Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Transformers. I just play with them. I only own my OC's.

Time:

Astro-second = 1.258 Earth seconds

1 nanocycle/nanoklik = 10 seconds

1 cycle/klik = 60 nanocycles/nanokliks 120 seconds

Breem = 15 kliks 30 minutes

1 joor = 1.3 Earth days

Solar cycle/orn = 24 joor 31.557 Earth days

Vorn = 10 orn

Groon = 8 vorn

Orbital cycle = 12 groon 83 human years

Deca-cycle = 10 orbital cycles

Centi-cycle/Mega cycle = 100 orbital cycles

Meta cycle = 1,000 orbital cycles

Communication:

:: comm. link ::

- Bondmates/sparkmates -

~: creator/creation bond :~

: sibling bond :

~ spark twin bond ~

Thoughts/memories/flashbacks/dreams

[symbiot/symbiot carrier]

Seeker Cant

* singing *


:: Lord Megatron. ::

Megatron sighed. What else needed his attention this orn? Can't he just get a break?

:: Yes, what is it? :: he asked, with a bit of an annoyed edge to his voice.

:: I have discovered an energon deposit in the middle of the Sea of Rust. According my calculations and Soundwave's intel, my subjects should be there. ::

:: Good, Shockwave. I will deal with it. ::

Megatron smirked. At least something had gone his way this orn. He would have Starscream retrieve Shockwave's test subjects.


Bladestream was jolted online. It took him a nanoklik to get him bearings. Then he became aware of an overwhelming sense of urgency. Something was wrong. They needed to leave. Now.


The dwelling went from quiet darkness to chaos in nanokliks. Everyone was up and packing to leave. Jazz was helping in any way he could. Everyone subspaced as much energon as they could carry. Weapons were stocked. Blankets were packed.

But Razorblade and Quickstrike were nowhere to be found. Suddenly suspicious, Jazz went looking for them.

The medbay was closest, so Jazz went there. He opened the medbay doors, but Razorblade was not there. Instead, the computers and other equipment were off. Jazz tried to online the computers. All he got were error messages. He tried every trick in the book and others he had picked up in the field. He kept coming up empty. There were no records of any kind.

He decided to check the training room. There, he found both Cons. And they were busy wiping data off the computers. Any record of the newsparks' presence here would be wiped clean.

"You need to be with the younglings, Autobot. This place will be gone in a joor." Quickstrike said turning to the large screen on the wall. It had a timer counting down.

"What's the timer for?"

"You know the energon river under this dwelling? When the timer runs out, that river will ignite; causing this place to go up in flames. By the time Megatron gets here, there'll be nothing left to salvage."

"Ya both are comin', right?"

"I'm afraid not, Autobot. My thrusters don't work like they used to and the rust sand will get into my gears and cause a lot of damage due to my age. Razorblade's T-cog doesn't work reliably enough to you his alt mode, so he must stick to his root mode. We cannot keep up with the younglings. Megatron will not take us back and the Autobots will not accept us."

"We already knew ar fate befer Dreadwing 'n Skyquake asked us ta come 'ere. This orn, we will return ta the Well 'n live 'n peace. We ain't proud o' the thin's we did 'n the past. This was a chance ta atone fer ar actions." Razorblade said, his optics filled with peace.

"We have taken the necessary precautions to prevent Soundwave from being able to access our memory banks. The Decepticons will not get information from us. They will have to chase after the younglings after they comb through the remains of this dwelling. They will find a lot of thing, but intel with not be one of them."

Quickstrike looked at the timer. "Forty breems left. You need to join the others."

Before Jazz could say anything, Quickstrike's comm. crackled to life.

:: Quickstrike, have you seen Wing Saber? ::

"Negative, Bladestream. She is probably offline somewhere do to the earliness of the joor. Use your bond to track her down."

:: *sigh* I really don't like doing that, but she might crash if I don't. Fine, I'll do it. ::

"Wait, Bladestream, ah'll go get her. Where is she?"

Bladestream was quiet for a moment. :: She's at the energon river. She probably went there to get some of the flowering crystals. ::

"Ah'll bring her to the main room."

