Disclaimer: Transformers/Beast Wars don't belong to me…but some day…*giggles evilly and rubs hands in plotting manner*

Chapter 6: Searching

White Mountains, Darksyde, three weeks later, Mid-April…

Even weeks after the little fiasco with Dinobot, Megatron's mood was even fouler than before.

The last thing he had needed was some noble minded fool trying to uproot him.

No matter; he had been dealt with...Or had he?

The doubt of Dinobot's current status made him edgier. Was he alive and planning revenge? Or was he laying offline somewhere in this Unicron-forsaken, organic forest?

He knew the doubt would not leave him be; not until he knew for certain. And his plans required an untroubled processor for them to be effective to their fullest. Not to mention he was starting to get tired and annoyed with his troops fidgeting.

So long as they didn't do anything stupid; he wasn't going to eat them… yet. He chuckled at his dark humor.

But his little bout of good mood wouldn't last for long…

"Scorponok, report, NOW!"

He heard a loud crash and a pained shout and curse coming from the next room over; followed by hurried, stumbling steps.

Scorponok literally came flying around the corner, "Yes, Lord Megatron? You wanted to see me?"

"Yes. I need you to take Waspinator and Terrorsaur, leave Tarantulas behind to continue fixing the ship, and go out to look for that traitor, Dinobot. I have doubts about his functionality, or lack thereof. Besides, the last thing we need is for the humans to stumble upon his chassis and find out about us before we are ready; not to mention they might be able to reverse engineer something from him. If nothing else, these humans are adaptable, yes…" His liplates curled in a sneer of disgust.

"Take five days and search as far as you can, but come back before that time, without Dinobot's remains, and there will be…consequences, yes." He ran his hand over his T-rex headed servo; the warning and threat all too clear despite his casual and nonchalant tone.

Scorponok gulped loudly and nervously, "Yes sir, Lord Megatron. Um, wha…what if he's still alive…?"

Megatron looked him dead in the optics (well, visor) and said with a deadly calm and venomous tone, "Then…you make sure he doesn't interfere with our plans. Ever. Again."

The girls' apartment building…

It had only been three weeks, but for Ashley it had seemed like an eternity since Freckles disappeared.

It had been awful, she didn't sleep or eat well, at school all her drawings and projects were centered on her cheetah to the point that her professors were starting to get annoyed and worried.

Rose had gone beyond the point of worry, and was starting to snap angrily at her whenever the topic of the missing feline would come up; which it did. A lot.

She knew she was obsessing; that there was a very real possibility; no, that it was probable that she'd never see her friend again. But the mere thought of just giving up was actually physically painful. She couldn't, wouldn't, give up. She wasn't that type of girl.

That's why, for this year's annual spring vacation camping trip (try as she might, she was, and always would be, a country girl), she'd be heading up to Silver Lake Preserve; the place where Freckles and the others had been found.

And, if she was lucky, she might find not just her friend, but the rest of them, as well, and she could tell her friend Willow.

The poor girl was just as worried about the missing gorilla, whom she named 'Brighteyes', as she was about Freckles. In fact, Will hadn't smiled at all since then; not honestly, anyways.

So, she'd go searching whatever areas she could during the week and a half she'd be camping up there. She just needed to run through her list of things one last time before she left.

Suitcase with a week and a half's worth of clothes.

Check.

Camping gear: tent, sleeping bag, first aid kit, camping rations, cooking gear, bug repellant ('That's definitely already packed! Ugh, nothing should have more than four legs!'), hiking gear, emergency flare gun, flashlight, extra batteries, and pocket knife.

Check.

GPS tracker.

Check.

Art supplies: sketch books, paints, charcoals, coloring and drawing pencils, brushes, and camera.

Double check.

Hmm, it looked like she was ready, but she couldn't help feeling like something was missing…Something important…

Her eyes quickly looked over to the head of her bed. There, lying on her pillow was a little cheetah plushy. Ash slowly walked over to it and picked up tenderly, smiling softly at it.

Rosie had bought it for her a few days after Freckles' disappeared, to help her ease her sadness. Nothing could, or would, ever replace her Freckles, but the sentiment behind the gift did make her feel better.

