(Chapter 17—Reunion Part 2)

Prime secured the Xan II from jump. They could see the asteroid, the same sort of irregularly shaped rock ball as all its neighbors, no more than ten kilometers in length. But their sensors picked up a large metallic form, and the presence of energon.

Mirage spotted it first, with a scout's ability to pick out fine details. "There. It's almost hidden in that shadow."

Prime asked, "What is that, an Explorer-class scoutship?"

"It looks like it, but I've never actually seen one outside vids before," the scout replied.

Wheeljack said, "That's exactly what it is. It's definitely pre-war. Very low on energon. That's about all these scanners can tell us."

Prime ordered, "Set us down at the other end of the asteroid."

Mirage did so. As soon as they set down, he vacated his seat to join Prime and Ironhide at the airlock. Ironhide told Wheeljack and Kaela, "Keep the engine hot in case we're leavin' in a hurry."

"Right," Que replied.

Kaela said, "Let me suit up." She wasn't counting on the ship staying pressurized if things went pear-shaped.

The three mechs started out approaching the old Cybertronian scoutship carefully, but then suddenly Prime broke into a flat-out run.

"Frag it, Optimus!" Ironhide shouted. The weapons specialist had to transform to keep up, and Mirage followed suit. Running right up at an unknown position was something Ironhide would have expected from the Idiot Twins, not his battle-smart leader. And the fragging mech could cover a lot of ground in a hurry when he was of a processor to. By the time the exasperated weapons specialist and the scout reached the ship, Prime had already got the hatch open, and was kneeling beside a femme who was clearly deep in stasis-lock.

Optimus tried to send an override to awaken her, but there was so much black IC on the ship's computer that it was going to take a lot more than a Prime authorization code to get in. The bot who tried it and found his skills lacking would regret it for the rest of his short life. Whatever events she had designated to be brought out of stasis-lock, this wasn't it. This had all the indications of a scout with the intention to carry out her mission or die trying.

There was the old-fashioned method. He turned his awareness inward, to the spark bond he had thought severed forever. ::Ariel.::

Her optics lit up. ::What? Orion? This doesn't look like the Well of All Sparks to me!:: Through their bond, he could feel two overriding emotions—a profound regret to have failed those counting on her success, and joy to be reunited with him, no matter if it was on the other side of the veil.

::I haven't heard that name in a long time, but yes, it's me. Feel the bond, you know it's true. I'm sorry to have to tell you, you'll have to wait a while for the afterlife. You're on some little asteroid on the edge of the Sol system.::

For a long time they held each other, having no words in any language to express their joy. Optimus linked energon and power lines with her, simple battlefield medicine for someone whose levels were so dangerously low.

She said, "So you were called! My beloved, you wear it well. What happened? Sentinel Prime told me that you had been killed when our residence block was destroyed. I never believed it, not really, but when no trace of you was ever found... He offered me a place with the scouts, and I got as far from Cybertron as I could. There was nothing for me there without you."

"I believed you dead as well. Sentinel was a lying traitor. He sold us out to the Decepticons."

"Was?"

"Was," he confirmed, then continued his explanation. "'Orion Pax' disappeared because that was when I was called as a Prime. My designation now is Optimus."

"That—no good—he convinced me that a new name would help me make a new start, and so Ariel became Elita-One." She allowed herself a moment of white hot fury for all the wasted vorns, then set it aside. There was no sense going over and over things that could never be changed.

"Elita-One, my aft. If you don't bear the sigil I'm a glitched fool."

She opened a panel, the sigil was there. "No femme has ever been called. Sentinel called it a mistake and ordered me never to tell anyone."

"I thought I was the last Prime, until now. Alpha Trion appeared to me in a vision and told me to come here. He said that I was not the last, and here you are, with the sigil. Your people need you, Elita Prime. I need you."

Elita hesitated only a moment. Alpha Trion? Either Primus would strike her dead for her insolence or she would rise a Prime. But the bottom line was, she trusted that her sparkmate wouldn't have asked her to take such a risk with both their lives without a good reason. She pushed herself from the travel berth gracefully in spite of her weakness and went to one knee on the deck, and accepted the call. "Let it be as Primus ordains. So speaks Elita Prime."

