Arcee's gaze was hard as she stood amongst the crowd. Her servos were clenched as her arms hung loosely at her sides. The voices of those speaking around her in the meeting room was processed by her audio receptors, yet she gave the outward appearance of someone who did not care about her surroundings.

But she did care. She cared so much that her spark clenched with pain, yet trembled with anger.

She thirsted for justice, she hungered for it.

But she needed answers. Above all, she needed to know how this attack happened, who attacked the Selecteds.

And why Bumblebee had to die.

She blinked her optics at the thought, the only movement she had done since the meeting began.

Bumblebee. In just months ago, she had been faced with an unimaginable chance at a life with him. It had all seemed too perfect, too well planned out. The fact that Bumblebee, the mech who had slowly stolen her spark, was the same mech she was to bond with; it had been too good to be true.

And it had been. Because the universe itself wanted to remind her that perfect moments like that were not hers to keep.

She narrowed her optics. Why not? Why could she not have that life she desired? Who had the right to take that all away from her? Who had the right to not only take Bumblebee away from her, but to slaughter all of her friends and comrades as well?

As was stated before, she demanded answers, just as everyone else did.

In fact, that was what all the chaos and confusion in the meeting was about. Threats were being made, accusations were thrown around, demands had yet to be met. Only the level-headed bots kept everything under tight control. But even maintaining sanity was a challenge in of itself.

She had not spoken a word, not even bothered to voice her thoughts and queries. But she was formulating a plan, a call to action.

She had everything set, all she needed was to speak to Megatron. The question was whether or not he would allow her to conduct her mission.

The meeting came to a close, and before anyone was heading out of the large, spacious room, Arcee was already slipping outside. Her steps were brisk and full of purpose, and she made no sound in the wide, empty halls.

"Arcee," a voice said suddenly, stopping her in her tracks.

She turned to regard the speaker with narrowed optics. "What?" she snapped.

A turquoise femme stepped out of the shadows, and Arcee immediately recognized her as Moonracer. She dimly regretted her harsh tone, yet she pushed that aside and labeled it as a minor offense on her part. There were more pressing matters to attend to then being harsh with someone.

"What can I do for you?" Arcee began, but Moonracer was already speaking, her own optics narrowed.

"I hear you are putting together a team," the Autobot said.

Arcee nodded. "Yes. Barricade is organizing the team of scouts. I am just a member with my own inside group of professionals."

"And what do you hope to find with this group?" Moonracer inquired.

"Answers," Arcee answered swiftly. "Confirmation."

Moonracer's blue optics narrowed even further. "Confirmation that they are dead?" she demanded.

"It has been agreed that no one survived," Arcee answered, and she hated how emotionless her voice sounded. Yet that was the answer an Heir would give to a subject of Cybertron. An answer a Decepticon would give.

Not the answer of a friend.

"You do not know that," Moonracer said lowly.

"The acid rain destroyed everything. Who we could save were far from the living when we managed to pull them through." She stared at Moonracer, unblinking. "There were no survivors."

"Don't tell me what I already know!" Moonracer snapped suddenly, her optics sparking and her servos balled into fists.

"What would you have me say?" Arcee replied back, her tone sharp. "I have no answers that I can give you." She controlled her tone more evenly. "But I can promise you that their deaths will not go unanswered."

Whatever fury Moonracer had felt slowly drained away from her, only to be replaced with despair and confusion. "You mean to find answers." It was not a question, but a statement of understanding.

"I mean to do my best," Arcee said. What she did not say was that she would not stop at 'her best.' She would search for answers, look for any traces of who was responsible even if it took her thousands of years.

"Let me join," Moonracer said suddenly.

Arcee finally blinked, a moment of confusion cracking through her facade. "What?"

"Let me join your team," Moonracer said firmly.

"If you wish to join the Decepticons scouting reformation," Arcee said, stressing the word 'Decepticons' to the Autobot she was addressing "You may speak with Barricade about it."

"I am aware of the mobilizations," Moonracer interrupted. "They are only looking for bodies and pieces of discoveries to present to the public." She grimaced. "The team is made of brutes who relish spilling energon instead of providing what I need." She looked at Arcee. "I do not personally know you well. But I do know of you. You are thorough, ruthless. You require results and will not finish half way." She cocked her helm. "Even now, I can see it in your optics, hear it in the tremble of your voice that this is personal to you. But it is more than that; you are aware of what needs to be done, and you will do whatever it takes to succeed at your goal."

Arcee was silent for a moment before answering the resolute femme before her. "Why come to me?" she asked. She had a fairly good idea why, but she needed to hear the reason from the femme's own mouth.

At this, the pain came in full force for Moonracer. "Bumblebee was like my brother. I loved him. I loved him so much that my spark hurts at not knowing what happened, or why." Her optics hardened, and Arcee felt that in that moment she was staring at a different femme entirely. "I will aid you in finding the ones who did this to my friend. I will aid you my weapon, and my spark, if only to bring swift and cruel justice to the bloody killers who dared to stain Cybertron with innocent energon."

