Fay tried to control her breathing as she struck the punching bag, her mind buzzing. Thankfully, her father had shown up during visiting hours today. While it had been immensely awkward to try and explain things to him, to assure him that she wasn’t making a mistake and that she and Optimus hadn’t done anything inappropriate, he’d calmed down from yesterday. While Harvey -- it felt strange to think of him as Ironhide -- didn’t like the fact that Fay and Optimus were close, given his pre existing relationship with commander, he tolerated it. Harvey’s only request was that Fay be careful, make certain that she was truly interested in Optimus before they moved any further than they already had.

        When he’d said it, Harvey almost seemed pained to relent that much.

        ~~~

        “Dad, I promise we’re okay . . . I mean, he’s a Prime, how much safer can it get? Who else is going to be that safe around me? Also, who else is going to fight that hard if I’m in trouble?” She paused, and Harvey raised a skeptical brow. Fay smiled. “I mean besides you, Dad. Of course you’re going to fight for me. I mean, someone who isn’t technically family.”

        Harvey let out a slow breath, giving a nod. “I know, Fair . . . I’m just . . . I missed so much with you . . . Promise me you’re not going to rush into things with him. Promise me that you’re not going to let yourself get out of control,” he told her reluctantly. His voice wavered just slightly, like the mere thought of her with a man romantically caused him physical pain. In that sense, Harvey had very much so taken on the typical traits of a human father.

        “Out of control?” Fay asked, blinking, before her lips spread into a smile and she laughed briefly. “Dad, you’re talking to the girl who slammed a door in Optimus’s face countless times, called him a creep, stole a truck-! Mom always said I had your heart . . . So where do you think that behavior comes from?” Fay tilted her head slightly, smiling cautiously, trying to lighten the mood between them.

        Harvey let out another slow breath, wrapping his arms around her firmly. “You are still my little girl, Farrah. I know that I missed plenty of things over the years, and I struggle with that, but I’m trying. The fact that the first relationship I witness you having is that with you around my commander makes this a difficult thing to tackle. Given how I know him, given how I have always known him, I do not believe him a proper candidate for dating the girl I have taken on as my daughter. The femme I have accepted as my own sparkling. I apologize for my closed processor, but please understand and bear with me. You are very important to me. To the Autobots. To our cause. I do not wish for you to be bitter with Optimus as it would harm us on a greater scale. If you cannot stave off being . . . ‘With’ him . . . Then please approach it with much caution.”

        “I will, Dad . . .” Fay assured him quietly, relaxing into his embrace. “Even if he becomes my Prince somewhere way down the road, you’re still my king . . .”

        Harvey let out a half-hearted, short-lived laugh. “Sweetie, if anyone should be classified as ‘king’ it would be the Prime. And if he decides, and you consent, to eventually making you his ‘queen’, then he damn well better ask my permission first. That is the tradition you grew with, and I plan to uphold it.”

        Fay laughed a bit. “I love you, Dad . . . You’re just . . . Crazy . . . But a good kind of crazy. I like it. It’s sweet of you. Mom would say you’re why I’m so impulsive, you know.”

        Harvey gave a small nod, a cautious smile on his face. “I know, Fair . . . I love you, too . . . Before I forget, though, I’ve been asked to inform you that we’ll be meeting up again tonight. The ‘Bots so that we may get together. We think it’s best if you see us as often as possible. At least once a week. We would prefer to keep close tabs on you. And the more often you can be under the protection of the Autobots, the better.”

        ~~~

        The thought of seeing the Autobot band again tonight inspired Fay to work harder in the weight room. During every set, she was adding more weight. All the while, she couldn’t help but wonder why the Autobots were so concerned about the Decepticons. While she’d had a few brief brushes with them, she hadn’t seen them in quite some time. Not that she could recall, at least. And surely if they were around, disguised, the Autobots wouldn’t leave her defenseless, would they? Fay quickly pushed that thought away. The Autobots knew what they were doing. They were looking after her. They always had.

