Arcee POV

When Elita and I emerged from our recharge, Chromia sent us a comm signal containing what she had witnessed last night. Fortunately, Autumn was still in a state of recharge, but how long she would remain that way was anyone's guess.

For myself? I could understand Autumn's actions. By Cybertronian standards she was a mere sparkling; by human standards she was still a child, and by either set of standards she had been mentally broken. It was perfectly natural for Autumn to crave her mother's presence, care, love, support and help.

Mikaela stretched with a soft groan before she sat up. She blinked a few times before looking over at Autumn with a slight smile on her face. Then she slowly got to her feet.

"Back in a minute." She told us before moving off into the woods.

She returned a short time later, although it was longer than the 'minute' she had stated. She went straight to her ice chest and got out a package of those sausages she'd eaten last night. She moved over to the coals of the fire and held her hand above them for a few seconds before she smiled and got the rods to roast them on. While those were roasting, she got out a pack of tortillas and I looked at her curiously.

"Sausage wraps." She said by way of explanation. "Not the best breakfast in the world, but it's a whole lot better than nothing."

"Could you not have brought something better?" Chromia asked.

"Sure. But then I'd have needed a couple of ice chests and I wasn't going to take that long to get ready to go." Mikaela answered.

"So now what do we do?" Elita asked interestedly.

"Well, we take our time waking up, spend a few more hours together and then we go back. It's not like we have to hurry is it?" Mikaela said with a shrug of her shoulders.

"Well, there are certainly no pressing issues that need to be resolved by us, because the others can readily handle things by themselves. So, no, we don't need to return immediately." I answered.

"That means we can stay right here, spend some more time talking until we are ready to leave." Mikaela retorted smugly.

"Sounds good to me! I like it here. This is where I was when I got Ravage." Autumn said as she sat up.

"You really like that giant panther, don't you?" Mikaela asked.

Autumn nodded her head. "She's one of the best things in my life." She said as she reached toward the Cybercat who had raised up to look at her.

Chromia POV

I felt my spark clench in my chest when Autumn said that. I knew Ravage to be absolutely ruthless in battle, because she had killed quite a few of my fellow Autobots. For Autumn to honestly claim that Ravage is one of the best things in her life was not a comforting thought. That alone told me that Autumn's life hadn't been pleasant at all. I knew all about the confession from her Sire, but still, there should have been something about Autumn's life so far that hadn't been cause for a nightmare. Ravage was a different story though. That Cybercat was known to be extremely dangerous and deadly in battle, but right here in front of me, Autumn was pulling that Cybercat into her lap with no hesitation. It was actually very disturbing.

Mikaela took one of the sausages and made a wrap with it before she pulled a Caramel Frappaccino out of the ice chest and shook it vigorously.

"You brought a Starbuck's?" Autumn practically shouted.

"Of course I did! I needed something with caffeine in it." Mikaela said defensively.

"Now I'm really jealous!" Autumn complained sourly. "I was able to get one of those once and I loved it, but now I can't drink those anymore."

"I'd be happy to give you one if you could." Mikaela replied.

"You… you'd really give me one?" Autumn asked in a surprised tone.

"Sure! You're my friend Autumn! Back in school you never started anything! The problem was people wouldn't leave you alone. The one time I got to actually talk with you while you were still human was here on this island. I was really surprised, because you were nice to talk to. In spite of the reputation you had at school, you weren't rude or snotty and you didn't try to pick a fight. I had a nice time talking with you, so yeah, I'd share my coffee with you, no problem. That's all part of being a friend Autumn." Mikaela said casually.

"I'm not sure that you'll be able to drink one of those now that you're a bot Autumn. I'm not taking the chance that it'll mess up your systems. I can get Ratchet to examine the drink along with your systems to find out if you can still consume it or not, but until then, the answer is no." I told her sternly but in a nice way. I didn't want her to start crying over a part of her life that was now gone.

"What do you think Ratchet will say?" Autumn asked almost sadly.

"I don't know Autumn. That will depend entirely on your systems." I answered truthfully.

"Looks like you'll have to wait until we go back to find out the answer to that Autumn. I must admit, that I'm now curious as well." Elita said lightly.

