Re-read my own story for inspiration lol. I did find some errors that I fixed on AO3 cause it's so much easier to make quick edits. Anyway, I'm back-again! I figured now is as good as time as any since the new movie is out (WHICH I HAVE NOT SEEN YET OMG!) Why can't they just bring back Ironhide :'(((

So yeah, long time no see, I missed you guys, thanks for reading!

Mearing

…

It was a shame the boosted morale of the base didn't last for more than a couple of days. The Autobots and personnel had been friendlier than ever, Amber went on coffee runs with Sideswipe, and Mirage even started speaking more English rather than insulting everyone in Italian.

Then Will and Optimus returned. Apparently, they arrived at the base the night before. Optimus still hadn't spoken a word to anyone, Autobot and human alike. Will was nowhere to be seen, likely in meetings with all the other missing higher ups that normally hung around the base.

There was now talk of the director of national intelligence arriving later that afternoon. A woman named Charlotte Mearing. From the gossip, it sounded like she was also the director of NEST.

But that was nothing compared to the other rumor going around.

"Buzz Aldrin? The Buzz Aldrin?"

"Yeah, kind of cool I guess. Not every day we get astronauts around here. Well, not human ones. Wonder what's going on," Amber mused.

"What's going on?" Aria repeated. "Buzz Aldrin is coming here. Today! Do you think he'll do a presentation? You know, I wrote a paper on him in my first semester. Second man to ever walk on the moon! Nineteen minutes after Neil did. Oh, and before he was an astronaut, he was a fighter pilot. You know he flew an F-80 Shooting Star? It was America's first ever jet-powered fighter plane. We have one at the museum!"

"Woah, Aria, breathe."

Aria closed her mouth. "Ah, sorry."

Amber only rolled her eyes. "It's Mearing you should be worried about. I heard she's a menace. There's no right answer with her. I met her months back after I started. Called her ma'am. What a mistake that was."

"I don't think I have to worry about that. I'm just the janitor here. I'll just go hide out and clean some back office. Or maybe I'll find Buzz! You think he'll sign my uniform?"

"I knew you were weird, but not this weird."

"I don't know how you're not excited to meet a man who's walked on the moon and flown multiple fighter planes. He's basically my role model. I applied to MIT like six times before I graduated high school. When I didn't get in, my mom got me a signed poster of him instead. One of the best gifts ever!"

Amber swiftly changed the subject. "Oh look, they're done with their meeting."

The overhead door they stood by began to open. One by one, the Autobots exited the room now done with whatever meeting they were having. They were all in their alt modes. According to Amber, some of the Autobots were requested to stay in their vehicle forms as much as possible while Mearing visited. It didn't take much brain power that it was mostly referring to Skidz and Mudflap.

She hadn't been able to talk to Ironhide about it, so there was no way to know if the Autobots were mad about it or if they chose to for the same reason many of the personnel were trying to lay low with the impending visit from the director.

There was a ding from the intercom. "The director will be arriving in ten minutes."

Aria looked up. "We have an intercom?"

Amber waved her to follow her. "Come on, we need to find an inconspicuous spot."

"I'm not sure. I don't want to get in trouble again for hearing some top secret thing I'm not supposed to know."

"Aren't you curious?"

"I am, but I usually find out things from the Autobots or Will later. I'd rather go see if Buzz is here yet."

"His visit probably has something to do with Mearing. She gestured up to the bridge. "It looks like they're setting up for a presentation.

When Aria surveyed the area below the bridge, something caught her eye. She grabbed Amber's arm to stop her. "What is that?"

Amber tilted her head to look around Aria at the object. While the rest of the Autobots kept their distance, Optimus was parked in front of it. "Your guess is as good as mine," was all she said before continuing toward the back corner of the main hangar.

The corner was a popular spot. Not only was it inconspicuous, but it was the local watering hole as some of the guys called it. Not that water was why Amber chose it, rather because the coffee station that accompanied the water dispenser.

Aria kept her eyes peeled for Buzz, or the director for that matter. Occasionally, her eyes would drop to the floor that her and the other janitor had spent the last two days meticulously cleaning. So far no one had walked on it with dirty shoes. Good. No reason to call her out for not keeping the place sparkling.

