"Trust in me,
In all you do,
Have the faith,
I have in you,"

»«

Dana leaned against the railing as she watched Ratchet work, his digits tapping the various keys and buttons on the board as he pulled up the Iacon Database and searched for more coded coordinates. The Decepticon tech had proven to be difficult to work with on occasion, yet the Harbinger hardware had provided almost immeasurable benefits when installed in the new Autobot base. Now, instead of a few computer screens that Ratchet had managed to cobble together, he had five different monitors which could do five different things if he so desired.

Megatron watched as well, though he was bored more than anything else. The medic wouldn't allow him anywhere near the computers, or anywhere else besides the medical bay really. His modified armor shined thanks to Ratchet's polishing efforts, and it felt reassuring to him to be able to see his fusion canon once again, but he was still waiting for a test run to ensure it was still operational. So far, he was trustworthy enough that it was not manually disabled, even though Ratchet made it clear he wouldn't be afraid to do so if he was given half a reason.

"It doesn't help that this is in the Decepticon dialect," Ratchet muttered, "that I need to translate to Autobot to fully understand."

Dana tilted her head. "How many different languages are there?" She asked.

"On Cybertron? Two, that I am aware of. Three if you count Cybertronian Sign Language. Four for the extinct Predacon dialect." Ratchet counted off with his digits before he returned to the computers.

"Only four?" Dana gaped. "Humans have hundreds."

"Six-thousand nine-hundred nine, to be exact." Ratchet corrected. "Though I'm not entirely sure if that is counting the 'dead' languages you have."

The human woman's eyes widened in surprise. "Almost seven thousand languages?" She shook her head. "And I only know one. Well, two, sort of. Would you count American Sign as English?"

Ratchet shrugged. "Cybertronian Sign is considered its own entity."

"Could you teach me that?" She asked eagerly, then pausing. "If you know it, of course . . ."

"I can compile a file," the medic reassured, unable to help but smile a little, "you've already proven to be quite proficient with the Autobot dialect. Cybertronian Sign shouldn't be much more difficult."

Megatron raised an optic ridge. He never thought a human would be so interested in the Cybertronian culture to actually learn one of the languages. Additionally, he was surprised at her clear eagerness to learn more about the world from which he and Ratchet had hailed from. In contrast, Megatron had no interest in learning about human life; he couldn't possibly imagine how such small and primitive creatures could lead lives that were in any way compelling.

Dana's eyes sparkled with delight, another grin spreading across her face as she looked at her guardian. "Thanks, Ratchet." She paused, eyes flickering over to Megatron briefly before she asked her next question. "Could I learn the Decepticon dialect as well?"

Ratchet paused, briefly looking over his shoulder to glance at Megatron behind him, noticing how the warlord was staring at him, but not saying a word, or doing much of anything besides sitting there.

"I don't see why not." Ratchet replied slowly as he returned to his computers. "Though it is a bit trickier to learn. There are more double-meanings in words; context is incredibly important."

The woman shrugged. "English is very high-context as well. I'm sure I can learn."

Finally, Megatron spoke. "Do you know how to speak the Autobot dialect?"

Both conversers were surprised when he spoke up to them, both looking at him while Dana shook her head.

"No. My . . . Vocals aren't designed to make most of the sounds." She put a hand on her throat, chuckling a little to herself. "The one time I tried, it felt like I was trying to give myself a sore throat."

"Organic voice boxes aren't designed to generate clicks, whirls, and buzzes." Ratchet also inputted. "So Dana has been sticking to reading and writing."

Megatron blinked slowly, thoughtfully. "Fair enough," he supposed.

Just as an awkward silence began to fall, the sound of the side door opening caused Dana to surge upright to her feet, Fowler having retreated to his office and thus was not the one to open the door.

"Hey Dana, Ratchet, I just go back - whoa!" Jack threw himself back through the door as he caught sight of Megatron, startled and throwing his brief case on instinct, which landed harmlessly on the floor and skidded a few feet.

"It's okay, it's okay!" Dana called to him as she ran down the steps, laughing when she saw Jack had landed flat on his butt, picking up his briefcase before she walked over to him. "I know this wasn't what you were expecting . . ."

"What is he doing here?" Jack snapped accusingly, recovering from his scare and going into the "fight" stage.

"So far, nothing." Ratchet answered, still at the computers and clearly not alarmed or stressed.

Dana helped Jack up. "It's . . . A little hard to explain," she confessed as she gave back his case, "he returned here, Jack, because he felt he had no place else to go."

The young man eyed the Decepticon suspiciously, noticing he was much bulkier and slightly more intimidating than their last encounter. "So you brought him into the base."

There was a pause, then a sigh. "Yeah, I did." Her back straightened a little as she brightened somewhat, closing the door behind him before they made the trek back to the stairs and up to the catwalk. "But! We got a new alternate form for him, and Ratchet downgraded his armor a bit. He's Earth-ready, essentially."

Jack raised an eyebrow. "You trust him enough to let him out of the base?"

"Hardly." Ratchet scoffed. "But I vetoed his driving lessons, for now," the Decepticon earned a side-glare from the doctor, "until I think I can trust him to not drive off with Dana in the driver's seat."

Jack kept down his laughter as Dana rolled her eyes dramatically, the woman changing the subject.

"How is college? You said you just got back?"

"Yup. We're off for winter vacation." Jack set his briefcase down, dressed nicely in a suit similar to Fowler's, though roughed up a bit from his brief shock. "So mom sent me here to 'work' a little. I'm pretty sure she just wanted me to check on you and Fowler, however."

Dana raised an eyebrow. "She couldn't come?"

"Unfortunately, no. The ER is exceptionally busy today." Jack paused, thinking about his next question. "Do you miss it? The hospital?"

Megatron frowned. Why would she possibly miss being confined to a bed all day?

Plopping on the couch, Dana let out another sigh. "Truthfully? Yes. Sometimes I do miss running around in scrubs and writing down vitals and joking with patients. But, at the same time, I really like it here." She gestured to the base, her gaze most notably settling on Ratchet. "Being here with Ratchet almost 24/7 isn't as bad as you'd imagine." She teased.

Jack laughed. "Only you, Dana," he smiled, "I bet interning with Fowler isn't as bad as it sounds either."

"I can hear you!" The Agent called from his office.

Dana chuckled. "It isn't bad at all. And he doesn't even make me wear a suit; unless we are giving some Pentagon higher-ups a tour of our base." She gestured to her black sweatpants and orange t-shirt as she talked, rolling her eyes again at "Pentagon."

"Yeah, mom made me come in this." Jack held out his arms from her to see. "Despite being a legal adult now, she still likes to dress me."

The girl laughed again, the sound drawing Megatron's attention back over to the pair. Neither human seemed to notice, continuing to chat and socialise about whatever happened to come to mind, both able to seamlessly jump from one topic to the next, though most of it centered around working at this facility and their schooling.

"Have you kept in touch with Miko and Rafael?" Dana asked.

Jack nodded, shrugging a little. "Yeah, I have, though not nearly as much as I want to. Schoolwork takes up much more time than I thought it would. And since I've decided to aim for a bachelor, I'm required to take more credit hours per semester in order to stay on track for graduation."

"I've opted to just do an associate's." The woman waved a hand dismissively. "But! I am taking a gap year right now; mostly for Ratchet's benefit. He wants me stay close as we figure out the pros and cons of the back strut." She leaned forward to gesture to the device which rested, quite literally, behind her.

"Anything interesting happen?"

"Well, I was feeling weakness in my legs for the past week; turns out I was running low on energon." Dana laughed. "It's kind of weird to think about, actually. So far it seems six months is how long it will last, which is a ridiculously long time compared to Ratchet's consumption of energon, which is every other week."

"We believe it is due to its limited function." Ratchet cut in briefly to explain. "The device itself only has one job, so it does not need to expend a large amount of energy."

"And, for all we know, it has a bunch of energon-saving features." Dana mentioned. "Ratchet isn't about to re-do the surgery just to see what all is there."

Jack nodded thoughtfully, taking it all in. "Have you had any other problems?" He asked. "Anything considered typical of a partially-severed spine? I only ask because my mom did, and I realised I had no idea if you were experiencing any of that."

"So far, no." Dana shook her head. "But, the device is brand-new. I wouldn't be surprised if, as I got older, it stopped working as well as it is now. My parents wanted to put me on disability, but I'm not experiencing anything that would warrant that yet. So I'm holding off for now."

"I can understand that." Jack looked around the base, looking at all the computers. "I see you got some new stuff."

"The Harbinger proved useful in providing us with a variety of tech." Ratchet sounded quite proud of his handymanship. "And though it is all Decepticon technology, I've managed to get by perfectly fine with practice."

"If you would allow me to assist you, I'm sure I could navigate the computering systems much faster and more efficiently." Megatron pointed out, but that only earned him a glare from the smaller, but somehow still intimidating, medic.

"You may have allowed me to do some modifications to your outward appearance, but I am not trusting anything in that processor of yours just yet." Ratchet continued typing, but he was smashing the buttons with increasing aggression. "You are not going to be anywhere near these computers for a long, long time."

Megatron looked rather unhappy at that, but kept his mouth shut. It was no use arguing with the medic, and though Megatron was ready to just order him to allow him near the computers, that most certainly would not turn out well. They had already established the chain of command, and it was not going to be moved any time soon.

"Ratchet is trying to decode the Iacon database." Dana explained to Jack briefly, telling him everything they had discussed in regards to the subject.

"So we know what the other relics could be?" Jack wondered.

Dana shrugged. "We would have to look up what the Thirteen Original Primes had in order to guess." She added, "and some relics may not even be from them; the Apex Armor is one in particular Megatron pointed out."

"So, until we find them, we have no idea how valuable they might be."

"Precisely." Ratchet confirmed. "Which is why it is important that we do find them, to discourage any potential hunters from trying to either sell them to the highest bidder, or use them for their own sadistic purposes."

"And you're willing to do that with Megatron hanging around here?" Jack raised eyebrow.

"Consider it a test of trust." Megatron rumbled. "I can help find the relics, and in return you trust that I do not turn and use them on you."

"Fair enough point." Ratchet muttered, unhappy with the idea. "They will stay in a secure vault, so I'm not terribly concerned with you getting your filthy claws on them."

"Now now, Ratchet," Dana spoke gently, "I'm sure he has no intentions of doing such a thing, not without following protocol."

Jack and Ratchet looked at her, somewhat surprised, though it wasn't a huge shock that Dana stood up for the Decepticon leader. It was the one reason Ratchet had let him come to the base in the first place.

"We'll see." Her guardian finally said, returning his full attention to the computers. "We'll see."

»«

Hey all, I just want to apologize if this chapter seems rushed or... slow. I just wanted to put some exposition in, I hope by the next chapter that all changes and things get more exciting!!

Also, I have posted a new work called "Just Burned and Healed Things," it has a terrible cover and a half-assed description, but it contains extra stuff (pictures) that I wanted to show you guys but not put in the book, because that's just annoying, so it got its own work. Check it out if you're interested, and let me know what you guys think!

Thank you!
Fanfic_Fanatic13