Captain: Yes I still live, yes I am still working on my PhD, no I haven't gotten this stupid paper published yet, yes I have gone insane. That should about cover it, yeah? Onward!

We must be willing to get rid of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us ~Joseph Campbell

The cargo plane touched down roughly, momentum fighting to throw Darcy-and everyone else-towards the nose of the plane as the pilots hit the brakes to slow their speed.

She'd lost count of the hours, but it'd felt like longer than it should have. No one had been allowed to disembark the plane when they'd touched down for fuel, a fact Darcy had been rather sour about. But now the flight was finally over for good. They had landed on Diego Garcia, her new home for the foreseeable future.

To save herself from getting underfoot of all the soldiers preparing to exit the plane, she returned to Prowl's passenger seat, her leg bouncing with nervous energy. The Autobot, for his part, made no comment about it.

The cargo plane rumbled along the tarmac, slowing ever further until it finally came to a halt. Not even Prowl's frame could block the hiss that escaped the bay doors as the ramp cracked open, lowering to release them upon the island. There was nothing but blinding light to see at first, Darcy and the soldiers squinting at the sudden onslaught to their vision. The ramps continued to drop, revealing cloudless skies and black pavement guiding the way towards a hanger that could easily fit the cargo plane itself.

Prowl rolled forward the moment the ramp clanged against the ground, the soldiers trotting off alongside.

Darcy glanced around as they exited the aircraft, taking note of all-the little that it was-that she could see. Several other planes had already landed, soldiers unloading cargo as another rolled in behind them. A handful of Autobots stood out in the open with them, gesturing in some direction or picking up massive crates and carrying them into one of the several hangers that stood open. Ratchet rolled off behind them, transforming once he was far enough to not bang his head on the tail of the plane and shouting something about his medbay still being in one piece.

"You can walk around here?" Other than necessity during confrontations with Decepticons, she hadn't seen a single Autobot walk about outside. They'd always kept it confined to the base.

"NEST has secured this side of the island, the surrounding airspace, and water. There is no risk of us being seen here. Your governments would prefer if we did not, but it is…nice to stretch our legs, as you humans say." His words made her realize just how confined they really were. She'd never asked about it, but surely staying in the form of a car all the time had to feel…confining, if not stifling. To only be able to walk around, to be themselves when they were underground or in a fight…well, she knew she'd go stir crazy.

He rolled away from the hub of activity, revealing a line of what looked to be a bunch of hangers attached together to make one sprawling, interconnected, Autobot-sized compound. A few structures stood separate; older, human-sized buildings with a steady stream of soldiers going in and out and had to be the barracks and mess hall. Prowl came to a slow stop in front of the latter. "I allowed you to skip your meals on the flight, but you must refuel now."

Granted, he'd only allowed her to skip those meals after Ratchet so kindly stepped in to tell him that it was normal for humans and she would be fine.

It was just the programming. He would get used to it.

She tugged at her shirt that she'd effectively been wearing for near on two days now. "Any chance I can do a shower first?"

"Detective…" His tone was a clear warning that she was fast approaching his limits. "It has been nearly 30 hours since you last consumed anything. You should be famished."

"I am! But I'll eat more if I can do it clean."

He vented but relented, his tires rolling forward once more to a few odd stares from the soldiers filing out towards the landing planes.

Right. The soldiers at the dam had adjusted to her presence around Prowl quickly enough, but now there was a whole slew of new men and women who knew him but had never heard of her.

Prowl bypassed the barracks, returning instead to the main compound. Still more planes were landing and unloading their cargo, though he did not return to that hive of movement. Instead he went around to the opposite side of the compound, where a small offchute wing that was definitely older than the rest of the building stood in sun-bleached, human-sized glory. Prowl's door popped open on its own, the heat and humidity slamming into her like a brick.

Ugh.

At least Nevada's heat had been dry.

Shielding her eyes from the cheery afternoon sun, Darcy stepped out onto the pavement. Prowl's holoform stepped around his rear bumper, her duffel in hand. He led the way through the human-sized door, revealing a hallway lined with doors marked with numbers. Prowl opened the door marked '27', tipping his head to indicate she should walk in first.

It wasn't much different from her room at the dam, except for the window back in the bedroom. A vast improvement from being underground, at least. Prowl let her poke her head around the little apartment without comment, handing the duffel off as she passed by.

The place had obviously been rapidly cleaned recently, the tang of disinfectant still hanging in the air. No doubt this base had been a madhouse in the last day preparing for the sudden influx of incoming personnel. "I really don't need this, I'd be fine in the barracks."

Not that she didn't deeply appreciate having her own space to retreat to, but this was clearly meant for an Officer and she was just a civilian.

Prowl raised a brow. "Do not be absurd. You are closer to my office here."

Right, closer for him to keep a closer eye on, cause his programming now demanded it. Or something.

The thought tugged at a notion that had popped into her mind earlier, and now seemed as good a time as any to ask. After all, it had to be a possibility.

"Prowl…" She didn't know if her room was bugged or something. They certainly had little and less reason to, but it was still a possibility. Then again, the Autobot who the holoform leaning against her counter belonged to certainly had it within his power to block any bugs he didn't want listening. "Did you actually claim Guardianship? Or just say you did so that I could come here? I mean, since you can't form the bond with humans anyway, they'd never know."

Everything would be simpler if the latter was the truth; if it was all just a lie to get his way, then it really wouldn't matter at all, not the programming and not what his claim meant. After all, he'd lied to NEST before about it. Ratchet had believed it was genuine, but maybe that was just part of the deception?

Prowl's holoform cocked his head at her as though confused that she had even asked the question. "I do not make a habit of proclaiming falsehoods to Optimus, nor would it be logical to attempt as such when Rachet's scanners would know otherwise."

