I'm not afraid of heights. I don't worry about the air slipping past me and the whole world rushing towards me faster than I can breathe. If I blink I'll miss what could be the last moments I live and breathe.

I just feel like sometimes, I blink, and I miss more than the entire face of a cliff, and I'm hitting the water before I've learned to swim, so I'm drowning, breathing in water and panicking. I don't know which way is up, let alone if I'll breathe again, and I'm being pulled in a thousand directions by a hundred thousand different people. Life catches me unprepared, but instead of holding my ground, I'm beaten down and pushed off that cliff. I'm not scared of falling.

I'm terrified of what's at the bottom.

-----

Standing on one end of the examination table, legs bent as I kneel, hair pulled back in a messy ponytail. I've never liked having it up, but sweating all over myself hasn't ever been high on my list of things I've wanted to do. My ratted boots were beyond not ideal for this, and my heart was pounding loudly enough that I was sure it could be heard on the other side of the world.

Blood rushed like roaring river rapids in my ears, and I felt like I was drowning in heat despite the layers I had shed while I had planned this. One deep breath, two, three... I shook off my nerves and sprung up, putting every ounce of energy I had in each step, and when I grabbed my winter coat at the end of the super long table, pushing off the corner with my foot, I didn't expect to trip, or to fall towards the ground lacking extreme grace and poise.

I sure as all things didn't expect to fall into a pair of waiting, massive metalic servos, whose owner seemed appalled at my misadventure. "The frag? Small fry!" The purple mech barker. "What are you doing?"

"Escaping. Knockout is going to drive me to take a short walk off a steep cliff if I don't get out of this place!"

"Uh, he's releasing you today. To me. And Si-silly escape plans ever work with that mech,"

"Nobody tells me anything," I frowned at him as he stood up once again, moving out of the room with everything I'd had with me since I'd gotten to the robot base. "You could have visited me while I was being subjected to such torture, you know,"

"You don't know medical torture until you've been subjected to Ratchet's abuse," he shook his helm at me, almost as if he still couldn't believe what I'd tried to do, "What exactly told you that was a good idea anyways?"

"It was mostly the part of my head that with no brain in it." I said sarcastically, offering him an irritable glare. Being stuck in giant robot hospital land hadn't been on my list of things to do.

"Also known as the decision making part," Sunstreaker said, quick to offer his own bite back with a knowing grin.

Maybe Sideswipe had rubbed off on him or something, but that surprised me more than I'd have liked to admit, or care for that matter, "Hey! That was mean!"

"And that was stupid," he deadpanned, arms crossed as he raised an optic ridge.

"Yeah," I said uneasily, "But that doesn't mean you insult me!"

He rolled his optics, obviously a little frustrated with me. "What else do I do then?"

"I don't know. You don't need to make fun of me. You're not my dad," I scrunched up my nose, trying to look as ridiculous as possible.

"I would hope not, considering I'm only a few years older than you," he shuddered, the movement sending his left arm jerking in an odd direction, almost unnaturally.

"Oh, damn. You come across as like, super mature though!" I barked sarcastically again. He was just a real ray of sunshine that day, and it made me feel all kinds of happy and I wanted nothing more than to show him how well his obnoxiousness was received.

"I suppose that isn't the best way to put it," he said, either ignoring my snark or not understanding it, "Our aging is slower than yours, but our lifespans are also extended. I'm fairly certain we can kind of live forever if we kept getting new frames for our sparks,"

"You're immortal?" My eyes were probably as big as dinner plates. But hey, it's not every day immortal aliens come down to earth with tales of... whatever it is immortal aliens did during their free time.

He looked uncomfortable and more than miserable. I felt like I'd kicked a puppy and then a cute little kitten. "Yeah, but sure as pit slagging not indestructible," he admitted somberly, "I don't know any of my race who's really lived too long. So many of us have offlined, and nobody really cares about creations orns anymore,"

He'd nearly lost me there. "Are those... birthdays?"

"Yes, and no. You'd probably never live to see my next creation orn,"

"Oh," I said stupidly, "Really?"

"Really. Our parallel to a year on your planet is a much longer solar cycle on Cybertron. Trust me. You'd be dead before then,"

"Aw," she frowned. "That sounds cool though. Having super long years, living forever,"

He shook his helm slowly, no longer striding confidently down the halls. "No one's frame naturally wears out anymore. Some of us have been torn to pieces and everyone else..." he trailed off, "They're falling to pieces every day,"

He shook off whatever memory seemed to seize his body and, making sure I was secure in his massive metallic servos, he began to move again.

"Where are we going? Actually, better question!" I chirped cheerily, hoping to skirt around the darker topic we'd all but practically stared in the face. "Where are we now?"

"The Nemesis. In the middle of the Rocky Mountains." He said blandly.

