Thanks to everyone who favorited/alerted, and a very special thanks toadelphe24 for the lovely review. I hope this update is satisfactory. :D

Anywho, read, enjoy, and please review? Thanks. :D

Project Mockingbird: v2.0

Chapter 8: Of Dancing and Fragments.

"Where do ya think y're goin'?" Sideswipe cringed at the sound of Ironhide's voice, coming to a stop with regret. And then he realized the mech wasn't talking to him. His large black frame was towering imposingly over a rather lovely bright orange vehicle- said vehicle seemed to be squirming on its wheels. "Does Ratchet know y've left 'is medbay?"

Sides was about to take advantage of the weapons specialist's distraction, edging past while he had the chance, when the orange vehicle transformed up into a femme. A femme. "Come on Heidi, we're all friends here." Her hands gestured outwards, encompassing the base, and then she shrugged- completely unfazed by the growl at the nickname. "What Doc Bot doesn't know won't hurt him." She was sleek, lightly armored and looked just as light on her peds. She was rather attractive, even Sunstreaker would have to admit that she had pleasing lines.

Ironhide did not look impressed. "I don't think so, Windfury. Best get y'r aft back 'fore he realizes y're gone."

Windfury's previously playful expression dropped and she looked at the warrior seriously. "Ratchet's got a patient at the moment, he won't notice I'm missing for a while yet, and there's absolutely no way I'm letting those fragging 'cons get away with what they did to Lyre."

"So you already know." Hide seemed tired all of a sudden, venting rather heavily.

"Of course." The femme snorted, arms crossing and body language swinging towards the confrontational. "It's Lyre, if you honestly think for even a moment that I'm going to just sit back while the sparkless Mechs that kidnapped her are within driving distance then you need to get your processor checked."

Ironhide shook his helm. "Y're not goin' alone."

Sideswipe slid forward, "I'm going, too." The weapons specialist didn't look surprised, but Windfury looked confused before she shrugged again and dropped into more relaxed stance.

"There we go Heidi, problem solved. I'm being escorted to the party like a proper lady, might even do some dancing." Her tone suggested unpleasant things for her 'dance' partners. "You best stay here, I'm afraid my card is all full. Maybe we can have a go some other time." Her voice was teasing, flirty in a way that was clearly not serious. That didn't keep the tired expression on Ironhide's face from growing.

"Windfury." He dragged her name out warningly, but Sideswipe could see that she wasn't fazed by the intimidating mech.

The femme's impatience had been growing the longer they stood there talking, and there was a subtle shift in her expression, nothing Sideswipe could specifically point out, but when she suddenly darted past the still ranting Ironhide and shifted into her alt. mode it was with him at her side. He just knew what she was going to do. A glace back caught a sputtering Ironhide and a furious Ratchet bursting from the building behind him.

Neither mech would be able to catch up.

"Come on Slick Stuff, we've got a party to get to. Assuming you can keep up with me?" There was that teasing tone again, he focused on the lovely frame ahead of him and realized with surprise that it was actually pulling away from him. He didn't respond verbally, but he was suddenly pulling up alongside her and was rewarded with a bright laugh as the femme teasingly moved closer until they were racing with mere centimeters separating their frames.

Abigail sat up in the bed once she was sure that Lyre was fully integrated into the system. She tucked her knees to her chest and set her chin atop them, staring at her immobile best friend with eyes that carried the tiredness of many sleepless nights. It hurt her to look. But part of her had to make sure nothing happened to the last human being she cared about.

The machinery at Lyre's side, the only thing keeping the woman alive on this end, pulled a grimace from her.

There were days... she'd never told Lyre, but there were days when she regretted ever helping to come up with the Project. She'd lost so much...

But that really wasn't fair of her, was it? Lyre had lost just as much, even now- she carried a much more present reminder of her loss than Abigail did. A glance at the only thing allowing her friend to get around and her teeth gritted in anger. They'd done a good thing, hadn't they? Why did it seem that they suffered another loss at every turn?

Optimus was dead.

The only reason Lyre hadn't had another breakdown was because she was going off to risk her life just so she could blow off steam. It was so dangerous... but it was almost like she didn't care. As long as she was in her Windfury body she was happy, yet Abigail hated her Codebreaker self! Humans were meant to remain human, surely the side effects of the transition were evidence enough of that.

She was afraid to bring the matter up with her friend though- afraid because she knew Lyre would get mad at her. And these days when Lyre got mad she went radio silent- despite their years of friendship, not even Abigail knew how to make her talk when she was determined to be silent.

So much had changed over the years, but one thing was unequivocally the same- there was not a single being in all the universe that could make Lyre change her mind when she was set on a path.

Not even one that would end up destroying her.

Sunstreaker was already feeling calmer, more relaxed. He didn't realize just how tense he'd been until the block on his bond with Sideswipe had been removed. He was still his wonderfully pissy self- the only ones who could have noticed the difference in him were his twin, and maybe Ratchet and Optimus.

