I half-heard the sound of Dirge's little food box opening again. "Wake up, human," he grumbled. "Soundwave says you need to stay on a regular rhythm or your carbon-based processor will start glitching."

I blinked and looked around at the cockpit and the night full of stars beyond, rubbing the grit from my eyes. "Good morning to you, too," I said a little groggily.

"Don't get mouthy," he snapped. "Just eat and then make some more art."

I still felt kind of hollow after crying so much yesterday. I guessed it was homesickness, though I'd never felt it like this before. As I reached for my breakfast (granola bar, raisins, and meal shake again, along with a couple of gummy vitamins this time), I decided I felt so homesick because I'd never experienced anything like this before.

Yesterday, Dirge said we'd make it to fricking Mars in three days. That meant I was a third of the way there already. I was farther away from home than ever. As I thought about it, I realized I was probably farther away from Earth than any human being had ever been. It should have been cool and exciting, but realizing that just made me want to hide under a blanket like I was a little kid.

Since giving up and hiding wasn't an option, I slowly chewed my food and then started on coloring again.

I'd only made it a couple of pages before I felt like I had to stand up. I still didn't have enough space, though.

Dirge noticed, of course. "Why aren't you applying pigment?"

"It's called coloring, and I need to stretch."

"Stretch?" he asked, sounding really confused. "Stretch what?"

"Me. My legs. I've been sitting for more than a whole day now. Don't you guys ever need to stretch?"

"Well sure, it feels good to change form after being stuck in one or the other for a long time, but it hasn't even been a quartex yet."

I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. "I just want to stand up."

"Fine, whatever. Go ahead."

"There's no room," I protested.

The steering wheel or whatever it was started sinking into the console until I had enough room to kneel and be upright that way or to stand up and duck my head.

I guessed this was the best I was going to get and stood up. "Thank you, Dirge."

"Don't thank me," he grouched. "Thank Shockwave. Now he wants you to get regular exercise, after Scalpel told him about deep-vein thrombosis."

I had no idea what that was but… "Okay. I'll be sure to thank him."

Dirge made me take a stretching break every hour, grumbling about how fragile we humans were and how they shouldn't have taken me away from Earth.

"You could always take me back home," I hopefully pointed out during my fourth stretch-break of the day.

"Or I could just jettison you here, maggot. Finish your stretches."

I gulped and focused on moving as much as I could in the little space I had.

I finished the coloring book halfway through the second day. I was kind of scared of what Dirge might do if he found out, though, so I went back and started adding spiders and snakes and thunderclouds and stuff. That kept me busy until my afternoon snack.

"What's that?" he asked out of the blue.

"What's what?" I asked, looking up and out the window, hoping for a wild second that it was someone here to rescue me.

"Those additional markings on the paper."

"Oh." I looked at the page in front of me. It had been printed with pictures of some construction vehicles working on a building. "Oh…um, that's a tornado that's going to destroy the construction site."

Dirge snorted, and it kind of sounded like he thought that was funny. "Let me see the rest."

I showed him, flipping slowly through each page and explaining the extra stuff I'd drawn. On the page with a guy pulling a boat out of the lake with his truck, I'd drawn a python sneaking up on him to eat him. On the page where a couple of guys were mudding with their Jeep, I drew a ginormous black widow stabbing through the roof with her stinger. That kind of thing.

"You're half-Decepticon already," he said, and hopefully he didn't see me cringe. "Here's another one," he said, and the little delivery box that normally gave me food opened up with a coloring book instead. This time it was of cute, anime-eyed zoo animals. "Don't bother finishing the whole book before you embellish it. Shockwave wants to see you go all Decepticon on it from the first page."

Well, if he wanted to see Jurassic Park meets the Smithsonian Zoological Park, I could totally do that. I'd better be careful if I didn't want to run out of red Crayon, though.

I was so sick of those protein shakes by the time dinner rolled around. It was always the same thing – shake, granola bar, raisins. "Didn't you guys get anything different for me?" I whined.

"What do you mean? This is optimal nutrition," Dirge growled back.

"I'm glad you got me good food, but…we humans usually eat different things at each meal. And from one day to the next, we eat a different menu. Back home…" I swallowed down the lump in my throat and kept going. "...we'd have spaghetti for dinner one night and grilled chicken the next and then pizza the day after that. We mix things up so it doesn't get boring."

