So this story was dead for nearly five years. Ouch. I don't know if anyone will even bother reading it anymore, but I do intend to finish it, even if it takes me another five years. I actually decided to come back to it because I re-read my chapters and outlines and fell in love with the idea all over again, but, as you may be able to tell from this chapter, my writing style has drastically changed from what it was when I started this story, and I hope you all consider it as much an improvement as I do. That being said, I'd like to go back over the first fourteen chapters sometime and rewrite them to match my new style. I might wait until it's finished though, so that I can clean up any continuity errors and make it a more cohesive story as a whole.

Chapter Fourteen: The Things We Never Knew: Part Three

Titania had never seen a high school before. Well, not one that was in session any way. She'd seen the buildings themselves, walked through them even, but they had always been empty, lying in ruins.

This one was alive. Students with free periods threw footballs, lounged in the painstakingly cared for grass, studied on the steps, chatted.

It was beautiful, overwhelming...

And utterly pointless, from her perspective. What was the point in tossing a ball? Reflex practice perhaps? And that history class Miko was always moaning about didn't sound conducive to a prosperous future, but then, that was Miko's opinion and Titania was learning to take those with a grain of salt.

But even as she mentally disparaged the seeming impracticality of high-school, she wondered...what was it like? To not worry? Not care? Not bear the world upon your shoulders?

Her fingers curled into fists as she felt a stab of envy in her heart, followed by bitterness.

A shrill ring echoed through the air and Titania lurched forward, reaching for a non-existent gun as her gaze turned skyward and her sixth sense stretched to its newfound limits, searching...

But there was only one Spark in her vicinity, and she took a deep, steadying breath, pressing her palms against the warm metal of Bumblebee's vehicle mode behind her and ignoring the way it stung.

He gave a quiet whistle of concern.

"I'm fine Unc...Bee," she said, "the bell startled me." In her time, such noises would have brought Decepticon scouts down on their heads in mere moments.

As it was, it instead brought a river of students rushing down the steps as though from a broken dam.

Titania folded her arms across her chest and frowned. If they were so eager to escape, then why did they bother going?

There were things about the past she would just never understand.

Titania scanned the crowd, searching for Miko and Jack. Her gaze found Jack first. He was already walking away from the school, down the street with a redheaded girl by his side.

So that was Sierra? Titania felt her lips thinning. And what did that girl have that her mother didn't? Looks? Money? The one or two novels she had ever had the luxury to read suggested those things were important, but she'd never understood why, and her father, when she asked, had always told her that they weren't.

Hypocrite.

Titania inhaled sharply as the thought slammed into her. She didn't want to be thinking things like this, not about her own father, so she ripped her gaze away and searched for Miko again.

Ah, there she was. The exuberant girl had a wide smile on her face that threw Titania for a loop as Miko rushed towards her with a "Hey!"

Shouldn't she be more upset about Jack? Had Titania miscalculated? Did her mother really not feel anyth—

Miko's hazel eyes spotted Jack's retreating back, and her smile faltered at the sight of Sierra by his side. But then they rounded a corner out of sight, and Miko's smile was back, even if a little forced as she turned to Titania.

Oh thank Primus. There was hope for her parents yet as long as at least one of them was still interested in the other. Those two novels she'd read did not offer any hope for two totally disinterested individuals.

She could fix this. She had to fix this.

"So," Miko began, "Ready to experience the awesomeness of Killer Zombies 2?"

Titania frowned, "I thought you said you hadn't seen this one before?"

"Um, hello," Miko put her hands on her hips and raised an eyebrow as she leaned into Titania's personal space, "it's a zombie movie. That means it's automatically awesome. I don't need to see it to know that."

Somehow Titania doubted that a single word was enough to judge what was likely at least two hours worth of entertainment, but, well, what did she know? It wasn't like she'd ever seen a movie before. So she simply shrugged.

"Okay. So...we have to go to a theatre, right?"

Miko gave her a slightly befuddled look, like she couldn't understand why she would ask a question like that, and Titania felt her stomach drop slightly.

"I mean, that...that is where they play movies...isn't it?" She had been so sure that one of her fellow Resisters had told her something like that the first time she ever helped raid an old, empty theatre for whatever salvageable foods they could find, and she'd asked why there were so many chairs. It had been on her very first mission when she was twelve though, so maybe she had remembered wrong.

