TRANSFORMERS ANIMATED
Re:Animated
Rewrite of 'Grey Matter, Silver Lining'. At the same time as Megatron reawakens, a woman falls to earth and Sari manages to convince her father to let her become her nanny. Emma doesn't talk much, and certainly isn't saying she knows them from a cartoon! But when the All-Spark shatters, it makes her question everything . . .
~Parental Warning~
This chapter contains the following, which may not be suitable for young people:
. Adult themes
. Low level sexual references
Reader discretion is advised.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Cleansing Fire
But it's plain to see,
If you stick together,
You're gonna find a way, yeah . . .
— Celine Dion
"And I can confirm that it was her." A steady voice, with a strong British accent, said quietly. "However, she was not fully aware of the situation … almost as if she were in a state of semi-stasis."
"I see . . . " The deep voice replied.
"That's not surprising, given the situation." A third voice piped up. She could've given Edie Mirman a run for her money voicing the character of Gatomon. "Thank Primus you were there to guide her, though."
"Of course." The first voice responded, still in that same quiet voice. It wouldn't do for anybody to discover what was going on on his end. "That will always … go without saying . . . "
'He's trusting you guys with HIS greatest treasure!'
And now Emma had one more thing to worry about.
Well, not worry, exactly. Honeybee hadn't really elaborated on what she'd said, but the fact that she'd chosen to use the exact same phrasing that Emma had used when talking about Sari and Isaac said enough.
'Oh. You mean Emma?'
Optimus may have sounded casual when he'd said, but Emma had to wonder what he was thinking and if he was having second thoughts about all this.
Add to this that what Emma had thought was a dream about going to Cybertron had actually happened (she could remember it so vividly, and now she was anxious about what had happened), the fact that Prowl hadn't spoken to her in about three days (she had realised that his comment about not getting hurt hadn't actually been said directly to her), her brand new job that had thrown her straight into the deep end bringing up a few unwanted memories about washing dishes (why were they serving chicken parmigiana at a Japanese restaurant anyway?!), and a lingering feeling that her memories were omitting something very important about Starscream (who had been shipped off alongside the Elite Guard), and it was no wonder Emma was a complete and total mess by the time Capi woke her up with the news that they'd just reached the episode 'Garbage In, Garbage Out'.
"Where's your scarf, by the way?" He asked her, as she made her way down the hall. "The one you were wearing the other day . . . "
"I … don't know … it must've come off in the fight . . . " She realised, taking a bite of a coffee biscuit (some breakfast).
"Does Starscream have it?"
Emma choked on her biscuit.
Capi used his trunk to gently hit her on the back a few times, as Honeybee came out of the room that she was sharing with Bumblebee - they had been fixing up the former All-Spark Room for her, but it would take another day or two.
"What happened?" She asked.
"N-nothing . . . " Emma coughed a few times. "I just realised that I'm not as on top of things as I thought I was."
"Uh-huh." Honeybee nodded, as they continued on. "There seems to be a bit of that going around at the moment." She added, as they came out into the main room, where the others were watching something on TV.
Sari sighed. "This wouldn't have happened if my dad was still running Sumdac Systems."
"Oh, absolutely." Bumblebee agreed quickly.
"Without a doubt." Ratchet confirmed.
"He'd be all over this like Cyber Rabbits to a monitor." Bulkhead added. Sari just looked at him. "What? As soon as you turn on a new monitor,l back on Cybertron, a Cyber Rabbit immediately jumps up there and puts its ears up. It's great for reception!"
Emma looked to the TV screen, which was showing how the trash bots all over the city had been malfunctioning as of late. It was due to a contract dispute between City Hall and Sumdac Systems. Emma wasn't entirely sure what that meant, but it probably had something to do with money - if Powell was involved, then she was fairly certain that was going to be the cause.
Emma nodded. "Yeah, your dad would never have let this sort of thing happen in the first place." She agreed. "And, even if it did, it's … as Bulkhead said."
Sari sighed again, but this time it was sadly. "Do you think his reputation will be ... you know, tarnished beyond repair?" Even her pigtails drooped.
Where did she hear that statement from? Emma went over, and hugged Sari around the shoulder. "Kiddo, the people of this city are a lot of things, but stupid isn't one of them - they'll catch on, sooner or later." She said, confidently.
"Do you have to go to work today?" Sari asked her.
Emma shook her head. "Miko's working today, so I have a day off."
"The internet says it's illegal to make a kid work." Honeybee said slowly.
"She's doing work experience." Emma replied.
"Really?"
"Are you gonna question Mamma Fuyano about it?" Emma asked, and watched as Honeybee shook her head quickly.
Jazz must have told her about the scary little Asian lady.
Still, Michiko Fuyano was a good boss. She had a strong work ethic, but, she was fair. Plus, she was friends with Isaac and the Fanzones and Officer Mackenzie. So, that was a good sign.
She also paid her employees really well. Which, in Emma's situation, was probably the best part of it.
Optimus had been watching the TV silently, and both girls looked up at him as he came to stand behind the couch and observe the mayhem happening onscreen. "Even so, this could be a good opportunity for us to repair broken bonds with the humans - as well as help them clear out some of this garbage. Autobots," he added, as Sari and Emma blinked up at him. "Transform and roll out!"
As this was taking place, Emma tried to catch Prowl's eye, but he stubbornly seemed to refuse to even acknowledge her existence, and sped out of the base.
Emma sighed, and decided to ride with Ratchet - even listening to the doc bot's complaining was better than dwelling on what she might have done to make Prowl hate her.
As the other Autobots shifted garbage bags onto the ship, to be taken away (to where, who knows?), and Sari supervised, Emma sat on the railings by the water. She alternated between watching Capi use his trunk as a fly swat against the insects that had been lured in by the recent garbage influx, and watching Ratchet use his electro-magnetic powers to move sections of a big pile of garbage.
"You know," Emma told Capi, swinging her legs back and forth and thinking about the Autobots regaining their place within society. "This might actually work . . . "
He glanced at her. "You know it won't." He reminded her. "Not today, at least."
As this was being said, Ratchet was moving a pile of trash that happened to have a car in the midst. Undeterred, the old Autobot continued with what he was doing, that is until the owner of the car intervened.
"Hey, that's my car!" The dark-skinned, very short old man yelled, waving his arms about. "Eh, put it down, now!"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Ratchet said gruffly, rolling his optics, as he disengaged his electro-magnetic powers.
Emma glanced over her shoulder, and watched as the car and the trash splashed into the waters behind her. "Tomorrow doesn't look so good, either." She commented.
