Whether it was his medic's intuition talking or the fact that both Optimus and Airachnid were missing, Ratchet knew that something was wrong. Any attempts to ping the Prime's comm unit were in vain, and it was only when he started checking the Bridge calibrations that he was hit with a storm of static from the comm channel he'd left open.

"Optimus, where are you?" He had to recover from the stray crackles still stinging his audios before he could ask, but Optimus practically barged over the question before it was even out his mouth.

"There's no time to explain, Ratchet; get me a Bridge at Airachnid's co-ordinates and send the rest of the team over!"

Anyone who'd been an Autobot as long as Ratchet had knew better than to argue with that tone. He opened up his servo-panel, having to dig through to find Elita's long-thought-lost signal. With how old the record was, he was certain it was glitching out when he realised where it placed her. But no matter how much he refreshed the display and furrowed his eyeridges in confusion, her location didn't change.

"Airachnid's? But… Optimus, she's on Cybertron! Did you send her there with the Space Bridge?!" He hurried back to the Bridge controls on desperation to confirm it, but Optimus' stern growl, as well as what it revealed, froze his servos in place and his spark in the middle of a frantic pulse.

"Yes, but that doesn't matter! Megatron is here, and soon his entire army will be as well!"

At this point, Ratchet didn't even want to know how it happened. All he was concerned about was doing as he was told, broad and fast-flying digits still managing to hit the keyboard buttons with surgical precision. He'd found Airachnid's signal in an instant, but she moved so fast and unpredictably that it was impossible to lock on for longer than a nanoklick. With a Ground Bridge he could have just placed a portal near her and waited for her to run into it, but a Space Bridge took just enough longer to generate that she'd be long gone by the time it appeared.

With this pace, at least Megatron would struggle to catch her as well. But Ratchet knew that would be little comfort to Optimus, just as it was to him.

"Dammit, I can't get a lock on her position… I'll have to use your co-ordinates instead. Try to not move too much."

"Just get a Bridge open, NOW!" There was another burst of static, a suspicious sizzle like plasma hitting metal just before the comm channel collapsed. Though he winced from the loud gunfire, Ratchet worked through it to calibrate the Bridge to Optimus' position. He was so used to building the Bridges that he didn't even need to look at his digits as he set it all up.

"Primus, help me… Arcee, Bumblebee! Get everyone over here!" He called over his shoulder, hoping that whoever was nearest would hear the command over the crack in his voice.

Luckily Arcee was only just outside the hangar, and the remaining team trickled in behind her.

"Ratchet? What's going on?" she asked, throwing her confused glance between him and the Space Bridge humming in its struggle to summon a portal.

"Better make it quick, doc, we gotta go pick up the kids," Bee warned, though Ratchet chose to ignore him since Arcee was almost always the one to accept hard news better than anyone else.

"No time to explain, apparently, but Optimus is up against Megatron on Cybertron-" As he expected, his answer was quickly cut short by an indignant chorus and the woosh of the Space Bridge finally forming.

"What?! When did he leave?!"

"I was not aware that we would be facing him again so soon."

"Yeah, so much for waiting for the right opportunity."

Ratchet resisted a scowl at Bulkhead's scoff just as strongly as he resisted punching the Bridge console. "That doesn't matter! Right now, he needs you all with him so get a move on already!"

Ratchet employed his signature 'nagging doctor' voice, combined with a fierce jab towards the waiting portal, that had everyone rushing through it without another sound. Not even Dreadwing protested as he solemnly strode through the bridge, T Cog already hissing before he disappeared through it. Whatever reservations they had about facing Megatron now, they'd just have to suck it up and deal with them.

He allowed himself one sigh, a very deep one, before he tried Optimus' comm link again. "Optimus, are you still there?"

"Yes, Ratchet… I apologise for yelling."

Either he'd managed to find a safe spot while the rest of the team joined in, or he was near death and desperate for a clear conscience. Either way, Ratchet rolled his optics. "I'd say you had a right to. Where's Airachnid?"

"When I first sighted Megatron I told her to run and hide. Is she still moving?"

Ratchet checked her signal again on the Bridge console's screen. "No, she's stopped a long way from your position. I'll get her back home-" But his digits didn't manage to reach the keys before a jolt throughout the base almost threw him backwards.

"What the…?"

"Ratchet? What is happening?" Ratchet's audios were torn between Optimus' confusion and the familiar hum of the elevator descending behind him. He turned just as its doors opened, lines of armour-clad humans (or at least, what passed as armour for humans) marching out and surrounding the hangar. With how quickly they placed themselves, identical rows of faceless soldiers, they could have easily been mistaken for mass-produced drones; all except one who emerged last from the elevator, shielded in a suit as she purposefully carried herself towards Ratchet.

