Author's Note: Yo, people! Long time no write! Sorry. ^-^' Anyway, here's the next somewhat-angsty-actually-story-progressing chapter. :D

Chapter 11

Strength and Angry Robots

The day was gorgeous. The sun was shining from unheard praise, beaming down at the lush greenery and vast lakes and rivers. Its laughter reverberated through the world in the form of a gentle breeze, strong enough to chase away the heat, but just soft enough to prevent any unwanted accidents. Birds chirped happily, squirrels skittered around blissfully.

Lyra Montez was very aware of the day despite the fact that she was stuck in classes. After all, with all the time she spent staring out of windows, it would be impossible not to have noticed.

She was indifferent to the lectures and whispers that filtered through the rooms. She was indifferent to the peeved look upon her teacher's visage and the sour expression he made every time he strolled by her and noticed that every note he made was annotated and every assignment assigned had their answers answered. She was indifferent to the mixed stares she received from her peers; the questioning gazes, the bitter scowls.

She was not, however, indifferent to the slow ticking of time nor the fact that the majority of the whispers were about her.

"Who does she think she is? Bitch."

Lyra didn't know what he meant. She hadn't even spoken a word to him, let alone looked at him. How was she a bitch?

"Look at her hair! Talk about blech."

Lyra resisted the urge to touch her hair; what was wrong with it?

"I heard she slept with some pimp. I mean, have you seen her car?"

She damned Sunny. Why did he have to be so damn sexy? No, she didn't mean that! She meant…his vehicle mode… Like Sideswipe's a sexy Corvette… As if that thought was any better.

"She thinks she's so awesome 'cause she's the new girl."

All Lyra wanted was to disappear into the wall. She didn't think she was awesome. She didn't want to be the new girl. She just wanted to just go away…

"I hate her, the stupid know-it-all."

Lyra hadn't talked to her before… And how can you be "stupid" and a "know-it-all"?

When the bell finally rang, she was relieved to leave that retched room. The walls felt like they were constricting around her, getting smaller and smaller until all that was left was a small, dense cube. Her stomach churned.

Sunstreaker was in the parking lot when she got there, Noah in the passenger seat with his seat belt tightly secured on him. Elementary school got out an hour earlier than high school, unfortunately, so this had been a regular occurrence for the past two weeks.

"Ly!" Noah cried happily, his lips spreading into a grin, revealing a gap in his teeth. "You'd never guess what I did today! Miss Gullo was teaching us about insects today and she…"

He chattered away happily, ignorant to the way Lyra fought to keep a smile on her face. It should've been easy, really; all that mattered to her was the ball of sunshine sat next to her as Sunstreaker drove them home slowly. She shouldn't have had to fight the facial muscles that suddenly seemed to weigh a ton and a half.

Lyra had never had friends. All she needed was Noah. That was it. She was happy with that. As long as he was around, everything was fine. It was fine. She was fine. I am fine, Lyra thought firmly.

"—and...and…and they turned into butterflies!" Noah exclaimed loudly, his arms flying up in wonder.

"Really? You got to see that?" Lyra asked with forced excitement. "That's awesome, No'!"

Yeah, Noah was the awesome one. She didn't think of herself as awesome because Noah was the awesome one. Always was, always will be. Her classmates were so stupid to think she thought otherwise.

"Lyra, do you think mom will let me have a caterpillar that I can raise into a butterfly? I'll take good care of it!"

"We'll see," the brunette mused, switching her gaze out of the tinted windows as they neared their house.

"Yes!" And he continued to chatter about all of the types of caterpillars he could get the rest of the ride.

Again, Lyra forced a smile.

Dinner was usually quiet nowadays. Lyra would always end up cooking the meal since her mother was always out…doing something. She'd serve herself and Noah at the dinner table, where they'd try to pretend they were back in Florida, living on their own again, only for Sandra to stumble in and join them.

She was always conveniently late, Lyra noticed, and she was always stumbling. Not to mention that her breath smelled. Bad.

Tonight was no different as the two Montez siblings sat at the small, round table with their individual plates of pasta. They were halfway through the meal when she walked in, heel broken, shirt buttoned incorrectly, arms strangely red as if it had been punctured recently.

"Welcome home, mommy," Noah said quietly, bowing his head solemnly. It had always been his dream to say those words; however, he had always wanted to mean them.

"Wha's fo' dinn'," Sandra slurred as she collapsed on a chair, pulling Lyra's plate away from her and started eating it before they could respond.

And dinner continued. In silence. Like usual.

Only the scrape of silverware against aged plates was heard throughout the house until Sandra was finished eating. The scraping of the chair against the floor resonated loudly in the room.

"Tha' shit was terrible," the woman moaned, using the table as a crutch to stand. "Learn t' cook, bitch."

Noah was staring wide eyed at his mother. She had just—!

"Please don't curse," Lyra said, cutting off the young boy's thoughts.

He switched his gaze to his sister, noticing that she looked paler than usual. Her fists were clenched around her utensils, her knuckles white, and her steely gaze was fixated upon them. She looked, for lack of a better word, icy. Fury frozen in terror? Frozen terror being melted by a fiery fury? Who knew? He wasn't a poet.

