Well, talk about long time no see. Life has a habit of getting in the way, and add crippling writers block to that, and you end up with nearly a year long gap. Or is it over a year? I forget. But here I am, with a brand new story and finally with a gap in the writers block. So hopefully more chapters will follow.

Thanks for your patience and your continued support guys. It means a lot to me.

Hope you enjoy.

Chapter 9: Fallout

'I can't understand it,' Ratchet muttered, as he examined the thin wing blades which protruded from Starscreams back, the metal blending seamlessly with the flesh, 'you say they just popped out?'

'Yeah,' Starscream shrugged, 'I was fighting Megatron and his buddies and then all of a sudden these things popped out, and low and behold, I had wings.'

Ratchet leaned in closer to Starscream's back, eyes narrowing into slits as he peered at the wings, trying to make sense of the situation. I watched from where I was perched on a chair nearby, waiting for his judgement, curious as to what the ever knowledgeable medic would say. We were all seated in the med-bay of the island base, allowing Ratchet to perform standard examinations after our rather failed confrontation at the hall. Nearby, Optimus paced restlessly, seemingly very disturbed by what had happened only a few short hours ago. Not that I blamed him, the reappearance of The Fallen had my stomach in knots and was causing my mind to race as it tried to catch up and comprehend the issue's at hand.

Not long after The Fallen had vanished, taking Megatron and his troops with him, Optimus and I had been joined in the hall by Abbie, Hamish and Starscream. It had taken us approximately two minutes to decide that the most prudent course of action, considering we were surrounded by civilians who had just witnessed an alien attack, was to disappear. I had teleported all of us a few miles away from the hall, the best I could do considering that I had seriously drained myself fighting The Fallen, where we had awaited pick up. Mearing and her Government contacts would have to clear up the mess of witnesses in their usual fashion.

And this was why we were all gathered in the Med-bay, and why all the Autobots, Lennox and Epps had been called in. As soon as we had been picked up, I had set about explaining what had happened to us, going into as much detail as I could about the whole affair. At first they had all been a little disbelieving of what had happened, but it had only taken one or two words of confirmation from the usually calm Optimus to convince them. He had been utterly shaken by the whole thing, his air of control completely gone as he paced around the room, eyes vacant as he thought.

Sliding out of my chair, I approached him, 'You good?'

'I'm not sure,' he stopped his pacing, 'it just makes no sense. How can he be alive?'

'Especially after what you did to him,' I watched as he ran a hand through his hair.

'Exactly. I don't get how any of this is possible.'

I didn't have an answer for him right then, so I simply nudged him reassuringly, hoping that would be enough for the time being.

'That may be a question for another time Optimus,' we both turned as Ironhide approached us.

He laid a hand on Optimus's shoulder, looked him in the eye. For a second there was silence as something passed between the two, a silent message between a leader and his most trusted guardian. Then Optimus seemed to visibly relax, his aura of calm returning.

'You're right 'Hide,' he said, turning to the other autobots gathered, 'we focus on one thing at a time. And right now I believe the most pressing issue is figuring out how to revert back to our true forms. We can take small comfort in knowing Megatron is in the same predicament as us. But the sudden re-appearance of The Fallen and our mysterious condition may not be separate at all. Tomorrow we start to examine, in more depth, the nature of our human appearance.'

'Because if Starscream's wings are anything to go off, we might not be as fully human as we thought,' Ratchet spoke up from the side of the room where he was staring at a series of scans on the computer screen, tapping his chin as he pondered.

Optimus nodded in agreement, 'a valid point. But for now, everyone go back to your rooms to sleep. These human bodies are nowhere near as robust as our robot forms, and require proper rest to function.'

With various murmurs of ascent, the team dispersed. Ironhide went last of all, whispering something to Optimus before he left, something which I didn't catch. Then we were alone. I turned back to Optimus.

'So… that's it?'

'For now. Driving ourselves into the ground on the first night, while our emotions are still running high would not be wise,' He said, 'I am as eager as any to get to the bottom of this. I thought the threat of The Fallen had been eradicated, and I am not too keen to see it re-emerge. But there is nothing that can be done tonight. Not when we have no clue as to where he has gone, or how he achieved this.'

He smiled at me and stepped around to head to the door before, almost on an afterthought, he turned back, 'you are exhausted Ally. Such vigorous use of your powers has taken its toll. Get some rest. I will see you in the morning.'

With that he was gone, and I was left alone in the now silent med-bay.

A few hours later I stepped into my room, flipping on the light so I could look around tiredly. At least this place was still the same. My room was about the only consistent thing in my life right now. Everything else seemed to be changing at such a rate of knots that I was struggling to keep up. But at least, even with all this insanity, the little smiley face clock on my desk hadn't changed at all. It was strange that such a trivial thing could bring such relief, but I shrugged it off.

Having showered to remove the dust from my skin and hair, I threw my dirty clothes in the direction of my washing tub, intent on taking them to the base laundry at a later date, and changed into my pyjamas. It was as I changed that I caught sight of myself in the full length mirror on my wall, and I paused.

The woman in the mirror blinked back at me, a reflection that I was now used to, but still sometimes caught me by surprise. Stepping in closer to the mirror, I rested one hand on the glass and sighed. My reflection did the same. It was still sometimes a little shocking to see just how much I had changed.

Once upon a time, the girl that looked back at me would have been just that. A girl. A slightly soft girl, with a round face, dirty blonde hair and brown eyes. A girl with freckles and a flabby belly. A girl who had been sheltered her whole life. But now the girl that looked back was more of a woman. Blonde hair was now pure white, brown eyes a cold, royal blue. All sense of softness had been lost, now replaced with a lean physique, and corded with lean muscle. Maybe the face was still young, kept that way by the All Spark, but the innocence was gone. The woman that looked back at me now was one who was well versed in the horrors of life, one who knew what it was like to feel loss and pain and suffering.

My hands traced almost unconsciously down the tattoo across my shoulder blade, a replication of the All Spark symbols. On the back of my neck was a tattoo of the autobot symbol, put there not long after I had graduated school and become a fully fledged member of the team. These were things my mother would never have approved of when she was alive; she had always been against the idea of tattoos and piercings. I almost laughed as I looked down at the belly button ring and the multiple piercings in each ear. Oh, how my mother would be turning in her grave if she could see me know. The half laugh quickly became a sort of choked sob.

My mother.

My mother who was dead, because of what had happened to me. It was still something that I tried to avoid thinking about. If I had just listened to the Autobots and stayed away from her, then maybe she would still be alive. It was all because I had gone home, all because I had been too stubborn to take their advice that the Decepticons had killed her. I would have died too that night if it hadn't been for Starscream. He had pulled me from the burning building and delivered me to the protection of the Autobots. And I hadn't left them since.

Still staring at my reflection in the mirror I sank down onto my bed, swinging my feet over the edge for a second, before curling myself up and lying down. Four years ago this is not what I would have dreamed up for my life. Never would I have thought that I would have become an immortal soldier, fighting forces too evil for most people to imagine. Never would I have imagined that I would have lost as much I had. But here I was. A woman changed by a life that she had never chosen, and now at a point that I couldn't go back. This was who I was now.

Rolling onto my side, I switched off my light, plunging my room into semi-darkness, the only light coming from the full moon creeping in through my open curtains. Somewhere outside, there was the dull boom of the ocean waves crashing against the outer walls, but aside from that, there was silence.

Closing my eyes, I attempted to banish the dark thoughts from my mind.

Tomorrow is a new day, I thought, A new day with brand new challenges.