"Right." She nodded once, unable to control the slight furrow of her brow. It was legit then, he'd made the claim. It was logical to keep her alive and away from Barricade, and the target on her back was no larger since the Decepticons had believed he'd already made the claim. But it did mean that his programming had been affected, which, frankly, was probably why he was still in her new quarters to begin with. He'd need to know she was safe and did eventually follow through with her promise to eat.

But shower first, then food, then she could start worrying about this new complication.

"Detective," Prowl's voice cut off her retreat to the bathroom and she paused. Maybe the repaired holoprojector was glitching again, because it looked like something akin to regret had flashed across his face. "I am aware that the motivation of logical choice is not…entirely comforting to most."

She blinked owlishly at him before his meaning clicked. No, having the reasons be 'it was logical' did not tend to stir warm and fuzzy emotions in people, regardless of what the choice had been. But in this case, she was glad for it. Tying her to him, changing his programming, was how he saw was best to keep her alive. While she did still desperately want to go home, desperately did not want to be on this island, she did prefer staying alive and unsquashed beneath Barricade's foot. And well, he was willing to do it to save her. That was…well that went beyond just taking a bullet.

"In this case, it is." She assured him, "I still would have preferred a say…and some warning, but you did it for my sake." She wasn't about to thank him for uprooting her life again, though she knew she should. "I'm not happy about all of this but…I understand."

His head cocked slightly to one side before nodding once and Darcy used that dismissal to slip into the bathroom. She had a day's worth of plane travel to wash off.

Though her mind found no great breakthrough under the spray, she did at least feel remarkably more human once clean and in fresh clothes. Whether called away for his own duties or comfortable in the fact that the worst that could happen in the apartment was a little red island crab pinching an unwary toe, Prowl's holoform had vanished by the time she came out.

Unlike the dam, the sounds of the outside made it through the walls. The dull thrum of large planes, muffled shouts of soldiers calling orders, the growls of humvee engines, all joining into a low cacophony of background noise that, while it wasn't home, was certainly leagues better than the silence of underground.

Now she just had to hope that this stay wouldn't be any longer than the last.

Her nose itched, she rubbed it away. Time to refind that mess hall.

The heat and humidity were not any less oppressive when she stepped back outside, adjusting the collar of her blazer. Somehow she knew it would be a hopeless wish that this weather was not the norm.

She didn't know exactly what time it was, it had to be late afternoon, given the lack of soldiers getting food. That or they were all still tied up in getting the planes emptied. A twinge of guilt hit her that she wasn't helping in that endeavor. But she wasn't a part of NEST, she wasn't a soldier, she was just a civilian who got temporarily caught up in this mess. She wondered if any other civilians had an Autobot for a Guardian. Hadn't Jazz mentioned a teenage boy during the Mission City fiasco? Was he still around or had he been cut loose to return to his life?

Ignoring the curious looks as she settled with a cold sandwich, she wondered if it wouldn't be prudent to attempt to find some alternative uniform she could wear. The civvie clothes made her stand out like a sore thumb in the midst of all the men and women in fatigues. Then again, the alternative might make her look like a politician. Better to look out of place.

Stepping back into the sun, Darcy found herself with nothing to occupy her time. At some point she figured she would return to the search for the Decepticon base, but those files were either still in Nevada or on a cargo plane somewhere. Prowl had confiscated the tablet before they landed, citing 'security upgrades' as the reasoning. Her options appeared to be to stare at the empty walls in her room or to stare out at the empty ocean. She went with the latter, leaving the blacktop for soft sand that shifted under her boots. Sparkling blue waters stretched as far as the eye could see, unbroken by any vessel.

Letting her rear fall back into the sand, she wondered how her life had taken such a drastic turn. Only four months ago she had been just another detective in Idaho, cursing snow-slick roads and lamenting that her mentor was retiring and she wouldn't see him every day.

Now she didn't know if she'd ever see him again, ever see home again. And what was she? Not a detective, even if Prowl still called her such. Just the charge of an Autobot and stuck on an island in the middle of the ocean, hoping that an alien war would go the right way.

She snorted to herself. Somehow her life had turned into a bad Sci-fi movie.

And what if it all went how they wanted? What if they found the Decepticon base, leveled it, and defeated their enemy once and for all? The Autobots didn't have a home planet to return to. Would they stay here? Go home and try to figure out a way to restore their planet? And what about her? If she got everything she wanted, if she got to go home and get her job back, could she do it? The curtain had been lifted, could she actually go back to her old life like nothing happened?

Getting carted to this island put off answering that question and a small part couldn't help but be grateful. She had no idea what she would do with herself if she couldn't fall back into her old life. What else would there be for her?

"Thought I might find you out here." Darcy blinked up at the shadow looming over her, finding, to her surprise, Major Lennox looking down at her.

"I didn't want to get in the way." She shrugged, further surprised when he plopped down next to her. Lennox was a good man, no doubt about it, but except for a handful of conversations they didn't interact much.

He nodded absently, his gaze scanning the water. "You aren't the first one to come out here and wonder how the hell they got here or how they got saddled with a 6 ton Guardian."

A rueful smile tugged his lip as he rested an arm on his bent knee. Darcy tipped her head, "I'm not sure which is a more intimidating thought for a Guardian, Prowl or Ironhide."

"Prowl, by far," Lennox answered without hesitation. "Ironhide just threatens people with his cannons. Prowl can be scarily devious when he puts his mind to it. I've seen him deal with the twins."

He chuckled lightly before sobering. "Ironhide, at least, has claimed Guardianship before, so he knew what he was signing on for. It took some adjusting for him to figure out how it's different with a human and it wasn't always easy for me to adjust to either. But we figured it out and we work better together because of it."

Darcy leaned back on her hands, idly digging her heel into the sand. "Prowl's never claimed Guardianship before."

And they weren't partners in work either, there would be no benefit there.

"No, but those who have will help him figure it out."

While Ratchet had answered her questions from the Cybertronian perspective, she realized Lennox would know exactly what she was in for from the human perspective.

More or less anyway.

"Did Ironhide ask you, before he made the claim?"

