Literally just a one shot because I had cats on the brain and I was relaxing. Also, I missed my Beast Wars era after such a let down with the 'Beast Hunters' portion of TFP. So blame the plot bunnies. Hope you enjoy!

It was actually a quiet evening on the base for once, no alarms going off, no attacks happening, the kids had fallen asleep so Bee and Bulkhead had offered to take them all home. The only sound on base at this point were the vents and the whine of Ratchet's computers as he analyzed data. Arcee took this moment of peace to just stroll through the halls with no purpose or destination. Moments like these were rare and she welcomed them, the more she allowed the ghosts to rest in her mind the easier it was to accept peace when the universe offered it to them on occasion. It was also nice to be able to stroll instead of roll, as much patience she had for sitting curbside for hours, it was just nice to just be able to get up and walk around without someone freaking out. That was reason number four hundred and sixty-eight she missed Cybertron: being able to walk around and not get looked at like you were an abomination upon mankind.

Smokescreen was actually sitting in the relic room with a holocube she hadn't seen before in their records, it must've been a personal one. Despite being such a screw up in the beginning, the young bot was a quick study and seemed to truly care about the team and their goals. Arcee had thought his enthusiasm before had been misplaced, but then she thought perhaps she'd been fighting too long and had forgotten what it was like to actually be excited for something. Optimus seemed to be having quiet discussion with Ultra Magnus outside near his ship while the old stiff fixed something on his ship's landing gear. Wheeljack was probably out for a drive. The bases troops had finished their last rounds of fitness and had turned in for the night, it didn't seem like any night training would be happening either.

Arcee found that being on the base, although provided them with a little more freedom to roam around in their biped forms since no non contracted persons were allowed on this base. The humans still skirted around them cautiously and didn't speak to them. The femme heaved a sigh before returning back inside. Ratchet had several screens open, monitoring several signatures across the globe, some known Decepticon mines while others were ones they would check out to see if it was a viable energon source.

The medibot realized he was being watched and glanced over his shoulder, "Something on your mind, Arcee?" he asked, with the silence he was actually in quite a good mood.

"Nothing, just pondering how you became so good at stuff other than your medical practice."

"You can't just adapt your form to the war Arcee, you have to adapt your mind as well." Ratchet closed a few windows and adjusted his calculations in a few others, "I'll admit I'm not the best at this sort of stuff like my friend Perceptor."

"Your mediocrity on the subject has kept us in the running though, I'd say you're good enough." Arcee leaned against the console as she spoke.

Ratchet's expression softened just a bit, "Thank you, that means a lot." one of his screens blinked and he opened it wider, it was the continent the humans called Africa. Here at least two mines were opened up in the remote areas and weren't being mined, but guarded by the Decepticons until they dried up one of their other mines, hence freeing up those drills for the next load. Ratchet glowered at something in the numbers.

"What's wrong?"

"I think it's a glitch in the system, it's been there for a while."

"Glitch as in….?" Arcee waved her hand for him to continue.

"Well, the data is saying that something is generating a signal, something possibly cybertronian but it's so faint. I haven't given it much thought with the past few years being this exciting."

"Is it an artifact, or a bone?"

"No, can't tell if it's Autobot or Decepticon either, it's full of a lot of broken information." Ratchet huffed and waved the screen aside.

"Why not let me scout it out?" Arcee asked.

"Scout out a junk signal? It might just be a piece of Lazerbeak or a Vehicon that got dumped there in a skirmish."

"It's obviously not that, otherwise you wouldn't have the concerned face you have on right now." Arcee folded her arms, "Look it's too quiet around here, I'd like to get a good run in and from where that signal originated it's a pretty empty part of the world except animals right?"

"Near one of the potential mines as well."

"And it's not active so there are most likely only six guarding it at a time. Please they won't even notice I was there." Ratchet frowned at the two wheeler's smug expression. Her skills were not misplaced but he was always hesitant to send anyone alone, even one as capable as Arcee.

Ratchet grunted in reluctance, the signal had been bothering for some time, "Alright, but keep it to recon, I need to be able to call you back in case anything happens."

"Of course! Thanks Ratchet!" Arcee exclaimed as he punched in the coordinates for the ground bridge.

On the other side of the world the sun was just beginning to rise, the air was still chilled and dew slid down the blades of grass. Massive rain clouds growled in the distance, retreating from their attack on the landscape. Arcee's audio receptors were immediately hit with an abundance of sounds quite foreign to her. Well, a few were familiar from the kids watching nature documentaries. Bugs buzzed loudly in the trees while birds called to each other, animals slinked through the sparse trees and slinked through the grass, having been started by the big blast of energy the bridge had created. Arcee took a moment to climb a nearby tree that would've been sturdy enough to hold Bulkhead. To the north were mountains, between her and them was a massive grassland and eventually to the south the forest became thick. She could see what she was sure were elephants grazing near a watering hole. The TV didn't give the animals justice, they were huge for flesh creatures.

