Quick Note: It's about to get rather confusing, and I've had people complain about not knowing who's where. So I've gone to marking the scenes. If this bothers you, please review and let me know. Thank you.

L.S.

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Moonbase 1

The announcement came over the comm. Jade stood. "Well, here goes." She muttered, walking out of the room. She double checked her blasters, spare blasters, and suddenly wished she had a forcefield of some kind. She walked down the hall towards the shuttlebay, apprehension growing with each step. "I hope this isn't it."

She knew she should have told Prime and the others. But changing time would change nothing. She had found that even if you did change the course of events, things would still happen, but in another way. another series of events leading to the same end. She just hoped this was the changeable future this time, and not the set, unchangeable future...

Omega nodded. "See ya. Tell Alpha I said hi, please." He asked the femme, smiling slightly. Jade nodded.

------------------------

the Shuttle Lancet

Alpha turned on the vid link. "Alright, guys, you're clear to come. See you in a few hours." She smiled over.

"Hey, my med bay'd better be in one piece, kid!" Ratchet snapped.

"It is, Ratch. I haven't touched your half"

"...My HALF"

Alpha laughed nervously. She glanced over at Ironhide. "Hey, old coot, you'd better be ready for the energon we're loadin' up for ya"

"Ah'll show ya ol' coot, ya youngster!" Ironhide laughed.

Jade pressed the buttons on the navigation board with a little more force than nessesary. Prime's voice came through. "Jazz, report security status.

"No sign of any decepticon shennanigans in your area." The saboteur gave them an easy grin.

Jade had to smirk at his choice of words. He'd been away from Earth for the past twelve months, and he was still using terran slang. The other monitor flipped on, and Spike and Bumblebee came over. 'Hey Ironhide, tell my son Daniel I'll be home, just as soon as we kick the Decepticons's tails across the galaxy!"

"Will do, Spike." the van replied. Jade's smirk vanished and she poked the fianl button forcefully. That was it. The final line before the takeoff. She took a deep breath and hoped having one more person on sensor monitor duty would help detect the decepticon raiding party before they could reach the shuttle.

Prime's voice sounded again. "Cliffjumper, commence the countdown."

"Five..."

She could hear the whine of the engines starting.

"Four..."

She glanced over at Prowl, and past him at Jazz on the monitor.

"Best 'a luck guys." he said. Jade nodded back, only smiling a little knowingly.

"Three..." the whine loudened.

"two..." the monitors turned off

"One..." The shipe jerked, roaring into the jasper colored sy.

"Blastoff!" the small shuttle-ship left the planet's gravitation field, and glided into the starry expanse of space.

Omega watched it blast off. "Be careful."

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Autobot City calling the Lancet

Alpha sighed. She leaned against the wall. "I hope they'll be okay...something doesn't feel right..."

Alpha shut the vid link and leaned against the wall. She was worried. Not to mention a bit lonely. Rather than talking to her brother, Alpha had not been talking to anyone a lot lately. Her brother being seperated from her made her feel...weird...alone...like there was no one for her to talk to. So she had not talked to anyone. Not to mention the fact that Hammertread hadn't said much, but that was just the way he was and she knew it.

Alpha shook her head, thinking about her younger brother and how badly she wanted to hit him with a wrench or something, but couldn't. She hated to feel distant from her friends, but her brother had really been the one to help her when they both first joined the Autobots and got her used to the others...even though it had been her to make the 'Bots trust her brother...

The femme reached fowards and touched the vid link. Her friends' images appeared and she sighed. "Hey guys!"

Ratchet turned. "What now?" He grumbled.

"...Be careful, kay? I got that weird 'something's-gonna-happen' feeling." Alpha warned the older mechs. "Don't get yourselves killed. I don't wanna be repairing your bodies."

"We'll do our best, kiddo." Ironhide promised, smiling.

Jade glanced over, and jabbed at another button. Prowl lifted an optic ridge at her.

Ratchet saw her, "What's wrong, Jade?" He asked, typing.

Jade glanced at him out of the corner of her optic. "Nothing." she deadpanned, stabbing another button.

"Peachy. I'm just peachy." she glanced at Alpha

Alpha looked at Jade through the vid link. "somethin' wrong?" She asked, looking at her. She sensed the other's nervousness and, because of that, became nervous herself. She swallowed.

Jade glanced at her, then at Prowl. She had tried to tell Prime what was going to happen, but he didn't believe her. And because they didn't know exactly when it was going to happen, he had said there was no way to tell when it was going to happen.

"We cannot let an event that could happen any time hinder our efforts to defeat the Decepticons. " Prime had said."Since we don't know when this... is going to happen, we have no way of stopping it if it were to happen. we will inscrease security and sensor sweeps every time we send a shuttle to earth, but that is all I can do"

Jade had frowned deeply and walked out of his office, and started insisting on going on every shuttle run, which was slightly annoying to the crew, but Prime knew he couldn't tell them what was going to happen.

