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(A Week Later, Normal POV)

'Ratchet to Prime.'

'Prime here.'

'Permission to take the femmes back to their original places of residence.' He tried hard to sound casual, not wanting his leader to know a couple of earth-born femmes were fraying what was left of his already short nerves. "No." The answer was almost automatic as he answered one of their repetitive questions, not even bothering to look at them as he played around with the tools on the table in front of him.

There was silence for a moment. 'Permission denied, and you knew to expect that answer. The femmes are safer here with us.'

'I wouldn't count on that.' He cycled his vents as quietly as he could. "No." The repititions of his answers did little to annoy him now that he was mostly tuned out. 'If they don't stop bothering me, I'll be the one to offline them.

'You wouldn't even throw a wrench at Arcee or her sisters.' The answer sounded like there was a hint of reproach in it, even as the silent inquiry made itself known.

"No." 'Arcee and her sisters can be annoying when they try, but they have nothing on these two. They make Sunstreaker and Sideswipe look like saints.' A low growl had the femmes giggling, and Ratchet rolled his optics, not even bothering with the pretenses of working.

There was a low sense of amusement over internal communications. 'They've only been there seven earth days. I'd hardly call that enough time to tell if they are as bad as the twins or not.'

'Come to med bay and spend a day with them, and we'll see if you're still on their side.'

'I'm not on anyone's side, old friend.' Yet the amusement didn't fade.

Optics narrowed. "No." 'Could have fooled me. I still stand by my request. Besides, if they truly are just visitors and guests, we have no right to keep them from their homes.'

'Perhaps. I'll speak to them first.'

'Better make it soon, or I can't guarantee they'll still be online.' Another low growl, this one leaking through his precarious mental blocks. "No."

(Bella's POV)

If there was a list of things to do, to annoy a giant alien robot and get a kick out of it at the same time, this most definitely made it on that list. "Can we go home yet?" I bit my lip to keep from smirking, even as I kicked my metallic feet against the edge of Ratchet's 'berth', still admiring the new white and silver of my armored body. I was still thrown by the fact I could now transform into a helicopter.

"No." His body remained straight, and his back to us. His response almost sounded automatic, and emotionless.

Rika sighed from next to me, checking out her own deep cherry red armor. She transformed into a Fisker Karma Sunset Concept, an admittedly overly flashy car that would only draw attention. "I thought we were supposed to be guests, not prisoners. Can we go home yet?" She waved her fingers in front of her eyes, poking at the tubing running up her wrist with a look of concentration on her features.

"No."

"You don't have the right to keep us here against our will." I shot Rika a look and she returned the smirk. "Can we go home yet?" I batted my new metallic eyelids rapidly, and struggled to look innocent, even with his back turned to us.

"No! Slaggit, femmes!" Finally, he spun towards us, his eyes blazing. "You cannot go home yet." His look turned to Rika. "And you are on restricted access since your last encounter, or are your processors damaged, and you've forgotten what happened last time?"

I giggled a little as we exchanged another look, both undoubtedly reiminiscing about what happened last time we left the med bay.

Flashback

"Just make sure you stay out of the hangars. The main halls and the runway are accessible for you."

Rolling my eyes, I turned and wandered off, walking through the door and then very carefully making my way down the hall. It was honestly funny how easy the Autobots made it look, but when trying to avoid stomping humans coming out of the wood work, it was a lot harder than it seemed. I felt like I was hop-scotching through a field of land mines, the land mines being the humans.

Before long, the ground vibrated under booming steps, and because Rika and I were stepping so carefully, I knew it wasn't us. Looking up, I couldn't bite back the groan at seeing the dark, suspicious glare of Ironhide as he wandered over, pausing right in front of us.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"Well, you see... We got bored in the med bay, so we thought we'd sneak off and send word to the Decepti-bitches that we're hiding away on some God-forsaken island, God-knows the Autobots, planning our next step to kick their sorry, lacking afts." I blinked mock innocently, raising an eyebrow at his blank, far away stare.

"Wow, he really is slow!" Rika gasped, her eyes wide.

His eyes snapped to attention and he growled, his cannons appearing. "Why you-"

"I swear he's overcompensating! I mean, who needs cannons that big, unless they're making up for something else?" Turning a sly look at me, Rika snickered a little before looking back at the black mech who, by now, was almost literally steaming. "Jeez? What's with the smoke? You trying to think again?" She yelped when he lunged for her.

"Hey! Leave my best friend alone!" I yelled, glaring at the bot who was sitting there, growling as he glared at us. "Attacking unarmed gir-uh femmes? Wow, what a big bot you are." I snarked, folding my arms over my chest.

"Perhaps not that big. Remember, overcompensation." Rika snickered.

"Return to the med bay, now." He growled.

