Ok, this is my latest chapter of Beast Wars AU. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I don't own Beast Wars.

The cool blue ocean water rippled as the bright sun shun on the afternoon sky. The sound of nature was all around the area as the waves moved back and forth on the ground.

Bone Crusher had to once again pull his hoof out of the muddy sand. This was a most displeasing moment of him. Claw Jaw emerged from the water in beast mode and looked towards his comrade. They had both been there for hours and they hadn't found a single thing.

"Another lead down tha drain." Claw Jaw exclaimed. " 'seems like whenever we find a clue as to where he is, it just leads us further inta a dead end."

Bone Crusher was more concerned with the sand in his hoof than in the search.

"Hey! BC! Ya listenin' or what?"

Bone Crusher looked up. "Huh? Wha? Oh, yeah. Did ya find anything down there?"

The pink and red squid moved over to the ox and used one of his tentacles to slap him upside the head. "This here is a ser-e-ous matter. If we find Primal, we'll be able to figger out more about Megatron."

"No one knows anything about that guy except that he took his bigheaded name from his bigheaded idol, the bigheaded leader of the Decepticons!" Bone Crusher snapped back. "Besides, how the slag do we know that Megatron hasn't already killed him for trying to stop his plan to rule the universe?"

"He ain't tha ruler yet!" Claw Jaw said before taking in a deep breath to calm himself down. "Look, we's been a-workin' too hard. I say we both take a liddl' break and pick up where we left off oh say… fifteen cycles."

Both gave each other a nod before sitting down to relax and relieve some tension between the two.

Taurus was scanning the new data that he had received from one of the pieces of the Axalon. Hacking the system and downloading the file while decrypting the codes wasn't very easy to do. It wasn't helping that whenever he entered the wrong code, he had to start all over again. He had lost count of how many times he had to start again after 500.

"Ay Carumba, it's as if they had a better security grid." He muttered to himself. He finally went through the download without a single mistake and got the file uploaded. This was one of those times where Taurus wished that he drank cyber caffeine but now wasn't the time to worry about it. Right now he had received a file and hoped that it would help in the war.

After entering the system, he found that it was only a list of names of the crew members who were functional on the Axalon, possibly after they had landed on the planet.

After pressing a few buttons, Taurus was able to get to the crew's files, with their names, they're photo and any information about them. 'Maybe there are more Maximals.' He thought. His face fell after reading that there were 50 stasis pods aboard the ship and that the records indicated that they were launched into space. "Should've known it would be too easy." At least seven pods that he knew of had been found so he figured that forty-two were still out there somewhere. He shook off that thought before turning his attention back to the computer. A photo was being displayed on the screen before him. It was vague but Taurus was able to make it out.

The picture was of a grey, black and red mech, male. But before any information could be given, the power cut out, shutting down the computer, the bot-made CR chamber, the security systems and also, the photo on the screen.

Taurus looked around the now darkened area but saw that everything looked find.

The fuse was fine.
The systems were up to date, as far as he could make it.
He wasn't using the security grid on anyone.
A metal spider was carrying out energon...

'wait.' He though. 'A metal spider carrying out energon!!!'

Taurus quickly rose to his feet and began chasing after the spider. The spider quickly dropped what was left of the energon and ran off. The black and silver Maximal quickly darted after the bug but was unable to catch up to it. When he thought that he had it, the spider darted out of the way, leaving Taurus to trip over his own feet, slide into the wall of the cave and fell backwards onto the ground.

Taurus lifted his head up to see the spider scurry away. "I…HATE…spiders."

A loud chuckle came out of Tarantulas as he watched the Maximal scramble and scurry after what he couldn't possibly catch up to. Preventing the Maximals to find any more information was what he was order to do by Megatron… but it didn't mean he couldn't have a little bit of fun doing it. Tarantulas then calmed himself down just as the Tyrant showed up.

"Tarantulas," he said. "When I ordered you to prevent any further information to be found by the Maximals, I had not expected that you'd try something like this. Though I must admit these new Maximals are somewhat… amusing, yeesss."

Both Predacons watched as the Maximals got back up and continued to chase the little but.

"Although their persistence could be a threat for us." Megatron added. "I'll simply have to do more than just pull the plug on their power…" He then turned on the comlink. "All Predacon units, come in. I want you to find any Maximal in your vicinity and have them eliminated. Megatron out."

