I felt my heart begin beating rapidly in my chest, and tried to will it to stop. I didn't understand, and didn't want to understand right now. I wanted to focus on the bigger problems, but my feelings wouldn't leave me. I should have been thinking about poor Optimus and whatever was happening to him, but instead I found myself having these strange.. feelings for my guardian.

It's not that I didn't know what they were anymore. It had taken me a while, but I had figured it out, at least I thought I had. I had a... crush(?) on Ratchet. Okay, so maybe I didn't fully comprehend what these feelings were. But the point was, I wasn't supposed to feel that way. Right? He was an alien, and I'm a human. I'm alien to him, even if he did care for me a little bit. I knew Ratchet couldn't feel the same, not like this. I knew all of this.

So why was my face still hot?

I wasn't really listening as Ratchet explained the story of how Orion Pax became a Prime. I had heard the story before, Ratchet had told me himself on one of those nights that I would stay with him while he recovered. He had actually told me a lot of things...

What are you thinking?!

I resisted shaking my head vigorously, seeing as that would probably look very strange while we were going through a grim moment here. I tried my best to turn my thoughts back to the matter at hand. I was still sitting my Ratchet's shoulder plate, though I had lost all confidence in leaning on him now.

"Being a Decepticon is a choice, Agent Fowler," Ratchet told the confused man. "One that I have a hard time believing Optimus would make at any point of his life."

I nodded, trying to join in. "I agree. Optimus isn't like that, and never was, right?" Ratchet nodded in my direction, and I tried to keep my heart bottled up.

"So if he's riding with the Cons," Bulkhead started.

"It's because Megatron is working some kind of voodoo," Arcee finished with a growl.

"Orion Pax may not currently be an Autobot up here," he said, pointing to his helm, and nearly knocking me over in the process, "but I must believe that he will never stop being one.. in here." He brought his servo to his spark, looking away from the others. I could tell in his optics he was having a hard time with this, in pain for his friend. "We must locate him to know for certain."

"Hold up," Agent Fowler sighed, exasperated. "I've got a chip lodged in my behind that lets Uncle Sam know when I stop for donuts."

I tried not to turn up my face in disgust and pity. You do? He can't be serious.

Then again, he did work for the government.

"Are you telling me you can't just track Prime?" the agent continued.

"Optimus' signal has not reappeared since he embarked for earth's core," Ratchet explained, pointing to the monitor. "But we must get to work finding him if we have any hope of initiating his contingency plan."

"Contingency plan?" Arcee asked, cocking her hip.

"What contingency plan?" I asked. This was something I didn't know.

"Is that even a word?" Miko asked skeptically, earning a glare from most of us.

"The key card," Jack realized, stepping forward and holding the "key card" up. "So, what's it do?"

"It grants access to Vector Sigma," Ratchet answered.

"The repository of the wisdom of the Primes!" I gasped, remembering Ratchet mention it once.

A lot of eyes and optics turned to me in that moment, and I could tell they were all wondering how I knew that. I blushed in embarrassment and huddled back, shoulders up. I mumbled something about Ratchet letting me know about it under my breath and avoided eye or optic contact. Ratchet shuffled from underneath where I was sitting as their gazes all turned to him in surprise. Was it that hard to believe he would tell his charge such things...?

"Is that some sort of.. super computer?" Raf asked, breaking the silence.

"So, we can just download Optimus' memories back into him?" Jack asked hopefully. "Great! Which one's the big V?"

I looked at him sadly, while Ratchet shook his helm. "Vector Sigma is more than a super computer, Jack," I said sadly.

"It is an ancient source of mystical power," Ratchet said, holding back a sigh. "On Cybertron."

Everyone but me and a couple of the other Autobots straightened in surprise. Nurse Darby blinked a few times, processing it for a moment, before turning to her son with a harsh look on her face.

"Jackson Darby, you will not be traveling to another planet!" she told him sternly.

"I'm in!" Miko said excitedly, jogging up behind the two.

"You're not going, either, Miko!" she exclaimed. "Not when one of you can." She looked to the Autobots with narrowed eyes. They looked at each other and shrugged.

"June's right," Agent Fowler interrupted. "Why send a boy to do a bot's job?"

"Because only a Prime can access Vector Sigma," Ratchet tried to explain, and I could tell he was starting to get annoyed. "Or one chosen by a Prime."

"Optimus gave the key card to Jack," I said in realization.

"It is now imprinted with his unique bio signature," Ratchet said, his voice finally turning into more of a sigh at the end.

Jack looked down at the key card, rubbing his thumb gently across the glowing pieces. His facial expression turned sad and confused, and I could see a familiar sense of self doubt within him.

"So you're saying Jack's some honorary Prime?" Miko asked, staring at it like she wanted to drill holes through the thing.

