Whenever I first met Megatron, I had no idea of what he was capable of. The only side I ever saw was that of a loving father who wanted nothing more than to make up for lost time with his daughter. I had never seen his true nature while on board his ship, and even when I returned to the Autobots.

As his plan dawned on me and unfolded before my very eyes, I finally began to see the other half of his nature, the one which I deep done always knew existed but was ignored by the innocence of a daughter towards her father.

Megatron is a monster. A monster that wants to destroy my world and the innocent life on it with the dead of his own world.

He is a monster. And despite everything, part of me still loved him. He is my father.

I am the loving daughter of a monster.

My daddy, Optimus spoke up to the team. "We cannot allow Megatron to send dark energon through his space bridge. If we fail, the dead of Cybertron will rise, swarm through its vortex, and invade Earth."

My voice is hollow when I interject. "Human kind won't have a chance… They will bend this planet to Megatron's twisted rule."

Everyone is quiet. I merely slump against the wall, lean my head back, and sigh while closing my eyes. After a moment, I hear movement and look to see my dad standing before me. He is obviously nervous, trying to say something to me but he can't quite find the words.

Slowly I move forward and extend my hand to him in a familiar fashion. He looked at me as an encouraging smile crossed my face. After seeing my smile, he holds his hand out so I can grasp one of his large fingers with my outstretched hand. The happiness and relief seemed to overwhelm his face over this simple act.

To the outside observer, the motion might seem odd or strange. If you knew Optimus and I, though, the motion is as natural as the tide coming in and out on the shore each day. Throughout my life, I have never been larger than Optimus' palm. As an infant, he never held me much for fear of hurting me, but I would always hold out my hand to him whenever I saw him. My hand would stay outstretched until he would hold his hand to me and I could grasp one of his fingers. This is a habit I kept up into my childhood and even now, though it is less frequent.

Though we have never discussed it, it is our unofficial way of saying we love each other. And in some cases, such as now, to ensure each other that we were fine.

As I reluctantly release his finger, he holds his hand out for me, and I immediately climb on. After he sits me on his shoulder, exhaustion from the physically and mentally demanding day claims me, and I curl up into a ball and fall asleep.

"Optimus," Ratchet says as I groggily awake from my sleep on my dad's shoulder. "I have pinpointed the location of Megatron's space bridge, high in Earth's orbit."

"Out of our reach," my dad states as he approaches Ratchet, Bulkhead, and Bumblebee. I notice that Raf and Miko are already here, but Arcee is surprisingly missing.

How long was I out? I wonder, not even wanting to think about how I look at the moment.

"Okay," Miko says from her spot by Bulk's foot. "I know you guys can't fly or anything but can't you just ground bridge there?"

"The ground bridge has limited range," I explain to her as I rub the sleep from my eyes, which causes spot across my vision. "It has a limited range."

"Stretched all the way into orbit," Ratchet continues, "the vortex could snap, and scatter us to the stars."

"Since Megatron is likely already in transit, I'm afraid we must take that risk. Reaching the space bridge first is our only means of stopping him." At this moment, I chose to stretch, which turned out to be a bad move. The bruising to my side had only gotten worse over the night from sleeping on my dad's metal shoulder, and when I moved in my normal catlike stretching, I felt like I was being hit and stabbed in both my shoulder and side.

With a yelp, I slip from my dad's shoulder and start to fall. Just as this happened though, Arcee had pulled in with her extra passenger who immediately jumped off her and went to catch me. Unfortunately for my would-be hero, Arcee had already shifted and caught me in mid air. "You never had your side checked out last night, did you?" she asked in a slightly scolding tone.

"Maybe…" I told her but winced as I tried to straighten up in her hand.

With a roll of her eyes, she handed me to Ratchet who sat me on a nearby platform and immediately ordered me to take off the jacket I was wearing. As I move my arms to take the jacket off though, the motion jars my left shoulder and I wince in pain yet again.

"Here," said a familiar voice. "Let me help before you hurt yourself." I spin around to come face to face with Jack. "Hey, guess who's back…" I cut him off with a bone-crushing hug.

"Ow, ow, ow!" I yell. I then hit him in the back of the head with my good arm. "Don't you dare do that again." Then, I irrationally try to hug him again. Which hurt even worse. "Holy fragging Primus, that hurts!"

"Everon, language!" my dad tells me. "Now, please show Ratchet what's wrong." Jack then proceeds to help me take off my jacket, and the open back halter-top I wore showed off the large bluish-black bruise I now sported across my left shoulder and side.