The more he relaxed, the more he realized there were parts of him that ached, which inadvertently brought the human femme to mind. The odd one with no sense of self-preservation, who'd actually managed to talk him into letting her into his interior. He didn't realize he'd scanned the room for her until he noticed that she wasn't there.

He wondered if that had anything to do with Ratchet suddenly racing out of the room for no apparent reason and then returning in a darker mood than usual. He wouldn't be surprised at all, to be honest.

Sideswipe was putting off some rather odd vibes and Sunstreaker finally shot him a feeling of curiosity. Sides didn't reply in words or even emotions- he sent a mental image of a tall femme, lightly armored with an overall sleek look, but details that looked almost organically wild. She was twisting in midair with a wide grin, flashing blue eyes contrasting with her orange paintjob, a blade in her hand colored by Energon.

Windfury

That was the only word attached to the image, and the golden frontliner quickly realized it was her name.

Another image had her back to back with a 'con, the blade pierced clear through the mech's body. He recognized the Decepticon as the one who'd brought Lyre in two (or was it three?) weeks ago. The one she'd ripped the wires out of.

Another image and a strong sense of amusement from his twin. -:She called it dancing when she convinced Ironhide to let her go.:- There was a hum of approval for the statement, and the crackle of bloodlust. They were decimating the base, there wouldn't be anything left when they were done.

Primus, Sunstreaker wanted to be there with them.

Sometimes you hit a point where you either change or self-destruct.– Sam Stevens

They'd made the mistake of bringing up the human male from the previous file.

Her reaction had been... strange.

:Access Next File?:

:Yes.:

:File Accessed.:

:File Opened.:

Lyre, officially, hated Africa.

Hated it.

All the sand and scrub and sand and bugs and sand. It sucked.

A lot.

And it was hot, hotter even than her native Texas at the height of summer. And the sand, did she mention the sand? It was fragging everywhere. Lyre didn't even like sand when it involved the beach. Actually, now that she thought about it, she hadn't been to the beach since she was about seven years old, had hated it even then, the being out and about and surrounded by people.

Boy did she hate dealing with people.

Like the one on her plane ride to Nevada- so she could meet up with Abigail and receive her formal orders from Optimus- who had continually insisted on chatting. About everything. Even the unpleasantness of being airsick.

In detail.

The busybody also asked numerous questions. Like if she had a boyfriend, and what she planned to do when she graduated high school, things like that. Lyre decided it would be best not to speak at all, not even to say she was already old enough to drink, thank you very much, as it was likely to not end there and she would be saying some very unpleasant things indeed before she knew it, assuming all she did was talk.

Her saving grace had been Ein, in the guise of an MP3 player, who played Metallica and Megadeth for the duration of the flight, soothing her violent urges somewhat. It was enough, at least, to keep her from assaulting the nearest person, though not enough to keep her from being sullenly unpleasant for several hours following. Not even Abigail telling her to act like the grownup she was could snap her out of it- she did manage to behave long enough for Prime to reiterate what she already knew, confirm the sighting of one very irritating mech, if such a sighting turns out to be true.

Do not engage, he'd said, told them to make the ID only. Well, told Lyre, he didn't have to worry about Abigail doing something rash. She'd merely grinned and responded with a worryingly cheerful, you know me, which he already did, thus the worry. Nevertheless, he still felt it was best to put Drake and Nightingale into the field as soon as possible, especially if there was no fighting to be worried about. It would allow him to judge how useful they would be without risking anyone's lives.

It was hard to tell who he was more worried about, Abigail, who did not seem to have any fighting skills at all, or Lyre, who was much too reckless for her own good. Perhaps he should be equally worried about both.

Or perhaps neither, they were both quite intelligent after all, likely they would be able to handle each other and their corresponding shortcomings. All the same, he couldn't help but feel on edge as he watched them depart, something in his Spark was warning him to be ready. For what, he had no idea.

They had been there for four days, but still no sign of the mech. Plenty of other idiots though.

Ein had decided to stay with their human bodies in the hospital two large cities away from the wilderness they were searching through- to monitor their condition and message them if they needed to return for some reason. So far nothing had happened that was any cause for concern.

They took turns each night, returning to their own bodies to sleep and eat real food. Something other than nutrients from an IV drip, and to walk around- to take in the sights and keep their muscles from getting too stiff.

It was during one of Lyre's circuits of the city- she never actually slept when it was her turn- that a rather distinctive jet did a flyby over the outskirts. She didn't waste a second to act surprised, simply jumped right in. "Ein," he always went with her on her walks, usually as an MP3 player, "contact the Big Man, tell him we've got a sighting. Monitor him, I want to know where he is at all times. And send the scan data," she knew he would do an automatic scan, "to the Doc, I'm sure he has previous scans he can compare to validate our claim."

