Chapter 8

Marie sighed for the seventh time that day.

She zipped her bag close in one swift movement and stood up to look around her empty bedroom. Everything of value seemed to have been packed in her small bags and all there was left was the lousy makeshift bed and the drawer.

She looked at herself in the small hand mirror that Swindle had given her; he had a client recently who had insistent that the con-man took it, as a thank you, poor bastard probably didn't know how much he had been cheated.

But as expected, she was a mess, she had tried to cover up and she had done a great job, but she still looked like she had been run over with a lawnmower. Stupid combat-simulation.

But she had made it!

In a miraculous attempt she had gotten to the flag, how she did it was beyond her, but luck was no doubt on her side that day. Thought when Brawl had suggested moving on to level 1 she had declined, she didn't want to push her luck too far.

She didn't really know what to feel while she was packing and it was like her hands and legs were moving on their own. She guessed that she felt a bit empty, like she was leaving when things was starting to look up, quitting, again.

She had always been a bit of quitter she thought sadly, quickly in, quickly out. But it was how one survived on the street. And as she started getting into the more shady business staying in one place for too long wasn't an option.

Carefully as if not to break it, she warped the mirror in an old shirt and placed it on top of her clothes.

And that was it. She was ready to go.

There was under half an hour until the ship would arrive but she didn't feel like she could go say goodbye to the others. Onslaught had brought it up at dinner yesterday and the way Swindle had looked at her…It made her feel sick inside.

Brawl seemed a bit passive about it but refused to look at her after receiving the information.

Vortex had… smiled. Of course he had, he finally got what he wanted. The little human realized that she was in the lion's den and ran away. Blast Off didn't really react since he already knew, but she couldn't help but feel like she was betraying them and she completely lost her appetite after that. All conversation seemed to die down too and it took a bit longer for people to finish their energon.

Slowly she made her way to the landing platform out front. There was no reason not to bring her luggage out if she was done packing.

She had been excused from breakfast and when she finally started to feel hungry, no one had been in the recreation room. So she had eaten in her room. She hadn't seen any of the combaticons and it was almost noon. It almost felt like that first week all over again, just a tad different.

She decided to just sit down and wait.

Nothing was happening anyway.

At least she had gotten nicely tan…

She let out a sigh of relief when she saw the supply ship in the distance. They sure had fast ships around here. Marie thought it looked like a shuttle and her thought was confirmed when It landed a few meters away. The shuttle looked familiar but she couldn't quite remember where she had seen it before. As it landed she saw Onslaught step out from the base with a couple of drones behind him.

He looked at her and gave her a small nod as she slowly made her way to the ship and buckled herself up in the co-pilot seat.

"Oh, you're back, I did hear a rumor saying that you would return to the Nemesis."

Looks like it was Astrotrain who was running the supplies. "Yeah, we didn't really get along." The human said and looked down at Onslaught who was in the middle of telling the drones to put what where.

"Well that's how it is sometime, but don't worry, nobody can control them! Only lord Megatron knows how." the shuttle replied. The drones unloaded the last cargo and Onslaught looked up at her, she gave him a small wave with an unsure smile as Astrotrain started his engines.

And she knew that Astrotrain was wrong.

The ride back to the Nemesis felt very long, way longer than it actually was, and still, she didn't feel ready when Astrotrain finally arrived. Aria was waiting for her in the hangar and Marie faked a smile when she saw her, quickly disappearing from view.

"Rie!" Her sister practically jumped her as she stepped out of Astrotrain, However when she saw Astrotrain she backed up a bit. The Decepticon smirked and quickly left.

"Hey Aria" Marie greeted hugging back. The moment Aria saw her face though, she heard a loud gasp. "What happened!? You look like you have been run over by a tank!" She said leaning in to touch one of the many cuts on Marie's bare arm but Marie quickly swatting her sisters' hands away from the still tender wound.

"I don't think it's that bad and don't you worry, no one ran me over." She reassured, Aria nodded but was not really convinced.

The older redhead sighed for the tenth time that day. "I had some trouble with a combat simulator okay? No one hurled me into a wall or anything." That seemed to convince the younger sister who joyfully took one of Marie's bags.

"It's going to be so super awesome now that you are here!" Aria said leading them out in the hall and further into the Decepticon main base. "The others was very excited when they heard that you were coming back, especially Robert! Razorclaw gave me a few hours off to help you settle in, so if there is anything at all, just say the word." She chipped happily.

Marie saw another Decepticon come walking towards them and Aria hurried to shove her sister up against the wall as it walked past them. "What was that about?" Marie asked irritated feeling somewhat belittled. "Don't get in their way, they are not very patient with humans and many of them seem to hate us, it's just safer to let them pass like that" Aria said with a tinge of sadness.

"Luckily most of them don't want to mess with us since they know that our gestalts will back us up." She laughed and led her through a door and into something that looked like a human sized rec. room.

There were a total of six doors in the room and it was very clean. Aria seemed to notice Marie stare and figured it was because of how clean it was. "They run inspection on us every morning, if it's not done well enough we lose half of our rations at dinner." She explained and started the tour. Marie felt that was a bit harsh but then again it was a military ship so she brushed it off.

"The first room on the right is the boys' bathroom, next door is Nathan and Matt's bedroom, don't go in there it's a mess, if it weren't for Nathan we would be missing half of our rations every day. Last room on the right is Roberts he got the smallest and there isn't room for anyone else, trust me, Nathan tried." She laughed and Marie snickered. It really sounded like Nathan had drawn the short straw, poor guy.

"First room on the left is the girls' bathroom; Stacy and I are sharing the room next door…"

"And the last room is another small room?" Marie asked seeing the pattern.

