The last chapter took me the whole day to write. I got stuck on many parts of the story, but I got the chapter out. I'm running low on creative juices and the plot bunnies are running away and not to me.

Where's my muse? Has anyone seen her lately? :)

Sorry if the last chapter seemed hurried, but I think things just moved faster than I had anticipated. This chapter will be much slower and less hurried.

Chapter Eight

Sunstreaker's Apartment

Barricade stood in front of me in his bi-pedal mode and I looked up at him. His eyes dimmed as if in deep thought. I wasn't alone because Sideswipe didn't want to leave me without protection. He was sitting on the couch watching our interaction.

I stood on a table while Barricade thought of what to say. "Danielle." He said softly. "You have my apologies."

I shook my head. "It's too late. It doesn't-No matter how many times you apologize, Barricade, that won't bring them back." I said on the verge of crying. "You killed my parents! All for what? The gemstones? The artifacts? Why couldn't you just leave well enough alone?"

Sideswipe stood up to intervene.

"Huh! Answer me!" I said angrily. "You murdered my parents! All for what?" I hissed. "All for what? Just to see me crack? Just to see some poor fourteen year old child cry her eyes out!" I wiped my eyes angrily.

"You have every right to be angry, Danielle." Barricade admitted.

"Angry? Angry isn't the way I feel now! I feel-um, deceived! You deceived me! You expected me to just sit back, relax, and pretend that everything's well!" I said. "Go! Go away! Leave me alone! I don't want to talk to you!" I walked across the table and gestured to Sideswipe. He walked over to me and held out his hand for me. "Prowl wants to speak to you, Barricade."

"I know."

Sideswipe took me a small room that was supposed to be a supply closet. For now, I had called the supply closet, my room until they could move my furniture. Sideswipe closed the door halfway so that I wouldn't feel completely alone which I did feel anyway!

-0-

Barricade's POV

I walked back to my apartment and found Prowl and Pierce speaking to one another. Apparently, my order for Pierce didn't have any effect on the boy. I looked at him and then gestured for him to go back to bed.

"Barricade. It is urgent I discuss discipline with you."

"Discipline me?"

"Yes. You should have disclosed no information on Danielle's parental units. It was not your place to tell her."

"She found out! I had nothing to do with her finding out about her parental units."

"You are saying that she found out by herself?"

"No."

"Do not lie!" Prowl warned. "I have told Danielle that we are lie detectors."

"Alright! I told her! Did you not think I wasn't feeling guilty! I am guilty enough. That's why I saved Pierce from his step-parental units."

"You saved one boy." Prowl said. "But you cannot save all boys who went through that kind of harm. I am not here to discipline the humans. I am here to discipline you for not obeying my orders to stay in your apartment."

"I chased after her because I wanted to apologize to her."

"If you had wanted to talk to Danielle, you should have commed me!"

"So you're saying I shouldn't roam around in my Alt-Form-"

"You are under house arrest! You leave your apartment one more time, I will bring you to the brig and leave you there for a week!"

"Fine!" Barricade said. "But you can't stop free will from humans. Dani will come to me when she feels like it! So don't stop her!"

"Danielle has other plans going for her." Prowl said, leaving the apartment.

Barricade sat down on the metal couch, trying to figure out what Prowl meant about that. ::Destroyer? Can I speak to you in the living room?:: He commed the Mech.

::Certainly.::

Within five seconds, Destroyer walked into the living room and sat down next to him. Destroyer sensed there was something bothering Barricade and wondered what discontent there was between Prowl and Danielle.

"What's wrong?"

"Does Omron have room on his ship?"

"Yes, why?"

Barricade looked at Destroyer. "I'm a well known Decepticon and you're an Ex-Decepticon-"

"And you want to join this faction?" Destroyer asked.

"Yes." Barricade said.

"I killed many Mechs and that was before Megatron came to power."

"You mean you were programmed-"

"I was programmed to murder by a criminal known as Mastermine. He needed a Young Cybertronian to carry out his plans. Well, I developed my skills in sabotage, telepathy, mind games, murder, and reprogramming Cybertronian minds. Half of Mastermines' Mechs were reprogrammed by me. I had those Mechs turn on him and then tried to turn on me. They didn't have time to kill me because I released a virus into their central processing units. They died." Destroyer said. "Shortly after that, I learned of a Mech who decided that he was better than everyone around him. I used my skills of mind games to impress this Mech who inducted me into the Decepticons. The only one who couldn't get to me was Soundwave. Soundwave and I had a working relationship because we were both good at what we do. He taught me how to use my telepathy to bend the wills of other Mechs." Destroyer paused. "After many years of his tutelage, I managed to work my way into spying because I was good at being silent and very sneaky. I managed to break into security and hack into files. When I had finished hacking into the system, I sneaked out of the base and reported to Omron about what I had learned. Omron then asked for supporters who wanted to preserve the Cybertronian race before we were wiped out from an oncoming war. Setting up supplies and stealing a ship was what we did. We left Cybertron with hopes of finding ways to prevent other species becoming involved in a war.

