there's a million&one ways Chapter 8, a transformers fanfic

there's a million&one ways

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A/N: for once the chapter ended how i wanted it to end, lol. x3 enjoy. && omg. for any of you who are looking for a good book to read, go check out Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult. I just finished and it was simply amazing. if you ever need inspiration for stories, just read her books. i promise you won't be disappointed. and for some reason this isn't saving properly when i edit it on fanfic, so sorry about the weird look. i'll put all the fancy things up when it starts to save properly.

replies:

inspire165,, no, he'll be the fun guardian that breaks all the rules, lol. xD but as you said, he would defend anna in a split second 'cause no one picks on his human but him. x3

dixiegurl13,, 'hide is being an afthole, but he has his many personal reasons; and the autobots in general have a reason for being so physco. but he'll start to redeem himself in the next chapter. c; && yes, starscream be will reunited his wingmates. c: along with other 'cons. && thanks. ^^ i've always loved him and his bright color. 3 he's so under rated for his flexibility in stories, lol. -huggles li'l acid storm-

tlcoopi7,, actually this is the chapter is where you find out. ;3 it seemed fitting with the mood.

autobot alythia,, yup. anna's got nicknames for all of them. x3

pairings: starscreamxannabelle vs. ironhidexannabelle; what a twisted little triangle of love.

disclaimer: i do not own transformers or any of them; they are rightfully copy-writed to their respectful owners.

"this-is-cybertronian-and-it-s-a-pain-to-type"

"this is com-link, or whatever the heck it is called these days."

centurion = 100 cybertronian years

cybertronian year = 932 earth days

orbital cycle = thirteen cybertronian hours

cybertronian hour = eight and a third earth hours

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Then fifteen years, three months, twenty-three days, six hours, forty-eight minutes, and three seconds ago

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Starscream walked down the chamber with head held higher than ever. Gleaming red eyes took in every wonderful detail. His fingers traced the arm of the chair. For so long he had stood next to the chair when they had war meetings. He would watch as Megatron would take his seat without looking where he was going, and Starscream would watch Megatron's every move, counting each and every step; but the seeker wouldn't be counting steps today.

"Starscream!"

The seeker turned around to see the one-optic, purple (and in his opinion) freak walked towards him. The smile he had been sporting turned into an instant scowl. "Shockwave," Starscream said. He forced himself to sound happy to see his old "friend". "It's-been-a-while."

"More-than-a-while," he corrected. "More-like-a-forty-six-point-four-centurions."

"Always-so-precise," the seeker muttered sarcastically. His optics looked down at Shockwave's missing hand. He quickly averted his eyes to the window. "I-see-you've-traded-your-hand-for-a-gun."

"Yes," the mech replied. "It's-more-valuable-these-days-to-have-a-laser-than-another-hand. You-should-try-it."

He looked towards Shockwave, trying to not show the creepy crawly sensation that was traveling through his circuits. "I-like-my-hands---Shockwave," Starscream said casually. "They're-qui - "

"Enough-small-talk," Shockwave interrupted. "Why-have-you-come-back? And-where-is-Megatron-and-the-others?"

"Patience--Shockwave," the seeker criticized. He faced the purple mech, and looked him in the optics. "You-will-find-out-at-the-same-time-everyone-else-does. If-you-want-to-help-the-process-along--you-may-go-spread-the-order-that-all-decepticons-are-to-report-to-Trypticon-within-three-orbital-cycles. Until-then-I-do-not-want-to-be-disturbed-by-anyone."

He nodded in obedience. "Not-even-by-your-fellow-seekers?" the mech inquired.

The mech looked unpleased at Shockwave. "I-said-by-no-one," Starscream reinforced cooly. "And-they-include-no-one." He turned his back to the Military Strategist Advisor. The sound of the door shutting behind Shockwave barely registered in his audio sensors. His red eyes looked out the one-way window and watched as his soldiers walked in the streets. He realized the walls did more than protect the city -- they protected the truth behind the decepticons. From his perch in the sky, Starscream could see the tired and weary faces. The hope that the autobots had was all but a memory among the decepticons. Their hope was replaced by anger, hate, and tired souls.

