Hey guys! ValvraveRider17 here with another AutoKnight Chapter! I know I know I've gone for a long time, again! But I've been cooped up with college, part-time jobs, and heck, Writer's block! And believe me, I've tried to get back to work on this story, but I've been losing inspiration lately and needed to take some time! So I sincerely apologize for the wait and present to you this chapter!

But first reviews for the long-awaited people!

Mr. Beaver Buttingtion: huh, didn't cross my mind, maybe I've been watching too much of the Bayverse Transformer movies.

Czar Joseph: yep bet you're surprised by Barricade's appearance. An enemy faction not just from Eureka 7, there will be more coming up soon. For Sierra, not precisely before Soul Rider, only when she met her guardian.

Mark: that's what I intended XD.

darkraizerGx1: maybe, I have a few ideas for the combiners, and Gurren Lagann is one of them. You'll see in the future chapters.

ZILLAFAN: Brawl, huh? I'll consider if I have space in my plans to add him in future chapters.

Okay, now that's done. LET'S GET TO THE LONG AWAITED CHAPTER FOR PRIMUS SAKE, FRAG ME FOR MY PROCRASTINATION!

Last time, we had Team Prime get new recruits again with Silver Line and Fire Haze, (to those who don't know what they look like, you can look them up on Valvrave wiki for images). A total plot twist of Sierra joining with her new partner, Soul Rider, and new enemies (including Barricade and the Kill-T-Gangs) appearing into the scene. How are they here? What is their objective? Mystery clouds into the AutoKnights' conflict!

(Omega-1)

As nighttime came on a Friday at the Autobot base, the AutoKnights other than Soul Rider, who's currently safeguarding Sierra's house, were also taking in their sleep as they were recharging in their individual rooms, some paired to equally fit the capacity. In one place, Fire Haze and Silver Line were sleeping together as they were seen cuddling with each other on one berth, for apparent reasons. Rave Rose and Zone Runner were sleeping in another room on their own berths, resting peacefully….. Well, if you don't count Zone snoring, sprawled across his bed while Rave was mumbling in her sleep about new weapons in her dreams. And finally, with reasons of being a family, Sonic Drive and Incursio were sharing their own room. They laid on their individual berths separated across the room as they sleep.

However, one of the brothers was not having a good night's sleep. The blue visored bot furrowed his closed eyes before tossing and turning, sweat suddenly dripping on his forehead. His frame shuddered even more as mumbles escaped from his mouth, "Hnrrrgh… Taku… where…are..you?" He was having a nightmare, one that haunted him for his life.

He twisted violently before he shot up with his eyes wide open and let out a scream, "TAKU!" he panted a few times as he looked at his surroundings, realizing that he was in reality. Taking a few breaths, he silently grasped his head, the shadow of his visor covering his eyes as the image of his nightmare was still imprinted in his head.

His scream, however, stirred awake his brother as he sat up and turned to Sonic with concerned eyes, "Nii-san? What is it?" Incursio asked, with his face mask off showing his expression, as he placed his hand on Sonic's shoulder, making him turn to him with the sweat still dripping from his head.

His breathing became more stable and calm as his eyes looked down at his legs. "Just a nightmare, Tatsumi," Sonic told his brother.

But Incursio had a stern look like he knew what nightmare Sonic had, "Was it that one? The one about that day?"

"..." Sonic was silent.

His brother looked down, "So it does still haunt you to this day."

"... Tatsumi-."

"I mean, I still have that nightmare too." Incursio interrupted, "How we became robots and found ourselves in a barren wasteland. Now that I think about it, I don't think these nightmares are nothing. We became exactly as robots like in my dreams. Not only, I think I saw the Autobots along with Arcee in it, watching you ... die. And we met them in real life too. And if those were true, then, my dreams could become real. Then that would mean-!"

"Tatsumi." Incursio turned at the stern voice as he saw that Sonic was smiling with soft eyes, "I know this nightmare of yours is worrying you. But just because the things that happened to us came out just like your dreams, doesn't exactly mean that it's a future vision saying that our fate is set in stone. But know this, even if I said it before so many times, no matter what happens, I will protect you and your sister. Also, my past is my burden alone. So don't worry about it." he stated before laying back down to sleep, "So now that's done, how about we go back to sleep? We still have a big day before us."

"..." Incursio silently watched his brother's back before he laid on his back, "You know you don't have to," he muttered before returning to sleep.

Unknown to him, Sonic still had his eyes open, thinking about the dream he had, something that he didn't want his brother to worry about. "...I wonder how you're doing…. Ann," he muttered before falling back asleep.

(Forest)

In a fog covered forest area, a girl about 21 stared off into the distance on a hill. She had beautiful magenta eyes as her short blonde hair reached her neck. Her clothing consisted of a white shirt with blue highlights going down the shoulder to the end of the sides. Her pants were skinny khaki jeans that reached to her ankles to her red and white tennis shoes. She was sitting, with one leg up, on an Ascari KZ1 that was mostly white with the hood and the headlights area having a black design while in the back covered the taillights and the trunk.

As she watched the scenery, her radio inside the car crackled before playing a voice message, one that was sent by someone more than a month ago, "To my friends and family; I am here. I am waiting."

"Family and friends, huh? Bakabakashii (how ridiculous)." The girl scoffed. She slid off the hood and turned to get in her car. Before she grabbed the door handle, a shockwave sounded in the sky.

"Hm?" she looked out to the open to see a flaring object coming down from the atmosphere, speeding past her with smoke coming out from behind, as it crashed onto the forest below, knocking down trees in its path. It left a huge trail behind it before it stopped on the earth. The smoke cleared up to reveal a massive spaceship, having huge scar marks from the crash.

The girl narrowed her eyes in suspicion. Wondering what it is, she got into her car, started its engine with the headlights on, and drove towards the crashed ship.

(Cue Transformers Evo by Jam Project)

(Instrumental)

The scene starts with the 40 Chaos Energems in a circle formation with the background speeding past stars and galaxies until it reached Earth, and the Energems glowed and emerged together to form the title with the AutoKnight insignia behind it.

(Yami no Kanata seijaku wo hikisaki [Out in the darkness, someone is rending the silence]) The scene changes to Sonic Drive out in the desert fields, staring out into the open until he brought out his hand to reveal his Energem.

(Hoshi no nemuri yobiokosu no wa Doitsu da? [Who will be the one to awaken this planet from its sleep?]) Sonic Drive looks at it until he faces forward as the rest of the Autoknights in their vehicle forms sped past him and transformed into their robot forms, lining up next to him.

(Hora me no mae jaaku na tamashiitachi [Look, the evil spirits are right before you]) On the Nemesis, Megatron and the Decepticons face the screen with their evil smirks.

(Nigeba wa Nai massugu ni uketomero! [Take 'em straight on, as there is no place to escape!]) The camera pans out of the Nemesis showing Optimus Prime and the Autobots on the ground, with their weapons ready.

(Some tells me "Yowaki" ya "Osore" wo shoukyo shite [Someone tells me to erase my "worries" and "fear"]) In the Autobot base, Jack, Miko, Raf, and Sierra get into their respective partners' vehicle form and drive through the Ground Bridge portal.

(Bokura wa ishiki kumikaeru [We reconstruct our minds]) In another room, Beast High is seen singing while shedding an Energon tear from her eyes.

(Sono te wo tsuyoku nigiri [Strongly clench your fists ]) A dark silhouette, with a dark red visor, holding a lance appeared with his eye visor glowing as 4 other robot silhouettes join in front of him with Amarok and Malkin along with more appearing with the Triniark insignia glow behind them.o
(Tagai no Kizuna shinjite [Believe in the bonds between us]) Sonic Drive stood in front of the enemy with Null Infinity right next to him as their eyes were glaring with resolve.

(Tatakae![fight!]) They then engage in their battle mode and charge forward along with the others with their weapons ready.

(Saa All I can do! And all you can do!) On the battlefield, both Autobots and AutoKnights fight against the Decepticons; while the others were facing the Vehicons, Sonic Drive and Optimus engage in a sword fight with Megatron. While Rave Rose, Bumblebee, and Incursio were dodging Starscream's missiles as Rave Rose drew out her katana and slashed at him.

(Habatake Transform [spread your wings and transform]) Arcee, Elita-One, and Villkiss throw punches and kicks at Airachnid, while she retaliates with her claws.

(Sono mune tsuranuku Ikari wo chikara ni Kae [Take the heart-piercing anger and turn it into strength]) Gurren Lagann, Earth Impacter, Bulkhead, and the rest of the Valvrave team, along with the Arzenal Team, engage in close combat with Barricade, Knockout and Breakdown who are with the Vehicons as well. While Soul Rider and the Evangelion team as well as Galaxy slash and his Majestic Prince Team cover fire at long distances.

(Ima All I can do And all you can do) We then see a giant silhouette behind Megatron with glowing purple eyes, firing lasers at Optimus and Sonic, pushing them back but not enough to falter them.

(Kagayake Transform! Shinka no Stage e! [shine and transform to the stage of evolution]) Optimus takes out his sword and swings it at Megatron, who blocks it with his own. While Sonic Drive activates his Chaos Energem as he glows with a raging blue aura.

(Touch and Go!) He then Jumps and throws his fist at the silhouette as the opening ends with the AutoKnights, the Autobots and the humans lining up together in their Autobot base.

Predatory

(Omega-1)

"Your systems seem to be stabilized. You're free to move." Ratchet stated after scanning Rave Rose with his medical scanner as he was final checking her status after her overheating. A couple of days passed after the ordeal of the illegal street racing, meeting the Kill-T-Gangs, and recruiting Soul Rider and Sierra. Now that the two have been acclimated with the team, Optimus gave Soul Rider the responsibility of being Sierra's guardian, even though he was already before meeting Team Prime. So right now, the kids were finishing today's class with their charges picking them up.

"Aaaah, after taking a long rest. It's good to be back." Rave Rose stretched her arms before getting up from the berth. Having been full-recovered from overheating, she was free to move.

"It's good that you recovered, Rave. Demo (But), be careful next time when you get into battle. " Silver implored chidingly, "We don't want a repeat of what happened and get you injured."

"Daijoubu, tsugi wa zettai ni kiotsukimasu yo, (don't worry, I'll be more careful next time) Silver." Rave showed her smile as her face mask was disengaged, showing a feminine feature of two bright emerald eyes and metal lips.

"To think you can overheat from battle. Must've been a burden for you."Ratchet surmised from his computer.

"Well, that's how Valvrave units were built. We may be powerful, but we all have a weakness that fires back at us. But that's not gonna stop me from fighting back!" Rave Rose winked before skipping towards her workplace that she made in her spare time to work on upgrades she had in mind.

"In the meantime, I'm gonna be working on some stuff while we wait for the others for hiking." Turns out, Rave Rose and a few others promised their human friends they would take them out for hiking after they were done with school.

As she skipped, she passed by Sonic, Incursio, Zone Runner, and Optimus Prime, who were sitting on a few crates, discussing what they've encountered a couple of days back.

"I still don't understand why Amarok, Malkin, the Mon-Soonos, and the Kirschbaums are here in this universe." Zone puzzled with his arms crossed. It still perplexes them that what they believed to be fictional characters from the shows they have watched back on their universe, has appeared in their presence as real as they can be.

Incursio added his own two cents, "I thought they were supposed to be fictional characters from the shows. But then again, with us becoming robots of the fictional characters that we look up to, I guess I could say that anything's possible."

"And they possess the same prowess as you know from your knowledge?" Optimus questioned curiously.

"They pretty much kick our afts. It was like they were playing with us before sending out those Kirschbaum and Mon-Soono troopers." Zone summarized as he rubbed his arm, still feeling the pain he dealt from Malkin.

Sonic then added, "But the thing is that this Amarok and Malkin didn't seem to be the ones from the show. I mean, if they were, they would at least remember their fate at the finale." he noted. "In the show, the Kill-T-Gangs were reduced to their human avatars with their Ego Blocks destroyed by Robin Goodfellow, originally called Puck. He was the Kill-T-Gang's A.I. before he revolted against them and destroyed their Ego Blocks, leaving them in their human state."

"They also seem to know about the Chaos Energems." Zone frowned in question, "Weren't they supposed to be known only on Cybertron?"

Optimus shook his head, "That is not exactly true. There was only one prophetic text that spoke of the Energems and the AutoKnights. However, it's origin was never founded on Cybertron."

The three raised a brow in surprise. "It wasn't? Then how do you know?" Sonic asked.

"Alpha Trion has spoken to me about it."

With confusion, along with an imaginary question mark above his head, Incursio turned to Zone in question, "Alpha who?"

"I don't know, but that almost sounds like Alpha Pearl's name," Zone noted.

Optimus repeated, "Alpha Trion, The Master Archivist of the Iacon Hall of Records, and one of the Thirteen, the original Primes that have preceded me. He taught me of the prophecy and its legends. But, he has never fully explained where it's origins came from. I, along with others, attempted to research more on the texts, but not a string of evidence of them was found. When I asked him about it, he claimed that the text was passed down to the Thirteen by an outside race, but for reasons, he has not explained why they were given."

Sonic asked, "Why?"

Optimus looked down, remembering his mentor's words, "He claimed that when the time comes, I will learn about the text's purpose and left it there as the war struck. From that day, the legend stayed as a myth and was shrouded in mystery. " he paused, turning to the AutoKnights. "Until now."

