Job hunting has been sucking the motivation out of me, but I finally managed to finish chapter 57 last night! So, here's 52! Hope you all enjoy!

Pentagon

"General. Take a seat."

General Grant did as Secretary Keller advised.

"Alright General. I think you're well aware why I asked you to come in here…"

"The sensor attack…"

"The sensor attack… General, we know it was your sons trust in unknown individuals that compromised our systems… systems we haven't been able to take back full control of since… they're opening an investigation into your sons involvement… despite him still being MIA… The Investigative board that is…"

General Grant nodded along. "Will I be under that investigation sir?"

Keller shook his head. "No, you had no involvement until after the breech was discovered, and even then all you did was send the affected parties to Sector Seven, who in turn suffered a massive loss within 48 hours...Which included the individuals you sent, son included… But you already know all of this…" Keller pulled out a Manila folder. "The investigation is beginning, because two of the individuals have been identified, and located."

The General nearly jumped out of his seat, but decades of rigorous training kept him seated, only a small bit of rush to grab the offered folder and open it.

Pictures, taken from a distance, but he recognised the faces.

Maggie Madsen and Glen Whitmann, standing at a market stall purchasing something. They were wearing thick winter clothing, winter hats and ear muffs and there seemed to be flecks of snow adorning them.

General Grant looked up to the SecDef. "Where were these taken?"

Keller took a moment to look at the pictures himself. "A Ski Resort in the Alps, these were taken back in February, but the individual who took them… we lost contact with the individual around a month later…"

General Grant winced. "Same song and dance… I assume these were found in their room?"

Keller nodded. "On a roll of film hidden in a half filled coffee can… we found little else… whoever took the agent, they were otherwise thorough…"

General grant rubbed his face with his hands. "They're alive… and whoever is behind all of this is erasing our agents so that we don't find out…" He looked over the manilla folder, then up to where the security camera in the room had been removed, they wouldn't see this…

Keller gave General Grant a sad look. "Jamerson is still MIA, none of the photos included him… but there was another individual photographed." He pushed some of the pictures aside, revealing an Afro Caribbean looking man, also wearing thick winter clothes, his arm around Maggie Madsen's shoulder, lips pressed to her temple. "We've tried to track him down and found a match. Jasper Macintosh, a DJ at the resorts night club, he's a dual Italian and Caribbean Citizen."

"So we have no jurisdiction over him…"

"And Maggie Madsen is an Australian American Dual citizen, while Glen Whitmann is an American citizen, we may be able to request his deportation back to the States, but Madsen's Australian citizenship may complicate that…"

General Grant frowned at this information provided. "How long does that take?"

Keller shook his head. "We don't know where they live, or who they work for, at this point we're shooting blind, and I doubt the new President would be happy if we caused a diplomatic incident for him in Italy…"

"This Macintosh fellow may be able to help with that, we case him and we find Madsen at least…" He remarked, pointing to the picture of the man kissing Madsen's temple.

Keller nodded. "We can try… but we're running out of agents willing to accept this mission, they've noticed that those who take it… haven't returned… And Grant… there's a developing belief that… this no man left behind strategy is costing us more than it will gain us."

General Grant had had a feeling this would eventually happen. "Sir… we have proof they're alive… and you're telling me it's time to pull the plug? What about this investigation?"

"The investigation is looking into the actions of your son in the time between his return from hospital, and his departure for Sector Seven, Grant we have proof that Maggie Madsen, a civilian, and Glen Whitmann, a civilian, are alive… we have no proof your son is alive… Chances are, he wasn't spared… With them identified on foreign soil, our hands are tied. Do you really want to explain to the Italian Officials why we want these two civilians back? Because they were inside one of our biggest secrets?"

General Grant scowled. "We don't have to tell them. Just list them as wanted criminals."

Keller sighed and shook his head. "We can't do that Grant… And the fact you'd even suggest that has me worried for you… I'm putting you on leave of absence for three weeks, go take your wife on holiday or something, you need a break."

"Sir!?"

"That's an order, General." Keller snapped.

General Grant scowled, but rose, nodded, and walked back out of the room.

Keller slumped in his seat, looking over the manilla folder, a hand going to the back of his neck to rub out the tension there. "What a mess…" He muttered, pulling out another manilla folder and opening it.

