Here it is, folks… The last real chapter of 'In Memory Lost'.
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Traveling by night was best for the two jets; that much was taken as a fact. Megatron had attracted enough local attention during the search for Sarah, so having Zephyr's alien form join the silver warplane that had already plagued Mission City's skies for far too long would only cause more problems. The rest would begin the journey back to their old base in the morning. Megatron objected to this at first. "Given our flight speed and our early start, we'll likely be there by ourselves for half a day, if not a whole one. What are we supposed to do then, sit around and wait?" Optimus prepared to voice a reply to that statement, but Zephyr saved him the trouble. "That just serves to give us some, shall we say, relaxation time," she said with a mischievous grin, reaching up to stroke one of the broad wing panels that formed his upper back. His eyes dimmed as he leaned into the touch ever so slightly, groaning softly as she teased the sensitive circuitry that lined his wings. "I… see what you mean," he eventually managed, voice thick with pleasure and sheer, raw need. Stepping up behind the thoroughly surprised Optimus, Ratchet gave them a look that mixed equal parts disgust and exasperation. "Get a room, you two! I swear to Primus, you're worse than a pair of bored Seekers!" The two quickly stepped apart and composed themselves, thoroughly embarrassed. A second look of utter mischief took shape on Zephyr's face a moment later. "I'll bet I can fly faster than you," she challenged. The halfhearted look of almost-anger that crossed his face held the slightest hint of his old self as he took her words in, then burst out laughing. "Oh really? Unless you're secretly a Seeker, I really doubt it!" She chuckled teasingly as she leapt up and transformed, igniting her thrusters and rocketing skyward. "Catch me if you can!" A split second passed before he did the same. "I'm going to fly circles around you for this!" Laughter trailed behind them both as the two jets set the heavens alight with their passing.
Unlike their airborne friends, the rest of the Autobots waited until dawn to start the journey home. The early morning traffic was minimal at most, so they had little trouble getting out of the immediate city area. The slow passage of hours saw the amount of traffic increase until the highway they traveled on bustled with activity. Having no need to stop for anything, they just rolled right on through, past farms and homes alike, past sweeping vistas of wide grassy plains and tall trees alike, through suburbs dotted with smallish houses of varying colors where children ran and played like the little ones back on their faraway world, whom Zephyr's power had allowed to be born. The sun climbed higher in the sky as time passed, wispy clouds tracing delicate paths across its golden disk and casting almost ethereal shadows upon the roads and the multitudinous vehicles zipping across them. As midday slipped into afternoon on its way toward evening, the streets began to clear out again. Was it because of the day's imminent end, or because they were getting toward a less-populated area? Indeed, there was less and less sign of human habitation with each passing mile, houses and buildings giving way to deep forests and ill-kept roadways. Still they pressed onward until the sounds of other cars died away into the seemingly infinite silence associated with the remotest of areas, even as paved roads gave way to gravel and then dirt paths which bogged them down ever so slightly. The ancient trees stood as silent sentinels as the terrain began to become familiar to them, until the forest opened into the narrow valley they had all once known so well…
The convoy pulled up and transformed as both Megatron and Zephyr walked out, smiling, to greet them. They showed no hint of having been impatient for their arrival, and Optimus had a feeling he knew why. He could see the languid looseness of his brother's movements, the utter contentment that almost seemed to radiate from him. Yes, he had a feeling he knew exactly what the two had done to pass the time as they waited for the rest to come. It was then that Megatron spoke up. "We've hit another delay," he said. "You know how Zephyr told us that this planet tends to reclaim structures and objects left unattended for too long? Well, that's what happened to the space bridge. We're going to have to repair it and clean it before we can use it… unless you fancy the idea of a cosmic road trip. Looks like we've got a few more days ahead of us before we can go home." Optimus sighed. Another delay. It seemed like they were running into a lot of them lately.
Upon entering their old base, it took only a few seconds for the lot of them to see how much things had gone to seed, so to speak. Tawny-hued grasses sprouted from between the tiles on the floor, pushing them aside as they grew, and ferns uncurled their dangling tendrils from the ceiling. Here and there a deer grazed upon saplings growing from the mossy walls, or a rabbit took fright and fled deeper in. The base's main computer was an utter wreck from the plant and animal life that had taken up residence. Mice nested amid wires frayed by gnawing, feeding upon the seeds of the grasses that had taken root there as well. "It'll be a miracle if anything works at this rate," Ratchet huffed. Zephyr just shrugged, not surprised in the slightest. She'd been expecting this from the moment they left, assuming they would ever need to return. That was just the way organic life was.
The first order of business went without saying. Everyone went to clean out their quarters well enough to at least get a decent night's rest. The space bridge would wait until the next day. Zephyr and Megatron, however, didn't have to do much of anything. Megatron had already cleaned out his quarters while the two waited for the rest to come, and Zephyr would be sharing a bed with him. None of them were really surprised when the two retired to their shared room early, though they did wish they could voluntarily switch off their hearing capabilities at the sounds that followed shortly after. "It's a wonder Galvie doesn't have any siblings, given how those two go at each other," Ratchet grumbled, shaking his head. "Worse than a pair of bored Seekers, just like I said before."
Morning saw the group assemble in the commons room as they had done so many times during the war. Wasting no time, they exited the base and made the short little hike to where the space bridge still lay. "…It's still in pretty good shape," Zephyr said as she knelt down to analyze it, calling forth the All Spark's power to dance along both her body and the space bridge itself. Ironhide shook his head. "Still in pretty good shape? It's just as wrecked as the computer!" She just gave him one of those looks even as she pulled off a panel and began to yank out any plants to have taken root within the mechanism itself. "What I mean is that we won't have to rebuild it completely. All we have to do is clean it. We'll be headed home in no time, as opposed to how long it would take to build a new one. Could I get a hand here?" Megatron was first to kneel down and join in, but the rest weren't too far behind. All save Jazz, however. No one really noticed how he stared into the distance, seemingly distracted by a sound he alone could hear… at least until he spoke up. "Uh… guys?" The way they all turned to look at him in perfect unison was halfway between comical and creepy. "I'm… getting a transmission from Bumblebee about something being broadcasted over the human television system, concerning a bit of news coming from some place called Egypt. I think we've got a bit of a problem…"
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Next up is an epilogue.