Chapter 2
"We can't stop!"
"We have to!"
"But we can't! We have to keep going, else..."
I winced as the rest of Jazz's sentence was blown out by the wind. Optimus was watching the two of us arguing uncertainly.
"Jazz, if we keep going we'll all die!" I yelled, "We have to get the sparklings out of here now, the temperature is already way too low for them!"
Jazz blinked, and hesitated, looking down at the sparklings, who lay cradled in his arms.
"Where can we go?" he asked quietly.
I looked at the screen in my hand, and led the two Autobots to a couple of planks that had been latched together loosely by somebody in a hurry. I pulled them up, exposing the small hole underneath, just large enough for Optimus to fit through. I hurried the two down and climbed in myself, pulling the wooden hatch down behind us. The tunnel went down steeply, and at the bottom of it there was a metal wall, with a door cut into it. It was like an air lock that could be opened from both sides. We opened it and went inside, closing it securely behind us.
We found ourselves in a large cave, with several tunnels forking off of it. It was warm in here, despite where we were. It had been designed as a shelter, to keep people warm at night. Even hundreds of years after it had been created, it still did so.
"We'll be safe here." I told the other two, glancing at Optimus.
"We should get some recharge. We'll be walking all day tomorrow." I heard him say as I headed into one of the side tunnels. They were like smaller rooms.
I lay down a little way down one of the tunnels, pushing my back against the wall. I could hear some familiar footsteps somewhere above my head.
"Goodnight, Optimus." I said quietly.
I heard him kneel down next to me, and smiled as I felt him kiss my forehead lightly.
"Goodnight, Clara."

I woke up to the shrill, insistent beeping of the small device in my hand. Optimus was sitting up across the tunnel from me, eyeing it warily. I sat up as I glanced at the screen.
"It's all right." I told my teacher as I turned it off. "Just my dad, it's nothing." I pulled up the Storm Detector, tilting my head as I looked at it, not noticing Optimus coming over until he held out his hand to help me up. I let him pull me to my feet and he kissed me gently.
"Do we have time to get to the next shelter before we get any more of those storm things?"
I nodded.
"We'll be able to get to the Decepticon base before the next storm." I told him, "But if we get there today we'll have to stay the night."
"We'd better get going then." Optimus said, taking my hand and pulling me to the main room, where Jazz and the sparklings were still asleep.
"Wake up." I told Jazz, slightly annoyed.
It didn't matter if the sparklings woke up or not. Jazz could carry them. Still, if Jazz didn't wake up, I wasn't carrying him.
Judging by the look on Optimus' face, I don't think he was too eager on the idea either.
It took a while, but eventually we did manage to get Jazz and the sparklings awake. Andi was excited about going on this next stage of the 'adventure'. Jazz and the other two weren't as eager to go back out onto the ice. I couldn't blame them. It was freezing.
It was late when the Decepticon base came into view; we had about twenty minutes to find shelter before nightfall, when the storms would come. That taking into account how far away from them we'd have to be to keep the sparklings safe.
It was going to take us about fifteen minutes to get to the Decepticon base from where we were, and we were taking a major risk. There weren't any shelters nearby, or anywhere between where the Decepticons were and where we were. If we couldn't get into the base safely before nightfall, we would have to teleport out of there quickly, or die.
I don't know how long we'd been walking when Jazz started complaining, asking why it was so important to avoid the storms. Coincidentally, he'd just asked this when something appeared in the distance. As we came closer, we saw it to be a Cybertronian. Closer, she was a femme. Jazz was calling out to her, asking if she was all right, why she was standing so still, what was wrong. I didn't want to explain why she wasn't going to answer him. Closer still, and I could start to see her face, its young features contorted in fear and pain. Young features that looked so familiar ... suspiciously like-
"NO!" I ran forward towards her, ignoring Optimus and Jazz as they yelled at me to get back. I came to a stop in front of her, staring down at her face in horror.
"Clara!" I felt Optimus wrap his arms around me, trying to pull me away, gently but firmly. "Come on. Let's go."
"What about Kodi?" My voice was weaker than I had known it in a long time. It sounded like someone else talking. I felt faint. Why hadn't I known?
"Clara, I'm sorry, but she's dead. We have to go."
I dug my heels into the ice. It hurt, but I didn't care at the time.
"Optimus," Jazz was saying, "We have to go."
"Go." Optimus told him, "We'll catch up with you later."
Jazz nodded and started running in the direction of the Decepticon base.
I didn't know what I thought I could achieve by staying, I just knew I couldn't leave her. Not there.
I felt Optimus rest his forehead against the back of my head, and found myself shivering with something that wasn't cold as his hands slipped down to my waist, gently pulling me back. When he spoke, his deep voice was soft and gentle, comforting, and I realized with a start that it was the same voice he had used when he'd found me. Encouraging me to go with him, to open up to him.
"There's nothing you can do for her, Clara. She's gone." He told me, kissing me on the back of the neck. "Please. Come with me now."
I bowed my head and twisted round in his arms, snuggling up to his chest.
"I'm sorry, Optimus."
"You have nothing to be sorry for." He told me, holding me tightly to his side as we started walking. "You were upset. I acted the same way when I found out my father had died."
I rested my head on his shoulder and listened to him as he spoke. We didn't have the sparklings with us now, so that twenty minutes we'd had before was extended to about half an hour.