The old guy gaped. "You . . . " He turned back to Ratchet angrily, and pointed. "You, you're gonna pay for that! All you lousy alien machines, you're gonna pay, I swear!"
Emma sat in the background between them and watched as Ratchet stomped his foot down. She clung onto the railings and Capi steadied her with his trunk (seriously, how was somebody so short so strong?!) but the old guy wasn't so lucky - he was knocked down.
Ratchet pointed a finger at the old guy and said: "You're the one who parked that thing under a trash heap!"
"Now, listen up, you over-grown vacuum cleaner," the old man was back on his feet in an instant. There was a lot of finger-pointing going on. If they'd been football players then they would've been shirt-fronting each other by that stage. "That trash heap wasn't there when I parked it!" He suddenly gasped as Ratchet used the pincers that generated his electro-magnetic powers to pick him up by the back of his blue vest.
"And how is that my fault?!" Ratchet demanded to know, as the old man squirmed and protested and claimed that he knew his rights, and was calling the police ... or a tow-truck!
Emma sighed again. "I miss having a granddad." She said to no one in particular. She glanced behind her as Bumblebee and Optimus face-palmed in unison, and Honeybee looked thoroughly mystified. They were watching, of course.
Still … I love these guys . . .
Captain Fanzone arrived suddenly. He called through a megaphone: "You! Quit harassing the Autobot!"
The old man let his shoulders sag.
Ratchet seemed to smirk, but then he looked annoyed, as Fanzone spoke again, slowly this time.
"You! Putdownthe citizen!"
"Bet he never thought he'd have to say that." Capi commented.
"This is why he hates machines." Emma smiled slightly.
When Ratchet dropped the old guy, Fanzone helped him up and said that the city would compensate him for his loss, and that he should go about his business.
The old man dusted himself off, and then pointed at Ratchet one last time. "This isn't over, tin-can!" He threatened.
Ratchet clicked his pincers at the man, who ran off, terrified.
"And you, my Autobot friend," Fanzone said, as the other Autobots hurried over. "Could stand to work on your people skills!"
"There's nothing wrong with my people skills!" Ratchet said firmly, crossing his arms.
"You know it's bad when you make Captain Fanzone look like the friendly one!" Sari pointed out.
"Hey!" Ratchet and Fanzone cried, in unison, glaring at her as she grinned.
Honeybee still looked a bit bewildered. Emma wondered if she was wondering what she had gotten herself into.
Optimus, however, agreed with Sari, and suggested that it would be a good idea if somebody worked with Ratchet on projecting a more pleasant disposition.
Bumblebee whispered to Sari: "I pity the poor glitch who gets stuck with that assignment." The two of them laughed.
"Ahem?" Emma coughed pointedly, as she jumped down from the railings.
Bumblebee and Sari faltered. "He means us, doesn't he?"
Sari gaped. "What are you smiling at?" She asked Prowl.
"Apparently there is one job less dignified than hauling trash." He replied.
Sari stuck her tongue out at him.
Emma, however, tried to catch his eye again, but once again he pointedly refused to and sped off at the word from Optimus.
Emma just sighed again, as Ratchet crossed his arms and glared at Bumblebee.
The yellow bot transformed and then opened his door, which Emma took as her cue to jump in and did, along with Capi, leaving Sari to ride with Ratchet and completely ignore the fact that her key was acting up again.
"I helped that human get to safety the other day," Honeybee told Bulkhead, as her brother and Ratchet left. "And, he didn't seem nearly quite so … umm … disagreeable?"
"Yeah … that might've been because it was you and not Ratchet." Bulkhead told her.
They watched as Ratchet was suddenly forced to slam on his brakes, because of a group of tradesmen who carried a number of miscellaneous house-building materials across in front of him, such as panes of glass and spools of copper wiring.
"Come on, move!" They heard Ratchet yell. "I haven't got all day! Oh, no, not the strutting beams!"
They presently became stuck in a traffic jam, much to their annoyance.
"Move it, already!" Ratchet yelled, annoyed, and beeped his horn continuously. "Don't you humans have anything better to do?! Don't even think about it, Empire Homes!" He warned the construction truck that was about to pull out in front of him.
Emma pitied poor Sari, stuck with the grumpy old ambulance bot. She tsked, however, when Bumblebee used his sirens to get through traffic, and Ratchet followed suit. They reminded her of the cops from a movie she had watched once.
"Then again, it probably is an emergency, because Ratchet was getting agitated." Capi whispered to Emma.
"Hmm . . . " Emma began.
Just then, a man jumped out in Ratchet's path, forcing him to slam on the brakes.
Emma hoped Sari was wearing her seatbelt, still.
"Someone help me!" The man cried. "My wife is about to have a baby and our car broke down! We need to get to a hospital right away!"
It was none other than Spike and Carly Witwicky.
Emma looked over at the blonde-haired lady with the bulging stomach. She didn't even register that they either worked at Sumdac Tower or had before the takeover.
She was remembering something . . .
Three Years Ago . . .
"Has Mum gone to bed?"
"Huh?" Emma looked up, as her older sister Sarah came out into the family room - Sarah's belly preceded her through the door. "Yeah, she has … why?"
"My back's killing me . . . " Sarah said. "But, it's probably nothing . . . "
"Yeah, nah, go tell her." Emma suggested. "She only just went to bed, and she'll wanna know."
So, Sarah shuffled up to their mum's room.
Emma went back to what she was doing, and … things suddenly began to happen.
A quick call to the maternity nurse urged Lee to bring Sarah in.
"It's not just Brexton hicks?" Emma said quietly, as Lee went to wake up Sarah's partner, Cody.
"I … don't know . . . " Sarah groaned, as she went up to her room.
"Cody," Lee was saying. "You need to get up. The baby's coming and we have to go to the hospital."
"Can't it wait 'til morning?" Cody mumbled.
Later, he would remark that he felt a laser-like glare on the back of his head. Lee didn't even have to say anything. Cody was up like a shot.
. . .
. . .
. . .
Lee called Emma a few times that night and into the early hours of the morning, and sent her a list of things that her sister would need.
Emma tried not to think about how scared she thought her sister had sounded in the background after one call, and instead tried to locate all of the items that she needed.
"Swaddle?" She said at one point. "What the Hell's a swaddle?"
. . .
. . .
. . .
