Hello, everyone, and welcome to a new fanfic of mine! This time, the franchise is Transformers G1! I tried writing a G1 story a couple of years ago, but I failed with it, so now I'll try harder to complete this fic.

The main character is my original character; Angela Spencer, G1!Carly's autistic cousin. There was never an official maiden name for Carly (before she married Spike), so I used the Bayverse!Carly's surname for the cousins.

In this fic, Carly is 18 years old and Angela is 16 years old. I read on en-academic dot com that Carly was 16 years when she first met Spike and Bumblebee, but I'm not sure if that's legit or not, because it was implied in the cartoon that she accepted a scholarship at MIT, so I assume she was around 18 years old. Spike is still 14 years old, although he looked way older than that in the cartoons and he was never seen in school… Did he get a home school education?

I hope you'll enjoy this story.

Disclaimer: I do not own any Transformers characters! I only own my OCs!

Chapter 1: Carly's Cousin

It was one of the days when Carly was hanging out with the mechanical beings that were protecting Earth from the evil Decepticons; Autobots. She had accidently stumbled upon Spike and the yellow minibot Bumblebee some time ago while she had walked around in town during her free time and secretly followed them to the Autobot base. She had unintentionally caused a big mess, but everything was now under the bridge and the Autobots had welcomed her to their team, just like their other human allies.

The Autobots and Decepticons were known worldwide, so the humans knew which side was good and bad, and that meant there were admirers for both factions.

Carly was helping Wheeljack with one of his inventions. He got impressed by her knowledge when she reversed the effect of his Immobilizer that the Decepticons stole a couple of months ago, so he allowed her to visit his workshop inside the Ark with the promise that he won't blow things up that could put the female human in harm's way. The other Autobots feared for the girl's safety in the beginning, so to calm everyone down he installed a red and green lamp next to the door to the workshop to let them know when it was safe to enter.

"Carly, you mind if I ask you a question?" Wheeljack spoke up as he adjusted a screw on the frame of his latest invention.

"Sure, Wheeljack", Carly replied as she looked up from the human computer that had been installed next to the Autobot's computer.

"You mentioned you're a student in Cambridge, Massachusetts, right?"

"Yes, thanks to my science scholarship. What about it?"

"Well, it's just… Massachusetts is located north-east of America and Oregon is here by the north-west coast. Did you really drive all the way here just to see us when we met you the first time?"

"Actually, I was in town to see my cousin", Carly confessed.

"You have a cousin?" Wheeljack replied in surprise.

"Yeah, she lives here in Portland, Oregon, and I was free at the time, so I went to see her and my aunt", the blonde nodded. "I was about to head back to their home when I saw Spike and Bumblebee in town and decided to follow them."

"I see… So you have relatives living here. That explains your presence", Wheeljack nodded with a soft chuckle.

"Yeah. I visit Angela as often as I can. She's a sweet girl…", Carly trailed off as she stared into empty space while exhaling a sigh. "She's just…a little different."

"Different? Would you mind to elaborate that?" Wheeljack asked.

Carly was a little hesitant to talk about such a sensitive topic, but perhaps the Autobot in front of her might understand. "Before I do, can I ask you a question?"

"Sure you can!" Wheeljack smiled behind his facemask.

"Back on Cybertron, before the war… Were there any Cybertronians who functioned…a little different? Like they were unable to understand gestures or feelings?"

"Hmm…", Wheeljack tapped his index digit against the facemask while scrolling through his memory banks. "Not what I can recall. Are those questions related to your cousin?"

Carly nodded in response. "Yes. You see… Angela is diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, also known as Asperger's or AS for short."

"Asperger's? Never heard about it", Wheeljack commented. "Is it a disease? Is your cousin sick? Then perhaps you should talk to Ratchet about this instead."

"Oh no! It's not a disease!" Carly waved her hands frantically. "It has something to do with her brain. Um… The 'circuits' in her brain got shaped in a different way compared to typical human beings before her birth."

"So she's disabled like Chip?" Wheeljack asked to try understanding the topic better.

"You could almost say that, but she's not disabled in the same way as Chip", Carly scratched the back of her in slight frustration, trying to figure out how to better explain it for the Autobot. After all, she rarely talked about her cousin with other people when they asked her about her relatives. She felt like she could trust Wheeljack and the other Autobots. "Angela can walk and talk and she looks like any other fifteen-year-old kids, but she can't understand some things in the same way as other people. She has a hard time bonding with people because her lack of social skills, but she's a really good student because she loves structure and rules. If there's a sudden change of plans, her brain cannot 'download' the changes and adapt to them as swiftly as everyone else. When she gets overstimulated, she can easily get a meltdown and become hysterical. The only way she can calm down is if she can be alone and do her special interests."