Blue was just beginning to touch the sky, so Arcee accessed the satellite imagery of the current area and was pleased to find it so remote the nearest proper town was at least a five hours drive. She did a pre emptive scan of the area just to make sure where exactly the Decepticons were and was puzzled to find the readings a bit inconclusive, this interested Arcee but didn't make her nervous, she knew where the energon deposits were so the Cons weren't likely to stray far.

The femme turned her attention to the faint signal that Ratchet had been tracking. The interference must've been in the upper atmosphere since she actually had quite a good signal on the ground. Arcee slid down the tree and landed lightly, sending a few deer like creature scattering in fright.

As the Autobot tread through the giant landscape, mud clung to her feet in the more sloppy areas, a flock of fat looking birds started following her making an awful lot of racket.

"Go away!" Arcee attempted to scare them off but they were stubborn and tried to crowd around her legs. She huffed in annoyance and decided to just keep going and eventually the birds seemed satisfied that the threat was out of their area. It was about this time that the signal suddenly vanished. Puzzled, she adjusted some settings on the scanner but it just wouldn't pick it up again. It did say where the last strongest burst was so Arcee decided to do good old fashion searching. Slipping quietly through the now heavier brush, Arcee suddenly realized how quiet all the animals had become. Even the bugs seemed nervous.

Eventually the ground began to slope downward, indicating to Arcee that she was near one of the Decepticon mines, she hoped they were too lazy to patrol today so she could keep her promise to Ratchet about keeping it recon.

Luckily for her the Vehicons announced themselves by knocking over a tree when one of the two tripped over the other.

"Get up you big lug nut! Did you see where it went?" Vehicon number one snarled at his partner who was busy spitting curses and mud out of his face.

"No I didn't! Just keep looking." Vehicon number two grumbled as he stood up, picking leaves and twigs out of his joints.

Arcee remained under her cover of branches and leaves, hoping it was enough to cover her blatantly unnatural color.

"Fraggin' thing was so fast, wouldn't have caught it stealing if it hadn't have knocked over the clips."

"Think it's a new Autobot invention?"

"With four legs? Maybe it's a Predacon that just didn't die." Number two ripped up a boulder, sending a family of pigs squealing and running for their lives. He huffed in annoyance and kept on looking.

Now that would be interesting, an ancient Predacon that had been here since the veins of dark energon had cooled and receded into the rock. A creature Arcee was less inclined to meet if it had the violent reputation the Predaking had.

Something shot low through the grass behind the Vehicons who jumped and primed their weapons but the shadow was gone. Arcee felt a twinge of realization that whatever these guys were hunting shared the same shadows she was using. She quickly glanced around to see if she could slip away without being seen.

There between some trees was a possibility, it circled around to some boulders where she could kick it into high gear and leave, she simply had to make it across a very open small gap. Simple enough, Arcee waited until they both turned their backs before she made a dash for it.

Unfortunately luck was not on Arcee's side today as at the same time one of the evicted pigs ran across the same space and she ended up accidentally kicking it. The Vehicons whirled around and fired at Arcee who made a break for it.

She almost made it to the cover when a couple explosions from heavy rounds erupted above her and all she heard was the sound of groaning wood and then something solid cracked her head.

Sound immediately became muted, her vision blurred and all at once she hit the ground dazed. Blackness threatened to engulf her in waves. Arcee rolled over, trying to bring herself back around but even trying to put forth the strength to get up was too much effort. A couple of large shadows approached her, perhaps laughing in glee. Arcee wasn't sure how long they stood over her gloating but it seemed like forever, glowing drops of energon trickled down her face where her helmet had been damaged.

The shadows blurred across her field of view, seeming to be fast yet too slow, the ground needed to stop tilting Arcee gripped the ground, afraid she would slide down into the earth itself. It was then that a third shadow joined them, significantly smaller but it attacked with such ferocity that it caused the two Vehicons to scatter in fright. Keeping track of the flight made Arcee want to purge her tank so despite her instincts to get back up she just closed her eyes.

The screams tore through her darkness, something… growled? at one point, the scuffling of feet and fire power filled her senses. All Arcee could do at this point was hug the ground so she wouldn't go anywhere. The battle seemed to go on for eternity and at one point or another Arcee dumped what energon was left in her tank.

Silence.

The battle was over but who was the victor? Arcee needed to know but she was losing the battle to the darkness. The last thing she could remember was seeing a shadow approach then kneel next to her, energon dripping down their form.