"Where is it?!" Emma exclaimed, as she held the Wii-U gamepad in her hands and controlled the character on screen around a vast landscape. "Okay, there's the rock … now, how do I get it back to the other rocks?! Ooh, what a pretty sunrise!" She added, stopping to snap a screenshot via the Wii-U's connection with her social media account. "There! I'll upload it to my screenshot gallery! Now, where's that Korok?!"
. . .
. . .
. . .
Emma finally managed to fall asleep sometime just after five … for about ten minutes.
Her phone then rang, and she reached across her IKEA shark to grab it.
"Hello?"
"It's a boy! Opie Taylor!"
Tears sprung to Emma's eyes. "Ohhhh . . . " She whispered, as she got up from the couch and hurried to tell her father, who was asleep up in
the study where he had been sleeping for the last however many years since deciding to shift out of the main bedroom.
Not even the video call had prepared Emma to meet her nephew later on that day.
And, unlike when she and Sarah had visited their cousin and his partner and their newborn baby fifteen years ago, there was no issue. Emma wasn't - that - nervous, and nobody said that it looked like she was going to drop the baby. It just convinced her that her sister was a nicer person than Ricki-Lee. And, maybe that Emma herself wasn't such a failure as a woman, but either . . .
Emma was out of Bumblebee's alt. mode before anybody else could move. "Are you okay?" She asked, unnecessarily, taking Carly by the arms.
"I-I think so . . . " Carly looked both scared and excited, and just the slightest bit awed. She raised an eyebrow suddenly. "Umm, what's that behind you?"
"Nothing." Capi said calmly.
"It's nothing." Carly agreed.
Emma rolled her eyes.
As Ratchet finally agreed to help out, Emma and Spike helped Carly into the back of the ambulance's alt mode. Emma then returned to Bumblebee.
"What's going on?" He asked her.
She told him in as little detail as possible.
" — !"
Everything was going fine … well, sort of.
"How's it going for them, Sari?" Emma asked through Bumblebee's com. link.
"Umm … hey, Daniel's dad?" Sari asked, and Emma imagined her looking over her shoulder. "Is everything okay?"
"Yes!" Spoke called back.
There was a brief pause, and then Carly's yell of pain could be heard.
"Okay?!" She could be heard to say. "It is not okay! You!You did this to me! Get out, Spike! Out!"
"What — ?! Hey, Carly, wait a minute — !"
"What's happening, Sari?" Emma asked.
"She's trying to push him out onto the road." Sari told Emma.
"Where do you think you're going, Spike?!" Carly suddenly snapped. "You stay right here!"
"Are they okay?" Capi wanted to know.
"They're fine." Ratchet said gruffly. Then: "What in the name of Iacon — ?!"
"Who is that?!" Emma gasped, even though she already knew.
There could be no mistaking the orange, red, and grey Transformer.
They had been forced to screech to a stop to avoid an oncoming armored truck. The truck was followed by Wreck-Gar, who was brandishing a back axel like a hockey-stick.
Emma, Capi, Sari, Carly, and Spike found themselves on the street as Bumblebee and Ratchet transformed.
Spike and Carly claimed that they were going to call and a cab, and hurried off, as Sari and Bumblebee raced after Wreck-Gar, followed by Ratchet.
Emma glanced between the two groups, torn, before hurrying after the parents-to-be, with Capi clinging to her shoulder.
"I have a mobile - uh, I mean a cell phone!" Emma said, pulling out her silver phone and dialing 0-0-0, before remembering to dial 9-1-1.
She waited, and then the lady asked her what she needed. "An ambulance, please."
The lady asked her what her emergency was, and then Spike grabbed the phone from her and cried: "My wife is about to have a baby, and we just got attacked by a giant robot!"
"What is your location, sir?" The lady was ever-pleasant.
"Wait!" Emma suddenly cried, grabbing her phone back and hanging up. She had just spotted somebody coming towards her.
Honeybee, with her holoform projected in the driver's seat, pulled up alongside them.
"What's happening?!" She asked them, through her holoform.
"Carly's having a baby, she needs to get to the hospital!"
The eyes of Honeybee's holoform widened. "Get in!" She ordered, as her holoform leaned over and threw open the passenger-side door.
Spike eyed the small interior, as Emma laid the seat down so that she and Spike could climb in; Carly would sit in the front. "Uh, wouldn't it be better if — "
"Spike, get in!" Carly snapped.
"Yes, my love."
As they set off, Carly was leaning back (Honeybee had laid the seat back quite a bit, and Emma was glad that she was small enough to fit) and then she said to Emma: "Can I - hold your - hand?!"
"Sure." Emma said, unknowingly holding out her hand, and Carly just about broke it when she grabbed and squeezed it.
Carly then grabbed Spike's hand, too.
"It hurts so bad!" Carly screeched.
"We know!" Emma and Spike exclaimed.
Sari, Bumblebee, and Ratchet, meanwhile, were trying to find Wreck-Gar and the sample of Powell's Micro-Bots that had been taken.
Sari called Emma, to find out where she was.
"Emma, where are you?!" Sari wanted to know. There was a lot of noise coming from the background on both sides.
"I'm with Honeybee!" Emma sounded like her phone was on loud-speaker.
"Why?! What happened?!"
"Hold on a second!" She began breathing weird, and so did somebody else that was with her. "Ha-ha-ha! Hee-hoo-hee!"
Sari raised an eyebrow. "Umm, Emma?" Is that Daniel's Mum? "Is this a bad time?"
"We're having a baby!" Spike's voice suddenly yelled.
"She'll call you back." Capi said quietly.
The line then went dead.
"Problem?" Ratchet asked testily.
"Emma's having a baby?" Sari blinked. She hadn't really understood her nanny's message, although she knew it wasn't that. She shrugged.
Ratchet grumbled: "Just don't tell Prowl, or else he'll really have something to complain about!"
"But … he hasn't spoken to her in three days … how could you have noticed his feelings towards Emma?" Sari asked him.
"It's a little bit hard not to!" Ratchet snapped. "And they call me the grumpy one?"
Emma paced around the waiting room at the local maternity hospital. She memorised the names of the nurses - Aprilynne, Maybelle, Juniper, and Fred - and chatted quietly with Capi about what Spike and Carly might name Daniel's little sibling.
She got given some coffee in a paper cup by a bot pushing a cart.
"Thank you . . . " Emma said, and then she gazed at the bot's cart. "Wait … aren't you the janitor?"
"I get two paychecks this way." The bot responded, before moving on.
Later on, Emma and Capi found a vending machine by the door.
You are getting hungry . . . It told them.
"I am . . . " Emma realised, staring hungrily at the packets of Sits Chips and Smithers Chips Ahoy and chocolates like Mercury Bars and Double-Ws.
