A/N: This chapter takes place before the episode "The Human Factor": MECH is working on implanting Silas into Breakdown's body, but the operation is not yet complete. Here you will see what happens when Smokescreen and Nova track down MECH's secret warehouse. As always, please leave me a comment it means a lot to me to hear from you!

Smokescreen was on Cloud Nine. He never thought in his wildest dreams that Nova would seduce him like that. He was smiling like a love-struck fool when he left her ship. His confidence was booming. He'd never felt more satisfied.

But as Smokescreen drove away from what just happened, he began to wonder if it meant anything to her. Did Nova truly have feelings for him or was it just her way of returning a favor? Perhaps she was just bored? Or worse, perhaps she was using him again. What if she placed a tracker under his hood? He would have no way of knowing until someone examined him. And he couldn't return to base, that would lead her straight to them.

Panic swept over him as all these negative thoughts raced through his mind. As he passed a public telephone in the middle of no where, his tires screeched to a sudden stop. He transformed once he observed that the coast was clear. Using some spare coins in his glove compartment, he carefully inserted them into the machine. His fingers were too large, so he picked up a tiny stick on the ground, using it like a tooth-pick to dial the numbers.

Meanwhile, Jack was at his house with Monica. They sat at his coffee table in silence as they worked on homework. But Jack was finding it hard to concentrate with her present. He wanted more than anything to hold her and kiss her, but he tried to push away those urges. He could tell that Monica was more mature for her age, and more experienced too.

Jack didn't know how to be intimate with a girl, he wasn't even sure if he was a good kisser. Monica never said anything about that, but maybe she was just being polite. Admittedly, this was his first real relationship. He was fine with taking things slow, they were just a few weeks in, after all. But he was afraid to try anything with her. What if he came off as weird or clingy? He didn't know what he was doing. She made him nervous all the time. He wondered if Monica could tell.

Jack's cell phone buzzed, cutting off this thoughts. Monica looked up from her paper, wondering who it was.

"Unknown number." Jack said, assuming it was a robo-call. Monica encouraging him to answer it, in case it was an emergency.

As soon as he answered, he could hear Smokescreen frantic on the other end, "Jack? Jack? You there? It's Smokescreen."

Jack put him on speaker so Monica could hear, "Yeah, I'm here, Smokescreen. What's up?"

"I need you to meet me behind Joe's Auto Repair. It's an emergency. I can explain once you get here."

Jack and Monica exchanged looks, "Whoa, hold on. I'm gonna need a little bit more of an explanation than that. How do I know this is really Smokescreen, anyway?"

"What if I told you something that only I would know? Like how we got got revenge on Vince by dumbing fast food wrappers all over his car, or how you got involved with illegal street racing to impress a girl? Bumblebee told me about that one."

Monica raised an eye-brow at him. It obviously wasn't her who he was trying to impress at the time. It was Sierra. Jack flushed, clearing his throat, "Okay, that's enough of that. I can tell it's really you. But it's almost 11PM, can't this wait 'till morning?"

"No, it can't. I think I might have messed up. Again. I need you to meet me right now and I need this to stay between us. Please, Jack?"

Jack liked Smokescreen. They had gotten close ever since he taught him drivers-ed. Smokescreen seemed to trust him, so Jack gave in, "Okay, okay, I'm on my way."

"Great! Oh, and bring a flash-light. It's dark over here."

The line went dead. Jack stared at his phone, dumbfounded. Monica smirked at him, "Illegal street racing, Jack?"

The two teenagers headed to his garage where Jack got out his bicycle. The tires seemed a bit low, so he grabbed the pump to re-fill them. Monica leaned against the wall as he worked on it, "Do you think we should be doing this? Maybe we should call Arcee or Luna . . ."

Jack shrugged, "I don't think Smokescreen's in any real trouble. He probably got a traffic ticket, or something, and is too afraid to tell anyone at base about it."

Monica wasn't convinced, "Or he's in trouble with Nova again."

Jack hopped on his bike, "Let's give him the benefit of the doubt before we turn him in." He gestured his hand to the handle bars, offering a place for Monica to sit.

Monica smiled and got on. It took them about fifteen minutes to arrive at the meeting point. The repair shop was closed and located on the outskirts of town, so they weren't worried about being seen. The lot in the back was pitch black, the only source of light coming from their flashlights and Smokescreen's headlights.

Smokescreen transformed when he saw Jack. He frowned when he saw that he brought along his girlfriend, "Monica . . . didn't expect to see you here." Smokescreen trailed off. Her guardian was Luna. She was bound to tell her all about this, which is exactly what he was trying to avoid.

"Relax. This stays between the three of us. Promise." Monica assured him.

"Let's hear it. What's the big emergency, Smokes?" Jack pressed, crossing his arms. This better be good.