"There's some different food for you where we're going," he said, "but this is all I've got with me. So shut up and eat."

"Okay, thank you, Dirge," I quickly said. I could force-feed myself this crap for one more day, as long as I knew something different was waiting for me after that.

I didn't sleep well that night. Maybe it was drawing pictures of death and destruction all day, but I just kept having nightmares. I was so tired that, when Dirge woke me up for breakfast, I fell asleep again before I could finish my raisins. He let me sleep until my scheduled stretches – I was surprised by that. It seemed more kind than I expected from him.

As I was finishing lunch, Dirge asked, "Can you see it?"

I looked up and around again. "See what?"

"Straight ahead. That bright object is Mars."

And sure enough, I could see it. It was almost as big around as my thumb. I took a deep breath, realizing I was the first human to see it this close with my own two eyes.

"We'll get there a little after dinner. Keep coloring."

I could do this. I could do whatever a Prime's function was for Shockwave and maybe then they'd let me go home. I just had to be brave and smart like Mr. Lennox and everything would be okay. Hopefully. It had to.

Nodding to myself, I picked up a green Crayon and started coloring the lizard on the page in front of me.

Dinner was a shake, granola bar, and raisins again, and I managed to choke it down. After I put the wrappers and stuff back into the food-box thing for Dirge to throw away, it opened a second time, and it was empty again. "Give me back the book and the pigment sticks, along with your Earth armor."

I put my clothes, the coloring book, and the Crayons in the box, it slid closed, and then I didn't have anything to do except watch Mars get more and more huge and red. Before we got there, though, we turned to a much smaller moon that was almost as black as the outer space around it. There was a hole or something that opened and was glowing inside. Dirge flew us in and…metal moved all around me for a couple of seconds and then I was in the fist of this enormous robot. Somewhere in the middle of that, my suit's helmet closed up again, and I guessed we were somewhere that didn't have any oxygen. Another couple of the transforming robots walked closer and. really scared, I squirmed, trying to escape.

"Stop that," the robot said with Dirge's voice. "I didn't haul you all this way for you to get squished. Sit still."

I tried to sink lower into his hand, but that didn't work either, so I sat as still as I could.

The three Transformers made a lot of beeps and other weird noises, and I guessed they were talking. It sounded a lot like the noises Dirge made after I told him Annabelle and Tracks were dating.

They took me through a few hallways to a big room that…looked like a bunch of jail cells. There was a long line of little rooms. There weren't any bars, but I could see some kind of forcefield or whatever sealing off the door for each room.

At the first cell, one of the other robots hit some buttons and the forcefield turned off. Dirge stood me on the floor and said, "Be good and there are some potato chips in it for you."

I knew these weren't nice robots, but I would have done just about anything for those potato chips. "Okay," I said and sat down cross-legged on the floor. Dirge nodded, stepped back, and the forcefield turned on again. Then the three of them walked off without giving me any chips or even looking back. My helmet opened up again after a second.

There was a swishing sound like a door closing, and then I couldn't even hear their footsteps anymore.

"Hello?" I said, kind of timidly. But the only sound was the hum of electronics and my own voice. "He said I'd get potato chips?"

Nobody answered for a long minute or two, and I realized Dirge had tricked me. He'd lied to me. I wasn't getting any potato chips. They probably didn't even have any potato chips. Of all the stupid reasons to get upset, that made me angry. Really angry. I jumped up, stomped my feet until my knees hurt, and shouted at the top of my lungs every swear word I could remember.

When I was out of breath and definitely not crying, I wiped my eyes and finally thought to look around. Most of the cell I was in was tall enough for a Transformer like Dirge, but there was a shelf about ceiling-high for a human against one wall. Under it was a bed – done up with a "Thomas and Friends" blanket and pillowcase. Ugh! Beside that was a desk with another coloring book and crayons on it and on the floor was something that maybe was supposed to be a treadmill? It didn't look like anything they might have bought at the store, though. They must have built it using their tech.

Maybe it was silly, but I was still angry and hurt enough that I wasn't going to do what Dirge wanted me to. Instead of going to the desk and coloring, I went to my bed and punched Thomas in the face over and over until I felt a little better. Then I plopped down onto my (supid, stupid) bed and closed my eyes.

I was going to nap and throw off my sleep schedule and get Dirge in trouble with Shockwave or whoever it was that was in charge here.

