Sorry this took so long! Although it's technically only one day late...

Had trouble actually starting to write this chapter, but once i started, I got done fast!

My muse for writing this is also back, full blast!

Today I managed to plane out every chapter from now until the end of the story!

I won't tell how many though~

I do not own Transformers, Hasbro and the other companies do!

Enjoy~

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To Gabriel, one who was not prone to laughing at another's pain, the situation was getting tricky. With Jetfire stumbling through just about every hot spring or geyser and releasing a strong of curses or yelping in shock, Gabriel had to press a hand over his mouth to hold back his laughter.

The large bot then managed to lodge a toe into one of the geyser openings just as a jet of boiling water shot up at him. The bot yelled in surprise and fell back on his "aft". Gabriel couldn't stop himself from releasing a snort of laughter.

"Shut up!" Jetfire snarled, yanking his foot free. "This isn't funny!"

Gabriel grinned behind his hand and walked toward the smoking, steaming bot. "I know, we're here on business."

Jetfire gave him a hard look, but couldn't find a way to snap back at him, as he obviously wanted to.

"Maybe you should stay here while I look for the Energon source?" Gabriel suggested.

"No." Jetfire pressed firmly, narrowing his optics at the human. "My scanners indicate that the source is below sea-level. That means it's either in a sulfur pool or in a geyser and from what you're told me, either means death for your kind." The bot finished with a huff.

Gabriel patted a metal plate on Jetfire, nearest him. He immediately regretted it as the metal was still searing hot and he ended up clutching his hand under his armpit. "Then you'll just have to deal with the tripping."

Jetfire let out a low growl at that, but otherwise didn't respond.

The pair continued, weaving through Yellowstone National Park. They were currently in an area far from the normal public eye, as there were far too may geysers and sulfur pools to be safe. As it was, Gabriel was pushing it. His lungs were starting to feel raw from the sulfur, not to mention the smell, and he had several seared, red spots on his arms from the occasional sprinkle of water.

Jetfire was just managing to dent himself just about every 20 yards and was physically steaming because of the water on his overheated metal armor.

Neither was very happy with the situation and both doubted they'd find Optimus here. After all, even if 500 years had passed, there should have been at least the remnants of a sizable crater in the area. In Yosemite, such a thing would have been long ago reported and Optimus would likely have been found by curious, probing scientists. Gabriel winced at the thought. What if Optimus had already been found and was some government's well kept secret? The Autobot leader, offline or online, would be the subject of many experiments that were guaranteed to not be pleasant.

"Hm."

Gabriel looked up at the bot next to him. Jetfire had a slightly puzzled look on his face, although he hadn't stopped moving.

"What?"

"This entire park is an active volcano." Jetfire said, staring ahead.

"Excuse me?" Gabriel was stunned of course. He'd never heard that. He didn't even know how it would be possible!

"According to some online sources, this entire area is a huge volcano. If it erupts, it could wipe out this entire country, essentially."

"Then where's the crater?"

"We're standing in it. The rim of the crater is only a few feet above sea level."

Gabriel glanced down at the terrain around them, saw nothing unusual, then looked back up to question the Autobot further.

"There." Jetfire said before Gabriel could speak. His arm pointed down toward a particularly deep looking sulfur pool. "The signal's coming from there."

Gabriel made a mental note to research the volcano later as he approached the pool. He couldn't get very close though, as the stench and heat coming off of it was too much for him to bear.

"You go on ahead... I'll stay here." He said, coughing slightly into his palm.

Jetfire didn't look too pleased about getting into the water, but he only nodded slowly and took a step toward the pool. He sunk in one oversized foot at a time, the pool releasing extra steam as he did.

After only two hesitant steps from the Autobot, the ground in the pool dropped away and Jetfire splashed into the water, loosing his balance. One foot had been on the level pool bottom, but the other had only a hole to fall into. Jetfire pulled himself up, as he'd fallen on his face on the other end of the pool. He was very obviously standing in a hole of some sort because the sulfurous water reached up to his cockpit windows on his chest.

"What the slag....?" Jetfire cursed slightly. His arms began moving around in the water, looking for a ledge. He found one and yanked himself out of the hole with about as much grace as a sopping wet robot could manage. Turning around, he shoved his head back into the water, trying to peer down into the hole.

