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"Huh. What's going on over there?" Arcee placed her tray on the table and stared at the Pretender sitting at a table on the far end of the row, by the corner of the fence surrounding the Groom Lake base. A half-dozen other Pretenders and an equal number of humans sat or stood around him, patting his shoulders and rubbing his back while he slumped over the table with his face twisted into a grief-stricken expression.

Jack, Lucas, Rosalina, Sierra, and Smokescreen glanced over at him as they took their seats. Smokescreen sat carefully on the ground at the end of the table and still towered over everyone. They'd gathered here for breakfast while waiting for new developments. Knockout and Breakdown were still at the Autobot base, under guard but being given some breathing room to reassure them. Crews had been working night and day to finish the fabricator so the parts they needed could be manufactured. Until then, or until something new happened with the Decepticons or the flight records from the Harbinger, there wasn't much else to do except wait.

Roz glanced around at Arcee and the rest, and bowed her head. "That's Alan. His wife died last night."

"Oh, no. What happened?" Sierra's shoulders slumped and she turned to watch the distant group.

"Just old age." Lucas sighed and put his hands around his coffee cup. "They were married seventy years. He'd disguised himself as a human, obviously, and looked around twenty years old when they met. Over the years, he had to alter his appearance to look like he was aging along with her. She never knew until a few months ago, when the Pretenders here on the base were outed."

"Surprisingly," Roz said, "she took it pretty well. Freaked out at first, but got over it quickly. Alan told us one day that, after she ended up in the hospital for the last time, she asked to see what he really looked like. So he transformed into his robot mode, and her immediate reaction was, 'Huh. Fuckin' awesome.'" She chuckled.

"Sounds like quite a woman."

"Yeah. She was everything to Alan." Roz sighed and stared at the table. "I think losing her was the worst thing that could've ever happened to him. I doubt he'll ever recover, at least not completely."

Lucas reached over and intertwined his flesh fingers between her metal ones.

Arcee stared over at Alan, watching him shake with violent sobs as the others tried to comfort him, and a realization sank in slowly. Nothing new - she's always been aware of this, on some level, but now it hit her full-force.

That'll be me in less than a century. Having to say goodbye to Jack, knowing I'll never see him or hold him in my arms again, having to go on without him because he won't exist anymore. After losing so many friends during this goddamned civil war ...

"Humans have such short lives," Smokescreen said softly. "It's really not fair."

"Arcee?" Jack turned to her and put his hand on top of hers. "Are you -?"

"I'm - I - I need to ... uh, wait here. I'll be right back. I just need to - to ..." She stood, turned, and strode across the lot until she reached the base's outside wall. She continued walking until she reached the corner, darted around it, and kept going until she had the building between her and the picnic tables. Then she slumped against the wall and trembled.

What am I doing? What the hell am I doing?

Footsteps came up behind her. She glanced over her shoulder and found Roz approaching.

"Sorry. I just -"

"I know, Arcee. I know exactly what's going through your mind. I've had the same thing going through mine often enough." Roz stopped beside her and leaned against the wall. "It's been going around and around in my head since I heard about Alan's wife. It's funny how easy it is to forget about the huge difference in life span between our species. And then something like this reminds us and we wonder whatever possessed us to put ourselves in that position."

"Smokescreen's right. It's not fair. We can live for thousands of years - tens or_hundreds_ of thousands. Humans can't even make it to a full century." Arcee shook her head. "Shit. I already knew that, and I still let myself fall in love with one of them."

"At least you landed him when he's still pretty young. That'll give you a few more years together."

Arcee shrugged and slid down the wall until her ass hit the ground, and then she pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. "After I lost Tailgate, I swore I'd never let anyone get that close to me again. Then I let myself become friends with Cliffjumper, and then he_died. Again, I promised myself I'd keep everyone else distant enough so I couldn't be hurt like that again. And what the hell did I do after a few years on Earth? I let an _alien get closer than my dearest friends, closer than anyone ever has before."

