-Chapter Four-


Location: The Ark - The Autobot Ship and The Nemesis - The Decepticon Ship.


Knock, Knock, Knock.

Hiba awoke with a start. "Huh?" she said as she looked around. Somebody was knocking on the door. She immediately started setting her hair as they were frazeled.

Hiba had been given a room in the Ark. The room was of the same faded gold colour and although it was small, Hiba liked it. It had a comfortable bed, a sidetable, closet and a huge red Autobot symbol on the wall.

As soon as Hiba finished brushing her hair, she called "Come in".

The door opened and Arcee entered, smiling. "Good morning!" she said happily.

"Oh, Asalamoalikum!" said Hiba equally happily.

"Walikumasalam" she answered and walked in further as she said "Hey, you wanna go around for a walk through the ship?"

Hiba thought about it for a moment. She still hadn't seen the ship fully and seeing it would put her in a good mood so she agreed "Yeah, I'd love to"

"Come on then!" said Arcee excitedly.

"Okay" said Hiba happily. "Just give me a moment to freshen up"


"Hey!"

Amber's eyes flicked open. She looked around, wondering where on Earth was she. It took a moment for her to realise she was locked up in one of the cells in the Nemesis. It took another moment for her to realise that someone was standing right outside her cell bars.

It was the same transformer that had locked her up, Acidstorm. Amber quickly rubbed her eyes and groaned a bit as she got up. She had slept in a sitting position all night and it hadn't exactly been a comfortable experience ... nevertheless, she stood up as straight as she could be and said "Yes?"

"Did you really expect to stay there all the time?" asked Acidstorm. She didn't sound like Starscream but rather, she sounded a little exasperated and like she felt a little pitiful for Amber.

Amber couldn't find anything to say to that statement so she instead asked "What do you mean?"

Acidstorm looked at her for a fraction of a second before saying "When you're a Decepticon prisoner- you get jobs- jobs that you do around the ship"

Amber held herself from gulping. "What kind of jobs?" she asked uncertainly.

Acidstorm almost chuckled as she said "Oh, you won't get any hard jobs! Just jobs that are like pretty long and exausting, like cleaning stuff for example"

Amber sighed in relief. She just couldn't help it. She then asked "So, what's my job?"

Acidstorm said "Well ... you gotta help Shockwave with ... materials"

Amber thought Well, that should be easy enough, right?

Right?


Hiba made her way through the ship with Arcee. Hiba met many new Autobots, Ratchet, Wheeljack, The Doomsday Twins (Sideswipe and Sunstreaker), Prowl, and many others and not to mention that Hiba was having a lot of fun exploring along with Arcee.

Arcee turned a corner and said "-and that's the Medical bay-"

"Hey, wait" said Hiba, pointing. "I see Optimus! I wanna ask him about my sister!"

"Okay" said Arcee understandingly.

Hiba ran up to Optimus, who was talking to Ratchet about something. Hiba waited until their conversation was over and then said "Excuse me- uh- sir?"

Optimus turned his helm towards Hiba and said "Oh, Hiba! How are you? How's your stay on the Ark?"

Hiba smiled "I'm fine thankyou and I've enjoyed a lot being on the Ark. Everybody's very nice! I really like it here"

"I'm glad to know you have been enjoying your stay" said Optimus. "Did you want to ask me something though?"

"Yes" said Hiba nodding. "I wanted to ask- did you get a lead on my sister?"

Optimus' optics dimmed. Hiba could tell his answer before he said it. "I'm sorry but we're doing our best. Wheeljack has invented a new tracker, which will locate your sister in no time"

Hiba smiled "Thank you ... I'm sorry if I'm bothering you"

"No not at all. I can understand your worry for your sister"


Amber found out soon enough that the job she had thought to be easy wasn't easy at all and it was made more harder by the fact that the Decepticon she was working for was- creepy. Shockwave was all purple and his face- for the lack of a better word, wasn't- normal. Shockwave's face consisted of a single, yellow coloured optic and Amber had to say that out of all the Decepticons she had seen up till now, this one had to be the most disturbing one yet.

But of course, it wasn't like she had a choice.

Either work to live another day so that she could someday see her family again or just be blasted by Megatron's fusion cannon.

The choice was pretty obvious.

Afterall, she wanted to see her sister and parents again.

So, Amber found herself working tirelessly for Shockwave, handing him one tool or another or some unknown chemicals she wasn't aware off. Amber definately thought her interest in science would die after this due to Shockwave's disturbing experiments. She had even heard a few rumors from a couple of passing by Decepticons, that he tested his experiments on fellow Cybertronians, whether friend or foe and that really creeped Amber out. It was like she was in a scientific horror movie of some sort.

How did I get stuck in this?! she thought bitterly as Shockwave performed yet another disturbing experiment.


Hiba walked through the corridors happily. Arcee had told her to come in her room for a surprise. Hiba couldn't wait to find out what the surprise was and was therefore, excited. She finally reached a door and opened it.

In sat Arcee with another transformer who was of a white and grey colour with bright blue optics. She looked exactly Hiba's age and she looked up when Hiba entered.

"Hey Hiba, you're here!" said Arcee happily. "This is Stormcatcher! I wanted to introduce her to you because I thought you both would be excellent friends!"

Hiba walked over to Stormcatcher and smiled, holding out her hand. "Asalamoalikum! I am Hiba!"

Stormcatcher immediately clasped her hand and shook it vigorously before saying "Walikumasalam, I'm Stormcatcher!"

Hiba knew Arcee was right. They were gonna be best friends!

Suddenly, Arcee perked up as she recieved a call from Optimus. She said things like "Yes" and "Mmhmm" but the thing that caught both Hiba and Stormcatcher's attention was when she gasped. After her conversation ended, Hiba and Stormcatcher asked in unison "What happened?"

Arcee looked sad as she looked at Hiba. "Umm Hiba?" she asked uncertainly.

"Yeah?" said Hiba, concerned as Stormcatcher watched the both apprehensively.

"Your sister's been found"

"Where?" asked Hiba hurriedly.

"She's been found at ..." Arcee's voice trailed off for a moment. She hesitated before continuing "At the Nemesis- the Decepticon warship"

"What?!" said Hiba in shock and anger.


At night

Amber tirelessly made her way back to her cell alongside Acidstorm. It had been a hard day working for Shockwave. Amber missed her sister and parents terribly and was finding it very difficult to stay at the Decepticon ship. It was hard. She hadn't just worked for Shockwave, she had been given jobs by Soundwave, Megatron and most of all, from Starscream, who hated her and was always trying to get her in trouble by pointing flaws in everything she did.

Amber was so tired and sad that when Acidstorm opened her cell door, she didn't even notice.

"Hey!" called Acidstorm waving a hand in front of her face. Amber snapped out of her tiredness for a moment and said "Huh- what?"

Acidstorm looked a little sad and said "You should better get some sleep ... I opened your cell door"

Amber knew that Acidstorm was a Decepticon, but the word just slipped out from her mouth "Thanks"

Acidstorm just nodded as Amber entered her cell. Acidstorm locked the cell door behind her and Amber sat on her uncomfortable metallic bed in her cell and slept in the same sitting position as she had last night.

Amber was so tired that she didn't notice a file sticking out from the broken shelf nearby.


Author's Note: This had to be the most difficult chapter to write because honestly, I didn't have that much motivation for it ... Anyway, the file is very "important" as you will see later and yay, Hiba's finally found her sister!

They'll rescue her, right?

Right?