Taking Flight

"Introductions: Part One"

By Take0v3r

Note: Hey guys! I have a million other stories to work on, some under editing, some needing to be updated. It's been busy here, so…you know. Check out my stories – Uninnocent, Paper Hummingbirds, and Summit, and if you're a Harry Potter fan, check out Insults Galore while you're at it. The rest need to be edited.

This takes place during the end(ish) of Rock Bottom. If someone knows a place where I can find that full video send me a PM, please. The seasons will either continue through my adjustments or possibly end up mixing things together.

Also, there will be warnings of chapter content, and some chapters may not be in chronological order. I'll have 'Warnings:' bolded under every author's note, and just above you'll find notes on the order of things plus you can check out the warnings.

Thanks guys!

xXx

Warnings: No warnings for this chapter.

Disclaimer:Transformers belongs to Hasbro/Dreamworks. All OCs are mine.

xXx

"It leaves you blinded, you know. There's, like, this feeling that totally controls you, eats away at your heart. And then…" Miko trailed off, hugging her knees closer to her body, shivering.

"And then what, Miss Nakadai?" her therapist tonelessly asked, scribbling something down in his notebook.

"And then nothing." She snapped. "You feel like nothing." Miko wanted to scream, shout, or at least do something. After only looking at the therapist she could tell this one wouldn't last long. None of them ever did.

Dr. Pete Wilson was a Caucasian middle-aged man with narrow square glasses and dark hair, streaked with white. He talked way too formally for Miko's taste, his couch was too stiff, and everything about him bothered her. It was like he brought out the worst in her. It was obvious Drifter. Wilson didn't really care. Her case was more like a gossip story, a little fairytale that the whole world was fascinated about but couldn't care enough to ask how she felt about it.

"Miss Nakadai? Miss Nakadai, are you alright?" he asked her. Miko glared at him, stood up, and yanked her phone out of her pocket. She walked out of the room, slamming the door shut and deciding to text the guys. Time check. OK, only ten minutes had been left of her session anyway. That might be a new record for her.

Unraveling her earbuds and sticking them in her ears, Miko turned around a corner and screamed.

Previously

xXx

Miko's day started off with an argument. Her host parents, Michelle and Jeremy Gould, called her 'too rebellious for her own good', and her grades were 'outrageous'.

Honestly, Miko couldn't care less. They weren't her real parents – not that she really cared about them either – and all she wanted to do was ignore the world. That was why she immersed herself in heavy metal; it was the only type of music that could block out her mind. Deep down, she knew she was rebellious, she knew she needed to work on her grades, but then the voices came back.

"You are weak, fleshling." He hissed. "And yet, you speak bravely, with power. Tell me your designation."

"Miko." She whispered.

"Miko…" he purred. "I," his voice rose, chest puffed out in pride, "Am Starscream,"

That was years ago, before she moved from Japan to Jasper, Nevada, when Miko got straight A's, played piano, and dressed prettier, with skirts. Occasionally she'd dye her hair, mainly purple. It was her favorite color. That was all when she went to private school in Tokyo.

Now, she was in the US, where she made average grades, often C's, and virtually no A's. She wore the same clothes every day, and always put her (now dyed pink) hair up. Miko liked to wonder what would've happened if she'd never met Starscream. No matter what, the thought would always scare her.

Every day after their meeting, she would return to their spot in the forest where cherry blossoms trees thrived, petals fell off and floated all around her, drifting and settling in her hair. Often, that would make most people look a little strange, but Miko's beauty was a different kind. It was more down-to-earth, and made her glow. Her amber eyes sparkled with mirth and passion.

Starscream enticed her. He could make her so angry, so frustrated. But on other days, he made her laugh until she cried, fascinated her with war stories – or just stories in general. The King of Vos told her about Cybertron, what life was like before the war. Miko wished she lived on Cybertron; they lived as one, a whole. There were no countries, no separations. They ruled under a single government. Instead of nations, they had city-states like Praxus, Kaon, and Iacon, to name just a few. They had their customs though, their little mini-cultures. He told her about how Cybertronian frames worked, how they transformed.

