A/N: Carpal Tunnel, here I come! This story really won't let me be, though, I guess its best to get as much done as I can before my vacation ends. Also, I'm trying out OpenOffice, and so far, I give it four stars.

Once again, the Forever Knight (simply put..vampires) crossover is becoming active. You meet my fave character from there, Lucien LaCroix, in the first section of this chapter. It's impossible not to like him... he's soooo deliciously evil!. I'm hoping that I pulled this off in a way that isn't confusing for non-Forever Knight fans...

Last but not least, thanks again for the awesome feedback I've gotten on this story. Enjoy )

Chapter 5

Lucien LaCroix stared out at the darkened city of Toronto, annoyed. Actually, he was far, far beyond annoyed. What he WAS exactly, he wasn't sure. Two thousand years wandering this planet had not given him sufficient vocabulary to express just how far beyond annoyed he really was.

He'd been a respected General in the Roman army, he watched as Pompeii was covered beneath tons of rock and ash, he'd seen every war in the past 2000 years, and often participated (though, usually on the side most people would consider, shall we say... evil?) and if he hadn't been a direct participant, well he was still there, feeding on the wounded, or perhaps, creating new wounded of his own. He'd rubbed elbows with the famous and infamous over the past two millennia, LaCroix had done all of those things, and more, so much more, and yet the largest, and most current, thorn in his side was nothing more than his pain-in-the-ass mortal daughter.

LaCroix had been out hunting one night, when he'd heard the screaming of a young child. He stopped to investigate, and had found Lex alone in her crib, starving and crying. Evidently her mother overdosed, leaving the child all alone. He'd planned on eating it. Really. But in the end, he'd been unable. And after Jeanette saw it, there was no turning back. Unfortunately, vampirism didn't always kill the maternal instinct.

It would have taken a grizzly bear with a crow bar and an engineering degree to pull it out of him, but after only a few months, he was entranced. Lex was a notoriously happy baby, and LaCroix was constantly amazed that something so helpless could grin at him so fearlessly while grown men and women had been known to run, fleeing, from little more than a hard glance.

She'd won him like a goldfish at the fair, and though Jeanette would say nothing, she knew it, and gradually, he, Lucien had taken over most of her care. Hell, he still had pictures she colored in the first grade tucked carefully away in his closet. When she got older, she requested to take the last name of his son, Nicholas (I love you Dad, she'd said, but no one is EVER going to manage to correctly pronounce the name LaCroix.) And despite his dark and brooding, and let's face it, EVIL nature, his Alexia came out the exact opposite of her father. She was bright and cheerful, balm for the soul. When, that is, she wasn't being an ass.

Ever the optimist, Lex looked forward to each new year. Considered each one to be a new set of opportunities and experiences. LaCroix on the other hand, looked at each passing year, hell each passing day, as getting closer to her inevitable death.

She said he was a killjoy. He said he was a REALIST. She said maybe so, but you're still depressing.

He closed his blue eyes, and ran his hand over his short, spiky brown hair. He needed to open his club. Really he did. But he wasn't finished brooding.

All parents knew their children would die someday (and hopefully AFTER the parents), but unlike most parents, LaCroix could offer his child immortality, if she would only accept. So far, she hadn't. She said she wanted to wait until she was older, but before she turned ugly to make a decision. That would have been fine, except LaCroix had the sneaking (and horrifying) suspicion that she would never consent to being brought across.

And he would watch her die.

His prophecy came close to reality, only much sooner than he'd expected. Damned if she hadn't gotten herself run over by a car. Broke both legs. Nick hadn't been lying when he told Lex that neither he nor LaCroix had made the trip down there. They'd stayed put in Toronto. However, LaCroix's immense age and propensity for massive acts of evil had not left him unknown in the vampire community. And he had LONG arms. He merely had someone else check in on her, and report back to him and Nicholas.

All is fair in love and war. Especially, if said fairness were geared towards HIS side.

He knew, of course, why she hadn't wanted them (most especially LaCroix) to see her in a wheelchair. It would have sparked their old argument, once more. He'd seriously considered just saying 'Damn the torpedoes!' and making her immortal whether she liked it or not, but in the end, had been unable to do so. He was afraid if he were to do something like that, betray her trust in such a permanent way, that she would never forgive him. Maybe cut him out of her life.