Lennox picked up a little red crab by the body, tossing the little critter into the waves. "He did. It was when we were first setting up NEST, after Mission City. Things were calm on the fighting front, so we had the time to talk it over. I'm sure if we had the time, Prowl would have…"

"It's not that," Darcy interjected. She already knew why he hadn't talked to her, the logic behind his decision. "What made you say yes?"

The soldier looked out at the crashing waves for several moments. "Hide is…he's not just my friend, he's family. Guardianship just makes it official and allows him to come home with me when we get leave. Annabelle loves him and he adores her."

Pulling out his phone, he flipped to a photo and showed it to her. There was Ironhide, in all his big-cannon-toting glory, with both hands cupped under a tiny child no more than three. The smile on the little girl was near splitting her face, beaming brighter than any kid on Christmas morning. The Autobot looked far less intimidating than usual, his entire posture curled as if to protect her from the world.

It was not an image she expected to see of the weapons specialist.

"How did your wife take it?" Surely that had to be a shock, to learn that aliens were real and one was now a Guardian to her husband and would come with on leave. How did she come to accept it so quickly? Enough to trust him with her kid?

"She hit him with a cast iron pan." Lennox offered in a deadpan, stuffing the phone back in his pocket. "Then threatened me with it for not telling her sooner. That was when I discovered Guardianship does not include protection from an irate wife."

He chuckled at her shocked look. "I'm pretty sure Optimus and Prowl are the only ones not cowed by Sarah and her frying pan."

Not to self, Darcy mused humorously, get an iron pan asap.

"I'm not going to lie to you, he's going to drive you crazy at first, though you'll have the benefit of him actually knowing how much food and rest a human is supposed to get." He shook his head at some resurfaced memory. "But once he gets used to it, you won't even notice a difference anymore, not really."

"What about if he gets a mission?" Ratchet had said without the bond it would be the visual contact that would assure Prowl she was okay. Would she be expected to go along so he could keep her in sight or would she be expected to stay here, where he'd know where she was? Not that she had any desire whatsoever to get anywhere near a Decepticon ever again, but the prospect of not getting to leave this island until the 'Cons were defeated was hardly an appealing alternative.

The Major shrugged. "Prowl doesn't go into the field as often as some of the other Autobots, but the distance doesn't seem to bother them too much. Bumblebee is still our primary scout despite being a Guardian to Sam…another civilian. I think 'Hide would prefer if he could leave me here sometimes, but he doesn't get that choice."

He put a hand on her shoulder, squeezing softly. "I wouldn't worry about any of that. We dealt the 'Cons a serious blow in Washington. They'll lick their wounds for some time still."

As if to punctuate the irony of his words, the ground shook with a large explosion, the rumble of it like thunder on the horizon. Darcy jerked, though Lennox's hand still on her shoulder kept her on the ground. "Wait for it…"

Following the explosion came a short, buzzing alarm that lasted only for a few seconds before cutting out. Darcy could see no surge in activity, no response to the explosion. The man next to her remained entirely relaxed.

"That's the Wheeljack alarm, it tells us that whatever just blew up was one of his experiments in his lab." He shook his head with an amused grin, gesturing towards a stand-alone hanger set far apart from the rest of the compound. Black smoke poured from the open doors. "Not an attack."

Darcy watched the distant hanger as an Autobot tumbled out of it, batting away at purple flames on his arm. Somehow she'd managed to never see his real body while at the Hoover Dam, only ever his Robin Williams holoform. The primarily white color scheme was streaked with black burn marks. Jazz had mentioned he was an inventor, but that it was always best to let someone else try out new inventions first.

"This…happens a lot?" What on earth would he be inventing that explosions were a common enough occurance to warrant an alarm specifically to tell the whole base that it was just his work going 'boom' again?

"More than any of us, particularly Ratchet, would like. Humans are banned from entering that hanger. I wouldn't even go near it if I were you…unless you want to give Prowl an aneurysm, of course."

She doubted Prowl could do anything that would aggravate her enough to warrant risking going near that hanger just to bug him. No, she made a mental note to give that lab a wide berth.

"I like living, so you can count on me to steer clear." The distant Autobot had successfully extinguished the flames on himself and now stood scratching his head. Under the scorch marks, some green and red accents littered his frame, but Darcy couldn't make out what his vehicle mode would be.

The Major's phone buzzed loudly and he sighed as he glanced at it. Apparently duty texted too. Darcy waved him off. "Go on Major, you have crises to avert."

He snorted, but stood, brushing the sand from his pants. "Hardly a real crisis."

Giving her shoulder one last supportive squeeze, he tipped his head towards the main hangers. "If you ever need anything, don't hesitate to find me, even if what you need is Prowl sent on patrol for a few hours."

Her lips twitched in amusement. "You can do that?"

Despite the respect she knew the tactician had for the Major, she doubted he, as the Autobot SIC, would follow orders he could argue as being less than absolutely necessary.

Lennox chuckled with a shake of his head. "Me? Oh no. But Prime can."

Shooting her a wink, the soldier sauntered off back towards his duties.

Darcy watched him go for a minute before turning her gaze back towards the ocean, entertaining herself with thoughts of Optimus ordering Prowl on patrol duty because he was hovering too much. Yet it seemed unlikely to ever come to that, given he'd already left her over an hour ago.

Maybe they were all underestimating Prowl's ability to adjust to the new programming. Maybe his battle computer could override it. Maybe it wouldn't really be like anything had changed.

The sand quickly grew uncomfortably hot, but Darcy kept her seat despite it as time ticked by. It was a simple, uncomplicated kind of discomfort, the heat and feel of the sand grounding. A very human problem, not life threatening or hard to fix. The grains slid through her fingers, the rolling waves drowned any sounds from the base, and the sun beat down from above, the same as it did in any Idaho summer.

Her world may have been flipped upside-down in these last few months, but it was still her world; it was still familiar, if she knew where to look.

