Fate Calls

by Sci-Fifan95

In life, the only certain thing that applies to us is death. We cannot escape it. We cannot outrun it. It is a fate that finds us all. However, He plays chess. And you don't find out until too late that He's been playing with two queens all along.

31. Dreams and Mystery

Okay, so the month of May was, without a doubt, the worst writing month I've ever had. Let's list the reasons for why that was, shall we?

1: I went out of town for four days. I enjoyed this one, though, and I already was planning on not writing for those four days, but it still is part of the reason why May sucked for writing.

2: The day after I returned, the computer which had all my writing died. Well, not technically, but its screen refuses to turn on, which effectively makes it useless until it is repaired. This cost me three days of writing.

3: My internet went down the day after I got a Chromebook. I got a Chromebook for my eighteenth birthday/graduation present. I am incredibly grateful for it, but the day after I got it, the internet decided it didn't want to work anymore, and the way the Chromebook works is through Google, so without the internet, it can't do anything. Unless you set your files to be available offline... Which I forgot to do. And I lost another two days of writing time to it being down.

4: The internet went down... Again. So, the night we got our internet back, it went out again. This happened on a Wednesday, and we called our internet provider the next day to say we had no internet. They said they would get someone out to us on Saturday. No big deal, I can play Skyrim *which I got for another present for my birthday, from my brother* for a while and get my Two-Handed skill up. Do they send someone on Saturday? No. They reschedule for Monday and don't tell us... This cost me another five days of writing time, and had me wanting to throw our internet router out a window. No joke.

In all, I lost fourteen days of writing time last month, which is why this chapter took as long as it did. For once, I actually have an excuse for not getting an update out quickly.

Anyway, I had a good month of May overall, just not a good writing one. I turned eighteen *yay*, got some pretty cool ideas for my own series of novels, as well as another series that wouldn't be science-fiction, got a Chromebook like I said, have been really, really enjoying Skyrim since I got it. I really can't believe it took me this long to get it. And the weather here has been really nice as of late. Not too hot, not too cold, and not too wet. Just right.

To everyone that reviewed, favorited, and followed, thank you so much. It really inspires me to write when I see that people like what I write, or have a suggestion for something in Fate Calls. Thank you all again! :D

Thanks go to Crystal Prime for beta reading.

Disclaimer: Transformers belongs to Hasbro. I only take credit for this story and my OCs.

---

Unknown Time

Unknown Place

I stabbed the broken edge of one of my swords into the neck of the corrupt Autobot that had just shot me in the tank, causing him to gurgle as energon flooded his throat. I quickly followed up my stab with a punch to his shoulder-joint, forcing him to turn his backplates to me, I then proceeded to snap his neck with one servo and relieve him of his assault rifle.

No more than a micro-klick after I relieved the mech of his rifle, a missile came out of nowhere and hit it right in the barrel, rendering it useless.

"Perfect," I muttered, throwing the now default rifle away and looking across the small canyon, where the missile had originated from.

Another of the corrupt Autobots was taking cover behind a boulder across the canyon, with a Homing Missile Launcher aimed directly at me.

Moving as quickly as I could, I ran to my left and slid behind a boulder of my own, narrowly avoiding getting hit by a pair of homing missiles that the corrupt Autobot fired at me, the missiles instead impacting my cover.

Not wanting to give the corrupt Autobot a chance to relocate and render my cover useless, I leaned out of cover and fired my Plasma Chaingun at my attacker, firing only a short burst to conserve my dwindling energon levels.

Each round of my short burst hit its target, riddling the corrupt Autobot with bullets of pure energy and dropping him like a brick, offline before he even hit the ground.

I had no time to celebrate my little victory, since a shotgun blast hit my side, tearing apart one layer of my armor and sending me to the ground from the kinetic energy transferred from the shot.

After I was sent to the ground, a shotgun-wielding corrupt Autobot appeared in my vision, weapon pointed down at me as he cocked the shotgun and prepared to fire another shot, judging by how the barrel of his shotgun started to glow orange.

Before the corrupt Autobot could fire, I kicked the back of his knee-joint, sending him falling to the ground, and causing his shot to miss badly. After my opponent fell, I aimed my Chaingun at his helm and fired twice, offlining the corrupt Autobot with a double helmshot at close range.

I picked myself up off the ground and searched for any nearby enemies. There were none, but it was only a matter of time before more came for me. These bots were like flies, offline one, and three come to the funeral.

Taking advantage of the temporary lull in battle, I ducked behind a boulder and tried to contact base. "Shadowstreaker to base, is anyone there?!" I asked frantically, praying for a response.

Static was my only answer.

"Frag!" I cursed, picking up the shotgun my last opponent used, and quickly relocating to another part of the canyon. If I could just get out of range of that jam-

My thought was cut off by a Nucleon shot hitting the ground next to me, sending me flying into the canyon wall and tearing apart both layers of my armor.

The pain that followed being sent into the canyon wall was incredible, and the amount of energon leaking from my frame alarming, but I blocked out the pain, pushed my alarm aside, and dragged myself into an alcove that I had landed near, then leaned out and looked in the direction I just came from, where the Nucleon shot had come out of nowhere.

A Destroyer was moving through the canyon, the barrels of its twin Nucleons still smoking as its treads carried it over the rocky terrain of the canyon floor. It came to a halt suddenly, and started its transformation process, countless thousands of parts all shifting shape and mass in order for the Destroyer to revert to its true form.

The Destroyer finished transforming and stood to its full height, towering well over two-hundred feet above the canyon floor and making me look like a sparkling in comparison. "You're nothing," he bellowed in my direction, not even trying to yell, his voice naturally as loud as a cannon blast. "Just someone wearing the Autobot's badge of honor." He started charging up his Nucleons, which were now located on his shoulder-joints.

I widened my optics and ran out from inside the alcove, but my injuries prevented me from moving fast enough.

The Destroyer fired his Nucleons, sending two balls of highly-unstable energy at the alcove I was just standing in. The shots impacted the alcove and detonated on contact, instantly incinerating the rock alcove and part of the side of the canyon, and sending me flying again as the powerful shockwave hit me.

I didn't feel myself soar through the air, or hit the ground in roughly the same spot the Destroyer hit when he first fired, or even hear anything, since my audio receptors were ringing, but I certainly felt the aftermath.

My left servo was locked up, unsurprising, given how it hasn't really recovered from the injuries it sustained in the mine last June. My vision was also flickering between its normal state and darkness, a sign that I either had sustained a serious processor injury, or my frame was starting to shut itself down and go into stasis lock. And considering how everything was hurting, and how I was already low on energon before the Destroyer showed up, I was inclined to believe I was starting to fall into stasis lock again.

Slowly, with my chassis protesting at every small movement, I pushed myself up off the canyon with my good servo, and sagged back on my knee-joints, unable to find the strength to stand.

My vision flickered to darkness for a long moment, and when it returned to its normal state, I found myself surrounded by at least a dozen corrupt Autobots, all standing at least fifty meters away and pointing assault rifles at me, while the Destroyer who reduced me to my present state was hanging further back, his own weapons pointing down at me as well.

What I assumed to be the leader of the corrupt Autobots said something, but I didn't hear it. My audio receptors were still ringing from the Nucleon shot, I could barely hear anything.

The corrupt Autobot leader spoke again, likely repeating what he said a moment ago, and again I couldn't hear it. But, it was a little clearer than his previous attempt, and I heard parts of a few words. I didn't know for sure, but I believe he wanted me to deactivate my weapons and surrender.

'Like I could actually put up a fight in this state,' I thought, barely even able to fight to keep my optics open, or make myself form a coherent thought. Stasis lock was not far away now. It was inviting me, welcoming me. And I wasn't going to be able to do anything against this many opponents at once, especially with that Destroyer backing them up.

I stopped fighting to keep my optics open, and let them close, accepting of the inevitable. My only thought was of Arcee, and of how close I was to telling her.

One of the other corrupt Autobots behind me said something after I let my optics close. The tone he used was one of jest, he was only making a joke with his comrades, one I didn't catch the words of. But, whatever it was, it made my pain to go away in an instant, and cause it to be replaced by pure, white-hot rage, rage that I had absolutely no control over.

My optics snapped open, revealing that my vision had gone red, and my helm whipped to the corrupt Autobot who had spoken, my optics burning a hole through his own.

The corrupt Autobot widened his optics in fear, while the others around him opened fire on me, their weapons emitting a heavy chatter as they fired bullet-shaped globs of plasma at me.

I heard myself let out a primal roar at the challenge, and I lept to my pedes without telling my chassis to do so and sprinted at the corrupt Autobot who spoke, ignoring the others that were shooting me.

I reached the offending corrupt Autobot in less than a quarter of a micro-klick, too quickly for the corrupt Autobots around the one I was focusing on to shift their aim, but not so much for the others that were now behind me. But it didn't matter. A few bullets weren't going to stop me, nor would the Destroyer that was most certainly charging his Nucleons. They were no longer the ones in control of the situation.

My intact sword deployed without me telling it to, and I stabbed upward, intending to pierce his spark and decapitate him in one efficient move.

Time seemed to slow as my sword cut through the air, the blade creeping closer and closer to the chestplates of the corrupt Autobot with agonizing slowness, until...

I onlined just as my sword connected with the corrupt Autobot's chestplates.

---

May 25, 2013 4:02 A.M

Autobot base, outside Jasper, Nevada

I sat arrow straight up in my berth, deploying my sword with barely a thought.