Starscream turned his head away from the scene below him. His feet carried him to the chair. He slumped into the chair; while placing his head in his hands. The decepticon let out a deep, stressful sigh. The seeker's vision of the decepticons of Cybertron being proud soldiers was shattered. Starscream's eyes narrowed down on the ground. "See-what-happens-when-you-pursue-your-own-agenda--Megatron?" he asked quietly. "You-leave-behind-blind-and-broken-soldiers-who-have-lost-sight-in-winning-the-war----in-the-process-of-leaving-them-behind-you-smear-our-good-name-and-motto." He closed his optics. "But-I-will-make-everything-right-once-again. And-I-will-become-the-great-leader-that-everyone-will-remember-when-the-war-is-over. I-swear-on-my-spark-I-will."

He raised his head at the sound of a thud. "I-said-no-visitors," he hissed. Starscream stood up as the knocking became more violent. "I-said-no-visitors!" The seeker stood up in aggravation. "Do-I-have-to-repeat-myself-a-third-time?!" he yelled. Starscream didn't even get a chance to turn his head before he was pinned to the ground.

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He woke with his optics already adjusting to the bright artificial light. The seeker groaned at the realization that he was still a captive; he wanted to go back to that time in his dream. The mech lifted his head before succumbing to the throbbing pressure. It felt like someone was kicking him from the inside out. Starscream rolled his head around on the ground before finding a comfortable position to rest it in. His optics looked ahead at the fuzzy form of a human girl. Ironhide's warning boomed in his head. The seeker groaned as she leaned forward to watch him. "Go away," Starscream muttered.

Annabelle ignored his plea, and scooted closer to the cell. "It's okay," she said softly. "I'm not gonna hurt you."

"If you haven't noticed, you've done more than your fair share of damage," the seeker retorted weakly.

"I didn't do that to you," Anna stated.

He regretfully reopened his optics. "No, but your "lovely" guardian Ironhide did," Starscream scoffed.

She stared at him with a confused expression. "Ironhide isn't my guardian," Anna clarified. "He never has been."

His eyes stared back at her curiously. "What?" he asked bewildered.

"He's not my guardian," she repeated. "He stays at my house, but he's always done that to keep my mother company when my dad is gone. Besides, 'Hide isn't the guardian type. He's too proud to be someone's guardian; plus he would never have the patience to watch over me."

Starscream slowly and carefully moved his sore body into a proper sitting position. This little bit of movement had left him feeling exhausted. "I would've sworn he was your guardian," the seeker returned. "He seemed very protective of you."

Anna shook her head in denial. "He's overly protective for my mother's sake," she informed. "My mother doesn't approve of me being with Cybertronians. So 'Hide watches me to make sure nothing bad happens; personally I think he's under too much stress from my mother's worries, but Primus forbid something should happen to me. My mom would come make scrap metal out of Optimus."

"Your mother doesn't like the autobots?" he inquired. "I thought all squishies were autobot lovers."

The human chuckled. "Oh Primus," she said. "If my mother had had it her way, I would the cheerleader captain who knew nothing about your race. She swears up and down that growing up with them has somehow ruined my life."

"But your father - "

"My father is friendly towards them, but he doesn't associate with them much outside his work," Annabelle explained. "But at least he doesn't see any harm in letting me hang around with them." The human looked down at the ground. "That will most likely change though."

"They surely can't be that angry towards you," he remarked.

She looked towards the seeker as if he were dumb. "Maybe you haven't noticed, but reviving you is a big fucking deal," Anna retorted. "I'll most likely be grounded till I go to college; if not disinherited first. Secondly, I'm banned from the base because I'm a "threat" to the autobots." She pulled her legs to her chest. "I'll be lucky to see any of them before I go off to college and rejoin the "real" world."

The seeker rolled his eyes at the human's dramatic prediction. "You're their squishy. They'll bend the rules for you."

