AN: What do you mean it's been over a year since I last updated? I do not know what you mean. :|

But yeah, I'm so sorry about the super long wait for this chapter. I have absolutely no idea what happened to give me such bad writer's block for this story. But less talk, more chapter!

Time Units
Orbital Cycle: 1 month
Joor: ~1 hour
Solar Cycle [Cycle]: ~1 day
Vorn: 83 years

Rise

Chapter Three

The Power of Socializing

Mirage had told her multiple times that Cybertronians did not dream. Victoria already knew that; Wheeljack had once explained that the closest thing to dream that Cybertronians experienced was the occasional memory feedback while they recharged. Bluestreak had simply smiled and pretended that memory fluxes had never sent him off during the night to aimlessly drive around for hours.

Memory fluxes—according to both Wheeljack and Mirage—only occurred in times of intense stress and only with events that left a strong impression on the person. Victoria equivocated it to more of a form of PTSD than simply dreams, but her expertise on the manner was far from definitive. She had only seen the aftermath of a memory flux, both as a human and a newly created Cybertronian.

Waking up to a horrible shriek and screeching metal always made the spark in her chest stop.

Victoria shot up from her berth the moment she heard it. The hab-suite was pitch black, but she could see the flickering red lights of Patronus's optics as he threw himself back and forth on the berth across the room. Victoria practically fell off the berth in her attempt to reach the young Prime before he did anything to hurt himself.

She had heard many times as a human not to wake someone in the middle of night terror, but everything happened too quickly to even think. She grabbed the nearest limb she could find and shook with all her might. "Patronus! It's okay—it's just a nightmare."

Victoria had no time to react to the arm that shot up. A sharp protrusion on Patronus's elbow caught the edge of one of her head fins; Victoria yelped at the sudden pain and nearly let go of the younger mech. She shook her head at the dull throb that emitted from that same fin and threw her whole body over him, gripping his shoulders for support. "Patronus!"

Patronus's optics erratically flickered for a few seconds, and the muffled noise he had been producing up until that point became a little clearer. Victoria felt a sharp stab in her chest when she was able to understand one of the words as "daddy."

As Patronus's flailing calmed down, Victoria carefully climbed over the mech's wings and leaned against the wall to cradle his head in her lap. Her quiet hushes came out more as crackling static, but the noise in combination with careful pets along the crown of his helm calmed him until his optics flickered off.

Victoria continued to cradle his head, humming a nameless tune, until the lights of the hab-suite flickered on, signaling the start of a new day.

~III~

"Soooo…"

Victoria shifted in response, and she heard Patronus mimic the movements behind her. Blaster hummed and rubbed the back of his head while both bipedal Cassettes grinned beside him, or in Rewind's case brightened every little light his frame emitted. "I didn't really have anything planned…"

"Please don't make me return to Mirage." Victoria felt her frame heat up at Eject's snicker and Blaster's winking optics. Rewind merely shifted back and forth on the heels of his feet, the little red light blinking on the side of his head. "I mean, I can only take so much 'reliving the good times in the Towers' conversations."

Blaster released a hearty laugh. Victoria felt her fingers twitch. "You're laughing, but those conversations are like boring history lessons."

A gush of air hit the back of her head. Her tense bodyguard was the only one who truly understood the irony of her words—just another little secret that separated them from the rest of the crew. "Plus, he'll see it as some kind of failure and forever use it against me. I'll even write your daily report or whatever if you save me from that."

"No need for somethin' that extreme." Blaster's chuckles died off, and he lifted a finger to tap his chin. A thoughtful hum from him made Eject fidget in place. "You're still a li'l too fresh to dive right into transmissions, but too inexperienced for interviews…"

Eject flung his hand up and did a few little hops to get the red and orange mech's attention. "Ooh, ooh, I know! How about messages? Even a rookie couldn't mess that up on the first cycle on the job."

"You do realize I did have a job before ending up here."

Victoria shook her head when the two mechs ignored her. Blaster reached down to pat Eject on the shoulder, and Rewind danced out of the way when Blaster's other hand attempted to pat his head too. "Good thinkin', my mech! Message runnin'll teach her the prime lesson of Communications."

Blaster gestured for Victoria to follow him into the Communications hub with Eject and Rewind automatically following behind him. Victoria paused and glanced up at Patronus. "So…"

"Mirage said I can't follow you around when you're 'on duty.'" Victoria smiled at the exaggerated air quotes the mech did. "He said it would 'discourage any bonding with the rest of the crew.' What's the point of being a bodyguard if you're not supposed to discourage weird mechs from getting too close?"

"I think that's Mirage's way of saying that no one on board is a threat."

"Then he shouldn't restrict you from interacting with a whole group of mechs in the same breath."

Eject reappeared before Victoria could respond. He smiled up at Patronus and slapped the flier's hip when he walked by. "C'mon, big guy. Mirage just messaged Blaster to order you to vacate the premises. He said something about Nightbeat needing a hand on the lower deck."

Patronus's wings clung to his lower back, and he grumbled under his breath as he followed the smaller mech. Victoria continued to smile until they had both vanished around the corner. Her smile slightly fell, and she took a hesitant step into the Communications hub.

The room was slightly dimmer than she remembered; the overhead lights appeared to be only a small fraction of the room's light source while the large console on the far side of the room emitted a brighter light from its glowing screens. That light highlighted Blaster's frame as he stood typing on the main keyboard, occasionally flicking a finger across the screen of a data-pad lying beside him.

Rewind waved her over and gave a little laugh when she tripped halfway across the room. "Careful! Ramhorn doesn't appreciate being overlooked."

Victoria tensed at the loud snort that graced her ankles and froze when the red beast she had seen the day before trotted past her with an even gate. Now that she had a closer look at the Cassette, she was surprised by how much it resembled a rhinoceros. He curled up in the corner of the room and glared at her with dark blue optics. "Sorry."

"Don't worry about it." Ramhorn snorted again and shifted to face the wall. Blaster continued without turning away from the console. "Ramhorn has a thing for getting' underneath mechs' feet. He'll mellow out the longer ya know him."

Victoria nodded and continued her path across the room, coming to a stop next to Rewind. She stared at the symbols that flew across the screen of the monitor and shook her head, a small ache forming behind her optics the longer she stared. She only recognized about half the symbols that flew across the screen, and even then, none of them formed coherent sentences. "Umm…"

"Lesson number one of Communications." Blaster detached the data-pad from a cord that Victoria hadn't noticed. He held it out to her, and she hesitated before taking it. "Communications is all about communicating!"

"Meaning socializing."

"Exactly!" Blaster smiled down at Rewind, and the Cassette's visor brightened in response. Victoria was too busy gawking down at the data-pad to notice the exchange. "What's the point o' just hangin' out in a tiny room all cycle? Ya gotta mingle to get the rundown on things. It's what keeps the cycle o' communications going."

Victoria glanced up at the mech and tried to ignore the squeaking noise her fingers made when they squeezed the data-pad. "What about messages from outside the ship? Mirage made it seem like that's what you mainly did."

"That's the second lesson." Blaster's smile never faltered, and a twisting nausea was beginning to form in Victoria's abdomen. "Ya can't just be skippin' lessons on me."

"Eject tried once; he got stuck on message patrol for an entire orbital cycle."

"Yep, and ya don't wanna be stuck on message runnin' forever. Besides." Blaster paused to tap the data-pad in Victoria's hand. "Those are the messages from outside."

"Then why don't you just let mechs come here to read them?" Victoria glanced over the screen again but immediately looked away when the pit of nausea grew worse. "Surely, that would be easier on everyone."

