"Please, let me down," Alexis asked of him, a panicky sort of lilt to her soft words.

Sideswipe ignored her request.

"We are almost there."

"I can walk," she said. "Put me down." Alexis left off her usual politeness, her utterance strict and firm.

The Autobot put her down.

"No need to make a big deal about it, just trying to get there quicker," he told her, his shoulder panels rising sharply and his mouthpiece setting with subdued enjoyment.

Alexis frowned and dropped her head away from his gaze. When he began to walk again, he registered that she was following after. The girl walked slowly, taking in the corridors, peering inside some of the open doors, her gaze only shifting and moving up when one of the resident Autobots wandered by. She acknowledged most with a tight smile or a nod of the head. Others, she was too busy taking in her surroundings to notice.

"We're here," he announced, an impatient sort of rasp clinging to his words and causing a satisfying expectation to hum through his Energon.

He swiped his hand on the nearby wall panel, and the door slid open. Alexis followed him inside. It took her exactly seventeen seconds to realize they were not where he said he was taking them, fifteen more seconds after that to realize that it was a living quarters.

"Who?"

"These are my compartments."

"Why?"

"I have something I want you to give your brother for me. It will save me a trip down to the human level."

It was a lie. But he didn't mind using lies when it got him what he wanted. He was curious about the young woman. The months he had spent with Josh, he learned a lot about the girl in front of him, more than she probably would have wanted. When Josh had given him a picture to help with locating her, the brother never noticed that Sideswipe never returned it. He had studied the picture, and the more Josh spoke of the girl, the more he found himself looking at the photo.

His thoughts drifted back to months previous when after they had been done with their travels for the day, which involved finding five more humans, including a family unit, the small group settled down for the night. Humans needed more rest periods than Cybertronians did. And they had learned from experience that skipping them could lead to the humans becoming testy and uncooperative.

After making sure the newly found humans had what they needed, Josh settled down beside Sideswipe and began to speak to him, continuing their conversation from hours previous as if it had never been interrupted. "She's always been serious... or an inward type of person." Josh shrugged, and a glimmer of guilt washed over his face. "I think that partially has to do with me." He explained further, "During high school, I was always getting into trouble, doing things I probably shouldn't have. She tried to stop me, tried to get me to quit. We got into some monster arguments about it, especially when she told my parents. Looking back, I can't blame her. Just wish she was able to get through before my parents admitted me to the psych ward." Josh cringed and paused his words, unpleasant memories obviously sweeping through his mind.

"What changed?"

Josh tugged his hand through his brown hair, his greenish blue eyes sparking with contemplation. "I don't know, really. Being hospitalized didn't help, but it did put some things into perspective. I got more involved in Church activities, in part, in force by my parents, but somewhere along the line, things connected, and I don't know, I grew up."

"And your sister?"

The young man brought a small portable heater closer to his body, his hands rubbing together as he tried to catch some of the warmth. The temperature seemed fine to the Autobot, but the darker it got the more evident Josh's breath became. Wrapping a sleeping bag around his shoulders, he leaned back against a nearby log and stared up at the dark sky. "Studied all the time, had a couple of select friends. Mainly studied... oh yeah, and worked at that craft store... by the time she quit she was a day manager, good at it too, but she didn't especially like it." Josh frowned before rubbing his nose. "Her leaving for the summer was a surprise, both to my parents, her friends and me, but she had obviously planned for a while. Took her a lot of begging for my parents to finally allow her to go."

"She went alone?" Sideswipe inquired. Josh was unaware of the questions he continued to ask, not noticing that most were ones about his sister.

"Yeah, she has a tendency of doing that... being by herself, separating and moving off. She's one of those people that is just fine being by herself." Josh pushed his hand through his hair again and then drank some of the water from his bottle. His gaze shifted to the family, the children already asleep and bundled from the cold.

"If my sister wasn't there with me when the Decepticons invaded, I wouldn't have any of my family left..." His voice warbled and dropped. He swiped a hand across his mouth. "I still remember the first encounter we had with the Cons..." Josh said, his words turning low and cautious.

"Tell me."

Josh did just that and by the time the story was through, Sideswipe's respect for the male below him started, and the intrigue about the female sibling grew.

"You have something for me," Alexis spoke up, drawing the Autobot away from the past. He hadn't meant to, but he was staring at the human below him. Her back was to him, and she was slowly placing her hair behind her ears, allowing it to smooth over her back and shoulders.

He went to his desk, picked out a data pad and handed it to her. She was still looking around, her green eyes moving along his quarters.

"Sunstreaker has the adjoining room," he told her when she noticed the door.

"I figured." She placed her hands into the pockets of her jeans and shook her head.

He bent back down. One test was over with, one he didn't even know he was giving her until they were halfway to his quarters.

"I gave you the wrong tablet," he lied again. This time when he went to his desk, he took his time, outwardly absorbing himself in finding the right data pad. Several minutes passed, and by the time he turned back around, he found Alexis up and standing in front of his view portal, looking out into the penetrating darkness of space. She had to climb some of Sideswipe's storage crates to get up there, and he was somewhat disappointed that he didn't see her perform the small feat.