"Let us hope it does not come to that," Arcee said, speaking of Moonracer offering her life. "But," she hesitated for a moment, a wry smile coming across her lips. "Well said." She cocked her helm. "You said before that the teams you had seen were made of brutes. Well, I can honestly say that this team of mine is no different. But I selected them specifically for the very reason you and I are here." She smirked at Moonracer. "And because of their particular expertise in certain fields."

"Sounds promising," Moonracer said, though she did not look as optimistic as she had before.

Arcee shrugged. "They are no Megatron and Soundwave, but they are legends in their own right. And they are legends that I trust to an extent." She turned away from the femme and strode for her destination. "When you sign up, you will be introduced to your comrades. I will let the past results speak of the team."

She did not hear Moonracer respond, but she did not turn to look back. The reason being because she was in a hurry to get to her destination. But another was because she did not need Moonracer to see the pain in Arcee's optics. The femme was good at reading other bots, and Arcee did not need to be read by a complete stranger. Well, she was not necessarily a complete stranger, but Moonracer was not someone Arcee knew well.

Moonracer was not the only one who loved Bumblebee. Arcee's spark picked up a quicker pace at the thought. What she and Bumblebee had was so new. She could not rightly say that it was love.

But, if they had been given the time, maybe she would have come to identify the feeling as love.

But she would never get the chance, as it had been stolen from her.

These thoughts plagued her as she sat in the cold, dark office she had arrived in. She was mercifully pulled away from such grim fantasies when the door opened to reveal Megatron striding in.

"Why am I not surprised?" he stated with a grunt.

She slid off of his desk where she had been perching. "Because you knew this was coming."

"Indeed I did," Megatron said. "I am only surprised that it took you this long to come to me finally. I have not seen you since the attack."

"For good reasons," she answered as he placed the datapads down carelessly on the desk. He remained standing, watching her with his red optics.

"I have a proposition," she began.

He hummed, folding his servos behind his back. "This ought to be interesting."

"Allow me to partake of a team to seek answers to all this confusion," she said. "The techniques I would use are different, thus would yield different results and hopefully further insight into all this chaos."

"We cannot even be sure that the attackers are even Cybertronian," Megatron stated. "There were no witnesses, no evidence. What bodies there were are destroyed from the acid rain."

"And yet you have not given up," Arcee said. "You have drawn your own conclusions."

Megatron just stared at her.

"Conclusions that you have yet to share," she finished, meeting his stare. "But, I have my own conclusions to draw as well."

"We already have many teams out dispatched to find answers," Megatron answered. "Even now, they are covering vast territories of Cybertron."

"My team will be dispatched in a different location," she said, withdrawing a datapad of her own and sliding it over to Megatron. "And we will be stationed much closer to home." She smirked. "So close, that you might get tired of us." She nodded at the datapad. "The details that I have gathered are inside."

Megatron merely glanced at the list of names on the datapad before looking back up at her. "Yes, I will certainly get tired of the company you keep."

"But only a temporary relationship," she replied.

He was silent as he leaned back, optics dim as he was lost in thought. "You will be emotional, considering what has happened."

"I will use that emotion to drive my blades through the spark of whoever is responsible," she replied coldly.

He chuckled. "I am sure you will." He leaned forward, seemingly coming to a decision. "You must report to me."

"Of course," she replied. "Do I even have a choice? These are your comrades I am working with, and their loyalty is to you. You would find out about what I do even if I did not report to you."

"Do give Soundwave a break," Megatron muttered. "He was doing his job, and it is the only reason he is alive for so long. You cannot buy loyalty like that."

"Nor can you buy trust," Arcee replied evenly. Yes, the bitterness she felt over Soundwave's slight betrayal in revealing her relationship with Bumblebee still hurt, but it was a mountain of hurt buried beneath everything that had happened in the past months.

"So what are your terms?" she asked swiftly.

"You know of my terms," Megatron answered, sliding the datapad back to her. "See what you can glean from your findings. This event has left everything we do and say out in the open."

"The treaty is not in any danger?" she asked, unable to hide her surprise.

He shook his helm. "As of yet, no. We cannot pin the blame on Autobots or Decepticons. Both sides lost Selected participants. No evidence points at a likely enemy." More softly, he murmured. "It was as if they were deliberately trying to create confusion with no clear victim."

"What do you mean no clear victim?" she demanded. "Dozens of Autobots and Decepticons are dead!"

"Besides the casualties," Megatron answered. "No one was framed, no one has come forth to claim responsibility for the deaths. No one was painted as the villian. As of yet, our attacker, our enemy, remains anonymous." His face hardened. "And I despise cloaks and mirrors when I am not the one using it."

"Better to shoot at them when you can see the enemy," she commented.