Wheeljack hummed while he registered the information about Carly's cousin in his memory banks to later look up more data about the matter. "She sounds…like a special human", the scientist said in the end.

Carly nodded as she smiled while thinking about her cousin. "She is…", she smiled sadly. "She may not speak so much and has a child-like mind, but she's still so nice and caring. I wish other people could see her good side and not her other side…"

"What do you mean?" Wheeljack asked.

"She's been bullied ever since she started going to school. She couldn't understand the rules of the games during recess, so she often got bullied partially because of that. She started withdrawing into her shell where she feels safest, so she doesn't have any friends. She only has her family…and her hobbies."

Wheeljack's optics dimmed as he analyzed the new data. If Carly's cousin had a hard time in life because of her difficulties, then perhaps she needed to see more of the world. "I may not be a psychologist, but it sounds like Angela needs to open up and experience more of the world in her own pace", the Autobot suggested.

"That's what I'm thinking", Carly nodded. "She told me she likes you Autobots, so perhaps… Umm…" The human hesitated because if she brought Angela to the Ark, her cousin could be put in danger because of the war between the Cybertronians.

"I think you should ask Optimus if you can bring Angela here", Wheeljack spoke up.

"What?" Carly yelped when she heard the words that echoed in her head moments ago. "How did you know what I was thinking about?"

"I've been observing humans for some time now, and it wasn't that hard to tell what you wanted to say", Wheeljack chuckled before he picked up his screwdriver to continue working. "Go and talk to Optimus. I'm sure he'll understand your concerns."

"I hope so…", Carly mumbled as she walked to the automatic doors to leave the workshop. "I'll go and see him now. I won't be back later because I have to pick up Angela from school."

"Okay!" Wheeljack replied while he had his attention on the invention. "Good luck with Prime, although I'm sure he'll listen to you. I'd like to meet your cousin."

XXXXXXXXXX

The final bell of the day rang in the entire high school building. Students flowed out from the classrooms to the corridors, many ready to go home and rest up for the weekend and hang out with friends to have fun in town. The petite form of a girl with long straight blonde hair and green eyes pushed herself through the crowd while cradling her books and paper sheets protectively in her arms. She had one goal in mind and that was to go home and rest up after a whole day of classes and buzz of people talking loudly.

Angela's ears were throbbing because they were in pain thanks to all the noise she had to endure every weekday. She needed to get home to her quiet room and just be by herself.

She successfully made it to her locker and dumped the books and grabbed her backpack. She packed the necessary stuff and some of the doddles she had secretly drawn during the last few classes when she couldn't concentrate.

Angela shut the locker and made sure it was properly locked before she headed toward the exit of the school. Her cousin was supposed to pick her up, so she picked up her pace so Carly wouldn't wait too long for her.

She found her target; the exit. Soon she was going to be free and out of the chaotic environment.

A random leg stretched itself from a small crowd of girls that were in Angela's age right in front of the blonde. Angela let out a yelp as she tripped on the leg and crashed down onto the floor with a soft grunt. Giggles and laughter erupted behind her as she slowly pushed herself onto her knees. Angela knew without looking over her shoulder who were making fun of her. It was the cheerleader squad with the popular girls of the school.

"Oopsie! Did the crybaby take a leap?" a brunette with hazel eyes giggled while hiding her wicked smile with her hand.

"Is she trying to become a cheerleader? She's a pile of clumsy flesh and blood", a blackette with blue eyes snorted loudly.

"She thinks she's as graceful as the rest of us", another blonde girl with brown eyes stepped forward and elbowed Angela on the back when the autistic girl attempted to stand up. Angela caught herself with her hands and tried to get up again, but this time a foot stomped her left hand. The blonde girl gritted her teeth as pain surged through the hand. Angel refused to let out a cry; she didn't want to escalate the situation like what she used to do when she was younger. A tiny tear ran down her cheek as she got humiliated by the cheerleaders and some other students who had gathered around to watch the action.

"Quiet as always", the brunette mocked Angela as she grinded her foot on the poor girl's hand. Angela grunted through her teeth as she did her best to endure the pain.

"Don't think you can ever be one of us, freak!" the brunette spat at the autistic girl.

"Tell her, Patricia!" the brunette's peers encouraged her. Even the crowd of girls and boys cheered for Patricia and laughed at the blonde aspie for being so pathetic.

Angela shut her eyes tight as she tried to erase the noise around her and force her soul into an empty void. She mentally repeated the mantra she had come up with years ago. Endure it… Endure it…

"HEY!"

Angela opened her eyes with a soft gasp and looked up to see her savior. The crowd scattered as a furious Carly stomped toward the scene. Patricia panicked and moved back, freeing Angela's red hand that ached in pain after it got grinded. The blonde girl could barely move her hand, so she didn't know if any bones were broken.

"Stay away from my cousin!" Carly yelled at the cheerleader squad as she helped Angela stand up. "What did she ever do to you girls?!"