Twenty seven faces stared back, set in two columns on the page.

They'd lost twenty seven looking for three.

He took a few moments to collect himself before nodding. "I have to call off this search... The civilians are alive… we'll just have to settle for that."

Italian Alps

Maggie knocked on the door in front of her with her foot, hands occupied with a tray full of hot soup, Scitter was perched on her shoulder, the little guy wasn't so little anymore, no longer able to cling to her ear he now laid across her shoulder, his singular green optic watching the door too.

It had taken a while, but they discovered one of Ratchet's medical tools had been the right size for him to scan to enable him to continue growing.

A mumble from the otherside of the door was her clearance to nudge the door open.

The master bedroom was large, far larger than the one than the one in the old apartment had been.

Instead of a large single there was now a Queen sized bed, and right about to fall off the side of it, with bed linens kicked nearly completely off, lay Ira, in her arms was Keeley's holoform, who seemed to be content with being held like a stuffed toy.

Ratchet's holoform was in his now normal spot, sat in a comfy chair by the bedside, a myriad of human medical tools being used to check over the holoform.

It had been discovered about six months ago that Prowl's holoform was far more advanced and accurate and representing the actual forms of the users, and they had been thus widely adopted for use.

Hence why Ratchet could now run the majority of his check up on Ira's holoform alone.

"Hey Ira, brought you some soup." Maggie called softly into the room, Scitter wired on her shoulder, small stubby limbs clinging to her clothing, he'd learned not to tear the fabric now.

"Agh… wha' kin'?" The quiet voice of the bed bound holoform asked, rubbing at her head like one suffering from a hangover would.

Since the holoform adaption, the bags under her eyes hadn't left, nor had the more palad tone of her complexion, or the myriad of surgical scars that were old and faded. No one questioned her on them besides Ratchet, and Maggie could only guess what Ira had told him of them.

"Chicken noodle with sweetcorn and a seasoning packet from Aria. It came in the mail along with nineteen others yesterday."

The red head hummed. "Those two worry too much…" She then waved her and Scitter over. "But ah'd be ah fool tah turn down ah meal tha' tas'es li'e home…"

Maggie didn't try to make sense of what that meant. She set the tray down on the table next to the bed that wasn't occupied by medical tools. "How's she doing today Ratchet?"

She didn't bother to ask Ira, she tended to not admit to things when the question was directed at her, 'a warped view of her own mortality' was how she'd overheard Ratchet describing it to Jazz a few months prior.

The medic sighed and shook his head. "Well she over taxed her processor with that stunt she pulled to get the Axiom through undetected… She'll be recovered from that in a day or so, but her spark isn't doing well, the best I can describe it in human terms is the heart murmur is getting worse. More accurately her spark is falling further out of sync. Think of it like this, a healthy spark is like a fully inflated ball, Ira's has lost some of its air pressure and it's continuing to drop slowly, causing it to not match a healthy pulse rate."

Scitter whined on her shoulder, Ratchet reached up and gave the sparkling a quick pat.

"Is it… going to keep getting worse?" Maggie asked.

Ratchet frowned, then shook his head. "When it comes to the Harpies, I'm going on guess work… Remember she also has a heart, that's beating along just fine, it's the spark… and considering this is, I assume the after effect of her losing her fiance manifested, I believe it's more tied to her grieving process…"

"Ah'm grievin' jus' fine than' yah very much." Ira grumbled, digging her face into the pillow. "Jus'... ah'm no'... I's been years now… four years comin' on five… an' ah…" She trailed off.

Ratchet reached over and ruffled the red heads wild hair. "Easy Ira… Maggie, could you and Scitter go?" He regarded the two softly.

Maggie nodded. "We'll give you two your privacy." She moved to walk back out, and Ratchet got up, moving to get the soup in reach of Ira so the woman would actually be coaxed out of the pillow and sit up, from there Ratchet would try and work through some of the grief with her, it was a slow, tedious process, but one Ratchet had been diligent with, despite Ira's sometimes erratic nature and mood swings.

Maggie stepped out into the corridor, pulling the heavy fire door shut behind her, she sighed, reaching up and petting Scitter as he nuzzled against her cheek. "Come on, let's go find your papa." With that she stepped away from the door.

