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On the way to the lower deck, I decided to pump Prowl for a little information.

"How do you keep the City safe, Prowl?"

He looked down at me. "In what way do you mean?"

"Liiike… How do you know if anybody's coming? Do you use special radar, video cameras?"

"We have powerful signature detectors. Tourists do come here occasionally, and we can't be going on high alert every time one comes by."

"So it's looking for Decepticons only? Like those mines you used to slow down the Constructicons."

"It's similar, yes." He nodded to the guard, who let us in, and we started down the stairs.

"So… does an alarm go off? If you detect a Decepticon, I mean."

"Yes. If that ever happens I suggest you go to your bunk and stay there until you're given the all clear."

"Ok." I smiled to myself. They used sensors that wouldn't detect me when I left. Mikaela could come by and pick me up without them ever knowing what happened.

When we entered the brig I felt a sense of trepidation, but I couldn't quite peg the source. Between almost getting punched in the face for talking the Seeker up and having a vague fear of the Seeker himself, I was a mess. I worked around it and came to the bars of his cell smiling.

"Hi, Skywarp."

He was off his berth and hunched by the bars instantly. "I missed you," he said faintly after a breathless moment.

I tilted my head a little. Something didn't seem right about him. "What's wrong? Do you need something?"

He shook his head, his crimson optics duller than usual. "To feel the wind," he mumbled. "Just need to fly. One minute in the air, that's all I want."

I reached through the bars without thinking, stroking his face. "It's ok, Warp. I know how you can fly again."

His eyes brightened and he looked hopeful, leaning his head into my hand. "How?"

"Just tell Optimus you agree to the treaty."

He jerked away, shaking his head. "No. Not worth it."

"But just think, the sun on your wings. Your thrusters going at full blast. The wind holding you up alone with the clouds."

"Please, don't," he sighed. "You don't understand, Bravura. If you're just here to give me this again please go."

I slowly let my arm fall back to my side of the bars. "I just want to see you in the sun again." I glanced at Prowl as inconspicuously as I could and leaned forward until my face was just inches from the bars, lowering my voice. "You could lie to them, Warp."

He leaned a little closer to me, the plates around his eyes widening. His voice barely reached my ears. "You want me freed so badly you'd ask me to lie? What about the war?"

"You already have your own problems with hurting people. I know you don't want to cause trouble, and I know you can't make promises, but I trust you to do the right thing." My logic processors were close to shorting out. Maybe it was my utter confusion about Hotrod, or my nervousness about leaving the City. Maybe I just wanted to do something bad. Whatever the case, I was doing it.

"If… if you won't think less of me for it, I will."

I was touched by the devotion, but a part of me was conniving. If he was released today and then I disappeared, they'd blame him. No, best to make him hold off.

"Just wait one more day, ok Warp?" I reached back through the bars and touched his face again. A sharp awareness had returned to his optics, and I could see that he was suspicious.

"Why? If it's ok with you, why not today?"

"I have some plans for today, and I don't want you to take the fall."

A growling noise came from deep in his chest, and he smiled wickedly. "What are you planning? Pushing someone down some stairs?"

"Huh? No, nothing like that. I'm just… well, you'll see." I patted his face gently and then withdrew to cross my arms. "I know we can work things out, with the Autobots, big guy." I said loudly. "I'll do my best to help things go smoothly."

He nodded. "I'm glad you finally understand." He finally raised his voice to something Prowl would be able to make out. "Maybe today… can you just stay with me for a little while? Can we talk?"

I looked at Prowl, and he nodded slowly. I could tell he didn't like whatever secret exchange we'd had, but he hadn't interrupted.

I smiled at the Decepticon behind the bars. "What's on your mind?"

"Why did you sand off your tattoo?"

I shifted uncomfortably. "It was kind of dangerous in a base run by humans with a grudge. I don't want to upset my hosts." When he shrugged I was a bit shocked; I'd expected outrage.

"Fine. You'll have plenty of emblems when you join the Decepticons."

I flinched. "Um, what? I'm not planning on picking sides. I'm not interested in fighting a war."

He shook his head. "You won't have to fight. It's just for convenience, so my people don't shoot you."