Jazz was waiting for the two of us just inside one of the side entrances. The sparklings were further inside, getting warm. There was no sign yet of any Decepticons. It was way too quiet.
"Be careful." Optimus warned me quietly, giving my hand a squeeze before letting go.
I gave him an alarmed look. He smiled at me comfortingly and nodded to Jazz. Then he was gone.
"Where did he go?" I asked Jazz.
"To commit suicide." Jazz replied dryly, and then laughed at his own joke. I stared at him for a minute, and he shut up. "Upstairs, to check if the coast is clear."
I nodded. We were clearly in the basement, so I looked in the corner, where there was a set of stairs leading up to a door.
After a few minutes, there was no sound of conflict, no sound of anybody raising an alarm of any kind. Nothing.
Jazz and I started towards the door, Jazz gesturing to the sparklings to stay put as we went. As we reached the bottom of the stairs there was a loud crash from above us, and Jazz jumped back in surprise.
"What was that?" I whispered to him.
"That? Oh, that was nothing. I was ... just surprised."
I blinked, and it took a moment to realize what he was talking about.
"Huh? No! Not that! I already know you're a coward. What was that noise?"
I looked at Jazz, waiting for an answer. He gave me an irritated look.
"It sounded like something got thrown." He replied.
I rolled my eyes. Genius. Jazz glared at me some more.
"All right. Let's here your brilliant idea about what's going on up there." He challenged.
I bowed my head and closed my optics, thinking about the events of the past few days.
"Optimus isn't going to die today." I told the smaller 'bot. But I was worried. I hadn't known about Kodi.
He stood at the bottom of the stairs, watching me with a bemused expression as I hurried up them, opening the door a crack. There was no one out there, so I went out, gesturing to Jazz to hurry up.
The corridors we hurried through were completely deserted as we searched for the source of the sound. One way or another, that was where we would find Optimus.
I had no idea what was happening, so I could only hope that he was all right.

We found Optimus. To give you an understatement, he was really really really angry.
"Optimus?" I asked as we came in, "What's wrong?"
"The Decepticons knew we were coming." He told us, "They're long gone."
I glanced around the room warily as I went over to Optimus, taking his hand in my own comfortingly.
There were obvious signs that the Decepticons had been there, and left in a hurry, but Optimus had smashed a lot of stuff up.
"Do we even know what they were up to?" Jazz asked, warily coming into the room.
"No." Optimus replied, "They took all their equipment with them."
I looked around the room again, and noticed something I'd missed the first time.
"They left a computer here." I commented, "We might get something from that."
"They'll probably have loads of security." Jazz warned as I went over to it and booted it up.
"I'll deal with it."
Optimus sat down on the floor and put his head in his hands. Jazz came over and looked over my shoulder at the computer screen.
"Is that complicated?" He asked.
"That's the wallpaper." I told him.
"Okay. Is that complicated?"
"For most people." I replied, "I'll be all right though. Check on Optimus."
"But-"
"Jazz, please, check on Optimus."
Jazz glanced at Optimus, who was still sitting where we had left him.
"Optimus is fine." He watched the screen uncomprehendingly as I hacked into the system, and from there to the Decepticons' files.
"Are you in?" Jazz asked, staring at the screen blankly.
"Yeah, I'm in."
"What have you got?" Optimus asked, coming over.
"It's heavily coded." I replied, "I can break it, but I need time."
"How much time?"
"More time than we've got.
I started rummaging around in my tool belt, pulling out my screen.
"What are you doing?" Jazz asked.
"Downloading it." I replied, already starting the download and the upload onto the ship's computer.
"How long will that take?"
"A couple of minutes."
I looked through the rest of the documents, none of which were coded, but Optimus confirmed that not many were of any relevance to us. There wasn't actually much on there, except a list of some of Megatron's closer Decepticons and their backgrounds and achievements. I downloaded everything that was on there though, just in case.
"Where are the sparklings?" Optimus asked Jazz after a few minutes.
"In the basement."
"Could you go and get them please? We'll be leaving again soon."
Jazz nodded and left as the download finished.
"How long will it take to decode it?" Optimus asked me.
I shrugged.
"Depends."
"On what?"
"On whether I do it myself or get Jack to do it for me."
Optimus frowned.
"What?" I asked him.
"Who's Jack?"
I was saved from answering as Jazz returned with the sparklings.
"Do we have to go outside so soon?" Andi complained.
"No." I replied, "We're teleporting back."
Jazz was looking around the room, at the stuff Optimus had smashed up.
"Hey, Optimus." He called after a few minutes.
"Hn?"
"You didn't destroy anything important here did you?"
Optimus gave him an irritated look.
"How should I know?"
Jazz groaned.
"You need anger management, my friend." He said, "I'll see what I can do about it when we get back to the ship."
Optimus rolled his optics as Jazz picked up the sparklings and deposited them on his shoulder, and I started up the teleport.