Man or Mech

by Lyra Harp

What do you get when you cross a seventeen year old wolf (Dria), a fifteen year old cybertronian (Cai), and a eighty year old woman who thinks she's twenty (Lillian)? A hot mess. Dria's stuck with a stick-in-the-mud and a paranoid human. She would rather be as high as a kite than deal with these idiots, but she has to since they share one body. Will these three ever get along?

5. Moving to Malta

Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers.

::Comlink.::

What is Mnarja?

A national festival in Malta. This festival has torches, bonfires, food and music. When the Knights ruled the island, it was the one time of the year when everyone could hunt and eat wild rabbit.

Humans

Elijah - 10-11 years old

Rokku - Elijah's father

Minka - Elijah's mother

These three live in a village known as Lija.

Cars:

Rokku - Morris 8 Series E

Jazz - Aston Martin DB 2-4 Mark III

Sideswipe - Ford Mustang 1967

Lillian - 1st - Matchless G3L Army 1941

Lillian - 2nd - Ghost motorcycle concept (white-black-with cross)

Basic knowledge on The Primes in this chapter-

Solus - Only femme - Weapon: The Forge

Prima - Prick - Weapon: Starsaber

Vector - Prowl-level serious - Weapon: Force fields

Amalgamous - Joker

Maximo - ...we don't talk about Maximo.

Quintus - The cute scientist

Onyx - Fan-fragging-tastic! -coughs - Seriously though, this guy makes me want to add 'or Beast' to the title. - Friend to everyone - Loyal - Weapon?: Visions - Connected to spirit/spark energy

~0~

Barricade said that Knockout's serum should have lasted them a week. He was wrong. It lasted them a month. Well, it lasted Lillian a month. The girl had been living on nightmare fumes for a month. She hadn't slept until another supply of energon was found. The way in which it was found wasn't exactly normal. It definitely wasn't the prescribed way of hunting.

While Lillian was off in la-la-land as a drugged-up Alice, Dria sniffed out red energon all the way to Africa before turning back. There was no way in Anubis' Domain that she was going into painted dog, hyena and lion territory just for a hunch on a cube. Her cousins were not friendly. In her state, she was lunch. They would be able to smell that a mile away.

Well, they would be able to smell Lillian's blood. That had been a pain to discover. She onlined with red energon, pink energon and human blood in her system. Internal fluids were kind of her thing. She didn't devour something without knowing the contents-such was the case with Asura. While Asura was her cosmic balance, she also had type O blood. Primus had transferred Lillian's exact blood over to her frame. Dria had to wonder if God and Primus got together over the universe just to play poker with their creations as chips. They were like idiots in a lab. Really-two separate species, with completely different needs and personalities, in the same frame? No, frames...

Dria snorted. Either way, they were a circus act waiting to be put on stage. Lillian had a nice little trick, too. Even while completely drugged-up in a post-tramatic, twitchy-to-the-point-of-Dria-wanting-to-rip-her-own-armor-off state, Lillian was a remarkable hunter. Dria left the explicant instructions on what Lillian referred to as their 'processor build-board.' In her sleep state, Lillian took that post as 'top priority.' She wandered during the day time like an imbecile trying to get caught.

But even though she called her an imbecile, Dria had to hand it to the human. She woke up on an island. What the Pit? She couldn't have walked under water. The blood in her frame would have caused her cables to explode. Flying was impossible. Unless Primus or her God gave Lillian the ability to walk on water, there was no way she could have gotten on that island by herself...unless she tried to hide on a boat to the island. Dria wouldn't put it past her. According to Ravage, she was dumb enough to try anything at least once. Even with that solution, Dria still didn't get how Lillian had gone undetected.

When she got right down it it, though, it didn't matter. In her drugged-up state, Lillian had got them on the only island with the pharaoh hound as their mascot. If it wasn't so insane, Dria would call it brilliant. The pharaoh hound was nutorious for hunting. The pharaoh hound's strengths were speed and sight...and hearing. The hearing part annoyed her. Having an alternate mode as a beast had its downfall. Audios could be turned down or off. Ears, metalic or not, couldn't. As much as Dria prized her wolf-like heritage, a pharaoh hound was their best bet on short notice...Plus, she liked any creature who related to Egypt.

When Lillian was otherwise elsewhere in their processor, Dria barely had enough time to scan the pharoah hound image. Since the daylight hours were so long in Malta, it didn't give her time to hunt. So she settled down in the St. Paul's catacombs...and woke up in a temple...on another island. Given, it was next door, but still...What the Pit? Did the girl sneak cheat codes off of Ravage before the battle? How is it that she wasn't in the news?

Maybe she was, but Dria didn't care. For one thing, the temple that Lillian decided to vacate was too hilarious not to be fate. She occupied the Ggantija temple on the island of Gozo. Ggantija meant 'Giants Tower', which Dria found appropriate, considering that she could stand up in it. Maltese folklore described giants as the builders. According to Gozitan folklore, a giantess had built it. Dria approved. The site was also used for animal sacrifice...That, she didn't like...at all. But Anubis said that anyone who stepped into the temples were cursed to see him, anyway, so she ignored it.

What didn't have her force Lillian into a coma was the fact that, as a temple, there were many areas for libation. Libation was a ritual pouring of a liquid as an offering to a god or spirit. One of the substances used for libation included alcohol. Luckily for her, humans confused cybertronian drinks with alcohol. She had enough medical energon to last her years.

In this case, the poker of the gods played in her favor...and Lillian's as well, when she finally decided to wake up. It was too bad. Dria was used to not having to listen to the human talk. The noise would be, without a doubt, similiar to the blazing car horns that she had gotten so good at avoiding.

~0~

Elijah had been looking forward to this day since...forever ago. (He was ten. 364 days is forever ago.) He had been waiting for the day when he could finally go out with his father on Mnarja. Normally, he would have to be thirteen to go hunting. This year, however, was different. This year, his father was on his side.

Elijah saw his friend Cikku go on monthly trips with his father. Elijah bit his lip just thinking about it. Even if it was to follow his destiny, Elijah still felt left out. His father noticed...Big time.

It had been another short day for Elijah. He was always short. Elijah grumbled under his breath. When am I going to grow?

...Anyway, Elijah was elbow deep in books. Half of it was random stuff. The other was 'priestly activities' because he just had to go and pick up a cross when he was one. He was one! How was he supposed to know that 'toys' would determine his career? "Destiny is dead," he mumbled low enough that his mother wouldn't hear. His mother had very good hearing. His father...

"How are you, my son?"

...was basically a creepy son-of-a-glitch.

"Haq alla."

"That's pretty bad." He tapped his shoulder. "Hey."

Elijah looked up from his books. "What?"

He leanned in with a smirk forming on his lips. "How would you like to go hunting?"

Elijah's eyes got wide. He gasped. His father covered his mouth and silenced him with a look. He held up his hand. 1...2...3! His father let him go. Elijah used one hand to cover his mouth and the other to hug him. "I trust you won't tell your mother, then?" Elijah grinned at his father after he was sure he wouldn't bounce around in excitement or make any sudden noises. He nodded his head rapidly. Rokku sat his son down. "Here's what we do-"

The plan was to act like Rokku was going to drop off Elijah at the festival with the rest of the children. When it got dark, they would hike off to meet the rest of the men. Rokku would hide Elijah's hunting outfit in his bag, and he would change in the woods. Of course, Rokku wasn't idiotic. He wouldn't hand his ten year old a gun. That didn't mean that he wouldn't at least show him how it worked. There were a few conditions that Rokku made for Elijah to tag along. He was supposed to not touch anything, stay with the group, wear the hunting outfit, blow on the whistle if there was a rabbit, and bring a pharaoh hound with him just in case he got separated from an adult. Elijah couldn't be happier to be given restrictions.

~0~

Dria, on the other hand, was in rule hell. She hated Lillian's guts...and she didn't even have any to hate. ::We're going to town today.::

::No, weren't not.:: Lillian had just woke up a week ago. Dria had plenty of time to look at the town without her knowing. She still felt sluggish. She wasn't going anywhere even if Dria stuffed a hot poker up her aft. ::I'm tired. We're staying here. Deal with it.::

::This is sadistic.::

Lillian barked a laugh. Sadistic. Her. As if. ::Sorry, Dria.::

::You're not sorry.:: Lillian opened one optic. It was night...and they were far enough away from town that no one would follow her back to the island of Gozo.

::You're not stepping a foot in town.::

::I get the point, sadist.::

Lillian lifted her head up. She crossed one paw over the other. ::If you stop calling me a sadist, I'll let you chase the rabbits in Malta's forest.::

::What's the point of chasing anything if I can't catch them?::

Lillian rolled over onto her back. She looked up at the stars. ::Are you taking it or leaving it?::

::The best part is biting into the flesh. There's no satisfaction if there's no end game.::

Lillian's muzzle wrinkled up. She felt her body move. ::Anything is better than having you sit on your lazy aft.::

::Wonderful.:: Lillian purred as Dria took over.

~0~

Lillian was having a heart-spark attack. There were humans everywhere. She could hear every step they took, every breath they made-

:I'll be watching you!:

Lillian growled. She didn't want to watch them! She wanted to run in the opposite direction and come back later! How was she supposed to know that tonight was the Mnarja festival? She didn't know anything about Malta! The only thing worse than there being hundreds of humans out at night was that this festival required light...lots and lots of light. It seemed like every other adult human was carrying a torch with them in the woods. Oh, yeah, that was the other thing. Like Nevada, there were only so many trees in one place. That place was called the Buskett Woodlands. Guess where Dria just had to go hunting, and guess where Mnarja only took place aside from inside the town walls?