"You made yourself more emotionally vulnerable than ever before." Roz nodded.

"Yeah, exactly. Even knowing it'll end in no time at all. Not even a century. Less, if he's killed in battle or gets in an accident or gets cancer or some fucking thing. I knew it going in, and I still let it happen."

"More likely you just couldn't stop what was inevitable." Roz sat beside her and patted her on the shoulder. "I've been through the same thing several times. This little group of Pretenders found Earth a few hundred years ago. While simply trying to fit in and not be noticed, we gradually went native. Developed friendships, fell in love, ended up with families. The last time I was in love, it was this beautiful woman named Lucille. It wasn't quite the middle part of the previous century yet, a time when being gay could cost you your friends, family, job, even your life. Well, it still can, in some parts of the world, but it was much worse back in the 1940s. It never occurred to me or any of the other Pretenders to make that sort of distinction between male and female. Humans are kind of fucked-up, that way. Love is love, whatever the race or gender. Anyway, we had to be really careful about our relationship, but it worked out. Lucille was the brightest spot in my life for fifty years."

Arcee nodded slowly and braced herself for what was coming.

"I was absolutely devastated when she died. I could barely function for years afterward. It was over a decade before I could finally get on with my life. If I hadn't had the other Pretenders supporting me, I don't know if I could've survived. I promised myself I'd _never_get that close to anyone again."

Arcee glanced at her and then at the corner of the building, around which the others sat, out of sight.

"Yep." Roz laughed softly. "Along came Lucas, and I fell head over heels all over again. I tried to fight it, but I couldn't." She turned to meet Arcee's gaze. "When you find your soulmate, you can try to resist it all you want, but in the end, you just can't. All you can do is take the ride. Be the brightest spot of his life, and let him be yours, for as long as he lives."

"And afterward? How do you just move on?"

"It was always the hardest thing I've ever had to do. Humans say time heals all wounds - it doesn't really, but it does make the wounds bearable, eventually. I guess that's the best we can hope for." Roz patted Arcee's hand and managed a shaky smile. "Hey, who knows what kinds of technology will be available by the time Jack and Lucas are old men. The advanced stuff we've developed here at the Lake was able to give Alan's wife ten or fifteen years more than she would've had normally - and they were quality years, not her just lingering on. We've already been able to replace Jack's legs after they were crushed. In sixty or seventy years, replacing bodily organs will probably be routine. You never know, we may even be able to replace entire bodies. Imagine building a Pretender body and putting Jack's brain in it. Then he'd be as resilient as we are, and he could return to the way he looks now, if that's what you both want."

Okay, that does ease the dread I've been feeling all of a sudden."Heh. Yeah, I think I'd definitely prefer him to at least look human, now that I'm used to the way he looks and the idea of ... well, what we're planning to do together sooner or later."

Roz grinned. "Yeah, it's probably better that way. One thing we Pretenders realized early on is, when one of us has sex with another, it's not that pleasant if both of them are in their robot forms. You can imagine the sounds and sensations of metal scraping together. It's much better if at least one of them is in their human disguise. And you might think this is kinky, but Lucas seems to actually prefer my true form, now that he's accepted who and what I am."

Arcee smiled. "When I first started using this body, I asked Jack if he'd rather I transformed it into a human, and he said it'd be too much like being with someone else. He wanted me, not some human-looking version of me. And I feel the same way about him. He's the one I fell in love with. If he suddenly looked like a Cybertronian, it'd just be weird." Hah. Like this thing with him and me isn't weird already.

Footsteps approached again, and both of them glanced over at the corner a few seconds before Jack stepped into view.

"Hey, Arcee, is everything okay?"

"It is now, I think." She smiled and patted Rosalina's shoulder. "Thanks for the talk. I'm surprised at how much I needed to get this off my chest."

