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.

32. Attempt at Confessing

Well, this chapter kicked my butt for a while. I had a stretch of four days or so where I wrote only about a hundred words combined, a fifth of what I try to write each day. So that certainly didn't help with finishing this chapter. But, I still finished this chapter a week faster than my last, which is never a bad thing.

Let's see, what's new with me? Well, I have decided to not have my original series be science fiction novels. I realized I would need to put probably a year or two just into research in order to write a decent science fiction novel, so I have changed them to something else. I already have more ideas for my books than I did before I changed genres, so I think it will go more smoothly than science fiction. And that's pretty much the only thing I can think of to put here.

As always, thanks go to everyone who reviewed, favorited, or followed Fate Calls. Your feedback and support really means a lot to me. :)

Thanks go to Crystal Prime for beta reading.

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

---

May 26, 2013 3:05 A.M. (UTC-6:00 Mountain Standard Time)

Unknown ship, far side of Eris

In the unending vastness of the Cosmos, a blue-black, kilometer wide portal to the extra-dimensional space between realities appeared between a large dwarf planet and its small moon. Immediately after the portal opened, a grey ship exited out of it.

No more than one micro-klick after the grey ship appeared, the portal it came from closed, leaving the ship floating between the dwarf planet and its moon.

The ship was sleek, yet bulky, its edges both smooth and rough, like it was designed for efficiency, and nothing else. It had no visible weapon systems, but it was far from being an unarmed vessel. It had one-hundred and twenty-eight missile tubes built into the top of the ship, ninety-six broadside cannons on both its port and starboard sides, anti-fighter and missile defense batteries, two directional main cannons on the bow, and another mounted on its stern. All of these weapon systems were hidden from view, locked behind doors made of ultra-strong alloys, where they would stay until they were needed.

At one point six kilometers in length, the ship was massive to most civilizations. But to those that crewed the vessel, it was a stealth frigate. As a stealth frigate, it had only one mission at a time. And the mission it and its crew were in the process of carrying out was the most important they had ever undertaken.

To find the Xel'Tor.

On the bridge of the ship, which had been named 'Inescapable Shadow' by its crew, a mech sat in the captain's chair on the bridge.

The mech was mostly silver and gold in color, with red accents on his shoulder-joints and pedes. His optics were amber, the result of his carrier and sire both having rare optic colors, orange and yellow. He was taller than most mechs, standing at forty-seven feet, but he was also shorter than many, like the dark grey, almost black, and red mech standing next to his chair, Extremis' SIC, Praxis.

"Navigation, status," Jhaxius, the captain, said to the navigator of the Inescapable Shadow, a red mech called Highspeed.

"Sub-space jump was successful, rupture has closed behind us," Highspeed reported blankly, having stated that exact report many times in his career as a navigations officer. The red mech waved his servo over the holographic interface of his station, causing the screen of his station to display the stars and planets around the Inescapable Shadow and match them to data given to the crew by the Intelligence Division. "Scans confirm we are in the solar system where Station A4-D718 transmitted a positive sighting."

"What is our exact position in the system?" Jhaxius asked.

"Very edge of the system, Captain Jhaxius," the navigator reported, not removing his gaze from his station. "We're less than twenty-thousand kilometers from the most distant dwarf planet that orbits the system's star. The closest celestial body that isn't the nearby moon is just under ten-billion kilometers away. The ship's well out of the scanning range of both the Autobot and Decepticon forces, presuming they do not have ships or stations built in the immediate area." He turned slightly and looked at his captain. "We're at the exact coordinates we entered into the computer, sir."

'Yes, but it took us an entire mega-cycle to get here,' Jhaxius thought with an internal huff. Spending an entire mega-cycle staring at the blue-black walls of a sub-space portal, with Praxis seemingly watching his every move, was not Jhaxius' definition of an exciting mega-cycle. He would call it dull.

But, the trip could have been worse. Far worse. They could still be using standard FTL, which would have taken them six jours to get to this system, almost three times the amount of time it took the transmission from Station A-4 to reach Extremis' HQ. It was amazing how far their technology had advanced since that station was sent out of the system he had called home for the last five-thousand centi-vorns. Now their method of travel was faster than the FTL channels they used in the construction of Station A4-D178, the same as the Decepticons and Autobots used.

Jhaxius made no indication that he heard Highspeed, and looked toward the Inescapable Shadow's resident Intelligence officer, a little green mech, both psychically and figuratively, called Axel. "Status on the mining of the data network of the local organic race." He ordered.

"Data mine is complete, Jha- er, Captain Jhaxius," Axel stuttered slightly, showing his inexperience by almost breaking protocol and referring to the captain by just his name instead of his rank and name. He moved his servo over his holographic station, then pointed toward the main view port of the bridge. "Displaying results now, sir."

After Axel spoke, the images on his station transferred to the view port of the bridge, giving the entire bridge crew the chance to see the results data mining of the organic race's data network, which contained all information Axel had labeled as important, but filtered all other data he marked as unessential.

"So, they're called 'humans.' And they're not an old race. Less than a centi-vorn since their first historical records? This ship is older than they are," a blue and red mech by the name of Hardside observed from his damage control station.

"Young and violent. If that information is accurate, they've waged more than three-thousand wars amongst themselves since they began to record their history," another damage control officer, a violet femme named Altera, said. "Roughly comes out to another war every other orbital-cycle. How are they even alive?"

"Probably a stubborn determination to keep on surviving, even when they continually destroy each other." Another femme called Serus, red in color and also the Inescapable Shadow's weapon systems officer, said from her own station.

Jhaxius tuned out the chatter of many of his bridge crew and looked at Axel again. "Threat assessment of the humans?"

Axel moved his servo over his station and pointed at the view port again, causing new images and documents to overlap the first. "Minimal, Jha- er, sir. Intelligence was right, they're a Tier 4 race. They have only just started to leave their planet, and only for short periods of time. The only weapon they possess that is a threat to our safety is their unusually large arsenal of nuclear warheads."

"How many warheads do they possess?" Praxis asked, voice devoid of emotion like it always was.

Axel jumped slightly as Extremis' SIC spoke for the first time, and Jhaxius couldn't blame the green mech for doing so. Praxis carried a reputation that was nearly as fearsome as Extremis'. "Um, let me check if they keep an exact number on their data network," he said nervously, then turned back to his station, making an obvious effort to keep from looking directly at Praxis.

After a few micro-klicks, Axel put a new image on the view port, this one of an overhead map of the organic's home world. "Roughly seventeen-thousand total warheads of various yields, sir. Combined, I estimate they total to about two gigatons of destructive force."

Jhaxius mentally calculated how much destruction two gigatons could inflict on a world. "That is enough warheads to cause a nuclear winter across their planet, and crack our shielding three times over." He gestured to the map. "Which landmasses have the most nuclear weapons?"

Axel modified the image being displayed on the view port, turning certain landmasses darker or lighter colors. "The humans are very divided. More than one-hundred and ninety nations are scattered across their planet. I have marked the nations that have nuclear weapons inside their borders. However, the number of weapons each nation has in their possession is very uneven." He swiped at his station, causing the images being displayed to highlight two of the larger landmasses. "These two nations, the United States of America and the Russian Federation, account for more than ninety-nine percent of all nuclear warheads the humans have in their possession."

"Then it would be a good idea to give those nations a wide berth," Jhaxius said. "What of the Autobots? Is there any information about their possible location on the human data network?"

Axel shifted nervously in his chair, optics moving from side to side as he tried to come up with a way to tell his captain what else he had found, before deciding blunt honesty was the best course of action. "Uh, that is the problem, Captain Jhaxius. I know their rough location."

Jhaxius' amber optics narrowed. "Why is that a problem?"

The green mech flinched at his captain's tone. "Well, ah, they're somewhere in the United States of America, if the internal reports of this 'S.T.F 141' group are correct."

"What reports?" Jhaxius asked, glancing briefly at the view port to see if he missed any information related to the group Axel mentioned. But he found that he hadn't.

Axel closed his optics and sighed. "And I forgot to put those up," he said, his words meant more for himself than the others on the bridge. He moved his servo over his station and pointed at the view port, causing dozens of new pieces of information to appear in the form of official military reports written by one 'Lieutenant General Lance Shepherd' to another human named 'Director Theodore Galloway.' Every document had the first three initials Axel mentioned at the top.

"What are we looking at?" Highspeed asked.

"Reports written by this 'General Shepherd,' he is apparently the leader of the S.T.F 141, a military group with soldiers and funding from multiple nations, but they are based in the United States of America," Axel explained. "It was formed after Decepticons attacked a United States military base four orbital-cycles ago, and they've been developing technology to help them fight the Decepticons, should they be attacked again. I found that General Shepherd has frequently mentioned several known Autobots in his reports, along with 'Autobot Outpost Omega-1,' which I assume is the Autobot base. And if the general is mentioning known Autobots and referring to their base in his reports, and his military group is based in the United States, then the Autobots and the Xel'Tor are going to be somewhere within the borders of that nation."

Jhaxius gave Axel a long look, surprised that the inexperienced mech had managed to connect the dots and come to the conclusion that the Autobots were within the borders of the United States, a conclusion that Jhaxius agreed with. Axel had a good future ahead of him, if he continued to do work like that. "Do these reports say where the Autobot base is located?"

"No," Axel answered without pause. "I went through them all, and this General Shepherd either consciously or subconsciously makes certain not to mention any locations that aren't main settlements. I believe he knows that their cybersecurity is very weak, and doesn't want to compromise the location of the Autobots' base."

"So, we need to find a way to get the Autobots to come out of their hiding place. We can't take out the Xel'Tor if we don't know where he is." Jhaxius concluded, gears turning in his helm as he thought of how to accomplish such a goal.

"Bring in," Praxis corrected, his emotionless grey optics looking down at the captain. "Extremis' orders were clear in the fact that he wanted the Xel'Tor brought to him alive. You would do well to remember his instructions, Captain."

"Offline, online, doesn't matter as long as there's enough of him left to unlock the systems of the Archive," Jhaxius said with a shrug, using the nickname many followers of Extremis used to refer to the largest Ancient complex on the planet of Extremis' headquarters.

