They say never judge a book by it's cover. Well, you'd be more than dead if you tried to judge me by my appearance. I maybe small, but I pack a mean punch if you mess with me and my team... Oh, I'm sorry. That was rude... hey there! I'm Windswept! And boy, have I got a story to tell you. Well, what are you waiting for?! Get over here and get ready for my adventures on Team Prime!

This chapter would've been up a few days earlier had I not got called in for extra work days. The editing part of the writing is where it slows me down sometimes, especially today where I've got a bandaged finger from work (sorry for any errors!). But I get it done for you guys.

Thank you to Wowdeshal for favouriting and following this story. Yay we've hit 10 followers and 11 favourites! Thank you guys so much for your support! And to Mia Prime, I'm sorry for not actually responding to your review - you gave an idea for this story, and while I appreciate it, unfortunately I already have my own storyline for those characters. And I think this chapter may answer the next question of why.

This chapter takes place during Predatory, the one where Arcee and Jack run into Airachnid in case some of you forgot the scenario for that episode. I felt it didn't make sense to add more characters to a storyline that didn't need reworking so I created my own to explain what everyone else was up to during it.

- Transformers Prime does not belong to me. All rights go to the people and brands who were able to create this show.
- Windswept and the other OC's belong to me.

The sun was at its highest point, beaming down on me to indicate that it was now midday. I smiled at the warmth, breathing in and closing my optics. At least it was something warm and bright.

Something that Optimus was the total opposite of when he had found out what half the team, including me, got up to a few weeks ago.

Long story short, Arcee and I were really in the most trouble. Arcee because she agreed to race in the first place, starting up the whole ordeal. And I because I had allowed her to go and race as well as practically beg Sunburst to race when Arcee decided that enough was enough. So we were banned from leaving base except for going to pick up Jack and Carly from school or their homes and dropping them off at school or at their homes. But that was it. no scouting missions, nothing. Except for extra patrol duty, accompanied by Optimus of course...

Bulkhead, Aquastrike and Sunburst weren't allowed out of base for any scouting missions for about a week, the first two having only had some sort of knowledge of it and Sunburst kind of being an innocent party. I took full responsibility for Sunburst as part of our agreement that I owed him big time.

Jack, Carly, Miko and Raf were banned from playing video games for about two weeks at base. Instead, they were forced to take a Cybertronian History Class taught by the proud Ratchet. But the poor medic was exhausted by the end of it and wasn't as proud as he had been at the start of it.

We kind of understand how Miko now gets herself into detention quite often.

But Jack and Carly were also banned from talking to Vince or Sierra or any other punk kid who asked for a race. But they didn't really mind that rule. Vince had decided to back off altogether on the pair and Sierra and Carly had put aside their differences slightly.

Though, very, very slightly.

But at least Carly wasn't muttering words that she shouldn't have been about the cheerleader any more.

Anyway, things were getting back on track. Half the bans had been lifted off and as soon as a scouting mission appeared, Arcee was quick to jump at the chance, and took Jack with her to scout about an hour ago. The Cybertronian history classes had ended for the humans and they were allowed to play video games to their hearts content.

And I was finally free to get out of base.

But I didn't really get too far to be honest. I was sitting on the roof of the base, allowing the sun to lighten up my armour where my red and blue armour colour was starting to fade slightly.

Time for a new coat of armour polish, I reckon.

I turned around at the noise of the roof folding away to reveal a large circular hole. Someone must have been coming up the elevator. At first I was nervous that it was going to be Optimus, ready to tell me that I had let him down once again.

I was surprised by how much Optimus was disappointed in me when we got back to base that night and explained to him the whole ordeal. He wasn't angry at us as such, but rather quite disappointed. But after the storytelling was done and we split off to do various tasks ordered to us by him, Optimus had held me back and said that we expected better out of us, especially me.

I've been a bit down by the fact that I let Optimus down. I wanted to follow in his footsteps as this war went on. I wanted to become a leader, a commander. I wanted to help lead the Autobots to victory, stand proudly beside Optimus when we would finally beat the Decepticons and declare this war over.

But since a few weeks ago, that hope that maybe one day I could stand beside the Autobot leader and be proud of the team we lead to victory was slowly slipping out of view the longer Optimus stayed disappointed.

I shook my helm to remove those thoughts from my helm as a few familiar faces appeared from the elevator.

"When Optimus said that you were free to go do whatever, he really did mean it, 'Swept," Starlight teased as she walked off the elevator platform.

Bumblebee and Starlight had enjoyed the fact that they had stayed out of all the trouble while they were on, what turned out to be, their three day scouting mission with Ratchet. They were already pretty chuffed about the fact that they had found an entire untouched mine of Energon during their scouting. So when they came back to hear about the action they had missed during their time away, Bumblebee and Starlight wouldn't let up about it for days!

Even Ratchet was smug about the fact that half of us 'younglings' got ourselves into trouble almost the second he had left.

"Ha ha," I laughed dryly at the smirk on Starlight's lips, "At least I am out of the base and not going stir-crazy any more."

While Bulkhead and Bumblebee exchanged a look of confusion and Carly, Miko and Raf just shrugged, Starlight, Aquastrike and Sunburst cringed at my sentence. They knew that I wasn't wrong. They knew what would happen if you kept me under a roof for too long.

Let's just say that I tend to get a bit snappy.

"Oh come on!" Miko yelled in disbelief on Aquastrike's shoulder, looking around at the trio of Autobots, "You can't be that scared of Bluestreak here?!"

