None of them expected this, she had avoided attack after attack, fought alongside them against their age old enemy, she had taken down decepticons in this battle, stood at their side, watched their back as they watched hers, but now, it was all in vain. They had been so close, they had made it to their goal but only to stumble at the finish line. Victoria tried to push free again but her strength was leaving her, her vision was starting to blur as she felt sickened. Had they really come all this way and gone through all of this for nothing?

Megatron stepped back towards the machine, his decepticon's moving in front of him with their weapons up, ready to act as a barrier for any of the autobots who may try to interfere. Ironhide moved as if he was going to charge only to be met with Soundwave's weapon aimed for him. Victoria kept her eyes on Ironhide, she had failed, the decepticons had what they wanted and it was all because she refused to stay out of the battle, had she not pushed, had she just let them guard her, maybe this would have never happened.

Stormflux stood beside Megatron, she moved back a bit more, coming to stand near a part of the machine. The decepticon leader turned to the femme, holding the redhead out to her. "You know what to do." he told her as the femme took Victoria from the dark grey mech, the redhead tried once more to use the moment he handed her off to escape, she didn't care about hitting the ground, she had a chance of surviving that, but alas, Lady luck was not on her side today.

Stormflux gripped the redhead tightly once she was in the femme's hand, the grasp harsh, sending another wave of pain through Victoria as she pounded her metal covered fist against Stormflux's wrist, trying to grasp anything on her which could be used to pull herself free. "You're more trouble then you're worth human, let's fix that shall we?" Stormflux said as she opened a compartment of some kind on the machine.

"It'll activate as soon as it senses the allspark fragment so place her inside quickly." Megatron said, Stormflux nodded with a smirkish grin.

The femme reached her only remaining hand inside, moving to place Victoria within the contraption. This was Vic's last chance, if she was going down she was going to try and bring this decepticon bitch with her, the moment Stormflux's hand loosened enough the redhead brought her left hand to the energon blade at her hip, they had been foolish not to disarm her, she pulled the weapon from it's sheath as quickly as she could as she heard the machine she was now within begin to emit an electric hum. As pained as she was, as battered and beaten, she was going to leave one last mark before they took her out, Victoria lunged forward as Stormflux tried to withdraw her hand, she sunk the energon blade into the decepticon femme's wrist joint, using every bit of pained strength she had going into it as the blade went all the way through Stormflux's and punctured into the metal of the chamber she was in.

She heard the yell of pain from Stormflux as the femme's wrist was trapped in the machine, the sound of cannon fire exploded from outside, battle kicked up again but the redhead couldn't see it and soon she wouldn't hear it either. As she tried to run pass the pinned femme's arm the machine she was in activated, bolts of electricity shot out at her, her body felt like it was on fire as the energy coursed through her, the pain was worse at her throat where the fragment resided. She couldn't move, she couldn't feel anything but the pain, when she thought it couldn't get any worse she was proven wrong. Suddenly her throat felt as if steel razor wire had branched out through every nerve leading away from the fragment's resting place in her flesh, her vision flashed white as her body collapsed beneath her, the last sound she heard before falling into darkness was the last thing she had ever expected to hear: her own scream.

The pain was gone but so was everything else, she heard nothing, there was no light as she opened her eyes, nothing but absolute stillness as she stood. Was she even really standing? She looked around but there was nothing to even look at, just a still, dark void.

"'Ello?" she shouted before her hand came to her throat, she was beyond shocked, had she just used her voice? She felt the odd warmth upon the skin of her neck, it was the allspark fragment's doing, it had to be.

She kept looking about franticly before finally another voice cut through the darkness, it was gentle, soothing, if she had to guess she would say it sounded female but it held a peaceful echo to it. "Do not be afraid dear." the voice said as the redhead looked about for the source.

Soon a ball of blue, glowing energy slowly faded into existence not too far from her, the light blue light it emitted provided the only light in this darkness. The ball of energy hovered around her as she followed it's path with her gaze, almost as if it was inspecting her just as she was inspecting it.