"First it was baths that I missed," Alexis began to speak when she felt his presence. "Then it was ice-cream and my mp3 player, but nothing would have prepared me for the loss of my planet."

"I also lost my homeworld," Sideswipe spoke up, rewarded with her turning around to face him. Her face was leaking, light streaks of liquid glittering on her flesh that he knew spoke of distress. "But I only knew it as a place of war and a fight for survival. By the time we finally did leave Cybertron, the only thing I really cared about was having enough Energon to fill my too often empty tank."

"It's only a planet," he continued. "You'll manage without it, as I have without mine," Sideswipe dismissed easily.

She cringed at his words and frowned deeply. "Maybe if I lived as long as you, I could talk about the loss of the existence I have ever known so coldly, but I can't. And you'll forgive me when I say that you're probably right, but you still shouldn't say it, not now, not so soon." The life was back in her eyes with that tight line of her body stretching her back and pushing her up into a rigid stance of affront.

After she was given to them by the Con's medic, and then seeing her out in the hallway, he almost couldn't believe she was the same person that had been on their base. The tragedy of her circumstances was evident in the tightness of her mouth, the quietness of her presence and the watchful manner of her eyes. Whatever had occurred to Alexis had changed her somehow, in a manner that, until that moment, he was starting to believe was permanent. But the passionate way in which she spoke, stirred something inside him.

Standing more firm, arms crossing his chassis, the Autobot spoke with a harshness that he couldn't control, "Slag, human, what did you want to wait for? Your entire planet to be slaves of Megatron, the need to eat becoming your every thought, your every wish? For every day to be another form of suffering? When killing is no longer worthy of even a thought, but an instinct that has to be performed and slag, at least it makes you momentarily forget how empty your tank is. You got off lucky, and planet or not, you also got off easy."

The color drained out of her face, and her now clenched fists turned white from the pressure being applied. He watched with a fascination that he shouldn't have what his words did to her. She looked as if she was about to say something but after sparing him a fleeting look, the human thought better of it. Then she sprang, jumping past his arm, and kept jumping down one crate and then another until she landed hard on the floor below.

Yes, she had healed all right. That was confirmed in her strong movements. She moved quickly toward his door, becoming flustered when it didn't open.

She turned around and looked up, her eyes dark, an overabundance of emotions battling through them and drawing lines along her pale face. Again, she tugged her longish hair behind her ears, this time the movement was stiff and brief.

"Open the door, please," she managed, her tone tight. Her eyes wandered along his frame, shifting to the doors that folded over and back behind his body and then resting on his hands and digits.

Noticing how uncomfortable she suddenly was, noticing her shift nervously on her sneakers with a few hard swallows taken, he hastened to let her out, all the while feeling disappointed.

"Optimus approved," Sunstreaker told him. "Which means we are going to be getting rid of most of the humans once we meet up with the Daedalus." His brother moved closer, standing by him, peering uninterestedly at the console Sideswipe was using on the now empty bridge. "Don't you have anything to say to that?"

"That's good news?" he managed, occupied by the text that was scrolling on the screen. But that wasn't good enough for his brother.

Sunstreaker scoffed. "That's good news, that's all you can manage? Years of being swarmed by them, and we are finally going to be free!" he spoke with enthusiasm, his fist slamming solidly nearby the input module, causing the screen to fizzle out and shut off.

His work effectively interrupted, he turned. "They aren't insects," Sideswipe said carefully.

Sunstreaker chuckled at that, not missing a thing, not that he ever did. "Says the sympathizer. They are insects, and it's time they moved on and fended for themselves before they find themselves squashed."

Sideswipe thought of some of the humans he had spoken to, thought of others that he had saved and had a moment with, a moment his brother frowned upon and did not approve of. Perhaps he did sympathize with them, but he wasn't as closed off toward them as his brother.

"They just lost their planet. They need assistance."

Knowing and hearing his inward thoughts, Sunstreaker analyzed them. "Closed off? Disapprove? Slag, yes." His already bitter words turned even more so. "Let them find it elsewhere. We didn't get any assistance when we lost Cybertron, and you know how long it took after that before we finally got our tanks full."

"Yes."

"How're the meetings going?" Sunstreaker changed the subject. However, his sharp optics kept watching him.

"Only twenty showed up last time."

"Was she there?"

"I don't know what you are talking about."

Sunstreaker shrugged at that and then made the motion of polishing his already clean servo with bent-over knuckles. "Yes, you do. First, you associate yourself with her brother, actually listening to him talk. And when he brought his sister up, you listened to far too many of those stories. I blame our boredom." His brother's inward thoughts took off in a jumble of dissatisfaction and agitation.

Digits pressing against his temple from the force of his twin's ponderings, he broke through them. "Even you are interested by sibling pairs," he reminded.

