Marissa was nursing her aching hand. Despite her efforts of trying not to use it, it still managed to look and feel even more bruised than when Starscream nearly crushed it. It was an odd sight, having rather normal looking fingers with a black and blue palm. She couldn't tell if anything was broken, but it was certainly swollen. Moving her pinky, she found there was a little more mobility than the day before. 

     The ride had been silent for the second hour of driving, Blurr having given up on convincing Marissa to take a look out his window as they zipped by cars going over 600 MPH. She stubbornly refused every time, knowing the view would just make her sick. So, to occupy her time, the woman would hum to herself, or listen to the radio Blurr somehow had available (she had no idea where it was). It was when she was feeling herself doze off again when Blurr spoke. 

         "You gonna talk to yourself again?" His quick speech startled the woman into full consciousness. 

         "Am I what?"

         "That yapping thing you do when you're in recharge. It's weird and hard to tell what you're saying but I heard something about a cat you accidentally squished with a- a-uh- you called it tractor?"

     Marissa wasn't sure what to say. She didn't remember ever having spoken in her sleep. She used to sleep with her sister when she was scared at night, but Jesse surely would have told her if she spoke in her sleep. 

         'Actually,' Marissa thought to herself, 'Jesse would have kicked me out if I did.'

     The woman shrugged, claiming she wasn't aware she even had the habit. She also clarified what a tractor was and that the cat was called Bubbles. The incident happened when she was 13 and the stupid thing was spooked by a cow, ultimately running in the way of the tractor and getting squished to death. With a chuckle, Marissa claimed it still haunted her and their conversation changed to more appealing things. Like if Blurr could break the sound barrier and what exactly they consumed as a sentient robot. 

         "Knockout could tell you more details, but he's cussing too much for a lady to hear."

         "I've heard my fair share of curse words." Blurr's passenger shrugged.

         "You wouldn't understand most of 'em anyway! They're Cybertronian curse words, so they're not a lot of translations to English."

         "Tell me a few," Marissa grinned, "if for anything than to confuse my dad and mom. They don't like swearing in excess. Basically, saying 'shit' don't mean a thing to you, saying whatever you might say won't mean a thing too them!"

         "You have a point, kiddo, but once they learn they'll reprimand you pretty bad with some of our phrases. You gotta be careful around other bots too. Certain mechs are stricter than Ultra Magnus and unless a femme swears first you never swear when one is present!"

         "Technically, aren't I a femme?" Marissa chuckled.

         "Uh- well, yes but some might not count you since you're a human."

         "I see," the woman nodded with a smug smile, "racism."

         "Now I didn't say-" Blurr cut his defense short, and Marissa's smug expression fell to a concerned one. There was about a minute of silence before Blurr whooped and did a donut in the middle of the mostly clear highway, somehow not losing an ounce of speed. "Woo! That's my favorite racer wannabe. The Bee man, the Bumbled Bee, the striped one!"

         "The- who?" Marissa choked on the bile that had risen from her stomach into her throat. Now she knew what clothes in the dryer felt like. She was happy to have been pressed against the front of Blurr's subspace with her helmet on.

         :Oh great.: Knockout complained. :Of all the grounders we could come across.:

         "Aw, what's wrong with the mech?" Blurr chuckled deviously. "Run you off the road a few too many times?"

         "I'm sorry, what's this new guy's name?" Marissa didn't appreciate being ignored.

         :Bumblebee.: The red racer sighed. :We don't have the best of histories. Let's just say, unlike Blurr's comment, I've ran him off the road one too many times. He's a scout and warrior of Optimus Prime, the Autobot leader.:

         "I've messaged him on a similar link." Blurr was bristling with a relieved joy as he weaved between a pair of slower drivers. "A good thing too, or else none of the Autobots would have gotten the transmission."

         "So his systems are already sensitive too it?" Marissa decided to clarify the science of it to herself.

         :You're catching on, fleshling.: Knockout chuckled from the comm link.

         "They've figured out where we'll meet." Blurr explained. "They're headed roughly in a straight line but if we make a few detours, we can totally intercept them quicker than Starscream can catch up to us!"

     Remembering Starscream, and the rough hour they had left to escape to a larger number of friends, Marissa touched the bracelet with a sigh. Sure, these two could go at speeds beyond human technological comprehension, but was it enough to beat Starscream who had air superiority? She didn't really want to find out, so prayed they had enough time to meet up with other Autobots who were apparently with this Bumblebee character.

         The trio were cutting across a field when Knockout was nearly hit by a missile.

     Both transformed, Marissa being held gingerly in Blurr's palm as they stared into the blue sky. Both grimaced as Starscream released another missile, and the two rolled to opposite sides. The Seeker dove after Blurr, who merely stepped to the side with a wide grin. He watched as the transformed mech smirked back, and the blue racer looked to his now empty palm in panic.

         "Too fast for your own good." Starscream chuckled, holding Marissa by her torso, clamped tightly in his fist. "You made me the fool, but I am no fool."

         "Could your sentence be any more contradictory?" Knockout huffed at the side, examining his digits acting rather nonchalant, to which Marissa rolled her eyes at.

         "Could you not anger the already livid giant holding me?" 

     Her comment was rather unexpected, but Starscream paid it no mind while Blurr chuckled, his cherry red companion apparently offended.

         "I'll be taking the girl and the device," The brunette's captor informed, taking a step back in preparation to launch himself in the air, "and you two will inform your Autobot friends she's unharmed, but the trinket is mine."

         "Release the girl, and maybe we'll let you have the trinket." Blurr stipulated. "She's got nothing to do with you or us."

         "On the contrary, she's the one who let us take her in the first place!" Starscream chuckled. "That practically makes her a Decepticon, doesn't it?"