Damn it, why did even the smallest things in this time always manage to catch her flat-footed? First the flowers, now this? She had known it would be different, but maybe it had never occurred to her just how much.

"Well, duh," Miko replied, frowning as she crossed her arms, "But you make it sound like you've never seen a movie before."

Titania's fingers curled. "I haven't."

Miko's mouth promptly dropped open. "Seriously?"

Titania recoiled from the incredulous question, wishing she had never offered to watch one now. "We didn't exactly have any use for movies."

There must've been a little bit more venom in her voice than she'd intended, because Miko's face fell and she looked away, her crossed arms tightening self-consciously.

Slag. She hadn't meant to do that. Frustrated with herself, Titania ran a hand through her now short, choppy hair. She'd taken the scissors to the strands herself that morning, and June had walked in on a nigh-unsalvageable mess, looking horrified. Titania didn't care as long as it got the last of the smoke smell away from her, and kept the ruined strands out of her eyes.

"Sorry," Titania said, "This...this is all new to me."

A more perceptive individual might have understood what she was trying to say, but Miko just had a slightly confused look on her face. Titania was relieved to see she at least didn't look so hurt anymore, and was quick to push on before the exchange student could pry for answers she had no desire to give.

"So, a theatre then?"

Miko's face lit up, and she immediately latched on to Titania's arm and began dragging her away. "Totally! You're gonna love it! Movies are so cool on the big screen and they have all this awesome junk food—" Miko stopped abruptly, eyes narrowing as she spotted something across the school yard.

To Titania's surprise, Miko actually growled.

"Hold on a sec, I've got jerkface duty."

Jerkface duty? Titania turned to see what she meant, and—

Cold, hard, fury. It struck her with the force of a kick to the face.

Because there, across the yard, was Rafael. But he wasn't alone. A redheaded boy in a leather jacket stood there with a pair of cronies, laughing as he dangled Raf's glasses high out of the boy's reach.

Her heart beat quickly, matching the throbs of rage emanating from Bumblebee's own Spark as the Urbana rocked on its wheels slightly, clearly desiring nothing more than to transform on the spot, or perhaps run the older boy down.

Titania inhaled deeply. Anger was strength, but strength was useless if you couldn't control it. She settled a reassuring palm on the hood of Bumblebee's alt-mode.

"We'll take care of this," she said, and followed after Miko. Her quick, furious strides were confident, sure, calculated, and she soon passed a surprised Miko and was at Raf's side, snatching the glasses from the glitch's hands.

He looked at her with brown eyes, startled.

"These aren't yours," she said, voice low and quiet. For a moment, she thought she could feel the red metal frame burning in her hands again, like it had the night of her arrival. She thought she saw black char and cracked glass on it when she glanced at it briefly, only for it to be gone when she blinked.

Slowly, she handed them back to Raf.

"Bee's waiting for you," Titania told him, nodding her head to the Urbana. His Spark had settled, but there was still the occasional surge of anxiety dancing across her nervous system that told her he would not be satisfied until Raf was removed from the situation entirely.

Raf smiled as he took the glasses, "Thanks."

Then, with one last glance between Titania and the bully, he took off and hopped into the car as soon as it's door eagerly opened for him. Bee drove off quickly once his charge was secure.

Titania turned back to the bully, who was now looking her up and down with a wrinkled nose.

"Who the hell are you, scarface?" He said, and then his gaze flicked briefly to Miko, and his unpleasant expression turned another shade of disgusted, "Don't tell me we're getting more Japs now. What, pinky, is this your sister or somethin'?"

The next beat of Titania's heart was painful, like someone had squeezed it into a too small box that wouldn't let it expand properly when it needed to. Was it...was their resemblance that obvious? No, it couldn't be. This aft was just making assumptions, or else attempting to set them up for a stupid insult.

Still, it would be safer to shut him up quickly before he got the gears in Miko's brain turning.

"The name's Titania," she snapped, "And so help me, if I ever see you—"

He laughed, a look of incredulity on his face that stopped Titania short. Her fists clenched tighter. Perhaps punching him would get her point across, if he was so stupid that he found simple words amusing.

