Chapter 4
I was woken the next morning by the sound of heavy snoring. The next thing I noticed was a heavy weight around my waist, that certainly hadn't been there when I'd fallen asleep the night before. It took me a moment to realise that the source of both of these was Optimus. Whether consciously or unconsciously, he had his arm around my waist. I gently picked up his hand between my thumb and forefinger, and dropped his arm over his head. He stirred slightly, and went right on snoring. I awkwardly climbed out of the bed and got out of that tiny room.
"So you survived your first night, eh?"
I turned to face Sentinel uncertainly. There was still something about him that I didn't quite trust.
"Come with me. Optimus will hopefully give you the full tour when he eventually wakes up, but I'll show you to the training grounds." He led me outside. "So have you made your decision?"
"Yes."
"And? Are you going to become an Autobot?"
I looked at him.
"I'll do it."
He smiled a satisfied smile that I didn't trust, and led me right up to a barrier a little way outside the village.
"This is all we've got in ways of training grounds, I'm afraid." He told me as we looked out across the territory. "As I recall, Optimus was quite fond of doing all of his training by the small stream round the side of the village. I may be wrong, but I think he'll want to do your training with you there."
I nodded.
"Do you know what a Dreamer is, Clara?"
"Yes." I said stiffly, feeling my body tense. Did he know?
"Did your father tell you?" he asked, clearly surprised that I knew.
"No. One of the medics in my village."
He nodded. He looked like he wanted to say more, but Optimus chose that moment to make an appearance.
"You missed another drill last night, Optimus." Sentinel said, not looking round.
"I was dead to the world last night, Sentinel." Optimus replied, winking at me as he mimicked the way Sentinel had spoken. I smiled.
Sentinel rolled his eyes, not noticing, and looked at me.
"Most drills are at night, as I'm sure Ironhide would've told you, but you don't have to worry about them until you're settled in." he glanced at Optimus. "Word of advice, don't let him drag you into any of his rule breaking schemes. Aside from that you should be fine." He wandered off, leaving me alone with Optimus, who joined me at the barrier.
"So you're staying?" he asked cheerfully.
"Yep."
He looked at me.
"Sorry about last night, if you took it the wrong way."
I gave him a questioning look. I honestly didn't have a clue what he was talking about.
"It's not you, I just don't want to teach….in general. I don't have a clue what I'm doing."
I didn't say anything. I didn't know what to say. I didn't want to make anything worse than it already was. I was starting to really like Optimus.
"I'm sorry about earlier." Someone said behind us.
"Right. I'm outta here. Come and find me when you're done." Optimus said immediately, disappearing.
I blinked and turned to Arcee.
"The way I was treating you….I was talking to Sideswipe about it last night….I just wanted you to know I'm sorry about it. It wasn't your fault."
"That's okay." I said quietly. "Don't worry about it."
She smiled.
"How many Autobots are there?" I asked her, since the village was as deserted now as it had been when I'd got there the night before.
"Not many. You, me, Optimus, Sentinel, Sideswipe, Ironhide, Ratchet and Roxy are the only ones based here. I've only seen one Autobot that isn't from this village, but there are probably more."
"Who's your teacher?" I asked her curiously.
"Ironhide." She replied. "Obviously, Sentinel is Optimus' teacher, and Ratchet teaches Sideswipe. Roxy doesn't have a teacher, since she's a leopard."
I nodded. I hadn't been sure what to think of Arcee at first, but I was starting to like her.
"Well, if you're Optimus' student now, we might be able to get him out of his constant moodiness." She suggested, "After all, you've got to live with him."
"Good point. Does he ever laugh?"
Arcee shook her head.
"Not that I've heard." She replied. "Speaking of which, you've gotta get going. He'll be waiting for you."

Arcee took me to Optimus, who was waiting about 5 minutes walk away from the village, exactly where Sentinel had said he would be. She left as soon as he came into sight, since the two didn't get on at the moment.
"We'll start with the Rules of Conduct." Optimus said when I got there. It was clear that he was almost as nervous as I was. "There are currently 15 Rules of Conduct, but Sentinel, or whoever the leader is at the time, is able to change them whenever he wants, so long as he has the support of most of the Autobots in the village. So, all you have to do is memorise them, and follow them to the best of your ability, and you'll be fine."
He told me the rules, and we worked on memorising the first 5, then Optimus took me back up to the village to find Ironhide. Sentinel found us and booted Optimus off on a mission, and Ratchet gave me directions. So I was alone when I entered Ironhide's workshop. Optimus must've told him I would be coming, because he had a table already piled with guns.
