By the end of the third week, things were settled between the bots and the government enough that us humans could all go home. Ironhide escorted Lennox home, and I could just imagine the scene where he sees baby Annabelle. I just hope Sarah is nice and not a xenophobe like the one story. That would be the suckiest thing.
The dead cons were placed in storage, and I had to vow that I would not try to bring them back to life. Personally, Blackout and Frenzy were the only ones I even would want to bring back, and Blackout mainly depended on how Scorponok behaved when he was captured or found. I also had to promise to tell of where other Decepticons were, but I had my fingers crossed for that one. I wasn't gonna say where Jetfire was, or Barricade if he was still alive, which was likely.
So, Bumblebee took me, Mikaela, Mom and Dad home to Tranquility. It seemed a fed had come to talk to Mikaela's aunt, cause when we dropped her off, all she did was pulled Mikaela into a hug and took her inside. Back at our house, things actually looked more or less normal. Obviously someone came back and fixed the roses and everything else the bots and S7 broke. I frankly was just glad to be home. It gave me a chance to relax.
Well, one day at home, then it was back to school. My extended absence was excused, of course, and the office had all my make up work. Thank God I was not taking chemistry, or I would have failed so hard.
Once I collected my work, I still had a little bit before class started, so I went to mine and Miles's spot on the steps. He was sitting there when I came out.
"Alison!" he jumped up and gave me a hug, which I returned. "What happened to you, girl? You ditched me at the party, then you disappear off the face of the planet for three weeks."
"Sorry about that Miles." We sat and I gave him the cover story. My family had an emergency and had to head cross country, then I was involved in an accident and had been burned, which is why my skin was different, and that I'd gotten a new phone and a new car because of it.
"A new car? Not the old Camaro?" There was something in his eyes, like he didn't quite believe me. I ignored it for now. It couldn't be that big a deal, right?
I nodded. "Now I got a nice new Camaro. Same paint job and everything. I'm calling him Bumblebee."
"That's pretty sweet, dude," he said. "But what's with your eyes?"
"They used this experimental medicine on my burns. The side effects included discoloring my eyes. But at least it looks cool and my eyes match. Some people have weird splotches instead apparently."
"Huh, that's cool." His face lit up. "Oh, I got to show you something after school. It's really cool."
I smiled and nodded. "Totally, dude. Let's do it.
Then I saw Mikaela walk by with her friends. She turned my way and waved with a smile. I waved back.
Miles looked between her and me. "Wait, did Mikaela actually wave at you?"
I nodded. "Yeah. And I have her number too. We've been texting."
"So, wait, you're her friend now? Your plan actually worked?"
"You sound so surprised." The bell rang then. "Come on, I'll tell you more at lunch."
With that, the rest of the day flew by. Mikaela actually came and sat with me and Miles at lunch for a little bit, and I specifically asked her a couple car questions to prove to Miles she wasn't a dumb bimbo. She also invited me to hang out, and I told her Miles was gonna show me something, and that tomorrow would be better. In Hosney's, I did notice she specifically stayed as far from Trent as she could, and didn't seem to put up with any of his bull.
After school, Miles and I went to the parking lot and hopped into Bee. I could tell he'd been out and about during the day, but as long as he didn't draw attention, it'll be fine.
"Alright, Miles. Where're we going?" For some reason I had a sense of deja vu.
"You remember that park behind my house? We gotta go in there."
"Okay." I did the actions, but Bee pulled us out of the lot and into traffic. "Are we going into the park proper, or just your place."
"Just park in the driveway, Mom doesn't have bingo, so we can box her car in."
It didn't take long before we reached Miles's house. I parked Bee and we grabbed some snacks and soda from the fridge before hopping the back fence into the park. The deja vu got stronger, but I could not put my finger on it until we came to a thick bit of brush and Miles called out.
"Barry! Hey, I got someone for you to meet!"
Oh shit.
We pushed through the brush into a small clearing and sitting there, dented and dinged, was the very familiar police cruiser with "To punish and enslave" embossed on the sides. Barricade had been hiding here and Miles found him, like one of the fanfics I'd read.