:: Thanks, Jazz. We leave in five breem. ::

The comm. went dead and Jazz took off for the river.

"Wait," Razorblade called. Jazz stopped and looked to see the old medic giving him a tiny energon crystal.

"This'll boost 'er systems. Make sure ya've got 'er fully coherent befer ya give this ta 'er, or else it'll just reroute ta 'er energy stores 'n it'll do 'er no good."

Jazz nodded and took the crystal. Then he raced to the river.


All she wanted was to take some of the flowering crystals to Iacon with them. They had time. She should've sent Wind Dancer to get them. Or brought Wind Dancer with her. She had bent down to pick some crystals, but must've fallen into recharge again in the process because Jazz was shaking her awake and she was sure she wasn't lying down a nanoklik ago.

Her possessor was sluggish and her frame felt heavy. When Bladestream had woken everyone up because he felt they needed to leave, he had to literally drag Wing Saber to her feet. She had been running on autopilot all morning and kept falling asleep in different places. She needed energon, but other things needed her time.

"C'm on, kid! We need ta leave. Let's getcha on yer pedes."

She tried to stand, but her stabilizers would not cooperate. She sank to her servos and knees. She was so tired. Her wings felt like weights.

"Saber, look at meh. Where're yer energy levels at?"

She looked at Jazz. The only thing she could see clearly was his optics. She could feel his field, though. It was tense with worry.

She looked at her HUD. Sure enough, her tank was running on fumes. But what was frustrating, was that here frame had so much energy stored in reservoirs that she couldn't slagging access. Maybe Ratchet will fix it later.

"M' tank's em'ty …" she said, barely above a whisper.

Jazz turned to grab something and brought back a cube of energon. Wing Saber sat back on hear aft with her knees drawn up and her arms slung over them. Jazz handed her the cube. She took it and began to sip it. She wished it were chilled. As she drank the cube, her processor started to clear, but there was still a heavy tiredness that she couldn't shake.

"Ya okay now?" Jazz asked.

She nodded.

"Here." She looked at what he was holding. Ugh, not that. Those energon shards would make her feel jittery and her processor would go a mile a minute for hours. Granted, it was only a few joor here, but still … she didn't like the buzz it gave her systems.

"No, thanks. I'm good."

"Nuh, uh. Razorblade told meh ta give this to ya the klik ya were processin'."

She groaned. She hated those things. She took the shard from Jazz anyway and popped it in her mouth and held it against the inside of her cheek it a cough drop. Immediately, the energy from the shard began to race across her glossa like sour candy, but without the flavor.

Jazz moved away to look for crystals. She watched as he subspaced a few before he spotted something. Strong affection flooded his field as he picked up whatever caught his optic. The crystal he found seemed to change color. He smiled fondly before subspacing it.

"Is that for your mate?"

Jazz froze and looked at her with startled optics. When he got optic contact with her, his faceplates paled a bit. She looked away from him.

"It … it was just a guess." She murmured and stood up to leave.


Jazz watched her leave the cavern. How did she know he had a mate? When he looked back at her, her optics were gold. Her optics were naturally a deep blue. They shouldn't be gold. His surprise must have been on his faceplates cause she looked away from him. The klik she looked away from him and shuttered her optics, they were back to blue. Then she muttered something and walked off.

What had just happened?

He'd figure it out later. He followed Wing Saber out of the cavern.


Bladestream was doing a last minute check to see if they had everything. He saw Wing Saber and Jazz enter the room.

"Do you have what you need?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Ah'm good!"

"Alright, let's go!" Bladestream led the group out into the starry night. He transformed and had Jazz climb onto the roof of his jet form. Jazz used the magnets in his servos and pedes to cling to Bladestream. They others quickly transformed. The group took off for the skies and within kliks the dwelling was no longer in sight.


Quickstrike watched as the younglings and the Autobot flew off. When he could no longer see them, he returned to the dwelling. He silently prayed that whatever deity was watching over those youngling would see them safely to Autobot territory.

He went to the medbay to join Razorblade. Razorblade was going to attach a tiny bomb at the base of their helms so that their CPU's would explode, leaving nothing for Soundwave or anyone else to salvage.

