A/N: So this one took longer to get out cause I'm working again! Hooray! No more unemployment! Just means I'm sorting out how non-work things are gonna go from here and such. Still in the process of learning the job itself as well. And letting the mental health settle and job security settle in. You know, normal new job after a bunch of trauma shit.

Review Responses:

HydrArecus: I sure hope so!

Anyways! Hope ya'll enjoy this chapter!

Chapter 4: Recovery

The weeks following the Decepticons forcing us to leave the Jasper base passed in a blur as far as I was concerned. It was hard to keep track of days when you weren't super involved with anything besides people watching. The bots and humans made conversation with me as their schedules allowed, though I was awkward with much of it and was still hesitant to open up to anyone beyond surface level stuff.

I was grateful when Ratchet finally gave me permission to start moving around, carefully. Even more grateful than when we had been supplied proper bot-sized beds so we could stop sleeping on the ground, albeit we were still all in the one tent thus far.

"Remember, don't go too far," Ratchet said. "Just a short walk around the immediate area around the tent."

"I hear you, Ratchet," I said, accepting his help to get to my pedes. Despite my eagerness to move, I was still grateful that he didn't let me go until we were both sure I wasn't about to collapse.

"Sir! Wait! You're not supposed to go in there!" a voice called both our attention to the small entry flap for humans that were allowed in the bot area.

"You can't tell me where I can and can't go, I answer to the president," a man said as he barged into the tent—stormed in, more like.

"Oh," I said, tone clearly disgruntled by the appearance of the man. "Him." I watched as the man stormed through the tent toward where Optimus was discussing something with Agent Fowler, a soldier hot on his tail, trying to tell him he needed to wait somewhere else.

"Who?" Ratchet asked.

"Galloway," I said dryly, watching as the man started yelling at Fowler about unnecessary troop movements and then cutting him off when he tried to speak. "I do not envy Optimus having to deal with him." My wings shifted slightly. "And yet, I wonder if my experience of having been both human and Cybertronian might help smooth negotiations."

"I wouldn't suggest stepping into this one," Ratchet said. "You should talk with Optimus before inserting yourself into such scenes."

I nodded in understanding. Given Galloway was yelling about military stuff, it wouldn't be my area of expertise anyhow. Then, I made for the front of the tent, carefully watching the growing argument between Liaison and Director as Optimus tried to calm them. I managed to slip out without somehow being dragged into it, thankfully, and took in the fresh sea air.

"Hey! It's the bird bot!" Miko's voice reached my audials.

"Bird bot?" I asked as she ran to join me as I started walking.

"I might have forgot your name, whoops," Miko said and I chuckled.

"Shadebreaker," I supplied. "I'm surprised you're not hanging with Bulkhead."

"He's off base right now," Miko said.

"Ah," I said, realizing he must've left either midnight or early morning, since he'd been here last night. Either on a ship or a carrier plane since we didn't have an operational ground bridge. Which meant he wouldn't be back for some time. Ratchet had begun the process of building a new bridge, but it was mostly in the stage of negotiations for supplies.

"Sooo," She said. "You're finally up and at 'em!"

"Somewhat," I said. "Ratchet said just a short walk around the area is alright. But it is nice being able to move again, finally. I was going rather stir crazy."

"I bet! I'm going stir crazy and I'm not even bedridden!" Miko said.

I chuckled. "What? Island exploration not doing it for ya?" I asked.

"It's better with Bulkhead," Miko said. "And without helicopter mom." She motioned toward the human medical tent.

"Ah," I said. "Go easy on Jack's mom. She worries. For good reason. Being a single parent will do that to a woman. She'll calm down as she gets to know us bots, I'm sure."

"What makes you so sure?" Miko asked.

"I think I have somewhere to speak from, as the daughter of a single mom," I said, glancing down at her.

"Oohh, so you bots are born, eh?" Miko asked, running to catch up after having stopped for a moment.