It's time for a snack! It added.
"I'm also a single guardian with a part-time job." Emma sighed. Those prices are outrageous!
Aww . . .
Emma and Capi returned to the waiting area.
"I sure could go for a sausage sizzle, though . . . " Emma sighed. It's four o'clock, I missed lunch!
"What is this, a hardware store?" Capi asked her, remembering what she'd told him about where she was from.
"Hot dogs, only two bucks!" A vendor-bot called, pushing a cart through the doors.
"That'll do!" Emma exclaimed, jumping up, as she and Nurse Maybelle hurried over to the vendor.
"Right on time." Maybelle added, pointing to a sign that said that the hot dog vendor-bot always showed up at 4pm.
"Oh." Emma nodded.
Forty-five minutes later, Emma jumped up when Nurse Fred came into the waiting room, wearing a big smile on his face. He motioned over his shoulder and Emma, feeling slightly awed, crept into the private hospital room, with Capi invisible and clinging to her shoulder.
They peered in, to where Spike was hovering over the bed, looking proud. Late afternoon sunlight streamed in through the window, and illuminated Carly's tired but caring face, and the face of the tiny newborn that she cradled in her arms.
Emma stopped, feeling like she was intruding.
Spike glanced up and saw Emma, and motioned her closer. She crept in, feeling slightly reverent, and also special to be allowed in here.
"Well, here she is," Carly whispered, drawing back the blankets to reveal more of the baby boy's face. "Nancy Jennifer Witwicky . . . "
"Aww . . . " Emma said softly, standing at the edge of the bed. She wasn't sure what else to say, except: "C-congratulations . . . " Even though she thought that she should say 'she's beautiful' or 'she's perfect' or whatever else it was that people would usually say.
At least she didn't say 'I hope she doesn't get jaundice like my nephew did'.
"Thank you." Spike smiled proudly, like any new father would, just as two more people showed up at the door.
"Mum!" Carly cried, as the elderly lady came over to give her a hug.
And, Daniel, who had been brought over by his grandmother, stood by the door and said: "Is it a boy?"
"No," Spike shook his head. "This is your new little sister."
Daniel did not look at all happy, and so Emma said: "You've got two choices, Daniel." He looked up at her, recognising her. "You can love your new little sister, or … I dunno, send her back?" She joked, as Spike chuckled.
"Send it back." Daniel said bluntly.
Emma and Spike exchanged a glance.
"Did he get over it?" Sari asked Emma later on that night. She was sitting on her swing chair, looking over at her nanny who was sitting with her feet swinging over the side of the mezzanine.
It seemed strange that the area near the slide didn't have a railing, but beneath the opening they had put a bunch of large cushions (more stolen merchandise).
Emma, who along with Capi had been picked up by Honeybee (who had gone to help out with the Wreck-Gar problem after dropping Emma, Capi, Spike, and Carly off at the hospital) and brought back to the base, shrugged. "He said something about a partner in crime, so I assume they'll work it out."
"Great." Sari said, somewhat carelessly. She didn't have a lot of time for the Witwicky family, although she didn't exactly hate them. "Now, with St. Valentine's Day coming up," she went on. "Tell me … how are you and Prowl gonna sort out your problems?" Watching as Emma just about jumped out of her skin, Sari then gasped as her nanny fell off the mezzanine. "Em?!"
Emma just groaned and didn't move, from where she had landed in the pile of big cushions.
It was soon February twelfth, two days before the day that all lovers loved to love (in a loving way), and all sane people wanted to be done with as soon as was physically possible.
Emma stood in the bathroom after a shower, holding a hairbrush like a microphone. She held her other hand out, and sang: "Do you feel the same? Am I only dreaming? Or is this burning … an eternal flame?" She turned her head up to the ceiling.
"Uh, what are you doing?" A voice came from the doorway, and Emma jumped. She glanced over, to see Sari looking at her quizzically.
Emma immediately straightened up, sheepishly, lowering the hairbrush and adjusting her towel so that Sari wouldn't see the Decepticon pendant that she usually kept hidden. "Oh, Sari, I ... didn't hear you come in . . . "
"No, you were ... singing too loudly?" Sari put her hands on her hips. "Okay, what's up? You're not the type to go singing love songs a few days before St. Valentine's Day. This is about Prowl, isn't it?" She asked suddenly.
"No!" Emma snapped, feeling her face turn red. "And, it doesn't matter anyway, because he hates me!" She added, fore she could stop herself.
Sari's expression changed slightly. "Why would he?" The little eight-year-old asked.
Emma swallowed. "I think that it might be … one of two reasons … maybe because I didn't tell him about my … uh … transformation . . . ?"
"It isn't that." Sari shook her head.
"Then … is it because I … went to that nightclub with Jazz?" Emma guessed, and Sari nodded. "Oh, great, so he's … jealous?"
Sari shrugged. "Yeah, well, I could've told you that ... heck, Ratchet could've told you - it's so obvious."
Emma gulped. "Really?"
Sari nodded. "Yes." She said, firmly. "It's like when I got Soundwave, and Bulkhead was all jealous because I totally ditched him."
Emma wasn't entirely sure that was the same thing, but she didn't say so.
Sari slammed one fist into her palm. "See, the thing is, Prowl feels ditched! Optimus asked him to watch out for you when the Decepticons were targeting you, and so Prowl was used to being your guardian, used to being your favourite cyber-ninja! He was the one who helped you out, and the only one who Ratchet would let sit by your bedside every day when you were in a coma - even I wasn't allowed in that often! He stayed with you for pretty much the whole entire time. You know what he's like. Like I said he was worried about you more than anybody else!"
Emma froze. Prowl really was ... worried? About ... me . . . ?
"I know!" Sari said suddenly. "That's it!"
"What's it?!" Emma cried, not liking how Sari's eyes had suddenly lit up.
"I just had a great idea!" Sari told her. "I'll go and let Prime know what's happening on Sunday!" She hurried off, and Emma couldn't go after her because she still wasn't dressed properly yet.
"Will Optimus go along with whatever she's got planned?" Emma asked Capi, who had suddenly appeared next to her.
"Affirmative." He replied.
"Should … should I be worried?"
"Affirmative."
Two days later, Emma found herself sitting astride the black motorcycle, wearing a new pair of tight black jeans and a silver halter-neck top, and black gloves. She was glad that her face was hidden by a black helmet, as she and Prowl cruised the streets of Detroit on patrol, because she was sure that she was either blushing or pale. This was the most uncomfortable that she had felt in a long time.