Megatron then stood up and turned to Tarantulas. "You stay put and make sure that the Maximal is unable to activate any back up power." He then left Tarantulas to his own devices. The Spider merely muttered something about Megatron being an old tyrant before continuing with his new little 'game'.

There was absolutely nothing different about the area. The only thing he could find that didn't belong there were Claw Jaw's hands when he was trying to get low enough to him and the print on the edge of the cliff edge where Bone Crusher laid while holding his comrade by the legs so he wouldn't slip.

He was on the side of the cliff where he had been found and brought up. He remembered being badly damaged by Megatron and was dropped down. What he wanted to know was what how he survived. He had felt a hand grab onto him as he was falling to his doom. He knew it couldn't have been Claw Jaw or he would've been dragged up the cliff at that time. Instead, he was told that he was found on a ledge before the cliff. After snapping out of his flashback, he looked up to see another ledge a few feet above him. He climbed up and found a pair of footprints in the position of someone crouching. The prints were faint but he could make them out. Then, before he could consider anything more…

"Wolf Fang! Come on! We looking for clues remember!!"

Wolf Fang looked up from where he was and began to climb back up. Whatever he was looking for would have to wait until later when he could come back again and think.

Caterina picked up another piece of metal found where the Axalon was before it left. She had a huge bunch of items in her hands and was struggling not to drop any of them. When she tried to catch a burnt out disk everything she was holding onto fell to the ground. The young Maximal leader started to pick up the items again when Wolf Fang made it to the top and went to help her.

"Yay you hear me!" she said, forgetting that she dropped the pieces to an unsolved puzzle. Silverbolt landed just beside them.

"Commander." He said before getting a stern look from Caterina. Clearing his throat, the fuzor continued. "I am having difficulty contacting Taurus. The system must be down."

"Or Taurus turn off comlinks just to get peace and quiet." Caterina suggested. Seeing the concerned look on the newest comrade's face, she sighed. "Ok, we go see if Taurus ok." Just as she got up a missile hit in front of her. Out came Waspinator.

"Successzzz! Wazzzpinator get Commander Catbot!"

Waspinator continued to cheer with glee. Little did he realize that Caterina was still standing. The missile he had shot at her only hit about five feet away from her. She brought out her gut gun and fired at the wasp, hitting his wing and sending him spiralling to the ground.

"Wazzzpinator didn't know that even catbot was better than Wazzzpinator."

Caterina walked towards the Predacon. "Of course I better than you!"

"Now I'm starting to worry about Taurus and the base." Wolf Fang muttered to Silverbolt. Both were then nearly hit with a green beam. Quickstrike emerged from a rock wall.

"Well, lookie what we've got here." He said. "Three Maxis outside of their base waitin' ta be destroyed. I guess that'll teach ya ta rebel 'gainst ol' Megatron."

"You would've rebelled against him too had Tarantulas not altered your programming." Silverbolt stated. "You could've helped us stop him."

"But now I'm stoppin' you! Ain't that ironic." Quickstrike fired more poison causing Silverbolt and Wolf Fang to take cover from behind the bolders.

"I don't suppose you have any better plans, do ya?" Wolf Fang asked.

"I was hoping that was all it would take." Silverbolt replied.

Caterina saw her friends were in trouble and hurried over to help but ran into Blackarachnia.

"Well, well, we meet again." She said before firing at her. Caterina dodged the blast and hit the ground before the cliff edge.

"Look," Caterina said. "If this about time I call you 'guy', I sorry." She had to roll out of the way to prevent the she-spider's foot from crushing her face. She rose into a crouching position and tried to pull her gun but realized that it wasn't there.

Blackarachnia cackled evilly. "Just like the last kitty cat." She said.

Tarantulas watched as Taurus slowly crawled towards the little metal spider, ready to pounce on it and make sure that it never tried to pull the plug on one of his programs again. Just when he thought he had the upper hand, the spider scurried away again, leaving the black and silver Maximal to land on his face.

"I'm gonna get that slaggen spider if it's the last thing I do." He muttered under his breath.

"That will clearly be impossible Maximal," Tarantulas sneered at the screen. "Every time you get close enough to my little toy, it just scurries itself to safety." He then began to laugh manically.

Megatron heard the Spider's cackling through his doors while taking a soak in his energon bath. He would have thought that Tarantulas would've been done his mission cycles ago.

