Heeelllooooooo Fanfiction world! Guess who's back in action? I haven't forgotten about you! I'm working my way back up to getting this story going again. I want, nothing more, than to show you what I have, up my sleeves, in store for your favorite heroin, Cat! And I have A LOT planned out. I think I've figured out how to use this new system, as well as the face that I'm glad I can respond, easier, to comments on my review section. There's a lot to go, so if you're willing to stick with me, I promise I won't disappoint you ;)

And so we continue!

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Evan glanced around. How to begin?

"Well?" Cat crossed her arms, "You claimed that you have been waiting for me to ask... I just did.."

"Right.. Okay. When I visited the Dam, I was there with my father because I had been very ill. I don't remember a lot about the specifics, but I had caught some sort of virus that was eating away at my extremities," he started.

Cat raised an eyebrow as she listened.

"You see my dad... Well... He was sort of the creator of your arm.." Evan gave a side glance.

"Wha... You're father.." she looked at her arm. It was never a thought that had crossed her mind.

"He was a genius of an engineer. He created the basic model to have the most intricate fine tuning skills. Feeling the end of a small thread of hair, hot and cold; he made all of them. The irony was my sickness. I was losing feeling in my hands, little by little. Although my dad created these arms, the patent was owned by the facility," Evan explained.

"So he had to beg for help, when you were sick," Cat assumed.

Evan nodded, "Sure did. I was there to be seen by his superior. It was to determine whether or not they would allow my father to create the new limbs for me. He, also, had to have permission because the procedures would have to be performed at the lab."

"I'm surprised that they didn't just accept you into the program. They seemed to crave any way to test their experiments," Cat though aloud.

"Sure, for their own gain. But my father made it clear to them that I was never to be experimented on," Evan replied.

"That doesn't make any sense, " Cat shook her head, "What made them so nice about it?"

"My dad had a little clout," Evan sat down on a nearby ridge of rock. Rotten panted happily and brushed up against him, demanding pets, "He knew a few of the supervisors pretty well, and promised that he would continue to monitor how well the implants worked, as well as promising he could use this as an opportunity to improve on the structures," Evan was happy to give Rotten a little scratch behind the ears.

"Ah, a little lie here and there, and they were satisfied enough," Cat gave a nod.

"Well, slightly. He planned to continue to improve on the limbs. He wanted to make them less painful for me, and find better ways to hide them. I was homeschooled until I was 15. That was when dad finally created suitable and humanistic skins to use. Made them so that I could still feel the slightest touches. It's a fairly complicated, and touchy system," he explained.

Cat was lost in thought for a moment. She wasn't sure that skin would make what her implant was, to her, anymore 'human'.

"Mom and Dad wanted me to feel more comfortable around kids my own age and just in public... Those implants are... life changing, to say the least," Evan felt as though she would be the one person that would understand the complications of relating to anyone while having the obvious deficiencies that separated them from the general public.

"You were very lucky," Cat said, looking away.

"Depends on how you rate luck. I lost my arms, gaining these... damn things... which require a great amount of maintenance. I also have to be very careful. As high-tech as it is, this skin can be damaged easily. I have to remain constantly vigilant over it. It can be very... annoying.." Evan clenched his teeth.

Cat glanced at the boy. She saw, in him, what she knew was in herself. The rage. The terrible, burning anger. Her appendage made her recoil from human contact. The stares, the questions, the anguish...

"You know," Cat started, "The construction on my apartment should be finished by lunch... And... I have a few extra rooms..."

Evan looked to her.

"You and Josh... You can have those rooms... if you would like to stay somewhere more... normal.." She made small, periodic looks at him, "Those med bay beds are just awful.. I should know. I've spent too many nights there."

Evan smiled, only slightly.

"Is this your way of saying you're more comfortable with me, now?"

Cat gave the boy a dirty look, "Don't get ahead of yourself, now.. I'm just trying to be nice.."

"And I imagine that it's not easy for someone like you to be.. nice.." Evan stifled a laugh.

Cat growled, "Do what you like!" She took her leave and started back towards the base, Rotten tailing close behind to his caretaker.

"Hey.." Evan stood up in a flash, "Wait! I'm coming with you!"

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Cat burst back through the doors of the base, passing by the Autobots, who were in waiting as they pretended to play with Josh. Evan came through just behind her and watched as she blazed through the lounge and right out of it. The guys couldn't help but stop what they were doing and stare at Evan. Even Josh noticed the silent encounter. They were all silent as they stared at Evan. He looked to them. The awkward air between them was unbearable.