I dreamed of home, that I was in the kitchen with Mom and Dad, 'Trice and Annabelle, Hound and Breaker and that we were eating a huge bowl of fruit – bananas, apples, oranges, grapes, strawberries…

I jumped awake to the sound of huge metal feet walking closer. I opened my eyes and saw that there were two of the robots standing there. One was about half the size of Dirge and the other one…the other one was small enough to fit on my chair.

He also looked and moved like a spider.

I yelped and jumped out of bed, running toward the back corner of my cell.

"Vell, vell, you get your beauty sleep, yes?" the spider-thing said. The other one pushed the buttons to drop the forcefield and the spider-bot walked into my cell. "Ze reflexes look good, as vell. Is good. Shockwave vants you healty and whole." He paused at the desk, hopped up onto it, and flipped through the first few pages of the coloring book there. Then he turned and looked right at me. "No more art, zo? Why not?"

I gulped, and he demanded, "Vell?"

"I…I was tired last night."

"Hmph." He jumped back down off the desk and walked closer to me. (Instead of the big, heavy footsteps, he made a clinkety sound I was probably going to have nightmares about for the rest of my life.) "Tired after ze tantrum, yes? You want zese 'potato chips' so much?"

Of course they had seen all that. They probably had surveillance cameras everywhere. Time to be honest, since they knew everything anyway. "I don't like being lied to."

The spider-bot looked back at the quiet one and then back at me. "Vhat else do you not like?"

My breath came out in a whoosh. "I don't like being taken away from my family and home. I don't like being threatened. I don't like being treated like a little kid when I'll be starting junior high in a year and a half. I mean, I am too old for coloring books! And I really don't like nutrition shakes. Don't you guys have anything fresh to eat? Even carrots or celery would be awesome."

"Hm…" the spider-bot looked at the quiet one again, who nodded and left, turning on the forcefield behind him.

Looking at me again, the spider-bot said, "Ve vill check ze pantry, yes? Until zen, let me take a look at you. I am Scalpel, ze doctor for ze important Decepticons, yes? And so I am ze doctor for you."

As creeptastic as he looked, this Scalpel guy was the first one to actually treat me like a person. "Okay?"

"Come out here and sit on ze chair, yes?"

A little nervously, I walked out and sat down like he'd asked. He started looking me over like a real doctor, except he was a little rougher and didn't talk to me very much. He did talk to himself quite a bit, but I didn't say anything about that.

Before he was done, the quiet one came back. After letting himself into my cell, he loomed closer and set something on my desk.

Holy crap, it was a box of Pop Tarts! There was another nutrition shake and a package of raisins, too, but all I could really see was Pop Tarts!

Scalpel tilted his head. "Vhy the blood pressure…oh. You see Soundwave has brought ze breakfast."

"Can I?" I asked.

"Can you vhat?"

"Can I have some Pop Tarts?"

"Yes, yes. I zhink ve are done here for now. Be a good little human and make more art after ze breakfast, yes?" And with that, they both left and I tore into the box of Pop Tarts.

Since Dirge said Shockwave liked the extra things I drew on the coloring book, I thought hard before I started coloring. The book was a generic one about different jobs people did, so I spent the morning drawing a whole battle scene between the firefighter on the left side of a page and the police officer on the right. It was harder to draw a good battlefield between the janitor and the school teacher, but with enough house elves and dragons, I made it work.

Even though I was basically stuck in jail, it was way better than being stuck in Dirge's cockpit. I was able to move around and even explored the weird contraption they'd left for me. And yep, it was a treadmill. I didn't use it much, but mostly because I liked pacing my cell better. When that got boring, I figured out how to climb up onto the shelf above my desk. Turns out it was a Transformer-sized bed.

Lunch was delivered by the quiet Transformer again. It still had a nutrition shake and raisins, but at least this time it was a little bit of jerky and some cheese-and-cracker sandwiches, too.

"What's your name?" I asked the robot.

"Soundwave," he said, looming closer, and it sounded like six different people sing-talking. "You are drawing battle scenarios. Why?"

I shrugged one shoulder. "It's fun?"

"Continue," he said and walked off.

Dinner was delivered by another Transformer, this time one I didn't recognize. He swapped out the coloring book I'd been using all day for a new one and left my meal on the desk beside it.