"Step away from the console, Autobot."

She spoke like she expected him to obey, but with the number of guns surrounding him he wasn't about to object. "And just who are you supposed to be?"

The human produced a badge from somewhere in her jacket, as if it would mean anything to him. "US Director of National Intelligence, aka the reason you're still on Earth and not floating in space somewhere. We're here on special Sector Seven directive orders to temporarily contain, supervise and ensure co-operation from all current Autobots."

With the sudden storm of soldiers, the rest of his team busy fighting for their home planet and the knowledge that Airachnid was still waiting for a Bridge, it was a rare moment where Ratchet was left speechless. He gave another frantic glance at the Space Bridge, groaning quietly at the sight of guards already stationed around it, before he managed to find his vocaliser.

"You've never had any concerns before. We've been nothing but co-operative and upfront all these years-"

The human held up a finger, so small and insignificant and yet still able to cut him off. "All these years, until now," she corrected. "Seems that your leader has developed a habit of taking in stray Decepticons without any authorisation. Your kind is already a national security risk just waiting to happen, we're here to ensure that that hasn't already happened." She met Ratchet's glare, almost challenging him to argue. But before he had the chance to, she looked away and focused instead on a black-clad soldier who clattered up to her.

"East and West wings clear, Miss Mearing. No sign of the Autobots anywhere."

Other than the slightest tilt of an eyebrow, she didn't seem shocked at all. That made her questioning stare all the more dangerous.

"Where are the Decepticons and Optimus Prime?" she asked Ratchet, while he swallowed his nerves and mustered the most disinterested tone he could find.

"Do I look like everyone's keeper?" he huffed. "I'm just the medic. They don't tell me where they go unless they get hurt on the way there."

She clearly didn't buy it, and her expression didn't change. "If you say so. I suppose we'll just have to hunt them down ourselves."

From how confident she sounded, she must have not known they were on Cybertron. Ratchet tried to not be too amused. "Good luck with that." Then he allowed himself another glance, this time at the base's main computer and the bewildered humans trying to decipher the glyphs on its screens. "But if it'll get you off my back, I can try pulling up their general co-ordinates," he offered, just vaguely and bored enough that the human didn't suspect a thing.

"See that you do," was all she said, gesturing to her soldiers to let him pass.

Once he reached the console, he wasted no time. The humans had no idea what a Cybertronian comm interface looked like, so despite his hammering spark they didn't even stop him sending data packets straight to Optimus' comm link. And finally his fast typing came into use.

'Did you get all that, Optimus?' He'd left the channel open, though he hadn't heard anything from Optimus side since the humans arrived. A few klicks after he sent the packet though, his weary dejection echoed in his audio.

"...There's no way to get the Bridge open?"

'Not while they're here, he answered. Can you imagine if they decided to go through, or if Airachnid appeared and decided to attack them?'

"She wouldn't do-"

'She would,' Ratchet managed to interrupt as if he knew Optimus would deny it, 'if she or Scorpia were being threatened.'

There was some silence that Ratchet had to fill with mindless typing as Optimus made his decision.

"...Very well. Keep the humans from activating the Bridge. I'll go find her myself." The channel closed, and Ratchet wasn't keen to open it again. He shut the console down as he left it behind, confronted by the human and her armoured entourage.

"Anything?"

"No," he said with a shrug. "Seems they've gone off the grid. And don't bother checking it yourself, you wouldn't understand a word of it."

She looked behind him at the towering console, as her eyebrow shot up even higher. "How convenient…"

Ratchet reluctantly allowed the soldiers to surround and escort him away from the hangar, if only so the human wouldn't hear his bitter mutters.

"More like ironic, that someone in charge of the country's intelligence can't even read."

xx

"Agent William Fowler, you've been brought here today to account for your... questionable actions regarding your assigned handling of the cybernetic extra-terrestrials known as the Autobots."

With the blinking camera in the corner, the shadows in the hangar's ceilings and the three medallioned men arranged in front of him like a tribunal, Fowler took great effort to not feel threatened. By contrast, Smokescreen didn't even break a sweat (assuming robots could sweat). "Get on with it, then, I'm sure you wouldn't want them left unsupervised for very long."

"Don't you worry about that; we already have a squad dispatched to bring them in." The officer sat furthest to the right gave Smokescreen another cautious glance before leafing through the file on his desk. From how many pages he heard being flicked, Fowler knew it wouldn't have anything good inside it.