Praxis stared down at the smaller mech for several long micro-klicks, then he looked away from the captain and focused on the information being displayed on the view port. "How, then, do you plan on getting the Xel'Tor to leave the Autobots' base?"

Jhaxius went silent for a moment, and considered what it would take to get the Xel'Tor to leave the Autobots' base. Several ideas went through his helm, and were immediately discarded, before he came to one that stuck. "Axel," he said, turning his gaze to the green mech. "Is it possible to make the Inescapable Shadow appear to be Ancient technology on the sensors of the Autobots and only the Autobots?"

The Intelligence officer shook his helm almost instantly. "No, it isn't, sir. The Autobots and Decepticons use very similar technology, the only real differences between them is the methods in which they use their technology, and what frequencies they have their communications set," he said, then got a thoughtful look on his faceplate and paused for a brief moment. "But, it would be possible to use an Autobot frequency to send them a message and a set of coordinates, while keeping the ship cloaked to prevent the Decepticons from investigating as well. It wouldn't be as good as just broadcasting our energy signal to the Autobots, since coordinates aren't as precise as a signal, but it would get the Autobots' attention without alerting the Decepticons."

"Not ideal, but it will work," Jhaxius said, then looked at Highspeed. "Activate our visual cloak, and begin our approach to the human world."

Highspeed acknowledged his captain's order by moving his servos over his station in a rehearsed motion, one that activated the Inescapable Shadow's engines. He continued moving his servos over his station, controlling the movement of the ship with simple motions from his servos.

As the Inescapable Shadow moved toward the human home world, Jhaxius sat back in his chair, already going over the details of his plan to get the Xel'Tor come to them.

---

May 26, 2013 5:24 A.M

Autobot base, outside Jasper, Nevada

I sat on my berth, staring blankly at the wall while I thought about the events that occurred just a few breems ago.

Despite the revelation that I needed to tell Arcee how I felt, and about my Imprint, I had, quite simply, chickened out. We had been sharing a moment, just clinging to each other. It had been the perfect time for me to tell her how I felt, but I couldn't get my mouth to work at the time. I had just hugged her back until she had to leave and take care of June and Jack, who had stayed at the base instead of their house. And after she made sure they were comfortable, she retreated to her quarters to recharge.

I had missed a golden opportunity to tell her, there was no doubt in my CPU. But, not telling her right away also gave me more time to think about how to tell her. Should I just go right up to her and pour out my spark? Or should I pull her aside and explain everything in a more professional manner, like how I found out what Imprinting was, and how it was responsible for the Pulling? Or, should I not tell her about everything at once, and tell her in bits and pieces? It might be better to do that, since telling her everything I learned a few breems ago would probably leave her incredible confused and more than a little shocked.

I sighed and stood up from my berth, my internal clock reading that it was already later than I usually onlined. Questions like that, as well as many others, had kept me online all night, only without making me tired. Guess finding out you subconsciously asked your best friend to be your sparkmate gives you incredible amounts of energy. That or I was excited that it was my birthday again, though I sincerely doubted that was the reason I couldn't recharge.

I walked over to my desk and picked up a cube, then put it under the energon dispenser and started to fill it. As soon as the cube was filled, I picked it up and downed the low-grade energon in a single gulp, then set it down and walked to my door. I normally would have taken the time to enjoy my energon, but I had too much on my CPU to savor its taste.

Almost without breaking stride, I unlocked and opened my door, and then walked toward the ops center, not needing to visit the washracks like I usually did since I had visited them after Arcee retired to her quarters.

I reached the ops center a few micro-klicks after I left my quarters, and quickly took note of Prowl at the main computer, whose turn it had been to take the night shift for the space bridge, and the presence of Lennox, MacTavish, and Epps, who were near the Xbox area, where June was currently sleeping on the couch, while Jack slept on a gel bed Ratchet had created after I was told what the Quriomus Protocol was.

Lennox looked at me when I entered the ops center. "And so the 'Bane of MECH' has arrived," he said, voice just loud enough for his voice to be heard across the room. At least, just loud enough for a human to hear him. I would have been able to hear him if he had been whispering. "Seems like I owe you a drink, if you Autobots drink. You finally put MECH down."

"Only doing what needed to be done, Colonel," I said as I stepped over to the three Shadow Company soldiers. Doing what needed to be done apart from blowing out the ears of Jack and June, killing MECH with brutal methods, and practically executing Airachnid, that is. I looked at June and Jack. "How are they doing?"

"Kid's tough, he should be fine in a few days. June is going to take more time, though. Probably will need to spend a lot of time with all of you, get used to walking among titans that aren't trying to kill her, like Airachnid was," Epps answered in Lennox's place. He shivered slightly. "Even her dead body gives me the creeps."

"She was far worse when she was among the living, Sergeant Epps " I said. "Smart, sadistic, and creative, not a good mix."

"Sounds like a female version of Clancy," MacTavish observed as he walked a bit closer to the railing. "Except she was twenty-five feet tall, made out of metal, had access to energy weapons, and had... Claws."

I frowned slightly at MacTavish's tone. "You found the team assigned to keep the Darbys' safe," I said matter-of-factly.

Lennox nodded grimly. "We did."

"And Airachnid was responsible for their deaths," I said, again matter-of-factly. I had a feeling I knew where this was going.

"As far as we can tell, yes. But we can't be sure... There's not a lot left," Shadow Company's commanding officer said, tone stoic despite the the fact he was talking about the deaths of his fellow soldiers. He was likely fighting against his own feelings on the matter.

"That sounds like her work." I bowed my helm slightly. "I did not know them, but you all have my sympathies. Losing brothers in arms is always a tragedy."

"That it is," MacTavish said. "Miller and Patterson were good men, I hope you threw a few extra punches at Airachnid for 'em."

He had no idea. "I did not need to hit her very much to offline her, Captain MacTavish. But, I did make each count," I said, not going into detail about hitting her in the tank hard enough to make her cough up energon, kicking her through two concrete walls, and snapping one of her back pedes before shooting her between the optics. "And if it helps, I did tackle her at supersonic speeds."

That got a small chuckle at of Soap, as well as Lennox and Epps. "Can't deny that it feels a little satisfying to hear you blindsided her," Lennox said. "Though the mess you left us to clean up does make it less enjoyable that it would normally be."

"Sorry about that. In my defense, though, it wasn't possible to not make a mess," I said, telling the honest truth. I hadn't been in control of myself, after all. "How is the cleanup progressing?"

"Very slowly, even slower than our repair of your front door," Epps answered, glancing briefly in the direction of the entrance tunnel, where a number of S.T.F engineers were working to repair the door I destroyed when my Protocol was active. "You pretty much wrecked the place, so there's debris everywhere. And we've been finding wreckage from the helicopters Clancy stole all the way out to the limits of Jasper. But the General has more than a hundred engineers on site. They'll have the place back to looking like the trash heap it is by the end of the day."

"The engineers might not be on the front-lines like we are, but they're the best at what they do," Soap said. "And they're also more trustworthy than intel officers." I heard him whisper, likely meaning the words only for his ears, though it seemed like Lennox heard him as well, since he glanced at MacTavish briefly.

I looked at the Scotsman curiously. "What do you mean, Captain?"

Lennox glanced at Soap again, confirming that he had heard what the Scotsman said as well, then looked up at me. "He means that we found out who the mole in S.T.F was. He was an intel officer by the name of 'Ned Booth.' He was in charge of making sure the prototypes of many of our weapon systems were properly destroyed, as well as part of a group that would oversee the operations of our satellites," he explained, distastefully. "However, instead of destroying some of our prototypes, he would have them dismantled and sent to off-base facilities, claiming they were to be used as spare parts for later models. He would then make contact with Clancy by leaving coded comments on a sports website, and tell him where the prototypes were located so MECH could reassemble them and use them for their own purposes. And when Clancy needed to move from one hide to the next, he would send a coded message to Booth and ask to turn the eyes of S.T.F satellites away from the United States."

"Did you catch him after I fought MECH and Airachnid?" I asked. That was a lot of information in a very short period of time, especially when they had been hunting their mole for the last five jours and come up with nothing.

"No. The only reason we even know he was the mole is because he suddenly vanished from our HQ not five minutes after Jetfire contacted General Shepherd," MacTavish replied. "Chap left in such a hurry that he left his laptop behind, which contained a lot of information that revealed he was helping MECH the entire time."

"Doesn't sound like he was very good in the intelligence world. If you are a double-agent, you don't leave evidence that implicates you," I observed. It would be better to frame someone you were working with, or just burn all evidence that might be traced back to you and disappear as fast as possible. Leaving behind implicating evidence was very sloppy, in my opinion.

"That's the problem, he was one of the best intel officers we had," Epps said. "That was why he had such extensive responsibilities at HQ. We think he left the laptop on purpose, because he left a message on the screen."

I narrowed my optics slightly. "What was the message?"

The three Shadow Company soldiers shared a brief look, then Lennox looked up at me. "'The end is just the beginning.'"

That definitely didn't sound foreboding. "Sounds like you and your soldiers aren't quite done hunting, Colonel."

"No, Shadow Company's part is done," Lennox said. "We were after a rogue military unit, not a single man. Hunting Booth is the Spooks' mission, not ours."

I wasn't surprised by hearing his response. It would make sense to send a small group, or just one man, after someone trained in intelligence gathering. An elite Special Forces unit tends to stick out. "What will Shadow Company do, then, now that MECH is gone?"

"Back to what we were doing when we first met you all. Black Ops. It's what we do," Lennox replied. "But on many occasions, those ops cross with your own, like back in Afghanistan."

I opened my mouth to continue my conversation with the three Shadow Company soldiers, but the words died on my lips when I saw Arcee walk into the ops center, with her armor shining more than usual, likely having just gotten out of the femmes' washracks.

She gave me a wave in greeting, which I returned. She then looked at Jack and June, and after seeing that they were sleeping, gave Lennox and the others a nod to show she wasn't ignoring them, then walked over to Prowl and started a quiet conversation with him, probably about possible Decepticon activity, or perhaps just asking for an update on anything she might have missed while recharging.