Aria gave her sister a huge smile, indicating that she was unsure about how Marie would react. "Umm…I'm afraid that all there is left is the old storage room, hope you don't mind."

Marie put her bag in the rec room before opening the door to the storage room. Junk and other stuff was piled up and you could only take a few steps in. It wasn't a very big room and it was very dark as it didn't seem to have any lighting.

"It's perfect." Marie said turning around with a small smile.

"Really? I mean even Nathan gave up on cleaning it." she said sounding really surprised but Marie just gave her a smile. "I mean it, it's perfect."

Aria was quiet for a moment, eyeing her normally stubborn sister carefully. "Are you sure you're alright Rie? You seem a little beside yourself."

Aria had left a little under an hour ago, she had tried to convince Marie to let her stay and help but the older sister would have none of it. What the redhead needed right now was a few hours of silence to think in.

Her new bedroom was a real challenge and she could hardly comprehend just how in the world they managed to stuff all of that crap into such a small room, but somehow they had done it. It was like everything which was just lying around had been shoved into the room just before inspection.

A lot was happening right now, but there was no turning back so now she just had to make the best out of it. But by the lord she felt like a coward, a stupid, useless, good-for-nothing coward.

I took a long time before all the junk was out of the room but there were actually a bed hidden away in there. There weren't room enough for a drawer so she but both of her bags under the bed, making it very quickly before going back to the pile of junk, now outside in the rec room.

"And just how am I supposed to get rid of that." She had already guessed that she shouldn't count on a drone coming in to offer its assistant, but what was she supposed to do with all of that crap? Marie sighed. Oh how she missed Merlot, even if she was still mad at him for nearly breaking her ribcage. But he probably didn't know, he was only a drone.

The door behind her opened with a low hiss and she turned around to see who had entered. A young man with glasses smiled at her as he came closer. Marie immediately recognized him as Nathan; he was the only one of them who wore glasses so it wasn't so hard after Aria had described him.

He stretched out a hand to greet her and she gladly took it. "I'm Nathan; I don't believe we have been introduced." He said with a professional smile.

"No, I had to catch a shuttle I'm afraid." Marie answered. Nathan eyed the pile of junk and blew a whistle. "I can see that you have been busy." He commented and Marie laughed a bit. "You can say that."

Nathan was a really a nice guy and Marie had to admit it was nice to talk with someone who just seemed to understand, of course she didn't tell him how she felt about leaving, just a short resume of what had happened at the combaticons base. Mostly he just listened but every now and then he would come with a comments or an advice. While they talked Nathan helped the redhead get rid of the pile of useless things and they soon had everything covered.

"Oh god, I'm sorry you weren't busy were you?" She asked as she figured that Nathan probably was still on duty. He shook her head as to tell her not to worry. "I got off a few hours ago and I'm mostly just piecing Matt together anyway so it's fine."

"Wow, I'm sorry but Matt sounds like a real idiot." She said before remembering that it was him, who ran right into the mine-field on the first day.

"He is." Nathan confirmed. Marie wanted to snicker at how he replied to that, like there was no doubt about it whatsoever.

Marie looked around the room and her eyes fell on the large digital clock over their door. "Wow it's already a quarter past five!" She said in disbelief.

Nathan chuckled. "Yeah, time sure does fly when you are cleaning.""Ahh! I saw what you did there" Marie relied cheerily feeling a lot better. Nathan just shook his head.

It didn't take long for the others to arrive and Marie had soon been introduced to the team. Maybe she hadn't been paying attention but Marie soon found herself engaged in in a heated discussion about what kind of weapons was best in any kind situations, while following the others down to collect their food.

"I'm telling you, it depends on the situation!" Matt yelled almost shaking in frustration.

"That's the point! Worst case scenario; you stranded in some place with no way out. What weapon would be best to have with you?" Marie asked more calmly but snickered when Matt whined loudly. Marie continued the lecture and sure, she did notice how the others suddenly stayed closer to the wall, but she didn't think anything of it. Until someone almost stepped on her, that is.

"Hey!" she shouted and quickly moved out of the way. "Watch it asshole!" She shouted after the tall robot that suddenly stopped in his track to slowly turn around. Aria was by her sister's side in less than a second. "Sorry about that Sixshot! This is my sister Marie; she's new and didn't mean it." Aria said with a nervous laugh. "Heck I did!" Marie snapped at the younger redhead, earning a glare.

"She better not!" The six-changer sneered venomous. "I don't approve of disobedient skinbags, maybe I should teach her a lesson" He chuckled darkly. Aria waved her arms frantically around. "No! No, I'm sure that won't be needed." She reassured.

Sixshot looked at them with an amused expression that just made Marie even angrier. He huffed and turned around continuing on his way. Marie was not prepared when Aria angrily grabbed her wrist and pulled her around to look at her.

"Why did you do that? I told you not to get in their way, do you have a death wish!" Aria shouted loudly, her voice shaking slightly. Marie was furious by now and quickly pushed Aria out of her face.

"Why the fuck do you let them belittle you like that! That was not only embarrassing but also pathetic." Marie screeched loudly. Turning to the rest of the group who either stared offended at her or looked at the floor. "What the fuck has happened here while I was at the combaticon base?!" She demanded, locking eyes with Robert.

"Nothing we haven't been able to handle, just a few close-ups with the cons, that's all. But we figured something out that works so don't go ruin it now." He stated coldly before leading the group back on track. Arie looked at Marie with sad eyes and said "Please, I know it's not what you want, but please just do it." Aria turned to follow the group quickly catching up with Robert.