It had another nutrition shake and some trail mix, but this one had dried bananas in it instead of just raisins. Plus, there were more of the cheese-and-cracker sandwiches and…a can of sardines? I'd never had sardines but I didn't think they'd be any good. Still, at least it wasn't a nutrition shake. I opened the can expecting it to be like tuna fish – all cooked up and mashed and ready for mayonnaise. Instead, the can was full of a bunch of little headless fishes that still had their skin on and everything. Gross!

When the Transformer came back to collect my garbage, he looked curiously at the full can of sardines. "Why didn't you eat this?"

"Because it's disgusting. The fish are slimy and still have bones in them and everything."

With a shrug, the Transformer took it with the rest of the garbage and left.

The new coloring book was fairytale themed and obviously copying Disney. They almost made my job too easy. With a crack of my knuckles, I got to work.

The next morning, we were back to the same old foods: trail mix, dried apples, and a nutrition shake. The robot who brought me breakfast stuck around to watch me eat my trail mix, and when I was done, he picked me up along with the wrappers.

"Hey!" I protested.

"It's time for you to earn your keep," the robot said.

I looked at him more closely but didn't recognize him. "Are you Shockwave?"

The robot snorted a laugh. "No, I'm Skywarp. I'm here as Megatron's eyes and ears, as you humans say."

I frowned, thinking hard. "I'm supposed to do a Prime's function?"

Skywarp looked down at me, and if he were human, I'd guess he was surprised. "Yes."

Straightening my shoulders and gulping hard, I nodded. "Okay."

"There's a good mechling," he said, sounding like he approved.

Skywarp carried me to a huge room with a domed ceiling. I was kind of surprised because my helmet stayed open. I guessed they'd created this room with an atmosphere just for me. It was so big that the aliens looked human-sized by comparison. "Where are we?" I whispered as Skywarp got closer to the others.

"You'll see," he said. A few more steps, and he was close enough to hand me off to another robot, one who was almost as creepy-looking as Scalpel. He was as huge as Dirge but only had one giant, purple eye.

"He says he's ready to perform a Prime's function, Shockwave," Skywarp said.

I guessed the robot holding me was Shockwave because he asked, "And what do you know of a Prime's function, human?"

Swallowing down my nervousness, I said, "Not much, sir. But if you'll let me go home to my family afterward, I'll try my best to do what you ask."

He made a sound that was almost amused and walked closer to…something I couldn't make sense of. It looked like a huge metal pit with curved walls around it to protect it and…tubes and tunnels and wires and stuff. There was a railing between us and it, and he walked close enough to lean against it.

"Do you know what this is?" Shockwave demanded.

"No, sir."

"It is a spark chamber. But it is not just any spark chamber." Sounding like he was really getting into the story, he said, "This is the spark chamber of a mighty Decepticon titan. Our home planet is Cybertron, and we do not have tornados there. That kind of power belonged to the titans, and when the War was still on Cybertron, this titan was a valiant Decepticon warrior. Like your python, he crushed his enemies. He engaged in epic battles like the ones you drew, raging against others as large as him. Entire cities were destroyed by their rampaging. Do you understand what I am saying, youngling?"

"Um…" I looked around at the other robots, wondering who the titan was that Shockwave was talking about. Before I could add, 'Not really,' Shockwave started droning on again.

"Like all the titans, this noble warrior perished from energon starvation eons ago. Most of his frame decayed into rust. But as Fate would have it, his spark chamber survived. We were able to recover it and rebuild his body for him."

Okay, this was totally sounding like Frankenstein…

"Soundwave's intel indicates that, so long as the spark chamber survives, a mech can be restored to life." Shockwave pointed at the giant pit in front of us. "Only a Prime can wield the Matrix. Only a Prime can use it to create or restore life. Only a Prime can use it to generate energon. That is why you are here."

"Holy crap." That's what they wanted me to do? Create life?!

"That is a Prime's function. That is why we have brought you all this way and treated you with such courtesy. Now it is time to return that courtesy. It is time for you to perform a Prime's function, Daemon. It is time to take up the Matrix of Leadership."

I looked around, blinking in confusion and my heart racing. What in the world was he talking about?

Shockwave set me on my feet in front of a table with a long, metal…thing on it. I guessed it was important, but right next to it was a package of Pringles and that made it really hard to focus on anything else.

"Yes, we have potato chips for you," Shockwave said, "to celebrate when you have given this titan life."

I gulped at the thought of that. It was fricking crazy!

"Daemon, pick up the Matrix of Leadership." Shockwave was sounding a lot less like he was telling me a great story and a lot more like he was about to break out my middle name.