I dropped any effort into continuing my conversation with Lennox, Soap, and Epps, and just focused on Arcee. I had yet to figure out how to tell her how I felt, or when to tell her. Telling her right at this moment was an option, but a conversation like the one we needed to have wasn't one you had in front of others. I could drag her off to the side or to another part of the base, but there weren't a lot of rooms that would be appropriate for having a private conversation besides our quarters, although I don't think those would be a good place to talk, either. I could just walk right up to her and tell her, but that would be rather... Blunt. It would also make the conversation more complicated than it needed to be.

"Wow... You are gone," Lennox whispered to me, breaking me from my thoughts while Soap and Epps chuckled quietly at their commanding officer's statement.

I looked at Shadow Company's leader. "What are you talking about?"

Lennox gave me a flat look. "If you stare at Arcee any longer, you'll become a statue."

"Guess I spaced out, then... There's a lot things I've been thinking about recently," I said, voice just as quiet as Lennox's.

"Would one of them be how you're going to tell her?" Lennox asked, a serious look in his eyes despite the smile on his face.

I blinked at the man. How'd he know that? "Yes," I admitted.

Lennox nodded, then leaned a bit more onto the railing. "Here's my advice to you, Shadowstreaker. Don't plan out what you're going to say beforehand, because then it doesn't sound genuine. You want her to listen when you tell her?" He tapped his chest, right above his heart, which would be just slightly to the left of his spark if he was a Cybertronian. "Then speak from here, don't plan it out."

I stared at Lennox for a moment, considering his words. Maybe he was right, perhaps I was thinking about it too much, trying to come up with the words I would use and not listening to what my spark was saying. And right now, my spark was saying to get it over with before I backed out again.

With my CPU made up, I turned away from the three Shadow Company soldiers and walked towards the femme I had Imprinted on, each step building both my anxiety and my confidence. This was it, after almost an orbital-cycle, I was going to come clean with Arcee. I just hoped I wasn't about to ruin my friendship with her.

Arcee noticed my approach, and looked away from Prowl and at me, a curious look gracing his faceplate. She knew there was something different about the way I was walking toward her.

I reached Arcee, then folded my servos behind my backplates. "Arcee," I greeted formally.

"Shadowstreaker," she greeted back just as formally, but with a look in her optics that was asking why I was greeting her officially, instead of how we usually greeted each other.

My mouth suddenly refused to work, and I just stood there for a moment, starting an awkward silence that even Prowl noticed, causing him to glance over his shoulder-joint at Arcee and I, before looking back at the main screen.

I... I had no idea how I was supposed to start this, how to word anything. Should I start this with small talk? Was that a strange way to lead up to a confession? Would talking about something more serious be appropriate? Like how she was dealing with getting temporarily captured by Airachnid and MECH? Or would that just make my confession a thousand times harder? Would talking about how Ratchet and Moonracer were best friends and they got together be something to talk about? Or would talking about other bots getting together just make this more awkward?

Maybe... Maybe this was a bad idea. I should leave, come find her again after I've come up with a few solid ways to tell her how I felt, and explain everything in a way that would be as comfortable as possible, and not awkwardly. There had to be a way I hadn't thought of yet that could wor-

No.

No, I am not backing down again. I am going to tell her, right here, right now. I can think about how I could have done this differently later. Right now, I need to follow Lennox's advice, and speak from the spark. Sometimes life was blunt.

I quietly took a breath in, and let it out, bracing myself for the worst. Her rejecting not only my feelings, but our friendship. "Arcee... I lo-"

A rapid beeping suddenly sounded from the workstation, cutting my confession off before I could start it.

Internally sighing at the interruption, I looked at the main screen at the same moment Prowl started to typing a command into the workstation.

"We are receiving a message," the stoic mech said, immediately gaining the full attention of Arcee and I, as well as that of the three Shadow Company soldiers a little to our left.

"From who?" Arcee asked suspiciously, voicing my exact thought. No one except Autobots knew how to contact base, and since Jetfire and Springer were the only ones out on patrol, and they could just open a communications channel with base, that meant we weren't being contacted by someone on base. And if we didn't know who was hailing us, then that immediately raised a red flag in my helm.

"Unknown," Prowl replied. "It is not a video or audio communication, it is simple text." He typed another command into the workstation, which caused the main screen to start displaying a short message in a language I couldn't read. But, going by what I had seen in the Pocket Universe, the word, or words, were written in the language of the Primes.

Soap looked at the main screen in confusion. "Is that Gujarati?" He asked, trying to compare the language of the Primes with a human one.

"No, Captain MacTavish. That is the language of the Primes, an ancient language to even the oldest of our race," Prowl said. "And only a Prime can read it." He looked at me. "Contact Optimus, Shadowstreaker."

I nodded and opened a comm-link with Optimus, who was most certainly online by now. "Optimus, we need you in the ops center."

"I am already here, Shadowstreaker," Optimus said, voice coming from off to my far left.

Seeing that the comm-link was now pointless, I closed it and looked at Optimus, who had just stepped out of the hallway and was walking toward us. "Someone sent us a message in the language of the Primes, Optimus," I said. "Don't know who sent it, and we obviously don't know what it says."

The Prime continued walking toward us, the Star Saber clanging quietly against his backplates, and came to a stop behind me. He looked at the screen for a few micro-klicks, then said, "The first symbols create a set of coordinates, which lead to a remote area in the state of Maine, but the other symbols form into a message. It reads, 'A gift to you, my son. From, S.'" Optimus looked at me. "It appears your carrier has sent you message, Shadowstreaker, along with something else that she has left unclear."

I gave the Prime a puzzled look. "But that makes no sense. Last time I spoke with Solus and the others, they said they couldn't even answer any major questions. Why would she suddenly send us a message and leave something for me?" I asked, meaning my question as rhetoric. The Primes couldn't even tell me who spoke to me on the station and while I was in stasis lock, why did they send something to this reality for me to find? It made no sense.

Lennox looked at me. "What are you talking about?" He asked, curiosity written on his face, along with the other two men on either side of him.

"Shadowstreaker is the son of two members of the Thirteen, the first members of our race," Arcee answered. "And on occasion, they reach out and speak to him."

Lennox's look went from curiosity, to confusion. "Are you saying that the first members of your race, which you have on multiple occasions have said it to be an uncountable number of years old, are still alive and talk to Shdaowstreaker? Wouldn't that make them, and Shadowstreaker since he's the son of two of them, ancient beyond count?"

"Yes and no, Colonel." I said. "Yes, some of the first members of our race still live, and they do on occasion speak to me. And no, I am not ancient beyond count like they are. In fact, out of all Autobots on Earth, I am the youngest physically."

The Colonel blinked at me, surprise momentarily replacing his confusion. "I would have thought you were one of the older ones, considering how you carry yourself. Though, now I wonder how it works that you are the son of two of the original members of your race, yet you're the youngest out of all Autobots on Earth."

"It's... Complicated, to say the least," I said. "And that is not accounting for how the Primes speak to me."

"How do they speak to you?" Epps asked.

I gave the Master Sergeant a flat look. "While I am recharging, they pull my conscious into the Pocket Universe which they currently reside in, and send me back once our conversation is finished."

MacTavish stared at me incredulously. "So, what you're saying is that your parents can use space magic, which allows them to pull your consciousness into another reality," he said, voice matching the look on his face. "Do you Bots also have a crystal skull that can communicate telepathically?"

Even though Soap's question wasn't serious, and he was just referring to something from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, it drew similarities with the Delphic, and also the partial link that I shared with it, which caused Prowl's processor to whirl audibly.

"Logic..." The stoic mech whispered, unable to say anything else because he was so close to glitching. He had glitched twice when he found out I shared a connection with the Delphic, and even the mention of my link caused his processor to race at unsafe speeds.

"I think it is best if we drop that topic now. Prowl's processor is quite sensitive," I said to the three Shadow Company soldiers.

Soap's face went completely blank, with Lennox and Epps' faces doing the same. "I had only been joking..." The Scotsman said under his breath, but thankfully followed my suggestion and didn't say anything else on the topic, which saved Prowl from glitching.

"Did the Primes say anything about not ever helping you?" Arcee asked me, getting the conversation back on topic.

I went to say that they hadn't, but I paused as I realized something. The Primes said they hadn't been allowed to help me during the trip I took to the station with Springer and Jetfire, but they never said they weren't allowed to ever help in the future. "No. They said they couldn't help me on the station, they never said anything about helping later on."

"Then it is possible that this message is from your carrier, and it is possible she sent something for you," Arcee said.

"Yes, it is. But I don't understand why they didn't mention the fact they were going to send help to us when I spoke with them last," I said.

"The Primes may not have intended to send help at the time of your last visit, Shadowstreaker, but it is possible that circumstances have changed, and they have chosen to send help now," Optimus reasoned. "But, the only way we will know for sure is if we investigate the coordinates contained in the message." He looked at Prowl. "Prowl, power up the space bridge and enter these coordinates, 'Latitude 46.685124, Longitude -69.039910.'"

Prowl complied without showing he acknowledgement of the Primes instructions. And when he was done typing commands, he powered up the space bridge, instantly opening a larger, more intense green portal than what I was used to seeing to the coordinates Optimus told him to enter.

"Arcee, Shadowstreaker, you're with me. Prowl, remain on ground bridge duty until Ratchet or Moonracer online for the cycle." Optimus said, then started to walk toward the space bridge, Arcee immediately falling in step behind him.

"Wait, I'm going?" I asked in confusion. I hadn't been officially cleared for active duty by Ratchet or Moonracer yet, despite what I did last night.

Optimus paused in his march to the green portal and looked back at me. "Yes. Your carrier addressed the message to you, it would best if you joined us. And after the events of last night, I believe your time for recovery has ended. Consider yourself cleared for front-line operations, by order of the Prime." A ghost of a smile appeared on his faceplate, then he turned and continued walking to the space bridge.

Not needing Optimus to repeat his earlier order, I quickly moved forward and walked up ro Arcee, who had yet to start following Optimus again and was waiting for me to join her.

"So, what were you trying to say earlier, before you were interrupted by the message arriving?" Arcee asked once I joined her and we followed Optimus again, who had already stepped through the green portal.

I internally froze up, but I quickly forced myself to relax. I wasn't going to be keeping my feelings a secret anymore. But, the middle of a mission was hardly the place to admit to your best friend that you loved them, and had subconsciously asked them to be your sparkmate. "I'll tell you after we get back," I said, feeling relieved that I had chosen to make a commitment to telling her, instead of trying back out and say that my attempt to confess had been nothing, and told her to forget about it.

