After (Bethany's POV)

I hate Sunstreaker. Hate him. Love the mech to death, but I hate him. He plagues my mind as I curl up in the corner of the old storage room that contains nothing but dust and a huge old box, my knees to my chest as my fingers draw odd symbols in the dust around my spot. I glance around at all of what I've written, now and from previous visits. A light coat of dust coats the older ones, seeing as I haven't had to come here in almost a month.

Last time the reason I came was also because of Sunstreaker. Optimus had come and found me just sitting in this corner, drawing weird symbols. He seemed startled when he saw me in the room, and even more so when he saw my drawings. He had inquired why I was there.

"Because Sunny was yelling at me." I whisper, pulling my knees tighter to my chest with my thin arms.

Optimus turns on his holoform, a tall, russet colored haired man in a red sports jacket and blue jeans with peircing ice blue eyes. The man kneels before me in the dust and eyes me with a heavily worried expression. "Why?" He asks, his eyes never leaving my own. I try to avert my gaze, but his hand grips my chin and forces me to face him once more. "You can tell me, Beta."

I give a small smile at the name only a reserved few are allowed to call me. "It was nothing, OP."

He looks at me for a second before doing something that shocks me.

He pulls me into a tight hug with his holoform. One hand holds me close as the other runs it's- amazingly solid- fingers through my hair, brushing my bangs farther from my face. His eyes gaze into my own and loving crosses through them, and a wave of it also flows over me.

"You don't have to be strong around me, Beta. You should know this." He attempts to comfort.

I snuggle my head against his chest, wrapping my arms around his red-clad torso. "I know. But, I have to around others." I sigh, tightening my grasp around the mech's holoform. "I don't even remember why, but I just know that I do. I bet you know how it feels, don'tcha?"

"I do, little one, I do. But, it is because I have many soldiers beneath me who look up to me for good advice in a time of need, not someone whose emotions get the better of them. So, I have to be calm." He whispers into my ear as he holds me close, much like a father might hold their child.

"I know," I reply, burying my face in red fabric. It is so soft and smooth for merely being a holoform. "Thanks, Da-Optimus." I quickly catch the odd slip-up, praying to every god out there that Optimus will not notice.

I can catch a quick flash of something- sadness, I think- in his eyes as I look up at him, but the emotion is immediately gone. He gives me a nod before speaking, "You are very welcome, Beta. But, I wish to ask you a few things."

I feel my heart skip a beat as I look away before nodding an okay, unable to speak. I stare blankly at some of the random symbols I drew. Optimus does not make me turn and face him this time.

"Why did you come here?"

I sit there silently for a second before reaching one of my hands to a symbol on the ground, and I retrace over it. I sigh, "I just... Feel whole when I'm here. It's really confusing, I know." I wrap my arm back around him, snuggling my head against his chest once more. For some reason, he seems oddly tense.

After a second of awkward silence, he relax and asks another question, "Do you know what those symbols are?"

I look up at him, confused beyond belief. My head tilts a little to the side, "What do you mean? They're just random little doodles for me."

He grabs my shoulders, and holds me away slightly, but I still stay seated on his lap. "Beta, that is Cybertronian. Do you want to know what it says?"

"Cybertronian?" He gives me a curt nod, and I can see the immense pain in his optics. "Can you really tell me what it says?" Another nod. "Well, can you please translate them?"

He sighs, and motions for me to stand. I do so, careful not to step on my precious doodles, Optimus simply deactivating his holoform. His mech form extends a digit to one symbol in the dust and looks at me with ice blue optics. "This symbol means 'to apologize' or 'I apologize', depending on how you use it. In this case, it means 'I apologize'." He motions to the rest, "This is all of the things you are apologizing for."

I look up at him after retracing the one symbol he pointed out. "Can you read them all to me?"

"Sure. This one..."

I sigh as I finish tracing one last symbol in the dust. I remember what this symbol means: Love. It doesn't look like it should mean love, but it does. It looks like it would mean death or something. But, that one looks a lot different.

I look up as the door creaks open and metallic footsteps echo off of the surfaces. I smile as the mech comes into view, "Hey, Optimus. Fancy seeing you here."

He looks at me and worry seems to cloud his optics, before his optics rest upon a phrase written closest to me. He leans down a little and smirks, pointing at the symbols. "Aren't you a little too young for that?" Sometimes, I do enjoy how normal Optimus acts around me. Right now, however, I do not.

I frown, my eyebrows furrowing. "You find this funny?" I grip my knees to my chest tightly, frustrated by the fact that the yellow mech is once again on the forefront of my mind. "The fraggin' mech pisses me off sometimes."

