Sunstreaker didn't know why he had been so against returning to the fights. He had forgotten about the prestige, the benefits and the glory. The way they shouted his name, the way they stared in appreciation and worshiped him from afar.

Learning how to fight solo didn't take long. Without his brother, he had to adapt his fighting style, but now that he didn't have to watch Sideswipe's backpanel, but only his own, he could truly unleash himself. The audience loved him, as well they should.

And the femmes, they had been waiting for him even before his first fight, and were still waiting for him. The years he had gone without them quickly seemed a galactic joke as he quickly made up for the lack of pleasure in quick time.

He could feel his brother though their link, far off but never gone. Sideswipe was frustrated when he had a femme, edgy when Sunstreaker was fighting with his Energon racing through his circuits and relays. They had been separated before and probably would be again. Yes, it brought spark pains but they were manageable. And he was having too much fun for the pain to be a problem.

The Autobot knew he would get a talking to from Prime when it was all over, but it was far from through and would be worth it. Getting the humans jobs, not because he needed the help, but to get them out of the way, he was not surprised to find that one was being difficult about it: his brother's recent object of lust.

Not ready to let Alexis' noncooperation go, he made her life as difficult as he could. Sunstreaker began with hinting at the human group that there were rumors that Alexis had been a collaborator with the Decepticons. They quickly cut the girl off from their interactions.

But she still remained and refused to cooperate. Even when he began his remark campaign, his words meant to tear apart and pull down, she remained on the side of her quarters, quiet and busy and off from it all. And she was still nice. It was hard for her, he saw that, but she refused to cause conflict if she could avoid it. Pathetic, but curious.

He did what he wanted, had whom he wanted, yet, for the most part, kept the more involved activities away from the humans, no point getting in more trouble than he had to with Optimus.

But there had been that one femme that wouldn't do anything with him unless Sunstreaker brought her back to where he regenerated. They never made it to his room, didn't even manage to get to his berth. As other femmes, she had proven far less satisfying than the picture she painted of herself. He had always gotten bored with femmes quickly, but that didn't stop him from trying to find one that had some skill, some trick that would prove to stimulate where others had failed.

And finally, something occurred. But it had nothing to do with the femme he was sparking, but the female human whom he had caught watching them.

It was then that he learned how much humans could pour into their eyes: the surprise there, the shock, the revulsion and the flicker of curiosity. Even when she ran off like a Decepticon without backup, what he saw in the depths of her provocative shadowed gaze was enough to end him, sending him to a painfully pleasurable state before he shuddered and collapsed against the already offlined femme.

Sunstreaker didn't have to terminate his opponent to win, but when he did he made sure they deserved it. He downed Cons and criminals and had no compulsion against ending those who tried to end him first. Some just didn't know when to give up, and while that could be an admirable quality, for Sunny, it was a challenge that could not be ignored but met with force.

Keeping track of the humans between fights and his own personal activities, it took five days before he realized that he was missing one. Alexis had never returned.

Having not thought of the female since that night she had run off, he quickly became agitated. Knowing her capacity for trouble, she had probably gotten herself killed or a more intriguing idea had finally taken up the job of an attendant, and was doing as he wanted. He found out quickly enough from his other charges that was not the case.

Forced to use his down time to look for the human, he became more and more frustrated. He wasn't a scout, wasn't a seeker, and being forced to look for the human on a floating barge in space that was larger than it needed to be, he almost got lost twice. Not that he would ever tell anyone.

And then he happened to cross her path. She didn't notice him. Alexis was busy. Carrying a bundle in her arms, she carefully traversed the corridors. Winding through the crowd, he followed at a distance. When she bumped into a Vildan, she quickly apologized to the humanoid, hardly noticing the scarlet skinned alien who kept his yellow eyes on the human until she disappeared out of view.

Alexis finally reached her destination: a repair shop. By the looks of her easy conversation with the workers there, he could see she had found herself a job.

Returning to the repair shop, he found that Alexis wasn't around. Talking to one of the workers, she quickly pointed to an area in the back. He found quarters there, or more precise, squares in the wall that were half the size of the Autobot. Announcing himself, the door slid open below him.

