Chapter 17:

Nicole POV

I thought I was dead. I really did.

I couldn't feel anything, couldn't move, and couldn't see anything. Or, at least I didn't think I could see anything. That or there was nothing to see. Whatever it was, I was calm and peaceful. But where was Barricade? If I was dead then that meant he would join me.

A wave of guilt washed over me. It was my fault that Barricade would die, all because he was bonded to me. Then I felt anger. Stupid, stupid, stupid Megatron had shot me! What was he thinking?

You are not dead yet, youngling. Came the cool, detached voice of the AllSpark.

"That makes me feel so much better." I said out loud. I heard my voice, but I couldn't see my body. If I looked down I wouldn't see my body. Just more blackness.

Then there was a light beside me. Like a glowing white orb. Almost like a spark. "Barricade?" I asked hopefully. No, I told myself, disappointed. The AllSpark.

"Well, what do you want?" I asked, irritated. "Come to drop more hell on me?"

Let me show you something.

Before I could say anything, it showed me Ratchet's Med Bay. It was dark in there. There was a chorus of beeps from machines that were hooked up to various Autobots in there. My heart throbbed at the sight of Jazz recharging with his helm on Prowl's arm. The SIC was in what I assumed was a drug-induced recharge, his self-repair system working to smooth the dents and scratches on his frame. There was a fresh weld on Prowl's wing where that 'Con had shot him.

Then I saw Barricade. He looked bad. Not injury wise, but….he kept twitching and his systems would hitch every so often. Was he dreaming of me? Of course, I though bitterly. I had very nearly killed myself, my sparkmate included. He had a right to be having nightmares.

I turned and glared at the AllSpark orb. I was not very happy with it right now. "Why did you show me this? To make me feel guilty? Congrats, you just accomplished that."

These are your loved ones. They are alive for now.

I nearly said "No fragging duh, they're alive". But the words lodged in my throat when I registered what it said. 'For now'? "What do you mean 'for now'?" I asked angrily. If the AllSpark knew they were going to die, than I needed to know. AllSpark be damned, I would beat out of it if I had to.

Watch.

Everything faded into blackness again. Then little white dots appeared in the blackness. What…..? Then I realized what I was looking at. I was looking at stars. We were in space. I spun around. There was earth, a small blue and green orb with clouds drifting across it's surface. What looked like just a few inches away from it but must've been thousands of miles was the even smaller moon. I searched and found Mars too. I continued to find the rest of the planets, all of them orbiting around the big, bright sun.

I looked at the AllSpark orb. "Why did you show me this?" I asked in a hopefully strong voice.

Watch. It repeated.

Slowly, I turned and looked back at Earth. For a few seconds, nothing happened. Then a ripple went through the Earth it looked like. I felt it in the….space around me.

Then Earth exploded.

Have you ever heard of the Big Bang theory? No, not the comedy show, but the theory that the universe was created in one big bang, hence the name. Well, this is what that looked like. A fiery wave spread out from where Earth had been, wiping out all of the planets and the sun. But it didn't stop there. It went all the way out of the solar system, destroying the other planets outside of our solar system. It even reached Cybertron.

I had stopped breathing. This was terrifying. I thought Megatron was scary, but watching everything be destroyed in a few seconds right in front of me was scaring the hell out of me.

Then, it faded to blackness again.

I sucked in a deep breath again. The AllSpark orb hovered next to me, silent. "What was that?"

It was you.

I shook my head. "I couldn't create that big of an explosion. I'm not that powerful-"

The AllSpark has unimaginable power, youngling. You have not even tapped into a fraction of it. Despite your method of controlling it, the meditation, the energy will become to much to hold in. If the right actions are not taken, the power will consume everything.

I stared at the orb. "So you're saying I'll explode?

In way, yes. Your body will become made of pure energy which will expand over the entire universe, destroying everything.

"So how do I keep that from happening?"

The AllSpark was quiet.

Cold started to overcome me. "You mean I have to…..die?"