Feeling silly, I fidgeted a little in his servos. It all just felt so weird. "What's the Nemesis?"

"A fallen warship we use as our base of operations," Sunstreaker said, still distracted and distant, "It has all the tech and space we need, so Megatron took it over once he and his forces arrived on Earth,"

"So you have a giant freaking space warship in the middle of the mountains that you call home?" I summed up, hoping to get some sort of reaction other than bland out of him.

"As of right now? Yes, but it wasn't always. Sideswipe and I roamed the stars for many, many centuries. Long before you were born, tiny squishy," he said.

I cocked my head to the side, looking up at him curiously still, even if he refused to make eye contact. "But where are we going now?"

"I'm supposed to take you home," he told me. "You're not dying, injured, or in distress. Everything should be fine,"

"Oh, cool! I don't live too far from where you found me. My aunt and uncle might freak though," I bit my lip out of habit, a thought that had been less than present coming to surface. "How long has it been anyways?"

"Not even a day."

"They might not even be home yet. Allen won't say anything," I shrugged, knowing my cousin was far from a rat.

"That's good I guess. You told Megatron they were working?"

My head bobbed up and down, and I tried to stay chipper. "Yeah, my aunt's one of the head nurses and my uncle's a surgeon, both in the ER,"

"So, in other words, they won't mind?" He said dryly.

"Nope!" I squeaked, scooting over to cross my legs, trying to find a comfortable way to sit when everything was about as comfortable as a tile floor. Metal was nice and all, but it did nothing to keep me cozy.

"Alright then," he said uneasily, walking towards one of the biggest doors I'd ever seen in my life, if not the largest. He knelt down and put me on the ground, and I didn't have time to ask what he was doing before I turned around to see him collapsing into one of the most gorgeous pieces of machinery ever.

"I forgot you could do that," I admitted sheepishly.

The driver's door popped open. "I don't blame you," his voice came from the speakers of the car, and I resisted seventy kinds of urgent to squeal excitedly. I'd only ever dreamed of touching a car like this, let alone riding inside of one while conscious, mind you, and as I climbed in, Sunstreaker decided it was the perfect opportunity to say something that would make me wish I could turn invisible. "From what Knockout said, it's a miracle you remembered your name, let alone that a bunch of ETs, was it? kidnapped you,"

I'm pretty sure my face was four different kinds of red by this point, and I silently wondered how long I could hold my breath until I died right then and there. I'd never even seen the movie before, yet even this giant alien seemed to know exactly what I had been saying. "Sure," I offered half-heartedly, but internally wishing I could bash my head on the dashboard repeatedly.

Oh well. Falling asleep was the next best thing to becoming invisible.

----

I hadn't even realized that I'd slipped under until I felt the seat beneath me rock as the gravel roads crunched underneath us. Exhausted, my eyes opened slowly, and I didn't even try to stifle my yawn. "Where are we?"

"Balfour Court. It's where we found you,"

"Balfour Court isn't gravel. It's paved. My uncle helped the teams fix up the roads out here a few years ago one summer,"

"Trust me, my undercarriage wouldn't let me forget. This is a gravel road,"

"Look, robot-friend-"

"Sunstreaker," he cut me off, "If I can't call you squishy or human, you sure as pit can't call me a robot. A drone," His snippish attitude change sent a chill down my spine.

"Fine. Sunstreaker, it's not gravel. Trust me, I've lived here for years,"

"Right, well, this isn't smooth pavement," he said sourly.

"Just keep going. I'm a bit further out than here. And I'm sure it's not gravel. It's probably just ice,"

He grunted, not saying anything else, and his engine purred as we continued down the street, but the road felt super bumpy, and I felt my stomach churn. I used to get carsick all kinds of bad on these roads, so my uncle had taken his days off to help the county pave the road because he'd hated seeing me so sickly whenever we had to go somewhere. Going to school had been a nightmare, because the bus driver, as nice as he had been, would take his foot on and off the brake, just enough that it felt like I was jerking back and forth until I nearly vomited. I guessed the salt and the ice just made me sick again.

Whatever the case, I was looking forward to going home again, and leaving whatever this was behind.

-----

AIEE I'M SORRY IT'S FILLER BUT THE PLOTTY STUFF NEEDS SETUP...

Seven's written and done, I just need to go in and fix all the bold/italics con speak... which I'm too lazy to do. But I'll get around to it when I have free time amidst too much work and too little sleep.

I've started eight too, I promise ^_^' just not so low key making my way through life's curveballs.

Also, thanks @FNAFToyChica you are an angel for sticking with me amidst the chaos 😍😍. As are all of you, she's just always the first one here and it's awesome, and makes me feel all happy and bubbly. X3 thanks sweet gal!