"Now, why don't we start with the most recent incident... the discovery of the rogue cybernetic organism on North Sister Island. The so-called... Dinobot." The officer framed the word with his fingers as he read it out. "You didn't report its existence to higher command. In fact, the first we heard about him was from the criminal Silas, and this was dismissed as a deranged rumour."

Though he knew they were just starting him off lightly, Fowler still scoffed. "You think I knew about that any sooner than everyone else did? I was there when Silas was apprehended, and just like every other officer there I didn't see a damn robot dinosaur walkin' around!"

The second officer, the only one he recognised as General Bryce, was unphased by his insistence. "So you're denying that you intentionally withheld this knowledge?"

"Yes. Write it down in big letters if it'll make any difference."

"Very well. We'll just move onto more incriminating matters." Bryce examined his own file as Fowler tried not to gulp. "Like the fact that civilians have been involved in Team Prime's activities who are neither qualified or trained to take part in this level of-"

Up until now, Smokescreen had the grace to remain silence. But now he kicked himself out of his bored pose just to land Fowler in even more trouble. "You mean the kids? Well, sure; they're a little squishy and their tiny voices get annoying, but-" Smokescreen shut himself up when he noticed Fowler's bright-eyed panic and the dead-eyed shock of the other officers, but it was already too late.

"...Did he just say kids, Agent Fowler?" The leftmost officer preferred to stay silently scowling, but now he cracked his mouth open to let out some barbed indignantion.

"He's… referring to the children of our civilian volunteers," Fowler lied around his heart as it pounded in the pit of his stomach. "They like to visit the outpost, but I assure you they're in no danger whatsoever."

That assurance had no effect on anyone's disbelief. "Are you suggesting that you encouraged minors to get involved with top secret military operations?!"

"If they were any kind of threat, the whole world would know about the Autobots by now!" Fowler argued. "And if these civilians were a liability, they wouldn't still be around. They're a valuable asset to Team Prime and the key to humans co-operating more effectively with Cybertronians. Isn't that right, Smokescreen?"

Since his slip-up, the Autobot had tried to blend into the background as much as possible, but considering how big he was that meant 'not at all'. He glanced between all the humans as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, I'd rather catch a movie with one of them than with any of the stiffs around here- uh, no offense."

Smokescreen's apology didn't help ease anyone's outrage, and Bryce gave Fowler a cold look before moving on. "Regardless, we'll be investigating these civilians more closely at a later date. Now onto the… urgent matter of this meeting. The new additions to Team Prime, including Smokescreen."

Again the Autobot seemed surprised at being mentioned. "I thought I already introduced myself."

"Not when you landed on this planet, you didn't. Agent Fowler is supposed to report every new extra-terrestrial arrival as soon as it's confirmed." Bryce handed a sheet over to Fowler as his steady stare took on an icy quality. "However, we are willing to overlook this if you can explain why two former Decepticons are now being housed inside a secure government facility with their sworn enemies."

Fowler had seen the government profiles of Dreadwing and Airachnid before. He only skimmed over them before launching into his defense. "The key word there, General Bryce, is former. You were all so worried that Optimus had went over to the Cons for good, what's so unbelievable about the reverse happening?"

The rightmost officer was quick to answer. "The fact that these Decepticons have never seen fit to change their minds until now."

"They've been fighting their war for a long time," Fowler reasoned. "Maybe these two just want it to be over, no matter what side they're on."

Two of the three officers' glares faltered slightly, but the silent one took the chance to make his skepticism known. "Do you seriously expect us to believe that crap, Fowler?"

"It's not crap, sir, it's an... unforeseen complication. And it's not unheard of for enemies to switch sides-"

"In our wars, maybe not," Bryce interrupted. "But we don't know a damn thing about the Decepticons beyond what the Autobots have told us. How the hell are we supposed to take the word of two of them that they won't cause trouble?"

"If I may point out, sir, one of them is a special case." Fowler held up her profile for emphasis. "Airachnid is known to have never been loyal to the Decepticon cause-"

"Yes, Airachnid." The officer almost spat her name out as he looked at his own copy of her record. "The one who's ranked as most dangerous just below Megatron himself and who actively assisted Silas. Are we supposed to believe that she's feeling guilty about it?"

Fowler knew there was no getting around that, so he didn't even try denying it. Not even Smokescreen defended her, though that might have just been his common sense kicking in and keeping him quiet.

Two officers waited impatiently for an answer, but General Bryce sighed and gave Fowler a better chance to explain. "Will, you of all people know how dangerous that thing is. What the hell were you thinking not alerting us sooner that she was under Autobot protection, right under our noses?"

