Prompt: ( the-heroic-changeling ) In a great battle Optimus has been horrible injured, his head torn clean off. To save his spark Ratchet/Fixit come up with a plan to link Optimus to a human, to strengthen his spark and systems, and to try to replicate the hybrid of Cylas. Unfortunately, the only human who could survive the treatment is the now-Wrecker barely-an-adult Miko Nakadai, due to her long term exposure to Energon. And so Optimus becomes a Powermaster/Headmaster with Miko "Apex" Nakadai as his partner. Shenanigans ensue.…Look I've read through some of the original Headmasters, a lot of them were terrible matches. Mindwipe for instance. And I mean the Leader Class Optimus comes with a partner named ""Apex," it works. And this would be really hilarious. :)

A/N: This was actually a lot of fun to play with and I really like the idea! I hope you don't mind me using RiD timeline for this, it just seemed to fit more naturally with it.

Transformers/Beast Wars and related properties © Hasbro
story © RenaRoo

Prime Wreck

One time they had looked at Ratchet and told him his hands were capable of miracles.

He didn't care much for that, what he did took ingenuity and work and an ability to react with the sort of quick wit that could only come from years of warborn instincts. It undermined the profession, and nothing could put his circuits in a twist quite like undermining the work of a doctor.

Still, in his aging state, Ratchet found himself thinking a lot about the time they almost lost little Raf. How useless he had been with a creature so precious and feeble.

He would almost thank the AllSpark for June Darby.

Humans in many ways were so much more delicate than Cybertronians. Ratchet had performed "miracles", but that seemed so much less impressive when he had reconstructed Ultra Magnus' hand with spare parts, when he had saved Bumblebee from having his voicebox ripped from his throat.

There was so much they could endure as Cybertronians.

He knew that. But he also knew that living on Earth for all those years had taught him that in some ways, they could only live in these days in thanks to humankind…

Miko had missed home.

She wasn't sure when Japan stopped being home, but she knew well enough that it had everything to do with the feeling of belonging that came with friendships that lasted a lifetime, helping to save the world, and the complete awesomeness that was being a Wrecker and fighting alongside kick butt transforming robot aliens.

The very thought of it made her ache all over. Especially for Bulkhead. Especially Bulkhead.

When she wasn't selfish, she understood why she had not seen from the gang in years. When she wasn't selfish she knew that Bulkhead especially had a huge role on the new Cybertron – being in charge of the very reconstruction of their world and culture.

In those rare, unselfish moments, she could not be prouder of her partner. Of her fellow Wrecker.

But those times seemed few and far between.

After returning to Japan, she finished secondary school, and then university. She was a perfect student again, cut the died tips from her hair, played the violin. Was the pride and joy of the Nakadai household.

And she was empty.

Until she was sent a link in an email from Raf and saw a news report.

It was from a tabloid, laughable at best, but it mentioned real Monster Cars destroying a Monster Truck arena in some midwestern American city called Crown City.

They feverishly messaged back and forth about the possibilities of it, what it could mean, did it mean anything at all, how much Miko missed American concerts and frivolous destructiveness like Monster Truck rallies.

She tried very hard to ignore that cc on each message was Jack, who hadn't responded a single time.

It was all jokes and hypotheticals when, seemingly from nowhere, Miko sent her last response by phone as she prepared to board the next flight from Tokyo International Airport on her way to Crown City.

I'm drawn to it, was the only explanation she gave Raf before boarding.

Optimus watched the team from a distance. Being within sight, but away from the team was the closest to personal time that he got those days.

Since his return, it had seemed as though he could not escape Bumblebee or Windblade trailing him. There seemed to be either overt concern for him or an overt need to seek approval.

The latter had been afforded to him far less since Bumblebee came to seemingly resent Optimus' ability to take charge of his team.

Logically, Optimus knew he was right. But, Optimus still found that to be a hard pill to swallow.

"You're doing it again. You really should let me tune up your processor," Ratchet offered, walking up from the Alchemor's main deck. He had extended his visit upon realizing that Optimus was with Bumblebee's team.

The Prime could not help but sense that at least in part his stay had to do with the disruptiveness of Bumblebee and Optimus' relationship that had been on display as of late.