Miko gave a long and low whistle. "Ouch. Remind me to never get dropped by you, Bulk."

"You dropped her!?" Ratchet yelled as he looked between my bruised form and Bulkhead.

"I was being tackled by a Con!" Bulkhead yelled in his defense.

"Enough!" I interject. "We don't have time for this. Ratchet can check this out. You all need to go. Now."

"Everon is right," my dad states. "Autobots, roll out!"

"Where to?" Arcee asks.

Miko steps forward and says, "The final frontier."

"Space?" Jack responds. "I thought they didn't have anyway to get there."

"They don't," Raf answers as Bumblebee sits him down. "Not really."

Jack turns to Arcee. "Be seeing ya?" She merely smiles at him and walks towards to other Bots as Ratchet fires up the ground bridge.

"Be careful Bee, " Raf tells his guardian.

No worries, Raf.

From Bulkhead's side, Miko states, "I'm so jealous!"

"Don't even think of following me."

"Optimus," Ratchet says, "If you leave me stranded on a planet teeming with humans, I will never forgive you."

"Until we meet again, old friend."

"Daddy?" I call out from the platform railing. He turns and to look at me. "Come back safe. All of you."

"Of course."

"Love you, Daddy."

He smiles. "I love you too. Always remember that, my dear Everon." With that, he turns to the open ground bridge. "Autobots, roll out!" With that, the four soldiers, my brothers and sister and father, my family, shift into their vehicle modes and drive out into the vortex and into the unknown.

After Ratchet checked to see if the comm links were working properly, he turns to me. "Alright, let's scan you to see if there is anything serious."

My dad meanwhile could be heard giving orders over the comm system. "Autobots, transform and gravitize!" Soon after, a clanking sound could be heard as the Bots magnetized themselves to the space bridge.

Bulkhead could be heard talking to himself over the link. "Whoa… Don't look down…or up…or left."

"So Megatron's packing enough dark energon to raise Cybertron's dead," Arcee states to the group. By this point Ratchet's scans are complete, and he gives me a nod before going to type on his computer about my status.

"And since we don't currently possess ready means of disabling the space bridge," my dad continues. "Nothing comes in or out!"

The next silence is overwhelming. We were all waiting on the sounds of the impending battle to start, but instead we heard nothing. And that set us more on edge than anything.

"Well," Arcee asks, "what are they waiting for?"

After a pause, my dad responds, "It appears that the Decepticons have sustained serious damage to their interstellar navigation system."

"Hey!" Bulkhead responds. "That's my handiwork!"

"Yeah, that was the chunk of metal you threw over Miko and I's heads," I respond dryly.

"Nice work, Bulkhead," my dad says. "Without the satellite, Megatron will be unable to aim his space bridge at Cybertron."

Raf speaks up. "Don't the Decepticons know where their own planet is?"

"Naturally," Ratchet scoffs. "But Cybertron is many light years away. To reach their target, their aim must be astronomically precise."

"If there is one thing I learned about Megatron," I tell the group, "it's that he wouldn't have gone to the trouble of rendezvousing with the space bridge unless he had some other trick up his sleeve. I think we're living on borrowed time here."

"Everon is right. Megatron must have another targeting system, a remote one," my dad says.

Ratchet doesn't seem convinced. "From what I know of Earth's technology, I doubt there exists a single radio telescope dish powerful enough to pinpoint Cybertron."

"What about a bunch of linked radio telescope dishes?" Raf asks as he types away at a nearby computer. "Like the giant size array in Texas?"

"Hep, hep, hep!" Ratchet yells to hush the young genius. "This is not child's play!"

My dad speaks up over the frustrated medic. "Good thinking, Raf. Ratchet, have Agent Fowler alert the array staff to the potential hazard."

My darling godfather chose that moment to speak up while jabbing a finger at Ratchet from his medical bed, showing exactly what kind of state he was in at the moment. "You there! Soldier! You're out of uniform. Put on some pants." He then collapsed back onto the bed.

"Huh," I mused while crossing my arms over my chest. "I thought he would have slept that off by now."

To Optimus, Ratchet says, "That… may be a challenge."

Raf immediately turns back to the computer and resumes typing away at the keyboard. "I can't get past the array's firewalls. They're too thick!"

"The guys who put that tracking chip in Fowler's behind might to take some notes from the people who designed that firewall," I chirp glumly.

