"So?" I asked quietly.

Sideswipe spared me a glance, "what?" He looked distracted, and I followed his gaze out the window. We were on a backroad so as to avoid running into the general populace, and I didn't see any suspicious looking cars, robots or otherwise.

So something else then.

I'd focus on Sideswipe's personal issues later. Right now, I needed my answers.

"What are you, exactly?"

"An Autobot, I come from the planet Cybertron." He spared me another glance, "the guy we ran into back there was a Decepticon. We've been fighting for millions of years, and your planet has fallen into the middle of this never ending war."

"Peachy," I muttered."So why doesn't everyone know about your existence and why can't you just leave me any old place without creepy showing up?"

"It's a closely guarded secret - your government knows of our existence, but doesn't inform the general public so that there aren't widespread episodes of panicking." He sighed, "as for the Decepticons not leaving you alone, it's because they think any humans that have been in proximity of us are connected to us and automatically have information to our whereabouts."

"So now I won't be able to lead any sort of normal life?" My voice came out sounding more lost than I would have liked it to be.

Sideswipe said nothing, setting his jaw in a grim expression as he continued to stare straight ahead.

I'll take that as a yes.

"So what am I going to do now?" There was no mistaking the bitterness in my voice.

"The only thing you can do," he replied, still not looking at me. "I'm taking you with me back to base where one of the human agents will be able to set you up with a new identity and protection."

My shoulders sagged, "so I won't be able to ever see my friends again?"

This time his eyes flicked over to me with a troubled look, "I'm….not sure."

I pulled my cellphone out of my pocket to stare at the screen wistfully, yelping as the car lurched suddenly. The door flew open and I fell out as Sideswipe rapidly transformed. "What the hell?"

His eyes were locked on the phone clutched in my hand, "no phones." He broke his gaze to look anxiously around us, as if frightened that someone had seen him transform back into robot mode.

That, or looking for some sort of threat.

"Why not?"

"Decepticons can track it," he looked extremely uneasy. "Don't use it unless absolutely necessary."

"And what would qualify as 'absolutely necessary'?"

"Immediate death."

"Naturally," I responded dryly.

He hesitated for a moment, studying me, before transforming back into a car. I climbed carefully back in, as if I was stepping on a bunch of eggshells. This time, however, he didn't activate his hologram.

Probably was sick of looking like a human.

We sat in silence for a long time, before I finally had gathered enough courage to ask some of the question that were burning most in my mind.

"Why did you guys come to earth then, if you can't get all of humanity involved?"

"You can thank the Decepticons for that," his voice resounded from the radio.

"Right, everything's the Decepticons' fault." I crossed my arms, leaning back in my seat.

"What's that supposed to mean?" His voice had taken on a new tone, defensive, maybe even slightly hostile.

"How do I even know that you 'Autobots' are even the good guys?"

I'm sure it took all of his self restraint not to transform and dump my ass on the road again in order to let me see his full fury.

"Well let's see," his voice was suddenly very cold. "A Decepticon tried to kill you to find me-"

"And I'm sure you wouldn't have done the same?"

"I wouldn't have, that's-"

"Yet you were fully willing to kill that Decepticon when we didn't even find out what the hell he even wanted."

"He wanted to kill me, he's-"

"So, it's all about you?" The truth is, I knew that the other robot would've killed me, but I was curious that if I pushed him far enough, that he would resort to the same methods as this 'Decepticon'.

"If it was all about me," I could hear him grinding his teeth…Or at least whatever the robot equivalent was. "I wouldn't have saved you, and you would be a human pancake."

Damn, good point.

"So what? You guys came to earth, humans die all the time. What's a few more?"

"Are you going to actually let me explain, or are you going to cut me off again?" He asked stiffly, and I could practically hear him swallowing his own anger.

"Go ahead," I waved my hand dismissively.

"Decepticons have pledged themselves to wipe out all organic forms of life, believing that the species will eventually attack Cybertronians. So they have made it part of their mission to get rid of you fleshies."

"Kill or be killed," I murmured.

"Exactly. As for why we're here...Our planet was dying, so we had to evacuate. Unfortunately, the Decepticons followed us across the stars until we ended up on this mudball. Due to the constant fighting, we couldn't keep our existence completely hidden from the inhabitants of your world, and so we do our best to be robots in disguise while trying to keep 'Cons from killing all humans on earth."

"Great," I said, "just what we need, More wars, as if we don't have enough already."

"We've been fighting for 4 million years," he replied flatly, "and your earth hasn't even achieved our level of technology yet despite existing for a little over that time."