After a moment, I realized everything I just experienced was a dream, and I returned my servo to normal and hung my pedes off my berth.

'That was... Unusually familiar,' I thought, running a sevo over my faceplate in an effort to rub some of the recharge from my optics.

That dream was far too similar to another one I had, way back when Arcee and I were taking care of Wildwing. It had basically the exact same premise. I was alone, fighting in a canyon, low on energon, and then attacked by a bot that was far larger than I was. Then I would almost fall into stasis lock, but then someone off to the side would say something I couldn't hear, yet knew what they said, and then I would feel nothing but fury. Pure, unadulterated fury.

Of course, there were noticeable differences in both versions of the dream. For starters, my first dream started in a different way than the one I just had, and I had been fighting Decepticons instead of corrupt Autobots. I had also been attacked by a Blackout look-alike in my original dream instead of a Destroyer. And the events leading up to me falling into pure anger were also different in minor, yet noticeable ways.

But, even though I knew there were differences between my two dreams, I had no idea what meaning they held. I hadn't studied enough medical data pads to even know repeating dreams could happen to Cybertronians, let alone figure out what it could mean. And there were only four bots on base that might have an idea of what my dreams might mean, Jetfire, Optimus, Ratchet, and Moonracer.

Jetfire because he was far older than anyone else on base, and had seen enough things in his long life to make an educated guess. Optimus because he was... Optimus. And Ratchet and Moonracer because they were both medics. But, since it was so early in the morning, and I don't think I've ever seen Optimus recharge, the Prime was my best option for getting an opinion on my dreams at this time, when they were at their freshest.

After I finished trying, with little success, to rub recharge from my optics, I stood up, walked to the door, unlocked and opened it, then started walking into the hallway, only to step back at the sight that greeted me.

Sunstreaker and Sideswipe had been standing just outside my door, each holding one end of a giant metal cauldron filled with what appeared to be pink paint, which they were more than likely planning on using to prank me in some fashion. When I opened my door, however, they both jumped in surprise at how my door opened before they could even try to crack the password, and they dropped the cauldron, which caused its pink contents to spill and cover the hallway floor, the door of Arcee's quarters across the hall, and even splash on their armor.

Sunstreaker let out a horrified yell, which likely would have been loud enough to online Arcee if she hadn't still been at Jack's after taking him home after Avatar ended, when he saw the pink paint on his yellow armor. "MY PAINT! MY PAINT IS RUINED!" He glared at me and pointed an accusing digit at my chestplates. "THIS IS YOUR FAULT!"

Now fully online after being startled by the twins, I looked down at the floor, where the cauldron continued to spill pink paint, before giving Sunstreaker a blank stare. "You two were trying to prank me, and dropped your paint cauldron. So, as a result, you are now both covered in paint. How the hell is that my fault?" I asked.

"You weren't supposed to be online for another breem!" Sideswipe answered, making an effort not to yell, unlike his twin. "So, you startled us and made us drop our prank! That makes our present situation your fault!"

"Or you could have not tried to prank me at all," I deadpanned. "Had you not dragged a giant cauldron to my door, you wouldn't be covered in pink paint right now. Pranks can be rather pointless, and unnecessary."

Both twins gasped, as if I just insulted them in the worst way imaginable. "Pranks... Are... Not... Pointless!" They both said in offended tones, voices far higher than usual.

"You are both covered in paint after attempting to commit a prank for no reason other than to commit a prank, your argument is irrelevant." I said.

Sunstreaker and Sideswipe went silent for a brief moment, then the yellow twin hummed. "Hmm, that is actually a good point."

Sideswipe glared at his twin. "That is not a good point. Pranks are not in any way pointless, and the fact we failed here only means we must go bigger next time! Fight against responsibility, Sunny!"

"Don't call me that! And I'm not saying pranks are pointless, you dumbaft, don't act like I just said we should never commit an act of sparklingish behavior again," the yellow twin said to his brother, glancing over and giving his brother a stupid look for even suggesting such a thing. "All I am saying, is that had you not onlined me in the middle of the night and dragged me into trying to prank Shadowstreaker, my paint wouldn't be RUINED!"

"Oh, it's not ruined, Sunny," Sideswipe replied with a dismissive wave, ignoring how his brother again yelled at him to not call him that nickname. "All we have to do is rinse off before it drys, or just repaint ourselves later. Oh! Maybe we can take this opportunity to change our colors!"

Sunstreaker narrowed his optics at his brother. "No. Just no," he said, tone on the edge of being dangerous. "I will never change my paint. It is perfect. To change it would be a crime."

"I disagree," Sideswipe said with a shake of his helm. "You could easily improve your paint, since it really isn't very unique. It's rather bland, in fact."

Knowing this was about to break out into a scrap between siblings, as well as seeing how I was now being ignored, I pressed the button on the control panel next to my door to the door itself, then pressed another button that locked the door, and walked down the hallway toward Optimus' quarters.

Not three micro-klicks after I closed and locked my door and started to move toward Prime's quarters, I heard the sound of a light punch landing on a shoulder-joint, followed by a return punch, and another following that, along with insults being traded.

'At least they aren't trying to really hurt each other,' I thought with a sigh as I continued down the hallway. Normally, I would have broken up their little fight and told them to be more productive, like work on cleaning off Arcee's door before she arrived at base. But, since they had been there to prank me, I continued down the hallway and allowed them to fight. Let Arcee's fury be their karma for trying to prank me.

After a short walk down the hallway, I reached Optimus' quarters and, oddly, the door opened automatically for me. He probably kept it open at this time in the cycle since anyone who went to his quarters this early were need of his advice. Like I was.

Unsurprisingly, Optimus' quarters were small, quite a bit smaller than Arcee's, in fact. He always did make sure his soldiers were taken care of before he was, one of the many reasons that made him such a great leader. But despite the limited space, he managed to fit a lot of things in his quarters.

In the back right corner of Optimus' quarters, Solus' Forge and the Star Saber were leaning against the wall next to a berth that was barely large enough to fit the Prime. The berth also seemed to have a much thinner layer of gel than most berths, which would make it far from comfortable. Why he wasn't using a more comfortable berth, I did not know. All he had to do is use the Forge to make a thicker gel layer, but I guess he thought that was unnecessary.

The left side of the room was lined with data pad shelves that went up to the ceiling, each individual pad containing hundreds of zettabytes of historical data he had copied from the Hall of Records before the end of the war on Cybertron, and the beginning of the war throughout the local group of galaxies.

The right side of the room was similar to the left, but it also contained the holopad for a secure FTL communicator built with my carrier's Forge last mega-cycle, which would allow him to send out, or receive updates from the other Autobot commanders scattered across the Cosmos. Optimus sent out a message welcoming Autobots to join us on Earth after he built the communicator, but since most Autobot forces were all the way out in the Triangulum or Andromeda Galaxies, it would take more than a jour for any signal we send out to reach any Autobots in those galaxies, and twice as long to receive a response. So, we probably had another two or three months before we received a return message.

Optimus was reading a data pad at a small, but very organized, desk in the middle of the room, and he looked up at me when I entered. "Shadowstreaker. Why are you online so early? You do not usually online at this time."

"I had a dream," I replied.

The Prime stared at me for a long moment, as if trying to figure out why this was important. "Normally, I would tell you to simply return to your quarters, and go back to recharging. But, given your habit of speaking to the Primes, and... Other beings while in recharge, I will instead ask you what happened in your dream," he said. "What is it that you saw in your dream?"

"It was more than one dream, I had a similar one back when Arcee and I were taking care of Wildwing. This one was just had a lot of different details." I answered.

Optimus placed the data pad down, intertwined his digits, and rested his servos on the desk, giving me his full attention. "Tell me about your first dream."

"I was alone in a canyon, fighting Decepticons with only my swords, since I apparently was low on energon. I offlined a couple of them, then I was attacked by a giant, flying one. Must have been almost as tall as the Safe's ceiling. He wasn't a seeker, either, he was a helicopter. I tried to fight him by attacking his pedes, but he just kicked me away and into the side of the canyon. That almost made me fall into stasis lock, but one of the Cons off to the said something. I don't know what he said, but it made me more angry than anything I can compare it to... And I lost it, I got up like I hadn't ever been hurt, ran a lot faster than I should have been able to, leapt at one of the Decepticons, then I onlined there." I said, recalling and repeating all the important details of the dream I had last July.

Optimus continued looking at me, the look on his faceplate completely blank, though his optics were shining with confusion. "And what was your second dream?" He asked, obviously wanting to get all the pieces together before commenting.

"Same premise of the first, except I was fighting corrupt Autobots instead of Decepticons," I said as I shifted on my pedes slightly, still uncomfortable with that detail of the dream. "I also felt a little more in control of myself when the anger overtook me, but also a lot more... Cold, like I was forced to the side, or watching something from someone else's optics."

The Prime blinked slowly, look still blank. "And you want to know what your dreams could mean," he said, almost like asking a question, but somehow managing not to. Don't know how he does that.

I nodded. "I do. I don't think having almost the exact same dream twice is just a random occurrence. I want to know what they mean."

Optimus was silent for a moment, likely gathering his thoughts, then he hummed silently. "While interpreting dreams is not one of my specialties, it seems to me that someone, somewhere, is attempting to warn you about a future event, but at the same time also keeping most of the exact details of the event very difficult to decipher."