"Look, I plan on staying here in the base. I don't want to leave yet, and I don't want to wear anybody's badge, ok?"

Skywarp had such a smug look on his face, it just screamed Oh, you'll wear it and you'll like it, that I nearly flew at the bars in outrage. My frame shivered, and my logic processors were giving me garbles.

"D-don't treat me-me like a CHILD!"

I could see Prowl straighten up from his relaxed pose against the wall. Skywarp leaned back a little, alarmed

"What's wrong with you?"

"No-nothing. Nothing! I'm f-f-fine!"

I wasn't fine. My systems were screaming at each other, none of my processors were working right. My servos were competing for dominance when they should be working together. I was terrified and full of anger.

I backed away from the bars, bending over and grabbing my head. I rarely touched my head, and I'd never seen it. The shape of it was foreign, furthering my electronic panic.

I heard Prowl rushing to me and I flung out one hand, urging him to stay away. I backed into a wall and sank down, trying to get a hold of my computers, but I had no idea what I was doing.

"Stay right there, Bravura. I'm getting Ratchet." I heard pounding footsteps, the door slid open, and then the room was silent except for the loud electronic sounds coming from my head and chest.

I could feel Skywarp watching me, but thankfully he kept quiet. I didn't know if I could deal with another abrasive remark.

A few tortuous minutes passed. My situation didn't improve, but it didn't get worse either. I just couldn't make sense of anything. Not even my vents could figure out when to intake, and I was slowly getting warmer.

I glanced up when I heard footsteps cautiously approach me. "Bravura?" Ratchet knelt slowly, watching for a reaction.

I tried to answer, but a rolling trill escaped my throat instead of words. I slouched, clamping both hands over my mouth. Ridiculous.

"Now, now, none of that. I'm the medic, let me look."

"She could talk a minute ago. Sounded like something was on the fritz." Prowl added from a little further away.

"You haven't been interfacing with anyone have you?" Ratchet asked, gesturing for me to lie down.

I shook my head as I lay down. Except for that one time with Skywarp… I was fairly sure Ratchet knew about that. I couldn't exactly share that information for the moment, however, so I just waited for Ratchet to do his thing. He opened my chest and immediately plugged in. I could barely feel his presence in my own mash-up of system malfunctions.

"Slag it all!" He exclaimed. "Prowl, come over here please. I need a feedback interrupter. She's got a virus. Who taught you how to get online without a firewall, young lady?"

I shook my head. I didn't think Cybertronians could get regular viruses, so I hadn't worried about it. Mirage hadn't seemed concerned when he'd shown me how.

"It's not the worst I've seen, but it's wreaking havoc on her. She has absolutely no system protection… I supposed that's my fault, I should have expected it." I watched as he plugged into Prowl's wrist.

After a few seconds I could feel Ratchet pushing through my circuitry. It was hard to decide what it felt like when he managed to purge each infected system, but it was kind of close to ice water swirling in and then warming to a cool chill.

It took over a half an hour for him to clear out my system, and another fifteen minutes to establish firewalls. I couldn't feel them unless I looked for them.

Ratchet ran one final system check before unplugging from Prowl and me. He clicked my chest shut and sighed. "There, that shouldn't happen again. I'm wondering how you managed to find a Cybertronian virus on the Internet."

I sat up and tried my voice; it worked. "I don't know. I didn't go anywhere weird."

"Were you instant messaging strangers, or e-mailing?"

"I e-mailed Bumblebee a few times, but he wouldn't send me a virus."

Ratchet rubbed his face with a scraping sound. "You younglings have got to learn Internet safety. E-mail's absolutely unreliable. If there were any viruses floating on the mainframe they could've latched on and followed the message to you."

"What about Bee? Could it happen to him too?"

"Bee should be fine, I set up his security suite myself." Ratchet rose to his feet, Prowl following moments after. I glanced at Skywarp apologetically, but he was expressionless. I rose with a creak and waved to him, and he nodded. I couldn't tell if he was angry, or if he just didn't want to show any weakness in front of the mechs, but I let it go and followed the two Autobots out.

Hotrod almost blew a fuse when he found out. "Why didn't anybody tell me? I should have been there! Was it that glitch Skywarp? I'll blow his head off!"