"Titania?" He wheezed, and his two cronies joined in, "Who name's their kid Titania?"

"Yeah, well, who name's their kid Vince," Miko snapped from Titania's side, "Your name sounds as stupid as your face looks."

Mental note to self, Titania thought, help Miko practice her trash talk.

Still, the newly christened "Vince" seemed offended enough, as he stopped laughing and scowled at the both of them.

Before Vince could retaliate though, Titania snapped her fingers quickly. "Hey, eyes on me jerkface, I'm the one you're talking to."

That seemed to be a bad move though, as he just smirked, "Right, 'cuz I'm gonna listen to some 'Fairy Queen' who sleeps with donkeys."

His cronies ooohed behind him, but Titania could only stare blankly, uncomprehending. She knew what he had just implied about donkeys, but she didn't understand why he had implied it. What part of her looked like a fairy queen?

Miko, however, understood perfectly. And she promptly punched him.

Or tried to, anyway. It was too telegraphed, an exaggerated wind-up that was meant more for show than actual force, and Vince easily caught it.

"Ooooh," Vince mocked, "The weakling thinks she can fight."

THWACK!

Vince was down on the ground cradling his face in less than two seconds, and Titania found herself thoroughly satisfied with the ache in her knuckles. Because no one, no one, got away with her calling her mother weak.

"Next time, you Pit-spawned fragger," Titania said, glaring down at him, "You'd better think twice about messing with someone I care about."

With that, Titania turned—caught a glimpse of Miko's gaping, gleeful expression—and grabbed her mother by the arm, dragging her away from the scene before they could attract a crowd.

They were both silent until they were just about a block away, and then Miko tugged her arm free from Titania's grip and happily skipped forward to walk alongside her, eyes shining with more genuine excitement than they had since Egypt.

"That. Was. AWESOME!"

Titania cringed away from the high-pitched squeal, but felt herself smiling nonetheless. Miko might not have been the same person as her mother, but her exuberant approval left a glow in Titania's heart nonetheless.

"You...you were like...BAM!" Miko threw a punch in the air, "but only you were like way faster. I didn't even see it!"

Miko's hands dropped to her side for only a moment before they were back in the air, gesticulating wildly. "I've been waiting for someone to punch that aft for months!"

The mention of "that aft" brought Titania's mood down somewhat, and her previous confusion was allowed to seep back in.

"Hey, Miko?"

"Yeah?"

"What did he mean back there?" She asked, still trying to puzzle out the seemingly random insult in her head, "about the Fairy Queen?"

Miko's face went a little red in the cheeks as some of the excitement finally bled out of her, seeming to make room only for embarrassment.

"Oh, um, well...you see," Titania couldn't help but notice Miko was now refusing to look at her, "there's this play in English that we're studying right now, and there's a Fairy Queen in it named Titania..."

Oh. Oh. Well, Titania could see where this was going rather quickly, and felt her heart stutter unhappily a little.

She had always taken pride in her name. It was the name her father chose for her. He'd said it was a strong name, and she had done her best to take that inherent strength and let it define her, but...

If it was actually the name of a Fairy Queen that apparently slept with donkeys though, then Titania didn't see what was so strong about it. Now her name felt twisted, and what bothered her the most was that it was just some incompetent bully that didn't know the hardships of life that had managed to twist it.

A fragger like that shouldn't be able to get to her. Not like this.

Apparently Jack Darby's taste in name's was not as good as she had always liked to believe.

She crossed her arms, scowling at the pavement as they walked. She didn't care. It was just a stupid play and Vince was an idiotic buffoon.

"Hey," Miko said, and Titania looked up to find an awkward look on Miko's face, like the girl wanted to say something but didn't know what she should say. "Just ignore Vince, okay? Titania's a great name. You make it awesome."

Well, that was one way to look at it. "Titania" might have been the name of some foolish Queen here in the past, but Titania had taken it and made it hers. The deeds that were now attached to it belonged to no Fairy, just her, even if the world would never know outside of a few small handfuls of people.

Titania offered her a smile, "Thanks."

Miko beamed right back, "No prob—Look, there it is!"