Yes. Girl, the AllSpark is old. It is time for a new one to be born. If this does not happen, what you just saw will occur. It will wipe out everything. Your loved ones-

"Don't!" I shouted. I wanted to cry or hit something right now. "Don't even say that if I don't…do as you say, they'll die!"

You have to face the truth. It is up to you whether or not you want to spare everyone you love.

I turned away from the orb. "Okay, so I just gotta die. Well, if that's the case, then why do you keep healing me every time I'm injured? Or, better yet, why not just let me wake up and let me kill myself?"

It is not time. There is more things to happen in between now and the time you die.

"So you're basically saying that there is a series of events that have to happen before I die?"

Yes.

"Damn you!" I shouted. "I'm tired of this whole fragging mess. Just get it over with already!"

There are things that-

"Have to happen, I know! You said that already!" I snarled at the orb angrily. I took a few deep breaths, trying to calm down. After a moment, when the desire to rip something in half was gone, I asked quietly, "Will Barricade be spared?"

If you cut the bond, yes.

"Cut it?" I repeated, horrified. "That's…..I can't do that."

You will.

"How do you know?" I growled.

Have I not just shown you a possible outcome of the future?

I didn't say anything to that. For a long while I just sat there staring off into space. It looked like either way I was going to die, it was just up to me whether or not I took the whole damn universe with me. I sighed. I wanted Barricade. I wanted Jazz. I wanted my family. I wanted to cry. But life isn't fair, I thought bitterly. The AllSpark had just proved that.

"How?" I finally asked.

How-

"How will I die? If you can see the future, show me."

The AllSpark didn't say anything. I gave it my best glare. "What's wrong? Last time I checked, you don't have emotions. Otherwise you might feel just a slight bit guilty about sentencing someone to death."

You are not wrong. I have to be indifferent, otherwise any emotions might affect my decisions and the outcomes might not be right.

"You sound like an emotionless Prowl." I sighed. "I'm glad he isn't like you." After a moment, I asked again, "So. Are you going to show me? I want to be ready for it."

No one is ever ready for death, youngling.

"No, but I can be prepared."

The AllSpark was quiet for a long time. Then, Very well.

Willow winced as Ratchet applied some more cream to the burn on her arm.

When the alarms had gone off, Willow and Taylor had been in the Rec room watching TV with Sunny and Sides. Prowl, who had been watching the twins, had dashed out of the room saying to protect the human girls. After that, everything had been a blur. What Willow did remember a particular explosion that was very close. The roof over the had started to collapse and the twins had covered Willow and Taylor with their own bodies. Sunny had covered Taylor and Sideswipe had covered Willow. The rubble from the roof had knocked both mechs unconscious and covered them completely. Willow and Taylor had managed to stay conscious until, three hours later, the others had uncovered them.

Now, almost twelve hours after the attack, all four of them were in the Med Bay. It had taken so long because Ratchet, First Aid, and Wheeljack had been working to stabilize the more fatally wounded bots. The twins were recharging on medical berths. Each twin had gotten shrapnel under their armor and they both suffered Energon loss. Willow winced again. Some of Sideswipe's Energon had gotten on her arm and burned the skin badly. Ratchet wanted to keep her overnight to watch for signs for Energon poisoning(Willow had thrown up when she figured out that Sideswipe had been 'bleeding' on her; the thought was disgusting and horrifying). Taylor had a few bad gashes on her own arms and on her fore head. Ratchet had had to stitch up each one.

Ratchet sighed as his holoform finished wrapping the burns in gauze. "There. Done. Don't mess with it, or lift anything with that arm. Rest and go eat."

Willow watched as the medic turned off his holoform and began to put some tools away. "Thank, Ratch. Um…..how's Barricade holding up?"

Ratchet paused in his work. "He's….with Nicole right now. She still hasn't woken up."

"Oh." She said quietly.

He helped her to floor from the empty medical berth she had been sitting on. Just as Willow was walking out the door, a scream suddenly came from the room Nicole was in.

Faster than she though possible for giant robots, Willow saw Ratchet dash back and throw the door open. She followed, running. The mech she knew as Jazz got up, too and started to make his way to the room. Willow stopped in shock at what she saw.

