Once Janet had signed the contract and sat down at the fire next to Miles it finally hit her. There were aliens. Two of her best friends had in turn befriended said aliens.

Sure, she had not been a best friends with Sam and Mikaela for long. She had been the odd girl out at school. The 'reject' as most of the popular kids would call her.

Then Mikaela started dating Sam, one of the school's major geeks, and fell down the school's social ladder from 'Miss Popular' right down to Janet's social standing. She admired the was Mikaela still held her head high after being dropped by her so-called friends, and had decided to try and befriend her. Soon they had become really close and Janet found herself no longer wandering the school corridors alone, but instead with three other misfits.

And yet here they were, sitting around a camp fire with Sam and Mikaela trying to apologise two both her and Miles for keeping this secret from them.

Janet continued to stare into the fire, her mind a myriad of thought and images. Finally she looked up at her friends, their faces riddled with guilt and sadness.

"I don't think I could forgive you just yet." Sam and Mikaela's faces fell at these words, "But I can understand." A smile started to form on Mikaela's face.

"I think it would help if you – you know, told us what happened, I mean when you first met these aliens and all that. That is if we are allowed to know?"

Sam and Mikaela looked at each other for a minute, before coming to a decision. "Alright," Sam agreed, "It started when dad went to buy me a car. Bumblebee had purposely driven into the same car lot that I was about to by my car from…"

Sam continued talking for about twenty minutes before his voice dried up. Janet handed him her water bottle as Mikaela picked up where he left off "So Bumblebee went up to the cube and put his hands on it and it just, I don't know how to explain it… the Allspark just folded in on itself. It was amazing. Then Captain Will Lennox got the idea to – "

The story took over an hour to complete, especially after someone from the captive (and now massive) audience asked Sergeant Epps to explain why he knew so much about it.

"So this … uh … Megatron," (she said the name hesitantly) Mikaela nodded in affirmation, "That Sam killed, (another nod) killed the robot called Jazz, and you need spare parts to bring Jazz online and Barricade just offered himself up to do this?" Janet asked incredulously.

"Yeah that pretty much sums it up."

Janet turned to Sam, "But didn't you just say, he threatened to kill you? Why would he change, just for this other Robot, Jazz? What is so special about Jazz?"

At this Sam and Mikaela's faces became uncertain. "To tell you the truth, I don't know. We didn't know much of the Autobots until after the battle so as far as Jazz goes – "

"He is Prowl's Sparkmate" Bumblebee interrupted.

"Barricade?"

"Prowl?"

"Prowl is another Autobot, who has not yet landed. Barricade is Prowl's Brother. Jazz is Prowl's Sparkmate"

"So he wants to prove himself by helping his brother's…um…" Janet trailed off looking at Bumblebee

"In human terms, his husband. But I don't think he is doing it because he wants to prove the sincerity of his desertion to us. I think he does care for Prowl." Bumblebee answered, "Unlike humans, when a Cybertronian dies, their Sparkmate may die as well. I believe Barricade is trying to save Prowl from this."

Ratchet finished his first round of operating, and wandered out into the main section of his medbay. Ironhide and Optimus were standing there in discussion but as when Ratchet entered the room, they fell silent.

"How is he?" Optimus asked.

"Stable." Ratchet replied, "I have not yet finished completely, there is a minimum time between sessions needed so that Barricade has a chance to repair himself to a reasonable level, before I continue."

Optimus sighed. "Alright, keep me posted." When he had exited the medbay, Ratchet turned to Ironhide.

"You know, in all the time I have known you, you have never trusted a Decepticon" Ratchet remarked, looking at Ironhide oddly.

Ironhide just looked at him in stony silence, prompting the medic to continue, "And yet, here we have one in our midst and you have hardly said anything about how he should not be trusted."

It seamed like Ironhide was not going to respond. Finally, he sighed and walked to the other side of the medbay. Using the code to unlock the weapons safe, he picked up one of the weapons that Barricade had discarded during his defection. Holding it up for Ratchet to see, he spoke "Do you know what this is?"

"Yes."

"Then you know that using this, he could have easily taken out Bumblebee, whenever they were fighting. But he has never shown it. He has never used it on any Autobot, even though it would have put him at a significant advantage since he got it – "

"Centuries ago." Ratchet finished. "You mean he could have done twice the amount of damage than what he inflicted?"

Ironhide replaced the weapon and closed the safe. He paused for a minute, before turning to face Ratchet and continuing, "More like three times. Barricade could have been a much more terrible foe, if he had wanted too."

With that, Ironhide picked up Will and walked out of the medbay, leaving a stunned Ratchet in his wake.