Chapter Seven

Base

The last sparkling? I could be the last sparkling, I mean I was human. Was being the operative word here but still, I wasn't born a sparkling and surely there were more out there. How did they know that none of the other Autobots weren't still out there, the universe is huge, surely there had to be some more of them. I looked back at Rachet who had wiped the tear away and busied himself with whatever was on his table.

I guess it did make sense now why the Decepticons kept coming after me. Stupid Decepticons. I sat in silence for a few minutes just thinking about everything that's happened to me, I was really surprised that I wasn't more hurt than I was but considering I was probably the only hope of a future these guys were gonna get, it made sense that I was treated carefully, even if some of the bots didn't quite get the message.

I decided to take a nap, I was exhausted from all the events that had happened over the past few days, I hadn't really had a change to calm down and rest, there was always something happening and now that I was safe I really hoped that I could just live now. Being safe was nice, it was so nice to be able to say that and not have it immediately corrected. I was safe, and now I was asleep.

I was only asleep for about twenty minutes when something woke me up, I was being carried somewhere by a bot. I looked up to see it was Rachet, he gently patted my head. "Shhh, sparkling, we're just going to your new chambers. You'll be living with me until your next growth spurt." I nodded and snuggled up to him, feeling my eyes droop with sleep. I groggily looked around as we walked, there were a few soldiers on the floor that were avoiding the giant feet that could crush them, I also saw Sam and Mikaela in one of the rooms as we passed.

Finally we made it to the end of the corridor and Rachet pushed the door open. I looked in wonder at the giant bed and other giant furniture, there was a slightly smaller bed that I assumed was for me that Rachet soon put me down on. He stood above me and smiled.

"You stay here, I'm going to talk to Optimus." I nodded briefly and watched him walk out of the room. I peeked down at the floor, it was quite a way down. I would just have to find a way. I liked that Rachet trusted me enough to leave me alone, but what was I supposed to do? I wanted someone with me, and I'd seen Sam and Mikaela so the only logical thing that I could think of was to go and see them.

I peered over the edge of the bed again and shuffled slightly closer to it. This was going to be tough. I grabbed onto one of the legs, luckily I had a sort of headboard that I could cling to, I shimmied down the leg thanking my lucky stars that I had claws that I could use to keep my balance and strength that I didn't know existed.

I landed on the floor happy with my success that was promptly ruined as I tripped over my own two feet. I went down hard, wincing as the metal of my armour made a loud noise as it scraped on the floor. I stumbled to my feet and made my way out of the room, the door was easy to open, Rachet had actually left it slightly open for some reason, but I wasn't complaining.

I made my way to the room that I had seen Sam and Mikaela in, which took some time, and slipped past some of the soldiers. I was a lot stealthier than I imagined I would be, I was quite stocky like a human child is chubby, so it was a nice surprise.

"Hey Nova, how did you get out here?" I jumped as Mikaela noticed me, I had been looking around to make sure I wasn't going to be caught by some of the more intimidating bots when she spoke up. I smiled at her and wandered over, sitting next to her on the sofa. I was probably just a tiny bit taller than her so I could sit there quite comfortably, she and Sam were looking at me, probably unsure of what to say so I just sat there, not minding the slightly awkward silence as they got used to my presence.

"How are you TerraNova?" Sam asked nervously, smiling at me. I nodded and smiled, not really able to communicate more than that, any time I tried to speak all that emitted was a garbled sound, kind of like when Bee tried to speak and it was really irritating. I couldn't wait for my next growth spurt so that I could have conversations with these people.

I zoned out, completely ignoring whatever question someone asked me as I wondered whether I should tell them that I used to be human? It sounded like a good idea in theory, but there was so much pressure on me now for being the last sparkling and I didn't want to crush anyone of the Autobots, they were way too nice to be put down like that and I was sure that knowing my secret would be a huge blow to them.

I could actually feel a slight tingling in my throat, it closed up slightly and I realised this must be what it feels like for a robot to be upset, the familiar feeling of my throat tightening showed how much this idea upset me, I didn't want to hurt them. So I wouldn't. It was decided, I wouldn't tell them unless I actually had to and to be quite honest, what were the odds of that coming up in normal conversation. Oh hey TerraNova, where you human before this? No, there was no way.