Anna looked away from him. She focused her frustrated eyes on the empty space where the elevator had been. "No they won't," the human corrected. "Unlike Sam, they expect only the best from me. They expect the best from me because I've been raised like one of them." She rested her head on her knees. "When they don't understand a human expression, they turn to me to explain it to them. If a human needs something explained because they don't understand what Optimus or one of them is getting at, I become the one to explain it. I'm their medium between humans and them; and because I'm their medium they rely upon me -- they trust me to keep them safe." Annabelle closed her eyes. "And now I've broken that trust," she muttered weakly.

"If you wait long enough, they'll forgive you," Starscream said. 'I'm still waiting on Jetfire to forgive me.' the seeker added silently. He sighed when she didn't talk or move. "They always do," he added more for his benefit than hers. If he had learned one thing, it was that it was easier to lie to yourself that something good would happen, instead of what would most likely happen.

"They won't forgive me," Anna stated. "A million years from now they may not remember me or what happen, but that doesn't mean that they would've forgiven me. If anything it'll mean that I was too painful for them to remember. It meant it would be easier to forget me than to forgive me."

"You don't know that's true," he said from a scientific stand point. "You don't have any evidence to back it up."

She turned her head and just looked at Starscream. Her eyes traced the ragged edges of his broken armor, and the worn-torn look of his optics. "Look at Jetfire," she replied. "He only told me stories about you because I asked -- not out of his good spark. When I would ask what your name would be, he would tell me that was enough. Then he would send on my way to play with the twins or someone." Her eyes drifted past Starscream as she remembered those days. "Jetfire didn't want to remember; which meant he wanted to forget you over forgiving you."

"How do you know there's anything to forgive?" the seeker remarked coldly.

"Because he only showed pain and regret when he talked about you." she said simply.

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Sideswipe let out a bored sigh. "There's nothing here, Ratchet," he objected.

The medic seemed to ignore his comment. He watched the flat horizon that surrounded the military base. "Yes there is," Ratchet finally admitted.

"Why do you say that?" he asked in exhausted voice.

"Because we're being watched."

The twin followed the older 'bots gazed. "There's noth - " He winced his optics and could see two silhouetted forms standing side by side. One greatly towered over the other, and the taller one seemed to be the leader of the two. "I do believe we've found the missing 'cons," Sideswipe stated happily. Without hesitation, he quickly transformed his right arm into a make shift plasma gun.

"What in Primus are you doing?" Ratchet asked.

"What do you think I'm gonna do," Sideswipe replied hastily.

The medic's optics glared at the twin. "We do not engage unless fired upon first!" Ratchet snapped.

Sideswipe turned to Ratchet. "And that's why we've been losing the war," he retorted. "Kindness won't spare our lives, Ratchet." He stood staring Ratchet back in the eye. The cocky, young spark was overlapped by a new found pride and dedication to his allegiance. "Sooner or later you'll have to come to terms with that." The autobot turned his back to his superior and began to sprint across the barren field.

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He had watched Annabelle, waiting for her to shed little rain droplets from her eyes; but she never did shed any tears. No, all she did was sit with her head low and eyes closed. A solemn, depressed looked haunted her face. It made the fragile human look gaunt and hollow in his opinion. "Don't feel so sorry for yourself," Starscream said coldly. "You could've spared yourself all this trouble."

Annabelle slowly raised her head to look at the seeker. "Just because I revived you doesn't mean none of this wouldn't have happened," she replied. "It just would've happened later."

The mech looked skeptically at the human. 'So dramatic,' he thought. "How do you know it would've happened later?" he inquired.

"Because we were drifting apart before you came," Anna stated. "None of them would admit it, but we were all drifting apart." She leaned back and slowly laid down on the cold ground. Her blue eyes watched the ceiling, memorizing how each tile fit perfectly with the next in a geometrical pattern. "Jazz especially..." She let out a deep breath.

This new information peeked his curiosity. "Why were you drifting apart?" he asked in a softer voice.

The human rolled her head towards the 'con. "Do you miss Cybertron?" she asked.

"Yes." 'That's an understatement,' he thought.

