A/N- Hello again. I was talking to my friend in the pub the other night, telling her just how addictive this site is. Honestly... I write a chapter, post it, then think to myself: 'ok lass, time to get on with other stuff now...' and yet here I am again! This chapter's nice and light, and has got some jollity in it- we all need that in our lives, don't we? Thank you for the reviews, they mean a lot! Pleeease leave more!

Chapter 14

Days passed. Alexis' new home seemed to be the main hall- no one moved her, so that was where she stayed. She was pretty much left to her own devices. Starscream had been absent since the eventful day she had met Bumblebee and Sari. Decepticons came and went- Thundercracker, who would enter from time to time, and others too. She began to learn some of their names and came to recognise them. Sometimes she would be alone for hours at a time, until she would yearn for company. And yet on other occasions the crowded hall would reverberate with the sound of yelling and raucous laughter, until she could barely think.

Since her phone had been returned, and with it, the safety of her friends, Alexis had slept better, and had actually started to unwind into her new situation, albeit tentatively. She hadn't fully realised what a weight she had been carrying whilst Starscream had access to everyone she knew. Now he had given them back to her- a monumental gesture that had shaken her to the core, and caused her to question just where she now stood with the air commander…

And there was something else she was glad of. The first few nights, when she had been the only human in the base were nerve-racking, and she had missed the others deeply, even the ones she hadn't really got to know. She had missed the feeling of unity at the end of a hard, fearful day, snuggling down together to keep warm, listening to reminiscences of the old world now passed away. People had talked of cites she had never visited, jobs they had done… memories that swaddled them in comfort and transported them out of the cages, back into the free world…

But with no other humans to worry about, another weight had been lifted. The only person she had to take care of now was herself. She hoped the others were OK, wherever they had fled to. But if Starscream was telling the truth- and she was almost certain he was- and his decepticons were planning to leave, it seemed, for now at least, the human race was being largely ignored. She found herself thinking of them less and less as the days went by.

Alexis listened when she could to the mechs who gathered in the hall to gossip- much of it was in Cybertronian and at these times she switched off- but she did learn that Megatron's orders were being carried out for appearance's sake only. The rift seemed to be growing by the day- between those loyal to Megatron, and those who had tired of life on earth and wished to return home under Starscream's leadership.

Frenzy hung around with her when he wasn't sent on an errand or ordered out with the others. She found herself strangely grateful for his company. As time wore on the two of them had come up with more and more novel ways to amuse themselves- they had played 'How-Far-Round-The-Room-Can-You-Get-Without-Touching-The-Floor', which of course involved almost suicidal leaps from one giant piece of furniture to another. They had chucked a battered tennis ball to each other across the vast space between the table and the computer terminal. They had gone through the redundant scrap-heaps finding things for Alexis to use and Frenzy to puzzle over.

One evening, she sat on the edge of the table-top, her legs dangling over the edge. She had just bathed herself down below the table on the floor, in a pan of cold water. The hall was deserted, apart from Frenzy up top, and she had taken advantage of the quiet to have a wash. Now she sat shivering slightly from the cold, warming up in an oversized sweater and some skinny jeans, extending her legs and admiring some knee-high boots she had found a few days prior. Her hair was still damp. She mused to herself as Frenzy busied himself with something behind her.

The worry that had niggled at her mind these past few days returned, and she bit her lip, staring into space. It was, of course, the identity of the prisoner Starscream had brought back. Neither had been seen since- and Alexis didn't want to contemplate what that particular mech was going through right now. She was certain it was an autobot. Bumblebee? Perhaps… she shivered slightly. She fervently hoped not. Frenzy, sadly, had been unforthcoming on the issue.

"No! Not listening! La la la la!" he had cried, clamping his hands over his audio receptors and chanting in a sing-song way whenever she had tried to ask him.

"Please Frenzy…"

"No! I don't know, OK? They don't tell me!"

"You must have an idea…"

"You don't get it, do you? Why don't you just enjoy the fact you're a human who has somehow managed, not only to survive Starscream, but get on his good side? Why poke around, when we very nearly got caught last time? I'm telling you, if he finds out you even know about…" his voice dropped "…the autobots… you're slagged. And, more importantly, I'm slagged."