"What is it that I am doing so egregiously, old friend?" Optimus asked Ratchet tiredly.

"Looking at the others like you're a peg that doesn't fit," Ratchet explained, crossing his arms across his chest. "You always act like that, but it never bothered you so much before."

Humming, Optimus allowed his gaze to drift back from Ratchet to Bumblebee's team. "I suppose there is truth… Since I took up the responsibility of the Primes and the Matrix of Leadership, I have accepted that socially I have few peers. That as a leader, I must be apart from the followers at times. But I always knew, even without belonging, where my place ultimately lied."

Ratchet frowned before letting out a long vent. "Well, the AllSpark knows I'm not exactly a bot to answer on social matters, but I like to think of myself as a decent friend to at least one other bot."

Optimus looked to him and allowed a soft smile. "And you are."

"Our team still exists on Cybertron," Ratchet continued. "Team Prime. Our family. Bee's here, sure. And he's got a duty here. But the rest of us still have places. Still have a place for our Prime." He looked worriedly toward Optimus. "If you could just tell me why you can't go back to Cybertron…"

"I cannot explain it, Ratchet," Optimus sighed. "I simply know it is not the time. There is something else on Earth I must do before I can–"

No sooner had the words left his vocalizer than the junkyard's alarm system went off loudly around them and the intercom from he Alchemor turned on to Fixit's distinctively shrill voice.

"Team Bee! There's an emergency in the pretty! – bitty! –" A loud clank echoed followed by a familiar FZZZT. "CITY! Multiple Decepticons are moving in what looks like an uncoordinated effort! You'll need to get moving immediately!"

"Alright, everyone!" Bumblebee called. "Rev up and roll out!"

There was no hesitation from Bumblebee's team as they did just that. Even the might Grimlock loading himself onto a trailer obediently after hitching it to Strongarm.

"Maybe you and I should continue this conversation," Ratchet said over Optimus' shoulder. "Give Bee some space, this sounds like the sort of threat his team's been handling without us for a while anyway."

Optimus looked back to Ratchet before transforming. "While I know my time on Earth has its reason, I do not know the time nor the place. I must be prepared to be anywhere, and at any time, Ratchet. It's my duty as–"

"Yeah, yeah, I hear ya," Ratchet sighed and transformed himself. Let me run the sirens so none of us have to deal with po–"

Strongarm's own sirens lit up as she led the team behind Bumblebee.

"Ugh. Sparklings, so enthusiastic," Ratchet grumbled as he and Optimus rolled out together.

Miko was many things, but patient was not one of them.

Upon entering Crown City, she anticipated immediately being faced with giant robots, a thunderous clamor of battle – and maybe, just maybe, some familiar faces among them all.

What she got was a lot of traffic and a lot of people moving in lines far more disorganized than those in Tokyo.

"Agh, this is ridic!" the Wrecker groaned before pulling out her phone to look for any messages.

It wasn't her new phone, the one she had been gifted with in her second year of university. It wasn't the one she used day to day – it was the old, pink flip phone, ornaments and all, from her time living in Jasper, Nevada.

She wasn't sure why she was so intent on bringing the old thing – it hadn't had service paid for it in at least four years. But there was a part of her – the part remembering how useful it had been so many times to her friends – her fellow Autobots – that somehow just knew that it could have some use to her yet.

Perhaps some signal from it was still on their range. Maybe it was something Bulkhead, if he were on Earth, would try to reach her through.

Possibly. Maybe. She hoped.

But as she got it out, swarmed by the human traffic of Crown City, Miko found that it was getting her nothing.

"Guh," she huffed before holding the phone open. "If only I were techy. Like Raf. Maybe I can call Raf and he can tell me something techy! Or tell me if he's heard from Jack and Fowler. They'd have to know what was going on if the Autobots were here."

She stopped talking to herself as she heard a low rumble and felt the Earth shake. She had felt earthquakes enough times before that she instantly could distinguish the difference in the feeling.

Despite being surrounded by clueless people, Miko dropped down to her haunches and felt over the sidewalk with her hand and hummed to herself. "My alien-looking instincts think something big is going on!" she said excitedly before popping back up to her feet and looking back and forth. Her eyes locked on a subway station entrance and she smirked. "Bingo!"

