Marie tilted her helm upward to peer at Sideswipe. Then, she looked back once again at the mechs sitting at the table. Gesturing her servo towards them she asked softly, "Would it be possible for us to start with that group over there? They seem the most….calm."

"Sure we can, sweetspark." Sideswipe agreed, resting his hand on her lower back and gently coaxing her forward with him.

Marie huffed purposefully loud and cast Sideswipe a steady glare.

"I thought I had made it clear that I did not want you to call me that." Marie hissed in annoyance.

Sideswipe let out a slight chuckle as he withdrew his hand. It took little to no effort to rile her up, he thought. Judging by the menacing, unbreaking stare she was giving him, he assumed that had he not pulled away, she might've broken a finger or two of his. Feisty.

"You sound so much like Sunny." He snickered more to himself than Marie.

Marie rolled her optics and eager to change the subject asked, "Is there anything that I should know before meeting these mechs?"

"Not really, but…" Sideswipe bent down to make more direct eye contact as he whispered to her, "These guys are very rule-book type of mechs. Be respectful to them and mind yourself and you shouldn't have and issue."

The mech's words did nothing to calm her nerves as they approached the table. Her mind raced as she thought to herself, what could possibly be considered respectful to a group of aliens? Since they seemed to get along at least somewhat well with humans surely they must share at least some viewpoints? As she continued to overthink, she could feel Sideswipe's curious gaze burning into her. She looked up at him. He was frowning.

"You know," He mustered up as reassuring of a tone as he could manage, "You don't need to be so worried. If something-anything-goes wrong, I'm here."

Marie looked up at Sideswipe, unable to hide the surprised expression on her face plates. His sudden change of demeanor from overbearing to quiet and thoughtful had caught her off guard. Perhaps under all that metal and mindless bulk, there was a caring and considerate mech after all? A slight smile lifted the corners of her lips.

Once they were within a few feet of the table, Sideswipe straightened his posture and cleared his throat with a purposefully loud, "Eh hem!"

Almost immediately, the optics of the mechs narrowed in on Sideswipe, and Marie shyly took a step behind him. Although each of the mechs at the table were vastly different from one another, they held the same air of seniority. It set them apart from the other mechs in the room. The eldest-looking mech at the table was the first to catch Marie's optics. His green coloring had palled with age, and lagged scars ran across his entire body. He made no effort to hide them; in fact, Marie dared to guess that he was proud of them. His face appeared worn. The metal where a human's laugh lines would have been were dulled, but his eyes were sharp. There was a bright shine to them that seemed as if to hide a lifetime of stories. In a way, he reminded her of a grandfather-like figure, and Marie gazed upon him with a subtle fascination as she pondered the stories such a mech could mech that sat beside him, on the other hand, was significantly younger in appearance. His body was a bright cherry red, and he sported a much different build than his elder. His physique was more geometric and almost gave off the feeling of someone who was eternally trapped in the 80's. Although they could not have been more different in appearance, the young mech and his elder seemed to both bear a welcoming disposition. The same could not be said about the two other mechs that were at the table.

"Hello, My name is Marie." Marie said to the mechs.

Two of the four mechs perked up and nodded, while the other two just stared at her. She felt slightly awkward with the way that those two mechs were staring at her she turned to Sideswipe for guidance on how to handle the situation. Sideswipe shook his helm at the two mechs blatant dislike of the femme. One of the older mechs having seen what was going on from the other two decided to take action and help the poor femme out.

"Why don't the two of you sit down? We wouldn't mind getting to know the new femme on base." The eldest mech said.

Marie smiled gratefully at the mech in front of her as she made her way over to the only two available seats at the table. Once the two of them had made sat down at the avaible seats, the eldest mech turned his helm to fully look at the femme. Marie offered a tiny smile once she noticed him looking at her. The mech seeing the smile, grinned widely at her.

"It's nice to see a young new face around her youngling. My name is Kup. It is a pleasure to meet you." Kup said.