"That would be ignorin' lesson one."

"But…" Victoria trailed off, hands clenching the data-pad. Both Blaster and Rewind tilted their heads to the side, waiting for her to continue, and she would have found the simultaneous movements amusing if she wasn't fighting the urge to panic. "I…I'm still getting to know the layout of the ship! It would take me forever to find half of these guys on the list, and that's only if they're in the places they're supposed to be."

Blaster hummed and waved at the corner of the room. "Ramhorn can guide ya 'round the ship fo' now. He's still workin' on his socializin' too."

Ramhorn grunted but nonetheless stood up. He waddled over to Victoria and glared up at her. Victoria frowned and couldn't help but imagine that he would chew on her ankles if she made one wrong move. She turned her attention back to Blaster, and her frown deepened as he continued to widely smile at her. "I'm starting to get the feeling that this is something you just don't want to do."

"What?" Victoria nodded at Rewind's sudden snicker and Blaster's exaggerated tone. "I would never take advantage of my newly obtained assistant."

"You just lost your accent," Victoria said, making Blaster's optics wink. "I've known Jazz long enough to learn that losing the accent is a sign that he's lying."

Blaster's optics winked, and the little red light on Rewind's head camera blinked off for the first time since their conversation started. "How do you know Jazz?"

"I met him…"

Victoria stopped as the mechs continued to stare at her. Once they had stopped blinking, Blaster's optics had slightly darkened, and Rewind's visor flickered back and forth between them. Both of their frames were tense, and it took Victoria a moment to realize why.

Pixel should have never met Jazz. Mirage had meticulously repeated her history over and over again: Pixel's family had been one of the first noble families to flee Cybertron when the war broke out. That explained her lack of knowledge when it came to weapons and fighting. Her family had been hiding out on a Neutral colony when a group of unaligned mechs had raided them. She had been forced into a stasis pod with Patronus and landed on an uninhabited rock in the Lilivuvian Quadrant, which was supposed to explain why Mirage knew where she was—by tracking the signal of her stasis pod. There were no gaps in the story that had been related to the mechs.

Except…

"I met him before the war." Victoria held her breath, waiting for a reaction. Blaster's optics winked again, and Rewind's recording light flickered back on. "We ran into each other a few times when I visited Iacon's Hall of Records. It was one of the few places my creators would let me go without nagging me about my lessons."

"And you remember him from that long ago?"

"How do you forget Jazz?" Rewind chuckled along with Blaster, and Victoria relaxed again. Thank goodness she still remembered the little details she had learned about the mechs during their time in her brother's cabin. "He's too unique of a character to forget so easily."

"I hear that." Blaster grabbed a chair that sat next to him and collapsed into it. "I only met him after the war broke out, durin' my trainin' in recon. He was the one that stressed the socializin' part o' Communications."

"Is that your way of saying I'm not getting out of this?"

"Cheer up!" Rewind left Blaster's side to give Victoria's hand an encouraging pat. "You could be the one archiving the messages to be delivered."

"I thought ya enjoyed archivin'."

"Well, I'm not like Eject and totally despise it." Rewind climbed into the chair next to Blaster and began taping on the keyboard that Blaster wasn't using. "But a mech can only take so many joors doing the same repetitive work."

"You mechs sure have been pushin' fo' more breaks lately."

Victoria sighed as the two mechs pointedly ignored her now. With a quick glance down at her huffing companion, Victoria shuffled out of the room. She stopped as soon as the door shut behind her and tapped the screen of the data-pad. She frowned at the few symbols she recognized and turned to Ramhorn when he grunted again. "Uh, I think we should track down Mirage first."

~III~

Victoria sighed and barely paid attention to Ramhorn's snort against her ankles. She stared at the bright screen of the data-pad, but it still made as much sense as it did before—it all read as gibberish to her. Ramhorn snorted again. "Well, this would go a lot more faster if you could track down Mirage."

Ramhorn gave her a long stare, which she interpreted as a preemptive warning for him chewing on her ankles. After an unrelenting staring contest, he wobbled ahead of her with a snort, and she followed. "Where are we anyway? You've taken me back and forth so many times that I've last track of the floor we stopped on."

All she received as an answer was a snort. She sighed and tried again to interpret hieroglyphics in front of her. "Let's see…this means '1'…I think. Yeah, because this is '2.' Maybe that means the floor each mech should be? Or did Blaster just give me a numbered list?"

Victoria hummed and scrolled through the short list again. "Okay, no. It's totally not a numbered list because the numbers are out of order and repeat. Which floor are we on, Ramhorn?"

A snort was her only answer. "I thought that might be the case. Maybe I can just slowly decode this by using everything that Wheeljack taught me…"

"Running another errand for Mirage?"

Victoria jumped and clutched the data-pad in her hands to her chest. She would never get over the replacement of her heart beating in her ear to the almost mechanical whir of her spark, but she did a valiant job at trying to calm it as she turned towards the voice. Skyfire smiled down at her with an unmistakable flicker of amusement in his optics.

The large shuttle chuckled when Victoria used her data-pad to smack his arm. "How can a mech as big as you be so quiet?"

"Vorns living around Seekers." Skyfire chuckled once more at her disgruntled frown and shifted the tubes balanced in his arm. He nodded at Ramhorn, who acknowledge him with an uninterested snort. "You looked a little lost though, so I thought I'd lend a hand, though it seems that isn't necessary. I didn't realize that you had an escort."

Victoria huffed. "I'm still figuring the ship out, so Blaster told him to come with me. He's getting us to 'socialize' together."

"I think I've heard the Cassettes use that excuse to hang out in the rec-room while on duty," Skyfire said with a small laugh. "I would think Eject or Rewind would have jumped at the chance to help you."

"Apparently they're both very easily scared off when it comes to running messages."

They both paused to look down at Ramhorn, who had emitted a strange noise somewhere between a snort and an odd gurgle. The shuttle grinned when Ramhorn waddled a few steps down the hall. "Now that I think about it, that's not surprising. They love to socialize but playing messenger hadn't been high on their priority lists. Better you got paired up with Ramhorn than either of them."

"Yeah." Victoria glanced over at Ramhorn, who now sat staring at a wall. Maybe they had offended him in some way; he was a lot harder to read than the other Cassettes. "He's great company."

"He'll grow on you at some point just like he's done with…most of the crew." Skyfire shifted his posture, expertly balancing the tubes he held. "So, any messages for me?"

Victoria handed the data-pad over to the mech without a second thought. He maneuvered the tubes into one arm and took the data-pad to skim through the list on the front screen. "I think I might have seen your name on there? I'm pretty sure I saw a mention of the lab on there at least."

Victoria froze as Skyfire's optics skimmed the screen. It was a long shot—a really long shot—but how else was she going to confirm her suspicions? If she knew if the numbers she had found represented the floor each mech was supposed to be on, she would at least be able to figure out which mechs could be on the list. If anything, she could just play it off as a mistake if Skyfire didn't find his name.

The tips of Skyfire's fingers tapped against the screen, and he hummed. "I don't normally receive any transmissions…ah! What do you know? There is one for me…and it's from Perceptor! It's been a while since I heard from him. I was starting to worry the outpost he resided at had been…"

Victoria relaxed while Skyfire trailed off to read over the recorded message Blaster had transcribed. Her suspicions had been correct! Either that, or she had just been extremely lucky. She was lucky enough to have learned a few things from Wheeljack, but that certainly didn't make her fluent in the language; she would have to talk to Mirage about having a crash course in written Cybertronian.