I just had to pick the one night where there were the most humans near the woodlands. 'Oh, sure, let Dria go hunting for once. What could possibly go wrong?' Um, how about everything?!

::Will you calm down? You're making my prey nervous.::

::'I'm' making them nervous?! What about the ten groups of human men who are out here hunting with you?!::

And the dogs, SC said. Don't forget about the dogs.

Yes, of course, how could I forget the little puppies who can give away our location and run as fast as we can?! Urgh!

Dria huffed. She stood up as her prey ran off. ::Is there anything else that you would like to discuss with yourself before I continue? This is becoming pointless.::

::Great. Since this is so pointless, let's go back to the nice, safe, abandoned temple!::

::Hmm...Nope. Now I want to stay out here longer.::

Lillian didn't know whether to facepalm, growl or run around in a circle and panic. Primus, why did I have to be connected to the wolf?

::As soon as Anubus tells me why I was connected to a human, I will let-::

::Don't. Just-don't. I don't want to know.::

Dria rolled her optics. Humans. Can't live with them-

::If you say 'can't live without them,' you just turned seventy percent creepier.::

::I wasn't...but now that you say that-::

::Shu...! Oh, forget it. Just hunt already.::

::Yes, your majesty.::

Lillian barely had the energy to make her optic switch.

~0~

Elijah loved being out in the woodlands at night with a million torches around to light the way. What he wasn't so fond of was his father's friends, Aless, Noe, Gerard and Gwann. Gwann and Aless were the worst when it came to teasing him about potential girlfriends. Rokku tried to save him a little bit. "Stop trying to give away my son. His mother is not ready to let go yet."

"Minka will never be ready," Gwann said.

"It sounds like you are not ready either, my friend," Aless said lightly. "Tell us who you like, Elijah."

"Elijah has plenty of time to grow in that area, Aless," Gerard said. "Maybe when he can officially hunt with us with her knowing-"

Gwann clicked his tongue. "Three years is nothing. He is out here now, yes?"

Noe clicked his tongue for an entirely different reason. Elijah looked over at him as he petted Khonsu and Sidon. He waved him over nonchallantly. Elijah was more than happy to follow him away from his father's torch. "How about you take Sidon and go ahead of us?" Elijah's eyes brightened. Noe smiled. "You have your flute?" Elijah nodded. Noe and Aless appreciated his flute music. Gwann and Gerard thought it was fine as long as it remained a hobby. Noe would happily click his tongue at them if they said that to Elijah's face, but they hadn't yet, and that's all that mattered. "Good. Play it when you bag a rabbit or need back-up. Khonsu will come running. He knows your music."

Elijah looked at Noe honestly. He said 'when', not 'if' I bag a rabbit. That was the best thing he had heard all day. Elijah took Sidon by the leash. "Thanks, Noe," he said softly.

Noe messed his hair up, smiling when Elijah gave him a sour look. "You don't need to impress a girl, right?"

Elijah shook his head. Noe had a weird way of saying 'you're welcome.'

~0~

Sidon, a pharaoh hound, dragged Elijah around what seemed like the entire woodlands before Elijah had enough. He stopped, used a fallen tree as a bench, and put his foot on top of Sidon's leash. Sidon whined when Elijah stopped. He wanted to keep moving. Elijah tried petting him to calm him down, but he really didn't until he played his flute as softly as he could. Khonsu wouldn't come running to him unless it was loud.

With the music, Sidon calmed down enough to lay down with a bored expression...until he put his head up and started growling. Elijah stopped playing his flute immediately. "Sidon?" Sidon stood up. Elijah started putting his flute away in his backpack. "Do you see a-? Whoa!" Elijah fell over backwards when Sidon took off running without him. "S-Sidon! Come back!" Elijah chased after him. This wasn't good. After Noe had trusted him with Sidon, too! If Sidon was just chasing a random noise, he was going to be awfully...amazed.

Elijah stopped running. He stood as still as possible, breathing heavily, eyes wide. What...? What is that?

Well, he knew what it was. It was a pharaoh hound...but it was so much bigger than Sidon, who would be attacking the other hound if his leash wasn't stuck in a bush. Elijah didn't move to help Sidon, though, because the little guy wouldn't stand a chance against his opponent. Sidon's opponent was a giant, silver pharaoh hound that was as tall as a christmas tree. It had a bloody rabbit squilshed in its jaws. They stared at each other, hound and human, until Elijah reached for his flute slowly. The creature moved so fast it blurred out of focus for Elijah, but that didn't matter because Elijah was blowing on his flute as loud as he could just as the dead rabbit hit the forest floor.

~0~

::What did you do?:: Lillian screamed. Lillian was running full speed away from the woodlands. Dria may as well have been laying on her back with her paws behind her helm. Out of the two of them, she was the most relaxed. In spite of that, her instincts were on high alert.

::They aren't even following us. What's the big deal?::

::The big deal is-:: Lillian stopped to look back. The big deal is that she couldn't get close to another human. Dria wouldn't accept that answer, though. Her ears twitched. ::They'll start bothering us and preventing your hunt.::

That got Dria's attention. ::Where do we go now?::

Lillian paused when she got to the water. She sighed and layed down. Truthfully, she couldn't think of anywhere else to go. Even though she didn't want to interact with humans, she still wanted to stay close to them. Plus, she never wanted to go to a deserted island. Dria wouldn't, either. ::Well, where do you want to go?::

::Woodlands.::

::No.::

::Sadist.::

Lillian bristled. ::We are not going to a jungle. Do you want to get squeezed by a python? Besides...:: She looked up at Gozo. ::That's the only place around here with energon.::

She could feel Dria pushing against her side of their spark chamber. Lillian dreaded her next choice just by her smug energy. ::Thailand.::

::Python infested jungle it is-::

::Is the human scared of elephants?::

Lillian's field expanded in aggravation...before slowly retreating into the cracks in her frame. ::Elephants...are freaking huge. Do you want to be stepped on?::

::Are you going to find something wrong with every place I choose?::

She hesitated. ::Pretty much.::

::You are the most-:: "غائط!"

Lillian would have blinked at the swear if she didn't feel the sting a second later. "Jesus!" She felt another pulse. Her frame dropped to the ground. She breathed hard as her helm tilted back. On the boarder between water and land was an energy field. It pulsed and moved with the tide. It pressed against her frame and pushed her back onto Maltese soil. She growled before stepping onto the stingray again. Lillian howled a frequency that only the Primes could hear.

"Hello, child." Lillian glared at Amalgamous as she limped back. Even though the Tomb of the Primes was essentially her birthplace, she didn't like her 'brothers and sisters.' Most of them were pains in the aft. It was a cruel joke on Primus' part to make her see and hear them. In retrospect, she didn't mind being taken away from the tomb. She liked the quiet. But now, a string-ray had given away their position. What is wrong with the universe?

Lillian looked up. Amalgamous looked down at her, smirking. Right. I forgot. ::The gods like laughing at me.::

::Why did I inherit your curse, human?::

::Look, if you figure out how to disconnect from me, be my guest. But no-aaah.:: Lillian hissed and jerked.

"Stop," Prima said.

"But, brother, she called for us." Amalgamous danced around the edge of the water. To Prima, it looked like he was flapping his arms like an idiot.

"You know full well that she did not mean it." His optics drifted over to hers. "Even if she should learn to control it." Age was no excuse to Prima.

"Let the child be," Solus said.

"What an interesting creature." Quintus was hunched over the stingray.

"Leave Dasyatidae in peace, Quintus."

Quintus looked up. "But he's cute."

"He is near death," Onyx said, herding Quintus like any creature with antlers would. "He will stop struggling in the afterlife."

As the Primes chattered to themselves, Lillian limped over to a pile of rocks. Her optics dilated to the widest setting when she looked at her paw. There was a hole at the bottom, and there was smoke. The smell was unforgiveable-it was the same smell as any smelted wire. Lillian felt something in her tank curl-and she didn't even know where her tank was. "Jesus," she whispered as she lowered herself to the ground. If she ever needed a reminder that she was metal, this was it. She had heard the word 'smelted' before, but it had a whole new meaning now. She didn't even want to think about what Dria had experienced. She had jumped into a smelting pit. She just got an inkling of what it would be like to be smelted, and it still hurt.

:Weakling.: Dria didn't sound the same. Her voice wasn't as harsh as it usually was. It was because she had just made her relive the memory again. They were connected. Memory sharing time was bound to happen...Regardless, Lillian couldn't help but feel guilty.

"You should stop calling out to the son of your prior god. He will not come to you as he does the humans." Lillian glared at Vector. The Primes sure knew how to ruin a moment.

::رئيس القرف::Prime-shit.

::For once, I agree with you.::

"I do not disagree with you." Vector glared at Onyx as he strolled past him on all fours. "But he means well." Lillian looked up at Onyx. Even when he was on all fours, he was still twice her size. He bent lower and made the same motion to her as he did to Quintus. "Roll around in the mud."

Lillian blinked at Onyx. What?

Vector made the field pulse at the same time Onyx pushed her lightly. "Roll, child." Lillian rolled around in the mud.

"What is this supposed to do besides make us look like the lower species?" Dria said.

"You are the lower species, Driak," Onyx rumbled lightly.

Lillian could practically see the word 'smug' written on Vector's force field. "Yeah, yeah. We're lower. Can you tell us why we're doing this?"

"Protection," Prima said before Onyx could. "Savor it."

"You see, Prima. She is capable of following orders," Amalgamous said.

"She is only as capable as you are making jokes. That is rarely, brother."

"He has a point," Onyx said.

"Child, do you wish to fight?" Prima said.

Lillian stopped rolling. "No."

Yes, Dria thought.

Shut up. I'm not fighting a spirit with a huge sword.

Prima sighed. "Then stop glaring at your brother."