Without any hesitation, the young woman took off for the entrance, ignoring all the people she pushed past and the attendant who yelled at her when she leaped over the toll station.

In her hand, her pink cell clattered with each movement of its charms, and Miko couldn't help but look at it as she leaped past the subway lines and toward the stairs into the tunnels.

To her disappointment, it still didn't light up or ring or give any indication that her friends were trying to contact her.

"It's okay. They're busy," Miko assured herself before pocketing the cell phone and looking ahead. There were more, stronger rumbles up ahead. "Very busy. Need a Wrecker busy!"

Without slowing down, Miko reached around her shoulder and pulled her bookbag over to her front and immediately began rummaging through it, grabbing the artifact she needed. But when she looked up, her eyes widened and she nearly skidded to a halt as she saw two people – one man with an outrageously furry beard and a little boy – both in bright vests and hardhats.

"Whoa whoa there, missy! Sorry, but there's some construction going on in this tunnel!" the man exclaimed.

The boy squinted and tilted his head. "Wait. You don't look like a subway worker. Why're you down in here–"

"Looks can be deceiving," she warned, trying to rush past them only to be blocked again. "There's more to me than meets the eye!"

Surprised, both of the people in vests looked at each other and then back to Miko.

Another rumble shook them and concern came over the people's faces.

Miko saw her chance and dove between them before continuing her run.

"Hey!" the older man called out.

"It's okay! I'm good for construction! I'm a Wrecker!" she called over her shoulder. "Also, I love your beard!"

Bumblebee knew that he had a long, long way to go to become half the leader that his mentor was. He knew that he had underutilized his past experience to focus on forging ahead with his current team, his current family.

And he knew that the second guessing and the asserting of himself in nearly every situation was Optimus' way of showing he wanted the best for Bee and his team.

But it didn't make things easier. Really, it all but did the opposite.

And as they took on no less than four escaped Decepticons in the crowded subway tunnels of Crown City, the lack of cohesion between them had never been more apparent.

"Optimus, take Drift, Windblade, and Ratchet and fall back while we flank them!" Bumblebee ordered.

"We should stand the wall," Optimus argued. "The tunneling into the cement and the attacks are weakening the infrastructure of the streets above us. Allowing them to further separate will only intensify the problem and cause untold destruction to the humans living above."

"Not if we act quickly!" Bee all but begged. "Optimus, my team's fast – everyone on this team other than you, Ratchet, and Grimlock have speed on their side. If you and Ratchet fall back, Grimlock keeps on the offensive to distract them, and the rest of us flank, we'll be able to stop them before there's any further damage–"

"Hey, if you two don't stop arguing there won't be time enough to stop damage and this tunnel will come down on all of our heads!" Ratchet snapped, always willing to speak up against either leader whereas the rest of the team wouldn't dare.

"Optimus, just listen to me!" Bmblebee begged.

His optics were trained on Bumblebee, but with his faceplate up, there was no way for Bumblebee to really tell whether or not the Prime also had his audials trained on him.

The frustration was about to reach its peak when there was a whistle from behind them that couldn't help but catch their attention.

Bumblebee, Ratchet, and Optimus all turned to look at the woman standing on the tracks behind them, her hands on her hips and a confident smirk on her face. "Looks like you all could use someone to break your tie! Someone who knows how to Wreck 'n Roll!" Her brows waggled. "Good thing I took the initiative to come check things out on my own even though you were meanies and didn't call me up."

Utterly shocked, Bumblebee straightened up and looked at the girl. "Miko!?" he asked.

"By the AllSpark!" Ratchet gasped alongside them. "Miko! Get out of here? Can't you see there's danger?"

"I see there's a need to get a Wrecker in here, and since I also don't see Bulkhead and Wheeljack around, there's really only one answer for that!" she called out before pulling out a familiar artifact.

Bumblebee's optics widened. "You still have the Apex Armor?" he asked just before there was a final tremor of the tunnel that drew all their attention to the Decepticons.

"Sir!" Strongarm yelled. "Our window is closed! The tunnels are unstable–"

But if things couldn't have been worse in Bumblebee's mind, he saw a flash and the biggest of the Cons came lunging for his head.

Someone else took the hit, though.

