Two days; that's how much time they had spent tracking the disgraced prime. Two days, of tracking and scouting in the hopes to catch his trail. And they finally succeeded.

Megatron stood in the command centre; having agreed it would be best for one of them to stay behind but Firewing was needed in the air, he monitored the position and movements of the team in the field; led by Firewing and Optimus. He would have been lying if he said he wasn't scared for the safety of his son and his mate; but knew that he needed to focus on the task at servo.

"Megatron" a voice suddenly pulled his attention back to the present. He turned to look at Prowl; the mech having said that his skills were best used in the command centre where he could monitor everything happening. "I'm detecting a faint energy signal not far from their position. It could be them" he commented, causing the larger mech to nod.

Megatron turned to Soundwave. "Open a comm link to Firewing" he ordered, waiting patiently as the telepath did as commanded. He spoke as Soundwave confirmed an open comm signal. "Firewing, Prowl has detected an energy signal. He will send you co-ordinates" he said, before getting a 'Affirmative' in response.

"Co-ordinates sent" Prowl confirmed, before watching their field team change direction; heading directly for the co-ordinates.

XXX

Firewing landed with a dull thud, dust flying in all directions; her weapons systems online with a hum. She looked around at her surroundings; seeing a cave not far away that appeared to be in the middle of a small rocky outcrop perfect place to hide. "Stay light on your pedes" she started, as the rest of the field team came to a stop near her. "If Sentinel is here, we want to catch him off guard" she said, as she turned slowly heading slowly towards the cave, Optimus following close behind. She watched as the rest of the team began to split up, surrounding the cave as they did.

Suddenly a deep, malicious chuckle resonated from within the cave, causing everyone to stop. "Do you really think you can sneak up on me femme?" a familiar voice asked, fully of hatred. "I've been expecting you, though I didn't think you'd bring an army" the voice continued, causing a chill to run up the femmes spinal struts. "I had hoped that you and I could talk this through, like adults"

"You don't know how to 'talk it through' Sentinel. You just shoot first and forget the questions" the femme sneered, as her weapons system whirred loudly; itching for a fight. "Show yourself you coward" she yelled as she aimed her canon at the cave entrance.

The mech chuckled again. "You call me a coward, yet you bring an army made up of both factions to retrieve one mechling" he growled, as he stepped out of the cave, holding a limp Firefall in one servo.

"No" the femme said, as she looked at her son, tears began to form. "What have you done to him?" she screamed, her wings flaring high on her back; flashing red as they did.

Sentinel chuckled as he nuzzled the youngling's helm in a mocked 'loving' fashion. "Nothing yet" he said. "The little walking scrap pile just couldn't handle a little discipline" he chuckled as he ran a digit down the seekerlings damaged wings.

"Why?" Optimus suddenly asked having finally gotten over his initial shock and disgust over what his former mentor had done. "Why would you? How could you do this?" he asked, his voice cracking slightly as his emotions started to overwhelm him.

Sentinel looked around, taking in the anger and disgust on the faceplates around him; of both Autobots and Decepticons. "He's Megatron's son Optimus" he growled lowly, his servo tightening on the small frame. "We could end this war, right here. We could control Megatron with this" he said, as he lifted the seekerling up.

"No" the blue and red prime said, his optics portraying his anger towards the older mech. "I will not hurt a youngling, of any faction, to get back at their creators. That's not who we are" he said.

"This is war Optimus; sometimes you have to do some questionable things in war"

"Not this"

Sentinel growled as weapons began to train on him, knowing he was out numbered, out matched and out gunned; but he still smirked, causing Firewing to shudder. "Tell them to stand down" he said to the red femme in front of him; who stood unmoving. "Tell them to stand down, or I offline him" he said, as he grabbed a knife from subspace, holding it to the younglings throat.

"Wait" the femme yelled her weapons offlining quickly; servos coming up to show she didn't hold anything. "Please, don't hurt him" she said, as she turned to the blue and red prime. "Stand down" she sighed.

Optimus weighed up his options for a moment, before giving a defeated sigh. "Stand down" he yelled, causing all the mechs surrounding them to comply.

"There, now please, give me my sparkling" the femme said, as she keep her optics trained on the disgraced prime.

"I don't think so" the prime said, as he started to slowly walk out of the cave, causing the femme to back away. "He's my only ticket out of here, but don't worry once I've escaped I'll put him out of his misery" he said, chuckling as he moved further away from the cave.

Something in the femme snapped. She gave a frightening howl of rage as she launched herself at the prime, catching him completely off guard. She slammed her body into his, tackling him to the ground, causing Firefall to fall from his grasp. Landing on top of the mech, she started reining punches down on his frame, her attack was brutal and vicious; but at the same time, no-one could blame her. She dodged and blocked as the mech attempted to attack her, before reining all her fury on him; raising the knife, that she didn't even remember grabbing, above her helm. With a roar she thrust the knife down; just missing the prime's helm. She breathed deeply, trying to calm herself; as the prime looked at the blade and how close it came to ending his life. She watched as he looked at her in both fear and shock. "I'm not like you" she started, as she grabbed his chestplates. "I will not kill in cold energon, but I will not make the mistake of letting you go again" she growled, as she lifted the prime only to punch him full force in the face; sending him slamming back to the ground unconscious. "May you rust in the deepest part of the pits" she said, as she rose to her pedes.

She spun around immediately trying to find her mechling, who was being held gently in Optimus' large arms. She ran forward, noticing that Firefall had at some point woken and was whimpering and crying lightly. "It's ok my little mechling" she said, as she took the red and silver youngling from the primes embrace. She dropped to her knees, holding her son close, not caring who saw her. "Are you alright?" she asked, as she pulled him back to look him over. "Where did he hurt you?" she asked, as she run a servo over his back.

The youngling sniffled slightly, tears running down his faceplates. "He hurt my wings; and my helm hurts" the sparkling cried, as he buried his helm into the femmes chestplates. "Carrier, what's an 'abomination'?" he asked, causing everyone to gasp slightly in shock.

"Did he call you that?"

The youngling nodded slightly, trying not to aggravate his aching helm anymore. "Where's sire?"

Firewing was furious, how dare that piece of slag call her son an abomination. She wanted nothing more than to turn around and finish what she started, but she relaxed as she felt the small seekerling nuzzle her looking for comfort. "It's ok my little mechling, you'll see sire shortly" she said, as she rose to her pedes.

She stepped forwards, away from the disgraced prime; who was currently being hauled away by some of Optimus' mechs. She smiled as she saw the blue and red prime. "Optimus" she said getting his attention. "Thank you" the mech nodded respectfully, as he transformed, opening his door to allow the femme to place the; now recharging, youngling within.

XXXXX