Lillian blinked at Onyx. Glare? When'd I do that?

"Instinct is difficult to control, brother," Onyx said.

"Control is vital."

"She is young."

"Age is irrelevant-"

"You know I will not fight with you."

"I will." Solus stood behind Onyx. "Let-the child-be. Honestly, how many times must I say it? Must I call Father?"

"Useless," Maximo said. Solus stared at Maximo. Maximo stared back. Onyx stood up and flared his wings. Maximo snorted. He put his servos behind his back and walked backwards. "Calm your struts. I was saying it was useless to fight." Prima followed Maximo closely behind. Amalgamous pranced behind them. They all faded into the landscape.

"Liar," Vector muttered from his place on a rock.

Lillian couldn't help but shiver. Having spirits fight didn't bother her...Having Maximo around changed everything. The remaining, Solus, Onyx and Vector, noticed.

"That was fun," Solus chuckled.

"Indeed," Vector said.

Onyx cramped Lillian and Dria against the other rocks. "Stay here until the next night."

"Good night, Lali," Solus said.

"Good morn' to you, Driak," Onyx said.

Vector waited until Solus left to say, "sleep tight."

Dria, at least, took the joke well. "Don't let the dead bite."

"Ah, yes, before I forget-" Lillian heard a crunch. Her optics dialated when she saw Onyx bite down on the stingray. He smirked around the kill. "Mercy," he said.

With that lovely image in mind, Dria began the shut down process.

~0~

Elijah's mother always permitted him a day off from his studies after Mnarja. This should have been a day of celebration-a day of rest-but it wasn't. He was still thinking about the giant pharaoh hound he saw last night. It was an otherworldly presense. It shined bright under the moon. It had reflected her beauty. No, she had been her beauty. Elijah didn't know how he knew, but the spiritual creature had been female. A giantess, to be exact. She had been a giantess of the moon, or one of her daughters.

Gwann and Aless jokingly said he was 'swooning' over a vision of a dream girl-his future wife, perhaps. His father tried to be kinder and put some sense into his head. He suggested that it may have been a daydream. Maybe it was a side effect of being up past his bedtime, wishful thinking or his eyes playing tricks on him. It was none of that. What he saw was real. He just...had to see it in the light of the day to believe it.

But what if the creature only came out at night? What if-?

"Ħej fekruna ! Qabda up! Aħna ser tħallik fir-ramel!" Catch up, turtle! We'll leave you in the sand!

Elijah looked up. His friends were climbing rocks. They had taken a ferry over to Gozo. As long as they left the area between high noon and two in the afternoon, they would make it home before dark.

He began to follow them, but then he saw something move beside him. He stopped to look. Something had moved under the pile of rocks. He squinted his eyebrows. He saw a smoother patch of rock than the others. He walked closer to it and stared. Slowly, he put his finger to the rock. He put his nail under a thin patch of dirt, and moved his finger up an inch. His eyes widened when the patch turned silver, and his finger nail squeaked on the surface like a seagull. This was not a rock. He saw the 'rock' move like a fish.

The boys looked at each other. "Dak li hu hazin? Inti tara hut?" What's wrong? You see a fish? Cikku asked.

Elijah looked from the barely quivering 'rock' to his friends and back again. No, it wasn't a fish. But his giantess was pretending to be.

"Huwa mejta?" Is it dead? Vittor asked, eyes gleaming.

That question sent a signal off for Elijah. If he didn't hurry up, Vittor would want to come down and poke the 'fish.' He couldn't let that happen. His giantess was a mystery soul, not a public figure. If she wanted to be a fish, he would let her be. But first, he grabbed a rock with his left hand and put it over the silver streak he had caused. He put his right hand in his pocket to grab the extra sardine from his breakfast. He put on a grin, held the fish in the air, and chased after his friends. "Ejjew tara!" Let's see!

"Zomm boghod!" Keep it! Peppi shrieked. The rest of the boys rejoiced in the chase so much that they failed to notice that Elijah looked over his shoulder. When he did, he knew that he had to come back.

~0~

If Elijah was honest with himself, he would have to say that waiting around wasn't his specialty. As he switched between pretending to study, actually studying, and staring out his window on one of his only days off, Elijah realized something: His parents stayed up way later than he ever did.

How do you wake up at dawn? Why do you wake up at dawn? He thought as his father walked past his room with a plate of food. Sure, getting a food *coma was a thing, but still...The longer he thought about it, the more he wished that his parents woke up at noon. How was he going to do this? It was going to take him at least an hour to walk to the shoreline. What if the goddess decided to swim to Gozo or Comino? What if she could only walk on land and went back to the Buskett Gardens or any other of the hundreds of places that she could hide on this too-large-for-a-ten-year-old-to-cross-without-a-car island?

That was another problem, too. While Elijah could follow the goddess wherever she went as long as she stuck to the three islands, walking all the time was torture. How was he supposed to have the energy to study the next day if he had to walk all night Sunday? He could 'borrow' his father's Morris black and red classic car...Elijah shook his head. He'd shoot me before I made it out of the driveway.

"Are you alright, sweety?" Elijah looked up as his mother sat down. "You're working hard." With the face she was making, Elijah could read her mind: 'You're working harder than usual.' "Are you-?" '-feeling alright?'

"I'm fine, mom. I just-" He shrugged. "-got inspired. You get that, too, right?"

She did, sort of, but that didn't stop her from looking to her husband for guidance. He smiled and mouthed 'girl.' When she said 'oh', Elijah wanted to jump out of his own window. Who knows? Maybe his goddess would catch him-Why is she 'my' goddess? She's not mine-She's the islands! I think...I'm going to have to start listening to those old ladies at the market again, aren't I?

Elijah was blushing before his mother asked the question. "Elijah-um-did you...? Did you meet a girl? At Mnarja?" No. I met a giant silver pharaoh hound in a forest, and I think I- Elijah shook his head before he could finish that thought. "Oh...Alright." Rokku set down his plate outside his room. Elijah's eyes widened. No no no! Grab it and go! No! If Rokku set his dinner plate down, there was bound to be a conversation, and Elijah didn't want to have a conversation. Not here, not like this, not with his mother here, not with his goddess waiting, and definitely not one 'like that.' "You-know that that would be fine, though, right? To meet a girl?" His mother was blushing like he was-Worse, even. "If you wanted to bring her home-"

"Mom!" That crossed the line. Besides, he didn't think it was physically possible for the giantess to fit in his house.

"Just for lunch!"

Goddess, this wasn't going well.

"Son." No. No no. Do not even- "It's okay if-"

Elijah's chair fell back into the floor so hard it made his parents jump. "There's no girl!" His parents didn't say anything. His mother looked ready to cry, though, so he knew he had to calm down. "There's no girl," he said softer. "Now..." He swallowed. "Can I study now?"

"Sure, son. Whatever you need. We'll be-" His mother rushed down the stairs. Elijah looked away from his father when he stayed in the room. "I'll leave you a plate on the counter," he said as the door clicked shut.

Elijah stared at the floor. There was no girl. He took a deep breath, and tried to gather the sane parts of his mind from that conversation. There would never be a girl. He pulled his chair up from the floor, sat down, and looked for a different book in his collection. There would only ever be a goddess.

~0~

Because of the conversation earlier, Elijah's parents went to bed earlier than expected. He waited an hour before heading downstairs. Regardless of the conversation, he was starving. He gulped down the rabbit stew before sneaking out of the house with a bag of sweets his father picked up from the festival. He picked the nearest path not littered with people or covered in moonlight, and started walking.

~0~

It took him an hour to get to the shoreline, and that was with hitching a ride on the back of a bus without paying. He was tired. All he wanted to do was take a nap on the beach, but he couldn't do anything until he found-

The rocks moved. Elijah jolted awake when he slid down the bank to discover that the rocks that covered the goddess had moved. But that wasn't all: there were tracks. If any other person looked at them, they might be snake tracks. A little strange, but nothing to worry about. But Elijah knew to look deeper, and under those 'snake' tracks were hound tracks. Again, so what? There were plenty of hounds on Malta. Yes, that was true...but Elijah had never seen any as big as these. Elijah followed the tracks until-

"Wait!" Elijah started to turn toward the voice, but he froze when he felt something grab the back of his shirt. "Do nun mve," the voice mumbled. Elijah nodded shakily. He could see the shadow...and it wasn't human. He could feel the creature pulling at his collar. "Mve bck. Slory." He started moving back...when he got to ten or so steps, the creature let him go. "Sorry. I meant to bury that stingray." Elijah turned toward the creature. Yes, it was his giantess. She was a silver pharaoh hound, and she was beautiful. "Are you alright?"

He snapped out of it. He wanted to say something that made him sound awesome, but he couldn't think of anything. He nodded.

The creature's ears flicked. "You're sure? Dasyatidae didn't sting you? A prick is still dangerous-"

::Are you his mother?:: Dria asked.

::I'm just being careful. Look what it did to us!::

::It's dead, in case you've forgotten-::

::A dead stingray can still sting.::

"Uh-um-" Lillian looked down. "I'm okay."

Lillian stared at him. Well, he did look okay. "Tell me if you feel any pain." He nodded.

Lillian tilted her head at him. He's nodding a lot-Oh scrap. What if he doesn't speak a lot of english? "Um...Ingles?" Damn it. That's spanish.

Elijah nodded, although he didn't understand why a giantess from his country spoke only english. Luckily for him, more than half of the people on the islands spoke it fluently. "I understand and speak english." Then, just to show off- "I can write it, too!"

It was Lillian's turn to nod. She didn't know what to do with his enthusiasm. She looked at the water, then at her paw. I should probably clean this. She limped into the water, and growled when the water came into contact with the wound. Okay, bad idea. Bad idea! Owowowow-!

