Linariel - Argh life is a whirl wind right now but I'm this close to getting my associate degree then I move on to my bachelor. College is just plain busy. Thank you all for your amazing reviews, alerts, and favs I've enjoyed them all. Sorry for the wait but I shall finish this story I've got too much riding on this one to give up now.

Disclaimer: I do not own any Transformers the credit for these remarkable characters goes to Hasbro and Michael Bay's team who produced the movie, and Dreamworks. I do however own all the characters that don't appear in any of the TF or any other show, movie, or book.

Interfaced

Chapter 3: Complications & Revelations

By: Linariel

The young grease monkey snuggled her head deeper into her lovers shoulder as the two of sat together on the couch. Like everyone else involved in the way they'd been quarantined at Diego Garcia with NEST along with Sam's parents, Leo Spitz, and a number of other people.

They both were exceptionally tired after the enduring the curious government agents. Some of their scientists had been keen on doing a number of tests on Sam to understand what had happened to the allspark enthused boy but Ratchet had kept them back administrating his position as the boys medic, and after a number of legalities were sorted out it was decided his fate lay in the hands of the autobots.

Sam had already accepted this fact of his connection to the cybertronians from the moment he'd came back from the dead and drove the matrix of leadership into Optimus Prime's chest resurrecting the Autobot Leader. So he did not fight with their reasoning he frankly rather have his life lay in their servos then his fellow humans. He trusted them unconditionally now.

Despite the fact that he was not seeing symbols any more Sam was still having random bursts of cybertronian knowledge that had yet to completely leave his mind alone. It had taken a dose of aspirins and Mikaela's gentle touch until his frazzled nerves settled down.

Mikaela Banes faced her own problems when she'd been considered her a bystander and very close to being sent off base. But once again the autobots vouched for her. The couple owed a lot to the mechs.

Only after a long series of interrogations, interviews, and complete examinations had Sam and Mikaela were finally awarded some time alone. They desperately needed this closure and had melted into each other's arms soon after. The events of the past week had brought them even closer together and melted away the gaps that had begun to form. They felt like they'd do anything now and forever to make their relationship work.

As the mechanic leaned into her boyfriend Sam used his free uninjured had to stroke her brown hair. "How are you Beautiful?" He asked her softly.

She let out a soft sigh not answering him but her oceanic blue eyes peered up at him with a content smile then she finally answer. "Never better, I'm starting to get used to these unusual dates we go on." Mikaela added in a teasing tone.

Sam Witwicky laughed happily with a large sheepish grin on his face. "Well there's one thing to gain from being with me."

"Oh yeah what's that?" She asked although it was plain to see she was playing along.

"Your life is never dull."

Mikaele snorted with a roll of her eyes. "Tell me about it."

Their cuddling was interrupting abruptly by the rec door opening. The two turned slightly to see a hesitant adult human sized cybertronian entering the room. "Am I intruding on anything?"

Glancing at each other for a moment as if asking each other a question they turned to the autobot with smile. For a mech the sound technician was unbelievably mellow, and polite.

"Nah it's cool Blaster what's up?" Sam spoke up.

The red mech smiled a little brighter now. "Stellar. Well Glen and I were actually looking for you Sam my man."

Sam carefully pulled away from Mikaela and prepared himself for whatever they wanted help with. Although he had to admit this was the first time this particular autobot had ever came to him for something. "Right you guys need something or other?"

"More or less…" Blaster said with a shrug yet another human custom he'd picked up. Out of most of the mechs he seemed to enjoy picking up these gestures to express his feelings. "We think you might be able to decipher this signal we picked up and make sense of what it means." He clicked a knob on shoulder which resulted in a loud screeching, a few garbled, with added clicks here and there.

"I'll see what I can do Blaster you'll have to show the specs… But to be honest I don't know how much knowledge I still have left from that Allspark encounter." Sam stated directly. It was true the effects of the allspark downloading things into his brain still hadn't worn off completely but he was finding it harder to access the knowledge that had been forced on him.