The Matrix of Leadership glowed bright between them. Elita felt its acceptance, and when the bright light that had surrounded them faded, she had transformed to the full battle armor of a Prime, in the black and chrome that she had earned as her signature colors rather than the light red she had worn in the old times. But her optics were still that same vibrant shade of azure that Optimus had never forgotten through all the vorns.

They walked back down to the surface of the asteroid together. "You remember Ironhide, don't you?"

"Yes, of course, my old friend."

"And this is Mirage, one of my scouts. Two finer mechs you will never find anywhere."

She made the chain of command clear by saying, "It is my honor to meet the pride of your warriors, Prime."

Ironhide and Mirage knelt to her, knights to their queen. "The honor is ours, Prime."

They went back to the Xanthium II slowly, giving Elita time to get her stiffened joints moving freely again. They weren't sure where to begin telling all stories of such a long separation. They went with the most important information for now. Optimus brought her up to date on the current situation, and she told him of the small colony that she had left behind.

Optimus had called ahead to let Wheeljack and Kaela know everything was all right. They were waiting when the airlock started to cycle through.

Most of the Cybertronians that Mikaela had seen already had Terran alt forms. Some of the 'Cons didn't, but they configured themselves to be as menacing as possible. Elita was clearly alien, beauty and grace tempered with strength. She looked small next to Optimus, but she still towered over Kaela.

Optimus introduced them, "Elita Prime, these are our engineers, and the designers of this ship, Wheeljack and Mikaela Banes. This is my bonded, she who was Ariel of Iacon."

Elita said, "You built this? She is beautiful. Congratulations!"

Wheeljack knelt. "Thank you, and welcome home, Prime."

Kaela had learned some Cybertronian good manners when Ratchet had been teaching Georgie. As an American, she wasn't supposed to kneel to foreign nobility. There had been a Revolutionary War about that. She bowed her head deeply, expressing respect but signifying that she was already bound to another allegiance—the one she pledged to same flag that she wore on the sleeve of her space suit. "I am honored, Prime."

Elita made use of the English language files that Optimus had given her. "The honor is mine, to meet a representative of one of our neighbor species for the first time. What are your people designated?"

"I am a human, Prime. My home world is the third planet of this system, Earth."

Elita asked, "Prime, before anything further is done, can someone see to Wayfarer? Her need is greater than mine."

Optimus asked, "She is a smartship?"

"Yes, didn't she introduce herself?"

"No, she gave me no indication that she is a sparked being."

"An overabundance of caution is no bad thing sometimes. She and I are the last of our team."

Wheeljack had already started subspacing the gear they would need, as well as two large energon containers. Kaela sealed her helmet.

Elita transmitted Wheeljack a recognition code so that Wayfarer would recognize them as friends. "If she doesn't acknowledge that code, don't approach her, let me come talk to her first," she cautioned.

"Yes, Prime." Wheeljack knew better than to provoke any seeker-kin who might wake up feeling trapped.

Elita sat on the side of a berth next to her sparkmate while Mirage tended some old damage to her right arm. The cables had been severed at one point, leaving her with no use of her servo. However, instead of replacing the cables, the healer had been forced by lack of materials to splice instead of replace them. It was a matter of a few minutes and a minor repair to replace them, giving her back the full use of it for the first time in a vorn.

A few minutes later, Wayfarer commed Elita to confirm that she had actually given Wheeljack the code.

Elita replied, ::Yes, it's safe, they're friends. And—you'll glitch when you find out everything that just happened!::

::What?::

::Let Wheeljack and the small being, MikaelaBanes, see to you first. Then I'll tell you everything.::

Wayfarer grumbled, but agreed. She soon decided she liked Wheeljack. She was polite to the small being, but reserved judgment for the time being. The energon was more than welcome, and so was the routine maintenance that she needed at the end of such a long flight.

Wheeljack said, ::There, that should be enough for you to jump in-system. When you're closer to the sun you'll be able to synthesize more."

::I don't have an energon cube. There were none to spare when we left the colony.::

The inventor assured her, ::We'll fix that when we get back to our ship, the Xanthium II. I brought a couple of extra ones with us in case something went wrong with the refiners that I built into her hull. Do you require further assistance now, or do you think we might join the others?::

::I wish to rejoin my pilot, if that would be all right.::

::Slowly at first,:: he cautioned.

