A/N: Thanks for the reviews! Merry Christmas Everyone!

Confrontations

"Soundwave to Barricade, report." Barricade turned on his sirens and raced through a stoplight.

"I've reached the area of designation."

"Proceed with surveillance of Blackfire's faction."

"Why isn't Laserbeak monitoring his activity?"

"Laserbeak is surveying area occupied by Starscream. Proceed with observing Blackfire."

Charlie and Alex had been corralled into the corner of Blackfire's control room. Bars of energy appeared around them, trapping them. Alex was silently brooding. She was pissed she was in the same situation yet again. Captured by alien robots and held hostage, okay so maybe being lied to by the autobots wasn't so bad after all. But damn she was mad.

Charlie was just sitting staring at Blackfire. She had figured out that she-he was a transformer, and she had a feeling before the autobots told her that he was a decepticon. But to see him transformed and realize how dangerous he was, it was something else. She didn't know if she was afraid of him, but she was having some trouble grasping the fact that she had been driving him for the past five years. Not once did she-he allude to the face she-he was a transformer!

"You're a he." Charlie stated while staring at Blackfire. He paid her no attention, he was busy checking his surveillance videos on the control panel. He had sent Motormaster off a while ago, and had ignored them ever since.

"Why did you stay with my family, why didn't you just leave or something? I thought decepticons hated humans." Still no answer. She looked over at Alex, who was sitting Indian style and staring at the screens Blackfire was going through. She looked alright. Charlie shivered. It was really cold in here, Transformers really didn't believe in heaters. She shrugged her hoodie back on and motioned to Alex. She scooted toward her and Charlie opened her backpack. They looked up at Blackfire aka Nelly, to see he wasn't paying any attention to her. Charlie pulled out her compact, pointing at the energy bars. Alex shrugged. Why not? Charlie took her compact and tried deflecting the energy beams with her mirror. It worked on TV. It didn't work in real life. The beam broke her compact and burned her hand. She screamed and pulled her hand away as fast as she could. Blackfire looked at them.

"None of your tricks are going to work, girl." Charlie was cradling her burned hand and just stared at Blackfire. He was right. He knew her really well; he would anticipate anything she tried. She sighed and kept looking at him.

"Well it was worth a shot." Blackfire walked to where Alex and Charlie were. He turned off the energy beams, and crouched down to their level and grabbed their backpacks. There went plan B, so much for trying to text the autobots. He really did know all their tricks. He raised the energy bars again and went back to the computers. Realization dawned on Charlie. A screen came up of a room of the autobot base. Or at least a room of it, it had been their room, but was smashed up, the tv on the floor. Charlie stared curiously, what looked like a cord was attached to the 'camera', which was attached to an earbud…..

"That's why you gave me my Ipod back! So you could find the autobot base! My Ipod had a tracking device in it didn't it? You've been monitoring the city, the whole area, so you knew we were with the autobots. You knew that I wouldn't tell anyone if you gave me my Ipod, or that I saw you. You used me in order to attack them!"

"Does that depress you girl?"

"No. Not really." No one said anything after that. Blackfire went back to the computers and Charlie sat down next to Alex. She looked at her hand, maybe Ratchet could fix it. Alex reached in her pocket and pulled out a tube of chapstick. She took Charlie's hand and rubbed the chapstick over the burn. Surprisingly, it helped.

"How'd you know that would work?" Alex shrugged.

"It works on papercuts." Blackfire glanced over at them, then pushed a button. The video of the different areas he had under surveillance began to flash randomly on the screen, scrolling from one to the next. He headed toward the door and Charlie stood up.

"Hey! Where are you going?" He paused, then exited the room. A few seconds he returned, followed by an enormous purple and tan decepticon with a red visor over his optics. He turned and stared at them as they entered the control room.

"I am leaving to survey the area; you will watch the humans until my return." The unfamiliar decepticon snorted and crossed his arms.

"They're imprisoned and just a couple of organics, what do you think they're going to do, fly out?"