"You shouldn't be here." the gentle voice said to her as others similar to it began to flicker into existence, these were not nearly as bright as the first but they we just as beautiful, each hovering around her, she could hear the choir of rhythmic, pulsing hums, the orbs themselves looked as if they were pulsing with the very energy they were made up of.

Victoria decided to try to talk again, she had managed to in this place before, perhaps she really did have her voice here, wherever here was. "What are you? Whaddya mean I shouldn't be here? Jus' where is here?" she asked as she looked to the brightest orb before pausing, she had just realized what these orbs hovering about were, the hum they emitted, the pulsation of the energy, she finally put it together ~They're sparks?~ she thought to herself.

"You just answered your first question." another voice said, one of the other sparks glowing brighter as the male voice sounded before it dimmed to it's previous glow.

"Wait, ya mean ya can hear my thoughts?" the redhead asked.

The nearest and brightest of them glowed even brighter as that kind, female voice came once more "We are all connected here, autobot, decepticon, neutral cybertronian, it does not matter once we leave the physical world, we are all separate but connected, our memories and our knowledge becomes one. Since you are here we can hear your thoughts as we can hear those of every one of us. You should not even be here, this is not the resting place of your people."

"If I'm not supposed to be here then jus' how did I end up wherever here is?" Victoria asked.

"I. . .do not know, only the allspark has the answer to that." the calming voice said.

"Allspark? The fragment." Vic said under her breath as she touched her fingers to where the glyphs were on her throat.

"The glyphs. . ." a younger sounding voice said from one of the smaller sparks.

"We must send you back, Time is of the essence!" the calm voice stated as it and the sparks surrounding her moved forward, more seemed to flicker into existence within the dark void as they gathered around her, she looked around at them not really knowing how to react as they all began to glow just as brightly as the first one, a network of energy branching across each spark.

"Jus' how y'all plan on doing that?" Victoria asked as she became surrounded by the glowing network the sparks had created.

"It is the will of the Allspark." the gentle voice said before the glow from the sparks began to blur together, she felt an overwhelming sensation wash over her, a mixture of every emotion she had ever known and some she had never experienced before, it was wonderful and terrible at the same time, soon the light grew into perfect white only to fade as the hum of the many sparks grew silent.

The sounds of battle, she could hear them again as her eyes snapped open, how long had she been out? The energy of the machine was still crackling around her but it was no longer penetrating her, the pain was no longer there, Stormflux's trapped arm had grown still within the machine's chamber, she looked towards the opening and saw that though Stormflux was still there the femme looked as if she had been put into stasis lock. Victoria moved to her feet, the tendrils of energy lashing out at her only to withdraw upon growing near. She put her hand out towards the energy only to see it move away from her. She didn't understand it but she was awake now, this wasn't over after all.

She turned to where her sword was stuck in Stormflux's wrist and moved to grab the hilt and pull it free, however the moment her hand made contact with the blade's handle a burst of energy from the machine shot forward into her and the stilled decepticon's hand, the energy coursing between them, using the sword as the conduction point. The redhead tensed though she couldn't move her hand from the hilt of the sword, her whole body tingled, her skin feeling taunt as a sharp pain shot through every bone in her body, a sudden pain gripped her throat as the decepticon femme's hand started to twitch from the energy. The pain in Victoria's throat grew more intense before the sensation shot down into her chest, a burning sensation came over her as she opened her mouth to scream, much to her surprise sound did come forth as she felt as if her chest was being torn to shreds, she fell to one knee, her hand still stuck on the sword's hilt as she took heaving breaths, the pain began to subside as the energy of the machine withdraw from her once more though it began to crackle even more violently.

She finally managed to get herself to her feet, pulling the energon sword free of the decepticon's wrist before she turned back to where the energy was, she looked over it as she tried to ignore the odd, warm feeling in her chest that still lingered. After a second she saw what looked to be the source in the chamber the energy was coming from, she moved forward, raising her blade before plunging the energon sword into the odd component the energy seemed to be coming from. The crackling electricity stopped once the piece was impaled. She turned from that area of the chamber and walked to the opening, climbing onto Stormflux's arm in order to get through to the outside.