A shadow fell over her again, the waves and the sand muffling the approach of what could only be an Autobot. She tipped her head back, finding Prowl blocking the sun from reaching her.

"Detective, you are turning red."

Darcy blinked at her arms covered by the blazer meant for cooler climates before pressing the back of her hand to her cheek. Yep, heat was radiating from her skin. Not enough to indicate a full burn, but enough to serve as a warning that she was better off getting out of the sun for now.

She huffed at the lack of warning as his scanners swept over her, leaning back on her hands to look up at him without craning her neck too much. From the ground, he loomed even taller than usual. "Is that really necessary?"

"Your temperature is elevated above your normal range. Are you feeling well?" Hydraulics hissed and his knee hit the sand next to her. She looked at it, surprised by how close he was. She could reach out and touch him, could see her reflection in the black panel of his armor, could see a hint of the intricate mess of metal and wires underneath.

"I'm fine, it's just hot out." She looked up to meet his gaze, shrugging lightly. He was still blocking the sun completely, which she suspected was not necessarily accidental.

"Other humans seek cover from such conditions," he chided, dropping his hand in invitation.

Darcy looked at it, but did not move. She shrugged again. "Being too hot, a little sunburnt, it's a normal discomfort, it's human."

The sand buckled beneath her and she squawked at finding herself involuntarily rising into the air, her soft seat cascading down between the tactician's fingers. "Prowl! Warning!"

She latched onto his thumb to steady herself, cursing the sand that had allowed him to quite literally scoop her up.

"It is not optimal for your body to sustain elevated stress levels." Standing to his full height, he turned back towards the hangers and the hive of activity. At least it looked like all the cargo planes had finally landed and several had already taxied away from the hanger and towards the other end of the airfield, where a fleet of aircraft sat.

"You don't say." Darcy huffed with a roll of her eyes, scowling as Prowl raised his other hand to continue blocking the sun from reaching her, but also effectively blocked her view of everything else. She tipped her head back until it lightly thunked against his chassis, frowning up at the Autobot who was not currently looking at her. "What are you doing?"

He flicked her only a brief glance, his stride not wavering. "Moving you to cover, as you appeared disinclined to do so yourself."

"Prowl," she cut herself off with a growl, sucking in a deep breath and letting it out slowly. He couldn't help it. It was just the Guardianship programming. It would fade. Racking her knuckles against his frame, she forced his attention back down. "I was fine out there, a little sun wasn't going to hurt me and I needed the fresh air. "

"The air is no different in the hanger as on the beach." His footsteps clanked loudly against the blacktop, drowning out the crash of the waves.

"It's more crowded." She probably sounded petulant, but she couldn't completely release her annoyance at being literally scooped from her quiet solitude.

"There is safety in numbers."

"And an increased risk of getting underfoot." Particularly among large numbers of Autobots, though in her time around them they seemed to avoid squishing anyone not quick enough to get out of the way with near subconscious ease. Given their size, it appeared some supernatural form of awareness. Or maybe they just had sensors to warn them of potential trip hazards. Still, it wasn't something she was willing to wholly trust, not like the soldiers did.

"Not so long as I have you."

The roll of Darcy's eyes was tinged with amusement. The words may have been delivered in typical Prowl fashion, but the words themselves were just a little ridiculous.

"You can't carry me everywhere…and I would appreciate you asking before you just pick me up. It's not the most natural feeling you know, suddenly getting lifted like that."

"I offered for you to make the choice willingly, you ignored it. I will not stand by and allow self destructive behavior to continue." His steps paused, presumably to allow a C-17 to taxi by, judging by the sound, though Darcy could see little beyond the tarmac directly in front of them.

She blew out a longer breath, willing her tongue to hold. They would get nowhere if she let him prod her temper. "It was not self destructive."

"You have first degree burns, Detective." His pace resumed, the fading jet engines replaced by the noise of soldiers barking orders to each other.

"Hardly. My skin gets red fast in the spring. It'll fade by tomorrow."

"And until then, you will remain out of the sun so as to not worsen your condition."

Darcy dropped her face into her hands, wondering if it would be too early to call in that favor to send Prowl on patrol.

"Prowl," she groaned, unable to keep some of the exasperation out of her tone. Really, he was being ridiculous. Her cheeks were at worst rosy, and no more so than if she'd imbibed a few drinks.

"Detective." He dropped his view-blocking hand as he stepped under the cover of a hanger. It was not, blessedly, the center of activity, though there were a fair number of soldiers moving about below. "I am your Guardian, it is my duty to keep you safe."

"Safe from Decepticons, which in case you hadn't noticed, there's none here, so I think we can check that box and call it good." Honestly, with the Autobots, the soldiers, and the restriction of getting here only by plane, this was probably the safest place on the planet.

"Safe from whatever I have the power to protect you from, even if it is yourself, and even if you do not appreciate my efforts," Prowl corrected, continuing deeper into the hanger and keeping her firmly in his grip, tucked against his chassis.

He couldn't help it, she reminded herself, even though he was the one who had made the choice to activate the programming in the first place. But he'd never done it before, he hadn't really understood just what it was that he was getting into. Give him time, give him grace.

Gods above, give her patience.

"Prowler! Darcy!" Sideswipe's cheerful voice cut across the noise of the hanger. Prowl paused as the silver frontliner skated directly into his path. Well, formerly silver frontliner. For a moment Darcy only saw Knock Out, but the lines of the armor were wrong, his cheerful and friendly smile were wrong. It was Sideswipe somehow standing before them, looking entirely unlike himself. The silver paint scheme of his armor had been replaced by a deep cherry red. But it wasn't just the paint, no, his armor had changed. Not by much, but just enough to throw off the lines of his silhouette. "Looks good on me, no?"

He spun in a little circle to show himself off. He was still all sleek lines of a fast car, but with a sharper edge where once had been the softer curves of a corvette. The harsher angles made him look even less like the Decepticon medic and more like…well…himself.

