Okay, here's the next chapter! I'm planning to have my update as frequent as possible, and it's been a really slow and boring day for me, so here we go!

When I managed to get over the initial shock, Ratchet scanned me again, and then let me go. I didn't say anything to him; I had nothing to say to him. I walked out of the Med Bay and slowly headed down the deserted hallway. I was still a little sore in my head and my back, but I just ignored it. My mind was still too clouded with mixed feelings to even feel it. To be honest, I had no idea what to feel at this point.

Should I be angry? Sad? Hurt? My fists clenched as this sudden wave of confusion made me overwhelmingly ticked off. My eyes stung with tears, but I squeezed them shut to blink them away. I had to get my anger out somehow. I took off running to my desired destination.

I made it to the shooting range, panting. My hopes were realized; Ironhide wasn't there. No one was. I walked over to where the soldiers kept their weapons and grabbed my two high-powered hand guns; which were specially made for me. They're pretty cool, all I have to do is press a button and they can shrink down to fit in my pocket. Push another button and clash them together and I've got a plasma canon!

I turned my face to the target area on the other side of the room, the lone dummy of a pathetic-looking Con sat there. My anger rose, I clenched my weapons, aimed, and cocked them. I fired.

First shot- missed.

Second shot- missed.

Frustrated, I let out a suppressed growl and clashed my weapons together, forming the large canon. Because of the length and size of it, the back end sat on my shoulder while I held the handle with the trigger and aimed at the dummy that sat there, silently mocking me. I let out a battle cry and shot a large blast from my weapon and got my desired effect; the dummy blew up.

With a few clicks and whirs, my canon transformed back into my twin guns, but I kept them up, almost thinking the dummy was going to come back to life. I lowered them slightly, panting, when the smoke cleared to reveal a black scorch mark on the ground where the dummy once stood. An impressed whistle almost made me drop them and I gasped before I managed to keep a hold of them, and turned around.

I looked over and saw Lennox walk over, a look of surprise clearly written on his face.

"Wow, and I thought Hide had anger issues." He chuckled softly. I just stared at him with a 'tell-me-what-you-want-or-I'll-shoot-you' look. He gave a nervous chuckle and rubbed the back of his head.

"Yeah, anyways, the guys and I were planning a little get-together down at the beach and we're all going to go, including the bots." When I went back to re-loading my weapons with a look of un-interest, he added, "There's going to be a BBQ." He added in a sing-song voice.

That got my attention. I loved BBQ's, but I was so stubborn that I always wanted to win. I kept my moody face, but looked over to him.

"Will there be shis-ka-bobs?" I grumbled. Those were my absolute favorites!

Of course, Will saw through me. "As many as you can eat. And we'll have those little individual sandwiches." My head snapped up, my eyes widened.

"Okay fine, I'll go." I gave in.

"Great! We'll leave at sunset!" With that, he left. I stared after him. When he was gone, I sighed, my depressed mood sinking in.

I really didn't want to go; not if the other bots were going. My eyes narrowed a bit at the floor at this thought.

Did I not want to go because of the Bots going, or was it because Sunstreaker and Ratchet were going. My guns remained at my side as I thought about not going. Then again, I did promise Will that I would go. I wasn't too sure. I let out another sigh, deciding that I would have to face them sooner or later, but I wasn't going to hang out with them.

No, I wasn't about to forgive them so easily.

I cocked my guns and aimed. I shot the wall at low power, leaving a scorch mark.

At Sunset

We made it to the beach and I hopped out of Optimus. I decided that, since I was still a little peeved at Ratchet and Sunny, I would ride in the boss bot. When I landed on the ground, I stared at the beautiful sunset and I smiled. The beach was really gorgeous.

"It's really something, huh?" a deep, yet calming, voice asked from behind me and I gave a startled yelp and turned around to see Optimus' holoform smiling down at me.

He was at least 6'4" with short brown hair. He wore a black shirt with a blue jacket with red flames, jeans, and cowboy boots. He looked hot for someone in their mid-forties. I blushed a little when I realized I was staring and turned away. He chuckled.

"This planet has so many unique qualities to it sometimes makes us forget about the war that's happening around it." I looked up at him in surprise. He was staring off at the sunset. "My men are even starting to take a liking into this planet. Especially Sunstreaker." He whispered the last sentence to himself, but I heard it, and I couldn't help but feel shocked.

'Sunny? He likes this planet? He's always told me he hated it.' I thought. I turned around and noticed both sets of twins' holoforms having an all-out splash fight in the ocean. I couldn't help but smile a little at the sight. They looked like they were having so much fun. For some reason, I felt a longing in my chest to join them, but, unfortunately, my stubbornness wouldn't allow me. Optimus must have sensed my current predicament and placed his hand on my shoulder, the sudden touch made me jump a little out of my thoughts and look back to him.

"There are things that even I don't know about Sideswipe and Sunstreaker, but what I do know is this: they care a great deal about you. And Sunstreaker would very well extinguish his own spark before he'd let anything happen to you." His look showed so much sincerity and genuine affection with that statement that it was nearly impossible to argue with him.

"How do you know all this, OP?" I asked, using my favorite nickname for him as I turned back to the happy group.

"Call it a creator's intuition. I may have not known those two before the war, and may not be related to them in any means, but they are still young and at times I feel as if they are my own sons." He paused before continuing. "And after what happened yesterday, it took some serious convincing to keep him from going after Sideways."

To say that I was shocked was an understatement. I never thought that Sunny cared that much for me. It's almost as it he-

I felt my cheeks heat up a bit.

'It's almost as if he loves me.'

The sun had already gone down and the soldiers had lightened torches to light up the beach. The BBQ had begun and everyone was eating and having a good time, all except for me.

