A/N: Internal Comm. indicator = ::speech::

Iacon, Cybertron: Present Day

Prowl smiled coolly as he ended the "conversation" between he and Starscream. He expected that the Seeker would waste no time in getting himself off-planet and taking that Neutral with him. He understood very well what the others of his faction would do to him if they found out he'd been communicating with an enemy combatant, regardless if he was threatened by said individual. Not to mention that right now, the Autobots still saw him as an enemy, unaware the Decepticons' Command structure was virtually non-existent.

The Chief Tactician leaned back in his chair. It had been a gamble contacting the Seeker, he reflected, as the mech was known to be loyal to the Decepticons. His so-called "treachery" was only against Megatron himself, though many Decepticons chose to see that detail as disloyal to the faction as a whole. But Prowl had learned much from reading all those Spec. Ops reports over the vorns prior to the Ark's departure, and he'd seen very clearly that Starscream's assassination attempts came from a very genuine belief that he could lead the Decepticons far better than Megatron ever could.

Prowl had no doubt that Starscream could in fact prove to be a better leader than Megatron in some respects in spite of his ego. Logic would have normally dictated he have the Seeker killed as a potential threat based on this alone, and in truth, he had considered that option for a time. But when he'd dug a little deeper into the Seeker's background, he'd found that there might be another way to deal with the Seeker, one that could neutralize him far more effectively.

When he'd received the signal about the Ark being online again, he'd had Red Alert trace the signal and hack Teletraan-1's files. The Security Director had passed along everything he'd learned about what had been happening on the world called Earth from the moment of the crash to the present day. While the data learned about Skyfire's revival and whereabouts had been useful (and had been passed along to the Seeker during the first conversation as a reward for his "cooperation"), he hadn't been as pleased with what else he'd learned...

Prowl's features hardened as he'd recalled those reports. He could understand the necessity of coming to terms with the dominant race (as of course it would be illegal to just take the natural resources of a world that a sentient race was known to live on), but to allow them to dictate all the terms...?!

That was unacceptable. And judging from those reports he'd received, Optimus Prime had ignored many of Ultra Magnus' recommendations when he'd made the final treaties. Cybertron needed to be on equal terms with an ally, not the subordinate partner. Prowl might not have been that adept when it came to social skills, and he certainly had a strong dislike for politics, but at least he understood the necessity of not appearing as weak, regardless of what the reality was. It had been of great help when it came to forming the various alliances he had managed to broker over the vorns, not to mention smoothing over things with the Galactic Council.

Prime's actions, however, had indicated to the "humans" that Cybertron and its people could be manipulated. Even if this race did show potential, a good planetary leader would understand that it was often wisest to concede as little as possible, particularly when dealing with an unknown race. Once you learned more about them, it was then you could decide if it was safer to give up more and what could be safely asked in return. Prime knew almost nothing of those humans and their history, and he'd still allowed their people to be marginalized in spite of that. Idealism was one thing, but complete surrender was something else entirely.

Prowl was very certainly going to be having words with his Commander over this, and he suspected that for once he would have Ultra Magnus' support when he did.

And if his fellow Sub-Commander did not, the Cybertronian team certainly would be backing him up. Once Prowl had spread the word, the frontliners who'd remained behind had made it clear they didn't like the notion of aliens having a foothold on their world. Brawn and Inferno had been among the most vocal in their disapproval. Perceptor, as much as he would like to examine an organic world, had seen what Prowl had seen: That allowing an unknown race access to their technology was too dangerous a proposition to be allowed for quite some time to come, if ever. Red Alert had been furious over the security breach created by allowing a smaller race permission by coming to their world, even if they hadn't arrived yet.

The femme and Wrecker units had also expressed disapproval when they learned that Prime had seemingly favored another world over their own. Even Kup had shaken his head over it. As much as he understood the need to make alliances, he knew from experience what disasters giving away too much could bring.

When Optimus Prime finally arrived, he was going to have a lot of explaining to do. The black and white mech's mouth became a very thin line.

After a klik or two of thought, he finally opened a comm. line.

::Prowl to Red Alert.::

::Red Alert here, sir.::

::I've received word from our contact that we will be receiving company shortly. Our commander and a few others will be arriving on Cybertron soon through the Darkmount space bridge sometime within the next few breems.::

::I see::, was the calm reply. ::I take it you would like me to prepare our two other "guests"?::

Prowl smirked. ::Yes, and have Bladestorm, Sheershot, Brawn and Inferno standing at the ready to..."introduce" them when I give the word.::

He could almost see the answering smirk. ::Of course, sir. And should I put out the announcement of our Prime's arrival?::

Prowl turned that question over in his head for a moment. It would make sense, of course, to have them greeting their Commander formally, give even a show of respect, however little they actually felt it...

But on the other hand, they weren't supposed to know he was on his way, and welcoming him would raise questions as to how they knew of the impending visit. And Prowl wasn't going to give up his informant unless and until he needed to. After all, he was a mech of his word, whatever else one might say about him.

::No. Our response must be as natural as possible. Just inform those I've assigned to escort duty that our Commander is returning when you pass along the orders.::

::Will do, sir. And should I alert our "allies" that it would be a good idea to stay low for the time being?::

Prowl smiled coolly. ::That, you can do.:: While a part of him admitted it would be amusing to hear about the reactions at seeing subdued Decepticons later on from Ion Storm, there would be more satisfaction to be found in his first plan, having Prime see who he'd taken prisoner and what had been done to them. The rest of what he'd done could wait for later.