Miko had been ready, she had been waiting for years, to put the Apex Armor back on and fight alongside her Cybertronian friends. She had studied engineering, dreamed up every possible battle to the tune of every Slash Monkey playlist in her repertoire.

She had been waiting so long for the day that she was alongside her friends once more. And within minutes it was destroyed right in front of her.

The Decepticon who had been responsible for the tremors and concern from the Autobots had attempted to go for Bumblebee's head. But before it had the chance to, the badger-like creature was caught by Optimus Prime's own lunge.

They tumbled to the tunnel floor together, crashing and rolling when the tremors began to start up again.

Without further hesitation, Miko turned on the Apex Armor and rushed alongside Ratchet and Bumblebee to come to Optimus' aide when Miko realized something horrible.

The pulsing and vibrating that was causing the tremors and destruction of the tunnels was caused by sonics on the Decepticon's claw like forearms. And while those were enough to disrupt the earth itself, those claws were also going to work on Optimus' head simultaneously with the disruptive noise.

"Optimus!" Miko screamed before running faster. She passed Ratchet and then threw herself between the Decepticon and Optimus by sliding onto the large bot's chest.

Confused, the Decepticon let out a curious noise before roaring and attempting to dig through Miko and the Apex Armor in the same way it had been attacking Optimus.

Of course, the artifact's main purpose was to be invulnerable to any kind of attack.

"You mess with the Big Guy," Miko warned before uppercutting him. "You're gonna be wrecked!"

While Miko was far smaller than the average Cybertronian even in the Apex Armor, Wheeljack had been sure to teach her moves that used that height and relative speed to her advantage.

When the attacks rolled off of her, she let out a yell and threw herself into a forceful punch that united with the jaw of the Decepticon and sent it unsteadily back to its feet. It swung again wildly with its arm, sonics still going, but rather than absorb the shock as she had last time, Miko ducked under the swipe and slammed her shoulder into the exposed undercarriage of the combatant.

After a howl, the creature went tumbling toward the Autobots that had been with Bumblebee, Optimus, and Ratchet.

"Yes," she said excitedly, watching as the Autobots wasted no time in apprehending the Decepticon. But the joy was only temporary.

Gasping, Miko turned back and saw that Bumblebee, Ratchet, and a jet-like Cybertronian that Miko hadn't met before were surrounding Optimus.

He still wasn't up.

"Optimus!" she cried out, hitting the Apex Armor's button on her chest and barely waiting for the retraction of the suit before she was racing to their sides. "Optimus! H-how bad is he!?"

"We have to get him to the junkyard. I'll need all the medical supplies Fixit has ready for me by the time we get there. It's going to be emergency surgery without even a CR chamber to aid us," Ratchet announced with a firm shake of his head.

"We'll use Grimlock's trailer and tarp," Bumblebee said. "I'll hitch it, I'm faster than Strongarm.

"I'll fly ahead and let Fixit know the situation," the jet-bot said before getting to her feet and taking only a few steps before transforming and blasting off through the tunnels.

"Why aren't you using a ground bridge!? Get him home immediately!" Miko cried out, confused and upset. This was not how her reunion was supposed to be going.

"The one Bee has is too unreliable, this is the safest–" Ratchet began before smacking his faceplate and then looking back to Miko. "What are you doing here, Miko!?"

"It's my planet, Ratchet! What are you doing here without telling me first?" she cried out.

"We don't have time for this!" Ratchet snapped as a giant dinosaur robot, of all things, brought over a trailer and hitched it up to Bumblebee's carmode. "Get Optimus on the trailer and secure him! We're going to be going fast!" Ratchet ordered to the other remaining Autobots.

"Sir, yessir!" a blue and white one said with a salute.

"Miko!" Ratchet grouched as he transformed into the ambulance Miko knew and loved. His passenger door flung open. "Get in!"

"I'm old enough to drive now, you know," she said, racing over to his open door.

"Miko!" Ratchet warned.

"Just letting you know, it's been a while since we saw each, at least for me it has been," she said as she slid into the seat. She didn't have an option about the seatbelt – it was across her before she could even blink, and they were off, sirens blaring. "Ratchet… Is… is everything going to be okay? When did Optimus come back from being dead? When did you all get here?" Her eyes welled up with tears. "Did I track you all down just to lose you again?"