"Do not underestimate them. I will be back in about a joor." Blackfire walked toward the door and the girls watched in trepidation. "Oh and Blitzwing, they are not to be harmed." He left and the girls looked nervously at Blitzwing, what if he didn't listen? Alex was staring him down, glaring, waiting for him to move.

"Keep that up human and your face will get stuck like that." Alex snickered, he sounded like her mom.

"How do you know that?"

"It was on your organic world wide web. So you better stop it or your face will stick like that."

"Oh okay. How's this?" Alex stuck her tongue out at Blitzwing. He blinked. It only took him a second on their internet for him to realize she was mocking him.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you girl, you wouldn't like me when I'm angry." At that, even Charlie snorted. He growled.

"You're quoting the Hulk! That movie sucked!" Blitzwing stalked toward them and stopped at their cell.

"Shut up! No one makes fun of Blitzwing!"

"That's right Alex you won't like him when he's angry."

"You're right he might Hulk-smash me." The girls started laughing at that, making Blitzwing angrier.

"Pathetic organic femmes, I will teach you!" He lowered the energy beams and started stalking towards them. The door to the command center opened and another decepticon entered. He was mostly grey with some purple on his sides; he stood the same height as Blitzwing.

"What are you doing you fool? Blackfire said not to harm them."

"Why does he care? Why even keep them alive?"

"One of them was a hostage of Soundwave. That means she has something he wanted, if Soundwave wanted it, so do we."

"Can't we kill the other one Astrotrain?"

"If you want to anger Blackfire, be my guest." Blitzwing pouted for a minute before turning on the beams again. For some reason Alex thought he looked cute just then. She shook her head. It must be the lack of food that was causing her to think that way. Imagine one of these guys cute, well then again, she did think Freddy Krueger was cute….in a really weird way….

"Hey Alex, nice one." She gave Charlie a thumbs up.

"Thanks. These guys don't scare me, they're all brawn, no brain." Charlie nodded. The only one here that had really scared her was Blackfire. If she didn't think these guys were scary, she could only imagine how terrifying being Soundwave's prisoner was. Astrotrain soon left and Blitzwing leaned against the wall, unconcerned.

"How's your leg?" Charlie shrugged.

"Okay I guess. Though I could do with some advil." Alex nodded.

"I'm starting to get tired."

"Yeah, me too." They glanced over at the hulking decepticon. He wasn't looking at them. Alex shrugged.

"Does it matter?" Charlie shook her head. They took off their hoodies and made makeshift pillows. They lay down and Blitzwing glanced over at them. They began whispering.

"If we want to get out of here, we should sleep, then maybe try and trick this guy before Nel- I mean Blackfire gets back." Charlie whispered back, turning away toward the wall so Blitzwing couldn't see their mouths moving.

"What about the autobots?" Alex snorted.

"We can't bank on that. Besides, we were pretty nasty to them, maybe they don't care." She shushed Charlie, who began protesting. "Okay fine, they wouldn't do that. But they still probably don't know where we are. They might not get here in time, I say we try to get out of here ourselves." Charlie nodded.

"Yeah, this is not exactly comfortable." She yawned and saw that Alex was already dozing off. Well, just a little nap……

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Barricade was surveying the area where Soundwave located Blackfire's base. He hadn't discovered anything of interest. He started edging closer to where the entrance was located. He heard the sound of jet engines and looked up to see two seekers, Dirge and Ramjet flying overhead. He spotted them at the same time they spotted him. The seekers nose dived towards Barricade and started firing. Barricade rolled out of the way and started firing back at them. The seekers barrel rolled away and transformed, staying in the air and pinning Barricade down. Suddenly a dark grey Ferrari appeared and slammed into Ramjet. The Ferrari and the jet tumbled down and crashed into the ground. The Ferrari transformed into a mech with red arms, a light grey chaise and dark grey legs with a red face and black helmet. Wildrider had showed his face.