"Hmm," I hummed, neither confirming nor denying her statement. I had no concrete answer myself.

"Anyway, you got some pretty cool wings! Can you fly? How fast? Does it help you lay on the beat down on the Decepticons?" Miko asked.

I raised an optic ridge at her. "I cannot answer those questions as of yet," I replied honestly. "Though I'm sure flight will give me some advantage over any non-flying opponents."

"What? How can you not know? Oh! Is it classified? Would you have to kill me if you told me?" Miko asked, tone one of teasing.

"What?" I asked, taken aback by that. "No, I mean…I don't think so? Look, can we not talk about it? It's not a pleasant subject for me to explain exactly why I don't know. That's all."

Miko looked up at me for a moment in consideration. "Ok," she said after a moment. "Do you like rock music?"

I almost chuckled at the abrupt subject change. "Depends," I said. "If you're talking screamo, then no, but general rock, then yes. And some screamo can be present in a song as long as I know what is being said. I like most music, but understandability is important in whether I like it or not. And subject matter."

"That's fair," Miko said. "We should totally hang out some time and rock out then."

"I mean, we could now," I told her. "Well, I can't dance or anything, but we could listen to music and chill out. It's not like my frame can handle training or missions or anything."

"Sweet! We can determine what kind of music we both like!" Miko said, hopping a little bit and then pulling out a phone. I noticed it looked different from the one she sported in the show. "Let's see…" she swiped a few times on her phone. "..here we go!"

Music started coming from her phone and we spent the next twenty minutes just walking and going through some songs to identify ones we mutually liked so she could make a playlist for Miko-Shadebreaker hangout sessions. Not all of it stuck within the same genre, as I actually was able to introduce her to some music I was familiar with that she ended up liking well enough.

"Well," I said as we came back to the tent where the Autobots were staying. "I need to return to my rest. My frame, it seems, is not yet ready for a lot of activity. But we will hang out again sometime."

"Yeah we will!" Miko said excitedly.

I gave her a wave and then stepped back into the tent. I glanced over to see that Optimus and Fowler were still discussing something with Galloway and I made a face. I moved back toward the area we had designated as temporary medbay—the immediate area around where Optimus had first settled me. The tank had long been removed, replaced by a makeshift counter, and we had a couple beds within it. It wasn't fully equipped yet, but it was at least getting there.

"Just in time before I started comming you," Ratchet said.

"I'm pretty intune with how my frame is handling things, then," I said, halfway grinning. "Which is good. I wondered how well I would be able to tell, all things considered. It probably helps that I had to be aware of how my body was handling life before as well. Lots of practice." I climbed carefully onto my designated bed, laying down on my stomach and sighing. "And I didn't go far. Miko and I basically just walked around all the tents the humans are using for their temporary quarters once. Which is, like, once around the block for us, I reckon."

"About," Ratchet said, raising an optic ridge as he ran his scanner over me.

"It'll be nice when I can go further and I can go to one of the beaches," I said. "Assuming any of them are within the shielding."

"There are three beaches I've been told are within the shielding," Ratchet said. "One has already been designated as bot-only, so we have a place to go relax away from the humans if we need. Once you are healthy enough, I'm sure one of us can take you to see it."

"You been yet?" I asked.

Ratchet shook his helm as he moved toward the makeshift counter. "There's too much to do," he said, picking up one of the remaining cubes from Vector. "Between dealing with supply requests, your healthcare, the others…I don't have time for a beach trip."

"Don't forget to take care of your health, too, Ratchet," I told him as I shifted to sit up as he brought me the cube and passed it to me. "That includes your mental health." I looked at him. "Trust me. You cannot take care of us, if you do not take care of you. I'm surprised you don't know that."

"I know that, of course I know that," Ratchet said.

I stared at him, raising my optics ridges at him in disbelief.

Ratchet scoffed at me, shaking his helm. "Fine," he said. "I'll go to the beach after sending the latest request forms."