"Glad I could help. Well, I'll give you two a moment." She stood, smiled at Jack and put a hand on his shoulder as she passed, and then stepped around the corner.

"Sorry I ran off like that, Jack." Arcee stood as he walked over to her. "I just ... freaked out, all of a sudden."

"I know why." Jack glanced over his shoulder, where the other Pretenders were probably still consoling Alan. "I'm sorry, sweetheart. I know I'll just end up hurting you sooner or later, when my old body can't go on any longer."

"Well, like Roz just pointed out to me, medical technology could be advanced enough to at least give you a few more decades, maybe even a few _hundred_years. Who knows? But let's try not to think about that for now, and make the most of whatever time we have together." She cupped his face in her hands and kissed him.

He smiled, slipped his arms around her, and their lips joined again. She embraced him and their kiss became the longest, most passionate one they'd ever shared. Finally, they stepped back and held hands for a moment.

"Wanna finish breakfast before it gets cold?"

"Sure. I'm still new to this whole 'eating' thing, and there are so many kinds of food I want to try." She put her arm around his shoulders as they walked back to their table.

Jack tossed her a saucy grin and slid his hand down until it rested on her ass. "And maybe later on we can try a little ... dessert."

Her spark pulsated a little faster. Heeeey!

---

"Hey, guys." Jack waved at Miko, Raf, Bee, and Tomoko as he and Arcee walked into the hub of the Autobot base. The four others sat in their usual off-duty spot on or behind the sofa, staring intently at the video game on the huge TV over in the corner. They glanced up, grinned, and waved.

A folding table had been set up between the sofa and the TV, currently holding plates of chopped beef sticks, crackers, potato chips, salsa, and an enormous cheese wheel that took up half the table's surface space.

"Wow," Jack muttered. "That's a lot of cheese."

Raf smirked. "I call it the Wheel of Crom."

"I thought that was called the Wheel of Pain," Miko said.

"Well, only if you eat too much and get constipated."

Jack snickered. Nice. I needed a good laugh after the conversation we had over breakfast.

Tomoko pointed across the room. "There's some messages for you from Groom Lake, and some packages for Arcee."

"Thanks." Smiling, Arcee led Jack over to another long folding table placed against the wall a few yards from the entrance. Jack picked up the sheets of paper and glanced over them.

"Nice. They've issued an updated version of our armor. It's covered with a crystalline layer to refract Decepticon beam weapons. Mine is equipped with a built-in EMP generator, Miko's has an upgraded stealth system, and Raf's has a suite of hacking tools."

"That'll come in handy. Just try not to let any 'Cons fall on you." Arcee winked and cocked her head at a large case resting on the table. She popped the latches, lifted the lid, and her optics opened wide. "Well, hello, you sexy thing!"

Jack raised an eyebrow at her as she extracted a huge shotgun with six rotating barrels and a drum magazine from the case. She stared at it with a beatific grin and ran her left hand slowly along its barrels.

"Oh, this is beautiful! It's a full-auto assault shotgun that fires the same ammo we've been using against the 'Cons."

"Sweet." Grinning, Jack glanced over the notes again. "Says here it fires fourteen hundred rounds per minute. And there's a scaled-up version for your full-size body. So after you're repaired, you can carry that monster into battle and cut 'em to shreds."

Arcee's optics opened even wider as she returned the gun to its case, locked it, and rested her hand on top.

Jack laughed. "Damn, girl. You actually look sexually aroused now."

"That's what the other package is for," Miko said, grinning, without taking her eyes off the screen.

Arcee raised a brow plate and plucked the Post-It note from the top of a smaller box wrapped in brown paper. "It's from Miko."

"Uh-oh. Probably a dildo."

Arcee chuckled and opened the box. "Yep."

"Seriously?"

Miko's grin widened. "At first I thought about getting a huge one just to be funny. But then I figured you'd want a more realistic one so you can get an idea of what sex is like without actually doing it. Assuming you two are still planning on waiting."