"Nova?" Someone shook me and I jumped straight off the sofa, completely taken by surprise but it was just Mikaela. I blinked at her, noticing she looked quite concerned about me. "Are you supposed to be out here, or are you meant to be in the medical bay?" I scowled at her question, not wanting to answer. I contemplating pretending that I didn't understand her and turned my head the other way.

She took this to mean the second option and chuckled. "You're just like Bumblebee, not wanting to stay in the medical bay for any amount of time, but I'm sure Rachet's probably going crazy looking for you. How did you slip past him anyway?" She stood up and gently placed one of her hands on my arm, I sighed when I realised this meant my social time was over, I knew I couldn't talk and I knew she knew that, so why did she insist on asking me questions that I couldn't answer. I shrugged in reply instead, that was the extent of what I could do.

Sam gave me a wave as his girlfriend marched me out of the room. I wasn't happy about this and thought about ditching her, but with my newfound strength I didn't want to hurt her, so I went along with it. I used this opportunity to familiarise myself with the base as Mikaela rambled on, she was talking about nothing I found interesting so I ignored her.

We got back to the room way faster than I wanted, she pushed the door open and there Rachet was with Optimus Prime looking around the room frantically.

"There you are!" Rachet swooped down and picked me up, I let him, not really having much of a choice and decided to play my cute card to get out of trouble. I started babbling and gesturing to Mikaela, hoping to use her as a scapegoat. I know, I'm so nice.

Optimus stared down at me from high above, he was so damn tall. He looked amused with me disappearing but at the same time there was a hint of worry in his eyes, I didn't want to worry them but I wanted to talk to someone. I was getting frustrated with my lack of voice. I motioned to my throat hoping someone would get the hint and maybe speed things up a bit.

Rachet seemed to get what I was talking about and sighed. "Nova, you can't talk yet." I pouted up at him, I knew that, I wanted a solution to what I felt was quite a bit problem. "You have to wait sweetspark." I blinked slowly and huffed.

I wasn't a patient person, I mean robot. God this was confusing.

"Why can't she talk?" Mikaela asked, her voice was very quiet because she was still on the floor, Rachet bent to pick her up and he placed the two of us on a massive table.

"She hasn't gone through the necessary growth spurts so her vocal chords are not fully functional." Mikaela nodded and looked at me with sympathy, I almost growled at her. But I couldn't, because that wasn't one of my vocal processors yet. I stared up at Optimus, in complete awe at how tall he was, I guess this was why he was the leader, he was the biggest and strongest.

"I know young one." He patted the top of my head ever so gently, my ears flattened on my head which felt very strange, I felt like a cat being petted. "It will be soon." He promised.

"Her frustration is quite normal." Rachet explained to Mikaela. "She has what you humans call 'hormones' running through her circuits and this will activate the next growth spurt." I shivered when he scanned me, it still felt strange. "It will be within the next twenty four hours I believe."

I was very happy when he said that, maybe then people could answer all the questions I had brewing inside me. My arm started twitching in what appeared to be no reason at all, maybe with the next growth spurt these strange things would stop happening.

Rachet placed Mikaela back on the floor shooing her out of the door as he returned back to where Optimus and I were staring at each other. I hoped when I got bigger I got some kick ass weapons like what he had.

"Nova you have to promise me you would wander again." Optimus had crouched down so that he was eye level with me. His powerful voice crashing over me in waves. I nodded quickly, not wanting to anger the big man although I knew that he wouldn't hurt me, there was something about him that made you want to do whatever he said. He was the leader here.

My eyes started to droop again, was I really this tired already? I had only just woken up from my nap, but I figured this was something to do with those hormones Rachet had spoken about.

"Optimus the sparklings energy levels are low." Rachet murmured, my ears had perked up and I could still hear him however.

"I will leave her to her rest then." Optimus stood back up as Rachet picked me up and put me on my bed, tucking me in. "Make sure you keep a better eye on her Rachet, the last thing we want is harm to befall the last sparkling."

AN: So here it is, hope you all enjoyed it. Sorry about the long wait again, I know I keep saying that I'll update sooner and clearly I suck at doing that. I know this is sort of a filler chapter but the next one will be the growth spurt and she finally gets to talk! That should be exciting, there will also be more Bumblebee interaction.