AN: Chapter 43~

He had finally calmed Sam down, explaining everything to his best friend, and helping unstrap him from the seat. Skyfire said he only did that in case Sam might roll off.

"How long have we been gone?" Sam asked, now sitting in the chair next to Miles, up right and awake for the first time in awhile.

"Skyfire?" Miles asked.

"This would be one week and four days. Miles has requested that we land so he may go to buy some new clothes and washing implements, as well as food. We can all recharge then, and resume tomorrow. We should arrive at base early in the morning."

Miles nodded, "So I'd say you've been out for basically a week and three days." He frowned. "And I still can't feel you, yet."

"Feel me?" Sam asked, confused.

"When you conked out your presence just disappeared from mine. Can you feel us?"

Sam thought, "Now that you mention it, no." Which was odd. He hadn't really noticed that he could feel the others before, but being able to not feel them was extremely noticeable.

"I believe it may be because the Allspark energy inside of you went into hiding." Skyfire said, scanning Sam again to recheck. "It's still there, but I can barely sense it."

"So they all probably think you're still dead. Fuck."

"Wait, what?" Sam stared at his friend, "When did I die?"

Skyfire explained his improvement of the holoform, and then Miles explained what Starscream had video taped, and how he had played along convincingly because of the threat of Sam actually being killed. Skyfire even showed how graphic it could be, but kept it light. The last thing he wanted was either purging inside of him.

"Oh, poor Bee." Sam frowned, worried. How would his Guardian react?

Miles snorted, "More like poor Starscream if Bee ever gets ahold of him."

A team had been sent out to search for the base. Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, Blaster, Trailbreaker, Ironhide, Blurr, Wheeljack, and First Aid. Inferno, Jazz, Skids and Mudflap had followed as back up. They would find the landmarks seen in the short amount of video they had captured, and try to find it that way. This meant that the base had few mechs still on it.

Bumblebee and Barricade had been kept behind, and both were currently being avoided. Apart they were bad enough, but they were actually sticking together, and radiating anger and murderous intent. To the grown Cybertronians, anyway. Little Orion didn't mind at all.

Orion had been showing amazing development. He had already picked out his own names for everybody. It was one of the first things he had learned to do, though he couldn't actually talk. Just bable in sparkling speak with the occasional name sticking out.

Optimus was 'O', Trailbreaker was 'Ail', First Aid was 'Aid', Ratchet was 'it', Ironhide was 'Ide', Blurr was 'Bluh', Prowl was 'Owl', Barricade was 'Cay', Bumblebee was 'Bee', Sunstreaker was 'Eak', Sideswipe was 'Ipe', and there was others for the remaining Cybertronians. Will was 'Ill', Epps was 'Eep', Sam was 'Sa', Miles was 'Mi', Graham was 'Am', and Fig was 'Ig'.

Ratchet had determined that both of the upset Guardians needed some Sparkling therapy, and had dropped Orion on them and gave them babysitting duty.

Orion beat on his ped with a dollie that Sarah had made for him, looking up at Cay and Bee with bright optics. He knew something was wrong, everymech on base felt upset, but he couldn't figure out why.

He then realized that two of his favorite humans, the teens who always fed him energon goodies, weren't around. Mi and Sa always went with Cay and Bee. Always. It was a rule of his little world, one that had yet to change. Except for now.

He twisted this way and that, craning his little helm to look for them. Where they playing hide and seek? That game was always fun.

"What do you suppose he's looking for?" Bumblebee asked, glancing at Barricade. The ex-con just shrugged.

Orion looked up at the two, "Sa? Mi?"

Both looked at the sparkling with wide optics, not knowing what else to do. There was nothing they could do, Sam and Miles weren't there.

Optimus Prime looked down at the two humans and his fellow Cybertronian with weary optics. "Are you sure you want to..." He trailed off, trying to think of something better to say, but couldn't. "Keep him?"

"Big guy, it's not like he's a threat-" She started to say.

"I resent that!" Wheelie scowled up at the Warrior Goddess.

"-And he likes me. He's cute, too."

Trent snorted, "He humped your leg, Bunny. I'd say he definitely likes you."

Optimus vented softly, lifting his hand to rub away an imaginary head ache. Mikaela had captured Wheelie, and brought the tiny Decepticon to base. He had claimed Decepticon Neutrality, and had allowed Ratchet to turn off his communication relays, as well as any weapons he may have. Though the weapons had been second priority.