Gabriel wondered just how much the bot could actually see through the murky water. Jetfire might have some sort of optic adjustion for it, but he couldn't be sure.

From there, Jetfire began easing the rest of his body into the hole. As soon as his feet were the only thing sticking above the surface, he started to kick around. Gabriel winced and stepped out of the way of the flying water, wondering if he'd gotten stuck.

Suddenly, the jet engines attached to the sides of his legs swiveled downward before reattaching themselves firmly. The only difference was that the engines now fired in the opposite direction. Gabriel guessed what the Autobot was planing just second before it happened.

The engines roared to life, firing downward towards the water, the water hissing violently as it was heated up even more. The extra lift managed to pull Jetfire halfway out of the hole before he pulled the rest of his body out by hand, his engines shutting off.

Gabriel watched as the Autobot shook himself off, wading out of the pool. He noticed that Jetfire was clutching something in one hand. If that was what the source of the Energon signal was, then they'd failed again. Neither of them really thought that Optimus would be here somewhere, but it was still a bit of a disappointment.

"Is that it?" Gabriel asked, pointing to his hand.

Jetfire glanced down at his hand, before nodding silently.

"What is it?"

Jetfire opened his hand and held the small, box-like object in his fingers near the boy. To Gabriel, it was about the size of an old Windows desktop computer. It looked like it had been torn out of a large machine because each side of the box had frayed and ripped wires sticking out of each end.

"This is Optimus's communication processor. If this was ripped out during his battle... It explains why he couldn't contact Cybertron." Jetfire sighed slightly. "There's still some energon in it, which is why we picked up the signal."

Jetfire set the processor down in front of were obviously going to take it with them, so he'd most likely be expected to somehow get it into his cockpit. Gabriel held back the urge to groan as Jetfire started to transform.

Now he had to figure out a way to get himself, the Matrix, and the processor all up into the already too-high door to Jetfire's cabin. It was going to be tricky.

There was far to much ice. Far, far too much. This place, Canadia, scratch that, it was called Canada, was too cold for his liking. Starscream silently cursed that fake Wikipedia article that said this country was a pleasant temperature year round. It was also the same source that had said it was called Canadia.

Shaking off his petty hatred of whatever spammer had screwed the page up, the Aerial Decepticon focused once again on his task at hand.

After his meeting with Jetfire, he'd gone off to search the planet thoroughly. He had his suspicions, but he knew nothing for sure.

Prior to researching all the Energon signals in the area, Starscream had set off to find the nearest one that seemed most likely to hold his goal. That place had been a good sized signal coming from Canada. In a glacier. Ugh, he hated ice.

On several planets, he'd been caught in a northern area during what was equivalent to winter and had gotten his circuits and joints frozen solid. In one extreme case, he'd been put offline for the entire season because of it!

He much preferred the hot planets, even if they occasionally melted his wire casings. At least he could still function in extreme heat. Unfortunately, this was where he had to search now.

Starscream flew lower over the glacier. His scanners said he'd be near the area in about a mile, which would go by very quickly at this speed.

Judging by the looks of things, it was also buried deeply in the ice. Great. He'd have to waste precious energy digging out what might be nothing special. Oh well, he had to do it.

Gradually slowing down and circling over the area he need to get to, he kicked on the booster's under his wings so he could descend onto the ice sheets safely.

The moment his wheels touched the ice, Starscream's entire body flinched instinctually. While it was hardly the worst he'd faced, it certainly wasn't pleasant. He quickly shifted his form, crouching back on his heels as he assembled his body parts. Unfortunately, as soon as he stood out, he felt the ground disappear under his feet. his weight shifted too quickly and he found himself parallel to the icy surface before colliding into it with a loud crash. He'd slipped on the ice! How was he that clumsy?! Clenching his hands into fits, he pushed himself up off of the ice, but quickly found himself struggling for balance again. This time he landed on his face in the ice.

Starscream cursed the frozen liquid to the pits before deciding on a better idea. Now he pushed himself up so he was sitting on his aft in the ice. He planned to slide over to the nearby area where the signal was coming from.

