Okay, not my best CHPTR but I needed to set something's up for the next CHPTRs. Hope it's alright for you guys, again, not my best CHPTR.

1 week later/Juliana's P.O.V:

Ratchet had finally said I was well enough to return to school, much of my dismay, and decided to drive me today extra early. "You know Ratchet I don't have to be there this early; I think only the teachers are going to be there." I had tried to explain to Ratchet this but he was insisting on going.

"I know, I just… wanted to drive around a little bit before you left for school." I nodded and laid my head back on the head rest. It was nice just to drive with Ratchet, we could talk about anything and if we didn't it was just nice to be with each other.

"Hey Ratchet, wanna listen to something onto the radio?" I asked Ratchet. "I don't see why not. Go ahead and pick something, so long as it's not that barbaric nonsense Miko listens to." I laughed lightly at what Ratchet said; true Miko liked the louder type of music, and I did somewhat, but I don't think it was under the category of 'Barbaric Nonsense' as Ratchet called it.

Flipping through the stations, I listened to the many different people singing and talking until I heard something that made me stop. "Local Jasper boy is still in hospital after he was brutally beaten in his car. Hospital officials say that he is still in a coma and they do not think he will be waking up anytime soon."

The voice of the report continued on with other news but I didn't hear them. Local Jasper boy could be anyone but I already knew who it was. "Vince." I whispered and I couldn't help but suddenly begin to shiver; I don't remember much after I blacked out but the memory of what Vince had tried to do was still fresh. "What's the matter Juliana?" Ratchet asked in concern and he began to slow down.

I didn't answer right away but once I remembered that I hadn't told the others about what happened, I quickly got control over myself and pushed back the large clump of hair that had fallen out from my hood from my shaking. "Nothing Ratchet, just got goose-bumps at hearing about that boy. Have any idea as to who it is?" I asked hoping Ratchet didn't and we could listen to something else.

"I already know who it is Juliana." I tried my best not to look worried but I asked anyway. "Who?" "The boy was Vince. When you disappeared we tried tracking you by your bracelet and it led us to him. Is there any reason as to why he had your bracelet Juliana?"

I paused and tried to remember what had truly happened that night; most of it was hazy and I only remembered a small handful. "Vince pulled me aside during school and tried to make another move on me. We kind of got into a heated argument and he ripped the bracelet off me. Before I could get it back, he ran off." I didn't want to lie to Ratchet again but I didn't want to tell him about what really happened, at least not yet.

"And that was the last you saw of Vince?" Ratchet asked and I nodded. "Will you be able to fix my bracelet Ratchet?" I asked trying to change the subject and I watched as the school came into view. "I should be able to get it back to you by tomorrow Juliana. I hope you have a nice day at school Juliana; I'll be here to pick you up afterwards."

As Ratchet came to a stop, he opened his door for me. "Alright Ratchet, see you later." I gave a quick wave as I walked towards the school and to my surprise I saw Miko, Jack, and Raf waiting for me. "Where have you been Julie?! Schools about to start." Miko shouted and I had to give her a puzzled look. "I'm I really that late? But Ratchet and I," I turned around to see that Ratchet had already left and I was standing there alone. "Whatever, let's just head in. I need to stop by the office to tell them why I was gone."

As I followed them in, Miko pulled me aside and placed her arm around my shoulder. "What are you going to tell them?" "Just going to say that I came down with a high fever and that my guardians kept me home. I had Optimus sign a paper for me." Miko gave me a confused look as we came to our lockers. "How in the world can the Big guy sign something for you? How big is the paper?"

I shook my head and opened my locker, "I'll explain later. You wanna come with me, I already know you're going to skip your first hour anyway." Miko was having a big test in math and she, once again, didn't study. "Sure why not." As we said goodbye to Jack and Raf, Miko and I walked to the office.

As we finally made it the office, I gave my note to the desk lady and as I was just about to walk out she stopped me. "Juliana wait. I have a note from your Music teacher, since you weren't here when she passed it out he asked me to give it to." Taking the note, I noticed the hand written letters and what they spelled.

"What's it say?" Miko asked as we walked out of the office. "Just another remind for me of the upcoming talent show. Mr. Frits has been trying to persuade me to enter." I told Miko as we walked down the hall to my art class.