Arcee raised an optic ridge and looked up at me. "Promise?" She asked, a mischievous look in her optics that wasn't there a moment ago. She probably thought I had blackmail material on the twins.

I chuckled lightly. "Promise."

Moments after Arcee and I finished our brief exchange, we both stepped through the space bridge.

---

May 26, 2013 8:38 A.M

Somewhere in Northern Maine

As soon as Arcee and I exited the space bridge, I had to move to the right to avoid an Eastern White Pine Tree, then I had to move to avoid another immediately after that. I already knew these trees were going to be an issue for me.

"Well, this is annoying," I said, folding my wings so I could fit myself through a gap between two Pines, while the ground bridge closed behind Arcee and I. Guess there was a downside to having an area that wasn't populated extensively.

Arcee laughed lightly at the way I struggled through the trees. "I have no idea what you're talking about, I'm not having an issue," she said, then walked passed me without needing to turn or twist her frame, as if to show her point. The blue and pink femme gave me a smug smile. "See?"

I narrowed my optics at Arcee, and she laughed again. "The only reason you're not having an issue is because you're small." As well as agile and beautiful, I wanted to add, but I held those comments in. "I am not. I'm having the same problem as Optimus." I looked ahead, where Optimus was slowly moving toward what appeared to be a clearing in the trees further ahead, but was having even more problems than I was since he was both taller and broader than I was.

Arcee looked at Optimus, back at me. "I guess this proves that being small has its advantages."

"Yeah, yeah," I said as I continued to slip between the trees, breaking a number of branches each time I made contact with one. "Can we focus on getting to the clearing, please?"

"You just don't want to admit you're having trouble," Arcee stated, azure optics shining with amusement.

"No, actually. I freely admit I am having problems getting through these trees. I just want you to stop making fun of me," I said, putting a small amount of offence into my tone for affect.

Arcee chuckled and continued on ahead. "That's never going to happen, Shadow', teasing you is just too much fun."

"Great," I said, tone sarcastic. "Now my partner sees me nothing more than a source of amusement, and a verbal punching bag."

"Good to see you learning your place in this partnership," the femme I loved said, turning to look at me over her shoulder-joint and flashing me a quick grin, then disappeared from view as she moved passed Optimus and continued without on toward the clearing.

After Arcee went on without us, Optimus looked back and opened a comm-link with me. "Shadowstreaker, please refrain from excessive flirting during the mission," he said, tone completely serious.

I looked at him in puzzlement. "That wasn't flirting, that's how we usually act."

"No, you were flirting, Shadowstreaker. I could tell. Please tone it down for the sake of the mission," the Prime replied, then closed the link and continued moving through the trees, moving to where the clearing was.

I stood there for a moment, surprised by Optimus' words. Had I really just been flirting with Arcee without meaning to? And if I had, did that mean I unintentionally flirted with her every time she and I bantered back and forth? And Arcee just mistook it as friendly banter like I intended it to be in the first place?

I shook my helm and followed Optimus. Couldn't think about that right now, perhaps after the mission so I could add it to the things I was going to tell Arcee, but not during the mission.

I moved through the trees, having a slightly easier time maneuvering between them since Optimus' larger chassis cleared the way somewhat. And about half a klick after the Prime and I had our brief exchange, we reached the clearing, where Arcee was already waiting for us.

"Took you two long enough," Arcee said playfully when Optimus and I stepped into the clearing, which, I realized, was located on the edge of a steep hill that led into a large, secluded valley that began roughly six-hundred feet below us, and continued on for at least four miles, from what I could see.

"Didn't have an option to move any faster," I said, taking Optimus' statement seriously and keeping my tone professional.

Arcee narrowed her optics slightly when I didn't banter with her, but she let it go. "Is there something we're supposed to be looking for? Only thing I see are trees."

"If the Primes sent something to this location, then they would have hidden it from sight, in order for any humans who explored this area to remain unaware of its presence. But, they also would have left a marker for us to find," the Prime replied, optics scanning the valley. "Search for anything which appears to be out of place among this forest."

Arcee and I acknowledged Optimus' order by looking at opposite sides of the canyon, while Optimus looked directly ahead, each of us searching for something, anything, that didn't look quite right.

For several micro-klicks, we searched in silence, our gears the only thing making any sound.

I froze at that thought, instantly halting my search for anything out of place. Why were we the only things making any sound? We were in Maine, nearly ninety percent of the entire state was covered by forest. So why weren't there any birds chirping? Or Wolves howling? Or any sounds from any animals at all, not even a Cricket?

And now that I realized that there were no animal sounds around us, I noticed that it felt like I was being watched, studied silently.

Arcee seemed to notice my shift my change in demeanor, and put her own observations on hold and looked at me. "Everything alright, Shadow'?" She asked.

I didn't answer right away, and started looking at the valley and our immediate surroundings more closely. Something was seriously off here. "Have you noticed how the animals are totally quiet?" I asked in turn, continuing to look around as suspiciously. "And don't you feel like we're being watched? This doesn't feel right."

The blue and pink femme looked at me for another moment, before she glanced around our surroundings like I continued to do, and then deployed her Photon Burst Rifles. "You're right, someone's watching us."

"I, too, feel as if we are being watched," Optimus said, snapping his battlemask into place and reaching over his shoulder-joint and pulling the Star Saber off his backplates, the duel-pronged great sword emitting a blue aura as soon as he touched its handle. "Be on alert, Autobots, I fear we have stepped into a trap."

I responded to Optimus' statement by deploying my Path Blaster and Plasma Chaingun and aiming them ahead of me. There was definitely something wrong, but we weren't going to be taken by surprise.

---

More than two kilometers above the surface of the planet, inside the cloaked Inescapable Shadow, the entire bridge crew focused on the view port, where ten separate windows were being displayed, each one a live feed from the optics of the combat drones Jhaxius had deployed to the surface of the human world.

Jhaxius drummed his digits against the arm of his chair. So far, there had been no response to the message they sent to the Autobots, and that was making him impatient. He was, admittedly, not a patient mech by nature. When he set a plan into motion, he expected it to go as he wanted it to. Quickly, and without incident. It was a flaw in his character, the result of planning too many short-term things, and he knew it, but he couldn't get rid of it. It was embedded into the way he planned, and it wasn't going anywhere.

"Status," the ordered, not directing his words to anyone in particular.

"Drones in position and hidden, Captain," Serus reported professionally, used to the impatient behavior of her captain. "Just waiting for the Xel'Tor to arrive."

Jhaxus didn't acknowledge Serus' report and looked at Highspeed expectedly.

The Inescapable Shadow's navigator moved his servos over his workstation, mostly to just make himself look busy. He had already set the ship to stay at this altitude, it wasn't going anywhere. "We are cloaked and more than twenty kilometers from the nearest detectable human. No one is going to see us unless we want them to."

The captain shifted his gaze to Axel.

The green Intelligence officer shifted in his seat and leaned toward Altera, whose damage control station was next to his. "What am I supposed to do?" He whispered.

"Just tell him something he already knows. This is just something he does when a plan doesn't immediately come to fruition, which is always," the violet femme whispered back.

Axel leaned away from Altera and looked at Jhaxius again. "Uh, we're jamming all communications frequencies within a ten kilometer radius, and there's been no response to the message we sent, Captain Jhaxius."

After Axel gave his report, Jhaxius went back to drumming his digits against the arm of his chair, having gotten reports from all relevant sources besides damage control, and he didn't bother asking for a report from them since they weren't in combat at the moment.

Highspeed's holographic workstation suddenly beeped rapidly. "Energy build up directly below us," he reported, now more alert than before. "Signature matches that of a space bridge. Guess the Autobots have a few toys in their base, wherever it is."

Jhaxius allowed one corner of his mouth to twitch upward in a smile. They had taken the bait. "Do we have a visual on the Autobots?" He asked, directing the question at Serus since the view port wasn't showing feeds from all the drones he sent to the surface.

"Negative," Serus answered, having already started to cycle through feeds of the drones that weren't being showed to the others on the bridge. "Their space bridge opened in a thicker part of the forest, we'll have to wait for visual contact."

Jhaxius sighed quietly at the lack of confirmation his plan for luring the Xel-Tor worked, and looked at the main screen expectantly, knowing at least one of the drones was bound to get a visual on the Autobots at some point.

Almost a klick after the Inescapable Shadow's sensors detected the space bridge signature, a blue and pink femme appeared in two of the live feeds, having stepped out into a clearing a pair of drones had been looking at.

"Run her through the Autobot database," Jhaxius said to Axel.

Axel immediate did as he was told, and started to run a program on his workstation, which was synced to the view port, that caused the two drones to focus on the blue and pink femme's faceplate and run it through the Autobot database for a match.

Within three micro-klicks, the program found a match, and it opened another window displaying the recruit picture of the femme in the life feed. The femme in the picture appeared to be much happier, more excited, than the femme in the feed, but there was no way it wasn't the same bot.

"Name: Arcee. She's a recon scout, really good one, too. Holds the rank of field commander, top of her class in virtually everything except physical strength, and even then she's up in the top five," Axel reported. "Since joining up with the Autobots, she has amassed a list of accommodations longer than the Sonic Canyons. The only metal she hasn't earned is the Posthumous Star of Heroism. She's also apparently somewhat of a legend among the newer Autobots."

"And she's quite smokin'..." Highspeed whispered to himself, looking at the feed of Arcee with slightly widened optics.

Jhaxius gave his navigator a glare. "Can it," he half-growled, causing Highspeed to look away from the view port and focus on his workstation. He looked at Serus. "Do we have optics on any other Autobots?"

The red femme shook her helm. "Negative, sir. We-" She cut herself off when she saw the trees behind Arcee started to sway before returning to their original position, as if something large was walking through the forest. "Scratch that. We have at least one newcomer coming out of the trees now."

Jhaxius looked back at the main screen just in time to see the widely-known Autobot leader, Optimus Prime, step out through the trees, with the Star Saber slung across his backplates. Looked like the Autobots had managed to recover some equipment from Station A4-D718.

Along with Optimus came a heavily armored black mech that was only marginally smaller than the Prime. Both sides of his helm were etched with silver mark, one that looked similar to the one Jhaxius had seen in the images taken by Station A4-D718.