Sonic pondered in his thoughts as questions began to bore into them. Another race outside of Cybertron gave them the text about the AutoKnights? Could they be about why the Kill-T-Gangs are here? Furthermore, what is their purpose? Why are they after the Energems? "Something's going on. But what is it exactly?" Silence overcame within the four as they wondered with frowns in concern.

Beep Beep!

Their thoughts were cut short when a horn sounded, turning towards the entrance just as Arcee came in full speed, with her partner holding on the bars, before skidding to a 180 stop. Following behind was Soul Rider, who stopped near her. They let their partners off before transforming into their bipedal forms.

Jack took off his helmet as he smiled towards the residents, "Hey guys, we're back!" he greeted as Sierra stood next to him with her own smile.

Deciding to put all the thinking on hold, Sonic pushed away the concerning atmosphere as he smiled back at the arrivals, "Hey Jack, Sierra. Where's Raf and Miko?"

Jack sighed, "Raf's had some computer science homework that came up, while Miko's serving detention for slacking off on her's."

Deadpanning, Sonic shook his head in disappointment. "Again? Primus, that girl can be troublesome."

"Well, you can't help them for who she is. Heck, it kinda scares me how she resembles almost exactly like Razor." Incursio stated before he shuddered, "I feel like when they meet, its gonna be the end of the world."

"Don't remind me. I have that same feeling too." Sonic deadpanned, shuddering at the thought. Jack and Sierra only turned to each other with puzzled looks, wondering about this "Razor" they were talking about.

They turned to Sierra's partner, who too had a deadpanning look along with a sweatdrop. He answered their questioning looks, "It's nothing you should worry about."

"Well, I guess we can put the hiking trip on hold. It's not gonna be fun without the others."

"What? Aww." Rave pouted glumly from her workplace, downed hearing about canceling the hiking trip. Fortunately, that was about to change from a particular CMO.

Tearing away from his computer, Ratchet called out to Arcee, "Arcee, I've detected an Energon energy spike in the northern area of the United States. It could be an Energon deposit. I'm gonna have to send you there for recon." He requested, holding out an Energon scanner to her.

"Will do." Arcee nodded, accepting the scanner. She looked down at Jack with an offering smile, "Wanna come along?"

Jack looked up in surprise at his charge, offering him to come along. To think that Arcee was allowing him to accompany her on a recon mission was astonishing, "Really? Sure. Guess it's a good thing that my mom packed a survival kit for the hiking trip." he patted his pouch on his waist that his mom gave him that held his survival kit in case he needs it in an emergency.

Taking the chance, Rave beamed before getting up from her workplace and rushed towards the two. "Wait! I wanna come with you too!" She chirped.

"Wait, what? But you just recovered." Sonic widened his brows, expressing his surprise. Not to mention her being up into the open right after her recovery sounded like a bad idea.

"I know, I just want to see what these Energon deposits look like. Ever since coming on this Earth, I never got the chance to see actual crystallized Energon in nature. And who knows? Maybe we can get some for our next battle. And besides, it's only recon, so I won't get into fights to further wound me." she winked cutely.

Sonic thought about it, a little worried about her health in case she gets into trouble but gave in to her pleas with crossed arms, "Oh, alright."

Rave pumped a fist in glee, "Ye-!"

"Only if Arcee and Ratchet are okay with it." he intervened, motioning to the said Autobots. Rave turned to them with pleading puppy eyes, silently begging them to let her.

For Arcee, she didn't seem to mind, though a bit unnerved at the eyes as she let out an imaginary sweatdrop. "S-Sure might need some help in case things go south."

Ratchet only shrugged, "As long as she doesn't strain her body to an extent."

"Yes!" She cheered before she went back to her workplace and brought out her Z-Edges and sheathed them onto the side of her waist. After she was done, she skipped to Arcee. But before she went to her, Soul Rider suddenly approached them. "Soul?"

"Say, mind if Sierra and I stick around too? I did kinda promise her for the hiking trip, and since you're taking Jack along, I would kinda bad to leave her bored at Base."

An astonished Jack thought about Soul's offer before he turned to Sierra, who had an eager face, "Sure, how about it, Sierra? Wanna come?"

"Sure!" She said eagerly as she joined the group with the Evangelion behind her, who handed her own fanny pack.

"You guys better be careful," Sonic advised, "make sure that Jack and Sierra are looked after, okay?"

"And especially around Energon, they are extremely flammable." Ratchet noted from his computer.

"So they go boom even with a small fire, got it. We will," Rave assured as the Ground Bridge activated, and human, Autobot, and AutoKnight alike walked through it.

(Forest)

The five arrived in the lush area of the forest. The thin mist covered most of the woods with the humidity being a bit dense, a few wild birds flying overhead, and few mammals treading from afar. However, there are also creatures in the forest that are never the nicest ones. The most abundant animals that are the bane of all humankind; Mosquitos.

Jack waved his arms in disgust at the buzzing sound around him. If it was one thing, he regretted bringing would be something to repel them, "Really wished I'd pack some insect repellant." He groaned as he tried to swat the annoying insect away, "The mosquitoes out here on this routine recon are the size of vampire bats. And they can drink just as much blood."

Though Arcee glanced with a smirk, "Quite the outdoorsman, aren't you, Jack."

"Glad we don't have human skin for this environment." Rave Rose teased at Jack's suffering.

"Ha!" Soul Rider laughed, "You're lucky for that. Being a giant with metal skin is a giant plus. But the negative is that you still have the after-effects of the overheat earlier, which is a huge pain for you."

"Oh shut up, Soul." Rave pouted.

As Jack was swatting flies away, Sierra giggled at the antics before she decided to help by taking out an insect repellant from her bag. "Here."

"Oh, thanks." Jack gratefully took the can and sprayed some of it on him.

"Are you sure you're ok being out in the forest?" she asked, lifting one of her brows.

"Well, yeah. What about you? For the school's most popular girl, you seemed to be prepared with almost everything."

Sierra grinned, "Well, you can thank Soul for that. When I told him that I wanted to do something adventurous for a change in my life, he took me on a few hikes and other outdoor activities with my family during the weekends. He taught me a few things along the way, including how to survive in the wild when you're stranded."

"You won't know what could happen when you're in a place you aren't familiar with." Soul said, his face expressing knowledge, "The first time I went hiking, I completely forgot my survival kit back home and got lost in the woods. How lucky I was that time if it wasn't for Shou and Elisha-Nee (Big Sis) coming to find me in time. Thank Primus, I learned to be prepared for anything because of that."

"And how did you forget your survival kit that easily?" Rave asked rhetorically in a knowingly teasing tone.

He froze as if he got caught and let out sweatdrop, "I... was too carried away, bringing my guitar into the van." Soul winced at his own embarrassing habit. It was true. Unfortunately, as a musical person, he was obsessed with bringing at least one of his instruments with him everywhere he goes.

That earned him stifles and giggles of laughter from the humans, "Oh come on! I'm not that much of a music fanatic! Nor do I want to hear it from you, Rave!" Soul snapped, turning at the Valvrave, who looked away with a suspicious innocent look, "You just wanted to come along just so you can get out of the base!"

Rave whistles innocently, "I have no idea what you're talking about~."

"Tobokenna, (Don't act innocent,) Amy!"

"Well, it's not my fault that you get carried away with things most of the time. Especially music-related!"

"Oh yeah? Like you being carried away with looking at new machinery you haven't seen like toys?"

"I don't treat them like toys! They are fine arts of our very souls!" Rave exclaimed, "Every mechanism in each weapon we design defines our personalities, our flare of passion, our dreams! Each part imbued with what we seek in our future. Just like the weapons straight from RWBY! Oh, how I wish to see and touch Crescent Rose for at least one ti-."

"Okay, I'm gonna stop you from getting too deep into RWBY philosophy. The thing is you get fascinated with unique mechanisms too much that you get carried away like Ruby Rose, heck you're almost like her in person!"

"Just like you get carried away admiring the instruments that my dad owned?" Sierra got out through her giggles, making Soul sigh dejectedly. "But hey, at least you're a pretty good musician at the same time."

"And I thank you for that," Soul grumbled.

Jack let out a cocky grin as he let out the last of his snickers, "Well, maybe it's a good thing that I have my survival kit prepared and ready to go."

"Maybe." Soul shrugged, somewhat doubting his skills in survival.

Jack kept his grin, "I may not have stinger proof metal skin. But in a pinch, I can use my multifunction pocket knife and magnesium fire starter to cook up some freeze-dried mac and cheese." he stated, patting his pouch with said items inside.

"Mmm, as delicious as it sounds." Rave Rose complimented jokingly, "You have your tools, we have ours." she then brought up her swords in their sheaths before rubbing her metal cheeks onto them, "And I have my babies to help me."

"Ruby fanatic," Soul muttered as he rolled his eyes while shaking his head.

"Hey!"

Arcee let out a chuckle, "You guys really like each other, don't you?"

"Most of the time," Soul waved off.

"You can keep ogling your weapon, while I find some Energon." Arcee grinned as she let up her scanner.

Suddenly, her scanner let out loud beeps, making her turn to it and look at it in confusion, "That's odd. Ratchet's satellite scans were accurate." she said a little puzzled as her scanner showed an extensive reading of Energon in the area, "But subterranean Energon deposits don't cause this kind of surge."

"Maybe it's been accidentally dug by humans?" Rave guessed with a tilt of her head as she thought back about the time when Bulkhead and Miko went to Greece, where the humans from a construction site dug up Energon by pure coincidence.

"Possibly." The five continued their trek along the woods, getting closer to the source of the Energon readings.

Arcee kept her eyes on the scanner before it spiked up again before she tore away from it, only to see a surprising sight in front of her. A vast trench trail traveled along the ground in the open, broken trees that have fallen away from it. Judging by the broken trees and the terrain, it looked recent as if something crashed through here.

Rave gasped in amazement seeing the trail, "Whoa."

"What happened here?" Jack asked.

"Crash landing." Arcee identified as her face frowned into a stern look, "Stay behind me, low and close." she advised cautiously before taking the lead and sprinted down the trail.

"Right behind ya." Rave nodded as she followed after, her hands on the pommel of her Z-Edge. Soul took out his knife and walked behind while Sierra and Jack too followed as they tried to keep close to them with their own legs.

With Arcee leading, they carefully went down the trail, covering behind trees cautiously. They sneaked behind a tree to tree before going behind a fallen log when they reach the end of the trail. When they peek over, their eyes widened toward the sight before them. It was a huge black ship embedded into the earth, scratch marks covered all over it.

"That's big. Autobot or Decepticon?" The purple Eva asked, keeping his eyes on the ship.

"Can't tell. Wait here." Arcee pulled out her blaster before getting up and tread carefully towards the ship. The rest did as they were told as Rave kept her hand on the pommel, watching Arcee. The femme warrior slowly walked, looking around in case of an ambush as she went to the ship's bow. There, she found an entrance that had a ramp leading inside. Arcee backed up to the wall, next to the door with blasters prepared before moving in and aimed cautiously, but saw nothing. Seeing the coast is clear, she slowly walks up to the ramp, before she gasped in horror.

Outside, Jack, Sierra, Rave, and Soul stared at the ship as they Arcee to return. The first former was more worried about his charge, fearing that something terrible could happen. While Rave and Soul narrowed their eyes on guard. Thankfully for them, the tension was lifted up when the sight of their friend popped up over the trail hill. However, their faces turned into concern when they saw Arcee place her hand on the ship wall and saw fear in her eyes.

"Arcee?" Jack immediately got out of the log and ran towards his charge. Rave walked behind as the rest followed.

Arcee let out shaky breaths as what she saw inside embedded into her mind, 'No. Anything but her!'

(Flashback)

Her mind flashbacked, remembering the dark prison. The assailant with long sharp appendages. A bloodied figure dangling from the chains. The assailant hissed before swinging down a claw. And then...

*SLASH!*

…..Energon splattered onto the floor.

"TAILGATE!"

(End Flashback)

Arcee shook her head, getting the memory out of her mind before frowning heavily. A concerned Rave and Jack went up to her.

"Arcee, are you okay? You look like you saw a ghost or something." Rave Rose asked, concerned at the expression the Autobot was making

Arcee closed her eyes as she sagged her head before answering in a low muttering, enough for Rave and Jack to hear, "I know who this ship belongs to." she glared before pulling up her Com-Link, "Arcee to Base, I need a Ground Bridge ASAP!" But she only received static.

"W-wait, why? Who's ship is this?" Jack inquired, surprised to request something immediately. Not to mention, she seemed to be becoming hasty for some reason.

But she ignored his questions and walked around, trying to get a signal, but received none, "Base, do you read? Scrap! Com-Link's dead. The ship's gotta be transmitting a high-frequency scrambler pulse." She gritted. She then noticed something on the ground that looked to be tracks that were leading into the forest.

Her behavior was so hasty for the other four that it concerned them a lot, "A-Arcee? O-okay, you're kinda freaking us out here!" Jack said with a frightened voice.

Still, Arcee ignored and kept a vertical frown as she looked at the tracks, "Wait here." She said sternly, before she went towards the forest, following the tracks while leaving the group behind again.

Soul Rider turned to others with a perplexed look, "What's wrong with her?" he asked, Jack just looked at her with a shrug.

Turning towards the ship where Arcee came from, Rave Rose thought of what caused her to become scared. Curiosity overcoming her, she pulled out her plasma cannons, before addressing to Soul. "Soul, stay here and watch Jack and Sierra, I'm taking a look inside." She said before she went inside.

As they waited, they looked at each other, initially thinking about what was wrong with Arcee. They jolted when Rave's voice screamed from the ship, "WHAT THE SLAG IS THIS?!"