::Understood, and done::, Red Alert replied, and Prowl thought he could hear some satisfaction in the voice. The Security Director was quite proud of his reputation for efficiency, and deservedly so, the Praxian would admit.

Still...It wouldn't do to become too proud. Mistakes occurred when that happened.

::Just be careful, Red Alert. It is highly likely that Prime will be bringing either Jazz or Mirage with him to scout ahead, and we both know how...slippery...those two can be.::

He could almost see the grimace on Red's face as he replied, ::Indeed.:: After a brief pause, he continued, ::It would seem the signal for the space bridge has just activated.::

::Then it's time for me to prepare myself. I will see you shortly.::

::Will do, sir. Red Alert out.::

Prowl sent an affirmative and cut the connection. With the same cool smile on his face, he rose from his seat.

Time to finish things.

Darkmount, Polyhex

Optimus frowned as he and the few other Autobots he'd brought with him made their way carefully through the Decepticon base.

The seemingly abandoned Decepticon base, apparently.

About three Earth months ago, Megatron had been witnessed heading for the space bridge, alone. That had raised some concerns about what he was planning, as it was well-known that Megatron would never willingly leave the Decepticons in Starscream's hands due to his past coup attempts, and in fact would normally have the Seeker accompany him in order to prevent him from making further attempts.

Fearing that his return would have him bring more Decepticons or weaponry produced by Shockwave which would endanger the people of Earth, Optimus had ordered Ironhide to run stronger drills with the rest of the Elite, and had Magnus and Smokescreen run possible scenarios and figure out what the best tactics would be to counter them should their fears prove to be true.

There had been complaints about the extra training, particularly as the Decepticons had seemed to become strangely quiet during Megatron's absence, which dragged inexplicably on. Finally, after three Earth months, Jazz sent Mirage over to the Victory, to see if he could to see if he could find out any answers. But his reports upon his return only deepened the mystery: Megatron had said only that he would be away for a few plantetary days after a call he'd made to Darkmount. Those who were present at the time of the call hadn't been exactly forthcoming with their comrades. In fact, they'd seemed disturbed enough by whatever they'd heard to keep their mouths shut. There was also speculation about Starscream's failure to usurp the leadership as he'd been expected to do. Further, Mirage went on to state that the few times he'd spotted the Seeker on base, he'd seemed jumpy about something, and he wasn't certain that the jet hadn't detected his presence at least once.

It had been this information that had caused Optimus and his Command team to make the decision to take a small team to Cybertron, to see if they could determine exactly what had happened to the Decepticon leader, or failing that, determine if those they'd left behind were safe. Optimus had chosen to go personally, and had taken Jazz, Ironhide and Cliffjumper with him. Magnus had been left in charge of the base, along with the remaining members of the Command Team.

After a brief fight with the two members of the Command Trine (and Jazz had pointed out how strange it had seemed that those two had given up so quickly, leading Optimus to wonder briefly if the Decepticon SIC actually was behind whatever had happened to Megatron), they'd chased off the Seekers and activated the space bridge, readying their weapons for a possible firefight if Shockwave refused to let them pass.

But Shockwave was nowhere to be found. Nor his drones.

And any other Decepticons who might have left behind were nowhere to be seen.

Optimus was beginning to feel very uneasy about this whole situation.

Ironhide spoke up, as if in response to Optimus' thoughts: "I don't like this, Prime. We should have run into some resistance by now."

"Yeah," Jazz agreed grimly. "And not only that, there's no sign that anyone's been here for some time. Consoles are cold, and from what I can tell from scanning some of the ceilings as we went through, so are the internal weapons. And it ain't like Shockwave to abandon his post. Or fail to have traps set up in case he had to leave for some reason."

"You think whatever happened here happened to our guys as well?" Cliffjumper spoke up, his optics darting around the shadows as though he expected whatever had caused these strange events to jump out and attack them.

Optimus stood in thought for a long moment. This was becoming more worrisome by the moment. It was possible that whatever had attacked Darkmount and left no trace behind could come after them as well...

And yet...

And yet he owed it to those he left behind to determine if they were safe as well. And if not, then to deal with whatever had harmed them. He owed them that much, for leaving them here for so long, even as unintentional as that length of time had been.

He turned to his team. "We need to get to Iacon. Hopefully, our mechs will be safe."

"You sure, Boss Bot?" Jazz asked cautiously. "We don't know what we're dealing with here."

"I know, Jazz," the Autobot leader said heavily. "But even so, if there is some kind of threat here, I would like to be sure our people here are able to defend against it."

Jazz nodded warily. The other two just looked at each other, then back at Prime before giving nods of their own.

Without another word, they made their way carefully out of the base, transforming the moment they got outside.

Half a klik later, they were on the road to Iacon.

::They've left Darkmount.::

::As expected. I assume they're on the way to Iacon?::

::Yes. Nova spotted them on the main road heading in your direction.::

::Was he spotted?::

::Not from what he could tell.::

::Did you recognize any of the team with Prime?::

::Two of them. Jazz and Ironhide. Didn't recognize the third. Red minibot, had the reinforced armor of a frontliner.::

::I believe I know who you're describing. And thank you for your assistance. I would advise you and your surviving wingmate to head for the rebuilding at the outskirts of Praxus for now. I will inform you when Prime and his team have left.::

::Will do. Ion Storm out.::

::Cybertronian Commander Prowl out.::