Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers. That is all.

A/N: I got some good feedback on the naming situation, and I liked some of the suggestions, but in thinking about it I came up with a really good rationale for one of my ideas. The rationale is in the story itself. Also I'm well aware that this chapter took months, has almost nothing happen and kind of sucks. It's mostly there to set up things happening in later chapters and explain a few concepts of my head canon.

Chapter 3: Awaiting the Armada

The following morning, a little before seven, Arcee was awakened by a knocking on the door to her room. With her mouth wide open and emitting a low, crackling static (a Cybertronian yawn) she tapped the panel to open the door. On the other side stood a sheepish looking Miko.

"Miko? What are you doing here?" The pink femme's pointy pede scuffed at the ground.

"Umm, something feels weird, right here," She pressed one digit against her lower left abdomen "And I didn't want to make Docbot even crankier by waking him up." Arcee blinked a couple of times, her optics refocusing as she tried to fully boot up. She thought for a second or so before looking where Miko was pointing and her expression went flat.

"I don't believe this..." she muttered, then raised her voice. "On your HUD, find the read out listed 'exclusion tank'." She watched as Miko flipped down her visor and skimmed through the various displays, looking for the listed data. Finally she caught it.

"Uh...exclusion tank 84 per cent." Arcee put her servo to her face and groaned. She stepped out of the room and put her arm around Miko, guiding the her back into her own room. She pushed her into the small cubicle in the far corner, closing the door behind her then flopping backwards onto the berth. "What am I doing in here? Wait, that thing looks like a..."

"You're...I can't believe I'm doing this...you have to get rid of the used energon in your system. Your lower armor has a catch, flip it and you can..."

"Wait, my lower armor? You mean?..." Clunk "Oh. Why do I have a?..."

"That would be your valve." The next several minutes, wherein Arcee instructed Miko on the primary function of her valve, were the most humiliating of either of their lives.

By the time the instruction was finished and Miko had re-affixed her crotch-plate, the rest of the base was awake and the guys had arrived for the beginning of the weekend. They got a couple of funny looks as they were the last of the group to arrive and both were looking anywhere but at one another. Miko had a cube of energon in her hand she was sipping on and she leaned against the concrete ledge of the human area. Everyone turned back to their television/console/workbench and there was a moment of the simple, low hubbub of life around Outpost Omega One before Miko regained her nerve.

"So, Arcee, what are we up to today?" Arcee though for a moment.

"I could definitely use some time on my wheels. How does driving lessons sound? Then we'll come back and get started on practice with your blasters and spikes."

"You're not going anywhere!" Fowler's abrasive voice called from the elevator entrance. "Not without these." He smirked and withdrew documents from his inner jacket pocket. Miko turned toward the ledge and he passed her a drivers license made out to Miko Nakadai, age 21, with a picture of her holorider on it, a vehicle registration for a sport bike and insurance papers for the same with Miko as owner and Jack and June Darby as alternate drivers. She stared at them for a minute.

"How did you get these?" I've only had my vehicle form for like 12 hours. He chuckled.

"My job is to get this kind of stuff done quicker than a bomb bursting in air. Ratchet sent me pictures of your holorider and bike form last night. I got some of my guys out of bed and presto." Arcee rested her servo on Miko's shoulder.

"You've got small storage compartments all over your frame." She backed away a step and looked her over. "The one on the outside of your right thigh should be easily accessible from bike form so you can show them if you need to." Miko tapped around at her right thigh until a small compartment popped open, then stowed the documents inside. The latch closed again and Miko got a thoughtful look.

"If...if Miko owns 'the bike'" She made air quotes. "Who am I? Miko is a human name and I'm...not. I think I need a Cybertronian name." Optimus nodded once.

"Yes, that does seem logical. Our names are all based in the Cybertronian language, some like Bulkhead and Ratchet are English translations, while others like Arcee or my own name are the closest we can come with human voice boxes to the Cybertronian versions. Yours would be the first originating in a different language."

"Okay, so I need a new name...Any ideas, people." Nearly everyone started talking at once.

"Spitfire? Hot Shot? Bravado?" Arcee went with her aspect as an impulsive risk taker.

"Blurr! Speed Demon! Phantom!" Bulkhead based his ideas off her speed.