I gave my commander a confused look. "But that makes no sense. Why would someone try to warn me about something without telling me what I should be looking out for?" I asked.

The Prime shook his helm. "I do not know, Shadowstreaker. There are many questions that have been risen from your experiences, and few of them have yet to be answered."

I chuckled humorlessly. "Yeah, strange things seem to happen around me, don't they?"

A corner of Optimus' mouth twitched upward in a smile. "We all live, and are surrounded by, mystery, Shadowstreaker. It is a part of life. You are merely getting most of the mysteries of your life out of the way sooner than most," he said, getting up from his desk and coming to stand in front of me. "If you are meant to know, the answer will be revealed to you. With time."

I chuckled again, this time from genuine amusement. "You really like saying that."

The Prime's optics twinkled with humor. "It is a saying that has served me well in the past. And if you allow it, it will serve you just as well. If you are willing to follow its meaning."

"Which basically means, 'Put every unanswered question you have in the corner you never, ever go to, and forget about it.'" I summed up, statement meant as a joke.

Optimus gave me a mildly disapproving look, which immediately quelled any further attempts at joking. Mech really knew how to make you shut up without saying a word. "No. It means to not dwell on mysteries that you do not have the ability explain, but also remain vigilant for any signs that answers to those same mysteries are near."

I took a moment to consider his words, then nodded slowly. "That is a wise thing to live by, Optimus. And I guess keeping a sharp optic out for answers is better than trying to make one from so little, especially when what clues you have are unclear," I said. "Still, I have enough questions that I want answered, I was hoping this was going to be simple."

Optimus put a servo on my shoulder-joint. "I am sorry I could not be of more help, Shadowstreaker. There are some puzzles that cannot be solved until all their pieces have been found."

I smiled and raised my optic ridges at Optimus' words. "Did you get that out of a fortune cookie?"

The Prime smiled and let his servo fall to his side. "Yes," he answered flatly, as if this was a serious matter. "As Alpha Trion once told me, 'The greatest wisdom, comes from the humblest of origins."

"Sounds like something he'd say, same with Prima, they are similar in that regard," I said, then suddenly had to fight to keep my optics open. Huh. Maybe I was not as online as I thought I was. After all, I did stay up a while after Avatar ended, discussing the movie with Arcee through a private comm-link. Talking had robbed me of recharge, but I think it was worth it. And I also am online a lot earlier than normal, which further robs me of recharge.

Optimus immediately took note of how I fought my optic lids. "You are still in need of recharge. Return to your quarters and recharge, Shadowstreaker, it is likely not good for you to function on little recharge, given your continued recovery."

I shook my helm. "No. I won't be able to get any recharge after my dream. It's still too fresh, and I honestly am a little disturbed by some of its context, particularly its ending.."

Optimus was silent for a moment, then he nodded. "As you wish. But, I recommend visiting the washracks, starting your morning routine would be the best way for you to online fully."

Starting to feel my optic lids closing again, I nodded and turned to walk out of Optimus' quarters, but I paused and looked back at the Prime as he went back to his desk and sat down. "Optimus," the Prime looked up at me. "Thanks for listening, as well as helping."

Optimus smiled slightly. "Anytime, Shadowstreaker. Now, go and make sure you do not fall into recharge in the middle of the cycle. Prowl would likely find that an inefficient use of time," he joked.

I chuckled and turned away, then walked out into the hallway, the door automatically closing behind me like it had opened for me when I arrived. I then turned down the hall and walked toward the mech washracks, leaving the Prime's quarters behind as I went to start my usual morning routine.

---

Optimus sat in his chair for nearly klick after Shadowstreaker left his quarters, waiting to see if the young mech was going to return.

He did not.

The Prime stood up from his desk and walked off to his left, where the shelf containing medical data pads was located. He immediately took the first pad off the shelf and started skimming through it, looking for a key phrase he was searching for.

He had not lied to Shadowstreaker when he told him he did not know why someone was warning him of a future event while at the same time keeping details hidden, he also hadn't told the young mech everything he knew. Or suspected, rather. He did not want to put more on Shadowstreaker than he needed to. The mech had enough things on his CPU already, given the number of unanswered questions that plagued him. Optimus did not want to burden Shadowstreaker with his suspicions unless they were more than suspicions. And to do that he needed to find a data pad, one he had not seen in a very long time.

During the first cycles of the war, when Optimus had still been in the process of setting up the Autobots' main base of operations in the Hall of Records, he had been in a briefing with his core group of advisors and saw a data pad that Ratchet had left on a table. He had given it just a short glance, and only part of the screen was visible, but Optimus knew from the brief look he had given it that it contained information that was nearly an exact match to the anger Shadowstreaker described feeling at the end of both of the dreams he experienced.

However, Optimus did not see the name or number of the data pad. To further complicate matters, with a race as ancient as the Cybertronians, many, many diseases, medical conditions, burns, and rusts had developed and been wiped out in their long history, and the Hall of Records contained a file on each of them, and Optimus had made copies of each of those medical files when the Ark left Cybertron.

"This is going to be a lengthy process," the Prime said to himself as he placed the data pad back on the shelf, having found that it did not contain the information he was searching for. He took the data pad next to the one he just placed back on the shelf in his servo and started reading it, only to place it back on the shelf when he found it also was not what he was looking for.

For more than half a breem, Optimus picked data pads off the shelves, only to return them to their proper place each time, until his search finally came to an end when he picked a data pad in the middle of the third shelf of data pads he had searched.

As the Prime quickly discovered, the data pad contained an article written just after the end of the Golden Age by a scientist named 'Gearjack,' and it was called 'The Quriomus Protocol, and how It Works.'

As he began to read the article, Optimus walked back over to his desk and sat down, his optics focused on the data pad in his servos. And as he read, Optimus slowly saw each of his suspicions become facts. If, that is, Shadowstreaker was suffering from the condition the article was describing, and he was not informing anyone.

Making a mental note to see Ratchet and Moonracer about Shadowstreaker's regular checkups when they both onlined, and have either medic examine his results more closely, Optimus placed the data pad on his desk and picked up the one he had been holding before Shadowstreaker stepped into his quarters, a report to Agent Fowler regarding the destruction of a gas station in Montana that Bulkhead had accidentally destroyed in a skirmish with the Decepticons.

A Prime's work was never done.

---

May 25, 2013 5:34 A.M

MH-53N Pave Low V, low-altitude flight forty miles North of Denver

Clancy Arkeville sat in the copilot's seat of his command helicopter, barely paying any attention to the noise of the rotors cutting the air just outside the cockpit windows. He was looking at a laptop, reading an online sports website his mole in the S.T.F used to send him coded messages disguised as comments on different articles from many different accounts.

At a glance, his mole's comments looked like they were from various sports fans of differing intelligence levels. But, when Clancy highlighted the second letter in each sentence from all the comments, the message would reveal itself. This message was simple, containing only two words, 'Eighteen hours.'

To most, the short message meant nothing. But to Clancy, it was perfectly clear. His mole had managed to disable S.T.F satellite tracking in the United States for the next eighteen hours. Not an easy feat, considering how many satellites Shepherd had sent into orbit.

'Waste of money and resources,' Clancy thought, closing the computer in his lap and setting it aside. Shepherd was too trusting of the aliens, too willing to continue giving the S.T.F more creative ways of killing other humans, and ignore the facts that were right in front of him. The aliens, the... Cybertronians, were not, as Shepherd believed, humanity's friend.

No matter what they claimed, they were only on Earth to fuel their war, nothing else. Their unwillingness to share their technology was proof that they didn't trust humanity. And if you did not trust those you claimed to be your allies, then you were an enemy. And enemies of humanity needed to be destroyed, and to that, humanity needed to level the playing field against their alien occupiers.

Clancy was close to being able to level that playing field five months ago, when MECH had managed to capture a Decepticon. He had been so close to opening him up and understanding how they worked, what it took to kill them, but the Autobot his mole told him was called 'Bulkhead' had ruined Clancy's plans, freed the captured Decepticon, and the two had completely devastated MECH in battle. And now, he had only three helicopters, including the two AH-74Bs flanking his Pave Low, and only forty men, a third of his original company.

MECH was crippled, Clancy was painfully aware of that, but they were not done yet. If this forced partnership with the female Cybertronian, Airachnid, if the name she gave Clancy was accurate, then MECH would become stronger than they ever were before, and they would know everything there was to know about the Cybertronian body.

'If she doesn't double-cross us,' Clancy thought grimly, looking suspiciously at the alien helicopter that was flying just to the right of one of his escorting Apaches, seemingly having to slow down so Clancy and his convoy could keep up with her. Clancy trusted her about the same amount as he trusted Lennox to not shoot at him. She not only was apparently a former member of the Decepticons, who were openly hostile to humanity, but she also gave Clancy a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.

When Clancy and MECH had outlived their usefulness, Clancy fully expected her to kill him and all his men, but he had no choice except to work with her. MECH was too weak for them to attempt to capture another Cybertronian on their own, and the thought that he would soon be able to examine another Cybertronian, the female known as Arcee at that, helped to keep Clancy's mind off his temporary ally's imminent betrayal. He would have preferred having a male Cybertronian to examine as well, but he would take what he could get.

The leader of MECH shook himself from his thoughts, put on his headset, and looked over at his pilot. "ETA?" He asked through the radio, the rotors too loud for his pilot to hear him otherwise.

"Five hours," the pilot replied. "Sun's coming up, we have to keep to the most remote areas to keep our... Friend from attracting even more attention than we do, and that means crisscrossing around every town and city from here to Jasper."

