No lyrics today, just a song recommendation: 'Lucy' by Skillet.

Rule # 271: Knock Out—Energy drinks are banned. No exceptions. (By JJ24)

(Caffeine is bad. Massive amounts of sugar, caffeine, and other random stimulants are a thousand times worse, especially where Shiloh is concerned. The last thing I need to deal with is an energetic human that can't keep her mouth shut and thinks every little thing that happens is part of some huge joke that only she understands.)

(Let me put it this way: has Shiloh has told you what happens when she gets drunk? The whole "become insanely happy for about twenty minutes and then pass out wherever the Pit she happens to be standing" thing. Pretty bad, right?)

(Believe it or not, she is much harder to deal with after she's had an energy drink.)

(For the first two or three hours, she goes about acting like a hyperactive sparkling. Last time, I needed Breakdown, seventeen Vehicons, Soundwave, Dreadwing, and the twins to help me keep an optic on her so that she didn't hurt herself or get into too much trouble. And we still failed. Somehow—some-fragging-how—she managed to activate the GroundBridge. I could not find her anywhere near the programmed coordinates, which were for some reason, in the middle of Jasper, Nevada. I ended up running into a patrol of Autobots, had to explain that I was just looking for my girl, and then had to wait for them to finally accept that I wasn't lying.)

(And to add insult to injury, they insisted on helping me look for her.)

(But that's not the part I have a problem with.)

(The part I have a problem with is this: after Shiloh is done being hyper, she starts to become very depressed.)

(When I found her, she was in the graveyard, sitting in front of a particular marker with her knees drawn up to her chest and sobbing in absolute silence. She didn't even hear my vehicle mode approaching; she just stared at that grave, whispering that it wasn't fair.)

(It took all my self-control not to transform right there and comfort her, because no matter what I did to her when we first met, I never wanted to see her cry.)

Rule # 272: Starscream—Never mention Airachnid, even in passing, as no good can ever come of it. (By PixelusPrime)

(That traitorous glitch still manages to be a constant source of irritation, even long after she left the Nemesis. The Insecticons are extremely defensive of their so-called Queen and have no qualms about ripping apart anyone who dares 'slander' her.)

(And apparently, their definition of slander is: "Speaking about Airachnid without mentioning how perfect and glorious she is.")

(To be quite honest, their time and devotion would be better spent helping me gain control of the Decepticons, but we can't all get what we wish for, now, can we?)

Rule # 273: Shockwave—Allowing the deployers to be around laser pointers is not a logical course of action. (By PixelusPrime)

(They have a tendency to pull especially irritating pranks involving these devices. It has landed them in the Brig on more than one occasion.)

Rule # 274: Rumble and Frenzy—Don't even joke about taking Shiloh's sweets. (By PixelusPrime)

(Long story short: she refused to speak to me for two months.)

(Lucky! She wouldn't even look at me!)

Rule # 275: Rumble and Frenzy—Comparing the officers to supernatural creatures is only fun until someone gets hurt. (By PixelusPrime)

(To be honest, I don't even remember what we compared most of them to.)

(Doc was an elf… or maybe he was a pixie. Dreadwing was definitely a werewolf. And Soundwave—heh, dontcha think we went a little too far, callin' him a ghost?)

(Hey, if the shoe fits, or however that saying is supposed to go. But I have no idea what we called Lord Megatron. Was he the vampire?)

(Naw, that was Starscream… I think.)

(Y'know, now that I'm actually thinkin' about it, it probably was Lord Megatron.)

(Wait, I got it! KO was the incubus! And Dreadwing wasn't the werewolf; that was Breakdown. Dreadwing was the dragon. Starscream was a demon-type-thing, and Lord Megatron was the vampire. But you got Boss right; he was the ghost.)

(Pity we got stuck on recon duty for weeks because of this.)

Rule # 276: Frost—Starscream hates Topsy-Turvy Day, so it is unofficially banned. (By PixelusPrime)

(Um, well… you see, I got bored on my shift one day, and Shiloh introduced me to this wonderful thing called Disney. I, uh, really like their movies, and I think their songs are nice… so I kind of bought a bunch from the place Shiloh calls 'Walmart.')

(Heh… 'Walmart.' It's a funny name, don't you think?)

(No? Oh. I guess- I'll just move on, then.)

(Well, at first, I only played them when I thought no one was watching. Between you and me, I think WALL-E is my favorite so far, but there are still some I haven't watched yet. Then the songs started getting stuck in my processor—you can guess what happen next.)

(I ended up singing 'Topsy-Turvy Day' and 'Court of Miracles' quietly to myself for a couple of hours. It drove the Commander crazy.)

(Shiloh thought it was cute, though.)

(Starscream burned all my DVDs… and he told Soundwave to delete every file pertaining to Disney in the ship's records.)