With a few scoots, he found himself a few yards from the source, though he couldn't see it. His sensors said it was still several feet beneath him. It was an obvious job for the cannons on his arms. When he shifted into his normal mode, the heavy engines under his wings, used to make him hover, transferred onto the tops of his arms. Now, he aimed them down at the ice. His left arm folded backward into the cannon, completing it before it started to hum to life. A red glow built up in the back of the barrel slowly, the bot charging it for a heavy attack. After several moments, he let the shot fly out of the barrel of the gun. The shot, a glowing red fireball, held together by a plasma center, smashed into the ice, instantly melting through it. Starscream of course slid across the ice a great distance from backlash, which he was not pleased at all about.

He shoved himself back toward the crater in the ice he made. The hole was nearly seven feet deep from his estimates. The fire had melted it mostly, so the hole was filled with water. In the bottom of the pool though, he saw what he was looking for. He couldn't see exactly what it was, but he knew that was the source. All he saw from the object were a few wires sticking out of the ice at the bottom of the pool.

Starscream pointed his cannon back down into the hole, firing off much small fireball that would have been just enough to melt the ice around the object. He was right.

Flipping his arm back out and deactivating the cannon, Starscream leaned into the hole, reaching for the object. He snagged the small object between two fingers and pulled it carefully out of the puddle.

Upon examination, he recognized the piece of wreckage almost immediately. It was Megatron's optic sensor. Well, it was one of the two. The unlit red bulb and the torn wire components hanging out the back were lifeless and dull looking, but it represented a hope for him. This proved it. They were here. Optimus and Megatron had to be somewhere on this planet.

Grinning to himself, Starscream stored the delicate piece in the cockpit on his chest. Part of him wondered if it had been Optimus's doing that had ripped the optic from it's socket, or if it had been the entry into this planets atmosphere. He doubted the Autobot leader would do something like that, but he couldn't be sure.

Now that he'd found this area's source of energon, he had to keep searching.

With an Autobot here, one who obviously already knew what this planet held, he had his work cut out for him. It was turning into a race against time.

Well, Blurr was certainly enjoying having company. Especially since his company had about the same amount of patience with him that Jetfire had. It made things interesting.

"Yeah... So I'll be gone at least a few days... It might be more." Dena sighed into the phone, lounging in Blurr's front seat. Blurr hummed impatiently. She'd been on the phone for too long. He wanted company.

Because of the noise though, Dena kicked him on his dashboard. He shut up and silently wondered how she'd managed to flex her leg up that far and around the steering wheel. The girl certainly had some impressive skills.

"No, it's not a family matter... Let's just call it downtime. Yeah, vacation days." Rolling her eyes slightly Dena muttered a goodbye to what Blurr assumed was her boss in some way, before snapping the cell phone shut.

"You just won't give me any peace will you?" Dena huffed at him.

Blurr would have grinned if he'd had a mouth. "Nope!" he chirped.

Dena shook her head and turned the radio up slightly. Almost immediately, Blurr started to rock to the beat under her. She was obviously resisting smacking him or telling him off by the way her lips were pursed. He held back a chuckle to keep her from scuffing up his dashboard with her boots more.

"So, how much farther is this signal?" she asked.

"Not-much-farther! Just-around-this-bend-actually!" Blurr replied happily, taking the turn on a corner much to fast for Dena's liking, as she held onto the chair from both sides.

Blurr loved open roads, because he could kick his engine into high gear and fly off down the pavement. No way could he do that here. They were on a curvy mountain road with cliffs on one side and a rocky incline on the other. Now, that wasn't to say he didn't love driving on mountain roads either. He just couldn't take off like he usually did.

Just then, a large, crystal blue lake came into view. Blurr heard Dena gasp lightly as she saw it. It was just one of the many lakes that dotted the Tian Shan mountains in Kyrgyzstan. Luckily, this was also the one where the Energon signal was coming from. Well, not so much the lake, as one of the water falls that connected into it. Blurr suspected that the waterfall they were looking for had probably been shaped by what had crashed there, whether it was Optimus or just some piece of scrap that happened to contain energon.

"Wow..." he heard Dena murmur in awe. She was still stunned by the view, even though they had more important things to do.

"Back-to-business!" Blurr reminded her. The girl pried her eyes from the view and looked down at the symbol on Blurr's steering wheel, as she often did when speaking to him.

"Okay, but explain to me again what we're doing?"

"We're-going-to-the-source-of-the-energon-signal-which-seems-to-be-in-a-waterfall-near-the-lake-according-to-my-sensors!"

Dena sat up in the seat and peered around the edges of the lake that she could see. After a few seconds, she sighed and shook her head. "I don't see it."

