Disclaimer: I own nothing.

AN: This chapter was a struggle but i've finally found a new inspiration

Chapter 16

"He's finally broken," Scourge laughed watching the screen. It showed Koji crying in his cell. The kid had been like this for three hours already.

It had taken awhile but it appeared the boy had finally given up hope of being rescued. This was good. Now he could start blackmailing Prime.

"Optimus… hellooo… I don't think he can hear me," Ultra Magnus said turning to Elita.

"Maybe we should get a medic in here," Elita said somewhat worried that Optimus hadn't come around yet.

"Oh that'll go over well. 'How did this happen?' Oh I just slammed a paperweight into his head to shut him up. Do I look like I want to be sent to the brig for assaulting the commander… again," Ultra Magnus asked sarcastically, thinking of the last time he'd been charged with assault. It had been because Optimus had totally overreacted to one of Koji's escapades but it still hadn't been all that fun.

"Well we can't just leave him like this. If he doesn't come around in another minute I'm going for a medic," she said stubbornly. Then Optimus sat up with a moan.

"That's convenient," Ultra Magnus said with raised eyebrows. Elita rolled her eyes.

"Are alright sweetie?" Elita asked.

"My head hurts and I had the strangest dream about T-Ai being pregnant—wait I can't dream!"

Koji sat completely tense, forcing a shudder every few minutes. He had cried for half an hour before realizing something. He wanted to live to see his friends again and crying wasn't helping. If he wanted to find a way to escape or survive until Optimus could find away to rescue him he had to make the Deceptacons think he'd given up. So since he'd already been crying he decided to let them think he was still crying. Then he'd just have to act dejected and keep his eyes and ears open for something he could use.

"Optimus, this would be a good time to remember all those calming exercises you tried to teach me," Magnus said backing away from his older brother.

"How long have you known," Optimus growled.

"Ten minutes before I told you," Ultra Magnus said. "She knew longer," He said quickly, pointing at Elita.

Elita glared at him. "Thanks," she muttered sarcastically.

"How long did you know?" Optimus demanded.

"Three weeks," Elita admitted.

"And you didn't tell me before?"

"It's T-Ai's secret," Elita said defensively.

"Don't you mean T-Ai and Koji's secret?" Optimus asked, picking up on what she'd really meant.

Elita sighed. "Koji doesn't know yet."

Optimus stared at her for a minute. "Damnit!" Optimus hissed.

"She's going to tell him soon," Elita said.

"She can't tell him," Optimus said sounding irritated.

"Why not?"

"Elita, have you honestly not heard what happened this morning?"

"Yeah, some Decepticons showed up and trashed downtown," she said not liking where this was going.

"And what's downtown?"

"The mall," she said hoping to whatever higher power there was out there that he wasn't going to say what she thought he was going to say.

"What else?"

"The fire house?" She was still in denial.

"Elita," Optimus sounded weary.

"No" she was shaking her head. Koji was like her son. They couldn't have been after him. There had to be something else important enough that Scourge would risk sending his troops to attack a block away from the base.

"They have him." They were only three words spoken softly but they brought Elita to her knees.

"Doesn't anybody ever check this thing?" T-Ai asked in general. She was currently checking all the transmissions that had been received while she took her lunch break. Usually reading and sending the messages to the right persons email took five minutes tops. But usually she was part of the system. Doing it all manually took hours.

"We really need to get a new system," she sighed only half way done after an hour and a half. Of course someone chose that minute to send yet another message. "Grrr".

She opened it ready to bite whoever it was sent to's head off. She stopped. Then she fainted.

"How can he just expect us to do nothing about this?" Sideburn asked for the second time in five minutes.

"He wants us to stay out of this because he thinks we're to emotional and right about now I agree with him," X-brawn snapped.

"What!"

"You've just been sitting here moaning since he told us what happened. You don't look all tha' in control ta me," X-brawn snapped again before leaving the room.

"In Tokyo today, three Decepticons were reported to have launched an assault on a on a neighborhood mere blocks from the Autobot mainbase. It has not been announced if there were any casualties or what they were after but-" Lieutenant Alexandra Sparter turned off the TV. She'd heard enough to know what she had to do next. She picked up the phone and dialed. The other end picked up after three rings.

"General Sparter speaking."

"Dad, we need to talk."

AN: General Sparter's the guy from the first fic. read the prologue of "What if?"