor, as if to remind me of something. Hazily, as I continued to do what I was doing, shutting off sensor-relays before moving on to physically pinching off Energon lines in order to keep any more Energon from leaking out, a little voice in my mind told me that this was all a dream, a memory. It lasted for nothing more than a fleeting nano-klik before I mentally shrugged it off and focused solely on fixing Deadlock up.

Knock Out stopped by some time to drop off Deadlock's missing arm, which I figured had been either picked up by a Decepticon salvage team or a Decepticon soldier that cared enough to see a perfectly functional forearm lying out on the battlefield, and I stopped to scan it and see if it was ready to be reattached. It was fine other than the fact that the Energon lines in the forearm needed to be replaced from where they connected to the forearm to where they had been severed by some kind of sword and were now hanging out from under the armor.

So I went along and began to replace and reattach the Energon lines. But when I went to start reattaching his forearm, everything blurred and suddenly I was on a battlefield. My optics zeroed in on the sight of Autobots running towards me, various versions of angry snarls adorning their faceplates. Somehow, I knew they were coming for me, so I turned and began to run, building up enough speed for a leap-and-transform move I had known since I learned to transform.

Putting a lot of power into my legs, I leapt up and commenced my transformation sequence. But, to my shock, nothing happened. And when I tried to power up my thrusters, I received no lift. I plummeted to earth and slammed into the metal plating that made up the surface of my surrogate home-world face-down. The force was enough to shatter the glass of my cotpit that sat on my back, halfway between my wings and my waist. I tried to scramble to my pedes and continue on foot, but I found I couldn't move.

I heard the Autobots come rushing up on me. I could hear their jeers and taunts. Terror rushed up and gripped my spark, and tears sprang to my optics at the hopelessness that consumed me.

"You will never be an Autobot, Decepticon!" a voice hissed.

And I woke up with a rush.

I blinked, and my sight was blurry. I blinked again, and everything slowly came into focus, including a pair of blue strong-looking lower legs. One more blink, and with a gasp, I shot up into a sitting position. I looked up, straight up into the faceplates of the last mech I thought I'd ever get to meet in person. His presence seemed to fill the cell I was situated in.

"Op-Optimus Prime!" I exclaimed, breathless. My optics couldn't be any wider, and my wings couldn't droop any farther.

Optimus Prime was known to be fair, but stern. From reports of him sparing soldiers that had unfortunately got in his way had often drifted to the medbay when I was on duty. But…what if that wasn't entirely true? What if he hurt Decepticon prisoners? Decepticons that got captured by the Autobots never came back to tell what the Autobots did to their prisoners. Jack was in the Autobots' care, along with his friends Miko and Raf, so I could trust that Optimus was nice to that degree, but…

Was he nice to Decepticon prisoners? A large part of me said no.

And because of that, found myself cowering away from the mighty form of the Prime, half wincing, waiting for punishment.

And all that came was a weary sigh.

"Is this what Megatron does to his soldiers? I knew he punished those under him, but I was not sure how severely he did so," the Prime said, his tone sad.

So he wasn't going to hurt me? I blinked and forced myself to stop cowering. Calm down, Mikaela, calm down, I told myself over and over. Slowly, I pulled myself to my knees before I pushed myself to a standing position. The cuffs were still binding my wrists together, so I could do little else then stand there, looking up at the Autobot leader.

After several seconds of silence, I managed to gather the courage to speak. "S-sir…if you've had the chance to speak with Commander Magnus, then you will know why I am here. I want to defect," I stated frankly. I pressed my lips tightly together, waiting for an reply.

Optimus seemed to stare at me forever. My frame began to heat with worry and condensation began to gather at the base of my neck cables. When he finally spoke, I tensed up. "Your Decepticon symbol is missing. Ultra Magnus informed me that you were found battling a Decepticon combiner, and that, when you were brought to his base, you were lacking the symbol then as well," after he finished speaking, the unasked questions hung heavy in the air.