Jack's face heated up.

"Granted, I haven't seen Jack's dick, so I have no idea if the one I ordered is too big or not."

Jack's blush intensified.

Arcee pondered the box's contents for a few seconds. "Well, I saw it back when Jack was in the hospital after getting his new legs, and this looks pretty close."

Jack's blush grew so intense, he felt as if his face were about to burst into flames. "_So_glad Mom didn't walk by right then."

Arcee laughed.

"There's one feature I think you'll really enjoy," Miko said. "It's filled with a liquid that has the same consistency as jism. Push the button on the end and it spurts just like a dude blowing his load. I figured you could use it to try out that 'software protocol' Rosalina told us about."

_Holy ... shit._Jack shook his head.

Arcee aimed a saucy grin at him. "Well, thank you, Miko. I just might need to find a private room here and, uh, perform a little routine maintenance."

"Hah." Miko grinned. "When I do it, I just call it masturbating."

Arcee burst into laughter again.

A voice Jack didn't recognize came from the speakers on either side of the TV - one of the kids in whatever online game they were playing, Jack guessed.

"Hey, Miko, what's the weirdest thing you've ever masturbated to?"

_Oh, no._Jack buried his face in his hands.

"The new trailer for Mad Max: Fury Road."

Silence fell and stretched out for at least ten seconds before the voice returned.

"I can't decide what's more horrifying - your answer, or the fact that you didn't even hesitate."

"I'm with ya, bud," Jack muttered.

"Huh." Tomoko nudged the levers on her controller, keeping her touch delicate to avoid damaging the device with her huge hands. On the screen, the jet she was flying banked and dived toward a glowing target hovering above a bridge. "I'm confused about something. Well, a lot of things about sex are confusing, but specifically, why is it called 'coming'? I mean, if you weren't already there, it wouldn't be happening in the first place."

"I've actually never thought about that before." Miko shrugged.

"I just can't believe you actually admit to ... y'know." Raf blushed.

"What? Masturbating?" Miko shrugged again. "Well, orgasms are awesome." She grinned. "So I have them."

"Logical." Arcee chuckled, closed the box, tucked it under one arm, and grasped the gun case's handle. "I'll go store these in my locker."

"Think I'll join you," Jack said. "Just so I don't hear any more of that conversation."

"Oh! Oh! Oh!" Tomoko giggled. "I've got it!"

Jack glanced at the TV in time to catch a glimpse of her jet passing through the target.

Her jet immediately crashed into a Pißwasser truck and exploded. Tomoko's optics opened wide and her mouth formed an almost perfect O as the target ejected from the wreckage and hovered above it.

"Never mind!" She laughed, put the controller down, and wiggled her fingers. "This is too intense, anyway. I need to take a break." She stood, stretched, and walked over to join Jack and Arcee. "I'll be back in a few minutes."

"How're you doing?" Arcee smiled up at Tomoko.

"Not bad. I'm feeling pretty good about things, actually. I was so scared during the rescue operation, but not so much anymore, now that I've been able to help out and everything turned out okay. Well, except for your injury."

"Yeah, you did a great job. You made the difference between success and failure."

"Thanks!" Tomoko grinned and glanced over her shoulder at the others. "Y'know, masturbating sounds like fun. Maybe sometime soon I can link up to a spare Pretender body and try it out."

Jack almost tripped over his own feet. He recovered his balance, blushed, and tugged on his collar. "Kids grow up too fast, these days."

Arcee snickered. "I haven't tried it yet, but I'm hoping I get the chance soon. I'll let you know how it goes."

Jesus._Jack rubbed his hands over his face again. _Christ.

Arcee's smile faded suddenly. She caught Jack staring at her and nodded at the doorway up ahead. "Optimus has some new info for us. They're holding the briefing in the repair bay so I can stay in the loop."

"Not good news, I take it?"