The exchange student rushed eagerly up ahead, crossing the street and stopping on the next corner under an overhang with the words "Killer Zombies 2" spelt out on it.

The Jasper Cinema, huh? How creative.

Titania came to a stop beside her mother as she examined the show-times listed on a board.

"Aw," she groaned, shoulders slumping, "it doesn't start for another two hours!"

Two hours? Okay, there was absolutely no way Titania was waiting around that long. She let out a sigh, and opened her mouth to suggest they call for pick up to the base and come back later, but Miko suddenly turned to her with a contemplative look on her face that was unusual for her.

"Say," Miko began, grin slowly widening, "Have you ever been to an arcade?"

Arcades, it turned out, were fun. If not for the fact that Miko had already purchased the movie tickets and set an alarm on her phone to warn her when they had a half-hour left, then Titania would've been quite content to spend the next several hours there.

Well...would have been, if not for the fact that her injuries were still healing and started to ache if she was active too long, even with the painkillers. Wisely, Titania declined an opportunity to try out the dancing game. She could still remember the lecture June gave her for dancing around Vehicon pedes, there was no need for a refresher so soon afterwards.

That didn't stop her from dominating the top of the scoreboards on any game that involved a gun though, and by the end she found herself at a counter with a handful of tickets she didn't know what to do with, and a plethora of seemingly pointless options before her.

"I don't get it," she said to Miko, "they're really going to give me one of these," she gestured at the options, "for a bunch of paper?"

"Well, yeah, you paid money to play, you played and won, and now you get to pick your prize," Miko said, and squinted in the glass, eyes going wide, "Oh look! That's a signed Slash Monkey's album! Cool!"

The exchange student quickly counted up her own tickets, "Aw...I don't have enough."

"Take mine," Titania said, but Miko shook her head.

"No way! Those are yours! C'mon, you've gotta pick something. Your room at base is way too blah."

Titania eyed the rows of toys and knick-knacks dubiously. She didn't see how they would make her room any less "blah."

Besides, there were few things in the world she had ever been willing to place any sort of value in, the dog-tag around her neck being one of them, as well as the plant her father had entrusted to her. The rest were all just objects that were far too easy to lose in surprise Decepticon attacks.

But then...then her eyes settled on something.

"I'll take one of those," she said to the clerk, placing her tickets on the counter, and Miko raised an eyebrow beside her.

"A star-chart?" She asked, "Well that's boring."

"It reminds me of my mother," Titania said quietly, and took the long roll of laminated paper from the clerk almost reverently.

She pushed what remained of her tickets toward Miko. Apparently the star-chart hadn't been worth much in the arcade's eyes.

"There, you get your album, I've got all I need."

And then she walked away, smiling just a little.

Horror movies, it turned out, were not something Titania enjoyed. Especially zombie horror movies.

The...what were they again? Special effects? Yeah, those. They were of poor quality. Titania had seen enough blood and gore of her own to know that was not what it looked like when someone was ripped to shreds, drowning in their own blood, or burning alive. Titania was actually rather thankful for that. She'd seen enough carnage in her real life already, there was no need to add more in the form of truly realistic fiction.

Otherwise though, the movie was boring. What idiot went towards the creepy groaning? Besides, wouldn't they smell the body decomposing and know it was a zombie "sleeping" in the room, and not some poor lonely soul?

Ugh, these idiot protagonists deserved to have their brains eaten. The zombies could probably put them to better use.

But then, of course, the moment her entire day was irrevocably ruined arrived while Titania was mentally lamenting the time she was wasting here—she could be planning their next move instead!—and Miko was quite happily whispering "get out of there!"

"I'm dead already, just leave me behind," the wounded protagonist said while his fake entrails poured out of him.

"I won't do that, we're both gonna make it out of here," said the other while zombies clambered at the boarded up door.

The first protagonist smiled at the second. A brief frame showed the pistol he still had in one hand.

Titania froze, a handful of popcorn halfway to her mouth.

The first protagonist lifted the gun while the second's back was turned.

—Titania heard the rustle of cloth behind her, but she didn't turn to look at her companion. She had to find a way out of this. For both of them—

"Live Steve," said the first protagonist.