"Or you'll what? Blast us? Ratchet gave us permission, and unless he or Optimus Prime tell us, we're not going anywhere." Rika followed my lead, folding her arms over her chest. "C'mon big man! Lets see you brutally force a couple of femmes back to the med bay."

I shook my head, starting to take pity on Ironhide. He wasn't really the brightest crayon in the box, but he was a strong, loyal officer. He had a mate, an adopted baby in Annabelle. Sure, he could be a little slow, but then again, with two strange femmes like us, I suppose I could understand why.

Then he growled. He straightened up momentarily, before crouching low and running at Rika.

My feet moved of their own accord. "Hey! I said leave her alone!" I shouted, running between them. Seeing the big, hulking mech running at me, I didn't even really think. I just acted on instinct. I felt my body stiffen up, numerous red flashes in my vision, but the only thing I could think straight enough to do was to swing my foot. Hard.

CLANK!!!

End Flashback

I had to cover my mouth as the laughter threatened to break out once again. It took a little effort, but once I had control, I dared to look up at Ratchet, who'd turned away once again. "That was not our fault!"

"Yes, because the pain receptors in his groin plating just happened to damage themselves." Was it me, or was there a hitch to his voice?

Shaking my head, I bit my lip, feeling my body trembling with the laughter within me. Unfortunately, I was no match for it, and a hiccup of laughter escaped me, sending Rika into fits. And listening to her hysterical laughter was all it took to send me into a fresh batch. "I'm sorry! I just didn't think there was anything there to hurt! I thought Cybertronians mated with their sparks, not with their....groin...plating." I couldn't help but crack up again.

Ratchet spun towards us with wide eyes, then slowly they narrowed. "Just what do you know?"

That thought sobered us up, reminding us we'd been born human, knowing about the Autobots in ways no other human did. It reminded me to the fact that we used to have normal lives, living in a world where the Autobots weren't even supposed to exist. "Depends." I shrugged, suddenly finding the floor surprisingly fascinating.

"On?"

"On what topic you're asking about." Rika put in quietly. "Like medic-wise? We know that Cybertronians are supposed to mate via their sparks combining. The specifics are all...varied. We know baby Cybertronians are called 'sparklings' and that before the war, they'd come from sparkmates or the allspark."

"We know sparkmates is the term giving to two bots who chose to mate permanently. It's far more binding than the earth equivalent of soul mates, or marriage. It usually involves two bots in love, and something within their sparks that mates them together, forever. We also know that once mated, if one mate dies, the other usually follows." I added in, still staring at the floor.

"If we're talking...say...specific bots. We know Bumblebee is rumored to be the last of the younglings, though Skids' and Mudflap's appearance kinda throws a big ol' monkey wrench in that idea. Ironhide is rumored to have raised the little scout. Ironhide has a mate named Chromia who..."

Feeling a nudge on my arm, I looked over at Rika, who was shooting me an uncertain glance. It hit me then that we didn't know if Skids, or Mudflap, or even Sideswipe had arrived. We didn't know what time frame we were in. "What's the date?" I looked at Ratchet. "I mean, we know about what happened in the first two movies, and roughly when they were. We just wanna know if the battle in Egypt took place yet or not."

"Battle in Egypt?" Ratchet tilted his head. "The last major battle was in Mission City, approximately a year and a half ago."

I echanged a look with Rika. "Ok, so let me get this straight. We've somehow entered the world of Transformers. We've turned into Transformers, and we've gone back in time? Or am I hallucinating that? I could have sworn we were celebrating our birthdays in 2009." I blinked. "Holy shit, I'm a year younger!"

"This is...so much to take in." Ri shook her head. "So we're here before Revenge of the Fallen. What now?"

That was the question, too, wasn't it? If we interfered, we risked changing things for the better or worse. We knew who would be arriving, that hadn't already done so, like Sides and the Chevy twins. We knew about Soundwave, Ravage and their soon-to-be plan to get rid of Prime. But...we only wanted to live normal lives.

Granted, being giant alien robots made that hard to do, but I believed we could still live semi normal lives. Or...at least we could try. But...if we got involved with their war, we'd never get away. They'd keep us around for our information. They'd either collar us spies, or demand to know everything. If we let on we knew anything, chances were we'd never get away.

But then...we could save lives.

I shook my head and shrugged at Rika, not really sure what to say or do. Instead, I once again found myself staring at the ground. "I wanna go home."

"No."

Finally daring to look up and really look into Ratchet's eyes, I sighed. "Please? Just for one night. I need time... I need to sort through all this. I mean, it's easy to accept when laughing about it, but when you really gotta sit down and process all that's happened... If you'd been turned human overnight, lost everyone you ever knew, your whole world... Wouldn't you need time to accept it?" Or not, depending on how my thinking session goes.