"OK." Alexis had gripped him by the metal shoulders, looking into his optics. "Just one thing, and then I promise not to ask again. Do you think it was Bumblebee? Just answer yes or no. Please…"

He had looked away. "… I don't think it was," he said slowly. "That bolthead Bumblebee never shuts up, he can talk 'til the stars burn out, even when he's been captured. That one stayed quiet. I suppose it coulda been him… I don't know. I don't know nothing else. Enough, OK? Primus' sake…"

Her mind returned to the present with a metallic laugh behind her. Curious, she got up and wandered over to Frenzy. He was sitting on the table-top, holding her iphone. As she approached, she saw he was watching one of the TV shows she had stored on there.

She flopped down on her stomach beside him.

He chuckled again. "These fleshies are very funny!"

"Really? You like them?"

"Who are they?"

"Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt. They're a comedy duo…"

"Heee… I like the songs…."

Several hours later, they had worked their way through series one and two of The Mighty Boosh, some cartoons, and Doctor Who, stopping every now and then for her to explain a joke Frenzy didn't get, or a reference to Earth culture. Alexis sat cross-legged eating pieces of tinned pineapple, watching Frenzy amusedly, who in turn was glued to the small screen. Until the phone flickered, and went dark.

"Aaawww… What's happened?"

Alexis laughed. "The battery's run down."

"What?" Frenzy folded his arms petulantly. "Well how can we make it work again? I need to find out if the Doctor will ever know Martha's true feelings for him!"

"Well… I think there is one way, but… no…"

"What? What? Tell me!"

"OK…" Alexis shrugged. "If… we can plug it into your circuitry, like I did with Starscream, we can charge it up, and you can watch some more. But, obviously, if you don't want to…"

"Right," Frenzy snatched the phone, and studied it hard for a few moments. His torso opened up, and she watched, fascinated, as a cable emerged, and transformed, configuring itself to the charging socket of the phone. He plugged it in. "Easy!" he preened smugly.

Alexis smiled, and moved over to her supply of food and drink, selecting a bottle. She came back, and seated herself next to Frenzy, who was taking sips of energon.

Alexis watched the pale, glowing stuff slosh about in the cube whilst Frenzy drank. Not quite gas, not quite liquid, it was like no element she'd seen before.

"Do you like that stuff?" she asked curiously.

"Yeah… this is good… Starscream won't have any other than the best…"

"But don't you get bored of having the same thing, day after day?"

"Nope." Frenzy took another gulp, and shuddered with pleasure as his systems were soaked in the high-grade energon.

She was quiet for a time, watching him energise. Then…

"Can you have too much of it?"

"What, you mean over-energise? Sure."

"Over-energise…" She repeated the term to herself. A mischievous smile covered her face and she leaned closer, conspiratorially. "What, like… getting drunk?"

He paused whilst running the word through his processor. "Yeah. I guess that's what you humans call it… great fun when we can get away with it. We've had some laughs, let me tell you…"

"Oh wow… she giggled and swung her legs gleefully. "Even Starscream?"

He snorted. "Oh yeah. He's not all high and mighty all the time, you know."

"I would so love to see that!"

"Actually, you really wanna see Thundercracker when he's had too many. Now that is funny…"

She leaned towards him again, an impish light in her eyes. "Hey… I challenge you to a drinking contest. Right here, Right now."

"I dunno…" Frenzy looked uneasy. "Over-energising is forbidden on the base… if you get caught, you…"

She gave a derisive snort. "Call yourself a decepticon, do you? Decepticons don't care if they get into trouble! They don't follow boring rules! Ah well…" she took a casual sip of her own drink. "It's probably for the best. I could out-drink you any day of the week."

He recoiled indignantly at the insult. "What total pile of slag! I could drink you under this table, pesky feeble flesh-bag!"

"Yeah?" she raised her eyebrows and grinned. "Guess we'll never know…"

"Right. That's it. You're gonna be sorry…"

One hour later.