A sudden whistling stung Victoria's audials. She shook her head as it became sharper, and her hand unconsciously reached up to rub the side of her head, the tips of her fingers tracing the prominent symbol engraved on the left side of her head. As suddenly as it began, the whistling stopped; the low lilt of voices brushed across her sensors instead.

"Did I not tell you that you would benefit from my lesson on organic beings?"

"Yes, Quintus. For the last time, I concede that I should have listened…but would you not have accompanied us to this new planet if I had?"

"Well…perhaps not."

"Then, is it not a good thing that I did not listen?"

"Prima will not be pleased with what we have done."

"When is Prima ever pleased with the actions of his brothers? It is about time that we prove we can make our own decisions. Isn't that right, Megatronus?"

"That's strange."

The distant voice caused snapped Victoria back to the present, and her whole body jerked at sudden sensory input, sending her flailing to keep her balance. Skyfire jerked back too at her sudden actions and dropped both the data-pad and the tubes to grab her before she fell. "Primus! Are you all right?"

Victoria's vision spun before she was able to focus on the mech's bewildered optics. She took a deep breath and realized that her spark was erratically spinning in a familiar way—one that was never because of her own emotions. "I'm fine…I think."

Skyfire kept his hands on her shoulders as she regained her balance. "I'm starting to worry that it might be me that causes things like this to happen! It never fails that I'm the one closest to you when it does."

"It's not your fault." Victoria patted the side of his arm. Skyfire released her after a moment's hesitation. "Trust me, it has absolutely nothing with you being around."

Skyfire continued to frown, but Victoria bent down to grab the data-pad that had fallen. She helped him pick up his tubes too when he crouched down to retrieve them. A long, harsh vent came from the mech. "I keep telling Mirage that we need an Autobot medic onboard. Someone like First Aid would be able to figure out why you keep zoning out like that."

"Ex-cuse me?"

Victoria jumped at the new voice, but Skyfire merely tensed and turned towards the polished mech that approached them. Knock Out glared at Skyfire as he came to a stop next to them, a sneer fitted perfectly on his angular face. "I'll have you know that I take my position as this ship's Chief Medical Officer very seriously."

"I believe the Stunticons would beg to differ."

Knock Out's sneer grew more pronounced, and he positioned his hands on his canted hips. "The Stunticons are an obvious exception."

Skyfire went to retaliate, but Victoria quickly stepped between the two mechs. The last thing she wanted was a fight to break out and worsen the new ache that resonated from the left side of her head. "Hi, Knock Out! How are you today?"

The Decepticon snorted and began to pick at the joints of his fingers. "My cycle was going well until I encountered yet another Autobot questioning my skills. You would think that they would be more civil knowing it will be my operating table they land on if something unexpected were to happen."

"That's…great." Victoria turned back to Skyfire, who no longer looked like the gentle giant she had become used to. His glare was as sharp as any other mech's, and he kept it focused on Knock Out. "You said something before I had my moment. Something being strange?"

Knock Out rolled his optics when Skyfire took a moment longer to glare at him, but the shuttle eventually turned his attention back to Victoria and gestured at the data-pad. "Yes, I didn't recognize the coordinates that Perceptor sent his message from."

"Is that good or bad?"

"Depends really. He may have landed at an Autobot outpost that was recently created or a Neutral colony that neither Autobot or Decepticon had found before."

"Because the Decepticons are just so eager to track down every sniveling Neutral we can."

Skyfire ignored the medic with ease. "Or this could, unfortunately, be a fake message. I doubt that though; Perceptor has this way of communicating that few mechs can easily replicate."

"Again, every Decepticon just has so much free time on their hands to send out fake messages to every Autobot." Knock Out huffed when Skyfire refused to look at him again and turned his attention to Victoria. She frowned when his optics trailed up and down her frame. "You have a maintenance check scheduled for the end of the cycle."

"But I never—"

"You just about took down a shuttle when you glitched." Knock Out gave Skyfire a pointed smirk and ignored Victoria's protests. He daintily placed a hand on his chest. "See? Responsible medic—now go be a good mech and keep that nutjob below from blowing a hole in the side of the ship and killing us all."

Victoria sighed when Skyfire optics snapped back to the medic. "Shouldn't you be locating your 'worshippers' before they break another dispenser?"

Knock Out's sly smile instantly fell back into a sneer, and both of his hands clenched into fists. "They are not my responsibility!"

"I hear a different story from the mechs who were here when Mirage found you and the Stunticons hiding in the crater of an asteroid."

"While you were forced into stasis after the Decepticons destroyed your precious Autobot lab? By the way, how many 'scientists' died because they refused treatment from a Decepticon medic? Seems a little petty if you ask me."

Victoria glanced between the two glaring mechs and sighed. Perhaps she should have been more wary stepping between two mechs that practically radiated visible waves of anger towards each other; perhaps she should have thought twice before she put her hands on either mech to push them apart. Their interaction reminded her too much of Star and Grimlock's little spats though, and experience had taught her that the quickest way to defuse a situation like this was simply to separate the two opposing force. "Okay, let's just take a step back and—"

"I just buffed that!" Victoria snatched her hand away from Knock Out and tensed. Knock out appeared less interested in her and more upset by the slight smudge her hand left behind on his chest. Victoria relaxed a little when his only immediate reaction was to wave one hand at the smudge as if he could not figure out what to do with it. "This finish was meant to last me until the next refueling stop."

With a shake of her head, Victoria sighed, and Skyfire chuckled. "You two were this close to tearing each other apart, and your only concern is your finish? I'm starting to think your priorities might be a little out of order."

Knock Out huffed and sent a glare her way. Skyfire stepped back, making Victoria's hand fall from where it had been pressed against his abdomen. She glanced between the two and sighed again as they both continued to send each other small glares or scowls. "I know I have no say over how you act, but come on. You're both living on the same ship together. You don't have to be best friends—or even just friends for that matter—but a little bit of decorum wouldn't hurt anyone. No more mentioning sensitive topics to provoke one another."

Knock Out opened his mouth, red optics flashing, but Victoria pointed at him with a leveled stare. "I mean it."

Knock Out rolled his optics and left in the same manner he had arrived, pointedly knocking his shoulder against Skyfire's arm when he passed. Victoria slightly relaxed when the medic turned the corner, and she focused on Skyfire once more. Her spark had dramatically calmed since her earlier episode, though there was a new sense of pride that kept it whirling a little faster than normal. It stuttered a bit when Skyfire chuckled down at her. "What?"

"I was beginning to wonder if we would ever see this infamous 'Carrier Mode' Mirage warned us so much about. It's not as devastating as he described though—you're not attempting to set up play dates in the rec-room." Skyfire paused, his smile widening. "Yet."

Victoria scowled and busied herself with the data-pad she still held. A little symbol similar to a padlock glared back up at her, and her scowl deepened. "Sounds like Mirage said more about me than he let on."

"Only a little warning here and there." Victoria's visor flickered with her deepening scowl. Skyfire slightly gestured with the tubes in his arm, smile still in place. "Well, I better get these up to Brainstorm before he decides we need a better delivery system. The last time he attempted to add anything on to the ship, it didn't end very well for anyone."

Victoria nodded and stepped aside for the huge shuttle to pass. Her scowl flipped to a smile in response to the one he gave her, and she stood there until Skyfire vanished around the same corner Knock Out had. With a sigh, Victoria glared down at the data-pad she held, fingers tapping the padlock until angry red symbols appeared on the screen. "How am I supposed to unlock this? Blaster never told me it would do this!"