"Kinzoku. Arashi. Kitsune." Raf used her Japanese heritage.

"Noise. Motormouth. Crash." It was obvious what Ratchet knew best about her.

"Pinkie! Flare! Highlight!" Fowler suggested names based on her bright colour scheme.

"Beeep! Whistle-buzz! Beep-beep-whirr!" Bumblebee's ideas were all about her size.

"Hijack? Hope? Laser?" Jack's suggestions were a little random. As the others threw out names as they came to them, the presently unnamed femme and Optimus were quiet. Optimus looked on with quiet amusement, his optics on his newest soldier. The harsh fluorescent lighting of the base glinted off her bright paint and brought an image to his processor. It was shortly after the Autobots had arrived on Earth and the day after they'd become situated in their current base. He'd had some free time and had gone out for a night time drive to get a look at this world he had devoted himself and his troops to defending. He'd eventually found himself in a grassy field with a broken, asphalt road upon which he sat when he saw them; little lights dancing in the dark. He'd been amazed, almost entranced as he watched. He could tell them to be biological, some kind of insect, the smallest of creatures. Where most vulnerable beings like this would use the dark to hide and hope no predators found them, these ones proudly stood out, showing themselves to the world with a beautiful demonstration. They refused to blend in, and even when they had nothing to do they were moving, the minuscule thrum of their tiny wings a constant, soothing drone. He had sat and watched them for some time before bridging back to base and immediately looking these creatures up. He smiled softly and spoke a single word, his powerful, calm voice drawing all attention.

"Firefly." the others stopped for a moment and thought, the couple who didn't know what fireflies were going to a terminal to look them up. It took a minute for everyone to get where the stoic leader was coming from, then all eyes and optics went to the youngest Autobot. She thought for a bit, then nodded.

"Awesome! My name is Firefly!"

"Alright then, Firefly, let's get you on your wheels and learning the rules of the road." Arcee transformed and initialized Sadie, while the newly monikered Firefly did the same, activating Miko and they both headed for the base entrance. Firefly had a slight mishap as she hadn't yet figured out how to turn and she smacked into the concrete wall with a dull thud. She thanked her lucky stars the living alloy that her new body was made of was tougher than most earth metals and experimented for a moment until she figured out how to move her front wheel and followed her instructor down the tunnel.

Because she didn't have to worry about gears, pedals or a wheel, driving was fairly simple for Firefly, so the bulk of the teaching Arcee had to do was rules of the road. She opened a one/one line between her comms unit and Firefly's which she used to instruct without being overheard.

"Okay, so you probably know most of this already; pedestrians have the right of way, obey all signs and lights, be aware of other motorists, right side of the road, all that jazz."

"Yeah, yeah. I know this junk. Can we get out of the city and on to the highway, I want to see how fast I can go."

"In time, we just need to make sure you can pass for a human driver in city conditions before we do that."

"Ergh."

"Remember, Scout, that you are a member of a military organization. Life's not going to be all high speed excitement and edge of your seat thrills."

"Did you just quote a bad action movie trailer."

"I guess so."

"Which one?"

"All of them, I think. Anyway, you have to remember that there are going to be slow, quiet moments along with the loud ones. We have our vehicle modes for stealth as well as for speed, and the stealth part goes out the window if you are getting regularly pulled over by law enforcement. This is basics, and once you've got those down, we can go find out how far your speedometer needle goes." The two stopped at a red light, their holograms resting their weightless left feet on the ground. Firefly adjusted her mirror, looking to her right to see a black, flame patterned muscle car. The driver, a dim looking redheaded teen, leaned out the window, looking over the two apparent leather clad, attractive women.

"Hey ladies. Those are some cherry rides you got there. Why don't we find somewhere to park and I can show you both a real ride." Vince's voice absolutely oozed sleaze and even Arcee, still fairly unfamiliar with human mating rituals, got his meaning crystal clear and almost regretted having breasts on Sadie. Firefly was a little more used to dealing with guys like Vince. She switched over from communicator to radio, making her voice come out clearly. She got Miko to glance over at him, then turn to her companion.
"Gee Sadie, I've seen cars with all sorts of optional parts; spoilers, vents, body kits, but this is the first one I've ever seen with a driver side asshole." Arcee chuckled out of her own radio.