I looked up into his face and wondered how I was going to explain this to him. He was obviously wondering how I managed to survive so long after Megatron had 'disposed' of me on Cybertron as well. The only way I felt I could properly explain everything, and hopefully keep him from being anymore suspicious of me was to tell him everything. "Well," I said to him. "The only way I figure I can explain that is to start from the beginning."

At Optimus' nod, I began to tell him my history, starting from the day I was shot and right up until I woke up to the sight of the Prime's pedes. I was very detailed and thorough, making sure that I didn't leave a single thing out. I even admitted that I was Bumblebee's danni/mother/femme-creator. Once I was finished, I fell silent and turned my gaze down to the floor between the Prime's pedes.

There was silence. I didn't dare move a muscle.

A large servo landed on my left shoulder, and out of instinct, I tensed up. When nothing happened, I chanced a peek upwards, and saw Optimus looking down at me solemnly. "I sensed your true spark through the Matrix," he stated stoically.

My optics widened in surprise. "How did you—you…?"

"There are many questions I cannot answer," he replied, allowing his servo to drop to his side. "As for now, Ultra Magnus and the others are awaiting us on his ship." I watched as he reached out and deactivated the stasis cuffs. He subspaced the cuffs as I rubbed my wrists, glad that I no longer had the cuffs weighing down on my wrist-joints and shoulders.

"Thank you," I breathed happily, flexing my digits.

"Though the voices of the past may be informing me that your wishes to join the Autobots are true and sincere, the others may be harder to convince," Optimus told me gravely before he turned and walked out of the cell.

I followed after him, closely, not daring to stray too far from him. We exited the downed ship that had acted as the Autobots' temporary base. I was lead up the ramp into Magnus' ship, where I was met by many stares. I fidgeted under their heavy gazes before I walked over and stood next to Bumblebee.

Nothing was said on the flight to…to…wherever we were going. I stood stiffly next to Bumblebee the entire time, my gaze trained on the floor between the toes of my pedes. I knew everyone but Bumblebee and Prime were unhappy to see that the cuffs were off, and because of that, I couldn't bring myself to look up at them.

The flight felt like it went on forever before we touched down somewhere. When the ramp dropped down, Arcee and the kids walked out first. Then Smokescreen and Mirage walked out, and then Magnus. It was then my turn, but before I could even step forward, I felt Bumblebee's servo on my shoulder. I looked at him silently and he gave me a reassuring whirl. "Don't worry, Danni. I'll be with you every step of the way," he told me.

A small smile appeared on my lips. "Thanks, 'Bee," a sigh "because I'll need all the help I can get."

Shifting my weight from one pede to the next, I paused for only one more second before I strode bravely down the ramp and down onto the brightly sun-lit tarmac of a military base. I blinked once as my optics compensated for the sudden brightness, before I noticed the suspicious glances being shot my way by Arcee, Bulkhead, and Smokescreen. I tried to ignore them, but my spark still sunk. I don't know why I wasn't brave enough to face them—I had been in countless battles, in several dangerous situations, I was probably between Smokescreen and Arcee in age, yet I was a mother. I guess age and status and experience didn't make you any braver when it came to people like me.

Agent Fowler and Mrs. Darby were there to greet us. I watched, sadly, as Mrs. Darby hugged the kids and made sure they were alright, even though she had already done that back at the Harbinger. After Fowler ran a small roll call, he took us to the hanger that, from what I gathered by the short conversation that ensued after the roll call, would serve as the Autobot's new base. When we stepped inside, I saw it was big enough to house enough quarters for the bots, including me (it shocked me, but I figured that Optimus had something to do with that), a fully-functional brig, and a big main area where the 'Bots would hang out with the kids and military personnel (if they ever braved to step foot in our hanger, that is).

I stood at the back of the group of 'Bots as Fowler thanked the Autobots for the work they did to save the world. I guess, when I was locked up and when I was recharging, The 'Bots had gone and attacked the version of Darkmount Megatron had somehow managed to build on Earth (I had a feeling the Omega Lock was to blame). They had won, obviously.