"Ha ha! Intruders! Time to play!" Wildrider leapt at Dirge and hung on as he stumbled around, trying to dislodge him. Barricade took his chance and ran for it, but tripped when Ramjet shot the ground next to him. Unfortunately he touched upon a fuel pipe that went through out the underground base. Barricade rolled to the side, and a huge explosion erupted, blowing the ceiling off Blackfire's base. It followed the fuel line and reached it's zenith a few hundred meters to the side. The blast sent all the decepticons flying.

"What the slag was that?" Blitzwing called out to Astrotrain. The base had gone dark, the power must have been blown.

"Intruders!" Blitzwing ran out with Astrotrain to join the fight. Charlie and Alex looked at each other; they jolted awake when they heard the explosion. The energy beams were gone and all the lights were off. Blitzwing must have forgotten that they were there. Go forgetful decepticons! They got up and started heading towards the door Blitzwing left open. They scrambled out and started looking around, they saw a large hole in a wall. It looked like it had been blasted through. The girls would have to climb about ten feet but then they would be ground level. They climbed through the hole and were greeted with the sight of a battle, they saw Blitzwing, Blackfire, two jets and others they didn't recognize.

"Come on they're distracted." They ran off in the opposite direction of the battle, when they were about twenty feet away from the base another large explosion sounded and the shockwave sent Alex and Charlie flying. Alex got up and brushed the dirt and twigs off her. She looked around and couldn't find Charlie.

"Charlie!" Fuck, when she said that one of the robots looked in her direction. She took off running as fast as she could. The robot started following her but was distracted when he was shot from behind. The con turned and resumed fighting. Alex kept running as fast as she could. Dammit, where the hell was Charlie? She looked around frantically, but smoke was pluming through the woods. She cursed and coughed. She had to get on higher ground. She stumbled through the trees, trying to get away from the smoke, which was burning her throat and her eyes. She would never find Charlie now; she just prayed she got away. She found a tree with low-hanging branches and hoisted herself up, climbing up until she could breathe. She squinted and saw flame and more smoke coming from a ways away. How had she gotten that far from it? She peered through the trees and tried to spot Charlie, but to no avail.

"Damn, and no cell phone either." She sighed, then screamed as she felt something crawling on her arm. It was a spider. She flailed and tried to shake it off her, and let go of the tree. She screamed as she fell several meters to the ground, and grunted as she landed on her arm. It wasn't broken, but it hurt like hell. She moaned and rubbed her eyes. She sat up and leaned against the tree; her leg had a huge gash on it, she must have caught it on a branch. Her arm felt numb, and she had a coppery taste in her mouth; she had bitten her tongue.

"Charlie?" She called weakly, but no one answered her. She had left her broken-legged friend, and just fell out of a tree. And she had no idea where she was or how to contact the autobots. You would think someone would notice all the giant robots battling each other all the time, but the general populace remained blissfully unaware. She suddenly wished she was one of them; she always wanted to go on an adventure, but she always thought it would be more like Indiana Jones or something, no giant alien robots.

"Oh well, be careful what you wish for and all that." A low voice behind her made her freeze in fear.

"Oh I quite agree."

---------------

Charlie was pissed. She was lost, she couldn't walk very well and had to use a dead tree branch as a cane, she was coughing up a storm due to all the smoke in the area, she lost Alex and her car was plotting to take over the earth and lead a race of evil alien robots. Today sucked, it really, really did.

"I just had to return that video to Blockbuster. I just had to go and get drunk and get in a strange car. Oh no I couldn't have just kept the video and gotten a late fee, I could've just stayed sober, but no that's not how my life works. I had to return that damn video and have my car run away on me. Then I had to go and get drunk to mourn my loss." Charlie sighed. She had been walking for a while, but with her sense of direction and her bum leg she wasn't making much progress. Lucky for her she was an optimist with a great sense of humor. And a healthy respect for situational irony.

"You know, I would have left anyway. You just happened to be with me when I received the transmission from my troops." Charlie turned and stared at Nelly-Blackfire, she – he was Blackfire now; he was only thirty feet from her. How did she miss that?