They grew close. Miko told him of life in her private school, how boring it was, how easy the classes were. Except for math, that always gave her trouble. Piano lessons were boring, pointless. She wanted more pieces to work on, something less classical and more intense.

But there was a time when Starscream never showed up. Every day after, she waited until nightfall for him to come to the forest, where Miko would fidget and finish off her homework and study. She never got the chance to tell him how much he meant to her. Eventually she knew he'd never come back, and spent the days after school on the forest floor, tears streaming down her face as she stared up into the sky, waiting for the rumble of his engine, for his wide wings to cast a great shadow over her tiny form.

When the foreign exchange student program was offered to her, she accepted it. Miko needed to get away from it all, from their forest. So when almost a year and a half had passed since he'd last visited, and the cherry blossoms were falling once again, she lay in the grass and settled her gaze on the deep blue sky. It was the perfect day for flying, for Starscream to come down. And still, after all this time, she hoped again, for him to come back to her.

But he didn't.

And Miko's heart was crushed. The tears fell faster with the blossoms – which covered parts of her body and settling, once again, in her hair as she lay with her back to the forest floor.

The next morning, Miko's flight for Nevada left at two in the morning. She liked to think all of her memories of Starscream literally flew out the window, clearing her mind. In a way, it did. But in reality, her mind clung to them that much stronger, making them permanent. Not a day went by without him crossing her mind. Everything she did seemed to remind her of Starscream.

Eventually, the pain lessened, and longing was replaced by anger. Why did he leave? Why couldn't he at least say goodbye? Did he hate her that much? This was where her rebellious acts began to creep into her heart, where she stopped caring about her grades, her clothes, her life in general.

Miko started to dye parts of her hair red and black, and tried to find something to her liking. After awhile, she wore dark black jeans and a black long sleeved shirt with white lining swirling around, and plain Converse.

Eventually though, she settled on an outfit that didn't make her seem so gothic and chose instead a pink T-shirt. On top of that, she wore a navy blue tank top with a little green alien just below the collar. For her pants, she wore purple and black striped leggings with denim shorts on top of that and knee-high combat boots, replacing the black shoe laces with purple ones.

On top of her bookshelf, she spotted two little stuffed animals by the hooks where she hung her belts on the wall. Miko liked them because they were the exact opposite of each other. One had narrow eyes, a frown, and was a pale turquoise color. The other was a darker shade of the same color, and had a smiley face with wide eyes. She snatched up a random belt and took the two plushies to attach to it. Her red and black hair went to pink instead, while the style went from ponytail to two short pigtails on each side, the back cascaded down, flat as a board, and tied off at the end.

This was her style, and it stayed that way.

By the time she met the autobots, it was nearly halfway through the first two semesters that year.

Miko acted like it was a big shock, but it really wasn't. It brought back so, so much pain. She hid it well, acting crazy, grinning from ear to ear so often that it made her cheeks hurt. Her friendship, however, was genuine. The teen was close to Bulkhead, in all honesty. She was close to Jack and Raf; they were her friends. In her mind, however, the autobots would always be the enemy, even Bulkhead.

It comforted her to know that Starscream had remained neutral in his explanation of the war on Cybertron. It was a sad story in her mind – how Megatron's ideas, a path so great, was changed by jealousy and unintentional betrayal when Orion became Prime; and instead of peace on Cybertron, there was only violence and destruction.

Mentions of Starscream caught her interest. Denial settled in at first. No matter what, Miko kept it all hidden. All information she'd learned from Starscream was yet to be revealed to others.

But now, Miko found herself trapped in a cave. The ceiling had collapsed, and the only thing stopping them from being crushed was Bulkhead, who was holding up the rocks that previously made up the roof. She'd been hitting his ped repeatedly, in order to create noise. It was supposed to attract attention.