Quickstrike sat on the medberth and let Razorblade attach the tiny bomb. Then they traded places and Quickstrike attached a tiny bomb to Razorblade.

The two made their way down to the energon river. The crystals that were growing along its bank made the whole cavern beautiful. The sound of the rushing energon was soothing. No wonder why the Seekers liked to hang out down here. Razorblade came up to him with his servo transformed into a needle.

"This sedative is fast actin'. It'll put us ta recharge befer the bombs go off."

A painless death. The younglings would remain safe. He let the medic inject the sedative into his arm and left to find a place to rest. He heard the medic do the same. He found a patch of ground that had nothing growing in it. It was just big enough to lay in. He laid down and let the sedative claim him.


The group had been flying for joor. The sun was high in the sky. Jazz looked behind him and saw that Wing Saber was lagging behind a bit. He thought nothing of it and turned back around. After a while he looked back at Wing Saber and saw that she was even further behind. Every now and then, she would ignite her thrusters and gain some ground … air … or, whatever … but then she would fall behind again.

"Uh, Bladestream, ah think Wing Saber could use a rest."

"She can go a little while longer. We need to cover more ground."

After a few more breem, Wing Saber seemed to really be having a hard time. She was starting to loose altitude. Bladestream sent a command through the bond to land. Wind Saber's end sang with relief.

As they neared the ground, Jazz offlined his magnets and leaped to the ground. The Seekers transformed in midair and landed on their pedes. Bladestream unsubspaced a small devise and placed it on the ground. He flipped a switch that created a dome around the group. The dome tinted to block the sunlight.

"This hologram projector has a built-in signal jammer. No one will be able to detect our signals. I can cloak my family's signals, but I can't cloak anyone else's yet. You step outside the reach of the hologram and anyone can detect you. Wing Saber, refuel before you recharge."

Jazz looked to Wing Saber, who looked about ready to start leaking coolant. She unsubspaced a cube and drank.

Bladestream seemed to read Jazz's processor, "She has to refuel before recharge, or we won't be able to wake her very well. Her systems seem to need to power down for the initial digestion period. It's weird."

That didn't make any sense to Jazz, but he decided not to press for answers. Wing Saber finished her cube and was out like a light.

Bladestream finished laying out a blanket in the sand. "Get some rest while you can. We leave in a joor."

Jazz set up his blanket and laid on it, staring up into the sky.

After a joor passed, Bladestream woke Wing Saber and anyone else who had dosed off. Wing Saber looked as though she could still use some recharge. As she feed the younger two, Jazz asked Bladestream if he could carry both her and Jazz.

"I probably could, why?" Bladestream asked, puzzled.

"Saber just looks like she's gonna fall inta recharge again. She might not be ready ta fly right now."

Bladestream looked at his sister. He nodded. "I can probably carry both of you. But you've just got make sure she won't fall off." he said.

When the group was ready to leave, Bladestream transformed and had Wing Saber climb onto the roof of his jet mode and Jazz covered her in such a way as to make sure she wasn't going to fall off no matter what Bladestream did. Wing Saber sighed as she laid down and was already in recharge when Bladestream took off.

Poor kid, Jazz thought, ah hope Ratch can help find out what's wrong with ya.

The group did not need to stop again until night fall. Wing Saber had just onlined about a joor prior, but Bladestream didn't want her to start flying now. They would land soon and Wing Saber could keep watch.


Wing Saber suckled the younger ones as Bladestream set up the hologram and Jazz and Stardust laid out the blankets for recharge. She was thankful that Jazz and Bladestream worked out a way for her to get more recharge, but at the same time she felt bad that she had to be carried.

Not that she could help it. She seemed to need a lot more recharge compared to her siblings. She felt like a sparkling for all the stasis naps she needed. She almost made the family … Erie … late because her frame decided it needed recharge NOW.

: Stop. : Bladestream said.

Wing Saber looked up at him.

