It didn't take long for us to defeat Ped with that plan of ours, although... it didn't go quite as expected. But thanks to Sideswipe's quick thinking, and Jazz's help, it was rather easy. I was only sad to see Jazz go.

"My ship's just a couple klicks away. When I get back to Cybertron, I'll clean up your mess with the council. Promise", Jazz says. 

"Then you'll come back", Sideswipe asks, hopefulness filling his voice. 

"Wouldn't mind another road trip", Jazz says with a smile. "I could learn a lot from you."

Sideswipe blinks, surprised. "I think that's my line." He ends the sentence with a large, nervous grin. "Thanks... and stuff."

"Look, you had it in you from the jump, Sideswipe", Jazz says. "You just need to stop caring so much about what others think of you. That's something he never learned." We all looked to Ped in the stasis chamber. 

Jazz walks to Bee and they do some sort of weird friendship thing, before Bee tells him to have safe travels.

Jazz starts to walk out of the base but I fly upward and into his path. He pauses and I smile softly at him. "Thanks for letting me tag along when I wasn't supposed to... I know that could've gotten you into a lot of trouble."

Jazz laughs. "You're a techno-organic with the ability to fly and turn into a minibot. I think you needed that chance to escape to find out what exactly you're meant to do. But I should be thanking you, Astraea." Jazz pauses. "Sideswipe and I probably owe our lives to you. You certainly saved us the trouble of having to get all those rocks off of us."

I blush and look away, before looking back at Jazz. "Promise you'll come back?"

Jazz smiles. "I'll try, Princess."

"Princess?" I ask. This time Jazz looks away. 

"Oh... um... you... you look like a princess when you have your armor on. That's all", he murmurs before transforming and driving away. When I turn to look back at the Autobots, Bee's mouth is hanging open. I tilt my head.

"You okay there, Bee?" I ask. He blinks, closing his mouth. 

"I... I don't believe this... You got Jazz to stumble over his words. He never stumbles over his words", Bee says. I tilt my head, frowning. In the entire time Jazz had been here, he had never stumbled over his words until he called me princess. Huh... that's weird...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 I had been hoping to have a few peaceful days after Jazz left, but alas, it was not to be, for Fix-it found a Decepticon signal the day after Jazz had left. Luckily, Bee let me tag along this time. I cheered as the metal came over my body at a mere thought.

"I still can't believe that in the five years of me being a techno-organic, I never realized that I had this ability", I mutter. Bee laughs. 

"Sometimes it takes a special someone to show you what you can be", he says. I wrinkle my nose. 

"I'm not happy with the way you said that", I mutter. "You've been on Earth long enough to know what 'special someone' means in the human language, Bee."

Bee continues to laugh. "I do. I just wanted to see your reaction."

I shake my head. "You know my heart belongs to Optimus only, Bee. Jazz is cool, but he's more of... a cool brother, I guess you could say."

Bee laughs. "I'll be sure to let him know that." I roll my eyes. 

"Shouldn't you be chasing after this con of ours?" I ask. Bee nods. He drives out of base, leading the team. I smile softly before going to the training course that Bee had set up for me. Russell came over to watch me and to start and stop the training course. I nod at him, and he presses a small green button. I stand still, allowing my antennae to do most of the sensing for me. Something came at me from behind and I quickly spun to the side, allowing me to see a small stone flying past where I had just been. I press the face of my watch, allowing my swords to become visible, and draw them from my sheath, knowing that I would be attacked from any direction, by a plethora of things. 

After several minutes of me training, I heard a slight yell from Denny. "Russell, look out!"

I turn to see one of the pieces of sharp metal I had hit away was heading towards Russell, who was frozen in state of panic. I gasped, and my metal armor quickly covered my body as I darted towards Russell, grabbing him and flying up. The piece of metal goes flying just below us, and I lower myself, before pressing the red button to stop the training course. Denny runs over to his son as I set him down, enveloping him in a hug.

"I'm sorry, Denny", I murmur. "I should have been watching where I was hitting things", I say softly. Denny looks up at me, worried tears in his eyes. I look away, and allow the metal armor to retract, as well as pressing the watch to make my swords disappear.

"Astraea, you looked like a valkyrie! All you need is a pegasus!" Russell exclaims. I turn to look at him, surprised. He had pulled away from his dad, and was really excited. Suddenly, the proximity alarm started going off, and my eyes widen. I run towards the command center, where Fix-it was already checking our cameras. At the front gates, I saw a car with tinted windows, but two familiar heads poking out of the driver and passenger windows. I laugh at Miko and Tori's excited expressions.

"They're friendly. No need to worry about them. I'll go let them in", I say. Fix-it splutters.

"But... what about Bumblebee and the team?" he asks. I grin at him as I walk towards the front gate. 

