Author's Notes: Well, this is my first attempt at writing a TFP fic for this site, and I must admit to being a little nervous. This is just one of several ideas I had, but I'm posting this one first to test the waters. Since I'm known as a G1 writer, I'm still not sure if people will like my portrayal of other continuities or not. I'll do my best though, and hopefully it comes out as good as everything else I've done on here. Please review to let me know what you think, and favorite and follow if you want to see more :)

Chapter 1

Life Support

The room was dark. The only light was the one shining over her helm. Her light blue energon could be seen falling on the cold hard floor drip by agonizing drip. She was chained by her arms in the middle of the room, and probably would've been on her knees if it were possible. She only hoped Cliffjumper was faring better than she was. Arcee told that blowhard not to follow her!

A pair of red optics was all she could see of her captor. Walking around her, almost dancing in glee at her suffering, he chuckled darkly at having the illusive femme in his dungeon. She inwardly cursed herself once again for allowing herself to be captured by the Decepticons, but all her captor heard was a low growl of defiance.

"Still holding out for someone to rescue you, Arcee?" Her interrogator taunted, "Well, don't bother. From now on it's just you and me. If you expect to survive our little session, then you will tell me everything I want to know."

"Get...scrapped," Arcee grunted through gritted dental plates, "I'll never tell you anything."

"I figured as much," the mech shrugged, "Well then, I guess I'll have to use other methods…"

With those words Arcee saw long sharp claws coming right for her! She didn't have the strength to move as her assailant ripped away armor plating from her chassis and raked his claws along her sensitive neck cables! She struggled, but there was nothing she could do against this monster!

She screamed…

...And awoke on her berth at the new base on earth! Arcee vented roughly as she looked around for the attacker. He wasn't there...she wasn't there. It was just a dream and she was safe in Hanger E on earth. Well, so much for recharge.

Arcee stretched her joints and got out of her berth, ready to start the day a little early. She was still replaying the pesky memory from her nightmare as she walked. She had a lot of memories that plagued her in her life. Tailgate's death was probably the most prominent. She also dreamt about her former partner Cliffjumper, but she at least didn't watch him die. This memory of her time as a prisoner in Darkmount was a memory that usually didn't come to the forefront; at least not since she came to earth. She just mentally shrugged and decided her processor was bored and wanted to toy with her today.

She entered the main control room to find Ratchet was already up. Seriously, didn't the medic ever sleep? He was working on trying to locate more of the Predacon bones before the Decepticons. Their situation was dire, but on a functional planet like earth it was easy to forget that.

"Hey, Ratchet. You should get some recharge. I can stand watch," Arcee offered.

"I'm alright," Ratchet waved away her concern without even turning to look at her, "I have to decode these readings before the Decepticons find another fossil."

"Understood," Arcee replied, realizing it was pointless to argue with him when he got like this, "Hey, I'm going to grab some energon. Do you want any?"

"No thank you, Arcee," Ratchet said in a needled tone of voice, "I'll let you know if I find something."

Arcee nodded even though Ratchet couldn't see it. She sighed and went to get a cube of energon out of the supply room. It didn't take long to get there. While their crew complement had grown with Smokescreen, Ultra Magnus, and Wheeljack living there with them full time now, it seemed that the base they lived in was much smaller than their old one.

When she turned around to go back to the common room, she saw Optimus Prime leaving his quarters looking over a data pad. She still smiled to herself when she saw him around the base. When the attack on their base happened a couple months before everyone was sure Optimus had been lost. Even now she was still relieved to see him back in their lives.

Her reverie was interrupted by a proximity alarm! Ratchet motioned Optimus to come closer, and Arcee came instinctively. Before long everyone on base was awake despite it only being oh-four-hundred hours.

"What is it, Ratchet?" Optimus asked.

"According to these readings, there's a ship entering orbit. It's Cybertronian...It looks like a life pod," Ratchet read off.

"Autobot or Decepticon?" Ultra Magnus asked from behind the doctor.

"I cannot tell," Ratchet replied with a furrowed brow, "However, I can tell where it's going to land. Right there, in the Gobi Desert near the border of China and Mongolia. Optimus, we should send a team just in case it's a hostile Decepticon."

"Agreed," Optimus nodded his approval, "Ultra Magnus, take Bulkhead and Arcee with you. We'll send reinforcements if the situation takes a turn for the worse."

"Yes sir," Ultra Magnus straightened as he spoke and motioned for Bulkhead and Arcee to follow him.

The trio went toward the ground bridge, and Ratchet activated it without another word. They went through, and found themselves amid the reddish colored dust of the harsh Gobi Desert.

The wind caressed their plating. It was relatively calm now, but this region was known for its sandstorms. They would need to be careful.

"Are we sure this is where the pod will land?" Bulkhead asked.

"It already is landing. Look!" Ultra Magnus pointed as the sky was parted to make way for a dark charcoal colored life pod.

The team ran for where the pod was landing, and stopped to cover their face plates when the impact kicked up a bunch of dust! They looked, and the pod was lodged in the ground. Together the three of them pulled the pod out, and hoped that whoever was in this thing was friendly.