Now, she slept every night with it, and had even started taking it everywhere with her in her art backpack. She felt a little silly, carrying around a plush like a little kid, but it made things easier.

She opened up her suitcase and gently laid him on top of her clothes, closing the bag once again.

Now she was ready. She would be leaving tomorrow morning. The thought made butterflies start fluttering wildly around in her stomach. What if she didn't find him?

She'd already promised Rose…if she didn't find Freckles or any sign of him while she was at the Preserve; she was to stop looking altogether and move on from all this.

Ashley fervently prayed to God that she found something, anything that would lead her to her friend.

The next morning…

"Are you sure about this, Ash?" Rose asked again, the fingers on her right hand worrying at the small gold cross on the red crystal rosary she always wore. She only did that when she was exceptionally worried and/or nervous. "I doubt you'll find anythin', but what if ya do? What then?"

Ash sighed in exasperation, but managed to keep her annoyance from her voice, "I'm positive, Rose, I'll be fine! Stop worrying so much about me. I'm a grown woman after all!"

The Latina just scoffed, "Since when?" She raised her eyebrow in obvious disbelief and crossed her arms over her chest, but her stance softened slightly; she didn't want her friend to leave with cross words hanging between them; it'd bring nothing but bad luck.

"Listen, just…promise me you'll at least call every few days…y'know, so I know you're still alive."

Ashley smiled as reassuringly as possible, "Ok, I promise. And don't worry so much. I just want to know if Freckles is happy in the wild or if he really did get taken back by his 'previous owners' like the police keep saying."

"And what if they did? Ya gonna rescue him or somethin'?" She was being sarcastic, but she still worried Ash might actually try something.

"No, don't be silly! I'll call the police and park rangers, duh!"

"Pendeja."

"Love you, too, Rosie-posy. Now c'mon, I don't wanna miss my bus!"

White Mountains forest, two days later…

As Ivy made her way through the forest she'd called her home for the past 6 years, she mused on the events of the past few months.

After all these years of living in solitude with nothing but the local wild life as companions, it was…strange, to have someone else around; even after a few months.

Especially considering who her...'guest'…was.

In all the time she'd been alive, she would've never thought that she'd meet an actual alien. Hell, she'd never even considered the possibility of aliens being real!

Now she had one living with her and still recovering from some rather nasty wounds. She hadn't really thought much about what she'd done; other than that the being was hurt and needed help.

That had been one hell of a surprise though…going out for her daily run to find what looked like some kind of robot lying on the forest floor, leaking a strange bluish silver substance from a rather big hole on its side.

Her instincts had kicked in immediately, her body falling into a defensive, ready stance; her bow and arrow notched just in case it was some kind of war machine gone rogue or something (She mentally snorted at that; she'd seen too much TV as a child).

Once it awoke and started talking, though, she knew that it was no ordinary robot and that it was an actual living being that was hurt and needed assistance.

The being had been suspicious and outright hostile towards her attempts at helping. But that seemed to change after that mountain lion tried to make scrap metal out of him.

It seemed that he'd been impressed by her (she still felt flustered and could even feel a light blush form at the memory of feeling those glowing red eyes studying her so…intensely) and finally allowed himself to be helped.

Once she'd brought him back to her small cave dwelling, she began to truly assess his damage; and as soon as she'd seen the extent of the damage (almost his whole back was wide open and sparking intermittently), she'd had a slight moment of doubt and worry.

She had not just fought and killed a mountain lion and dragged this being's sorry, heavy carcass back to her home just so that he would die on her bed!

Having let her 'training' take over again, she immediately began cleaning the wound. She might not be a mechanic or an engineer, but she knew enough first aids to know that a dirty wound would never heal properly; regardless if he was human or otherwise.

It seemed to have done the trick; as when she began to clean his wound, he immediately relaxed (though, that could've been because of his loss of…blood? Oil? Whatever.) and had even thanked her; something she wasn't really expecting from someone with his attitude.

Then, he fell right to sleep.

He slept heavily for three days, not once stirring. She had to admit, if only to herself, that she'd been very worried, close to panicking, even. Didn't he need to eat or drink? Or something?