Whether it was because Prowl was jealous, or or because he was still refusing to speak to her, Emma knew not.
Prowl stopped on the side of a street, and said: "We'll proceed on foot from here."
Emma nodded and dismounted, and Prowl transformed, before assuming his holoform and walking towards a street that had the greatest name ever - Elegant Approach.
Everywhere Emma looked, she could see couples enjoying romantic, candlelit dinners together, holding hands, and drinking wine. Emma stopped to look at a couple that were sitting on a bench on the opposite side of the street. The man was big and wore a trench-coat, and the woman was equally as big and also wore a trench-coat - they made the perfect couple. Like two peas in a pod.
It made Emma feel sad, thinking how perfect lovers were together, and that she might never get to experience that. She was the only single person left in the family, the only virgin, the only one that hadn't brought her partner over for Christmas lunch yet . . .
Prowl turned around, to see that Emma had stopped, and coughed.
Emma glanced up at him and, for a moment, their eyes met.
Prowl felt that familiar electric shock go through him, but it was tinged with bitterness, especially when he caught the hurt look in Emma's eyes when he turned away.
He just didn't know how to approach the subject with her.
"Hurry up." He said stiffly, walking away from her. "Don't slow me down." He added. Wait, why did I just say that?!
"Oh." Emma felt her stomach start to twist itself into knots, as she stared at Prowl's retreating back. "So, that's how it is … I only hold you back … hey hang on, wait!" She hurried to catch up with him.
The trench-coat-wearing couple watched the troubled pair.
They both had red eyes.
"Strika?" Lugnut said quietly.
"I know." Strika muttered, in her heavy Russian accent. She was only visiting this strange little planet - she had arrived following one of her comrades, but would be leaving soon after gaining some information that she was required to distribute to other Decepticons. Meanwhile, she was helping with this particular mission. Her holoform had short, closely-cropped blonde hair, and wore combat clothes similar to her spark-partner's. "It is an honor to serve our great leader, Megatron, and what better way to do so than by destroying a beautiful false couple on the very day the humans worship love . . . ?"
Prowl stopped walking after about ten minutes, allowing Emma to catch up to him.
Together, the two of them stared up at the restaurant they had just encountered.
Mamma Fuyano's.
"How ... did I end up at work on my day off?" Emma wanted to know.
"I'm … really not sure … I didn't even realise where we were." Prowl replied.
"Ha!" Emma said suddenly. "I got you to acknowledge my existence!" She declared, pointing at him.
Prowl raised an eyebrow, glancing at her pointing finger and then at her.
Emma looked back at him, biting her lip and hardly daring to breathe.
"Here." Prowl said suddenly, handing her her glasses case. "I should have given these back to you days ago."
"Then why didn't you?"
Prowl didn't know how to answer that.
Just then, Mamma leapt out at them from the shop-front.
"Ahh!" Emma and Prowl both exclaimed, grabbing each others hands despite themselves.
"You two come in!" Mamma sounded slightly angry, as she got behind them and pushed them both into her restaurant. "We also run fortune-telling service as special February deal! Today only! In! In!"
"B-but I — " Emma really didn't want to eat where she worked!
"Now!"
"Hai!"
Prowl and Emma soon sat side-by-side on cushions, eating Smithers Chips Ahoy from a bowl and waiting for Mamma Fuyano to come into the room, which looked like something right out of a movie. Emma and Prowl looked all around - at the cards on the table, at the table itself, at the curtains hanging around the small room ... in fact, they looked everywhere but at each other.
At one point, Emma murmured: "At least Miko isn't working tonight . . . " She'd never hear the end of it if Miko found out.
"Mmm." Prowl agreed.
Mamma Fuyano saw all of this as she came in, and knelt on the other side of the table.
"Welcome," she said, formally, taking away the bowl of chips and slapping at Emma's hand when she reached for one last one. "Towel?" She offered a handful of colourful towels to Emma and Prowl.
"Arigatoō." They both said, automatically, and Emma reached, before waiting until Prowl had taken one of the towels before choosing hers.
"I see," Mamma Fuyano said, and both Emma and Prowl froze. "You," he looked at Emma. "Are dominant girl by bloodline, but choose more submissive approach for fear of hurting other." As Emma gaped at her, she turned to Prowl and added: "You are used to being by yourself, and doing things for yourself. Like her, you know this." She nodded, and folded her hands. "You," she continued talking to Prowl. "Chose yellow towel. Is comforting colour that warms heart and soul. You know those like this."
Emma and Prowl sat back, both of them thinking about a certain yellow bot and a little red-haired girl . . .
"You need to exert influence and express yourself!" Mamma Fuyano told Prowl. "Need to open up intuition and listen to inner voice that guide you towards the light," she took the towel from him. "Like this radiant yellow! Only good things come from warm heart." She reached out and took the pink towel from Emma. "You in need of tenderness and delicacy. Develop artistic sense. Imagine antelope run gracefully, and look into this delicate soft pink, representing your sensitivity and aesthetic needs."
Emma and Prowl were both too stunned to say anything by this stage.
Mamma Fuyano turned around to get something.
"Is your boss insane?" Prowl suddenly murmured to Emma, who could only nod - she didn't dare speak.
They just watched as Mamma Fuyano turned back around and shuffled the cards on the table, and then she told Prowl to pick three.
He did, feeling slightly unsettled.
"Ask self simple question." Mama Fuyano said. "No need tell what is. Keep in head."
Prowl nodded.
Mama Fuyano examined the cards.
"Wall Card,' she said, turning the card face-side-up on the table, to reveal the brick-wall artwork. "Is symbolic of holding back, but always there is opportunity to break through walls we may build around our hearts."
Does she mean that Prowl keeps putting up walls, or is it me? Emma wondered.
"Both!" Mamma Fuyano snapped, and Emma flinched sharply before trying to clear her mind.
Mamma Fuyano turned around the next card. "Butterfly. Simple one - symbolize change and transformation. Change must be made to achieve newer things."
Prowl nodded, understanding part of the point.
Mamma Fuyano turned over the last card. "Uroboros." She said.
"What?" Emma and Prowl asked in unison.
"Snake swallows tail!" Mama Fuyano snapped, brandishing the card with the very symbol on. "Sometimes dragon, though is less common! Means energy is endless, and ability to manipulate energy is key! Understanding that rebirth occur in each moment! That is source of power! Power everywhere! Everywhere!"
"Okay!" Emma and Prowl both exclaimed.