"Well so do they," Anna replied. "They miss it a lot more than any of them would admit; and I know that a few of them question whether Prime's judgement to make Earth their new home was a good decision or not."

"What are you getting at, human?" Starscream asked impatiently. "I don't like playing mind games."

"I only play mind games with the twins, or to see if I can confused Jetfire," she informed. "And I'm getting to that." Annabelle looked over him with a stern gaze. "I thought you said you were a good listener, and that you wouldn't interrupt me or make any pathetic comments."

"I am a good listener," the mech retorted.

"Well you're doing a poor job at listening," she sneered.

"I didn't realize I was suppose to be listening," Starscream snapped. He rolled his optics as she turned her attention back to the ceiling. 'Hormonal maggot,' he thought. The mech let out a frustrated sigh. "So I take it this is confidential still?"

Anna's eyes flicked towards him. "You tell me," she replied.

Starscream's mouth opened, but he didn't say anything. With her eyes still watching him, the seeker shut his mouth. He watched as she smiled at him. 'Maybe she isn't so complicated after all,' he thought joyfully. 'And I've just been over reacting.'

"After Mission City, Optimus decided that since the Allspark was gone, that Cybertron was basically a lost cause. He declared Earth their new home, and welcomed any stray autobot on the solar system to come here," Anna explained. "A year or two later, they were finally able to communicate to Cybertron. Optimus told Prowl that he wanted the remaining autobots to come to Earth, but Prowl and a few members from the Council of Ancients insisted that leaving Cybertron would not be a good idea. A member by the name of Alpha Trion told Optimus that if they did not keep a good eye on the enemy, then they could face the wrath of such a decision later. Prowl mentioned that there were a few neutral 'bots who would be willing to help them eliminate the decepticons. In exchange they would want to have their names kept safe and be immune to any charges that they may have had against them. Optimus agreed, and told Prowl to act in his place until he returned."

Anna glanced towards Starscream. She was shocked that the seeker had managed to keep his mouth shut that long. "Anyway," the human continued. "Optimus decided to stay here and search for any Allspark pieces and begin their new life. As you can imagine, beginning a new life on a different planet was hard to accept. Ironhide desperately wanted to return to Cybertron and help Prowl. Optimus said that Ironhide would be needed here on Earth in case Barricade made contact with any of the other decepticons. So through a series of events, he decided to become Will's new truck."

Anna paused, trying to decide how to go from point a to point b. "Well, I was eventually introduce into your world when I was around four."

"Against your mother's will?" Starscream asked.

She looked at him with a surprised face. He had actually been listening. "Yes," Annabelle answered. "Against my mother's will I came into your world. From that day, I was raised like your race. Optimus was my mentor, Ratchet my drug dealer when I was sick and drinking buddy on the weekends, Jetfire became my study buddy and older brother, the twins were my little brothers, Beeman would be the cousin of the family, and Jazz the cool kid that lived in the neighborhood. So among them all, I ended up being raised like a sparkling. They became my family." Anna let out a deep breath. "They were more of my family than any of my human family. I trusted them and loved more than even my mom and dad. Unlike my parents, I knew that I could always rely on them. I believe that they would always be there. But - "

"But what?" he inquired.

"But one day my parents got into an especially bad argument -- this was about seven years ago. They don't know this, but I was watching them from behind the closet door. Ironhide tried to break up the argument, but my mom -- she became unglued. She chewed Ironhide out. They say words don't people, but Ironhide was clearly hurt by what she had said." Anna looked towards Starscream. "Humans may be small, but they're programmed to be vicious. Your race on the other hand may have weapons of mass destruction, but I don't think that your race is meant to be hateful -- I consider the weapons a defense. When you compare the human race to the Cybertronian race, you can see that the humans would kill your race in a heartbeat. Here on Earth, your race may be all high-tech, but you're weak. Your race wasn't designed to live on a changing and violent world as Earth."

"You talk as if you aren't a human," Starscream commented.

"That's because I don't feel like a human," she admitted.

The seeker stared at her as if she were an insane 'con. "How could you not feel like a human?" he inquired.

