"Optimus said you need the support, and we all know you dislike Wheeljack." (Y/N) argued with the medic as he had Raphael ready himself to power up the groundbridge. The others had gone, and the oldest woman was beginning to feel a little useless. Not only was she unable to send Soundwave any messages of who was going where after these four relics, but she was also feeling rather useless to the Autobots.

         "This area has no humans for miles, I would hardly need a- as Jack and Miko called it, a face to stand as my eyes and ears as well as communication if some unsuspecting human fumbles in my way. Besides, though it was a small incision, your finger needs healing." He nodded to the woman's hand, which was properly bandaged, her pointer finger anyway. 

        It was the one she cut to leave Soundwave her small message. 

     (Y/N) realized that she could have just sent a delayed message through her optics, but even she, a runaway M.E.C.H. agent trained for tight spots and panicked situations, could be prone to the occasional hysteric.

         "It was just a cut, Ratchet." She sighed, rolling her energon blue optics. "Please? At least this time it's not my stupid curiosity getting me on board the Jackhammer. There's also no Stasis Beam to shoot at me, whatever effects there may have been did not happen, and Wheeljack is already most of the way there."

         "And if it's Knockout we run in to?"

     The statement was supposed to scare the smaller being into submission to his demands. Knockout was her supposed torturer, after all. (Y/N) knew this and quickly thought of how she should react. She could blubber and cry, forcing his pity, but that might not change his mind in this case. She decided to go with a much crueler tactic.

         "That's not fair." She stated, breathing in sharply.

         "You froze once you realized it was him, even when he was in stasis lock." Ratchet huffed. "He was very ready to take you once again, wasn't he?"

         "I-" She stuttered, lip quivering daintily, as her optics began to water with the natural, salty secretions. Her grip tightened on the railing as her gaze remained locked with Ratchet's and her expression contorted into one of pure hatred. "I thought you were better than him." 

     Ratchet froze, optics wide and intake slack. He didn't think he was being monstrous, but a glance to Raph revealed that the boy's innocence was on her side, not his. He mulled over his words for a second and slowly realized they could be considered taunting, mental torture even, considering her weaknesses and what horrible things she claimed to have heard from the Decepticon medic while in his clutches. 

     Could he take back his words? No, of course not, but he felt sorry for saying them. Still, he could not allow her to go with him. 

         "Think whatever you like of me," his voice wavered as his optics turned to the floor, and (Y/N) knew she had won, "but I cannot allow you to go with me. Wheeljack is reckless enough, and Primus knows which Decepticon will be there. I may very well be correct!" Ratchet dared to look back up at the femme he admitted had grown on him. "Raphael, keep watch over her and Fowler."

     The smallest of their band of misfits nodded, soon turning to activate the groundbridge. Ratchet walked through solemnly; helm turned down as his pede soon touched the solid dirt of Earth. He looked up, eyeing Wheeljack, but the Wrecker's attention wasn't on him when the swirling portal disappeared. It was turned to the ground beside him.

         "Hey squirt." He greeted.

         "Hi Wheeljack." (Y/N) ran up to him, earning a fist bump before being tossed onto his shoulder.

         "What' up, doc bot?"

     Ratchet hadn't registered the undesirable nickname, simply staring at the woman in shock and disbelief. She did not stare back, not even in hatred. She ignored him as if he didn't exist. Ratchet then huffed at the other mech.

         "My name is not doc."

     He passed by them both. If (Y/N) was going to risk her life like this, then so be it. 

     See if he cared.

         "Alright, sunshine."

     The medic paused, shaking momentarily in his rage before they boarded the Jackhammer. (Y/N) clearly chose to be closer to Wheeljack, smiling as he passed by clouds and he named off the different formations, like Nimbus or Cumulous, and what they potentially meant for future weather patterns. He chuckled when the older girl asked if his ship had a limit.

         "Nothing Earth can deal out." The Mech boasted. "Unless some catastrophic event happened."

         "How about a potential threat?" Ratchet had been focusing on the monitors, pointing as a red triangle appeared.

         "Company." Wheeljack jested lightly, looking to his rear cameras. "The quiet kind. It's Soundwave."

     (Y/N) felt her chest swell with an excited feeling. These two would see fate as very cruel in this moment with her on board, but she saw it as a wonderful opportunity to ask the mech how things went on the Nemesis after their little quest on his leader's war ship. It would be unwise to send a message now, or if he ended up battling the two, but after he completely creamed the two mechs watching over her, then she would speak with him. Well, she would be speaking, he would be listening.