"Isn't Maggie supposed to do that?" Mikaela asked with a raised eyebrow. She had become acquainted with the older blonde since their encounter at Mission City and the two corresponded back at for sometimes. She knew clearly that this was obvious to her this was her area of expertise.

Blaster's blue optics went down cast with her words. "We're still having problems locating her …"

Bits and pieces of drone were spread about as Maggie worked her way through the smashed casing to the robotic one eyed cat's processors which surprisingly were still intact. Although the hacker had a feeling it that was probably the only thing left undamaged on the decepticon.

Her hands were shaky as she went through the process of working the wires apart. They were a tangled mess and a few were left un-frayed. She could feel the stare of the decepticon communications officer's drone Rumble as she drew out strands of Ravage's wiring. She studied them carefully and tried to access her memories of the repairs Ratchet had shown her. She then worked to place the wires into the proper arrangement but that in itself was a meticulous job.

As she worked Maggie's mind slowly begun to process all she was doing. The NEST analyst drew her hands away with a flinch. What on Earth am I doing? A jolt of confusion and horror entered her mind at what she'd been about to do. She shouldn't helping the decepticons they were her enemy yet her mind couldn't fathom a reason not to. After all she only functional thanks to the usefulness she posed to Soundwave. I need to stay alive. But she shook her head at the thought how could she think like that. Helping the decepticons take down her friends was the lowest thing she could possibly do and yet she was doing it.

Why is all this happening? Maggie's head ached as she tried to understand her actions. She'd never submitted to anyone before she'd lived by her instincts and those alone. Even with the words of advice occasionally from her guardian Ratchet she'd chosen to ignore most of his lectures on health and safety regulations. But at least he'd cared for her as a friend yet had Soundwave ever treated her as more then a tool? No he hadn't and yet she was working for the decepticon without much complaint. Her brain hurt even more as she rubbed her temples.

A shock emitted from the collar earning a yelp from her, and reminding Maggie of the task she was idly ignoring. She gritted her teeth shedding a few tears from the pain the training band put her through. Her eyes dimmed a bit and her hands reached for another tool as she worked through the wiring to repair Ravage's processors. Her confusion soon replaced by her task.

After awaking from recharge the Decepticon Communications Officer observed his human Maggie's progress ever silently. He was satisfied with the results she was turning out. Since repairing the hacker after her mishap with cybertronian energon, his pet had been a little less compliant. She showed moments of disobedience so often he surmised that the shock of chip in the collar would have put it to sleep for good soon. Humans were such a fragile species. But he couldn't let her die he needed her alive she was important instrument that he wasn't about to loose.

Why exactly go to all that trouble over one miserable organic? Soundwave's reasoning was clear though other decepticons probably would still question it. The hacker was a rarity among her race her intelligence was something out of the ordinary. He couldn't allow Megaton to destroy something with such potential. It was against his programming to let such abilities go to waste. So he'd opted to keep her online. She'd proven herself useful regardless of how many times she protested. Her ability as a quick learner and sharp mind were useful.

Still for the first few days she'd struggled against his commands. His human even begun to resist the pains of the training band to a certain degree, for a human she was quite durable even if she was fragile. With the end results the hacker decided the best thing he could do to quell her rebellion without actually giving her lenience was to perform a little experiment on the analyst. He'd been studying human brain and was quite fascinated with the reaction to certain stimulations to their processors.

Through his findings and scans of his human he'd been able to come up with a way to change the organic femme's programming ever so slightly. Careful transmission of shock therapy had been sent into her body while sonic pulses were administered directly into her nerves as she recharged to coax her into a docile state. He'd implemented on her brain instructions that altered her mind's make up ever slightly without damaging her intellect. It took only a few days for the collar to bring about results. Today was the first successful test run.

Once he was finished he had a far more compliant worker although like now she still had her moments of returning to her previous programing in time however he surmised that he'd have trained his little pet. Soundwave ever patient he would wait for the core download to take over completely. For now he'd continue to discipline the femme as he saw fit.

It hadn't been easy to sneak the autobot medic and the only remaining femme off base. But Epps and his teams of NEST members came through with quite a convincing fight which pulled the government agents attention from the left entrance to Diego Garcia. A yellow SUV hummer and a red Ducati 848 pulled off of base with holoform drivers to keep people from getting alarmed or suspicious.