"Good," I said. "And if you don't like it, you don't have to go again. But you gotta relax, too."

"Who's the doctor here, again?" Ratchet asked.

"I only pester cause someone's gotta pester you," I said, grinning. "And we both know no one else besides Optimus has the guts to do so. And he's busy. I'm sharing information cause I want you all to live. Won't do any good if you work yourself to death, will it?"

"You care an awful lot for a femme that keeps us all at arm's length," Ratchet observed.

I sipped my energon to buy time to think of a response. "I care a great deal," I said quietly, looking at the ground. "It's just hard to let people close when you don't know if you might lose everything again. It feels like every time I turn around….I'm losing. So…what's the point? The best I can do is help however I can. I just am not convinced I'm here for good, that I won't wake up one day to you all giving me the boot or life just being like 'you're going somewhere else now, thanks, bye'. I finally had some sense of stability, some sense that I belonged where I was, and then suddenly I was ripped from it and lost literally everything, even my humanity. So forgive me if I keep everyone at a distance."

I glanced up at Ratchet then and saw his expression had softened a great deal and he looked kinda sad. I looked away again, back at the spot in the grass on the floor of the tent I'd been staring at the whole time I spoke and took a drink of my energon. My wings shifted as I sensed Optimus's presence getting closer.

"You don't need to worry about us sending you away," Ratchet told me gently. "We would never do that."

"Even if I didn't have any more information? Even if I didn't have any to begin with?" I asked, feeling rather insecure about it.

Optimus's hand landed on my shoulder then. "Even then," he said. "While your information is valuable, your life is much more so. We would never turn you away."

"Unless you betrayed us," Ratchet said. "And I don't get the impression you are the type to do that."

I almost teared up, but I managed not to. I don't know why I felt the need to keep myself from it, but I did anyways. Probably the trauma. "Thank you," I said quietly.

"As for if life will take you away, we can't predict that," Ratchet said. "But if you spend so much time worrying about what life may take away, you'll miss out on what it has given you in the now."

"That sounds very Optimus of you," I said, glancing slightly up at Optimus and the big bot glanced back at me, a sparkle in his optics.

"Pretty sure he said it to me once," Ratchet said dryly.

"Ah," I said, slightly amused. My wings shifted a little as I looked back at the medic. "That explains why those words sound very wisdom-y."

"Are you implying I can't sound wisdom-y without quoting Optimus?" Ratchet asked, putting his hands on his hips. I couldn't quite tell if he was offended or amused.

"Not at all," I said, grinning as I heard the sound of Optimus sliding his battle-mask into place. I was amusing the great Autobot leader, at least. That was a win in my book.

Ratchet gave me a look of annoyed doubt.

"No, really," I said, grinning. "Actually, one of my all time favorite quotes is from you."

"Oh really?" Ratchet asked, crossing his arms. "And what's that?"

"In a contest between resources and ingenuity, never underestimate ingenuity," I quoted one of his lines from the Aligned continuity books.

"I don't know if I recall…" Ratchet said, looking thoughtful.

"I remember," Optimus said, battlemask sliding away once more to reveal a small smile. "It was shortly before we left Cybertron, after you repaired Omega Supreme."

"Ah, right, I remember now," Ratchet said. "Right after Ultra Magnus volunteered to stay on Cybertron to fight the Decepticons who remained there."

I was looking between them, absorbing this information in and comparing it to what I knew. "Hm," I hummed thoughtfully.

"Some of this contradicting anything?" Ratchet asked.

I shrugged. "Not really?" I said. "Magnus shows up sometime in the show, but it never directly contradicts how he stays on Cybertron in the books or your story. It says he follows a large Cybertronian signature to Earth, never really explaining why he left Cybertron—if the signal prompted it or if it came after. There are some contradictions in the show from the books—such as your knowledge of Dark Energon—so I'm mostly taking notes on what is accurate and what is not. Not to mention, the vast array other continuities and the fact there could be differences I don't know about. The information hoarder in me is just logging the information is all."