I growled at the nickname Miko had suddenly thought up and given to me. She got bored while being stuck in base one day, took one look at me and began annoying me with questions. And when I wouldn't answer them, she decided to give me the nickname as punishment. Something about the streaks of light blue popping out from the red on my arms and legs?

I wasn't too bothered at first, but the more she says it, the more I started to dislike it. I don't even know why, but something was telling me in my helm that it wasn't the right nickname for me.

Isn't there an Autobot out there called Bluestreak?

"Miko, I said hello to her one day in the training room about a week ago and she challenged me to an all out grudge match," Sunburst explained, looking at Miko worriedly. He twisted to the side, showing a patch of metal just above his hip, large in both height and width, "I lost big time."

... Yeeeeaaahhhhhh, I got a tad carried away. But I was bored and pent up! I had to take my anger out on something that would fight back! ... And unfortunately, Sunburst had been there at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Carly's eyes widened at the sight of the patch on him, looking over at me with an awkward smile and nervous laughter, "Remind me not to annoy the heck out of you any time soon!"

"Ahhh, it's alright," Sunburst shrugged off, wrapping an arm around my shoulders, "She's like my sister. It's what siblings to, right?"

The fact that Sunburst was my brother still hadn't really sunk in yet. I still kept questioning myself if all of it was true. But one day, I saw him nearly collapse in the hallway in pain. When I rushed to help him, he told me that he could feel something through his sparkbond with Whirlwind - the first time in ages! He was angry at himself that he couldn't do anything to help her. Hours later, the pain had passed, but the bond had shut off again before he was able to reach out to my sister. For Sunburst to feel that kind of pain from Whirlwind so suddenly, I was slowly being convinced that what he had said was truth and no lies.

Near Aquastrike's feet, Carly and Raf exchanged a look that was full of nervous smiles, the brown-haired girl rubbing her arm awkwardly.

"Not all siblings, but some."

"Are you kiddin'!" Aquastrike immediately scoffed in disbelief of the sentence, "Wheeljack 'nd I would always greet each ot'er with a 'ard 'hit to the shoulder! Every single time!"

Bulkhead laughed behind her, patting the femme on the shoulder, "I remember that! Poor old Jackie wasn't as strong as you, though!"

Smirking proudly at the comment, Aquastrike help up her arms to show off her muscles, but really, all we could see was just bulky aqua blue armour, "Ahhh, my brother just didn' 'ave the so-called guns that I got!"

At the words, Sunburst looked down at me nervously, "Guns?"

"Oh, it's a term t'at t'e 'umans use to describe t'eir muscles!" Aquastrike explained, setting her arms hanging back down beside her.

I narrowed my optics at her teasingly, "Where'd you get that term from?"

"Me," Bumblebee buzzed guiltily, raising his arm up.

"Something tells me you didn't pick that up off any random human," Starlight scoffed in disbelief, her arms folded as she looked up at Bumblebee.

"He got that off me!" Miko revealed, holding up her arm proudly.

"Jack was trying to show off his 'muscles' to Carly during that Cybertronian 101 crash course," Miko explained, using air quotation marks when she said 'muscles'.

"Don't say it like that!" Carly argued, "Jack's arms may not be that buff, but at least he has something." Then her eyes drifted off like she was thinking about something, sighing dreamily, "His heart makes up for it."

Miko instantly stuck her tongue out at those words, "Arghhh, you guys can't shut up about each other! I go to talk to Jack, and all I get is 'Carly this' or 'Carly that'! I got to talk to Carly and all I get outta her is 'Jack this' or 'Jack that'!"

"Awwww Miko, are you jealous that your friends are spending more time with each other than you?" I teased lightly.

Miko just pouted slightly and crossed her arms on Aquastrike's shoulder, "I never said that."

"You're slouching and speaking about them with a whining tone. Are you sure you're not jealous?" Starlight pointed out with a small smirk.

Miko refused to answer her. Instead, she looked up at me and Sunburst, "So Arcee and Jack have gone Energon hunting, Optimus and Ratchet are busy downstairs, and we're all grouped up here!"

Hmph, that was indeed true. Apart from Jack, Arcee, Optimus and Ratchet, the rest of the entire team was up here, chatting away about all sorts.

It felt slightly comfortable for some reason.

"What are you suggesting, Miko?" Sunburst asked warily as if he knew that the girl's head was already forming a plan. He seemed to think that he knew what that girl was planning, and he didn't look excited about whatever it was.

"Nothing..." Miko sing-songed in answer, clasping her hands together innocently.

"Hey! Why don' we exchange some good ol' war stories!" Aquastrike suggested suddenly, causing us to all look at her in surprise. She simply shrugged at our faces, "Oh, come on! We all 'ave nothin' better to do! Ot'erwise we wouldn' be chattin' away about random scrap up 'ere!"

"Could be fun," Bulkhead began slowly, looking between Aquastrike and Sunburst and I.

"Yeah, but it could bring up some feelings," Sunburst began to protest, looking down at me, "Feelings that we pushed aside when we left Cybertron..."

"You can go join the boring elder bots downstairs if you're not up to handling some good war tales, Sourshine," Miko huffed, crossing her arms, "I like Aquastrike's idea!"

"Come on 'Swept." I looked down by my feet and found Carly looking up at me innocently, "Just a few stories! Please!"