After that was done, I was taken to my quarters, and left there. The quarters door closed behind me, and I heard it lock. The little sound sounded so loud in my quiet quarters, and it seemed to echo about the room. It even seemed to echo inside my head. My wings drooped as I forced myself not to cry. I couldn't be such an emotional wreck. They'd look down at me and see me as pathetic if I couldn't keep a handle on my emotions.

With that in mind, I sat down on the berth that was sitting in the far-left corner and focused on taking deep breaths.

What seemed like hours later, a soft click drew my attention over to a small door that sat about chest-high in the wall. It opened, and the last human I expected to see stepped out onto the catwalk that lined the wall next to the Cybertronian-sized door.

June Darby looked up at me nervously before she leaned against the catwalk railing. There was silence for what seemed like minutes as I stood up and walked over to the catwalk. I looked down at her as she seemed to look up into my optics.

"Hey," she greeted simply.

"Hey," I returned softly. I was finding it hard to speak, it just seemed so much easier to stay silent.

Silence stretched on and on before Mrs. Darby decided to break it. "So you're a new 'Bot? I heard you used to be a Decepticon," she said, her voice strong.

I nodded once. "Yes, I was a Decepticon, but I never wanted to be one. That's why I'm here, lacking a Decepticon symbol," I stated frankly. I was happy someone wanted to talk to me, but I wasn't happy enough to smile. Until people started to trust me, I was just going to stay quiet and humble and meek looking in hopes it would make the transition simpler.

Mrs. Darby seemed to digest what I had said, mulling it over. "I see."

A long, drawn-out sigh escaped me unbidden. Slightly cross, I said, wanting to get to the point of this visit, "Are you here to study me, Mrs. Darby? Have you always wanted to see what Decepticons were like up close, so you came to see me?" I know I addressed Mrs. Darby by her title and name, even though I hadn't been introduced to her yet, and I knew that my words came out harsher than I intended, but they were out and I couldn't take them back.

June didn't seem fazed by it, though. Completely ignoring my irritated inquiries, she said, "You know, your voice reminds me of a girl I used to know. She died a week before you showed up. My son tried to convince me that she wasn't actually dead, but somehow was rescued by a commander in the military before she could pass away. I never actually got to see her before Jasper was destroyed," she looked down sadly at the mention of her former home-town. "But I frequently saw a car that you look like you transform into near my house."

I froze up at this, clenching my fists tight. I couldn't tell her about our friendship, because she would question how I could be a friend with Jack back when I was Decepticon. It was really hard to keep Jack's house's location away from Megatron.

"Care to explain how this all happened, Mikaela?" Mrs. Darby's question violently ripped me from my thoughts.

I gaped down at her.

Taboo22: Thanks!

markzilla6895: I'm not quite sure when he'll pop up again. He may not pop up in this story again, but I am planning a sequel where the bots and Wavelength work to rebuild Cybertron, and I promise he'll pop up in that one at least once. (with Runestryder *winks*)

KeepingThemAtBay: Good suggestion. I try to mention what Wavelength's gone through since she came back to Earth from time to time, but sometimes I can't figure out how. I'm sorry updating time is so slow. Sometimes I can update again right after I just updated, but sometimes it takes months. School kind of screwed with my mind a little and sucked most of my creative juices out of me. I have a feeling that, if I wrote a proper outline for this story way back when I started it, I probably would be updating faster lol I'll try to update faster.

Little Ai: Oh, don't worry :3 There will be more Wavelength and Knock out moments, I can assure you. I have one all planned out. *evil chuckles* Glad you're liking the story so far :D

I Am The Silver Lining: Glad you are! :D

ZabuzasGirl: Okay, I know I haven't updated this immediately, but I'll work on the speed of my updates, for sure.

rogue-angel82: That is true. But Cybertronians have excellent memories as well. Wavelength really held on to her former life because she never, ever, wanted to forget that once, she was a delicate mortal. I'm glad you're liking it.