         "By whose rules?" Marissa huffed, by this time, absolutely exasperated. "How'd you heal so fast anyway? How do you even heal, you're metal and wires! Knockout explain that, please."

         "What are we, best friends?" He responded flippantly.

         "Enough!" The Seeker squeezed the woman in his palm, making her gasp as the air in her lungs was pressed out harshly. "I will not be made a fool of again!"

     The mech launched himself up, being shot at by the two below, but now that he wasn't being caught off guard, he transformed with Marissa being folded into his cockpit. Taking off before the two could aim properly, Starscream watched from above as they transformed and attempted to catch up as he changed course to his original destination. Marissa was coughing as she breathed the air she had lost back into her lungs. She was thankful to have kept her helmet on despite how uncomfortable it was in Blurr's subspace.

         "I think my sides are bruised now-" came the winced complaint.

         "Don't get yourself captured and maybe there won't be consequences as such." Starscream growled, as if her bruised ribs were any actual punishment. The mech sent a short message to Barricade, making sure the interrogator knew he no longer had to follow the two speedy buffoons. "What did they say to you?"

         "Exactly what you think they said." She shrugged. "The Autobots are the good guys, you two are the bad guys and that no one has a single idea about what this bracelet is." Sitting back in the pilot's seat with a sigh, Marissa decided to make herself more comfortable, twisting in the seat so she could buckle herself in. She lifted her butt up enough to find the ends without touching any part of Starscream's controls, finding the buckles and her flannel. 

     Surprised to find the colorful garment, the woman quickly wrapped it around herself to keep from getting any colder the higher her captor went. The collar was almost completely torn away, but it wasn't something she planned on fretting about. Buckling the safety harness, Marissa sneezed into the sleeve before speaking again.

         "You kept my flannel?"

     The question hung in the air for a while before the Seeker answered. He wasn't sure why he kept it, but at least she seemed a little thankful about the fact.

         "I'd rather not have a frozen corpse buckled in my subspace, now, would I?" He huffed.

         "This thing isn't meant for cold weather or thin atmospheres, Starscream." Marissa informed, rubbing her arms to fend off the chill pricking at her skin. "But- thanks. It's better than nothing."

     Marissa guessed the flier wasn't so bad. She doubted Barricade would have kept her flannel if he was the one to have it caught in his armor. She figured her freezing to death wasn't the reason Starscream kept it, but she wasn't going to pry. Most likely he wasn't used to doing acts of kindness, even for his own gain, of which, there wasn't much to gain except her thanks. The human was beginning to wonder why, if these two feared Decepticons were so ruthless, they still kept her when her puny arm could easily be torn off. Starscream was quite privy to the idea at first, but he didn't even threaten to do such in the field with Blurr and Knockout. 

     Starscream was wondering a similar thing. Why did he bother to keep the flannel? Why didn't he just take the trinket and leave the woman to bleed out in front of the two helpless racers? It was a logical action and would result in his win. No more human and all the time in the world to examine his new device. Yet when the time came to enact his little thought, something made him stop and think. This human was puny and useless, yes, a pain to take care of because of basic human needs but there was no real hindrance in keeping her. She couldn't contact the Autobots and no matter what he did they would be following him anyway because of the device. If anything, the human could be a good bargaining chip. What good was a bargaining chip when he already had the thing he wanted, though?

     It was grating on his nerves, so the Seeker decided that the next chance he got, he would dump the human off with Barricade. Except that the grounder would easily be caught up too by the Velocitronians currently on the chase. It was by sheer chance Starscream had received the broad transmission, so with a still healing wing the mech risked it being repaired improperly by taking off before the Autobots could unite. Thankfully, it worked and he had little complications thus far.

         "What was Cybertron like from the skies?" Marissa questioned abruptly, tearing her captor form his thoughts. Her eyes were closed, and she was clearly a bit green from the speeds they were going and the thinner atmosphere.

         "As if you would ever see it." The officer would have rolled his optics.

         "No, but I could try to imagine it."

     Starscream doubted she could imagine such beauty but found no harm in telling her of his views when Cybertron was still thriving. Still the mech hesitated to go into any detail of his home. There was a lengthy silence before he began his telling of the gorgeous planet called Cybertron.

         "Unlike your Earth," he began, "Cybertron never developed light pollution, so there were always stars to be seen, both day and night."

         "What was day like?" She had started to smile at the idea of seeing millions of stars both by day and by night.

         "There are three suns," Starscream explained, "but they were hardly needed, since Cybertron itself glowed at night. Every hundred Earth years or so they align one in front of the other, and only then do the stars disappear during the day because of their bright rays." He remembered being one of the few who dared to venture out during that blinding time. "On any normal day, the sky would be amber, speckled with golden lights and even white galactic clouds millions of miles away. The colors would fade to deep purples and blues until it gave way to black night, scattered silver stars accompanied by the occasional roaming planet every eon or so."

     Marissa hummed at the sight that played behind her eyes. The three suns and their playful game of chase, the stars that surely would have looked like golden freckles. She wondered if Cybertron had mountains, but guessed that would be a question for Barricade, since Starscream clearly preferred space and the open air. 

         "You should write a book about it." The woman suggested. "It sounds beautiful."

         "It was." The wispy, dream-like tone Starscream had developed began to fall as he recalled the war that ruined it all. Smoke hid the beautiful stars and fire glow replaced the three magnificent suns. "Until the planet died and its beauty with it."

     To this, the human frowned. Starscream obviously missed it, so the others of his kind likely did as well. For different reasons, yes, but couldn't they come together just because they missed home? 

         'There's two different sides, silly.' She sighed to herself. 'One huge blame game that ended up on my wrist.'

     It became silent once more, and Marissa fell into an uncomfortable sleep in Starscream's cockpit.