"Miko," Ratchet said more quietly, tiredly, through the radio. "I don't have all the answers for you. But I have missed you three. And Ms. Darby."

Miko gave a broken smile. "And Agent Fowler?"

"Let's not get carried away," Ratchet replied.

That was enough to get a sad laugh out of Miko. She was happy for it, even if deep down it didn't sit quite right in her chest. Ratchet wasn't the joking type, and she couldn't help but wonder if it was meant more to hide something from her… something even a human would know, like fear.

Ratchet kept himself in the field medic mindset as much as he possibly could.

It brought back memories of war, of failures, of limitations, but it didn't matter. Because he had treated these situations like it was Optimus on the surgeon's slab before in situations like the Cybonic Plague before and it led to him nearly betraying ever medical sense he had.

And Ratchet was afraid, especially after having just gotten Optimus back in his life, that he was about to lose his dearest friend again. That he wouldn't be able to do his very job with that fear shaking him from helm to servo.

The moment they reached the junkyard, Ratchet transformed, mindful of Miko and making sure to hold her in his hands as he did so.

Still, the girl swayed and grabbed onto his thumb to keep from falling completly over. "Yup, been a while since that," she mumbled to herself before stepping down from Ratchet's hands onto the ground.

"Stay here, Miko," Ratchet said despite knowing the girl better.

He walked toward the wreckage of the Alchemor as Fixit came rushing out.

"Woah!" Miko called out, sure enough following Ratchet despite orders. "That's a mini-mini-Cybertronian."

"Just one mini," Ratchet corrected her, more out of habit than fully being "there" for the conversation. He looked seriously toward Fixit. "Do you have everything prepared? Bumblebee will arrive with Optimus in just a minute."

"Everything's Freddy – Steady – FFZZT – Ready! Sir," Fixit said, his own servos turning into surgical tools.

Windblade leaped down from the bow of the Alchemor – the zealous protector of Primus was looking nearly sick, her arms hugging herself as she walked toward Ratchet. "I should have stopped him – I was so dizzy from the sonics blasting I didn't even think of using my wind turbines–"

"Which would've been a disaster with all of us in close quarters," Ratchet snapped. When he saw the way Windblade dropped her head he sighed and reached over to grab her shoulder. "Windblade, I have known Optimus since before he was a Prime, and let me assure you that there is close to nothing that can stop him from doing something he's set his mind to once he's set his mind to it. I've been the one that's tried before, it never works out well."

She looked up at him gratefully.

The moment did not last long, however, as Bumblebee soared into the junkyard, nearly spinning in a complete circle to line up the trailer with the available surgeon's slab that Fixit had prepared.

Without wasting another moment, Bumblebee transformed and reached Ratchet's side. "We need to get started! Tell me what to do!"

"Get that trailer back to your team so that they can get Grimlock here safely," Ratchet said as he and Windblade moved to pick up Optimus and shift him from the trailer to the slab.

"No way!" Bee spat back. "Optimus is only like this because he was trying to save me! I refuse to leave him now–"

"And do what, Bumblebee? You are not a medical doctor or an engineer," Ratchet pointed out. "You are a leader and right now your team needs you to put them first."

"Optimus is first!" Bee snapped.

"If he was able to right now, he'd smack you upside the helm for that," Ratchet snapped.

"He wouldn't," Bee argued.

"You're right, but I would and I'm fine," Ratchet argued, smacking Bumblebee over the back of his head. "Get yourself together – be the leader that your team needs, that Optimus knows you are. And leave me to do my best work. You know I won't fail Optimus of all bots."

Bee was still torn but he transformed and took off immediately.

Taking a breath, Ratchet turned back to the surgeon's slab, to the horrific damage that had been done to Prime's head.

"Scrap," Ratchet said, transforming his servos into tools. "Let's get to work."

Miko had climbed onto one of the scaffolding in the maze of a junkyard in order to sit atop it and watch from a viewable distance as Ratchet and the orange minibot worked at a rampant pace to try and save Optimus.

It also kept her far enough away that no one could see the tears welling up in her eyes due to the multitude of emotions she was feeling throughout all of the mess.