"You… actually think you can keep the Decepticons out?" Ratchet asked skeptically.

"Maybe… if I could get in."

"Well then. If in is what you need, why not head to the source?" I ask. "Whose up for a little B and E?"

"If I was inside," Raf states, "I could work from the other side of the firewall."

"I know what 'B and E' stands for Everon," my dad says. "And not only do I not want you getting arrested, but the risk is too great. The Decepticons could already be there, perhaps even on site."

"Optimus," Jack says, "with all due respect, you said it yourself. This is bigger than three humans."

"Yeah," Miko continues. "If we let the Cons win, we're fragged, along with everyone else on our planet."

"We are going to do this, Dad. We have to. It's our planet that's at stake here. Let us help defend it."

"Raf?" my dad questions after a pause.

The boy puts a determined look on his face. "I wanna give it a shot."

"Ratchet, my daughter's condition? Is she well enough to go along and protect the three humans?"

"She has some severe bruising along her shoulder and side, but nothing life threatening or anything I can treat. Painkillers won't work with her Cybertronian biology, and vice versa with any Cybertronian techniques."

"I'll be fine, Daddy. Trust me."

"I trust you, my daughter. Be careful."

With a smirk, I say, "Scout's honor."

"Like you're a scout," Arcee sarcastically responds.

Soon, I am jumping through the ground bridge onto the hard Texas dirt with Miko, Jack, and Raf right behind me. All three of them were a bit out of sorts from the vortex, something that I grew up with. "Well, that will take some getting used to," Jack says as he gathers his bearings.

"C'mon!" I say. "We don't know what kind of security this place has. Let's move, now." With that, I turn and run towards the door of the solitary concrete building in front of us, hearing their footsteps soon echoing mine. I wanted to hurry this up: the sooner we get into the system, the better.

Entering the building was easier than I had thought. There had been utterly no challenge as I make one last check of the halls before closing the door to the computer room we were holed up in. "Security sure is lax in this place," Miko comments.

I sigh. "Why bother with such an advanced firewall if you aren't even going to do more than put a simple chain link fence around the place to keep people out?"

Raf, from his place seated in front of a computer, announces, "I'm in! And so are the Decepticons…"

"What?" Jack asks.

"How can you tell?" Miko continues.

"Schematics. With the same alien math we saw on their ship. But this time, I can down load them!"

I look at the schematics. "That is definitely for the space bridge," I say and then muse to myself, "They may be evil, but I've got to hand it to them: they sure know their science. These plans are extremely advanced. I'm a little impressed."

"They are syncing it to their systems, but I can sync to them."

"Will they know?" Jack asks.

"Even if the Decepticons know I'm in the system, they'll have no idea I'm in the house."

"Just be careful," I warn as I watch some familiar coding come from the Decepticons' end. "That looks like Soundwave's networking. Trust me, he is the eyes and ears of the Decepticons and isn't easily fooled."

"They're locked onto Cybertron! But not for long." With a few taps of the keyboard, the uploading data in the system begins to blank out, signaling the space bridge being disconnected from the satellites signal.

But, within moments, the signals begin to pop back up. "The dishes are heading back towards Cybertron. I'll just do that again."

As I watch the Cybertronian coding as it flies across the screen, I notice a stream of data which showed Soundwave diverting part of his systems to something else. "Hey, Raf? Highlight that stream of coding."

"Why?" he asks as he does as I requested. "I can't do anything with it, it isn't converted to English yet."

"I read Cybertronian. Ratchet and Dad taught me when I was a sparkling, kid, whatever I was!" I then begin to read the coding while Raf continued his rapid typing.

"So what happens when the Cons realize they're being punked?" Jack asks.

"Relax," Miko responds. "What are they going to do? They're probably like and thousand miles away."

Suddenly, I freeze in my reading. "Scrap! He's in the security feeds! And he's in the bui…" I taper off as I suddenly flip around to see one of Soundwave tentacles above our heads. "Scrap!"

Jack turns and yells in surprise, and he and I tackle the tentacle as it tries to grab Raf. It then twists into Miko, and soon all three of us are being thrown through the air by Soundwave's spare arm.

It finally throws us off into a wall, and the shock from the hit jars the pain in my shoulder to a whole new level. "Seriously Soundwave! That fragging hurts."

The tentacle then turns to Raf. Just before grabbing him, he jumps on the desk, grabs the USB drive from the computer, and jumps off the desk just in time to avoid being hit by the arm's second grab at him, though the computer was smashed to bits.