"I can do that." Autumn said with a nod of her head.

I could hear the reluctant hope in Autumn's voice as she answered Elita. It was at once clear that Autumn really had enjoyed the one time she had tried that drink. For her sake I hoped that she would somehow be able to enjoy them, but I doubted it. Our fueling systems just aren't suited for such things.

Autumn used the sheet pan that Mikaela had brought to heat up some more mineral wafers. As she ate those and drank a cube of heated energon, she made a face that told and unpleasant story.

"What's wrong?" Mikaela asked.

"This… this isn't what I'm used to having for breakfast." Autumn answered.

"Usually just an apple or something like that if I can get it without my father catching me." Autumn answered honestly.

The more I learned about Autumn's past, the angrier I got at her sire! That miserably rotten slagger had no business being around a sparkling of any species! That she'd needed to sneak past that abomination in order to get sustenance proves just how unsuitable he was. As far as I was concerned, there was no place in the pit that was fitting for him! The fact that he was already dead only made it impossible for me to deal with him myself.

"Well, you won't have to snatch anything to eat ever again! If someone tries to tell you that you can't have some energon or something, you tell me! If I can't beat some sense into their hard head, I have some friends who can!" Mikaela said quickly.

"You may count me among them!" Elita snapped.

"I as well!" Arcee agreed.

"Same here! Now, out of curiosity, who are these friends that would help you in such a way?" I asked.

"Optimus, Ratchet, Bee, Jazz, and Hide!" Mikaela replied smugly. "I met them just before the fight in Mission City, and they're pretty good friends of mine."

Elita POV

We talked while Mikaela ate her breakfast and we drank our morning energon. I learned a few things about Autumn during our conversation. One of the things I learned is that she is frightened by several of the bots. Even though she has a Guardian Bond with him, Prowl terrifies her because he hardly ever smiles or even frowns. That gives her no visual clue as to his emotions. Chromia told her to use her Bond with him! That way she can feel what he's feeling. Ratchet scares her because he always seems angry about something. Optimus frightens her because of his size and because he is in a position of authority. It seems that she's afraid of all authority figures because of her past. The three of us agreed over our comm system to keep quiet about our own positions because we didn't want Autumn to become frightened of us. Ironhide scares her because of his size and because of her experience with him during her first training session, but she's willing to give him a chance because of yesterday morning. Mirage also scares her because of how badly he damaged her without even receiving any visible scuffs even though she did her best.

Autumn did admit though, that Optimus has never actually done anything to her that she knows of. What she does know is that he is the one who told her that she no longer had a sparkbond with Bluestreak, and that alone, hurt her deeply. It was when Autumn mentioned her fear of Optimus that Mikaela spoke up.

"You really shouldn't be scared of Optimus, you know?" Mikaela said in a half amused tone.

"Why not? He's big enough to rip me in half with one servo!" Autumn retorted nervously.

Mikaela seemed to think about that for a moment, before she got up and walked over to climb in Autumn's lap.

"You know Autumn, Optimus can't help being as big as he is. Yeah, he's a lot bigger than you are." Mikaela said wryly.

"But then, you're a lot bigger than me." Mikaela continued.

"Just because you're bigger than I am, doesn't mean I need to be scared of you. Why should I be? I spent several hours in your lap last night, I'm in your lap right now, and I even got to drive yesterday. That was a lot of fun too! If you wanted to, all you'd have to do is grab me in one hand and squeeze. I'd be dead. That's all there is to it. I've been in Optimus' hand a few times. He wouldn't have any problem turning me into a gooey mess. He could do it so fast that I'd never get the chance to scream. He could do that to me, but I know he won't. He's not mean Autumn. He can't help being a lot bigger than both of us put together, just like you can't help being bigger than me and Ravage put together. All you have to do is talk to him. He's one of the nicest people I know. He won't crack you up all the time like Jazz does, and he's not as cheerful as Bee. He's a calm even tempered kind of guy, and it really takes a lot to get him mad. He hates to fight, but he will if he has no other choice." Mikaela said kindly.

"Autumn… do you know what Optimus used to do?" I asked her.