"What'd you say to her?" Sideswipe finally broke the silence.

Evan cracked a little smile, "Josh, I think I got us a new place to stay."

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Cat got to her apartment door. She, practically, jammed her finger as she programmed the code into the new key-code door lock assembly. The door unlocked and she reached for the handle.

"Cat," The gruff voice of Optimus sounded off from behind her.

Cat sighed. She turned and faced the Autobot leader.

"Can this wait?" Cat asked, already exhausted at the idea of having to explain herself.

"Can it usually wait?" Optimus was, clearly, not in the mood to play this game with her today.

Cat lowered her head in defeat. She opened the door and allowed entry to Rotten, closing it behind him.

"No, of course not.." Cat gave in.

The two made their way to meeting room, where Optimus awaited what Cat had to say.

"I think I know what you want to hear but..." Cat started, "I don't think you'll find what you're looking for in what I have to say."

"Then just tell me what needs to be said," Optimus was stern. Cat had played out her favors with him.

"He probably doesn't want you to know everything, so I'll spare the details. I'm just going to tell you that he had nothing to do with Sector Eleven.. His father, however, was the creator of.. of both of our implants.." Cat revealed.

"I see," Optimus processed this new information, "Does this mean that he was used for his fathers' personal experimentations?"

"No.." Cat shook her head, "It was merely a measure taken to save his life.."

"It still does not explain why Barricade has so much interest in Evan," Optimus was hoping that Cat could fill this information in, at the very least.

"Well," Cat sighed heavily, "The best I can think of is that because of his implants it makes him some kind of special interest to the Decepticons... Just like me.."

There was a long pause. Optimus was glad, enough, that Cat had volunteered as much information as she had.

"All right," the leader said softly, "I believe you've given me what I need. You may go."

Cat stared at the floor for a moment before turning to leave. She got to the exit and turned back to Optimus.

"I'm... Going to try to be better at communicating... I can't say I'll be perfect by tomorrow, but.. I'll work on it.." She turned and left the office.

"I know you're trying.." Optimus said solemnly.

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Cat arrived back to her apartment to find that the door was unlocked. She could hear humanistic footsteps all around the inside.

"Is the construction not yet finished?" Cat growled as she threw the door open.

She heard rustling in her kitchen and barged right in. Only to find the cabinets being rummaged through by Josh.

"WHAT are you DOING?" Cat seethed through clenched teeth.

Josh, immediately, responded by turning around and standing straight up. His eyes were wide, his mouth full of pop tarts with a hand on a bottle of chocolate syrup.

"But... Evan said..." Josh had no trouble showing obvious signs that he was fairly scared of Cat.

Evan rushed into the kitchen from the living room, "Sorry Seve-..." Cat glared at him, "Er - uh... I'm sorry.. Catherine.. We just.. Thought we'd look around our new quarters."

Cat looked between the two. Great. Not only has her past come back to bite her in the ass, her private home was, now, going to be invaded.. She'll have to get used to all of this..

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Sam had just received his lunch tray and sat down with Mikaela in the cafeteria. He had been uneasy since the arrival of the two boys back at the Dam. He wasn't sure if it was his connection, through the Allspark, with Cat that he was feeling, or if he had doubts of his own that were making him feel this way.

Mikaela smiled and said, "So I just talked to Jazz."

Sam took a bit of the cafeteria pizza, "Oh?" he asked between bites.

"Apparently Cat has, for some reason, broken herself out of hiding and invited Evan and Josh to stay in her apartment," Mikeala finished.

Sam stopped eating, "Why... Why'd she do that?"

"Jazz said she talked to Evan, earlier today, and whatever was said seemed to work. He's not sure how long it'll last, given how she's reacted to Evan this past week, but him and the Autobots are trying to be optimistic about it."

Sam finished chewing his last bite, "So what's making her suddenly trust them?"

Mikaela knew Sam had some issues with these two. She was almost certain it had to do with the fact that Sam felt as though Cat was as close to a sibling as he's ever had, and now there are others in her life to take up her time.

"This is a good thing, Sam," Mikaela encouraged, "She's never opened up to anyone like she has with us, and maybe Lenox. She needs this... Not to mention she could use a companion..."

"And just why do you think that?" Sam asked, visibly irritated.