Since she'd had no idea about what her 'guest' was or what he needed, all she could do was wait and see if he would wake up. The only reason she hadn't thought he was dead was because she could still hear a faint, low hum coming from somewhere inside his chest; possibly what passed as his heart or energy source or something.

His awakening had been interesting though…

It wasn't like a woozy, just-woke-up-from-a-three-day-coma kind of thing.

It was more like one minute he was dead to the world, the next he snapped awake and tried to jump up to his…feet?...only to be painfully reminded he was still badly injured and fell right back onto the furs. Growling and cursing the whole way; and for several minutes afterwards.

She'd learned a few new…colorful words, that day. The thought still brought a smirk to her lips.

Who knew there were so many different combos for so few curse words?

-Flashback-

The sudden movement and growls from the…alien, had Ivy jumping to her own feet, the blade she had nearby already in her grasp and ready in case her 'guest' wasn't as 'friendly' as he'd appeared at first.

But, no sooner was he almost on his knees, he was falling back onto his front and cursing and snarling rather colorfully in what she was sure were a few alien languages. Noticing that he wasn't going anywhere and wasn't going to be a threat any time soon; she relaxed from her stance and sat back down to wait out his rant.

She couldn't help but smirk in amusement at some of his…creative uses of curse words.

"Frag it all to the Smelter's Pit! Grraaah! Primus-damned-FRAG! Where am I? Where-?" He demanded as he looked around as far as he could from his prone position. When his eyes fell on her, the ire in his eyes was then replaced by recognition, and then they narrowed into a weary scowl.

"You. So, you didn't offline me in my recharge. And you seem to have done a decent enough job tending to my wound, as well, if what my systems are telling me is correct. For a human, that is…" He sneered in a derisive tone, but she didn't pay it mind, she was pretty certain, from his prideful and arrogant attitude, that it was his way of saying 'Thank you'. "Now, where are we? Answer me, human."

The "human" remark and his commanding tone made her raise an eyebrow and cross her arms across her chest, her stance all but screaming "Are you serious?"

Not even moving from her sitting position near her small fire, she motioned to the rock walls around her and to the mouth of the cave, giving him a sarcastic look that said, "Where do you think?"

Apparently, he didn't appreciate her sarcasm as he growled angrily and scowled at her. "Do not mock me, human. If not for the sorry state that I am currently in, you would be begging for mercy at this very instant!"

Again, her eyebrow twitched up skeptically. "Oh really?"

He growled dangerously again, and then went silent, turning his head away from her and stared at the wall for what seemed like hours.

Turning her own attention back to honing her knives and arrow heads (hmm, she'll need to get some new ones soon), she couldn't help the small smug smirk that tugged at her lips. She could be a sarcastic, arrogant asshole too…

"So…do you have a designation, human? Or shall I continue to call you such?"

The sardonic toned question caught her by surprise. She wasn't really expecting him to talk to her again. Much less ask for her name.

When she turned back to face him, her breath hitched when she noticed how intensely those red eyes were scrutinizing her, as though they were trying to look into her soul. She wasn't really sure how she felt about that…

"Well? Are you going to answer or not, human? I must admit, I'm surprised you've been as silent as you have; I would've thought you'd be bursting with questions for me." Then he smirked sardonically.

"Or is it normal for you to find strange beings in this forest and to bring them back to your home?"

She glared balefully at his comment, but didn't answer him. She couldn't.

The thought brought a grimace as her hand unconsciously went up to her scarred and damaged throat.

It's not that she didn't want to speak, she simply couldn't; not for nearly 10 years.

The alien (she didn't know what else to call him) must have noticed, because his next words shocked the crap out of her, especially his almost…gentle…tone.

"It's not that you will not answer; it's that you cannot, isn't it?"

She hesitantly looked up at him, not really wanting to see the pity in his eyes; derision, she could handle, but never pity. She'd had enough of people looking at her pityingly and thinking her disfigured or disabled…

But, shockingly, what she found was neither. He just looked at her with his normal intensity and just a little bit of curiosity; as though he was trying to figure out something else about her. Again, she wasn't sure what to make of that. But nothing shocked her more than his next words.