Barricade POV

I sighed as I watched Nicole's peaceful face.

Ratchet had had to patch gauze over the areas where Nicole had been burned. Parts of the left side of her face were burned. The burns had healed amazingly fast, but that was no surprise. The scars that were still left were starting to fade. I had woken a few hours before. Taylor had changed Nicole out of the hospital gown she had been in and into an over large t-shirt and gray sweat pants so she'd be more comfortable when she woke up.

If she woke up.

No, I scolded myself angrily. She will wake up. She has to.

I turned my holoform on and wiped some of Nicole's hair out of her face. She seemed to be having a nightmare now. I leaned forward anxiously as Nicole whimpered. Maybe I should call Ratchet-

I jumped as Nicole's eyes flew open. They were a glowing blue instead of hazel. Then she screamed and started writhing on the bed.

I knelt down and tried to hold her down gently with my servos, but she sent a shock of energy through me that sent me backwards. As she continued to scream, I felt something roll down my faceplates. Energon tears. I was crying. I was crying because I was helpless to help her, to comfort her, anything to ease her pain.

I heard the door open and Ratchet came rushing in, immediately trying to hold her down only to be shocked. Willow also came in, looking pale. Then Jazz followed. This all was registered in the back of my processor. All I could feel was numb and shock.

Then something collided with me from the side, and I suddenly I was aware of everything around me again. Jazz was standing over me looking livid. "Help her!" He snarled in my face plates.

"How?" I growled back, not angry but frustrated.

"Hold her, talk to her, try the bond, anything!"

So I did. I pushed him out of the way and knelt back down to Nicole. She had ceased screaming, but she was still writhing as if she was in pain. Ratchet realized what I was doing and unhooked the machines from her. Gently, I lifted her off the bed. She didn't shock me again. I held her to my chest plates, as close as I could get her to my spark. I started talking, about what, I don't know. I just talked. I opened the bond wide and sent her comfort and love.

Nicole relaxed. Her eyes were still open and glowing and staring off into space. Then she blinked once, twice, then three times and they returned to the golden hazel I loved. Nicole seemed confused and dazed. "Barricade?"

"I'm here, Nicole."

A tear rolled down her cheek. "Oh, 'Cade…." Then she started sobbing. I cried with her. Nicole grabbed my armor like she was never going to let go. "I'm so sorry…."

"You have nothing to be sorry about, love." I whispered.

At some point the others left the room. I didn't notice until Nicole had gone back to sleep and I set her back on the bed. Then I laid down beside the berth and fell into recharge myself. Or tried to. I would end up checking on her every few minutes. But I did go into recharge after finally dozing off.

Jazz sighed and rubbed his faceplates for what felt like the hundredth time. "Ratch-"

"No, Jazz. Get out and go get some proper recharge before I take you to your quarters myself. Prowl is fine. He should be waking up in a few hours, and he'd be very unhappy with both me and you if he found that you were recharging on your pedes."

Jazz sighed again. It was late in the night again. Most mechs were in recharge now. It had been five hours since Nicole had woken up, and besides what she had said to Barricade after her panic attack, she hadn't said a single thing. Last time Jazz had checked on the human girl, she had bee sitting up awake in her bed, staring off into space. Barricade, who'd gotten barely a few hours of recharge since having woken up after the battle, was recharging on a berth beside her bed. Nicole hadn't even acknowledged that Jazz had stepped in the room.

This….worried the saboteur.

Ratchet watched Jazz's tired faceplates for another moment before saying gently, "Look, Jazz. If anything changes for either Prowl or Nicole, I'll comm you immediately, alright?"

The silver mech glanced once more at his sparkmate before reluctantly nodding. " 'Kay." He mumbled.

After saying goodbye to Ratchet and Prowl in his recharging state, he exited the Med Bay and headed towards the Rec room where he picked up an Energon cube. There weren't any bots or humans in the Rec room, surprise, surprise. Jazz hadn't expected there to be any. After a battle everyone was usually a little wired and it was hard to sit and relax, let alone recharge.