"I'm with Bella. Granted, we have each other, but that seems so little in face of all this. Our world has been turned upside down, Ratchet."

He seemed to pause. "Optimus wished to speak with you." He met our eyes with practiced ease, before shaking his head and looking away. "I don't agree with your choice, but I will speak to Optimus about it. He may agree, if you can agree to allowing guardians to watch over you."

"I plan to spend the time curled up in bed, trying to will myself back into a normal life." I sighed, shaking my head. "I might have been able to accept coming into this world. Perhaps on the first day of meeting h-him-" The hitch was audible and I knew it. I winced and looked down. "-I might have been able to accept he was just a holographic representitive of you. I might have...ok, no. I don't think turning into a Cybertronian would have been easier to accept in any other form."

"So agreeing with you there." Rika once again had her hands in front of her face, tugging gently on a tube in her wrist, before grimacing and leaving it alone, instead chosing to open and close her hand, watching it as if it were a foreign object.

"My holographic appearance truly bothers you, doesn't it?" The sympathy in Ratchet's voice was unexpected, and I found myself looking up into his eyes. I still found it strange, their faces were so different, yet I could make out some emotions on them. Light right now? Ratchet had a frown on his face, but something about the light in his eyes seemed softer. "I can change it, if need be."

"I'm sure Secretary Keller would love that." I sighed, shaking my head and spotting the way his eyes brightened. "First, thank you Ratchet, but you'd have to change his looks, name, personality, voice and your alternate form. All things I'll think of him when seeing." It was a miracle I didn't wince this time, but the pain was still there. "Second, we know about a lot of your human allies. I'd say you could count us on that list, but...uh...not human anymore." I shrugged again, for a lack of anything better to do.

"Our human allies? That is something you'd best speak to Optimus about." He groaned a little. "And you might want to hold off on just what you know about them, when around Ironhide. I believe there's more than enough friction between the three of you."

"And it's not the fun kind, either. Damn!" Rika mock groaned, snapping her fingers, before going back to staring at them.

"You realize, you look like you're high." I pointed out, watching as she turned to me. "With the whole staring at your hands bit." I mocked her slightly. "Whoa! My hands look so big! It's like...if I do this..." I brought my hands together. "I can touch them to each other." I did so and widened my eyes, before smiling at her laughter, and the odd look Ratchet was giving us.

Then he straightened, glancing away. His eyes dimmed momentarily, before brightening again and fixing on us. "Optimus is on his way to speak to you."

Instantly, I felt my heart pick up. Not in the good, fiesty way, either, but out of dread. Ironhide already made it clear he saw us as a threat of some sort. Ratchet barely put up with us, but now it was time to find out what the Autobot leader felt about the two strange newcomers. Glancing at Rika, I bit my lip before turning back. "Can we have a moment to speak alone, please?"

His eyes narrowed.

I rolled mine. "Oh come off it. We're not about to make some last minute plans to take him out or anything, but we do have things we need to sort out. Please?" I stared him in the eye, trying to will him to see the truth in my words. Finally, after a long moment of staring back suspiciously, he nodded. "Thank you." I waited until he nodded again and left the room, before turning to Rika. "What do we tell them? We're here before the second movie takes place."

"We tell them the truth." She shrugged.

I gave her a look. "You realize that means we'll never get a moment of privacy, right? Do realize just how deeply that'll entwine us in their war?" Looking away, I hesitated. "But I don't want Optimus or Sam to die. There has to be something... Soundwave!" I snapped my fingers. "We can tell him about Soundwave and that'll probably fix the majority of all this. We don't have to tell him details, just that the movie-"

"You really think we'll get 'Soundwave is in space, tapping into earth satelites' out, and they'll let us walk? The moment we say sweet-frag-all, we'll be locked up tighter than we are now."

"We make a deal then. We get some time at home, in exchange for the location of a Deception." I shrugged. "We're not at the two year mark yet, so he hasn't tapped into the satelites yet, so even if they communicate over radios about us, he won't know."

"Except he might not be there yet." She sighed. "This is all too much. What're we supposed to do? I wanna live a normal life, but-" She shrugged her massive shoulders, gesturing vaguely to her body. "That's kinda outta the question. I still can't believe this all isn't some messed up dream. I kept expecting to wake up any moment, to you snoring away-"

"I don't snore!" Shaking my head, I frowned. "But I get the point. Why don't we think over what we wanna tell them? See if we can't get Optimus to agree to let us go home, at least for one night."

"Yeah. Hopefully boss bot's as kind in real life as he is in the movies."

Note :

Bella = Rescue copter.

Rika = Fisker Karma Sunset Concept

Written : Jan 25, 2010

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Tenshi