[Location: Autobot Base]

When he hear her screams over the communicator, Ratchet immediately called for Arcee and Bumblebee. Opening a ground bridge at their location he got them back to base and sent to the mine shortly after their arrival. The pair found their latest comrade face down, her right foot smoldering.

Bumblebee's optics widened in shock as he beeped and clicked at Arcee. "Grab her. I've got the crates."

So the scout rolled Elita over and scooped her up, following the blue fem-bot through the ground bridge before it winked shut.

Ratchet had Bumblbee set her on his worktable and began to scan over her. Arcee delivered the crates to the storage room and when she came back she brought one of the replacement legs that the whole group had help make. Setting it at the foot of the bed for Ratchet to use later she stepped back with Bumblebee.

"Do you need us to stay behind and let Bulkhead know to pick the kids up?"

"No," the medic said, not looking up. "Go so you can get back to finish your scouting mission."

The pair nodded and transformed, Arcee making Sadie fizzle into view before they took off through the tunnel.

Ratchet's scanner was not picking up anything out of the ordinary other than an energy surge from whatever caused the damage to her foot. With her brain core hooked up to the scanning system he began to replace her damaged limb.

It was almost an hour before they had returned, Miko not with them due to detention again. The boys were quick to get out from underfoot after sending their bots through the ground bridge and back to their mission. Ratchet was over at his usual station, and that's where the boys soon joined him as he typed away.

"She's not wake yet?" Jack asked.

Ratchet, personally upset at the female bot for putting herself at risk so recklessly for her good intentions, looked back down at her. "Not yet. She has yet to recover from the surge."

Raf had pulled out his laptop, letting it boot and synchronize with the Autobot's system. Since he helped Elita work on her systems, he had the better idea if something was off. As he began to access her systems the young man noticed a slight freeze to his laptop. "Uh oh…" he said quietly, his fingers dancing over the keys.

"Uh oh?" Jack said, looking over his friend's shoulder. "What's 'uh oh'?"

"Maybe a bit of feedback…" the younger man said, a bit distracted as he worked. It started out softly at first, but soon his laptop began to shake violently, his computer screen going red. The other screens around them began to go red as well, the image of a huge sword spinning on a thread on the screen. Right before Elita-One began to scream, her back arching and limbs flailing about.

Ratchet was at her side, struggling to hold her down by her shoulders. Raf was doing his best to salvage the computer system as whatever was attacking it. In all the commotion, the computer genius heard one thing in the high pitch squeal of her vocal emitter. "Nam... multa... metu... tyranni..."

Rafael's fingers quickly typed the phrase into the system. Jack watched as the sword on the screens stopped spinning before they slowly went back to normal. Elita even calmed down as the systems returned.

"What was that?" Ratchet asked, confusion thick in his expression.

"A virus." The young teen said as he stood up and moved over to the railing to look down at their friend. "She had a virus in her system that started attacking her computer system, and in turn ours."

"How did she get a virus?" Jack inquired.

Ratchet held up the damaged foot that he had removed earlier. "M.E.C.H.."

Optimus had returned from his own scouting mission shortly before Miko and Bulkhead pulled into the base, while Arcee and Bumblebee were refueling. The medic had updated their commander as he was repairing the fem-bot, so now it was just giving everyone a complete update on what had happened while they were away. Elita had woken up by the time everyone arrived, but was sitting quietly on Ratchet's work table. Staring down at the floor as she rested with her hands on the edge of the table, her back was hunched over, and her legs dangling off the side.

"And the virus is completely cleaned out of the system?" Optimus asked, focusing on Raf.

Nodding, the young man smiled when Bumblebee beeped a cheer for his dear friend, who scratched the back of his head with a bashful smile. "Once we got it shut down it was relatively easy to clean out of the system."

Bulkhead grunted a bit, "Any idea where she had picked it up from?"

"When I stepped on that mine in the mine." Elita said quietly. "The surge was all it needed to transfer into my system and begin to work."

"We're lucky Rafael figured out the shutdown command," Arcee said, giving her friend a gentle pat on the shoulder, but the red and silver bot moved her shoulder away from the gesture.

"Actually I got it from Elita. She had screamed it out when the virus went active." The young man said, giving every one there the reason to look at her.

"That's because I created it," she admitted weakly. "Of course I'd know how to shut it down. It means 'fear is plentiful for tyrants' in Latin."

"Twisted," Miko piped off.

Looking up at Optimus Elita blinked a couple times, her eyes having gained a purplish tint to them. "It's called the 'Dionysius'. I created it to shut down Silas' Project: Damocles. In the Greek legend of Damocles, he was an obsequious courtier under Dionysius the Second's rule during the fourth century BC and wasn't happy with his station. So seeing Damocles' jealous nature Dionysius made the offer to switch places with him.

"Damocles didn't hesitate to take up the offer and rather enjoyed his new wealth and luxury until he noticed one important detail. Dionysius had hung a sword over the throne by a single horse hair. It got across to Damocles just how much fear that Dionysius truly lived under in his life.

"When I had discovered what Silas true intent on Project: Damocles I began my request to have the project shut down. When the military uppers were taking too long, I took matters into my own hands. 'Dionysius' fragments the information before white washing."

Miko, who had been leaning over the railing as well, rolled her eyes. "In English please?"

Elita closed her eyes and reopened them, focused on the young lady, but it was Rafael that translated.

"It rips up the data on the drive, scattering it before it wipes it clean. All but impossible to restore."

"Well, it's a good thing that Raf stopped it before it did that to you." Bulkhead said with a huge smile. He had been there before.

Elita shook her head slowly, her eyes closing. "It's slowed in my head, but not stopped. Apparently it's reacting differently to my systems, I guess since my processor isn't completely human based." She looked back up at Optimus. "I was just trying to help offset the excess resources I was using."

The Prime only smiled softly for her. "We all appreciate your efforts, and thanks to those efforts we have a stockpile that will help for the time until we can find another source of energon. But we cannot go back to that mine anymore. M.E.C.H. obviously knew about our efforts there and were prepared."

With a deep sigh, Elita hung her head. She could feel little bits of her processor cracking, the ache in her head the only thing she was feeling in her body. How long before she shut down now? Funny how when it actually starts happening that you realize that it's not what you want anymore.

[Author's Note]

I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS PRIME NOR ANY CHARACTER IN THE SHOW.

Huge thank you to jackdauphinais who gave me the correct Latin transcription for this segment!