::How the mighty have fallen.::

Lillian sat on the shore. Nevermind. She looked at Elijah. He looked shell-shocked. "As you can probably tell, I got stung. Dasyatidae is a nasty creature when he believes anything to be a threat."

Elijah wasn't listening. "You...You can get hurt?"

::He's slower than you.::

::So help me, I will put this paw back into the water if you don't shut up.::

"Yes."

"But...But you're a-" He cut himself off. He didn't want to offend her, but he was confused. He thought that Earth's creatures wouldn't be able to touch a giant, let alone hurt one!

"What is it that you think I am?"

Elijah gulped. "A-A goddess of the moon."

Lillian's optics cycled. Goddess? Me? He thinks that I'm a goddess?

::I can see how you can think that that would be unbelievable.:: Dria mocked.

Lillian's ears twitched. The child said 'of the moon.' Onyx had said: 'Good morn' to you' when it was night from her perspective. Well, I don't know if it's a coincidence or intuition, but the kid's one smart cookie.

"A giantess," Elijah said. "Sort of."

::He got you right, at least.:: Lillian said.

::Yes, he's brilliant.:: Dria said sarcastically.

Elijah sat when he realized that Lillian wasn't going to be moving for awhile. "Am I right?"

"Where do your goddesses come from?"

Elijah blinked. "The sky." He thought about it. "And the Earth."

Dria rolled her optics. ::Brilliant.::

::Quiet. I'm trying to think-::

::Oh, forgive me, goddess of the moon-::

::I told you that he's talking about you-::

::You do not know what this human child speaks of, and neither do I. No human has ever made sense to me.::

::Even Asura?::

Especially Asura.::

Lillian sighed. "I..." She didn't want to break his creative streak, but- "I come from the sky, but I was placed on the Earth."

"Like us?"

"Explain, human."

::Dria! Paws off the vocal cords!::

::You aren't making any sense.::

::At least be nicer about it!::

::Aw, how cute. The human wants me to use manners-::

::Shut. It.::

"God creates our souls in the sky and creates our bodies on the Earth. Is that like you?"

Lillian pursed her lips. "It is...the opposite. My Creator is from the sky, and my body is not of Earth, but my soul is multi-dimensional."

::If I have no idea what you just said, how is a human child going to comprehend-?::

"Awesome."

Dria facepalmed. ::Human children will believe anything.::

::What's not to believe? I just told him the truth. I'm from Earth. You're from...not Earth-:: Dria swore at her in arabic. ::Well excuse me for not knowing what a Cybertronian river looks like-::

::You're forgiven.::

::The point is...Technically, we're a combined soul. That makes us multi-dimensional...to him. Either way, I'm not explaining the mechanics.::

::Can you explain the mechanics?::

::I could explain the basics if I had to...Maybe.::

::Ha.::

Lillian's ears glowed. ::You know what-?::

"Whoa!" Lillian flinched. "Can all animal goddesses do that?"

"I do not think so, child." Lillian facepalmed internally. I sound like Amalgamous. "And I am not a goddess. I am just...a different species-like your dogs and rabbits. They are not the same, yes?"

Elijah nodded...a little too rapidly for Lillian's liking. "Can I touch them?"

::You are not letting him touch us.::

::What's the worst that could happen?::

::Do you want the list alphabetically or chronologically?::

"My ears are very sensitive...but you may pet my head." She lowered her head to the ground. When Elijah started petting her, her ears went haywire.

Damn, this is weird-

::Do you want that list now? Yes? Great. This is number eight thousand and thirty-::

::Okay, I get it!::

She jerked her head slightly. "Child, what is your name?"

He seemed disapointed that the petting session had ended so soon, but he withheld the urge to reach out again...barely. "Elijah." He hesitated. "What's yours?"

::Uh...Oh, damn it.::

::What's the matter with you...aside from the normal scrap?::

::I don't want to give him my real name. What if Jazz comes along?::

::I think the human messed with your processor. Do you know how unlikely that is-?::

::This is Jazz. Anything is possible with him. Besides, someone had to go and say that they would join the autobots on a part-time basis, so I can't exactly give him yours, either.::

"I...do not have a name."

Elijah tilted his head. "How can you know what a name is if you don't have one?"

::Yes, moon goddess, how can you know such a thing?::

::Wa-ter. It is a very common element on this planet, and I will use it.::

::Funny, I don't see you going toward it-::

"It is...complicated. My Creator gave me the task of studying humans to learn more about them, and I noticed that you give yourself titles to designate who is who."

::Anything, funny-bot?:: Lillian asked. Dria said nothing. She shook her helm. Figures.

"C-Can I give you one?" Lillian's optics cycled. As long as it doesn't start with an L or a D, we're good.

She nodded. "You may...on one condition." Elijah nodded. Anything. "Make it androgynous." He blinked at her. "Gender neutral."

::What are you doing?:: Dria asked.

::I am not taking any chances if Jazz comes along. I don't mind playing a guy-::

:D-D-Do it like a dude-:

Lillian's ears and nose burned. ::Dria!:: Dria chuckled. "O-Okay?" Lillian asked Elijah.

Elijah wanted to ask why the name couldn't be a girl's if she had a 'girly' voice, but he didn't want to offend her. Wait, is that the real reason why I can't call her a goddess or giantess? Is she neutral? Elijah didn't know that that could be a thing for giants. Humans, sure, but giants? Elijah blushed as he thought about it, then shook his head. He laid flat on his back and looked to the stars for inspiration.

What's a good name for a gender-neutral, giant, silver, pharaoh hound?

Lillian stared at Elijah anxiously. She was curious what kind of name he would pick, but after ten minutes, she had to wonder if he had fallen asleep. She walked around him, looked down at him and sniffed his forehead. He didn't look awake, but- "Elijah?" When she bumped him with her cold nose, he jolted awake. Lillian stepped back so he wouldn't hit his head on hers. Being considerate bit her in the aft-Literally. She howled, ran around in a circle, and rolled around in the sand. Meanwhile, Elijah wouldn't stop mixing "I'm sorry" and "let me get it out" together. When he finally did, and she calmed down, she looked up at him from her place in the sand. "Do me a favor." He nodded. "Get me a stick-a long stick." He looked confused. She stood up slowly, shook herself off, and glared at Dasyatidae with fire in her spark. "I'm burying that thing tonight if it kills me." Elijah didn't dare disobey the will of a giant-especially if it just got stung by a stingray...twice.

~0~

Jazz swore to the Well and back that he would never understand Prime. Even though he was supposed to protect his secrets, it disapointed him when he ended up in moments like he was in right now. The moment was him being summoned to Prime's office, and having him tell him to pack up with Sideswipe and go to Malta on a reconnaissance mission.

First of all, what was so important about Malta? The only thing that he knew about it was that it was practically the nation of search and rescue stats. The only reason why he knew that was because Inferno wanted to take Red Alert there as an excuse for their bonding anniversary. Other than that, he wasn't seeing the big whoop. It was an island. What could possibly be on an island that was important to them?

Secondly, and most importantly, why in the Pits would Prime want him to bring Sideswipe along? Sideswipe didn't do reconnaissance! After he suggested Bumblebee, Prime immediately turned him down. He said that it had to be Sideswipe, but he wouldn't give any other explanation as to why!

Still, though-This was Prime. He followed Prime's orders...even if they made no slagging sense.

Jazz sighed as he left Prime's office. He filed the order under 'Prime's weird instincts' and commed Sideswipe. ::Sides, we got a mission. Pack up and move out at 2100.::

::Shouldn't you be calling Bee? I'm not-::

::Now, Sides. Prime's orders.::

Jazz sighed as Sides gave him a snide comment that he thought he couldn't hear. This was going to be a long trip.

~0~

As much as Sideswipe wanted to jump right into the mission and 'get on with it', Jazz didn't run a mission that way. They could act all cool and collected once they had all the information they needed. When Prime told them to 'move out', it wasn't immediately like Sideswipe thought. They had to move out at night when the least amount of humans and bots weren't awake or around to see them. That's where Red Alert and his cameras came in handy for the important first step of any Jazz-related mission: Let Red to all the hard work telling them where to go, stop and hide, and then let them through the invisible 'force field' without the alarms going off. Once they cleared the field, and were bunkered down in a cave somewhere, then their research could begin.

But even though this was a mission that Jazz lead, it wasn't as high-risk as his other missions were. Some of his other missions took him months to research, get the proper backstory and create the perfect holoform or holomatter for the job. This mission, however, was an unusual case. Jazz didn't go as deep with his research for this mission because it was sprung on him by Prime, Prime didn't tell him what he was looking for or even doing on Malta, and worst of all, his partner had no patience. If Bee were with him, he could have had more time to have the mission locked down instead of just sealed tight. He would have enjoyed Bee's company more, too. Sideswipe wasn't a bad kid...It's just that, even for his age, he was a tad bit more twitchy than he would have preferred for a reconnaissance mission.

In the end, though, it didn't matter how twitchy Sideswipe was because in the whole year that they had been on Malta, they only needed to know one thing: scan a classic car mode in order to blend in. Classic cars were everywhere on Malta. Surely, no one would notice one or two more? Even if they did come in on an unusual ferry, they couldn't possibly get picked out of the crowd that much, right? Wrong. Jazz chose a silver, aston martin db 2/4 mark III. Sideswipe chose a dark red, ford mustang from 1967. Those years and marks mattered, apparently, because they couldn't go a week without someone asking them about it.

'Inti Amerikan?'

Yes, they were American.

'X'inhu karozza tieghek?'

'Aston martin.'

'Mustang.'

'Beautiful.'