"OK." Alexis giggled and swung her bottle by its neck between two fingers. "You've got to say 'Rolling Red Wagons', over and over. Go…"

"Tha's easy!" Frenzy slurred. "OK... Rolling Red Wagons. Rolling Red Wagons. Rolling Wed Rag… argh, frag…"

"Ha!" Alexis thumped the table with her fist. "Forfeit! Down it in one!"

He drained the cube, and tossed it over his shoulder. "Uuugh…" he clutched his head.

"Give up?"

He peered at her, struggling to focus. "Nooo…"

Blearily, he reached for another cube. "Bu… y'gotta have another too… tha's th' rules…"

"Anything you say. Cheers!"

They both tipped their heads back and drank.

"Ugh…" Frenzy sniggered drunkenly, and slumped onto his side, spilling energon on the table. Alexis dodged the glowing stream hastily as it dripped over the edge and onto the floor, she didn't want to find out what happened if that stuff made contact with human skin…

"I win…" Frenzy off-lined his optics and grinned inanely. Alexis laughed and scooted over to the small decepticon. "Yep, you do," she giggled. "That showed me, didn't it?"

"Uh huh…" Frenzy moaned quietly and rolled onto his back, splayed out on the table-top. Alexis watched his optics flicker… then his whole body emitted a small whine as it overloaded, and powered down…

She shook her head. "Poor Frenzy," she whispered. "You really ought to have checked to see if I was actually drinking alcohol…"

Alexis waited a minute or so, ensuring that he wasn't going to wake up. She listened hard for sounds of any of the other decepticons... the base was quiet. Very slowly, she reached over to Frenzy, and tugged the iphone gently away from his chest. It came out, still attached. She gingerly kept pulling, and the wire extended, slithering out of his chest. Frenzy jerked slightly, but didn't wake.

Heart hammering, she laid the phone, still connected, down on the table, then, balancing on her haunches, reached into Frenzy's chest and got to work.

She wasn't sure if this was even going to work. She fought furiously against her rising hopes as she connected this wire, and then that one... When the signal bar appeared on the phone's screen, she punched the air jubilantly; "Yes!!" then immediately shrank back, hand clapped to her mouth. But no one came to see the cause of her shout. She knew she had no time to waste. She scrolled through the address book, stopping at 'Dad'.

Heart in her mouth, Alexis pressed the call button.

She bit back a snarl of frustration when it failed to connect. Worth a try. It doesn't mean he's dead, he could have just lost his phone, after all, not much point anyone holding on to theirs any more… Moving on, not wanting to waste more time, she started to compose a text.

// sari where r u. reply if u can. ali x //

She found Sari's number and pressed 'send', and waited for what felt like forever, chewing her lip and rocking on her heels slightly, tense as she listened for approaching feet. Finally after an age, the phone illuminated.

// slag off screamer //

She couldn't hold back a small chuckle. 'slag off…' she recalled something Sari had said to her in the supermarket about her phone… 'Bumblebee's looking after it…'

That text had been written by a Cybertronian, not a human. Which must mean Bumblebee was still with Sari, and was safe… relief flooded her. It still didn't answer the question of who exactly was being held here- the unfortunate soul was no doubt at this moment the subject of Starscream's undivided attention. She didn't envy them. Head down, she composed another text, her thumb flying across the keys.

// bumbleb its me alexis ive got the phone txt back //

Nothing for a minute. Alexis could just imagine the two of them debating furiously. Then-

// prove it //

She sighed. Someone was bound to be here soon, she was pushing her luck, and no mistake.

// saris first kiss- 1998 behind st pauls school science lab with rob wilson //

She waited, grinning. The phone lit up again.

// omg how did u know that. ali where r u //

She snorted with laughter. That one was from Sari, almost certainly. She texted back.