"'Scuse m'?" Sandra demanded, glaring at her with bloodshot eyes.

"Noah doesn't need to hear words like that," Lyra persisted with a shaky voice as her eyes remained unmoved.

A slightly maniac laugh escaped the mother's throat. "Oh, I see you haven' been broken in yet. Ha!" she crowed drunkenly. Abruptly, she seemed to sober up as she turned to Noah. He cringed away in fear. "I'm sorry for fuckin' cussin' like a fuckin' sailor's bitch. I didn' know your whore of a sister had standards."

Sandra pushed herself off of the table and stumbled off to her room.

"Mom!" Lyra called angrily, standing up in indignation.

Stopping stiffly, Sandra looked over her shoulder mockingly. "I'm sorry, did you need something?"

The brunette stood still, not knowing what to say. There were a million and one things she could say, but she just didn't think she was able to. Her mouth opened and closed in silence. She had the air, but the words escaped her.

"I don' need t' know how y' practice," she said in disgust, turning away scornfully. "I'm goin' t' bed. Clean this shit up."

Lyra's lips snapped together, her eyes clenching painfully tight. She could just feel her body shaking…

"Ly…?" Noah asked quietly, peering up at her cautiously as he straightened up from where he had sunk into the chair. "Are you…are you okay?" She didn't respond. "Lyra?" No response. "Sis," he said seriously, standing up from his chair slowly and approaching her. "Sis, talk to me. Please."

A shuddering breath was the first sign of acknowledgement he got from her before she dropped to her knees and hugged him to her, her arms wrapped around his waist, face buried in his small chest. "Don't you ever be anything like that woman, understood?" Lyra demanded. Her voice was thick with repressed emotion.

Noah nodded quickly, wrapping his thin arms around his sister as she broke down. She didn't make a sound, but he knew she was crying by the way his shirt seemed to dampen. He bit his lip. How could he cheer her up?

"Ly…" he whispered calmly, gnawing on his lower lip. "Can we go see Mikaela and Sam this weekend?"

"Yeah," she gasped, standing abruptly as she busied herself with cleaning up the dining table. Her back was purposefully to him as she scrambled to gather the plates and silverware, her head nodding absently as if she was still agreeing to his statement.

"Lyra, you don't have to be so—"

"It's time for bed, No'," she said tersely, cutting him off. "Go put on your jammies. I'll be up in a few minutes once I'm done."

"Alright...," Noah said regretfully as he turned grudgingly. However, he stood where he was for a few moments, watching the way his elder sister's shoulders seemed to shake without notice. Shutting his eyes briefly, he took in a small breath before opening them and looking away.

As he made his way to their bedroom he whispered what he so desperately felt his sister needed to hear.

"You don't always have to be so strong."

The drive was annoyingly cheerful, Noah had to admit. Lyra was laughing and joking around so much that it was sickening. The amount of forced joy she was exuding made him just want to gag. So, as the observant, logical younger brother, he did the only thing this situation allowed.

"When we get to Sam's, do you think 'Bee will play hide-and-seek with me?" Noah asked excitedly, his eyes widening in hopeful anticipation.

Lyra just melted at the look. Yeah, he was that good.

"Of course he will," she assured, ruffling his hair affectionately as she lazily kept a hand on Sunstreaker's steering wheel. The action was a habit now, really, and the Autobot hadn't threatened her life yet, so it was cool.

"Really? Yes!" Noah cheered, pumping his fist in the air excitedly. He would so own that robot in hide-and-seek. Just wait and see.

"What's 'hide-and-seek'?" Sunstreaker's voice garbled from the radio. Noah watched his sister's nose wrinkle in distaste as she finally dropped the joyful front she'd had since they departed that morning for a weekend at the Witwicky house.

"It's a game," Lyra sniffed, sitting up straight as she stared out of the windshield with a narrow gaze.

In reaction, Noah shrunk deeper into is seat. 'Scary…' he thought. Just how much did she resemble mommy with that look on her face? A lot. A whole freakin' lot.

An irritated gust of air vented out of the Lambo's A/C system. "What kind of game, you obnoxious femme?"

"A children's game, you insufferable robot," Lyra scowled. She didn't like him, Noah knew that, but she didn't have to be so rude. A pout adorned the boy's lips.

"What's the purpose of this children's game?" Ooh, he sounded annoyed. And like he was going to squish someone. Yikes.

"To hide," she pursed her lips in amusement. "And to seek."

The engine started sputtering as they passed the 'Welcome to Tranquility!' sign. Sunstreaker began to slow down pathetically. Inside the Cybertronian, the A/C cut off, quickly causing the temperature to skyrocket in the hot sun.

"Sunstreaker?" Noah asked tentatively after a few minutes. They stopped completely.

"Sunny…?" Lyra asked, her eyebrows furrowing together in confusion. Not worry. Pfft, like she would ever worry about him.

"Get out."

They weren't given a chance to respond for themselves as their doors opened and they were roughly shoved out of their seats. Though, Noah deduced from the cry of pain his sister emitted, he was shoved a little less so. Their bags followed quickly.

