10

She's a girl with the best intentions,

He's a man of his own invention,

She looked out the window,

He walked out the door,

But she followed him,

and he said, 'What'cha lookin' for?'...

~Something That I Want; by Grace Potter

In Desirée's POV

For the next few days, I spent my time going back and forth with my kids and helping with the rebuilding plan. Joshua had managed to find one of the few remaining prototype forms from what was left of KSI. The prototype was inactive, and the time we spent studying it and figuring out how to redesign it took up a lot of our time. So, while the kids were asleep one night, Cade, Ratchet, Daniel, and I were in the barn. The prototype was sprawled on the ground. It had taken an hour for us to find the blueprints that matched the design.

"This big guy was supposedly copied from Jazz," Daniel said, looking at the blueprints carefully. "But they made some big modifications on it."

He was right. The designs were sleeker, slender, and looked a little like they tried mimicking Sideswipe's design than working with Jazz's. Apparently, it was supposed to transform into some kind of race car.

"I can kinda see it," I said. "We'll have to work out a way to make the revival easier."

"For starters," Ratchet informed, "you need to figure out how you'll put a Spark in there."

"A lot of the metal here looks like it's just add-ons," I said. "KSI always made their things over the top. If I can take some of the metal from the chest, a bit off the shoulders, maybe even the legs, there should be enough metal to make a casing for the Spark."

"It could make at least three-quarters of the Spark casing," Daniel corrected. "There wouldn't be enough."

I sighed. "A Spark is just raw, living energy," I said. Ratchet nodded. "Do you think if we used human metal—just in case there isn't enough Cybertronian metal—it'd still be able to contain the Spark?"

Ratchet thought it over. "It's a possibility, but I can't say I know for sure."

I sighed. "Well, we'll have to figure something out."

We worked well into the night, removing certain parts of the prototype's chest plates to make access to where we believed the Spark would be placed. Ratchet helped Cade work on the designs for the Spark's protective plating, leaving Daniel and I to make a pile out of the metal we'd be using.

"How've you been?" I asked Daniel.

He looked at me with a slight frown. "What do you mean?"

"Ya know, after everything that's happened?" I threw another piece of metal into the pile. "How's life been treating you?"

He shrugged. "I've been doing my best."

I nodded. I had to admit, Daniel was dedicated to his work. Since arriving, he's been helping us with our plans as if his life depended on it. He rarely spoke, even after all the time he spent with us he still kept mostly to himself. From the way he acted, having one arm didn't seem to faze him. At least it looked that way to me. We all made a point to not make it so obvious we were aware of his missing arm, but there were moments where we slipped and glanced at the missing limb for what felt like a lifetime.

"I'm glad to hear that."

There was more silence.

"OK, guys, we've got the rough draft done," Cade called. We walked over and Cade pointed to the picture. "To make this fit in there, we're going to have to rearrange everything inside of that prototype."

"Everything?" I asked.

"Every wire, any power sources," Ratchet counted off.

"We might as well redesign the whole thing," Cade sighed.

"No, I have a feeling we won't have to do that," I said. "If it's just internal alterations, then the outside shouldn't have to change. The only outer changes would probably to broaden the shoulders a little."

Ratchet said he'd work on the prototype's form while we worked to get the blueprints of the Spark's protective gear in a more final form. We quickly started gathering the metal we had and began melding it together. Cade had come up with an estimation on how big it'd be and Ratchet confirmed that once the Spark is reactivated, it should be around that size.

We heated the metal, made sure it was bent at the right angle, melded the metal together, did everything we could to make sure that it'd be functional.

When the barn suddenly opened, and sunlight poured in, we quickly covered our eyes.

"Desirée, I'm going to take the girls to school," Sideswipe called.

Blinking the brightness out of my eyes, I focused on Sideswipe's Holoform at the barn's entrance. I let out a slightly frustrated groan. "Jesus, I'm sorry, Sides," I exclaimed. "I didn't know it was that early."

"It's fine," he responded. "I'll be back in a few."

"Tell the girls I said bye."

As our day went on, Cade, Daniel, and I managed to finish half of the Spark protector. Ratchet was still doing his alterations on the inside of the prototype.

"We should probably call it a day," Cade sighed. "We've been at this all night."

I stretched, placing my arms behind my head. "I guess."

"It probably would be best for you humans to rest," Ratchet agreed. "It's unhealthy for humans to stay up for too long."

Saying our goodbyes to Ratchet after taking one last look at what we'd finished, we left the barn.

QUICKY A/N:

HEY-YO, EVERYONE! SORRY FOR THE DELAY, BUT I HOPE YOU ENJOY THIS CH.! LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK, LEAVE A REVIEW ON ANY SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE CH.'S, IF YOU'VE GOT ANY IDEAS ON WHAT YOU'D LIKE TO HAPPEN, GIVE A REVIEW OR A PM.

ALSO, I DON'T OWN ANYTHING IN THE TRANSFORMERS UNIVERSE! I ALSO DON'T SOME OF THE OC'S IN THIS STORY, THOSE BELONG TO THEIR RIGHTFUL OWNERS. I OWN MY FILLERS AND MY OC'S.

I'D LIKE TO GIVE A SHOUT OUT TO Silent Shooter: HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY, MY FRIEND! I HOPE IT WAS FANTASIC! AS FOR WHAT'S GOING DOWN WITH MYA, THAT'S STILL KIND OF BEING THOUGHT OUT BUT I'LL BE SURE TO PUT IN A CH. THAT'LL EXPLAIN WHAT WENT DOWN.

ANOTHER SHOUT OUT TO Bee4ever: THANK YOU SO, SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR REVIEWS, MY FRIEND. THEY ARE ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! I HOPE TO HEAR FROM YOU IN FUTURE UPDATES!

THANK YOU GUYS FOR BEING SO AMAZING!

ALSO, I STARTED ANOTHER TRANSFORMERS STORY ['CAN'T TAKE MY EYES OFF YOU'], IT'S BASICALLY A SERIES OF ONE-SHOTS THAT EITHER WERE NOT WRITTEN IN 'AT LEAST WE MADE IT THIS FAR', OR THEY WERE JUST ONE-SHOTS I THOUGHT UP AND DECIDED TO WRITE. PRETTY MUCH, THAT STORY IS THERE FOR ANY IDEAS THAT POP IN MY HEAD. IF ANY OF YOU HAVE SUGGESTIONS FOR THE STORY, LEAVE A REVIEW THERE OR HERE OR PM ME.

STAY SNAPPY.

THANK YOU, ONE AND ALL!

READ, REVIEW, ENJOY!

YOURS TRULY,

~SMITHY