"Right!" he said happily, leading me over to the table, where Arcee was waiting. "I've got to find you a weapon of some kind, so we'll start with guns. Most people are gun people."
He picked up a random gun from the table and gave it to me, explaining how different people take to different kinds of weapon, unless you were someone like Optimus, who was good with all kinds of weapons.
"Most people, like myself and Arcee, take to guns." Ironhide was saying as we worked. "Being a medic, Ratchet isn't expected to fight as much, so he just uses whatever he has at his disposal at the time, but he is mostly a gun person. Sideswipe prefers axes and clubs. Nobody really takes to swords, unless you count Optimus."
After about two and a half hours, we'd gone through all of the guns on the table. None of them had felt right to me. They were all too long, or too heavy. Besides, I didn't feel comfortable using a gun, even if it was the right weight and length. Ironhide had said that the perfect weapon would feel like an extension of my arm, but none of them felt like that.
"You're not a gun person." Ironhide said happily as we cleared everything away.
Well, some weapons genius. I could figure that out by myself. I caught Arcee's eye and we both grinned. Still Ironhide seemed to like this job. He was thrilled at the prospect of a challenge.
It was getting dark when I finally left. By the time I got back to the room I shared with Optimus, he still wasn't back from his mission. But I was happy. For the first time since I was 7. For the first time, I felt like I was around people who wanted to be around me. I finally felt like I belonged.
If only I knew how short-lived that feeling would be.

The first thing I knew when I woke up in the morning was that Optimus was back. He was snoring, and his arm was back around my waist. I shoved him against the wall and sat up. I guess I would have to get used to that. He'd taped a note to the inside of the door. Ironhide wanted to see me. I pulled it off and left the room. I headed straight to Ironhide's workshop. I'd got up earlier today than I had yesterday. The sun hadn't risen yet and everyone seemed to still be asleep, but it was impossible to tell in this village. Ironhide was already up, adding another axe to the already precarious pile on the table.
"I thought we'd get an early start testing the weapons. We'll get more done that way."
I nodded and we got started.
Clearly I wasn't any more of an axe person than I was a gun person, and my arms were aching badly by the end of it. Those things were heavy!
"We'll get started on clubs when Optimus is finished with you for the day." Ironhide was saying. "Until then you can…."
He tailed off, staring out through the main door of the workshop.
Ironhide's workshop was right at the edge of the village, and it was positioned so the main door, which was the whole of one of the walls, looked out over the territory.
"Nobody's out on missions." Ironhide was muttering to himself, "Who's out there?"
There were four Cybertronians coming towards the village. Judging by the way they were supporting each other, they were injured. Ironhide beckoned to me, and we ran out to see what was going on.
I didn't recognise any of them, but they all had Autobot symbols and they were all injured.
"Jazz!" Ironhide exclaimed when we got close enough to see their faces. He looked at me. "Clara, go and get Ratchet! I'll see what I can do here."
I nodded and started running. I almost tripped over Roxy when I got back to the village.
"What's wrong?" she asked me, examining my face carefully. I hadn't seen her since that first night.
I explained quickly what was going on. She nodded.
"I'll go and find Ratchet. You go back to them and let them know we're coming."
I ran back the way I'd come. Ironhide was helping the small group up the hill towards the village. There was an urgency about them, like they were anxious to tell us something, but didn't think it was safe to tell us here.
At that moment Roxy arrived with Ratchet.
By the time we got back to the village Jazz was completely unconscious. Ratchet took the four into the building that had been designated as the hospital, and I waited outside for something to happen. Ironhide and Roxy went back to whatever work they had to do for the day. After a few minutes Sentinel and Optimus got there. Sentinel went inside to find out what was going on while Optimus waited with me. We were both anxious. It was clear that those Autobots had been attacked from something on the way there, and the whole village might be under threat. Optimus and I were both tense, expecting a fight at any minute. I didn't know what I was going to do if it did come to that, since I'd never been in a fight in my life, and I didn't even have a weapon. I would just get in the way. But some part of me wanted to prove myself to Optimus. That part was half hoping for a fight, and that scared me. After what seemed like hours Sentinel finally came out.
"There are a couple of Decepticons at the edge of the territory." He said to Optimus. "I don't know how they got permission to get on Rogue land, but either way. Take Clara and keep an eye on them for a while. It's a recon mission, if they come on Autobot land you have permission to fight them to keep them off, otherwise they must not know that you're there."