Ratchet chuckled. "You could've been an archivist, it sounds like. Back in the old days."

"Possibly," I said. "Though I see me ending up a lot like Optimus did. Dissatisfied and curious about what else there was. Can't hoard all the information stuck in a small section of the planet."

Ratchet shook his helm at me, chuckling slightly. He likely remembered those days of a young Orion Pax well, if the show was to be believed about him knowing Optimus since before the war. The books weren't clear on that, just that he knew Jazz since before then. It would make sense, though. Even Data Clerks would need a medic at some point.

"Hey you laugh, but my information hoarding tendencies is why I have so much information to share with you guys," I said, half-way grinning. I was ignoring the pang of guilt in my spark that it was also why the Decepticons had at least some of that same information and we had no way of knowing just how much. "It-" I stopped as the feelings of guilt hit me harder than I could ignore with the other emotions I was constantly dealing with. I almost wished I didn't have any of it, but then I would be useless to the bots. My wings made a motion as if trying to shoo off the feeling, but it didn't help.

Optimus's hand on my shoulder became a firmer grip. "We appreciate your knowledge," he said. "But remember, it is not the only value you bring."

"Is it not?" I asked, thankful for a refocus. I assumed he knew what I'd been thinking thanks to the Matrix. "I can't fight, not properly anyway, it's been too long since I've any practice, I can't even learn how to yet in my current state. We don't have littles around for me to babysit, except maybe the human children, in the event their assigned guardians are all needed for missions. I'm not a medic like Ratchet. Without my information, at the moment, I don't have anything else to give."

"You have your company," Ratchet said. "You just have to let yourself open up to everybot. Like you have to us now."

I raised my optic ridges at him. "What? Like, walk up to Arcee and be like 'I'm afraid I'm going to lose you tomorrow, so gimme a hug!'?" I asked sarcastically.

Ratchet snorted a little. "Clearly not," he said. "You don't have to spill your guts out to everybot. I'm just saying you could stop keeping everybot at arm's length. You let us in a little bit today. That's progress. Don't lose it, is all I'm saying."

I looked down, considering that for a moment. "I don't think my company is really worth that much, Ratchet," I said softly, quietly. I glanced up at Optimus. "But I will consider…trying to allow myself to make genuine friends again. It won't be easy. I have a lot of scars, recent events aside even. But you are both right. If I am too busy being afraid of the past repeating itself, I may watch my whole life go by sitting alone when I don't need to….nor do I want to. I've been alone before. It is a darkness I don't really want to feel again."

"I'm glad to hear it," Optimus said.

Starscream was not particularly happy to be walking through the halls of the Harbinger. He had kept the ship's locations out of the logs of the Decepticon warship in hopes to use it to his advantage at a later date, but Shockwave's data burst had blown those plans out of the water. How this strange bot—apparently it had been a bot—Shockwave had…interrogated? Mind-scanned? Whatever he had done to get the information from them. How this strange bot had even known about the Harbinger was beyond Starscream. The bot had known a great many things, it seemed, for which Starscream could think of no logical explanation for.

"I seriously doubt we're gonna find anything, Master," Starscream said, picking some dust out of his chassis. "I searched this hunk of junk thoroughly when we first arrived on this Primus forsaken planet and found nothing of use."

"Did you now, Starscream?" Megatron asked as they stopped at the entrance to the storage room mentioned in the data burst from Shockwave. He glanced at Starscream with a raised optic ridge and then casually hit the button to open it.

Starscream peered around the massive mech to see several containers within the storage room. He glanced back at Megatron only for the Decepticon leader to motion him to enter first. Chuckling nervously, Starscream did so, looking around the room as he entered. The containers were all labeled for weapons and ammunition.

"If you searched the ship so thoroughly, Starscream," Megatron said, entering behind him, looming over the Seeker. "Then why are there so many weapons left behind?!"