Mamma Fuyano extended the fan of cards to Emma and, after a quick glance at Prowl, Emma selected three.
Mama Fuyano revealed the cards.
"Lobster." She said, and Emma stared at the pinkish-purple pincer-adorned shellfish. Pinchy-pinchy! "Mean hidden psychic power, but have hard exoskeleton, meaning armor that protect the tender beauty."
Emma blushed. Prowl looked thoughtful.
Mama Fuyano turned over the next card. "Shield. Is card called Empress, abide by one motto - From love I do come, from love I do go. She know we go into situation with shield of love, as should all know. Always protected. When shield is of true love, shield is emblem of love, Venus. love require vulnerability." She looked piercingly at Emma, and Emma felt tears come to her eyes, pricking at the backs of them.
Mamma Fuyano turned over the final card. "Suit Of Wands." She said. "Represents fire. A double-edged sword. Can either consume or create, and represents extremes of love and hate." She examined Emma and Prowl carefully. "To talk of fire card is to talk of primal energy, spirituality, determination, strength, intuition, creativity, ambition, original thought, and the seeds through which life springs forth. Negatively, at times, can carry active messages of competitiveness. Often relate to career or sense of purpose in world, but because of connection to charm and desire, can also deliver strong love guidance, too. It mean change is about to occur." She suddenly held the cards out to Emma and Prowl again. "Choose last card, together."
Emma and Prowl exchanged a glance, and then together reached out and chose the card directly in the middle of the fan.
Mamma Fuyano nodded to herself, and turned over the card, not looking at it.
"Ace Of Cups." She said, in a tone that implied she had suspected just as much. "Represents issues of love, intimacy, deeper feelings, and compassion. Can mean new beginning of great possibility in this aspect. Start of new relationship, or even deeper connection to existing one — "
She was cut off suddenly when Emma stood up and ran from the room without a word. She tried to keep the tears from flowing until she was safely out of the restaurant.
Prowl went to stand up and follow her, but Mamma Fuyano grabbed his arm. She had a stronger grip then he'd been expecting, and her dark eyes were suddenly fierce. "You know connection the two of you have! Is more than feeling you get from looking at her, more than sense you get from touching her, more than feeling of competition you get just from her existence! But, there is deeper connection you both not realise!"
Prowl didn't say anything.
Mamma Fuyano clasped his arm, her fingernails digging into his skin. "This is love that burn like a flame - one that already ignited and now will never go out!" She then let go of his arm and stepped back. "Get Emma to check phone for update of roster," she said, in her completely normal-sounding voice. "Also, slight change to payroll as well. Not bad, is good." She waved dismissively.
Prowl just stared at her.
Mamma Fuyano then sighed. "What Miko doing here? She was going to art gallery — "
"Mamma Fuyano!" Miko burst into the room, clutching her sketchbook and looking both scared and excited (in a different way than Carly had, days ago). "Outside! I'm sure that it's the Decepticon who nearly shot my plane down! See?!"She opened up her sketchbook and showed them the quick sketch that she'd done.
It was cartoonish and not in colour, but there was no mistaking who it was.
Without a moment's hesitation, Prowl ran past her, out of the room.
Emma stared up at Lugnut, who she knew, and the large Decepticon next to him. She didn't recognize the stranger, but thought that she might be Strika, the femme Decepticon that she had read about on the internet back home.
They were both looking down at her, and she could only stand there, as the two huge Decepticons confronted her.
She was frozen. The purple femme Strika was an especially terrifying new foe, and why was she here, anyway?
And, why couldn't Emma transform? Would that help? It didn't matter, because it wasn't happening.
"Now, come with us quietly." Strika had a Russian accent, though it lacked the cuteness that Emma imagined the Jet-Twins would have. "And, we will not hurt that cyber-ninja mech you are with."
Emma clenched her fists. "Why in Primus's name would you give me that choice?" She wanted to know.
Strika and Lugnut exchanged a glance.
"Oh, how can she not remember?!" Lugnut lamented suddenly. "Of the understanding between her and our glorious leader Megatron?!"
Great, yell it out for the whole entire world to hear, why don't ya? Emma thought, cringing as she wondered if anybody could hear. Oh, wait, this isLugnut. They heard him back on Cybertron.
"Lugnut," Strika suddenly said quietly. "Remember what the black Cybertronian Tapir said. That her memories are linked to the All-Spark fragments."
As is my transformation . . . Emma suddenly remembered. The All-Spark was the lock, but … the fragments are the keys . . . ?
"It - it's not that I don't . . . " Emma stammered, and both Lugnut and Strika looked down at her. "I-I mean … I won't let you hurt Prowl either way, b-but . . . "
"Wouldn't you rather do this the easy way?" Strika asked her flatly. "For his sake?"
Emma just nodded mutely.
Just then, Prowl came flying out of nowhere, in his robot-mode, and grabbed her, transforming swiftly so that she found herself sitting on his alt. mode as he sped away from the Decepticons.
She didn't have her helmet on, but, it didn't matter - she suddenly felt safer with him than she would have felt anywhere else in the world right now.
"After them!" Lugnut bellowed.
Emma clung to the black motorcycle, seeing that the speedo-meter was already well above one hundred, as they turned onto the street named Contrite Street.
"Emma!" Prowl's voice called over the roar of his engine. "Under no circumstances are you to hand yourself over to the Decepticons!"
"But, what if you get hurt, Prowl?!" Emma shouted. Her heart hammered in her chest some more. "I'd never forgive myself if that happened and I could have prevented it!"
"Would you ... feel a lot worse if it were Jazz?" Prowl asked quietly, but she heard him perfectly.
A chill of ice ran down her spine. "Th-that's beside the point!" She protested. "He's just a friend!" She felt the motorcycle's engine growl slightly in response. "What?!" She cried, just as a missile arced over their heads, and Prowl slammed on the brakes.
They watched in horror as the missile hit a nearby cluster of buildings, which burst into flames.
As Prowl and Emma stopped, people began pouring from the building, screaming in terror as flames quickly enveloped it. Whatever it was made of, it clearly wasn't my up to safety standards.
Not only that, but, it was an apartment complex that had a lot of families with young children in it.
Emma was frozen. She saw three year old girl screaming for her mother, and a man helping his grandfather out of the building, and a young Japanese mother clutched her baby boy to her chest, as blood streamed down her face where she'd been hit by a piece of concrete.
She then began looking around wildly. "Aria?!" She screamed, her dark eyes frantic. She looked up at the glow of fifth-story window, and let out an anguished screech. "Aria!" She grabbed the nearest person, which happened to be Officer Mackenzie.