And now it seemed that Mikaela had grown attached to him, and wanted to keep him. That was just great.

Ratchet smirked, looking at all of them. An exasperated leader, one very amused human mech, one hopeful human femme, and a tiny Decepticon Neutral who was torn between excited, crushing hard on an organic, and scared by being around so many Autobots.

"What I'd like to know," Ratchet said, "Is just why it's always the teens bringing the Decepticons to base. Mikaela and Wheelie. Miles and Barricade. Miles, Sam, and Soundwave, though Miles is to mostly blame for that one, too."

Miles was eyeing all the buttons and other such controls on the control panel. He wondered what they were all for, and what they did. Skyfire noticed.

"Would you like to fly? You can take control of the wheel. I believe it is called a yoke."

Miles and Sam looked at each other with a grin. Neither thought Miles would actually be in control. Barricade had let Millie have control of the steering wheel without it affecting his actual driving course, and that had been included on the video he had shown everyone.

He grabbed the yoke, and not even a minute later he and Sam were screaming in terror.

"I suggest you turn us right side up and pull up." Skyfire said cheerfully, "We're heading towards the ground at a rather fast pace."

Somehow, Miles managed to do that. He wasn't sure if he had actually figured out how to, or if Skyfire was helping, but they were flying normally again after a few heart pounding minutes. He clung on to the yoke so tight his knuckles had turned white.

Sam had simply clung to his seat, screaming at Miles to figure it out and fix it. He was wide eyed and stared disbelievingly at the control.

"Why in the pit would you actually let Miles have control?" He hissed.

"I wanted to see how humans would react in a surprising and stressful situation."

Miles groaned, slumping down in his chair. He was really starting to hate the scientist part of Skyfire.

"Sam, I think I'm going to need major Bearapy when we get back."

"And what about me?"

"Beeapy."

They couldn't hear Skyfire laughing, but they could feel his frame shaking.

Skyfire had found somewhere to stop for the night, and Miles had walked to a store and bought clothes and washing products. Then he and Sam had bathed in a lake, though neither were going to complain. Luckily enough, Miles had still had his wallet on him. Of course, it wasn't like the Decepticons were interested in money.

After that Sam had fallen asleep, and Skyfire was following soon after. Only Miles was having trouble doing so, worried that somemech may come looking for them and they wouldn't hear in time, and over something else. He couldn't use his special little power anymore. He couldn't even feel a link with Skyfire when he was standing directly beside the mech.

He chalked it down to not being too serious. The databurst had probably taken a lot more out of him than he had originally thought. Maybe he just needed to recharge, even though sleep seemed out of the question.

The only thing he was worried about was when they neared base. He doubted they'd be willing to believe Skyfire right away. He could only hope that he would be recharged by the time that happened.

Maybe he'd go and buy some Monsters. That would give him an energy boost.

The next morning Miles was excited. It helped that he had a couple Monsters in him, and little sleep. But also because he'd only really had contact with Sam and Skyfire for almost two weeks now. He missed his mechs.

Sam and Miles got in Skyfire, and the mech seemed to fly faster this time around. They came near the base in nearly no time at all. They started out at 8 a.m., and reached a place just a few miles from base at 11:30 a.m.

They could see the base, and then they could see four mechs coming outside of it.

"My communication relays are down, Hook hadn't gotten to them yet. Miles, if you could contact them yourself?" Skyfire asked.

Miles brushed off an imaginary speck of dust, "I can't do that anymore."

"What?" Skyfire and Sam asked in near unison.

"I can't do that anymore. I thought maybe it needed time to come back after the databurst, but I think it's gone completely."

"Like Optimus said?" Sam asked, incredulous. The young Prime had held the belief that they all got a certain power for a reason, one brought through by Primus.

"Yeah." Miles nodded, "Like it was planned that I'd need it."

"Well, that presents a problem, I'm afraid." Skyfire said, tilting slightly to avoid a blast from a plasma cannon.

"Bumblebee!" Optimus scolded, turning a severe optic on the young Scout. "I said not to shoot yet!"

Bumblebee growled, "That's Skyfire, you can see the Decepticon symbol on his wing!"

"He's here for a reason, Bumblebee."

