"So, you guys are kinda like... the same person?"

Laceburner lifted her hand off the ground, and with it scratched her cheek before putting it back down to support her weight. She and Sunstreaker had basically switched places, though she sat much, much closer to Sideswipe than Sunny was. Her legs were intertwined with Sideswipe's legs, but Sides also had placed his hand on her thigh and would occasionally run his thumb back and forth.

"No." Sunny shook his head.

"We aren't the same person. I'm just Sideswipe, and Sunny is just Sunny-"

"Don't call me that." the golden twin interrupted.

"- but, we're the same spark. Much like in humans, we were the same being at first that split into two. However, unlike humans, because we share the same spark we come together. We have a bond - a twin bond - that lets us talk to each other without saying anything. You know how Chromia and Ironhide can say things to each other over their sparkmate bond?"

She nodded, "So its like a sibling bond?"

"Kind of, but its stronger. A twin bond is the strongest bond that you'll ever come across. It can't be broken. If Sunny's ever angry, or happy, or sad... I feel it whether he wants me to or not. And vice versa."

She nodded. "Okay."

"Well, this also means we have to share things that, by human standard, you don't conventionally share."

"Like you." Sunstreaker said.

She looked over at him as he spoke, but Sideswipe had her attention almost right away, again.

"Yeah. If we want a femme, or a relationship, anything, we have to share it."

She nodded. "So you guys have to have the same one girl as a sparkmate."

"Uh, no," Sideswipe said, scratching the back of his head. "That's where it gets complicated and this gets kind of... weird."

She furrowed her brow, but Sunstreaker could see the question on her face before she asked it.

"Twins can only bond with twins." he explained.

"It has to do with how our sparks work and stuff like that, a bunch of medical stuff that Ratchet could explain better." Sideswipe offered.

"Wait, so then...?" she trailed off, unable to finish her question.

"Why are we with you?" Sunstreaker guessed the rest of her unspoken sentence. "We don't know."

Sideswipe saw the offense take place on her face. "No, Lace, not like that. We want you. More than anybot we've ever met. But, even if you ask Ratchet, we don't understand why we want to as badly as we do because you aren't a twin. Even your file from Cybertron confirms it - you were an only child. So we don't know why we felt the pull that we did to you. Ratchet couldn't find anything to explain it, but he's still trying to find an answer." he explained.

She nodded, understanding their statement better now.

"Wait, so what… what about Mythic?"

"What about her?" Sunstreaker asked.

"Why were you guys with her? Could Ratchet find the answer for it?"

"We didn't feel a pull with Mythic the way we do with you." Sideswipe explained. "We didn't have questions about why we were with her."

Laceburner furrowed her brows. "Then why-"

"'Cause she had two legs, and was willing to spread 'em."

Sideswipe shot Sunny a look, but his twin just shrugged.

"Look, we met Mythic a long time ago, back on Cybertron. Our relationship with her back then was pretty much the same as it was this time around."

"So, it was physical?" she asked.

"It was just physical." he emphasized. "And when she showed back up, she was looking for that again and happened to come to us because we were the best mechs she knew."

Sunstreaker smirked in pride. "Damn right."

"Oh, okay." she nodded.

The red mech watched her. "You-You're fine with that?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "I mean, I don't know what I did to make her hate me so much because when you guys were together I didn't really... I kept my mouth shut and watched from afar." she changed her sentence to refrain from complicating this conversation.

Sideswipe raised an eyebrow. "From afar, huh?"

She blushed really heavily again. "But, I-I mean.. you guys are done with her, right?"

"Frag yes." Sunstreaker muttered under his breath.

She nodded, letting a breath out. "Alright."

Sideswipe's thumb ran back and forth on her thigh again.

"So, do we have to keep this quiet?" she asked quietly.

Sideswipe shrugged. "That's up to you. We have no issue with making it obvious to everybody that we wanna be with you, or making you blush around bots."

She blushed at that, though she also rolled her eyes. "You don't care if, like, Mythic sees?"

"We're done with Mythic," Sideswipe said, "We don't care if she sees."