"I don't consider myself Cybertronian if you're worried about that," Anna stated. "But I've been raised by both races. Consequently I see the world through both perspectives. So naturally i act as their medium, but I also act like their protector."

"Protector?"

She nodded. "Underneath all that armor, they're fragile. Just look at yourself."

"But how could you think of yourself as a protector?" the mech questioned.

"Because I keep them safe, and as I said earlier they trust me to keep them safe," Anna answered. "I make sure that nothing bad happens to them. I take care of them and get them what they need. I'm always there to take care of them, and in return they're always there to take care of me. It's a cycle -- one I thought couldn't break."

"How does that relate to your family drifting apart?" Starscream asked curiously.

She looked away from the seeker and up at the ceiling. Annabelle placed her hands behind her head. "As much as I try to help them and make them happy, it's never enough. It doesn't fill that gap in their spark," Anna explained. "They all miss Cybertron. I don't blame them; being on a new planet with only a handful of your own race there to know what you feel would be pretty upsetting. I know Jazz misses Prowl back at home, Optimus clearly misses Elita One, and Ratchet hates standing around when he could be helping someone. On a few occasions I've heard them asking Optimus if they can return home. And you know what he says?"

"What?" he asked in a monotone.

"When there is no more threat to the humans, they'll leave," she replied. "Do you know what that feels like to know that your family will leave you? To know that when they leave you'll be alone?"

He watched as her eyes became red and watery. "But you said you see the world through two different perspectives, so why don't you just forget looking through the eyes of us?" the seeker suggested.

"Because seeing and feeling are two different things, Starscream," Anna stated bluntly.

"You just said you don't consider yourself Cybertronian," The mech argued. "So if you aren't that, then you're human."

"That's what Optimus thought too," she replied. "But to consider yourself part of something is to say you relate to them. To say you feel like one of them means you are one of them; it means you feel how they feel. I don't relate to them, but I feel like one of them; which binds me to them in some weird, non-logical sense. Because of that, it's a chain I can't break. "

"So you consider yourself human only because you can relate to them," Starscream said, trying to piece it all together. "By relating to them you act as a medium because you see the world through both sets of eyes; thus you protect them and continue this "cycle"."

"Then if they left . . . "

"It would be like being left behind by your own race," the seeker finished. "But since you're genetically human, Prime feels the need to protect humans -- including you. So knowing that Prime would leave you in order to go home, you needed a threat to keep him on Earth -- that threat is me. So by reviving me, you get to make sure that your family stays here on Earth a bit longer."

She smiled approvingly towards the 'con. "You have been listening," Anna said quietly.

"It wasn't that complicated," Starscream stated.

"Told ya," she said smugly. "After all, I've got the brain power of a human, and human brains only actively function around ten percent. So how complicated can I make something?"

"You make it sound like a disability," he returned.

"Well it is my disability among them," Annabelle replied lightly. "Like I will never be able to do my math homework mentally, or push Jetfire down for fun, or play leap frog with the twins."

The seeker stifled a laugh. "You and your autobots are a weird bunch," he commented.

"You'll get used to it," she reassured. The human sat up, and turned her body. "I don't think we've formally introduce ourselves." She held her hand up, carefully keeping it away from the invisible sides of the cell. "I'm Annabelle."

The mech watched her suspiciously, carefully looking for a motive towards this sudden formality. He could come up with several ideas, but he dismissed them. If this human was willing to talk to him and no one else, then she obviously trusted him. Slowly Starscream raised his own hand, trying to match it to hers.

"Don't touch the walls," the girl warned. "You might not be able to see them, but they'll send you offline for a few hours. Sides learned that the hard way about two years ago."

"Is this still confidential?" Starscream asked.

Anna nodded.

"Thanks for the tip and earlier," he muttered quietly. "They did help a little bit." He spread his fingers apart, trying to match her hand. "Then just call me Starscream."

The human smiled. "You're welcome," she replied contently. "And it's a pleasure to meet you, Starscream."

"No," he corrected. "The pleasure is mine."