She was already walking briskly towards the hospital, ignoring the idiotic remarks from those unsavory persons that tended to stay out in the dark, especially near alleys and other such "private" places, some of them only made that way by the things which they consumed in excess. Those that attempted to do more than simply make remarks were pinned with one of her more dangerous glares and found themselves looking elsewhere for their entertainment, those few that still persisted generally found themselves with twisted arms, though most backed off before it came to that.

Abigail did not have to deal with such things because she stayed away from the areas they happened in, Lyre had no such inclination- often she went looking for a fight to blow off steam caused by her frustration at not finding the Seeker. Abigail tended to look the other way, pretending she didn't know about it, for which Lyre was grateful.

By the time she arrived at her room Ratchet had commed back to confirm that it was indeed Starscream they had seen; Optimus responded not a moment later, informing them that he, Ratchet, Ironhide, Salvage, and Beachbreak would be there soon to take care of him.

Lyre, now Windfury, informed him that she and Codebreaker would follow at a distance to keep from losing him- she also promised not to engage unless absolutely necessary.

She passed one more thing on to him before closing the line- a warning to him that her team had been picking up pings on the edges of their sensors the whole time they'd been searching and they suspected they were Cybertronian in nature, but they'd never managed to get close enough to confirm it. Optimus thanked her and reminded her to be careful, to which she once again replied with that oh so worrying, you know me, closing the line and opening one with Ein instead, her cheerful demeanor falling slightly as she slipped into a more serious mindset. {Talk to me Ein, where am I going?} Ein sent her a streaming image, a map, which had icons indicating Starscream, Windfury, Codebreaker, and himself. She glanced at 'Coder and as one they headed in the Seeker's direction. Luckily, he was moving towards them as well- meaning they had less ground to cover before they caught up with him.

Inside of an hour they stopped, looking for all the world like aspects of a campsite that had not been completely set up yet, allowing him to go past them before they started moving again, trailing him carefully.

They were operating on radio silence now, not even in contact with Ein anymore as they crept along, keeping out of sight in the mist of Victoria falls. Why 'Screamer had stopped here was an unknown, never-the-less, he had; he was, in fact, performing tightly controlled circuits in the air above and Windfury got the distinct impression that he was waiting for something.

This was confirmed when he moved to intercept three Cybertronian signals, none of which were familiar. The lack of fighting led her to believe that they were Decepticons as well. Despite the fact that Codebreaker was the one with a light blue coloring it was Windfury, in all her orange glory, who continued closer, senses straining. It was she that had been built with speed and flexibility in mind, the reason she was so lightly armored. It also made her very light on her feet- Codebreaker, while smaller, was much more solidly built, made to endure whatever was handed to her.

She could only get so close to them, they were on the wrong side of the falls for any real spying, Starscream and company up on the ledge while she was on the ground far below, but it was close enough to run scans on the other 'cons present, all had terrestrial alt. modes. She could do nothing until the Autobots arrived anyways, there was a reason they were running on silent, and the information wasn't quite valuable enough to chance tipping off Starscream to their presence.

She fell back to Codebreaker's location for the time being, not long after that the newcomers departed and Starscream took to the air, though he flew along the edge of the falls carefully and made no move to leave. He was up to something, she could feel it. A glance at Codebreaker told her that she was suspicious as well, that decided her. She indicated that Codebreaker was to stay at the location she was at and then she moved towards the Seeker once more, carefully. She was directly under him, then past, putting him in the middle with Codebreaker on his other side. Windfury froze halfway to her destination.

Stuck.

Nothing was holding her, but she felt stuck. She felt like she was going the wrong way. Activity on her comm. told her that the Autobots had arrived- she sent her collected information to Ratchet and Optimus without even thinking about it, only faintly registering Ratchet telling her the Decepticons' names, Macerator, Dropkick, and Payload. She turned the only direction that didn't feel wrong and found herself facing a wall of water. She hesitated for the briefest second before walking forwards.

It was dark, her optics struggling to adjust to the odd way light moved in the cave, the mist and the curtain of water at the entrance made the light seem alive, flickering and twisting like a serpent. She still wasn't where she needed to be.

She moved deeper.

It was in the third large chamber that she finally came to a stop, the eighth chamber she had moved through. Her gaze swept over everything, immediately catching on the anomaly. She stepped closer, but stopped when the chamber filled with light from a storm of blue sparks, all reaching out to her.

{Ratchet.}

{Not now femme.}

She ignored his words, sending her scan data with her next transmission. {Ratchet. Tell me that's not what I think it is.}

{Femme! What did I just-Primus! That's an Allspark fragment!}

{Yeah, that's kinda what I thought it was.} There was faint ping on her sensors, faint but close. She turned and met red optics. "Oh slag."

:File End:

Well, that answered quite a few questions that hadn't even realized they'd had.

Of course, it introduced quite a few new ones.

Like why she could sense the shard at all.

They were impatient for the next memory, realizing that they were about to witness the femme's first ever encounter with a Decepticon.