"When we found a planet called, Earth, we found that we were already too late. Megatron brought the war to Earth. We didn't want any part in it and did something else. We watched, but felt if we intervened, something bad would have happened."

Barricade wondered if Destroyer knew about him. "Do you know about me?"

"No. We were more interested in Megatron."

"Why?"

"To see how far he'd go. Apparently, he went too far with The Fallen."

"What about Overseer? Where does he play in this?"

"Overseer was an older cybertronian who ran monitor duty and was security chief. He was doing what I was doing, infiltration!"

"But you said you weren't involved in the war."

"No. We had to find out what was going on between the Autobots and Decepticons. We didn't infiltrate the Autobots because they had different ideals. They weren't as greedy as Megatron. Megatron was after power and conquering a lesser species."

Barricade knew that Megatron wanted to enslave humanity, but he didn't think it would happen if the Autobots weren't there to stop it. Barricade only met a few humans who showed youthfulness and ambitiousness.

"I know." Barricade answered softly.

"Is it true?" Destroyer asked, changing the subject. "Is it true? Did you murder Danielle Evans' parental units?"

Barricade looked at Destroyer. "Yes."

Unbeknownst to them, Pierce had heard the whole thing. He feared for his life and sneaked out of the apartment. He went directly to Sideswipe and Sunstreaker's apartment as quick as his legs could carry him. Even though his body hurt, he wanted to get away from that Decepticon. He walked right into the apartment without being seen or noticed. He found Dani's room immediately and knocked lightly. "Come in." Dani's strained voice said. Pierce walked into her room.

Dani turned around and shot up. "Oh! Pierce! Lay down! What are you doing here?"

Pierce lay down on her bed. "Is it true? Your parents? Gone?"

"Yes."

"I heard! Barricade murdered your parents. He just confessed his crime to Destroyer!"

"Good!" Dani said bitterly.

"Dani. I'm scared of him too. If he can hurt your parents, then he can hurt us! We've got to do something! We need to-"

Dani's attitude just changed in a flash. "If you think letting him go will solve everything, it doesn't. Don't you know that if he goes back to the Decepticons, Autobot City will be in danger? He should stay because he knew where the City is. He's been living in it for a little bit. Robots are sponges. They soak up information and process it. He will not forget. He'll remember everything about the City."

"He's under house arrest, though."

"No way."

"Yes. I heard Prowl say to him he was, but why isn't he locked up in the brig, Dani? He did a crime against humanity."

"I don't know. Maybe it's a chance to redeem himself."

"I don't know." Pierce answered. "But I sure don't want to stay with him. Who knows what kind of 'things' he'll do whenhe finds out I found out by overhearing them?"

"You eavesdropped on a 'Con?" I asked.

"Yes. It was so easy-"

"And bound to get you into trouble." A new voice interrupted from the door.

We both jumped. Pierce and I looked up at the black Mech standing there with both arms across his chest. "Hi, Ironhide."

"Don't you 'Hi' me."

I jumped and asked, "What?"

"You misbehaved in the worst possible way this morning."

"I did it for good reason."

"Come with me, Danielle Evans. You stay where you are Pierce Antony." Ironhide grumbled.

I followed Ironhide out into the warm sunlight. "What is it?"

He transformed into his vehicle form and opened his passenger side door. "In!"

I hesitated and then climbed into his seat. "If this is about the way-"

"Quiet. Teacher is talking now. You have misbehaved in the worst possible way imaginable. You have knocked on doors of two apartments belonging to two Autobots who were in the middle of recharging, screaming out 'Optimus' at the top of your lungs, and then running into the main hangar. You were very disrespectful and inconsiderate and no pupil of mine will do that! You will apologize to both Mechs and then you will spend the remainder of your time doing chores-"

"That's not fair! Didn't-"

"Be quiet!" Ironhide ordered. "Your chores will be to clean the human dining room and taking the trash out. You will spend extra time with me-"

"But didn't YOU-"

"Danielle Evans!" He rarely used my first and last name unless he was serious and angry. He rarely lost his mood when it came to me and I feeling the same kind of hurt when I found out Barricade had murdered my parents.

I bit my lip and looked down at his floorboards. I felt like crying and finally said, "I've got to go to the bathroom now." I said it very quietly. He let me go and I rushed to the bathroom. I closed the door and didn't bother to lock it. I put down the lid and sat on the toilet, trying to keep from crying. Tears flowed down my cheeks and then suddenly, I couldn't hold it off any longer. I slid off the toilet, holding my hands to my eyes, and cried. It wasn't until I felt someone's arms wrap around me, did I realize I wasn't alone. I cried on someone's shoulder and when I realized who it was that held me, I cried even harder. It was Ironhide! He had sensed something wrong and came to check on me. I hugged him and he soothed, "Let it out, Danielle. It'll be all right. Just let it out."