"You should Julie! I have Mrs. Frits for band and she always talking about you. When's this talent show happening?" Miko shouts as she rips the paper from my hands and read through it quickly. "It doesn't matter when the show is Miko. I'm not entering it."

Miko peaked her eyes out from behind the paper sending me an angry glare. "What?! Why not?" "Miko, you know I don't like to draw any unneeded attention to myself. Doing something like this is WAY too much attention." I said as I took the note back and began to walk on. "You need to enter Julie, you would be awesome!" Miko pressed on as she sped up to catch up to me.

"No means no Miko; I'm not doing it." I said as I finally reached the art room door. "Well, if you feel that way I guess I'll have to give you a little push." I paused with my hand at the doorknob, I knew that tone from Miko meant she was going to do something. "What are you talking about?" "Oh nothing. Just don't be surprised if anytime between now and the talent show that your clothes somehow magically turn bright pink."

I quickly turned to look at Miko who had this look on her that showed that she knew she had me on the ropes. "You. Wouldn't. Dare." I said slowly, but I knew Miko would indeed dare to do it. "Try me…" Miko and I held each other in our eyes seeing who would break; sadly it was me. "OH fine! I'll do it."

Miko's smile grew and she threw her arms around me with a happy squeal. "Great! I'll talk to you after school, I have a great idea at what we are going to do." As Miko rushed down the hall, I groaned at the thought of what I had agreed to do. Walking into the art room, I shut the door just as the bell rang for school to start

OoOoOoOoOo

After school had ended and Ratchet had brought me back to base, Miko pulled me into my room and for about half an hour she talked about what we were doing. She also told me that she had gotten Raf and Jack in on the show somehow and I had to give it to her; when Miko wanted to plan a show she went all out.

After a while, Miko had finally left to go watch TV with Bulkhead and I decided that I should work on my homework.

As I worked on my homework with Squirt sitting on my shoulder sleeping, I began to notice how drained I felt and how I was fighting to stay awake. Placing the piece of homework I had just finished down, I sulked over to my hammock to rest but before I could even reach it my body fell to the floor with thud and Squirt screeched in my ear at the sudden fall.

"Sorry Squirt." I said as I laid there for a moment rubbing him behind the ear.

"/You cannot keep ignoring me Juliana. You know what you must do./" the voice spoke to me and I gave off a defeated groan. "Why should I even be listening to you? You have yet to tell me who you are and I know for a fact that you're not just some random voice in my head ." I snapped at the voice, which only caused it to laugh lightly.

"/In time child; in due time. But you have pushed this off for far too long. Go do it now before you pass out completely./" the voice said gently but I could feel the order in it. Getting to my feet, I walked over to my hammock and placed Squirt in. "Stay here Squirt." Squirt gave off a quiet yawn and snuggled up into my pillow, showing that he was in no way going to disobey that offer.

Slowly I began to go out of my room and went down the hall that I hadn't been down for a few days.

"Why do I need to keep on doing this?" I asked the voice and it answered. "/your true strength has yet to return to you Juliana, what you feel is mostly a cover up. When your true strength returns I will not ask you to do this again./" I rolled my eyes at what the voice said, that was what it had said last time.

OoOoOoOoOo

Ratchet's P.O.V:

As I continued to work on Juliana's bracelet, I was trying my best to ignore the loud noises coming from the TV. I hadn't looked up from my work but I knew most likely Miko, Juliana, and Bulkhead were watching some form of sport on TV.

"Aw come on, He was open! Why didn't he pass it to him?!" Miko and Bulkhead shouted and I had finally had enough. "Would the three of you please turn it down a little? I need to get this finished soon." Turning to look at the couch, I was surprised to see only Miko and Bulkhead watching the TV. "There's only two here Ratchet, or did you just forget how to count?" Miko joked but I only rolled my optics.

"Where is Juliana?" I asked and Miko shrugged. "Maybe she's doing her homework? She had a lot to catch up on since she's been gone for a while." I nodded began to walk off towards Juliana's room; I was kind of surprise that she wasn't in the main room doing her homework like she normally.

As I finally came up to Juliana's room, I gave it a few knocks. "Juliana?" But I received no reply. Pushing the larger door open, I saw Juliana's books sprawled out on the desk with the lamp on and I saw the odd little creature Juliana had named 'Squirt' sleeping in her hammock but I didn't see Juliana anywhere in the room.