"There goes his resale value." The bully thought about his response for a moment before settling on simply flipping them off.

"Ah, I get it. You're a coupla dykes. Well, if you come with me, I think I can change your mind."

"Yeah, right, jackass, our BIKES are each more woman than you can handle. Look, I'll make you a deal, you don't talk to us any more, and I'll give you permission to fantasize about us for 15 seconds when you're jerking it all by yourself tonight." With this, the light changed and Miko stood up in her saddle and smacked her ass in his direction before the two pulled away. They made sure he'd gone a different direction before switching back to comms.

"Alright, there was nothing illegal about that. I still wouldn't do that butt smack thing in front of a cop, but you're alright." The blue bike paused "What did he mean when he called us 'dykes'? I thought that was a type of dam to hold back water." Firefly had herself a giggle at Arcee's expense.

"It's that, but it's also a dogentory term for a lesbian, a woman who is attracted to other women."

"Two things; first, I think you mean 'derogatory'. Second, it's a little strange from a Cybertronian viewpoint to discriminate based on sexuality."

"How so?"

"While we are sexually dimorphic-"

"Sexy what-a-who?" Arcee groaned.

"Sexually dimorphic, it means we have two genders with different physical characteristics, now be quiet. We're sexually dimorphic, but it doesn't mean as much as it does to humans, so being in a relationship or even bonded with someone of the same gender is nothing out of the ordinary."

"Wait, back up. What do you mean gender doesn't mean as much, how can gender not mean as much."

"I guess now's as good a time as any for a quick lesson on Cybertronian culture. We don't reproduce sexually, like biological races. We have a process wherein we take small fragments of our sparks and combine them to form a new, smaller one, which is then placed in to a special sparkling protoform. The spark adapts the protoform into a brand new sparkling, the equivalent of a human infant, with the spark determining the form. And because the spark is formed from those of the parents, the parents influence the sparkling in much the same way genetics do with biological creatures."

"Wait, so WE could have a baby?"

"Yes, if we were so inclined, though usually bonded pairs make sparklings. Not because of any kind of stigma, just because only those who are going to be together for a long time are the obvious choices to raise sparklings."

"Okay, you keep mentioning a bond, what is that."

"Two Cybertronians with the desire to remain together permanently enter into a covenant between themselves, and in the eyes of Primus and society known as a lifebond. The individuals in a lifebond are known as sparkmates."

"So it's like marriage."

"Essentially, yes." She turned on to the highway and Firefly followed. "Alright, I think you have the basics down, we can head out and test out your top speed."

"Woohoo!" They followed the road until they got to a huge, flat stretch of hard packed dust desert and swerved out on to it. They let loose, slowly ramping up to full speed. As they neared speeds in triple digit miles per hour, the younger femme experienced true freedom for the first time in her life, either as Miko or Firefly. Riding a runaway military train at 90 had been a rush, and dune bashing in Bulkhead was awesome, but this...this was something else. Her spark pulsing as the needle climbed higher, her wheels on the ground and nothing but more wide open dust ahead of her; nothing could compare. She couldn't help but cry out in exaltation. Arcee was smiling on her unseen face, through Firefly she was seeing everything again for the first time. It had been so long since her own first drive and she'd known nothing but war for so long that little things like this had almost lost their thrill, but with Firefly's excitement was contagious. They drove for hours, testing speeds (turned out Firefly was a bit faster), working on acceleration, practicing combat driving by dodging around the mesas and scrub brush and chasing the wind until the moon rose.

The two-wheelers rolled back in to base to the gazes of their teammates and allies. They returned to their bipedal states and stood still as their leader strode up. He looked at Arcee.

"Scout Firefly has been trained on both city and highway driving and given the basics of combat driving, sir." The second in command gave her report to her commanding officer. Optimus Prime nodded.

"Very good, Arcee." he turned to the human area, where Jack and June, who had driven in after her shift, were standing. "Friends, it has come to my realization that we must make a decision. Until now, Arcee has acted as Jack's guardian. Now she has taken the responsibility of training Firefly. What must be decided is if she will remain Jack's guardian, balancing those duties with missions and training, or if Bulkhead will take over as the guardian of Jack and June, with Arcee remaining at base." everyone was quiet as the idea swept over them. As the loudest of the original Autobots, it was little surprise that Bulkhead spoke up first.