"You could have been gentler when you tossed me on the street at least." It appeared to Charlie like Blackfire was chuckling. He transformed and opened his door.

"Get in."

"I don't want to be a hostage again."

"Girl, get in before I decide to keep you and you really will be a hostage again. Now get in." Charlie walked over to Blackfire and got in. She put her seat belt on and hoped for the best. It sounded like he was going to help her.

"So does this mean you're taking me back to the autobots?" Blackfire didn't answer her, he just kept on driving. "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For referring to you as a girl for five years."

"It was annoying; I was close to transforming and showing you how incorrect you really were." Charlie was quiet. Well she managed to piss off one of the most powerful beings she ever met without even knowing it, and she was still alive.

"Why didn't you kill me? You had five years, why stick around for that long? Why didn't you kill Alex and me tonight? Why am I still alive?"

"You ask too many questions, you always have. Be silent before I throw you out…again." Charlie shut up for about five minutes, until she worked up enough nerve.

"Why Blackfire?" Charlie felt him sigh.

"Why did you say you were not surprised that I used you?"

"You…you've always had this thing about you, like I knew you were tough, like you were almost…dangerous. Of course now I know you really are dangerous, but it was just something about you, like I felt it. It was in your personality, even if I didn't know you were a decepticon warrior trying to gain control over your entire race, I would expect you to use me to get what you wanted. I could just tell you would."

"Sometimes you're observant for being so oblivious to almost everything." Charlie let that comment slide. Maybe if she had been more observant she would've noticed her car was an alien robot.

"Why?" She wasn't asking about his pervious statement and Blackfire knew she wasn't going to drop it.

"…" Charlie crossed her arms, telling him she was waiting. Capturing the girls' hadn't been part of his plan. It had just happened, and now he was stuck with this one again, but he didn't want her killed. He didn't want either of them killed.

"…I've grown accustomed to your face." Charlie wasn't expecting that. She was expecting something, like 'you will serve more uses at a later date', 'or I will kill you in a way befitting the humiliation I have suffered at your hands'. But not he has grown accustomed to her face. No she didn't see that one coming at all.

"Thank you." He didn't say anything and she stayed quiet. Better not to ruin a good thing, he turned onto the highway and sped up, passing anyone in front of him. About twenty minutes later, he pulled off the road and stopped.

"Where are we?" He didn't answer her question.

"Look in the back." She turned and saw, to her surprise, her and Alex's backpacks in the backseat. She grabbed them and stared at the steering wheel.

"Umm, I thought you said you knew all our tricks."

"I do. Get out." Charlie obeyed and held onto the two backpacks tightly while her car transformed. He looked at her for a moment before turning away.

"You should be more careful in the future. I will not be so merciful the next time we meet." And he transformed. Before she could say anything he sped off down the road, his headlights disappearing around the corner. She looked around; she had no idea where she was, why would he leave her here? She sighed and began walking.

"Let go of me!" Blitzwing shook her and brought her up to his optics.

"No. You are our prisoner, and I am taking you back." He growled and she snarled.

"Back to what? There's nothing left!" He tightened his grip of her and she cried out; he was aggravating her old wounds.

"You were a prisoner of Soundwave, why?" She glared at him and didn't say anything.

"What good could a little organic femme do him? You must be hiding something." He opened his hand so she was sitting on his palm, and she put her hand on her head, it was pounding.

"I was his prisoner because he knew I knew Blackfire!" Blitzwing laughed.

"You don't know anything about him!"

"Yes I do, I've known him for years! He was camouflaged as my friend's car!" Blitzwing paused. He was? He had only told them he had been in hiding, not where he was.

"So, he was in hiding amongst the humans?" Alex crossed her arms.

"Yeah, I know him really well, and if he knew what you were doing, he'd be really mad!" Blitzwing looked confused.

"What would he want with a useless human like you?"

"He knows I'm smart, I'm a great chess player! I'm a strategist, and he'll be really mad if you hurt me." Blitzwing put her down.