Yes, they were beautiful. Now if people would just stop trying to ask them about it-If this was a high-stakes mission, Jazz would not stand for all of this attention. At least no one tried to steal them in the middle of recharge. And, yes, they did have the luxury of recharge. Why? Because there was nothing here. The whole year they had been on Malta, they hadn't found anything that might be useful to Prime. If they had found at least one sliver of energon, they could have brought that back to Prime. 'Is this what you wanted? Great. Now, please, just don't send us back.' Jazz never wanted to come back from a mission empty handed, but he was seriously considering-

::Psssssst-!::

::Yes, Sideswipe?:: Jazz asked wearily.

::You haven't been listening.:: Sideswipe sounded disapointed.

Jazz sighed. He had stopped listening a month into this mission. There were only so many Sunny-and-Sides adventure stories he could take. ::Sorry. I was reading something. What-?::

::Well, you better start reading this-Look!::

Jazz looked at the readings Sideswipe pulled up. There was energon nearby...and it was moving. ::Good work, Sides-::

::So we go after it, right?::

Well...He really couldn't ask for much patience. Sideswipe was like a rabbit. As soon as he found one carrot down the rabbit hole, he would pop up to get a pat on the head and then jump right down to find more carrots...or another rabbit, but they didn't know that yet. Besides, Sideswipe wasn't really into the whole waiting game. ::Let me feel of the area first, 'kay?::

Sideswipe was bouncing on his tires. It was a good thing the day was slowing down and there weren't many people out. ::Sure thing, boss.::

Jazz started up his engine and went to do a search of the area with Sideswipes map out in front of him. It didn't take him long to find the energon since it had stopped moving. The holoform put 'his car in park', and got ready to move out with his famous weapon:

:A smile born from amphetamines.:

When a silver Aston Martin pulled up next to the closest building, Lillian didn't think anything of it. There were plenty of classic cars cruising around Malta...but then the holoform stepped out of the car with shades on. ::Oh, fuck-I was joking! رئيس القرف::

::What are you-? Oh.:: Dria looked at Jazz's holoform and new form. ::Vehicle looks a little classy for my tastes, but...that holoform ain't bad.::

::Can you please think about fragging my guardian later?:: Lillian asked desperately.

::With pleasure.::

Jazz walked around the bush. He was surprised to see a kid sitting on the ground, but like with everything else, he rolled with it...after he got what he came for. He scanned the mode-it was a tan Matchless G3L Army bike from 1941...and there was definitely a Cybertronian under the hood. If this was a big bot, Sideswipe would have picked up on it more quickly.

Aside from the obvious Cybertronian signal he was picking up on, he had to wonder whether the kid was human or not. It wasn't just that he had food. Holomatter could stand to eat small quantities if somebot really wanted to be a convincing human. The problem he had with all this is that the holoform was a kid-A pre-teen, maybe, but a kid nonetheless. All holoforms represented some aspect of a Cybertronian-that was why most of the ones around base were in the twenty to fifty range. Bee was twenty-two-he liked to play 'college student.' But...if this bot chose a kid as his holoform because he really was that young...then boy, did they have a problem.

What was the kid doing here in Malta? Why was there even a Cybertronian this young on Earth? None of the decepticons had tried to have sparklings. The autobots wouldn't until, or if, the war ended. There was that Rocca chick that Shockwave made in the lab for Knockout and Breakdown, but that was all Megatron had allowed. He didn't need more recruits-he had enough idiots to deal with. Is that why Optimus sent them here-to recruit this kid? But how did he know about it?

Jazz shook his head. Prime's weird instincts.

He couldn't have just fallen from the sky like they did. Pods didn't take younglings-it wasn't safe. Even the little miss on the battlefield looked to be Bee's age, and she, at least, looked like she had lived life elsewhere. She didn't look like she was used to the planet. Heck, for all he knew, she could have been part of the Dread experiment that Shockwave dug up from years past-she sure looked it. She had the bite and the bark to go along with it, too.

But this kid? This kid was just eating on an island and basking in the sun like it was natural. The little miss didn't seem like she would be up for waiting around-like Sideswipe. Sideswipe-who was bouncing around on his tires waiting for Jazz to say 'move out.'

Jazz put on his winning smile and crouched down. Better get a move on, Jazz-man.

"Hey kid, x'hemm up?"

Elijah popped a bite-sized chocolate pastry into his mouth. "Tiekol." Eating.

Lillian facepalmed internally. Stranger-danger wasn't a thing in Elijah's mind. ::Your pup is an idiot.:: Dria said.

::For the thousandth time, he is not my pup.::

::Not going to argue over his intelligence, huh?::

Lillian hesitated. ::I...He...should just be more cautious.::

::So he's an idiot for being too friendly and oblivious. Glad we agree.::

Lillian didn't even try to argue. Elijah was slacking in his studies lately-Even if, to his parents, he looked like he was studying more than ever.

"Nara." I see that. "Titkellem bl-Ingliz?"

"Iva. It's easy!"

Jazz looked the kid up and down. It was funny. He looked and acted like a human, but all his sensors came back at him with is: 'Cybertronians Only! No humans allowed!' The way Jazz saw it, there were two possibilities: This kid might really be a human. If that was the case, then the cybertronian would have been cloaking him with his field. The problem with that scenario is that it was rare for an abandoned youngling to have that ability. True, younglings could spread out their fields to their carriers, sires or guardians if they were the clingy types, but it took a lot out of them. Jazz and Sideswipe had been on Malta for a year. As far as they could tell, there wasn't any energon around. So unless the youngling knew a secret spot that they didn't, it was very unlikely that it was the first option. The second option, of course, was that this kid was made out of holomatter, and the cybertronian was playing it up. Younglings did that. Sideswipe and Bee still showed off when they could. Since it was more likely that he was a cybertronian, Jazz started poking holes to see how good his cover story was. "I hate to be a brat, kid, but are your gwardjani around? Ain't ya kinda young to be out by yerself?"

If Lillian didn't know that this was Jazz, she would be on major stalker-predator-creep alert right now. The sad thing is that if he offered Elijah candy, he would take it...and go 'for a quick spin around the block,' too. That's just the sort of environment Elijah grew up in...and damn it all if Lillian didn't wish that she could chain him to his desk. While it was great that he went exploring, Dria was right: Elijah could be oblivious.

"Duh. Of course huma," Elijah said. "Do I not look good?" Would I look this good if they weren't? He struck a casual body builder pose while still sitting down. Lillian and Dria could only stare, but not in the way that Elijah was planning they would. He tried to impress Lillian when he could because she would always be 'his giantess', even if she was, technically, androgynous as a cybertronian.

Jazz chuckled. "X'jismek, hotshot?"

"Elijah."

Jazz held out his hand for a fist bump. "Jude." Elijah bumped him. "Well, figura I ser tkun off. Just wanted to check that ya weren't alone. Get's creepy out here near dusk, ya know?"

"No. I am iebsa." I'm a tough guy.

Lillian didn't understand why Elijah was acting so weird. Sure, he was laid back, but not to this extreme. He was usually a bit more dismissive of adults. She knew that Jazz could work wonders, but she didn't know that he worked that fast. "Nemmen." I believe it. Jazz smiled and saluted him with two fingers. "Caw, hotshot. Forsi I se qabda inti aktar tard?" Catch ya later.

Elijah nodded, as calm as could be, but Lillian was anything but calm. Okay, two things just happened: One-Jazz really just checked on a random kid because he was worried about him. Two-Jazz was scoping out if I was a cybertronian and Elijah was my holoform. While Lillian would like to believe that it was the first option, Jazz always had a special way with words...and 'catch ya later' didn't sound as casual as Elijah thought it was. Scrap. He's going to try to catch me and take me...Well, I wouldn't mind going home, but if it's anywhere else...like an interrogation room-

::You'll break in a minute.:: Dria said.

As soon as Jazz left, Lillian was poking Elijah with her wheel. "Elijah," she said with her best this-is-your-goddess-speaking voice. "We have to go. Now."

"Why, Cai?"

Cai was the name that Elijah had come up with for Lillian. He chose it because Sir Kay was a fictional knight that could become as tall as a tree at will and could go a long time without eating or sleeping. He was also brave, but right now, Lillian wasn't brave enough to possibly fight Jazz. She didn't want to put Elijah in danger if he thought she was a decepticon. "I know him. That was his way of saying that he's taking me back-"

"What?" Elijah was up in an instant, food forgotten. "He can't-!"

"Elijah, shh! We'll talk about this later. Right now-"

"He can't take you! I have a-" -crush on you? No, that wouldn't work. "You-You can't just-we were-"

Lillian forced herself to slow down for a minute. She sighed. "I know that it's bad for me to just leave, but listen-Are you listening?" Elijah nodded begrudidly. "If he catches me-" -and he definitely will- "-I have to go back with him. I won't fight him."

This was news to Elijah. Since when would his giantess not fight? "Why not? You huma iebsa-!"

"He's much stronger and experienced than I am when it comes to fighting. He's ancient compared to me. He's-" -my guardian, and damn it, and I don't want to fight him! Why, Primus? What did I do? "It's like comparing a servant to a knight, Elijah."

"But you're great! You're not a servant! You're-"

"Elijah," Lillian groaned lightly. "Please. I know that you think that, but...It's just the way my hierarchy works, Elijah. I'm sorry." They stood like that for a minute in silent. "Now, please...Can you just get on? For me? I want you to be safe at home before he brings back-up."

"Back-up? That's-"

"Not fair, I know," Lillian said wearily. Elijah was big on fairness. "But that's how they work-safety in numbers."

Elijah hesitated. "Kemm?" How many?

This, at least, she knew. She had seen scouting pairs before. "Two at most for a small bot-urm-giant like me." She coughed.

"Just two?" Elijah asked.