"You're afraid it might happen, still?" Prowl thought. Jade shot him a glare.
"yeah. don't remind me."
"The odds of that happening are 1 in 1170.35862"
"I don't need your estimates. I have intuition."
Prowl gave her a glance.
"intuition? I have reasoning."
"Tell that to your bonded four hours from now."
On the other end, at the moonbase, the third person caught this and put in his comment.
"I'm rechecking. calm down, geez!"
after a second Prowl glanced at Jade well
"like I said b'fore, guys, no cons in your area, not even a bleep or a blip." Jazz sounded like he rolled his optics.
"fine." Jade sounded a little calmer, at least. Maybe she was wrong. Maybe.

She caught a sudden sound. "It's only the engines. I'll be that stupid conduit's come loose again." Ratchet sighed, starting to get up.

"I got it." Jade hopped up past him towards the back. after she'd dissapeared into the cargo area, the CMO turned to Prowl. "Is it just me, or is she acting a little bit jumpy all of a sudden?"

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Autobot City

Alpha glanced at them and her stomach turned. She sat down and put a hand to her head. Something was going to go wrong. The woman in her knew it. She shook her head. "Primus..." She whispered, "Whatever's going to happen, I'm begging you...don't let anyone die...please...they're my friends...I can't loose them...the first and only friends I've ever had...please..." She finished the quiet prayer and looked up.

"Hey, Al! Wanna play poker?" Wheeljack offered.

"..."

Alpha paused. "I can't worry all the time...why not?" She smiled weakly; a fake smile. "Sure. I'm coming..." She left the computer and made her was over to him. "Why not?"

Sideswipe came over. "Hey, can I join in? I brought some high-grade." he smirked, swirling the orangey liquid around in it's container. He normally wouldn't drink it, the stuff reminded him of his brother too much. But in good company...

He took a seat and pulled out three shot glasses. Both of them had been mad at Prime for splitting them up like this. Prime had taken Sunstreaker to moonbase one with him, and left Sides on earth. He frowned, then pushed the thought away.

"Sure! Plop down!" Alpha smiled, taking one of the high grade. She took a few sips and realized what Sides was thinking. "I miss my twin too, Sides..." The femme sighed, sitting back and putting her feet up on the table as Wheeljack dealed the cards. "I can't believe Prime split us up..."

Sideswipe glanced at her, wondering how she knew. It didn't matter. He sat down.

Heavy footfalls sounded from the doorway, and the giant lumbering tank made his way in. "where've you been hiding out? trying to avoid Ultra Magnus?" Sideswipe quipped.

Hammetread looked over. "Mmm. over-stuffed general needs a kick in his skidplate." the tank complained. He'd just woken up, so he was trying to think of something sensible yet insulting to say. He grabbed the cube and meandered over, sitting down heavily. "Dumbaft put me on nightshift again.I've half a mind to kick him in the tailpipe myself. He doesn't trust me enough to do anything except gaurd duty and maintenance." he groused, taking a sip.

"Well, I've got something that'll cheer you right up." Sideswipe flashed a smile and poured a shot, sliding it towards him, then pulled out another.

The rec. room was strangely silent. Much different from the one at the Ark, where it was allways bustling with music and chatter. But Blaster had been assigned to communication duty up in the tower, and a lot of the other original crew had been shipped off to different places. Prime had taken some of them with him to the moonbase.

"no, Sides. Stop it. Thinking that way'll only make you miss him more." the red lambo chided himself. He poured a shot and quickly downed it in a single gulp.

Alpha took two or three shots before she spoke as well. Dang I miss my brother... She sighed, glancing at her cards; she betted and then took another shot. She finally spoke, "It's quiet...too quiet..." She smiled a bit and couldn't help but smile. Omega loved using that line. Her smile fell. She sighed and took another shot. If there was one good thing about being a pick up, they were tough; she never got drunk, not matter how she wanted to.

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Aboard the Lancet

Halfway into the nine-hour trip, Jad was back at her seat, the console beeping every once in a while. Ironhide was playing a card game of some sort on the computer.

Ratchet looked up at the scanners and then went back to playing something on a handheld. He sighed.

Jade glanced over at the mechs around her and sighed. It had been four hours, and nothing. She noticed a blip on Ratchet's screen.

"hey, what's that/" she pointed.

"Oh, probably an asteroid or something." Brawn said, rolling his optics.

"We're not gonna see them coming..." her thoughts trailed off as she glanced at Prowl and he glanced back.

Prowl glanced back at her, as if asking "You still think they're going to attack?" He continued to watch his screen.

"Quit being paranoid. You're as bad as huffer, sometimes." Brawn groused. Jade shot him a look. She looked back at Prowl.

"yes, obviously."

The tactician thought-sighed.

Ratchet rechecked the scanner. "It's only a small asteroid, about a hundred meters across. We can change course and avoid it completely." he looked over at the muave and blue femmeseeker. "Happy now?" Jade looked none too happy.

"Yeah, fine"

Ironhide spoke up. "jus try ta relax, Jade. We'll be there in no time, now."