"Yeah, if she wants to see what we upgraded to, she's more than welcome to keep staring. We don't really care what everybot else thinks 'cause they don't know what happened. Mythic is most likely lying as it is, so if bots aren't good enough to ask us if this or that is true, or if this or that happened, then frag 'em." Sunstreaker said.

Laceburner nodded. "Okay."

It was silent for a moment or two, minus the sound of the waves crashing against the shore.

"Anything else?"

"Um... wait, Sunny what ever happened to your Mom?" she asked.

The golden mech tensed, but looked at her. "You really wanna know, don't you?" he asked with a smile.

She nodded in response.

"She died. After she and our Sire split, she went to Tyger Pax. She was trying to make a better life for herself, but you don't go from a dirt broke, cheating pleasure whore from Kaon to a lavished, filthy rich femme with her life together by going to Tyger Pax. When she tried going back to Kaon, she was an addict. She got stuck in another pleasurebot house, and ended up getting killed by some sick frag who shot up that whole building."

Lacey's face, by the end of his sentence, was filled with sadness. "How old were you guys when she died."

"Old enough to remember it like it happened yesterday. Young enough to still hold a grudge against her for leaving in the first place." he responded with a lack of emotion in his voice.

"What about your Dad?" she asked.

Sunstreaker passed a glance to Sideswipe, who took over on speaking, "He was killed; apparently he owed a debt, and those who came to collect were collecting something one way or another, whether it be credits, or a frame."

Her brows furrowed in sadness. "I'm sorry."

Sideswipe kissed her cheek, "That was a long time ago, Lace. Don't worry about it."

"Any other questions?" Sunny asked.

She thought about it for a second, then nodded. "Why are you guys gladiators? What does it mean?"

The twins looked at each other, Sideswipe nodded, then Sunstreaker sighed.

"We'll tell you later, alright?" he promised.

"Okay." she nodded, "Promise?"

Sunstreaker nodded. "Wouldn't be telling you if I didn't."

She nodded.

Slash, from across the beach, snorted, then leaned down and splashed Swoop with water. The giant bird squawked then used his giant wing to slather Slash with a tidal wave of water. The velociraptor screeched, fell into the water, then struggled to get up. When he finally did, he pounced onto Swoop's back, who screamed, then flew up into the air just high enough to get him off his back.

"Hey!" she yelled at them suddenly, catching their attention. "You hurt each other, I'll break your necks!"

She pushed herself up to her feet, then ran over to them. "You've got three days until your quarterly year check up, you be on your best behavior or I swear to God, I'll sick Grimlock on you two."

Swoop pounded the ground with his fists, then roared at her, his mouth opening impossibly wide, his whole eye showing. Sunstreaker tensed, his fists clenching as he got ready to go save her.

She put her hands on her hips. "Excuse me, what the fuck did you just say to me?!" she yelled.

Slash pranced away from the bird, stopping behind Laceburner for a second or two to taunt the giant bird in front of them, then trotted over to where Strafe and Slug were laying. Grimlock sat in his bipedal, back to the wall, watching Laceburner with a proud smirk.

Sideswipe smiled as he watched the little black femme scold the bird, before she pointed to Grimlock. Swoop, with his tail between his legs, walked over to the rest of bots, and laid down in obvious shame.

Seeing as she was finished scolding him, she turned and walked back to them. "Sorry, they have to pass the next quarterly check with flying colours."

"Why?" Sideswipe asked.

"Because they've been doing really well, and Optimus had declared that if they pass this quarterly check, they may be allowed to go on certain missions, should their strength be useful."

The red mech's eyes went wide. "Really?"

She nodded. "Yeah, took a while, but they're almost there. So they have to behave."

"Wait, what's the mission that you and Smokescreen are going on?" Sideswipe asked, just remembering that Smokescreen had said he asked her to spar because they were going on a mission soon.

"Classified." she responded professionally, "But there's a shit ton of back up coming."

"That doesn't exactly reassure me." Sunstreaker commented.

"Prowl only assigns more back up when its dangerous."

She shrugged, and her visor slid back into place over her eyes. "It has the potential to be. But it'll be fine. We don't know when its happening yet, though."

(~ You thinkin' what I'm thinkin'? ~) Sideswipe asked over the bond.