Their new home, or more accurately, their new large chateau built into the side of an Alpine slope, was still rather new to her, and after a bit of wandering, she found herself back in the living area, it was an open plan set up that led out to a wood/stone balcony that was fitted with both a hot tub and fire pit with a gorgeous view of the Alpine range around them, and the Ski resort town in the valley.

Glen and Jazz were on the sofa watching the news, Maggie opted to slide into her familiar spot in Jazz's hold, Scitter shifting to drape himself over their connected shoulders, the low hum of a very content youngling adding further noise to the room.

Jazz shifted, pressing a quick kiss to her temple. "So, how's the boss lady?"

Jazz and Ratchet were taking turns monitoring Ira, and had been since before she'd even begun the hack two days ago.

"Hmm, recovering, but Ratchet's still worried about her spark. And it looks like she's getting sad again..."

"Slag… you think the soup will help?"

She shrugged, though tried not to jostle Scitter too much. "Maybe, but it won't do much against the demons in her head… I doubt she's even told Ratchet half the stuff that's haunting her."

Jazz reached over and took her hand in his, rubbing at the back of her hand with a thumb. "Best not to rush her you know… Yah know… I used to know a femme who had a strange view of life, she'd been around so long she got a chance to evaluate every little thing, and make a sense out of it I doubt I'd ever of come to… Ah'd found her in her favourite knook in the base at Tyga Pax, she was looking at the open flats of the rust sea just in view past the city state, beyond that was Hydrax where her ship was. Ah remember goin' up to her, and asking how her cycle was goin', yah know, bein' polite and all, she turned her little helm and ah saw she was bawling her optics out. And, now I wasn't any good with femmes in distress so I started to panic and went to call Optimus, he was the closest friend she had in the war besides her twin. But she stopped me, knew who I'd been attempting to call…" He trailed off a bit.

Maggie rubbed his hand back, Glen had turned off the news, Scitter was looking up at his pa, helm tilted, intrigued.

"She apologised, said she wasn' sad or nothing, she was just… having a moment to let herself love too much… Now I was mighty confused, I asked her what she meant, and she tapped the spot next to her pedes on the knook, they were these delicate cloven pedes, real good at getting along tight spots and nearly sheer walls… Anyway… so I sat my aft down facin' her and she explained. She'd been feeling empty for a while, the war was gettin' to her, all the death she'd been seein'... it was hurtin' her old spark somethin' fierce… and she said, she'd taken the decision, to remember those she'd lost… now… there's a bit of context required, but old Sol and her twin used to be part of this tight knit frame type, only fifty of them ever existed, they'd been thicker than thieves back in the silver age, working their ships without rest, all twenty five of these massive starships… when they came back to Cybertron each time with hulls full to the burstin' with resources and treasures, they'd been hailed as heroes, they kept our borders secure… they were just… the elite of the elite starship captains… and… Primus ah wish I'd been online to see them in real action… but then… how ol' Sol described it was like… like that sudden feeling… when you just… you know someone you love… has died…"

Maggie couldn't help the flinch.

"Her and her frame mates… they staggered their flights, when one ship landed, another took off for the stars, meanin' there was always a ship on Cybertron, ready to lead a defense if any space capable empire came ah knockin' with guns drawn… Sol remembers waving goodbye to the leaders of the group… can't remember their designations… it was so long ago… they waved goodbye as their ship left for another run out to beyond any other sane mechs reach, and twenty times further than that on the hunt for what Cybertron needed… She said… as soon as they left Cybertron's immediate solar system cluster… that feeling hit her and her twin… By the time they came back… the other 24 ships were being torn apart for resources and scrap… The pride of their lives… And all their friends… snuffed… you couldn't hide a ship that big… so when they landed… everyone saw it touch down, busting full as all the others had been… They were dragged off the ship in chains… and watched from afar as their ship was torn apart for scrap…"

Scitter made a distressed whining sound.

Maggie bit her lip. "Why were they allowed to live… and the others not?"