"Compare the unknown mech with images of the Xel'Tor," Jhaxius ordered, focusing his attention entirely on the black mech, and also taking a mental note of how Arcee's faceplate seemed to brighten up when he appeared. Interesting.

Axel started to run the same program he ran earlier, this time comparing the faceplate of the unknown to the still images that the cameras of Station A4-D718 took of the Xel'Tor.

The program took even less time to confirm the unknown as the Xel'Tor than it took to find a match of Arcee's faceplate in the Autobot database. Interestingly, the program didn't display another picture of the Xel'Tor like it had when it identified Arcee.

Jhaxius looked at Axel, who was moving his servos over his workstation and looking at his display in confusion. "Is there a problem with your program, Axel?" He asked, tone slightly clipped.

Axel was too focused on his workstation to flinch at Jhaxius' tone, like he had almost three breems ago. "No... It's working perfectly," he said, looking even more confused than before. "He just... Doesn't exist."

Praxis' emotionless grey optics bored into the green Intelligence officer from where he stood near the door of the bridge, partially hidden in the shadows. "Explain," he said, neither a question nor a statement.

Axel may not have flinched when Jhaxius spoke, but the green mech reacted in the exact same manner he had the last time Praxius spoke to him, jumping in his chair. "He, uh, just doesn't exist," he answered once he'd calmed himself, stuttering slightly as he repeated what he told his captain. "There's no record of him the Autobot, Decepticon, or the old civilian databases. He... He's a ghost."

"Ghost or not, he's our target," Jhaxius said, then looked at Serus. "Have the drones line up shots on each of them, then take them all down quick and painless-"

"Belay that order," Praxis interrupted, stepping out of the shadows and next to Jhaxius' chair.

The bridge went totally quiet. Praxius hadn't given an order throughout his time on the Inescapable Shadow, despite his right to do so as Extremis' SIC. Suddenly contradicting Jhaxius' orders, on his own ship, caused the entire bridge crew to pause.

Jhaxius glared at Extremis' SIC, but was internally struggling not to look away from Praxis' grey optics. "Why?" He hissed with barely controlled anger, absolutely loathing to be contradicted.

"Because Extremis sent me to make sure you brought the Xel'Tor him alive, and you are planning to offline him, despite Extremis' orders," Praxis stated emotionlessly.

Jhaxius' optic twitched. He hated strict guidelines when given a mission, all they did were get in the way of success. "It doesn't matter if he's online or not, all he has to do is-"

"Your opinion, is irrelevant," Praxis interrupted again. "Extremis gave specific instructions to bring the Xel'Tor back alive. You chose to ignore my earlier advice, Captain, do not ignore my warning."

Jhaxius continued glaring at Praxis, but was about to break optic contact when Serus suddenly broke the silence the rest of the bridge had fallen into, "Captain, I think the Xel'Tor has made us."

The captain of the Inescapable Shadow looked at the main screen. The Xel'Tor was looking around suspiciously, at times even looking directly at a drone without knowing it. He knew something wasn't right, he knew he was being watched.

Arcee looked at the Xel'Tor and said something none of the drones picked up, to which the Xel'Tor replied with something else the drones didn't hear. In response to what the Xel'Tor said, Arcee scanned her surroundings like he was, then deployed a pair of Photon Burst Rifles from her servos, a popular weapon among marksmen back during the war. She spoke after deploying her weapons, but the drones, again, did not catch her words.

After Arcee deployed her weapons, Optimus Prime snapped a battlemask over his faceplate and pulled the Star Saber off his backplates, while the Xel'Tor himself deployed weapons of his own and continued examining their surroundings.

They had been made.

"Orders, sir?" Serus asked as the three Autobots readied themselves for battle.

Jhaxius was silent for a long moment, internally brooding at how the Xel'Tor had seen through his trap. He hated when a plan went wrong. "Give the drones permission to fire." He glanced at Praxis, who was still staring at him. "Have them only fire stun rounds when engaging the Xel'Tor," the captain added. "The others, however, are useless to us."

"Understood, sir," Serus acknowledged, then moved her servos over her workstation to carry out the orders of her captain.

---

While I was scanning our surroundings, I noticed trio of orange flashes appear in different parts of the valley in front of us, like the glint of sniper scopes. After appearing, the lights quickly started to gain in intensity, becoming more and more noticeable. Although, one light seemed to be brighter than the others, and on closer examination, I find that it was pointing directly at me, while the other two seemed to focus on points off to my left.

I looked to where the other lights were focused, and widened my optics at the sight of targeting lasers on the chestplates of Optimus and Arcee, and one almost certainly on my own chestplates.

"Down!" I cried out, just before I tackled Optimus in the side, which would bring all three of us down to the grond since Arcee was on the opposite side of the Prime.

What happened next, I instantly knew, would repeat again and again in my helm.

Time slowed to an agonizing crawl as soon as I tackled Optimus. The orange lights reached their peak brightness at the same moment, and sent an energy beam of some type toward each of us.

The first beam hit me. It had been aimed at my chestplates, but since I was in the middle of tackling Optimus, the beam only grazed my pede. But, it numbed the area it touched, along everything else within a small radius, on contact. A stunner.

The second beam his Optimus. It had, like the one that hit me, been aimed at his chestplates, but my tackle caused the beam to miss its intended target, and instead hit Optimus' right servo. It sliced through his armor like butter, almost severing his servo entirely, while at the same time making it completely useless.

The third, and final beam hit Arcee. It had been aiming at the same area as the beams that hit Optimus and I, but since my tackle had only just started to make Optimus fall, and Arcee was on the other side of the Prime, she had barely moved by the time the beam struck her... And it tore through her chestplates, missing her spark by mere inches, and causing her to go completely limp and fall to the ground before Optimus' larger frame would have knocked her down.

All sound faded away, and all I could do as Optimus and I continued falling to the ground was look at Arcee's unmoving chassis, and the giant tear in her chestplates, just to the right of her spark. It had torn her armor apart, leaving only jagged pieces around the wound. And even though I couldn't see the her backplates, I knew the beam had gone clean through her, and had definitely left an identical hole on the other side.

As soon as Optimus and I hit the ground, I frantically crawled over to Arcee, who was already in a pool of her own energon. "No, no, no, no, no," I said in a panicked tone, heedless of the fact that whoever had just shot us was still shooting.

I looked at Arcee's faceplate, silently praying for a sign she was still online. She was, but her optics were very, very dim, and were flickered off more often than they were online. "Hang on, Arcee, hang on, do you hear me? Do you hear me?!" I asked frantically, then finally took note of the bullets flying our direction when one flew by my helm.

I growled and fired a long burst from my Plasma Chaingun over the edge of the hill, hearing a number of pings that told me I had at least grazed one or two of our attackers. Good, that would show the bastards who did this to my spark, my everything.

At the realization that I had a similar thought a few breems ago, I closed my optics and clamped down on my anger, trapping it and keeping it from igniting, and activating my Quriomus Protocol. The femme I loved was offlining in front of me, this was not the time for a murderous rampage, nor would there be ever be the time for such a thing if I had any say in the matter. I didn't want to lose control of myself again, especially at such a critical time like right now.

I went back to Arcee and started applying first aid as best as I could without the proper medical equipment or supplies, completely blocking out the sight of her outer sparkcasing, one of the two most intimate areas of a Cybertronian's chassis. I needed to stabilize her, slow the leaking of her energon, or she would offline right here. The wound was too severe for stasis lock to help her.

Optimus crawled over to where I was giving Arcee first aid, his right servo dangling uselessly while it still clutched the Star Saber. "I count no less than eight unknowns, but I suspect there are more who have yet to give themselves away," he said, showing no signs that he was in pain, even though his injury was obviously making him suffer.

"Too many for us to take out with Arcee in thi- this condition," I said, voice cracking slightly as I tried to stay professional. "We need to get Ratchet and Moonracer here. Now."

"We are in agreement," the Prime said, then opened a universal communications channel. "Optimus to all Autobots, medical evacuation and reinforcements are needed at my location immediately."

Static was the only answer to Optimus' order.

The Prime looked at me. "Our communications are being jammed." He reached over with his good servo and pried the Star Saber from his useless one, then held it at the ready in his left. "If we are to contact base, we will need to offline our attackers first."

I looked up at him, then back down at Arcee, who was barely doing any better thanks to my first aid. "But... But Arcee isn't going to last that long," I said, back to being heedless of the bullets flying around us. "The chances she'll be online by the time we finish fighting them off is virtually zero."

Optimus gave me a sad, grim look. "I know, Shadowstreaker. But if we do not fight our attackers now, then Arcee will not have a chance at all."

I stared at Optimus, refusing to accept what he said. There had to be some way of contacting base. Running out of range of the jammer, sending a message through a human radio frequency, contacting base by using the internet, using smoke signals, anything! I wasn't about to go out and leave Arcee to offline while Optimus and I fought the bots that lured us into a trap. I wouldn't, I could-

Wait... Why was I only hit with a stunner, while Optimus and Arcee were hit with lethal weapons? It made no sense to lure a group to a remote area, jam their comms, but only try to offline two out of the three that fell into the trap. You would take all three out, if that was your goal. So why shoot me with a stunner?

The answer hit me like a punch from Ironhide.

They hadn't been after a group per say, Optimus and Arcee were secondaries that came with their intended goal.

Me.

And if they were after me, that meant there was no reason for both Optimus and I to stay and fight off our attackers. I could stay behind, keep their attention while Optimus took Arcee and ran until he was beyond the range of the jammer blocking our communications.

"Take Arcee and run," I said in an unnaturally calm voice, accepting of what I was about to do.

The Prime looked at me in confusion. "Why? That would leave you alone against an unknown number of foes."

"That's the point," I replied, randomly firing over the edge of the hill with my Plasma Chaingun. "Unlike with you two, they shot me with a stun round. And I can only think of one reason why they would do that. I'm their target, not you and Arcee."

"If that is true, then I am not going to leave you behind to fight our attackers on your own," Optimus said, using the Star Saber to deflect a shot aimed at his helm.