"That's-because-it's-just-to-the-left-of-us!" Blurr explained as they took a right turn, descending farther into the lake valley. It was after that turn that a clearing could be seen on the left side of the road farther up. There was also a bridge, which indicated that the waterfall was up ahead and the water went under the road.

Within seconds, Blurr pulled off to the side of the road, encountering a chained set of bars that was used to prevent cars from driving closer to the waterfall.

"Well now what?" Dena asked, noticing the block.

"Get-out!"

"What?" Dena blinked at him, confused.

"Get-out-so-I-can-change! I-told-you-we're-called-Transformers-for-a-reason!" Blurr huffed, like it was obvious.

Dena nodded, furrowing her eyebrows though. Unbuckling her seat belt, she opened the car door and got out. Blurr opened the door of the other side of his body before he began to transform.

At first, only the back end of his car mode began to move. The parts twisted and shifted, beginning to separate into four distinct segments. Two of those, shifted up, reconnecting themselves securely near his front wheels. Arms began to take shape from those segments. As the back segments began to take the shape of legs, his tail lights twisting to the front to rest under what would be his knees. He pushed himself up then, as the top of his body began taking shape. The entire front section of the car began to break into several pieces, not moving far, but just opening up onto his chest. His head came out from under his hood, which bent down over his head, forming what looking like a helmet. His car doors stayed extended on his back, looking similar to wings.

Dena gaped at him, tensing up and automatically putting a hand on the weapon at her hip. He knew she wouldn't hurt him, but he suspected that was just a habit for her.

"I-like-this-new-form!" Blurr said then, eyeing himself. As short of a bot as he was, the form made him look very sleek. He had all of his lights on the front of his body, which would be helpful in the dark, he had wheels that he could retract under his heels to skate on, and he even had a glass visor, only a slim strip of glass, that flipped down over his blue optics.

"Aliens robots... Right..." Dena groaned, as if remembering something. She turned away from him then and walked around the road block, toward the waterfall. "Let's go, we're wasting time."

Blurr had to admire her work ethic. He hummed slightly to himself and hoped over the low road block, following his human companion towards the waterfall.

"So where is the signal exactly?" she asked after a minute of hiking.

"Just-behind-the-falls." He responded, checking his scanners again.

She gave a nod and examined the falls. "I don't think you can fit behind there. I can see a hole, but it doesn't look big enough for you."

Blurr glanced down at her, then looked at the waterfall. She was right. "Then-you-go-in!" he suggested.

She gave him a pointed look, but nodded. "What am I looking for?"

Blurr stopped on one side of the waterfall. They'd made it to the base, but now Dena would have to make her way back into the small cavern behind the falls.

"Anything-that-looks-suspiciously-unearth-like-and-looks-like-a-piece-of-alien-technology!" Blurr said. Then he paused, considering something, before he added "Preferably-a-large-blue-bot-though!"

Dena raised an eyebrow at him.

"Larger-than-ME!" He huffed. Dena gave him a triumphant grin. She knew he was small compared to the other bots. She'd gotten that off of him.

Dena than turned back to business and walked toward the pool at the base of the waterfall. There was a sign that said no swimming, but she ignored it and waded in.

"At-least-my-chest-plates-are-the-correct-proportion..." Blurr huffed quietly to himself.

Before he even realized where it had come from, a rather large, wet rock smacked him hard across the chest. He stumbled back out of surprise and turned his optics on Dena. Apparently, she'd heard him. The human girl was giving him the most furious glare he'd ever seen.

"Yes, I know my breasts are small, but I don't need to hear that from an alien ROBOT!" she shouted at him, before turning in a huff and moving quickly towards the waterfall.

Blurr held back a snicker. He'd learned quickly in his few hours with Dena that she was extremely sensitive to her undersized chest-plating. He teased her about it, but he knew he shouldn't. It probably hurt to hear it from another human, but she just seemed to get into an angry rage when he mentioned it.

Dena quickly disappeared behind the waterfall then. Blurr waited patiently for several minutes, waiting for the girl to return.

When he heard the splash of her wading back through the water, he turned to spot her carrying something. It was obviously heavy, so it was mostly held down below the water as she came toward him, grunting every so often.

"What IS this?" she asked through clenched teeth.

Blurr wasn't sure what it was himself, at least not until she dumped it on the rocky bank for him to see.