"Sometimes it takes one person to open the world to you. Her whole world, right now, is us and the Autobots," Mikaela was firm, "She'll always be an older sister to me. But I want her to stretch her legs too. She's, just barely, discovered how to be normal."

"Yeah, okay so she's just gotten used to being a normal human being, huh? Well I don't think it's wise to be pushing her to make new friends..." Sam muttered.

"I'm telling you! It was meant to be! What a story! Met as children, and suddenly brought back together as adults," Mikaela seemed to drift off into a fantasy land.

"Yeah, well I think I know Cat better than that. And I think she doesn't need to be pushed into a relationship when, just last week, she wanted to rip his throat out," Sam was worried that Mikaela might take this too far.

"I'm not wrong about this," Mikaela smiled.

"We still don't even know what this guy is about!" Sam urged, "He could be some serial murderer, or ... something bad!"

Mikaela frowned.

"I mean, he could be hiding the reason for the Decepticons wanting to capture him. What if he entangles Cat into something and she gets caught too?! Or Sector Eleven, for all we know! He could be working as a double agent for either of them!"

"Since when have you known the Decepticons to work with humans? And why would they need a human when they have every bit of technology and brute strength that they need?" Mikaela questioned her lover.

"They could be deceiving him in order to get what they want from Cat, and once she's captured, they could -" Sam started before being interrupted.

"All right, you know what? That's it. I'm not listening to this anymore," Mikaela moved to get up and grabbed her tray of her, barely touched, school lunch, "You can sit in your little paranoia world all you want! I'm not going to sit here and listen to you babble on about Cat being captured.. She SAVED Evan and Josh, do you really think they'd turn on her? Not to mention what she did to scare off Barricade."

Sam just stared at Mikaela.

"... I'll see you after school, okay? Try to bring down your little pity party," Mikaela stormed off just before the bell rang to send the entire cafeteria off to their next classes.

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"These two rooms are yours," Cat brought the boys to the spare bedrooms and pointed them out, "You can each have one until the kids are here for a weekend or whatever. Then you'll have to bunk up in one together so Mikaela can have the bedroom and I guess Sam can sleep on the couch. Both rooms have their own, personal full bathrooms so you won't have to use mine... Oh, and one more thing," Cat wanted to bring up one little subject matter, "Stay out of my room... This whole apartment is mine, and I'm letting you make use of most of it but my bedroom is strictly OFF LIMITS... Do we have an understanding?"

Evan and Josh both stopped in their tracks, on this little tour, nodded their heads in compliance and stayed quiet. Which is just how Cat liked it.

"There's a plastic bin, right outside the door, that has a list of grocery items. Add whatever to the list you want, the Dam staff picks it up once a week and delivers them to me on Mondays. The list has to be completed by Saturday night so they have time to pick up the list and get the supplies ordered. There's a trash chute in the kitchen, when a trash bag gets full, you can just throw it down the chute and that takes care of our trash," Cat continued.

"Whoa, is there like a maid service too?" Josh was getting excited, this place was great! No going to the store, no carrying loads of trash bags to a dumpster in bad weather! They were definitely living it up now!

Cat rolled her eyes, "No, I try to limit anyone who isn't Sam, Mikaela and the Autobots, from entering my space... I clean and do my own laundry. Which means that the both of you are going to be responsible for your own clothes and bed sheets..."

"That's not a problem," Evan glared at Josh, "We understand that we're just guests and that we need to be adults and pick up after ourselves.."

Josh seemed sad, suddenly, "Yeah, okay... I CALL THIS BEDROOM!" he suddenly jolted past Evan and Cat and ran into the next best room to Cats' and jumped on the bed.

"This beeeed is amaaaaaazing!" Josh found himself in heaven.

"I guess that means you'll take the smaller bedroom, "Cat pointed to the next room closest to the living area.

"That's fine, I really don't need a lot of space," Evan shrugged.

Cat and Evan watched Josh envelope himself into his new living space until they suddenly found themselves locking eyes. There was a long pause of awkward silence while they each tried to find something to talk about.

"Ah yeah... well, that's it.. If you need anything don't bother me about it," Cat broke the mutual gaze and made her way past Evan into her own bedroom, shutting the door behind her.

"This," Evan thought, "Is going to take some time, I suppose.." He turned to get himself settled in his new bedroom. He had a feeling that this was going to be a lengthy stay..

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For the next chapter: Cat starts to get used to having roommates. But she also has some thoughts weighing heavy on her mind. What has her in a stir?