I was on the fence. Some of the war stories that Sunburst, Aquastrike, Starlight and I were involved in back on Cybertron were painful ones – not all of them, but some of them were quite painful to tell. We had seen horrific injuries and painful deaths, which some of us had to deal with the grief that came after that. We had been tortured, stabbed, left for dead. Some of us even had to battle family who had chosen a different path.

But just because it was all doom and gloom, doesn't mean we allowed it to stay that way. Many of us found the time we spent at Iacon a blessing. We worked together, grew together... we were happy together. We all became some sort of small family that was guiding light through the darkness over the war. There was even one time where Aquastrike and Starlight attempted to pull a small prank on the strict Sunburst... until he discovered the joke and twisted it back on them.

Ha, ha... good times.

I looked around at the group of Autobots and humans who had joined me on the roof. My optics rested on the beaming Aquastrike and Miko and sighed, "Well, if no one else has anything better to do, then we may as well pass the time somehow."

Miko and Aquastrike smiled with glee and began cheering like they had won some sort of little competition. Starlight rolled her optics in amusement while Bulkhead and Bumblebee shrugged at each other.

Sunburst pulled me tighter to his side, "You get upset or angry at anything, let me know and I'll get you out of here."

"Settle down, Sunburst," I whispered back, looking up at him, "This might be a good time to get a few things off our chests and explain a few things." Sunburst narrowed his optics at me. I glared right back, "I can't keep the fact that we're actually brother and sister a secret, Sunshine."

The group had sat down in a circle. Aquastrike was on the opposite side of us, cross-legged and ready to tell a tale. Bumblebee was on her left with Raf and Carly sitting in front of him, then Bulkhead and Miko and Starlight just sitting down beside them. Sunburst and I took our seats between Starlight and Aquastrike, although the former was a little reluctant. I had to drag him over.

"Alright!" Aquastrike grinned, rubbing her servos together excitedly, "Who's gonna go first?!"

"I'll go!" Bulkhead decided eagerly, sitting forwards to prepare himself, "Before Ultra Magnus came, the Wreckers were a collective group of madness. We were trigger happy Autobots eager for a fight. And we got ourselves one when the Stunitcons turned up."

"Them Decepticon scum!" Aquastrike growled, "They were nasty little bugs!"

"At the time Wildrider and Breakdown were part of the unit, who lead the Stunitcons to attack us when we tried to invade the Decepticon side. Wheeljack, Aquastrike, Seaspray and I were ready to pound some serious scrap into them. But one of them attempted a sniper attack from above. So Wheeljack, doing what he does best, activated his grenade and chucked it up above, knocking the sniper out from his post!" Bulkhead explained.

"Good ol' 'one grenade, one shot' Jackie!" Aquastrike chuckled at the fond memory.

"Whose Wildrider?" Miko asked excitedly.

"Wheeljack's arch-enemy. He always thought he could outplay Wheeljack's secret attacks and the 'one grenade, one shot move'. He was that determined in beating Wheeljack, that after a violent attack on him, his spark was forced to be transplanted into a new shell form based from Wheeljack's own form!" Bulkhead told us.

I had only heard of Wildrider by reputation during both my times on the Decepticon and Autobot sides. He preferred to wreak havoc on his own accord and is apparently described as an overly violent, uncooperative Decepticon. Even Megatron had an apparent difficulty in keeping him under control, letting alone give orders to the mech.

"How is that possible?" Carly questioned sceptically, "I mean, this 'Shockwave' person was able to clone Wheeljack's form? Was Wheeljack his prisoner at some point and collected his body form measurements or what?"

"Jackie was previously held prisoner mere 'uman weeks b'fore we battled t'ose Stunticons. We 'ad to perform an emergency rescue on 'im when we heard t'at Shockwave had got 'im," Aquastrike told us, "And t'at wasn' easy. We had to sneak in while Shockwave was busy, get Jackie and sneak back on out! Wreckers do not sneak!"

"I heard that no one really understood the kind of hatred that Wheeljack and Wildrider had for each other," Starlight piped in, "But no one even went to Wheeljack about it to ask."

"You'd get yer 'ead chewed off if ya did!" The aqua blue femme shook her head, biting her denta together as if to prove it.

"Back to the story!" Miko yelled, rolling her head back up to look at Bulkhead.

Bulkhead nodded at her, "After 'Jackie took out the sniper, the Stunticons tried to pull a counter-attack on us. They were angry that we tried to step on their territory and they wanted revenge. So we gave them a real fight."

"And in the end?" Miko asked hopefully, looking between her guardian and the aqua blue femme.

"T'ey took off screamin' like little sparklin's!" Aquastrike smirked.

Miko cheered, "AWESOME!"

The Stunticons had been a fierce force. They were the Wreckers of the Decepticons with no regard for anything. I was sure that if they ever set foot on Earth, the planet would be destroyed in mere moments. I could only pray that we'd never see them on this planet.

"Who's next?!" Miko asked, looking around at us.

"What about you Bee?" Raf asked, spinning around in his seat to look up at the yellow and black striped Autobot.

"I don't have many stories to tell. I only got to go out on the battlefield a few times before I got my voice-box torn out from me," Bumblebee whirred sadly as he picked up his charge and looked at him.

"What'd he say?" Miko asked Carly beside her in a whisper.

"He said that he doesn't have many stories to tell because he got his voicebox torn out after a few missions," Carly whispered back.

Miko nodded, looking up at the scout, "Awwhhh, poor Bee!"