Smokescreen hesitated, "Well . . . I sort of- accidentally . . . blew off my patrol and spent the day with Nova."

"Called it." Monica muttered to Jack, unamused.

"Before you say anything, she was badly hurt and needed me. I saved her from Arachnid." He explained, as if that would justify his actions. "Who, by the way, has control over an army of Insections now. When did that happen?"

Jack groaned, "Smokescreen, this isn't cool. You promised not to see her anymore."

"I tried to stay away, I really tried. And I feel awful about breaking my promise to Luna . . . There's something that keeps pulling me back to her. I don't know what's wrong with me."

"You love her, don't you?" Monica suggested. Smokescreen didn't confirm or deny it. "I don't know why, she's hasn't been kind to you, Smokescreen." She pointed out.

"She's not as bad as you think, once you get to know her."

Jack ran a hand over his face, "So you called me here to confess to someone? Because you feel guilty?"

"Yes . . . and there's one other part . . ." Monica and Jack exchanged looks, fearing the worst. Smokescreen continued, "We did something I'm not proud of . . . On my planet it's called interfacing . . . similar to the human act of making a baby. Except Cybertronians don't reproduce that way. It's solely for pleasure-"

Jack's face turned red hot. How much did Smokescreen learn about human procreation on the World Wide Web? Monica put her hand up to stop him, "Yup, we get it. You hooked up with Nova."

"Yeah, that's the problem. I'm not sure if i can 100% trust her yet. I'm probably just being paranoid, but there's a chance she could have placed tracker on me. Someplace I can't see or reach."

"So you need a full-body search before you can return to base." Monica concluded.

Smokescreen transformed back into his vehicle mode and opened his door, suggesting that they start with his interior, "Don't forget to check under my seats."

Monica and Jack exchanged looks. They were not happy about this situation, but at that moment, they felt obligated to help him. Jack climbed into the backseats and began to slowly search every inch with a flashlight. Monica began to search on the outside. Smokescreen instructed them to look for anything out of the ordinary. A tracker would most likely have a blinking light on it.

The teens spent a good fifteen minutes searching, but they didn't find anything. "I think you're in the clear, Smokescreen." Jack announced.

Smokescreen transformed so that he could face them again. He laughed, nervously, "I knew it was all in my head."

"So does this mean that you and Nova are spark mates now?" Monica asked.

Smokescreen was thrown by her question, "What? N-No! It wasn't that serious." For a second, he considered the possibility. Bonding sparks with Nova would be a dream come true. Then he realized he was getting ahead of himself, and shook his head to dismiss those thoughts. It would never happen. "She's kind of out of my league. She would laugh at that idea."

Monica shrugged, "How do you know that? Maybe then she would change sides. She could help us end the war."

Now Monica was getting ahead of herself. Jack gave her a disapproving look. They were supposed to be steering him away from Nova, not towards her. Although, Smokescreen didn't seem have much hope, "No, she'd never abandon the Decepticon cause for me." Smokescreen sat down, covering his face in his hands, "I'm risking everything for her, and she'll probably just turn her back on me in the end."

Monica could hear the sorrow in his tone. She sighed, "There's no point in doubting yourself now. You're already in too deep. I'm assuming Megatron doesn't know about your little get togethers, right? Nova is going behind his back just to be with you. That's kind of a huge deal. You said that something keeps pulling you to her? Maybe she's feeling what you're feeling too. Maybe there is more to Nova than meets the eye. Maybe you two have something real. Who are we to stop you from trying to figure that out?"

"I- I didn't think you'd be supportive." Smokescreen said, his tone now hopeful.

"Me either." Jack said, putting his hands on his hips. She was the one who was completely against this at first.

Monica shrugged, "Everyone has potential to change. Even Optimus said so."

Smokescreen suddenly remembered something that Miko was reading for school about forbidden love, "You know what? You're right! Nova and I are like . . . like Romeo and Juliet!"

Jack made a face and whispered to Monica, "He does know how that story ends, right?"

Smokescreen transformed, "You guys are true friends, you know that? Thanks for everything tonight. Need a lift home?"

They declined his offer since they had to get Jack's bike home. Smokescreen insisted on following them to make sure they made it home safely.

A few days later, Nova contacted Smokescreen, wanting to meet up again. She told him that it was an urgent matter concerning MECH. Smokescreen was able to sneak past Ratchet and use the ground-bridge to meet her. All of a sudden he was surrounded by forest after transporting himself someplace way up North. The temperature was a lot colder and the only source of light came from the full moon in the sky.

He noticed Nova hiding behind a rock structure, holding a device in her hand. The device projected several images that Nova continued to stare at intensely. She did not look away, even when Smokescreen approached her, "What's going on?"

"I discovered a MECH location, right down there." Nova explained, gesturing down the hill, a creepy looking building stood in the middle of the woods.