"I…apologize for my…rough behavior." He seemed to be struggling with the words; it was obvious he hadn't apologized to too many, if any, people before. "Whether I like it or not; you saved my life and I am bound by my warrior's honor to repay you. Until then, I am in your debt."

Even if she could speak; she was pretty sure that she would've been pretty much speechless; but as it was, she merely stared at him in surprised incredulity.

Then, she merely got up from where she'd been sitting and made her way to the injured being. It wasn't his fault; he didn't know.

She could feel his eyes following her every move up to when she sat next to him, her own eyes meeting his for a few moments while she tried to figure out a way to communicate with him.

Sure, he could speak and understand English, but did he know sign language or how to read?

'Only one way to find out…'

Taking a deep breath, she signed, "Can you understand me?"

She got her answer in his confused stare and even more confused sounding, "What are you doing?"

Sighing in exasperation, she waved her hand dismissively and got up once more, this time heading for one of her rucksacks; and pulled out a notepad and a pen.

Sitting down next him, again, she wrote in neat script "Can you read this?"

This time, there was a flash of understanding, "Yes, I can read your scripture."

She didn't hide her relieved exhalation; at least she'd be able to communicate with him somehow.

Nodding her head in satisfaction, she went back to the pad. She only wrote one word, even in writing, she always preferred few words to express herself.

"Ivy." She used the pen to point at herself and gave a tiny wry grin.

He looked slightly puzzled until he worked out her gesture, "Ivy. My name is Dinobot, an honor to meet you." He bowed his head in greeting as well as he could from his prone position.

'Dinobot. Hmm, interesting name.'

She bowed her head back, and wrote "How are you feeling?"

"Like scrap metal."

She smirked dryly at his grumble, "At least you're alive."

"Hrmph, true." His eyes were suddenly going over her, scrutinizing and intense; almost making her want to squirm, but she held the urge. "What of you? Were you injured?"

Both her eyebrows rose at that; she wasn't expecting him to be worried about her health; though it seemed not everything was as it first appeared with him.

Shaking her surprise off, she wrote down while giving a nonchalant shrug, "No, I'm fine. Just a few scratches."

"Hmm, good. Now, I'm sure you have questions…" And now he was the one that seemed uncomfortable.

To save him from it she waved her hand dismissively again, and wrote "It can wait. Are you hungry?" Suddenly feeling doubtful, she quickly added, "Can you eat?"

He scoffed derisively, "Of course I can eat; don't all living creatures? And yes, I can ingest your foods, but I'm not sure if my tanks can handle anything at the moment; at least until the wound in my abdomen heals more."

She nodded in acceptance to his answer, but didn't know what else to say, it wasn't like she had stories she was eager to share with him; and he the same.

Luckily, she was saved from the awkward silence by Dinobot's apparent curiosity, "What were those gestures you were doing? Before you used that writing pad…"

"Sign language. People who can't speak use it to communicate with others."

"Ah, I see." A pause. "Would you teach me?"

Looking into his eyes, she saw he was dead serious.

"Why?"

His expression once more became sneering, "Because you have no other way of communicating, human. And I highly doubt you'll be walking around with that pad for the unforeseeable future that I'll be around."

'Again with the 'human' bit."

Her own expression turned dry and gave him a mocking grin, "Very funny."

He gave her a sarcastic smirk, but sobered again, "I am serious. It would become an advantage as well, should those that attacked me come looking, and they will come looking; to be able to communicate with you in a manner they will surely be unable to understand."

That caught her attention, "Attacked you? Who?"

"It is…a long story." One he didn't seem too keen on sharing, but knew was necessary considering she would probably become involved in it eventually.

She gave him a dry smirk, "Start. It's not like I have anywhere else to be."

- End Flashback-

It had been a long story, and by the end of it, she felt a deep sense of camaraderie with the alien warrior, specifically because of the betrayal he suffered. And, as it always did when she thought of it, her hand went up to her scarred throat; her eternal reminder of the betrayal she suffered.

But it seemed her peaceful, reminiscing moment was at its end. As no more than a few yards into the forest, she could hear a pair of loud voices that seemed to be arguing and complaining about something.