"Bumblebee became very well known for being the Autobot who faced Megatron and got his vocoder ripped out as a response," Sunburst mentioned, depressing the mood further and causing Bumblebee's doorwings to droop. I elbowed Sunburst in his side, looking up at him and giving him a glare. Swallowing, Sunburst looked over at 'Bee nervously, "But Bumblebee's also known for being one of the very few Autobots to come up against Megatron and survive."

Bumblebee's doorwings picked up slightly, but not much. Instead, he shrugged and looked up at us, "We fight, we get hurt, we recover, we move on."

I nodded in agreement, "Absolutely Bumblebee. We can't allow our injuries or the horrors we have faced to hold us back. You haven't and look at you now, 'Bee! You're one of the strongest 'bots on this team!"

Bumblebee's doorwings perked up a bit more, fluttering slightly in excitement. Starlight giggled at his response while the rest of us smiled.

"More war stories! More war stories!" Miko demanded, looking around the rest of us.

"Well it depends," Starlight began, "What kind of war stories do you want to hear from us?"

"I got one!" Raf began, looking up at Sunburst and I, "You guys have this hatred against Knock Out..."

Uh-oh.

"Why?"

It was an innocent question. Honestly that was all it was. But for Sunburst and I, it was more than that. It was the question we both never wanted to be asked. I curled my servos into fists in my lap. Sunburst coughed slightly behind me.

"Raf, I don't think they want to answer that rig-"

"It's fine, Star," Sunburst mumbled, bumping my shoulder with his fist. I looked up at him, finding my shiny optics in the reflection of his, "We can talk about this... right?"

I took a breath. This would be the first time in so long that I've brought up this story. After the ordeal, Sunburst and I refused to discuss it with anyone. They didn't understand how we took to what happened. They didn't understand what we were told, what could've happened to the Autobot war. They all thought that it really wasn't a big deal and that everyone's gone through it.

Well, what we went through was different than what everyone else has had dealt to them.

I looked at the others around us, eager to hear the story. I sighed and finally, I began, "The Decepticons had become quiet during the highest peak of the war. We had not seen any Decepticon drones with bombs for quite some time. Alpha Trion decided to send Sunburst and I on a scout mission to see what the Decepticons might be planning. We accepted the mission and we left early the next day to return before nightfall.

"Sunburst and I were scouting high and low on the edges of Decepticon territory before we eventually moved in onto their side, sifting through parts of Kaon at one point. As nightfall began to descent upon us, Sunburst and I decided to head back... until we found Slipstream and Knock Out conversing with some of the Decepticon scientists regarding a new form of Energon. Something that they believed could change the tide of the war if carried out correctly."

"Windswept and I ranged in on them for surprise attack, despite the argument that we should retreat for back up. But we didn't want to take any risks... Unfortunately, Slipstream must have caught us during the distraction. She and Knock Out had us surrounded and made us become their prisoners. We never made it back to Alpha Trion before nightfall as we had promised," Sunburst continued as I leaned back slightly, resting again his arm, "They had us chained up in a secluded prison where many other Decepticon prisoners were being kept. But some of them were already offline before we could even try to figure out who they were.

"We spent days in torture. Slipstream and Knock Out tortured us for information about anything we knew. Slipstream was dead set on getting more information out of 'Swept and continued to bring more pain onto me, injecting me with Energon shocks. Every time 'Swept refused to give up a piece of information, Slipstream would press a command that would send electrodes through me, electrocuting me to the core.

"About six or seven human days later, Windswept and I were severely weak. We had little Energon left. Not enough to survive another day. We had scratches and small stab wounds on us and our arms were painfully sore from being held up by those bonds. But we still remained strong. We hadn't given up much information – Slipstream and Knock Out weren't aware that we were worked with Alpha Trion so we only gave up information that was either useless to them or information that they already we well aware of."

"Knock Out returned later on the seventh day and began tormenting us about who we knew and our connections to them. He eventually began tormenting us about Whirlwind, describing..." I trailed off and threw my head up to keep the tears from falling down my cheeks.

This was getting really tough now. This bit was probably the toughest of the story.

I looked back down at the Autobots and humans around Sunburst and I, clearing my throat to try to get rid of the emotion within my voice, "He began describing how he would kill her if he ever got the chance. He talked about how he would torture her like Slipstream and him would torture us, but worse... He talked about how he was a medical bot and that he knew what points inside of us would cause such severe damage that it could kill us. He talked about extending her pain out... keeping her alive and just tormenting her to no end."

Sunburst shuddered as he tried to speak, "I reacted and tried to... tried to break free. I only ended up tearing part of my arm. I was too weak to fight." He paused, looking down at me. "But she did. She screamed, broke free of the bonds, and attempted to attack the 'Con. Slipstream got to her before she could get to him, and stabbed her with this black Energon crystal."

"Black Energon was supposed to be the thing that was going to change the entire war. The Decepticons had engineered it with toxin and this black substance that no one knew what it was. No one knew what it could do or how it was used. All they knew was that it could affect the Autobots severely. I would know, I was the test subject... While I gasped and struggled through the pain, Knock Out and Slipstream evacuated from the area and never returned."

"I had to watching her in immense pain. I had to watch my best friend..." Sunburst trailed off, rubbing a few tears that were rolling down my cheeks, "My sister... I had to watch her as she arrived at deaths door before me."

Carly, Miko and Raf were right beside each other, the former's cheeks stained with tears while her Japanese friend and her younger brother had tears shining in their eyes. Aquastrike had looked down at her servos in her lap, fidgeting slightly. Bumblebee and Bulkhead just looked at us sadly. Starlight had her helm in her servos as if she didn't want anyone to see her face.

