GUYS! Happy April! (...?...) Thank you for sticking with me, it makes me really happy to see people do actually like the stuff that comes out of my brain ;] I'm on my Easter Holidays now, but as always I do have exams right round the corner, as well as a pretty li'l pony waiting for me to grab her from the field, so all of this is what's stopping me from updating as...pronto as everyone else. Switzerland was amazing, even though I caught a tummy bug! I didn't twist my knee, which is an improvement! ^o^ Like I said before though, I know I suck with the regularity when I update BUT they will come... So... Bear with me!
I've whined and begged a lot, also, I know, but I'm gonna do it again. PLEASE review! You can tell me if you like the story so far, and if I could improve on stuff, what I need to do to make it better... I'd really love that, guys, so if you'd just take the time to press the button at the bottom of the page and send me a quick one! Remember, reviews motivate me...

Notes' POV

I didn't follow Mikeala back inside with my holoform like I normally did. Instead I dropped her off at her door and, whilst keeping my scanners focused on the address, pulled back onto the small roads and cruised round the area. My fuel tanks churned in dread. I mean, I knew the day would come where I'd be meeting my old...comrades again, but it still worried me. Had they been keeping an optic on me? Were they targeting my charge? Endless questions obscuring my thoughts, but above all, my main concern was being able to, if necessary, fight off the threat in a way which reassured the Autobots of my loyalty to them. If I didn't fight well enough... Well, so many things could go wrong. I could be deemed unworthy of fighting for their cause if my prowess was substandard. I could be charged with treason if it seemed I let the enemy get away. That 'bolts-for-brains', Ironhide, certainly wouldn't be very sparing. Venting heavily, I turned down a road laden with small bars and shops, illuminated by its streetlights. This area was so fragile. It would only take one cannon's blast to obliterate the valued possessions and homes of at least half a dozen. Battling, I decided, would be the easiest. It was now the cleanup on my processor. I'd received feedback from the Mission City battle, and seen shots of the vast damage done to the little beings' home. It had taken mere hours to destroy a city on Earth, and that thought frightened me. If I caused extensive damage during combat I would have the worse end of the stick compared to those such as Mudflap and Bumblebee, simply because I was once their foe. And I had yet to completely convince all the Autobots that I was truly on their side. At this point in time, a fragging cyber-fox was in a better position than me. I had to successfully get through not only the task of survival, but also discretion and acceptance. Primus...

No-one's POV

Unsure of whether to be annoyed, worried or dismissing, Mikeala entered her humble abode once more, stumbling up to her room so that she could fling her bags onto the bed and unpack her purchases. She hummed to herself as she wandered to the bathroom to wipe the minimal amount of makeup on her face, but paused when the door creaked loudly upon her way in. She raised her eyebrow, but nonetheless quickly ran down to the little storage room downstairs to grab a small bottle of oil. As she dampened the hinges she smiled to herself. Her dad had secretly hated creaky doors. She only knew because when she was smaller, she'd woken up in the middle of the night to her father dabbing away at the kitchen door. It was their secret, and no-one else knew except her. Returning to the bathroom, she threw the oil under the sink and scrubbed at her face in front of the mirror, then tying her hair into a high bun. She grabbed her sweats from yesterday evening and quickly changed into them before marching down the stairs and plopping down onto the couch, flipping through TV channels with the remote. With the amount of time she'd spent being a couch potato this month, this sequence was executed with perfection, almost second nature to the brunette now. Mikeala paid no attention to the television though, despite her constant changing the channels. She, instead, thought of her guardian. Notes was sweet, she decided... She just wished she knew why she was acting so reclusively just now. She could understand why Notes'd be worried about the Decepticon currently on its way to the US, but then, she could be no more scared than Mikeala, surely – and even if she was, it wasn't like she couldn't talk to her! With a perturbed 'hm' she finally settled on keeping the TV on yet another re-run of 'Friends'. As she giggled she took her mind off of the worries and onto the happier thoughts. Her new purchases were amazing. And Notes' big revelation! Mikeala was genuinely thrilled Notes had decided to show her her true form, whilst truly fascinated that the transformers could look so different from eachother yet still work together so... amicably. Well... At least, one faction could work together so amicably. Well... Most 'Bots could work together well. Mikeala's curiosity peaked when she thought back to Notes' optics. They were red! She'd only ever seen Autobots with blue eyes, and Decepticons with red.
'She never did tell me about her past...'
Had she defected? Why? Oh, now she wanted to know! Mikeala bit her lip nervously as a fleeting glance to her watch told her a microwave meal was ready and waiting for her to prep and eat it. Making her way to the kitchen, she glanced out the window to the old motorbikes out in the back. They'd been her projects not so long ago... Maybe she'd start working on them again – she knew plenty of guys that needed a ride, and if she fixed these bikes well she could sell them, and make some more money, as well as preoccupying herself while Notes was gone. As she shoved a ready-made macaroni and cheese into the small, old microwave, she heard the purr of an engine as it left the main road.
'Notes!'
She jogged out of the kitchen and swung open the front door as her guardian pulled into the yard. As it rolled to a stop before her door the holoform climbed out, smiling at Mikeala apologetically.