—"You've got to live Titania." What? Well of course. She turned—

The second protagonist turned towards his compatriot, and the first lifted the gun to his own head and—

—she pulled the trigger.

"NO!"

Titania was on her feet just as the gun fired, breath stuck in her throat, hand reaching to pull away a weapon that wasn't there from the skull of a woman who was long dead.

"Sit down!" someone yelled behind her, and Titania blinked, realizing what she'd done.

She didn't sit back down. There was no point.

She'd seen enough already.

Titania turned, walking down the aisle to the theatre lobby fast enough that it could be considered fleeing, ignoring Miko's hushed whisper of her name as she went.

The colours of the lobby passed by her in a blur and the cold air of the desert night slammed into her face as she burst through the doors.

It wasn't until she stumbled and caught herself on a bike rack that she realized she was trembling. Why? Why was she shaking? She sucked in a deep breath of air, slowly let it out. She closed her eyes and started to focus on her breathing like June had taught her to that day when she'd arrived.

In.

She shouldn't be shaking like this. It was just a stupid movie. It wasn't real.

Out.

...But Carly had been. She had been far too real, and Titania's next breath got stuck in her throat and she choked on it as a car rushed by, sending a rush of cold air through her short strands of hair.

She sunk to her knees.

"No!" The gun went off. Blood. Blood everywhere. On her, around her...the broken leg was meaningless now...

"Titania!"

There was a hand on her shoulder now. Titania kept her forehead pressed to the cold metal bars of the bike rack, trying to ground herself with something, anything.

"I'll call Nurse Darby," Miko said from her place at Titania's shoulder, her hand starting to disappear. Titania reached up and grabbed it, holding it there. She didn't know why.

But it gave her strength enough to focus, and she forced her lungs to obey her.

In.

Out.

In.

Out.

In...

She let out her last breath as a long, gusty sigh.

"I'm...I'm okay..." she said.

"Um, you don't look okay."

Titania gripped the top of the bike rack, and pulled herself back to her feet. She turned to face Miko, leaning against it slightly.

"I'm okay," she said again, and gestured widely towards the theatre, "Sorry about that, it just...hit too close to home."

Miko was silent for a moment, her cell-phone held open in her hand. She glanced between it and Titania, as though debating whether or not the time-traveller was going to fall dead at her feet at any moment.

"Do you..." Miko swallowed thickly, seemingly aware that a box of fragile, sacred memories had been opened, any of which could leave both of them cut and scarred even further if not handled carefully, "Do you want to talk about it?"

It was tempting, because, for just a moment, Titania thought it was her mother asking her that, right after she'd woken up from a terrifying nightmare.

Titania closed her eyes just long enough to banish the spectre. "No...let's...let's talk about anything except fighting and dying, okay?"

"Um..." Miko's head turned from side to side, casting around for something to talk about. Her gaze settled on something, but instead of lighting up with an idea, her uncomfortable expression morphed into something unhappy. Her lips thinned, her eyes widened and then narrowed, and she abruptly turned back to her cell-phone, dialing a number. "I'm gonna call Bulk."

What? Why? Titania watched her lift the phone to her ear, her gaze flicking back to whatever she'd seen.

Titania turned to look, and her crappy evening just got worse.

Because there was her idiot, younger father, walking towards them, laughing and chatting with the redhead at his side.

And they were holding hands. So, clearly their date went very, very well.

This wasn't quite what she meant when she said she wanted to talk about anything else.

"...thanks Bulk." Miko snapped her phone shut and stuck it in her pocket, then stubbornly refused to look in Jack's direction as he and Sierra approached.

Jack, at that moment, barely seven feet away, looked up from his conversation with Sierra and spotted them.

His laugh died as he looked between them, and Titania wondered how much of the emotional exhaustion she felt was actually showing on her face.

"Hey guys," he said, "How was the movie?"

To her credit, Miko didn't mention Titania's little...episode. Instead, she merely waved a dismissive hand without looking at him.

"Meh, the first one was better."

Jack raised an eyebrow at the one sentence response. Beside him, Sierra wrinkled her nose as she glanced at the movie play-times and easily deduced which one they had just seen.

"Killer Zombies 2?" She read, "Ew, zombie movies are so gross."

