After the war, Raf was the one who remained in the most contact with the Autobots (and Decepticons, for that matter.) For Jack and Miko, it simply wasn't possible.
Jack secured good grades and even a scholarship. But instead of becoming a lawyer like his mother wanted him to, he accepted Agent Fowler's offer to make him an agent for Unit E. 'Agent Darby' sounded pretty funny. Although, from the way Miko was talking, she was expecting him to go all superninja on them and kept quoting Bond at him and Raf.
Miko and Raf kept in touch with Jack for around five years. After that, he was shipped off to some secret government location and They never heard from him again.
Miko didn't go to college, either.(Not that it was expected.) She shot straight back to Japan and set up the rock band of her dreams, 'Do we look like we do country?' . It was a roaring success. She sent Raf two copies of albums every time – one for Cybertron, one for himself. He dutifully passed on the former, but did not bother to listen to the latter (the one time he tried, it hadn't ended very well.)
He and Miko skyped each other every now and then, but that was all. And every now and then, there was a article in the newspapers about her chart-busting songs.
Raf, on the other hand, remained more or less in Unit E for all the time he was in high school. He served as something of a technical consultant to Ratchet, checking for bugs and viruses, helping to write simple codes and in general assisting in any way possible. In return, Ratchet taught him all the medic knew about Cybertronian biology. This was an astounding feat to accomplish in just two years, but Raf wasn't called a genius for nothing.
After high school, he got his degree from a respectable college in just one year. Then he floundered for a little while, not quite knowing what to do. Then, he hit upon a brilliant idea. The only problem was that he'd need Cybertron and Unit E's permission first. Getting it was extremely difficult and required trawling through mounds of red tape, but Raf had a sizable amount of patience and was rewarded for it in the end.
The next step was to conduct interviews with 'Bots and 'Cons alike. All the Autobots, Bumblebee especially, were enthusiastic about the idea. In fact, Bumblebee convinced even Megatron to entertain him.
Then he began to write.
His writings were not, by any means, very accurate,but most of it was. He wove a fantastic tale, from the Golden Age and Fall of Cybertron, to Team Prime's arrival on earth, to the great and grand battle for the Omega Lock, to the final defeat of Unicron.
It was a global bestseller, a series spanning ten books of increasing size. It was thought of as the next Harry Potter, and Raf was very, very proud. It was not half as well received on Cybertron – after all, he had twisted centuries of gruesome fighting into a reckless adventure – but Team Prime loved it, and that was all Raf cared about.
After that, he lost all contact with them.
He spent the better part of fifteen years writing. They were all written under the pseudonym Axis Bright. Even the press couldn't get his real name out of him.
The next three years were spent manufacturing a video game about the books (as himself) and wrote four small companion books (as Axis Bright.)
His books remained on the bestseller lists.
And so, it greatly surprised him when he got the letter, while sipping his morning coffee :
To,
Rafael Esquivel,
Canterbury Avenue,
Rockefeller Center
New York – 36
April 17th,2014
Dear Rafael,
You are cordially invited to the funeral of
William Bill Fowler
from 5 to 8 p.m.
At
St Peter's cemetery,
Jasper, Nevada,
on
April 22nd .
Yours sincerely,
Jacob Fowler
Raf's mind was reeling form shock. Agent Fowler? Dead? How was that even possible? He hadn't ever thought that Agent Fowler could, well, die. Common sense told him that the man was only mortal, it was only matter of time. Yet, his mind refused to accept it.
And who was this Jacob Fowler? He must have been Fowler's brother, or something. Agent Fowler did not strike Raf as the type to have kids. But even then, up till now, Agent Fowler had only been the man who would come to base and yell at Optimus and say stuff like 'Great Lady Liberty!' (Where did that even come from, anyway?)
That Agent Fowler didn't have a family, or even a house. He just had his work and Team Prime. Raf had never seen him in this kind of a light. But now this letter seemed to be changing all his childish perceptions.
One thing was clear in his mind, however. He stood up and began to pack. He had to get to the funeral. He owed at least that much to Agent Fowler. To the Autobots. To the memory of Optimus Prime. To Jack and Miko.
Wait – Jack and Miko! If he had gotten this letter, there was a pretty good chance they had as well. Being in the government, Agent Fowler might have had access to Jack's location. So, hopefully, Jack would be there too. Finally, he would get to see them in person, after all these years.
Raf resumed his packing with new vigor. Once he had finished, he sat down on the sofa with a huff. Today was the 18th, the funeral was on the 22nd. So he had four days, ample time to get to Jasper...