"She's a waste of fresh air!" the blackette retorted. "She's small and clumsy and ugly!"

"That doesn't answer the question! Never mind; I don't want to hear it!" Carly growled as she grabbed Angela's right hand. "Let's go, Angela", she spoke in a calm and gentle voice.

Angela hummed quietly while looking down, not feeling comfortable to look up and see the hostile eyes of the students. Their eyes were so cold and full of darkness and she felt like they only targeted her just because she was a little different from the rest.

The blonde aspie held back her tears, but she released them with loud sobs after Carly drove them away from school to the safe castle called home. The older cousin held back an angry grimace as her grip on the steering wheel tightened by the sounds of her little cousin's sobs. It pained her heart every time she heard Angela cry. Why was the world so unfair to her?

XXXXXXXXXX

Carly treated Angela's aching hand as soon as they got home. The older cousin gently washed it clean before dabbing a cotton ball damp with disinfectant on the scratch marks. Angela sat on her bed and cuddled with her precious stuffed toy, a bumblebee, while getting treated. She had managed to calm down before they got home, but now she let out some hiccups mixed sobs while burying her face on the soft coat of the bumblebee plushie.

Carly wrapped the bandage around Angela's hand and tied a little ribbon to finish the work. "There. All done", the blue-eyed girl said.

Angela pulled her wrapped hand back and inspected the ribbon. "Thank you…", she mumbled tiredly.

Carly sighed while looking at her cousin, sad about the constant situation about Angela being put down by the other kids. "I'm sorry I can't be there and protect you from those bullies, Angel", the university student spoke softly.

"No… I understand…", Angela nodded slowly as she rolled herself into a ball, still cuddling with her bumblebee. "You're busy… You can't look after me all the time… And Mom is busy too… I don't want to bother her…"

Carly hummed in reply. It was the same as always. Whenever Angela got bullied or harmed by kids, she kept it to herself, but whenever she had a visible wound and her mother did notice them, she'd "interrogate" her daughter to get the truth out. Angela insisted every time that it was no problem and begged her mother not to make a big scene at school. The aspie didn't want to escalate things. She could endure the remaining years in high school before she could be free from the daily torture.

The older cousin gently took Angela's left hand and cupped it with her hands. "You're sometimes too nice, Angela…", Carly mumble sadly. "But… I wish to see you smile again… Like you used to do when you were a little kid."

"Happy…?" Angela repeated the word like it was from a foreign language. "I'm happy…when I draw."

Carly wiped a tear off her cheek before looking at the walls of Angela's bedroom. They were covered by frames containing sketches and drawings Angela had made throughout the years. It was all from flower vases to landscapes and different people, including Carly, her parents and her aunt. There were no drawings of Angela's father because she got conceived after a one-night stand. No one knew who the father was and Angela wasn't even curious to find out. She got used to living with only her mother, so she didn't feel like she missed a father-figure.

Lately, Angela started drawing pictures based on the photos of the Autobots that were often featured in the newspaper related to the times they saved the mankind from the Decepticons' evil schemes. Even today's doddles were of the heroes of the planet that Angela planned to color when she returned home.

But now with her hand still throbbing beneath the bandage, she wasn't in the mood drawing or coloring.

Carly sighed deeply again. She could tell by the empty eyes of Angela's that she had fled into the "zone" and she needed to leave her cousin alone for a bit. "I'll go and make some snacks for us, Angel", the university student spoke softly. "I'll come back soon."

"Mm", Angela nodded in response, her eyes not focused on the girl in front of her.

The older cousin walked out of the room with the first-aid kit and closed the door without making a loud noise. She wanted to cry herself for seeing Angela suffer every day, but she couldn't do that. She had to stay strong for her cousin and help her a little more.

Carly decided to talk about the Autobots with Angela after dinner.

XXXXXXXXXX

The dinner was silent as always with the two cousins and Angela's mother Megan coming home from a long shift at the hospital where she worked as a nurse. Megan had checked Angela's poor hand and changed the bandage before they sat down to eat the hot meal Carly and Angela had made together after the aspie girl had calmed down and returned from the "zone". Megan didn't "interrogate" the daughter as she had given up on it years ago. She had attempted to talk to the teachers about the bullying, but nothing ever changed in the end.

After dinner, Megan went straight to bed to sleep after the long shift, so Carly did the dishes while Angela went to her bedroom to do her stuff. Once Carly was done, she walked to Angela's room and knocked on the door. "Angel, can I come in?" she asked.

"Yes", Angela's voice replied, muffled by the door.

Carly stepped inside and was greeted by Angela sitting by her desk busy working on a drawing. The older cousin walked over to the petite cousin and glanced over her shoulder. Angela was coloring the sketch of Optimus Prime in a pose that Carly recognized from the newspaper the other day. If Angela had a born skill, it was photographic memory. She could memorize things with the blink of an eye, but only for stuff she was interested in and needed for the studying.