"Arcee can't afford to wait while we debate this, Optimus," I pointed out, causing the Prime to glance down at the gravely injured femme. "Take her, Prime. Take her and run until you can contact base and get her to Ratchet and Moonracer... Please..."

Optimus looked down at Arcee again, then looked up at me and nodded. "I will return with reinforcements, Shadowstreaker. Hold out until then." Without another word, he put the Star Saber on his backplates, used his good servo to pick Arcee up, then turned and ran in the direction our space bridge had been, plowing over any and all trees that stood in his way.

After Optimus left with Arcee, I let out a sigh of relief. She had a chance, she might live, despite the wound the bots after me had given her.

'Time to pay them back for that,' I thought with a growl I couldn't keep locked away.

I pulled my Ion Displacer off my backplates, turned, and took two steps forward, now standing on the edge of of the hill.

The fire from the bots that attacked us came to an abrupt halt when I stepped to the edge of the hill, and immediately I saw the orange lights from earlier return, numbering fifteen this time instead of three like before. They were all trying to stun me at the same time, and revealing their locations while doing it.

These bots weren't very smart.

I aimed my Ion Displacer at the rightmost light, then let myself slide down the hill, opening fire with my rotary cannon at the same time.

More than a hundred rounds a micro-klick flew through the air, slicing trees in half like paper and continuing along as if nothing had been in their way, and I heard a number of metallic pings over the roar of my Ion Displacer. I offlined the bot.

I didn't even stop firing, just shifted my aim as I crashed through groups of small Pines that were in my path. This time, I wasn't singling out any of my opponents, I was firing randomly, trying to throw the bots attacking me off balance and go on the defensive.

It didn't work.

Bullets came flying at me from all directions, numbing every part of my frame that they hit.

I added my Chaingun to the firepower I was sending out, though I struggled to keep my left servo steady since it had taken several of the bots' stun rounds. Those rounds were a pain, figuratively speaking.

I continued firing indiscriminately for several micro-klicks, before my slide came to an end at the bottom of the hill. I then swept my Ion Displacer from left to right, mowing down trees like grass, and exposing my attackers.

They weren't bots, they were in fact drones. They were all silver in color, and had a single red optic on a slime helm that was attached to a lean, lightly-armored frame, but despite their lightly-armored appearance, I hadn't offlined any of them, since the armor of the rightmost one had mostly held against the onslaught of my Ion Dispalcer. Each of them held an identical rifle that had some of its parts floating around the main body of their weapon, making them look almost exactly like some of the weapons I recovered from the station with Springer and Jetfire.

I put my observations aside and ran to my right as the drones started to return fire again, hitting me more than I liked, but less than what it would take to take me down. I focused my fire on the rightmost drone, since I had already weakened its armor with my Ion Displacer.

For more than ten micro-klicks, drone's armor easily withstood the massive amount of fire from my Ion Displacer, but then one of my bullets pierced its chestplates, and it started a chain reaction that caused its entire front to give way. It fell to the ground, finally offline.

Seeing how ineffective my Ion Displacer was, I returned it to my backplates and set my Plasma Chaingun to the beam mode Ironhide mentioned, then fired at the drone next to the one I just offlined.

A brilliant, angry red beam of pure energy accelerated through the air and impacted the drone's helm, melting its high-quality armor on contact and offlining it so quickly that I kept firing the beam at the air for half a micro-klick, having expected the drone to withstand my attack for a lot longer than it had.

Noting how my beam was exceedingly effective against the drones, I flicked my wrist and swept the beam across three more drones within the same micro-klick.

The first and second were cut in half by the beam, and the third had its helm sliced off like the first drone I used it on.

Five drones down, ten to go.

I went to aim the beam at a sixth drone, but I found myself sliding on the ground when one of the drones from off to my left suddenly tackled me. They were getting smarter.

As soon as we stopped sliding, I elbowed the drone off my backplates and deployed my Path Blaster as it fell off me. I then proceeded to shoot it in the optic, repeatedly, only managing to offline it on my fifth shot. These things had tough optics.

After offlining the sixth drone, I got back on my pedes and took cover by dropping into a stream that appeared to run the length of the valley, but not before taking no less than forty stun rounds to the backplates, making me lose all feeling to my wings.

Ignoring the numbness in my wings, I popped out of my cover and fired my beam at another drone, cutting its chestplates in two.

The return fire forced me back down behind the bank of the stream before I was hit in a critical area by a stun round. So far, I was holding my own against the drones, having offlined seven of them in the space of about two klicks. Faster than I thought this fight would go. But, I suspected it was going to go more slow from now on, since I was feeling drained from using the beam mode on my Plasma Chaingun. Ironhide definitely hadn't been exaggerating when he said the beam used up a lot more power than the normal firing option, I felt like I just ran twenty marathons, only marathons adjusted in size to suit Cybertronians.

Guess I had to use another weapon.

I returned my servo to normal and pulled my Nucleon off my backplates, the massive weapon humming to life as it connected to my systems.

I popped out of cover again, aimed at another drone, and fired my Nucleon twice.

My first shot hit the ground next to the drone, sending dirt, rock, and bits of trees flying, but leaving the drone mostly unharmed. My second shot, however, hit the drone squarely, but besides its armor denting inward where it was hit, the drone wasn't effected by the powerful blast.

I sent three more shots in the direction of the drone, missing completely once and scoring hits twice, the third hit finally offlining it. Seven left.

After ducking behind cover again to avoid a shot that almost hit me in the helm, I took aim and fired eight shots at two more drones, offlining both with the final shot I fired.

Seeing that only five drones were left, and that my Nucleon was reasonably effective against them, I stood up and stepped out of the stream, while at the same time sending rounds at the drones as fast as my weapon would fire.

The drones didn't react to the shots flying their way, didn't flinch at how the ground and trees were exploding and vaporizing each time a round from my Nucleon missed them. They kept up their assault, hitting me seemingly every time they pulled the trigger.

I slowed to a complete stop and fell to one knee-joint, being hit by so many stun rounds that I couldn't feel most of my frame. But I refused to totally go down. I had left my cover with the intention of finishing this, and I was going to finish it.

After what seemed an eternity, but in reality was closer to half a klick, the final drone was offlined by my Nucleon, having taken five hits to finally bring down.

I dropped my servo to my side and let some of the areas of my frame regain their feeling, my wings being the area I desired feeling to the most. That had been one of the tougher battles I fought, even though I was only getting hit with stun rounds. It seemed like my strength was being sapped each time a round made contact, although, that may have been because I hadn't gotten any recharge last night, and burned through a lot of energon by using the beam mode on my Plasma Chaingun. With those factors mixed in, it made it a lot harder to fight effectively.

Despite the added difficulty, though, I wouldn't take this fight back. I had given Optimus time to run, to take Arcee and try to contact base so she had a chance to live... I hope he succeeds in getting back to base, because even though the drones were offline, I had a feeling this wasn't over...

---

Jhaxius watched as the feed from the last of his drones turned to static, faceplate blank even though he was enraged. The Xel'Tor ruined his plan. Again. He was supposed to be stunned right now, inside a holding cell on the Inescapable Shadow, not still standing after destroying all his drones while Optimus Prime fled with an injured Arcee.

Jhaxius now regretted letting the Prime leave, at least then he would had something to show for all the offlined drones. He only had failure and anger right now. But, he still had several options available to accomplish the mission.

"All drones are down, Captain," Serus reported flatly, knowing the report was pointless, but needing to say it anyway.

"I am aware," Jhaxius said, forcing a calm tone in his voice.

"Orders, sir?" Highspeed asked.

Jhaxius stared at the static-filled video feeds on the view port for a moment, then looked at Axel. "Contact Slicer, and tell him that he and his Rogues are cleared to engage the Xel'Tor with whatever force below offlining him that they deem necessary," he ordered, referring to the other unit he had sent to the surface

"Yes, Captain Jhaxius," Axel replied quickly, then began started to establish a communications channel between his workstation and the squad leader on the surface.

As Axel hurried to carry out his orders, Praxis' optics fixated on the Inescapable Shadow's captain. "Captai-"

"You said that Extremis' orders were to bring the Xel'Tor to him alive," Jhaxius interrupted without sparing Praxis a glance, since the captain secretly doubted he'd have the courage to interrupt Extremis' SIC if he had been looking at him. "But you have said nothing about the condition the Xel'Tor must be in."

Praxis said nothing, just kept staring at Jhaxius.

---

Optimus sprinted through the forest, using his left shoulder-joint to knock over the trees in his way, while also taking great care to keep any trees from hitting the femme he was carrying.

"Optimus to base, requesting space bridge at my coordinates!" He called through the universal communications channel he kept open.

His only answer continued to be static.

The Prime redoubled his efforts to get out of range of the jamming device. Arcee was even worse than she had been when Shadowstreaker gave her first aid, she was rapidly running out of time. He would not allow another of his soldiers to offline, not when the fate of another was already uncertain.

'Primus, protect Shadowstreaker,' Optimus thought as he lept over a group of boulders and kept on running. He had wanted to stay behind with the young mech and fight their attackers, but he knew if he did that, Arcee's already slim chances of survival dropped to zero, and Shadowstreaker, helm over heels in love with her, would either never be as good a soldier as he was, or never forgive him for staying behind to help him fight, and refused to listen to his orders. Either way, staying behind would have guaranteed the lose of two of his Autobots.

The femme he was carrying looked up at him with dim, flickering optics as if to ask what was happening, then her optics went completely dark for several micro-klicks.

"Stay with me, Arcee," the Prime said to the injured femme, silently praying that Shadowstreaker's decision to remain behind would not end up being for nothing. She was fading fast.

As Optimus continued sprinting through the forest, his comm suddenly came to life.

"Base to Opt-us. -ease resp-d," Prowl said through the universal communications channel the Prime had open, his voice crackling through the link like not all interference had been removed.

Optimus put everything he had into his sprint. "Space bridge at my coordinates. Now!" He said in a borderline yell, hoping his voice wasn't corrupted by the remaining interference from the jammer.

The space bridge appeared in front of Optimus so quickly that he ran through it without realizing, and he found himself standing in the middle of the ops center in mere moments, where the majority of his Autobots were gathered around the workstation, along with their oldest human charge, his mother, and the three highest-ranking members of Shadow Company.