"Just two." I hope.

"...Okay." He got on.

She started her engine. "Grazzi. Zomm fuq." Hold on. "I am ser tkun dimostrazzjo velocita."

::A 'speed demon' does not go seventy miles an hour-::

::Not now, Dria.::

Dria, for once, listened.

The drive home was silent. It was also tense. Lillian and Elijah were worried for multiple reasons, and those reasons rarely, if ever, crossed paths.

Lillian wasn't sure if Elijah would be okay without her. She was sure that he would be okay physically, but mentally? She had seen him grow apart from his friends in the past year. His relationship with his parents was great, but that was because he was lying to them. He was studying less, and that could be disastrous for his career...even if she had no room to judge what a good career was. She knew that becoming a priest didn't appeal to him, and she had wanted to be around to support him when others around him wouldn't. She wanted to be around to remind him that it was okay to play his flute (that she found rather soothing, not annoying, thank you very much). She wanted to see him grow up, but above all, she wanted to protect him. And she was doing that. Leaving him with his parents before Jazz caught up to them again would help protect him and and his family at least a little bit. It would keep them all safe until Jazz realized that 'Cai' wasn't so bad...and also not a decepticon. No, Cai would be an autobot, and the best one that she could imagine. He would be well-behaved, maybe a little oblivious like Elijah was, and he...he would be a knight. Cai-she-would learn to fight if it killed him-her-them...and it probably would, but right now, she didn't care. She would do anything to protect Elijah, even if it meant leaving him behind.

~0~

Are you fraggin' kidding me right now? Sideswipe? Sideswipe. Why Sideswipe?! You couldn't send Bee, huh? You know, nice Bee who doesn't slice bots in half without thinking? Well, okay, there was that one time in Egypt, but that was different! Sideswipe is known for being reckless, and Jazz is...

::Just so you know, we're probably going to die tonight. They're at least bringing us back to Nevada in pieces-::

::You talk too much.:: Dria pushed Lillian aside like she was paper in the wind. She put the pedal to the metal while dodging trees. Jazz and Sideswipe split up to take the long way around the small woodland area. ::I have seen Sideswipe in battle. I can dodge his attacks-::

::You've seen him once-Once! I've seen him fight dozens of times! Do you know how those fights ended? Here's a hint-He never got hurt.::

::He did not fight a hunter from my clan-::

::You didn't even make it to hunter, remember? Your alpha-!::

::My alpha would rip him to shreads. I shall do the same if he tries anything.::

Lillian didn't say anything else. She was too nervous in general, she was trying to focus on Dria's reckless driving and...quite frankly, her aura scared her when she mentioned her alpha. So, she let Dria take the reins...until she was heading toward a cliff and wasn't stopping.

::Dria, I know you have a history of committing suicide, but I don't want to die! I just got my life back!:: I don't think God, Primus or Anubis give third chances, either. Second, obviously, but not third.

::I do not jump off a cliff without purpose.::

::Great, mind telling me this one before you-Ho-Ah! Scrap!:: Lillian squeaked. While Jazz had simply been trying to ram her off the road or into a tree, she thought that Sideswipe was legitimately trying to slice n' dice her.

:I don't want to die-: Dria drove off the cliff. -so you're going to have to.:

~0~

::Warn me next time you decide to drive us both off a cliff-You scared me half to death-Again! If we weren't on an island and that water wasn't as deep, we would both be in the servos of Shockwave getting repairs! I swear, if you ever-::

::I just saved your tail. Why are you punishing my good deed by contining to ramble?::

::But you-I didn't-You just-You can't just-!:: Lillian realized that Dria was barely listening. She growled. ::Fine. Whatever. Thanks for saving my tail.::

::It's my tail, too:: Dria said smugly. ::And you're welcome...moon goddess.::

Lillian was too tired to argue as she dragged herself up to 'her' temple one step at a time. She needed to sleep for a bit and drink as much pink energon as she could before leaving Gozo for good. It would be a long swim to...wherever they were going. As long as it's not Thailand, she thought as she fell asleep in one of the holes in the wall.

~0~

When Lillian woke up, it wasn't even dawn yet. She relished the hours on Gozo or Malta when it wasn't daylight. Today, however, was even more special than a pre-dawn Gozo temple. When Lillian crawled out of her half-circle shaped 'den', stretched and yawned, she heard noise from another part of the temple. She didn't have to walk toward it to know what, or who, was sitting in her temple not-worshipping.

Jazz and Sideswipe were talking casually in the same room as the main libation center or energon-for-dogs lap-dish. They were waiting for her to wake up and come get energon. It didn't matter if she needed energon or not; going through that room was the only way to get to the entrance. Lillian smiled slightly. If they wanted to play meet-and-greet, and act like they hadn't just chased her down off a cliff yesterday, she would be happy to play. But first, she needed to be presentable. And being presentable, currently, meant taking off all her armor and stashing it in the hole she just slept in.

She turned to the old-car-windshield-turned-mirror she had pinned to the wall. Without her armor, she was silver. She had weird-looking, werewolf-like feet and large, pharaoh hound ears. Her and Dria's sparks were hidden under their protoform. She was told that while most protoforms had small cracks, hers were pronounced so she kept that 'veiny' look that humans had. One 'vein' or cable in particular was very visable. It traveled across her right shoulder and swirled down and around her right arm. It disapeared behind her servo, and she never wanted to see what that cable would look like if she removed the covering that kept her from seeing it.

No matter what, she was planning on shocking Sideswipe and Jazz as much as they were planning on shocking her with their 'surprise' visit. They had never seen her as a pharaoh hound. They wouldn't be expecting it or anything other than a mech with motorcycle parts hanging off 'him.' They definitely wouldn't be expecting 'him' to walk out naked with exposed, see-through cables that would glow in the dark a vibrant pink instead of the usual light blue.

She took a deep breath. Here goes nothing.

It was definitely a shock for Jazz and Sideswipe. For two seconds, Sideswipe wondered if he was dreaming because there was no way that that was the same bot they tried to run off the road to 'talk to.' He wasn't the same color or frame type. He wasn't wearing armor. The most 'trippy' thing about him was the color. The room was glowing pink from the energon as it was, so it wasn't like he and Jazz were blind, but to see this bot walk in was unbelievable. He swore that he was glowing pink when he walked in. At the moment, he couldn't tell what color he was. Pit, even Jazz looked pink at the moment. The pink energon made these weird swirly patterns on the walls.

::I am so lost. Jazz, is this even-?::

::He has to be, Sides.::

Because regardless of the color, frame-type or entrance that this bot had made, he was still the same size. He was what Jazz was expecting him to be: Tiny, thin, and just tall enough to not be the smallest autobot ever. Unless this bot had a more 'normal' looking twin running around Malta that liked the ocean, it was the same bot. It had to be...because if it wasn't, Jazz's helm would explode. He would call Optimus to rant about Primes being 'un-prime-ly' pains in the afts with their so-called wisdom, 'you smart-aft. Now airlift us out of here.' It wouldn't be his most shining moment ever, but he would live with it if it meant finally getting off of these islands.

Their confusion was only made better by the fact that the kid looked just as confused when he stepped on the threshold, and it had nothing to do with them being there. Jazz knew that because engaging in conversation with the kid at first was like pulling teeth from a ghost: It was awkward as pit for him because the kid acted like they weren't even there for a good five minutes...all while they were in the same room.

"This sure is a nice home you got here, kid," Jazz said. "Would you mind telling us how you got it-?"

Lillian walked right past him to the libation centers to get energon.

Even Sideswipe had to blink at that. ::Wow. He completely ignored you. I thought only Sunny had that ability.::

Jazz was pouting. Lillian was giggling on the inside. She hadn't seen him pout in a long time. It was too cute. I love you, Jazzy, but I have to drink here first, alright? I'm running on fumes.

Sideswipe managed to find something even funnier about the situation, and it wasn't something that Lillian would appreciate hearing. ::He looks like a slinkey.::

Jazz put a servo on his hip. ::Sides', we all look like slinkey's when we start out.::

Jazz and Sideswipe watched as Lillian scooped energon up with her servos and brought it to her lips. They were a little hungry, too, but they knew something that they thought Lillian didn't: Pink energon was meant to heal bots, and they weren't sick. They didn't know the side effects of drinking pink energon when it wasn't prescribed.

Well, they knew one when Lillian transformed into a pharaoh hound to get better access. Her nose and ears glowed pink as she drank. ::I take it back. He looks like Rudolph.::

Jazz sighed before slapping the back of Sideswipe's helm. ::Knock it off, will ya?::

Jazz had to admit that he was concerned, though. The only bots he knew that drank as much as this tiny bot was Inferno on a bad day. "Kid, I hate to be a brat, but-" Lillian's ears twitched. "-do you always drink that much of that stuff?" She looked at him out of the corner of her optic. To Jazz, it looked like the youngling was saying 'and your point is...?' Jazz couldn't lie; it unnerved him to see that look on 'his' face, even if he didn't know the kid. Kid, what happened t' ya? Why are you here? Why are you drinking so much pink energon like you can't live without it, and-? It dawned on him. It was the only energon he had. Now he had two more important question: How long have you been drinking that stuff, and how fast can we get ya to Ratchet? It wasn't good to drink only pink energon. It did weird stuff to a bot. He made a mental note to ask Ratchet later if bots could get addicted to pink energon. He didn't want the kid freaking out on him if he couldn't have any on the way to base.

After 4.83 minutes, Lillian finally lifted her helm from the energon. She licked the remaining off around her mouth before walking down the stairs to them. She sat, curled her tail around her, and stood up straight. "Forgive me. I was low on energy reserves. Now, as to your question: I walked in." They stared at her. "There are no other guards here, as you can see. I am the only one."