It took forever to get me to stop crying and when I did stop, I was red, puffy, and tired. I fell asleep in Ironhide's cab.

::Ironhide to Optimus.::

::Did you find her?:: Optimus

::I did and she's distraught! Very distraught. What do we do with Barricade? She knows and so does Pierce.::

::We give him sanctuary. If he goes back to the Decepticons, he'll tell them where our City is and we cannot risk that, old friend. I will inform Barricade that Pierce is safe in Danielle's room.::

::Yes. I proceeded to scold and lecture Danielle about what she did this morning. She was pretty upset about that.::

::You scolded and lectured her?::

::Yes.::

::Scold and lecture her gently. She just found out something bad and it's not her fault.::

::I lectured her and scolded her a bit harshly. I think that's what caused her to get distraught, but she has tired herself out. She's taking a nap in my cab.::

::Very well, Ironhide. Are you going to wait for her to wake up from her nap?::

::I'm driving to my apartment and then I'll wait for her to wake up from her nap.::

::All right. Keep me posted. Optimus out.::

-0-

Regular POV

Ironhide drove into his apartment and gently transformed. He held Dani's sleeping form in his palm. Then he set her on a small cot and waited for her to wake up from her nap. Ironhide decided he'd clean his weapons and polish them while he waited. He didn't want to waste time and what better way to clean his weapons? He took his arm cannon and detached it. He took out his polishing cloth and cleaner. He went ahead and cleaned it, all the while, keeping a sensor on Dani.

He hadn't meant to be so strict to her and cause her to become upset. He just wanted to let her know her behavior was very unacceptable and could lead to a punishment like grounding or assigning her chores to keep her busy and out of trouble. Ironhide looked over to Dani. She was still asleep. He took his time to polish his arm cannon and then after that, he worked on his smaller weapons.

When Ironhide finished his weapons cleaning, he left the living room for a minute to drink some Energon. He watched her sleep while sipping a cube. His eye ridges narrowed when he saw something on Dani's arm. Engaging his holoform, he walked over to the cot and looked carefully at her arm. A darkening bruise formed on her upper arm. He gently traced the bruise from her elbow to her upper arm.

::Sideswipe! What the slag did you do to Dani?:: Ironhide commed.

::What did I do to Dani? I didn't do anything. Why?::

::You tell me! Have you beat my pupil?"

::Beat your pupil? Of course not! I'm not that reckless and neither is my brother!::

::What about Barricade?::

::I watched his interaction.::

::So it wasn't him.:: Ironhide gently touched the bruise earning him a slight moan from Dani.

::No.::

::I'm contacting Ratchet.::

Ironhide contacted Ratchet and the medic asked for a picture of the bruise. Ironhide took a picture of the bruise and sent it to Ratchet. Within five seconds, Ratchet confirmed that he needed to make sure it wasn't internal. ::I'm on the way to your apartment, Ironhide.::

::The door's open.::

-0-

Ratchet drove into Ironhide's apartment and transformed into his robot form. He walked over to the table with the cot. He scanned Dani's arm thoroughly. "The bruise is a mystery." Ratchet said. "There's no trauma."

"But she moans when I touched it."

Ratchet raised an optic ridge. "There's no trauma or signs of an internal bleed. So it just appeared?"

"Yes. I hadn't touched her arm and Sideswipe said he didn't touch her either."

"Hmm. How long has she been asleep?"

"For about two hours."

"Two hours?"

"Well, I polished my weapons and she was still asleep then."

"She's just sleeping out of exhaustion. She'll wake when she's good and ready."

"Exhaustion?"

"Yes. She's exhausted herself and the tragic knowledge of her finding out her parents were murdered by Barricade."

"Then why is Barricade still here?" Ironhide ground out. "Why!"

Dani grimaced in her sleep and said, "Stop." They looked at her and saw she was still asleep.

Dani had heard them and they were driving her crazy. Their voices might have been low, but to her, their voices were louder than usual.

Ironhide and Ratchet walked away and continued their conversation outside.

"Do not tell Dani anything." Ratchet said. "He's here for a reason that Prime does. Maybe it's because of Destroyer and Overseer. They're both ex-decepticons and very much like Jazz."

"So you believe that Destroyer and Overseer's here to recruit him?"

"Perhaps and perhaps not." Ratchet answered. "Their intentions are questionable. Why come to Earth now and not intervene in this war? If their intentions are peaceful, then we've got nothing to fear from them and this so called leader, Omron. Omron could be like Megatron."

"I think we should approach Optimus about this."

"Not until Dani's awake and away from here. Then we can host our investigation on Destroyer and Overseer."

"You don't believe that they're here on peaceful intentions?"

"No. I think they're here for a different kind of intention. I believe they're here for their own investigation and they'd report back to Omron once they get what they came for."

"Why are they 'here' in the first place?"