"They already know Bee", I say. Leaving behind the others, I open the gate, and they drive in. They park next to my car that hadn't been used in days. I grin as I see Miko and Tori get out, but a surprised expression crosses my face when Jack and Raf get out as well. A grin stays on my face all the same. 

"Guys!" I exclaim. "I didn't know you were visiting!"

Tori chuckles. "That's because Bee wanted to surprise you." I blink before shaking my head.

"Well, he's out at the moment, as are the others, though they should be back with a Decepticon soon enough. In the meantime, you guys can meet Denny, Russell, and Fix-it."

They nod and I lead them to the command center, where Fix-it was waiting with a very unhappy expression on his face.

"Astraea, you know you have to wait for Denny's permission to let people into the scrapyard", Fix-it scolds. At this, Denny laughs.

"She had no idea they were coming, but I already gave Bee permission for them to be in the scrapyard", Denny explains. "He was the one who invited them after all."

Fix-it splutters. "Well, that's just peregrinity- perfectibilian- perposterous!"

Miko leans over to me. "Is he okay?"

"I can assure you I am just slime! Dime! Fine!"

I chuckle softly. "Fix-it, calm down. You know you stutter always gets worse when you're upset."

Fix-it growls before wheeling into the command center to sulk. I only laugh again.

"He gets easily upset when he doesn't get his way when it comes to humans. Not sure why", I say. Miko shrugs before noticing the controller for my training course.

"What's that?" she asks. I smile softly. "It's my training course."

"You're what?" all my friends chorus. I chuckle.

"My training course. Bee's going to let me go on missions once I'm properly trained in many things. Right now we're focusing on my reflexes, and then we'll move to hand to hand combat."

They all stare at me. "You're not going to be fighting Bee are you?" Raf asks, hesitantly.

I chuckle. "For training purposes, yes. How else am I going to learn how to fight the Decepticons?"

"I mean... are you sure it's safe? He's a cybertronian... and you're human", Tori asks, worry evident in her eyes.

I chuckle softly. "I'm not human. I'm techno-organic, remember?"

"Right", Jack says. "But all you've got are your wings and your antennae. How's that going to help?"

I smile and press the face of the watch, and my swords appear at my waist. "I have my swords as well."

Raf's eyes sparkle at the fact that I still wore the watch he had made. "The watch still works?" he asks. I nod and he grins. "I can upgrade it if you want! I have so many ideas as to how they can help with you!"

I chuckle softly. "Well, I'll take that into consideration, but right now, there's a few more things I need to show you."

Miko's head tilts to the side. "And what's that?" I spread out my wings and her eyes widen. "Your wings are a different color? Why are they a different color?" Miko asks, excitedly. I smirk before darting up into the air, knowing they're watching closely. I fly until they wouldn't be able to see my armor come over my body before flying back down, swooping over their heads, and gliding around them before landing.

They all gape at my armor and I smile at them. "There's much more to being techno-organic than you guys thought."

After a few minutes of them gawking at my armor, the other Autobots came in with Bee in their arms. I gasp as I see a large metal quill sticking out of his back. My armor retracts and I run towards them. 

"What happened?" I ask. Strongarm sighs

"That 'con hit Bee with one of his quills. It knocked him out", she says, before noticing the four humans that had gathered behind me. "Astraea! Who are those human?"

I smile softly, introducing them, and who they had as their guardian five years. Strongarm's eyes widen. "Oh! There's a bit about you guys in the museum too!"

Before they could ask about what was said about them, Fix-it needed Strongarm's help, and everyone was super quiet. Fix-it pulled the quill out of Bee, who then let out a pained yelp, his optics opening slightly before he falls back into his forced recharge.

"Whew! One inch to the left and Bumblebee might not have-" Fix-it stopped when he saw Strongarm's glare. I glance back at Raf to see his eyes filled with worry. I smile at him, before speaking to him. "Don't worry. Bee will be alright." Raf nods before looking to see what Fix-it was doing with the quill. His eyes sparkle with awe when he sees the holographic screen. I chuckle before looking at Raf, who I just now realized had become much taller than me. Well, he was five years old, I suppose, close to being a legal adult, if he was't already one.

"You know, Raf, I bet if you asked Fix-it nicely, he'll teach you about the cybertronian tech here", I whisper. "Just tell him you're the one who created my watch." Raf nods but listens to what Fix-it has to say about our fugitive. 

"Our fugitive is named Quillfire", Fix-it says. "An anarchist and agent of chaos. He believes there should be no such thing as authority."

"What does your computer say about the quill thingies?" Russell asks. I look at him and nod.  That's a smart question; it'd be good to know what's going to happen to Bumblebee.

"Quillfire's quills contain powerful toxins that affect the nervous system of those struck", Fix-it says as he turns to look at us. "But each target is affected differently. So we can't predict how Bumblebee will respond."