Even now, Fowler wasn't quite sure what he was thinking at the time. Maybe the fact that she was a mother as well as an Autobot was that much of a shock to him. But her daughter was the one thing he hadn't revealed, and he doubted she would have helped change any attitudes about her mother. So he stayed quiet, weighing everything he'd heard about Airachnid against everything he now knew, and only then gave his answer.

"By the time I knew about what was happening, I saw no reason to think of her as a threat anymore," he said. "And neither did the Autobots. Especially not Optimus."

Whatever suspicions they still had, neither officer could find a flaw in his reasoning. He knew that, even before Bryce sighed again in resignation.

"No, he wouldn't," he agreed, searching for another piece of information among the scattered records. "Not if... could you explain the circumstances again for clarification?"

Fowler cleared his throat, only half in preparation for the explanation that he couldn't give with a straight face no matter how much he rehearsed it. "According to Optimus, Airachnid is in fact an Autobot that was long thought to be dead, named Elita One. As far as I know, Elita and Optimus were... romantic partners, or whatever giant space robots would be."

"Sparkmates!" Smokescreen corrected with a grin more out-of-place than the rest of him. "I wasn't around for their bonding ceremony, but I heard it was a national holiday and every Autobot was there to…" He trailed off when it was clear his enthusiasm wasn't catching on.

The officer sat to the right coughed as he asked, "And what made this revelation come about?"

"I still don't know, but I've seen the proof," Fowler insisted. "We know that each Cybertronian has a unique spark signal, and I saw Elita's for myself. It had been inactive for centuries, and when it came back online it pointed right to where Airachnid was. Whether you believe it or not, that surely can't be a coincidence."

"I suppose not..."

The scowler to the left still didn't budge his cynicism. "Assuming that this thing really is friendly now, that still doesn't make the other Decepticon any less dangerous. Especially since he's refused to show up."

Though he'd accepted most of Fowler's logic up to now, Bryce made a sound of agreement. "Yes, this Dreadwing was said to be Megatron's most loyal officer, yet one day he decides to betray him? What spurs on something as drastic as that?"

"Well, if you're really planning to bring the rest of the Bots in, you can ask him yourself." Fowler was just glad to have gotten past Airachnid, too exhausted to manage a better reply than that.

But before the interrogation could dig any deeper, the room's only door slammed open as a soldier stood slumped and panting against the frame. "Um, sir... sirs, there's, uh... we have a problem."

Other than some disgruntled looks, the officers were hardly phased by the interruption. "Well, spit it out already," Bryce ordered.

"The... Autobots, sir... they've… all disappeared from the outpost! All except one, and he won't say where the others are."

There was a second of silence, what should have only been a second before chaos broke out, but Smokescreen's reaction ended up stretching it out much further.

"Awww, what the Pit?! They started the big battle without me!" He whined like he was on the edge of a tantrum, going so far as to kick his peds together on the floor as every officer faced Agent Fowler.

"What is he talking about, Fowler?" Bryce asked slowly, just as Fowler was turning his own glare up to Smokescreen.

"Yeah, Smokescreen, what are you talking about?"

The Autobot froze, gulped and, yes, there was actually a trickle of something like sweat falling down his face as he stuttered. "Uh… we, uh… had a, sorta... plan to get back to Cybertron and finally beat the Decepticons. Didn't think it'd be happening so soon though-"

"Clearly," Fowler cut in, burying his face in his hand as he wondered what other secrets Optimus had managed to stockpile.

While he was busy regretting his life choices, Bryce turned back to the messenger while he stared up at Smokescreen. "Send out some engineers to the Omega Outpost, see if they can't figure out how they got off the planet," he ordered. Though the young soldier was still heaving from his run and entranced by the robot in the room, he knew better than to linger any longer. When he'd disappeared, Bryce locked back onto Fowler. "As for you, Agent Fowler, we're not done here. But you might as well make yourself useful and go make sure those kids get home safely."

The three officers cleared their papers, stood up, retrieved the camera and left him to both wonder how he'd gotten through the grilling without losing his job, and to regret taking this job in the first place.

"Once again, stuck babysitting... might as well just hand in my badge and open up a daycare." Fowler sighed as he wiped his suit down, shooting a glare up at his partner in attempted crime. "You too, Smokescreen, you're driving me there!"

"Aw, come on!"

xx

Bit of a boring chapter compared to the last one, but I wanted to set up why Airachnid can't get off Cybertron while the Bots and Cons are duking it out. I promise the next part will be suitably dramatic, violent and heartbreaking to make up for this one.