Once she was in the light again she saw what she had heard, the autobots had decided to fight to the end once she was captured, Ironhide was fighting with ruthless aggression as was Sideswipe besides him, Prime had taken on Megatron since the machine had deactivated. Victoria brought her hand to where her broken collarbone should be only to find there was no pain, the bone didn't even feel broken anymore, she looked over herself to see if any of her other injuries had been healed, her ribs didn't hurt anymore though the cuts across her skin were still there. She looked to her left hand, closing the fist for a moment, it was still feelingless but it looked like much of the metal exoskeleton had bonded with her skin and that tight, near burning sensation was still present in her chest but she would worry about that later. She was alive and there was still a battle to be fought.

"Unbe-fucking-lievable." she muttered, she felt her vocal cords vibrate with the sound of those words, her vocal cords which had been stilled and damaged for so long, the allspark had decided to return her voice to her, to return her to the world of the living, she was not about to waste this, most people only got a second chance, she was getting a third, she had been right in what she thought before they left for this mission, this was a new chapter in her life.

She stood there on the unconscious Stormflux's shoulder, the femme was leaned against the machine, she looked over the battlefield a moment before her eyes narrowed, this wasn't over, but it would be soon. She moved to climb down Stormflux as quickly as she could, dropping the last few feet to the ground before she rushed forward, pulling the photon pulse cannon down onto her shoulder in the process as she kept the energon sword in her left hand. She wasted no time in joining Ironhide and Sideswipe's fight against Shockwave, blasts coming from the photon cannon at her shoulder, part of her was surprised the thing still worked after all of that but as long as it could keep firing she wasn't going to question it. Ironhide sent a strong double blast into the decepticon's frame as Victoria's photon bursts made contact with Shockwave's frame, the decepticon stumbled back and Ironhide chanced a glance back towards where her weapon fire had come from, his face betrayed his surprise at seeing her standing there.

"Didya miss me?" she said with a smile, Ironhide's look of surprise grew even greater at the fact she had actually spoken, he had never heard her voice before so she figured this was quite a surprise to him. "Before ya ask I ain't got a clue how this happened, we'll figure it out later, right now, let's jus' survive." she said before taking aim on Shockwave once more, Ironhide nodded as he too turned his weapons on the decepticon once again, Shockwave moved to bring a gun of some kind on Ironhide but he was soon met by the firing of three cannons towards his chest as Sideswipe jumped up from behind the decepticon and brought his right blade up for the strike before jabbing forward, the blade piercing the decepticon's chest in a brilliant display of sparks, what she had seen before returning to the physical world flashed through her mind, no matter what side they were on they all ended up wherever she had been, no longer enemies but a network of sparks, individual yet united at the same time, one but many.

Shockwave fell to the ground as his optics dimmed and Ironhide turned his attention to the redhead once more before moving and lifting her into his hand as she sheathed her sword, holding her to his chest for a moment. "I thought I lost you." he said looking down towards her, his hold on her firm but careful as not to hurt her.

"Like I'd really be that easy to get rid of, sorry babe but ya kinda stuck with me." she said as she grabbed onto his chest armor, the battle was still raging all around them, as much as she wanted it, this moment of being in his hands couldn't last, now was not the time, they still had to survive the day.

Ironhide likely realized the same as he set her down "Lets help the others." he said as he turned to where the twins and Ratchet were contending with Starscream. He began towards that fight and came to stand besides Ratchet, Victoria followed right behind him as did Sideswipe, the twins were working together pretty well, Mudflap and Skids were going after Starscream's weapons, trying to disable them as Ratchet was keeping laser fire on the decepticon, Ironhide's weapons soon flared on Starscream, a torrent of blasts being sent right towards the decepticon's chest as Sideswipe began to make strikes at the enemy's legs. Victoria brought her cannon to aim as well, smirking slightly as she set her sights on the dorito of a decepticon's ugly face and opened fire, her aim seemed more accurate now, all three shots she sent forth hit dead on their target.

Starscream reeled back as the blasts met his face, he ripped Mudflap and Skidz off his frame, throwing them right towards Ironhide and Ratchet, while the medic caught Skidz, Ironhide just stepped to the side and let Mudflap have a rough meeting with the ground.