And, as Starscream stared down at her and Miko stared back, an eternity seemed to pass, when in reality it had only been a couple of seconds.

That all too familiar sly smirk appeared on Starscream's face.

"Well, well, well," he purred. "What do we have here?" his optics left her face and went up to Bulkhead's.

"Miko, get behind me," Bulkhead ordered, glaring at the SIC. She slipped behind his heel, shivering and pressing her back to his heel, palms flatly pressing against his foot.

"I fail to see how that would help you, autobot," Starscream sneered, crossing his arms and cocking his hip out smugly. "You aren't exactly in any position to help,"

"If you think I'm going to beg for mercy, Starscream, forget it!" he spat out, but he nervously shifted his foot.

"Er, yes, begging for mercy would be quite pathetic, wouldn't it?" the decepticon said somewhat sarcastically, examining his finger tips. "Don't insult me. It's not as if you could protect your little human in your state anyway, now can you?"

"Touch her and I'll bring the roof down!" Bulkhead threatened. He shifted though, arms trembling – something Starscream noticed.

"It's bound to happen sometime anyway," Starscream slowly paced the room in a circle. He knelt to the ground, bringing himself closer to eye level with Miko. To her credit, she didn't shudder or move.

"Run Miko!" Bulkhead urged.

"Yes, run Miko! I would love to see you try! Really, I would!" he laughed. Then, his tone became sober, darker. "As if you haven't already…"

Her eyes widened in outrage. "Me?" she hissed. "I didn't run away from anyone! You left one day and never came back! I waited a whole year, Starscream! I couldn't wait forever!"

"Then what are you doing here?" he snarled. "And it wasn't my fault!" he added indignantly, "Lord Megatron came back; I had to leave or he would've gotten suspicious! We had no duty in Japan!"

"And you couldn't stay behind one more time, just to explain things to me? You couldn't have made up an excuse? Why couldn't you just face me?" Miko yelled. Her fists were balled up at her sides, her posture rigid and head held high.

Starscream noticed her little traits. He remembered when there had been a time she had come to see him after school one day:

"I'm so mad!" she'd groaned, frustrated, and fell flat on her back in a pile of leaves on the soft moss-covered ground. He'd gotten there a little late that day – there had been a storm earlier. Thankfully, the rain had gone away by the time school was over.

"Why?" he'd asked, amused by her antics.

Miko's head popped back up out of the pile. "One of my friends, Umi, has a twin sister called Ursa – who hates me for being friends with her sister. I think it was because back in kindergarten…" she rattled on about the list of events, and Starscream felt more relaxed than he had in far too long. The eradicons had given him hell earlier, and he'd spent the day yelling and shouting orders. Listening to Miko rattle on and on kept his stress down.

"So she shoves me, and Umi starts to shout at her," Miko continued, "Ursa's not that strong, so even though she really tried to knock me down, it only made me go back a couple steps. Everyone's noticing, and Umi and Ursa are arguing. Soon there's this giant crowd, I glare, Ursa says it again, and I punch her in the face. Mrs. Lee finally gets there and sees Ursa on the ground, and me standing over her. It looked bad, I think, because Ms. Lee gives me detention without letting anyone explain! Ugh! I hate her!"

Starscream chuckled at her and affectionately rubbed the smooth part of his finger on top her head, messing with her hair. She crossed her arms, eyebrows narrowed, and pouted.

"Sometimes," he said. "People will judge others based on what they see, and not what they hear. Those can be the worst kind of moments. Consider this, Miko," She cocked her head to the side, paying complete and full attention. "Imagine yourself in Mrs. Lee's position: her job is to teach and take care of her students. Parental units would not want to send their sparklings to a learning facility that allows violence, and she could have lost her job had circumstances gotten worse. She did what she deemed necessary at the time. Perhaps, if time permits, you may speak to her before or after your punishment. And you were a part of the fight."