Clancy hummed in acknowledgment and removed his headset, having already expected their arrival to be delayed due to the Cybertronian flying next to them. He hoped she was more patient than he suspected, they still needed to find the address of the boy Arcee was protecting, as well as find a way to abduct the boy and make the Autobot come after him, or have them both go where they wanted them to, and let Airachnid have her fun with him while MECH examined Arcee.

The boy's death would be normally be regrettable, but since he was associating with the Cybertronians willingly, his life was forfeit. And even if he was associating with them against his will, the life of a single boy was worth the price of examining a miricle of science like a Cybertronian.

Now knowing how long he had until he arrived at their makeshift base in an abandoned concrete factory in Jasper, Clancy leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes to gain some of the sleep he had missed on the night op that led to MECH's alliance with Airachnid, still thinking about how scientifically interesting it would be to finally discover how and why the mechanical Cybertronians had women.

---

May 25, 2013 9:17 P.M

Autobot base, outside Jasper, Nevada

After my conversation with Optimus, I had spent the cycle doing what I could to help around the base. Cleaning out storage hangers, doing routine maintenance on our weapons, anything I could do to lend a servo. Most of the work had been tedious, but the conversations I had with my fellow Autobots while doing the work had made it more enjoyable, especially when I was helping more than one fellow Autobot.

On an odd note, this was the cycle of the Pulling, and I hadn't experienced it at all. Except for the first Pulling instance, every Pulling event had occurred early in the cycle, mostly around noon, but this time it hadn't. It wasn't that I was upset that it the Pulling hadn't occurred, it was painful and incredibly unnerving, but I found it odd that something that had been in such a precise cycle suddenly changed. But, I suppose not getting shocked by my own spark was a good thing. And, despite that one odd note, it had been a good cycle, I still wished I was cleared for duty, but it could have been worse.

Currently, I was helping Bumblebee and Smokescreen store a weapons cache they had recovered without a fight from the Decepticons, while Prowl supervised the three of us.

"That Neutron Assault Rifle belongs in crate D18, Smokescreen, not A21," Prowl said to the white and blue mech, looking down at a data pad in his servo that likely was a list of what crate was supposed to hold what.

Smokescreen nodded. "Right, right, right," he said quickly, sounding a little embarrassed by his mistake as he moved to the other side of the room, where the correct weapons crate was located.

"Do we really need to place every weapons in the exact place you tell us? Can't we just put these in any empty crate and be done with it?" Bumblebee asked in an exasperated tone as he placed an EMP Shotgun into the crate Smokescreen tried to put the Neutron Assault Rifle, having gotten tired of Prowl's constant instructions.

The stoic mech glanced up from his data pad. "Yes," he said, tone emotionless as always. "If someone was in need of a weapon, and that weapon was placed in the incorrect crate, then they would waste time searching the other crates for the weapon that was misplaced. It is only logical to store every weapon as they should be stored."

"While that is true, there are no unique weapons here," I said as I loaded a damaged Ion Displacer into one of the larger crates. Might be a heavy weapon, but it wouldn't do us any good in its state, and we had plenty of them already. "If someone was searching for a weapon in here, then the entire armory would have to have been cleared, as well as all the other storage hangers that are filled with better weapons than anything we've stored so far."

"All possibilities must be taken into account," Prowl stated. He looked back down at his data pad for a moment, then pointed at a pair of Scatter-Blasters on the cart Bumblebee, Smokescreen, and I had used to transport the weapons to this storage hanger. "Shadowstreaker, those Scatter-Blasters belong in crate Z9."

Nodding at Prowl's unspoken, yet strongly implied, command, I picked the Scatter-Blasters off the cart and walked to the back of the storage hanger, where the crate Prowl mentioned was. "How many loads do we have after we've finished with this one?" I asked, noting the fact the cart was nearly empty. We had made good time on that load.

"This is the last," Prowl answered as he pointed at an Ion Blaster. "Bumblebee, that Ion Blaster belongs in crate Q4."

"Um, Prowl? Where does this go?" Smokescreen asked, picking an electrical whip off the cart and holding it up for Prowl to see, while Bumblebee took the Ion Blaster and moved to the crate Prowl said it belonged.

The stoic mech looked at the whip for a brief moment, then looked down at the data pad. He blinked once in confusion. "It is not on the list," he said as he narrowed his optics slightly, like this was a serious offense to him. "All weapons are to be properly logged, it is one of the main regulations of the Autobot army."

"One of the twins might have placed it on this cart by mistake," I said, walking over and examining the whip without taking it from Smokescreen. "This wouldn't be the first time they did that."

"That does not change the fact protocol was not followed," Prowl said, looking distainfully at the whip. "Protocols and regulations are there for a reason. Not following them breaks the structure of organization, and is not logical."

"Since when were the twins logical?" Bumblebee asked rhetorically. "But, it isn't fair to just throw the blame on them, we still have no idea who accidentally forgot to log the whip."

"The twins were the ones who organized this load of weapons," Prowl stated.

The yellow and black scout went silent for a brief moment. "Oh," he said. "Then I guess they missed the whip."

"Indeed," the stoic mech said, then looked at Smokescreen. "Leave it on the cart, I will have Sunstreaker and Sideswipe log it and return later to store it."

"Got it," Smokescreen said easily, placing the whip back down on the cart and picking up a case of EMP Grenades. "What about these?"

"Crate S7," Prowl replied without looking at the data pad, then gestured at a damaged Nucleon, one of the last items on the cart. "Shadowstreaker, that Nucleon belongs in crate X9."

I responded to Prowl's statement by picking up the Nucleon and moving to the crate he mentioned. "How many more do you need me to store, Prowl?" I asked as I placed the Nucleon into the crate and sealed it, since the the Nucleon took the last available space in the crate.

"None, Shadowstreaker, you have finished your share," the stoic mech replied. "You are free to leave."

"You sure? There are still some weapons on the cart," I said, looking at the cart and seeing a few Scatter-Blasters, EMP Shotguns, Neutron Assault Rifles, and grenade cases still waiting to be put into storage.

"Yes, you handled two thirds of the heavy weapons, you have transferred more weight overall than these two," Prowl answered, glancing at Smokescreen and Bumblebee before looking back at me. "You are finished, Shadowstreaker, dismissed."

Ignoring Prowl's order for the moment, I looked at Bumblebee and Smokescreen. "You two alright with me leaving?"

"Of course. It won't take Smokescreen and I long to store what remains on the cart. It's fine if you go," Bumblebee said, shrugging indifferently.

"I second that," Smokescreen added.

Seeing that my presence would not be missed, I nodded and walked toward the door. "I will see you three around later," I said as the door automatically opened for me and I stepped into the hallway, just catching farewells from Smokescreen and Bumblebee, before the door closed behind me.

After leaving the storage hanger, I stood in a hallway for a moment, unsure of where to go. I couldn't train, since Ratchet and Moonracer retired early. Watching a spar also isn't an option, because Ironhide and Bulkhead broke the sparring ring earlier in the cycle. Going down to the shooting range was an option, given how it didn't require any real physical effort, but I had been down there twice already, and shooting wasn't as much fun when you kept doing it over and over in so short a time. That left me with either going to the rec room to relax, or retiring to my quarters to drink my second cube of energon, as well as my half cube of high-grade, and maybe looking around the internet before getting some recharge. And considering how I was running on less recharge than usual, I think retiring to my quarters would be best.

With my destination now planned, I turned in the direction of my quarters and started walking, only to stop when Arcee's voice called out from behind me.

"Going my way?" She asked, tone suggesting she was smiling.

I turned and saw she was doing exactly that. "Hey, Arcee. How are you?" I asked with a smile of my own. This was, surprisingly, the first time we had spoken since we ended our private comm-link last night. She arrived back at base without Jack for some reason, though she didn't get a chance to explain why, since Optimus instructed her go with Jazz on a recon mission to the Badain Jaran Desert, where our sensors detected Decepticon activity, almost as soon as she drove through the entrance tunnel. They had been gone on the mission for the entire morning, and into the afternoon, when they finally got back, but then her duties prevented us from talking after she returned. And by the time she was done with her duties, I was helping unload weapons, which I had only now just finished. This cycle had not been kind to conversations between the two of us.

"I got back from a long recon mission to find my door covered in pink paint, I haven't had a chance to visit the washrack all cycle, and I inadvertently got Jack grounded by his mom. But other than that, I am fine," the blue and pink femme replied as she walked up next to me and the two of us started walking down the hall.

I raised an optic ridge at the second to last part of Arcee's statement. "How'd you get Jack grounded?"

"I took the long route back to Jasper, there was just something about the air last night that I found enjoyable and relaxing," the femme who captured my spark replied, looking like she was fond of recalling the ride.

"Are you sure you didn't just let the setting of Avatar affect you?" I joked.

Arcee rolled her optics at me. "No. I happen to enjoy riding at night, something about it is just better than riding in the day," she answered. "But, my decision to take the long way back did not please June, since I got Jack back half a breem later than he told her he'd return. She's apparently been counting the amount of times he's missed curfew, and last night went over his limit. So, Jack's been grounded from anything except school and his work, and Miko and I have been banned until further notice."

I winced. "Ouch. No transportation, or girlfriend. A male high school student's worst nightmare, at least for most. I think Jack will take it in stride," I said. "So, how are you going to apologize to Jack for inadvertently grounding him?"