"This hiding in the shadows attack is more of Soundwave's forte," Megatron said. "He has been working on identifying the true culprit behind all this needless mess. I have not seen him in many weeks, and I am expecting great results from him."

"As am I," she said. She dipped her helm in acknowledgment. "Thank you, Lord Megatron for hearing me out."

Megatron nodded. "You have changed in these past months. And I love it. I am seeing more of the Decepticon I have raised rise up in all this chaos." He smiled, optics glinting. "I expect great results from you as well."

Arcee narrowed her gaze, understanding what he meant. In being a Decepticon, no one would be spared. She would show no mercy to anyone she found guilty. Megatron and Arcee did not mention anything about Bumblebee. He was dead, and it would only serve to drive her forward in avenging his death and making the enemy suffer.

As she walked toward her destination, she became aware of the looming silence around her. Just because she did not speak of Bumblebee did not mean she did not think of him often.

She just could not speak of him without breaking down in an emotional mess.

Breaking down would bring her nothing. It would not serve to find who was responsible for his death. She needed a clear helm and a hardened spark.

She had both.

The doors to the lab opened, and she rolled her optics at the sight before her. "Knock Out, please leave the poor femme alone."

"You did not tell me we were having such illustrious company," Knock Out said, still grinning at Moonracer who had inched away from the red doctor. He seemed to have ignored Arcee's order, yet he did not pursue Moonracer any further.

"I look forward to getting acquainted with you," Knock Out said with a smirk, red optics lighting up as he reached for Moonracer's servo.

"I am bonded!" Moonracer snapped, yanking her servo away.

"Liar," Knock Out commented with a purr.

"Well, I will be!" Moonracer said, slightly flustered.

Arcee glanced at Ark, who was standing in the shadows. At Arcee's silent order, Ark strode forward with barely a sound and positioned herself right behind Moonracer, her glare fierce. Although Moonracer was unaware of Ark's intimidating presence, Knock Out surely was. The red doctor narrowed his optics before retreating to his own space, grumbling to himself.

"Must he join us?" Moonracer asked desperately, looking at Arcee with pleading optics.

"Unfortunately, yes," Arcee said as she strode fully into the room. "We will require his expertise." She cocked an optic ridge at Moonracer. "I did say they were brutes, though not of the famous type."

"A doctor is not needed for a scouting mission!" Moonracer exclaimed.

"Quite the contrary," Ark commented. "A doctor is needed for most any mission, as they are required for many medical needs that may arise in the unpredictable situations that may occur."

"You're right, he is not needed," Arcee interrupted. "Not in the way Moonracer means. But he is needed for dissecting difficult objects, such as performing what he claims art on a body."

"I polish my blades for this very reason," Knock Out called out cheerfully. "So many things can be found out when you open up another Cybertronian."

"Which is why, unfortunately, we need you," Arcee commented.

Moonracer's optics widened in horror when she realized what Arcee meant. She actually looked sick. "Y-you mean…" She squeezed her optics shut, bracing herself. "We are not heading out to scout or search for anything, are we?"

"Well, we are searching for something," Arcee admitted as she approached several tables that were currently covered with sheets. "Just not in the way you had thought." She looked back at the Autobot. "If you wish to back out, there is no harm done."

Moonracer took in several calming breaths before opening her optics to look at Arcee. Her servos were shaking, and she clenched them to stop from doing so. Arcee felt a little sorry for the femme. Maybe springing all of this on her was a bit harsh, but she did volunteer rather suddenly.

"If it will yield information," Moonracer said, her voice wavering slightly. "Then...then I am in."

Arcee nodded. "Good."

"What fun," Knock Out smirked as he wielded his buzzsaw, approaching the tables that were covered in sheets. "Ladies, bodies, can this day get any better?"

"You will not touch the bodies until I have overlooked each and everyone of them," a cold voice stated, catching everyone's attention.

Knock Out deflated. "And he ruins it," he muttered.

Arcee turned to address the speaker who entered the room, his looming form intimidating and easy to recognize by just looking at his one optic. "Shockwave, I am glad you decided to join us," she said.

"I have dissected many bodies for many reasons," the Decepticon scientist said as he approached her calmly. "But never to solve multiple murders."

"Then this will be a new experience for the both of us," Arcee said as she stepped out of his way. Out of the corner of her optic, she could see how Moonracer was fearfully watching Shockwave. It just occurred to her that Moonracer was the only Autobot in a room full of Decepticons, one of them infamously known among all Autobots.

Yet despite it all, the femme seemed to be holding herself together.

Barely.

Truth be told, Arcee was slightly uneasy about this as well. Examining the dead bodies of the Selected Autobots and Decepticons they had previously failed to rescue from the attacks was not appealing to her at all.

But they were dead, and she would use them to find whoever was responsible for their deaths, and hopefully avenge them in the process.

She let out a silent breath and became aware that they were waiting for her to start. "Very well," she said, pulling back a sheet to reveal the corpse. "Let us see what the dead have to tell us."