Upon receiving such a welcoming from the elder mech Marie allowed herself to slowly unwind the tension in her shoulders. Surely if the eldest of the group was welcoming to her, the others might as well.

"It is a pleasure to meet you sir." Marie replied respectfully.

"Well aren't you respectful. See this is the way you are supposed to be with your elders, Sideswipe." Kup said as he turned to peer at Sideswipe.

Sideswipe snorted as he replied, "I don't know what you mean Kup. I am always respectful to my superiors."

"Ha! Now we both know that is a lie right there. Best not be picking up on Sideswipe's bad behavior youngling. Wouldn't want to see you wind up in the brig with him." Kup said.

"Bad behavior? Don't you mean having fun?" Sideswipe questioned.

As the two mechs started a tiny argument with each other, Blaster took this time as the initiative to introduce himself to the young femme.

"Nice to meet ya little lady. Meh names Blaster." Blaster said.

"Nice to meet you too sir." Marie replied.

"Nah, you don't have to call me sir. Blaster will do just fine." Blaster said with a smile.

Marie turned to peer at the other two mechs sitting at the table. She didn't exactly want to introduce herself to these two mechs. They didn't seem like they were the most welcoming. The one with twin blasters sitting on his shoulders seem to have a permanent scowl on his face. Marie turned to look over at Sideswipe hoping to catch his optics, only to discover that he was already staring at her. Marie nodded her helm slightly to the two mechs silently asking him if she should bother them. He gave a quick nod to signify that it would be best to introduce herself to the two mechs. Blaster noticing the silent exchange between two decided to help the femme out.

"Hey you two. Yah should introduce yourself to tha femme." Blaster said while staring at the two mechs.

The mech with the twin blasters sighed through his nasal plates. His optics were cold as he turned to peer at the young femme.

"Greetings. My designation is Prowl." Prowl said as he gave her a curt nod.

"It is a pleasure to meet you Prowl." Marie said.

Marie turned her attention towards the last mech at the table. The mech feeling the femmes optics on him scoffed at her.

"My name is Red Alert. I am the head security for the Autobots. Nothing can get past my attention. I will be watching you." Red Alert said as he glared down at the femme.

"Ok?" Marie said feeling slightly unnerved at the mech.

"Don't mind him femme. Red is like that with everyone." Kup said to her.

Marie smiled gratefully at him in thanks. Kup smiled back at her as he leaned forward in his chair as he asked, "So why don't you tell us a bit about herself youngling?"

Marie panicked slightly. What was she supposed to tell him? She literally knows nothing about their culture let alone how to fabricate a lie good enough for him to believe anything that would come out of her mouth.

"What would you like to know?" Marie questioned hesitatingly

"Anything really. Where are you from? What do you like to do? Things like that." Kup said with a gentle smile on his face.

"Where am I from? Well I don't really know where I came from. What kind of things that I like? I guess I like to read?" Marie said

"Like I said before sweetspark. Reading isn't something that should be a hobby nor is it something that should be enjoyable." Sideswipe intervened.

"Well it is something that is enjoyable and I enjoy it. It is relaxing and soothing to learn something new." Marie snipped back to him.

"Don't mind 'em hun. He wouldn't understand. He is not that academically gifted." Blaster mocked whispered.

"Slag you." Sideswipe deadpanned

Marie gave a soft giggle as Sideswipe crossed his arms in front of his chest plates. Upon hearing the giggle that Marie gave Sideswipe perked up slightly as he gave her a small smile. Marie scowled and rolled her optics at the look that Sideswipe gave her. Kup cleared his throat to get Marie's attention.

"What do you mean that you don't know where you are from?" Kup asked her.

"I meant what I said. I don't really know where I came from. I have just been around, never really had a place to call home." Marie said.

"Well you have a place to call your own here, kid. Prime says that you really don't know much about us. The Autobots I mean." Kup said.