"That ain't cool man." Mudflap said as he got back to his feet, Ironhide didn't even respond and continued firing on Starscream until the decepticon coward leapt into the air and transformed, activating his engines and flying off as cannon blasts from both Ironhide and Victoria followed him.

"That motha fucker really is a coward." Victoria said as she lowered her cannon and looked back towards Mudflap "Are ya a'right and did it knock any sense into ya?" she asked him.

"Yo man, I'm good. Vic? Since when did yo ass start talkin'?" Mudflap asked.

"Bout the time I climbed outta that fucking machine, now ain't the time to play twenty questions, we gotta finish thinning the herd." the redhead said, she glanced about, they were winning, only three decepticons were currently in fighting order now, Skywarp, Soundwave and Megatron, the decepticon leader must have realized how few of his troops he had remaining as well as he jumped back from where he had been locked in combat with Optimus.

"Decpticons! Fall back!" he shouted as he transformed into his cybertronian jet form and took to the sky, Skywarp followed suit as Soundwave grabbed on to Skywarp and hitched a ride out of there.

The sounds of cheering and whistles filled the air from the NEST troops, though a few of the autobots also joined in on the cheering, even Victoria raised a fist into the air in victory "Now that's what I'm talkin' bout! Heeells yea!" she shouted, she actually shouted, she truly did have her voice back, after all these years she had regained what she lost so long ago and she was going to use it. She smiled, a true smile as she turned back to where Ironhide was standing, she switched off her cannon and pushed it into the slung position at her back before taking off in a full out sprint towards Ironhide, he bent down seeing her incoming and lowered his hand to her but she didn't climb on, instead she jumped right up to his chest and grabbed on, pulling herself to him as she felt his hands come up to cup over her, she felt his frame vibrate as a laugh, not a chuckle or half hearted laugh, but a real laugh came from the black mech, he smiled to her as she gave a bit of a laugh herself, it was an odd feeling for her, after so many years of nothing she could feel her vocals vibrate from every sound, there was no pain when she spoke, just her voice, even if it was ever so slightly deeper than most women's, it held a mature but still youthful tone, she was just glad she had it back and that now, she could actually say what she had wanted to verbalize before.

"I love ya Ironhide." she said as she smiled up at him, pulling herself as close to his frame as she was able, she felt his thumb lightly stroke the back of her hair as he returned the smile.

"I love you too Victoria." he said as he finally lifted her from where she was at his chest, moving her towards his shoulder where she climbed up to have a seat. She held on with her left hand as her right rested on the horn like part on the side of his head, the battle seemed to be over, finally, after everything, after all that had occurred, it seemed they had won.

"We still need to disable the device." Barricade said, drawing the attention of those around him, Victoria and Ironhide also looked that way.

"Barricade, I got a question for ya." Victoria shouted toward the black and white mech, Barricade looked towards the redhead as a few others, including Optimus, Ratchet and Jolt also looked towards her with a bit of surprise.

"What is it fleshling?" Barricade asked, he actually didn't seem too surprised at her sudden regaining of her voice.

"First off, don't call me fleshling ya glitch, second off, how the hell did you know?" she asked.

"I didn't, call it an educated guess. And do not call me a glitch again." he said pointing at her.

"Then don't call me a damned fleshling, I got a name ya know." she responded with.

"Very well, so long as you do not call me a glitch I will refrain from referring to you as fleshling, have we an agreement?" Barricade asked.

"Yea, I think I can agree to that." she said.

"Good. Now. . ." Barricade began before turning to move towards the device ". . .let's tear this thing down so I can get the slag out of here." he said before walking towards the machine, the others began to move towards the structure as well.

Ironhide looked over towards the redhead on his shoulder was he too walked towards the machine "When did you pick up on cybertronian insults?" he asked her, Victoria just smirked a bit.

"Ya got yaself to thank for that one babe, I hear 'em enough from you to get the gist of what they mean by now." she said, Ironhide chuckled a bit, shaking his head at her. They made it to the structure as Optimus, Ratchet and Jolt began to look over the device, it wasn't long until they began to carefully deconstruct it.