He had his holoform out and leaning against the hood. Only instead of mustache cop, he looked different. I'd place him late twenties and sure, he had the figure of a cop; big and buff. His hair was either very dark brown or pure black, and he had rough, chiseled features. He wore a cop uniform, and his holo was smoking a cigarette, though I don't know if it was real or just part of the disguise.
He looked at me with piercing brown-red eyes and flicked ash off the cigarette. "I thought you were bringing your friend, not the Autobot's pet."
I sighed. "Hi, Barricade."
Miles looked between us. "I'm a little surprised, Alison. After what Barricade said he did to you and Mikaela, I didn't think you'd be this calm."
I looked at Miles. "I survived being strafed by Starscream, chased through Mission City on foot by Megatron, falling off a thirty story building and shoving the AllSpark into my chest. All Barricade did was chase me and Mikaela across town, knock me off my bike and slam me into a parked car when he interrogated me about my ebay page."
"I wasn't gonna hurt you, much," Barricade said. "I just needed to know where the glasses were. Course, it was all pointless, since you destroyed the AllSpark."
I frown and I felt the AllSpark take over. "She is not destroyed, Barricade . She is merely transformed, into the mind and soul of this human girl. The two are one, and if not for her actions, much would be lost. See past petty hatred, and prepare for the changes to come." She released me and I shook my head to clear it.
"That will get annoying," I say to myself, then look at Miles, who was staring at me like I'd sprouted another head. Understandable, of course. Barricade just looked like he was surprised at the scolding he got.
"What was that, Alison?" he asked. "Your eyes got all blue and your voice turned into the legion."
"That was the AllSpark." I sighed and sat on the ground. "Sit, and I'll explain."
I told him the truth about what'd happened after I took Mikaela home, the signal, being chased by Barricade, the bots and glasses, S7 and Mission City. I described for both of them what had happened after I stabbed the AllSpark into my chest, and a bit of the negotiations afterwards, mainly how the new base will be near Tranquility. We also munched on our snacks as I did, with me draining two cans of soda. When I finished, Miles looked a little amazed, and Barricade was just looking me over, though I thought he was probably a little surprised.
"So, are you gonna turn me in now?" Barricade asked. "Hand me over to your little Autobot sitting over that way?"
I shook my head and held up crossed fingers. "I had my fingers crossed for that promise. My goal is to try and find a way to absolve this war peacefully within the next five years."
He gave a snorting laugh at that. "You think you can stop a war that's been going on for almost half of your species' entire existence in that short a time. Five centuries, maybe; five decades, possibly; but five years? You sure you didn't lose some brain to make room for the AllSpark?"
I just breathed out through my nose and shook my head. "I won't try to convince you. I'll let you see how I do it." I stood up and stepped up to him. "Would you like me to heal you? It can't be fun sitting here in the elements with your injuries."
He gave me a look, then sighed. "Fine. My t-cog busted in the last transformation anyway, so I'm stuck until it can get fixed. If you can do it, then go ahead."
I nod and place my hands on his hood. " Mend that which is broken, restore what was lost. Heal the wounds of yesterday, and make way for healing in the morrow. " A couple pulses of energy left me and I could hear parts shifting in Barricade as the repairs were made. The holoform dissipated and Barricade groaned. Once freed, I stepped back from him to leave room for transforming, which he did.
Once fully transformed, Barricade stretched, barely avoiding hitting the trees around us, and I could hear pops from joints. "Ahh," he said when he was finished, then he knelt so he was closer to us. "I suppose I'll have to thank you."
I smiled. "You're welcome. Do you have a way to shield your signature?"
He scoffed. "If I didn't, don't you think your little scout would have come over here by now to fight me. As long as he stays more than twenty feet away, I'm invisible."
"Good." I turned to Miles. "Think you're up for a house guest, Miles?"
"You mean have Barricade stay in the garage?" Miles looked up at Barricade and shrugged. "I'm cool with that."
"You can not order me about, girl," Barricade said. "Even if you are the casing of the AllSpark."
"The title is Bearer of the AllSpark, thank you. Or Lady AllSpark, if you prefer," I can't help but snark. This was the fun part, right? "Besides, wouldn't you rather be in a nice garage instead of out here in the woods?"
Barricade's engine growled for a minute, until, "Fine. I'll stay with Miles."