"Hey!" Miko snapped, "Zombie movies are awesome!"

Titania was inclined to disagree, but she wasn't about to do so out loud. If it meant siding against Sierra, she'd lie and say they were the best thing ever.

Sierra turned to Jack with a considering look on her face, "Do you like zombie movies Jack?"

Jack paused to think about it for a moment, eyes darting between the three girls he found himself surrounded by.

"Eh, not really," he admitted, "I can sit through them fine, but I'd usually rather watch something else."

Miko huffed, "That's because you have no taste!"

Later, it would become clear that Miko hadn't meant to do it on purpose, but at that moment, it was all too obvious how her eyes darted to Sierra when she said "taste."

Sierra caught the implication with an offended scoff. Titania could tell her grip on Jack's hand tightened by the wince on his face, and her free hand settled on her hip as she drew herself up to her full height, sizing Miko up for a moment before she turned to Jack.

"Are you gonna let her talk about me like that right in front of you?"

Talk? Miko hadn't even said anything! Well, not directly at least. Titania felt her fists clenching again. So help her Primus, if this woman said one bad thing about her mother in retaliation for a perceived insult, then Titania was going two-for-two in the black-eye department today.

"What? No, of course not. I'm sure she didn't mean it that way at all!" Jack turned back to Miko, and Titania almost felt bad for him, "Right, Miko?"

Miko folded her arms and turned away, "I invoke my right to remain silent."

Sierra's face turned red, and her eyes watered. She tore her hand from Jack's—and then stomped on his foot.

"Ow!" Jack cried out.

"Clearly," Sierra snapped with a waver in her voice, "you're no better than Vince!"

And then she turned and ran, ignoring Jack as he called after her.

Titania might have grinned if she'd seen the sight under any other circumstance, because she was fairly certain there was no hope for her father with that girl after this, and this coincidental meeting had worked far better than any of the plans that she had still been concocting in her brain, but well...

At this point, there might still be no hope for her parents either, considering the glare Jack was sporting on his face as he turned around.

"How could you do that!?" He demanded, and Titania was alarmed by the genuine rage she could hear in his voice.

"I didn't do anything!" Miko snapped back, "She's the one who made assumptions!"

Okay, yeah, it was definitely time to step in now. And she did so literally, one hand out toward each of them.

"Whoa, hey!" She said, "Both of you take a step back and breathe!"

Neither of them seemed to want to, but they did.

Then, at that moment, Bulkhead pulled up next to them.

"Hey guy—whoa. Everything okay here?" The Wrecker asked.

For a second, no one answered. Then Miko turned away from them, fists clenched, shoulders shaking, and her voice sounding a little wet as she spoke.

"Everything's fine," she said and inhaled a deep breath, "I'm going home."

Then she climbed into Bulkhead's alt-mode before Titania could stop her, and Bulkhead drove away.

Everything was ruined. He'd worked so hard to make this date with Sierra perfect. They'd talked for hours at the Cafe, and he felt like they'd really started to connect. And then, when he offered to walk her home, and she slipped her hand into his with a shy smile...it was perfect. He could tell she'd been waiting for a rejection—which was ridiculous, she was Sierra—and he had squeezed her hand in his to chase that fear away.

And then...Miko. Damn it Miko! Why did she have go and ruin it like that?

Jack paced a few steps to and fro, foot throbbing painfully as he ran a hand through his thick black hair. There was no way Sierra would ever even talk to him again after this, let alone agree to another date.

"Y'know," Titania said from her place against the bike-rack, her arms folded across her chest, "for a smart guy, you're pretty stupid."

He stopped pacing to look at Titania fully, "And what's that supposed to mean?"

She rolled her eyes, and Jack had to resist the immature urge to simply storm away like Miko had.

"It means, you're not very good at seeing the obvious."

"And what, exactly," he said, hands spreading out to his side as he tried to encompass the entire situation—his rampaging feelings with it—into a single gesture, "am I missing from this obvious disaster?"

"I'd prefer to call it a blessing in disguise."

What? She did not just say that.

"How is this a blessing!? The girl I've liked for years just walked away from me because Miko can't keep her mouth shut!"