It was nearing nightfall, the sky had already began to grow dim as the sun settled on the horizon. The machine had been pretty much torn down and air lifts were coming to collect the parts and the body of the Fallen which still laid on the ground, whatever happened to her had happened before the machine had been able to serve it's purpose, from her understanding they were going to be rid of the Fallen's body so there could be no second attempts. Now everyone, both NEST and autobots, finally had a chance to rest after the day's events. Well, everyone except for Ratchet who was working on repairing the others, he had seen to Ironhide's damage already, it turns out Ironhide had taken a pretty bad hit in the battle but hadn't even noticed it. Thankfully Ratchet was damned good at what he did, Ironhide had been patched up in no time.

Ironhide was currently sitting on one of the larger rocks, Victoria was sitting on his thigh, his hand gently cupped at her back as she leaned back and looked at the darkening horizon. It was not long before they saw the black and white police car that was Barricade zoom pass them as he took his leave, the former decepticon had made it clear he wasn't going to stick around so Victoria didn't find his sudden departure too surprising, she could only wish him luck out there and hope he really did stay freelance, he had shown he could be at least a decent guy today so there was some hope for him.

"How are you feeling Victoria?" Ratchet's voice came from near her and Ironhide, pulling the redhead from her thoughts as she looked over towards the medic.

"Doing a'right, got some weird tight kinda feeling in my chest but that might jus' be 'cause of strain." she said, she couldn't help but smile, she was still overjoyed to have her voice back, it was going to make her life so much easier, it was true, some things you don't miss until they are gone.

"I'll run a scan on you to be certain." Ratchet said as he inspected her, his face looked pensive for a moment before a slight look of disbelief showed on his features. "It's not possible. . ." the medic said.

Ironhide looked right towards Ratchet when he heard him say that "What ain't possible Ratch? Somethin' wrong with 'er?" Ironhide asked as his fingers curled loosely around the redhead.

"What's up Ratch? I mean, I feel a'right for the most part, something else there we don't know bout?" the redhead asked as she brought a hand up to rest on one of Ironhide's large fingers, he glanced at her with a small smile feeling the contact.

"Well, nothing is wrong, per say. The allspark fragment seems to have vanished from your throat altogether and the glyphs are faded as well. However, it seems your voice was not the only thing you gained from it's departure. I do not know quite how it is possible but your skeletal structure now has a cybertronian alloy running through the middle of where the bone marrow is and, even more unbelievable, that feeling in your chest Victoria, it's. . ." Ratchet paused for a moment.

"It's what, cmon Ratch, don't stop mid sentence like that cause it sounds kinda important." the redhead said.

"It's a spark Victoria, somehow you have a spark within you now, a chamber for it seems to have formed next to your heart, connecting to the alloy running within your ribs so it's stable." Ratchet said as Victoria's face pretty much dropped.

"WHAT!? Ya gotta be shittin' me, how the flying fuck did that happen?" she said before she paused for a moment "After I came to, when I went to pull the sword from Stormflux's wrist, the weird feeling and pain. Do ya think it caused some kinda energy transfer or something?" she asked.

"The allspark could create life from nothing, you were it's host Victoria but you were already alive. I cannot be sure but it may have been trying to change you but was unable to due to interruption or perhaps it realizing that a complete change would kill you. I cannot be certain but the one thing I can tell you is that you do hold some cybertronian qualities now yet you are still very much human at the same time." the medic said.

"As long as she's alive, that's what matters." Ironhide stated.

"Yea, fact that I ain't six foot under is comforting in and of itself, still, when all this is handled, think ya can try and figure out jus' how much of a change happened? I mean, hell, if I'mma live with any kinda partial change, can ya really blame me for wanting to know jus' what I should expect from it?" Victoria asked.

"No, I cannot blame you for that and once we return I will see to it." Ratchet answered her before the sounds of jet engines and helicopter rotor beats came from above. All three of their gazes went to the sky as the air transport flew towards them, Victoria stood up on Ironhide's thigh and looked as the transport grew nearer, she couldn't help but smile a bit as she saw the markings of the NEST team proudly painted on the sides of the incoming planes.