Sunstreaker huffed at that, dismissing the words with a backward flick of his wrist. "Yes, among our own kind. Among humans, it's a common thing." Sunstreaker stepped closer, closer than he needed to. He leaned even nearer and peered fiercely at his brother, his space merging with his twin's. "Don't think I don't know how you are drawn to the pair, how you see some sort of familiarity in them as in us. They are nothing like us. And while I grant you that Josh has his moments, he is still only a human. Where are you going?" His twin asked with exasperation when Sideswipe abruptly moved away, never liking being dismissed, not by anyone, most certainly not him.

"I'm going to be late for the meeting."

He was halfway there when Sunstreaker spoke through their bond, "I also know that you actually brought her to your quarters. And I know why. Any association with these humans is not something I will tolerate, brother."

"What I do with my free time is none of your concern."

"Since when? I am you; you are me. We are in this together, split from the same spark, separated by nothing, divided by no one, sharing everything, always."

With those last words, Sideswipe enabled his holo-form, taking his last steps toward the human area with fleshy feet. He felt Sunstreaker weighing heavily along their bond, the disgust for Sideswipe's chosen task deeply felt.

Informing the group of the change in circumstances, he found that fourteen out of the thirty-three there had decided to stay. Those that stayed were going to work on finding a planet for the remaining humans to dwell on, a job that wouldn't be easy. More humans were sure to join them from the Daedalus. But his brother was right. The ship was soon going to be emptied, for the most part.

The Autobot was perturbed though. Josh hadn't said anything, just listened to him speak and then took his sister and Amanda to the back corner of the room where they talked quietly. It was then that Sideswipe noticed the three had turned into four. An additional male was now with the group. Watching him interact with the others, it didn't take much for him to ascertain that he knew Alexis and Josh.

"I'm going to stay," someone spoke to him, a voice that interrupted his observation of the small group. He diverted his attention and found Cynthia.

"Yes, as you already informed us all."

She smiled, moving forward and taking up more of his space. "I know, but I wanted to tell you myself, in case you didn't see me nod my head."

"I saw."

The woman smiled with satisfaction. "You know, if I didn't know better, I would say you are a man. You look like one, smell like one." She placed a hand on his arm. "And feel like one."

"I am not one."

Cynthia laughed at that as if what he said was the funniest thing in the galaxy. "I could never forget that." She looked behind her and then Cynthia got even closer, standing before him and blocking his view. "I think about you a lot. That's why I'll never forget... all the time we spent together... I won't forget that either."

He grabbed the female's arm, pulled her closer to his face and spoke low. She was startled into silence, her face flushing with excitement. Yes, the female was attractive by human standards, the long black hair, the creamy brown eyes, the amply curved body and the way she obviously prepared herself to be looked at. She wore a dress that fitted to her body, curving and dipping down her frontal flesh and dropping above her knees where it brushed along her tanned legs. Her face was covered in an array of colors and outlines. Her lips painted a sultry brownish red that made them look larger than they were.

As he had learned that some females of the human population liked to do, she was covered in some sort of scent, a mixture of fake fruit and dead plants, it was foul and displeasing and spread wherever the female resided.

"We did spend quite a bit of time together, female. But that was because we had to and does not mean I want to mate you, as you do me. Your attentions are understandable, but they will get you nowhere. Go back to your male, and stop this wasteful pursuit." He pushed her away from him, the air immediately clearing.

He was pleased that she was gone, for the Autobot noticed that Alexis had separated herself from the group and was now sitting in front of a table in the back. Sideswipe went back there, not missing that Cynthia was watching him, but the Autobot didn't care. She could watch him all she wanted, that was as far as it was ever going to go. He had spent enough time with the female to understand that she had nothing to offer that he wanted, and the fact that she kept offering it in plain sight of her mate, didn't settle well with him. Loyalty was important to him, and while trust wasn't required for the things he could do to her, he still needed a resemblance of some for the females who came to his berth.

Sideswipe stopped in front of the table and waited for Alexis to acknowledge him. She did not. So he walked around the other side, grabbed a chair, faced it toward her and straddled it as he had seen other humans do. He watched her.

Alexis was playing some sort of game on a tablet she had brought with her, and she barely flinched when he joined her. He allowed her five more minutes before he had enough. Taking the tablet out of her hand, he slid it to the other side of the table.

"Are you not speaking to me?"

She moved to the side, her chin lifting as she turned her head and looked for the data pad. Alexis waved a hand toward where Cynthia was sitting by her boyfriend. "Humans that talk to you have a way of becoming upset."

"Why? Because I am honest?"

"Brutally honest."

He straightened in the chair and before he could come up with something to say to that, Josh joined them.

"We have decided that we are staying," he informed the Autobot. Sideswipe glanced over the group until his eyes traced back to Alexis.

"All of you?"

He watched Alexis bite down on her mouth before getting up and walking off with Amanda.

"Yes, all of us," Josh confirmed.

The flesh pinched along his human face, and Sideswipe found he was smiling.