A few moments later, Wayfarer landed next to the Xan II and docked airlocks, one of the many specialized transformations that a smartship frame was capable of in lieu of having a traditional alt form. She requested a linkup to the Xan II's internal sensors to extend her awareness into the other ship. Since the Xan II wasn't a smartship, she got all public areas that weren't marked secure.

She saw Elita and almost did glitch. She got hold of herself. ::Elita Prime, I am honored to pledge myself to your service.::

Elita replied formally, but their deep sibling bond carried so much more than words. ::It is my honor to accept the fealty of such a warrior and a dear sister of my cohort.::

::Live long and lead well, Elita Prime.::

Then Elita introduced her to Optimus. The smartship transmitted her respects, not bothering to try to conceal her amazement and happiness at the incredible string of coincidences leading to their reunion. He welcomed the sister of his bonded into the clan, then introduced Ironhide and Mirage.

As one of Optimus' personal cohort, along with Chromia and Ratchet, Ironhide was actually very close kin to Wayfarer as the Cybertronians reckoned such things.

Mirage was something else again. It felt like they had known each other all their lives. She had been sparked into the same caste as he, though she had once had several older siblings and had never expected to inherit a title. Still, they had much in common.

There was nothing more to keep them out on the fringes. They jumped back near the moon. Optimus took them to the wreck of the Ark.

If the humans who had explored it forty years ago had missed the signs of Decepticon activity, a blind man couldn't have missed it now. The flat area around the wreck site was now covered with holes and trenches where the 'Cons had dug themselves out. Wayfarer did a deep scan of the area and reported that if any of them had missed the space bridge to Earth, they had left here since then.

Ironhide snorted, "I'll bet they did—when Megs' plan fell through this is the last place they'd hang around!"

Mirage said, "Look at that one deep trench. Nobot large enough to have made that came through the space bridge, did they?"

Optimus said, "No, not at all. This loose gravel makes a difference, but doesn't that look like a driller's hole?"

Wheeljack said, "It does indeed, Prime. If it is, it would be the biggest one that I have ever seen."

Mirage asked, "They get bigger than the one Shockwave had?"

Wheeljack said, "The one that bored the transoceanic tunnels on Kalarus was much larger, but it was quite gentle. That beast of Shockwave's was trained to be vicious from the time it was small. If the Decepticons kept this one, it would have been trained for war as well. I have no idea how it would act when left without a handler."

Elita asked, ::What's going on?::

::We were discussing whether a driller may have made that large trench. The Decepticons trained them for war.::

Elita looked at the hole with the optics of someone who had been living among the miner folk for a long while. ::It looks like it very well could be, but they would have needed to come right along behind it and shore up the tunnel, and I don't see any indication of that. But something of that size definitely seems to have been hidden under the ground here. If not a driller, I'm sure I don't know what it might have been. The rest of them seem to have buried themselves no deeper than necessary to protect themselves from solar flares. I would like to have a look down there.::

::Then let's go.::

Kaela suited up again. She was very thankful that the cutting edge suit she had was designed to be put on by herself. Most spacesuits required help getting into and out of. She called Russ and told him, "I'm about to walk on the MOON!"

"Whoa!"

"We're at the wreck site, so I don't think we'll be, y'know, taking tourist pictures or anything."

"Right. But still!"

"I'll call you again later."

"Be careful around that wreck! The 'Cons might have planted IEDs in there!"

"Roger that!" She kicked herself for not having thought of that and wondered if anyone else had. She went out in the commons. "Radio check."

Wheeljack replied, "I hear you."

"Hey, everyone, careful around the wreck—the 'Cons might have left a surprise in there."

"Sounds like something they'd do," Ironhide agreed. "Scan everything before you touch it—especially the bodies."

Wheeljack was the only one who really needed to be told that. Mikaela had heard of both the Viet Cong and the Iraqis hiding explosive devices on casualties. But a reminder didn't hurt anyone.

Optimus had seen it before and already knew what to expect, but the rest of them couldn't help being affected no matter how battle-hardened they were. Sentinel may have been a traitor, but the rest of the crew had been fellow Autobots who had given their lives believing they were serving their cause. There was a long moment of silent respect before they started studying the wreck site with an eye towards bringing back the materials that Ratchet needed.