A few minutes passed with various failed attempts to unlock the data-pad. Victoria finally growled and turned with the intention of returning to Blaster. She froze when she found a still figure standing only a few feet down the hall.

Yellow and blue clashed, and Victoria stiffened further when Chromedome continued to stare without making any move to approach her. She refused to be the first to look away though, and she straightened her spine and stared back with a tight frown. Messages popped up on her HUD and swiveled around Chromedome's body, as if to figure out why she was staring so intently.

Ultimately, it was the sound of the elevator that made them both look away. Victoria wasn't sure whether to be grateful or intimidated by the dark blue Seeker that stepped out between her and Chromedome. He paused, red optics flickering between them, and turned in the direction of Chromedome. He paused again just before passing the Autobot and glanced back at Victoria. "I am still unaware of many Autobot protocols, but amongst Decepticons there is no fraternization allowed in the halls."

Victoria turned and briskly walked into the open elevator. Her frame remained stiff until the doors had silently slid shut, and only then did she allow herself to lean against the back wall. That was…odd, and a little creepy if she was being honest with herself. Something about Chromedome's staring didn't sit right with her, even more so than Wildrider's catcalls.

She glanced around the elevator when it stopped on a new floor and lightly smacked the data-pad against her forehead. "Dang it! I completely forgot about Ramhorn."

~III~

"So this is the rec-room!" Rewind widely gestured at the room he guided Victoria. "Just a little recap from last cycle's tour, this is where the majority of us come to refuel and all-around relax. It's on the first floor, third door to the left of the elevator. If someone isn't in the place where the schedule places them at, they're likely here."

Victoria nodded and tapped the screen of the data-pad when its backlight began to fade. The screen brightened again, allowing her to see which lines of symbols had the number one next to them. "Okay, so there should be…one mech here most of the time."

"Not here exactly, but we've come to learn that Nightbeat tends to hang out on the first floor instead of up in the monitor room." Rewind waved at where Eject sat at one of the tables, and Eject enthusiastically waved back with a cube of glowing Energon. The mech sitting next to the Cassette waved as well. "Speaking of which, there he is! He had a message right?"

"Right…" Victoria glanced down at the screen as if to confirm their guess. There was only one "1," so that had to be Nightbeat. Right? "You're a much better guide than Ramhorn."

Rewind chuckled and continued to guide her across the room to his brother and Nightbeat. "Ramhorn's not that bad when you get to know him! Though, you might want to avoid him for a little while until he forgets that you left him behind."

"I can't help that he wandered off while I gave Skyfire his message." Victoria waved when they reached the table and stared when Eject held his hand out towards her, palm out. It took her a moment to realize what he wanted, and she finally smacked her palm against his. High-fiving was a thing with Cybertronians? "How is Patronus doing?"

"He's a real team player!" Eject's smile widened when she complied with his high-five. He relaxed back in his seat, but not before kicking out the chair next to him for Rewind to climb onto. "We got through two whole storage rooms with his help. Then he had to go off and meet Megatron. "

Victoria frowned at the casual mention of Patronus's training. She handed the data-pad to Nightbeat. "Message delivery."

"Sounds serious." Victoria decided to play along with the mech and gravely nodded, making him chuckle. "Hope it isn't Muzzle demanding those credits I owe him from that game of Fullstasis."

"It's the Dispenser Saboteur." Victoria almost smiled when all three mechs turned to stare at her. "He's demanding Mirage's luxurious suite in exchange for allowing the officers' dispenser to remain functioning for another day."

There was brief a moment of silence—one that caused Victoria to stiffen—until Nightbeat burst into a fit a laughter. Victoria smiled when Eject and Rewind followed suit. "For a second there, you looked like you actually believed me."

"You're still new," Nightbeat said when he finally managed to control his laugher. He still had a few more chuckles as he accessed the data-pad to find his message. "I haven't completely figured out all of your tells."

"My tells?"

"You know: signs that you're lying or telling the truth." Nightbeat leaned back in his chair with a hum. Rewind reached over to pull out the chair that Victoria stood next too and waved at it until she complied with his silent command. "A good detective learns early on how to pick up the tells that the majority of mechs tend to have, but everyone has their own."

Victoria balanced her chin on the top of her hands and watched Eject use his fingers to punt a little piece of metal through the circle Rewind formed with his hands. "And did you pick up on any that I might have."

"Your fingers twitched a little." Nightbeat pulled out a data-pad of his own and tapped the screen, occasionally looking back to Blaster's data-pad. "But that could just be because you naturally twitch. I noticed it when we were first introduced."

Victoria gave him a tight smile when he glanced up at her. "I was told a lot in the Towers that my twitching was un-noble-like. Mirage says I have some kind of glitch."

Eject chose that moment to fling his arms up and shout, "Goal!"

Rewind laughed and flicked the metal, which Victoria realized was a small nut and bolt, back at Eject. "Lucky shot."

"Talent always makes the mechs jealous." Eject twisted around in his seat to snatch the Blaster's data-pad from Nightbeat. He used his finger to scroll through the short list. "How many messages have you managed to run so far?"

"Counting Nightbeat?" Victoria held up her hand and pretended to use her fingers to calculate. After a moment of "calculating," she held up two fingers. "Two."

"Wow," Eject said, his mouth forming an exaggerated "O." "You're slower than I am, and I'm usually slow of purpose!"

"It's not my fault that I'm still figuring everything out!" Victoria leaned back in her chair and frowned at the snickers she received. "I had to backtrack to Blaster because he never told me how to unlock the data-pad."

"You don't know how to unlock a data-pad?" Nightbeat glanced up from his data-pad, optics brightening with surprise. "They not have data-pads where you come from?"

"Not when they have pass-codes to them." Nightbeat stared at her for another click before emitting a quiet "oh!" and returning to his data-pad. Victoria turned back to Eject and Rewind, the former still snickering while the latter angled his head camera at her. "And Ramhorn's not the best guide. He never did take me to Mirage."

"That's because Mirage told us not to." Eject gave her a hand shrug when she silently stared at him. "He said he wanted you to get used to doing things without him holding your hand the entire time, and Blaster agreed. They thought it would be a good team-building exercise."

Rewind reached out to pat Victoria on the arm, and she slightly flinched when the tip of one of his fingers zapped her. "And you're part of our team now!"

"Teammates tell each other things like that."

"But you're still a rookie!" Eject widely grinned at her. "We've never had someone below us to tease before."

"I see where this relationship is going." Victoria stood up and angled her chair away from the twins before sitting down again. Ignoring Eject's constant snickers, Victoria focused on Nightbeat, who had stashed away his data-pad and was silently watching their conversation with a small smile. "So, how has your day been?"

Nightbeat lightly chuckled. "Pretty successful, I'd say. Your friend really did help with sorting through the junk the Decepticons have managed to sneak onto the ship. We found a number of paraphernalia that were confiscated."

"Sounds…exciting."

"Not really." Nightbeat leaned onto the table and smiled. Victoria shifted in her seat and ignored the new game that Eject and Rewind began. "Figuring out how they got it onboard is the exciting part. The Stunticons have managed to sneak something new onboard at every stop, and the weird thing is that it's all useless junk. I've had Brainstorm run a few tests on some of the things I've found, but everything came back harmless."

"What kind of stuff do they get?"

"Weird things, like broken game chips, rusted wire, and a container of synthetically colored rocks. One time, I even found a rotting toy made out of organic materials. And the Stunticons have always claimed ownership."