"You got your upgrade." Darcy dimly remembered seeing the red lamborghini at the other base and how Lennox had said Prowl's punishment for him was not telling him it was there. Evidently, his punishment had finally come to an end.

She had to admit, the look suited him.

"You've got to try it out!" Sideswipe lurched forward, no doubt intending to pluck her from Prowl's grasp.

The tactician's free hand clanged loudly against Sideswipe's chassis, grabbing the new armor and using it to roughly shove the frontliner back.

"Ack, watch the paint!" Sideswipe pinwheeled his arms for a moment to steady himself again, his gaze frantically searching the armor for any scratches left by Prowl's less than friendly handling.

"Try that again and you will spend a week in the brig." Prowl turned slightly to keep Darcy effectively out of Sideswipe's reach, though the red Autobot did not seem particularly inclined to try again.

"Easy, Prowler, I just wanted to take her for a joyride! Show the doll what real speed is like." Despite the near tangible threat of danger coming off of the tactician, he grinned at Darcy, throwing her a teasing wink. Doubtless it was as much meant to tease Prowl and the detective couldn't help but roll her eyes.

"You're kind of a nuisance, you know that right?" she asked, raising her brows as he rolled back and forth, unable to stand still. Not that a joyride in a lamborghini didn't sound fun, particularly since she couldn't accidentally damage him, but she hadn't yet trusted Jazz to 'take her for a joyride' and this was Sideswipe. She didn't know what the 0 to 60 rate was that could cause whiplash, but she was certain the frontliner could hit it.

Sideswipe paused long enough to cock his hip to one side and gesture to himself. "Darlin', I may make this look effortless, but it does not happen by accident."

"Come on you overgrown pain in my aft, we have patrol duty and you know how fragged off he gets when you mess with his human." Sunstreaker stalked by, shoving his twin roughly out of the way without glancing over at Prowl or her, for which she was thankful. While he'd never threatened, his apparent disdain for nearly everyone aside from his brother (and even that seemed questionable at times) still set her on edge.

"Next time then, doll, when the roadblock isn't hovering." Sideswipe mock saluted with another wink, dropping to his fancy new alt mode and skidding a donut before rocketing out of the hanger on his brother's yellow tail.

Darcy could have cursed him. If Prowl had planned to leave her on her own at any point in the near future, those plans had probably just gone up in smoke. Hoping to distract him from the implied promise, the detective gestured towards the two vanished supercars. "I thought the purpose of the car modes was to blend in, hide in plain sight? Lamborghinis and those color schemes aren't exactly subtle."

"No, they are not subtle." Prowl vented with his agreement, resuming his original trek to who-knew-where. "But the aerodynamics of your supercars allow them to reach their maximum speed, which could mean the difference between victory and defeat on the battlefield. And I would rather not have to listen to them complain about ugly alt modes."

Darcy snorted and wondered how much aerodynamics really had to do with it. Sideswipe did seem rather happy about his upgrade and a happy troublemaker was probably less likely to get bored and start pulling pranks. Even if it did mean he wanted to give everyone a test drive.

"Why did they go on patrol, aren't we on an island?" She had assumed that nothing could sneak up on them this far out into the ocean. After all, radar or sonar should pick up anything approaching unscheduled.

"The total surface area of this island may be small, but it is approximately 56 miles in length and NEST controls less than half of it. Patrols help us to ensure that the Decepticons are not sneaking in from the other side and it keeps us in the practice of patrolling regularly." He paused for a brief moment, as if considering adding on the next part or not. "And it occupies the twins for a few hours."

AKA: It gave them something to do and got them out of his hair.

"And do you go on these patrols?" A few hours might not be much if he was driving her crazy, but it might save her sanity if he was really going to 'protect' her from her own 'self destructive' behaviors.

Prowl regarded her for a short moment, as if he could read her thoughts. His tone, thankfully, did not sound like he had heard her line of thinking. "Of course. We must all stay in the practice to remain alert, lest the Decepticons catch us unaware."

Now she'd just need to figure out what the schedule was. Jazz was the obvious source, but as far as she knew he was still on the mainland. Sideswipe might help…for a price. She wasn't sure which likely option would be more hazardous for her health: going for a joyride or getting involved in one of his pranks.

Prowl turned down a narrow hall line with Autobot-sized doors. Well, oversized garage doors was probably a more appropriate description. A human-sized door sat next to each, but all of those were shut save for one, which Prowl continued past without pausing. Darcy caught only a glimpse through the accompanying opened roll-up door, but it was hard to miss the massive form of Optimus Prime taking up a good portion of the room. He seemed to have been looking at some kind of giant screen, but anything else was quickly blocked from view as Prowl paused only once he reached the next closed door, pressing a large switch that was sticking out of a roughly cut hole. With an unfortunate amount of noise, the door slowly raised, revealing a room a mirror of where she'd just glimpsed Optimus.

An oversized metal chair behind an oversized metal desk, with an oversized screen and odd-looking keyboard to match. A stack of Cybertronian-sized tablets were neatly piled in one corner.

Clearly this was Prowl's office, but the weld lines on the furniture, the rattling door, the computer screen that was definitely multiple monitors somehow joined together, all made it look more like a poor graduate student's office than that of a high ranking member of an alien race.

The hand holding her moved away from his body to deposit her onto the empty side of his desk, her legs dangling over the edge. It had to be near an eight-foot drop to the ground below. Not impossible, if she hung off the edge, but not a height she had any desire to bail from. Her days of jumping fences to chase perps were too far behind her.

"This isn't Cybertronian tech, is it?" Not even the keyboard, which was arranged in an unfamiliar fashion with alien glyphs, looked like anything that could have possibly come from a species so advanced that they had mastered space travel…or were living machines themselves.

"No it is not." Prowl vented a sigh as he sat, the screen flaring to life and displaying nothing that she could hope to decipher. "It is the best that Ratchet and Wheeljack could create with human technology, but their expertise lies elsewhere. It is mostly functional and serves its purpose."