::Okay, I cannot be the only one lost.:: Sideswipe said.

::You aren't, Sides. He just threw me for a loop, too.::

"Back up, kid. You mean to tell me that-" Jazz stopped mid-sentence when Lillian took a step back. This is fun. We should play Jazzy-Says more often. Lillian watched in amusement as Jazz scrambled for words. She knew that he didn't mean that literally, but that didn't mean that 'Cai' did. She tilted her helm at Jazz. Jazz, you can't be that tired...or has Sideswipe just been messing with your logic circuits the whole time you were out here...? She was willing to bet it was the second one. "-you guard human temples? Why?"

Lillian thought about it. "I do not guard all human temples. I just guard the ones I come across, which have not been many-"

"Mind naming them for us, kid?"

"I do not. I have been guarding this temple for the past year, and the Tomb of the Primes for-"

"Hold up-"

"-you know the Primes?!"

Lillian's optics cycled. "Yes."

"No, like, you know them-? They, you know, actually talk to you?" Sideswipe's normally fluent glossa was failing him.

"Frequently."

They stared at each other. Lillian's ears glowed brighter even as they fell to her helm. "Is that so strange?"

Jazz was the first one to snap out of it. It didn't matter if it was strange to them. This kid needed some major help right now. He couldn't help but think if 'seeing' the Primes was one of the side effects of drinking too much pink energon. "No, kid. It's just that-" Jazz's optics cycled. "Kid, what's yer designation?"

That question knocked all of the shock out of Sideswipe. He snickered. ::Smooth.::

Jazz moved to hit him again. Sideswipe put his arms over his helm. ::I'm too pretty to be hit!:: He mocked.

Jazz rolled his optics. ::It's not like you thought of asking, either.::

::We shouldn't even have to ask. If this youngling was smart enough-::

::Sides', the kid 'guards' human temples for a living. I don' think socializing is his strong suit.::

::Well, yeah, but still...Aren't most younglings...I don't know...energetic? Why's he so mellow?::

::Why are you asking me?::

Lillian watched as Sideswipe and Jazz argued mentally before interrupting. "Cai."

::Cai? What kind of a dumb-? Ow!::

Jazz shook his helm as Sideswipe rubbed his. "Did Primus give you that name, kid?"

"No."

Jazz blinked. "What was the name Primus gave you?"

Lalia. "Primus didn't give me a name."

Sideswipe stopped scowling at Jazz. "Since when does Primus not give out designations?"

Since Primus wanted his creations to stop shooting at humans. "Primus gave me little instruction for this life. The Primes have been guiding me through this life so fair in addition to-" She snapped her jaw shut. Please ignore that. Pretty please Jazzy, just-

"In addition to...?" Jazz pressed.

Lillian glared at no particular wall. Damn it. She sighed. "You saw the human I was with, correct?"

"The hotshot? I thought he was your holoform," Jazz said.

Jazz watched as 'Cai's' optics changed from pink to white to pink again. "I do not know what this 'holoform' is, but, yes...The 'hotshot', as you put it, is a kind child who started to teach me more about human customs...until today."

Jazz slapped a mental servo over Sideswipe's mouth with a look. Sideswipe crossed his arms and looked away. "Sorry-Cai, was it?" Lillian nodded. "We're sorry that we interrupted your-uh-training, but we got orders from higher up, see, and-"

"What do your superiors want with me? What trouble am I on this island?"

It was meant to sound curious, but 'Cai's' dry tone rubbed Sideswipe the wrong way. ::He's got some nerve-::

::Easy, Sides. He's just confused. We did chase him down.::

"Prime doesn't want anything from you, Cai. He just-"

"Prime? Did you say Prime? You have a Prime?" Lillian's tail wagged. She was waiting for one of them to mention Optimus or Ratchet so she could get off this island...Not that it wasn't nice, but she hadn't been home in a long time and she missed everyone. Besides, she couldn't live off the energon in the temple forever, and wasn't she supposed to stay awake longer, anyway-? "Which one?"

Sideswipe and Jazz looked at each other as if to ask 'where did this energy come from?' "Optimus," Jazz said slowly.

"Hm...I do not know any Prime by that name. But that's to be expected, I suppose-I only meet the ones who are dead. If it's not too much trouble, can I meet him? No, that's always trouble-"

"Man, you talk alot," Sideswipe blurted out before Jazz could stop him. Lillian's nose glowed again. She lowered her head slightly. She was used to being accused of rambling as a human...not so much as a cybertronian. The temple was silent for three to five seconds.

::Don't even, Jazz. I know I screwed up there-::

::Well, then, I'm waiting.::

"Sorry," Sideswipe mumbled.

::You gotta do better than that, Sides-::

Lillian smiled slightly, knowing that Jazz was berating Sideswipe from his posture. "Thank you, but that's not necessary. I am not used to visitors. The Primes are my only company, and their appearances are...spontaneous at best."

Sideswipe and Jazz could only imagine. "Ki-Cai," Jazz said. "How do you protect a temple? I'm curious. Got any sweet moves?"

"Yeah, show us your weapons!"

Lillian's optics cycled. If I show them Dria's weapon, they'll know right away. "I...do not have a weapon on me."

::He-?:: Jazz glared at Sideswipe. He sighed. "If you're such a great guard dog, shouldn't you have weapons?"

"I never said I was a 'great' guard."

"If you don't think you're great, why would you even bother?"

Lillian stared at Sideswipe. She was beginning to remember why the twins mostly stuck to themselves. Jazz facepalmed. ::Way to go-::

::What? You're the one who told me to quit asking you-!::

::I know. But insulting the kid doesn't exactly scream 'I want to be your ally.'::

::I don't care if Cai is our ally-::

::Really? You want to hand him over to the 'Cons, then?:: Sideswipe shifted. ::They have to find him eventually. They're not blind-::

::So recruit him already. Primus.::

"I was sparked with this frame in the Tomb of the Primes. As I said before, they helped me adapt to this planet as much as they could. I tried to repay them for their lessons by guarding their tomb, but they said that they could not teach me forever. This was the closest temple to the humans who could teach me and..." 'Cai' looked away. "It is the only thing I know how to do," 'he' mumbled. The more that Jazz listened to 'Cai' talk, the more he wanted to take 'him' home to have Ratchet, and maybe the rest of the scientists, observe him. If Cai thought that he was sparked in an adult frame in the Tomb of the Primes and had the Primes raise him, he might be suppressing something. The decepticons may have left him for dead in the dessert after they wiped his memory core, and the kid was using the Primes to stay sane...Well, as sane as he could be. Maybe the Cons haven't found him yet 'cause they were the ones who ditched him, Jazz thought sourly. 'Cai' stood up straighter. "As to my 'moves,' I prefer defensive positions over offensive." Jazz and Sideswipe looked at 'Cai.'

::Please tell me he's not a pacifist. We have enough wimps-::

::Watch it, Sides'. Those wimps have saved your aft more than enough. Besides, he doesn't sound like a pacifist. He jus' needs a motive-::

::Tell that to Sunny. He beats bots up just for looking at him funny.::

::We need the numbers, Sides'. I know that's a hard concept for you and your twin to grasp-::

::It's not our fault. We were created above-:: Sides' huffed at the look Jazz gave him. ::Either take Cai or don't. I'm heading back.::

::Prowl will be pissed if you come back by yourself-::

::Prowl's always pissed. You're just too love struck to see it.:: Sideswipe transformed and drove down the coast. ::I'm catching the next ferry. Sideswipe out.::

"Have I offended him?"

Jazz shook his helm and crouched down. He waved her over to him. "It ain't yer fault, kid. We've been stuck on this island for a year looking for ya. Sides' is just a little homesick, that's all."

She understood that way too well. "Forgive me. If I had known that a living Prime was looking for me, I would have-"

"It ain't yer fault." Jazz was beginning to wonder how many times he would have to repeat that to this kid. Survey says: Alot.

Lillian couldn't help herself. "Do I really talk too much?"

Jazz pet Lillian's head. Her ears twitched. "I don't blame ya, kid. Yer not used to company. I get it."

"That's a yes, isn't it?"

"A little...Maybe. I ain't one to judge, though."

Lillian smiled mentally. No. No, you definitely aren't. "I understand."

Jazz looked at the way Sideswipe had just gone before smiling down at 'Cai.' "Well, Cai, I figure Prime will want to see you soon. Think you're up for a trip to the States?"

'Cai' nodded. "Of course. But how will we get there?"

"We just have to catch the next boat out of here. It ain't rocket sci-Hey, you a'ight?" Jazz waved a servo in front of Lillian's face. "Kid, if yer gonna tune me out, can ya give me a head's up first?"

Lillian shook her helm. "I did not...'tune you out'...intentionally."

"So what's the problem?"

"What...did you mean by...'catch?'"

"We gotta get out of here somehow-"

"But-" Lillian pursed her lips. "You just...ride onto...? How do you not get caught?"

::Playing dumb. Suits you.::

::Shut. It.::

Jazz scowled. "We create holo-" Oh. Jazz facepalmed. Great. Just great. Jazz sat on the ground. We're gonna be here fo' a while, Jazz thought. "Sit." Lillian blinked. Well, alrighty then. Mister Pushy all of a sudden- "Consider this yer first official lesson in holoforms and holomatter, kid. Listen up." Lillian's optics widened. Scrap. Her ears went down. Please be like the video games Miles and Sam liked. Please be like the video games- Jazz raised an optic ridge. "I'll try ta make it interesting-"

"I am not interested in the entertainment level of this lesson." Lillian sat up as straight as she could in dog form. She turned her ears to face Jazz. "I am only concerned that I will not create a human...correctly." She may fail at being a Cybertronian, but she knew humans. She knew their expressions and movements. But a holoform? Holomatter? That was all science to her, which she did not get.