She gave a relieved sigh "Time to go home boys." the redhead said before she felt a very light nudge from one of Ironhide's fingers.

"Who you callin' boy, I'm a lot older than you." Ironhide said in slight jest towards her, she just looked back towards him with a grin.

"Yea, ya right, but ya also older than human civilization as a whole, so watch it." she shot back with.

"Hey, you're the one datin' an old mech." Ironhide reminded her, Victoria gave a laugh at that as she moved to begin climbing up his chest in order to get optic level with him.

"Yes I am, but ya sure don't seem to mind having a younger woman." she said with a smirk "B'sides, ya might be old but ya still got a lotta life left in ya." she added before smiling at him, he returned the smile as he brought a hand up to her back and ran a large finger carefully down her spine.

"You would know." Ironhide responded as he winked an optic at her, Victoria couldn't help the guilty grin that came to her face at that, OK, she didn't have a comeback for that one so Ironhide had won this round.

The sudden sigh from Ratchet caused Victoria to look towards the medic, surprisingly he actually had a rather amused look on his face. "You two are going to drive the rest of us to wit's end, I say." the medic stated with a chuckle as the air transport landed near them. Victoria climbed the rest of the way up onto Ironhide's shoulder and took a seat as he stood and the began towards the carrier plane. This battle had been won, it was time to be able to actually relax and actually get to spend time with those she cared for without the fear of constant attack.

It had been three weeks after the battle in Australia, all the cuts had healed up by now, many had left new scars across her body but she didn't mind, these were scars she could carry with pride, they were not gained from reckless actions nor from natural disasters beyond her control but from her standing for a cause, fighting for a real reason, for those she cared about. The scars across her right cheek were by far the most noticeable but it was not as if they mattered, those she cared for looked pass the marks on her flesh and the one she had come to visit today wouldn't have cared either, even if she would have yelled at her for getting hurt.

Victoria looked towards the white marble headstone, the name engraved on it in beautiful, flowing text, Sara's family had done well choosing a headstone that suited the angel that was set to rest here. Victoria dropped to one knee, the yellow roses in her hand bound with a red ribbon at their stems, she stretched her hand out and placed the flowers in the vase built into the headstone as she ran her feeling fingers over the engraved name of Sara Marcel.

"I fought them Sara, they didn't get away with what they did to ya sister, my only regret is that, no matter how many of them we kill, it can't bring ya back. I hope the afterlife is everything ya always believed it would be, ya deserve paradise after putting up with me for so long." Victoria spoke, she didn't believe in God or heaven but Sara had and, right now, she hoped that whatever the afterlife Sara was in was, that it was a paradise for her. The redhead gave a heavy sigh, lowering her gaze to the ground "Happy birthday Sis, I just wish we could celebrate this one together as we always did." she said before she felt a hand on her shoulder, she looked up to Ironhide's holoform as he stood behind her, moving to rest her hand on top of his and give a light squeeze.

"I wish ya woulda had the chance to know 'er, she was an angel on earth." Victoria said as she stood, turning to face Ironhide's holoform before she wrapped her arms around him and rested her head at his shoulder, sure it had been months but Sara's death did still hurt, even if the redhead wouldn't show that pain to anyone besides her lover, in him she could confide but to the rest she would still shield her pain, it was simply how she was.

"I know Vic, I know." he said as his arms encompassed her and he leaned down to kiss her forehead. "It's your birthday too you know, come on, the others are waitin' for us."

Victoria lifted her head from his shoulder and looked up to him "Yea, Sara would kick my ass if she knew I let her not being there bring me down today." she said with a small half smile.

Ironhide's holoform smiled at her before motioning to his nearby alternative mode "Cmon you." he said as he started to move towards his topkick form, the door opening before he climbed in, Vic followed behind him, taking the provided opportunity to smack him in the rear in the process. "Hey, what was that for?" Ironhide asked as he took a seat on the driver's side and the engine started up.

"Well ya had it sticking up, what else did ya expect from me babe?" she said as she settled into the passenger seat and gave him a mischievous grin, Ironhide reached over with his holoform to give her a playful shove to the arm before she did the same right back "Hey, don't ya start that again, remember what happened las' time." she said pointing a finger at him.

