I own nothing.

--

"Frag! Slagging Primus' left lugnut in the firey pits of Unicron's Slagging internals! One cycle! One slagging cycle! You can't go one slagging cycle without getting yourself scrapped to the blue pits and back, can you? Do you try to get yourself slagged? Do you enjoy getting your aft slagged? Primus, Sunstreaker, your breaks are only good for the scrap heap! If you had just informed the child of your intentions, she wouldn't have reacted that way and you wouldn't need to be in here, getting new shocks, breaks, and a rear axle! But, noooooo, the amazing, invincible Sunstreaker can't use his Primus damned vocalizer to warn the organic child so that she won't hurt herself or you!"

Of all the sounds Bella could have woken up to, the screaming of a voice, gruff and ancient and terrifying, had not been on her top ten most likely list.

Rubbing her eyes, she let out a small groan, sitting up as she noted the room had gone silent. She pulled her small hands away from her face and gasped as she noted the giant, silvery face of a red and white leviathan hovering over her. 'Oh, God, maybe I didn't dream that...'

"Greetings, femme," it began in its archaic voice, reminding her of how Carlisle's voice had hugged every curve of sound. The main difference between them was that Carlisle's voice inspired trust, an unbreakable love of a child for their father. This being's voice inspired terror and respect and something bordering on awe.

"Hi," she replied lamely, giving a small wave. The gargantuan being, taller than even Sunstreaker, and definitely more sturdily built, looked momentarily confused, but if he was going to ask a question he decided against it, instead choosing to throw a wrench at -

'Did Sunstreaker change his color?' Bella thought to herself, looking at the yellow robot. 'Mech. Calling them robots insinuates that they have no consciousness. It insults them, so don't do it,' she chided herself.

"Dammit, Ratchet, what the frag was that for?" shouted Sunstreaker, glaring at the red and white mech. 'So his name is Ratchet? Okay, that's cool.'

"Stay still! If you re-break your axle I will not fix it again!" came the terrifying voice.

'Note to self; don't get on his bad side.'

"Femme, Isabella Swan, welcome to the underwater Autobot base. You are currently in the medical bay. Please remain still while I run a scan of your body to check for injuries," instructed the red and white mech.

Bella nodded silently, slightly confused until a blue light passed over her body. The tall mech sighed, then turned to Sunstreaker, growling, "You're one lucky fragger, you know that? If she had been injured by your little stunt, it would have been your aft in the brig."

"What do you mean, my aft? She was the one who pulled the emergency break!" huffed Sunstreaker indignantly.

Ratchet glared, Bella felt herself shrinking in terror of those brilliant blue optics that glowed so brightly, so fiercely, she nearly tumbled over with the intensity of their stare. He rumbled, voice calm, taunting, even, "Because, soldier, I am the chief medical officer of this army, whether or not you acknowledge it, and if I choose to punish you for your own stupidity, you will accept my word as law and you will accept your punishment as I decide it."

Bella gaped as Sunstreaker glared right back, a small part of her mind fearing a giant droid death match was about to break out, but the golden mech simply stood and strode out of the bay, an air of overwhelming ego following him.

"Geeze," commented Bella, gaining the attention of the CMO. "What's his problem?"

Ratchet sighed, replying, as if it would answer all questions, "He's a twin."

Bella cocked her head to the side, not understanding what he was talking about. "Pardon?"

Ratchet blinked twice, then seemed to realize his words had not been received as intended, and began again, "Sunstreaker is a twin, I thought he explained this to you."

Bella nodded, but mentioned, "Yeah, he's half a soul, right? And his brother is the other half. That I think I get, but what exactly does it mean?"

Ratchet shot a glare at the doors -- 'At Sunstreaker, probably' -- and continued, "Yes, that's right. They are two halves of the same spark. What that means is that they have what is called a spark bond. There are three types of bonds; mates; creator and creation; and twins. A twins' bond exists from creation and is unbreakable. Do you know what a spark bond is?"

Bella shook her head, rapidly becoming interested as Ratchet replied, "All right, then we'll start with the most basic type of bond: creator and creation. Now, when a mech or femme chooses to have a sparkling, they build a protoform, or infant body, and then they have two choices. They can either go to the All Spark and ask Primus for a spark, or they can cultivate one on their own. This is a highly controversial topic, as many bots see this as playing God. Anyway, if they cultivate on their own, it means they receive a data injection directly into their spark that will, over a time period of about three Earth year, eventually become a spark. Once this spark is placed into the protoform, the child, or sparkling, will seek the mech or femme -- that is, male or female -- whose spark pulses on the same frequency as their own. This sort of bond only exists with a creator who allowed their spark to house their child, and usually leads to a more stable personality in a mech. Through this sort of bond, emotions like calmness, happiness, and love can be sent across at will, but this bond can also be closed off at will if one or the other wishes to be alone with their emotions. It is the weakest of the three bonds as it is expected that the creation will outlive the creator. When either creator or creation dies, there is a 89 percent survival rate.

"Next, there are mates' bonds. A mate is one with whom a mech or femme has synchronized their spark so that they operate on the same pulses -- they beat at the same time. This melds their minds, in a sense, and means that they can read each other's thoughts no matter how far apart they are. These bonds can be closed off, but it is painful for the people on both sides of the bond. It works something like a continual call, one side calling 'are you there?' and the other side answering 'I am here.' So that they have almost constant contact. When one side of the bond is closed off, it's akin to losing a limb for both sides. It's a spot that should be filled, but isn't. As far as we know, there is no limit to the number of bots who can share one of these bonds. They are slightly more urgent bonds, as it is expected that neither bond mate will outlive the other by more than several million Earth years. Also, the rate of survival increases in direct proportion with the number of bots involved in the bond. With a two-bot bond, the rate of one mate surviving the other is about 48 percent, three-bot where one mate dies is 69 percent, four-bot where one mate dies is 84 percent, and so on. Of course, it also works the other way around. Where if one mate dies in a two-bot bond, there's a 48 percent chance of survival for the other, in a three-bot bond, if two die, there's only a 32 percent chance of survival for the third mate. Of course, as far as we know, it bottoms out at about 20 percent survival chance, never gets less than that.