Ratchet still didn't understand Prime's reasoning about appointing him as the temporary guardian of Maggie Madsen. The feelings seemed to be mutual from her. But they'd made of the best of it and Ratchet gradually found himself growing fond of the Australian blond. She was very bright and whenever she had free time she'd come watch him repair the mechs on the base, ever so often asking questions about cybertronian anatomy but for the most part she just studied his work. She especially was interested in their internal circuitry. When she started lending a hand in things he'd found her a tolerable assistant.

It still was amazing how well the organic femme could multitask between her job as an analyst and being his student. Ratchet could not deny she was talented for a human and her work was sufficient enough. He'd never thought he'd find such respect for an organic. But the girl's temper and stubborn nature left nothing to be desired. He could still remember her immediate refusal when he'd questioned her diet and her choice of living space.

And he still couldn't understand her insistence about living off the base. Even Whitmann had settled for a place in the barracks but the NEST analyst would have nothing of it. He'd argued profusely with her choice knowing it wasn't a great option but Maggie wasn't the least deterred and she wouldn't relent till she got an apartment off base. Oddly enough the organic femme seemed happier after this arrangement.

So he'd dealt with it and made the best of things. But this was odd it wasn't like Maggie to not contact him to at least be kept informed at what was happening on base. She didn't enjoy being left out of things regardless if she was there or not. After dropping her off from her spat with Galloway that was the last he'd heard from her.

:We're approaching the home of NEST Analyst Maggie Madsen: came the voice of Arcee over his comlink frequency. She sounded tired and a little distraught Ratchet surmised she'd need another checkup when all this was done.

Tilting his mirror he glimpsed the nearby pink motorcycle that was gliding along next to him rather aimlessly. For once the hard core medic could feel pang of sympathy in his spark for the femme. She'd been the only survivor of her faction and no doubt felt phantom pains from the moment her trio's sparks were extinguished. He'd had to perform an operation to severe her connection with her siblings to keep her from going offline herself.

He was still impressed with how she was handling things it was hard from a bystanders point of few to tell she was suffering. Arcee was fairly good at masking her pain she was a soldier first and foremost. It had been the right idea on Optimus's part to send her off base she needed some time to clear her processors and get her mind back on the work.

The two approached a beaten down apartment on the edge of town. After scanning the area for any organic forms of life they found none not even the familiar signature of the analyst, however they did get faint readings of a few off lined organic corpses in the immediate vicinity. From what they could tell by the rotting flesh it had been awhile since the attack. Without a word Ratchet transformed and Arcee followed soon after. It didn't matter the consequences something was obviously wrong. Ever vigilant the valkyrie femme brought her blasters on line pointing them about as she flanked Ratchet.

"It looks like some slag happened here…" the red femme surmised as she moved closer to the apartment building the area was more or less left intact but she spied a nearby broken door.

Ratchet turned towards it recognizing it as the entrance to Maggie's apartment. He moved towards it but was unable to get inside because of his large size. Fortunately that was half of the reason their leader had assigned Arcee to this recon mission.

After the battle the femme had requested few modifications in order to do her job more efficiently. Now that her partners were gone it left her more vulnerable. With most of her special armor now scrapped she'd reduced in size and her form had been modified with a pair of legs to give her more adaptability. Because of this she was able to get into tight organic spaces with more ease then him though she still had to crawl about she was lean and less bulky then Bumblebee.

:What are you finding Arcee?: he asked through his comlink.

A pregnant pause followed before he received a response. :It's not good Docbot' the place is in complete shambles. I'm picking up traces of decepticon energy signals mixed with an organic that matches Ms. Madsen. Also there are a lot of claw marks…:

Ratchet's spark sank with these words. :Ravage I assume. Any signs of struggle, injury, or her off lined remains.: he shuddered at the last one he couldn't bare the idea of loosing one of their human allies especially the one he was supposed to be watching over.