"Yea, Ratch's still upset at me for that." Ironhide said with a chuckle.

"I still don't get why it's you he's mad at bout it, it was me who took out his side mirror after all." Vic said as she got the seatbelt in place, the one debate that they no longer had with her, besides, Ironhide would just slip it over her himself if she didn't just put it on.

"Yea, but Ratch likes to blame me for things, you should know that by now. Plus I was the one who shoved you into his mirror." Ironhide responded with as they began to leave. After the events in Australia they had learned that the partial change had made the redhead a bit sturdier due to the metal running though her skeletal system now, meaning she and Ironhide ended up getting into playful shoving wars when he was using his holoform, it wasn't uncommon for one of them to be walking alongside the other and suddenly get shoved into a wall or, as Victoria had a habit of doing to Ironhide, into a doorframe though Ironhide did get her back for that one many times. Most of the changes to her body were small, she was still essentially human, her skin was slightly tougher but she could still be cut, she was still mostly flesh and blood with the exception of the metal running through her bones now which added a decent amount of reinforcement to her structure and the exoskeleton arm had fused with the skin of her left arm as well as to the metal in her bones where the stabilization rods had been placed, her muscles were adjusting to the stronger bones and could take slightly more strain now, while it did not make her any stronger it did make her much sturdier and not near as prone to broken bones or other skeletal injury. She had begun to grow accustomed to the additional warmth and feeling of the spark the rested alongside her heart, the low hum wasn't even noticeable unless it was reacting to her emotions. Another thing which had been fixed was her eyesight, she no longer needed glasses or contacts at all times, the only time she needed them was when reading.

//"Ironhide, Victoria, what is taking the two of you so long?"\\ Ratchet's voice caused the redhead to jump, she brought her hands to her ears though she knew that didn't help one bit.

//"Damnit Ratch! Not so loud, ya know I'm still getting use to this shit."\\ she sent back over the com, that was what was taking her the most time to get use to, the partial change had also rewired her mind slightly, from what Ratchet had told her it had formed extra, cybertronian, connections throughout her brain, she hadn't learned how to use those connections to their full potential yet but she had learned how to respond to a com once someone else had made a connection and she also learned how to close a connection once it had been opened but she was still working on how to establish a connection to someone else, mostly so she could mess with Ironhide without anyone else knowing about it.

//"My apologies Victoria. Are the two of you on your way back?"\\ Ratchet asked over the com, his voice had lowered a bit thankfully.

//"Yea Ratch, be there in bout fifteen minutes."\\ Ironhide responded for them, for some reason Victoria never had to ask Ironhide to lower his voice over the com, she figured that perhaps it was because she had grown so use to his voice and, as odd as it may seem, she found it comforting. After Ironhide had responded she hear the click in the com that told her he had disconnected and she did the same.

Ironhide looked over at the redhead with a smirk as they made their way down the road. "You shoulda seen how much you jumped." he said with a chuckle.

"Oh shuddup, I'mma get ya back for saying that, jus' you watch." she said to him with a grin. All the worries she had before, of their age, their species difference, their life span difference, she realized now that it had all been such trivial concerns, they had the present, there had been no activity from the decepticons, though Stormflux's body had vanished from the air transport they came home in they hadn't heard anything of the femme or any of the others, for now they had peace and she intended to enjoy it, no matter how short of a time it may last. She moved her hand to Ironhide's holoform's hand and grasped his in her own, giving a firm squeeze only to feel the gesture returned as he looked towards her with a small smile. She smiled in return before leaning towards him, his arm came up to wrap over her shoulders and pull her to him.

This was what made it all worth it, the scars meant nothing, the pain she had felt, the fear on that day three weeks ago, in the face of this moment it meant nothing, this is what she was fighting for, this peace, this life, this future. She looked towards Ironhide, his holoform's blue eyes meeting her hazel ones, she loved that mech even through all the differences and arguments they had, they belonged to each other now and she wouldn't have it any other way.