Curiosity pricked at her mind and she wondered just what their actual tech would look like. Could they develop it here on Earth or did the materials not exist? Might they ever seek to rebuild any of their home here? Or would they be relegated to repurposed human technology and military hangers?

It wasn't her world or her business, but neither did it seem likely that she would be able to put this all behind her any time soon. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to satisfy her curiosity a little. It certainly could only help her search for the Decepticons if she understood their species better.

And maybe it would be a little cool to see how they had lived and just how advanced their tech had been.

Prowl reached for his stack of oversized tablets. They weren't quite the same as the tablets humans used. Maybe these were actual Cybertronian tech that one of them had brought with them?

He lifted one, the screen lighting to his touch, and held it next to a much smaller version. Both screens mirrored each other, with lines of their language flowing quickly for a moment before the smaller stopped and turned back to a screen she recognized.

"Your tablet. While the physical case files have yet to be delivered, I assume you wish to continue your work here." The little computer looked humorously tiny in his hand as he held it out to her. Darcy grabbed it before he could change his mind. At least that answered what she would be doing during her stay.

"Yes, I do. Thank you." Swiping through the files showed no noticeable changes from whatever he had done to it. Maybe he had been serious about the security upgrade after all.

"I have requisitioned a desk of your own to be set up here, so that you may work more comfortably. I have been assured it will be delivered early tomorrow." He gestured towards his left side, where a corner of the room was empty save for a raised platform with a single chair sitting in the middle. It looked like it might be where Lennox or any other human might sit if they needed to meet with Prowl. The platform put them on almost equal standing. It looked like there was even a large corkboard secured to the wall, large enough for the map she'd had in her room at the old base.

"Not that I don't appreciate it, but I am fine working on this in my room like before." Not that she had a problem being around Prowl, not really-which in itself was a shocking thing to confess to herself-but sometimes she just thought clearer sipping on coffee in her own kitchen.

"On the contrary, the tablet will not function in your living quarters." Prowl's attention was solely on his main computer screen now, glyphs scrolling by as he tapped the keys of the modified keyboard.

Darcy narrowed her eyes, looking at his flat expression carefully. "And why not?"

Taking her work home with her-even if home was figurative-had never been an issue before, nor had it been a new habit. She'd had case files in her house since the day she became a detective.

"It is not healthy for the human psyche to work and rest in the same area. It interferes with your body's ability to properly relax."

She raised her brows, crossing her arms. "That wasn't a problem before."

"You lacked a proper office from which to complete your work. That issue has been rectified." She hadn't completely explored every part of the Hoover Dam while she'd been there, but it had appeared to have lacked somewhat in the office space. With such a large force of NEST operatives and Autobots, there likely was little space for such a thing. Prowl had spent most of his time in the conference center with Optimus.

"It wasn't an issue in Idaho."

"I was not aware of the risk at that time, nor did I deem it necessary to enforce as it was easier to control the flow of information by keeping the files out of your precinct." In other words, he could be assured she was the only cop with access to all the information he was looking at…and he wasn't her Guardian back then, so her ability to relax had not been a concern. But evidently now, it was.

The tablet would not work in her room, which she realized was less than 50 yards from this very office; a fact that could not be coincidental. She would work in the same office with Prowl going over the cases to narrow down the search for the Decepticon base. Convenient for the work, but equally convenient for keeping her close and under his gaze. She doubted she would be able to sneak any physical files to her room either.

She huffed, but ultimately decided to drop it for now. If having her literally under his nose made it easier on him while he adjusted to the new programming, then she would deal with it. Eventually he would adjust and things would slide back towards normal.

And who knew, maybe having an Autobot with a super advanced computer for a brain as an office-mate would speed along the investigation. He would be conveniently available to answer any questions she might have at a given moment.

She pulled up the digitized version of her map, brow scrunching when no new patterns leapt out at her. She really hoped those seismographs would come in soon…

"Prowl, do we have a roster for the Decepticons we know are on Earth?" It was a question she probably should have asked a long time ago. She knew of the handful she had had the pleasure of enduring, but was that it? Or did they know of others she had never seen?

"I would not presume to think we know of every Decepticon that has landed on this planet nor were we able to properly identify all who were offlined when we destroyed their base after rescuing you and the other humans. Why do you ask?" His typing paused, those too-bright blue optics turning to her.

Darcy tapped her lip in thought, kicking one leg to swing back and forth over the empty air below. "If we could get some kind of estimate on how many of them are here, we might be able to rule out some places for a potential base."

"As you saw with their base at Primus Peak, they can tunnel far enough to accommodate any number of them."

"Yes, but that was at high elevation on the interior of the mainland. Anywhere close to the coast is going to limit the kind of tunneling they can do. Natural quakes or their own digging could trigger a collapse that could bury them under ocean water." She was no geologist or anything, but she was fairly sure tunnels could flood even without a structural collapse if they were in the wrong place.

Prowl tilted his head, as if assessing the validity of her claim. He nodded once. "While we do not need to breathe air like you humans to survive, the increased risk of collapse should deter Starscream from such places."

Darcy paused in her musings, mimicking his stance. "You are assuming that Starscream is still in command and not Megatron?"

His chin dipped, doorwings flexing the smallest increment before relaxing again. Darcy was grateful she had never had to face this Megatron and she desperately hoped she would never have to. "Neither Starscream nor Megatron would seek out a base which threatens their or their troops' very lives. While we abandoned the Hoover Dam base as a precaution for Megatron's return, I do not believe the Decepticons currently possess the capability of reviving him. Until irrefutable evidence of his resurrection is found, I will continue to evaluate probabilities as though Starscream is in command."

Darcy nodded. After all, if Megatron was brought back, the Decepticons would no doubt make it known as quickly as possible. At the least, it would demoralize the Autobots.

"So, about that roster…"

"Progress: Report."