"Guess all we can do is wait", Sideswipe says, worry in his voice. I blink. Sideswipe, worried? That was something you see everyday.

"Hey! I just realized!" Strongarm exclaims. "While Bumblebee is incapacitated, I'm in charge!"

I chuckle softly, hearing several confused murmurs behind me. I turn to see confused looks on my friends faces. "Bumblebee is the team leader here, as he's a lieutenant of a police force on Cybertron. While Strongarm is technically a cadet on Cybertron, she's the best for giving orders as Sideswipe is kind of a punk, and Grimlock isn't exactly the smartest."

Miko looks at each of them, easily able to tell which one is which. "Please don't tell me Strongarm is similar to Ultra Magnus..."

I chuckle softly. "Similar, but becoming less strict the more time she spends here, unlike Magnus."

Miko sighs in relief, causing me to laugh again. However, no more was said due to Bumblebee starting to wake up. He sat up and Sideswipe helped him. 

"Strongarm's not in charge, is she?" Sideswipe asks.

"I'm up to the task, sir!" Strongarm adds. "Of course, I'd prefer if you were one hundred percent."

 However, Bumblebee's response was not what any of us expected. "It's... It's..." he seemed to be struggling. "It's a three winged, sparkle armored Schlopticon!" He points to nothing in the sky, making me blink before looking to Fix-it, who was staring in shock. I look back at the humans behind me, and they're all surprised too, and not sure what to think.

"Where?" Grimlock asks, causing Bumblebee to laugh very childishly. I watch with an eyebrow raised as Bee laughs about making Grimlock look. He gets up, transforms and drives away, all of us staring after him, not sure what to think about what just happened with Bumblebee.

"Perhaps Quillfire's quill impacted Bumblebee's brain chemistry and affected his maturity level?"

"Ya think?" Russell asks. I blink before looking back at the humans, Raf the most shocked out of all of them. After several minutes of them searching for Bumblebee and getting no such luck of finding him. Well, they did find him, only to be pranked. And it was with the pranks that I decided to take my friends to my trailer, where I hoped Bee would stay away from.

Inside the trailer, I invited them all to sit down on the benches I had there. They weren't the most comfortable, but hey, you get what you get and you don't throw a fit.

"So... what's going on at your end of the country?" I ask the four of them. Tori sighs, and looks away. Actually, they all look away. "What's wrong?"

"That's partially why we're here", Tori murmurs, looking at me. "We were going to tell both you and Bee at the same time, but... with Bee... not being himself, we'll just tell you right now."

"MECH has been stealing more and more technology lately, especially from military bases, and we weren't sure why until we caught footage of a cybertronian helping them", Jack says. "We have no idea who it is and hope that you might be able to help us."

"Can I see the footage?" I ask quietly, my stomach churning as I think about the call from Ebony.  I hadn't received another one but I was scared I did know who it was. Raf pulled out his laptop and showed me a picture of a red blocky Decepticon. I furrow my eyebrows. That's not Starscream...

"Is it a video?" When Raf nods, I ask my next question. "Is there any sound?" Raf nods again, and plays the footage.

His voice was unmistakable. I sigh, and put my face in my hands. "Slag it, Ebony."

"How'd you know that it was Ebony in charge of MECH still?" Miko asks. I sigh and tell them what had occurred a couple weeks ago.

"A couple weeks ago, I received a call from Ebony. I didn't believe it was her but she told me she had escaped and that her men were quiet competent. She spoke about a cybertronian helping her out. I asked to know which one, and she told me Starscream. I know that looks nothing like Starscream, but his voice... his voice is not easy to mistake. She's after me, though I don't know why", I say quietly. They were all silent until Tori spoke up. 

"I've spoken to Ratchet about everything they've stolen. He says it sounds like they're trying to built another cybertronian, like they did with Nemesis Prime, though I'm not sure why...."

I blink before tears start dripping. "It's me... Ebony said that she wants me... though I'm not sure why, I suspect it has something to do with this Cybertronian they are attempting to build." They were all silent as I bury face into my hands, before standing up. "I'll be outside if anyone needs me."

I walk outside, and kneel down in the dirt next to the step that leads into the trailer. After kneeling there for a minute or two, I let out an angered scream and stare up into the heavens.

"Why me?!  Why must I go through so much!? First everything that happened with the Autobots five years ago, then losing him, and now he could possibly be coming back now, but not sure yet and... just.... all the stuff with MECH and the betrayal of my father... why can't... why can't I just have a normal  life?! Why?! Just.... why...?" I pause for a moment before staring at the dirt. "What did I do to deserve this much pain...?"

I lean forward, hugging myself, and just cry out my heart.

"Why...?"