Elita, Chromia, and Ironhide were the closest ones to the space bridge, and had already been looking at the portal in concern before Prowl even opened it, having felt Arcee's pain through their ends of the bonds they shared with her.

Moonracer, who was standing next to her mate, ran forward with a prepared calm, having already been informed by Ironhide, Elita and Chromia that their sister needed to be treated. "We need to get her to the med-bay," she said, then she and Ratchet hurriedly relieved Optimus of the femme he was carrying and rushed her down the hallway, with Ironhide, his mate, and Elita not far behind.

Jazz looked at Optimus after Ratchet and Moonracer took Arcee away. "What happened out dere, OP?"

"We were ambushed," the Prime replied. "Our communications were jammed, and Arcee and I were hit in the first shots fired from our attackers. I am still functional, but as you saw, Arcee's life is dangling by a thread."

The saboteur looked at the space bridge, which Prowl had kept open, then his visor focused back on Optimus. "Where's the Shadowster'?" He asked, faceplate impassive despite the situation.

June leaned toward Jack. "Who's 'Shadowster'?" She asked at a slightly elevated volume, but to her damaged ears she was whispering.

MacTavish glanced back at the nurse. "He's the bot that saved both of your arses last night," he said shortly, then focused on the Autobots in front of his fellow S.T.F soldiers.

"Shadowstreaker asked me to take Arcee and, in his own words, 'Take her and run until you can contact base and get her to Ratchet and Moonracer,'" Optimus replied to Jazz's question. "He stayed behind to hold off our attackers while I went to accomplish that objective. But now returning him safely is my objective." He pulled the Star Saber off his backplates. "Autobots, with me. We have a rescue mission ahead of us."

Prowl stepped forward before Optimus could turn back to the space bridge. "Prime, with all due respect, your injury has severely hampered your combat capabilities. Under article four, regulation eight, protocol seventeen of the Autobot Military Doctrine, I hereby relieve you of field command until the Autobot CMO has cleared you for duty."

Optimus normally would have argued against being relieved from duty, but his useless servo throbbed with pain at that moment, and he nodded in acceptance. "I am relieved," he said, stating the official response for being relieved of duty. "Now go and bring back our fellow Autobot, Prowl."

"Acknowledged, Prime," the stoic mech said, transforming into his Dodge Charger form, causing the other Autobots to do the same, and driving by Optimus and toward the space bridge.

Optimus stood motionless as the rest of the Autobot's present drove passed him. Bumblebee's Camaro form, followed by Smokescreen's Saleen S7, Jazz's Nissan GT-R, the twins' Lamborghini Aventador forms, Flareup's Ford Fusion, and Bulkhead's Conquest Evade bringing up the rear.

It was an impressive sight, seeing most of his soldiers rolling out, but also pointless. The terrain of Maine would make it impossible for them to drive to Shadowstreaker's location, they would have to run as Optimus had. Jetfire and Springer would have been able to get around the problem of not being able to use an alt mode, but Prowl had contacted him earlier in the cycle to request permission to send them to investigate an abandoned energon mine, and would not be in contact with base for several breems at least. The Prime regretted giving Prowl permission to send them on that mission.

Optimus walked over to the workstation, turned off the space bridge, and watched the main screen with unblinking optics, not wanting to even take the risk of blinking and missing the tiniest detail as his Autobots moved to assist Shadowstreaker.

He just hoped they would be in time.

---

I let myself recover for almost a klick, regaining feeling throughout most of my frame in that time, before standing up and walking forward, scanning the trees that weren't destroyed in the battle I just finished. I may have destroyed the drones, but I still felt like I was being watched, studied by unseen optics. And that didn't sit well with me.

The branch of a fallen tree off to my left suddenly snapped, making my help whip to the left and point my Nucleon at whatever snapped the branch, but nothing there, just the fallen trees and a few small boulders.

A rustling came from my right, and I snapped my helm in that direction, only to see a similar sight as off to my left. Either I was being stalked, or I was going insane. And since I just finished fighting a group of drones that were trying to stun me, going insane was highly unlikely.

I stepped into a ready position, pedes spread, Nucleon out and moving slowly from side to side, optics looking for any sign of whoever, or whatever, was surrounding me, waiting for them, or it, to make a move.

I didn't have to wait long.

Another rustle reached my audio receptors, this time from my left. I looked left and aimed my Nucleon where the sound came from, nothing was there, like the other two times I heard something move, but I knew it wasn't what it seemed. But before I could fire a shot, something approached me from behind at incredible speeds, and stabbed me in the back of my left shoulder-joint with a sword, the blade going through my wing first and making me let out a cry of pain before I could bite it back. Injuries to the shoulder-joint I could handle without much of a problem, but having a wing stabbed never felt good.

My unseen attacker used the blade lodged in my shoulder-joint to make me move my servo more to the side, then hit my Nucleon with something before removing his sword and running away, if I heard correctly, that is.

I turned around as soon as my attacker fled, but I saw nothing like the other three times I heard something. They like were like ghosts.

Growling slightly at how I still hadn't seen any of the bots surrounding me, I rolled my shoulder-joint experimentally. It didn't feel too bad, though that would likely change as I used it. My previous injuries to that shoulder-joint would make sure of that.

I gave the area around me a quick scan, then glanced down at my Nucleon. I frowned at what I saw.

It was sliced in two. A perfect cut, forty-five degree angle, right in the middle of the weapon. My attacker must have hit it with another sword, a very sharp one, if they managed to make such a clean cut.

'They wanted to make sure my most powerful weapon was useless, make me vulnerable to combat in close-quarters, which means they'll likely be moving in soon,' I thought, dropping my now useless Nucleon to the ground and deploying my swords. If they wanted to get in close, they could. Arcee taught me well. And I would use the things she taught me to offline those responsible for her condition. I hope Optimus got her to base...

'Don't think about that right now,' I told myself, forcing out my concerned thoughts about my partner and best friend.

I started looking around again, but quickly realized it would be useless. My attackers were phantoms, likely had some sort of personal cloaks. Trying to see them would be pointless, I had to make sure I focused entirely on listening for their movements.

Foregoing my attempts to see my attackers, I closed my optics and lowered my helm a bit, focusing on the sounds around me. There was a trick Arcee taught me after my initial training, one that basically made your CPU put more focus on hearing than any other sense. When done properly, it allowed you to hear a feather floating through the air, a cat walking through a field a mile away. She was a master at it, when she needed to use it. When she showed me its uses, she could call out my exact location in the Safe, while she was sitting in the elevator. This was the first time I had tried to use the trick myself. I hoped it would work for me like it had for her. Just needed to take a deep breath, push aside all thoughts, and release slowly...

Instantly, I felt myself calm, and my audio receptors picked up every sound around me.

A Fox, whimpering slightly from the hole it hid itself in, terrified of the loud, thunder-like noises it had been hearing for the last ten klicks.

A common earth worm digging through earth, moving away from the violent vibrations it kept feeling from the surface.

A Honey Bee's wings propelling it through the air as it flew to its hive, following the pheromones of its queen.

A Brown Trout's tail cutting through the water the stream, swallowing a small Frog that had the misfortune of coming too close to its hungry jaws.

A pede, modified to make as little noise as possible, sinking into a muddy bank, bracing for a leap.

I broke myself from my trance-like state, and as quickly as I could, turned my frame and stabbed the air behind me. My sword met some resistance in the form of an orange shield that suddenly flashed around an almost invisible outline of a bot.

The outline flickered after my sword hit its shield, and then its cloaking field failed, revealing my attacker to be a dull silver mech that stood as tall as Prowl and had two thin swords attached to his servos, both blades coated with blue plasma.

The mech stood there for a moment, seemingly shocked that I hit him while his cloak was engaged, but he quickly shook off his surprise and attacked me again, his swords becoming a blur as he avoided my own blades and hit me as many times as he could. He wasn't putting a lot of power behind any of his strikes, but his swords were easily cutting through both layers of my armor and damaging my protoform.

Ignoring the pain from the mech's attacks, I heel kicked him in the chestplates as hard as I could, causing his shield to break with a sound like shattering glass, and sending him flying into the far bank of the stream. I leapt forward before the mech could get back up, and, with a great effort to pierce his armor, buried my sword into his chestplates until I started to hit the mud beneath him.

The mech stiffened as my sword pierced his chassis, then went limp and offlined, his optics staying open as they went dark.

I pulled my sword out of the offlined mech and turned around, searching for any other cloaked bots. There was definitely more than one, since at least two had worked together to get rid of my Nucleon. So, where were th-

The knife was lodged deep in my side before I could finish my thought, causing me to yell at the searing pain. A sword slicing across my tank followed up the knife stabbing my side, along with a punch to the optic in the same moment. Several bots were attacking me at once, no one could move that quickly.

I retaliated by swinging both of my swords out of front of me horizontally in a blind strike, hoping to clip the shields of one of my attackers and make their cloaking fail.

As luck would have it, I clipped the shielding of three bots, making their shield flash orange as their cloaks failed, revealing my opponents as two mechs and a femme, all sporting the same colors and weapons as the first mech I fought.

I charged into one of the mechs, lowering my shoulder-joint as I hit him and knocking him off his pedes and breaking his shield, as well as temporarily taking him out of the fight while he picked himself off the ground.

As the first mech started picking himself up, I swung a sword at the other mech and the femme. They both blocked my attack with ease, but I expected them to be, all I wanted was for them to go on the defensive. I wouldn't last long if they all attacked me as one like they had been doing.

The second mech decided he wanted to continue attacking, and he stabbed the sword that wasn't locked with my own sword toward my tank, intending to either run me through or make me halt my offensive. But since my other sword was locked with one of the femme's blades, I had no way to disengage without leaving myself open to attack from another bot. This was going to suck.

With no way of dodging or blocking the mech's sword, I turned my hip and let the sword pierce my side, the same side that had a knife sticking out of it. The sword burned like lava, but I refused to cry out. I had cried out enough this cycle.

With both of the second mech's swords occupied, I deployed my left missile launcher from my shoulder-joint, and emptied the launcher at him.

The mech's shield flashed brighter and brighter as my missiles impacted it, but it held until my thirteenth missile hit, which finally broke the shield and let the last three missiles hit the mech's frame, with the last missile hitting him in the neck. He quickly pulled his swords back and fell back, grabbing his neck and gurgling as his own energon flowed down his throat.