Knock Out shot a sardonic grin to the stoic mech on the other side of the table, annoyed at the interruption but wise enough to not show it too much. "Oh he's fine, almost as good as new, barring, of course, the fragged mess that is his spark chamber."

Said fragged mess which was taking longer to repair than even he'd expected. It had been, after all, basically melted. All the other repairs to Megatron's frame had been simple enough to manage; they wouldn't have even been lethal on their own. But that little human had shoved the Allspark to their leader's spark and the resulting power overload had melted a sizable hole through his chassis. Broken parts were easy to weld, melted was a whole other kind of mess.

"Status: Behind schedule." Soundwave intoned.

The red medic growled, "You are welcome to do it yourself if you think that will speed things along."

"Statement: Unnecessary. Knock Out: Chief Medical Officer."

"Then don't complain about how long it takes!" He was barely qualified for this as it was. He was far better at taking mechs apart than putting them back together. And the whole matter of the Allspark energy still radiating from Megatron's body was a much larger issue. One wrong slip and he would end up fried, just as his poor machinery that he'd first hooked up to Megatron's body was now a useless, melted pile of slag.

"Solution: Remove Allspark energy first." Soundwave stepped to the side to give Shockwave room to enter the medbay. The purple mech strode in with a silver cube in hand, a single cable dangling from one side.

Knock Out gave the cube a skeptical look. "You think that will be able to hold the excess power?"

Shockwave stared at him with that unnerving single optic. "We cannot accurately calculate the power still residing within Lord Megatron's frame. I calculate only a 27% probability of successfully removing enough power to restart his spark. However, there is a 73% chance this can remove and store a portion of the energy. Enough to aid in the repair process."

"Yeah, yeah, I don't need all the details." Knock Out waved his hand, abandoning his work to back away towards the door. Attempts to remove the Allspark energy could be explosive and he was not going to risk his paint job again. "Just do it already."

Shockwave needed no additional prodding, attaching the other end of the cable directly to Megatron's melted spark chamber. Immediately, sparks flew across the cable, lighting up Shockwave's cube a brilliant blue. He watched some indicator on the cube without any outward reaction to the sparks arcing from the cables to his own frame. With a swift yank, he disconnected the cable from Megatron, his gaze never leaving the indicator.

"Allspark energy is more volatile than I expected. Detonation imminent. Dispose of this." Before Knock Out had the time to flee, the scientist had deposited the sparking, glowing cube in his hands.

The red medic sputtered, nearly dropping it before panic that the fall would cause it to explode faster made him catch it again. "Why me?!"

Shockwave didn't even look up from the datapad in hand. "Your alternative mode is the faster. You have the highest probability of getting the cube away from the Nemesis and retreating to a safe distance before detonation….if you leave immediately."

A slew of Cybertronian curses flew from Knock Out as he dropped to his alt mode, tires squealing against the metal floor. He peeled out of the medbay and towards the exit of the ship as fast as he dared, the bomb strapped securely in his back seat. If he got out of this alive he was going to give that purple eyesore a piece of his mind! Okay, not really, the mech was kind of terrifying, but he would think about it! And he would curse him with every curse in every language he could think of during his mad dash out of the ship and into the landscape beyond. No humans were anywhere nearby. Or proper roads for the matter. Another thing for him to curse as he raced down shoddily blazed paths better suited for the likes of Breakdown than his sleek, low-slung frame.

Of course, Shockwave had failed to mention what the blast radius would be or how much time he had to get it away from the Nemesis. Judging from the red tint taking over the blue glow and the increase in sparks, he didn't have long.

More curses flew as he was forced to squeeze between rocks without slowing, the unforgiving bolder scratching gouges into his paint. He'd just buffed that!

Frag this. His alarms were blaring a warning about the unstable power readings now. Transforming, he let the momentum of his speed carry him towards the edge of a deep ravine. Cube in hand, he hurled it as hard as he could. Not caring to risk his paint job more than it'd already been damaged, he dropped back into his sleek alt mode and tore off back the way he'd come.

The explosion ripped the air apart, blindingly bright and blisteringly hot. Had the road been pavement, Knock Out would have already been much further, but his tires slipped against the dirt and loose rock, slowing his retreat. The blast seared his rear end. His paint bubbled and sizzled, the dirt beneath his tires turning to glass. Internal alarms screamed that it was too hot, too much.

Just when he thought that this was it, the great Knock Out was going to be melted to death by one of Shockwave's failed experiments, the heat receded. In the rearview, the light faded as the flames burned themselves out.

Knock Out didn't slow until he was well away and only then did he chance looking back, and more importantly take stock of the damage to himself.

Whatever power it had sucked from Megatron had better have made a difference. The explosion had decimated well…everything within a half mile radius. But worst of all, his paint was completely slagged!

The curses continued to pour as he made it back to the Nemesis, his frame now more black than red, the armor along his rear bumper warped out of shape. This was going to take more than a good buffing to fix!

"Seventy-three percent? Seventy-three percent!" He howled upon making it back to the sanctuary that was his medbay. Soundwave had already left, leaving only the hulking purple mech running a scanner over Megatron's body. "You must have your wires crossed! Look at me!"

Shockwave did not, in fact, look at the damage done to him. "You survived, as I predicted you would."

"You also predicted your power storage wasn't going to go nuclear!" He winced as he looked at the armor on his legs, the metal bowing unnaturally and as black as Barricade's backside. Ugh. Hideous.

"Cease your complaining. I will make the necessary adjustments to the next version." The scanner was replaced by the data pad as still, the scientist refused to look at what his failed project had done to Knock Out's beautiful paint.

Failing to garner sympathy for his plight (and pain, though he was not going to admit it), the medic comm'd Breakdown to get his aft down here immediately, and plonked himself onto an empty berth. "Well at least tell me it was useful enough to reduce the power of the ticking time bomb that is Lord Megatron's corpse."

Shockwave stayed silent for several long moments, no doubt running calculations from the readouts of his scans. "Energy levels have been reduced 0.0001%. Reduction negligible. I will need to start again on the container."