"Would you stop complaining already? Lord Megatron said to find Dinobot and bring his offlined body back or not come back at all!"

"I don't care about what that overgrown lizard said; I'm so fraggin' tired; I feel like my wings are 'bout to fall off!"

The remark was followed by a loud "CLANG!" of metal on metal and a pained yelp, immediately followed by more bickering.

Of course, as soon as she heard Dinobot's name mentioned she entered 'hunter mode', and quickly and stealthily made her way to voices' origin.

Using an old oak tree as cover; she spied on what appeared to be a giant scorpion and a bright red pterodactyl.

Well, if she hadn't already known about Dinobot, these guys might've just given her a heart attack.

And it seemed that he'd been right about his former 'comrades' coming after him to make sure he was dead, and if not, to finish the job.

Narrowing her eyes; she brought up her bow, an arrow already notched and ready (evidence of her many years of using the weapon) and took careful aim of the smaller of the two: the red whining dino.

But, the actions had been done purely on instinct; and once her rational mind came back, it made her aware of the big mistake she had been about to commit.

Back when she'd had Dinobot at her 'mercy', he'd been gravely injured and absolutely vulnerable; these two, on the other hand, were completely healthy, not to mention, from what she remembered Dinotbot telling her; the scorpion was the one who'd injured him so severely. So, perhaps attacking them was more of a suicidal idea than anything.

Lowering her bow and keeping her eyes on the arguing pair; she started to slowly and carefully make her way back to her cave. She had to warn Dinobot. Now.

Making sure was far enough away that she wouldn't gain any attention; Ivy sprinted all the way back to her cave. She kept looking over her shoulder the entire time, just in case.

Arriving at the cave in half the time it would've taken had she walked; she cringed slightly in guilt when she saw Dinobot, in Raptor form, curled up on his pile of furs, snoring lightly.

He'd been doing that a lot, and it had at first worried her, but he'd explained his self-repair system worked best when he was in beast form and that it took a lot out of him. The last time she'd awoken him from his 'nap', she'd almost lost a finger. Apparently, the grouchy dino did not like being woken from his 'naps'.

'Well, he'll just have to deal with it this time around…' She thought dryly, trying to keep the guilt at bay and stepped right up to him; reaching down to shake him awake, all the while making sure to keep her hands away from his teeth.

As expected, he gave a deep snarl of protest, but this time he gave her a hard swat with his tail. It got her right between her shoulders and she almost ended up face-planting on the cave floor.

Then…the bastard had the audacity to laugh at her.

Lifting herself from the floor she gave him a dark glare before flipping him off.

He only laughed harder. She'd thought she'd have to explain the gesture, but it looked like he already knew (whether it was because he'd 'researched' it or his species used it too, she had no idea).

"Well," there was still a hint of mirth in his voice even though he'd managed to stop laughing, "Is there something you wanted, human? I know you didn't simply wake me up to tell me to 'frag off'. And I thought you wouldn't be back for another few hours."

Blinking, she quickly remembered the reason why she'd run through a forest and decided, against her better judgment, to awaken the grouchy dinosaur.

Her face turning serious, she signed, "Trouble"

Dinobot's smirk slid right off, he didn't need her to explain, he knew. His habitual scowl returning and he was up on his feet before she could blink, "How many?"

Ivy didn't even blink at being face to face with a 7' tall dinosaur. She lifted two of her fingers and signed, "Scorpion. Red dinosaur."

She'd never really bothered to learn dinosaur names in sign language; now it looked like she'd better start.

"Scorponok and Terrorsaur." He snarled venomously, "So, they did come looking for me; probably under orders from that fool Megatron. As much as I wish to…return the favor to that sniveling underling; I am still not at full strength and you are no match for two fully functional Predacons."

Ivy wanted to feel insulted, but knew he spoke the truth, so, she merely nodded in assent and went over to her rucksacks. She always kept one or two ready, in case of a speedy retreat; like now.

Taking them and quickly slinging her sword from the wall to her back beside her bow and arrows (everything else was replaceable); she made her way to the back of the cave, ignoring the confused looking raptor.