"The what?"

"Feigned ignorance will not help you."

I backed away from the table, scared by how intense he was getting. "No, I really don't know what that is."

This time he was clearly getting angry, his voice dropping to almost a growl. It made my hands sweaty and my mouth dry. "You expect me to believe that the son of a known Prime does not recognize the Matrix of Leadership."

"Um…I guess so? I mean it. Really. I've never even seen the thing."

"But you know its power."

"No! Seriously, I have no idea what you're talking about. I don't know how to give you guys life!"

He leaned closer to pick up the silver thing and hold it out for me. I backed away until I bumped into a wall. Or maybe it was someone's legs. I didn't really care. Shockwave followed me, his hand still extended toward me.

"Do not be afraid," he said, only it was more like an order than something that was supposed to make me feel better. That single, unblinking eye made him look like a monster. "Take the Matrix. If you are a Prime, it will respond. If not, then I will be forced to employ more-extreme measures."

More extreme than kidnapping me? I gulped hard and my hands started shaking. I didn't have a choice, not really. I could sit down on the floor and refuse to help him, but then they'd just squish me. I was sure of that. I had no idea what a Prime really was and I really didn't think I was one. Seeing no other option, though, I did what that monster Shockwave said.

My fingers were stiff and I struggled to pull off my gloves, but eventually I did and picked up the silver thing. It got so bright it blinded me.

"Daemon?" a much nicer voice asked, and as the light faded I saw another one of the robots, only this one was the same size as me and…yellow. Cheerful yellow. He was holding on to the Matrix, too. His blue eyes got wider and brighter and he said, "It's really you! Mom and Dad are never going to believe this! Um…" he glanced around. "Where are you?"

I looked around too and was surprised that the room was empty – it was just me and Yellow here. "Shockwave's space station?"

"Aw, slag," he said and then covered his mouth like he'd just been caught cussing. He tilted his head curiously and said, "You must really be a Prime. We weren't sure and Optimus wasn't going to try to find out until you were fifteen. Hm…I can't reach my parents or your dad right now, which is…yeah, not going there. I wonder if it's 'cause you're touching the Matrix that I can even talk to you at all. I might be in it."

Babbling, yellow, friendly robot? This was just…too weird. Instead I pointed out the most important part. "Shockwave's gone. Let's get out of here!"

"He isn't, not really," Yellow said, drooping a little and staying put. "He's still there but you're not…or at least, not so much. I'll help you, though. I think as long as you're hanging on to the Matrix I'll be able to stay with you."

"Who are you?" I finally thought to ask.

He laughed – it was almost a nervous giggle. "Your clan leader, I guess. If you're okay with that. But we can talk about that later. Gotta prove myself first."

Like any of that made sense. "But what's your name?"

"Oh! My name's Beatus." He looked down and around at the hole beside me, the one where I was supposed to magically make the space station alive. "This looks like a spark chamber."

"I guess? All I know is Shockwave wants me to bring the space station to life like I'm Frankenstein Jr or something."

"You're not a Frankenstein – that's Shockwave," he said. "You're a Prime, probably. If you put this Matrix into that spark chamber, it'll bring this titan to life. Can't let that happen," Beatus added, sounding like he was ready for a fight.

"He's gonna kill me if I don't."

"He's gonna kill you if you do," Beatus pointed out. "Trust me on this one. He will, sooner or later. Mom and Dad have shown me plenty of memories about him."

"So what am I supposed to do?" I demanded.

Beatus looked back at me, and I could almost feel the worry pouring off of him. "Run," he finally said.

"I'm in a stupid space station!" I shouted. "I can't run away!"

"I didn't say run away," he answered. "Run and hide. You just have to stay alive until help can get here. And whatever happens, you can't create any sparks for Shockwave."

I grimaced, and he looked at the spark-hole-thingy. "There. See that tubing right next to the chamber? The one with the orange ring around it?"

"Yeah?"

"That'll probably connect to the station's circulation vents. When I let go of the Matrix, jump down in there and make a break for it. Look for any doors or hatches or whatever and get out of the conduits as soon as you can."

"And if my oxygen runs out before help gets here?"

"We'll burn that bridge when we get there."

"Huh?"

He shrugged. "Don't ask me. Aunt Chromia says that. Ready?"

"No, but…" I took a deep breath and nodded, and Beatus let go of the Matrix.