Optimus chuckles before activating his holoform. The man sits next to me on a patch of empty, but dust-covered, concrete floor. He places his left arm around my shoulders and pulls me so I'm leaning my red mess of hair on his shoulder. "Sunstreaker cares about you. It is obvious that he does. He just has a temper." He catches the frustrated look I am giving him and continues, "I'm not excusing his behavior; he does need to get some self-control. I am simply stating the facts. How long have you known Sunstreaker now?"

"2 years. That I remember, anyways." As I say this, Optimus tenses up, and a look of pure sadness crosses his typically stoic face. "Bossbot?"

"Beta, tell me what is the first memory you have." He orders somberly.

"Of you, Elita and 'Bee." I answer, not even thinking twice about my reply.

"And your next."

"Sunny, Sides and 'Bee."

"Have you not noticed anything weird about these memories?" He grabs my shoulders and moves me so I'm before him.

I sit there and stare at the the oddly desperate holoform. "Well, of course I have. There isn't a single human in any of them, and everyone seems so much... Different. Except for Sunny. His only difference is his height. And, that day I got really hurt. My dad doesn't sound... Well, like I assume he would. His voice sounds like... Well, someone else I know. I just can't pinpoint who." I furrow my eyebrows once more, frown, and scrunch my nose up a bit. My eyes meet the holoform's once more, "Why does it matter?"

He simply shakes his head before his holoform disappears. I turn my attention to the mech beside the door and give him a questioning look. His optics linger on me, and a feeling of hurt and betrayal passes over me as he averts his gaze and walks away.

And I begin to write another set of symbols. I only know a few symbols, but this is what the part I understand says:

"I'm sorry ... Almost died. I didn't want to argue that ... I'm sorry I can't remember. I'm sorry that... Die, again. I'm sorry, Dad."

I don't even understand what I mean in most of the words I can translate, but I know that I do in fact mean it.

Dinner at the N.E.S.T. compound is much like it would be at your average high school. Everyone going through lines to get food and to the vending machines for drinks. There were dozens of tables, most human sized, but there were a few transformer sized ones. That was one of the obvious differences. The other was all the soldiers. High schools don't generally have soldiers.

Then, of course, there is me and my family. We always eat with Lennox and Epps, along with their families. I'm older than all of their kids, but it's still really fun to hang with them. They are pretty funny, but not quite as funny as Sunny, Sides, and 'Bee.

I hear the clanking of one 'Bot pushing another over, then a chorus of metallic laughter. I look up, red bangs just slightly blocking my view. What I see through the red makes me fall on the cold, concrete floor laughing. All eyes were on me for a second, as I roll on the disgusting floor laughing at the sight in the doorway.

Sunstreaker with a bucket over his head and pink paint dripping down his face and chest plates. Needless to say, the vain mech looks PISSED.

"Sunny- Ha!- You look- Hahaha!- Like, A FEMME!" I manage to get out between tears and laughter.

The mech glares at me from where he desperately get some of the paint off with his 'handy dandy rag.' His eyes fall upon the rag and then to me, and a smirk I know too well dance upon his faceplate. "Maybe I should help YOU look like a femme instead of... Well, you."

And in a second, my face is covered by a pink paint-drenched rag, some of it even entering my mouth. I stay still in shock as the people at my typical table laugh at our antics.

"It is ON, Sunstreaker," I choke out as everyone laughs at my now pink hair and the angry expression on my face.

"Like to see you try, Beta!" Sunstreaker calls back as he smirks at me. He gives me a thumbs up, before realizing that his thumb is pink and turning to smack his brother upside the helm. "You slaggin' glitchhead! How would you like it if I messed up your paintjob?"

Sideswipe cringes away, "It was just a prank, bro. Chill. It'll come off."

"It'll come off? Chill? Is that all you have to say for yourself, you-" Sunstreaker begins to go on one of his seemingly random psychotic rages.

"Sunstreaker! Calm down, NOW!" I yell, standing up and pulling the huge polishing rag off of my once red hair.

The mech whips around, and his optics seem haunted. Sideswipe and the other Autobots in the cafeteria have a similar expression on their faceplates. It makes it even worse to see Optimus and Elita staring at me like I'm some alien lifeform; I'm kind of used to it from the others.

"B-beta?" Sunstreaker seems to choke out the nickname. "Is that... You?"

"What'd you mean, Sunny?" I ask, confusion really taking over now. What the hell is going on? I look around the now silent cafeteria, only to see everyone else is looking at me like...

Like they're scared.

"Beta, you just spoke-" Sunstreaker begins, but is cut-off by his twin.

"-in Cybertronian."

BUM BUM BUM!