Autumn shook her head nervously. And although it saddened me to see her almost constant fear, I knew that we were all trying to help her, and this little talk could go a long way in doing that. If Autumn were to overcome her fear of Optimus, then she would have an excellent means of conquering her other fears.

"Before he became Prime which is the leader and ruler of all Cybertronians, his name was Orion Pax. He was what you would call a librarian. He still loves to study and learn new things. That's one of the things he truly enjoys about this world. There is so much for him to learn about it. Sometimes, I think he wants to learn everything so he can find out what he doesn't know and learn that too!" I told her honestly.

"Yeah Autumn, you heard right. Optimus is a giant nerd!" Mikaela said with a laugh.

"You… you're putting me on." Autumn protested.

"Nope! Seriously… just ask him. He'd probably admit it!" Mikaela shot back.

Autumn sat there in silence and I was pretty sure that she was thinking things over. Mikaela left Autumn's lap to go over and grab two more sausage wraps and another Starbuck's before returning to sit on Autumn's leg.

"What do you think Ravage?" Mikaela asked turning to look at the Cybercat also in Autumn's lap. "Can you think of any reason for Autumn to be scared of Optimus?"

I saw Autumn look down at Ravage with interest. Mikaela actually surprised me by asking that question. No one that I know of has tried to get that Cybercat's opinion on things.

Ravage gave a loud huff before shaking her head and Mikaela started laughing.

"See Autumn? Even Ravage knows you have nothing to worry about."

Mikaela POV

Autumn was being pretty quiet when we rolled to a stop inside the main hangar. Optimus was talking to Ironhide and Prowl about something or other. I got out of Autumn's driver side, while she opened the passenger door to let Ravage out. I looked over at the giant metal panther and something just seemed to… click when she looked back at me.

I could hear all four femmes transform as I walked over to Optimus. The three bots seemed to have finished talking about what they were discussing and Optimus knelt down to talk to me when I walked up to him. When he lowered his left hand, I climbed on and waited as he stood up. Then I started feeling a tad mischievous for some reason. I silently motioned for him to bring me closer to his face, when he did I popped him in the right eye with my cast!

Optimus immediately slapped his right hand over his eye and glared at me.

"Why would you do that to me?" He asked with a tone that said he couldn't believe I had done that.

That was when I heard the sound of metal hitting metal and looked down to see Ravage hitting Optimus with her tail.

"Stop that!" Optimus ordered irritably.

Optimus was still holding his right eye, so I bopped him on his nose pretty hard. By this time, Ravage had hit Optimus on his ankles a good half dozen times.

"Why are you two attacking me?" Optimus asked with a one eyed glower.

"To prove a point." I answered with a grin.

"What 'point' could that be?" Optimus asked me very doubtfully.

I could tell from the tone of his voice that he didn't believe that I could have a point, but I did and Ravage had helped make that point perfectly!

"That you aren't mean." I answered smugly.

"Whether I am or am not 'mean' is not the issue. The issue here is that you have hit me twice when I have done nothing to deserve it." Optimus replied sourly.

I couldn't help but start laughing. "Optimus my friend, if you were mean, you would have already crushed me like a bug! Instead, you're trying to find out why I hit you. That's how you are… talk first and fight only when you have to… and you just proved it!" I told him.

"Proved it to whom?" Optimus asked me and I could tell from his tone that he was really interested in the answer.

"You just proved it to Autumn." I said as I turned to look at her.

Autumn was just standing there with a look of shocked terror on her gaping face. It was real easy to see that she thought something horrible was about to happen, but I knew differently. Yeah, he's very big and pretty strong too, but I know there isn't a single malicious bolt in his metal body.

"You also proved that you're just a great big nerd too!" I said with a snicker as I looked back at him.

"A nerd?"

"Yeah, you know… a geek!" I replied.

"I don't think I can be either a nerd or a geek as you say, since the stereotypes of both require them to wear glasses, and that is something I don't have." Optimus said seriously as he took his hand away from his eye. "Although, I think those would have been useful a minute ago."

I couldn't help but laugh while I turned back to look at Autumn again. "See Autumn? He's not someone to be scared of at all. If he didn't hurt me for hitting him in the eye and on the nose, and he didn't hurt Ravage for hitting him, then he won't hurt you either."