Back at Autobot HQ, Ratchet was carefully prying open the door of the pod while the rest of the Autobots watched. It was finally starting to look like daytime outside, and the light shone through the windows at the top part of the building. Smokescreen and Arcee had their blasters trained on the pod. It was of a Decepticon design upon closer examination. That didn't mean anything. Smokescreen came from just such a pod. Still, they had to be ready for anything and everything...

Finally, with a hiss of air, the door unlocked and Ratchet was able to get it open. He opened it, and carefully peered inside while Smokescreen and Arcee inched closer with their blasters.

"Well? What is it already?" Wheeljack asked impatiently.

"Hm...It looks like a seeker," Ratchet hummed as he ran a scanner over the unconscious form, "She's a femme. Dark blue plating with red markings. Very slight build. Standard frame for a seeker. No insignia. She could be from either faction or even a neutral. Oh my. This is interesting…"

"What is it, Ratchet?" Smokescreen asked curiously.

"According to this, her spark is quite young…" Ratchet said in amazement.

Bumblebee beeped a question to Ratchet.

"Even younger," Ratchet replied, "There's no way she came from the Well of Allsparks like this. Bumblebee was the last Allspark-born protoform, and even he's 10 vorns old. This femme is only a few earth years old. 16 at the most."

"So she's Jack and Miko's age?" Bulkhead asked, "Then why does she have an adult body?"

"Who can say?" Ratchet shrugged, "We would need to know more about her history before we could figure that out. She has standard forearm missile launchers. Not too unusual for her frame type. No upgraded weapons."

Before Ratchet could say anything else, the femme started to wake up. Arcee and Smokescreen kept their weapons trained just in case, and everyone else backed up to give the seeker some room to get out of the pod. She onlined her optics, and Ratchet noticed they were yellow. That could mean anything.

"Ugh...Where am I?" The femme asked drowsily, "Oh right, earth! I forgot for a second where I was going!"

A few 'Bots arched their brows quizzically at the femme as she struggled to get out of the pod on her scrawny legs. She had heels like Starscream's, but it looked like her balance wasn't very good. Her wings flapped up and down as she tried to keep herself from falling over on her face plate.

"Hold it!" Arcee suddenly shouted when the seeker got too close to their main computer, "Identify yourself and your affiliation!"

"Uh…" It seemed to take the seeker femme a few minutes to gather her thoughts, but then, "Oh! You guys are Autobots? Cool! My name's Mod, and I'm a neutral. I wouldn't tell just anyone that though. Decepticons get a little trigger-happy when they see my kind flying around. It feels like skeet shooting, only I'm the skeet. Hah!"

The femme seemed to instantly relax despite still having weapons pointed at her. Despite her heel struts the seeker still managed to slouch, and her broad grin looked so easygoing and unassuming.

"Mod, we are pleased to meet you," Optimus said as the crowd parted for him to greet her, "I am Optimus Prime. Would you care to tell us why you are here on earth?"

"Optimus Prime? Wow! You're like, famous!" Mod exclaimed as she reached a long-taloned hand to shake the Prime's, "Well it is an honor, sir! That being said, I've had a long trip. You got any energon?"

"Of course," Optimus replied as he gestured to the supply room, "Bumblebee, go with our guest to get her some fuel."

Bumblebee beeped an affirmative and took the seeker by the arm. She smirked at him and walked in such a way so as to match his steps exactly.

"I don't like her," Wheeljack said immediately after she was out of earshot, "There's something fishy about that femme."

"Oh, come on Jacky. She's a kid," Bulkhead reminded him, "She not even as old as Bumblebee. Frankly I'm surprised she knows how to talk."

"That's no kid, Bulk," Wheeljack said cynically, "Her spark might be young, but that body isn't. She was outfitted for war, and if she's not an Autobot then there's a good chance she's a plant set up by the 'Cons. I don't trust her."

Bumblebee, meanwhile, showed Mod the supply closet. He made sure she didn't go for anything dangerous, and before long she was looking through the energon stores. Her optics lit up when she saw a cube full of unrefined energon chips.

Bumblebee chirped skeptically.

"Yeah, so?" Mod asked with a hand on her narrow hips, "I prefer energon chips to the liquid stuff. I know it isn't as healthy to fuel up like this, but it tastes better to me. You should be happy. This means I won't drink up all the good stuff!"

Bumblebee tilted his helm playfully and gave her a low beep. She shook her head back and patted one of his doorwings affectionately. Bumblebee wasn't used to having another Cybertronian around in his age group. Smokescreen was the only one, but he was too focused on trying to impress the older 'Bots to be good pals with. This young femme seemed to only want to make friends, and her disarming smile made him want to get to know her.

"Whoa! Nice 'Bot-sized couch!" Mod said admiringly as she saw the couch that was situated near the catwalk where the humans hung out, "You know what it needs though? Fabric. On the colony where I lived all furniture had fabric, and some of it was pretty exclusive. I should know. I used to make luxury furniture back when I lived on the Glacyl Colony. You'd love it there, cadet. The flowers sing songs every morning and the skies were perfect for flying! By the way, I didn't catch your name. What was it again?"

Bumblebee introduced himself.

"Bumblebee? That's a cool name. It beats Mod anyway," Mod shrugged as she walked past Bumblebee to go sit on the couch.

She lied down on the Autobot's couch and opened her cube of energon chips to begin eating. She looked so happy and relaxed. Little did the Autobots know this would be the start of a very long battle.