That wasn't something he could live with.

So for now, he'd wait. He'd have his contact watch. And report. And may God have mercy on the poor bastard that harms his wayward chick. Because he won't.

LaCroix's contact, Vachon, spent the day under Lex's porch. Not at all dignified, but he'd lost track of time the night before (there had been some pretty...interesting on-goings at Lex's house here lately) and the next thing he'd known, the sun was rising. Thankfully, he wasn't bound by the dumbass rules most authors seemed to come up with. There was no debilitating lethargy during the day time, he just couldn't go out into the light, lest he.. well.. implode.

So, he'd stayed under the porch. And boy, hadn't he gotten an eyeful. Then after he closed his eyes, an earful, because he could still HEAR what was going on, even if he couldn't see it. When he talked to LaCroix, he would tell him about Lex having her casts removed. He would NOT tell him about Lex's encounter with the robot's holothingy. For all he knew, LaCroix wanted some grandchildren, and he, Vachon, was NOT going to be the one to tell him that wasn't likely to be happening anytime soon. No sir-ee-bob. LaCroix might regret it if he screwed around and killed the messenger, but then again, he might not give a shit either way. Best not to find out.

In truth, there was plenty he hadn't told LaCroix lately. PLENTY! Take for instance, the 16 foot tall yellow robot. He hadn't mentioned that shit. Vachon opined that 16 foot tall yellow robots were some shit you had to see for yourself to believe, and if he told LaCroix, well LaCroix would most likely just think he'd been snacking on random crackheads again. And he wasn't! At least not too much, anyway.

Vachon was careful around the robot (Lex called him Bee). Very careful. He hadn't seen much over the past four hundred years that could harm a vampire, but he was quite sure that thing could, and probably easily. He got the feeling it wasn't a vicious...person (?), but Vachon was sure that if it perceived anything that could possibly be considered a threat to Lex, it would kill first and ask questions about it later. At least it didn't seem to be able to detect him on its sensors. Most likely, they were attuned mostly to other robots of its kind, humans, and possibly to a lesser degree animals and birds. Vampire physiology was a whole different book.

Vachon fervently wished he'd watched Star Trek or something. Perhaps he'd have a better grasp of what was going on. Kind of like how Lex caught on to the movie 'The Matrix' quickly because she'd read 'The Tommyknockers'.

Vachon missed Lex. He'd always liked the kid, but he didn't dare show himself to her because there was no way she'd believe he just happened to be vacationing in the United States (he was), in her particular piece of the country (ya, okay, he'd been sent here, specifically), and all around the time she'd managed to get run over. She would know exactly why he was here. And Vachon really didn't want that. He was pretty sure that, not only would she nag, she would FOLLOW HIM AROUND nagging the entire time, and if he tried to escape by flying away, she'd just save it ALL up for later.

Lex and Bee left a few hours earlier. It was boring under the porch. Lost in his own thoughts Vachon started to doze, only to be awakened by the sound of a car coming up the driveway. He expected to see a yellow Camaro following the drive way to the back yard where Lex's garage was. He was wrong.

It was a police cruiser, one of the new Mustangs. There was no driver. He frowned. Lex didn't know this one, he was sure of it. He studied the car closely, and what he saw written on the side chilled him. To Enslave and Punish... That wasn't good. The driver's door opened, and out slid a small, skeletal robot with blue eyes. It's body seemed to be made up entirely of spikes. Ouch. Vachon was sure it was the same type of robot as the yellow one, just, well, much smaller. It seemed to vibrate with barely controlled energy, like maybe it was on the ultimate sugar rush. He watched as it scuttled away from the cruiser, and started edging its way along the lattice work skirting around the porch.

The Mustang left. Vachon heard it leave the driveway and take to the road, accelerating quickly. The small silver bot was still slinking around to his left though, and Vachon was pretty damn sure THAT little sumbitch was up to no good. He heard it rustle in the bushes right in front of him. Suddenly, Vachon's arm slammed through the wooden porch skirt. He grabbed the skeletal robot and hauled it under the porch, creating a rather large hole in the process.