Victoria hummed and flicked the nut and bolt back to Eject when it bounced against her hand. "They're not allowed to bring those things onto the ship? I mean, if everything is harmless…"

"That's the weirdest part. Mirage doesn't have a problem with us purchasing personal things as long as it can't be retrofitted into a weapon; he gets Brainstorm to check all of that out, and like I said, Brainstorm has always said the stuff was harmless." Nightbeat shrugged. "They just hide it in the storage rooms."

"Do they really need a reason to be weird, though?" Victoria grabbed the impromptu metal toy when it hit her a third time and ignored Eject's loud groan. "I mean, I've only met them twice now, but they don't exactly seem the…sanest mechs."

"True, true, and I would agree if it weren't for the fact that they fight over who gets to claim all the stuff." Nightbeat laughed and pulled out his data-pad again. He flicked a finger across the screen a few times and hummed. "Yep, about eighty percent of the time, they fight about who actually brought it onboard, Wildrider and Drag Strip appearing to be the ones who fight most often, but I've witnessed Breakdown and Dead End getting in on the action too."

Nightbeat leaned closer and cupped one hand around his mouth. Out of instinct, Victoria mimicked his movements, leaning in and ignoring another groan from Eject as she moved the metal toy hostage she held away from his groping hand. "I think they're trying to court Megatron."

Victoria jerked back in her seat, the wheels on her back smacking against the chair, and she gaped at the mech. Eject hooted in victory as he regained possession of his impromptu toy. "Are you serious?"

Nightbeat's severe frown lasted for only a second before he burst into a fit of loud laughter, relaxing back into his seat. "Of course not! But I got you back for the dispenser thing."

Victoria stared at him until his joke finally registered. She smiled along with all three mechs' laughter. "That was good."

"It was." Nightbeat's laughter cut off as abruptly as it had begun, and he pointed at her with a stern finger. "But I'm getting close to figuring out what all the junk is for; I can feel it."

"Good luck with that." Victoria slid out of her chair and stood up. Rewind didn't hesitate to follow her lead; he snatched the data-pad from Eject when the Cassette attempted to lift it out of his reach. "We better get back to work before someone comes to complain that I'm not being a good team player."

"I'll let Mirage know that's not true." Rewind waved one last time at the two mechs before he followed Victoria through the maze of tables. "You were just following Blaster's orders: handing out messages and socializing."

"He'll still say I took 'longer than was properly required as nobles are only required to interact with others in a friendly fashion for three seconds maximum.'" Victoria smiled as Rewind chuckled at her exaggerated attempt to mimic Mirage's voice. "'The remainder of the meeting must entail scathing, but subtle, attacks on another's character, with an option of absently revealing dark secrets to tarnish another's reputation.'"

Rewind's chuckle suddenly cut off, and he stopped short. Victoria had little time to react; she yelped as she suddenly collided with a hard surface. She stumbled back and lost her balance completely, landing on her rear with a louder yelp.

There was loud laughter behind her, probably from Eject, but Rewind's reaction was to reach out and try to help her. It wasn't his hands that grabbed her shoulders and hauled her back to her feet though. The huge hands stayed on her shoulders until her balance returned, and Victoria blinked up at the frowning, red-faced mech.

Breakdown cautiously patted her head, and Victoria frowned, resisting the urge to swat his hand away. "You all right?"

Victoria paused long enough to check herself and glance down at Rewind. Rewind tilted his head, waiting for her answer as well. "…yeah?"

"Knock Out said you were scheduled for a checkup later." Breakdown's frown deepened, and Victoria almost felt guilty for making her response sound so indecisive. "He doesn't normally schedule checkups unless he's ordered to."

"I'm fine." Victoria insisted. She patted her thighs and realized she had lost her data-pad in the fall. After a quick assessment of the area, she found it on the ground beside Breakdown's feet. "I was just surprised. Rewind didn't warn me."

Rewind stiffened, but his optic band flickered with humor. "I thought it was obvious to stop when you see a huge mech standing in the way."

"Not when I'm trying to have a meaningful conversation that requires eye contact." Rewind chuckled, and Victoria thought she heard a chuckle from Breakdown too. She was too busy reaching down to retrieve the data-pad to be sure. "It's rude not to stare directly into the face of the mech you're talking to."

Victoria's finger brushed against the data-pad when a red hand swooped in to snatch the tablet away. She snapped up and frowned at the Stunticon jabbing his finger against the screen. Wildrider ignored her and even danced out of Breakdown's reach with a cackle. "Ooh! Gossip! Let's see who's getting love letters. Dread-bore, Brain-dead, Chrome-dork…"

Wildrider managed to rattle off a few more names, dodging Breakdown's exasperated hands and making the mech angrier by the second, before Victoria stepped forward. She waited until Wildrider held the data-pad away from Breakdown with a mocking wave, and she grabbed it when it flew past her face. It took Wildrider a moment to notice that the data-pad had vanished from his hand, and even then the only thing he did was stare at the empty hand. "Hey!"

"It's rude to read others' personal mail." Victoria frowned when the full force of Wildrider's bright red optics turned on her, and her voice remained steady despite the whirling drone of her spark. "How would you feel if someone read your private messages?"

Breakdown's yellow optics winked behind the red and black speedster, and Wildrider gaped at her for a long, silent moment. The moment was broken when Wildrider threw back his head and released a loud laugh. Victoria frowned as the mech went on for a few minutes, shifting one hand to her hip when Wildrider's laughter nearly sent him to the floor. "What's so funny?"

Wildrider's laughter cut off as abruptly as it began, and Victoria almost took a step back when his overly bright optics focused directly on her again. "What're you gonna do? Put me in timeout for being such a naughty mech? I could show you the kind of punishment I'm in to."

Victoria did take a step back when Wildrider took one towards her, and she jumped when she bumped into something behind her. Nightbeat caught her before her startled jump sent her to the floor again. "I can have you taken to the brig for harassment. Even Megatron's approved of that."

Wildrider just laughed. A small shiver passed through Victoria's spark as the mech's bright optics continued to dance over her. "You Autobots have no sense of fun! Let me know when you wanna hang out with a real mech."

Despite the oddly fluctuating spark in her chest, Victoria couldn't help but scowl at the suggestive grin Wildrider gave her. She pressed her lips together to keep from retorting and instead stepped aside to avoid Wildrider when he lurched forward into the rec-room. Breakdown followed him, stopping to stare at her for a moment before sidling past a frowning Nightbeat. Victoria almost felt the silent gaze had been some form of apology, if only because Breakdown shoved Wildrider away from the Energon dispenser with more force than she thought necessary.

A tug on her hand prompted Victoria to step forward, and she continued to follow Rewind out the door with Nightbeat on her heels. Once they were in the hallway, Eject appeared at her side and lightly tapped the data-pad still in her hand. "Where to next, rookie?"

Victoria glanced at the screen, hummed at the foreign symbols, and pointed towards the elevator farther down the hallway. "To the labs, I suppose. Better to get Brainstorm over with now rather than later."

Both Cassettes laughed, and she could even hear Nightbeat chuckle a little as he headed in the opposite direction. She smiled along with them, but a part of had to take a moment and silently thank Wildrider for his abrupt appearance. Otherwise, she would have never imagined Brainstorm had a message to be delivered.

~III~

Victoria grinned at the collective sigh that escaped her and her companions when the door to the Communications hub hissed open. Rewind immediately crossed the room to tap Blaster on the thigh, making the bigger mech jump at the contact. Eject, on the other hand, took his time, dragging his feet across the floor until he finally fell face first into the empty chair beside Blaster. "Mech down!"

Blaster chuckled, and Victoria crossed the room to him just in time to see him disconnect a wire from the console. It slithered under the armor on his arm and disappeared from sight. "Already? Ya haven't even finished the cycle!"