Starscream cowered, wings lowering in fear as he scrambled for some space between them, but for every step he took it seemed like Megatron closed the distance by twice as much until he was basically on top of him. "A-a m-minor o-oversight, m-my lord," he said. "You know, w-with you gone we all had to a-assume additional responsibilities. This r-room must've s-slipped through the c-cracks. T-that's all."

Megatron snarled. "Do I need to remind you of the consequences of crossing me, Starscream?"

"N-no! No, my Lord!" Starscream said, holding his arms up to shield himself. "I meant no disrespect! I swear!"

Megatron growled lowly. Then, much to Starscream's relief, he moved away toward one of the crates toward the back of the room.

Starscream took a moment to mostly collect himself before following cautiously behind his master. He peered around him as the Decepticon leader tore the top off the crate to reveal its contents. The giant mech reached into it and pulled out what appeared at first to be a staff with prongs on one end and a section about midway down the shaft looked to be controls of some kind.

"Is that…?" Starscream asked, trailing off. He had not realized such a weapon was sitting in this ship.

"The Immobilizer," Megatron said. "Captured from the Autobot Wheeljack during the Battle of Tyger Pax. Now, it will help us defeat the Autobots here on Earth and rid us of Optimus Prime once and for all!"

Starscream's wings shifted slightly as he considered the weapon in Megatron's hand.

.:No signs of 'Cons so far over here,:. Bulkhead reported over the comms as he sat in the parking lot of the museum they'd been sent to.

Bumblebee sent a message burst confirming the same on his side.

.:All quiet here as well,:. Arcee said. .:How's it going in there, Will?:.

.:Just waiting for the go ahead from our hacker,:. Major Lennox replied.

Arcee shifted slightly on her wheels impatiently, doing another scan with her sensors on high alert for Decepticon activity. She was a bit on edge. This was their second mission based upon Shadebreaker's information and while they had already confirmed its validity, it was the first mission they were working with humans on in their entire tenure on Earth.

It made Arcee a little antsy. Shadebreaker had mentioned it worked out in other realities, but she was still doubtful of the wisdom of going along with it. She was sure if it weren't for the fact they were needed for the extraction of the Energon Harvester from the museum, Optimus would not have been so easily convinced. Even Shadebreaker herself had suggested some drills and training before putting it into practice on the regular, despite being the most chill with the idea. The femme seemed to have some faith in this Major Lennox, however, deferring to him easily when the human had chimed in about how his men had been training for years already to encounter Cybertronians.

.:Moving in now,:. Major Lennox reported.

.:Acknowledged,:. Arcee replied. .:Still quiet out here. Bulkhead? Bumblebee?:.

The others reported back the same and Arcee gave a quiet hum of consideration. It was quite possible the Decepticons were too busy chasing a different strand of information to bother with this one, but Arcee found it highly unlikely. The Energon Harvester seemed like too useful an artifact for the Decepticons to just let go of. It wasn't like Megatron to just give them a win. And if they did pass it up for something else, that meant something else they found in her information was just too much more useful to pass up and that was a worrisome thought. Arcee knew there were more artifacts that Shadebreaker was sorting out the exact locations of and the Decepticons potentially had all of it at their fingertips.

As if summoned by her concerns, her sensors suddenly pinged at the same time two vehicles pulled into the dark parking lot. She shifted her rear view mirrors to get a good read on them as they approached. A red sports car and an armored van slowed to a stop not far behind her.

.:I got two 'Cons closing in,:. Arcee reported.

.:Copy that,:. Bulkhead replied as the red car pulled up next to Arcee.

The Decepticon whistled. "Nice rims, sleek design," he said. "Bet I could take you in a race sometime. Too bad I gotta take you out here."

"In your dreams, 'Con!" Arcee said.

The two of them transformed simultaneously and she dodged an attack from an energon prod before deploying her arm blades and making a play to slice his face. He blocked the blow with his prod, however, grinning as his partner ran toward them from behind her.