"It's ... unsettling." She leaned over to give him a kiss. "You can join me in the repair bay while I put these things away."

He nodded and watched her jog through the doorway and take one of the corridors branching off to the right. He and Tomoko took the branch that led to the repair bay. A few seconds later, Miko and Raf caught up with them and Bumblebee's clanking footsteps came up behind them.

Jack walked on into the repair bay and found Arcee sitting up and leaning against the wall. Ratchet stood at his console, Optimus stood beside Arcee, Bulkhead, and Bulk's Pretender body, and their new "guests" sat at the opposite side of the chamber with Steve and Khalilah keeping an eye on them. Knockout and Breakdown, all scratched and dented and miserable, glowered at Starscream. Despite the casual poses the two Vehicon defectors had taken on, Starscream had tried to squeeze himself into a corner and was moving in his usual jittery manner. The fact that the four of them probably still wanted to kick his ass didn't appear to be lost on him.

Jack walked over to Arcee. She moved her left hand so he could sit beside her, and let it rest gently against his side.

"Ratchet propped me up against the wall a while ago. I got tired of staring at the ceiling." Arcee chuckled and glanced down at her useless legs. Jack draped his arm over her hand and stroked it slowly.

"So, what's the unsettling news?"

"Our new guests have been filling us in on recent events aboard the Nemesis," Optimus said.

Knockout stared forlornly at the scratches and dents on his arms. Breakdown stared at him for a few seconds, glanced at the ceiling, shook his head, and turned to address the new arrivals.

"Things were getting bad on the Nemesis even before Miko blew up a quarter of the ship. That's the main reason we went along with Starscream's plan to break away, set up that underground base, and build an army against our leader." He flicked his good eye from one of them to another. "Megatron ... isn't himself anymore. Hasn't been, for a long time."

Starscream spoke up despite his obvious nervousness. "It started when he rammed that shard of dark energon into his own spark. He thought he could use it to control reanimated Cybertronian corpses, but it seemed to have created a link between his mind and Unicron." His voice shook slightly.

"It's gotten a lot worse sense then," Knockout mumbled, as if trying to pull his attention away from his own damage and not quite succeeding. "I think Unicron has been influencing him, and it's been growing stronger every day."

"It's reached the point where Megatron is just gone," Breakdown continued. "It's like his body is an empty shell and Unicron is in total control."

Jack shivered and glanced at Arcee. She hadn't believed Unicron even existed until they'd seen video and sensor data of him in the Harbinger's flight recorder. Now, knowing he was real and what he was capable of ...

"We've seen records of Unicron in action," Steve said quietly. "He's half the size of this solar system - or, he was when those scans were taken. He could be even bigger now. We saw records of him destroying entire planets and consuming the molten remains. I'm not sure why he would even bother possessing Megatron and continuing to lead the Decepticons."

Breakdown glanced over at Optimus. "It's possible he's afraid of the last remaining Prime. In the legends I've heard, Unicron could only be defeated by a Prime. So, maybe he's trying to remove the only thing that's a threat to him." Breakdown shrugged. "Either that, or he's just doing this for shits and giggles. Or to relieve boredom."

Jack shuddered again.

Knockout glanced up at Steve and Khalilah. "You and the other defectors are lucky you got out of there when you did. Any time one of us questioned an order or failed to achieve an objective, Megatron - Unicron, whichever - would straight up kill him and reanimate the corpse. Then he'd have complete control over it."

"Fuck me," Miko said under her breath. "From everything I've heard about Megatron, he was disturbing enough back when he was normal."

Khalilah and Steve nodded emphatically. Breakdown sighed and glanced down at Bulkhead.

"I doubt you and I will ever stop hating each other, but things have changed. This has gotten a hell of a lot bigger than our petty squabble."

Bulk gaped at him, stunned into silence.