"Well, the curb in front of the Darby house is pretty comfy, I could hang out there for a while, especially if it means getting another combat ready 'Bot sooner." He thudded over and slapped a friendly hand on Firefly's back. "Better have Arcee here training the slugger while I watch the Darby's than me try and train someone with a build pretty much as different from mine as you can get."

"I'm not very involved in this whole thing, so I can only give my opinion on having Bulkhead outside. If he can make himself inconspicuous, there's no problem. The curb in front of our place is always free, so there should be no problem there, as long as you don't block my car in." June gave her two cents. She was immediately followed by Jack.

"I'll miss having Arcee as my guardian. She's the closest friend I've got. That being said, it makes more sense to have her here instead of driving back and forth between town and base. It saves time and Arcee is going to have her hands full anyway." He turned to regard Firefly with a remarkably Prime-like expression. "As Miko, you were never much for discipline or listening, but now you're part of a military organization, with ranks and a chain of command. Arcee is your commanding officer, and you need to get used to listening to and following her orders, so having her around as much as possible is the best thing for you. You're getting ready to go to war, so you need to be prepared." The two-wheelers shared a look, the elder speaking for them.

"Alright. I'll remain here and Bulkhead will take my place watching the Darby house. Getting you ready is my first priority."

"Then it is agreed. Bulkhead, you will stand watch over the Darby's while Arcee and Firefly remain here." He smiled at the younger of the scouts. "When Arcee deems you to have the basics down, I will assist in your training from time to time if possible, if you think there is anything I can teach you wish to learn." His wry smile was reassuring to the pink femme and she felt right then there was nothing the colossal mech could not teach her. Truth be told, Optimus had always somewhat intimidated her, due to his size and relative lack of emotional expression, but at the same time his wisdom and strength were comforting. It was at this moment that Firefly realized she would push herself to prove her worth to her leader. "At the very least I can train you on the use of your axe." The last of the Primes inclined his head. "Well, I believe we have made Firefly uncomfortable enough for the moment. I will be at my terminal, working on the Iacon database." With this, the various gathered individuals drifted away to their usual activities around the base. Firefly got used to standing beside the human area and even picked up the Autobot sized controller that Bumblebee often used and joined in a few rounds of video games. The fact that Bulkhead stood next to her and chatted, almost as though she hadn't gone through death and rebirth, was not lost on her, and she was happy their friendship seemed as stainless as their armor. Out of the corner of his optic, Optimus watched, as he so often did, the interactions between his team and their allies, their friends, with a small smile. He often doubted himself, knowing how much rode on each decision he made, but it was quiet moments like these that he knew everything was on the right track. Eventually, the night was over; Jack, June and Raf had things to do the next day, and Arcee made it clear to Firefly that they would be beginning combat training in the morning, so they both needed their rest.

Firefly woke up, slowly getting used to the bare ceiling of her room, and putting it on a mental to-do list to get herself some decorations if possible. She flopped out of her berth and, now knowing how her body worked, was ready and out in the common room in no time. Which isn't to say that she was not the last of the base's inhabitants to be there, but she had never been an early riser as Miko, and she would have some work ahead to break the habit as Firefly. She finished her energon cube and discarded it, going to where Arcee was leaning. The blue femme checked the time, pushed off from the wall with her shoulders and wordlessly strode in the direction of the training room, Firefly following like a duckling after its mother. In the pockmarked blast room, Arcee opened a huge cabinet and pulled out something like a small bazooka (small by their standards anyway) with a narrow nozzle and an opaque tank on top, so Firefly couldn't see what was loaded in it. The now visibly armed femme strode into the center of the room and aimed at her trainee.