000

Time stretched itself across Arcee's consciousness, memories painful and pleasant, new and old flickered through her tired mind. These were intermingled with small pictures of light, perhaps of the daylight, trees and then darkness. There was a voice that was rather comfortable to listen to, when the femme heard it she latched onto it, trying to pull herself up and out of her trauma. At one point she thought she saw Ratchet and reached out to hold his hand, she didn't want to pass to the Allspark alone.

At last, the world stopped spinning and the darkness receded in place of a thundering head ache. Arcee tried to get her bearings but it was like she had a hangover from a boatload of high grade but without the party. She reached up to touch her helmet and found it cracked, however she also felt that someone had attempted to weld it shut. The femme managed to push aside the pain to at least open her optics and look at her surroundings.

Well it at least wasn't a Decepticon holding cell. It also wasn't the med bay back at base like she'd hoped. It was the remains of a ship that had burned out and crash landed. Moonlight streamed through holes all across what had been the roof. Stones, dust and grass were taking over the majority of the missing floor. Shattered consoles and destroyed equipment were simply being absorbed by the earth. The only thing that seemed to be working albeit patched up was an energon convertor tucked safely in the far corner surrounded by opened supply containers, mostly objects used to repair things, out of date and had seen better days.

Despite wanting to vomit again, Arcee forced herself to a sitting position. Her systems finally finished their diagnosis, telling her that she'd been out for at least ten hours, she'd received no further injuries but the bad news was that several systems including communications had been knocked out, although not beyond her own body's repair system. It would just take another few days at this rate. Arcee found one of the few reflective pieces from the ship to examine the damage. A long pale crooked line went from almost her eye to the back of her head, it had been shut to stop the bleeding.

"Not Ratchet standard, but a lot better than I expected." Arcee sighed. The femme held to the side of the ship where a massive boulder had all but crushed one half of the control seats. She knelt next to the convertor and saw that it was almost complete in its cycle. Raw energon slowly turning into an digestible form.

With difficulty, Arcee stood up and despite her body's protest tried to walk toward what looked like an entrance partially covered by brush. This didn't work out so well as the ground was uneven and she was forced back to her knees again. Darkness greeted her several times and by the time she managed to get herself under control again the moon's rays had been replaced by an orange glow.

"Oh come on…" Arcee growled before she attempted to pull herself up again. This time she made it to the opening. She brushed aside the thorny bush that left nasty scratches in her paint, not that she cared for it aesthetically much.

The light outside was still very weak as the sun had not risen, animals of the night were making their final calls and the bugs were taking to the air. The horned sentinels of the day were beginning to stir. In the distance amidst the grass, Arcee caught a shape she was familiar with but in a much smaller form. One was resting on their side while the other sat on its hunches, both were watching the sun rise. The only reason Arcee had spotted them was because one had moved to lick their shoulder. The predators were cheetahs if Arcee's memory served her well.

Arcee ignored them and tried to pull herself out of the hole, but her limbs were a bit numb and the ground beneath her had decided to sway again. A few rocks went tumbling down the small hill.

The sounds caught the cats attention, the one laying down jumped to its feet and arched its back, hissing. Again Arcee ignored them since they were of no threat to her. The cat stomped on the ground and hissed again but when Arcee glared back the animal decided to retreat back into the shadows of the sparse woods. The other, larger one however remained, just watching her.

Weakness overtook her which forced her to pause, Arcee looked up again to see the cat still there, "Go away." she growled. Instead it got up and began trotting toward her.

"Ugh… you can't eat me cat." Arcee snapped. It was then that she realized this cheetah was a lot bigger and thicker than what she'd seen in the vids. It got right up to her and looked her right in the optics and it was then that Arcee saw that its eyes were a very bright blue, a hint of light emanating just behind the irises.

She arched a brow ridge, "What-? Hey!" she protested when the big animal grabbed her by winglet in its teeth and with surprising strength, dragged her back inside the broken down inside the ship.

"Ow ow!" Arcee tried to dislodge her captor but instead her body tried to heave again but she had nothing to spit out. When her head stopped swimming again, this time mercifully quicker than before she found herself back on the makeshift bed while the cat had gone to the equipment corner.

Arcee watched in fascination as this strange creature dislodged the energon canister and rolled it with his nose toward her. She stopped it from smacking into her leg, the cat sat on its hunches and looked at her, looking expectant.

"…Ok…" slowly she twisted the cap off the canister and took a few cautious sips before her low energy meeter encouraged her to drink at least half of it before she had to rest. The cat made a funny sound… purring perhaps? And looked very pleased. Arcee tried to get up again but stopped when the purring turned into a low growl and the creature laid its ears back.

Arcee set the energon down and leaned back, "Alright… um there needs to be some answers here because…. you just don't make sense." she pointed at him. He simply tilted his head and looked offended.

"Can you at least speak?"

It shook its head.