        ~~~

        Starscream stalked back and forth in the desert sands, his large peds disturbing the small grains. “Lord Megatron cannot have that wretched femme,” he hissed, his processor still working on some sort of way to wrench the femme away from Megatron’s grasp. If he could steal her loyalty from the warlord, he could overthrow Megatron and the Decepticons would be in the palm of his hand. It was a flawless sort of thing. The only trouble was getting through to the femme. Per Megatron’s command, he wasn’t supposed to be visiting her mind any more. It made this far more difficult.

        Then there was the matter of the girl. Starscream let out another low hiss at the thought of the blonde that always seemed to be around Farrah. She was a troublesome being, that much he was certain of. Of course, he would know of all beings wouldn’t he? Starscream smirked in satisfaction when he thought of the girl. She still froze when she saw him, even in her dreams. His image still caused her to panic. Starscream chuckled at how pathetic she seemed when she was confronted with him. Of all things, the girl who had become determined and fierce, despite her childhood, still had difficulty confronting him.

        Starscream took a genuine pleasure in the look on her face when she saw him. He took pleasure in the fact that he was in so many of her nightmares. The rest of the Decepticons didn’t know the blonde was around other than as a simple human. Starscream had gone through plenty of trouble to mask her energy signal. He’d created a ‘family’ of his own to mask her existence in general. The rest of the Decepticons didn’t know. The Autobots certainly didn’t know. And Starscream took plenty of pride in that fact. That girl was going to become a weapon. As much as Farrah. He only had to obtain the brunette, and then the both of them would be at his beck and call.

        Starscream would wage a winning war against the Autobots. Soon enough, the Decepticons would join him, abandoning Megatron. All Starscream had to do was figure out a way to get the femme know as ‘Farrah’ under his control. The other would soon follow.

        The moon was fading out tonight. The shadows were gaining control, ever so slowly. Farrah would be more vulnerable to a change of loyalties under the darkest night. Unfortunately, tonight was one of balance. It wasn’t enough. The Decepticons could throw her off, but they couldn’t gain as much control over her as they wanted. As much as chaos as they could create, they were more than open to making tonight.

        ~~~

        Fay shifted her weight on her bed, sketching multiple layers of curved lines until they covered the paper. With a frown, she looked them over, then turned to the next blank page. Quickly, Fay did a rough sketch of a girl sitting on her bed, hair down to her waist, back turned. The room was plain, sparsely decorated. Then, Fay began drawing the lines again. The curved lines that looked quite a bit like a thick crescent moon. They covered the borders of the page, some of them coming quite close to the girl, grazing her, but not quite covering.

        Fay let out a slow sigh. She knew what it was. That girl was her. The lines were the shadows that tormented her if she was late for her medicine. The shadows that still threatened her when she was on the medication. It was a dangerous thing.

        With a deep breath, she closed the sketch pad, placing the pencil down carefully. She didn’t want to dwell on the shadows right now. They were sadly becoming commonplace in her life. It didn’t throw her off as much when she saw them creeping on the corners of her vision. Fay didn’t want them there. But it didn’t stop the fact that they seemed to be here to stay. As unnerving as they were, Fay was beginning to live with them. And with the pain that was slowly building each night. It had begun just under a week ago, an ache in her skull.

        Fay decided it was best to wait for it to leave. She didn’t want to be on those painkillers again. She was on enough pills. One of which was getting harder and harder to ditch every day. The nurses were beginning to watch her more closely. The red pill was getting harder to get rid of. Fay had even resorted to hiding it in her mouth, then going to the bathroom and flushing it down the toilet. It wasn’t easy anymore. It wasn’t a simple ‘crush it under her foot’ situation. Fay had to be creative in getting rid of the pill her father had warned her against taking.

        In truth, Fay couldn’t figure out why the red pill was so significant. But her father had told her to stay away from it, and Fay obliged. Her father knew things that she didn’t. She trusted him. Even if he was less than fond of the idea that she had matured to the point of dating. Fay understood his trouble. The last time she’d been able to spend real time with him was when she was seven years old. That was almost thirteen years ago now. In just three short weeks, Fay was going to be twenty years old. With a deep breath, she dearly hoped that she would be out of this place in time to celebrate.