"Let's just say that Jack is the only one that can return Optimus to the Autobot we once knew," Ratchet told her.

"But why would Optimus willfully endanger a human?" June argued. "A child?"

"I'm not a child, mom!" Jack shot back, offended.

"Maybe Optimus believes there's more to Jack than meets the eye," Arcee said, a little snippy, her servos in her hips.

"All of which is moot," Ratchet grumbled. "The key card is useless without the means of reaching Cybertron, which we at present do not posses." He shook his helm, this time annoyance and frustration clear in his voice.

"Dude," Miko said, rolling her eyes.

"What about that?" I offered, pointing past his faceplate to the GroundBridge. I had only ever been through it once, and while I had been upset at the time, it had been kind of cool.

"Guys," Raf said, looking back and forth between us girls. "The GroundBridge barely got them into Earth's orbit, remember?"

I most certainly did not, but I vaguely remembered both Miko and Bulkhead telling me about it. Miko, however, didn't seem to care.

"Yeah, but Ratchet built it," she said. "Can't he just turbocharge the thing?"

Ratchet looked ready to argue, before he stopped and blinked in thought. I could almost see the gears in his mind rolling, and it made me smile a little. Then I shook my head to myself, forcing the flush away from my cheeks.

"I'll see what I can do," he said simply, quickly turning around to search for ways to 'turbocharge' the GroundBridge.

I turned my head as I leaned back to see the others. The Autobots looked nervous and upset, but a little encouraged that they at least had something to work with. Agent Fowler decided to let them work it out and left, shooting June a farewell. Jack noted that he had work in nearly an hour, and Nurse Darby nodded to say that she did soon as well. Miko mentioned something about her host parents wanting to speak with her, which she would no doubt ignore. Raf said that he would stay, and I could tell he was probably eager to help in any way he could.

"I'm going to take Jack to work," Arcee said, snapping everyone other than Ratchet to attention. "I think the rest of us should fan out and search for Decepticon activity. Anything that could give us clues."

Bulkhead nodded. "I'll get right on that, soon as I get Miko home."

"Aw," Miko huffed. Bulkhead argued with her about staying on her host parents' good side, and she reluctantly left with him.

Jack and Arcee left not long after, and June followed them out in her car. Bumblebee waved at the two of us, saying something to Raf with a smile, which the boy returned. The scout then transformed into his alt mode and sped away. That just left me, Ratchet, and Rafael at base.

Raf looked up to Ratchet and me with a hopeful grin. "Do you need my help for anything?"

I smiled at him, but Ratchet kept his optics glued to the screen. "I'll let you know if I require your assistance."

He deflated ever so slightly, but nodded with another smile and hurried over to the couch, snapping his laptop open. I wanted to apologize on my guardian's behalf, but that would probably sound rude. I turned back to the screen, trying to read what Ratchet was looking at, but it was much more complicated than what he had taught me.

"Are you going to be alright?" I asked quietly. I felt really bad, being unconscious for almost the whole event, and now this. He was probably stressed out of his mind, and tired.

He huffed, his optics flickering over to me. "I'm fine. Why do you ask?"

He's being more cold than usual to me...

"Because you've been through a lot.. I'm just worried, okay?" I sighed, turning my head so he wouldn't see my tears eyes and red face. Why wouldn't these feelings go away?!

I felt a warm, gentle pat on the top of my head and looked up. He was holding one digit above my head, which was slowly falling back down to his side. I looked back to him and saw he was giving me a small smile. A tiny, forced one, but still.

"I'm fine," he assured me again. "If you don't mind, I'm going to try and focus on the task ahead. I won't be ignoring you.. just busy," he said quietly, making sure Raf couldn't hear.

I smiled shakily, which must have looked rather strange, and nodded. "Okay, I'll be extra quiet so you can work." I chuckled slightly despite myself. "You can do it. You're smart."

He nodded, his optics warm, and turned his attention back to the screen. I was glad to see he felt a little better. Yes, I could still feel the warm and fuzzies. I knew that I probably couldn't stop emotions. So for now, I would ignore them the best I could, not dwell on why they were there. Finding and rescuing Optimus came first.

Then I could figure out these feelings for him.

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HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE 

I'm so EXCITED. PRIMUS, I have been waiting to do this for a while. FINALLY. 

Welcome to my first chapter of Charge! (Well, technically you're about to leave, but you get my gist.) I hope you guys enjoy this as much as the first one. I already have over 800+ reads on Guardians! Whoohoo, thank ya'll so much!

This book might be longer than the first one, cus in there Taylor didn't come to know about the Autobots until the middle endish of the series. I'm not going to just make episodes, though. Most of it will be my own stuff, just slightly tied in with a few episodes.

Aaaaaanyways, enjoy, and thank you guys SO SO MUCH for reading! 

First chapter of Charge, officially completed!

*waves*