"Finally, there are twin bonds. Twins are a rare mutation, so there's not much data to go by, but basically they are one person in two bodies. What happens with twins is-"

Bella interjected, feeling momentarily brilliant, "One side doesn't want to leave either the creator's spark or the All Spark, so the spark splits in half and forms twins, right?"

Ratchet smiled in an almost paternal fashion as he answered, "Correct. The half that was willing to leave is commonly more outgoing and easier to get along with, while the half that didn't want to leave is... less socially inclined. Usually, they will have the same gender, but there was one case where there was one mech and one femme. In a twin's bond, there are no secrets. From creation to death, their thoughts, emotions, and even physical sensations are shared. For example, if Sunstreaker's plating itched, so would Sideswipe's. In your culture, I understand that this would be considered incest, but due to the nature of twins, they have no choice but to be spark mates. In the rare case that one loves someone other than their twin, the other twin will naturally feel the same attraction. They are a package deal in a bond because a bot can't bond to half a spark. These are the strongest of all bonds, and the only way they can be blocked is through aeons of practice, trial, error, and correction. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe, being the oldest twins in existence, have this and are able to block each other, which is useful in battle because they are front line warriors and because they usually get injured. Anyway, the rate of survival if one twin dies is, barring a miracle, nonexistent. One half of a spark cannot exist without the other half. They cannot live without each other, which leads me to why Sunstreaker is so upset right now. You see, we are in the midst of a war with the Decepticons. That you know, correct? Anyway, Sunstreaker's twin, Sideswipe has been captured by the Decepticons and he is blocking his half of the bond from Sunstreaker. We think it's because he is being... interrogated."

Bella didn't fail to notice the slump in Ratchet's metallic shoulders, or the saddened look in his piercing optics, and corrected, "You mean you think they're torturing him?"

It wasn't a question, and Ratchet didn't need to answer.

Bella stood, noting in the back of her head that she was some fifteen feet off the ground on the metallic table top. 'It looks like an examination table.'

She walked toward the red and white bot, whose crimson hand rested on the edge of the table, and placed one, tiny hand on his, looking up at him with soft eyes as she murmured, "It'll be okay, somehow."

Ratchet gave her a small, saddened smile and something clicked in Bella's mind. The way he spoke of the twins, the venom in his voice when he mentioned the people who would consider creating a child on their own a sin, the way his eyes expressed a love deeper that most she had know, 'the way he spoke to Sunstreaker, like my father -- That's it! He's their-'

"You're their creator, aren't you?" Bella surmised.

Ratchet looked momentarily shocked, before stating, "You're very perceptive for a human."

Bella smiled sadly, remembering one who had said something similar about her.

The moment was shattered as her phone vibrated in her pocket, warning her of low battery.

Bella flipped it open to see -- 'What? Seven voice messages? How-? Holy crow! Is that really the date?'

"How long have I been out for?" she queried.

Ratchet gave her a curious look, but responded, "Five Earth cycles."

'Five Days,' Bellamentally translated, eyes enlarging in her skull as she thought of Charlie, who would no doubt have SWAT teams out searching for her by now. 'And Renee-'

She didn't even want to think of what her mother was doing.

Pressing the button to listen to her messages, she held the phone up to her ear and the recordings began, "You have seven new messages. Message one..."

Ten minutes later, Bella listened to the last of the messages from Alice. Two minutes after that, she dropped her new cell phone onto the table, shattering it instantly. Three minutes after that she finally became aware of the shouting of- 'Who are they? When did they get here?'

Three mechs now stood around her, shouting for her to respond. One she recognized as Ratchet, kneeling beside the table, screaming something about a sedative and dangerously high heart rates. To his right was a red, white, and green mech. A mask covered his mouth and nose, and when he spoke, two dark blue fins on either side of his head would light up the same brilliant blue as his optics. The third was by far the tallest, brawniest of the three. His speech patterns were similar to those of a two-year-old's, his paint was blue, yellow, and red, and white wings protruded from his back. An odd, red... thing on his head reminded her of an elf's hat, and a yellow half-cone on his chest was reminiscent of a bird's beak.

'I should probably let them know I'm okay.'

'But am I okay? I need to call Alice, let her know I'm alive, that I was taken by aliens because-'

"Why do I need to be here?" Bella's sudden inquiry startled the three mechs, and looks of collective relief were apparent on their faces as the red, white, and green one spoke, "You're here because the Decepticons want to get a hold of you to hold you for ransom in exchange for one of the super-beings you associate with. Fascinating creatures, actually. I'd love to get a chance to examine-"

"Wheeljack, kindly keep your personal comments to yourself, thank you very much," threatened Ratchet, brandishing a wrench that suddenly seemed to be a doomsday device in the hands of the irritable medic.

Wheeljack's head fins flashed pink in embarrassment as he mumbled, "I only meant examine with scans. Nothing too intrusive."

The third one seemed to ignore this conversation for a different thought train and inquired in a shrill voice, "Why them Decepticons want them Earth creatures? What they Earthlings have that they Decepticons don't?"

Ratchet and Wheeljack shared a look, then simultaneously replied in a manner that conveyed the full urgency and terror hidden in those two words, "A virus."