"What is it?!" Soul called out to her. Seeing what was inside the ship, Rave Rose ran out. Her face was showing complete trauma and horror that she has never shown before. Her breathing was hyperventilating as she attempted to take deep breaths to stabilize herself.

"We need to get to Arcee, Now!" she said frantically.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, what? Why?" Sierra asked.

"No time to explain, let's go!" She said before engaging her battle mask and running towards Arcee's direction.

Everyone was appalled, first Arcee, now Rave Rose?! Despite having difficulty wrapping his head around, Jack took off with his feet and followed after with the other two trailing after him.

When they left, a small light shined from the fog before a white Ascari KZI emerged and approached the ship. Its engine stopped before the exterior frame suddenly expanded and shifted into a humanoid figure. Silently examining the ship's damaged exterior, it turned towards the direction of where the group went as its eyes under a red visor narrowed.

"So, they're here."

(Arcee)

Back with Arcee, she trekked slowly in the woods, following the tracks. She noticed there were scratch marks on the trees nearby like something big clawed through the path. Arcee knelt down and inspected the claw tracks on the ground, tracing the holes. The marks shape was too familiar to her, and they belong to someone that she never forgets. One, she never forgot back on Cybertron. The restraints that held her, the torture she went through, the scars she received, all caused by her.

"Arcee?" She snapped out of her thoughts, turned around, and saw the group standing next to her, looking with unease. Despite seeing them disobeying her words, she decided to ignore it and immediately transformed into her motorcycle form.

"Climb on!" she said towards the puzzled Jack. He complied, though, as he got on and wore his helmet. Not even asking if he was ready, Arcee immediately kick-started her engine and burst through the woods, startling Jack as he held on tightly. Surprised by the sudden speed, Rave Rose and Soul Rider quickly turned into their respective Mazda RX-7 Veilside and Nissan Gtr r35 mode, the latter opening his door to allow Sierra in swiftly, and accelerated after them.

Through the woods, Arcee sped left and right while dodging the trees, even not slowing down one bit as she also jumped over a ravine while Jack still held on for dear life and the AutoKnights catching up from behind. After driving for a distance, they stopped for a breather.

Jack took off his helmet, looking at his charge with a frown before mounting off, "' Kay, was that really necessary?" he asked, but still received no answer from her as she once more tried to contact base.

"Arcee to Base." she tried but received nothing but static, "Scrap!" she cursed, without contacting Omega-1, there was no way of getting the humans to safety nor having Rave Rose return to base due to her condition.

Frankly, her charge was getting tired of getting shut out, "Look, I've seen danger before, what's the big de-!"

"Wait here. I mean it this time."

"Ok, first, you shut me out, and now you're ditching me?!" Jack scoffed in disbelief as Arcee, Soul Rider, and Rave Rose transformed, "I thought I was your partner!"

"No, Jack, you're a kid." Arcee shook her head, "You're supposed to be here because this was supposed to be 'no-risk,' got it?"

"Okay, I think this has gone far enough!" Rave Rose intervened with a frown as she stood up against Arcee, making the latter shocked.

"Arcee, you've been acting too frantically ever since you went inside the ship, you said that you know who it belongs to, but you never told us who it is!" she pressed on, "Not to mention, you've been telling us to stay put like something bad is out there and scrap us!" She stopped scolding as she took a breath before she softened her eyes towards the blue Autobot, "Frankly, I'm starting to worry about you."

Arcee's eyes widened as wide as tires as she looked at Rave with shock at her outburst, never has she has seen someone like her scold her this way. However, she only remained silent as she looked away from the Valvrave's gaze.

Sierra and Jack were stunned at Rave scolding, "Whoa, was she this serious before?"

Soul leaned down and whispered with his hand covering the side of his mouth, "Usually when she feels angry and times like something bad has happened to one of our family members. But then again, looking at Arcee's behavior, I'm considering this as a red flag."

Taking Arcee's silence as a gesture to continue, Rave Rose asked her an important question, "Just answer me this, Does it have something to do with the things inside the ship?" Even though she seemed like she asked a random question, her voice sounded like it was implying that she knows what the ship was holding.

Arcee flinched before she slowly turned in disbelief, "You saw?"

"Judging by your reaction, I guess it does." Rave Rose noted, confirming her suspicion before pressing on as she placed both hands on Arcee's shoulders. "Arcee, please. Just tell us. Tell us what is going on so that we can help you."

"..."

"..."

"...This doesn't concern you. To any of you!" Arcee snapped suddenly, slapping Rave's arm away, shocking the two, before turning away and turned back into her Alt-Mode and left them but not before saying, "Wait here, until I come back." She then revved her engine and jumped past the ravine and headed back.

Jack disgruntled at the leaving motorcycle, "What was that for?"

"She seems…. out of it," noted Sierra.

Narrowed his eyes, Soul placed his hand on his chin as he got into a thinking pose, "Something tells me that something, or someone, from her past, came back to haunt her."

"How do you know?" Jack asked.

"Watched a couple of dramas that had main characters go through horrible pasts. Usually, they would show a hateful expression whenever someone reminds them of a horrible past or perhaps they want revenge on. A definite form of a red flag." Soul simply answered.

"So, in your words, what Arcee displayed counts as a red flag?" Jack inquired at the Evangelion.

Soul looked down at them with a surprisingly serious look. "Crimson." his voice took a dark tone, conveying the depth of the situation.

For Rave Rose, she eyed in suspicion at the behavior, "I think I have a general idea." she then changed into Alt-mode with her door open for Jack, "Get in."

"Rave, before we go." Soul stopped her, halting the Valvrave, "Care to explain what you saw in the ship that got you and Arcee spooked?"

Rave grimaced, "...okay. But I'll warn you, it wasn't a pretty sight." She said before sharing her story of what she saw.

Leaving the four behind, Arcee returned to where she left off to continue her investigation. In hindsight, she felt terrible that she lashed out at them, especially at Rave Rose. But to her, it was the only method to avoid having them involved as long as she is nearby. 'I'm sorry, guys. But this is something that I have to settle with.' She thought. Maybe after this is over, she could apologize to them for her behavior. But at the moment, she has a task at hand that she needs to settle with.

Turning back to her mission, she stopped at the same spot, changing back into her humanoid form. She pulled out her blaster before returning to her search, following the trail. As she continued the path, she consistently checked her surroundings before coming up upon a broken tree trunk.

Upon looking at it, her eyes widened. But the thing that got her attention was not the tree trunk itself, but what was on it. An acidic green substance burning on it. Seeing it triggered yet another flashback in her head.

(Flashback)

Blaster fire flying around, smoke covering the sky overhead the crumbled metal buildings, explosions erupted. Shouting was heard all over, some sounding of offense, while most of them being screams of death. The war on Cybertron kept rising as both Autobots and Decepticons battled each other for the survival of their race.

Meanwhile, Arcee dashed through a road that had destroyed debris fallen all over. After a slight mishap with a mission, she was currently heading towards her team to regroup.

"Arcee to Delta Team, requesting rendezvous coordinates. Do you copy?" She called through the com-link as she ran.

"Arcee, ya lost again?" A male voice reply through the com-link, "Your sense of direction could use some improvement."

"So could your aim, Tailgate." Arcee shot back with a smirk, "If you tagged that sniper back at the artillery depot, I wouldn't have to break rank and engage the enemy hand-to-hand." she slowed down a bit, checking her surroundings for Decepticons while pulling out her blaster.

"From the sound of things, I guess you came out ahead?" Tailgate inquired.

"Try waiting up for me this time, and I'll give you the blow by blow. What's your position?"

"About half a click from the depot due north. Think you can find it, partner?" Tailgate asked teasingly.

Arcee just smiled as she turned, "Trust me, Tailgate. My navigation abilities are-MNHF!" She was suddenly stuck on nearby debris, covered in what seemed to be spider webs.

She couldn't move as she could only let out muffles through the web covering her mouth. She did, however, took a glimpse of her attacker, who was a black femme with glowing violet eyes before she shot another web, obscuring Arcee's vision.

She didn't know where she was taken, but it was clear that Arcee was taken to a Decepticon prison where she was chained from the ceiling after her capture. She struggled from her restraints in the dark chamber but to no avail as she could only let out grunts before stopping as she panted.

Then a calm malevolent voice came from the dark. "Piece of advice; make yourself comfortable." Arcee looked up to see from darkness the same figure that captured her. "You're gonna be here a while." She said sadistically as she brought up her sharp digits excreting acid. Arcee tried to move away from the claw but couldn't due to her chains. When the finger touched her faceplate, the figure slowly dragged it across her cheek as Arcee felt searing pain from it.

(End Flashback)

Bringing back to the present, Arcee furrowed her eyebrows. 'Tailgate. This is for you.' She thought spitefully. Reminded of her past, hatred began to fill her. Ever since that day, Arcee had been preparing so that one day, she meets her, she can make her pay for what she has done.

In an open area in the middle of the forest, a human civilian set up a campsite as the firepit was still burning as they minded their own business inside the tent. But they didn't know that they were being watched from nearby.

Slowly emerging from the trees, a black femme that was 19ft tall and had a dark violet underbody with her torso was covered in black armor. Her midriff was revealed as she sported a black armored skirt that had tailcoat armor hanging down from behind. Her legs were covered black armor down to her high heels while having gold spiked knee armor. Her arms included the same black colored gauntlets as they reached to her sharp-clawed fingertips. On her back sprouted 3 pairs of spider legs, which had sharp talons that seemed to be capable of tearing anything. Lastly, her head sported a black demon horn crown that rested over her red eyes, outlined in violet, on her white faceplate with violet metallic lips.

She eyed at the tent, her vision switching into heat vision as she watched the human setting things up inside. "My first local. Time for humankind to feel my sting." She licked her lips before her legs combined with her skirt and transformed into a spider abdomen while the appendages on her back unfolded and stabbed the ground and lifted her entire body up. Her form became something almost like an actual spider save for her upper body is the same.

She stalked quietly towards the campsite like a predator approaching her prey. Once she was in range as she pounced at the unsuspecting human, her claws out to grab them...!

"HYAH!"

Right before Arcee tackled her midair. The two tumbled down the hill and away from the campsite before crashing into a rock wall as Arcee pushed the spider bot away.

From afar, two cars dashed through the woods with their passengers in tow. They sped as they hurried to reach their friend that requires help.

"We got to hurry! If what you said is true, then whatever came out of that ship is dangerous!" Soul said as they headed were Arcee headed, when they heard a crash sound from nearby, "What was that?" Jack asked in surprise from Rave's passenger seat.

"Sounds like trouble," Soul said.

"Then, we got to hurry!" Rave urged as they drifted toward the direction of the sound and upped their speed.

Back at the site, both got up as they glared at each other. "Arcee." The spider grinned as she recognized the Autobot, "Small universe."

"Too small, Airachnid," Arcee replied with venom.

"You're still holding a grudge?" Airachnid tilted her head, acting as if she was offended, as she circled around Arcee, "The war's been over for megacycles."

"Tell that to the Decepticons." Arcee retorted as she got into a stance with her right palm out and her left fist to her side, ready to take her on.

"These days I travel solo, in pursuit of my new 'hobby.'" The Decepticon proclaimed, seemingly announcing her so-called "resignation" from the army.

Arcee frowned at the mention of her 'hobby' remembering what she saw on Airachnid's ship, the horrifying scene etched in her mind.

(Flashback)

When she entered the ship with her guard up, she was expecting something to pop out, either an Autobot being stranded and injured or a Con waiting to attack her. But when she went in deeper, she saw something worse as she gasped at the horrific sight. On the side of the hall, dismembered heads of various alien species in glass cases lined up, faces displaying their horrified expressions right before they were killed.

Arcee held back the urge to retch her contents at the disgusting sight. At that moment, she immediately realized who's ship belongs to.

(End Flashback)

Arcee furrowed her brow even further at the memory, "I got a look at your 'souvenir' case."

"You mean my 'trophies'? I collect endangered species." Airachnid inquired, before a sadistic grin etched on her face, "Of course, they aren't really endangered until they meet me. And I have a slot reserved for Human."

That stuck Arcee's nerve, "Not gonna happen!" she said. She charged and tackled Airachnid to the ground and held her down. She lifted her fist to strike her, but Airachnid grabbed her body with her spider legs before pushing her hard enough to hit the rock wall. After getting up, she dodged of few of Arcee's Energon rounds as jumped to a tree. Arcee aimed her shot again, but her blasters suddenly got covered in webs, spewed from Airachnid's palms. Thinking that she got her, Airachnid held her there with a smirk, but Arcee had another thing and harshly pulled on the web, dragging Airachnid down as she roughly fell to the ground.

Using her hidden blades, Arcee cut the webs off before she proceeds to fire at Airachnid. Airachnid swiftly leaned left to right to dodge before firing her own rounds from her palms. Arcee ran through the firing barrage before leaping up to a tree branch and swing upward, landing onto a higher tree branch before she jumped and extended her right leg, falling hard onto Airachnid, pinning her down. Having her pinned, she pulled out her blasters to finish her up.

Until they heard a few rocks tumbled near them. They both looked up at the top of the hill and, much to Arcee's horror, saw Rave Rose, Soul Rider, and the humans slowly coming down the steep slope. Seeing her opponent distracted, Airachnid swiped a claw at Arcee's face, dazing her a bit before she trapped her with webs onto the wall, her arms, and limbs trapped in place. Arcee grunted as she tried to get out of the webbing.