The Solstice sipped his cube rather slowly, just letting his thoughts wonder. When it was empty he tossed it into a trash can and began walking to his quarters that he shared with Prowl. As he was about to round a corner, he heard a sniffling sound and froze. That sounded like a human crying.

Jazz backed up and instead poked his helm around the corner. What he saw only half surprised him.

Nicole was leaning her head against the wall, wiping her face. Jazz pulled back around the corner and shook his helm. What was she even doing out of bed? If Ratchet found out he'd throw a fit.

Jazz's keen audios picked up the sound of Nicole's footsteps leading away. He waited until she was around the next corner before stepping back out to follow her quietly. He wasn't Head of Special Operations for nothing. Just where was the human femme going? This was leading away from the Med Bay. In fact, it was leading towards the front of the base.

After following Nicole for a few more minutes, Jazz followed her out side of the base onto the runway. The only evidence of the battle outside was the scorch marks on the ground and disturbed earth where an explosion went off or an unlucky Transformer had fallen. The saboteur figured he should've stopped her, but his curiosity got the better of him. He watched from the doors as Nicole walked just far away from the base that it was out of reach of the lights. Then she laid down on her back, her face towards the sky. After another few minutes, Jazz decided to find out just why Nicole had taken a midnight walk.

As he came up beside the girl, he looked down at her. Her red rimmed eyes glanced at him before looking back at the sky. He followed her gaze. It was a new moon, so it was easier to see the millions of little bright dots in the sky that were stars. For one peaceful moment, Jazz allowed himself to relax and get carried away in the beauty of the stars. It reminded him of Cybertron….

A sigh from the human on the ground brought his gaze back down. Nicole looked….sad. "It's beautiful, isn't it?"

Jazz nodded. "Yeah. It is." After another silent moment, he laid down beside Nicole. "What're ya doin' out here, baby girl?"

"Thinking." Came the quiet reply. Another sigh. "Jazz….You wouldn't believe what I've seen in the past day."

"I'm all open ta listen."

Nicole turned her head and looked over at him. "I'm not sure if I should tell you. I don't really think I should tell anyone. You wouldn't understand. It's….complicated."

"Try me."

Nicole smiled a little, but it was sad. "You would probably wish you hadn't said that. But I don't really think I can keep this to myself." She sighed. "Well, where to start?"

Jazz turned his helm and studied Nicole's face. She looked like she was going to cry again. The human femme took a shuddering breath. "Well, for starters, I'm going to die."

Now the saboteur was confused. Hadn't she already known that?

A tear rolled down the side of Nicole's face. "I know what you're thinking. Yes, I knew I was going to die, but….. While I was asleep, I talked to the AllSpark. It told me just exactly how I was supposed to either save or destroy the universe, no, it showed me. It….was horrible. The AllSpark said the only way for me to prevent it was to die. Die. It showed me how that was going to happen, too." She shook her head, her eyes closed. "Jazz, I'm going to need your help. I know I'm going to die, there's nothing I can do to stop that, but…I'll be leaving Barricade. He's the one who'll need help. You've got to promise me one thing."

Nicole sat up and Jazz did the same. There weren't a lot of things that scared Jazz, but this was one of those things. She was scaring him. She had accepted the fact that she was going to die, acting as if she had given up, and wasn't even thinking of herself right now.

Nicole looked Jazz in his visor. "Whatever happens after I die, try to help Barricade. Don't let him do anything drastic, or go into depression, or just….give up. I couldn't stand that." She looked back up at the stars. "I love him. I would do anything for him. It would kill me if he died when I died to save him and the whole universe anyways."

She shook her head again. "We'll all be hurting after this is over. Bad. Promise me, Jazz, you will not tell anyone about this, not even Prowl and especially not Barricade."

Jazz stared at her. "I…."

Nicole smiled sadly at him. "Jazz, please. This is gonna hurt like Pit after it's all over, but a new AllSpark will be born. I don't know what it will be, or how it's going to happen, but it will. You'll be able to save Cybertron, save the Transformers."