"Really? Interesting. Well you're Cybertronian of some type or you wouldn't have this." she tapped the energon, "You crashed here… quite a while ago… you haven't tried to kill me yet so you're not a Predacon or a Decepticon." the cat looked suddenly eager at where she was going with this, "So… you're an Autobot." The cheetah's eyes lit up as he spun in a circle and placed a paw on her hand for just a moment before backing off, his tail swishing in excitement.

Arcee still wasn't sure to make of this, what Cybertronian would pick an organic form to copy they were just not suited to them.

"So if you're an Autobot, why haven't you contacted us?" Arcee held up her hand before he could 'respond', "Never mind, it's not like you can tell me."

The cat snorted then turned but as he turned there was the distinct sound of several gears clicking, the 'skin' seemed to unfold itself and curve around the Autobot's armored sets. The cat 'stood up', its body gave off the appearance of lean and muscular, any metal that did appear was tinged gold with some black spots. Despite this everything about the design seemed to flow together organically.

The bot stood about her height but knelt so they could look optic to optic, "Sorry, I can't speak in THAT form… but I can in this one." he gave her a toothy grin, which looked strange to Arcee since he actually still had teeth.

"My name is Cheetor, I used to be a maintenance bot, turned scout. I followed Optimus Prime's call to get here." he looked around, his ears drooping, "Obviously I… didn't quite make a clean landing." he perked up and leaned in close to her, "What's your name?"

"Arcee." she pushed him just a tad back, "So, why haven't you contacted anyone?" Cheetor turned his head to the left while pushing back fur to reveal a nasty multilayered wound similar to the one that Arcee had right now.

"Whoa…" she reached out and touched it out of reflex, the fur made it difficult to actually see all of the wound but she could feel many deep cracks across his helm, "Right over your personal communicator… that makes sense."

"Yeah." Cheetor twitched and looked around, hearing something Arcee didn't, he relaxed after a moment before turning back to her, "I was out for who knows how long, and when I wasn't struggling to survive I was competing with the local animals… they're quite big. I actually got hunted by the locals when I was making a trip to the energon cave and that's when I realized I really needed a form that would allow me to move around freely… and Nakeeta lives in this area so… I copied her form."

"Nakeeta?"

"Oh… the organic that was sitting with me before you scared her off. She'll be back… she's quite loving." Cheetor smiled, "But it's nice to finally be able to talk to someone… there were times I thought I'd landed on the wrong planet more than once." he suddenly went to a dark place in his memories but quickly returned back to the present. The Autobot leaned in toward her again, "You'll recover nicely though! Then you can call the others and we can get out of here!"

"Of course." Arcee pushed him back a little again, she was still trying to absorb the fact that he'd decided to take on an organic form, "They might come here themselves… I'm supposed to do a scheduled report in a few more hours. Wait, how come we never tracked your signal?" Arcee was suddenly reminded of Mixmaster.

"You saw how deep that wound was, my Autobot signal was corrupted as well as my ability to access to wireless functions, I don't know how to fix that I fixed broken energon ports on the Arc not Autobots on the operating table. You really think I wouldn't have tried?" Cheetor stood up and looked around again at something Arcee again couldn't hear.

"Sorry… there's just been, so many traps." Arcee felt her face heat up but logic and spark ache justified it, "So… you're the mystery signal our medic kept finding when scanning this area."

He faced her, "Probably, there's a lot of broken parts in me, I'm surprised I was able to take on this form." he looked down at his black metal claws. Cheetor perked up when he looked at her again, "Sorry, I have to take my alternate form or else those Decepticons will find me again, I can't control the output of my signal except in that form." he placed his hands on her shoulders, "Rest, I'll go make sure no one's snooping around other than the locals, maybe go get some more energon."

"Be careful!" Arcee exclaimed, a little more enthusiastically than she meant to. Cheetor smiled and made that purring sound.

"Always am, stayed alive the past three years didn't I?" he reverted to his sleek four footed form. He stretched his front then back legs, eyes shining whenever he looked at her. Before the strange Autobot left he rubbed up against her side, purring loudly before jumping gracefully over the rubble and out of the wreckage.

Arcee listened to Cheetor's foot falls till they melded with the silence. She looked around at the wreckage that had obviously been this Autobots home. The femme suddenly felt ashamed for her self pity about not being able to walk freely around the cities. Cheetor had had no one, she at least had someone at one point or another, even after Tailgate's death there had never been a great amount of time where she hadn't been near other Autobots. Yet here, Cheetor had managed to scrape by with injuries that would've killed him had the trauma gone just a little further, and nothing but the shell of his ship left.

The floor slid around again, a few warning windows popped up within her sight and out of reflex Arcee held onto whatever was closest. When the dizzy spell finally dissipated the femme leaned back and allowed the darkness to envelope her. There were worst ways to wake up after being knocked out by a tree. She'd just leave that part out when she reported back to Optimus.