"Arcee!" Jack shouted as he ran towards, but at the same time, turning Airachnid's attention to him, letting out a sneering smirk.

"Whoa! That's a big spider." Sierra reeled back in disgust at the sight of Airachnid as the latter snarled.

Airachnid took a few steps closer to the group. "Has Arcee gained another partner? Two, in fact? My, does she have a thing for losing partners." But upon closer inspection at the two AutoKnights, her expression turning into an interested one, "Well, aren't you two an interesting sight?"

Seeing that Airachnid's attention turned to them, the trapped Arcee quickly pulled out her left arm blade to cut the webbing to free it before taking her blaster once again and shot the distracted Con in the back. "ARGH!" That sent her flying into the two AutoKnights.

Rave's mind got into quick-thinking and shouted, "Soul!"

"Got it!" The two reeled back their fists before they knocked her down hard. Having sustaining damage from both hits, Airachnid's body slumped as she went unconscious.

"Consider yourself squashed, bug!" Soul jeered. After that, the group immediately ran to Arcee, Jack being the first to reach his charge with Sierra followed suit.

"Sierra, help me with this." Jack insisted as he and Sierra grabbed and pulled onto the web, trying to free her.

"I told you to wait for me!" Arcee berated, angry that they, once again, did not listen.

"Well, partners don't ditch partners!" Jack retorted as he pulled onto the web.

Arcee only frowned further, "Get this through your head. You're not my partner, you're a liability!"

"I don't believe you! I can see it in your eyes!" Jack shot back as he looked at her sternly while Arcee widened her eyes, "You're afraid, Arcee. And you're never afraid."

"He's right." Sierra added, "You have desperation and fear on your face after you looked inside the ship, scared that you wanted us to get out of here for our own sake."

Soul Rider, too added his own comment with narrowed eyes, "I don't know what's causing all of this, Arcee. But we know from your expression that you're really, really afraid of something."

And lastly, Rave Rose said, "And if there is something that is scaring you that much, why can't you tell us about it? We're your friends, Arcee. You can tell us what's the matter with you that is making you so afraid."

Arcee stared at them as she hesitantly thought about it. Was she actually afraid? Was she actually that desperate to get Jack and the rest away? As she thought more upon it, her mind flashbacked once again.

(Flashback)

Arcee was kept hanging even after the torturous interrogation as the scar on her cheek remained while saying nothing to Airachnid, who held an amused look. "You know, for an Autobot, your resilience is quite impressive." she commented, "In fact, I'm guessing that no matter what I do to you, you'll never crack. Am I right?"

Arcee only glared with a scowl.

"That's what I thought." Airachnid said bemusingly before motioning to a Vehicon guard. The guard opened the cell doors to reveal two more dragging a wounded Autobot by the arms.

But Arcee recognized the Autobot as she gasped in shock. "Tailgate?"

The Vehicons dragged Tailgate to one side of the room before they attached cuffs onto his arms as the magnetic chains appeared and hung him up.

"What have you done to him?!" Arcee demanded.

"Not much. Yet." Airachnid grinned.

"Just tell me what I want to know or...Well, you're smart, Bot." she smirked sadistically, "I think you can imagine what happens to Tailgate next." She motioned to Tailgate, indicating what would happen to him if Arcee didn't confess.

In which, Arcee had no choice but to do it, "I don't know the attack coordinates!" And that was the truth she had. She knew nothing about the Autobots plan nor even heard about it.

However, Airachnid only frowned at the answer, unsatisfied about it, as she moved towards her partner.

Arcee's eyes filled with fear and desperation for her partner as she confessed, "I swear upon the AllSpark, it's the truth!"

"We shall see." Airachnid waved it off as she approached Tailgate.

"No. Please!" Arcee pleaded. But the Con ignored her and brought out one of her sharp claws as she snarled predatorily. Arcee began to shake with dread as her eyes looked at her partner as she couldn't do anything but watch.

"Mn… 'Cee...?" Tailgate groaned lifting his head up a little, only to see Arcee's fearful face before-

*SLASH*

-Energon spilled onto the floor, and Tailgate's lifeless body slumped.

"TAILGATE!" Arcee screamed.

(End Flashback)

Arcee went back to reality and realized they were right. "You're right, Jack. I am afraid. Of losing you!" She confessed to her charge, making everyone looked in surprise at her words.

Jack paused and looked up to see her face trembling with fear, "Arcee?"

Suddenly at the corner of her eye, Sierra noticed Airachnid getting up before she shouted, "Watch out!"

"Eh? WAH!" Rave and Soul spun around quickly, but they were suddenly caught into the wall by spider webs, getting trapped next to where Arcee was.

"Rave! Soul!" Luckily, Jack and Sierra dodged the attack as they tried to get the webs off of their charges as they struggled, the latter went to her charge and immediately tried to help.

"The heck are these webs?!" Soul strained as he struggled in the webs.

"I can't get my Z-Edges!" Rave tried to reach her swords, but due to the webs, her hands were restrained.

Smirking, Airachnid approached the trapped trio on her spider legs, "You sure have trouble hanging on to your partners, don't you? We both know what happened to Tailgate." She said to Arcee, who began to shudder with fear, "But I recently picked up some Decepticon radio chatter regarding the passing of Cliffjumper."

Rave Rose raised a brow before turning to Arcee, "Arcee, what is she talking about? And who's this Tailgate or Cliffjumper?" she asked, but Arcee couldn't respond as her breathing became slightly unstable.

Airachnid's smirk became even more prominent at Arcee's faltering composure, "At some point, you really have to ask yourself, Arcee; 'Is it them, or is it me?'"

That was the last straw for Arcee as fear completely consumed before turning to Jack, "Do you get it now, Jack? She's not interested in me. She hunts indigenous species, and she's on Earth. That means humans!"

Soul and Rave took a moment to realize what she meant before it hit them, "Oh Primus! Jack, take Sierra and run!"

Jack took a minute to process what she said, humans are indeed the indigenous species on Earth and now that Airachnid is here and she hunts them, and the only humans in the area were-! His eyes widened in realization as fear suddenly consumed him. So did Sierra, as her eyes quivered.

"You two!"

"RUN!" Arcee then screamed at the top of her lungs before another web was suddenly spewed onto them, getting them more deeply in their trap.

At that point, Jack took Sierra's hand and ran for their lives despite the latter objecting to this, "Wait, Jack, we can't leave them! We can't leave Soul!" she cried, not wanting to leave her guardian.

"Sierra, we have to go!" Jack urged, "We'll come back for them. I swear!"

But as much as he hates leaving his guardian behind, he had to listen to Arcee's orders this time and kept running.

Airachnid laughed at the fleeing duo before focusing on her trapped prisoners, "And that's why I now prefer to work alone. It's so sad when bad things happen to those close to you." she then turned to Rave and Soul, "However, you two are quite interesting." She flattered suddenly, "You don't look like any other Autobot, yet you're certainly not Decepticons either. I guess you two are those 'AutoKnights' that I heard over the radio-chatter." she placed a finger on below her lower lip as if she got into a thinking pose, "I wonder if the femme that I stumbled upon when I first landed here was an AutoKnight as well?"

Rave Rose raised a brow of confusion at what she said, "What?"

Airachnid continued as she recalled, "She was a formidable opponent when we fought. But seeing myself at a disadvantage, I thought it was best to leave her in the dust and continue with my hobby."

"Although, I'll never forget the fire she had in her eyes, almost like you and Elita, Arcee." she turned to her before she raised one of her and stabbed the wall, intentionally missing Arcee's head by a margin, making her flinch.

Using her spider legs, Airachnid climbed onto the rock wall as she turned her body upside down as she kept her face at Arcee's "And I fully intend to snuff out her spark the next time I see her. Just like I'm about to do the same to you. And, believe me, I will make it hurt."

But then she sneered deviously before looking towards the direction of where Jack and Sierra fled, "But that won't compare to the pain you'll feel knowing I'm adding your humans to my collection."

The three gasped as Soul glared harshly at her, "No, you wouldn't dare!"

"Oh, don't worry, I will make sure to take care of those two. Well, at least their heads." Airachnid assured as she jumped off the wall and headed towards the fleeing humans, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some humans to catch."

"JACK! SIERRAAAA!" The trio screamed helplessly as they struggled in their binds.

(With Jack and Sierra)

Jack and Sierra panted as they ran deeper into the forest while the former kept holding onto Sierra's hand. While holding her hand, Jack looked back to see Airachnid in the distance coming right after them, intent on getting her prey. She does intend to keep them for her collection, but there was no harm in playing with them first.

"Come on, Sierra!" Jack urged as they ran faster. With fear running inside him, the only thing on his mind was; run.

"That's the spirit, you two! Play hard to get." Airachnid let out a childishly sadistic chuckle as she was catching up from behind.

Sierra looked back with a fearful expression, "We need to slow her down somehow!"

"Yeah, no kidding!" Jack agreed desperately, "but HOW?!"

"Hold on, I have something!" She dug into her fanny pack and pulled out her bug spray and a pocket knife. To which Jack made a perplexed face.

"How are you gonna use a bug spray against her?!"

"LIKE THIS!" she shouted before she stabbed a small hole into the can, letting out the gas inside. She then dropped it before pulling out a lighter, ignited it, before throwing it next to the cylinder. Not noticing it, Airachnid got near it before the flame was caught into the methane of the repellant, exploding into a more enormous flame that got onto some of her armor.

"ARGH!" she screamed in pain as the flame flared into her eyes, blinding her.

"Taste that, you Spidey-Creep!" Sierra taunted before she grabbed Jack's hand and resumed their escape, "that should buy us some time."

Airachnid shook her head and wiped off the flames of the explosion before opening her eyes to see the humans now gone. Instead of being angry at the stunt, she let out a crooked smile at the move, "Now it's becoming more interesting!"

(Arcee's group)

"Rrrrgh! Grrrrgh! Grah! Scrap!"

Back with Arcee's group, they were still trying to get out of the web as they pulled forward, even pulled away from each other, but to no effort. With Airachnid going after the kids, they had to do something to save them from the horrors of what the spider con could do to them!

And the stress of that certainly wasn't helping one of them as Soul Rider began to rant "Well, this is just great! First, we were just scouting for some Energon, which may I remind that it was supposed to be a safe mission until we discovered that it was actually a crashed ship that brought a fragging psychopath! And now she's going after our human friends for their heads!"

"If I can reach my swords, I would've cut these stupid webs!" Rave Rose strained as she tried to reach for her weapons, but due to the webs, she couldn't get her arm to go any further. 'I hate it when my weapons are out of my reach like this!' she groaned inwardly, "Oh, I should've brought my Vurutoga just in case!"

"Well, we can't whine about that, can we?" Soul said as the Evangelion pulled, "I can't even reach for my Knife! And more importantly, we need to save Sierra and Jack before Airachnid gets them!"

Meanwhile, Arcee too tried to escape, but unlike the other two, she was silent for some reason. What was currently occupying her mind was Jack. 'I need to save him! I can't afford to! Not after I failed to save….Tailgate.' she then stopped, the memory of Tailgate's lifeless body clouding her mind. The guilt of failing to save her partner, the one she cared for. Unbearing the guilt overcoming her, her body sagged, and her eyes closed in total regret.

Rave turned to Arcee, noticing her guilty expression. Having kept enough in the dark for too long, she decided to take the opportunity and ask her the main question, "So, what is up with you and her?" she asked. Arcee flinched at the issue as she kept silent. "You seem to have a deep history with her."

Soul looked shocked for a moment at the question before raising a deadpanning brow, "Um, Rave? In case you didn't notice, we're trapped in a huge spider web, and we have two kids being chased by a crazy spider lady! Do we really have the time to talk about that?!"

"I need to know fully what's going on, so I know what kind of situation we are in and how we can handle it."

The Eva had annoyance and anger welling up inside him as an imaginary vex mark on his head before retorting, "Well, for the record, we do know that she's a psychopath who flies around the galaxy to gather a huge collection of alien heads. And now she intends to collect human ones! What more do we need to know?!"

"Have you also considered wondering how she and Arcee know each other?" Rave deadpanned with half-lid eyes.

Soul cocked a brow, "Yeah, so? Your point is?"

Rave sighed, "It's just that, this kinda reminds me of what happened two years ago."

As if that was a million-dollar word, all the anger that was stored inside diminished instantly as Soul immediately looked at her, realizing what she meant, "Oh, you mean… that incident?" he replied with sudden sadness in his voice.

The conversation got Arcee out of her mulling thoughts before turning her head towards the two. It made her curious about what they are talking about. 'Two years ago? That incident? What are they talking about?' she questioned in her thoughts.

"But Rave, that incident and the situation right now are very different," Soul argued.

"I just don't want another relapse of it. Not to Arcee this time."

"I'm sorry, what are you guys talking about?" Arcee asked.

"..." The two AutoKnights took a moment to look at each other before Soul Rider reluctantly gave Rave a small nod. The latter nodded back before turning to Arcee with serious eyes.

"Arcee," Rave called, getting her attention, "I'm gonna be straight with you. You acting desperate and angry reminds of someone else I know who went through the same incident, and I've seen those eyes before. Those aren't just the eyes of fear. But also anger and hatred. And that would mean Airachnid has done something in the past that obviously made you so despised of her." Rave paused to look straight into Arcee's eyes, "Did Airachnid take someone dear to you away?"

Arcee flinched before she looked away with a scowl expression.

"Was it about this Tailgate?" She asked again. She received only silence. Rave Rose pursued further, "You said that you're afraid of losing Jack. so I can probably say that something did happen to traumatize you to that point."