Time ticked on. Ten minutes passed, then twenty. Still no sign of either guest. The Autobots seemed to have grown restless, many transforming and going about their day. One of the men decided to do some basic training drills with Bee to impress Mearing.

Another ten minutes and most of the Autobots were up and about. Wheeljack was presenting Ironhide a new gun that even from the distance, looked huge.

Without warning, a group of people walked through the commotion. Will and a stern looking woman in a suit were at the front.

"That's her, that's Mearing!" Amber hissed and hastily turned towards the coffee machine to pour another cup.

Aria wasn't sure why Amber was so concerned. There were plenty of people walking around between them and the director to be noticed. If anything, most of the personnel were forming a group around Optimus and the strange object.

The base went relatively quiet. Mearing's voice was just audible but not distinguishable. Whatever she said got Ironhide's attention. He shouted and hit Optimus.

For the first time since returning, Optimus transformed—and he was angry.

Amber gestured for them to join the crowd as Optimus and Mearing exchanged heated words. They were talking about the object on the table.

She found herself following Amber up to the edge of the crowd. She stood on her tippy topes to try to see past the heads of many taller men. Amber took the less subtle approach and stood a few steps up a nearby staircase.

Then before she could make out what Mearing was saying over the two people whispering beside her, none other than Buzz Aldrin walked out of a nearby entrance.

He was older than she expected, but walked with poise. He introduced himself to Optimus who returned the gesture, now noticeably calmer. She only drew her eyes away when Mearing spoke up, this time from the bridge.

It turned out the whole space race was because of an Cybertronian ship crashed on the moon. And the object in front of her was what caused the Chernobyl meltdown.

This…this changed everything. Another thing kept from the history books. First Egypt and now Chernobyl. Not to mention the entire space race! Neil and Buzz were probably the first men of the modern world to come across a Cybertronian ship…and it was completely covered up. Had the Transformers had been that close to earth for that long? Perhaps that's when Jetfire came to Earth, maybe he was following the ship.

There were so many secrets. So much she still didn't know about the government and about Cybertronians.

It wasn't until Ironhide spoke that she came back to reality and looked up at him.

Optimus then told them about the ship called the Arc, and the Autobot captain aboard.

Sentinel Prime.

…

The public part of the meeting didn't go on for too much longer. In fact, everything went exactly as Aria had hoped. Mearing, Lennox, and the other higher ups had Optimus, Ratchet, and Ironhide follow them to a private room, leaving Buzz to mingle with the crowd.

Turned out Aria wasn't his only fan there.

Her and Amber stood in a makeshift line in front of Buzz who was actively signing whatever people brought up to him. After what felt like hours of exchanging theories of what they'd just learned, they finally neared the front.

"I wish I brought my book," Aria whined.

"What book is that?" Amber didn't sound very interested in the subject.

"No Dream is too High."

"Aren't you going to ask him about what he knows about all this?"

Aria crossed her arms. "I doubt he knows anything I don't already. And if he did, there's no way he'd tell me. Let me just get his autograph and then we can focus on all the lies we've been told our entire lives."

Before Amber could reply, it was Aira's turn to meet Buzz. She practically shoved her cell phone into Amber's hands. "Can you take a picture pretty please? Maybe like ten so hopefully one of them is decent?"

She then approached Buzz, he held his hand out and gave her a firm handshake.

"I'm so honored to meet you sir—Doctor!"

"The please is mine, young lady. Are you a soldier here as well?"

"Oh no." Aria quickly shook her head. "I just work here. I do have a degree in Astronomy though. I tried so hard to get into MIT like you but I could only get into UVA—which is fine! Oh and up until recently I worked at the Smithsonian. Don't tell anyone, but once when I was cleaning the Apollo 11 display," she leaned in closer, "I tried on your helmet. It was so heavy!"

While Buzz was laughing and signing the back of her coveralls, a stern voice called over the chatter.

"You, girl. Over here."

Aria looked up and saw none other than the director herself. A few steps behind her was her assistant who was still toting around several bags and purses.