Sunburst suddenly brightened up. Although not by much, "Thankfully, Aquastrike and her small team of Autobots came to our rescue before Windswept could pass over. We managed to get back to Iacon in time for her to get to the medical bay and back to full health."

I looked up him. That was how the story went, yes. But there's more than just me getting back to full health just with the snap of my fingers. Looking in Sunburst's optics, I could see that he didn't seem keen on telling any more of the story than that.

To be honest, I agreed with him.

"So you were a-okay after what happened?" Carly asked softly, using her sleeve on her shirt to rub her tear-stained cheeks.

I sighed, "Mostly. We... we survived the ordeal at least. Got the battle scars to prove it too." I looked down at the side of my stomach plating where a large uneven scar was hiding underneath. On Sunburst, he had a large scar on his upper arm where Slipstream once stabbed him to try to get some information out of him.

The sound of flashing noises made us look down at Miko, who had her phone out innocently and was taking a picture of the battle wound. Sunburst looked at her for a moment, then stood to full height and began flexing his arm where the battle scar was.

"The humans refer to these muscles as guns, huh?" Sunburst teased.

Miko and Carly laughed, the latter also pulling out her phone and taking a few pictures of the yellow Autobot. Aquastrike and Starlight also giggled at the Autobot's antics while Bulkhead chortled in amusement.

Even I was smiling after that painful story.

"Hey, don't forget about me!" Bumblebee whirred, jumping up and also showing off for the humans.

Raf quickly whipped out his phone and starting taking pictures of his guardian and Sunburst alongside Carly and Miko, the five of them laughing and having a good time.

"Boys, huh?" Starlight laughed at the antics.

Aquastrike started scoffing near the mechs, "Boys, boys." She shook her head as she began standing up. "If it's muscles yer wantin'-" Cue Aquastrike now flexing her own arms. "-Check out these guns!"

Aquastrike had always been one of the boys. She acts like them, she fights like them, she sometimes speaks like them. Heck a Decepticon drone confused her a mech once!

That poor drone didn't last five seconds after that comment.

Long story short, Aqua's enjoyed being part of the boys. Of course, she did grow up with the male-dominated team known as the Wreckers for most of her life so it wouldn't really surprise anyone that she would've been confused for a mech.

Though just don't say that she looks like a mech to her face...

"Aqua, we get it, your muscles can put Sunburst and Bumblebee to shame," Starlight summarised with a laugh, "You've made your point. You can stop now!"

"No way!" Aquastrike declined almost instantly, enjoying the flashing cameras on Carly, Miko and Raf's phones, "T'is is fun!"

"Aqua, you've got a big enough ego! Now sit down!" I ordered, swallowing down my laughter and my smiles so Aquastrike could take me seriously.

The aqua blue femme froze in her place, her arms falling to her sides. "Yes boss." Slowly, she sat back down in her seat with a pout.

"Woah! Bluestreak can go boss mode!" Miko commented, looking at me nervously.

I just shrugged, "Ehhh."

"'Ehhh'?!" Miko repeated sarcastically, "Dude, your voice was meaner tham Optimus' when he handed out those punishments a few weeks ago!"

While Bumblebee and Starlight grinned, the rest of us all groaned, remembering what some of us had to go through during the last few weeks.

Now that was torture. Not as bad as what Sunburst and I had to go through, but still pretty decent.

"Please don't remind us!" Carly moaned, slapping her forehead.

"Sorry!" Miko apologised, "Just giving an example!"

I laughed, "Settle down Miko, we get it."

As the Sunburst, Aquastrike, Bumblebee and the humans sat back down in their seats, the former paused mid step when he made his way over to me as if he was thinking of something. Like he was having a battle with himself. Then he continued his walk with a sigh, "Guys, there's something 'Swept and I have to tell you."

I widened my optics, watching Sunburst sit back down beside me. Had he finally decided to tell the team that we were related?

"Is this where you tell us that the brother-sister relationship you guys have is fake and that you guys are actually dating?" Miko asked with a bored tone, sticking her phone back into her pocket.

Sunburst and I took one look at each other before we laughed in disbelief. There was just no way either of us could look at each other. Yeah, we were close – like seriously close – but come on, the thought of us together that way kind of made me sick!

Sunburst had my sister.

... And I had someone else who I cared about more...

"You're cute Miko," Sunburst commented, wiping a fake tear from his optic.

"Then what's the big story then?!" Miko demanded, crossing her arms.

I looked up at Sunburst nervously. I was kind of worried that he was going to say forget it and back out. But instead, he just grinned and bumped my shoulder.

"Windswept here really is my sister."

Miko and Carly coughed in disbelief, "WHAT?!"

"You never told us that you had a brother?!" Raf exclaimed.

"Yeah, you never told us that you had a sister, Sunshine!" Bulkhead grumbled.

I looked at Raf, "Raf, I didn't even know Sunny here was my brother until we came back after the Energon Harvester incident!"

"How come?"

"Because I'm not fully related to here like you guys think," Sunburst replied to the small boy.

"What, so you guys are like siblings-in-law?" Miko questioned with a serious tone. When we grinned and nodded, her jaw just about dropped to the floor, "What?! Details!"

"Wait! Has this got to do something with that femme you mentioned when that fake Sunburst was here?" Carly asked, "Whirlspin or something like that?"

"Whirlwind," I corrected with a shrug, "Well as you heard in the last story, Knock Out mentioned Whirlwind and we literally lost the plot at him. Whirlwind is not only my sister, but she's my twin sister. And her and Sunburst here fell in love."