"I pulled double duty," Eject insisted. He waved at Steeljaw when the feline lumbered out form beneath the console by Blaster's feet. "Rookie here needed a guide."

"That's why I buddied her up with Ramhorn." Said Cassette snorted from the corner, and Blaster grinned. "And when he got tired, I sent Rewind. Have any troubles, li'l mech?"

"Just the usual." Rewind patted Steeljaw's rigid mane, earning a very feline-like yawn that made Victoria smile. It didn't matter where the cat came from—Earth or a distant, alien planet—there were just some traits that were universal to all felines. "Mechs not being at their assigned posts, Stunticons trying to show off, the elevator stalling between deck one and two. Brainstorm was surprisingly calm; he didn't seem to notice us because he was tinkering again, but we delivered his message to him."

"Good!" Blaster finally turned to Victoria and gave her a large smile. It wasn't the same indulgent smile that he gave his Cassettes, but Victoria would be lying if she said it didn't cause her to relax a little. "And you? Enjoy ya first cycle of socializing?'

"It was…" Victoria paused and tried to ignore Eject's soft snickers. "…interesting?"

"Is that a nice way o' saying it ain't your style?" Blaster dismissed Victoria's protests with a wave of his hand. "S'alright! Not every mech's cut out fo' communications. Dreadwing all but ran outta here the moment Mirage recruited me."

"Dreadwing was in charge of this before you?" Victoria asked with a tiny laugh. "That would explain why he ran every time we tried to give him his message."

"I offered him a position as a joke once, an' the mech ain't trusted me or my Cassettes since." Blaster leaned forward and stretched out a hand towards Victoria. It took her a moment to realize he was reaching for the data-pad she still held; she eagerly handed it over, and Blaster chuckled. "Lemme just get these catalogued, and we should be able to call it a cycle!"

Victoria awkwardly stood behind Blaster as he turned his chair back around to face the monitors. She had begun to pick at the tiny gaps in her fingers when Blaster gestured at the other empty chair beside him. "This might take a while. I'd go ahead and send ya off, but I reckon Mirage would think you're skippin' out if he found ya wonderin' the halls before your scheduled work cycle is over."

Victoria hesitantly sat down, awkwardly shifting in the chair. It was much bigger than the ones in her and Patronus's room, and it made her feel so tiny as her feet swung a few inches above the floor. She glanced over at Eject and almost wished she was as tiny as a Cassette. At least then she could just lounge her entire body on the seat.

"So…" Blaster started. He unraveled a chord from the data-pad and connected it to the console in the same place the other chord had been. "Ya still willin' to stick around?"

"Of course." Victoria watched the monitor's screen light up lines of what were now familiar symbols to her. She had practically memorized the contents of the data-pad at this point. "I'm not a quitter."

Blaster hummed, and his fingers flew across the glowing keys in front of him. Familiar symbols were replaced with lines of gibberish, and Victoria felt herself slump a little. She obviously still had a lot to learn…like actually learning how to read all of those symbols.

Rewind walked around Blaster's seat and climbed up into the chair with Eject, shoving his brother's legs out of the way so that he could sit at the edge of the chair and reach the console. "Just think—a few more cycles, and you could graduate from messages to archiving. It would be fun to have someone other than Eject complain all cycle about it."

Victoria smiled and watched columns of cubes appear on the monitor in front of Rewind. Some of the lines of symbols began to funnel into one of the cubes, and Victoria perked up when she realized that the squares must have been the Cybertronian version of file folders. She would be a total pro at that if she ever managed to "graduate." Her old jobs had taught her a lot about organizing computer files.

A rumble came from below her feet, and Victoria jumped at the noise. However, the rumble was nearly drowned out by Eject's groan and Rewind's chiming laugh. "Just what we needed: another archiving fanatic. I had hope for you, Rookie."

"There's still time ta convert her," Blaster joked. He reached down by Victoria's chair, and she finally noticed that Steeljaw sat between their chairs. Steeljaw leaned his head into Blaster's palm, but the rest of his body remained at rigid attention. "Or you could just admit that archivin' ain't that bad."

"Never."

Victoria smiled at the laughs the pouting Eject received. Her frame slouched a little more in the chair, and she suddenly realized that she hadn't felt this relaxed since waking up in her new body. Her spark wavered a little when she automatically compared the scene to similar ones she had experienced back on Earth, but she pushed it away with a hum that regained Blaster's attention. "Do you mind me asking how you guys ended up here? Everyone seems to know everything about me, but I haven't learned a thing about anyone else except Brainstorm sometimes blows things up and Wildrider is a pervert."

"Not much to tell." Blaster aimed a smile at her, but even Victoria had figured out small "tells" like Nightbeat had mentioned earlier. Blaster's optics did not light up to the same brightness as they had earlier when he smiled. "We came along after most of the mechs here were already recruited. Mirage had docked at the outpost we were stationed and offered us a position here."

"You were allowed to leave just like that?" Victoria asked. She watched the rest of the symbols float into the cube folders before the screen changed. She stared at the new stream of information that appeared and could barely keep up with some of it as it flew across the screen. "I can't imagine an outpost just letting their comm. guy leave like that."

Eject was suddenly more interested in Rewind's work, and Steeljaw shifted closer to Blaster's chair. Even Ramhorn gruffly took a few steps out of his corner. Blaster focused on the screen in front of him. "They had other mechs that could run their communications."

A soft knock at the door prevented Victoria from asking any more questions. The knock was obviously a formality since the door slid open before Blaster could even turn away from the screen. Not that he did, leaving Victoria to turn and discover their visitor. She scowled at the familiar blue mech. "I thought we were avoiding each other so I wouldn't hold your hand day."

Mirage's expression was as stoic as ever, but Blaster turned to Rewind and Eject, both of who gave him the most innocent looking optics they could. "You told her about that?"

"I only wished to encourage your independence," Mirage answered before the Cassettes could speak. He stepped farther into the room and came to a stop between Victoria's and Blaster's chairs. A rumble came from Steeljaw, and Mirage gave the feline a nod. "I assume that I was somewhat successful?"

"I'm never coming to you about a problem ever again."

Mirage hummed and accepted the data-pad Blaster gave him without a word. Victoria absently leaned against the console, head propped in her hand, as Mirage scrolled through it. He hummed again and returned the data-pad, which was stashed somewhere below the console. "I assume that you can make do without Pixel for the remainder of the cycle?"

"'Course!" Blaster waved at Victoria with a grin. "Not 'cause I can't use her, but 'cause she's finished her job for the cycle. See ya at the beginnin' of the next rotation!"

Victoria gave Blaster and the Cassettes a wave before sliding off the chair. Like the good noble she had been taught to be, she stuck her nose at Mirage's offered arm and sashayed out of the Communication hub. Her dignity took a small nosedive when she tripped over the invisible crack that separated the room with the hallway, but she managed to save herself and ignored the small chuckle that came from Mirage.

She waited until the door completely closed before finally taking his arm. "I can't believe you told them not to take me to you. What if I had seriously needed your help for something?"

"I cannot watch over you all the time now," Mirage said. Victoria frowned but allowed him to lead her down the hallway. "I have taught you that nobles are independent by nature, and to be constantly by your side would negate a very stereotypical image that your identity requires you to adopt."

"But I had no idea what I was doing!" Victoria pulled on Mirage's arm as if to punish him for leaving her to fend for herself. What she really wanted to do was pinch him. Funny how the first person who had ever tempted her to execute such a childish punishment had metal skin. "Blaster had me running around with a data-pad I couldn't even read!"