Alexis stepped out while braiding her hair. Twisting the side braid in a small stretching loop of some sort, she seemed to brace herself.

"What are you doing, Alexis?"

She stretched her head up and stared at him. "I found some work and somewhere to stay," the female spoke softly, smiling gently.

He wasn't encouraged as she thought he would be.

"As amusing as that is, this is no place for a defenseless human," he told her, managing to erase the smile of hers off from the rigid tone of his vocals.

Alexis listened to him. The two had never really had a conversation and that seemed to make her hesitant and unsure.

"I'm safe here." She shook her head and corrected herself, "I feel safe here."

"For someone who is against others fighting for entertainment, you have no problem cleaning the combatant's weapons."

The frown turned into a subtle scowl. Alexis bent her neck and looked more fully at him, her bright green eyes remaining steady on his optics. "How did you know about that?" she quietly asked.

"I asked."

"Well, it's better than selling myself for others' amusement."

"Is that what you see me as?" He huffed, crossed his hands over his chassis while his mouth cracked downwards into a frown. "An amusement for others? I think not. It is the other way around, human."

She shook her head, took a step forward and implored him with her words. "I'm sorry. I wasn't talking about you. I was talking about me. I didn't mean to i..."

"Insult me? As if your words mean anything to me," he sharply cut her off, not allowing her to say anything further.

Alexis frowned at that and her body bristled. She opened her mouth to say something but then firmly shut it close.

Sunstreaker pointed to her quarters. The door was still open, light spilling out toward the dark hallway. "Get your stuff. I am taking you back to the others."

"I'm not going back."

"I want my charges all in one place, and they will stay that way or I will not be responsible for what happens to them outside my protection."

"Okay," she finally said after several long moments.

"Good. Follow me."

She shook her head hard, taking several steps back in defense. "No, I mean, okay. You're right. You don't have to be responsible for me. You aren't."

Agitation scrambled through his circuits. He had dealt with humans who tried to disregard his authority before, but she too would be put in her place and under his control.

"And I will give you whatever creds I can ma..."

His body went lax and his holo-form came on-line. He despised using the thing, but the human needed a lesson. Grabbing Alexis' throat, he pushed her backwards and inside her quarters.

The door slid shut and he pushed her against the wall, his fingers digging enough that her speech was impeded. He brought his face closer to hers, close enough to see the flecks of yellow and brown in her green eyes, close enough to smell the sweat and cleaning fluids that clung to the surface of her skin. Her hands met and landed on top of his own, trying to break him loose.

The quarters were not much larger than they had looked on the outside. It was a folding room, everything inside the walls and pulled out when needed. There was a plant in the corner, her tablet on a shelf and a clean change of clothes nearby that. He had obviously interrupted her before she went to the showers.

"Do you still want to disagree with me, Alexis?" he spoke softly, his words coated with a sweetness that was anything but authentic. She tried to speak. Sunstreaker moved closer. "What?" he chuckled when she didn't answer. He let her go and backed away.

Sunny didn't like opinionated, willful females. But he had met much worse than her and had managed them effectively.

Catching her breath, Alexis charged. As unexpected as her attack was, he was still able to flip her over on her back and onto the bed that came out of the wall. He grabbed her arms and settled by her side, one of his legs between her own and keeping her still.

"Seriously? You just have no idea who I am, and what I am capable of!" he told her. Alexis' far too squishy body was too close to his own, her overly expressive eyes set upon him. The feeling was back, that emotion that had evolved from that gaze of hers and pushed a monotonous encounter with a femme into an unexpected pleasurable gratification that had left his spark vibrating in his casing for a good while after.

He felt some sort of pain. Somehow, Alexis had managed to get one of her hands free. Nails scraped down the flesh of his cheek drawing blood.

"Get off me!"

Catching her fingers in his own, he acted without thinking and when the small bloodied digits entered his mouth, provoking his human body into a bizarre stiffening frenzy, it took a moment for the disgust of his own actions to catch up with him. He spat in her face, the tainted spittle drawing a line of muted red below her right eye.