The saboteur was at a loss for words. "Nicole…..are ya sure 'bout all of this? I mean, how can ya be sure that yer gonna die?"

"Jazz, the AllSpark told me. It showed me. I wouldn't dream that up. I've come to terms with that, and I'm at peace with it. I realize it's what I gotta do. There's no running from it. It has to be me."

"But, Nicki, there are bots and people who care about ya, that love ya. You can't just give up-"

"I'm not giving up, Jazz." Nicole said softly. "I'm accepting it. It's my destiny, my role in life, my purpose. And besides, it's either the whole universe, or just me." She sighed with a small smile. "You know what, Jazz? You and Prowl were a Primus-made pair. You have a love that not many of us can get. One way or another, you would've found each other, whether it be in this life, the Matrix, or another dimension, you would've been together."

She looked up at Jazz. "Don't ever let anything get in between you and Prowl, ever." Then Nicole sighed again and looked back at the sky. "What was it like, Jazz? You know…."

"What was what like?" Jazz asked quietly.

"….Dying."

"Oh." The saboteur shifted as unpleasant memories resurfaced. He had had nightmares since he had been resurrected. Only Prowl knew. The nightmares were always the same, though. Those last moments of life before Megatron ripped him in half, his red optics, that laugh, and the regret and guilt of leaving behind Prowl.

"Was it peaceful? Afterwards?" She asked. "Don't tell me if you don't want to. I just want to know."

Jazz was silent a few more moments before answering. "At firs' all I felt was pain. But that didn't last long before…..well, I felt nothin'. Then I saw a blue glow an' heard Primus talkin' ta me. Then it was like I just went ta sleep, an' then I woke up a few moments later in tha' room tha' I first met ya in. When I saw ya layin' on the floor, it was like I suddenly knew wha' ta do."

Nicole just nodded. "Thank you." Then she laid back down and closed her eyes.

Jazz watched her for a few moments before asking, "Are ya scared, Nicki?"

She didn't answer for a long time. When she finally did, she sounded tired. "No, Jazz. I'm not scared of dying. I'm just scared of what's going to happen to Barricade." She sighed. "When I screamed earlier, it was because the AllSpark had showed me how I was going to die. Then it scared me. But now…I've thought about it some. I know there's a reason for everything, and if that's what's supposed to happen, then there's nothing that I can do. In fact, my dying is the easy part. Barricade is going to have the hardest part, being left behind. I'm going to hurt him so bad by dying, Jazz." Nicole's voice cracked on that last part.

"I love him so much, and I know how much he loves me. In the end, it's his love for me that's going to hurt him. I wish he had never met me. That may sound stupid, but as they say, 'Ignorance is bliss'. If he had never met me, he would never have to deal with the pain that's going to come. If he had never met me, Megatron would never have tried to kill him. If-"

"If Barricade had never met ya, Nicki, he never would've been happy." Jazz said sharply. "Ya never would've been truly happy. There would've always been a part of ya missin', 'cause the other half was gone. Ya woulda died with that empty part, not happy, knowin' that somethin' was missin'. Ya both make each other happy. Ignorance ain't bliss, not in this case. So don't go makin' tha' stupid wish, 'cause only a dumbaft idiot would wish that."

Nicole sat up, eyes wide. "Jazz, this is only going to end horribly! I'm going to die! That is going to kill Barricade! How is this love good? It's going to end in one big mass of pain and grief!"

"Baby girl," Jazz said softer, "Ya can't focus on the future at a time like this. Ya gotta think of all the good things that came outta it. All those times ya were with Barricade, and ya were happy. Focus on those."

Nicole just put her head in her hands. "I love him. With every atom of my being." She looked up, and Jazz could see a tear running down her face. "Is it selfish of me to want a little bit longer with him?"

Jazz shook his helm. "No, baby girl, it's not." He reached down and gently picked her off the ground and held her to his chasis as sobs began to wrack her body. "Not selfish at all."

Willow huffed as she glared at the now-silver-again mech across the room.