But to his relief Arcee respond. :Oh yeah lots of struggle not a lot of leaked energon or as the organics call it blood. My guesses are she was abducted and those humans outside had just been collateral damage for getting in the way Ravage's objective. Oh and there's one more thing…:

:What?:

:Her cabinet has been accessed and I'm not finding any traces of her files.:

The medic cursed under his breath in cybertronian. :So not only have we lost NEST's Chief Analyst but all of the copies she made are missing also?:

"Yeah that pretty much sums it up." Arcee replied out loud as she ducked out of the building, and landed next to the medic.

A string of curses rang out in the air again from Ratchet. "That foolish girl I told her not to do this." He knew the analyst taking copies of her NEST work home would lead to this but Maggie had insisted it would make things easier for her. And now that decepticons had their hands on what information the analyst had gathered along with the Australian blonde herself. They were just fortunate that she hadn't kept any record of Diego Garcia's NEST base or location. If she had they'd truly be slagged.

Dealing with a distraught Decepticon venting air over your shoulder is something Maggie Madsen never could have imagined experiencing. But soon as the Decepticon Communications officer was back online he'd more or less set his optics on her while she worked. She wasn't used to preforming under so much pressure even when she'd been a government analyst the only thing she had to worry about was her team putting in their two pieces about something or other. And that was nothing compared to having the large decepticon's shadow draped over her. Even the grumpy medic Ratchet was easier than this mech.

Shivering the hacker tried her hardest to keep her mind directly on her task. She'd managed to repair the damage done to cat's wiring in the tail but she still had to fuse together the wires that connected it to his nerves. She'd gone to work with a pair of pliers cutting off the severed ends so she could properly put get them back together. It was taking a number of twists, bends, and pulling but things were returning to their proper placing.

Every minute she worked Maggie had to remain alert when she stopped her task Soundwave's right or left circle on would light up giving her a painful shock to get her back on track. When he wasn't satisfied with her work he'd make it plain through more zaps from the collar. But for the most part he remained quiet as she worked. The analyst was finding herself more and more aware of her surroundings and what she was exactly doing but the mech kept her working with each jolt sent to her.

She wanted to upright refuse to obey him but survival instincts started to kick in after the fifteenth shock. Maggie let out an exasperated sigh as she adjusted his retina wires to get his one optic back to functioning. As she worked the one eyed cat drone still remained still. She was quite sure he was offline now. Why else would the cat not be trying to attack her during this operation? Unless of course Soundwave had put him into some kind of sleep mode or as she remembered Ratchet telling her stasis. But the Australian blonde doubted it.

"How's it com-ing in-sect." cut in a voice abruptly from next nearby.

Knowing it was Rumble she chose to ignore him and kept working. Maggie knew if she stopped she'd get another reprimand through shocks from Soundwave. The emotionless mech was starting to get impatient somehow she could tell and she didn't want to set him off more.

Rumble waddled over to stand directly next to her. "Things look su-fic-ient. Soundwave will be pleased."

Somehow she couldn't agree with him she had yet to find any sign that the other drone was still alive. But a question was brewing her mind as she worked. It was obvious Ravage had been in a battle and lost it but who exactly had he fought. "How did he end up in this bloody mess?"

There was pause and the drone glanced seemed to glance at his creator before speaking. "Small yell-ow autobot fought him to keep us away from allspark touched flesh-ling." Rumble seemed almost melancholy as he stared at his brethren. "Autobot won fight."

Silently Maggie applauded Bumblebee's actions for she had no doubt that was who Rumble was talking about. She didn't know any other yellow autobots then him. The news of a human being effected by the allspark caught her off guard. Wasn't there only one piece accounted for? She knew for a fact it had been heavily guarded by the government but she'd also been informed by Ravage that their master had risen thanks to that piece. Was there another? For some reason she had a feeling the human the drone was referring to could only be Sam Witwicky. Who else would the scout be so ready to defend?

Her wandering mind earned a shock from Soundwave causing her body to jump and earning a yelp from her. She glanced back at her so called master. "If you keep that up I could be dead before I finish here."

"Minds should not waver. Conclusion: Maggie Madsen will finish the task or she will be disciplined." Soundwave's emotionless voice droned out at his captive. He then turned his optics to directly stare her eyes. "Compute?"