"Probably with giving him rides to wherever he wants to go for a mega-cycle. Within reason, of course, wouldn't want him to get himself grounded again once June unbans Miko and I," Arcee replied as we rounded a corner. "That or let him take Miko out on more dates for the next jour. Combat missions tend to keep me away more than they like, and Bulkhead can be a little too loud for their dates."

"Considering that they are a rather lovey-dovey couple, they will most likely ask you to bring them on more dates," I said. "I can hear the mushy lines already."

The blue and pink femme shivered, as if she was trying to shake off a horde of scraplets. "Oh, you have no idea, Shadow'. You only see them while they're on base. They are so much worse on dates. It's like listening to one of the many bad romance movies humans keep on making. The other cycle, Miko was calling Jack, 'Jackie-Wackie,' and he was calling her, 'Miko-Liko.'"

I joined Arcee in her shivers. "That is horrifying. Plain and simple."

"I know," Arcee said. "And when you listen to it over and over... It becomes a nightmare. I would rather face down a dozen Pyros in close quarters than listen to those to talk like that for a cycle."

"I pity you, Arcee, I really do," I said. "Couples like Jack and Miko drive others insane. And also make them sick and want to throw up a little, or purge their tanks, in our case. And they probably don't even know it."

"No, they are painfully oblivious to how they are annoying everyone around them. They don't even notice that they're talking to each other like creators talking to sparklings," Arcee said, shaking her helm as we rounded another corner. "Sometimes I feel like punching something because of how oblivious they are to their own behavior."

"They really don't know how they're acting?" I asked, surprised they hadn't noticed how cheesy they were. Literally everyone on base was aware of how cheesy they sounded.

The femme that captured my spark shook her helm again. "They really have no clue. They know what they're calling each other, but they have no idea how they sound, or how annoying it is to everyone else."

"But they're so obvious about it, how can they not know?" I asked, mostly meaning my question as a rhetorical one.

"Guess humans in relationships are just blind," Arcee answered with a shrug. "But if they were Autobots, I bet they would notice. We Cybertronians have better vision than humans."

"Very true," I agreed. "It would be very, very difficult for them to not notice if they were Cybertronians. Better vision tends to make you more observant, and lets you see things that are right in front of you, yet haven't noticed."

My own statement caused me to come to an abrupt halt as a thought came to me. 'Are we still talking about Jack and Miko?'

Arcee, noticing I had fallen out of step with her, stopped and turned her upper chassis to look at me. "What's the holdup, Shadow'?" She asked, looking confused by my sudden stop.

'Why nothing, I was just hoping that we were no longer talking about Jack and Miko, and were instead talking about the two of us,' came the immediate reply in my helm. But, since it would clearly be a bad idea to to give an honest answer to why I stopped, I quickly glanced to the right and left for a believable excuse for why I came to a halt. Luckily for me, I stopped right next to the door to my quarters, my destination.

"This is my stop," I answered, gesturing to my door with my helm. "I'm going to browse through the internet, see if anything catches my optic, then get some recharge, since I didn't get a lot last night."

The blue and pink femme nodded in understanding. "Enjoy your extra recharge," she said with a smile, then turned around and continued walking toward the ops center. "I'm going to ground bridge to Jack's. I'll get him in even more trouble if his mom comes home and doesn't see me in the garage, it'll send the wrong message. See you next cycle, Shadow'."

"See you then," I said.

Arcee acknowledged my words with a wave over her shoulder-joint, then she was gone.

After parting company with Arcee, I entered the password to unlock my door into the control panel, then stepped inside once it opened and locked it behind me.

Once my door was locked for the night, I walked over to my desk and sat down, then connected to the internet and started to browse through any sites that might grab my interest.

One news story got my attention.

It was a story about an energy corporation called, 'Roxxon,' a company that apparently was in the middle of a huge scandal due to the actions of its top executives. The executives had been bribing or, in some cases, blackmailing a number of Senators in Congress, along with politicians in several other countries, all of them being highly developed and culturally advanced.

According to the story, whenever the Roxxon Corporation was looking to increase its profits, or saw another company that was a threat to their dominance in the energy business, particularly clean energy companies, they would lean against the politicians they had bought off. The politicians would then either be told to vote in their favor on Bills, or bring false charges against the company they viewed as a threat. Of course, the politicians had no proof to back up their accusations, but more often than not, the accused company had to appear in court to rebuke the charges. This caused most of the accused companies to have the public lose their trust in them, while Roxxon and its pristine reputation received more business, and many times would buy up the companies they framed. In short, the executives of the Roxxon Corporation were responsible for tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of jobs being lost, as well as corrupting numerous votes.

'And that is why I hate greed,' I thought with a huff, thankful that being a Cybertronian meant things like that didn't effect me as much as they once did.

With the news story killing any desire I had to continue browsing the internet, I disconnected my CPU from the internet, and reached for a cube to fill with low-grade, but I froze when Arcee suddenly opened a comm-link with me.

"Shadow'-" was the one word that came through the comm-link, then it became nothing but static.

"Arcee?" I asked through the link urgently, already getting up and walking to the door. Something was wrong. Comm-links didn't just go dead, not when the link was clear just a moment before.

I got no response from Arcee's side of the link.

"Slag," I said as I cut the comm-link and unlocked my door, practically running out into the hallway and immediately moving to the ops center, not bothering to lock my door behind me. There was something very, very wrong.

I reached the ops center in record time, my pace causing the bot on ground bridge duty, Jetfire, in this case, to look at me in surprise when I entered the room.

"Hello, youngling," the seeker said in his usual tone, then seemed to notice the urgency in my step. "What's wrong?"

I didn't bother with pleasantries. "Can you track Arcee's life signal?"

Jetfire didn't question why I was asking, and quickly brought up the screen that contained a live feed of every Autobot's vitals, which was missing Arcee's. "That can't be right. It says the signal's being jammed."

"How long ago did you send her out?" I asked quickly, ignoring the panic I felt. Arcee was in trouble, and until she was out of it, there was no place for panic.

"Five klicks ago," Jetfire replied.

"Any Decepticon activity in the area?" I followed up.

"None. And if there was, they wouldn't know to bring a jammer. Jasper's under our cloaking field, the Decepticons could fly over this area a thousand times and never know we're here," the seeker answered. "This makes no sense. She should still be on screen."

"And yet, she's not," I said, voice cold and emotionless, the gears in my helm turning as I went over the little information we had. Her signal was being jammed, and that meant she was being taken, that was the only conclusion I could reach from that. She was being taken by someone other than the Decepticons. And, unfortunately, five klicks was enough time for the party taking Arcee to get a long way away, too far for us to pinpoint her location. But, I would be damned if I was going to let an unidentified hostile force take the femme who captured my spark. I was going to find them.

As if my words were a command, the familiar pain of a vision started to pound in my helm, followed by the vision itself.

I watched June walk out of the hospital where she worked, moving towards her car in the back of the parking lot. She seemed to be talking to herself, but I couldn't hear any of the words.

She reached her car and took out her car keys. She went to unlock her the car, but she stopped when a black van sped through the parking lot and came to a stop next to her, almost pinning her between her car and the van.

The side door of the van opened, revealing two well-built men wearing black clothing, ski masks, and a holographic visior over one of their eyes. Both men were wielding what appeared to be a taser-like device that fired a dart, likely a tranquilizer.

June gasped at the sight of of the armed men, and tried to squeeze her way out from between the two vehicles.

She only had time to take one step before one of the men shot her with his tranquilizer, dropping the woman in only two short micro-klicks.

The second man put his tranquilizer away, and pulled June into the van and closed the door.

With their objective secure, the driver of the van hit the gas and turned the van around. And within ten micro-klicks after they arrived, they were gone.

The vision faded, and I found myself staring at the main screen again, now knowing who was responsible for Arcee going dark.

"MECH is taking her," I said. "They abducted June Darby and are using her to get Arcee, and possibly Jack, to go where they want. And they probably killed the S.T.F team that was assigned to keep Jack and June safe when we weren't around."

"You're certain?" Jetfire asked, then took one look at my faceplate. "Of course you are." He started typing commands into the workstation. "I'm going to contact General Shepherd. He's definitely going to want to know MECH's in the area."

"They won't get here in time," I said, turning and walking toward the entrance tunnel. "I'm going to defy Ratchet's orders and leave base. I need to find her."

"MECH's going to have her go somewhere remote," Jetfire said, not even trying to argue with me. "Look for abandoned buildings beyond the limits of Jasper, I would bet anything they're hiding out in one of those. Just don't know which one, or ones."

Jetfire's statement caused me to come to a halt just as I was about to transform into my MRAP form and drive out of the entrance tunnel, another vision flashing before me.

Without trying to, I followed Arcee as she sped down the main road of Jasper, while Jack, sitting on the seat of her alt mode, held a PDA-like device in his hand, looking very worried about something.

Jack said something I couldn't hear, and Jack turned off onto a dirt road well outside Jasper. He was giving her directions, and I would bet a hundred cubes of high-grade that the PDA device was providing them.

After a few micro-klicks, Arcee and Jack rolled through the open gate to an abandoned complex of buildings, a complex I recognized as an old cement factory I had seen many times while on air patrol.

Arcee and Jack continued through the complex, before the door to the main building opened, revealing Silas and at least two dozen MECH soldiers.

The femme who captured my spark sped pass them and went into the main building, only stopping when she and Jack reached a large, open room in the middle of the building, where lab equipment was visible almost everywhere I looked.