Said mech in question was Sideswipe. It was two days after the attack. Ratchet had released the twins along with Smokescreen, Bumblebee, Hound, and Ironhide the day before. Prowl was still there, but Ratchet had finally allowed him to wake up from his drug induced recharge. All of the mechs were on light duty. Nicole was still in the Med Bay but only because Ratchet was mad her for sneaking out the night before. The scars were fading on her skin, but Nicole still seemed more subdued. Willow had watched Barricade hover around worriedly, and wondered how Ratchet hadn't gone into stasis lock with all of the questions the Mustang asked him about Nicole.

But back to why she was glaring at Sideswipe.

The twins had completely avoided Taylor and Willow since they had gotten out of the Med Bay. It was driving both girls crazy. Taylor wasn't willingly going to go up to them and ask what the hell was wrong with them. She was too nice for that. Willow wasn't going to ask directly, but she glared at them, specifically Sideswipe, every chance she got.

And now here she was, sitting on one of the Transformer-sized tables, legs crossed and arms resting on her knees, watching the twins play the giant X-Box.

After another moment of fuming, an idea began to form in Willow's head. An evil and genius idea.

Standing up with her hands on her hips, she said in a sing-song voice, "Ohhh, Sideswipe!"

Said silver Corvette froze. The gold and silver paint had mysteriously reappeared at the twins' quarters. Sides paused the game, much to Sunny's displeasure, and turned around to look at Willow. "Uh…Hey, Willow. What's up?"

Willow shifted impatiently. "Get your aft over here. I need to tell you something."

Sides stared at her bewildered for a moment, before getting up from the couch. Willow started messing with her dyed dark purple hair as Sideswipe took what seemed like forever to cross the space between them.

When the Corvette was finally seated in a chair in front of her, Willow grinned at him. "So, Sideswipe. Why've you been avoiding me?"

As she expected, he started to get flustered. "I-I haven't been a-avoiding you, Willow. I-I just, well-you know, I've been busy…."

Willow nodded. "Uh huh. Well, I thought Ratchet put you on light duty."

Sides froze again. "I've been doing datapads."

Willow pointed at the X-Box. "Yep, that really looks like a data pad, doesn't it?" She also didn't bother pointing out that frontlliners, as Prowl had told her before, never did datapads.

The human girl could see Sunstreaker snickering at his twins' predicament.

Willow pinned Sides with one of those stares she gave people at the tattoo shop when they complained that they didn't like the new tattoo. It usually unnerved them enough to shut even the most irritating complaining customer up. Apparently it works for alien robots, too, Willow thought as she watched Sideswipe get more and more embarrassed.

Grinning on the inside, Willow said, "Sideswipe, I've got to tell you something. Lean closer." She beckoned him closer.

After a moment of hesitation, he did as she said. Willow shook her head. "Closer." Sides leaned closer. He was about three feet away from her now.

"Closer." Two feet.

"Closer." One foot.

"Closer." Willow said in a sing-song voice. Now Sideswipe's faceplates were only a few inches from Willow. She could feel the heat coming off him.

She grinned. "Perfect." Then she leaned forward and kissed Sideswipe.

After a few moments, Willow pulled back, satisfied. "Thanks, Sideswipe!" She said cheerfully before skipping over to the only other occupant of the table. "Mirage, can you set me down, please?"

Once the spy did, Willow skipped out of the Rec Room humming a tune to herself.

There was a dead silence in the Rec Room. Then several bots started wolf whistling and laughing and a few calls to 'get a room'.

Sunstreaker walked over to his frozen twin, who hadn't moved an inch since Willow had kissed him. Sunny waved a servo in front of Sides faceplates. "Still there, Sides?"

Sideswipe nodded, looking shocked. Sunny grinned and clapped a servo on his twins' shoulder, very nearly knocking him out of the chair. "Well, congratulations. You finally found a femme that actually wants to kiss you."

Sideswipe didn't hear any of this. Instead, he brought a servo up to where her lips had touched his faceplates. "That….was nice."

Outside the Rec Room, slumped against the wall….

Willow brought a hand up to touch her lips.