"But I didn't start it!" Miko cried, irritated. "Ursa pushed me! I was just defending myself!" she sat up straight, fists clench and back stiff. He held back a snort. For such a tiny and defenseless creature, Miko looked ready to shout back as if she held some sort of power of him.

"Doesn't matter," Starscream retorted. "You claimed Ursa was harmless though, is that correct?" a guilty Miko nodded. "If she had simply pushed you, why not block her next hit instead of hurting her. That was an uncalled for attack against someone virtually harmless. Did you want to be in the fight?" he asked.

"No."

"Then you didn't need to continue it. In this case, you should've shielded yourself and blocked her. Instead, by punching her, you only added on to it."

A glum Miko slumped her shoulders and nodded her head again. "I'll try to talk to Mrs. Lee tomorrow. Maybe she'll let off the punishment if I apologize for hitting her, and tell her the whole story?"

"I think that's exactly what she'll do, Miko."

"What the scrap are you talking about?" Bulkhead head demanded, cutting Starscream off from his flashback. The two enemies glared daggers at each other.

"Hello? Forgot me again, Starscream?" she spat. He turned his gaze on her, but the look only lasted two seconds on her before he turned away, guilt overcoming the anger.

"Miko…" he said quietly. There weren't any words that could define his feelings right now. He wanted to hate this human sobad, but it was virtually impossible. No, this femme had taken up stay deep in his spark; where the only way to kick her out would be to rip himself open.

She crossed her arms. It was hard to tell what she was thinking, and he began to study her newer look. The dye in her hair, the colorful fashions she wore, how much skinnier she'd gotten, the glow of her amber eyes dulled.

"What did I do to you…?" he murmured. With that, he held out those long digits that could easily rip her to shreds just mere feet away, palm facing upwards. Miko recognized it immediately – an invitation to go with him. But go where? Japan? The Nemesis?

"Don't touch her!" Bulkhead roared. But Starscream had called his bluff, and Bulkhead did not 'bring the roof down' for fear of hurting his human charge, though his arms seemed to be begging him to by now.

Miko ignored her guardian and considered carefully. If she were to be taken to the Nemesis, what would life be like there? Megatron would find out, surely, no matter how long Starscream may think he could hide her. Through Starscream and the autobots, she knew Megatron would most likely try to kill her unless his SIC or Miko herself proposed something in exchange. Services to his army?

Impossible, Miko though. What could a tiny human do in an army of giant aliens? The idea was absurd. Information on the autobots? That might work. But then again, Miko didn't know every single little thing about them. Her logical side spoke up – all those stories Bulkhead has told her. Every injury they've gotten. Arcee's sensitivity to Cliffjumper's and Tailgate's death. Bumblebee's need for speed. Ratchet was their only medic. And of course, the location to the autobot secret headquarters.

The decepticon's red optics glowed – she saw the heavy guilt, apology, and pleading in them. It was a much more private, nearly invisible side of him that only she and possibly a few others have seen.

Glancing up to Bulkhead she saw his harder blue optics also pleading, but in a different way. He was asking her not to betray him, and the other was asking her to forgive him. Forgiving would be betraying, and not betraying Bulkhead would destroy everything she and Starscream had ever created, every built up. It was a dam waiting to burst, but perhaps this time, it would only crack.

So she stumbled forward a little, never leaving Bulkhead's gaze. And he angrily turned his head away, hurt clear. It was like a slap across the face to him. While starting the mend of one relationship, she'd torn up another.

Miko stepped into Starscream's palm, clutching his thumb as he lightly closed his fingers barely even half way around her. In that same moment, a giant drill burst through with Jack in the driver's seat. She turned away from Bulkhead and stared ahead.

Starscream walked away with her.

And Miko did not look back.

xXx

"Introductions: Part One" end

"Introductions: Part Two" upcoming.

4-05-2013