"Is t'at when you left Iacon to join t'e Wreckers?" We all looked at Aquastrike when she suddenly asked us that question. Her face was dead serious and her composure was stiff.

How did she know that Sunburst left us for the Wreckers?

"How'd you know that?" Sunburst asked.

"I saw you and Alpha Trion talkin' before you left us. When ya disappeared and I saw how much pain 'Swept was in, I confronted Alpha Trion and 'e told me everythin'. But h' darn swore me to secrecy 'cause 'e knew you'd chase after Sunshine if 'e found Whirlwind!"

Starlight looked at me suddenly, "Wait, what does Aqua mean by 'everything'? And by 'if he found Whirlwind'?"

"By everything, she meant that Alpha Trion told me where Whirlwind was," Sunburst told her.

"After Aquastrike left and Ultra Magnus took his position as head of the Wreckers, a small blue and red-streaked femme appeared on the battlefield one day. Her name was Whirlwind," Bulkhead told us, "She grew up with us, and quickly became a member on the team. Man, she was tough!"

"So when you heard that Whirlwind was at the Wreckers, you simply just went up and left us?" Starlight scoffed in disbelief.

Starlight has always had some issue with the Wreckers. Maybe it's the way they fought, maybe it was the way they handle many of the missions, whatever it was, Starlight has never been too fond of them.

"'E 'ad ta go, Star! For love!" Aquastrike protested.

"Sunburst could've been killed!" Starlight argued, "They went on more dangerous missions than any one on the Autobot side! He left us without saying goodbye, Aqua!"

"Settle down, you two," I immediately told the femme.

"We were a team! Me, you, Sunburst, 'Swept, and everyone else!" Starlight yelled, "You never leave your team behind! No matter what!"

We all weren't that close when all first met. We all had different opinions about each other; who we worked for before arriving to Iacon, what we did, how we got there. It was a little hard to overcome all the details of each other and what we all represented. But with a little work and mentoring from Alpha Trion, we all managed to get along and form ourselves into a team Alpha Trion could use if he needed us.

We were more like family near the end of the war..

Oh Primus.

"Star, is this about Moonlight?" I asked her gently.

I couldn't help asking the question. Their relationship was so horrible, they almost didn't consider themselves family to each other anymore.

"Don't mention her, 'Swept. That's not what I meant," Starlight began to cool herself down, looking around at us before her optics rested on Sunburst, "You guys were all the family that I had, and you when you disappeared, I thought that that was it. Soon we were going to lose everyone else just like we had done with Raindrop and the others... and I didn't want that to happen."

"Awhhh, Star, c'mere!" Aquastrike moved over to Starlight and grabbed the femme, holding her closely, "My lil' sister-like friend, it don' matter no more. What matters is that we're all 'ere now! We maybe just missin' a few of the ol' team, but it don' matter. We're still here!" The aqua blue femme placed the white and pink femme back on her feet, wrapping an arm around her shoulder, "And look! We even made some new ones while we were at it!"

Starlight smiled shyly at Bumblebee and Bulkhead before grinning a bit bigger at the humans.

"We'll always be here, Star, no matter what," Sunburst promised before rubbing the back of his helm, "I'm sorry I left. But Whirlwind was at the Wreckers... it was my only chance to see her."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, someone got a little bit carried away," I laughed, tapping Sunburst's foot with my own teasingly, "No need to blind the children or make them deaf from the gory details!"

The humans all stuck their tongues out when they realised what we meant. The rest of us laughed while Aquastrike dragged Starlight over to her seat closest to the elevator lift behind her.

"So, who wants to tell another tale!" Miko asked when the femmes had sat down.

We all looked around each other nervously like we were expecting someone to just pop-up and begin the next tale. Then Sunburst, whose legs were stretched out in front of him and resting most of his weight on his servo behind me, raised his other servo lazily, "Alright, I guess I'll go again. What do you all wanna know this time?"

"Tell us how what you think of them!" Miko instantly asked, "Bluestreak and Aqua and Star! When you worked with them and all that!"

Sunburst chuckled beside me, "Oh where do I begin. This femmes have been giving me drama since day one!"

"HEY!" Starlight, Aquastrike and I yelled in protest. On Sunburst's left, Aquastrike grabbed his upper arm and shoved him over towards me. I just smacked his chassis lightly, laughing.

"Alright, alright! Stop beating me up!" Sunburst grumbled, also laughing. As everyone else settled their amusement, Sunburst brushed some dust of his chassis before looking up, "But seriously, where do I begin huh? Opposite me is that innocent-looking femme over there." Starlight grinned with a shrug. "On my right I have this trouble-making femme." I looked at him and shrugged. He wasn't wrong. "And on my left..." He trailed off as he looked at Aquastrike as if he was unsure of what to say next. "There's you."

"What?! No lil' nickname for me?!" Aquastrike gasped in disbelief.

"Well, Aqua, you're just one of those people that takes ages to describe," Sunburst said as if he was stretching the truth, looking away from the aqua blue femme.

"...If you wanna call me an annoyin' lil' scrap, go right ahead. I ain't gonna slap yo-"

"And on my left is an annoying little piece of scrap!" Sunburst finally relented, sighing in relief ... that was until he got a kick to the shin by the femme. He growled in pain, grabbing his foot, "Aqua! You said you wer-"

"I said that I wasn' gon' slap you. I never said that I wouldn' kick ya," Aquastrike protested, folding her arms and looking away from Sunburst.