(So now I'm Disney-less.)

(I never even got to watch Tangled.)

Rule # 277: Rumble and Frenzy—It's not funny to mess around in Shockwave's lab, no matter what you're actually doing. (By BossBot97)

(You could be searching for the remains of your crushed RC car. You could be gathering things for your next prank. You could be doing work for Lord Megatron.)

(Shockwave doesn't fraggin' care. He'll shoot you. Even though he can't hit a moving target to save his spark, by the Pit, he's gonna make every slagging bolt count.)

(And guess what, newbie? If that doesn't work, he'll sic his Predacon on you.)

(Ha! That's always good for a laugh. Not even Screamer can outrun that thing on a good day.)

(Shut up! That thing scared Shy out of her wits after you dared her to sneak into Shockwave's lab without him noticing. I found her hiding in her closet, shivering, and she refused to tell me what happened in there because she thought Predaking was going to eat her! Do you have any idea what it took-)

(Didja kiss her?)

(Just- Shut up, Frenzy!)

(I- Mh… Gah. Why did you have to say that? Of course I didn't kiss her. She'd hit me.)

(You'll never know 'til ya try.)

(Ah… Let's get back on topic! Just stay out of Shockwave's lab, okay? Shy's really starting to like you, and I don't want her to get upset because you pissed the wrong mech off.)

Rule # 278: Shockwave—Examination of Knock Out's pet is not allowed. (By Wredan)

(Knock Out is incredibly possessive of the human. He hardly tolerates other Decepticons merely picking her up. Any attempt to harm or dissect her will inevitably end with the doctor's buzzsaw nanometers from your spark chamber.)

Rule # 279: Dreadwing—In the event you decide to reside here permanently, you will have one minute to run. (By Not-to-Fit-In)

(Lord Megatron was not amused when he discovered that Knock Out had grown attached to Nim. However, because he values the general sanity of his crew—and he is well aware that his medic is nigh useless when deprived of what he wants—he allowed her to stay.)

(He will not be so forgiving if you elect to live on the Nemesis.)

(Should you decide to do so regardless, I recommend running either to the rec-room—the Vehicons will gladly hide you—or my quarters. Nim would help you, but she will likely be serving time in the Brig at that particular moment.)

(For the record, I did not aid you in any way.)

Rule # 280: Dreadwing—Glitter is discouraged; however, it is not banned. (By PixelusPrime)

(Given the twins' propensity for placing glitter bombs in the Bridge and in the rec-room, I must say, I'm quite surprised that this substance is not banned altogether. And taking into account the unfortunate incident involving a glass container of glitter and Knock Out's interior, it shocks me that Nim has the spark to use it at all.)

(She spent almost two weeks apologizing to him before he would let her touch him again. It very nearly drove her crazy when he insisted on buffing out his own finish instead of letting her do it.)

(Back to the matter at hand, though. Glitter is not forbidden, but if you are found to be involved in any prank in which it is being used, you will be held accountable for and made to clean up the resulting mess. And because of how large this warship is, it will no doubt take several days.)

Alright, so it hadn't been that bad. Starscream was being a bit of a jerk, but he was always like that, so it didn't count. Hopefully things weren't going to get any worse before she finally had time to rescue the newbie from the Decepticons.

Shiloh loved them all—they just got on her nerves way too often for her liking.

For now, though, she had a more pressing matter to deal with.

"I hate you," she spat, glowering at the deployer.

"No, you don't."

Shiloh huffed and pointedly looked away to stop him from seeing the red tint that crept onto her cheeks. "Yes, I do." Her voice faltered, but she hardly noticed. "I hate you."

Rumble grinned, grabbing her hand. He laced his digits with hers and stepped forward so that there was barely an inch between them. Then, he suddenly backed off, his grin vanished, and he gently pulled his servo away. A tight laugh left his vocorder as he bolted from the rec-room without a word of goodbye. He did not stop running for a long time afterwards.

Confused, the human spun around to face whatever had startled Rumble, only to find herself staring at very surprised—and downright murderous—medic's pede.

"Frag."

AN: Hi, guys. This is Dusk, briefly signing on to post a long-overdue chapter. I lost interest in FanFiction for a while, and I'm not sure I actually want to come back.

I know you're likely mad at me. Somewhere along the lines of "What the flipping hell, Dusk? You finally post a new chapter and now you're telling us you probably aren't coming back at all!" right? I'm trying, okay? It's hard to write something when you've lost interest in it, but I'm trying to give you guys a proper goodbye instead of just leaving. I don't know how you're going to react to this, but I hope you understand why I'm doing it.

Well, this is it, I guess. You have no idea how much this site has helped me as a writer, and how big of a part both this story and you all played in my development.

So to my Absolutely Amazing Readers: Good luck and God bless.