"Your main goal in combat is not to rack up a kill count, but to make sure you avoid being added to someone else's. If you have a choice between a clear shot with a risk, or a pot shot from behind cover or on the move, always take the second. What we're working on here is the second part of that; 'on the move'. In other words." She aimed down sights and pulled the trigger. A projectile the size of a pea shot out from the nozzle and in the time it took Firefly to even process that there was a projectile, it had become an orange splatter on her chest plate. Arcee smirked. "Dodge." It took two more paintballs, of red and purple, hitting her in the abdomen and shoulder before Firefly got moving. The next couple of hours had the younger femme standing still only when the elder had to get a new tank of ammunition and affix it to the top of the weapon. By noon, the scout was a riot of colours and the warrior couldn't keep the smile off her face as using her energetic subordinate as target practice was amusing to her in a deeply profound way. Arcee rested the weapon on her shoulder and signaled Firefly over with a wave of her servo. Firefly looked down at her new technicolour paint job and came over. "That was good. There was some definite improvement. I was hitting you with everything at first, but after the first hour you were avoiding a few. I'm better trained than your average vehicon, so getting hit as much as you were doesn't mean as much. This is far from the last time we'll be going through this exercise, and I'll be making it tougher on you in the future, it's a good start." She put the gun away and closed the cabinet, returning to the middle of the room. She adopted a standard ready stance for hand to hand combat. "From this position, I'm ready to react to just about anything. That's what we're working on now. Vehicons aren't overly fond of getting mixed up in close quarters, but they do have the basic grasp of it. That's why it's a good idea to make sure you are good at it. Adopt the stance." Firefly fell into a loose version of what Arcee was doing. The blue femme walked around her protege, reaching out to adjust this servo or that knee and widen the stance by that much. Once she was satisfied with the stance, she stood back in front, adopting it herself again.

Firefly was watching her teacher with wary eyes, but she barely had time to flinch back when the taller femme's fist lashed out, catching her lightly on the chest plate. "And that will get you killed. You can't just react to an attack by instinct. See how the stance has your arm up like that? Throw a punch at my chest." Firefly did so and Arcee deflected the fist with her forearm, returning with a palm strike to her abdominal armor. "What we're going to do is get you reacting properly to attacks. If the attack is coming near your front arm or leg, deflect it. If it's going anywhere else, get their target out of reach of the attack. The stance you're in now is the beginning; easy to learn, adaptable and balanced. When you're a little more comfortable with the basics, you'll start to adapt it into something that's more you. We all do." There was no warning as she began attacking again, never hitting hard enough to cause injury, but always enough to let her know she was hit. She didn't bring her full speed to bear, always slowing herself up my milliseconds and correcting every slip up. Again hours passed as Arcee ruthlessly beat on her young companion, watching the movement of every hydraulic with eagle eyes, stopping to inform her when she did something wrong or simply stepping over and manually adjusting her frame.

When they reentered the common room, the boys were there and Firefly got a few stares at her new technicolor paint job. "Uh is there anywhere I can clean all this off."

"That thing in the corner of your room with the stool is a wash station, everything you need to clean off is there." The rainbow coloured scout headed down the hall toward her quarters for a wash, holding her aching arm. Arcee grabbed herself a cube of energon and lounged around. Firefly rejoined a half hour later, once more pink, black and purple. She was still cradling her sore joints.

"How are my muscles sore, I don't have muscles." Ratchet scoffed.

"Your hydraulics are like human muscles. As you use them, they break down and reform becoming tighter. The soreness is letting you know that is happening."

"Ungh. I've never worked so hard in my life..." The scout flopped down, her back against the wall. Bulkhead crashed down beside her and thumped his arm across her shoulder. She grunted and was almost bent double by the power and mass behind the huge limb.

"Don't worry kiddo, Arcee's puttin' ya through the wringer, but it'll get you stronger and faster. She's rough but it's good for you."

"I know, I just didn't realize that this would be so tough."

"You actually didn't expect me to be rough on you? I have to get you ready for war. When you used to tag along on missions, you were a small target that the 'Cons weren't taking seriously. The next time you go out there, they're going to be trying their absolute best to kill you. I have to make sure you can do it to them first." Firefly drifted off into silence but stood up and looked over the ledge at the human area. The boys' looked at her briefly with worry but she offered them a smile, receiving a nod from them in return and eyes went back to what they'd all been doing. For a while, the base felt as though none of the strangeness had occurred and life was as it had always been, the sense of quiet comfort of an unorthodox family. Eventually, Firefly excused herself and got on the lift to the mesa roof. She sat on the western edge of the rock, her back against the concrete structure as the setting sun cast its glow over her slim frame. She looked out over the desert, lost in thought until she didn't so much as hear as feel a presence looming over her. She turned her head around to see Optimus standing there, posture relaxed. She snapped him a quick salute but he waved it off.