Ratchet had been forced to physically stop the Vanquish from running down the hall to the brig. "The prisoner's not responsible. She picked up a virus from the Internet, something he hasn't had access to. I doubt he has the experience for that kind of thing, either. It's probably Frenzy, laying traps for new arrivals on the off chance they don't follow procedure."

Hotrod shook the ambulance's hand off, looking at me. "Are you ok, Bravura?"

I nodded. I realized I'd crossed my arms ever since Ratchet and I had met the red mech in the hall. Some subconscious sign that I didn't feel safe around the Vanquish? Wonderful.

Ratchet gave us a goodbye and left Hotrod and me to stare at each other in the hallway.

"Why were you seeing him, anyway?" He asked, sounding a little hurt.

"The same reason I went down there last time. To try to talk him into agreeing to the treaty, and to make sure he was ok." I walked past the mech, though I had no idea where to go.

"Why do you care if he's ok?" Hotrod asked snippily as he followed me. "He's just a moronic Decepticon."

I controlled myself. I wanted to turn around and do my best to slap him, but I doubted I could reach his face without his cooperation. "That moronic Decepticon is the reason I look the way I do, Hotrod, which sounds like a blessing, the way you describe it."

"But it was an accident!"

"It's still his handy work. Don't forget I'd be a dead human if it weren't for him. I owe him a lot." I silently prayed that when I came back from my trip with Mikaela Hotrod would be gone, or at least Mirage would be back. I needed my friend badly.

After a few aimless minutes spent stomping around and through crowds of disgruntled soldiers Hotrod caught on that I wasn't going anywhere.

"Where are you going Bravura?"

"I have absolutely no idea. Maybe I'm just going to go recharge a while."

"But you recharged all night…"

"Then I got a virus. I'm just tired, ok!" I was lying. I didn't feel tired, but it was the only place I could think of that he wouldn't follow me.

"Fine… I'll walk you there." The mech sped up to be level with me in the hallway, and after a few minutes and an awkward goodbye I was safely in my room. I'd figured out how to turn on the lights a while ago, so I switched them on and sat on my berth.

I was beginning to understand all of those women in abusive relationships who felt like there was no way out. Granted Hotrod hadn't actually hit me, and he'd seemed to regret even coming close, but it didn't change the fact that he'd almost taken his anger out on me. I didn't know anything about Cybertronian culture, but here on Earth that was a bad sign.

In any other situation I'd have been gone in a second… But I couldn't leave the base. My only other choice was the Decepticon army, and even with Skywarp and possibly Thundercracker's protection I probably wouldn't be safe. I needed to be with my own kind, however difficult it was.

I decided to try to familiarize myself with my systems a little better, There were packages of processes and information I'd never bothered to investigate, and after my stint with the virus I'd realized how little I knew about my body. I might be taking classes from Ratchet soon to fix that.

I spent the better part of two hours going through files and programs. The most interesting thing to happen was when I opened a program and my body began to jerk around, things flipping in ways they shouldn't. I stopped it as quickly as it started and ran the reversal, relieved as my body returned to normal. For a long time after that I'd just leaned against the wall on by berth, afraid to try anything else.

Until I saw a file that was titled Phillips. I cautiously opened the file, and was shocked with what I found. Independent memory files, years worth. I cautiously opened one.

"Camilla, dear, take out the trash, would you? Anya isn't here to do it today, her son is sick." My mother was standing in my doorway dressed in a red cocktail dress.

"Oh, I get it. You and dad go to a fancy party and I get to take out the trash." I got up and went to do as I was asked, however.

"It's a benefit, darling. You're too young for those, but we'll take you to all of them in a few years. We take you to lots of our parties, you know. Just last month you came with us to the Scott's New Years party, wasn't that fun?"

"Their son got drunk and threw up on my shoes."

"Oh, well, we bought you new ones, didn't we? You take things so seriously, dear!" She glanced at a dainty gold watch on her wrist. "Oh, we're running late. Come here, give me a kiss."

I obediently went to my mother and kissed her cheek as she bent down, then hugged her carefully so as not to wrinkle her dress. She smiled and smoothed my hair, then left.