"No I really don't know much about you guys. What are you guys? Why are you fighting? What are you fighting for? I don't really understand." Marie stated.

"Ya really don't know?" Blaster muttered.

"No I don't." Marie answered.

"Optimus wasn't lying when he said that you knew next to nothing about us. Kid, I am sorry. I truly am." Kup muttered sadly.

Red alert snorted at what Kup had said. "Do you honestly believe such lies? No Cybertronian has been left unscathed by what has happened to our planet and this war. There is no possible way that she would not know. She is lying and you are a fool to believe her lies." Red Alert snapped at the older Cybertronian.

"Cool it mech. If Kup believes tha youngling then so do I." Blaster said to Red Alert.

"The kid never said that she was left unscathed from the war, mech. She just doesn't understand why it was occurring." Kup said.

"If you so wish to listen to the words of a liar than so be it. I, however; will be keeping a close optic on the femme in case she were to do anything." Red Alert snipped at the mechs.

Kup sighed through his mouth plates as he gently shook his helm at the younger mech. If they ever truly wished to see the end of the war they would need to stop accusing people before they got to truly know them. If anything there attitudes towards the mechs that they viewed as enemies would only continue the war. They forget that at the beginning the mechs on the other side also had a reason to fight as well. One that they truly believed in, which made them no different than them. Kup turned his attention back to the femme that was sitting looking slightly disturbed.

"Don't pay any mind to him. How about you tell us more about you? Or is there anything about the war you would like to know?" Kup asked.

Marie perked up slightly upon hearing his last question. "If you do not mind, could you tell me how the war began? If that is ok? I understand if it is a hard topic to speak about."

"Sure I can sparklet." Kup answered.

As Kup started to explain the beginning of the war to Marie, Sideswipe was to let himself wander into thought. It was unheard of for a mech or femme to not know what the war was about. This femme had a lot to learn about the war, and subsequently how to fight. He could tell right from the start that the femme had not seen much of battle. It was from the way that she walked that he could tell. She had no grace or understanding of her environment. The way that she walked was clunckly like a newborn. It was actually through the way that she walked and acted that he knew that she was not lying. It is easy for a mech or femme to lie from their mouth plates, but it is harder to hide the way that they held themselves. It was simply something that was unconscious.

Sideswipe was startled when he got the notification that he was receiving an incoming comm. He answered the comm surprised to see that it was from Optimus.

"Optimus? Did you need something?" Sideswipe asked.

"Sideswipe, I am sorry to disturb you but I need you to bring the femme over to my office. We have some issues that we would like to discuss with the both of you." Optimus said.

"Sure. Mind if I ask what type of issues?" Sideswipe questioned.

"Do not worry. It is nothing serious, but something that needs to be taken care of immediately." Optimus replied.

"If you say so Optimus." Sideswipe said.

"Thank you. Until all are one." Optimus said.

"Until all are one." Sideswipe parrotted.

Sideswipe turned his helm to Marie and Kup. He hated to interrupt the two of them seeing as they were deep within the middle of the story of how the war began.

Sideswipe sighed as he interrupted the two of them. "Hate to cut this short, but I got a comm from the boss bot saying that he needed the both of us to head to his office."

Marie turned her helm sharply to peer at him. "Why does he need to talk to us?"

"I don't know what he needs to talk about exactly, but he said that it was important." Sideswipe replied.

"Alright. You do not mind if I come to talk to you later Kup? I would like to know the rest of this." Marie asked.

"Of course not youngling. I will stop by the med bay either later today or tomorrow" Kup said.

With that said both Sideswipe and Marie stood up from their seats to head to Optimus' office. Marie could only hope that it was nothing too serious. She could only take so much of these surprises.

Hey Guys! I am sorry for taking so long to update. But this is my senior year and I have a lot going on. This is not the end of chapter 13 but rather part two of a three part chapter. Again I am sorry for taking so long to update! Happy readings- Spectra