Reaching the large boulder that seemingly rested innocently at the back of cave, she began trying to roll the boulder out of the way. Key word being 'trying'. When the hell had the rock gotten so heavy?

She needed to start her upper-body strengthening training again.

"What are you doing, femme? We have no time for games!"

Glaring at him from her position against the stubborn boulder, she signed, "Emergency exit. Tunnel"

Eyes widening in understanding, Dinobot quickly made his way over to her and, none too gently, pushed her aside and snarled in annoyance, "Why didn't you say so in the first place, you stubborn female? Now, stay back."

Digging his sharp claws into the rock, he soon had it rolling to the side (though, it was obvious he was exerting himself; still not being at full strength and all); turning to smirk smugly at the scowling female.

Stepping away from the rock and to the side of the now exposed tunnel; he gave her a mock bow and said in a condescending tone, "Ladies first."

Scowl deepening, Ivy merely grabbed her backpacks and made her way into the tunnel, refusing to look back and see if the smarmy dino was following after her.

Hearing the boulder being rolled back into place, she hastened her steps so she could get out of the small, dark tunnel faster as she could feel herself starting to get agitated.

Seeing the tunnel's exit, she had to fight back the sigh of irrational relief that wanted to escape her.

The last thing she needed was for the prideful warrior to have something to taunt her with.

"Well, now what, femme? Do you have another cave where we can go?"

Finally turning around to look at him, she shook her head and motioned with her left hand at what appeared to be a large pile bushes and fallen tree limbs and brush. In fact, it was just camouflage for a faded green, old jeep. Stepping over a fallen trunk, she began pulling the brush and other bits off it.

"Hmm, you really are a resourceful femme, aren't you?" She could hear the subtle impressed hint in his usual sneering tone.

Now it was her turn to grin smugly at him. He just scoffed.

Yes, they had a vehicle, but now what? Where would they go? It was obvious they couldn't stay in the forest, Megatron wouldn't stop until Dinobot was found.

It seemed that the only certain thing at the moment was that they had to get out of this area, fast.

Perhaps they could head south…

Silver Lake Preserve…

Ash sighed in undisguised frustration. She'd been out here for three days and she had seen neither hide nor hair of any of the missing animals.

She thought she'd caught a break when she found an elderly couple living in the preserve. She asked them if they'd seen or heard anything…unusual, lately.

They'd looked at her funny for a moment, before they asked if she was looking for Bigfoot or something.

Oh God, how she'd wanted to bang her head against the door frame or something.

When she went on to explain that she'd heard about the 'wild animals' they'd found in the preserve a few months ago and that she was curious about whether they might still be around or not, the old man piped up with a sudden moment of memory.

"I remember hearing some strange noises coming from the lake's shore, but when I went to check, there was nothing there!"

"George, I told you, you must've heard a bear or a raccoon coming out of hibernation or something. And you, young lady, should not be going around alone in these woods looking for wild animals! Why, it's absolutely absurd! Back in my day…"

And that's when she'd thanked both seniors and beat a hasty retreat. She did not need, nor want, a history lesson at the moment. She had a lead to follow!

That had been two days ago, and she was camped at a few hours hike to the lake. Still, she hadn't seen or heard anything strange at all during those two days of almost continuous hiking. She needed a breather. She'd go to the lake tomorrow bright and early.

So, when she finished putting up her tent, she decided it was time to do a little sketching. No use in letting all this beautiful nature go to waste, especially since it was well into spring and all the snow had melted and the green, lush trees and brightly colored flowers were just begging to be put down onto paper and canvas.

Taking her sketch pad and drawing coals, she climbed the sturdiest and decidedly tallest tree around (which was some 30-feet off the ground) and lay back against its trunk; enjoying the view for a few minutes before whipping out her materials and started working.

Later, she'd smack herself repeatedly for having the brilliant idea of picking such a frickin' tall tree and for not paying more attention to her surroundings.

Then; maybe she would've heard the faint buzzing noise, not 30 minutes later, that could be heard getting closer and louder…

A/N: Just so you guys know, I'm starting an internship and won't have a lot of time free, so I might not update this for a while, k? Review, please~! XD