I shivered on my berth, closing the memory. My mother… my memories were here. Why hadn't Hotrod told me about them?! They'd been here all along, and I'd thought they were somehow lost or out of reach!

I reached back into the file and opened another, preparing myself for a long day.

Eight o'clock came much too quickly. I was watching my second date with my first boyfriend when my alarm went off. I closed the file with a sigh… They'd be there later. The sun would be down in less than an hour, and I wanted to down some energon before I left.

To my surprise I found Optimus and Ironhide sitting in the rec. hall drinking energon. I hadn't ever seen Ironhide in his mech form, but Mirage had shown me an image from his memory. The two big mechs were laughing over something, so I went unnoticed for a moment as I crossed to the cooler.

"Is that our resident trouble magnet?" the Topkick asked in amusement. "Awfully little for all the mess she's caused."

"You know she can't help it, Ironhide. She's just a human child, no matter how old she looks."

I looked up at them and smiled as I closed the cooler. "Um… hello Optimus Prime." I looked to Ironhide, approaching their bench. "Hi, I'm Bravura."

Ironhide snorted. "I know that, kid,"

I deflated a little, but I did catch Optimus elbowing his weapon's specialist discreetly. Ironhide growled. "I'm Ironhide. Nice to meet you and all that."

I smiled and sat down on the bench a safe distance from the two mechs, Optimus between us. The red and blue mech looked at me curiously for a while, but Ironhide said something to him and they started back up on whatever they'd been talking about. I tried not to listen.

I took my time with my energon. I was drinking from a bigger cube than usual and I didn't want to put myself in an energon high just before Mikaela arrived. At about 8:30 I finished and got up, tossing the cube into the bin. Optimus caught my eye as I left and nodded. I nodded back nervously and scurried out of there. I made a quick estimate and decided by the time I reached the door out the sun would just be disappearing past the horizon.

On my way I silently prayed the soldiers stationed at the entrance didn't have orders to keep me in. They had to reset the locking mechanism on my way out or the whole City would be on alert.

I searched with my scanners, relieved when no mech was between the exit and me, not even Hotrod. As I turned the corner to the exit bay several soldiers looked at me lazily, but I actually recognized most of them by their faces, if not their names.

"I'm going to get some fresh air," I said to one awkwardly. "Can one of you lock the door behind me?"

One of the soldiers shrugged and got up, punching the code to open the door for me. I breathed a sigh of relief as the heavy door slide open with a groan, then set myself walking up the long tunnel. I could see light glowing just around a bend, and I broke into a run. I wanted to feel the wind.

I broke out into onto the road leading up the mesa, skidding to a halt. Stars were just starting to come out, a few wispy clouds streaking the sky to the north. The westernmost sky was tangerine orange, and I watched it breathlessly, a gentle breeze whistling around me. I backed against the warm rock wall, unsure what to do. Was Mikaela waiting at the top, or was she still on her way? I didn't have to wait long.

Bright headlights came slowly around the corner. They hit my optics, stinging, and I covered my face. I prayed it was Mikaela. As it got closer I realized it was a U-haul truck. It pulled up next to me, and the door popped open. A beautiful girl leaned out, smiling.

"Hi, I'm Mikaela! Bravura, right?" I nodded and she continued. "I've heard so much about you!"

I smiled and bent down. "Sam and Bee have told me a lot about you, too. Thanks for coming all this way for me."

She shook her head, flashing those perfect white teeth. "It's nothing, I've been looking for something crazy to do for a while now." She looked past me down the tunnel. "Not to cut things short, but maybe we should get going? Getting caught could definitely ruin our plans."

I nodded and stood up, moving to the back of the U-haul. It looked a little small, but I'd fit. I just hoped it could handle my weight.

Mikaela unlocked the back and slid the door up. It was a little dirty and it would be dark, but it was a ride.

I climbed in, freezing when the vehicle groaned. I glanced back at Mikaela nervously. "I won't break it will I?"

She shook her head. "We got the heavy duty suspension. You're fine."

I crawled into the back, praying that Mikaela was right. We'd have some explaining to do if I ruined a U-haul right outside the City.

She pulled down the door, but I didn't hear her lock it. After a minute the engine started, and then we were moving.

I was going to see the world again. I was getting an alt mode.