[Location: Rocky Mountain range, British Columbia Canada]

Prime surged to his feet, aiming directly for Megatron, but the tyrant deftly leapt backwards, avoiding the deadly swipe of the Autobot blade aimed at his midsection. "I'm sorry, Prime," his voice was dripping with sarcasm. "Lose another of your ranks? And one I didn't even know about. Or was she one of your human friends?" Optimus was firm and focused in his attacks, making Megatron block and dodge. "No matter. The artifact is lost now. Decepticons, back to the ship!"

Megatron back flipped over the Autobot leader's next swipe, transforming in the air before he shot into the sky, his ranks following suit. As the Decepticons left, the Autobots gathered behind their leader and watched them go.

"Did we see right?" Arcee asked.

Optimus nodded, calling Ratchet for a ground bridge. "Elita has the artifact."

They filed into the portal quickly and it winked shut, leaving the wind to rush through the trees and the once fierce battlefield quiet.

[Location: Autobot Base]

Ratchet, Rafael, Jack, and Miko were all attentive as they watched their friends walk back into their home. "Where's Elita?" Jack asked Arcee as soon as she was close enough.

"What of the artifact?" Ratchet asked Optimus.

The Autobot leader waited for them all to quiet down. "Elita-One has the artifact in her possession. It was one of the devices that was used to move large or delicate items into the Iacon vault."

"So that means…" Bulkhead said, the words dying in his vocal unit.

Optimus nodded. "It means that Elita is on Cybertron."

Miko whole frame dropped. "And where was this thing when we needed to send Jack to Cybertron to help you get your mind back?"

"So if it sent her to Cybertron," Jack said, "how do we get her back?"

"We'll have to use the Decepticon space bridge." Ratchet's fingers were dancing over his console.

"Assuming we can hold it again." Arcee's arms were crossed over her torso.

Bumblebee did a few boxing moves as he conveyed his opinion on the matter. Raf smiled up at his dear friend. "I'm sure you'll be able to do it again."

[Location: Cybertron]

A flash of light preceded the squeal of metal on metal as the red and gray fem-bot continued her slide. Seeing the sudden drop coming up fast she ditched the items she had in her hands quickly and rolled to her stomach, gripping the edge as her body swung heavily over the vast expanse. Glancing down she took a deep breath as she watched the pieces of metal she had taken over the edge with her fall into the dark below. With a grunt she pulled herself back up onto the ledge she dangled from and slowly crawled away from it before rolling over to her back.

There was some sort of whisper, or rattle, in her head she couldn't quite pinpoint so she simply shrugged it off as a part of the virus. Whatever virus that supposedly was. With a grunt Elita pulled herself back up to her feet and took in her surroundings.

The place was a mess. What had been a huge building, with several storage sections, was now a decaying shell. In the center of the spherical design was an old computer console. Walking over to the half ring, she looked it over before placing it in her left shoulder storage compartment and retrieved her gun, resting it on her shoulder as she walked over to the computer. Unfortunately it was as dead as the area around it. Giving a shrug she scanned the area for an exit and left the building and its unknown purpose behind.

The planet was not fairing much better than she was. It was desolate to say the least. Nearly unsalvageable from the eons of war. She frowned a bit as that clicking in her head grew worse. Her hard drive was failing, whatever a hard drive was. Taking a look around she settled on one direction, it was as good as any other, and listened to her heavy metallic footsteps echo into the eerie distances.

Elita walked for hours, or days, it was hard to tell anymore. Nothing lived on this planet that she had seen and she doubted anything really could. She followed that ruffling in her head as it guided her towards what was left of a huge city scape. A silly thought, but really what else was she going to do?

As she passed under one set of tunnels, she froze as the ruffling found something and her vision blacked out. She wasn't looking at the planet anymore. She was sitting in her room, on her work table. Standing in front of her was another bot, this one red and blue mostly.

"Are you sure about this?" she had asked him. "You could get infected, too."

His smile was calming. "Ratchet has given us markers that prevent the virus from taking a hold on us like it has you. I do believe that doing a filter of your energon through the Matrix would help you fight this battle."

"Can it do that?"

The bot before her nodded. "It carries with it the knowledge of the ancients, of the Autobots that came before us. We have had our shares of plagues and viruses to fight and it might be able to cure your own."

She nodded. "Alright. We'll give it a shot."

The sound of a buzz saw chewing on metal drew her mind back to where she was. Elita was puzzled by the odd sound and looked around for where it was. She happened to glance down to see a little orb shaped creature chewing on the plating on her right leg. She tapped the thing with the point of her gun, making it look up at her. It was oddly cute, in the love of piranhas sort of way. The thing just looked up at her, opened its mouth wider, and started chewing harder on her leg.

Now annoyed, she just pressed her gun barrel up to it and shot it off before she continued her journey. But as she walked further into the tunnel she heard more of that metal scratching metal noise. When a bunch of pairs of blue lights suddenly turned her way she paused. They were shaped like the eyes of the thing that was chewing on her.

One suddenly flew off the wall at her, followed by another, and then more. She lifted her arm to her face to shield it, but she couldn't feel these things to fight them off. She did feel when a couple of them bit into her wiring. The little buggers that did shook with the jolt and fell off. All of the others had stopped to watch them, and so she did to.

The scraplets that had chewed on her began to shake violently, their eyes going red. Then suddenly they attacked the scraplets that were closest to them. The others that were watching scurried away as fast as they could before they became the next meal. The infected scraplets chewed on their meals until they fell over, the lights in their eyes dying.

Thanks to these little pests, Elita had trouble moving, but she continued forward now, dragging her damaged leg behind her. As she passed the mass of scraplets that were still alive, they quickly moved out of her way. Apparently they didn't like to eat a meal that was going to kill them for doing so.

In the dark of the hall there was the clicking and ruffling in her head, the sound of her footsteps, and what few of her memories she really had left. Elita knew she should have shot Megatron when she had the chance to. Or was it Silas that was in her crosshairs? She couldn't recall who it was anymore, only that the blind ambition was clear in his eyes and that he'd hurt anyone or anything to achieve his goals. Or were they the same man, just Silas figured out a way to do Project: Adaptation… or was this Damocles the one that the mind ended up in another body?

She stopped walking when the clicking in her head stopped. Somehow Elita ended up in a huge room, standing on some sort of platform, when everything began to glow a bright blue. The floor below the platform she was standing on the edge of opening up. Was this her end?

Chosen of a Prime, your systems have become corrupted. The voice in her head echoed painfully. Enter repair mode. Elita felt her body grow heavy as her vision dimmed, but not before she saw herself fall forward into the bright glowing, huge blue orb below her.

[Author's Note]

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

For those of you who have been itching for it, yes she is now getting her ability to have an alt mode. Thanks for hanging in there with me.