"Really? Looks abandoned." Smokescreen observed.

"I bugged the building so that we can receive audio and video footage of what they are working on." Nova added, which explained what the images were showing. She had live-footage of various different locations within the building below. He noticed that there were several humans in one room, operating on what looked like another human human.

"How much do you know so far?" Smokescreen asked.

"They have a human subject. They intend to implant him within Breakdown's reassembled remains." Nova said, her tone flat.

Smokescreen was shocked, "W-WHAT?"

"But their subject is dying," Nova continued "He was severely injured. They need him to heal longer before attempting the procedure . . ."

Smokescreen shook his head in disbelief, "So . . . what's the plan?"

"Continue to listen, so we can obtain more information out of them. I'd like to know what their endgame is." So many questions whirled around in her head. Why were they doing this? What did they have to gain? She thought MECH was all about creating advanced weaponry, not experimenting and mutating species together. They referred to their subject as their patient. She learned that he was crushed in an accident. They seemed to highly respect him, even in his current state.

She doubted the humans would be successful, but now was not the time to underestimate their capabilities. She needed to stop them before they got the chance to finish the job. What they were attempting to do was sick and downright disrespectful to her kind. "We'll have to terminate their subject. It will be merciful considering what they are trying to do to him." She expected Smokescreen to object to this, since all human life seemed to be of value to him, but he remained silent.

The two of them continued to watch and listen. They learned that Breakdown's corpse wasn't even in the building, but hidden someplace else until they received word to transport him there.

Suddenly, an alarm of some sort was triggered inside the building. "What's that?" Smokescreen questioned.

Nova zoomed in to see what the problem was, "Intruders. Three humans."

Smokescreen looked closer at the images. The humans looked like they were running around frantically looking for an exit. "They- they look like a bunch of kids!" Smokescreen exclaimed.

Nova switched the projection to a different room, which showed MECH agents gearing up and reaching for their weapons, "MECH suspects that they have seen too much. They are sending guards to kill them," she observed.

It was clear that they were in trouble, "We have to help them!" Smokescreen said, leaping into action. He was halfway there before Nova could even get a word in. Nova decided to hang back for a moment to watch from afar. The human children appeared to make it outside, but they stood still with their hands up. MECH had them at gun point. Smokescreen revved his engine as he arrived on the scene, transforming and stepping in between them. The MECH agents immediately reported Autobot interference and called in reinforcements.

Smokescreen fought to hold them off and the human children took that as an opportunity to run away. From the distance, Nova noticed movement in two places at once. On one side of the property, a few of the armed men followed the kids into the woods (with obvious intent to kill them). On the other side of the property, MECH was working quickly to load up everything into their vans, including their beloved subject. They were going to make a break for it, before any more Autobots could arrive.

"Frag," Nova cursed, deciding what her next move must be. She transformed and raced down the hill at full speed.

The three kids ran for their lives as bullets flew past them. They stopped short once they reached a huge rock wall that was too steep to climb. Dead end. They spun around in horror and prepared for the worst. The armed men appeared out from behind the tress and took aim. Before they were able to shoot, the sound of a slashing noise made them pause. Seconds later, two large pine trees fell on top of them. It happened so fast that they didn't even have time to react. They were crushed.

The children, on the other hand, were safe from harm. They slowly looked up at the giant figure standing across from them. It was Nova, staring expressionlessly back at them. Her optics glowed fiery red. Her jet-black paint job blended in with the darkness. She expected the children to be frightened by her sudden appearance, but they saw what she did for them. Nova was holding Solas Prime's massive sword, which she used to cut down those trees. She saved them.

Nova could still hear gunshots close by. She ran towards Smokescreen, only to find that MECH forces had multiplied in numbers since she left him. He was surrounded, outnumbered, and at this point, fighting to survive. Nova noticed a helicopter flying overhead, equipped with some kind of advanced gun. It was clearly trying to lock a target on Smokescreen. He was too busy fighting off the men on the ground to notice. So Nova decided to intervene. As the helicopter fired a massive beam of energy at Smokescreen, Nova jumped in front of him, using her sword as a shield. The beam bounced off her blade and struck the nearby building instead.

That's when MECH called for a retreat. The men got into their vehicles and cleared out. Nova went to check on Smokescreen, who tried to act like he had everything under control. The children emerged from behinds some trees. Looking more closely at them now, Smokescreen observed that they were three boys, probably a little younger than Raf's age. He looked at Nova, "I need to take them to safety."

Nova brushed them off like they were nothing. She gestured towards the building that was now half destroyed, "Fine. I'll search what's left. Rendezvous here."

Smokescreen looked down at the humans, "There's a town just a few miles away from here. Is that where you live?" The three of them simultaneously nodded in response. They were still in shock. Smokescreen transformed and opened his doors, "Great, hop in."