Mirage came to a sudden stop, pulling Victoria back when she continued to walk. She wobbled a little but managed to steady herself without his help. "What do you mean?"

"I can't read Cybertronian," Victoria insisted. She was surprised by how bright Mirage's optics were when she met them with her own. "I mean, I've learned what a few symbols mean from Wheeljack, but I never learned much beyond numbers and basic letters. I can read a word or two, but nowhere on that data-pad were the words toxic, radioactive, or frag."

Mirage stared at her long enough to make her shift from one foot to the other. His golden optics gradually dimmed to their usual brightness, and he hummed. He automatically looped their arms together again and continued their journey. "Interesting."

"Interesting?" Victoria leaned forward in an attempt to get a better view of his face, but all she accomplished was nearly face-planting as the wheels on her back made her top-heavy. Mirage barely paused for her gain her balance again. "What? You thought I could read Cybertronian?"

"Neocybex at the least." Mirage paused to press the button to call the elevator. The doors slid open within seconds of him pressing it, and he pressed the button for the second deck once they had entered. "You never mentioned this…handicap before."

"I thought it would be pretty obvious. I might have switched bodies, but I didn't just wake up suddenly knowing everything Cybertronian. I'm surprised no one has asked why I say things like days or hours. I'm good at sticking to words I've learned from you guys, but sometimes I slip up." Victoria could see in the reflection of the elevator's doors that Mirage was staring at her, so she turned to meet his gaze as the elevator came to a stop. "What?"

Mirage ignored the doors when they opened and continued to ignore them long enough for them to shut again. "You have not said a human word since you came online."

"What?"

"I simply assumed that you were doing it on purpose." Mirage reached over and pressed the button for the doors to open, and this time he ushered Victoria out of the elevator before they could close. "That you had been interacting with us long enough for our terms to become second nature for you. You appeared to had already developed a firm grasp of them by the end of our first meeting on Earth."

Victoria opened her mouth but closed it when she realized she had nothing to say. It was almost…disturbing to realize that nothing she said came out in the language she expected—an almost naïve assumption now that she thought about. What did she think was happening? That every mech on the ship, mechs that have likely never even heard of Earth let alone visited the planet, spoke to her in perfect English?

As they rounded the corner of the hallway, Victoria lifted her head. "Do you think it's because of the AllSpark?"

Her voice came out softer than she had intended, but Mirage's nod indicated that he had heard it all the same. "I believe so, which would honestly explain your accent."

Great—she had a weird accent on top of all of this? "Accent?"

"One that many of the Iaconian aristocracy would label 'Ancient High Class.'" Mirage stopped short in front of a door, but he made no move to open it. Instead he fully turned to Victoria, unlooping their arms to cross his arms over his chest and examine her with a gleam in his optics. "One of the most reputable families living in the Towers claimed to have access to an ancient video file that was dated to the time of the original Thirteen Primes. They insisted that through that video they had discovered that those Primes spoke in an accent, which rigorous practice had enabled them to mimic. It was the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard, but many of my former companions believed them and strove to mimic the accent as well."

"And it sounded like this?"

"No." Victoria frowned, but Mirage's stoic expression remained steadfast. "Yours is less…forced. There's also an airy lilt to it that I believe they mistook to be nasally. It's…pretty, I suppose would be the easiest way to describe. Nothing like how you once sounded."

"So the AllSpark has somehow made it possible for me to understand Cybertronian— "

"Neocybex is the more correct term."

"It put another language in my head!" Victoria hissed, her annoyance rising because of the almost dismissing tone Mirage addressed her with. She spun around on her heel and took a few steps away from Mirage. She lifted her hands to grasp the sides of her head, and she only realized then how badly they had been shaking. "What if it's done something else without me realizing? The memories I can handle—the memories don't do anything but make my head hurt. But it's making me do things like that subconsciously? What if I wake up one morning and find out that I've stabbed Patronus through the spark?"

Hands fell on her shoulders, and Victoria swallowed around the large lump that had formed in her through. Mirage spun her around so that his golden optics could stare directly into hers. When she tried to turn her head away, he lifted his hands from her shoulders and forced her head to turn back. "You are overthinking this."

"'Overthinking' my ass! You don't have something inside of you that's tried to kill you before!"

"This may all simply be a small side effect from it merging with you." Victoria scowled and huffed when Mirage refused to let her turn away. "Act like the grown woman you are and stop attempting to ignore me. The AllSpark obviously has its limits; it has no power to dictate how you act on a daily basis, and it only gave you the ability to speak Neocybex. Unless you have forgotten your exaggerated struggle when it came to reading a simple list of names."

Mirage released her head, and Victoria immediately took a step back. He mimicked her actions and placed a reasonable distance between them. Victoria took a deep breath and placed a hand over her throbbing spark. "I wasn't exaggerating."

"Of course not."

"It was a real struggle."

"I believe you."

Victoria's fingers curled into fists to match her scowl. "I hate that tone."

"I am aware. After all, it is the same patronizing tone my sire would adopt to convey his disappointment." He nodded towards her, and Victoria almost imagined his softening expression was some indicator that for all his deadpanned teasing, he sympathized with her on some level. "I am the last mech to put blind faith in a mech that before this ordeal was nothing but a legend. However, there was one thing I learned during my short period of time with Vector, and that was that he is a mech who does not do things halfway. Your frame is currently a prison to the AllSpark—it cannot escape, and it cannot take control of you. We have plenty of time to reach Cybertron before Vector's runes lose all their magic or whatever explanation he had for how the AllSpark remained trapped."

Victoria gave Mirage a tiny smile. "No offense, but you kinda suck at pep talks."

Mirage's frown remained firm, and Victoria wondered for a brief second if Mirage ever resented the role he had been dumped into as much as she resented hers. Their early days in the cabin had shown that underneath his polite demeanor was an uptight, sarcastic individual, and the many lessons she had endured from him had solidified those traits of his personality. Sometimes though, Victoria was certain that he grew tired of all the little things he had to manage in order to keep her from losing her mind, like force-feed her Energon or not look at her when she needed his help in the showers.

She could see now why he insisted on her being independent of him during the day.

Mirage finally looked away as the door they stood in front of slid open. Patronus froze on the threshold of the door, one foot lifted in mid-air to take a step. Victoria cringed at the dents she immediately spotted scattered across his frame. She took a step forward and reached for the one on the side of his head. "Patronus—"

The sound of heavy footsteps made the next words die in her throat, and Patronus pushed his way out of the door to stand between her and Mirage, wings shooting up from the tired pose they had adopted. Victoria tensed at the sight of the large, grey frame that followed Patronus from the room, having to duck under the doorframe because he was so large. Mirage merely gave the mech a stiff nod. "Megatron."

Megatron's red optics seemed to stare down the bridge of his nose at him. They left the Autobot and landed on Victoria, causing her to stiffen even more. A smirk flashed across Megatron's face, showing off sharp teeth that his former toy form certainly had not possessed. "Have you finally overcome your fear to face me?"

For once, Victoria could not produce a quick retort, not because she lacked one but because of the sheer terror that shot through her spark like an icy arrow. All of the things she had done to him as a toy—trapped him the Jar of Solitary Confinement, manhandled him in front of his sworn nemesis, mocked him for his tiny form—came rushing back to her along with his dire threats of revenge. Now the tables were turned as he towered over her tiny frame, his hands large enough to crush her head with ease.

When Victoria didn't immediately respond, Megatron released a derisive grunt. To her immense surprise, he turned away from them and began to trek down the long hallway, his large frame nearly taking up half the hallway. "How disappointing; and here I had expected more than a sniveling femme."