"Well in that case why don't you work for Blitzwing? You will be my brilliant military strategist, and Blitzwing will be indestructible!" Alex stared, this guy was crazy. She had to get away.

"Well okay…wait quick look over there!" Alex pointed to the left and when Blitzwing looked she took off to the right.

"What?" Blitzwing looked at where Alex was trying to find what she pointed out. She was gone. He looked around and found her running away from him. He took a couple of steps and reached down and picked her up.

"You are a brilliant strategist! A brilliant escape!" He grabbed her again, but not as hard. Alex sighed.

"Ummm, yeah, that's me." Blitzwing gazed at her suspiciously.

"Hmmm, then who was that other human?" Alex blinked nervously.

"Uhhh, that was my friend, she's a….a hand when it comes to shooting! She's a great sniper!" Alex smiled convincingly. True, Charlie was good with a gun, but she was no sniper. She wondered how much bull she could feed this guy.

"Hmmm, I don't need any snipers, Blackfire can keep her…." He trailed off and Alex became uncomfortable under his stare.

"What, no more movie quotes?" He came out of his reverie.

"The first rule of fight club is that you do not talk about fight club." Alex burst out laughing.

"How does that make any sense right now?" He cocked his head.

"I don't know…" He trailed off. "But it seemed like it fit…" He frowned in concentration. Alex curbed her giggles. He was funny for a decepticon, but only as long as she appeared useful to him. She knew he would crush her without hesitation if he didn't think she had a use. She had to figure out a way to contact the autobots.

"Ummm, you know, we humans have certain needs…" He turned his attention back to her.

"Huh?"

"I have to use the bathroom, could you take me to a convenience store?" She waited until he accessed what she meant on the internet.

"Oh, there's one three miles from here, do you have to?" Alex nodded.

"Yeah."

"Fine, after that we will discuss battle plans!" Alex blinked.

"I thought that was more Blackfire's territory."

"Yes, but with you I don't need him anymore!" Alex paused and brushed her hair behind her ear.

"Ummm, I don't think he'd like that very much. Isn't there a rule for deserters or mutiny or something?" Blitzwing paused and turned his optics to her.

"Yeah, you're right, Blackfire's really strong….but I'm one of the most feared decepticons on Cybertron!" Alex blanched.

"Yeah, but he's got more troops, and he's really smart…" He rounded on her.

"What, are you saying I'm not smart?" Alex shook her head.

"No, no, heh, you're smart…" Blitzwing nodded pompously. "But, I mean, he's got surveillance and troops and---" But to her surprise, he nodded.

"Yeah, I don't want to fight him, that would be…foolish I will wait until I have the upper hand, with you as my strategist it will be only a matter of time!" Blitzwing started walking, carrying Alex as he went, but he wasn't looking where he was going and he walked off a cliff. He started falling as he slid down the side of a hill. He hit the bottom and Alex tumbled out of his hand, because he was holding onto her she hadn't been injured. She got up and started running away, and turned to see if Blitzwing was chasing her and noticed he wasn't. She saw why, he had debris caught in his joints and he had been damaged by the fall. She stopped and turned and faced him, if she ran she could make it to the gas station he told her about and contact the autobots. She wouldn't be in any more danger, but she just couldn't leave him to rot could she? He threatened her, grabbed her and tried hurting her, but he did that because she had made him angry. He was funny in an odd way, he knew movie quotes, and for some reason he really valued her opinion, her opinion in how best to conquer and destroy others, but her opinion none the less. Alex looked at Blitzwing again. Damn she couldn't do it. She couldn't just leave him. She sighed and walked back over to him.

"Hold still, I'm going to get the junk out of your joints." He held still and regarded her with an odd look on his face as she picked the rocks out of his wiring. She kept throwing her hair over her shoulders, and every time she did it caught the moonlight. Her eyes were narrowed in concentration, and he became aware she knew he was watching her. She purposely didn't look at him until she finished, then looked up at him. She had some dirt on her nose.

"Is that good?" He flexed and nodded, the rest of the dirt wouldn't be a problem, but she got rid of all the rocks.