Jack got off Arcee and shouted out a single word I couldn't hear, likely calling for his mother.

Almost immediately after Jack called out, a black and purple femme that was an exact match to the description Jack gave of Airachnid dropped down from the ceiling, a look of sadistic pleasure in her purple optics and on her faceplate as she gazed down at Jack, likely mocking him.

Arcee, noticing the femme that most certainly was Airachnid, quickly transformed into her true form and glared up at her, keeping her chassis between Airachnid and Jack.

Airachnid smiled at Arcee and shot what appeared to be synthetic webbing at her, the substance wrapping around Arcee's upper frame and trapping her servos at her sides.

After Arcee was trapped by Airachnid, Silas and the MECH soldiers stepped into the room, all of them besides Silas pointing their weapons at the femme I loved.

Arcee said something to Silas that I didn't hear, giving the psychopathic human a pleading look.

Silas' response was to glance at one of his men, who then shot Arcee with a missile from a M-320A, which, instead of exploding, released an electric shock, likely an EMP, on Arcee, and she fell over, temporarily offline.

My vision seemingly sped up, and then continued to move at normal speed with Silas standing in front of a group of computer monitors, watching Jack run in and out of the frames of what could only be security cameras.

The psychopathic human turned away from the monitors, and directed his attention to where his men were surrounding Arcee with drills, saws, and magnets, and jars, which were likely there to take samples of energon or store parts that caught their interest.

After Silas exchanged a brief word with one of his men, the MECH soldiers activated the machinery around Arcee, and started moving the drills toward her chassis, mostly focusing on the area directly above her spark.

Once again, the vision faded away, and I was back to standing in the ops center, only all thought had left me.

They were going to open Arcee up like a dissected Frog, learn why the Cybertronian race had genders, how to make more of us, and how to cause us the most pain possible. And they'd learn it all from Arcee.

I clenched my fist so hard that I felt the joints in my digits stretch.

They were going to use Arcee, my spark, my everything, then discard what was left in the trash.

'They. Will. All. Die,' a dark part of my CPU whispered, drowning out my rational thoughts that told me I needed to remain calm if I was going to help Arcee.

Jetfire, having more than likely noticed my mood, asked, "Are you alright, youngling?"

I didn't answer, since my vision went red at that moment, and any rational thoughts that remained vanished in an instant. I felt like I was in a dream, feeling far stronger than I actually was, but not in control of my own frame. My processor was blank, no thought was going through it, save one.

Protect my spark, my everything, no matter the cost.

I heard myself growl, a low, guttural noise that sounded like it fitted a raging Tiger more so than a Cybertronian, and I felt myself transform into my F-22 form.

My engines activated without me telling them to, and I sped through the entrance tunnel at just under the speed of sound, slowling down only marginally to fire a Nucleon shot at the stone entrance to our base, then flying through the flames where our entrance used to be, and redoubling my speed once I was in the open air.

I watched as I adjusted my flight path and headed directed toward the cement factory, pure, white-hot rage being the only thing I felt.

---

Jetfire stared at where Shadowstreaker stood a moment ago, not reacting at all when he heard an explosion from the entrance tunnel, or felt the air rush by as the pressure inside the base changed.

The growl the youngling uttered had made him feel like the temperature of the ops center had gone down a few degrees, and he hadn't even been on the receiving end of it.

Only once before in his long life had he felt that feeling, and it had been long before the war, when a mech found out his courted had been grievously wounded in a robbery gone wrong. The mech had gone mad and tried to leave the building he worked, intent on tracking down the would-be thief himself. Enforcers stopped the mech from leaving the building, but it took seven of them to restrain him, and an eighth to sedate him. And the mech had only been two thirds the size of just one of the Enforcers.

Shadowstreaker was much stronger and larger than those Enforcers had been. And if Jetfire's suspicion about what happened to the youngling was correct, that could only mean bad things. Really bad things.

Jetfire shook himself from his thoughts and turned to the workstation as Prowl, Smokescreen, and Bumblebee came running into the ops center with their weapons deployed, likely thinking the base was under attack after hearing Shadowstreaker blow open the front door.

Prowl looked around the ops center for a moment, searching for targets. But he found none and looked at Jetfire. "Jetfire, report. What was that?"

Jetfire ignored the tactician and opened a channel with Optimus, who currently was patrolling in Arizona. "Prime, we have a serious situation."

---

June Darby felt her heart soar as she watched her son climb a ladder leading up to the platform her cocoon of... Web, if it could be called that, was dangling from. He didn't even looked fazed by the situation, he just focused on climbing and getting up to her. If she wasn't in danger of falling two-hundred feet to her death, she would have been proud.

She waited until her son was up on the platform, panting for breath after his long climb, before launching into the series of questions she had been holding in since she woke up in her cocoon, "Jack, what's going on?! How'd I get up in this... Stuff?! Where are we?! Who are these people?! What are you running from?!"

Her son ignored her questions. "Don't worry, mom, I'm going to get you ou-"

Her son was cut off by a giant, spider-like leg pounding into the cement wall of the structure next to the platform she and Jack were on.

Another leg pounded into the wall of the structure, followed by another, and another, until a giant robot spider... Thing pulled itself up the side of the structure.

The robot spider thing smiled cruelly at June and laughed, a horrible sound that was closer to a hiss, then it flexed the legs, which June noticed were attached to its back, and propelled itself the rest of the way up the structure and stood at its apex.

"I beat your deadline!" Jack yelled at the spider thing defiantly, staring into the robot's sadistic purple eyes.

"I'm afraid not, Jack," the spider thing replied with a sicking glee, its voice sounding female to June. And now that she really looked at the spider thing, she saw it had curves almost exactly like that of a human woman, only hidden by the spider-like legs coming out of her back. "You see, I never intended on actually letting you go," June watched as the spider thing shot a web-like substance from one of her palms, hitting Jack's arm and pinning him to the platform. "It was just my way of giving you something to work for," she crawled down the structure until she was right in front of her son. "The prospect of seeing you run around, thinking you could save your mother, was just too much fun to pass up. And you know how I like having a good time, Jack."

Jack glared into the spider thing's face, no fear in his eyes, just anger. "You go to hell," he growled, surprising June with the ferocity he put behind the short statement.

The spider thing laugh-hissed again, appearing to be genuinely amused by Jack's defiance. "Oh, Jack, I will miss you once you're eviscerated. It has been a long time since one of my trophies put up such a fight. I think the last one was your guardian, too bad this is the last night for both of you," she said with a twisted smile, and a hidden meaning behind her words that June didn't catch, but made her son glare even more at the spider thing and fight to free himself from the web-like substance trapping his arm.

The female robot watched him struggle for a few moments, then laugh-hissed again and climbed back up to the top of the structure next to the platform. She spread her arms out. "Sit back, Jack, relax, and enjoy the horror-"

A huge, black shape, darker than the night sky above them, suddenly slammed into the back of the spider thing, cutting the spider thing off and sending both the shape and the spider thing to the ground, but at the same time blowing out the hearing in June's left ear as a sonic boom passed over her.

Biting back a yell of pain, June looked down at the ground and saw the spider thing crash into the ground and move only slightly, while the thing that slammed into her, now revealed to be a far larger, heavily built black robot that was likely male, landed on his feet and slowly stalked toward the downed female, his every movement radiating anger.

"Mom!" Jack cried, causing June to look up and see that her son had freed himself and was now trying to pull her up onto the platform he was lying on. "Don't move, I don't know how moving this will effect its strength."

"Jack... What's going on?" June asked slowly, turning back to look at the two giant robots.

The spider thing apparently was faking any injuries she had, and was attacking the larger male with all eight of the legs on her back, each moving at speeds June could barely follow.

The male, however, was completely unfazed, and his hands were a black blur as he blocked each strike the female threw at him. After a moment, the male threw his fist forward so quickly that June didn't even see it move and hit the female in the gut, causing her to double over and spit out a bright blue liquid from her mouth. The male then proceeded to grab the female by the throat, toss her up in the air, then heel kicked her into the largest building in the complex before she hit the ground.

Not two seconds after the female went flying through the wall of the building, the male rushed into the hole she made, moving at a speed she wasn't sure was possible for something that moved on legs.

After the brawling titans disappeared into the building, and gunfire from the men that took her started to sound, June looked up at her son for answers.

Jack looked up and to the left for a moment, a sign he was trying to come up with an answer, then looked back at his mother. "It's really complicated."

---

Clancy watched as his men finally got the synthetic webbing off Arcee's inactive body. It had taken a surprisingly long time, considering they were using Adamantium Diboride drills with Synthetic Nanocrystalline Diamond tips. But, delays were to be expected when dealing with material created by a race that was an uncountable number of years more advanced than humanity.

'Now comes the hard part,' Clancy thought, watching eagerly as his men started to move the drills to where Arcee would have a stomach if she was human, where their scans said her metal skin was weakest. Hopefully, they could pierce that area with the drill, and drill up toward the heart, the part Clancy wanted to examine the most, followed closely by any potential reproductive systems they might find. He couldn't create his own Cybertronians if he didn't know how the originals were made.

Clancy brought himself out of his brief thoughts when his radio beeped at him, signaling that the pilot of his Pave Low, which Clancy had patrolling the skies along with his two Apaches, wanted to talk to him.