     Wheeljack placed the girl in his subspace, much to her protest, but the sudden shaking and turning of the ship revealed that it was a quickly thought-out idea. She appreciated the extra protection, a tighter space being far more ideal than the Jackhammer's spacious cockpit. She still wanted to see the dogfight, however. Unfortunately, it was a luxury she would not receive as Ratchet explained that Laserbeak had been detached. 

         "He's using the drone to distract us!"

         "Isn't he a Minicon?" (Y/N) yelled from Wheeljack's subspace, banging her fist against the thick metal for extra emphasis. Not only did Ratchet just insult Laserbeak but since she was supposed to be angry at him, arguing with the medic about something rather frivolous would further her case.

         "Yes but-"

         "Gosh, even Autobots are racist." She grumbled, holding tight to something when she felt the ship lurch again from inside Wheeljack's compartment, slightly cushioned by his vehicle form's seats but not enough to keep bruises from threatening to form.

     The chase lasted far to long for her liking, but she was glad that Wheeljack had chased after Laserbeak instead of Soundwave. She was not as stoked when the mech had apparently clipped the avian with a well-aimed shot, the bird-like Minicon making one last effort to fire back and clipping their own wing. (Y/N) could feel Wheeljack tense as they went down into the trees, bumping her already aching head when it landed harshly on the hard rock of Earth. She was not rendered unconscious, but she was actually irritable now. Any slighted remark aimed towards Ratchet would not be pure acting anymore.

     (Y/N) watched the Wrecker inspect his vessel, ignoring Ratchet once again as he watched the coordinates on his handheld device. As if staring at it would force the relic to move beneath them instead of letting Soundwave get closer to it. 

         "It's fried." Wheeljack diagnosed, wiping off his servos before looking down at the human who had been supervising. "So, what's up between you and the doc bot?"

     The mech watched the rather fascinating human nurse her new head wound. The skin had split, causing her to bleed, though (Y/N) had assured it only started to bleed once she was out of his subspace. Her nose also had a small scrape across it, and a deep royal purple bruise adorned her elbow. He guessed there were probably some minor bruising on her legs as well, but they were covered by sweatpants.

         "He made some disappointing remarks." She answered icily. "Made him sound no better than Knockout."

         "Hold up," Wheeljack held up a servo for emphasis, "sunshine over there was fretting over his finish?"

     This made the human experiment chuckle, a genuine one, though small. It wasn't every day she found something actually funny.

         "No," she frowned far too soon for the Autobot's liking, "he didn't want me to come, so used my fear of Knockout against me. Like Knockout used my fear of never escaping against me when I was in his custody."

         "So, in spite of him you acted out." Wheeljack nodded, earning a shrug from the woman. "Well, I agree this is a bit more dangerous then intended, but he was wrong about one thing." The mech picked her up gently, cradling the human femme in his giant servo.

         "About what?" She inquired curiously.

         "It's not Knockout we have to worry about."

     The two soon found Ratchet kneeling beside the animalistic Minicon. (Y/N) hoped he wasn't dead. Then again, Soundwave probably would have known that, and been here by now. Ratchet eased these worries when he said he was fully operational, just powered down after critical damage. Basically, Laserbeak was knocked out.

         "We should get that relic while Soundwave thinks Laserbeak is still after us then." (Y/N) piped up, confused when Wheeljack placed her on the ground, and pulled his one grenade from his hip plate.

         "You know, there's an old Wrecker trick I liked to use." He glanced at Ratchet, who only raised an optic brow. "We stuff our little birdie friend here," he nudged one of his wings with a pede, "send him back to Soundwave and once he realizes something's in there. Ka-boom."

     It was a simple onomatopoeia, but the word when describing Soundwave and Laserbeak's final end made the woman at his pedes pale, blood running ice cold. Her optics widened at the thought, imagining the explosion of Laserbeak within her already aching head. If Soundwave wasn't destroyed by the blast, he would certainly implode from the grief, she imagined. He cared for the Minicon very much, she could tell that very easily. If the loss of Laserbeak didn't cripple him, then he would most certainly only be a ghost of himself, however ghostly he may already act. She gingerly caressed one of the drone's wings.

     She could tell Soundwave right now, but her messaging system wasn't exactly stealthy. The two would most likely detect any signal sent anywhere from her. Not only that, but it was quicker for the message to be sent by words, instead of having to read through her message several times in her mind. She didn't have the ability to merely think of one thing and send it like a Cybertronian did. To many things could be clouding her thoughts at one time, and that moment was one of them. She watched with mild horror that they would so willingly take out someone in this way. Ratchet, however, had a different idea.

