Chapter summary: One of Miles' clients comes flying into the clinic believing him to be dead. Apparently there's a hearse at his house, and he knows just who to blame for that.

AN: Just as a general warning, this does go over a bit of the first movie because some things get explained to Miles finally. I try to make it not too annoying as I'm sure we all know the contents of it for the most part. I wrote the previous installment and then kind of realized I had to finally have some sort of explanation for Miles about everything because it was getting to a ridiculous point. I initially planned to have Flatline do it, but I thought it more fitting for Ravage to finally take that step to do it herself.

I think I do a pretty good job of making it obvious, but since I didn't want to bore everyone with details that they already know just know that when Miles is getting stuff explained to him things like names are left out. Ravage doesn't see it as important to mention the Witwicky name or the town name, though part of that is just to try and keep Miles detached from the information. Tranquility wasn't seen as important enough to mention.

Flatline will definitely come in for the next installment, but I figured Ravage was likely to send him away for privacy for this particular conversation.

"I just heard about what happened!"

Miles paused in going over the treatment plan for a patient with Jessica, both of them looking over at where Mrs. Robertson had just flown in through the door. She was dressed in a stained white shirt and a pair of sweatpants with some curlers still in her hair, an obvious sign that she had left her home in a hurry.

"Oh," Mrs. Robertson's gaze locked on to Miles. "You! You're… alive?"

Miles stared at Mrs. Robertson. He didn't think that question actually needed a response, but Mrs. Robertson just stared back. Jessica looked between the two of them as she took a bite of her celery.

"You're alive?" Mrs. Robertson repeated.

"Last I checked," Miles said slowly, ignoring the laugh that Jessica failed to stifle properly.

"Well who is the hearse in your yard for, if it's not for you?" Mrs. Robertson demanded.

"That…" Miles closed his eyes for a moment and thought hard. He knew who the culprit, or culprits , were, but he had no idea what was going on. Even worse, he was completely blanking on a good lie, "That's an excellent question, Mrs. Robertson."

Both Jessica and Mrs. Robertson continued to look at him expectantly.

"I said it was an excellent question!" Miles shrugged, "I've no idea either. Maybe they broke down?"

"I suppose…" Mrs. Robertson didn't sound convinced. "I guess I should go and call Lily and let her know you're not dead."

Lily lived two houses down from him, which explained why Mrs. Robertson had 'heard' about his death. That left two questions: why was there a hearse in his yard, and how many people did Lily tell before someone realized he was actually still alive? He just knew he was going to have to spend his lunch break trying to fix this mess.

When he finally got a break, Miles brought out his phone and accessed the group chat that he'd set up. It was normally only him and Barricade that used it, but Ravage occasionally responded. Ravage said that human technology had been reverse engineered from a Cybertronian, which was why she was compatible with his phone and why they could somehow respond to the chat messages in their heads.

Miles: y is there a hearse in my yard
Barricade: We invited a friend.
Miles: u what
Barricade: We invited another Decepticon over.
Miles: …to stay?
Ravage: We need to talk, Miles.
Miles: oh dont phrase it like that rav
Miles: its to
Miles: ominous

Miles waited for a response. He saw the notification that Barricade was typing, but that went away after a moment. These two were going to annoy him into an early grave at this rate. He could have pressed it, but he only had a few hours of work left and it seemed better to wait and see then know for sure. He'd always been a coward.

Miles: also the old biddy in the red house was telling everyone im dead
Barricade: She should mind her fragging business.
Ravage: Don't be uncouth, Barricade. We'll have Flatline move to the backyard, Miles.
Miles: ...Flatline? wat kind of name is Flatline?
Barricade: Your name is a measurement of distance for your kind.
Miles: it means soldier or servant or somethin when its a name ok
Ravage: Well, one of those is more fitting than the other.
Miles: wow fuck u
Ravage: 3
Barricade: Can we buy out your neighbors? Then we wouldn't have this problem.
Miles: i suddenly have to go work bye

He ended the conversation feeling slightly more reassured. Neither seemed angry at him or upset over something else. Ravage had even sent a heart emoji. How bad could it be?

When Miles got home that night, Flatline was nowhere to be found. Only Barricade and Ravage were in the backyard; Barricade sat on the grass in what Miles had come to think of as his standy mode and Ravage lying next to him.

"Thought you were having a sleepover?" Miles asked as he wandered over.

Barricade's gaze immediately went to Ravage, so Miles turned to her for his answer. Ravage stood up with a slow stretch and then walked the two feet over to him and used her tail to grab his phone out of his back pocket. In no time at all she was connected and able to speak.

She looked up at Miles, "We invited Flatline here because I was in need of some additional repairs and he is quite skilled. You did excellent work on me for someone who knows nothing of my kind, but to be able to transform once more I need my limb back. I sent Flatline away for the night so we could talk."

"Transform?" Miles blinked down at her, "You could look like a car?"

"No, I can become smaller than this." Ravage gave him an amused look, "About the size of a house cat."

"How does that work? Where does the rest of you go?" Miles frowned, "Actually, now that we're on this topic, how does the transforming work at all? Like, Barricade, you have actual seats inside of your car mode, where the fuck do they go when you're in your standy mode?"

Ravage and Barricade shared an amused look, and then Ravage seemed to remember herself and that she still wanted to pretend to dislike Barricade so she turned her helm away with a small huff.

"I'm going to answer some of the questions I imagine you've had for a while now," Ravage said, ignoring the question he had just asked completely. "And during this you can ask as many questions as you want and either I or Barricade will do our best to answer you."

"Shit," Miles couldn't help but say. "This is actually a serious talk, isn't it? What's brought this on, Rav?"

"It's about our impact on humans."

That wasn't a good sentence. Miles' stomach sank as he looked at Barricade, who was very obviously not looking anywhere near him on purpose. Ravage had only just landed on Earth when she and Miles had met, which meant that she hadn't had any time to actually be part of what the other Decepticons had been doing.

But that wasn't true when it came to Barricade.

"I need a beer," Miles realized.

Ravage ignored him, "I decided we should have this conversation now for a few reasons. The biggest one is that I have come to care for you more than I anticipated, and I believe that will only continue. It will hurt less to leave now than it will to leave later. I would have kept this from you entirely if I could, but Barricade's arrival was a rude awakening on that front. I was just lucky that Barricade assumed I had already told you such things, otherwise he might have said something before I corrected him of that notion."

Ravage went on, "And it is better that I tell you than Barricade. He would pretty things up for you to spare your feelings in an attempt to keep you from hating us. I realized you deserve to be able to make an informed decision, even if it ultimately ends up separating us."

And then Ravage explained how two warring alien factions ended up on Earth. How the Allspark came first, and Megatron came second. Both were found by humans, and Megatron was eventually moved to the Allspark's location. He was tested on and so was the Allspark.

The Decepticons and Autobots knew both were on Earth, but not where, and so a few Decepticons attacked a U.S. base in Qatar in an attempt to hack into the database for information. It was found out that the descendant of the human who found Megatron had an item that showed the location of the Allspark, and so they were targeted. This eventually led to both the Autobots and the Decepticons finding the location of the Allspark, and the Allspark being run through Mission City to keep it away from the Decepticons.

Suddenly the weirdness around Mission City when he was younger made a lot more sense. It had been a government coverup to keep everything quiet about alien robots on Earth. It was the longest he'd ever heard Ravage speak for, and the longest Barricade had gone without piping up. Barricade didn't even say anything when Ravage mentioned him chasing an actual teenager down in a desperate bid to get the information about the Allspark.

Ravage had mentioned once in an offhand way that human tech was reverse engineered from one of them, but Miles had never thought about what that meant. He hadn't realized it meant that some of them had kept one of them trapped for countless years just to experiment on them.

"I… I don't know how to feel," Miles said, and it was true. He wasn't sure what he should be feeling.

He knew he should probably be horrified at the revelation that humans had been killed because of these aliens, but part of him had already known. When he'd learned Ravage's name, Miles had gone through this weird bit of hyper-awareness; he had seen her sharp claws and teeth and the sheer strength in her frame and he had known that it would have been easy for her to kill a human. Then when Barricade had shown up Miles had looked at his cop car form and then his standy form with the even sharper claws and teeth and that awareness had crept back up. Part of him had known all along that humans had probably died because of these things, and he had willingly chosen not to think too hard about it.

But Ravage hadn't done a thing to hurt the human who had hit her with his truck, and she had never done anything to hurt Miles.

Miles looked at Barricade, "Did you ever kill a human?"

"Yes," Barricade admitted. "They were attempting to kill me and I protected myself."

He had no idea if it was wise of him to believe Barricade, but he did. Barricade had shown up under the impression that Ravage was being held against her will and yet he hadn't immediately attacked Miles. That didn't seem like someone who would kill just for the hell of it to him.

"I…" Miles hesitated as he thought of how he wanted to phrase part of what he was thinking. "I can't say that what any of you did was wrong. I wasn't there, and I'm not a part of this war that you've lived through for thousands and thousands of years. I can't imagine the desperation you must have felt to have this thing you've fought so hard for just out of reach. I guess my only real question is if there's any sort of plan from here on out for the Decepticons?"

Barricade shook his helm, "No, we've just been lying low. The Allspark was destroyed and the U.S. government sided with the Autobots quite clearly."

"Many of us won't give up the war," Ravage gave Barricade a pointed look. "Perhaps it is down to refusing to accept reality or because this has been going on so long that some of us are unable to trust each other, but I know many on both sides will try to continue to kill each other. The 'cons are lying low now due to a lack of proper leadership and being outnumbered and outgunned, but Barricade has told me that there are a few that would like to kill the humans for what they did to Megatron and how they lost us the war." Ravage returned her gaze to Miles, "That is another reason I wanted to tell you all of this, because I wanted to make sure that you didn't blindly trust any of our kind who comes to you unless Barricade and I say it's alright. We invited Flatline of our own accord, but I have no way of knowing for sure that the next mech that shows up will be invited or not. Not all of my kind are people you should trust and allow around you, even if they are of the same faction."

"How likely is something like that to happen?" Miles asked, "I mean… you guys are pretty safe here, right? The Autobots will leave you alone?"

"You actually want us to stay?" Barricade stared at him in disbelief. "Even after hearing all of that?"

Miles rubbed at the back of his neck with his right hand, "I'm not thrilled to know for a fact humans died because of your war, but… I'd honestly kind of assumed already. I'm not saying it's alright that it happened, and I might mind it more if I didn't already care about the two of you, but I also don't think either of you are about to go out and start killing humans for fun. I don't get the impression that either of you really want to fight anymore. And… we're family, right? I just… have a few more questions I'd liked answered."

"Of course," Ravage and Barricade said at the same time.