: It's not your fault. We'll find out why your frame does this. Stop blaming yourself for something you can't control. :

Right. Whatever she was feeling was going to be felt by everyone else. Dreadwing had tried to teach them how to open and close sparkbonds, but she was the only one who couldn't get it. She eventually stopped trying.

Once everyone had bedded down for the night, she stood in center of the hologrammed area. The holo wasn't tinted this time, so she could easily see all the stars. This was her favorite part of the night watch. Her sharp optics picked up the stars that most Cybertronians can't. Her spark soared. She loved the stars.

She looked at the desert landscape. There was nothing but rust sand as far as she could see. They still had another day or so to go. She hoped they would get to Autobot territory before the Decepticons catch up to them.

She looked up at the stars again. One of Cybertron's moons was starting to rise. Some shooting stars streaking across the sky, the leading one being the brightest of them all. The shooting stars reminded her of a cartoon she liked back on Earth. It was called Spirit; Stallion of the Cimarron. She had memorized all the songs in that movie and has started learning those songs in other languages. She spark soared as she began to sing softly …

* Here I am, *

* This is me *

* I come into this world so wild and free. *

* Here I am, *

*So young and strong, *

* Right here in the place where I belong. *

What she didn't know, was that Jazz had never been in recharge and he was listening to her.

* It's a new world, it's a new start. *

* It's alive with the beating of a young heart. *

* It's a day, in a new land, *

* And it's waiting for me, *

* Here I am. *

She sensed optics on her. She turned and saw Jazz laying down, propped up on his elbow joint. He was watching her. She couldn't tell what he was thinking. His field was colored with wonder and awe. She realized he heard her singing. Her faceplates grew warm and she turned away from him. She heard him stand up and walk over to her. He sat beside her.

"Ya got a pretty voice."

Wing Saber ducked her helm. "Thanks."

Jazz chuckled. Wing Saber looked at him with an optic ridge raised. "What's so funny?"

Jazz smiled. "Nothin'. Ya just remind meh o' a friend a mine who got flustered oveh compliments."

She frowned. "Who?"

"Orion Pax. He was such an innocent mech. He's the Prime now."

"I thought that Optimus was the Prime." Wing Saber knew from watching TV on Earth that Orion and Optimus were one in the same, but no one here could know that she knew.

"Orion's designation was changed the day he got named Prime. He's still tryin' to fulfil his role as Prime, but it's awkward for him."

Wing Saber wanted to say that Orion was placed in a leadership role before he was ready, but bit her glossa. She wasn't supposed to know anything about Orion Pax yet. She decided to change the topic.

"How many more orns until we reach Polyhex?"

Jazz squinted his optics. "About two orns at least at the pace we've been goin' already. Ah didn't realize how fast we could go while in the air. Our time's already been cut in half. Ah ain't worried about getting there."

Wing Saber looked ahead to the desert. "I'm worried. I can't shake the feelin' that if we don't keep moving, they will catch up to us."

"We'll be okay, Saber! We are way ahead o' schedule. We're good!" said Jazz cheerfully.

Wing Saber looked at Jazz with doubt-filled optics. Something deep in her spark told her that a conflict with the Cons before reaching Polyhex was inevitable.

Jazz sighed. "Kid, even if you're right, ah've seen ya train. The Cons'll be in for a shock. Ya guys are real good."

A corner of her lipplates turned up slightly at the praise. Quickstrike had often seen nothing but their faults, especially hers, until recently.

"Well … ah think ah'll get some 'charge. See ya in a few joor, Saber."

"Night, Jazz."

She watched him go back to his spot. She looked back up into the night sky. She saw a constellation that looked similar to the Earth constellation called "Orion". As she watched the stars, another song playing in her spark though the night.

* Red like roses fills my dreams and *

* Brings me to the place you rest, *

* White is cold and always yearning *

* Burdened by the royal test, *

* Black the beast descends from shadows, *

* Yellow beauty burns *

* Gold. *


Starscream was ready blast Megatron with his own cannon. He had been flying for two straight orns without rest. Of course, he could have flown inside the shuttle with the Vehicons, but he got claustrophobic real easy. Not to mention flying in another flyer, sentient or not, felt just plain wrong.