Knockout nodded slowly. "If Unicron is anything like the legends, he'll destroy_everything_ eventually. He eats planets, for fuck's sake." He shook his head. "Imagine what will happen if he sets his sights on Earth. I've found a lot to like about this little planet over the last few years. Drive-in theaters. Classic car shows. Illegal street races. I'd really hate to lose all of that."

"There's more," Ratchet said. "We've just received video from a surveillance drone that's been observing the location of our most recent battle." He cleared all the data from the main screen to make room for a large window displaying the video. It showed the torn-up field where the team had rescued Knockout and Breakdown from a squad of Insecticons. Those Insecticons were still where they'd been left, cocooned in the webbing Tomoko has used to immobilize them so everyone could escape.

A new squad of Insecticons walked among them.

The image rotated slowly as the drone circled around and kept its camera pointed at the field.

Megatron stepped into view, his movements almost mechanical, his expression blank. A purple glow seemed to almost ooze from his optics.

"In every other image I've seen of him," Miko said, "his eyes were red."

Breakdown shook his head. "That's not him, anymore."

On the screen, Megatron stopped beside one of the helpless Insecticons and aimed his enormous arm cannon point-blank at his chest.

"Oh, no," Tomoko whispered.

Megatron fired and the Insecticon released a shriek that tore straight through to Jack's spine.

It cut off abruptly and the red glow faded from the 'Con's optic. Megatron ripped the webbing from the body and placed his palm on the molten hole he'd just blasted through the center of the bug's chest. A purple glow spread from his hand and into the wound.

The Insecticon's body convulsed and lurched back to its feet. It stood before him, head lolling to one side, jaw hanging open.

Tomoko covered her mouth with her hands and whimpered.

Megatron walked over to another immobile Insecticon, executed him, and revived the body in the same manner.

Tomoko cried out softly. Arcee reached up to touch her arm.

"Hey. It's not your fault." She motioned at the spot on the floor beside her. "Come here. Sit down."

Tomoko stumbled over, half sat and half fell to the floor, and leaned against the wall. She couldn't take her optics off the screen.

Megatron walked over to a third Insecticon and blasted a hole clean through his chest.

Optimus turned to Ratchet. "We've seen enough."

Ratchet stopped the playback and the screen blanked out.

"Tomoko, listen to me." Arcee put one hand on the girl's shoulder and the other on her cheek. "Look at me. This is not your fault."

"They couldn't move," Tomoko whispered. "They were helpless because I -"

"No. You immobilized them because you didn't want to take anyone's life. You made the right choice. You have no control over what that_monster_ did afterward."

"Arcee's right," Steve said. "None of us expected this to happen. There's no way we could've known this would happen. It's not your fault. It's Megatron's. Or Unicron's. Whichever. He's the one who pulled the trigger."

Arcee put her arm around Tomoko's shoulders and pulled gently. Tomoko leaned over until her head rested on Arcee's shoulder. Bee crouched beside her and placed his hand on her back. Raf reached up and barely managed to put his hand on Tomoko's.

Poor girl._Jack sighed. _She was finally happy, and now ...

"This must be stopped," Optimus rumbled. "If Unicron does indeed fear me because I am a Prime, and he knows I am on Earth, then Earth is in grave danger."

"How do we stop something that's big enough to swallow up a sun and its nearest planets?" Jack shook his head slowly. "I just ... what the hell can we do against something like that?"

"First, Megatron - or whatever he has become - must be destroyed."

All the 'Bots turned to stare at him. So did Jack. He'd never heard Optimus state an intention to flat-out kill someone before.

This must be even worse than we thought.

"And then ... we _must_find a way to stop Unicron. We need a way to intercept him before he reaches Earth."

"If only we had a ship that could get us there," Jack muttered. "I wonder how many years it would take to build one?"

"Hmm." Optimus raised one brow plate. "I will speak with Agent Fowler and General Sanchez. Perhaps we can figure something out. We must."

"I hope so." Jack met Arcee's gaze and shivered. "If we can't, we're all dead."