"Daijoubu ka?!" Mackenzie said sharply.
The mother screamed something in rapid Japanese, pointing at the second window on the right of the fifth floor of building, which was now almost completely engulfed with flames. "ARIA!"
Something very painful was happening in Emma's mind right then. The name Aria … it was very similar to the name Ariel … the name of that little sparkling from one of Emma's memories as Ember . . .
And, though she hadn't understood the woman's Japanese, she suddenly knew what she had been saying.
That her daughter was still in the building!
Emma jumped off of Prowl's alt. mode and, with astonishing speed, covered the ground between him and the building's main entrance. She was inside before Prowl had even transformed.
"Emma, no!" Prowl shouted, just as Lugnut transformed, placing himself in front of Prowl.
"Not so fast, Autobot!" Lugnut bellowed.
People began screaming, yelling that it was a Decepticon.
Mackenzie, who was administering first-aid to a man with a suspected broken leg, looked up, and swore, although she also didn't stop what she was doing.
Prowl clenched his fists. His spark was half cold with dread, and half filled with a fiery rage at the Decepticon that was standing in front of him.
Even if Emma transforms into Ember … she might not make it out of there!
The building was burning, and the fire was moving quickly. The heat was already intense.
Prowl quickly sent a message to the other Autobots, just as Strika attacked him from behind.
Emma ran through the front door of the building, and immediately began coughing due to the smoke.
Many years ago, her sister's ex-partner Ben had seen a car on fire on the freeway, and he had rushed in without thinking, pulling the driver (who had melted plastic dripping down onto his face) out of the vehicle before going back with a hammer because he'd seen a baby car seat in the back. Thankfully, the driver had been the only occupant, but Ben had said that if he'd thought about it at the time then he probably wouldn't have done it.
Arahia, brother . . . She silently whispered to his spirit, as she kept on moving.
There was a section of the ground floor already on fire, and it was spreading quickly.
A young man ran up to her, looking terrified. "You're going the wrong way!" He yelled.
"Get out!" Emma replied, coughing as she pointed to the exit through the smoke, and he ran past her. Emma, meanwhile, with more fear than she had ever felt in her life, ran towards the stairs, mentally trying to piece together the layout of the unfamiliar building, and counting in her head where the Japanese woman had been pointing to. The smoke was already affecting her eyes, making them water, and it entered her lungs as well, even with the makeshift face-mask she had created with her top.
Is my name really supposed to Ember?! She wondered at one point, and that was when she felt a strange sensation about her . . .
On the Elite Guard Flagship, that was slowly making its way through space and back towards Cybertron, Jazz had silently had enough of Sentinel's bragging about the time he'd single-servodly fought off over six thousand organic spiders that spat armor-melting venom.
Without Honeybee here, he had no one to exchange glances with in an unspoken understanding that Sentinel was lying.
Jazz quietly slipped out of the deck, and walked down the halls, towards where their prisoner, Starscream, was.
Starscream glared at Jazz from behind the glass, and said something that Jazz could not hear.
Jazz was not paying attention to that, however. He had just noticed something very important - a piece of silver material, draped over Starscream's left shoulder.
It was the scarf that Emma had been wearing the day they'd captured Starscream!
Jazz stared at the scarf, and then back up at Starscream.
Jazz glanced down at the scarf again, and then back up at Starscream. His cool blue viz-optics met the Decepticon's burning red optics. Starscream spoke again and, this time, Jazz heard him loud and clear: "Don't you dare Autobot!"
"You sayin' you gonna keep it?" Jazz stared coolly at Starscream, and the Decepticon didn't answer, but there was a fierce look in his optics. "You jivin' me, 'Con?" Jazz crossed his arms.
"I don't have to explain myself to the likes of you!" Starscream replied angrily.
Something about his tone must have given him away.
"Whatever you're thinking, I don't believe it." Jazz said firmly, crossing his arms.
Starscream's red optics flashed. "You don't know her like I do — !" He broke off suddenly, freezing as a sudden wave of fear shot through him.
He hadn't felt this kind of sixth-sense in such a long time, but he knew at once what it was.
Jazz was just watching him.
Starscream paused, and then he said, rather calmly: "If you doubt me, Autobot, then have your commander contact the Autobots on Earth. Don't give me that look!" He snapped impatiently, correctly interpreting Jazz's expression. "Or … would you rather the next thing you hear from them be that we've lost her again?"
Optimus swung his axe, but Strika was good - she managed to dodge it swiftly, despite her bulk. She fired at him. Her firepower was incredible, and Optimus only just managed to dodge in time thanks to Honeybee who had just gotten there and pushed him out of the way, and Bulkhead showed up to help, too.
Miko, who was watching from nearby, was thrilled.
Meanwhile, Prowl, Bumblebee, and Ratchet were fighting against Lugnut.
It was no wonder why Strika was considered Megatron's General Of Destruction - there was plenty of that happening all around them ... the screams ... the chaos ... the fear. Optimus was fighting with all his strength to try and put a stop to this! And, not only because it was a major setback to their attempt to get the humans to trust them again!
He suddenly got a call through his com-link and, pausing briefly behind a brick wall, he answered it. "Yes?"
"Prime?" It was Sari - she was staying back at the base tonight, out of harm's way, but she wasn't happy about it. They'd gotten the call from Prowl, at the same time as they'd gotten a call that a building had been bombed. It was not how they'd envisioned this strange human holiday on February fourteenth. "Sari, what's wrong?" Optimus asked her, cringing as one of Strika's missiles hit a nearby (thankfully now empty) building.
"The Elite Guard is on the other line!" Sari told him, sounding slightly worried. "They want to know what's going on!"
"How do they — ?" Optimus sighed in frustration. "Can you patch me through to them?"
"Not without disconnecting more wires from the back of the monitor!" Sari informed him.
Optimus's optics widened. "Sari, do not disconnect those wires!" Bumblebee had nearly gotten electrocuted a few days back, and humans tended to be less durable than robots. Optimus tried not to picture Sari the way human cartoons portrayed electrocution victims, as nothing more than a skeleton on a black background. "Just ... can you tell the Elite Guard that we're battling a couple of Decepticons right now, but that everything's fine?" Okay, so it was half lying ... the situation was just barely under control, if you called chaos under control. "Be polite and just tell them those facts!" He added.
Optimus heard Sari repeat this to the Elite Guard, on the other communications line. Then, she said to him: "They want to know which ones."