Miko, in all her infinite wisdom, decides it's time to step in. So, she grabs the fire ax from the wall, and with a "He-yah!" she lunges at the tentacle, only to drop the ax when she is flung into the wall. The tentacle then grabs and dislodges the ax from the floor. "You handed it an ax?!" Jack yells at her.

"Not good…" Raf replies nervously.

Before the tentacle does anything though, I jump up off the ground, still clutching my damaged shoulder, and yell, "Don't even think about it Soundwave! You hurt them, you have to hurt me, and Megatron will have your head on a platter! Not that you would even bother with trying to take out a few mere humans that can't even hack the system anymore. The computer's wrecked." After a pause, the tentacle retreats out the door, still carrying the ax. "Let's move, now!"

Soon, we are racing in the direction the tentacle went, only to see Soundwave leaving through the skylight. Miko immediately pulls out her cell phone to snap a picture, which Soundwave, in turn, does the same, displaying the picture of me in a half crouched stance with the three of them clustered behind me. With that done, he transforms and takes off.

"Why's he leaving?" Miko asks.

Raf then runs up to a large cord on the floor with the ax sticking out of it. "He cut the hard line: the dishes are now locked onto Cybertron. For good."

"Ratchet," I say over my portable radio, which was linked to the comm unit. "Bridge us back. Now."

As we reentered the base, Ratchet began to speak. "Optimus, I'm registering a rapidly expanding mass in their space bridge vortex. One with a peculiar energy signature…"

My dad confirmed our fears. "Dark energon… Ratchet, we must destroy the space bridge. There is enough live energon coursing through it to achieve detonation, but we lack the firepower to ignite it."

"If I knew how the space bridge was engineered, I might find a technical way of accomplishing it."

"Um…" Raf asks, holding out his USB drive. "Would schematics help?"

"Optimus," Ratchet continues, "I must say, the space bridge is our sole hope of ever returning to Cybertron. Are you certain it's destruction is the only option?"

"I am afraid so."

"Then by all means, let us light our darkest hour!"

"Autobots," my dad continues to the others with him. "Take your positions and follow Ratchet's lead! While I make my stand…"

My knees felt weak as I clutched the railing for support, the pain in my shoulder and side long since forgotten. Optimus was going to face Megatron, alone. My two fathers would be battling each other, and I felt sick to my stomach. For the sake of my planet, Optimus must win.

Or, at least hold him off until we can rig the space bridge to blow.

Ratchet began to analyze the schematics for any points where the system can be manually breeched. I would normally help, but at the moment, I would only slow him down, especially with my mind being elsewhere.

A voice that I hadn't heard in what felt like ages came over the comm link. "Your fellow Autobots are wise, Optimus. They know when to retreat."

"I hold no illusions about engaging your army, Megatron. But I might derail its objective… by removing its head."

A maniacal laughter could be heard. "Highly unlikely, Optimus, as I am infused with their very might!"

"On shall stand… One shall fall."

As their fight begins, Fowler, who snapped out of his delirious state around when we got back, spoke up as he jabs his thumb over his shoulder at the screen displaying the space bridge vortex. "These… things are getting closer. That's bad, right?"

"Ratchet, we're in position," Arcee announces over the comm link. I obviously missed the part where Ratchet had told them where to go.

"Alright, Arcee," Ratchet says as Raf pulls up a diagram on the computer. "Pay close attention…"

I turn back to the fight, an idea forming in my head. "Daddy, can you put me on an open speaker? Please?"

"Not now, Everon."

"Ah, how is my daughter doing? Has she grown tired of your Autobot ways yet?"

"Leave her out of this, Megatron."

"Daddy, please, I can distract him. Just let me talk to him, and remember, though what I plead to him is true, I love you and will never leave you for him."

"Well Optimus, she is obviously speaking to you? What does my lovely Shadow Tronus have to say?"

After a pause, he responds, "She… wishes to speak to you."

"What?" Megatron responds, sounding a little shocked.

"Go ahead, Sweetspark. He can hear you now."

With a bit of hesitation in my voice, I speak up, gaining more confidence the more I speak. "Father? Father, it's me. Please stop this. Stop this senseless quest for power."