Shutting the door, I began to walk around the halls shouting Juliana's name. It wasn't uncommon for Juliana to walk around the base by herself but she normally would tell one of us that she was going for a walk.

After a while I had completely walked down each hall and I was starting to think maybe she had gone back to the main room without my knowing.

As I began to walk back to the main room, I passed by the hall that lead down to the energon storage room and to my surprise I saw Juliana coming from it. "Juliana?" I must have startled her because she shouted in shock and jumped a few inches into the air. "Ratchet, don't ever do that again! You nearly gave me a heart attack."

I nodded but the thought of why Juliana had come down from that hall confused me a little, I had told her to stay away from this hall because of the energon. "What were you doing Juliana?" I asked and pointed down the hall. "Oh, I was just walking and I wasn't paying attention to where I was going. Sorry about that Ratchet."

As Juliana walked passed me, I thought I saw a flash of blue light come from her eyes but I just put it under that her hair fell out from her hood that she had up. Looking back down the hall, I figured I might as well go get some energon.

As I began to walk down the hall but I noticed something was off. As I finally came to the door, I saw how it was slightly opened; just enough to slip one servos through. Pushing it open, I flipped on the lights but what I saw startled me.

"Dear Primus… What happened?"

OoOoOoOoOo

Optimus' P.O.V:

As I watched everyone do whatever they were doing, I noticed Juliana coming from down the hall with a happy smile. I had been noticing lately that Juliana had recovered quicker than Ratchet or myself had ever thought.

When she first came in she looked like she wouldn't be going out of the base for at least a full earth month but here she was, less than two weeks, looking like nothing had happened. The only thing that told you that she had been attack at all was the fact that she had her arm in a case and when her hair was out you could see the amount missing from when Megatron cut it off her.

"Hey Julie! Finally finished that homework of yours?" Miko asked as Juliana sat down next to her and Rafael. Rafael had only come moments before and he was trying to help Miko with some of her own work.

"Yes, what about you?" "I got more since I didn't show up for that stupid test." The look on Juliana showed that she was neither surprised, which after spending so much time with Miko I wasn't either, but that she was also disappointed. "Maybe if you actually studied Miko you might do better in class and not have the hassle of all this." Rafael said as he closed their books.

"Do you think that is ever going to happen Raf? Miko is way too pig-headed for that to come true." Juliana said as she gently tossed a pillow at Miko with a smile. "pig-headed?! I am not pig-headed!" Miko shouted and tossed the pillow angrily back at Juliana who quickly jumped off the couch and missed the incoming pillow entirely . this impressed everyone, even me, at her sudden speed.

"Oh yes you are. And nothing is going to change my mind." Juliana teased Miko and it caused Miko jump up from the couch and begin to chase her around screaming 'I am not!'; catching everyone's optics who were here to watch.

"Optimus, can I speak with you a moment?" turning around I saw Ratchet but he had this startling look on him. "What is it Ratchet?" but the way Ratchet looked over at the others, who were still watching Juliana and Miko running around the room, I understood that he meant alone.

As we stepped out of the room, Ratchet somehow led me to the energon storage room. "What is it Ratchet and why have you brought me here?" I asked as Ratchet placed a servo on the door. "Optimus, what I am about to show you I have no clue as to how it happened but this concerns all of us. Just… try to hold it in."

I was a little confused when Ratchet said the last part but when he opened the door and turned on the lights, I couldn't help but try to follow his advice.

"By the All Spark." What I was looking at was nothing more than putrid. There on the floor was an energon cube, it stood there with the others but what made this one different from the rest was what the color was.

The cube was a sickly gray, with an open top bubbling out the gray liquid. There was steam coming off the cube with each popping bubble and the smell was nothing more than death itself.

My better instincts told me to back away from the putrid cube but I knew this needed to be investigated. Stepping closer to the cube, but not to close, I tapped the side of it and watched as it caused the cube to bubble wildly and almost splatter on my chassis.

"Ratchet, what is this? What could cause something like this?" I asked as I stepped away from the cube. "To be honesty Optimus, I was hoping you would know." Ratchet said as he and I studied the gray bubbling cube before us.

Never in my life's time have I seen something anything close to this. But whatever had caused this, I knew right away, needed to be dealt with. And quickly.

Another CHPTR come and gone.

What do you guys think. I'll leave it to your reviews to tell me. But Please, KIND words. X)