"..." Arcee only looked down.

"I understand that this brings back bad memories, but please, don't push us away because of what you feared in the past."

"..." as silence went over them, Arcee went into deep thought, it was true that she was harshly pushing them away, and she can't deny that it was out of fear of losing them to a demon of her past. But she realized that instead of saving them, she was mostly trying to spare herself the same grief and harmed her bond with the others in the process.

Arcee sighed in defeat as she sagged her head, "She killed my partner." She confessed.

"Eh?" Rave and Soul eyes' widened in shock

"Tailgate was one of my partners that I was assigned with, during the war on Cybertron. We went through almost every mission. With the time we spent, I considered him a brother like my own sisters, and he, in turn, considered me as a sister. But then those good times… came to an end."

"I was captured by the Cons during a mission, interrogated for information about an Autobot strike. I didn't tell them anything for the sake of the team. But the situation became worse when they captured and brought in Tailgate."

Rave gasped "You mean...?"

"She threatened to offline him if I didn't give her information. Fearing for his life, I had no choice but to tell her the truth, so I told her that I didn't know anything. But…. It was then, in front of my eyes, she snuffed his spark." She tightened her fists, "It was my fault that my partner was killed on that day."

"And I would've been scrap if it wasn't for my sister coming in to rescue me."

(Flashback)

Arcee's wide eyes kept staring at the now deactivated corpse. The partner that she fought with and cared for together was extinguished in an instant. Gone. Her spark sank with despair after just witnessing Tailgate's death.

Airachnid grinned sadistically, seeing the despair in her victim's eye. She then approached her with her talon out. To her, It was fun. Torturing her victims to death, and now that she has had her fun, she was ready to finish her off. As much as she wanted to continue her entertainment, she had a mission to do for her Decepticon cause. Eyes trembling with fear, Arcee couldn't utter a word as the claw slowly reached for her head.

Just when she was about to scrap her, the door exploded before Bumblebee rolled in and shot the two Vehicons down. Next, a familiar red Autobot with the horns, Cliffjumper, and a rose-colored femme charged in. The femme was about the same height as Arcee, her upper body structure was almost identical to Arcee's with her armor being rose-pink, but her armor.

"Airachnid! Release my sister!" Elita-One demanded as she pulled out a pair of Path Blasters and fired at her. As she was shooting the Con, Cliffjumper went to Arcee as he started removing the restraints. Airachnid dodged the shots on her spider legs before she scurried away from the chamber through the door, disappearing from the scene.

Elita-One gritted her teeth, seeing that Airachnid escaped as she folded her weapons away before she went to her sister, who was being carried by Cliffjumper with her arm over his shoulders. "Arcee, are you alright? Are you hurt?" she inquired worriedly as she went to Arcee's other side and assisted her by having her other arm over her shoulder.

When she faced her, she saw the despair coming out of Arcee's faceplate as she suddenly let out tears from her eyes, "I couldn't save him! I couldn't save my partner!" she sobbed.

But then she suddenly felt warmth touching her face softly. She turned to see Elita's eyes looking at her softly as she comforted her while having her palm on her cheek, "It's alright. Everything's gonna be fine." she assured like the big sister that she is as they escorted Arcee out of the horrible scene.

(End Flashback)

The two AutoKnights stood there in disbelief at the story. "Airachnid killed your partner?!" Soul exclaimed in horror, "I mean, I knew that she's a psychopath, but I didn't think she was that cold-blooded."

"Thinking back then that I was too weak to save Tailgate, I pretty much cut myself off from the others and went through missions by myself. Thinking that if I would be alone, I didn't have anything to fear nor lose."

"But wait, she mentioned something about a fellow named Cliffjumper. What about him?"

"We met… by chance. We pretty much went on from there, and he became my partner during our missions on our new grounds." she explained, reminiscing about how she came to Earth and Then she looked down in sadness again, "until it happened again. He was on a scouting mission to search for some Energon when he got caught by the Decepticons. We went to location when he called for backup, but by the time we arrived… we were too late." she thought back of Cliffjumper's horn that was left behind in the Energon crater. The loss affected her too much.

Rave Rose looked at her with sympathy towards her. It all makes sense now, the way she acted from earlier, the harsh arguments, the cold-shoulder attitude, and the way she urged Jack to run. It was then Rave knew that all Arcee wanted to do, save Jack from the same fate that happened to her partners that she failed to save.

However, the scenario itself remind her awfully a lot like someone she knew. Rave lowered her head as she muttered something softly, "...You really are like him."

"What?" Arcee turned to her, seeing her sympathetic look.

"Arcee, I'm really sorry for your loss. I really am. I didn't think that you had a hard time after losing someone you cared about." she sighed sympathetically, "But I know how it feels like to lose someone."

Arcee sharply turned to her, narrowing her eyes. "How can you know how I feel?!"

"Well, I don't exactly have these feelings myself. It's just that I know someone who felt the same way before," she admitted, which made Arcee raise her brow. Soul, on the other hand, only lowered his head for some reason as he knew what she was talking about.

"There was this guy from our orphanage that we know. He … was considered a stubborn head at first, wasn't quite really trusting towards others, other than his siblings that he took care of and protected since he never had any parents. Because of that, he was so feared that people called him one of the scariest beings to ever live. But even though he was like that on the outside, on the inside, he truly cared for others. Usually, he hates it when he sees someone get trampled on by people who insult them, often lashing at them. There were also times that he helped us when we get into trouble. To the other's view, he was a demon. But to us, he was an angel that looked over us."

Rave suddenly grew a saddened look, "But then a tragedy happened. His sister and a boy around her age that looked up to him got caught into a hostage situation by some crack headed thugs that hijacked a mall. The guy went to free them on his own, taking out a few thugs while saving a couple of hostages and his sister. But then an accident happened. No one knew what exactly happened, but an explosion erupted out of nowhere. There were casualties, and out of them, our friend survived, but not the boy he tried to save. His death affected him so greatly, he changed. But that wasn't the worst thing. Some people framed him to be the culprit of the hostage situation, threatening to send him to jail for life. Of course, the case managed to get evidence of the fraud and saved him from jail time. But it certainly left him traumatized, remembering someone dear to him."

"That made him completely shut down, often hiding from others as he was in a constant state of self-loathing. Thankfully, he was able to snap out of it and stand up with his own feet with the help of others, including us. He's still the kind brother to us. But even to this day, he still remembers that accident, how he couldn't save that one person he cared about. About as close as a brother of his own, believing that it was the reason that severed the ties with the victim's sister, whom he once loved. We kept on telling him that it wasn't his fault and that we got his back, but he remembers it often that it makes him depressed from time to time."

Arcee was shocked at the told story. Never has she thought that there was someone that had a similar past like hers. It almost seemed too real to be a coincidence, "I…, I didn't know your friend suffered that much."

"Sometimes, it's impossible to forget the things that affect you the most." Rave Rose turned her head towards Arcee, "You don't have to blame yourself for the death of someone you cared about. You're not just hurting everyone around you, you're also hurting yourself. To free yourself from pain, you just think about what to do in the present to move onto the future. And you can do that by first trusting those that you care about. Like I said earlier, we're your friends, Arcee." Rave consoled, "And true friends never turn away from another that is in need, no matter what. But you can't just say nothing and run away. When you need help with whatever you are having trouble with, that's where we'll jump in!" she continued with comfort. "So please, tell us so that we can help you in any way possible. Otherwise, Closing yourself off from feeling, won't help anyone."

Arcee mulled at the words Rave Rose spoke to her, the sincere offer to help that the Valvrave was giving off. Not to mention that she was surprised that the line at the end was the exact same words as his, 'Closing yourself off from feeling, won't help anyone.' she looked down as the guilt that was held inside her burst out, "I'm sorry, Rave." she said, "You're right, I shouldn't have looked back. I should've…." her eyes slightly widened, "kept driving!" with an idea and determination in her now, she started to push against the webbing digging her feet into the dirt with each step as she slowly spaced apart from the rock wall.

"Eh?" Rave and Soul watched her struggle against the web. When she finally got enough space, she transformed and pulled even harder as her tires squealed against the ground.

Seeing what she was doing, Rave caught on, "Naruhodo (I see)! So that's it!" she too started to pull onto the web and transformed into her vehicle form upped her speed. Soul also caught onto what they were intending and converted to do the same.

(Jack and Sierra)

Back with Jack and Sierra, they kept on running through the darkness of the forest, running away from the Spider Decepticon. They don't know how long they've been trying to evade her, but it felt like the two were going for hours, and they were running out of oxygen from running. Upon reaching a log, They jumped over it before pressing their backs onto it as they took a few breaths.

"Okay, now what's your plan on helping Soul and the others?" Sierra asked as she panted.

For Jack, unfortunately, he didn't have one. Running away from Airachnid was the only thing on his mind. "I- I don't know," Jack admitted.

Sierra turned her head at him sharply in disbelief, "Jack, we can't keep on running forever!" she urged, "It's only a matter of time that she's gonna catch up to us! That bug spray explosion only acted as a distraction and was the only thing that I had to throw at her." Her breaths then suddenly started to become unstable as she began to take in rapid air.

"Are you okay?"

"Oh yeah, I'm fine, just fine! Just venting the fact that we're out of options and ideas! Not to mention that Soul and the others are probably worried sick about us." she thought of something, "No wait, what if that Decepticon got tired of them and has finished them off when we weren't looking?! Oh god, what if we're too late and… and…!," she continued to rant as she let out heavy breaths.

But then Jack noticed that her breathing was becoming stagnant. That's when he realized she was hyperventilating out of fear!

He grabbed her shoulders and tried to comfort her, "Sierra? Sierra, calm down! Everything's gonna be fine! They're most likely not dead!"

"How can you be so sure?!" Sierra snapped, making Jack flinch in surprise, "We don't even know if they got free!" she let out her anger at the thought of her guardian being in the worst situation as her eyes suddenly began to mist and let out a few teardrops. "I want to help them, Jack! I want to save them! I want to save Soul! I can't afford to lose him!" she said before she brought her knees close to her and rested her head onto her crossed arms as she cried quietly.

"..." Jack looked at her as he felt empathy towards her. He noticed that this was almost the same scenario with Raf and Miko when they infiltrated the Decepticon base, only this time it's with Sierra. "I-it's okay, Sierra. The Bots are gonna be okay; I know for a fact because they've been fighting through hardships like these for some time." but then he paused, "Actually, I'm not quite sure about the AutoKnights since they were humans from another Earth before coming here. Still, the Autobots were fighting their own war on their home planet for a while before they came here."

"Jack… I'm scared." Sierra admitted. She then turned to him as her eyes showed a little bit of red from crying, "Is this what you had to go through? While being friends with the Autobots and the AutoKnights?"

Jack grinned nervously, "Heh, Believe me, I had quite a ride when I met them."

"... at some point, did you wish that you didn't want to do this anymore? That you actually wanted to leave and stay out of their war?"

"Actually, yeah. I got caught in a crossfire once when we were rescuing Agent Fowler. But-"

"Who's Agent Fowler?" Sierra asked.

"The Autobot's liaison." Jack answered before continuing, "But all of that action, that we saw with the Autobots, almost got us all killed. And if it wasn't for Sonic Drive being there for us, I don't think we would've been able to get out of there alive. But all of that intensity, I just couldn't take it." "So, I left, thought it was best to stay out of Team Prime and live a normal life." he paused for a moment as he looked up in reminiscing, "But then Sonic Drive, Miko, and Bulkhead came to my house, and Miko tried to talk me into coming back. Granted, her arguments did have some point, but it still didn't change my mind. That was when Sonic decided to talk about his opinions as well. Not only that, but he also told me about his feelings about when he arrived in this world and got into his first Decepticon fight."

Sierra had an idea of where this was heading, "Was he scared as well?"

"...yeah." Jack nodded, remembering the eyes that were given to him when they conversed, "But then, he knew that if he did, he would've left us to die in the hands of the Decepticons. To be honest, I'm thankful that Sonic told me those things. Otherwise, I could've let the world end." Jack admitted. Back then, It was thanks to his quick thinking suggestion about entering the dish ray station that they managed to get an edge on the Decepticons. "He also said that there are going to be times when I got to step into bigger situations quicker than I regret it." Jack recounted as Sierra looked at him, listening to every word, "That made me think about what I was doing for my future. Sure I maybe just a high schooler trying to live his everyday routine. But that doesn't mean that I should just stand on the sidelines forever. And frankly, I'm quite thankful I made this choice. Sure, I can be scared most of the time, but I guess what's scarier is losing everyone that I cared about."

Sierra looked at him in awe. Despite being thrown into dangerous situations, he chose to stay and help save the world and hang out with the aliens. "...Me too." She smiled, "You know, I have a feeling that Arcee was also had the same feeling as you."

"What do you mean?" Jack turned to her curiously.

"Well, she did say that she was afraid of losing you. And that fear in her eyes confirms it. I guess you can say that all that backlash she sent us was to protect us. Well, mostly you, I guess? I thought that all of those harsh words were because we weren't ready to face Airachnid. But I can guess that she was just scared of losing us."

Jack took a moment to think over Sierra's words. He thought about it as he thought back when Arcee came out of the ship. The fear in her eyes, the cold expression, the actions of pushing everyone away. "You could be right." he agreed, "but I know that Arcee also has a way to get out of any sticky situation. She saved me multiple times because of it." his eyes then furrowed as he began to resolve, "And I need to return the favor."