'That spider's cackling, will be the death of me.' He thought to himself. Megatron then sank back into his bath, hoping that he would relax enough to block out Tarantulas' senseless and annoying laughter.

Bone Crusher woke up from his nap and noticed Claw Jaw was sitting by the ocean throwing rocks that bounced on the waves. He got up and walked over to his comrade. After getting close enough to him, he transformed to robot mode and picked up a stone.

"I know that our little break's almost over." Claw Jaw said. "But I'd like a few more minutes, if it's alright with you."

"Sure."

Claw Jaw threw another stone across the ocean. Bone Crusher tried but the stone only fell into the water and sunk to the bottom. Claw Jaw saw it sink and handed him another stone. "Try holding it between your thumb and index finger." He said. "The throw it with a curve."

Bone Crusher complied to the suggestion and threw it. The stone bounced twice before sinking down.

"You'll get better." Claw Jaw said. "All it takes is practice and patience."

"Who taught you?"

"My big brother. We both travelled with our creators to other planets on diplomatic missions. He taught me how ta skip stones on the ocean without it sinkin' to tha bottom when it first hits. It was a way for us to have fun when we were alone."

Bone Crusher looked down and picked up another stone.

"I keep on hopin' that we do find Optimus. I believe that he knows a way ta win this war and help us get back to Cybertron." Claw Jaw stated. "Ta tell ya tha truth, I'm startin' ta get a liddl' homesick."

Bone Crusher didn't know what to say. He hadn't wondered who would've missed him while he was gone. If anyone would wonder where he went or when he would be back or if he would return alive. None of those questions had come to mind while he fought in the war. Bone Crusher realized that he didn't know how he felt about the battles that he fought or why he was actually still fighting. Was it for friends, family, love? He didn't know any answers to them. Was this why he fought, for answers?

"Hey, ya listenin' 'BC?" Claw Jaw asked him.

Bone Crusher snapped out of his little world and turned to his comrade.

"Do ya know where your bother was the last time you saw him? He asked.

Claw Jaw threw another stone before answering. "We both had made it into the Cybertronian academy. We were both gonna warriors. My brother and I were both in basic training until we passed it. They then split us up during combat training and I never saw 'im since." He sighed as he remembered his passed.

"I don't think we'd be able to recognize each other if you introduced us to one another." He chuckled.

"Well, I'm gonna see that day." Bone Crusher said. "I'm havin' a lot of difficulty trying to find out why I'm fighting. But that won't stop me from helping those who know their reason."

Before he could finish, Bone Crusher noticed something coming towards them, something red. Then two things red. One of them raising their arm and something flying out of it. Bone Crusher pulled Claw Jaw out of the way and both moved away from the identified missile and hit the ground.

Both of them heard laughter as Inferno and Terrorsaur appeared.

"FOR THE GLORY OF THE ROYALTY!!!" Inferno yelled.

"Let's get outta here!" Claw Jaw yelled. Both turned to leave but ran into Mantorr and Scorpinok.

"We're surrounded!" Bone Crusher turned on his comlink. "Bone Crusher to base, Claw Jaw and I are surrounded by Predacon activity!" Only static was heard. "I repeat, were are heavily surrounded by Predacons!"

All four Predacons began to open fire.

"Better save it fer later BC!!" This time, it was Claw Jaw's turn to pull Bone Crusher out of the way. Both Maximals ducked in cover of the blast and made a move to get to higher ground.

Claw Jaw and Bone Crusher hid behind a cliff ledge as the Predacons continued to fire at them.

"Remind me neva ta talk 'bout my history 'gain!" He yelled.

The Predacons kept firing at the Maximals until Mantorr was shot in the back.

"Hey! Watch where ya shootin'!" Mantorr yelled to Scorpinok.

"I didn't fire at you!" Suddenly, Scorpinok was shot down.

"Who's there?" Terrorsaur yelled.

"Burn for your interference." Inferno raised his weapon up to fire but it was shot out of his hand. He prepared his second gun and was about to fire but the gun moved and almost set Terrorsaur on fire.

"They must have more comrades out here than we thought." Mantorr said.

Terrorsaur lifted himself in the air. "Withdraw at once!"