As the second mech went down, the femme batted my sword away and leapt on my backplates, inflicting a dozen shallow stab wounds almost before I realized what she did, most of which went through my wings.

I bit back the pained yell that wanted to escape my mouth, returned my right servo to normal, then grabbed the helm of the femme on my backplates and threw her into the first mech, who had just gotten back up from my shoulder-joint bash, breaking the shield of the femme and sending the both of them back down to the ground in a heap.

Now with some breathing room, I pulled my Ion Displacer off my backplates and deployed my right missile launcher and aimed them both at the first mech and the femme. The two bots had time to widen their optics before I fired missiles, sending half to the mech, and half to the femme, while at the same time riddling both of them with my Ion Displacer.

Their armor was strong, easily withstanding the missiles I fired, but the added power from my Ion Displacer was too much, and they both fell back to the ground within a few micro-klicks, as offline as the mech that I offlined before being attacked by these three bots.

After offlining the first femme and first mech, I turned my Ion Displacer on the second mech, who was still rolling around on the ground, and put him out of his misery with a short burst aimed at his helm.

As my last attacker offlined, I stood with my Ion Displacer at the ready, prepared to defend myself from another bot. But no one else came, all was silent.

I sighed in relief and let myself drop back against the bank of the stream, too tired and injured to keep standing without taking a moment to let myself recover. My battle against the drones might have been bad, but that had been far worse. I had a lot of places leaking energon, and not one, but two holes in my side, one of which still had a knife sticking out of it.

'Probably should take that out,' I thought, then grabbed the knife sticking out of my side and pulled it out with a grunt. That one hadn't felt good, but then again, pulling a knife out of you never did. Oh, well, the pain was worth it. I was keeping them away from Arcee and Optimus... I think.

Where was Optimus? He said that he would return with reinforcements, but I had been here for a while, and he hadn't returned. Did the bots that were after me send more troops after him? And if they did, did they offline him? Or was he still running, having yet to get out of range of whatever was jamming our comms? And most importantly, was Arcee even still online? Or had she succumbed to her wound? If she had, I would destroy them all...

'No, no thoughts like that,' I told myself. I needed to keep acting like a distraction. I couldn't afford to let myself get angry and activate my Protocol, not when I didn't even know Arcee's condition. For all I knew, Optimus was already back at base, gathering the others while Ratchet and Moonracer worked to save Arcee. And if she was gone... Then I would embrace the the Quriomus Protocol.

With my anger pushed aside for now, I used my Ion Displacer as a crutch and got myself back on my pedes and slowly walked out of the stream, all the while watching for any more attackers.

Something else was coming, I could feel it in my joints.

---

Jhaxius was back to drumming his digits against the arm of his chair. He waiting for a report from Axel. It had been an uncomfortable amount of time since he gave Slicer and his Rogues the green light to engage the Xel'Tor, and they had yet to report in. "Report," he said, finally having enough waiting.

The green mech froze. For the last thirty micro-klicks, he had been sitting in silence, trying to find a way to tell his captain the life signals of the Rogues had gone offline. This was his first deployment, his training might have covered how to report failures to superiors, but it hadn't prepared him for dealing with military officers like Jhaxius. He intimidated Axel more than anyone else he had met, except Praxis, and he intimidated everyone except Extremis.

The Inescapable Shadow's captain narrowed his optics at Axel. "Report, Officer Axel," he ordered with a more forceful tone.

Axel fidgeted in his seat for a moment, before answering, "Uh... All Rogues are down, Captain Jhaxius."

Jhaxius' optic twitched. "Would you mind repeating that?"

"All Rogues are... Down, Captain... Jhaxius," Axel replied slowly, uncertain of what reaction to expect from his captain.

Jhaxius was silent for a long moment, internally screaming at how the Xel'Tor made another of his plans fail. He had never had three plans fail in so short a time, and it infuriated him.

He slammed his sevo on the arm of his chair, causing his bridge crew to jump in surprise. He had never done that in front of his bridge crew before. "Release Cyclops," he commanded with a snarl, directing the order at Serus. "Disable all safeties."

Serus protested, "But, sir-"

"Do as I say!" Jhaxius cut her off, his amber optics blazing with anger. "Deploy Cyclops, and destroy that piece of slag down on the surface!"

Praxis stepped forward. "I warned you earlier, Captain Jh-"

"I don't give a frag what Extremis ordered! That fragging son of a glitch is scrap metal!" The captain cried with a glare at Praxis, rage overriding logic. He had never been able to keep his cool when his plans went this badly, and having three plans fail in a row drove him over the edge. He shifted his glare back to Serus. "Deploy Cyclops! Now, Offic-"

The shot temporarily deafened half the bridge crew, amplified by the confined spaces of the bridge, and Jhaxius' helm snapped to the side before he slumped forward and onto the floor, a pool of energon quickly forming beneath the remaining half of his helm.

Praxis lowered the pistol he had pulled from his hip, smoke still rising out of its barrel. He looked down at the offlined captain. He had been a good military officer, but his temper had always been a problem, and this time it had gotten the better of him. Praxis doubted Extremis would let his actions go unpunished, but the Xel'Tor was worth more than Jhaxius had ever been. And he had been ordered by his leader to make sure the Xel'Tor was brought to him alive, he was making sure that order was followed.

Extremis' SIC looked up from the offlined captain and over to Axel. "Inform Scatterblast that his presence is required in the hanger," he stated, ignoring the silence of the bridge and the terrified looks he was getting from the bots around him. He was used to Extremis' followers being afraid of him. "He and his team are to accompany me to the surface."

"Y- yes, s- sir," Axel acknowledged quietly, his tone carrying nothing but fear as he turned to his workstation and started to establish a communications channel with Scatterblast.

As Axel followed his order, Praxis looked at Highspeed, who, like many of the bridge crew, had yet to move after seeing his captain offlined. "Commander Highspeed, you have the bridge," he said, then turned and walked toward the bridge door without waiting for Highspeed to acknowledge him. He replaced the orange power crystal as he walked to the door, and inserted a green one, which would produce a bullet laced with a sedative that acted instantly and effectively.

Sometimes, a vital mission required a more direct approach in order to succeed.

---

As I looked around for enemies, an odd sound reached my audio receptors. It sounded like a hum, but it seemed to vibrate the air as it went, almost like tiny sonic booms, only without the boom. It was strange.

The sound got louder, and I looked around in a circle for what was making it, holding my Ion Displacer at the ready. But there was nothing that didn't look like it belonged in the forest. Where was it coming from?

A gust of wind hit me in the top of the helm, which caused me to stop for a moment. Wind didn't gust downward, it always traveled horizontal to the ground, that meant the gust that hit me wasn't natural.

I looked up at the sky above me. It was clear, with only a few clouds blocking out its blue color, but I noticed an almost invisible outline directly me that seemed to be growing in size, shimmering as it moved. It looked very much like the outline of the bots that attacked me, which meant the outline had to be some kind of cloaked craft, likely a gunship.

The outline continued to grow until it was more than triple the size it had been when I first saw it, then it dropped its cloak, revealing it to be a large, oddly-designed gunship, like I expected. A panel door opened on its underside, and a cannon slid out of the opening and pointed at the ground near me, its barrel already starting to glow orange.

'That's not fair,' I thought, bracing myself for the inevitable.

The cannon fired, and I was sent flying through the air by the ball of energy that came from its barrel and hit the ground next to me.

I didn't hear the wind rushing by my audio receptors as I soared through the air, or see the ground become the sky, or even feel my Ion Displacer fly from my grip as I hit the ground, I was too busy feeling all my other injuries.

My left shoulder-joint was locked up completely, with at least one of its gears totally shattered along with my earlier injury. The stab wounds in my side had opened up more, and I felt energon leaking out of them like faucets. New wounds had been created by the blast as well, and with all the other smaller injuries I had collected from my battles, they easily numbered in the dozens. And on top of it all, my vision was flickering even though my optics were closed. I was starting to fall into stasis lock.

'Just like my dream,' I thought with realization. My dreams had been warning me about this moment, but I hadn't seen the similarities until just now. Whoever gave me them did a terrible job of warning me properly.

Feeling something lightly kick my pede, I slowly forced my optics to open, adding even more pain by fighting against falling into stasis lock again. I blinked once, slowly, then saw a shadow standing in front of me, almost on top of my pedes. I focused on it.

It took a moment, but the shadow formed into the shape of a dark grey, almost black, and red mech that stood at least Optimus' height, perhaps taller. Out of my peripheral vision, I saw at least six other mechs flanking the first, all pointing rifles at me, but it was clear the mech directly in front of me was the leader.

The mech looked down at me with emotionless grey optics, an odd color to see on a Cybertronian. And without a word, he pulled an strange-looking pistol from his hip and pointed it at me.

I had time to picture one last thought, one of Arcee, giving me one of her angelic smiles, before my world went black as the mech squeezed his digit around the trigger.

---

I know, I'm evil. I am aware of this fact. But I have a plan, it has been set in motion, and it will, eventually, make you smile. It is all a matter of time, and how quickly I can write my chapters. Please, please, be patient with me. This is the last time I am going to ask for your patience, I promise.

Now, I am most likely not going to finish my next chapter within the next month. In fact, I know I won't. And here's why.

I am going to be out of town for more than a week starting at the end of this month, and won't get back until the beginning of August. So even if I finish my chapter before I leave, I won't post it. I want to have a completed, or mostly completed, chapter waiting for me when I get back, so I can post a chapter in August without any problems. There is a slim chance, however, that I might be able to write two chapters next month, since I hopefully will be able to post my next chapter early in the month. But, we'll see.

On a final note, Fate Calls is now more than 300k words... O.o Am I the only one who finds that crazy? Lol.

This chapter's credit song is "Two Steps From Hell - Hurt" This is a short one, only one minute and forty seconds or so, but it's a good one. And there's just something about it that I can't place my finger on, something that just fits with the ending of my chapter like a glove. In my own opinion, anyway.

Please be sure to leave a review, since I am grateful for anything from short, encouraging reviews, to long reviews with constructive criticism. I really, really appreciate all reviews besides flames, because all those do is make you look trollish.

Thank you all for taking the time to read this, and I'll see you soon.