"I haven't had the chance to ask; how are you settling in?"

"Oh, uh, fine. Sir. Arcee's working me like a dog, but I'm pretty good. I never thought how much training you guys go through."

"A life of war is a hard one. Our skills are borne of intense training and endless practice. We have been fighting so long that hope has become a precious and rare commodity. Some times I like to come up here at night and look to the stars, watching the skies. Somewhere among those endless orbs of light is the innocent armada."

"I'm sorry, the what?"

"The innocent armada. When Cybertron went dark, we sent the neutral Cybertronians, the ones who had refused to take a side, away on a fleet of ships, each watched over by a squad of Autobot warriors. They have remained, passengers kept in stasis, floating through the cosmos, awaiting a signal to return when the war has ended." He produced a device from a storage compartment. "A transmitter tower waits on Cybertron for this module. When it is installed, it will send a signal to the ships, guiding them home so we can begin to rebuild. The idea of being able to use this is what gives me hope. It is what keeps me going when everything seems bleak." This brought silence to the boisterous scout.

"I didn't know that. How many ships are there?"

"We began with one hundred ships, with a five man squad on board each to act as guardians over a thousand sleeping passengers."

"I had no idea there were that many of you guys...er, I guess that would be us. And you sent five hundred warriors away? Didn't that hurt the war effort?"

"The numbers of our race have diminished with eons of bloodshed, but we are still enough to populate a planet. Sending so many of my warriors away was a difficult decision, but the defense of the innocents was too important."

"Would Megatron really mess with them? I mean, they're his people too." Optimus closed his optics and sat down, his right knee raised and left servo resting on it, both servos clenching into fists.

"Megatron...would rather rule a legion of slaves than guide a race of free individuals. When the armada was departing, the Decepticons made a mass assault against the launch site. Autobots on the ground and aboard the ships alike fought with everything they had but we lost twelve of the ships; seven captured and five destroyed. It was the most brutal day of the entire conflict, so much energon was spilled, that of Autobot, Decepticon and neutral alike." He reopened his optics, a look of far away sorrow and pain clear in them, to see a look of absolute horror and revulsion on Firefly's face.

"Five destroyed? But that means..."

"Five thousand non-combatants off-lined and seven thousand dragged away to be bent to Megatron's will. I have no doubt that at least some of those attempts were successful and have bolstered the ranks of his vehicons. Just one more thing Megatron will have to answer for in the end." Firefly's only response was to sit still and watch as the final rays of the sun disappeared behind the distant horizon.

"If I can, I want to be with you when that happens. This was always a game to me, when I was a human, something to add excitement to my dull life. Now that I'm...like this, it's actually occurring to me that this is a dark situation. I always just watched like it was happening in a movie or something while you guys were fighting and dying. I'm...sorry." His broad, heavy servo came to rest on her shoulder. Unlike when Bulkhead did it, it didn't feel like he was trying to knock her spark out through her back, rather he was steadying her wavering mind through the contact.

"You are young and we are a difficult concept to understand, so you never really comprehended it. You are beginning to understand. As a human, you aided our efforts and I was loathe to send you in to danger. Now it is to be expected." They remained in that position for a moment before she climbed to her pedes, smiling at him and heading for the elevator.

"Thank you...uh...sir. I should go power down, I get the feeling tomorrow is going to be another long day. I think Arcee is enjoying 'training' me a little too much."

"Yes, you must be ready for what lies ahead of you." He watched her go with a small half smile before turning his gaze back towards the rapidly appearing stars. Knowing he would not see any sign of the hiding ships it never the less brought hope to his spark to simply look up and know the armada was out there.

A/N: So there was a heck of a wait for this chapter and, as mentioned in the chapter introduction not much happens. It mostly exists as a way for me to explain a few things, like the innocent armada, and Cybertronian sexuality. I promise the wait for chapter 4 won't be nearly as long and, yes, crap will actually happen. Also, time skip coming up.