Sierra grinned, seeing the flare in his eyes, "So what are we gonna do in this situation?" she asked.

Jack looked away as he thought of an idea. Their options were running low as well as time with Airachnid getting closer to them by the minute, and they had no way of communicating to the others for help."

Then a thought came to him, one that could risk one of their lives. "I have an idea," Jack suggested. But before he could explain, a small twig crack sounded from afar, alerting the two. They looked at their surroundings, watching upon the darkness of the forest for Airachnid or something else. The eerie silence, along with few screeches of nearby animals, was not easing the tension at all. Jack turned back to Sierra as he signaled her to stay quiet with an "Shhhh" with a finger on his lips before crawling back into the small space under the log before motioning her to follow. As told, Sierra crept in as much space she could take as Jack did his best to give her more. They cuddled in the tight space as they looked out, watching out for any danger.

"Right now, she currently has us as her main targets." he stated in a whisper, "But she can't handle two at the same time."

"So?" Sierra inquired.

"When I tell you, I want you to run."

Sierra cocked an eyebrow in confusion, "Run? We've been running for hours!"

"You didn't let me finish." Jack said, "When I tell you to run, I want you to run the opposite during and get to Arcee."

"Me? What about you?" Sierra asked, not liking the sound of where this was going.

"I'm gonna be the bait and draw Airachnid away from you."

Sierra widened her eyes and almost screamed, but she managed to hold it back into a hiss, "WHAT?! Jack, you can't do that!"

"Sierra, as far as I'm concerned, we don't have a choice! If we stick together, Airachnid is bound to catch us!"

"But that doesn't mean that you should be the one to lure her away!"

"Please, Sierra! Just trust me on this!" Jack urged, "I know I can't outrun her. That's why while I draw Airachnid's attention, I want you to go back to Arcee and the others and free them so that you and they can come and rescue me!"

Jack grabbed Sierra's shoulders as he showed a nervous yet brave face, "I know you don't like it, and neither do I. But this is our only hope of surviving."

No words came out of Sierra as she only stared at Jack's eyes, thinking about his plans. Personally, she doesn't want to see her friend get into harm's way. But seeing that they had no other choice, she only gave in to it and nodded to him.

That was when they heard abnormal stabbing footsteps approaching from behind. As it got closer, they held their breath to prevent any sound coming out of them to give away their position. Sierra grasped onto Jack's shirt tightly as Airachnid peered over the log, letting out a hiss. If it wasn't for Airachnid's presence scaring them, the boy would've been blushing heavily. The two stayed quiet as Airachnid slowly stepped over them and continued her path.

Until she stopped.

Then peered upside down with her magenta eyes gleaming right in front of their faces. "Hello, you two." she greeted menacingly.

"AAAAAH!" Jack and Sierra screamed before they got up from their crawl space and jumped over the log once again to escape a swipe from Airachnid's grabbing hands. They sprinted away as Airachnid lifted up a palm before shooting a web at them. The projectile almost hit Sierra if it wasn't Jack pushing her away in time. They continued to run through the forest, resuming the tormenting chase.

"RUN SIERRA!" Jack said before they went into separate paths.

Airachnid let out a curious hum, "Oh? Playing that game, are we? Who should I go first?" she inquired, deciding which one to hunt first. She then felt a rock hit her face. She turned to the culprit, who happened to have another one in his hand.

"Hey! Over here!" Jack called as he threw it at her before making a mad dash in a random direction.

The Con grinned, "Well, if you're insisting. I'd love a challenge!" She dashed towards Jack as he ran away, luring Airachnid away from Sierra.

As Sierra ran, she looked back to see in the direction Jack went before squeezing her eyes to steer her courage and believe that he will be alright.

(Autobots)

Arcee and the Autoknights burned the rubber on their tires as they pulled onto the webs. The force stretched it to its limits before each strand began to detach from the wall. They let out grunts as the threads loosened.

*SNAP!*

The webs ripped apart as the three, finally free, drove up unto the hill.

"WE'RE OUT!" a relieved Rave shouted.

"Now, let's go find the kids!" Arcee said as they passed through trees and rocky terrains.

"But how do we find them?! They could be anywhere in this Primus forsaken place!"

"Don't worry, I have a solution for that!" Soul suggested before his dashboard slide open, and a radar system popped out. The radar then let out a ping as a dot appeared in it.

Arcee let out a surprised gasp, "How did you-?"

"I put a tracker in her fanny pack in case we got separated." Soul explained in a grinning tone.

"The same thing that Eli-Nee did?" Rave pointed out.

"Learned from the best~."

Arcee smiles at the Evangelion's quick thinking, "Nice work, now let's go and save Jack and Sierra!" the two complied as they headed towards their location.

Jack kept running as fast, trying to make sure that Airachnid was following him. But he as he ran, so was the limit of his breathing.

Behind him, Airachnid continues to chase as the hunter to kept her prey in her sights. 'He can't run from me for long.' she chuckled in her thoughts devilishly, 'As soon as he tires out, I'll trap him and take his heads, then go after the other one to add them to my collection.'

As he kept his distance, Jack came across the ravine from before, the bottom of the trench seemingly far from their point of view.

Jack looked down hesitantly but then steeled his courage and started to climb down the ravine. Airachnid advanced closer as she spotted them, just crossing the chasm as he just finished climbing up the other side. She grinned in amusement before she used her spider legs and just hopped over the ravine with ease.

Jack managed to gain a lot of distance between him and the Con before he hid behind a tree, taking a much-needed breath. He then reaches into his fanny pack to see if he has anything to counteract Airachnid's hunt. He dug through it before pulling out a camping utensil and fanned it out, revealing the knife, can opener and corkscrew. Everything you need for a proper camping trip.

"..."

"..."

"..."

Yeah, none of them seems useful in this situation.

"Oh, who am I kidding?!" Jack sighed in defeat as he lowered his arm. With limited resources, he's pretty much doomed, and the only hope he has was to wait for Sierra to come back with the Autobots. And while he expects for them, he had to run once again while Airachnid approached.

"You're making this too easy, Jack. And I do not enjoy being bored." Airachnid called out in a sing-song tone. Even just by locating them either by echolocation or scent, she can easily track them and kept a close watch on their directions.

She turned around the corner of the tree to see a familiar sight, her crashed ship just laying there right where it landed. She then squinted her optics to see a small figure running up the bow before hiding behind it, leaving her sight.

"Huh," she raised an eyebrow, curiosity piquing before she smirked, letting out a hiss filled with deadly intent. She walked up to her ship as she tapped her head in a thinking pose, "Now, where did you scamper off to?" She then began searching around her vessel.

She didn't notice Jack hiding behind one of the pillars of the ramp. He held his breath as she went towards the back. Once she was gone, he silently inhaled and let out a sigh of temporary relief. But then came another problem. He may have shaken her off, but it would be a matter of time when Airachnid will corner him where he is. He thought of a place to hide to prevent detection before turning towards the ramp. The one that leads inside the ship. Rave did tell him about what she saw in it, and a chill ran down his spine, thinking of peeking inside. 'Maybe I should hide in there and wait for the others.' he thought and headed towards the ramp.

Just before a hand covered his mouth and made him turn around. He freaked out thinking that it was Airachnid, but when he turned around, much to his surprise, it was Sierra, who kept her hand over his mouth with a stern look, "That's a bad idea." she said before taking his hand and dragged him somewhere else.

Just above the ship, Airachnid scuttled and looked over the bow of her spaceship to see if Jack was right where she could catch him, but had only slight disappointment to see no one. But then she noticed the open hatch. She jumped and transformed her lower half back into standard legs before landing in front of the ramp.

"If you wanted a tour, all you had to do was ask." she offered, assuming that Jack was inside before walking inside, "Did you spot the empty space? I hope you'll like it. It's where you'll soon hang your head!"

What she didn't know was that she just missed her prey as he was being led towards the back of the ship outside. "Why did you come back? I thought I told you to go and get the others!" Jack exclaimed in a hiss.

"And leave you to get you killed? Yeah, right." Sierra retorted, "By the time I would get to them, that I probably wouldn't have made it in time to save you. And besides, I just remembered that Soul mentioned that he has a few tricks up his sleeve to get out of sticky situations, not to mention he trusts his friend more than anything, so that means that they can find ways to free themselves, and that also means I trust that he can take care of himself."

"Even so, you shouldn't have come back by yourself! You'd get caught along with me!" Jack argued.

Sierra sharply turned around to face him with a hardened look, "Then I'd gladly give that psycho a fight than allow you to die alone!" Jack blinked in surprise before her expression softened, "Jack, even if you told me to go and find the others, I couldn't just leave you alone with that monster. I just don't want to lose one of my friends."

Jack couldn't help but be touched by her words. Even if he risked his life to save her, she came back because she was worried about him. He smiled as he bashfully scratched his head, "Thanks."

Sierra smiled back before she proceeded to lead him away from the ship. She then stepped forward before she stepped on a puddle. They looked down to see not a pool full of water, but of blue liquid, which came from a dripping trail that was leaking from the engine of the ship.

Jack looked up at the leaking substance, "Energon."

"Wait, didn't Ratchet say that Energon was incredibly inflammable?" Sierra pointed out. They looked at each other before an idea sparked in their heads.

"We can torch the ship and Airachnid along with it!"

"Get the fire starter!" Jack dug into his fanny pack before he took out his magnesium fire starter. Sierra took a nearby fallen dry stick and gave it to Jack, placing it onto the ground before Jack began to scrape on the fire starter, letting out sparks.

Inside the ship, Airachnid perked up at the faint sound of the grinding, "Jack?" she then dashed back outside, jumping over the roof of the vessel and ran towards the engines.

After a couple of scraping, the stick began to let out a small stream of smoke. Jack blew onto it as it grew into a small fire, which slowly expanded. However, Sierra heard the thundering footsteps coming from the ship, "Come on, come on!" she urged, hoping that the fire could get bigger faster.

When it grew to the right amount, Jack immediately threw the burning stick into one of the leaking engines before he grabbed Sierra's hand and started to flee. Just as they ran, Airachinid peered over the space engines to see their fleeing state before she looked down and noticed the small fire in the leaking Energon, which quickly ignited and spread across the thrusters.

Airachnid screeched in horror, "YOU-!"

*BOOOOOOOOOOOM!*

The ship exploded into blazing flames, enveloping Airachnid in it. The force of the explosion pushed the two away as they tumbled onto the edge of the trench, landing onto their stomachs. They looked up to see the flaming remains of the ship.

"That… was extreme," Sierra commented.

"Yeah…" Jack nodded. He turned to her before noticing her appearance, "You got a few scorch marks on you."

"What?" Sierra looked at her clothes before looking at Jack's, "So do you." Their clothes had a few black spots from the explosion's fire, not only that they also had a couple of their faces as well.

"Guess we need a bath after we get back home." Jack joked.

"Just don't tell our parents about this." Sierra grinned before she got up and offered a hand to him, "Come on, we still need to get to Arcee, Rave, and Soul." Jack took her hand and got up before they headed back into the forest.

They silently jogged past trees as they stopped where they were.

"Which way was that rock wall again?" Sierra asked.

Jack opened his mouth to answer-

*THWIP!*

But suddenly felt something trap his foot. They looked down to see a web covering his entire foot.

"What the?!" They looked up before widening their eyes in horror. There, on top of a tree, stood a scorching Airachnid, her face snarling in rage. Before Jack could react, she shot another web, trapping him into a tree, restraining his movements completely.

"JACK!" Sierra rushed in to help but couldn't get close as Airachnid shot another web that trapped her onto a different tree!

"You blew up my ship! Pretty bold of you." She complimented, but it was clear that she was pissed! "But you made me lose my collection that I have gathered." she seethed angrily, her hiss sending frightening chills down Jack's spine. "But then again, I can start a new collection." she brushed her cold digits against Jack's neck before she reared back and aimed her sharp talons at his throat, ready to sever his head. "Starting with you!"

"NO!" Sierra screamed as Airachnid jabbed at him!

*PEW!*

But then, a laser bullet shot Airachnid's side, throwing her off and saving Jack at the same time.

"Argh!" She rolled away a couple of feet before landing on her abdomen as the pain seared on her wound.

"Arcee!" Jack turned in relief, thinking that it was his partner. But his face fell in confusion as he saw an unfamiliar figure holding a rifle, smoke coming out of the barrel.

It was a sleek robot that had a female build with mostly white armor with the height of an overall 7.8 meters. The Femme's upper body's style was similar to the Valvraves with the chest protruding like a hull cockpit while on the sides were a couple of golden vents. Her shoulders sported massive white plate armor as the underside of the arms had golden valve-like appendages while covered with white gauntlets, but her left arm had a green crystal protruding backward from the forearm. The lower body had the same structure but at feet protruded one spike at the toes and heels. Extended on her back her a pair of wings that had jet engines stacked flat onto it, they also had black paint overlapping the top part while blue color covered the bottom of the flaps. Tucked under the left-wing was a long sword. She also had small-scaled wings attached to her thighs but had no engines. Finally, her head was in a medieval knight style with a red visor covering her eyes, and a mouthguard right below it. On the top crowned a silver Valkyrie figure spreading her wings.

She lowered her rifle while under her visor, her eyes glowed, glaring at the spider Con.

Airachnid got up as she glared at the newcomer, "You again?!" She growled, recognizing the figure. "Who are you supposed to be?!"

"You don't need to know me." The figure said. Her wing boosters fanned out and suddenly activated, her feet levitating off the ground a bit before and charging at her at high speed.