"I'm second in command here!" Scorpinok exclaimed. "I give the orders." Suddenly, a bolder above them was shot at, causing it to fall and hit Scorpinok. "PREDACONS!!! WITHDRAW AT ONCE!!!"

All four Predacons ran away from the area, leaving Bone Crusher and Claw Jaw to come out of hiding dumfounded.

"What in tarnation was that?"

"Back up?"

"But we didn't contact anyone. Something screwy's goin' on at base and the others are miles away."

"You don't think whatever helped Wolf Fang just helped us?"

"I won't say anythang if you don't say anythang."

"Deal."

Both transformed to beast mode and hurried back to base.

Blackarachnia just threw Caterina over to where Silverbolt and Wolf Fang were hiding and gave herself an opening where her blast wouldn't miss.

"Well Maximals," she said. "It's been fun." She prepared to fire on the Maximals when Wolf Fang finally took out his gun and shot the weapon out of her hand then shot her, sending her flying into Waspinator. Quickstrike was now majorly outnumbered.

"Well be back for ya Maxis. Jist you wait an' see." Before Quickstrike could say another work all three of them aimed their weapons at him.

"I'll be back!" All three Predacons then retreated.

Silverbolt, Caterina and Wolf Fang put away their weapons and transformed to beast mode.

"Gee Wolf Fang, could you cut it closer?"

Wolf Fang turned to his commander. "I try not to use my weapon on weak opponents. Doing such would lack a warrior's sense of honor."

Caterina raised an eye ridge as Silverbolt transformed to beast mode.

"Come. We must return to base and make sure Taurus is alright." Silverbolt suggested. "This may have been a trick so Megatron could infiltrate the base."

"Nah, it done already." Caterina shook the idea out of her head. "But we'd better check anyway." She then turned to Wolf Fang who was once again, staring into space. "Wolf Fang. Come on!"

Wolf Fang shook away his thoughts and followed the others back to base as an unknown character secretly followed.

The metal spider hadn't seen Taurus try to tackle him for quite some time. It began to creep back to where the energon stash was and to complete the mission that it was on.

On the Predacon screen, Tarantulas manoeuvred the spider on where to go making sure it didn't run into any surprises along the way.

The spider crept closer and closer to the energon. Just as he orderedthe spiderto continueto obtain the stash when smash! The metal box landed on the spider causing the computer screen in front of Tarantulas to go to static.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" Tarantulas bellowed from his seat.

Back at base, Taurus moved the box he hadused ashis own weaponto see that the spider was in little pieces on the floor. He began to dance around excitedly.

"WOOOOOHOOOOOOO!!!" he cheered! "I got him! I finally got that little piece of scrap metal! No one defeats the mighty Taurus! MWAHAHAHAHAHAH!" He turned around to see that the rest of the Maximals were looking at him as if he had lost his mind. The black and silver maximal cleared his throat.

"I was uh, talking about the purple metal spider." He said. "It was trying to steal the energon that powers up the base."

The others looked at their comrade as if he had lost a few circuits.

"Well," Bone Crusher finally broke the silence. "Stranger things have happened."

Caterina and Silverbolt placed the equipment they hadn't lost in battle over by a corner as Wolf Fang went to straight to his room. Claw Jaw and Bone Crusher walked over to Taurus and found the metal spider on the ground.

"Well," Claw Jaw said. "I guess Ol' Megatron had us figgered. Without the energon, we'd have no power to fuel up the base we'd be sittin' ducks."

"Yeah, seeing as the Preds attacked Wolf Fang, me and Silverbolt."

"Yeah, them varmets dun attacked me and BC here."

"I'll get the system up and running then I'll try and figure out a fail safe program for the energon." Taurus said.

"K." Caterina then picked up the pieces of the metal spider and walked outside.

The sun had long since set on the horizon. The air was cooler as the clouds began to form as if trying to hide the two moons from the world below. Caterina stood in the cannon where she had dumped Taurus' little spidery playmate. As she turned to head back, the new Maximal Commander sensed that she was being watched. When she looked up, nothing seemed to be there except the dusty sand, grass and the trees that loomed over the canon. However, she still felt that oddly enough, eyes were watching her. After making sure that the bug was still in pieces on the ground, she slowly went back to the base, stepped inside and closed the newly installed doors.

To Be Continued…

Ok, my first real cliff hanger for this fic. Hope you like it. This is part of a two or three parted chapter.