Sideswipe's faceplates had been so warm. And soft. Not what she had expected.

And there was a tingling sensation spreading through her.

Willow thumped her head on the wall behind her, eyes closed. "God, help me. I think I'm in love with an alien robot."

Nicole POV

I was walking through the halls of the base aimlessly, just wanting to be along for a moment.

It was the afternoon after Jazz and I had talked. Barricade had been asleep when I left and Ratchet had been getting Energon, so I had basically snuck out again. The talk with Jazz was refreshing after not talking to anyone for two days. But I was still burdened by the knowledge of my death. The most common thoughts were about what was going to happen to Barricade and everyone I would leave behind. I felt like I was being selfish for not wanting to die, even though Jazz had told me it wasn't. I wanted to stay here, with people and bots that I loved. But if I didn't, they would all die. The second most often thought was what I did to deserve this. Did I piss off some higher force or something? In the end, I always came to the same conclusion. Fate and karma hated me. A lot.

I sighed, my hand on the wall as I walked. Life sucked. Like, really, really sucked.

"Nicole!"

I jumped at Taylor's high pitched voice. I turned around just as Taylor grabbed my arm and started dragging me down the hall. "Uh, Taylor? What's wrong?"

"Everything." Came the grumpy reply.

"O-kay?" I said, one of my eyebrows arched.

Taylor didn't say anything else as she dragged me along. In the end, she shoved me into her room and locked it behind her. When she turned around and glared at me with flashing blue eyes I actually wondered if she had somehow gotten hold of liquor.

Taylor growled, sounding frustrating, and marched across the room and flopped down on the bed. She moaned something into her pillow.

I sighed as I picked up a pair of high heels off the desk chair and sat in it, arms crossed. "Taylor, your practically trying to smother yourself. What'd you say?"

With another moan, Taylor lifted her head and looked at me miserably. "I'm having the worst day."

Again, I raised one eyebrow. "How so?"

Taylor struggled to get her arms from out under where she had laid on them. After a lot of struggling, she held up her hands to count the points off. "I didn't get but two hours of sleep last night. See? I have bags under my eyes now!" I rolled my eyes as she pointed at her perfectly fine looking eyes. "Second, I couldn't figure out what to eat this morning, so now I'm hungry!"

I sighed. "Why didn't you get one of the Autobots to take you? I'm sure Sunstreaker would be more than glad."

Taylor glared at me. "I'm getting to that. But, no, all of them were busy." Her head fell back onto her pillow. Another muffled sentence.

"What?" I asked.

Taylor didn't answer me, instead she just pointed at something behind me. I turned around and looked. There was a half full box of tampons on it. I winced. "Oh." Well, that explained the weird moods.

Taylor, who still wasn't looking at me, waved it off before her hand fell limp, hanging off the edge of the bed. Another muffled sentence, this one long, whiney and high-pitched, followed by a groan.

I stared at her. "Again, what?"

Taylor lifted her head and looked at me miserably. "I have the world's biggest crush on Sunny and I don't know what to do about it! On top of that, it seems like he's avoiding me! I've never had this problem with other boys! Usually it's them with the crush and not me! What do I do?"

I stared at her with something akin to amazement. Taylor threw a throw pillow at me. "Stop looking at me like that."

I smiled. "Well, Taylor, I can't help you here. After all, remember that Barricade was my first date? So I'm not really big in the dating department." Then I snorted. "What brought this on anyway?"

Taylor took to glaring at her pillow. "Willow kissed Sideswipe."

I choked on the air that I had been breathing. "She did what?"

"She kissed Sideswipe."

Once I got my breathing under control, I asked, "When?"

"Around noon today in the Rec room. I guess she got tired of waiting around."

I sat back in the chair. "Huh. Smart girl."

Taylor glared at me. "This isn't helping me."

I sighed. "Tay, maybe you should ask someone else."

"Like who? Ratchet? Come on, Nicki, there is no one else I can ask." She groaned. "I might as well give up on this whole thing. It's pointless."