The sound of the doors slamming behind them was quickly followed by the shifting of gears and metal sliding against metal. Anxiously, he turned to his sister wondering what could be going on. Sunstreaker couldn't possibly be angry with Ly's answer, could he? Shouldn't he be used to it by now? Lyra didn't like him and he didn't like Lyra; did he really expect her answer to be anything but sarcastic?

Noah's eyes met the wide, panicked hazel eyes of his sister that quickly turned steely. She smiled reassuringly, her face suspiciously pale. He smiled back gently.

The sound of a blaster charging up forced the siblings to face the seething Autbot before them. The glow that the weapon gave off painted their skin a faint tint of blue, and their widened eyes seemed illuminated.

"I've had enough of you and your stupid answers, human," Sunstreaker spat.

Out of the corner of his eye, Noah saw his sister gulp nervously.

"Y-yeah?" Lyra's voice shook before she shut her eyes tightly and took a steadying breath. Opening her eyes, her eyes seemed to glow brighter in the weapon's light. A weapon that was, she noticed, still charging power. "Well, I've had enough of you and your stupid questions. Aren't you and the rest of you Autobots supposed to be linked up to Google or something? Shouldn't you be able to look up what hide-and-seek is?"

A vicious growl ripped through the air as Sunstreaker suddenly raised his blaster skyward and fired off two shots. The silence that followed would've been deafening had the Lambo not quickly succumbed to his temper and began cursing in his native tongue.

Noah looked around nervously, his nerves through the roof. Not only had they just been less than three yards away from a completely awesome and completely deadly weapon, but they had been three yards away from it when it was pointed at them.

"Are you insane!?" Lyra shouted, her body shaking violently in…rage? terror? "We're in a residential area, you psychopathic rust bucket! Do you seriously think that there won't be dozens of calls to the police about two strange lights in the sky? Especially after Mission City! Are you really that dense?"

"That's it! I don't care what the Boss Bot says, I'd rather be eaten by Unicron than go through this torture!" Sunstreaker snarled angrily as he transformed into his vehicle mode and drove off, leaving the two siblings standing by the side of the road in the dust.

Noah blinked, not having fully processed what just happened. Sunstreaker…just…left them?

"C'mon, No'," Lyra muttered, pushing his back gently as she walked towards the Witwicky house in a huff, their bags swung over her shoulder.

He followed silently, trying to fully grasp what just happened. "Lyra?" he called uncertainly. "He left us?"

"Yes," she nodded, clenching her jaw.

"But," Noah murmured, his eyes welling up with unwanted tears, "isn't he supposed to protect us? Isn't he our Guardian?"

A surge of white hot fury flashed through Lyra, her eyes glowing angrily before she took a deep breath. The anger settled down to a dull irritation as her hand rested upon her younger brother's shoulder, slightly clenched in her annoyance. "No, Noah," she said confidently, giving her brother a sideways glance; "I'm your Gaurdian. I'll protect you, got it?"

He eyed his sister, taking in the flush on her face, the slight downturn in her lips, the blue electrical currents in her eyes, the furrowing of her eyebr—whoa, whoa, whoa! Blue electrical currents? Noah openly gaped at his sister's eyes, seeing but not entirely believing that there were little rivers of electricity dancing through her very human eyes.

"Hey, No'," Lyra said, the electricity being replaced with worry, "are you okay?"

'Did I really just imagine that?' Noah thought as he rubbed at his eyes. "Y-yeah, Ly. I-I'm fine, just a little upset," he stuttered.

"That tin can isn't worth getting upset over, 'kay?" Lyra smiled cutely, ruffling his hair affectionately as they continued to walk through the unfamiliar neighborhood, both subconsciously searching for their favorite Camaro as they read off street names and house numbers.

"I know that," he pouted, crossing his arms of his chest. "But who knows how long it'll take until I can play hide-and-seek!"

The answer, it turned out was two hours. It took them two hours to find Sam's house, and they were dead tired. In fact, all Noah wanted to do was eat, use the bathroom, and sleep for the next five hours when they arrived.

"Oh, look at you two! Quick, come in! Come in! What are you still doing in the doorway? Sam!"

Judy Witwicky was a rather interesting character, Lyra learned.

"Really, ma'am, there's no need to do so much," she smiled gently, eyeing the mountains of food spread out on the counter. Was that sushi?

"Nonsense!" Judy laughed. "It's not every day Sam brings a pretty girl home!"

"Oh, uh, thank you, ma'am," she looked away in embarrassment, "but you do know Sam already has a girlfriend, right?"

"Ron! Would you get the grill going, please?" the woman yelled, seeming to have not heard her. "And, Sam, would you put the giant alien robot in the garage?! Honestly, men these days. Oh, but I'm sure you'll make sure that cutie of a brother of your turns out alright. No teen pregnancies on your watch, huh?" she laughed.

Lyra laughed along uneasily, wondering where the heck Mikaela was and why she wasn't there to save her from the enigma that was Judy Witwicky.

Author's Note: Perhaps I can receive forgiveness for not updating in a while? Please? :c