        Of all things, Fay didn’t want to be locked up on her birthday. She wanted to be with the people she loved most. Truthfully, she wanted to have her family. She wanted Optimus. Fay didn’t even know what to label their current ‘relationship’ as. She wasn’t sure if it was a true romance or not. They were at a steady rate right now. Things were running well, really. But they’d never bothered to sit down and try to label things.

        Maybe it was better that way. Fay wasn’t sure she wanted to put a label on it and muddy things up. She was happy the way things were, even if the way things were included it being uncertain. Fay shook her head. Perhaps she was a bit disturbed by the fact that she didn’t know how to call things between them. It was strange. Somewhat disturbing. But she would get by until they hit the point where she just KNEW what they were. She could wait that long, couldn’t she? It shouldn’t take too long. She hoped it wouldn’t. She hoped that by the time it reached her birthday, she could honestly say she was in the first serious relationship of her life.

        It was the first, wasn’t it?

        ~~~

        FarLust stared at Clawkin. Where she still lay on the floor, utterly motionless. The energon was still seeping out of her wound. Her wires were still broken and sparking. “Kin!” FarLust called out. “Kin, no!” She didn’t understand why it hadn’t worked. FarLust didn’t understand why Clawkin was still wounded and broken. “Slag it, Kin!”

        The doors slid open. Light poured in as BrokenWeld stepped down into the room. He glanced around a moment before noticing the wolf, wounded and broken. He only paused a moment before tending to the creature, attempting to heal her wounds, bandaging her. He even managed to quell the flow of energon. Clawkin was healing. Clawkin would be all right.

        FarLust watched with wide optics, concern and confusion lining them as she watched him care for the Cyberwolf. The timid mech had no cause to care for the wolf. He had no reason to give medical attention to the creature. He had no motivation to give a flying slag. If anything, Clawkin had snapped at him and growled, breaking his armor at least once when she’d sunk in her fangs, drawing a few drops of energon. But now, the mech was patching her up.

        FarLust didn’t understand it. She didn’t understand what the mech was doing or why he could possibly care about a being that had only treated him with disregard at best.

        When the Cyberwolf was successfully taken care of, BrokenWeld stood back up, satisfied the being would be capable of healing on her own from this point out. At least, she would be for this particular wound.

        “I don’t get it,” FarLust stated simply, breaking the silence. “Why do you care about her? She did nothing to deserve your kindness. She was cruel and harsh. She behaved as I do towards you. Why did you save her? You could have easily left her to offline. What the slag was running through your processor?”

        “You said it yourself,” BrokenWeld stated. “She behaves like you. And you saved my spark before. The least I can do is return the favor, even if it isn’t to you directly. She’ll be all right now. I hope you will be, too. Even if you still question my motives for a simple act of kindness.”

        That was the moment when something shifted in FarLust. When she finally saw BrokenWeld as something far more than just a timid, worthless, burdensome mech like they had wanted her to. FarLust saw something beyond the lack of a warrior in his spark. BrokenWeld was a kind spark. And she vastly appreciated that of him.

        ~~~

        “Hey, Fay,” SearchLight called quietly once the sun had set and a darkness had settled over the outside world. Fay smiled at the femme’s presence.

        “Hey,” she replied softly. Earlier in the day, Fay had found a way to wedge the window open, fixing the problem she’d had the last time she’d desperately wanted to escape her room while avoiding the hallways. That had been the night of the last full moon, when she’d sworn she was going crazy. That was right up until the pain kicked in, and then she knew nothing other than the blinding ache that was pounding on her skull.