Reduction negligible. It had all been for nothing. His paint scrapped for nothing!

Knock Out snarled lowly to himself, resolutely turning his back to the other Decepticon and starting on the process of prying the damaged armor off his leg. Breakdown would have to hammer it back into proper shape when he got there. The formerly red medic wasn't about to touch Megatron again until he was back in perfect condition.

True to his word, a human-sized desk had appeared in Prowl's office the next morning. As had the physical case files, a rack to store them on, and a much more comfortable office chair. Prowl had also added a whiteboard, which contained their roster of known planet-side Decepticons. Neither of them believed the fourteen names made up the complete list, but it was something. Darcy had also added their alternative modes, if they knew them.

Of all of them, she longed for the day she could wipe Barricade's from the list most.

Prowl had reported that he had gotten a few responses from the geologists who monitored the seismographs in the regions they requested, and now had a few on file. Darcy elected not to look at them just yet, not until they had them all in hand, lest she start seeing patterns where there were none.

Back in Idaho before she had known about Autobots or Decepticons, before she had been abducted, Prowl and Lennox had managed to work her into a more regular eating and resting schedule. Prowl brought that pattern back with newfound rigidity. Her code for the human-sized door to his office would not work unless she had stopped by the mess hall first thing in the morning, and any technology would spontaneously stop working right around lunch and again at the end of her 'workday'. Most of the time Prowl would personally escort her to the mess hall if he was not otherwise occupied by meetings, a fact that had garnered more than her fair share of attention from the soldiers who hadn't been at the other base.

Activity around the base remained high for the week following their arrival, so Darcy kept her exploring to a minimum, lest she get in the way or accidentally wander into an area above her paygrade (which was nothing, she'd realized one afternoon with a wince, though Prowl had only told her 'not to concern herself' over the bills she definitely hadn't been paying since her capture). The routine fell into place rather quickly: most of her day was spent in Prowl's office going over the files looking for anything she might have missed and slowly crossing out potential base sites based on what information they had, Sideswipe would try to take her for a joyride and Prowl would threaten him with anything from brig time to meeting attendance, and then she'd spend the evening before bed in the rec center with the other soldiers, ignoring whatever was on the many TVs in favor of running over whatever theories she'd come up with that day.

Of course, as had lately become a habit for the universe, the routine was not allowed to last very long.

Darcy stepped out into the midday sun from the comfort of the mess hall, unsurprised to find Prowl there, his hand lowered in invitation.

She still hated the feeling of leaving her stomach on the ground, but Prowl had been stuck in his alt mode so much on the mainland that guilt kept her from asking for an actual ride over a lift.

"Eat well, Detective?" He always asked the same thing after lunch if he was there to meet her and not once had the question sounded natural.

"Yes, ready to get back to work." And she would always reply the same. It was just his programming that made him ask and while it was-in a weird sort of way-kind of sweet to have someone care enough to check in on her, Darcy did not know how to respond to it.

A loud beep cut through the air, the only warning that the intercom was about to spit out some important information. "All personnel, Code Seven."

Prowl dropped her.

Before she could even begin to ask what a code seven was, a shriek ripped from her throat at suddenly entering freefall. As quickly as it started, it stopped and she found herself sitting in Prowl's passenger seat, one hand braced against the dash and the other his door. Her full stomach lurched uncomfortably as she swallowed down the memory of the only time she'd ever experience that before: with Barricade, when he abducted her.

"What the hell?"

But he was not paying attention to her, his tires squealing against the pavement and launching them towards the command center. He was not the only one suddenly spurred into action. Soldiers and Autobots alike converged on the main hangar where Optimus Prime and Ratchet were focused on the large screens set against one wall.

Prowl did not even come to a complete stop before Darcy found herself involuntarily rising away from the ground, back in his hand. He stepped up beside Optimus, his attention on the screens as well. Darcy thumped a fist against his hand in weak protest to the rapid transformations that had left her gut reeling. Prowl flashed her only the shortest look before depositing her on the raised walkway next to Major Lennox.

Not that that motion had left her any steadier, but at least there was solid, unmoving ground beneath her feet. "What is going on? What's a code seven?"

"Incoming ship…from outside Earth's atmosphere." Epps supplied from behind her.

"What?" She supposed it was bound to happen eventually. These were aliens after all. But it was almost easy to forget that they really came from another planet across space. Yet here was that reminder, and a reminder that their numbers on Earth were not limited to who was already planet-side, nor were their enemies'. "Autobot or Decepticon?"

"Unclear, its signal is encrypted." Ratchet groused, typing away at another modified keyboard that looked a lot like the one Prowl used. The tactician scowled at the screen over Ratchet's shoulder, recognition and shock soon flashing across his face.

"I know that encryption."

"Is that a…good thing?" Darcy asked as Ratchet stepped to the side to give Prowl access to the systems.

"If it is not a Decepticon trick, then yes, it would be a good thing."

The screen rolled lines of characters Darcy could decipher as well as she could hieroglyphs. Prowl's stance shifted, his doorwings relaxing. Whatever he was seeing, he was happy for.

"It is the Xantium."

If Sideswipe had toes, he would be bouncing on them, excitement making his eyes glow impossibly brighter. "The Wrecker ship?"

"The very same. Based on speed and trajectory, they will be landing here in 3.46 hours."

More Autobots, if Sideswipe's reaction was anything to go by, and they were on their way.

Captain: A note on Diego Garcia: The actual length of the driveable island is closer to 36 miles. I made it a bit larger for the purpose of the story and to have it more reasonably sized for hosting the bulk of Autobot and NEST forces. And Sideswipe finally got his upgrade, wahoo!

But who is on the Xantium?! Is it really more Autobots? Is it Decepticons? Is it the Cybertronian you've secretly been hoping to see this whole time!? Drop a review and let me know who you think (or hope) it is!

Until next time lovelies!