"My daughter, I can't. Don't you see? I shall rule this puny world as a king, and you will rule with me as this rock's princess. You shall have everything in the palm of your hand…"

I snap back, "Since when have you known me to want death and destruction? All I have ever wanted is peace, an end to all the senseless killing and war mongering. Cybertron died from this war, your own planet! And now you intend to do the same to mine! I don't want that. All I want is for you to stop this."

"Shadow, the Autobots have blinded you…"

"I don't care about sides! I don't care if you're an Autobot or Decepticon or human! All that matters is that you're my father. The one who may have kidnapped me, but loved me and cared for me and looked at me as if I was the center of your universe. I want that father. Not the king offering me a ravaged world, one where I grew up and loved just as you love your old Cybertron. I want him… Please…" my voice had gone down to a whisper, cracking ever so often as I spoke.

"My daughter, I'm so sorry, but you will see…"

"No. I won't. Continue on this path, and you will lose me. So choose. Me or your selfish quest for power."

He is quiet for a moment, and as he starts to speak again, he is interrupted. "What is it, Starscream?" he bellows. After listening to the response, he chuckles. "Misdirection. Well played, my dear Shadow. There is hope for you yet to become a fine Decepticon."

"I've already chose my side," I respond firmly. Then, the sounds of fighting resume, and I sigh as I see the screen show that the comm links have returned to their normal functions. Megatron could no longer here me. "I tried, Daddy. Be careful."

I turn back to Ratchet, who seems to have made some progress with the others. "Now, follow the line from the flow regulator to the energon pump. There should be a valve."

"I see it," Arcee responds.

"Good. To turn all that power against itself, all you need do is reverse the current."

After a load grunt on her end followed by a clank, she announces, "Current reversed."

"Yes!' Fowler yells, startling all of us. Then to Raf, he asks, "Right?"

"I've already opened the ground bridge," Ratchet tells them.

"Ev," Jack asks as I approach him and the other humans. "Are you alright? I mean…"

With a faint smile, I tell him, "I'll be fine. I just…"

"Optimus!" Ratchet announces over the comm units. "The ground bridge is ready and waiting."

"Autobots, jump!"

As we all anxiously watch the ground bridge, Raf says, "Do you… think they're…"

Ratchet looks to the scanner on his arm. "Four life signals. One very faint…"

First, my dad stops through the portal. He is a bit battered, but all together fine. I immediately run to him, and he scoops me up to his chassis and holds me as tightly as he could safely do so.

Next is Bulkhead, who looks a bit down. Miko screeches his name happily and runs towards him down the platform stairs like I did, only with Jack and Raf in tow. He offers her his hand, which she hugs as best she can.

Next is Bee, who comes running in with a very worried look towards the Bot in his arms. And the Bot he carried with him was a very injured looking Arcee. Jack ran up to her as my dad sat me on the ground to join him where Miko and Raf already had.

We just stared at her prone form as Ratchet said, "We already lost one this week, by the allspark, don't let it be two."

Jack then took a few quick steps forward and placed his hand in hers. She slowly opened her eyes to weakly look at him. "Arcee…"

"Jack… Really?" she managed to respond weakly. "There are other motorcycles in the world…"

Not taking his eyes off her, he says, "But you're my first."

Seeing that she will be fine, Ratchet glances at Optimus. "And Megatron?"

I turn around from the moment Arcee and Jack were sharing to look at my dad. "Not even he could have survived ground zero."

"I tried…" I say quietly as I look towards the ground.

My father then kneels before me before speaking again. "If Megatron could not realize the importance of what he was losing when he chose war over you, the he does not deserve you." I look up and smile, a few tears forming in my eyes as I hold out my hand and he his for me to grasp his finger.

"Prime!" Fowler bellows on his way to the elevator. "I didn't get to thank you Bots for the save. I owe you one. We all do. And Ever, try to avoid breaking into anymore federal compounds? It took me a week to clear your record after the Canada incident."

"What happened to agreeing to never mention that again!"

After the elevator door shut, Bumblebee set Arcee down gently on her feet, making sure she didn't fall. Miko then chose this moment to approach my father. "So, is this the part where you say goodbye?"

My dad glanced at me, and I could already tell what he had decided. I look to the others, a smile on my face, and announce, "Welcome to Team Prime!"

Viola! The first five parts of the series are done. Now, onto the rest of the episodes… this could take a while. So, please keep reading and review! More is definitely to come! And the next chapter, I intend to make a bit of a flashback chapter with one of the Bots. Who? You will just have to read tomorrow.

Once again, please review! I love reviews. They are awesome.