"Sorry I left," she said.

"No, it's fine. You don't have to be with me, like, every second," Mikeala laughed in response. "Are you okay?" she asked, more seriously.

The holoform walked up to her and into the house, Mikeala closing the door behind her. "Yeah. Listen," Notes pulled her aside with a serious look, hands on her arms. "I know you're scared-"

Mikeala widened her eyes and quickly interrupted. "What? No-"

"Hush, hush, hush. I saw your face when I told you the 'Con was coming," Notes chastised. Mikeala grimaced briefly, but remained silent, listening intently. Notes checked she was listening before continuing. "I know you're scared but I won't let any Decepticon harm you. None. None at all. And I want you to trust that whatever I'm gonna do, it's with your best interests in mind. You got it? 'Cause I'm your guardian, and your my charge, and what I both want and need is for you to be safe. Okay?"

Mikeala nodded her head slowly, eyebrows furrowed. "Yeah, of course. I mean I trust you and everything, but, um, why are you telling me all this?" She cocked an eyebrow.

Notes blushed (completely confusing Mikeala with that newfound holoform ability) and grinned slightly. "I just wanted to be clear. I've never been a guardian before..." She frowned, gazing off into empty space.

Mikeala reached up and grabbed Notes' wrist, dragging her to the kitchen before dropping it, taking her food from the microwave and sitting down at the table with a fork and a napkin. She looked up shyly. "Notes, can I ask you something?"

"Sure you can!" she replied immediately, confused but now chirpy she'd said what she had wanted to say.

"Erm... Well..." Mikeala stuttered, uncomprehending as to where to start. Eventually she sighed and rolled her eyes from the table back up to Notes' face. "Why are your optics red?"

Notes' eyes widened and she looked away from her charge quickly, fidgeting in her spot. She frowned and turned back, quickly coming to the realisation that she would have had to tell Mikeala sooner or later. "They're red because I used to follow under Megatron's command," she replied honestly. Mikeala looked shocked for a moment, fully expecting her denial, or for her previous assumptions to be waved off, but she regained her composure and nodded for Notes to go on. Notes sighed, but shuffled back to sit on the counter and tell Mikeala what had happened. She sat down and leaned forward, cupping her chin in her hand. "We used to rank on power; on your skill in battle and ability in strategies. I was ranked...pretty good for a femme, actually, but it was 'Cons like me, femmes, which were in the rarity. They had so much energon on my head, and I quickly became a mere target to my associates; a target to take out, a way to get to the top." Notes smiled wistfully and carried on. "When Megatron realised there were more Autobots on their way, plotting against him, he was outraged. He decided he needed a larger, trained army to eliminate the enemy's allies before they could do any real harm. He then became truly conscious of the fact I was a femme, and wanted to use me to give him numerous sparklings. Hi-" Seeing Mikeala's confused face, Notes elaborated. "Babies. Sparklings generally means babies." Mikeala's expression cleared and she nodded to herself. "Anyway, his soldiers were needed on the battlefield – despite what you think, there really aren't that many 'Cons around to serve – so they had no time to carry a bunch of sparklings. But me? I was weaker than his mechs, even if I had more skill, but I could be even more useful staying out of the way, sparking and strategising with whoever was guarding base at the time." Mikeala made a disgusted sound. "It was then that I started thinking about what I was fighting for, and who I was fighting in earnest. So... Well, a bit of talking, lying and fighting later, and I'm here with you guys."