Nodding shakily she turned back to her task. "Right then I'll get it done." But Maggie was beginning to become perplexed. What more could she do. He'd forced the task of fixing Ravage on her but she didn't think there was any way to save the drone. As she bent over to work on his joints the hacker paused her ears were beginning to pick up something very faint.

A humming was coming from the direction of the one eyed cat, quickly she began digging through the loose casing and setting it aside. Energon spilled onto her hands causing her to withdraw them from the bot. Instead of receiving a shock however Rumble moved over to grab her hands she shook against his hold trying to get him to let go but he remained holding them firmly. Her eyes widened as more of the cooling gel was applied to them cutting off the energon before it could burn through her skin to the bone.

Then the kindness was cut off by the pushy drone shoving her back into the cat. She glared at him but he responded with a smirk. "Keep your ser-vos away from the en-er-gon and you'll man-age." She stared at him questioningly to which he shrugged. "Soundwave does-n't want his pet femme to lose her tools." He said referring to her hands. "Back to work."

Maggie glared slightly at the drone before returning to the task of getting to that sound. This time she took more care to stay away from the points that leaked. Rumble even moved in to place temporary patches to stop the bleeding energon. It was rather odd to the analyst in the least to find the transformer's life blood still abundant. Did this mean the cat was still alive.

She soon got her answer as she neared a square casing and pulled it open without thinking. Inside was something she'd never imagined seeing up close. A small blue dot was weakly pulsing. Maggie had never seen a spark chamber before she and Ratchet never got down to that in his teachings. Plus she was more interested in the circuitry then the actual anatomy of a cybertronian. She didn't think first and reached out to it.

Abruptly she was shocked rather hard by the training and pushed back falling into the waiting servos of Soundwave. The silent mech had appeared from nowehere. Before she could even struggle out of his grasp he closed his digits around her fragile body squeezing it just barely make her behave.

Maggie stared back at the open spark chamber and tried not to flinch away from the Decepticon Communication Officer's abrupt petting.

As he stroked her blonde hair he spoke. "Maggie detected Ravage's online. Sufficiency up 89%. Conclusion former NEST analyst still useful."

She struggled a little in his grasp not liking the way he worded things. After a few more strokes on her head he carefully set her in the cage. Maggie watched behind the electric bars with dread as he moved to pick up the cat then exited the room with a grinning Rumble.

She sank back into the small cot that had been set up for her with a groan. She'd just more or less saved the life of a decepticon. If she hadn't gotten so curious perhaps the drone would be scrapped. Now she could only guess the mech would taking the one eyed Ravage to a proper medic to get him completely fixed.

"Wonderful just wonderful Maggie…" she snarled to herself sarcastically. Why oh why did she have to be so fascinated about cybertronian technology. It was beginning to come back to bite her.

A/N: Okay I changed a few details from ROTF but not a lot instead of having Chromia the blue Arcee unit survive I just had Arcee herself make it. Also Elita One and Chromia's names are now Flareup 'purple' and Moonracer 'blue' I really hated that Bay killed them off in that movie. Besides if I remember correctly their names weren't really brought up in the movie directly besides being Arcee units. Also when you think of her form refer back to how she originally was supposed to look but with a red shade instead. That's how she is now.

I thought it over and I'm not going to get rid of Mikaela in this story although I actually do like Sam and Carly together but I don't really want to have a breakup in this story. Plus I'm actually neutral between which pairing I like better. So more or less this has the potential of being AU somewhat from DOTM some things will follow it however.

This mostly focused on Maggie and Soundwave so there's no point in adding drama that takes away from the plot. Angst is good but for me at least it needs purpose

I hope this clears up Maggie's abrupt actions in the second chapter yes I've had this planned for a long time and I think the title of this story and summary make a little more sense now.

Expect some more interaction from other decepticons in the next chapter…

Hope you enjoy!

As always the fate of this story lies in the hands of my readers. Please review so I can continue writing this. If you want to read more even the smallest reviews will be cherished.

Review please so Ratchet doesn't come after me with his hatchet!