Insert BGM: Villkiss Awakens

The white Bot tackled Airachnid, taking her off the ground as she dragged her away from the humans. After gaining a few meters, she threw her down. Airachnid painfully rolled on the ground while the Bot safely landed on her two feet. Letting an angered yell, Airachnid shot barrages of Energon bullets. The Bot swiftly leaned back and forward and twirled around to avoid the shots. She sidestepped and spun to dodge a few more before lifting up her rifle and shot a volley of her own, but hers were up to the speed of a machine gun.

Airachnid lifted her arms at an attempt to block the shots. "Agh!" but she winced in pain as the bullets pierced some parts of her armor, making her run to the side. The Bot followed after her while at the same time closing off the distance between them

Once she got close, she put away her gun under her right-wing and threw a fist at her face, followed by a palm strike to the gut. She then back kicked her, the force throwing her back. The Bot calmly reverted to her normal stance but kept her glare as she marched towards her opponent.

Jack and Sierra were amazed at the fight that they were observing from their restrained spot as their savior fought off Airachnid. However, their attention was cut off when they the sound of three familiar engines before a blue motorcycle, a red and black Mazda Rx, and a purple and neon green Nissan stopped in front of them and turned into their bipedal forms showing concern and relief.

"Arcee! Rave Rose!" Jack, too felt relieved to see his partner for real this time.

"Jack, are you alright?!" Arcee asked worriedly as she pulled the web from Jack while Soul did the same for Sierra.

"How did you find us?" Jack asked.

"With the tracker that I put in Sierra's bag." Soul added, "that, and the big explosion from afar. Speaking of which." he turned in worry at his charge, "Sierra, are you hurt?! Did that glitch do anything harmful to you?!"

Sierra let out a reassuring grin as well as a thumbs up, "Of course, we're fine! Thanks to Jack's survival kit."

"Thank Primus." Arcee sighed before furrowing her brows and turned to Jack, "Where's Airachnid?"

"Over there!" Jack pointed. The Cybertronians turned and saw that Airachnid was fighting an unfamiliar white bot.

"Who is that?" Sierra got out, curious about the Bot in the first place.

The AutoKnights, however, stood stiff at the recognizable form. "That's a Ragna-Mail!" Soul got out in surprise.

"A Ragna-Mail?"

but he blabbered out, "Special weaponized robots from Cross-Ange!"

"Soul, you kinda need to be specific on describing things." Sierra deadpanned, not getting what he was saying.

"But since you know what she is, then that could mean that she's an AutoKnight. Right?" Jack inquired, "Is she one of your friends?" he turned to Rave, but his expression dropped in confusion when she was just standing stiff, her eyes widened and quivering in shock.

"Masaka..." The Valvrave let out a shallow breath, "Villkiss?"

Jack tilted his head, "Villkiss?"

However, Arcee didn't catch that and stood up. "Well, I don't know who she is exactly, but I'm not allowing her to take down Airachnid by herself, not when I still have a score to settle!" she said before she sprinted towards the two battling figures. As Airachnid and the Ragna-Mail exchanged blows, Arcee jumped in between before she swiped a low kick at Airachnid, who hopped back but didn't anticipate a fist strike from the white Bot after she leaped over Arcee, making the Decepticon stagger again.

Villkiss and Arcee stood up side by side with focused glares as the former tucked her rifle under her right-wing before pulling out her long sword, "Don't get in my way." she stated coldly, much to Arcee's surprise, without even looking at her before she once charged once more.

"That's my line!" Arcee retorted as she followed suit.

The duo sprinted as Villkiss brandished her sword while Arcee pulled out her arm blades, running up to Airachnid. The latter shot her palms out, shooting a few blasts at them, but they maneuvered around before they slashed at her. Airachnid parried the blades with her forearms, each strike igniting sparks with the metal clanging against each other. Villkiss' wings activated as she leaped over Airachnid, who was distracted by Arcee's attack, as she spun and slashed at her, leaving a gash on her side and sent her tumbling away. She regained her footing as she glared at the two.

"Just when I thought you were the only trouble I had to deal with, the other one decided to join! You certainly do make things more interesting!" Airachnid's sadistic grin widened as she unfolded her sharp spider talons. She threw a few stabs of her claws at them before Arcee pivoted down while the Ragna-Mail jumped to the side. And, as if they were synced in unison, they landed a hit on Airachnid with a fist from Arcee and a diagonally upward slash from Villkiss. Then as Arcee blocked and struck the fists and legs, Villkiss slashed at the talons while jetting herself side to side with her boosters.

"Wow, they're really duking it out." Soul commented as he, Rave, Jack, and Sierra just stood off to the side, watching the battle with amazement in their eyes.

"Yep." Soul nodded with a straight face.

"Shouldn't you help them?" Sierra asked.

"In my most honest opinion, I think they got it." Soul shook his head truthfully, seeing that they got Airachnid on the ropes. However, he didn't notice Rave furrowing her brows.

"I mean it's two vs. one situation and they obviously overpowering Airachind. So I don't our help is necess-huh?" he didn't get to finish as Rave suddenly sprinted, unsheathing her sword and pulled out her red Energem, "Rave, what are you doing?!"

He was ignored as she inserted her Energem into a slot on the bottom of the grip.

ENERGEM LOADED! CHARGING!

"Sorry, but I have to end this right now!" she muttered as her Z-Edge announced in a robotic voice. She even took in a deep breath before concentrating forward.

10%! 20%!

The sword then began to glow with red energy flaring out of the blade before Rave held the sword parallel to her face.

30%! 40%!

"VILLKISS! ARCEE! MOVE!" her shout got the duos' attention, turning to see Rave coming at them, holding up a flaming weapon. Not only that, it seemed that her body was flaring with red-colored aura herself!

50%!

Before she pressed a hidden trigger on the grip...

50 PERCENT CHARGE!

...leaped into the air, her wings spread open as she changed her stance as she had her Z-Edge up above her head.

"Hana no kokyu, Ichi no kata! (Breath of the Flower, First Form!)" she shouted as rose petals appeared and surrounded her.

"What is she-?!" Arcee stared in confusion before she was cut off by Villkiss, suddenly shoving her away. "Move!" she shouted.

Airachnid, however, let out a laugh at the display, "Trying to put a show, little AutoKnight? Well then, how about you give me your best shot!" she taunted only for her grin to be wiped off as Rave suddenly disappeared.

"What-?!" she was still in disarray before the Valvrave reappeared in front of her, making her lurch back in surprise.

"ChirakeBara Issen! (Scattered Rose Flash!)" She swung her Z-Edge horizontally.

SPEED! EXCEED SLASH!

The blade touched Airachnid's abdomen as the energy impacted her harshly. The Con let out a harsh rasp as the blow sent her flying across a yard of the forest, knocking down a few trees with her body. She landed harshly across the dirt ground before landed on her back. Pain coursed through her body as she tried to get up, but because of the attack, her body weakened as it limped to the ground, making her out for the count.

End BGM

"Whoa?!" Jack and Sierra jumped in shock.

Though for Soul, his face displayed a considerable amount of it, "She used a Breath Style?! Is she crazy!?".

Even Arcee was shocked at the move, but she got out of it as she turned to her, "Rave?! Why did you-?!" she stopped and saw Rave taking a few deep breaths, the vents once again heating up, exhaustingly, but thankfully not up to the point of last time.

She panted as she disengaged her mask, taking a huge breath in, "Sorry, I didn't want to keep this fighting any longer. But thanks to my Speed Energem, I managed to cut it short."

"Speed Energem? Well, that explains how she was able to move from place to place in a matter of seconds." Soul surmised at the fact.

She slowed her pants before putting up a serious look, "That and most importantly, I wanted to talk with her." she said as she turned to Vilkiss, who's eyes narrowed.

But before she could talk, a sound of crunching dirt caught their attention as they looked where Airachnid was as they saw her up again and, using her spider legs, digging through the ground like a drill as she burrowed under. Seeing that she was escaping, the three dashed to the hole as Arcee shot at her, but it was too late as Airachnid was already too far down and gone, leaving behind a downward tunnel that was going too deep.

"AIRACHNID!" Arcee screamed into the hole, seethed with anger.

"Coward." Villkiss scowled.

Soul approached the three with Jack and Sierra, "So much for closure." he commented as they stared at the hole.

"Now Airachnid's stuck here on Earth. I'm not sure if that's such a good thing." Jack said, his face filled with worry.

Villkiss let out a scoff, "Doesn't matter. When I see her again, I'll hunt her down."

Rave Rose turned to her, "So it is you, Villkiss." she remarked.

The Ragna-Mail turned towards her slightly, before her visor and mouth guard opened up to reveal a feminine face with magenta eyes. She looked at Rave with a neutral, yet stoic expression.

"You know her?" Arcee asked with a raised brow.

"She's one of us." Rave identified, motioning to the white Ragna-Mail, "Ann Misurugi, she lived with us at the same orphanage."

Arcee let out a slight gasp at the end, 'Ann? As in the one that Sonic muttered about?' she thought back at the Arctic incident where she remembered how Sonic Drive's life almost fluttered to darkness, and he murmured out small words, with Ann being the only name he spoke. She was brought back out of her thoughts when she heard a scoff.

"Was," Villkiss corrected as she looked to the side with her arms crossed but kept her hard expression.

Not noticing the face she was making, Sierra stepped up with a smile, "Thanks for the help. I really appreciate that you saved Jack back there. If it weren't for you, he would've been-."

"It's not like I did it for him." she interrupted, glaring at the human. "I just spared your friend from his miserable death. Also, you must've been stupid to think that blowing up the ship would've finished her off."

"What?" Sierra's eyes widened at the remark.

So did the rest as Soul furrowed his brows in anger, "Hey! What makes you think you can say that to them?! I don't know what they did, but whatever they did was to protect them!"

"And where were you when you left them unsupervised? In case you haven't known, they're children that almost got themselves killed by that crazy glitch if you haven't."

He gritted his teeth, "For your information, we literally had our hands tied and couldn't help them even if we wanted to! More importantly-!"

Before he continued to rant, he was interrupted by Rave who moved in between them, "More importantly, was it true that you fought Airachnid before?" She asked.

"Hey!"

"..." Villkiss' eyes turned to her for a second, keeping her glare, "I just happened to stumble upon her when her ship crashed, and then when we met face to face I knew that she was bad news, at the sense of her killing intent emitting from her. She sought to take my head for a trophy. So, I did the logical thing and fought her." she explained, "I pretty much overwhelmed her, but she got away before I could finish her, and I gave chase, but I had no luck finding her. So I went back to the ship in search of clues of what her intentions were and where she could be next… until I saw them." She motioned at Jack and Sierra, "blowing up the ship. After that, I saw her chase after them. And we come to right now."

"So you were just looking for Airachnid until you stumbled upon her with Jack and Sierra, and managed to save them in time." Rave summarized.

"I told you, I didn't do it to save them." She repeated, keeping her stoic glare, "I did it because she was just a nuisance to me."

Despite the irking comment getting on everyone's nerve, Rave kept her smile before she bowed. "Still, even if you say all that, you have our gratitude."

"...Fine." Villkiss shrugged, finally accepting the compliment, "Now that the threat is gone, I guess we can call it a good-bye." she said before turning around to walk away.

Sierra was surprised by the sudden farewell, "Wait, Villkiss. Shouldn't you come with us?" She asked.

Villkiss halted a few feet apart as she glanced over her shoulder, "Why should I?"

"I mean you got Sonic's message, didn't you?".

However, that made Villkiss furrowed her brows, "So? Doesn't mean anything for me."

"Ok, why not?" Jack asked, "I thought you're his friend?"

But what she said next, startled them the most. "As if I would be friends with him." she suddenly seethed, fist tightening and her body exerting anger.

"Why is that?"

"...Nothing you should know."

Though for Rave, she had a general idea, "Villkiss. Is it because of what happened to Ta-" she was cut off when Vilkiss abruptly turned to her, her face becoming dark as she glared at them all of a sudden.

"Don't you dare say his name! It's because of him that he's gone!" she angrily states, her voice holding bitterness in it as she somewhat screeched at them. Everyone stared at her in shock, surprised at the displaying hatred.

Her fearing demeanor softened a bit as she let out a huff, "You can tell Shou about me being here. But that's not going to convince me to join your petty group."

"Petty?!" Soul snarked as an imaginary vex mark appeared, the words Villkiss said angering him like his friends were insulted, "Look, I get it that you're still upset at that incident. But we keep on telling you it was an accident! You know Shou would never do anything like what happened!"

"And what could you possibly know everything about him?" Soul flinched as he looked down, gritting his teeth.

Villkiss took it as a sign that she was right, "Face it, rich boy. You don't even know half of who he is."

Soul heavily furrowed his brows.

"Rich boy?" Sierra raised hers at the name, not knowing why he was called that.

However, that seemed to make Soul angry, "Don't call me that. That name is the last thing I wanted to hear!" he snapped, his malice aimed at the Ragna-Mail.

But she only gave off glare before she turned heel, "This might not be the last we see each other. but give Shou my regards." She said before she started walked off.

"OI! Matte-!" Soul tried to call out, but Rave stopped him with her hand blocking his path.

"Let her go." Rave Rose said, her face still looking down, "It's not worth it."

"You can't be serious, Amy?! Not after all of that!" But she only looked at him with her saddened eyes, motioning to him to stop.

"Just let her go." she softly said, having enough crisis for today.