(~ Of course I am, idiot. ~)

"Okay, well I gotta head for patrol. You guys coming with me?" Sideswipe asked.

Laceburner leaned down, grabbing her blanket and subspacing it. "Yeah, I should go do some work."

"You work too much, Lace." Sunstreaker commented as they walked to the entrance.

"I beg to differ. I'm not working enough right now, in comparison to how much crap we're getting." she commented, then turned and waved at the dinobots. "Bye guys! I'll see you tomorrow!"

Scorn got up, opened his mouth, and roared as a good-bye. Strafe jumped into the air and hovered for a couple of seconds as he flapped his wings, squawking.

She giggled as the rest of them began yelling their own byes at, waved by to Grimlock as he waved back, then walked through the entrance as Sunstreaker held the vines apart for her.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X

*(* Roadbuster, please report to the debriefing room immediately. *)* Optimus called over the public comms.

Laceburner stood beside Jazz, her posture mirroring Jazz's as he crossed his arms and put all his weight into his left leg, his visor darkened. The only difference between them at that moment was Jazz's visor was tinted blue instead of black. Around the table, aside from them, stood Smokescreen, Blurr, Hound, Ultra Magnus, Leadfoot, and Topspin. Leadfoot had claimed that Roadbuster was just getting off patrol, but he said that about forty minutes ago. Optimus gave him twenty minutes, but he still hadn't showed up, and it was very clearly pissing Prowl right off.

*(* On my way *)* his accented voice declared.

*(* Hurry ya aft up, man. We're all waitin' on ya. *)* Jazz said.

*(* I'm comin'. *)*

Sure enough, only a couple minutes later, the green painted bot came walking in the room, closing the door behind him.

"Sorry." he said as he walked around the table, the stopped and stood between Leadfoot and Topspin.

"Alright, now that everybody's here, lets get started. You bots are here for a mission debriefing, as I'm sure you either know or have deduced." Prowl started. "As some of you know, after Megatron was offlined, there remained a single piece of the All Spark leftover, which Optimus managed to retain."

As he said that, a holographic picture of the shard she'd seen before popped up over the table.

"Without the proper safety system, we entrusted it to the humans to watch over it, and it is currently being held in a top-secret facility. With the recent completion of construction along the base, we are now properly equipped and capable of taking possession of what is left of the Cube. However, we are preparing this mission as if there is a high probability for enemy encounters. We'll be dispatching Laceburner, Jazz, Blurr, Hound, and Arcee. Laceburner will be going up on her own to not only assess the terrain, but obtain the shard left. Jazz, Blurr, and Arcee will meet her as she's exiting the facility. Hound will remain at the gate and follow them as they drive away. Smokescreen, Ultra Magnus, Leadfoot, Roadbuster, Topspin, you mechs will be further back, and will only move as back up in case of emergency, should Jazz deem it necessary. Until Jazz decides they need your back up, you will not move unless it is to follow them as they leave to come home."

Nobody spoke, they all simply nodded.

"When's this going down?" Hound asked.

"Four days from today, the C-17s will leave the day after tomorrow. Laceburner should arrive to the base around 0800 hours." Optimus Prime responded.

"And how exactly is Lacey supposed to fit in there in order to get the shard?" Arcee asked.

"Major Lennox, along with a small, three person team, will be accompanying you. Major Lennox, and the person of his choice, will be riding with Laceburner, and will retrieve the shard and place it in Laceburner for her to take care of. The human will be riding back with Jazz." Prowl responded.

"What time do we leave?" Smokescreen asked.

"You'll be leaving around eleven am the day after tomorrow. That gives enough time for the flight, potential air traffic, and also allows time to get to your destination." the SIC answered. "Anything else?"

"How high of a potential do we 'ave to run into 'Cons?" Jazz asked.

"Due to the instability of the Decepticon army with Megatron now offlined, as well as the lack of life-threatening activity, among other reasons, the percentage is below fifty, but due to the importance of this mission, we are treating it as a rather high percentage scenario for enemy contact."

The saboteur nodded, satisfied with his answer.

"This is a classified operation. The people who are allowed to have knowledge of what is happening, are standing in this room. No humans will be aware, besides Major Lennox and the officer he chooses to go with him, of what the objective is. We'd like to keep it that way." he spoke sternly, strict. He meant business. "You will all receive a data package over private comms that will have everything you need, including blueprints."