Bee hovered nearby Optimus and the operation, but the other Autobots that Miko couldn't place and, more importantly, simply didn't now, remained a far distance from Miko. Each looked to her cautiously and worriedly, as if they didn't know what to make of the Wrecker.

Like she had never been brought up before.

Despite all logic, she was honestly taken by surprise when the human boy from the subway tunnels climbed his way up the scaffolding and made his way to her.

"Hi," he said, raising a cautious brow at her.

Sniffing, Miko rubbed roughly at her wet cheek. "Hello."

"My name's Russell, Russell Clay," he explained awkwardly, rubbing at the back of his neck. "This is my dad's junkyard and… um. I guess it's nice to know we're not the only humans who know about the Autobots anymore?"

"That's 'cuz you never were the only ones," Miko said, hugging her knees tighter as she looked out toward Optimus. "They were here before. They were… friends with us before. And now they just…"

When she looked back, she could see the little boy was a bit intimidated by her sourness, and had shifted uncomfortably away. Which was far from fair to him.

Sucking it up a bit, Miko rubbed her face and smacked her cheeks a few times to wake up in a way. Then she turned more toward Russell and offered her hand. "Hello, Russell, my name is Miko Nakadai. I used to be friends with Optimus, Ratchet, Bumblebee and… I don't see them here – but Arcee, Bulkhead, Wheeljack, and Smokescreen, too. Especially Bulkhead and Wheeljack. I'm one of the Wreckers."

She took so much pride in the statement, in the facts, that she had hardly taken stock of Russell's reaction until a cool moment of silence had lapsed between them.

It was then that Miko looked and saw that Russell's expression was blank and meaningless. And when he saw her aghast, he offered a little smile and a thumbs up.

"Yeah! Sounds… great!" he offered.

Narrowing her eyes, Miko hugged her knees again. "You haven't heard anything about us, have you?" she asked in a near pout.

"Um, no," Russell admitted, rubbing at his neck. "But I really did mean it! It sounds very cool–"

"Ugh! Save it!" she snapped, throwing up her arms. "Obviously no one cared enough to let their new friends in on it… no one cared enough to even get in contact with us." Miko chewed on her lip, eyes blurring. "Raf hadn't talked to me in forever before hearing things in the news. I still haven't heard from Jack. Why would the Autobots still be my friends when I can't even keep the ones I have in the same species."

The little boy's mouth opened, obviously searching for some sort of answer he could offer, but when it didn't come he shut his mouth and rubbed awkwardly at his shoulder instead.

"Miko."

Both Miko and Russell looked to see Bumblebee standing just below the scaffolding. Miko had been so wrapped up in the conversation, she hadn't even noticed Bumblebee leaving his trail of pacing.

"What?" she asked back, rubbing roughly at her teary eyes. By the time she sniffed and looked, she saw Bee had a hand held out toward her to help her down.

"Things are scary right now," he said softly. "I could use an old friend."

"Let me know when you find one," Miko sniffed, still rubbing at her eyes as she got to her feet and reached out. Bumblebee's smile was soft and it forced Miko to give one watery version of her own as she held onto his thumb and stepped into his hands.

Bumblebee carried Miko to somewhere far enough away from the others that they could sit and talk, but still just elevated enough that they could keep their lookout over the operation, and on Optimus.

For a moment, a comfortable silence fell between them, sitting there side by side.

It was far from like old times but it was familiar.

"Raf would probably give anything to switch places with me right now," Miko finally broke the silence. "He misses you a lot."

"He was my first friend on Earth," Bumblebee said lowly. "He understood me… I don't know how. But we were basically meant to run into each other. Meant to help each other." He tilted his head. "I keep trying to imagine how much he's grown, how big he is now – I mean, look at you, Miko! You're a woman now."

"People keep reminding me," she replied. "And you'd probably get to see how big Raf is now if you ever got in contact with him – with any of us! How long have you all been here? Why… why wouldn't you tell us you're back? And don't say it was for safety. Look how much butt I kicked down in the subway."