Naturally, the boys started to ask a million questions as soon as he started driving. Smokescreen found it difficult to get a word in. He wasn't sure if he should be 100% honest about who he was. One of the boys guessed that Smokescreen was a super advanced robot created by the government to protect America from terrorists, like the ones that tried to kill them. Smokescreen's response was, "Sure, let's go with that." It was probably better for them to think that instead of knowing about a secret alien war, anyway.

He learned that the two boys with blonde hair and green eyes were twin brothers. The third boy with darker skin and dark hair was their next-door neighbor/best friend. When Smokescreen questioned about what they were doing out in the woods, the boys admitted they were being mischievous. They thought sneaking into an abandoned building would be cool. They had no clue that they were about to stumble into a 'secret terrorist organization'.

Smokescreen warned them not to tell anyone about what happened, not even their parents. He exaggerated and told them that they could get in big trouble if the story got out. (The last thing he wanted was for this to get back to Agent Fowler somehow.) The boys agreed to keep quiet because they didn't want to get grounded for life. They were so traumatized from this experience that they swore to never trespass again.

Smokescreen assured them that they would be safe now. One of the boys remarked that he thought they were toast when the gunmen followed them into the woods. "We would be dead if it wasn't for that other robot, the scary looking one." He said.

He was obviously referring to Nova. Smokescreen took that by surprise. He pressed it further, asking them how she saved them. The kids explained (with much enthusiasm) how the black robot jumped in like a ninja, slashing down the trees around them, and crushing the gunmen before they could pull the trigger.

"Do you all get super cool swords like that?" The dark haired boy asked.

She actually went out of her way to save them. She wasn't so sparkless after all. The Autobot beamed with delight, "No. Just a select few."

Smokescreen pulled up along the curb of their suburban homes. They made it back before curfew. The boys said their goodbyes and wished him luck 'on the war against terrorism'. Smokescreen made sure they were safely inside before returning to the woods.

Nova was standing there impatiently waiting for him, "They got away with the subject in a van. They were prepared for an attack like this, most of their equipment was easily transportable." Smokescreen stared at her, smiling, "What?" She snapped in response.

"C'mon, I want to show you something," Smokescreen turned around and started to walk away.

Nova reluctantly followed. He lead her down a path through the woods, which brought them to a lake. The silver moon was high in the sky giving off the only light. Its beams shimmered on the water like rippling aluminum. The sound of insects chirped all around them. Nova did not look amused, "Does this lake have anything to do with MECH whereabouts?"

Smokescreen discovered the lake on his drive back. He thought it would be worth sharing with her, "No, but check out that view." He sat down on the shore to admire it. He felt so at peace.

Nova glared at him. They weren't any closer to stopping MECH. "We've accomplished nothing tonight, yet you seem quite pleased with yourself."

"I'm very pleased." Smokescreen admitted, "Want to know why? You could have went after that van, but you decided to save those kids instead."

She paused for a split second. He just had to bring that up. She pretended not to see where he was going with it, "So what?"

"You knew those kids were innocent, you knew they didn't deserve to die. You did the right thing. Optimus would be proud."

Nova groaned, "Why did you have to put it that way? Now I'm disgusted with myself."

Smokescreen was pleasantly surprised when Nova sat down next to him. The two of them sat in silence for a long moment, staring out into the water, until Smokescreen worked up the courage to say, "I wish things didn't have to be so complicated. Between us."

"It's not too late to join the winning team." Nova suggested with a smirk.

Smokescreen scoffed, "I'm already on it."

She shook her head. The one thing she hated about Smokescreen was his undying loyalty to Optimus Prime. "Optimus created the resistance. He is the reason why this war has dragged on for eons. Why do you idolize him so much?"

"Optimus fights for freedom and justice. He would have changed our planet for the better."

"Megatron would have done the same." Nova argued.

Smokescreen found that hard to believe. Megatron would have changed the planet, but not for the better. He would have taken it by force. He would have ruled through fear, enslaving anyone that opposed him. "A dictatorship hardly sounds better. Megatron became corrupt and you know it."

Smokescreen expected Nova to defend him, but she didn't. She didn't agree nor disagree. Instead she said, "Neither of them made a difference in the end. Cybertron is dead. They doomed us all."

He didn't want to accept that, "We'll find a way to restore it."

She envied his optimism, "Now that's wishful thinking."

Smokescreen stared at her, admiring how appealing she looked underneath the moonlight, "It's funny to think that if the war never happened, if we were still on Cybertron, you would have never even looked in my general direction if we crossed paths."

Nova finally met his gaze, "You're wrong about that. We were always destined to meet."

Nova touched her hand on his and smiled ever so slightly. In that moment, Smokescreen realized that Monica was right. He did love her. In that moment, something inside his spark gave him hope that maybe she loved him back.