Optimus told her, and Sari relayed this information, just as a man on fire ran past, screaming. As Optimus doused him, and hoped to Primus that Sari had not overheard that, she came back onto the line.
"They're is asking where Emma is!" Sari said.
Optimus paused. How could he say this with Sari listening? He glanced towards the building. As he watched, a window exploded, and people screamed. The building was utterly engulfed in flames. How could anybody survive in there?
"Prime?" Sari pressed. "Where's Em?!"
Optimus was about to answer her, but then he suddenly gasped.
A big purple face adorned with red-optics suddenly appeared before him. "Found you, Autobot!" Strika aimed a cannon at him.
"Strika!" Optimus yelled, just as the blasts sent him flying backwards.
"Prime?!" Sari screamed, but her voice was blurred and static-y.
Optimus felt himself blacking out, but then a scream sounded in the hollows of his mind.
Optimus!
For whatever reason, he pictured Elita-1, falling to a fate almost worse than going offline, and he had not been able to save her.
The fear in her optics … the pain behind her voice now that she was Blackarachnia —
"Blackarachnia?!" He gasped.
She was standing right there in front of him, having dragged him out of the way at the last possible second and behind another building.
"What are you doing?!" She hissed. "For Primus's sake, get yourself together!" She ordered him, before she suddenly leapt up onto the building's rooftop and was gone as quickly as she had appeared.
It would be a very long time before either one of them was ready to accept the reason why she had saved him on that night.
Inside the burning building, Emma shuddered, and felt flames lick at the sides of her left shoulder. She couldn't move and, for a second, she could only picture death, and the endless darkness that accompanied it. Were there dead people in this building, who had seen the exact same thing?
Suddenly, a hand grabbed her arm, and dragged her, and she was still too frozen to react. Through the smoke that swirled around them both, she saw a man ... but ... did she know him?
Yes … the feeling in her chest was that she did … she knew him and she knew him very well, even though she couldn't see him very well at all . . .
He suddenly dragged her swiftly up a few flights of stairs, and then turned around to face her.
He was taller than her (like practically everybody else). He wore blue jeans, white sneakers, and a blue jacket with darker blue stripes down the sleeves over a black top. His hair and eyes were blue as well.
And, it was those blue eyes that she saw first … that she could look into instantly without any sort of shyness or fear.
But … Emma suddenly felt a strong sense of urgency pulling her in another direction . . .
"There's-an-organic-femme-trapped-in-the-room-over-there! She's-still-alive-but-not-for-much-longer-if-we-can't-get-to-her!"
Emma unlocked her jaw. "Blurr — !" She gasped, turning back around.
Their silver Autobot pendants clinked together, and then they both ran for the door to where Blurr had been indicating.
The little girl, Aria, was coughing and sobbing. Her bedroom was not entirely covered in flames, but they were close - there was not much time left!
Aria looked up, her face pink and soot covering her arms and nightgown. She coughed. "Tasukeru!" She screamed, not even able to cry, as she coughed again. "Onegai t-tasukeru!" She half got up and half staggered, and clawed at the wall behind her. "Kaasan! KAASAN!" She was scared, and wanted her mother.
She didn't even notice the blue fragment that flew past her, and was absorbed into the chest of the woman who had just come into the room … Emma transformed into the form of Ember, just as Blurr changed back into his own Cybertronian form.
They only had seconds left.
Emma grabbed Aria carefully in her hands, feeling a strong sense of familiarity in the action as she did, and then Blurr grabbed them both.
He used his shield to blast a hole in the wall, and then used his speed to get all three of them out through the hole a second before the flames engulfed the building, and the entire structure exploded.
Emma awoke as a human again, to find the anxious faces of the ones that loved her staring at her.
Oh no, I did this to them again. . . Emma thought, and then she sat up, fast.
"Whoa!" Bumblebee and Honeybee (in their holoforms, like the others) leapt back.
Bulkhead looked startled, and Optimus cringed.
Ratchet looked gruff. "Sit back down, kid!" He told her.
Emma looked around, almost wildly. "The building?! Aria?! The ... what happened?!" She wailed, breathing heavily. "Where's — ?!" She blinked a few times. Where's Blurr?!
"Emma, calm down." A voice said from nearby, and Emma looked over to see Prowl. He was leaning against a wall, arms crossed, and not looking at her. "Aria is fine, her mother wants to give you all their remaining assets, the building is destroyed but was insured although there's bound to be an enquiry due to how fast that fire spread, and the Decepticons retreated but we don't know why — " He broke off abruptly.
Tears had gathered in Emma's eyes.
She didn't notice that she seemed to be lying on the street, and that things were still happening around them.
She just leapt up ( "What a quick recovery!" Honeybee gasped), and ran to Prowl, staggering slightly.
Prowl's eyes widened, and he rushed to meet her, catching her in his arms.
"I'm sorry!" She sobbed, her voice muffled by his chest. It was the most emotional they had ever seen her. "I'm sorry for making you worry! Please don't push me away!" She added. "Even if there's an impending war, I can handle it again!" She added.
"So can I . . . " She heard him mutter, in contrast to her sobbing. "The difference is … I finally have a reason to fight."
That was all that she really heard.
She didn't really hear Bulkhead muttering to Bumblebee: "If she was online during the war, then why doesn't she look like Ratchet?" Nor did she really hear Ratchet's reaction.
She didn't really hear Optimus getting another call from Sari who was frantic with worry by this stage, and Capi who mentioned that the Elite Guard were 'this' close to turning around and coming back to Earth.
And, she certainly didn't hear the moment when Blurr, who had sped away before anybody could notice him, fell under the control of one Master Disaster.
She sensed something, though, and then she found out about it just over a week later.
"I'll handle her from now on." The violet-eyed femme said firmly.
"Why should we — ?" Lugnut began, but he was cut off by Strika.
"It's alright. I work with her." She said, nodding towards the black and purple femme. "She has a strong sense of loyalty to Lord Megatron and what he hopes to achieve. I feel confident in trusting her to bring Ember Prime over to our side. I'll leave this to you, then." She added, with a salute, and the other Decepticon saluted back.
And, less than half an hour later, Lugnut had brought her back and she was bowing before Megatron.
"Ah," the Decepticon leader said, recognising her instantly. "At last, you have made it here, Clear Air Turbulance . . . "
"I live to serve you and your great cause, Lord Megatron." She responded softly, her violet optics gleaming.
She then looked over, as Pira made herself visible.
The Cybertronian Tapir's expression was unreadable.
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
The song that Emma sings is called Eternal Flame, by The Bangles.
Arahia - guide me, in Maori.