With a spin, Aria gave Buzz a final handshake and fervent praise then jogged up to Mearing who frowned as she looked Aria up and down.

"I hope you have clearance to be here for your sake." Was all she said.

Aria hastily pulled out her ID lanyard from under her uniform. "Oh yes, sorry about that. I'm Aria—"

But Mearing wasn't paying attention. Her assistant had run up shuffling papers and whispering something into her ear.

"So this is the chick, huh." Mering gave her another once over, this time her expression was slightly more curious than judgemental. "The infamous janitor."

What was she supposed to say to that? Amber warned her there was no right answer, so maybe not answering was the best option. She swallowed instead, keeping her posture as confident as she could muster.

Though by Mearing's face, it was obvious she could see right through the act. "Come. Follow me to my office."

Aria only nodded and did her best to keep up with Mearing's pace. At least she wasn't wearing heels, unlike her poor assistant.

Mearing led her to an office Aria had dusted a couple of days back. Her assistant closed the door behind them, leaving Aria and Mearing alone in the dimly lit room.

During the walk there, Mearing's assistant gave her the file which now sat open on the desk. As Mearing flipped through paperwork, Aria caught flashes of photos. Scans of her ID, injuries, x-rays, the smoky aftermath of Starscream's attack, her new condo, the shard of Ironhide's spark in a glass jar, the bow.

Her entire life since Egypt, contained in a file folder.

Mearing stopped and pulled out a blown-up picture, turning it so Aria could get a better look. Like most of the others, she had no idea it had been taken.

It was a still shot from a security camera at the base. Ironhide was sitting on the floor with an elbow resting on his knee. The much smaller figure in front of him was her, half bent over laughing. Probably at something he'd just said by smug the look on his face.

"Care to tell me about your relationship with the Autobots?"

Aria wiped the smile from her face and lifted her gaze from the photo. "We're…acquainted."

"Uh huh," Mearing said slowly, leaning back. "And Ironhide, specifically?"

The lamp on Mearing's desk suddenly became very interesting. "…Friends, I guess."

"Are we talking friends like Sam and Bumblebee or friends like Sideswipe and Amber?"

Aria opened her mouth only to close it again. Was Mearing implying what she thought she was implying? There was no way she could know. Not like she and Ironhide really did anything that would give them away in front of anyone. Unless the cameras didn't actually shut off when she was in the shooting room.

"Sam and Bee," she blurted.

Mearing's eyebrow rose above the rim of her thick framed glasses. With a skeptical noise, she pulled out a new folder and wrote Aria/Ironhide on the tab.

"We're really not that close," Aria tried again.

Mearing ignored her, instead pulling out more photos from Aria's file. There was one of her leaning on Ironhide in his alt mode, window rolled down and her mouth open, clearly talking to him. Another one showed her sweeping and Ironhide watching her. The last showed Ironhide and Ratchet having a conversation and her sitting on the stairs of the bridge watching them.

Sideswipe was right. She wasn't very subtle. Even from the grainy images, she could see the look in her eyes that Ironhide had described before. She did look like a girl in love. Or rather like Wheelie put it, a girl with a dumb smile on her face.

Mearing stacked the photos neatly and put them in the new folder. "Your feelings aren't any of my business Ms. Normandy, but any friendships you have with the Autobots are. I've never heard of an Autobot doing this kind of gesture before, but in doing so, it's opened a lot of doors."

There was something about Mearing's tone that raised Aria's internal alarms. "Doors as in helping our relationship with them, or doors as in something else?"

"Let me make something clear to you. Building stronger relationships with the Autobots is the only reason you're still here. We can only achieve so much until we've earned their trust, and we can only do that thanks to people like you and Sam Witwicky."

"What do you mean people like us?"

"Civilians. We attempted with Amber to have a government employee fill the gap between the two by making her more of a civilian in their eyes, but they're not buying it. She's gotten zero information from them, even with Sideswipe pining after her."

"Does she know this?"

Mearing gave a half hearted shrug. "It's not in her job description, but she has been told to take notes on any information that may be of interest to me."

Aria relaxed her shoulders. So Amber didn't have any ulterior motives.

But what about her? Was she being used for some ulterior purpose?