Carly was in awe by the drawing. Optimus was holding his ion blaster firing a laser beam with debris and other laser beams around him. In the background, there was this tiny doddle of one of the Seekers that tried to sneak up from behind while the leader of the Autobots was distracted.

Angela added the last touches of the black Seeker, Skywarp, before she placed down the coloring pencils and turned around to face her cousin. "What is it?" she asked.

"Oh, um… I wanted to tell you something important, Angel", Carly replied. "Can we sit on your bed and talk about it?"

"Yes", Angela nodded.

The petite cousin put away her stuff from the desk before she joined her cousin on the bed, immediately grabbing her bumblebee plushie and cuddled with it.

"Angela… I told you before I'm friends with the Autobots, right?" Carly began.

"Yes", Angela nodded.

"And you still like them, right?"

"Mm."

"Well… Would you like to meet them?"

Angela was quiet for a couple of seconds as she processed the words. "U-Umm… M-Meet…them…?" she spoke up nervously.

Carly shushed her softly as she wrapped her arm around her cousin, trying to calm her down. "Calm down, Angel. I talked to Optimus today and asked him if I could bring you to their headquarters tomorrow so you can meet them", the university student explained. "I told him about your…difficulties and he said you're welcome to visit them."

Angela hugged her plushie as she looked away, feeling a little nauseous by the nervousness. "T-They won't…laugh or…hurt me…?" she asked.

"They won't", Carly shook her head. "Optimus was very understanding. He said you can leave whenever you want if you start feeling overwhelmed by all the impressions."

Angela stayed silent as she thought about the situation. She was indeed an admirer of the Autobots, but they felt way superior to her and everyone else. She didn't feel special enough to have the privilege to meet them. To her, their status was equivalent of the President of the United States.

"I think Spike and Sparkplug will be there tomorrow, so you can also meet two humans", Carly added.

"Spike? Sparkplug? The…father and son you told me about?" Angela asked.

Carly nodded in response. "Yes. They're both very kind and they won't look down on you because of your special needs", the older cousin assured Angela. "It's the same with the Autobots. So… What do you say?"

Angela buried her face onto the plushie while she thought about the matter. "C-Can I…decide tomorrow?"

"Of course you can", Carly smiled. "You can tell me tomorrow morning after breakfast. And we'll go after your needs. We can stay there for five minutes or thirty minutes or even an hour, depending on how fast you get tired."

"Okay…", Angela mumbled.

Carly stood up from the bed while giving Angela one last pat on her shoulder. "I'll see you tomorrow, Angel. Sweet dreams", she said before she walked out of the bedroom.

"You too, Carly", Angela replied before the door closed behind Carly.

The green-eyed blonde crawled under the covers of her bed with her bumblebee plushie. She stared at the toy for some time while playing with its arms, imagining it was talking to her. The bumblebee toy has been her best friend ever since she was seven years old and imagined hearing its voice in her mind. She couldn't help doing so because the only people she talked to on a regular basis was her mother, her cousin and the teachers at school. Nobody else bothered to try talking to her to even get to know her, except for the bullies who harassed her.

"Maybe… I should go", Angela mumbled quietly to the bumblebee toy. "But… I'm scared. I don't want to get laughed at…"

*You'll do just fine, Angela!* the imaginary voice of the toy replied. *The Autobots won't look down on you! They're nice! Carly told you about them so many times so you should know them better than that!*

"Maybe…", Angela said before hugging the toy, feeling relaxed by its scent. "I'll go… And I'll bring you with me, Buzz… You're my best friend… I need you…"

*Don't worry! Bring me with you so you can cuddle with me if you start feeling upset! Who knows, maybe you'll meet an Autobot who will become your best friend!*

"I don't know… But perhaps… It will…happen…", Angela mumbled before she fell into a deep sleep, imagining how the Autobots were going to welcome her tomorrow.

Were they really going to accept her with open arms? Or will they laugh and mock her like the kids in high school?

Angela unconsciously clutched the sheets in her sleep as she let out soft groans of pain as she started having nightmares, seeing red smiling eyes full of hatred and detest glowing in the darkness that were laughing at her tiny form that had curled into fetal position.

"S-Stop… Stop…", Dream Angela cried softly as she grasped her head in an attempt to block the demons out of her mind. "H-Help…"

The dream version of Buzz appeared out of nowhere and buzzed aggressively at the laughing demons. He was her guardian who scared the demons away whenever she suffered from a nightmare, like a domestic dog protecting its master from danger.

Soon, however, Angela's nightmares were going to fade away like paint dissolving in water. Thanks to a little help of the mechanical beings called Autobots who will change her life forever.