"When does this story start?" Bumblebee asked, looking at Bulkhead.

"Come on Sunshine, stop stalling and tell us how you think of us!" Starlight begged.

Sunburst sighed, "Oh fine." He cleared his throat, looking over at Starlight. "Starlight was this silent Autobot femme. She appeared suddenly one day like a ninja, silently stepping forward and greeting Alpha Trion respectfully yet shyly. One day, a swarm of Decepticon bombers came charging towards Iacon, forcing me, Hot Shot, Kup, Mecha and Starlight to go out and fight."

Hot Shot and Kup were old friends of Alpha Trion's who would come and help mentor us at Iacon. They were like our big brothers with differing personalities. One was a scout that paid fine attention to detail and had precise plans for certain things, the other was a weapon's specialist who couldn't give a scrap about details, and just wanted to use his new weapons every chance he got.

...But I rolled my optics at the mention of Mecha. She was an Autobot femme who was determined to make my life a misery when I had arrived at Iacon. She always believed that I was a Decepticon in Autobot armour and continued to persist Alpha Trion to get rid of me. Everyone was convinced that she was just envious of the fact that everyone liked me in their company more than her. After my first few weeks at Iacon had gone smoothly, a swarm of Decepticons had dug a tunnel almost into Iacon. It forced a lot of us, including myself, to go underground and defeat them. We did, but one of the 'Cons was a suicide bomber, setting off a grenade on his hip. The blast destroy many of his Decepticon brethren and two of our faithful comrades. One of them happened to be Mecha.

...I'd be lying if I said I missed her...

"Starlight was an absolute ninja with her small Kunai knives, slicing and dicing those 'Cons with ease! And then her sister appeared." Starlight rolled her optics at the mention. "And the two fought denta and nail. All you could hear was the metal scraping on metal, their knives clashing desperately. And then, when they lost their knives, they fought hand to hand. Ohhhh man it was amazing!"

"It wasn't that amazing. Our parents were serious ninjas. Of course we could perform moves that others couldn't!"

"Either way, that's when I knew that you never underestimate the quiet ones like Starlight! She is a dangerous femme! Do not mess with her! I'm begging you!" Sunburst dramatically begged, causing us to chuckle at his over-reaction.

"Until I met 'er and dragged 'er outta 'er shell!" Aquastrike grinned.

"Ahhh yes, when Aquastrike first arrived at Iacon, I thought we were all doomed. She was eager, feisty and determined to prove a point after Ultra Magnus sent her to us."

"'E just turned up one day and decided 'Femme, you're goin' to Iacon'!"

"Ultra Magnus didn't even give Aquastrike a chance to prove her worth! Wheeljack wasn't too pleased, I tell ya!" Bulkhead told us.

"But Alpha Trion saw something in her. He made her into a fighter, a weapons specialist... I must admit, I misjudged her at first. She wasn't really that annoying or anything really. She just had a huge spark for all of us."

Aquastrike grinned, "Awwwh, did I grow on ya, Sunshine?"

Sunburst mumbled something quietly, refusing to answer the question and leaving the others to figure it out. But when I heard him mention the words 'unfortunately' and 'a good partner', I couldn't help but grin, allowing everyone to think of the answer for themselves.

"And what about 'Swept?" Carly asked.

"Ahhh yes, the troublemaker." I rolled my eyes and slapped his chassis with the back of my servo. "The one who always found herself in the medical hospital under the care of Red Alert." One of my personal favourite Autobots at Iacon who always grinned and told me to go save the planet everytime I found myself in the medical bay. "Though, despite the trouble she caused, Windswept always was there beside us, for us and promised to remain with us no matter what happened. She told me things that she needed to tell me, and I trusted her still. Even with all the secrets that she has, I still love her like a little sister."

Secrets? Sunburst, please me careful with those secrets. I'm not ready to tell people yet.

Still I leant into his frame comfortably, looking up at him despite him looking like he was upset down in my vision, "Thank you."

Sunburst smiled – or was it a frown? Either way he nodded at my thanks to him.

Just as Aquastrike was about to make a smart aft comment, the elevator started to make noises behind her. She and Starlight turned around as well all turned our helms to see who was coming to join us up on the roof.

And who was coming up on the roof?

Optimus and Ratchet! With Arcee and Jack!

"Well, well, well," Sunburst hummed, looking at Arcee with a smirk, "It's about time you all joined us up here. We all weren't missing you at all."

My jaw dropped dramatically as I sat up, bumping his arm in the process. That sent his torso and his helm back. Starlight and Carly giggled at our antics.

Guess we were siblings now, huh?

"Ignore him," I told them as Sunburst hummed for a moment behind me. I looked over my shoulder just in time to see him fold his arms under his helm, deciding to stay down there for a while. I glanced back up at the four who had just joined us on top of the base, "Anything happening down there?"

"No. The Decepticons have silenced themselves after the racing incident." We all averted our optics, trying to find something else to look apart from Optimus. Only I was brave enough to look back at him.

"So as soon as Arcee and Jack came back from their ordeal, Optimus suggested we join the rest of you up here," Ratchet explained before mumbling, "Like I looked like I want to be up here."

My audio receptors ignored most of Ratchet's words except for one, "Wait! Ordeal?!" I looked over at Arcee and Jack, who looked a bit worse than they did when they left. Arcee's armour had been scratched a little and Jack's hair and clothes looked messy.