As they stood by looking at each other, Villkiss stood for a moment before she leaped upward. Her form started to change as her chest compartment opened up and extended, her arms folded as they moved to the back and tucked under the wings. Her lower abdomen flipped backward as the legs straightened. Her head rolled back as her compartment revealed an open cockpit seat with grip controls and a radar.

Arcee and the humans were surprised at the new form after the transformation was complete. But then they noticed something fizzing onto the cockpit, before actualizing into holoform. Her holoform was the exact image of her human form, consisting of her beautiful female appearance with blond hair and magenta eyes. But instead of civilian clothing, she was wearing a blue and black jumpsuit while revealing her abdomen and some of her… assets. She also sported a visor like headgear that covered her eyes and ears.

Upon looking at the human form, Jack was stunned as his jaw suddenly dropped agape at the beauty, something that didn't go unnoticed from Sierra who puffed her cheeks at the latter staring at the former in... jealousy, maybe?

Villkiss's human form glanced back at the group with her magenta eyes staring coldly at them. "Sayonara," she said before turning back and gripped the controls and activated the engines, which let out a roar as it flared and lifted up the vehicle. The wings then rotated back as the alt-mode took off into the sky.

The group stared at the retreating aircraft as it disappeared into the clouds until it was a speck.

"Will she be alright?" Arcee inquired.

"...She'll be fine." Rave assured, "If anything, she can take care of herself."

"I hope you're right." she let out a sigh, still unsure of their new encounter. She then turned towards the two humans as she let out a relieved smile "I'm glad you two are okay." she crouched down towards their level. But then she developed a look of guilt, "I'm...sorry you had to face my demons today. You were pretty fearless there, you two."

"Are you kidding me, we were scared to death! Almost literally." Sierra said, putting her hand on her hip while smirking.

"Well, mostly for you," Jack admitted, giving off a radiant grin at his partner.

Arcee grinned back.

Soul joined in with a grin of his own. "I guess we could say we gave each other enough scares for today." he said, having enough of horrifying experiences that have happened, "How about we head home?"

Arcee nodded as she com-linked to base, with the ship destroyed she was able to reach back to the others, "Ratchet, requesting a Ground Bridge."

As Jack looked as his charge, he heard the familiar buzzing noise as he found the annoying fly, and caught it, squishing it on his shirt. "Gotcha."

"Need to get my partner away from oversized insects," she added, noting the small display

"Partner, huh?" Jack raised a curious eyebrow.

"Junior partner. I can still pull rank." She snarked teasingly. Rave, Soul, and Sierra let out a small laugh at the comment. Just then, a Ground Bridge appeared next to them.

"Guess that's our cue." Soul stated before he and Sierra entered the portal. Jack followed after them. Arcee and Rave were about to walk into the Ground Bridge before the latter stopped and solemnly turned towards the direction Villkiss went.

Arcee turned to her, "Rave? Something up?"

"...nothing. Just… thinking about something." Rave said before looking forward and walked past Arcee and into the portal.

Wondering what Rave was thinking about, Arcee looked back at where Rave was staring off to and couldn't help but question some things in her head.

(Omega-1)

The Ground Bridge tunnel lit up as the scouting group returned into the safe confines of their base. Bumblebee, Bulkhead, and Zone Runner were watching Miko and Raf, who just arrived at the Outpost after dealing with school, playing video games on the tv set. Sonic Drive and Optimus Prime were at the computer monitors Incurs

From there, Silver Line looked over to greet them with a smile. "Welcome back, you guys. How was the recon?" her smile dropped; however, when her eyes caught their current state, "Are those scorch marks?!" She screeched, gaining everyone's attention.

"Dude, what happened? Almost got yourself near an Energon explosion and blew yourself up?" Miko joked while cringing at their appearance.

"Actually, that's exactly what happened." Sierra deadpanned.

The former widened her eyes in surprise, "Wait, seriously? And I missed it?!"

Soul began to recap their adventure, "We met some trouble during our recon. Turns out the subterranean Energon signal happened to be a crash-landed Decepticon ship with a 'Con named Airachnid."

"Airachnid?" Ratchet gasped in shock.

"You know her?" Incursio asked.

"Only heard of. She was said to be a dangerous and most vile asset in the Decepticon forces. What's worse was that she was known for using a severe method of torture when interrogating her prisoners."

"That pretty much sums up our experience with her. She went after the kids while she trapped us in webs." Soul surmised dismissively.

"SHE DID WHAT?!" Silver gawked, turning to him with a scary glare that could rival one of an overprotective mother, scaring the living heck out of Soul.

Putting his hands up defensively, Jack reassured her, "We're fine, though! Despite the horrifying chase, Sierra and I were saved thanks to the new AutoKnight."

That grabbed everyone's attention, "New AutoKnight? Who? Was it Lightning? Galaxy Slash? Don't tell me it's Razor!" Zone inquired though he had a tone of fear in the last part.

"Weeeeeeeell…..." Soul cringed before he slowly turned to Rave, who only looked back in silence with the same uncertain look.

Noticing their expression, the color on the Jehuty's faceplate paled in horror, "Oh Primus, it is Razor, isn't it? Don't tell me she's already hiding in the room?! OH NOE!" Zone frantically panicked as he comically searched the room.

Thankfully, Soul waved that assumption away, "Nononononono! It's not Razor! I can assure you that it's not Razor!" He assured.

"Oh, thank the stars." Zone sighed heavily in relief.

"You still haven't told us who this 'Razor' person is." Bumblebee beeped curiously.

"Trust me when I say that 'she is the last person you want to meet.' Honestly, her annoyance surpasses the level of Miko's." Zone shuddered, the said girl throwing glares at him.

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?!" the pigtailed girls snapped.

Incursio raised his brow in confusion, with an imaginary question mark appearing over his head, "So if it's not Razor, then who?" He asked.

"..." While everyone was discussing who it was, Sonic noticed that Rave was surprisingly quiet right now. Not to mention that her face was showing some gloomy expression.

He approached her, "What's wrong, Rave? You're surprisingly quiet."

"Sonic." Rave looked up at him, she opened her mouth but closed as she seemed hesitant to answer. "you're… probably not gonna like this."

"What do you mean?"

"...The AutoKnight we met… was..."

Sonic sent a concerned look at her "Rave? who was it?" Sonic softly urged. The silence from the Valvrave suddenly unnerving him.

She looked at him, her face displaying an expression of pain and sadness. Finally, after a moment has passed, she let it out, "It was her. It was Villkiss."

Everything went silent as the AutoKnights stopped whatever they were doing. Eyes widened as they turned towards the group at the mention of the name. However, out of all of them, Sonic stood up with the most shock, his eyes opened wide, and his mouth gaped open slightly. The AutoKnights in the room never raised a voice as the silence kept looming across the room. However, the silence was broken by a particular curious human.

"Who's Villkiss? What's she like? Can I meet her?" Miko rapidly asked. However, she didn't seem to notice the mood the AutoKnights were giving out as some were suddenly getting angered.

"Um, Miko?" She turned to Sierra, who shook her head and gave a disapproving look. "I don't think it's the best time for that."

"V-Villkiss…? You're absolutely sure?" Sonic quivered. His voice wavering as if he was searching for Rave's confirmation.

"...Yes. It was her." Rave nodded, "She's here."

The Grand Chariot couldn't believe what he heard as he staggered back in disbelief. Then Incursio stepped forward as he glared harshly. "Amy…. please tell me you're just fragging with me!" He growled angrily.

"Nope, it was her alright. She still has that snarky attitude of hers." Soul Rider sighed and crossed his arms.

"You sure it's not someone else impersonating her? You know, like the Makeshift guy Zone once talked about!?"

"Didn't you guys say that Bulkhead and WheelJack, was it, blow that guy up?" Silver Line queried Zone, who nodded.

"Look, I can assure you that I would bet my Vurutoga and my RWBY collection to prove that was her!" Rave shouted, sharpened with sudden aggravation. Everyone, including the Autobots and the humans, jolted in shock at the outburst that came from the red Valvrave.

"Was she…" Rave Rose's angered faceplate quelled as she turned to Sonic Drive, sullen from the news, "Was she still?" he asked with a pained look.

Rave Rose stared at the saddened look, her expressions becoming sympathetic before she nodded.

Sonic drooped his head down a little, "Sokka (I see)…" he muttered despondently before he turned and walked away, steps treading slowly as he left the room, never bothering to realize that everybody else was watching him.

"Sonic?" Arcee perked up at the retreating figure, confusion written around her faceplate. Wondering what was up with him, she followed after. But Rave suddenly placed a hand on her shoulder, stopping her. "Let him be," she advised as she looked at her with a sullen face.

"Ok, I take back what I said. She's the last person you would want to meet." Zone commented, frowning.

"What's wrong with him?" Bulkhead asked, pointing towards where Sonic left. To where Zone sighed and replied, "Villkiss has some bad blood against Sonic. Mainly due to past reasons."

"But why?" Raf inquired.

"..." The AutoKnights were silent on that question, "...It's something that we all don't want to talk about."

"Great, if it wasn't gonna get any worse. First, we get thrown to another Earth, then get involved in an alien war, and now we got to deal with her!" vented Incursio, throwing his arms up angrily before sitting down on an Energon container box.

"Incursio calmed down. You're getting too fired up." Silver placed a hand on his shoulder, calming him down.

"How can you say that?! She's the reason why my brother changed!"

"But wait, how is she here? I thought the ones we know from our Earth should've been the ones that got sucked up by portal at the party." Zone puzzled. That also brought the others' attention as well.

"Now that you mention it, she was never there when it happened." Fire Haze frowned, remembering the giant portal from their orphanage and brought them here. While proof that everyone from the orphanage was transported to this Earth. The girl in question didn't attend the party. So how could someone that was never there be physically here?

"Vilkiss did say that she wasn't gonna come," Rave added.

Before any more could be discussed, Optimus stepped in as he placed his hand on Zone's and Incursio's shoulders, "While I may not know what happened that has caused this dispute." he stated sympathetically, calming everyone down. "But it is best we shouldn't let this matter concern us for now, especially with how Sonic reacted. For now, we must move on from the past and focus on the present and watch for Decepticon activity. Knowing that Airachnid is here on this Earth, there is no telling when they will emerge and cause harm to humanity." he then turned to Incursio, "Now I understand how much you care for your brother, but in the meantime, it is best to leave him be."

For Incursio, he looked down in hesitant, wanting to help his brother more than anything. But as he considered Optimus' words, he had no choice but to defer, "Yes sir." he muttered dejectedly before walking away. The rest went back to whatever they were doing. Rave approaching her workbench, Soul walking towards Bee and Bulkhead, joining them in watching the humans play their games.

Jack pretty much stayed where he was as he observed everyone's mood. "So much of a normal day for a hike. Right, Arcee?" he bristled to his partner. However, he received no reply for some reason. "Arcee?" he turned to where she was, only to find that she wasn't sighted anywhere near him. More like nowhere in the room when he looked around and could see a glimpse of her wherever "Where'd she go?"

(Sonic's Room)

Meanwhile, in his room, Sonic Drive sat on his berth with his head down, his saddened eyes glued to the floor as his thoughts groveled on the one person he never expected to hear about. He closed his eyes as a painful memory began playing in his mind.

(Flashback)

The atmosphere was darkened as the area was covered with smoke, police sirens sounded from the outside while rain poured hard. And then suddenly, gunfire erupted across the building, men shouting from all around as screaming as also heard. Through all that, Shou, as human, was seen running through the halls, frantically looking as he ducked and covered from the crossfire. He kept running, panting his breath with every step, searching through the smoke. His mouth shouted inaudibly as if he was calling out but the gunfire overwhelmed it.

He stopped abruptly as fire suddenly exploded around him, consuming him as he raised his arms up to protect himself until his vision went black.

When he came back, he coughed harshly as he got up from his lying position and looked around once again. But what caught his eye next caused him to freeze.

Reflecting in his eyes, in the middle of the floor, was a pool of red blood dripping out of a body, whose lifeless eyes stared back at him.

Then there was screaming of anguish.

(End Flashback)

He gasped suddenly as sweat dripped from his forehead, his breath becoming stagnant once again as fear slowly consumed him. He shook his head to get the memory out. However, the guilt was still there, "Masaka kono sekai ni omae ga irunante (to think that you would be in this world)." he muttered. "Doko ni ittemo ano kakoku no kioku ga yomigaette kuru (no matter where I go, that cruel memory comes back)." his head sagged before his frame began to quiver. He let out a few sniffles as tears suddenly poured out of his eyes. The tears were blue as Energon as they dropped onto the floor. "Yuruse, Ann.." he pleaded as he hugged his frame and sobbed.

Unknown to him, outside his room, resting her back on the wall next to the wall, a certain blue Autobot was eavesdropping on Sonic Drive. She couldn't help but feel concerned about him after seeing how he reacted about Villkiss. 'What happened between her and Sonic?' she asked in thought as she only sent sympathetic looks at the crying AutoKnight.

AND DONE! Thanks to JPL Animations for letting me borrow his Elita-One model. I mean, his model is the most iconic for the Primeverse, don't you agree? Anyway, Primus, I spent too much time on this. Hopefully, I'll make the next chapter not as time-consuming as this one. Again, hopefully, it was worth the wait! If you like it, Make sure to review, favorite, follow the story. And I'll see you next chapter! JA NE!

Current AutoKnights:

01. Sonic Drive

02. Zone Runner

03. Carmilla

04. Incursio

05. Rave Rose

06. Fire Haze

07. Silver Line

08. Soul Rider

09. Villkiss

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