"You've already got a leg up from other Cybertronians. Believe me when I say that they didn't know their nose from their aft starting out." Lillian snorted. Oh. I believe it. Raoul said Tracks' first 'holoform' burned his eyes. "You'll get it."

Lillian nodded. This was the Jazz that she knew. He wasn't as great a teacher as Prowl...but for holoforms? He would work. If she had any say in it, Ironhide was going to be the one beating her in whatever tests they put her through. Hands down. Ironhide may rough her up, but Jazz would kill her. An image of Asura appeared in her processor. Or...at least make her motionless.

"First things first-Try creating yerself."

Lillian blinked at him very slowly. "I do not know what I look like."

Jazz stared at her for a while. "You're-not joking...are ya?"

It wasn't that she was joking-She just didn't want him to know how often she looked at her still-not-a-human form."No." If she truly tried to create herself, which would be her as a twenty or thirty year old blond woman with combat boots...it wouldn't end well. She couldn't exactly call Ratchet if Jazz glitched, even if she did, somehow, remember his number. "My physical form is not important to me. Vanity never was appealing." 'Never was.' Meaning there was a before...Damn it. I'm losing the game already. "May I guess?"

Jazz had noticed. She could see it plainly. But he pretended. Why couldn't you pretend this morning? "Go for it."

She got the image of a pharoah hound in her head. "How do I...?"

"There should be a switch..." Jazz tapped his right audio. "Here."

She transformed to her bot mode. Her servo tried to trace her ear, but whenever she got close to it, it flinched. "I do not think-"

"Take your audio off."

She looked from the temple wall to him. She blinked twice. "I-" She stopped herself before she said 'I'm sorry.' "Forgive me, but..." What? What in the hell-? You want me to disconnect my ear from my bloody head? Why are you saying that like it's normal? "I-I do not..." Understand. I do not understand. "I can not comprehend that statement."

Jazz smiled. "Want me to do it, then?"

No. No, not really. "It does not seem logical-"

Jazz started to stand up. "I promise it won't-" Jazz was going to complete his sentence, but then the kid had to go and freak out on him. It was weird. He hadn't seen him move to the wall. Well, he had. He was programmed to. Sort of. It was more of Red's gig-seeing everything in slow motion. But he hadn't expected him to move so fast, especially when he didn't look well to begin with.

Lillian hadn't noticed that she had moved. Lillian hadn't noticed that her muscles-protoform-were-was-tense. Lillian hadn't noticed that she had stopped breathing. She took a breath that someone would take if they had just been drowning. Jazz saw her optics become white, and he wondered for a moment if he had to catch her if she fell.

Lillian stared at the desert floor until static flashed across her vision once-twice-She sat down. She took more deep breaths. She looked to her left. Onyx. Right: Solus. She looked at Jazz. Prima was standing by his side like a guard. When he saw that she saw him, he looked away. He still stayed by Jazz's side, though. She offlined her optics.

"Hey. Hey, kid-" Lillian onlined her optics slowly, and then jolted. Not again. Her ears turned pink.

"D-Did I...?" She took a deep breath and told herself to calm down. Her spark was going a mile a minute again. "I fell asleep."

He stared at her. He was crouched next to her. He was being careful not to touch her. It was that sort of consideration that- "Happens often, I take it?"

"More than is convenient-Yes." She put out her right arm to Jazz. "How fast is it?"

"Yer spark pulse?" She nodded. He took her arm, put his digits on where her veins would be as a human, and scanned her. He dropped her arm. It was fast. Too fast. "Kid, tell it to meh straight-Are ya high?"

Lillian forced herself not to laugh. Oh, if only he knew- "No."

"Ya sure?" Are you sure you should be drinking so much of that pink energon? Maybe it was an addiction.

She blinked at him once she sobered up a little. "Should your medic not determine that for himself?"

Jazz shook his helm. He looked Lillian up and down from her arm, spark and helm. "Can I get to yer ear now?"

Her ear flicked. She hesitated, then nodded. It couldn't get any worse than him considering her 'high as a kite.' She shouldn't really be concerned with her ear 'naturally' disconnecting from her body-frame even if that should in no way be natural. He knelt closer to her right side. "Is this truly necessary?"

"Do you wanna get off this island or not?"

I don't know. Are you going to be a jerk about it? "I will travel wherever it takes to receive the medical attention and energon needed to-Urmp." She stopped talking when Jazz traced her ear. She tried not to shiver, but it just felt so weird-She lowered her helm so she was looking at the sand. Even if it had been a couple years, and she had a completely different body, it still felt the same-Jazz's touch. It did nothing but un-nerve her since it always sort-of tickled. It was always a brush, not a grip. He gripped Prowl, but that was different. Jazz always seemed to tick her off naturally, just based on their personalities, but then...there were always those moments when-

"I know that ya said that this was the closest temple, Cai, but can ya think of any other reason why you came here? Why'd ya pick Malta of all places?"

-he just completely missed the mark mood-wise.

She lifted her helm slightly as she tried to hold back a smile. I didn't. I sleepwalked. "It is the only nation that is known for its medical expertise and folktales concerning giants. It is an island. Therefore, I assumed that it must be reclusive."

Jazz smiled. "And the ladies here didn't look half bad."

Her lips twitched. She tried to make it a scowl. Pervert. "I have not noticed."

He chuckled. "I ain't gonna bite, y'know. Yer young. It ain't bad ta notice a good looking human now n' then."

She knew that, but it didn't mean that Cai had to. "I never considered for a moment that you would bite me. Would there ever be a reason for that? Is that normally reasonable? I have never seen a human bite another human, although I do suppose-"

Jazz showed her the ear. He got the hint. "Wasn't so bad, was it?"

She couldn't respond to that, and Jazz knew it. She traced the area around where her ear should be, shivered, then pressed down on the button in the middle. She was more than a little disturbed when her vision went black. "I cannot see."

Jazz fiddled with something in that ear-less center. "Contrast. Gotta change it around sometimes. Say 'when' when it looks good."

Slowly, she started to see sand again. "When."

He stopped. He put the ear back on by twisting it once like an airlock. "Should be good now. Try guessing again."

Pharaoh-Whoa. She could see it so clearly. It looked like an actor right out of a movie...except she remembered seeing that exact man in a hieroglyphic at some point during her walks in Egypt. She focused again. Hound. She got a pharaoh and a hound. She narrowed her vision. Merge. She finally got a pharaoh hound. She looked at Jazz. "Pretty sure ya ain't organic, but it's good enough. Think ya can make a human out of that?"

You want me to make a human out of a hound? First time for everything. She nodded, and went to work. She got the basic male form down without the intimate details. She changed the skin tone to a darker hue-tanned, almost, but natural. Brown hair. Straight. She thought of Rokku. Messy. Better. Brown eyes. Sand shoes. Tight brown pants- She looked at her arm. -with silver swirls. White tank top. Eh, looks fine for now, I guess. "Is this accept-?" Jazz wasn't even paying attention. He looked half asleep. She wanted to flick him so bad, but she held back. She cleared her throat. "It is complete."

He snapped out of it. "Ah-Good." He stretched. "Now that that's done-"

Lillian's ears shot up. Done? But they hadn't even moved on to holomatter yet!

Jazz stood up. "We'll do the rest once Ratch looks at ya. I'm beat."

Lazy aft, Lillian thought.

::Hypocrite.:: Dria said.

Lillian huffed. ::Whatever.::

"Now, there's just one mo' thing ya gotta do befo' we move on home." If she was in her hound form, her tail would be wagging. Her ears pointed forward. Home. Good God, yes, bring me home- Jazz smiled. "Do ya know how ta connect to the internet?" She nodded. "You do know what a motorcycle is, right? They have those here?" He was teasing her. He knew full well that she had turned into a motorcycle before, but since they were pretending that yesterday didn't happen-She nodded again. "Soon as ya choose that, we'll be good ta go. Jus' a little piece o' advice-" Lillian transformed into her pharaoh hound form so she was closer to the ground. "Eh...nevermind." She tilted her head at him, knowing what was wrong. It wasn't like she slept through Primus' course. "You got it. Just-" Jazz waved a servo at her before turning his back to her. "Choose something cool looking...and not yellow."

Lillian smirked at Jazz's back. Oooh, Sunstreaker would kill her. "Of course," she said smoothly. She browsed through the internet for five minutes at 'normal' motorcycles. She scowled. She couldn't do black, yellow, red, blue, green-Dare I do silver? She thought of Megatron. She snorted. Nope. She hummed. I could do white...Would Prowl think that I'm stealing his thunder, though?

::For all that is unholy-Pick something, human! I'm dying here!::

Dying? Lillian thought. She thought of that word in relation to motorcycles. Dying...Dead...No, if I look up 'dead motorcyclist'-Yikes! Okay, not pretty...Wait a minute...Ghost rider? Oh hells yes!

::Thanks, Dria.::

::You want to pick a motorcycle based on death?::

::The rider has a flaming skull...:: Lillian sang.

::It might work...if you want to be obvious...::

Lillian looked at the bike. She winced. ::Er-Nope.::

::What's wrong with it?::

::It has...no armor.::

::So?::

::So I'm not walking around the Ark with no armor. Getting called 'Streakers silver cousin' really will kill us.::

::You, maybe.::

As a last ditch effort, Lillian looked up 'motorcycle for a ghost.' What she got...was perfect. ::Will this work, your majesty?::

::For a prick.::

::Your just mad that I got you hyped on a flaming skeleton.::

::Are you going to download it or not, human?::

#Downloading image into mainframe...

Scanning image...

Projecting...#

Lillian purred using her new engine. Oh, yeah. This'll work.