"I can't risk getting as involved as we did last time," Bee explained. "When we were on Earth, when we were in Jasper, we built a relationship with the military because we believed that Cybertron was dead and that our residence on Earth was near permanent. That working together was the only hope we had both of surviving and of protecting humankind from the Decepticons." He looked toward the group of Autobots that Miko had never met before. "That's all different now. My team… Our team here is a small, volunteer group trying to capture escaped Decepticon fugitives. And we're trying to do so without interfering with the politics of the world again. No favors owed to Agent Fowler or any other handler that'd be sent our way. Even if it's an old, familiar face."

Miko looked up to Bumblebee warily. "Even if that old face was Raf's?"

To her surprise, the Autobot physically flinched at the pointed question. His head ducked slightly and he let out a sigh before looking back at Miko sorrowfully. "Look, we were friends with Agent Fowler, of course, but not everyone in the government trusted us, remember? Do you really think there's any way that I could have contacted you guys – any of you – without it being traced? That you guys aren't watched?"

Surprised, especially since it was a conspiracy that she'd never thought of herself before, Miko shifted. "Oh."

"Not to mention, Jack is a career military person now, Raf works in intelligence – and you're not exactly short of celebrity in the robotics world in Japan these days," Bumblebee continued. "You guys attract a lot of attention with all your acclaim."

Doing a double take, Miko stared at Bumblebee in surprise before covering her mouth. "You… You keep track of us?"

"Of course I do," Bee said. "I watch out for all of my friends. I'm proud of them. And it hurts me to not be able to reach out to them anymore."

"Aw, Bee," Miko said, watery eyes again acting up. She ignored them in favor of throwing herself against his waist and hugging him the best she could. "You've grown up a lot, too, Bumblebee."

She felt him gently stroke her back with one of his fingers, but it stopped as the heavy steps of another bot came their way.

Miko looked over her shoulder from her hug with Bumblebee to see Ratchet standing before them. His expression was grave but calculated. "Oh, no," she muttered. "Ratchet… Please don't say anything's wrong! Please don't have bad news–"

"Optimus!?" Bumblebee asked in alarm, taking his hand away from Miko.

Ratchet's face was a calculated neutral. "The damage is bad, and our access to Cybertronian resources is, as you know, severely limited at the moment. But… Denny Clay and Fixit think they have an idea that could make all the difference."

"Then let's do it!" Miko said, jumping to her feet. "What're you waiting for? What can I do to help – I work with robotics in Japan. My brain's ripe for picking, Ratchet!"

"Good," Ratchet said firmly. "Because it's not just your brain we need, Miko. It's the Apex armor."

Catching herself surprised yet again, Miko glanced first to a stunned Bumblebee then back to Ratchet. Taking a deep breath, she nodded firmly. "Okay," she said. "Tell me what you want me to do."

When he awoke, Optimus was half expecting a new lesson from Micronus Prime.

What he was not expecting was to hear a voice he had not heard in years.

"Please tell me you're going to be okay, Optimus. We did a lot of things to make sure you would be okay. Lot of work. Lots of work that was no fun because of Ratchet."

"Miko," he said, faintly unsure of what time he had woken up in, or where her voice was coming from. But it seemed to be within him.

"Yeah, you shouldn't say my name too much while we're out kicking butt and taking names. I need, like, a codename! Something great and cool and–"

Optimus cycled on his optics at last and saw Ratchet and Bumblebee staring down at him in concern. "My friends," he greeted them.

"Optimus!" Bumblebee cried out in relief, grabbing his hand. "I can't believe it worked. It's absolutely crazy but you got it to work, Ratchet you're a genius!"

"I had help," Ratchet said reluctantly, grabbing Optimus' other hand and gently helping him to sit up. "How does it feel, Optimus?"

Optimus glanced around. He could see Bee's team, Ratchet, the Clay family who had opened their home to them, and he could see Windblade. All excited and relieved.

"I do not see Miko," he replied.

"I'm here with you, big guy," she said, once more hearing him inside himself. "W needed the Apex Armor to save your processor. It was damaged, a lot of physical actions weren't connecting. So you need a conduit. And the conduit? Is me."

"This is a strange turn of events," Optimus announced. "But I can see my purpose – laying the groundwork for a true unification between Earth and Cybertronian. My purpose."

"If you think so, Optimus," Ratchet replied.

"So about codenames," Miko continued. "I'm thinking… Headmaster."