Victoria's hands clenched into fists, but she did not attempt to stop Megatron in any way. She only relaxed when he finally vanished from view, and she turned her attention back to Patronus. "Are you hurt? There are so many dents! How have you managed to hide these from me for so long?"

"Today was a little worse than usual." Patronus glanced down at his chest where a majority of the dents could be found. "Megatron had to keep repeating the same maneuver again and again until I managed to deflect him. And I usually ask Breakdown if he can fix the dents. He's really good at doing that, and I didn't want you to get anymore upset than you already do."

Victoria pushed Patronus's arm and forced him to turn around. She frowned at the few dents that littered his wings; those had to have hurt. "I don't like you doing this. Especially not with him."

"I know, but I have to do this." Patronus turned back around, and his optics shone with a fierce determination. "He's the only one here that can show me how a real Prime fights, and Vector made sure he understood that. He only gets really grumpy when it takes me too long to get the hang of something."

Victoria was prepared to argue with him, but she caught a glimpse of Mirage from the corner of her eyes. Though the tension from Megatron's appearance had drained from his frame, Mirage's optics remained hard and unreadable as he watched the two interact. He nodded when he noticed Victoria's attention was on him, and she was reminded of the conversation they had the day before about this. Was this some underhanded way of him proving that Patronus did not come out these training sessions completely wrecked?

A warmth suddenly spread through her chest, and Victoria lifted a hand as if to smother it. After all the crap the AllSpark had put them through up until this point, it did not have any say in this matter! "I don't want you getting hurt…"

Patronus's wings shot up, and his optics hardened even more. "But if I don't do this, how will I be able to protect you? Megatron has proven that despite my size, I can't fight. I wouldn't have even been able to take down Wildrider before his training! I need this, Miss Vicky; I need to be able to protect you."

The crack in Patronus's voice instantly shattered any resolve Victoria had. She may never learn what had happened to Toshi before his transformation into Patronus, but whatever had happened had left a deep impression on the mechling. He sounded so desperate now; so desperate to keep the ones he cared for safe. She hated how he had been pushed to this fate, and for the first time since waking up on the ship, she felt the AllSpark hum inside of her in agreement.

Victoria reached out and grabbed Patronus's hand, squeezing it when he tightly gripped her hand back. "You have to promise to come to me or Mirage if he does something out of line."

"Of course."

"That includes saying anything degrading towards you."

"Okay."

"Or if he seriously hurts you. Don't you dare try to hide that from me."

"I won't."

Victoria turned to Mirage, hand still firmly grasped in Patronus's. "You do have a plan for if Megatron changes his mind about all of this, right? This is a dramatic change from what I saw back in the cabin."

A hard glint flashed across Mirage's optics, and his hard expression left little room for her to doubt his answer. "Of course. Why do you think I tolerate Brainstorm's ego?"

Victoria nodded and patted the back of Patronus's hand with her free one. "I don't like this—I never will like this. But…we have to do this. There's no returning to what we used to be."

She felt like her words were more to reassure herself than anything else, but Patronus smiled and nodded. His optics reflected the same sense of determination and excitement to learn a new thing that had been prevalent in Toshi, and she hoped that he was able to continue clinging to that. She did not want to see the same haunted look on him that had sometimes plagued Bluestreak, or Wheeljack, or any other mech she had come to know.

Now, she tried to smile for him. "Let's go get those dents popped out before Breakdown finishes his shift. If he's as good as you say he is, it would better to have him do it than Knock Out."

"Speaking of which, I believe you had an appointment with Knock Out at the end of this cycle."

Patronus laughed at Victoria's fierce scowl. "Look, if we're doing the whole 'independent Pixel' thing, that means you can't follow me around invisible, Mr. You-Can't-Hold-My-Hand-Forever."

"I would never."

Victoria had to fight the grin that threatened to ruin her scowl. She felt her spark lighten at the genuine laughter that continued to come from Patronus. She took Patronus's hand and pulled him down the hallway with Mirage following at a respectable distance. "I heard that you helped out Nightbeat earlier…"

~III~

Something was wrong.

She felt it the moment she became aware of surroundings. Ever since waking up in her new body, Victoria discovered that each time she fell into recharge, she found herself in a place similar to the "limbo" that Vector had pulled her from. The first time had left her startled, her panic forcing her to wake back up and not remaining awake until Patronus woke up too.

Gradually though, she had discovered that there was nothing to fear and had drawn comfort from the sparks that orbited around her. She had quickly figured out which orb of swirling colors represented the mechs she had been bound to—Sunstreaker's and Sideswipe's clung closest to each other, tiny and more colorful in comparison to the majority of the others; fiery orange strands licked Skywarp's spark, which drifted farthest away from her; two little baby green orbs danced as close as they could to the barrier that separated them from her, and Victoria had known immediately that hyperactive one was Recall while the smaller rose-tinted one was Topaz, occasionally bonking against her brother to gain his attention. Bluestreak's shone the brightest, and the green strands that whirled around it always crept along the barrier as if searching for the smallest opening to reconnect with her.

Something was wrong this time, though. When she awoke in the darkness, the swirling sparks appeared more distant. A wider gap stood between them and her; every move she made to get closer only widened that gap. She reached her hand out towards Bluestreak's spark, but it was like she was attempting wade through a pit of mud that sucked her in the more she struggled. Her entire body felt like some force was weighing it down.

Victoria finally gave up her attempts and stood completely still. The moment she gave in, the entire space began to twist around. Her view of the familiar and comforting sparks became a blur of color that gradually melted into the black. She swiveled around to find some means of escape and froze when instead she found a black form with bright white dots as eyes rushing towards her.

Her body jackknifed off the berth, and a short shriek escaped her. The low hum of the ship was the only indication that the darkness she stared into now was different. Her hands frantically scrapped at the stinging pain in her chest, and she curled her legs as close to her as she could, resting her forehead against her knees as she attempted to stop the wheezing gasps that came from her.

After a while, she managed to calm herself enough to bring her breathing back under control, and Victoria lifted her head to ensure that she was once more in her hab-suite. Her eyes fell on the dark form of Patronus curled up on his berth as much as his frame would allow him to, his back towards her and wings clinging to his lower back. With the pain in her chest gradually fading, Victoria slowly lowered herself back onto the berth and balanced her hands on her abdomen.

She stared at the ceiling until Patronus began to shift in his sleep, his whimpers prompting her to move over to his berth and hum the night terrors away.

AN: Because it's been so long since I've updated, I'd suggest checking out the "Series of Sparks" I have posted on my DeviantArt. The link can be found on my profile, but I didn't want there to be any confusion about the final scene and what all the sudden colors meant. ;)

You guys have no idea how long this chapter has been bugging…well, considering it took over a year to update, I guess you do know how long it's been bugging me. XD This chapter was just so frustrating! There were a few times that I restarted the chapter just to restart it again about halfway through; I even moved on to other stories in hopes that it would help free up my writer's block for this chapter! Now, here it is, and I'm still not a 100% happy with it. :/

I have skeletal outlines planned out for the next few chapters, so I honestly hope it won't take nearly as long for the next update. I'm going to try to juggle my other ongoing story and editing Pint Sized and A New Version of Reality to fix some of the inconsistencies that a second reading brought to my attention with this one. Because of that and how long it took me upload this chapter, I'm nowhere near being comfortable promising when the next update will be. :(

But I am not abandoning this story! It may take me forever to update, but I will finish this thing if it's the last thing I do!

So until next update! :D