         "Wouldn't Soundwave detect a virus?" (Y/N) huffed. She doubted they could dupe him that easily. This was Soundwave, after all.

         "Not if there was a decoy." Ratchet looked to Wheeljack with a smirk.

         "An exploding device not rigged to blow?" He sighed. "Seems a waste of perfectly good equipment."

     He handed the device over nonetheless and Ratchet carefully planted the center of it into the compartment that allowed access to Laserbeak's systems. He then spoke to Raphael about cooking up his part of the virus that would allow for all of the Iacon Database to be transferred to the Autobots. 

     (Y/N) couldn't let that happen.

     If Soundwave really did fall for such a strange trick, wouldn't he detect the foreign outflow of information? But if he truly would never detect a virus transferring from Laserbeak, than his position among the Decepticons could be jeopardized. He was their eyes and ears, the Intelligence Officer, Communications Officer, Secret Operations Officer. Name it and he held the title, aside from Second in Command and Leader. Not to mention, if Ratchet and Raphael played their cards right, they could get far more information than just the Iacon database. 

     She agreed when Wheeljack told her to stay with the doc, and (Y/N) guessed that would be the time to speak to him about earlier that day since the Wrecker was going to face Soundwave. She was quiet for a while as they waited for Raphael's virus.

         "(Y/N)," Ratchet began, "I'm- I'm sorry."

         "Pardon, did you say something?" She crossed her arms crankily. Having transitioned to Laserbeak's front, she leaned on what she had always guessed to be his face. 

     Instead of letting his anger get the better of him, again, Ratchet sighed.

         "What I said was inexcusable," the orange and white medic admitted, "and I am deeply sorry. I should not have used your fears and nightmares against you."

     She was silent for several, long minutes. Raph even contacted Ratchet again, saying he was done and ready to upload the virus to their new carrier. This silence wasn't to make Ratchet feel any worse, nor was it to act like she was just being bullheaded. (Y/N) was trying to access Laserbeak's systems through her optics, which was a feat she was sure was not meant to be done with the two foreign pieces of tech. Yet she was doing it. She had to improvise, but it did the trick as she stealthily filtered the virus from Laserbeak to her two sight giving devices. 

         "I forgive you," (Y/N) finally answered after double checking that the connection would not waver. "I just- you were right, of course, but the other three, even Fowler, are useful! I'm just a human experiment with breathing problems, insomnia and nausea."

         "(Y/N), I-" Ratchet frowned, having difficulty believing that this was truly what she thought of herself. It really wasn't what she thought of herself, but the guise had yet to waver in the medic's sight, or any of the Autobot's for that matter. "You are more than helpful to this team. You keep the children in check, you're strong and quite intelligent, for a human." 

     The statement made her huff.

         "What I mean is-" Ratchet sighed, shaking his helm, "there's always been much more to you than meets the eye, (Y/N). You would have made a fine Cybertronian."

     The compliment tickled at her ears, and the girl smiled, nodding her thanks to the medic before he suddenly had to hold Laserbeak down. The bird-like Minicon chirped at the human femme in front of him, and she felt he asked for help. 

     He was scared.

         "Ratchet what's-"

         "Stand back!" He ordered, only to look to the sky after hearing something from Wheeljack. "Hurry, behind that boulder!" He shuffled close behind, trying to hold Laserbeak as the virus filtered through. Soundwave wasn't far as the avian fluttered away, still calling to his master and friend. Ratchet quickly held the woman under his care, scrunching them both down as Soundwave landed.

     Both human and Cybertronian were as silent as the Communications Officer landed, listening for anything that may reveal his knowledge of them. (Y/N) silently convinced her guardian to let her look over the boulder, spying on the lithe mech. He connected Laserbeak to himself upon inspecting him carefully and realized there was a piece missing. He didn't expect it to be nearby, since his friend had crashed landed, and was weary.

         :Master:

     Soundwave lulled the Minicon through their bond as master and servant. He had what they came for, there was no failure.

         :(Y/N) was here:

     Soundwave stopped abruptly. If she was here and had not revealed herself then so was someone else. They did not often let her go alone. He turned to stare at the boulder within the clearing. Upon further inspection, he could pinpoint her minute energon signal, as well as Laserbeak's missing piece. 

         :Shall we retrieve her?:

     Was it beneficial? That was his only question. There was no chance she had been revealed as their spy among the Autobots, (Y/N) wasn't dumb enough to let that happen. The Iacon Database would soon be decoded, and its relics found. Was her purpose fulfilled? 

         :We shall.: