For once everything went smoothly.

Bruce, Liv, Tony, and the Autobots set up a camp outside the mountain. Wanda had too much on her plate to be portalling not just people but machinery back and forth. Instead, a helipad was constructed.

On schedule, work began to not just repair but excavate the ship as well.

Optimus had meetings with the president, who apologised for their actions. Optimus had wanted to remain hidden on Earth. Any active Decepticons would seek to destroy their hated foes. But, as part of the deal, President Ellis wanted to announce it to the world. It was going to be hard enough to keep excavating a mountain secret. If the press got hold of it, even harder to keep the Autobots hidden.

Unhappy, but not unwilling, Optimus took part in the Predients press event. It was huge. Another alien race, and not just human-looking was a global hit. The Cybertronians were splashed over every magazine cover for months. Soon, toys, comics, and official vehicles, based on their transformation, were being sold. Pepper and Liz took charge of it, through AIM, and used the publicity to keep the public on their side. The details of Peter and Arcee's relationship were kept secret. Some of the fanfiction circulating was bad enough without adding fuel to the fire.

Colonel Lennox was their liaison with the military. He was unhappy but handed over the large laser cannons they had found. Optimus pressed for details of any other weapons technology they may have discovered. He was surprised, and glad, to find they had used their own. The Pulse rifles were based on the Tesseract and not Cybertronian weapons.

Stark became fast friends with Ratchet. He was the first to be reactivated, as his medical knowledge was needed. Most days Tony was hovering over his shoulder in an Iron Man suit. It was his job to make detailed notes on how Energon interacted with their systems. Bruce and Liv worked out the math, and it was Tony's job to make sure it was safe.

It was then that T'Challa decided to become the official Diplomat to the United States. Shuri, while young, was doing a good job of ruling Wakanda, but unlike her T'Challa grew bored and restless. He also took Erik as his guard, much to Okoye's ire, but it was to keep an eye on him and keep him out of Wakanda.

With all of AIM squarely focused on helping the Autobots, Peter was the only one with nothing to do. Cybertronian medical technology was advanced enough that they had no need for him. Liv was a better physicist and Tony was a better engineer. Peter was at a loose end. So, after much begging, and bartering, he took a holiday and visited Wakanda. Shuri was glad to welcome him, and even happier for the distraction he provided. It was under the guise of research, but all Peter and Shuri researched was the inside of her bed chambers.

⁂

Liv was at the Ark most days, living in a temporary camp set up by Tony, and Bruce kept to himself.  His work was on the energy, and so was theoretical until they had the machine ready to try and make Energon.

As she was working with him most days, Liv found out first-hand just why Peter and Tony fought all the time.

"So, your math is wrong," Tony said smugly as he handed over a tablet with different calculations to Livs, "and I fixed it."

Liv looked at the calculations, "Yes, you did. But you also neglected to mention the tolerance levels of the energy conduits in the notes you gave us." Liv pushed the tablet back into Tony's hands. "If you wish to grandstand, and take the glory, please do it without killing anyone."

Tony snorted, "It was in my notes," he flicked at the screen and handed it back.

Liv raised an eyebrow and shook her head as she took the tablet from him once more. "Oh yes, so it is, in a different section, under the wrong heading." She sighed, "Mister Stark. You might be a genius but you are sloppy. Your notes are barely college-level and your analysis is based on intuition and hunches. You cannot expect everyone to reach the same conclusions."

Tony snorted and grinned smugly, "I can't help it if nobody is as smart as I am."

"Or as conceited. If you passed this to an engineer he would have killed the first Autobot to ingest it." Liv leaned in, and pulled Tony close, "I really don't give a shit about your ego. You kill any of these people and I will do to you what I did to Warmachine. Your systems are not unhackable," she hissed.

Tony pushed himself away, "And I would have checked before anything was done. So keep your hands, and your threats to yourself."

Liv sighed and closed her eyes, counting to ten. "Tony. There is no doubt that you are a genius, but these are lives, not toys. You can go be a rock star once we save them."

Tony smirked, "I can be both. Science is art, and nobody likes art they don't understand." He waved a hand dismissively at her. "I would have checked that, nobody wants dead robots, or the press that comes with that."

Liv rubbed a hand across her forehead, "And now I get why Peter and Pepper don't like you." Tony stopped and was about to start a rant but Liv raised a finger and scowled at him. "You will be quiet and you will listen." She pushed a little with Octave and made sure that Tony had no choice but to listen. "These are living creatures. We can't afford mistakes. You will make sure your notes are in proper order and then we shall all check them, with Ratchet." She lessened her grip on him, "I apologise for my outburst. It was unprofessional and unneeded. You are correct, nobody here wishes the Autobots harm, least of all you."

Tony stepped back, "I hate that you guys can do that." Unknown to Liv he made a plan to make sure they never did again. "But you're right," he half-heartedly shrugged. "I'm used to doing things my way, and I have a team of guys to check my math after. They know my style and mistakes aren't made."

Liv did notice that wasn't really an apology. It was just his way of saying 'Sorry you're not brilliant enough to keep up'.

"And nobody wants the Autobots to die. Not you, not me, and not Parker. I'll make sure you understand my notes."

Bruce, driving a forklift, with a body attached to the rear stared at the pair. "I hate to interrupt your bonding time, but we do have work to do. Oh and Tony, your notes suck. I spent half the day trying to figure out some stupid acronym until Ratchet pointed out it was Tony Rules The World. These are notes on how to create energy, not some stupid fangirl journal."

Ratchet lifted the square blue-chested Decepticon body. "I have to agree. Even I have trouble understanding your non-sequential formulas. You use annotations unfamiliar to the others and we do waste a lot of time trying to decipher them."

Tony didn't say anything, he just snorted. That was what annoyed Liv about him the most. If someone told him he was wrong, most of the time, he ignored them.

"I am working on repairing some of our more damaged chassis. This one however you may disassemble. He was able to create a chamber to hold Energon. We have similar devices, but perhaps you can replicate it." Ratchet lifted the body, "Where is suitable?"

“Just here is fine.” Liv pointed to an empty space. With a nod, Ratchet lay down Soundwave and then left. Liv knew Tony was brilliant, he was just the same level of arrogance as Osborn. While she agreed to work with him on this project, anything else was another matter. AIM wasn't going to lag behind Starktech forever, and Peter was just as brilliant as Tony. Plus, he had her to help him.

The trio began to use the collection of tools Ratchet had left them to slowly disassemble the body. Liv and Bruce helped lift the front panel from Soundwave's chest, “Well, look at that.” Inside were four projectors, creating a rectangular energy casing. "They must be fitted to create Energon cubes. If we figure out how they work, we can make our own."

“I'm not getting any kind of reading from it though, it's a perfect insulator.” Bruce said as he waved a detector over it, “Which I suppose makes sense if it holds energy, does energy go bad? I mean, can they tell?”

“They complained the arc reactors we supplied them with tasted foul, so I guess they can.” The trio shook their heads while grinning. The last thing any of them expected to be talking about was exactly how different forms of energy tasted.

Dissecting a Cybertronian was slow work. As with a human, there were a lot of easily damaged components, but soon they removed the cube creator. Testing it was easy. The energy membrane accepted any type of connector and filled up. The cube then compressed down until it glowed with a pearlescent light. Now was the harder part of recreating it.

A single unit was not enough to sustain all the Autobots. One could hardly feed the ones that were active and Ratchet was very efficient. Even parts of Soundwave were taken, and another Autobot was made functional again.

Once the Energon convertor was complete, there was just a matter of testing it. The Energon cubes it created needed to be stable for space travel, and compatible with the Autobots. While it was being set up Ratchet was busy disassembling Soundwave once more.

Liv was watching him remove one of Soundwave's eyes when her curiosity got the better of her. “Are you all like this?” Rachet tilted his head. “I could see that this Cybertronian wasn't too badly damaged. But you're harvesting parts rather than resurrecting him.”

Ratchet nodded. "You are aware of our Sparks. We are not this body, it is a shell, a temporary home. While we can change, some of us do not like to. We could have housed an Autobot in this body, but some do not like to be housed in a Decepticon. We are not what you call superstitious, it is just, bad energy.”

“Like the shell holds a taint?” Liv asked.

“A Spark learns and grows. It gains insights and personality, and yes, we believe that influences the chassis. I cannot imagine being in any other body than this one. Once I am taken offline I will rejoin the All-Spark and allow myself to become one with the Matrix. If I am reborn, it will not be as Ratchet.”

Tony snorted, “Yeah, Sparks. What next, ghosts and demons?”

Liv tutted. “Mr Stark. So far, we discovered aliens, robots with minds, and people with superhuman abilities. Souls aren't exactly out there.” That was another thing she disliked about him. If it didn't fit into his view of the world, he was rudely dismissive.

Tony waved a screwdriver at her as they began to unhinge Soundwave’s front ejection panel. “I can see the science behind that, but souls are religious, and that's just mumbo jumbo.”

Liv sighed, “And you watched Optimus infuse Jocasta and Vision with energy. So far, as we can tell, a lot of Augment powers are extra-dimensional. Even Bruce here, a Hulk grows, gaining muscle mass and increased body weight from where? So who says a human soul isn't the same? A Cybertronian’s soul is plain for everyone to see. Who says you humans don’t have souls, and it's just hidden?” Liv was well aware of a person's soul, as long as you held the Soul Stone, you could see them.

Tony frowned and nodded, “Could be worth examining in-depth. If Augments connect to other dimensions with their X-gene, I don't see why a machine can't be built to do the same.”

Ratchet nodded, “I understand your reluctance. Your fleshy bodies are much different than ours. Even Arcee is much more technological than your carbon-based forms.” Ratchet lay down the spanner, and the eye he was holding, “Mr Stark, we keep certain sparks separate. Would you like to see?” and Liv definitely nodded. Anything to do with giant robots and she would want to see.

Ratchet took them to a room and inside was a honeycomb of containers. Each one was similar in design to the spark chamber they had seen within Soundwave.

“These are the Decepticon Sparks we have extracted from their bodies. Each one will remain here until we can provide a more suitable environment for them.” He explained and as she looked over the cells, each one was floating peacefully in its new home. All except one.

One spun and widely crashed against each side of the cell it was in. As they approached it bashed itself against the energy barrier keeping it contained.

“Nimrod?” Liv asked.

Ratchet nodded. “Yes, Megatron. He is the leader of the Decepticons and believes himself superior to all others. His rehabilitation will be long and difficult.” He sighed, “which leads up to another problem. The body your people fabricated. We do not wish to take it with us.”

In the corner was a standard medical table and Nimrod's body lay on it. Ratchet had been busy, as the chest panel was open and several cables hung out.

“I have examined it. It is of Earth origin with our technology mixed in. Repaired we do not know if Megatron's Spark will have given it life or not, and we cannot tell unless we supply it power.”

Liv sighed and nodded. “and rather than attempt it, and give yourselves a huge headache, you’ll give it back to us, and let us do it?”

Ratchet smiled and nodded. “That is Optimus’s plan. I believe he is negotiating with which human organisation will claim responsibility. Then once they admit they assaulted our people, he’ll tighten the screws.”

A saying that had similar meanings on both worlds.

“Well, we didn't build him," She saw Stark eyeing the body and knew he would take it if asked. "But if they all prove difficult I know Peter will make sure that it's safely stored." She looked at Tony, "and neutralised.”

Ratchet nodded. “For one of your species, I find your knowledge of Cybertronians intriguing. I understand Peter interfaced with Arcee to create a new life form, would you be interested?”

Liv cut him off by crossing her arms, “No, I am only interested in one male, and that is Peter.” Liv was tempted, but Arcee’s reformatting had been an accident. Without a series of tests, the original issue was still relevant. Would a normal Cybertronian be able to host a Symbiote? Without answering that question, it was a dangerous experiment to run.

Arcee now possessed her own Symbiote and she could do as she wished, but after sharing, she knew the risks as well. It was agreed she would wait until Cybertron had been returned to a technorganic state. If it ever was.

“Ah, I understand. Physical contact between Cybertronians is unheard of. We are not a tactile species.”

Liv shrugged. “Well, why don't you just ask Arcee? I mean, surely” but Ratchet looked down at his feet. ”You did and she said no as well?”

He nodded, “She told me she views me as a good friend and did not want to change our relationship. But after we attempt to reformat Cybertron, that I might find a willing partner then.”

Liv nodded in commiseration. Ratchet probably being the first Autobot in history to be friend-zoned.

“But. It will not be long until the Ark is fully functional. As a thank you Optimus has downloaded our historical database. He has passed it to Arcee.”

Liv knew she was spending time at the warehouse, she herself was one of the first to bond with Reboot. It was strange at first. Reboot was the first fully alien-hosted Symbiote. Arcee felt and experienced the world differently, and it was definitely unique. enjoying the strange sensation of transformation. Of course, she had then taken the opportunity to thoroughly ravage her, and been ravaged in return. Arcee had been a willing participant and an eager student.

Liv wasn't even mad they broke one of her Bonded Pair bracelets. They were originally designed for couples who suffered from spinal injuries. It was a way for them to enjoy intimacy together. Peter made a joke about 'fake cocks' and Liv had followed that train of thought. It started as a joke but with the CLS and fake symbskin was soon a fully realised product, on paper at least. They were all happy to test them, even if Friday stole a pair.

Friday was afraid of rejection. She had felt Peter, and she was honest in admitting that she didn't like it. She had no idea if that meant she was strictly into women, but for now, she was. She now knew why Peter had gently rejected her. While she was in an adult form, she was emotionally immature and still unsure of her place in the world. It was fine though. As long as she needed it, Liv would be there for her, as a friend, confidant, and if she wanted, a lover.

For now, though, there were giant robots to dissect, and an annoying Stark to deal with. Fun would have to wait until she was home.