Jazz grimaced. "The Senate liked collecting… 'exotics'... they kept the twins like pets… locked up and muzzled… I remember one time, some hot shot rookie made the mistake of trying to look all big and tough at Sol… tried to make remarks about how she'd be pretty hanging off his arm… She probably would have killed him on the spot had Optimus not punched the rookies lights out first."

"What?! Optimus!?"

"Shiiit…" Glen muttered.

Jazz shrugged. "Optimus loved those two more than anything… he'd have done anything for those two if they asked… I'm getting off track… Sol, the reason she was so sad was… and I quote 'I lost them before I could give them all the love in my spark that I had to give them… grief… this is grief… when you have so much love to give… and the people you want to give it to… are gone… It manifests as a tightness in the spark, a throbbing pain which only hurts more when you notice it...'"

Maggie rubbed at her eyes. "So… what your saying is… Ira still loves her fiance, and that's causing the grief… and that's what's hurting her…"

"Yeah… and considerin' this is Ira… I can' help but doubt tha' grief is ever gonna leave her… She's a passionate thing… she doesn' do anything half assed… and love? She gave her entire heart to that fiance of hers… And now, he ain't here to give his to her in return..."

Orichiono Manor, main office

"Flint hasn't gotten back to us yet on his investigation in Germany, he was supposed to send a report last night, we're giving him the benefit of doubt of him going on a bender, but we're also already getting a unit ready to go looking for him."

"Wren."

"The negotiation with Patahra Industries has stalled out, ever since they realised that 'paying their workers a living wage' meant actually having to pay their workers… bunch of bastards… Can't accept even the slightest knick in their process to buying the CEO he's eight Yacth."

"Wren."

"To say nothing of the fact we're still having to tell investigative journalists that we have no more information to give regarding what happened to the Cosmopolitan! We get it! People died! Lots and lots of people died! But that's what happens when a buildings superstructure gets hit by a couple incendiary ballistic missiles!"

"Wren."

"Oh and don't get me started on the fact we still haven't been able to get anyone close enough to the Decepticons hideout to figure out what they did with all the humans!"

"Wren."

"And how in the fuck are we supposed to get to the Moon?! Yes the Axiom is now planet side, but there is no way Ira is pulling that stunt anymore than she has too!"

"WREN!"

"WHAT?!"

"Count to ten. And then tell me what's really stressing you out." Megatronus stated firmly.

They went to rebuke him, but a single look had them pausing and conceding.

"One… two… three… four… five... six… seven… eight… nine… ten… Okay… we're good… we're perfectly… good…"

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Aria, are you 'perfectly good'?"

"...mmm…"

"Aria."

"...No… We're not… we're just… worried… you know, Ira over did it…"

"And we can't get this nagging thought out of our head… that it's all our fault…" Wren added on in admission.

They were using their shared holoform, Aria was fidgeting and Wren's leg was bouncing.

Megatronus sighed, running a scared hand through his salt and pepper hair. "Twins, Ira made the decision herself to keep pushing herself, she got us a lot of new information to use that we didn't have access to before, you did not push her to do it, Ratchet has already said she'll recover."

They shook their head, pulling back their office chair and dropping into it, and proceeded to slump in it further, some of their normally well kept hair falling into their face instead of framing it. "That's not what we mean…"

He frowned, stepping around the desk, he moved to crouch next to the chair, and put a hand on their lap. "Talk to me. I can feel that whatever this is, it runs deep."

They made a strained noise and shrunk further into themselves, but Aria spoke. "We… the day we collected her from the bunker… Grim said that we needed to be in that exact location, at that exact time if we wanted a change of pace... to save someone instead of kill all the time… so we went… and we found her covered in blood and collapsed into a snow drift… she'd have died relatively peacefully if we hadn't pulled her onto the helicopter and fly her to the nearest hospital… if she'd have died then… she wouldn't be in pain now… that's why we've always had someone live with her… to be there in case… in case she tried to die… we don't want her to die… we don't… we need her… we need her alive…"

Megatronus looked to the side and sighed, and moved to sit on the floor, opening his arms to them. "Come here."

They practically fell into his arms, one arm went around their middle, and the other guided their head to rest against his holoforms collar area, so his jaw could rest atop their head.

"You're scared that this might have been another attempt?"