Sighing in annoyance, Clancy pulled his radio off his belt and brought it up to his mouth. "What?" He grunted without looking away from his men as they started up their drills again. He was so close to finally understanding how a Cybertronian worked.

"Sir!" His Pave Low pilot said over the radio. "A bogey just flew right pass me and it's heading your way. Fast!"

Clancy's face scrunched in confusion. A fast-mover? From who?

The leader of MECH's question wasn't answered, because at that moment, a sonic boom sounded through the air, causing Clancy to drop his radio and cover his ears.

After a few seconds, Clancy uncovered his ears, immediately hearing loud clangs of metal hitting against metal. Airachnid was evidently fighting against the fast-mover, who apparently was an Autobot. What Decepticon would come to save an Autobot?

Clancy looked at his men, who had turned their equipment off and were now looking at him for orders. "We have an unexpected guest, grab your 320s and get read-

Clancy's world exploded around him before he could finish his sentence, and he saw it all.

Airachnid came through the wall, sending chunks of concrete the size of his chest in all directions, with a few chunks killing a pair of his men that were unfortunate enough to be in the path of the debris. Airachnid didn't stop moving, and went clean through the wall on the other side of the room, and back outside.

Clancy's men had no time to recover from the destruction, since the Autobot Clancy's mole told him was called 'Shadowstreaker', who had threatened and mocked him back during Christmas, appeared in the hole in the wall that Airachnid had made.

Before most of Clancy's men had time to point their weapons at him, Shadowstreaker deployed a double-barreled weapon from his left hand and started shooting. First, he shot at his soldiers, reducing a dozen of them to ashes in half as many seconds as angry red bullets of energy hit them. Then he shot at the machinery, destroying the drills, saws, and computers that were all around the room. And by the time his men started to shoot back, Shadowstreaker had killed eighteen soldiers, destroyed all of Clancy's equipment, and positioned himself above the unmoving Arcee, preventing any of his men from getting anywhere near her..

Clancy, seeing his men getting slaughtered, ran to his right, where he had his men stache a crate of AT-5s, an upgraded AT-4 that fired a rocket that contained five times the explosives as the normal version.

He reached the crate and popped it open, taking an AT-5 out and putting it on his shoulder before the top of the crate had fallen to the floor. Clancy removed the safety pin at the back of the tube, lined up the crosshairs on Shadowstreaker, then pulled the trigger.

The rocket launched out of the tube at two-hundred and eighty-five meters per second, covering the roughly seventy foot distance between Clancy and Shadowstreaker in approximately seventy-five milliseconds, or under one tenth of a second. It was a guaranteed hit, since Shadowstreaker was busy fighting Clancy's soldiers, and also had his back to Clancy himself.

Faster than Clancy's eyes could follow, Shadowstreaker whirled around, caught the rocket between his middle and index fingers, crushed it in his hand, then resumed his slaughter of Clancy's men.

Clancy stood there, not believing what he just witnessed, but also unable to deny it. Shadowstreaker had just caught a missile in his hand like it was a Nerf dart, then destroyed the missile and continued fighting without missing a beat.

For the first time since he was a young child, believing there was a monster under his bed, Clancy was afraid.

Clancy continued to stand there, unmoving, until he realized it was quiet. He looked around, and quickly saw that all of his men were dead, the majority now nothing more than ashes on the floor.

He had failed.

The leader of what remained of MECH looked up when he heard heavy footsteps approaching, and did everything he could to not wet himself when he saw two blood red mechanical eyes staring at him with enough anger to put the worst men Silas had met to shame.

Shadowstreaker stopped just a one of his giant steps away from Clancy, his optics boring a hole into the man's soul. With an almost annoyed huff, though it sounded more like a Lion's growl, Shadowstreaker pointed his weapon at the ceiling and fired a short burst, then turned and walked away, moving toward the second hole Airachnid made on her way through the room.

After Shadowstreaker walked away, Silas heard the sound of metal groaning from above him.

He looked up... And the last thing his eyes took in was a Steel I-beam detaching from the ceiling and falling straight toward him.

---

Airachnid was slow to get up. Her sensors were offline, one of her optics was cracked, her tank felt like it had been the punching bag for a squad of Wreckers, and three of her back pedes were broken from being thrown through two walls. In all, she felt like slag. She had to admit, Arcee's latest mech toy threw a lot of power into his punches, as well as his kicks.

Slowly, and carefully, Airachnid pushed herself off the ground, then up onto her knee-joints. She tried to get on her pedes, but found she lacked the strength to do so, meaning she couldn't use the destruction of her uneasy allies, who she could hear fighting Arcee's mech toy, as cover for her escape.

Airachnid, knowing she had nowhere to go, and no way to get there, simply sat there on her knee-joints, waiting for Arcee's mech toy to finish off the humans and come for her, which she knew he would.

It didn't take long to finish them off, a klick, maybe two. Humans never stood a chance against a Cybertronian.

Arcee's mech toy walked through the hole in the building she had made on the flight he sent her on, his blood red optics blazing with fury.

Airachnid looked up into the sky as the sounds of helicopter rotors reached her audio receptors, though Shadowstreaker ignored them and continued to walk toward her.

Not long after she first heard them, the human helicopters Airachnid flew with appeared in the sky, and the two smaller helicopters opened fire on Arcee's mech toy with their thirty millimeter gatling guns, while the larger helicopter fired hundreds of micro missiles at the advancing Autobot.

Without looking, Arcee's mech toy deployed a modified Path Blaster from his right servo, and shot one of the smaller helicopters in the tail rotor, sending it into a spin and, because it was still firing at him, to riddle the other two helicopters with thirty millimeter sabot rounds, sending the other smaller helicopter into a spin as well. But the larger helicopter, however, was hit in one of its missile pods, and it vanished in a blinding explosion that caught the two smaller helicopters in its fireball, further increasing the force and power of the detonation and hurting Airachnid's audio receptors.

With the last of the humans dead, Arcee's mech toy let his servo fall to his side as he reached Airachnid, but he kept his Path Blaster deployed.

Well aware of the fact she was cornered, and that Arcee's mech toy wouldn't show her any mercy, Airachnid launched one of her unbroken back pedes forward, intended to hit his neck to at least stun him, or, hopefully, sever one of his main veins and offline him.

The Autobot's left servo moved faster than Airachnid could see, and he caught her back pede before it even got close to his neck, and snapped it effortlessly.

Airachnid cried out in pain as her back pede was broken, but her cry was cut off by Arcee's mech toy pointing his Path Blaster between her optics and firing.

---

My pure, white-hot rage vanished, and I onlined from my dream-like state. I was clutching one of the snapped back pedes of Airachnid in my left servo, preventing the sadistic femme, who was now sporting a massive hole between her optics, from falling to the ground.

I let go of the broken appendage, letting the offlined Airachnid fall to the ground limply, and looked at my right servo. It had my Path Blaster deployed, but I never sent the mental command for it to do so.

'Did... Did everything I saw really happen?' I asked myself, and looked up and to my right, where I had seen a Pave Low and two Apache helicopters be shot down in my dream-like state.

There was barely anything left, but I could clearly see the burning wreckage of the helicopters.

I did that.

Turning around, I saw two giant holes in the building I had seen in my vision, as well as what remained of destroyed lab equipment and an unmoving Arcee, still offline and wrapped in the webbing Airachnid trapped her in.

I took a step toward Arcee, but suddenly I felt nearly all my strength leave me, as if it had been sucked out of me, and I fell down on my servos and knee-joints. I struggled to even stay up in my humble position, but I lost my struggle and fell on my chestplates, forced to look at the burning wreckage of the helicopters or lay on my faceplate.

As I laid there, staring at what I had done, I started to hear the sounds of various engines. Some of them had a familiar rumble or whine to them, but most sounded unfamilar. My fellow Autobots were coming, and were likely bringing Shadow Company with them.

The last of my strength left me, and my optics started to close as the engines got louder. But, I managed to get one last thought in before my world went dark.

What happened to me?

---

May 25, 2013 11:21 P.M

Autobot base, outside Jasper, Nevada

I became aware that I was online again, and I slowly opened my optics, the med-bay ceiling being the first thing that I saw. I must have been moved here after I offlined.

"So, you're online, youngling," the voice of Jetfire said off to my right, causing me to turn my helm and see the seeker standing next to my berth, along with Optimus, with Moonracer and Ratchet standing at the med-bay computer. Optimus must have onlined them from their recharge.

"Where's Arcee? Is she alright?" I asked, concerned that I didn't see her in the med-bay, and the last time I saw her was when she was offline and trapped in the webbing of Airachnid.

My statement caused Moonracer and Ratchet to give each other a look, not a grim one, but a knowing one, as if my words just confirmed a suspicion. Odd.

"She is fine, Shadowstreaker," Optimus answered, the look on his faceplate completely blank like it had been when I spoke with him about the dream I had. "Moonracer treated her for some minor EMP damage, and she was released from the med-bay almost a breem ago."

I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. "Good. I didn't see her moving when I was there," I said. "How are June and Jack?"

"Suffering from temporary hearing loss, and June is in shock from learning of our existence in such a... Traumatic manner, but Colonel Lennox has assured me that they will both make a full recovery." Optimus answered again, either inadvertently or purposely reminding me that I had partially contributed to their pain, since I had seen myself slam into Airachnid at supersonic speeds, and had most certainly exposed Jack and June to the full force of a sonic boom, something I never would have done had I been in control of myself. And from the look I saw in all of my fellow Autobots, they knew I hadn't been myself.