I stared at her for about two seconds before making my mind up and jumping up. "Come on, Taylor. We're going to go ask some bots I think that can help." I grabbed her arm while she started protesting and dragged her out the door.

As we walked through the halls(I walked; Taylor was dragged), I said hi to various bots and humans. Most of them looked surprised to see me, since Ratchet had pretty much had me in lockdown in his Med Bay. Bluestreak was happy to see me out and about. When we said goodbye to him, he flipped us both off, earning several stunned looks from the others around us. I seriously needed to tell him not to do that anymore. Eventually, we reached my intended destination.

Smokescreen's office.

To say that Smokescreen looked surprised was an understatement. "Umm, hello, Nicole?"

I waved at him, grinning. "Hey Smokescreen. Listen, Taylor needs to talk to you about some issues she has."

"I do not have issues." Taylor muttered.

"She needs help on how to approach Sunny. Taylor has the world's biggest crush on him." Taylor stepped on my foot.

Smokescreen stared at us both before saying, "Nicole, I'm a psychological counselor. Not a relationship counselor."

This was one of my 'I'm-such-an-idiot' moments.

I smiled sheepishly. "Oh, sorry. I forgot about that. Okay, well….bye!"

Then I pulled a snickering Taylor out of Smokescreen's office.

Once we were back out in the hall, Taylor said with a smug look, "Well, that went well."

I smacked her on the head once before I started pacing. "That was my first and last idea…." I muttered. I heard Taylor snort. "That's you, always thinking ahead." I shot her a glare. Then, after many minutes of deliberating, I finally came up with…nothing.

I sighed. "Well, I've got nothing."

"Nothing?" Taylor said in a high-pitched whiny voice.

"Nothing. Unless you want to take Willow's idea and do as she did."

Taylor stared at me like I had just found the cure for cancer. "I can?"

"I don't see why not. I mean, unless she had copyrights to the idea or something…."

Taylor wasn't even paying attention to me. The country blonde had already taken off down the hall towards the Rec room.

I watched her back disappear before transwarping to the Rec room. Sunny was playing some racing game against the Chevy twins and Beachcomber on the X-Box. There wasn't many more mechs in the Rec room besides them, so my arrival went unnoticed. Taking advantage of this, I plopped down on a table that had a good view and started waiting for Taylor.

Sure enough, four minutes later, Taylor appeared, looking like she had made her mind up on something and was determined to finish. That all disappeared when she saw Sunny. She started to back pedal out the door, but I transwarped and caught her by the arm, then transwarped back to the table. "Hey, Sunny, come here for a sec." I shouted over the Chevy twins argument about who won.

Thankfully, the frontliner heard me and started to get up. Until he saw Taylor. For a moment Sunny froze, then tried to gather up his resolve and walked over to the table slowly. "What?" he snapped, but there was a waver in his voice.

I beckoned him closer. "Jazz told me to tell you something, but it's really important and top secret, so you'll have to lean closer for me to tell you."

Some bots are too gullible for their own good.

When he leaned forward, I pushed Taylor towards him. She squeaked a bit at first, but figured out what I was doing and leaned forward and kissed Sunny.

I didn't stick around to see the rest.

There are times when I'll hang around to make sure I don't miss anything that I can tease somebody about later, but this wasn't one of them.

Besides, if I knew Taylor(which I did), then I knew she would probably get the heck out of there as quick as she could, go grab a box of chocolate or ice cream, and hole up for a while. I didn't want to be the one explaining to Sunny what the hell had just happened.

Well, been a long time since I updated, huh?

Here it is, the final get together. Hope you liked it. I wasn't too happy with the angst parts or the ending, but…well, your worst critic is yourself. (No matter how many times I tell myself that, it doesn't work; whoever said it must've had self-confidence issues…)

Also…..I PULBLISHED THE ONE-SHOT! Finally.

Man, I'm almost afraid to read the reviews for this. *hides behind desk* don't shoot!

Artemis: Don't worry, Darla does show back up.

NEXT CHAPTER: Jazz plots and goes shopping…..neither is a good sign when it comes to our favorite saboteur!