Something dark flashed in Titania's eyes, a warning, maybe, but Jack was too angry to care. Besides, what would she know about the things Miko's done and said.

"She always messes everything up! She's tactless, impulsive, arrogant, selfish, attention-seeking, careless and I can't stand it any more!"

Jack turned away from her, breathing a little heavily as he stared at his shadow cast by the lamp-post. Something ugly was burrowing into his chest. Something he'd only ever felt for one person. A no-good dead-beat who had up and left without warning.

Slowly, Jack closed his eyes, trying to figure out what exactly it was he was trying to say.

"I wish she'd never found out about the Autobots." Because then she wouldn't be part of his life, not really. She'd be just another kid at his high school.

There was a long, long moment of silence that almost made Jack think Titania had left, but soon a second shadow joined his own, and he could feel her presence at his shoulder just before she spoke.

"This isn't about Sierra any more, is it?"

He didn't look at her, he just stared at their shadows as he frowned, "What do you mean?"

"This is about Optimus."

His gut dropped, his heart contracted sharply and didn't seem to want to expand again. "How is this about Optimus?"

Titania was silent for a moment, gathering her thoughts perhaps, and when she finally spoke again, it was in a carefully controlled tone.

"My father knew you," she said, "You haven't met him yet, and you might not ever now, but he knew you, in my time."

Her father? Jack turned around to face her. The pain in her eyes...he didn't know it himself, not quite, but it looked familiar.

Titania was the first to break eye contact and look away, and he was reminded of that moment, back in the Silo, when she had walked towards Wheeljack to introduce herself, and hesitated.

Why did she hesitate?

"My father," she began again after taking a deep breath, "he told me once that you admired Optimus more than anyone else. That a part of you saw him as the father you always wanted instead of that jerk who just walked away like you meant nothing to him."

Jack's mouth went dry, and he blinked rapidly before swallowing. He'd never told anyone that. Not even his mother. Who was her father, that Jack, in another time, had one day trusted him enough to reveal that childish little secret of his?

He inhaled deeply, "What does any of this have to do with Miko?"

"Everything," Titania said, and she looked back up at him, locking those familiar stormy eyes on him, "Because she's the one who almost took your father figure away this time, and that's the real reason you're mad at her."

"Of course I'm mad!" Jack snapped, "I've been telling her from the start that it was too dangerous, and now look at what happened!"

Damn it, he was losing his temper again. He reached up and pinched the bridge of his nose, taking another deep breath.

"Look, I get where you're trying to go with this—"

"Do you?" She asked, folding her arms and raising an eyebrow, "Okay then, tell me, do you love Sierra?"

What? "Of course!"

Titania sighed, "I don't mean puppy love, Jack. It's obvious you like her, but do you love her? Love her enough that if you had to choose between saving her life or Miko's, you would choose her?"

"What kind of question is that?"

"One that you should think about."

So Jack did. He thought about it for all of five seconds before he shook his head in frustration. "That's an impossible question to answer."

"No, it isn't," Titania said, "As much as we human beings like to pretend we benevolently treat even strangers with the love and care we do our friends, it isn't true. If push comes to shove, we'll choose the person closest to us. Even if the only difference is because we shared one or two moments more with that person, or they were there for us when we needed them. There are few people in the world, Jack, who can, in the heat of the moment, choose the stranger over their friends or family. And those that do..."

Her eyes darkened, as though a shutter had closed, and Jack was sure he didn't want to hear this.

"...they can't live with themselves."

Optimus sacrificed the future of his own species for theirs, and Titania had always wondered...in that moment, when he destroyed the Omega Lock, who had Optimus truly chosen to save? The stranger or the friend?

She supposed she would never know, because hopefully the Optimus in this time would never be asked to make that decision.

A cold desert breeze blew through Titania's thin shirt, and she shivered briefly.

In front of her, Jack seemed to come out of his contemplative stupor, but there was a dark shadow in his face, a weight on his shoulders, that she knew she had put there.

In that moment, he looked so much more like her father than he did before.

She had to look away.

"Hey, I think your ride left without you," Jack said, clearly wishing not to discuss any more heavy topics, and Titania paused to think about it.

Crap. Bulkhead had, hadn't he?