I looked at Optimus for answers. "What happened to me?"

"Your Quriomus Protocol activated," Moonracer said, answering my question instead of Optimus.

I shifted my attention to her. "What's the Quriomus Protocol?" I asked. I had never even heard that name since I became a Cybertronian, and I had heard a lot of names.

"It is an ultra-rare protocol that has only been found in mechs. And it cannot be passed down from sire to son, it develops in seemingly random mechs. Only one in one point seven trillion mechs is born with it," the green and white femme replied, her usual tone and mannerisms completely devoid from her voice and chassis, replaced by professional ones.

Pushing aside the surprise I felt at hearing how rare the Protocol was, I asked, "What exactly is it?"

"It is a protective protocol. Its purpose is to protect someone close to the mech who has the protocol when it becomes active. It is simply more... Extreme than others," Moonracer responded. "When it activates, it overclocks the system of the mech that has the protocol. His CPU speeds up, allowing him to have a reaction time of almost zero, and instantly analyze everything around him. The nanites running through his veins multiply exponentially, allowing him to heal from nearly any injury in a matter of micro-klicks. The mech's cables also tighten, which allows him to move each limb at speeds he normally would not able to come close to reaching, while at the same time multiplying his strength to unheard of levels. But, for all these improvements, the Quriomus Protocol has two flaws. The first is that it causes the mech to burn through his energon at an alarming rate, which is why you fell offline after your Quriomus Protocol deactivated. The other flaw is that it shuts down all thoughts, sending the mech into a dream-like state, and makes the mech focus on one thing. Protecting the one close to the mech" she paused for a moment, as if thinking of how to continue. "Have you experienced a... Pulling sensation when you are around Arcee? Perhaps accompanied by an electric shock?"

I frowned. How'd she know about the Pulling? I had done everything I could to not let anyone know about it. "Yes. I experienced something like that on the night we discovered the Delphic was a power source, and have experienced it every thirty solar-cycles since. But what does that have to do with anything?"

Moonracer ignored me and looked at Ratchet. "Less recent than I was expecting. He must have Imprinted on her well before we rescued Breakdown from MECH's clutches."

My frown deepened. What was she talking about? "What does 'Imprinted' mean?"

Optimus shared a look with Ratchet and Moonracer, then looked at me. "It is an unknown phenomena, one that is nearly as rare as the Quriomus Protocol," he said. "From what little examples we have on Imprints, they typically form between very close friends of opposite gender, and not typically formed between bots who met and immediately began to court. The Imprint is usually initiated by the mech, though on rare occasions it is initiated by the femme."

"But what is an Imprint?!" I asked, almost straining my voice with urgency. I wanted an answer, and this cryptic explanation wasn't giving me one. Although, I got the feeling I wasn't going to like what Optimus' reply was going to be...

The Prime blinked, completely unfazed by my tone. "It is a spark reaching out for another, wanting to join with the one it has deemed its second half. But when the spark does not come into contact with its second half for a period of time, it becomes... Unstable, and in mechs results in their Quriomus Protocol activating if the femme is in danger."

I went numb, immediately understanding the Prime's meaning. "You mean-"

"That at some point you, or your spark, either consciously or subconsciously, asked Arcee to be your sparkmate? Yes, he does," Jetfire interrupted. "And, apparently, you asked her a long time ago, youngling."

I stared at Jetfire blankly, trying to take in what he just said. Somehow, someway, I had reached out to Arcee and asked her to be my sparkmate, when we weren't even courting. I obviously hadn't consciously done so, but that didn't change the fact that I did it in the first place. Arcee was going to destroy me when she found out. If she found out

"Who else knows?" I asked quietly, unable to push aside my shock and use my normal tone.

"Only the four of us know you even have the Protocol," Ratchet replied. "Your two medics, the mech who witnessed your protocol activating, and Prime, who already had suspected you had the Quriomus Protocol."

I looked at Optimus slowly, still too shocked by learning I subconsciously Imprinted on Arcee. "You held back in our conversation early in the cycle," I stated matter-of-factly.

"I did not want to tell you unless I was absolutely certain my suspicions were correct," the Prime said. "And your Protocol activated before I confirmed any of them."

"And, in turn, my Protocol activating confirmed all of your suspicions at once," I said, again stating a fact. I sat up on the medical berth I had been lying on, then looked at all of my fellow Autobots. "If you don't mind, I would like some time by myself. This... Is a lot to take in."

Optimus nodded in understanding. "Of course, Shadowstreaker," he said, then turned and walked toward the door, gesturing for the others to follow him, which they did.

After Optimus and the others left, I just sat there on the berth, thinking about everything I had just learned.

But, I didn't get to think about it long, since the med-bay door opened again less than a klick after the others left me to think.

I turned my helm and saw Arcee walking through the doorway, her faceplate lacking the humor she had the last time I saw her.

"Hey, partner," she said quietly in greeting, voice fitting the look on her faceplate.

"Hey," I greeted back, giving her a concerned look. "Optimus told me you were fine, but I need to hear for myself, how are you doing?"

The femme I apparently subconsciously Imprinted on gave a light sigh. "I'm tired, sore, and honestly shaken up, but I could be worse," she answered, then shook her helm and gave me a look that was nearly identical to the one I was giving her. "What about you?"

"The same, but I'll be alright," I said. "Just glad you, Jack, and June are alright."

"I hear you're the only reason we are," Arcee said, the look in her optics completely unreadable.

"Technically, the Primes are the only reason you're alright, I wouldn't have known where you were without receiving my visions," I said.

"But in the end, you were the one who came flying in to save Jack, June, and little old me," she joked, one of the corners of her mouth twitching upward in a smile. "Sounds like something out of a cheesy human movie. The hero swoops in to save the helpless innocents and the 'damsel in distress.'"

I chuckled lightly at her joke. "I would hardly consider you a damsel, closer to the hero," I said.

Arcee looked at me, her optics shining with her usual mischief, which had been absent up until now. "You saying I'm not a proper femme?" She asked, meaning it as a joke.

If only she knew. "Of course not," I said with a chuckle. "I am just saying that if had been online, you would have been the one fighting MECH and Airachnid, not me. You probably would have taken them both out a lot quicker than I did, as well."

The mischief faded from Arcee's optics. "But I wasn't, Shadow', I was offline the entire time. I didn't even online until the others brought us back to base." She looked down slightly, just enough to not look directly into my optics. "Airachnid and MECH would have won, Jack and his mom would be dead, and I would have been offlined."

I opened my mouth to speak, but she suddenly reached out and wrapped her servos around me, hugging me tightly. And since I was sitting on the berth and she was standing, she was nearly as tall as I was, meaning her helm was resting on my shoulder-joint.

"Thank you, Shadow'... Thank you for making sure that didn't happen," she whispered into my audio receptor, making no move to break from the hug. "Thank you for ending Airachnid, and making sure she couldn't do what she did to me to someone else."

I wrapped my own servos around her and hugged back. "Anytime... Partner," I whispered back, tightening my hug and resting my helm on her own shoulder-joint.

As we continued to just hold each other, I felt the familiar sensation of the Pulling, my spark subconsciously reaching out for Arcee's, and being denied. But oddly, no electric shock came with this Pulling instance, just the normal pulling, like my spark was being tugged by a rope. And when the Pulling ended, I was left with a dull ache in my spark that refused to go away, like I was out of contact with my best friend.

I waited for Arcee to react to the Pulling, my Imprint, but she didn't. She just kept hugging me, seemingly unaware of the Pulling instance.

It was at that moment that I had a realization that made me both excited and terrified, a realization that I couldn't keep this up for much longer.

I was going to have to tell her.

---

So, now you know what the Pulling is, and how it effects Shadow' and Arcee. I know that Imprinting is a term used across the fandom, and that it doesn't mean what I have written it as, but I have changed it to suit my needs. If I saw Shadow' with his protocol activated, I would honestly crap my pants. And I am the one who CREATED the character.

I also know some of you are probably mad that I killed off Airachnid and MECH in the same go, but you know what? In canon, they really didn't do that much. I mean, Airachnid attacked the Nemesis with Insecticons in season 2, but she didn't really do any damage. And MECH was honestly non-existent in the second season, they did basically nothing. And I have more than enough baddies already lined up, don't worry about the lack of other villains for later on.

As for the ending... I can safely say the next chapter is one that I have looked forward to writing for a long time. ;)

One final note. I was looking through the TF fandom, both in this cartoon section and the movie, and I found that with this chapter, Fate Calls has become the longest story with Arcee as a main character, or a "face" character, since she is one of the characters I listed. I don't know about other sites, however, so this might just be the longest story with Arcee as a main character on THIS site, but I still find that awesome. And I have a long ways to go yet. :)

This chapter has two credit songs. One for when Shadow's protocol activates, and the scenes that go with it, and the other for the very end of the chapter.

The first credit song is "Phantom Power Music - Glitch Gang" This has a dark, aggressive feel to it that just fits with Shadow's protocol activating. The scenes that follow, are obviously not nice, fluffy ones, so having a song with a darker feel to it fits perfectly, in my opinion.

The second credit song is "G.D. Music - Only We Remained" It just feels right, when I listen to this and read the conversation between Shadow' and Arcee. I really don't know what else to say, it just feels right.

Well, that's all for now, folks. Please leave a review, as feedback of any kind helps and inspires me, and thank you all for taking the time to read. I will, hopefully, see you sooner than this last one. :)