// glad u r ok //

A sound somewhere down the corridor caused her head to snap up warily. Before Sari could send a reply, she disconnected the phone and saw the signal vanish. Not without regret- but each had established the other was safe, time to stop, before she was caught. The wires retreated into Frenzy's chest and it closed with a series of clicks. He didn't stir. Yawning hugely, she kicked off her boots, wriggled out of her jeans and into some pyjama bottoms. Then she gathered a pile of blankets and snuggled down on the metal surface, a few feet from the comatose Frenzy. She did feel a twinge of guilt for tricking him. But no lasting harm had been done. A smile crept across her face as she dozed off.

Mission accomplished.

The following morning, Starscream strode towards the hall, wearing a pleased smile. He was joined by others- Thundercracker, Breakdown, Blackout and Dirge, they fell into step behind him.

"Offline?" he asked, curtly.

"No, not yet," replied Dirge. "Very resilient, I have to hand him that. Nice work on your part as well, Starscream, retrieving the data. As if anyone could hold out against that kind of… persuasion, particularly coming from you."

Starscream acknowledged the compliment with a cursory nod . "I do not expect him to be of much more use to us. Still… have him kept where he is, and do not allow anyone to touch him without my permission. I will have dealings with him again presently."

They entered the hall, and Thundercracker approached the main computer. Starscream surveyed the room, and saw Alexis sitting up on the table amidst blankets, having been awoken by their arrival. Beside her Frenzy lay prone and inert. The other decepticons hurried forwards to analyse the data he had harvested from the prisoner's processor. As he passed the table, he absently reached out a hand. She recognised the summons and climbed on.

Thundercracker frowned in concentration as the computer set about breaking the code enshrouding the data. Starscream sat himself in his chair, watching the screen. Alexis peered over too, curious.

The blue jet was muttering to himself, punching buttons as strange characters on the screen whirled too fast for her to see. She craned her head and looked up at Starscream. He was deep in thought, still watching the computer, and drumming one hand thoughtfully on the chair's arm. Then, sensing her eyes on him, he looked down. He lifted her, and deposited her gently on the adjacent work surface.

"You have everything you need?" he enquired.

She nodded. "I haven't seen you for days."

"No. I have been busy. I have hopefully gained some valuable information that will help me to bring down that idiot Megatron once and for all."

"What kind of information?"

He paused, resting his elbows on the armrests and steepling his fingers together. "I chose to base myself here for two reasons. One- because this part of your planet is largely ignored by Megatron and his lackeys. I don't think Shockwave even knows the British Isles exists." He chuckled at her scandalised expression. "If you had met Shockwave, little one, you would be most grateful he has chosen to ignore your tiny nation. Two. I have reason to believe that a weapon of magnificent power is located here. An old friend developed it many years ago on Cybertron, and it transpires that he hid it here, on this island. I believe I have managed to glean some useful information as to it's whereabouts."

"Oh." She took it all in. "Can't your friend tell you where it is?"

His expression turned sour. "He is no longer a friend of mine. He became weak-minded long ago, and defected. Now he is lost. No one knows where he is."

"Starscream…"

Thundercracker gestured urgently to his leader and Starscream rose, leaving Alexis on the worktop. He joined his wingmate in front of the screen.

"It's coming through now…"

They watched as the flickering shifting symbols slowed and morphed, leaving two English words on the monitor.

BLUE JOHN

"What does that mean?" Dirge leaned forwards, as if he could absorb the meaning from the very screen.

"It must be a name of someone." Thundercracker rubbed his chin, confused. "If we find this Blue John person, they can lead us to the weapon."

"Who is known as Blue John? You think it's a human?"

"Could be…"

Over on the worktop, Alexis stood fidgeting on tiptoe, like an eager child in a classroom. "Um… excuse me…"

"I say we run it through the computer again," growled Blackout. "Thundercracker must have made a mistake."

"What?" Thundercracker narrowed his optics menacingly. "Say that again…"

"You heard…"

"Hello? Excuse me…"

"I say it's a code name for an au… a cybertronian," said Breakdown.

"Or a password? Could be an access code…"

"OI!"

As one, they all turned, staring at her.

"What is it, Alexis?"

"I think I can help," she said. Blackout snorted derisively.

"Can you tell us who this Blue John is?"

"No," she said simply, hands on hips. She was smiling.