"Oh...well, I guess I can always call Ratchet," Except she didn't have a phone or communicator, "Can I borrow your phone?"

"Uh, sure."

"Thanks."

It wasn't long before Titania had dialed the base and asked for a ride. Ratchet had sighed and grumbled about Bulkhead before agreeing to send Smokescreen her way. Arcee, apparently, was just starting to leave to pick up Jack and take him home.

Titania could very, very faintly sense their Sparks appear as they left the protection of the Silo, and she closed her eyes for a moment, letting her sixth sense wash over the whole of Jasper.

She could feel Bumblebee parked somewhere—Raf's house, she supposed—Spark calm and warm. She could feel Bulkhead still driving, Spark churning with concern for his undoubtedly upset charge.

She would have to talk to Miko as soon as she could.

"You've been through a lot," Jack said, and Titania turned slightly towards him.

"Yeah," she said, and saw blood again, her mother's still face, her father's knowing look as he ran towards his fate, dying optics and so, so much suffering, "I guess I have."

"It's hard, isn't it?"

Okay, now he was just asking stupid questions. Of course it was hard.

"We're little ants walking among titans who could wipe out our race any time they want, so, yeah, I'd say it's hard," she turned her thoughts back to the beating Sparks she could feel all around her, "But...well, some of those titans are family, and you do what you have to for family."

Jack gave her a half-smile, "Well, I guess your name suits you then."

Titania gave him a baffled look, "I thought I was named after a Fairy Queen who slept with donkeys?"

Jack choked on a laugh.

"Oh, god, no. I hope that's not what your parents meant!"

"What, you mean there are other Titanias?"

"Well, the word 'Titania' originally showed up in a text called 'Metamorphoses,' and comes from the word 'titanius' which means 'of the titans'," Jack shrugged, "Shakespeare took it from Metamorphoses as a name for his play, where it was originally used as a title for the daughters of the Greek Titans."

"...Really?"

"Seriously," Jack said, and reached up to rub at the back of his neck, looking slightly embarrassed, "I...uh...looked it up."

No wonder Miko called him a dork, if that was what he did with his spare time, but at the moment, Titania didn't care. She was just glad to have her disappointment in the origin of her name stripped away from her.

"Huh, my Dad never mentioned that."

"He picked it?"

"Yeah."

"I'd say he has pretty good taste in names then. It's a strong name."

Titania felt herself smiling as she watched Jack turn towards the headlights now approaching them, the energy of the Sparks they belonged to thrumming gently over her skin as he raised a hand and squinted into the light.

"Yeah," she breathed quietly, "I guess he does."

The forest might have been quiet on another night, but not this one. A large, slender form stomped its way through the trees, sharp claws cutting apart anything that got in its way.

"Oh, oh Primus no," the figure moaned in a high-pitched voice, occasionally glancing behind himself with red optics.

Had to get away, had to get away! He didn't know how they found the ship where he'd been hiding, but there was no way he was letting them take the T-Cog he had just got his hands on! He cradled said T-Cog in his servos with a death grip.

How in Primus' holy name was he going to—

His heeled pedes caught on a particularly large boulder, and the Cybertronian went sprawling in the mud, his T-Cog spinning out of his hands and landing a fair distance from him.

He hurried to pick himself up.

And then the shadows of the night came alive, and from within them emerged numerous, black-clad human figures with green goggles.

"Oh, what do you little fiends want now!?" Starscream shrieked, "I won't let you take another T-Cog from me!"

"Relax Starscream," an unfamiliar, silky voice echoed, and two men parted for the distinctly feminine figure that stepped forward. Her fiery locks were tied back from her face, and her eyes stared up at him with a calculating cruelty that he had never before associated with the colour blue.

"We're not here for your T-Cog," she said.

"Then...then what do you want?"

She smiled, pulled a phone from her pocket and flipped it open, showing an image of three teenagers standing on a street corner.

Starscream recognized only two of them as those blasted Autobot pets, so he leaned closer with a raised optic ridge.

"And what, exactly, is this supposed to be?"

Her smile grew sharper.

"This...is an opportunity."

Like I said, not sure if anyone's reading this any more. I don't know when the next chapter will be out, but I promise it won't take another five years.