"And that invalidates us how?"

"I never said-"

"Whatever," I waved my hand dismissively at him.

"Primus, femme," exasperation was heavy, and I vaguely wondered how he had kept his anger in check thus far.

Probably lots of practice.

He let the subject drop, perhaps to avoid further conflict. Honestly, I hadn't meant for it to escalate that far, but snarky comments just seemed to slip out of my mouth before I could stop them.

He would get over it.

...I hoped.


Ping!

The noise jolted the figure behind a large desk out of the statistics he was lost in. Wordlessly, he tapped the button located on his desk that would give the command to the door to allow the requestor entrance.

A moment later, a datapad was plopped unceremoniously in front of him, and the figure looked up with an arched optic ridge to regard the new arrival.

Naturally, the only 'bot with enough guts to do such a thing was the Polyhexian now making himself at home by sitting on the desk.

"Jazz."

"Prowler," the Special Ops 'bot drawled.

"You do realize that deliveries of data pads, especially those that contain assignments that were not given to you to complete, are far below your level of expertise?"

Jazz shrugged, unconcerned.

Prowl picked up the datapad, eyeing it cautiously for a moment as if by touching it would activate a prank. "I'm assuming you've already-"

"Yes."

"Then for you to be delivering it-"

"Yep."

A sense of dread filled the Praxian as he scrolled through the contents, door wings raising slightly on his back. When finished, he silently lowered the datapad, noticing Jazz's concerned gaze.

"Has Prime been informed yet?"

"No, I thought you'd want to read it first."

"Very well," he replied, rising from his seat, servos gripping the datapad tightly, the only indication of his true mood.


"Do we know where they are?"

The question had greeted them as soon as they had stepped into the office, and now hung menacingly in the air.

"Not yet," Jazz shared an uneasy glance with Prowl. "But our intelligence has an idea of where."

Prowl stepped forward, offering the datapad to Prime. The room was silent for several moments as their leader stared intently at the information scrolling across the screen before he returned the datapad to Prowl.

When he finally spoke, his voice was heavy with melancholy.

"Captured?"

"We still don't know the exact location, but we're working on it. As for Sideswipe, it seems he's finding his way back on his own. We won't be able to contact him until he's out of Decepticon territory," replied Jazz.

"Any sort of attempt before then would alert the Decepticons to his exact coordinates and place him in more immediate danger," continued Prowl, giving Jazz a sour expression for not explaining the data completely, who in return gave him a cheeky grin.

Optimus Prime nodded, and the two noticed how drained he seemed to appear.

"You okay, O.P.?" The inquiry came from Jazz.

"Yes, old friend. I'm afraid recharging has not come easy as of late."

"Perhaps you should consult Ratchet," offered Prowl.

It came off as a suggestion, but all of the 'bots in the room knew that if Optimus didn't reach out to Ratchet, either Jazz or Prowl would.

"Perhaps," the Prime's optics dimmed briefly.

"We'll keep you informed, Optimus - and we will find them." Jazz assured him. Once Prime gave them a final nod, the duo saw fit to exit the office.

Only when they were safely out of of sight and audio receptor range did Jazz speak once again.

"Do you really think we'll be able to find them when where they're at is crawling with 'Cons?"

Prowl nodded wordlessly.

The Polyhexian stopped in his tracks, and Prowl did as well. "There's something else you're not telling me."

Prowl hesitated, optics wandering to observe the hallway that was occupied solely by them. "My only concern is that there won't be much left for us to find."

"You feel guilty?"

"I was the one who cleared them for that mission despite Ratchet's objections," his piercing blue optics met Jazz's shining visor.

"It's not your fault, Prowler. You couldn't have predicted that they were going to get ambushed." Jazz's voice was soft.

The Praxian turned away from him, "you have no way of proving that statement. Data was inconclusive and so we have no idea if either of them is injured or if Sunstreaker still functions."

Jazz's visor dimmed, placing a hand on his friend's shoulder. "We'll get Sunshine outta wherever the 'Cons have put 'em and Sideswipe is already on his way back. They'll be alright."

"For their sakes," said Prowl quietly, "I hope that you are right."


Special thanks to DragonseekerRoto, open door of hope, and kittygirl365 for favoriting/following this story.

Also thanks to the guest for the feedback, I greatly appreciate it!

Jazz, Prowl, and Optimus all have their G1/IDW design just FYI. I haven't written those three before so I'll try my best to keep them as accurate as possible.

As always, any pointers would be appreciated!

~ TheQueenofBlades