Mikeala was open-mouthed, food long forgotten, staring at Notes. She then recalled earlier. "So that's why you freaked out before..." she murmured.

Notes jerked, blinking before glaring over at her. "I did not freak out." All she got was laughter in response, laughter which quickly took over both of them. For now, everything was okay, but those niggling doubts and worries still ate away at the back of Notes' processor and despite the happiness she felt now, she couldn't help but feel that all wouldn't be well for much longer.

N.E.S.T. – Computer Lab

"Maggie..? Maggie!"

A sigh of light-hearted frustration arose from the Australian. "Yes Glen?"

"My... My ports ain't holdin'!" he cried, his face contorting in horror whilst he typed frantically to try and fix the problem.

"What?" Maggie swivelled round in her chair to look at her hysterical 'advisor'. She knitted her brow in confusion. "That can't be right, Glen. All of our servers are secure."

There was a bout of nervous, frenzied laughter. "Yeah well this one ain't." Glen suddenly froze as a window popped up on his screen, before abruptly moving to click his mouse. Once. Twice. His hands quickly moved up to clutch his head in dismay. "Oh! It's all glitchin', man, it's all... it's all spazzin'!" He leaned down to turn round his monitor and started pushing all the cables firmly into their slots, despite them already being in their correct positions. "Don't do this to me now, man. I've been good, I've been good..." he muttered to himself as he fiddled with his computer.

Meanwhile, Maggie had turned back to her own computer, shutting down her Word document in favour of testing her own connection. 'Thank Jesus everyone's at lunch...' She rolled her eyes as Google started to load, and turned back to her colleague with a sigh. "What were you on this time, Gle- Oh. Wait a second..." The screen had started flashing back and forth from the familiar Google homepage to the blank white loading screen. As it finally settled on Google a window popped up telling her the operation had been aborted due to error God-Knows-What. "That makes no sense..." she pondered. "Unless..."

"Hey, you got ideas, girl? 'Cause we got a big problem if this is getting at everyone! DAMN IT!" Glen leant back abruptly and sank down into his chair, resigned to the fact he couldn't put his computer back into working order. He moped, crossing his beefy arms.

"Glen? The last time this happened was when Sunstreaker was near our satellites!" she shrieked.

There was a moment of silence, her words having shocked her friend before he replied, somewhat calmly, "Well he couldn't have picked a better time... I mean," Glen's breaths came more frequently, panic setting in, "As soon as he gets here he's gonna get his ass whooped by the bad guy!" He turned his head to look at Maggie, only to see her reprimanding gaze and turn back to his computer, restarting it. "Right," he said dejectedly, "I'll send the error report to Lennox."

They waited in silence for five minutes as Glen tapped away at the keyboard, though he was careful not to use the internet – it was pointless seeing as it was almost completely down. He stiffened as yet another window popped up on the screen, and he tilted forward to read it, propping his giant glasses further up his nose with one finger. He squinted his eyes a little.

"Uh... Maggie?"

"YES, Glen?" she snapped.

He gave a small, nervous chuckle. "There was an error writing the error report."

She sighed heavily, running her hands through her hair. "Oh my lord..."

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-Sands =)