"I can see that you're now wondering what you're unintentionally helping me with."

"You still haven't told me what doors I've opened."

"I've been keeping a close eye on your little experiment with Ironhide." She moved Aria's file out of the way to reveal another one under it. This one had a Classified stamp on it. Inside had surgery photos and pages full of Aria's handwriting that she had written detailing her experience since having the shard. Then there were the questionnaires she had to fill out on a weekly basis asking about any changes or symptoms.

"I see you are able to activate the bow now," Mearing said, pulling out the most recent update Aria had written. "'Lighter and stronger than any other bow'" she read. "'Arrow embedded itself in the cement wall.'"

Aria only nodded.

Picking up the phone on her desk, Mearing dialed a number. " Clear out and turn off the cameras in the shooting room." She hung up before whoever had a chance to answer and stood.

For some reason, Aria couldn't move. Her eyes were fixed on the open file. Fixed on the picture of the fresh incision in her chest.

How could she have been so naive? Did she really think that her experiment was a one-off? Something to keep tabs on out of interest? It was more. So much more.

Mearing opened the door. "Come on, I don't have all day."

Aria robotically stood and followed Mearing out into the hallway. It was a short walk to the shooting room. The last person exited as they got there. Mearing closed the door behind them and locked it. A moment later, the flashing lights on the camera's switched off.

"It won't work," Aria said quietly, stopping in front of the lockers.

"You're going to have to speak up."

Aria faced her. "I know what you're doing. And it won't work."

"And what makes you think that?"

"Do you know what a Spark is?" Aria turned back and opened her locker, pulling the bow and an arrow from it.

"A Cybertronian organ that stores and circulates Energon through their bodies." Mearing was looking at the bow which now resembled a baton, then back up to Aria. "It's their equivalent to a heart."

"It's their s—"

"Yes, I'm aware they refer to it as their soul. But souls do not exist, and we only deal with the physical and not the spiritual."

Aria allowed the tingle to travel down her arm and into the piece of metal in her hand. It flexed and grew into the bow. "It doesn't matter what you and I think of souls. It matters what they think. If a Cybertronian believes they are giving someone a piece of their soul, then they are. And that's not even considering that it may physically be their soul and actually does contain their essence."

Mearings eyes never left the weapon. "So it could function as both their heart and their brain. Noted."

"No, not like that. Why does there have to be a human equivalent? They're not even from this galaxy!"

"Aria, I don't have time for this. Just shoot the arrow."

"Tell me exactly what you're planning!"

"Aria. We are in a war right at this very second. Something is going to give very soon and we need to be able to defend ourselves." She put her finger up to stop Aria from interrupting. "If we can convince the Autobots to make us these weapons on a much larger scale, then we can help them as much as they help us. They're your friends, you said so yourself. Would you not want someone like Lennox to have a more powerful weapon to defend the Autobots during an attack?"

Aria held out the bow for Mearing who took it. The glowing symbols faded into nothing and after a moment, it transformed back into its smaller size.

"I was told by the Autobots that giving someone a piece of their spark was a very personal decision. Only a couple of them even know about it. There's no way it will work on any kind of scale close to what you're envisioning."

"And did they mention if the Transformer has to be living for the spark shard to work?"

A strong feeling of dread washed over her. Even the split-second thought of Ironhide dying made her stomach lurch. "What do you mean?"

"We have a stockpile of Decepticon parts waiting to be repurposed. We could probably make enough shards for hundreds of weapons if the Autobots will build them for us."

"They wouldn't have any Energon anymore though."

"Optimus has the matrix. I believe that would be able to recharge the sparks with enough Energon for a human to use."

"Do the Autobots know about any of these plans?"

"No. And they won't until you've had yours for much longer. In the meantime, I expect you to not say a word about this conversation to anyone if you like your new house and job. Now if I've answered all your questions, would you be so kind?"

Aria took the bow from her outstretched hand. Once again it transformed. Without so much as a pause, she pulled the string back and loosed the arrow into the target.

Then the resonating thud of the arrow embedding into the cement wall filled the room.

Making Cybertronian weapons. That was why she was still here.

…