He got off her. But not because she asked, but because suddenly he had no control of the holo-form that was acting and initiating programming that both infuriated and insulted his Cybertronian sensibilities.

"Are you coming with me?" he spoke, his voice off and coarse. The Autobot turned away from her, but was still able to see Alexis over his shoulder.

She sat up on the bed, wiping her face clean of both the blood and the tears that had fallen from her eyes. He knew the answer before she even spoke, the opposition and humiliation lining the trembling lines of her fleshy body.

Alexis managed to look at him. Her face was ashen and she appeared weak, but her words were anything but. "If you had asked nicely, like I was a person and not some sort of inconvenient thing that you have to force into submission, I probably would have."

With that answer, he huffed at her and walked away. Before he could leave, she spoke up with an unexpected question that oddly delighted him.

"Why aren't you a Decepticon?"

He chuckled at that, not bothering to stop walking, but he answered just the same.

"They said I was too erratic."

Another one of the incentives he got was the ability to communicate outside the fighting barge. Yes, it was only one-sided, as live chats were not permitted for security reasons, but he was able to speak to his brother in a way.

He also allowed his charges to make their own calls. Only two took him up on it. The others didn't have any remaining family and few friends, a reason he had picked them for his group.

"What about Alexis?" Artie asked after he left a message for his cousin. "She will want to talk to her brother and Amanda. Surely, you are going to allow that?"

"What do you care?"

The boy put his hands through his blond hair, wincing at Sunny's tone.

"You're wrong about her."

"Please, elaborate," Sunstreaker said with sarcasm. Unfortunately, the hint wasn't taken.

Dull brown eyes sharpened as the man ruminated, "Before the Decepticons came, I was studying psychology." He paused for a moment, his brow lifting as he waited for the Autobot to interrupt, then continued, "Yes, Alexis shows signs of guilt, but not because of what she's done, but because what she couldn't prevent. And she is showing signs of grief and loss, perhaps from her parents or a loved one. Other than that... there is no way that she was a collaborator... no way she worked with the Decepticons..."

"And who exactly have you told of your hypothesis?"

"Only you."

"I would suggest that you..."

The young man interrupted, suspicion lining his words, "What do you have against her? Why are you trying to hurt her?"

Sunstreaker shrugged that easily off, amused by the suggestion. "Hurt her? You have me mistaken. She is no concern of mine."

"But I..."

"You have an appointment to keep. I suggest you get on with it."

Artie shook his head and left, but not before examining the Autobot in a manner that Sunstreaker didn't like in the least.

By the time Sunstreaker found out that Artie was sneaking Alexis in to send messages to her brother, he found no need to stop her. It wasn't because he was empathetic, but because he knew it would give him an opportunity to see her. Despite what he had said to her, she was still his charge, still his responsibility. If any human came to harm under his care, especially due to his own circumstances, his already questionable position among the Autobots would be in danger.

He hadn't seen her in a week, but she appeared healthy, was even smiling and, with much annoyance for Sunstreaker, even talking to the other humans again. Artie had obviously revealed his speculation, and the others had softened toward her again.

True to her word, Alexis sent him creds, not a substantial amount, but it fluctuated here and there, probably from tips. The repair team she worked among was an all-female group, and by the way people talked about them, skilled for the most part, but still new to the barge.

Finding out about those that she worked with, from the large Rhiflo, to the branch like Trili and the youngling Dronox that made deliveries or picked up the weapons, they made four in total, including Alexis, who had to learn fast and work hard due to their load and lack of employees.

He would give her another week, maybe two before the stress got to her. And then... he stopped that thought. No, she wasn't returning.

Sunstreaker was agitated when he didn't see her, agitated when he did. Tired of thinking about Alexis at all, he turned his attention back to his opponent before him, lust for violence filling his Energon and blinding out all else, except perhaps for the light-yellow femme he saw watching him on the very expensive first floor seats. By the looks of it, she was with someone. By the looks of her optics seared on his chassis and wandering along him, he knew by the end of the match that she was going to be with him.