Jade glanced at him with a smile. She'd never really gotten to know the mech. To bad she wouldn't get the chance to.

Prowl retyped the coordinates, and the shuttle started to move away.

A soft "tic-tic-tic" sounded from the back of the ship. Jade glanced back, her pistols appearing at her sides.

"It's probably the engines." Prowl reasoned.

Prowl looked at her and then continued to work.

The tic-tic turned into a tic-tic-thunk, and a slight tapping sound. Prowl stared at her with a scrutinizing look. After a minute, she turned back to the console. "How close are we going to come to that asteroid?" she asked.

"Oh for Primus's sake." Ratchet facepalmed. "Look. We are alone out here. The sensor haven't detected anything. The Decepticons are not coming to get us. calm down before I decide to sedate you." he deadpanned, glaring.

Jade gave him a puppy-dog-eyes look and turned back to the console. But she still kept her handguns at her sides.

Prowl nodded. "Jade, we're fine." He said, giving her the "stony" optics look. He went back to the scanners and reading what looked like a TF version of a Suduku puzzle.

She heard a soft "tic-tic" she glanced over her shoulder, fingers going back to where her guns lay holstiered at her sides. "It's probably just the ship's systems." Prowl sounded. She reluctantly turned back to the console. The sound came back, louder this time.

"tap tap WHAM!"

Before she could shout anything, the side of the shuttle imploded, and Decepticons poured through it. Jade flew out of her seat, Prowl almost simultaneously beside her. "Decepticons!" Brawn howled, running forward a ways.

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Autobot City

Alpha glanced up upon hearing padded footsteps walk down the hall and she started to count down, "3...2...1..."

But the "Kimchee!" and glomp never came. Instead, Kit, now a Transformer with the mind of a 13-year-old, came walking into the room, playing a vid game. She glanced up and looked at them, "Hey, Mom. HT. Jack. Sides."

Alpha waved, "Hey Kit." She mumbled. Kit had grown quiet a lot. There was no more sudden glomps, she had practically dropped the "uncle" and "Aunt" in front of almost every person's name. Alpha downed another shot. Kit was still her daughter, of course, but she wasn't the little ball of white fur Alpha used to know. Now...she was acting like a grown up, but she wasn't. Just a teenager.

Kit nodded and walked into another room, green optics sill glued onto the vid game. "Bye, Mom. HT. Jack. Sides. Charger."

Windcharger nodded.

Alpha sighed again and raised her bet. First Omega an' me split up now... She shot a glance to where Kit had disappeared, This...

The noise quieted for a second, and Wheeljack looked over at Alpha. He knew he could fake her out, simply because he had a 'natural' poker face, because he couldn't have facial expressions. So she wouldn't know how good his hand was anyways. His earpanels didn't even give the slightest hint.

Alpha looked at the cards and then at her hand and matched Windcharger's bet. She glanced over at Wheeljack

HT glanced over at Kit as she left and took another shot of high-grade.

Alpha sighed and glanced at the floor as she heard the door shut. She shook her head and swallowed down another shot.

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Aboard the Lancet

Everything became a blur of weaponfire as the jet fired bot handguns rapid-fire at the Decepticons. Brawn went down first, with a single shot to the fuel pump.
she didn't even look.

She heard something... no, someONE fall behind her. She kept firing.

"No! It can't end like this!" She fired faster, but they still kept coming.

Prowl made sure the controls were on auto-pilot and jumped out of his seat, his wepon blast narrowly missing one of the Constructicons' head. The constructicon fired back and Jade winced as she heard the metal crunch. She narrowed her optics, trying to concentrate.

The soft thud of metal hitting the flooring echoed behind the jet, along with an acrid scent of burning circuitry. "He didn't even have time to scream." she thought. She felt tears coming, but kept fring, determined to hit someone.

Something hit her shoulder. "Great. So this is how it ends!?"

Behind her, Ironhide and Ratchet jumped up at the same time, letting off a hellstorm of fire that made the entire Decepticon raiding group duck back behind cover. Megatron, in Starscream's hands, fired three more shots.

Bonecrusher fired, and Jade felt something hit her. A sudden pain through her systems. another one.

She heard Ironhide gasp, and a second thud behind her, and the floor rushed up to meet her.

The sound of shattering glass and crackling circuitry echoed from behind her faintly amidst the sound of weaponfire.

She tried to turn her head, knowing Prowl was right beside her. "I'm sorry." she tried to say, but everything had allready begun to fade to darkness. He couldn't hear her anyway. Not yet...

--------------------------------

Autobot City

Alpha glanced over at the controls and tapped them. "Autobot City to incoming shuttle. Ya hear me?"

No response.

"I repeat. Do you hear me?"

"Nothing."

"Al, stop worrying. Jade's made you as big a worrier as her with all that talk. They're fine." Wheeljack grinned, playing the river.

"...You're probably right..." Alpha nodded, walking over. She cast a worried glance at the computer, but went back to downing shots and playing with her teammates.