Frenzy was horrified when something grabbed him and yanked him through the flimsy wooden decoration. He hadn't been sleeping on the job, he'd taken extensive scans, and there had been no signs of anything living, human or robot, and now, here he was, being held like a bug by a mere HUMAN. For one brief second, he was almost afraid. It was as though the human's grip wasn't that of an organic, but more that of a mech, strong and steely.

As quickly as the fear surfaced, it disappeared. Humans only posed a threat when armed, and then really only when there were more than one. But, this was just one human, and there were no weapons in sight. Casually, Frenzy reached out with one claw, slicing the human's face, taking pleasure in watching it leak fluids through its pitifully weak skin.

But then something happened. Something that most certainly did NOT compute. The human's wound healed. Right there, before Frenzy's eyes. Ya didn't have to be a human expert to know that was NOT supposed to happen. Slightly worried now, Frenzy shot the strange human with the long dark hair, tiny bullets perforating it's skin and organs. The human didn't even flinch. Instead, it growled. And it began pulling Frenzy apart. Not just his limbs. This human was literally pulling him apart, one tiny piece at a time. Pain roiled through Frenzy as the human decimated his joints. Frenzy gibbered frantically as he watched the human chuck pieces of him into an ever growing pile of scrap metal.

Only one thought remained in his processors.

Warn Barricade!!

And somehow, in some sickening way, the human seemed to intuit what was going on in his head. Not the idea exactly, just the shape of it, and he clearly had no intention of letting Frenzy call for help.

Frenzy felt his head not only being pulled off, but he felt it being pulled apart. Pain was no longer an outside visitor. Pain had made itself quite at him in Frenzy, it filled his body like fire. He could feel damaged chips, components, and processors, he could, until the human pulled out his olfactory processors, smell his own wires burning.

Frenzy ceased to feel anything. His optics dimmed, flickered, and went out.

Vachon chucked the last piece of metal to the side. He laid back down and waited for sunset.

Bee took her to see Sam, first. No matter what happened, he wanted Sam to get the chance to know her, to meet her, and to see why he cared about her as much as he did.

If he didn't know any better, he'd say Sam was waiting on him. The boy came tearing out of the house as soon as they pulled in the driveway. He came to a skidding halt, however, when he saw Lex emerge from the car.

"Um, hi."

"Hi, you must be Sam?"

"Yeah."

She gave him a brilliant grin that went a long way towards making him more comfortable. Her teeth were blindingly white. "I've heard a lot about you."

Sam grinned back, "Hopefully its all been good."

"Of course. Um, can I use the restroom?"

"Oh ya, just go in, and it's straight down the hall to the right."

Sam settled himself on Bee's hood. He watched Lex disappear into the house. Sam grinned at Bee, "How'd a bucket of bolts like you manage to rate a girl like that?"

Bee's holographic form materialized beside Sam before giving him a playful punch on the shoulder. "Shut your hole." But he was grinning when he said it.

Sam continued, "Seriously dude, good job. I mean that."

Lex noticed that both of the boys seemed to have a foolish grin on their faces when she came back outside. She decided she probably didn't want to know what they'd been discussing in her absence. She also decided to ignore the near electric jolt she felt when Bee held his arms open to her. She slipped into them comfortably, and she and Sam started chatting about various shared interests. Turns out they had quite a lot in common. Bee kept mostly silent, allowing them to get to know each other.

Everything was going great until Sam, being a typical guy, asked, "So, what kind of car do you drive?"

"Um, a Hummer."

"Oh? H2 or H3?"

"No, I drive a REAL Hummer."

"Sweet! Can it really climb nearly," he saw the look Lex gave him, and did a complete about-face,"I mean, not that that's special or anything. It's.. i-it's really a... disadvantaged vehicle." By this time, Sam's gaze had switched from Lex's slight scowl, to Bee's face. Oh ya, definite thunderclouds THERE. More confused than ever, the boy tried really hard to look innocent and convincing at the same time.

Bee told them that he was going to take Lex's flowers and put them safely inside Sam's house before they went to meet Optimus. Somehow, he made it seem like a telling off. Sam's eyebrows went up a bit at the mention of Optimus, but as he didn't comment, Lex figured he must be aware of the situation. Clearly, he wasn't aware of the Hummer situation though, because without saying anything, he rolled his eyes down at the yellow Comaro, looked back up at Lex and shrugged. What's his problem?