There was a long wreckage trail from the impact site to the place where the ship had finally come to rest. Wheeljack thought they might do best to collect some of that first, and leave tearing down the main part of the wreck until after they could come back and give the crew a proper burial.

Elita made her way across the pockmarked flat land carefully, scanning as she went. Mirage saw immediately that she was a highly skilled scout and dropped easily into a backup role. Most of the holes were exactly what she thought they were, places where the 'Cons who had landed here had buried in the gravelly soil to protect themselves from solar flares.

The large trench was something else again. It sloped deeper at one end than the other, and she could see an opening of some sort down there. She tested her footing on the loose gravel and climbed down. The tunnel looked like it had been indeed made by a large driller, but it only extended a short way into the bedrock before it ended in a collapse. It didn't look like it had fallen on its own, either. Optimus joined her.

Elita said, ::Well, well. It looks like someone may have abandoned a command post here.::

Optimus said, ::It probably wouldn't have been anyone who came to Earth through Sentinel's space bridge.::

::So they still have at least one leader out there somewhere,:: she said. ::Are there any indigenous settlements on this moon?::

::No. Human technology is only now reaching the level where they could establish one,:: Prime told her.

::Then the Decepticons may well have established a base here. I take it that had they landed in meteor form, they would likely have been detected?::

::Most likely. There are areas of light coverage where a cloaked individual might land, but those are mostly far out over open ocean. They would still have had to avoid detection if they ever came to land. I think you're right that they would have stayed here.::

Getting out of the trench took a little more doing than getting into it. They looked around the surrounding mountain range. There would be plenty of places to hide a base, just within sight, considering that the 'Cons had a driller to hollow it out of solid rock for them.

::If they're here, they're maintaining radio silence.::

::They certainly know we're here. We weren't exactly being subtle,:: Optimus replied.

::That they haven't come charging out to challenge us speaks to a certain respect,:: she said. ::You are going to have to tell me some of your stories soon.::

::Time enough for that at home,:: he told her with a smile.

When they got back to the Ark, Elita took a small device from her subspace. ::Who's a good climber?::

Mikaela said into her microphone, ::That would be me, Prime. What is it and where do you want it?::

Elita gave her the grapefruit sized device and said, ::It is a transmitter. Place it anywhere up there where it will have a good view of this area. I would be very surprised if they don't come out after we've gone to see what we've been doing here.::

Optimus gave Kaela a lift up into the lower areas of the ship's structure. From there, she climbed high into the tangle of exposed beams. She found a good area to conceal the transmitter. ::Are you getting a good signal?::

Elita nodded. ::Yes, it's fine. I'm quite curious who will show an interest.::

She made her way back down until she could safely jump to Optimus' hand. Once he had lowered her to a safe spot on the shattered deck, they all went out to collect scrap from the ship to fill the Xan II's hold. Wheeljack soon noted that Elita had a good optic for what could be salvaged and what couldn't. "You were with salvagers, Prime?"

"Miners, but we certainly have turned salvager, and crafter as well, these past vorns. We had to strip out and reuse everything from the played-out tunnels. At least we had good ore to start with, and several bots who knew the smelting process from start to finish. Primus knows, what we couldn't make ourselves we've learned very well to do without."

"We find ourselves in a similar predicament, though this will go a long way," he replied.

In the light gravity, with all of them working together, they soon filled the hold.

They transferred all the supplies they could to Wayfarer, and made sure she had an extra energon cube so there wouldn't be a repeat of the emergency that had nearly offlined the two of them. Mirage volunteered to go back with Wayfarer and guide any of the miners who wished to join them on Earth. Elita familiarized him with Wayfarer's modifications. "Take care of her. She's been a good friend for a long time."

Mirage replied, "I'll do my best to prove worthy of her, Prime." But his optics never left the smartship's commscreen and Elita knew that promise had really been made to Wayfarer. With all the love in her spark, she said a private farewell to her sister, and wished her the best life could offer. She watched them disappear into space, and then turned back to the Xanthium II, towards her sparkmate. At long last, Elita Prime was homeward bound.