His partner didn't have a chance to attack her, however, as Bulkhead came barreling into him and the two large bots went rolling through the parking lot.

Arcee smirked and then pushed against her opponent's weapon, pushing him back. Now that she had a good look at him, she recognized him as Knock-Out, one of the Decepticon's medics known more for his penchant to take things apart than to put them together.

"Arcee, such a lovely face to spend an evening with," Knock-Out said, motioning with a hand. "Is now a good time to ask for your time over a cube of enegon some time?"

"Sorry," Arcee said as they circled each other. "You're not my type."

They came together in a clash again, sparks coming from where their weapons made contact. Knock-Out shoved her and then grabbed her by the helm with one hand to keep her off balance before shoving the business end of his energon prod into her stomach.

Arcee convulsed before he let her fall to the ground, laughing.

"Like taking candy from a sparkling," he said.

Before he had time to shift his attention to helping Breakdown with Bulkhead, a weight rammed into him from behind. He let out a shout of surprise as he dropped his weapon and shifted to try to pry a yellow bot off his midsection.

"Insolent pest! Watch the paint job!" Knock-Out cried.

Bumblebee whirled and clicked a response the Decepticon medic couldn't understand and pushed harder. Knock-Out growled and flexed his digits before viciously scratching at the Praxian's doorwings. Bumblebee let out a cry before heaving the Decepticon with all his might, lifting the medic up and swinging him away from where Arcee was now laying prone on the ground.

Bumblebee let him go to stumble away a step before delivering a solid punch right to the jaw and following up with an uppercut before he could recover. Knock-Out managed to block the next blow and backhanded Bumblebee hard enough to cause the scout to stumble a couple steps himself.

They traded several more blows before fire was suddenly peppering the Decepticon. Letting out a sound of annoyance at the sting of bullets, Knock-Out growled, looking toward the source.

"Humans?" He asked.

Before he could question the Autobots sudden partnership with such a weak species, Bumblebee started in on a series of blows taking advantage of his distraction. The humans ceased fire, not wanting to hit Bumblebee despite the fact their weapons didn't appear to have much effect on the Cybertronian. They instead regrouped to figure out a different strategy to assist.

Bumblebee knocked Knock-Out back several steps with a strong kick to his chest and as the Decepticon medic fumed over his scratched paint, Bulkhead threw Breakdown right into him.

"Ooo, you bots are gonna pay for that!" Knock-Out snarled as he and Breakdown got to their pedes.

Bumblebee whirled a challenge that anyone could interpret as "Bring it on!"

They didn't get a chance to, however, as a round from the humans hit Knock-Out square in the chassis, exploding on impact. Knock-Out was blown back and Breakdown was forced to catch him otherwise the mech would've crashed onto the ground. The mech covered his chest with a hand and then looked at the energon that soaked it.

"That one hurt?!" He said in both anger and confusion.

He growled, glaring at the humans as Breakdown helped him stand up again. He could tell he was no longer stwady, losing energon as he was. And the humans were already loading another round of whatever it was they shot at him into their large weapon.

"Breakdown," he said. "Retreat."

The two Decepticons transformed and peeled out of the parking lot as fast as their wheels could carry them, leaving behind a trail of energon from Knock-Out's wound.

Bumblebee shouted a victory cry as Bulkhead laughed.

"You said it 'Bee," Bulkhead said. He turned toward the humans, seeing them celebrating as well, and seeing them wheeling the Energon Harvester toward their transport back to the plane that brought them from the island.

He heard a groan and looked toward Arcee, seeing the femme stir from where she'd been knocked out. The moment she was online enough, she jolted up, weapons at the ready, but lowered them when she saw the threat was gone.

"What'd I miss?" She asked.

"The humans sent the 'Cons running!" Bulkhead told her, grinning as he and Bumblebee walked over to her. "And the Harvester is allll ours."

"Sweet," Arcee smirked. "Sorry I missed that."