"Your… men, if they can be called that, must be controlled. They will be separated to minimize the threat of them turning on us. They will be denied access to each other, and their communication devices will be removed," the woman droned on seriously and Optimus' optics widened in horror. They wanted to make take away everything from the Autobots and on top of that remove something from inside them. "Do you understand me?"

"Yes ma'am."

"To make sure your Autobots stay in line, since you seem to have trouble with that, a soldier will be assigned to each individual Autobot including you. They will be armed and ordered to shoot the moment any of you step out of line."

"Yes ma'am."

"Transforming is strictly prohibited. Contacting other Autobots will be prohibited except in cases of emergency or with permission from the officer assigned. You will be in charge of making sure your Autobots have what they need to survive, bare basics, and stay out of trouble. Your medical officer will be allowed to visit other Autobots only once he has obtained permission from both you and the human officer assigned to him. Autobots will have to contact you, and you can then contact your medical officer. We wouldn't want them going… offline, would we?"

"No ma'am."

"Gather your Autobots," she ordered. Optimus gave a stiff nod and slowly walked off, his entire frame rigid as he moved. Grey eyes watched him and he almost wished he could just run. Being chased for the rest of his life seemed like a better choice than being trapped in a way that would cause them to be miserable. If only he had a choice.

Once the Autobots were in the large meeting room, the humans in the room began their longwinded lecture on what they would be expecting from the aliens. Grey eyes locked with azure optics as the speech continued, a grin spreading across the woman's mouth while plating tightened into a frown on the Autobot's.

"Now, if you truly wish to avoid any trouble, you will listen to us. We're not afraid to fire on any one of you," she stated. Sideswipe scoffed.

"What could a pathetic human weapon do to us?" he mumbled to Ironhide who glared at him. The woman just smiled sweetly at them.

"I think… you Autobots need a visual lesson, don't you?" she asked. Her name was called somewhere behind her and she turned, picking up what looked like a black toy gun. She aimed it at Optimus' head, her grey eyes narrowed as she lined up the shot. She saw the others grow uneasy and worried. "Here's your lesson. Fire!"

She pulled the trigger and a larger version of the gun below her hummed to life before a blast tore through the air. Optimus didn't even have time to cry out as it shredded his armour. He collapsed instantly.

Optimus jerked forwards on his tires, a shuddering screech echoing through the previous silence of the garage. He felt someone gently pet his side and it made him flinch.

"Easy, it's okay…" Erin said gently. Optimus started to relax once he realized it had simply been a memory his processor had pulled up during his recharge cycle. He stayed still as Erin continued to stroke his side in a comforting way, her eyes scanning over the damaged areas to make sure he was alright. "You can have nightmares?"

"Recharge fluxes, yes. While sorting memories, our processors can bring up troubling ones and sometimes mix them since they are sorting through a lot of information quickly. I have something called the Matrix of Leadership as well, an artifact created by Primus, the creator of all Transformers, that tends to give visions. They are usually not pleasant…" Optimus replied softly. Erin's heart went out to him. She stepped back and watched as his holoform formed from the ground up. "It's quite early, what are you doing up?"

"I couldn't sleep anymore. Ironhide's still sleeping, as are Ratchet and the two soldiers. Besides, it looked like you needed someone here. How are you feeling, physically?"

She was only rewarded with a weary and pained sigh.

"That bad?"

"I can feel the coolness of the air on my spark chamber, Erin. All I feel is pain," he replied. She was sure there was a hint of amusement in his voice. She watched as he passed her and started to work on repairing the damage. She moved back to get a better view of what he was doing. She stood there, just watching on, for a good five minutes before deciding to do something of use.

While he worked, she made breakfast for Will and Epps to wake up to and then went home to get her car. When she returned, Optimus' holoform was sitting on the ground, his back against the torn apart grill of the semi. His eyes were lidded and his breathing was shallow compared to normal but she guessed that was a result of being injured so badly. Ratchet was still recharging, as was Ironhide surprisingly, but she heard movement inside the house which meant someone was up.

She kneeled in front of Optimus' holoform, gently taking his hand in hers and watching as he started in surprise.

"What do you run on?" she asked quietly. He looked at her strangely for a moment. "What fuel do you use to run? Gasoline? Oil?"

"Oh. The source of energy doesn't matter, though normally we choose Energon if it's available or we convert it to Energon first if we can," he replied once he realized what she meant. Her smile became apologetic as she withdrew her hand, searching her pockets for her keys.

"I can take a couple of gas cans and get you guys some gasoline," she said. Optimus nodded as he climbed to his feet.

"We would be grateful. Thank you."

She just smiled as she turned and went back to her car. He went inside while she ran the errand.