"The worse her condition gets… the closer she gets to that edge Megs… the less time we have to react and get her back from it… she means too much to us… when her fiance died… those two weeks she was in a comma in the hospital… we… we barely ate… Stella and Ivan had to hold us down so a doctor could get an IV drip in us just so we didn't collapse from dehydration… we were too focused on hunting down those bastards and ripping them to pieces…"

Megatronus hummed low. "Derrick mentioned much the same happened when I was severed from you, only you didn't have a target to attack… when you get that scared, when you feel that alone…" He drifted off, noticing how tight their grip on his arm around their waist had become, there was small rivulets of blood pooling around their nails as they dug in.

He petted their black and white hair. "For all you work with Grim… numb to your own mortality you may be… I don't think there's a fear in this world greater to you than the deaths of those you love… Especially now that that relic in your chassis could be making you immortal..."

They gave a shallow nod.

He took a moment to nuzzle their head before he spoke again. "Ratchet is her primary doctor, and so long as we all continue to support her, we should be able to keep Ira's head above water… but to do that, I feel like you need to actually talk to her, I'm noticing here that you don't actually talk to her about yourself much at all… do you?"

A shake of their head. "We don't know… how…" Wren mumbled.

"How… how do you just say… 'hey! We don't know how to handle you dying on us, could you not be depressed about all the shit things that have happened to you?!' … I can't exactly see her appreciating that…" Aria continued. "Oh, or maybe 'hey, so we've been making sure you don't live alone so we know when you have an episode and try to kill yourself? And the stress of it puts us on the edge of having a psychotic break as well?!' … Yeah… no… no it's better for her recovery to not be burdened by the fucked up mess that is our head… and don't you say it isn't, you spent years in there."

"... Have you considered talking to her, and answering when she asks you how you're doing? Answer her truthfully when she does, if she means that much to you, and I know you mean that much if not more to her, she'll listen, and she'll understand your position in this all the more… No ground is won in battle without someone willing to make that first charge into no mans land…"

The twins didn't give him a verbal answer to that, but they did nod, their grip on his arm easing up enough that he could send a quick command to the area they'd gripped to close up the crescent shaped cuts.

"You're mind's need distracting… hmm… how about we go down to the kitchen, and you try and teach me how to cook?"

They jerked back far enough to look him in the eyes at that. "Absolutely not! You set the freezer on fire last time!"

He made a face of mock audacity. "It was mocking me! Such a blastedly frigid device!"

"That's what it's meant to do! Keep stuff cold!"

He let himself have a small smile to himself then, knowing that his little suggestion had worked, he chuckled. "Alright, alright, how about this, you teach me how to cook without needing to use those blasted cold boxes?"

And there went Aria, he could see it in her eye that she was already going down a laundry list of recipes to see what she could think of, Wren meanwhile was more alert, and had the idea to give him a light punch to the ribs.

He chuckled and ruffled her hair. "If you wish to skip on the cooking you can go do some painting in the drawing room, get Derrick to keep you company… how does that sound?"

The shared holoform flickered out of existence a moment later, the split one forming soon after with Aria materialising already gripping his hand and trying to pull his much larger bulk off the floor, with Wren watching with an amused expression.

Hopefully this would help them feel better for the rest of the day, and keep their minds off of Ira.

"Oh, what's Kia up to?" He asked as Aria pulled him out of the office.

"Oh we asked her to deal with something for us, she took Barricade."

"Ah, a date in everything but name for those two…" He chuckled as he said it.

"I mean, you're not wrong, but they've still gotta actually beat the bush before they can get around it…" Wren remarked, pouting a bit as she pondered it.

Aria giggled. "Who knows! They might just fall through it and smash into each others faces!"

"Oh I would pay to see that." Megatronus confirmed, already imagining how the scene would play out in his head.

"Oooh, that sounds like a-" Aria was cut off by a hand clapping over her mouth.

"No, I am not making a bet with you, you two can bet between yourselves all you like, but I have the sense not to partake, it's bad enough you've dragged Optimus and Ironhide into the habit."

Both twins chuckled at that, sending each other a knowing look, a bet formed and set between them.

He swore they had a new one every waking hour, it was a wonder how they kept track of them all.

That's all for this time! Hope you all enjoy!