Lex just waved her hand at him in a clear "I'll explain later" gesture.

Bee came out, looking oddly self-satisfied for someone who had only put away some flowers. Lex knew why, and it made her giggle. She'd decided on the way to Sam's that if that ride with Bee could potentially be her last ride alone with him, that she'd do well to make the best of it. Bee nearly ran off the road when she graced his leather clad seat with a gentle nip. She felt him shudder when she gently kissed the place she'd bitten. And a few minutes later, when Lex started slowly trailing one of the soft rose blooms over every inch of his interior that she could reach, Bee seemingly forgot how to shift gears, grinding them constantly.

Oh ya, he had reason to be smug about getting rid of the roses.

Bee drove to the foot of the overlook the Autobots had a habit of gathering on. He let his humans get out before transforming to his natural robotic state. He'd found it was generally easier to just walk up from the bottom of the hill, as opposed to working at getting traction in the long grass with his Camaro's wheels. Since, you know, he wasn't a Hummer. He was preparing to bend over and pick up Sam and Lex, when he felt Lex hop onto his right foot, and find a handhold within the workings of his legs.

Bee peered down at her, "What are you doing?"

Lex grinned up at him, "Hitch-hiking," she said simply.

Sam followed her lead, hopping easily onto Bee's left foot and finding his own handhold. "Why didn't I ever think of this?"

"Dude, you have to work to achieve this level of laziness."

Riding Bee's feet was FUN. It vaguely reminded Lex of when she used to stand on her Dad's feet to dance, that had been great, but THIS was on a WHOLE different scale. He lifted them several feet off the ground with each step, and the forward motion of his steps not only caused a nice breeze, but it created that ticklish sensation in the stomach that came from rides at the fair, or accelerating real fast in a car. That made her and Sam both giggle, which caused Bee to constantly stop and peer down at them, his doors settled on his back like wings.

The next time (the SIXTH time, he stopped, they still hadn't gotten to the top of the hill, and really, it wasn't THAT big of a hill) Bee stopped to peer at his two giggling humans, he fixed his blue optics on them in a very solemn fashion, before raising one finger to his speaker in a 'be quiet' gesture and saying, "Shhhhhhhhhh."

That REALLY cracked them up. They laughed until tears poured down their faces, though they did manage to straighten up and behave while Bumblebee sent a signal to Prime.

Signal sent, Bee felt Lex press her hot, damp face to his cool armor. She tipped her face toward his. "Can we hitch-hike some more."

If he'd had a mouth instead of a speaker, he would have been grinning. He made a move like he was going to run, and when he felt them both tighten their grips on his legs, he did. They made quite a spectacle: a sixteen foot tall, super, alien robot, running crazily through a field with his arms held out like airplane wings-while two humans hung on tight, and laughed like loons.

Later, Bee sat on the ground, his back against a large shade tree. Sam sat on the ground with his back propped against Bee's right leg, Lex sprawled on her stomach across his right foot. Bee reached down with one large metal finger and gently stroked her back, fans whirring with pleasure when she arched slightly into his finger. Sam got poked in the head for making comments about 'horny robots.'

"Optimus should be here soon." said Bee softly.

To her credit, Lex looked only minimally nervous at the though of meeting the leader of a race of giant robot aliens. Of course, Bee was monitoring her vital signs, and could see that she was extremely nervous, just not showing it much.

Lex asked if Optimus Prime had a bad temper. Snickering to himself, Bee didn't answer with words, instead he played a verse of song:

The cops do the best they can,

They pull the ax out yer face and say,

"Was it the Boogeyman??"

Lex's jaw dropped. "Are you serious?" She looked at Sam, "Is he serious?"

"Nah," Sam replied, "Optimus is a good guy."

The sound of heavy footfalls, caught her attention, and as she slid off Bee's foot it only took her a second to start hoping that Sam's assessment was correct. Prime stood there in the receding light of day, his flamed armor gleaming.

He was enormous.

A/N: The song referenced is called "Boogie Woogie Wu" by ICP.