They were supposed to be following the signal of a large energon spike in the middle of the Sea of Rust, but it had disappeared sometime yesterorn. The stupid grounder flying the shuttle thought it would be best to turn back, but Starscream kept them going to the last place the energon signal was online. They should be nearing the spot soon. THEN he could rest his wings.

It wasn't even a breem before he saw where the signal originated. At least what was left of it. It looked like it had been burned to the ground; and it was still smoking.

Starscream gave the order to land. Once he was able to get close enough to the area, he could see that what had been a river of oil was still burning hot. Debris was everywhere. Scorched tech and weapons, metal shards, and medical equipment made walking along the sands treacherous.

"Search the area for anything of value. See if there are any bodies." Starscream barked. The Vehicons dispersed to do what he had ordered. Starscream turned to get to the shade of the shuttle when his pede stepped on something. He looked down and saw a shattered datapad. He bent down and picked it up. It was intact, just a bit dinged up and a mostly shattered screen. But did it still work?

"Hmm," he said and took it aboard the shuttle. He found a blank datapad and connected it to the shattered one. The screen lit up with a menu. The pad was in Seeker Cant.

Starscream frowned. The folders were labeled strangely with titles like "flowers", "animals", "landscapes", and things like that. He opened the one titled "flowers". There was no info but sketches, drawings. And none of the drawings were of anything native to Cybertron. He opened another folder. The animals were similar to the native wildlife here, but they had an organic look about them. Something dawned on him. The owner of this datapad was an artist. And maybe an explorer of organic worlds.

He flipped through more folders and came across one called "portraits". Curious, he opened it. There definitely portraits here, but they were not of organics. They were of Cybertronians. They were of the same four bots over and over. All of them had hair. This was unusual. If you saw hair on a Cybertronian at all, it was on mechs and usually it was off the chinstrut. These bots had hair on their helms and two of them were femmes. He flipped through the drawings again. There was another thing the bots had in common. They were all Seekers. Seekers.

Starscream's spark clenched. These were all recent entries. They were all drawn here in the Sea of Rust. He was not an idiot. He knew that Shockwave was experimenting on organic beings and that a few escaped, but Megatron didn't give him any details other than that he was looking for three femmes and two mechs and that one of the mechs was a triple changer.

From these drawings, Starscream concluded that he was looking at four of the five who had escaped. The other femme must be the one drawing these. At least now he knew mostly what he was looking for.

A positive out of this was that one of the femmes was a youngling. This would make the group easier to catch. He could also use her to get the others if he could just capture her. He smirked. If this was all they found, it would be enough.

"Commander Starscream."

Starscream turned to the Vehicon. "Yes?"

"We cannot find anything. The energon river that had been underground has completely destroyed everything. The only things of value are melted weapons. We also found remnants of a couple bodies, but they are not of the ones we are looking for."

"Whose bodies are they?" Starscream asked.

"They belong to two Decepticons who were rumored to have disappeared; Quickstrike and Razorblade."

"Are their processors still intact?"

"No, sir. Their helms were scrapped before we got here. The only reason we know that the bodies were theirs was because of some armor lodged into a wall."

Starscream frowned. Quickstrike was well known for his skills as a trainer from the Pits of Kaon. He was also against many of Megatron's beliefs. If he was here, then he had been training the Seekers. That would also mean that he would've sent them to Autobot territory as soon as he could to keep them from Megatron.

"Since Shockwave's labrats are obviously not here and Quickstrike's remains are, that leaves me to believe that the old rust heap sent them to the nearest Autobot territory; which would be Polyhex. If we left now and called for reinforcements, we should be able to catch up to them. Those labrats shouldn't be far.

"Gather the others. We leave as soon as I make a call to Lord Megatron."

The Vehicon left and Starscream contacted Megatron. Megatron was quite upset over the fact that the Seekers were not there. However, he did head to Starscream's request for reinforcements. They would likely need more force to take the group down without fatally damaging them. Megatron would also be coming to ensure that the plan was carried out right. All Starscream was asked to do was find them.

And find them he shall …


Uh oh. What's gonna happen now? We'll see.