"What happened?" Bulkhead asked as the humans raced up to go see Jack.

"We were attacked by a bug," Arcee replied bitterly, watching Carly greet her charge with a hug.

"What kinda bug?" Aquastrike questioned.

"The spider kind," Jack answered when he pulled away from his hug with Carly.

Bumblebee's optics showed anger as he growled, "Airachnid."

Airachnid was another Cybertronian that I had only known by reputation. But one whose name came up a few times by other Autobots. Apparently, she was a Decepticon that used physical torture to get information out. Like Slipstream and Knock Out with Sunburst and I, but worse. So much worse.

"Who's Airachnid?" Carly asked innocently, looking up at Arcee.

"Carly, I do not think that now is th-"

"It's okay Optimus," Arcee interrupted, sparing a glance at the Prime before kneeling down in front of the humans, "Airachnid is the Decepticon who took away my first partner Tailgate. I was scouting on Cybertron on the Delta team when I was captured by her. She took me in for interrogation and continued asking me about the attack co-ordinates for a battle that was coming up. I wouldn't give in so she brought in Tailgate, wounded and defeated. She asked again about the co-ordinates, but I confessed to her that I didn't know. And, by the AllSpark, it was the truth. But I wasn't able to stop her. I had to watch her kill Tailgate before my optics."

We all stayed silent when she told us that. I think a lot of us were well aware of Tailgate and what Airachnid could do. I didn't know Tailgate, but I was told that he was well known by many Autobots. Primus rest his soul.

"So you 'nd t'e bug 'ad a fight to t'e death?" Aquastrike questioned.

"Well..."

As Arcee and Jack began their story of what they went through, I looked around for Optimus and Ratchet, who had mysteriously disappeared during Arcee's little recounting of Airachnid. I spotted them at the edge of the roof, starring at the sun beginning to set ahead of us.

Wow, is it that time already?!

I stood up, despite the protests from Sunburst about the bright sun glaring into his vision, and began walking over to the elder 'bots of the team. They looked to be in deep discussion of something. Then I saw Ratchet clasp Optimus' shoulder comfortingly before walking away from him and past me. Exchanging a nod he continued walking towards the group while I kept walking towards Optimus.

"Good day?" I asked him when I stood beside him.

"Despite Arcee's personal struggle with Airachnid, I believe so," Optimus answered.

I looked over my shoulder at Arcee still kneeling down with the humans. Ratchet was beginning to do some medical checks on her. I glanced back up at Optimus, "You know all about Airachnid, huh?"

"I greeted Arcee when she was returned to the Autobot side by Bumblebee and Cliffjumper after Tailgate's passing."

I nodded in understanding, taking a glance at the sun beginning to set before us. Optimus didn't seem to be in a chatty mood with me. Was he still disappointed me? Was he still not willing to trust me? Was he-

"Windswept, I have been told that you still believe I am angry with you about recent events, correct?" Optimus interrupted my thoughts.

I looked up in disbelief of the question. Who's been reading my thoughts and speaking to Optimus?!

"Sunburst has been concerned about you."

I rolled my optics, "As always."

"Windswept, I am no longer angry nor disappointed in you. Mistakes happen and sometimes we do not make the wisest decisions. We let our feelings about what has happened or what is said come to the surface." Optimus Prime. The Autobot who was never wrong.

"I have noticed how close you and Carly are becoming, just like I have noticed Arcee, Bulkhead and Bumblebee become close with Jack, Miko and Raf. Do not allow yourself to falter when they falter. They are strong like us. They can handle anything."

Need I say it again?

He was right. Definitely right. Carly was slowly becoming my weakness. If any Decepticon brought harm to her, then its game over for what I do and do not know and it's welcome to the playing field for personal feelings.

"I don't disagree Optimus. Thank you for your advice."

"It is only because I worry, Windswept. I worry about all of the team's well-being."

He does. Optimus Prime cares about all of us. Even when we don't think so, he always will care about us.

I looked over my shoulder. Arcee was now sitting down with the group, having Ratchet behind her continue to check her for any injuries. Aquastrike and Starlight sat on either side of her, chatting away about what they got up to. Sunburst continued to enjoy the sunset from his lazy position on his back. Bulkhead and Bumblebee were talking to the kids in the middle of the circle, Jack and Carly resting side by side and Miko and Raf on the opposite of them, looking like they were having some sort of competition.

We weren't just any sort of team. We were a team that was slowly becoming a family. And family sticks together.

I intend on keeping it that way.

So that's it for now. Next two chapters are Sick Mind/Out of His Head, and as you'll probably figure out, you'll know how that one will go. But how it exactly plays out and what it means for the story going forward will be the real kicker.

I hope you all enjoyed the little insight into the past of my own characters. This chapter kinda opens the door for a prequel detailing life at Iacon before Cybertron's destruction surrounding Windswept, Sunburst, Aquastrike and Starlight. They would be the four main characters plus a few extras, both OC's and already established characters in and out of this series. The story's already in the works so I've been doing my research on who would be perfect for the story and how I would write them.

So with that prequel already confirmed, it's a matter of when i want to get it out. My original idea was to run it alongside Season 2 (when I would finally get to writing it, which isn't that far away now - I'm already planning the last four chapters for this story woo!) where (oops, spoiler!) more Iacon characters would be introduced. But after working on this chapter, I've realised that this one really opens the door more. Any opinions on this would be fantastic!

Whatever comes next will probably happen if I get any emails about any reviews/followers/favourites. ;)

Thank you for reading.