I was sitting on a beach towel, with my black tank top and black guy shorts still on, too deep in thought to even care what was going on around me. I hugged my knees to my chest and rested my chin on my knees, just staring at the water with a distant look in my eyes. The things that Optimus told me earlier still plagued in my mind and refused to go away; and what made matters worse was that all the anger that I had felt towards my guardians earlier had disappeared. I still wasn't going to talk to Ratchet till he talked to me first, but I felt compelled to talk to Sunny.

'Why do I suddenly feel this way towards him? It's like, now whenever his name pops up in my head, my heart feels like it's going to explode?' I couldn't explain it. Did I suddenly have feelings for him?

My eyes widened at the sudden thought and I shook my head trying to get rid of it.

'No, no! That can't be! I mean, he's been my guardian ever since my mother died, and I've always looked to him as a brother.' I looked over to the group and picked out Sunny from the crowd. He was laughing and enjoying himself, like everyone else was. 'Could it be that he's always thought of me as something different?' I quickly turned away when Sunny caught my gaze. I was silently praying that he wouldn't come over to me, but of course I can't always have my way. He walked over and sat next to me.

"Hey." He said after a moment of awkward silence.

"Hey." I mumbled back.

"So…why aren't you joining the party? I mean, I thought you humans liked that sort of thing?"

I didn't make a reply for a short while. It wasn't the question that upset me, it was the words 'you humans' that stabbed through my heart; and I didn't know why.

"Well, there are some people that don't like parties, Sunstreaker." I replied with a smart-ass tone. I knew I wasn't being fair to him, but I was just trying to figure him out.

"But that doesn't apply to you." He pointed out, and he smirked when he received his prize: me pouting because he had managed to stump me. Then his face turned serious as he stared at the towel.

"I want you to go." He said quietly in a way that made me view a whole other side to him.

"Sunny-"

"I want you to have fun, with me. I want to see you smile again. You look so much prettier when you smile." His light blue eyes pierced into my brown ones and I could feel my face light on fire. He smiled lightly and put his hand on my cheek. It felt oddly warm and soft, and I nearly melted into it, but I managed to restrain myself.

"I'm sorry for lying to you, and I'm sorry for not being there when you really needed me, and I'm sorry for-" he said so fast.

"Sunny!" I cut him off. "It's okay, I'm not mad at you. If anything, I want to thank you for caring for me for so long."

He seemed a little taken back. In fact, if I didn't know any better, I'd say he was blushing only slightly, though I wasn't sure if he was aware of it.

"You mean, you're not mad at me anymore?" I had to laugh a little at his stupid question.

"Sunny, I was never mad at you to begin with." He looked at me in surprise. "I was acting really selfish today; I shouldn't be blaming you for anything."

His shock went away and was replaced with a grin. "When am I ever going to hear those words again?"

"Never, so accept it now." I laughed. We settled down a little and looked back to the party. Ratchet was yelling at Will and Epps for wanting to do a drinking contest.

"Are you going to apologize to him?" Sunny asked, and I knew exactly who he was talking about.

"Not right away. I want him to come to me." He looked at me. "I want to know if I can trust him again, and the only way I can find out is if he comes to me and apologizes. Then I can forgive and forget."

"While that's true Sam, you need to remember that you have to forgive before you forget." With that, he got up and left, leaving me by myself. I stared after him, wondering what that could possibly mean.

'Didn't I just say that?' I thought. 'I know I have to forgive him, so why would he say that?' My mind was frizzled with thoughts and stuff that I couldn't fully concentrate on the meaning.

'Is he trying to say that I forgive Sideways for what he's done? NO WAY! He knows more than anyone that I can never forgive that, that Con! Besides, he wanted to kill him just as bad as I do.'

Realization struck me.

'Maybe Sunny wasn't talking about me. Maybe he was talking about himself. But why?'

"You have to forgive in order to forget."

I replaced some of Sunny's words. "I have to forgive in order to forget."

I still didn't understand. What was Sunny trying to say?

Sunstreaker's POV

I left Sam and went back to the party, thinking about our conversation. I knew she would apologize to Ratchet sooner or later, I just hope the old man would do it soon rather than later.

I thought back to my last words that I said to her.

"You have to forgive in order to forget." Of course she wouldn't get that I was talking more about myself than about her. She would probably never be able to figure that out.

If I learned anything from being on this Primus-forsaken planet, it's that life can change in the blink of in optic, and you have to live by that human saying: You have to move on with life.

We all did that after Nina's death, even Sam was. But it was a long road before she could come to terms with it. And even I had trouble accepting the accident, and the fact that I nearly lost Sam as well.

There are still nights where I blame myself for not being there, and there are nights where I think about the what-ifs? What if I was there to take them home? What if Nina had accepted Ratchet's offer and stayed at the base? What would have happened if Sam had died?

I shudder at the thought of losing my charge. She was very important to me and my brother, hell, she was important to all of us. Losing Nina was hard enough, but losing both of them?

I knew there was no changing the past, but I can't help but feel guilt wedged deep down in my spark. Sideswipe has been bugging me about that feeling through our bond, but I kept putting it off. He knew what it was, and he knew he can never get me to talk about it.

But if I want to move on and protect Sam from Sideways, I have to forgive myself and forget the past. Otherwise, I can end up losing her.

And Primus knows I would sooner die before I let anything ever happen to her!

Hope you guys got the underlying message encoded inside! I had to put up a seemingly happy chapter to take a break from all of the depressing stuff, but I now see that I FAIL at comic relief. My life is little depressing right now, so I guess it shows up in my writing…Oh well. Hoped you enjoyed!

Next week, there's going to be major conflict and Sam's already difficult life is going to get a tad bit more difficult. Stay Tuned!