They laid there on the floor of the remodeled warehouse, Ironhide resting on his back as the redhead laid on his chest, both of them looking up towards the skylight, Victoria had sold her home in town only about four months after she had turned twenty-four, she had no use for a home where she couldn't lay like this with Ironhide so they had all agreed that the warehouse would be remodeled to suit her and Ironhide's needs. The bedroom now had actual walls instead of dividers though the bedroom was large enough for both of them and she had found that sleeping on the berth that had been put in was actually rather comfortable, when in recharge Ironhide was completely still so there was no risk of him rolling over the wrong way or hurting her while she slept next to him.

Of course there was the weapons storage on one wall of the warehouse and a table for Ironhide to work at when he was messing with new weapon concepts, besides the table were two weapons lockers, one for Ironhide's larger weapons and a smaller one for Victoria's cannon, energon sword and the new version of the sensor disruptor since the original one had never been recovered after the battle, she did of course have her old, traditional swords and weapons as well but they weren't nearly as effective.

She rolled over on Ironhide's chest, moving to lay on her stomach and look to him. "What?" he asked her with a slight smirk.

"Nothing, jus' thinking a bit." she said as she used her arms to pull herself up his chest a little so she could bring a hand down to trace her fingers down his cheek as she heard the hum of his spark grow slightly louder, she couldn't help but smirk a bit at this as she felt the warmth of the spark within her own chest grow as the sound actually became noticeable to her ears. She leaned down, moving to kiss him, though they knew physical interaction was limited without use of his holoform they still did often show affection for each other while Ironhide was active in his true form, he brought his hand up to lightly cup over her as she grew closer.

//"Hey guys! Sam and Mikaela are here! Mind if we come in?"\\ came Bumblebee's voice over the internal com, Victoria had found out long ago that Bumblebee may still not have his vocal processors working but that he could talk over the com since the sound didn't have to go through his vocal processors to be heard.

Victoria paused when she heard Bumblebee's voice, she had grown use to the internal coms by this point and found how to adjust the volume levels so it wasn't blaring in her mind. Ironhide gave a slightly annoyed huff at the com himself, the autobots had gotten into the habit of contacting both of them in most cases since they were almost always together. //"Cmon 'Bee, and thanks for actually asking this time instead of jus' walking in like ya did last time."\\ Victoria sent over the connection.

//"Are you kidding me? It took Ratchet hours to get that dent Ironhide left in my armor out last time I just walked in. I do not want a repeat of that."\\ Bumblebee responded. The redhead gave a small laugh as she looked at Ironhide who was snickering after hearing that. Victoria rolled off Ironhide's chest and onto the floor as the weapons specialist stood to open the door for them. Even with all the changes that had occurred over the last few months one thing seemed to remain constant. People had awful timing when it came to random visits but she wouldn't trade their company for the world, this was her life now, and the autobots, they were her family now.

Author's Note:

Thank you for those who have reviewed, I am glad you have enjoyed the story. this is the last chapter of this installment, I'm going to take a small break from this storyline before I continue, after all I did finish this fiction in a mere month and a half about, I need a small break to avoid burning myself out. Of course I wanted to bring this part of the story to a close first so I did not leave all of you hanging cause I know all too well how annoying it is to start reading a fic only to find it stops at some random point so I wanted to give some of what I call 'open-ended closure' so to speak.

You know, I had put up a poll asking if ya'll wanted a sequel but, know what? I'm just going to do one, don't think I need a poll for it. There will be a slight title change so it'll fit the general overview of the whole series. Not sure if I'll be doing only one sequel or multiple, just gonna have to find out. Yes, Victoria has gone through some changes, the allspark is a creator of life after all, able to turn inanimate objects into living ones, the creator of sparks. Also, I know theres a few unanswered questions such as where Stormflux went off to, but I hope they aren't too much of burning questions, don't wanna drive my reader's crazy after all.

I'd say to give me bout two weeks to a month before expecting part two, be sure if you liked this story to add an author watch so you don't miss the posting of the second part.

I hope you all enjoyed and I look forward to continuing to tell you all this story, I read every review so even if I don't reply know that I have seen your review of the story.

Till next time ya'll!