"Great." I checked the time and found it was actually past five. "I gotta get going. I'm surprised Bee hasn't texted or called asking what's taking so long." I pulled out my phone and found, yup, no messages. I looked up at Barricade. "Can you put your com into my phone? I'll try and warn you if the bots suspect anything."
The holoform materialized and he took my phone, passing it back after a couple minutes. He'd put his number in as Officer Barry Cade. I changed it to Cade Yeager, so it wouldn't be so obvious, plus the in joke of that being the AOE guy's name made me smile. I had all the bots numbers there too. Optimus was Orion, Ironhide was Harry Morgan, Coppertone was Callie, Ratchet was Ron Colemen, Jazz was Jazzy and Bumblebee was Ben B. I already had plans for the other bots and cons codenames, I just had to wait for them to arrive.
I put my phone back in my pocket. "Let's head back, Miles. You can call Cade to come up once Bee and I leave."
Miles nodded and waved at Barricade. "See you in a bit, Barry."
He didn't say anything, just growled a bit as we left. We hiked back to Miles's house and I snagged another soda before sliding into Bee. I said bye to Miles and we pulled away from his house, I sagging in my seat a bit once we'd left the block. I was glad Bee was driving then, cause I probably would have swerved.
"You okay, Alison?"
I sat up a bit at his question. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just thinking of some stuff. Miles knows about you guys, by the way."
"You told him?"
"No, no, I didn't tell him. Barricade did while we were gone."
"Barricade!?" Bee slammed on his brakes, jerking me in my seat. "Barricade's here."
"Ow." I rubbed where the seatbelt had pressed. "Yeah, yeah, he's here. He's not hurting anyone. Mainly, he's been sitting in the woods getting pooped on by birds."
"He attacked you and you're taking it this calmly?" When the car behind us honked, Bee moved forward until he came to a parking lot and pulled in.
"Really, I'm not that surprised about this. Back home, there were a few stories where Barricade was injured and befriended a human, usually either Sam or Miles. I was more surprised that Miles told me so soon, but I guess it's a lot easier to tell something's happened to me than it was with Sam."
"So I'm guessing we don't tell Optimus about him."
I shook my head. "No, at least not until the base is finished. Then we could oh so casually mention that, hey, Barricade's been behaving real well since Mission City, why not put out an olive branch and invite him to live with us."
Bumblebee chuckled, his laugh shaking the engine. "Ironhide will have fun with that one. How're you gonna dissuade him from attacking once he knows where Barricade is?"
I smiled as I recalled a detail from one of said fics. "Flowers." I giggled a bit, but didn't elaborate. Bee realized this, and just pulled back on the road, heading back to the house. I texted Mikaela and let her know Miles knew, and she texted back for me to save her from Trent and the football clique.
"What do you say, Bee? Up for a rescue mission?"
~R-E-S-C-U-E. Rescue Aid Society~
I laughed and we drove to where Mikaela was waiting. When she got in, I explained about Barricade and Miles. Like Bee, she also freaked a little, but after I explained, including the peace plan, she agreed that it was a good plan. After that, we went back to my house and hung out. Mikaela called her aunt and asked if she could stay over, and I pumped the air mattress for her. I also loaned her a pair of my pajamas, and it was really cute seeing her in them, especially since the top was a little small. All in all, I went to sleep with a smile on my face.
Gonna shout out here, the Ironhide and flowers bit comes from the fanfic The Change by LunarLacrimosa. Also, from this point, the fic will be shifting to basically be a daily life fic. There is some plot, we do have the cons and Megs and the Fallen out there, but considering it took them two years to come up and put to action with the whole "revive Megs, kill Prime and get the Matrix" plot, it'll be a couple months before they do something about/to Alison. I will be pulling ideas from several of my favorite Bayverse fics, namely Cover Me by Black Dragon Queen (that cliffhanger, ahh! can't wait for an update of any kind) and Crackalackalicious by ladydragon76 (oh, the good ol' fashion humanization fun, and I can not believe I can actually spell that title right). I know there are others, but those are the ones I can think of right now. Anyway, comment/review, leave kudos/likes and favorites. Any flames will be used to burn incense, but I'd rather use my lighter.