"Is everybody in this room on the same page?" Optimus Prime asked as he placed his hands on the edge of the table they stood at.

A round of 'yes sirs' come from the bots around the room.

"Good." he nodded. "This is potentially the most important mission you'll ever be deployed on. Please understand the gravity of that statement and take it into consideration while off this base."

A couple bots nodded.

"Dismissed." he announced.

Slowly, everyone filed out of the room.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Laceburner lay on the couch in the small rec room, the TV in the middle of playing The Conjuring. The doors to the room were shut, and all the lights were off, yet she'd watched this movie so many times that it failed to scare her any longer. Sunstreaker was busy on comms duty, and Sideswipe had an intensively long patrol that ended about thirty minutes ago, and he was probably in his room sleeping already.

On the TV screen, a reported leaned in and took a closer look at a doll in a glass case - the "Annabelle" doll - then asked the male character about it. She reached down and picked up the cube of Energon that had been sitting on the floor, took a swig, then closed it and put it back down. The cube of Energon, which was only half full, clinked against the floor loudly.

She picked up the blanket that she was laying under and pulled it all the way up to her shoulders, snuggling into the thick warmness. As she did, the doors behind her opened, and an extremely tired looking Sideswipe walked in.

She furrowed her brow. "What are you doing here?"

He smiled. "What, you don't wanna see me?"

By the way he slurred his words, it was obvious he was tired.

"I thought you'd go to bed. You just did, like, a twelve hour shift." she said, going to sit up.

"No, stay laying down." he insisted as he walked over.

She furrowed her brow but did as he asked. He raised one leg, slipped it behind her, followed by the next, before he was finally laying behind her. He pulled the blanket over himself as well, wrapped an arm around her waist, and pulled her closer to his own chest. She rejoiced in how warm he was, snuggling further into him.

"How are you so warm?" she asked quietly.

He chuckled, leaning forward to nuzzle his nose into her neck. She giggled at the funny sensation he caused, squirming slightly. His voice was deeper than usual, due to tiredness, and as his chuckled continued on, his voice got deeper.

With his nose already in her neck, he started placing kisses down the column of her neck lines. They still tickled, but not nearly as badly as it did when he breathed down her neck. He kissed all the way down, then as he started kissing back up, he opened his mouth a little more, his tongue catching on her protoform. The warm metal below his mouth heated up even more.

He chuckled, pulling back from her neck, and planted a kiss on her cheek, rather.

"You like this movie?" he asked.

She nodded. "Its interesting."

"It doesn't scare you?" he asked.

She shook her head. "No. Horror movies don't really scare me."

His arm tightened around her as something popped up on the screen all of the sudden, and she giggled.

"Why, does it scare you?"

He shook his head. "No." but it didn't convince her.

She laughed again, but reached down and grabbed his arm. "I promise to never let them hurt you. I'll protect you from all of them."

He chuckled again, then placed another kiss on her cheek. "You promise?"

She smiled, then turned over in his grip to stare at him. "Cross my heart and hope to die."

He acted shocked. "You would cross your spark for me?"

She giggled again, then pretended to draw an X over her spark casing.

He smiled extremely widely at her, then leaned forward and kissed her. His hand moved up to cup her cheek, and she pressed herself into his frame further. The free hand he had grasped her hip tightly. He wasn't sure if she even knew her 'experience level', per se, with a mech but he assumed, since she was so young, that it was nearly non-existent. Yet, obviously, Sunstreaker had already taught her more than enough to keep up with him, at least at this level and speed of things.

She reached up with one hand, grasping the wrist that was holding her cheek. Briefly, he let his tongue graze her bottom lip, mostly to see what her reaction would be. She almost jerked completely back with a squeal, shocked by the action, but let him continue on none the less.

The last thing he wanted to do was push it, so he kept it at that. He went to pull back, but she pressed closer to him, pushing more force into a kiss of her own. It only lasted for maybe a minute longer before they pulled back mutually, a smile present on his face.

"Much more worth it than sleeping." he commented, and she giggled again.