"Probably to taunt us! He killed Sam!"

Ratchet and Barricade watched as the two went back and forth. Ravage sat at Barricade's peds, watching in rapt amusement. Soundwave and the rest of the cassetticons were inside. Neither said anything until Skyfire was noticeably closer.

"Prime, he's closer." Ratchet said, "No attempts at contacting us. Orders?"

"I say we get out the Dewinger." Bumblebee muttered before Optimus could say anything.

Optimus sighed, "In this case I agree with Bumblebee. He will be harmed, but from that height the fall will not kill him."

The Dewinger was a tiny cicular device with a button at the top. A mech would press the button, throw the device at a Seeker, or anything with wings that was made out of metal, and it would open up, shooting thousands of tiny little barbs sharp enough to pierce the armor. Each barb housed a few different nanobots that specialized in taking out the Seeker's ability to control their own flight.

It had been used to take out a lot of Seekers during the Great War, which is why there are more 'ground pounders' than Seekers now.

Ratchet got out the Dewinger, handing it to Bumblebee silently. Bumblebee pushed the button, and then tossed.

They had watched Bumblebee throw something, but what it was they weren't sure. Skyfire had grunted when it connected, but otherwise nothing happened. They thought everything was okay until Skyfire's voice drifted out to them.

"I apologize, but you must take control of the yoke. They used the Dewinger."

Miles stared at the control panel in disbelief. Surely the scientist wouldn't be joking about such a thing right now, but it couldn't possibly be true. And then Skyfire started to tilt, diving towards the ground in free fall.

"The landing could possibly kill you. Please do so quickly."

Miles grabbed the yoke, and pulled up hard. They ended up upside down again.

"Miles, I swear to Primus I am having Will teach you how to fly a plane." Sam ground out, trying to keep his breakfast inside his stomach.

"At least we're not crashing into the ground!"

"Incoming shot on the right." Skyfire said helpfully, not sounding the least bit worried.

Miles, however, sent them spinning on accident, but they had avoided the plasma blast.

They all stared up at Skyfire in disbelief. They had used the Dewinger, and it had appeared to be working. The only reason it wouldn't was if someone else was able to fly the Seeker from the inside.

And whoever it was certainly wasn't trained at flying. They either barely avoided the multiple rounds from Bumblebee's cannon, or ended up shooting farther away than necessary.

The worst part was that when whoever had actually managed to turn Skyfire right side up, they had flown worse. Almost immediately the mech was upside down again, and flying better.

"Fire." Optimus finally ordered. Skyfire needed brought down.

All four did so.

Sam was yelling at Miles, Miles was trying to focus, and Skyfire was trying to be heard over Miles. It was a mess. Now all four were shooting at them, all because Skyfire couldn't talk to them. Miles was having a hard enough time dodging Bumblebee, let alone the extra three.

It was only then Skyfire remembered something. "I believe I may have something that will help."

"You just say this now?" Sam asked, being the only one to hear him. Miles was a lot more focused on making sure Skyfire wasn't hit.

"You try being asleep for as long as I was and see how long it takes your processor to completely reboot." Skyfire muttered defensively just as Miles barely dodged another blast.

"IF YOU KILL US WE'RE GONNA BE DEAD, AND I SWEAR I'M GOING TO COME BACK TO HAUNT YOUR FRAGGING AFT'S!" Miles yelled in frustration and anger, then closed his mouth again when he realized he could hear himself echoing.

"IF YOU KILL US WE'RE GONNA BE DEAD, AND I SWEAR I'M GOING TO COME BACK TO HAUNT YOUR FRAGGING AFT'S!"

Miles voice could be heard loudly, causing all four Cybertronians to seize fire. Then they could hear Sam snort.

"They heard that!"

"Frag you, Sam!"

They all stared in disbelief at the Seeker who was still flying upside down. Bumblebee scanned the mech immediately, letting out a happy click.

"There's two organics inside of him!"

"That's right, Bumblebee. He is Bumblebee, right?" Silence as he waited and got a response from one of the teens. "Good. I am officially joining the Autobots, and I hoped to return these two safely, but we have a problem. Miles lost his ability to communicate with us, my communication relays were down, and now I can not fly or land myself. Miles is currently in control of my flight pattern."

"Which sucks, so thanks! Now how the hell do I land him?"