        Fay walked over to the open window, carefully climbing out the sill, landing right in SearchLight’s waiting palm. The femme smiled, walking over to the underused football field, where the rest of the Autobots were patiently waiting for their arrival. Fay smiled at the appearance of the mechs and femmes she had come to know so well. They were all wonderful beings, all driven by what they knew in their sparks to be justice. Fay loved that about them. While she sometimes struggled with her impulsiveness, so did Ironhide, and he still fought the good fight. It gave her hope that she could overcome her instinctual reactions and become something better than what she’d been made as.

        Among the waiting Autobots stood Charlie, someone Fay was always delighted to see. As soon as Fay was on the ground, she rushed over to Charlotte, throwing her arms around the blonde girl, greeting her warmly.

        “Aw, look at that happy ending!” Jazz exclaimed, teasing them with a grin on his faceplates.

        Charlie laughed, hugging Fay back, squeezing her close. “Shut up, Jazz!” She shouted back to the silver mech.

        “Ooooh!” Fay exclaimed immediately, pulling away from Charlie’s embrace. “Jazz, you’re getting called out. Is my big, bad brother really going to do nothing?”

        Jazz chuckled, shaking his helm, amused at Fay’s reaction. “She can do that once and get away with it,” he assured.

        “Pfft!” Charlie exclaimed. “More like once a day or once an hour! I do it all the time!”

        Fay laughed. “Is that so? My brother is getting verbally abused by Charlie!” She shouted, still getting used to talking about her brother in the present tense. After all the years of his absence, it felt strange. It hadn’t been that long since they’d come back, so she was still getting used to the fact that they really were here, and they were here to stay this time.

        ‘Maybe,’ she had to keep telling herself. With a war going on, it was possible for dangerous things to happen. And dangerous things were more than likely to happen. It scared her, but it was the reality of their lives. So, Fay had resolved to savoring every moment she possibly could with them, while she could. In truth, Fay adored them. These beings were her family. They comprised her spark, however unusual the thing resting inside her chest was.

        The meeting was wonderful, fun, containing stories of the war, all of which left Fay breathless, a few (safe) reenactments, jokes, nicknames and random moments . . . It was an elated night, the group nearly drunk on the high of being in the company of each other, temporarily safe.

        At least, they’d thought so. Up until the Decepticons came trodding towards them, their peds heavy, even in the soft earth. The half moon was shining in the darkness, the clouds beginning to roll in, threatening to block out what light it offered.

        “Megatron,” Optimus growled, glaring at the warlord’s true form.

        Quietly, Fay began to panic a bit, her spark racing at the sight of the large mech, Barricade and Starscream at his sides. She had betrayed him. She had done him wrong. He had asked so little of her, and what had she done? The precise thing he had wanted her to abstain from. Even though Fay knew it was illogical for her to be ashamed, even though she knew she was not what they’d programmed her to be, a bit of her old coding still rang true.

        The light of the moon was blocked out by the clouds. 

        Wanting to hide her shame, Fay got up and ran, sprinting for the woods. Wherever she was going, Fay wasn’t sure. All she knew was that she had to get out of here. All Fay knew was that she had to escape. She had to get away. As she approached the fence to the forest, Fay could hear Charlie, Optimus, Harvey, Jax, all calling out for her. She didn’t stop. She kept going. She had to escape. She had to distance herself from that situation.

        Fay was getting a fair distance away. She was nearing the platform, nearing a fair hiding spot, if she could only get underneath the boards . . .

        Barricade’s holoform grabbed her though, throwing Fay harshly against a tree. Her skull cracked a bit against the bark, and she winced at the pain, her vision blurring for a moment. The shadows were crossing her vision. For whatever reason, the medicine was weakening. It wasn’t until the blow began to fade in its effectiveness that Fay felt the needle too late. Barricade’s holoform was already pulling it back out of her skin, and the burning fluid had made its way well into her system, the point of origin feeling like a fire had been lit under her skin. Fay let out a small gasp at the pain, then groaned, hating the sensation, hating the mech who had created it inside her.

        “You bastard!” She exclaimed, her eyes flashing red as she reopened them. “I’ll kill you for that, you insignificant mech!”