"Yes." He stood up and regarded her, then reached down and lowered his hand to her like Optimus usually did. She felt a slight ache in her chest when she thought of him, he really did think he was helping them; he just went about it in the wrong way. She looked up at Blitzwing, and against her better judgment, stepped onto his hand. He closed it gently around her and started walking again.

"Now we will go to the convenience store." Blitzwing started walking again, this time watching where he went. Alex sighed, it really didn't look like she was getting out of this. Blitzwing took her to a convenience store and set her down five hundred feet from the store and told her to go in. Alex sighed as she went into the store, she thought about leaving him, but she realized that he would just smash the store and grab her again; she would just have to figure out another way to get away from him. She started walking around and grabbed some candy, chips and a bottle of water. She had five dollars in her pocket and she needed to get some food in her, she really didn't know when Blitzwing would take her back to a store. Alex shook her head, she was thinking like she was going to be with him for a long time. She bought her food and went back out into the woods to meet Blitzwing. He met her around the corner and looked curiously at what she was holding.

"What is that?" He lowered his hand and she stepped on. He began walking into the woods again, but not before a trucker got a glimpse of them. He started yelling about a tin man among the trees but they were enveloped by pine trees before she could hear anything else.

"It's fuel." He didn't say anything else and she opened her water and took a sip before starting on her candy. They walked for awhile and she finished all her food and looked up at him.

"Where are we going?" He didn't answer and she got a nervous expression on her face. Maybe he had decided to get rid of her after all?

"Don't concern yourself with that. Communications is still offline, I can not communicate with Blackfire, we will stay in the woods until we can get a hold of him.

"Who were those guys that attacked the base?" He looked down on her.

"A couple of slagging seekers and that damn hunter." Alex blinked.

"The..seekers? The ones with Starscream?" He nodded.

"Yeah. And Barricade, but that slagger's following Soundwave now." Alex paled.

"Soundwave?" She said in a quavering voice. She had only dealt with the guy twice, but even his name made her twitch in panic. He smirked.

"Yeah, Soundwave. That boring, creepy, monotone con. Don't know why he'd follow him, but he's a strange one." So Barricade was with Soundwave. Too bad she didn't know which one he was. Blitzwing stopped and sat down against a tree, Alex was surprised it didn't break.

"What are you doing?"

"Recharging. You do the same." Blitzwing's optics began dimming, and he held Alex in his hand tightly against his chest.

"Why?"

"The battle has expended my energy supplies. Now be quiet so that I can recharge." Alex didn't say anything. She tried getting out of his grasp, but it was no use. She closed her eyes and figured she might as well get some sleep, after all she was pretty exhausted. She woke up a few hours later when she was gently deposited on the ground. She cracked her eyes to see Blitzwing following Astrotrain out of the clearing. She kept her eyes closed and lay her head back down when he glanced back. She waited until their footsteps died away and jumped to her feet, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. A loud crash of thunder crashed over head and she cringed. Great. She got up and began walking back toward the convenience store. At least she thought she was.

"I could have sworn it was in this direction…." She mumbled, then sneezed. In the last couple hours she hadn't heard head or tails of Blitzwing, and it had started raining in torrents. She was soaked to the bone, her hair was stuck to her forehead, her mascara running, and her thin tank top stuck to her skin. She was freezing but her hoodie was in what remained of Blackfire's base. Her teeth were chattering, and she hadn't been able to find that damn convenience store. She looked to the east and saw a purple-pink tint on the horizon. Dawn was coming, she had been out here all night. She kept walking; she was bound to run into someone. She saw a clearing and headed towards it; she reached it and stumbled out onto a road. Oh thank goodness. Suddenly Alex froze, she saw headlights coming towards her fast and she didn't have time to get out of the way. Just before the vehicle was about to hit her it stopped.

"Alex?" Alex looked at the headlights, she was starting to get dizzy, it had been hours since she had eaten anything and she was sick, her vision was starting to get blurry.

"Optimus?" She blacked out.