If it was possible for a robot to pale, Blurr would have turned as white as a ghost. As it was, his optics dimmed visibly, the strength seeming to drain from his limbs as they went slack.

"No... Impossible..." Blurr murmured under his breath, not fast for once.

Dena frowned and watched him before looking at the object she had found. It was only a black, roundish object, but to Blurr it was extremely important. It was essentially what had just killed off all hope he'd had over the last 500 years.

It was Optimus's empty Spark Chamber. He was dead.

"He's gone..." Blurr said, lowering himself down on his knees to pick up and examine the Spark Chamber.

"Who is?! What is that thing?!" Dena exclaimed at him. Blurr's sudden attitude change had obviously startled her and alerted her that something was very wrong here.

Blurr set the Spark Chamber down in front of her again, his face falling. "It's Optimus's Spark Chamber... It's like... A robot's heart."

Dena immediately stared at it. "So that means without it... He's dead..."

Blurr nodded. "Megatron must have ripped it out in their battle... Optimus lost."

Dena seemed to sober as well, her eyes turning down toward the dead Spark Chamber.

After so long, hoping that there was a chance... Now what?

Shockwave walked emotionlessly towards the main Space Bridge in the Decepticon headquarters. On each side of him was a line of loyal followers. More specifically, they were Megatron's followers, just waiting somewhat patiently for their leader's return. For now, they would follow his orders though.

After Megatron disappeared, his second-in-command took over, but most Decepticons hated him, so they over-threw him. They placed Shockwave into the position of leader instead. He'd taken it, not gladly, but with the knowledge that he could keep the Decepticons in working order until Megatron returned. Just as well, he'd sent out scouts in search of their leader.

Now he suspected, it wouldn't be the scouts that found him. It would be him.

Over the last week, he'd been informed of unusual Autobot behavior. A strange message had been intercepted from a scout named Jetfire. Even the Decepticons knew of this Autobot and his post-battle struggles. Although he hadn't been able to break the code, Code 386 in specific, he suspected it was important, because they'd never intercepted that kind of coded message before. Even stranger, they had sent the Head Intelligence Autobot, Blurr, out to Earth, the same planet Jetfire had sent his message from.

Upon closer examination, he'd been able to scan the planet of Energon sources. One was almost constantly moving and was usually following the energy signature of the Autobot Jetfire.

After 500 years, Shockwave was now growing to believe that the planet Earth held the body or remains of their leader, Megatron.

Now he had an important job on his hands. One he couldn't trust to anyone else. So he'd put Soundwave, his second-in-command, in charge of his post while he was gone. He planned on seeking out Megatron on this planet himself.

As he stepped toward the Space Bridge, now only a few feet from what could be considered the opening to one of the holes in the universe, he contemplated the last detail in the puzzle. Starscream, Megatron's previous second-in-command, was currently searching Earth. He'd seen his energy signature while watching Jetfire's. He knew he had to beat Starscream to Megatron or it would truly be over.

As Shockwave plunged himself through the Space Bridge, he set coordinates for the most likely Energon signal on the planet to contain his leader: The largest mountain range on the planet.

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Just want to say, that fact about Yellowstone park being a volcano is true.

Felt like including it because it was interesting.

My dad read it out of Bill Bryson's "A Brief History of Nearly Everything."

Apparently signs that this thing could erupt include the following: Geysers, earthquakes, hot springs. Essentially everything that is Yellowstone.

It supposedly blows every....20,000 years? Might be 40, 000, but either way, we're supposedly like 50 years late for the next one.

Don't get scared, but I thought it was a cool fact.

Yes, Starscream has changed a bit in personality.

That is because the novelty of the planet has worn off and now he's all business.

And poor Blurr... It made me sad to make him act sad over that, but... Well he would've found out eventually.

Yes. Shockwave is indeed a badass. As for why I chose to bring him into the story, it's simple: There are NO Decepticons that have any real personality or importance in any series.

There's Megatron, there's the Seekers, there's Shockwave, and there's Soundwave.

Seriously. There's not much to choose from.

I wouldn't chosen Soundwave, but he always gets love and attention. What about poor Shockwave?

Anyway, that's all!

The next chapter might end up being shorter than this and might be out sooner, but don't hold me to that!

Thanks for reading, reviewing, and alerting this story!