"I can tell you what it is, though. And where it is."

"A cave," Starscream repeated.

She nodded. "The Blue John Cavern, to be precise."

They had all moved into another room she hadn't been in before, having been joined by more mechs after Alexis' declaration. At first glance it appeared to be some sort of huge command room, a place where plans were made, orders issued. It was dominated by a massive table, the size of four tennis courts put together. Starscream set Alexis on the table, then touched the surface with a digit. She gave a small gasp as it illuminated, light bursting under her, temporarily dazzling her until her eyes adjusted. Turning away from him, she saw spread out beneath her feet a glowing map of the United Kingdom, surrounded by azure sea. Ireland glimmered away to the left. Another tap of his finger, and towns appeared, accompanied by tiny labels in English and Cybertronian. He motioned courteously to her, inviting her to take a look, and she began to walk up the map, past Southampton, Oxford, Coventry… his red optics followed her progress as she moved away from him, into the centre. She walked past Derby, and came to a stop, to the west of Sheffield, roughly in the centre of the UK.

She looked up. "It's somewhere round here…"

He touched the table again, and the map zoomed in dizzyingly, until the county of Derbyshire filled the table. She frowned and began to wander slowly, racking her memory as to the exact whereabouts of the cave. The decepticons waited in silence, watching her intently.

"Sorry, it's been years since I've been..."

"Well hurry up, human, some of us are getting bored," Blackout growled. Without even looking at him, Starscream gave him a blast from his null ray, sending him crashing to the floor with a yelp. Alexis winced.

Starscream smiled smoothly. "Please continue."

"Right, yes. Erm…"

After a few more minutes circling the table, she found what she was looking for, a label indicating a village called Castleton. "Here,' she said decisively. "If I remember right, the cave is somewhere outside this village." She was thrown into shadow as several huge heads bent low and squinted at the spot on the map where she now stood.

Starscream's optics lit up, anticipation coursing through him. "We might actually have found it," he said softly. "After all my searching… this is it…within my grasp…"

A murmur ran through the gathered decepticons, a palpable sense of excitement that left the air tingling, electrified. Starscream lifted his head and smiled triumphantly. "We will leave in two cycles," he said, addressing Dirge and Thundercracker. "Be ready." Immediately the two jets saluted and left. The remaining gathered mechs exited after them, talking rapidly to each other. Blackout stood up, scowling and rubbing his shoulder where the ray had hit. Alexis gave him a sympathetic grimace- she actually didn't mind Blackout too much, his grumpiness was more amusing than frightening. A flicker of surprise crossed his face when he caught her look. He gave her a terse nod, and stomped out.

"You too, Alexis."

Alexis had looked back down at the table and was tracing a circle on the map with her toe. She raised her head, surprised. "Really?"

He nodded. "Indeed. You are the key to all this. Your size will also prove useful. Go and make the necessary preparations to leave, and be quick. You will be riding with me."

"With you??" He paused at the sight of her expression.

"You don't wish to? I am extending an honour to you in doing so."

"I bet you are." Alexis put her hands on her hips, and a wry, hesitant smile appeared.

He leaned down, his face feet from her. She didn't flinch.

"What exactly is the problem?"

"I know what you're going to do, that's all."

"And what's that?"

"You know." She regarded him, searching his face for a hint of a smirk. "You know what I mean…"

"No, I don't." But a slow smile was indeed appearing, twitching at the corners of his mouth.

She let out a sigh. "You're going to… fly really fast, or twirl around or some shit like that, hoping to scare me or something. I just know it."

He straightened up. "Well, I have to confess that hadn't occurred to me," he said innocently, a look of mock hurt on his face. "However…" and then the smirk did surface, a mischieveous, ominous grin that stretched across his face. "Thank you for planting the idea…"

She let an exasperated noise and stroppily stepped onto his proffered hand. "Whatever, I happen to have an iron stomach. I mean, I went on the waltzers at the fair in Brighton, like, three times, and wasn't sick or anything. So do your worst, Starscream."

His laughter filled the room, as he raised her to optic level.

"Noted, and filed, Alexis."