New chapter and the last one is to come! Don't worry, there maybe be a sequel.

Starlight's View:

The stellar cycles flew by and as the time came to launch loomed closer, the more I worried Bee and I would be separated. We'd become even more inseparable during this time. We were deeply in love but had to keep it somewhat of a secret. Sire knew of course, but that was because Hot Shot had caught us in the training room making out. Of course, Sire was the one to tell us to be careful of who knew and that he was happy to welcome Bumblebee into our family; even though he already was. He also warned against merging or bonding until the Allspark was found. That was the most awkward conversation I had with him. Both Bee and I were blushing by the end of it.

Hot Shot constantly teased us now and asked us when the bonding ceremony would be every other megacycle. Bumblebee had called him out on it a few times, but Hot Shot just laughed and put him in a playful headlock. In his own way, he was happy for us.

Unfortunately, Hot Shot let it slip to the twins and those two spread it around. Now all of the Autobots knew, but no one outside of our group was to know. Ratchet came down hard on Sunny and Sides and warned them if they told anyone else, he'd personally take them offline. Too bad it was far too late.

I asked him time and time again, but Sire had told me he was still getting the teams in order and wouldn't say what team I was on. I worried I would be stuck with a team I had no idea how to work with. Though, knowing Prowl, it would "work logically and everyone's abilities would complement each other." And I, being the next in line to become a Prime, I might be placed into a position to control my own ship. I wasn't ready for that...I wasn't ready to lead a team.

"Sire." I decided to tell him now. We were both at home, one of the rare times we both had time off, and I would have his full attention for the next few mega-cycles.

"Yes?" He asked. He was sitting in a chair across from me reading a data pad. He didn't bother looking up.

"I-I'm not ready to lead a team." I blurted out. "I mean…I know I'm a Prime or at least will be one day, but I can't lead a team yet. I'm not ready, I'm not ready to be like you"

Sire chuckled and set the pad down. "Is this about the teams? Are you worried you'll have to lead a team or are you worried about being pulled apart from Bumblebee?" I felt my face heat up a bit. He laughed again. "Don't worry, both you and Bee are on the same ship. Most of the teams are now set up and you both will be with me. And as for you being my daughter, I know what you mean. I never thought I would be leading…well anything."

"Really?" I couldn't imagine him being scared to lead. "You were scared?"

"At times, I still am. I worry if I make the wrong choice, how many will suffer because of my mistake." He took my hand in both of his. "One day, you'll realize you can do it."

"How did you know? How did you find out you could do it?" I asked.

"When the war began. I was the one that helped established the Autobots. From there…everyone looked to me for the answers and from there I just became the leader. I didn't do it alone though. Without Ironhide, Ratchet…" He trailed off before saying. "Rocket, Coraline and Raindown, this would have never of happened. The Autobots exist because of our teamwork."

"Sire…did you want to be the leader?" He thought for a moment before answering.

"At first, no. I was young and had graduated from the academy just two stellar cycles earlier and had achieved the title of Prime not long after. I was confused, but your creator and the others helped me. Then you came. When you were born, I realized that I needed to step up and make a better world. A world where you, Bee, and everyone else would be safe." His features softened as he spoke. "Though the war raged on, together we were able to build Iacon and create a place where bots could feel safe. Yes, I know it's not perfect, but before we had nothing."

"You mean, Iacon didn't exist before?" I was curious. Never before had Sire opened up so much to me.

"It did, but it was more of a military bunker. As more joined our cause, we began to expand. The walls around the city were the first thing to go up. After that, the base grew and from there more buildings were build. The base you see today is nothing like it was back then. The only part that is original is the medical bay."

"Really? I remember a little bit of the old base. I guess…I didn't notice how much it grew."

"You were very young when the expansions started. You had just turned three when the housing area was being built. It was finished just a stellar cycle later." He stopped and put his finger to his temple. "Optimus to Jazz."

I sighed. So much for spending time with him.

"Is something wrong?" I whispered to him. He shook his head and continued his conversation with Jazz.

"I'll be there in a few clicks. Thank you, over and out." He stood and put a hand on my shoulder.

"The ships are almost done. Would you like to come see them?" I jumped at the opportunity to spend more time with him and followed him.

The ship bay was a lot bigger than I thought it would be. Then again, I should have guessed it would be to hold five ships.

"Prime!" I heard Jazz call over the noise of welding and saws. "Ova here!" He waved.

"Everything looks like it's in order." Sire said to him. I couldn't stop looking at the ships and missed most of their conversation.

Four of them were silver color and each ship had a different colored stripe around cockpit to indicate what ship was what. None of them had names on the sides yet, but one stood out from the others. It was a golden color and looked less like a war ship than the others.

"Sire, why is one a different color?"

"We ran outta the material and had ta improvise. I was against it being so different, but now…it's kinda grown on meh." Jazz responded. "We're callin' that one the Ark."

"I assume that's the one you wanted to talk about?" Sire said.

"Yeah, come wit me. I'll show ya the problem. Feel free to look around Sta'! I'm stealin' you Sire for a few clicks." Jazz joked as he led the way. In other words, I wasn't allowed to follow. Whatever it was, it was above my clearance level. I sighed, yet again being blocked from knowing what was going on. How was I supposed to become good leader if I didn't know what was going on?

I turned to go explore the one with the red stripe. It wasn't done yet, and was missing a side panel. That's when a dizziness hit. It was like that time is Sire's office but this time something was different. I supported myself on table I was near and let it pass. Something was wrong, the voice I heard last time came in much clearer this time. Shockwave…The moment the dizziness passed I ran towards where my Sire went. The mission had to be aborted! We were compromised. But before I could, the dizziness got worst and a warning flashed across my HUD about an immediate shut down. The last thing I heard was someone's voice calling out but I had no idea who or what they said.

I awoke in the med bay with Ratchet hovering over me.

"Can you hear me?" I heard him, but I didn't see his lips move. Everything had a weird glow around it and nothing seemed to move right. "Slag it all, Shockwave left a bug in her processor. It laid dormant until intel was given to her." He walked out of the room, mumbling about needing new tools

I tried to move but was pushed back to the berth.

"Say there littl' one." Jazz said. "Ya shouldn' move just yet. Do ya know where ya are?" I looked at the visored mech, but again, his movements seemed…slow? Was I going crazy?

"I-I…what's going on?" My own voice sounded echo-y.

"Ya processor was hacked. Ya're gonna feel a littl' fuzzy for a bit. Does everathin' seem slow? Ya hear an echo?" I nodded. How did he know? "Slag, it's not a fun feelin' is it?" He grabbed a blueish green cube from the table next to me and handed it to me, or tried to.

"I-I can't tell which one is the real one." To me there were now three cubes and four Jazzs'. I didn't want to reach out to him and fall.

"I got cha." He shifted himself and helped me drink whatever it was. "This'll make everathing look more normal again. Ya processor is all scrambled right now, but we'll get cha back ta normal."

"W-why are you here?" Everything was slowly coming back into focus. He helped me finish the cube before he answered me.

"I took ova for ya Sire. He was here for a bit, but had ta go tweak something with Prowler. I'm also kinda an expert on recoverin' from a processor hack." He said sheepishly. "I've been on the wrong end of Shockwave's experiments a few times myself." So he was just here to help me recover. For a click, I thought I was in trouble.

"I thought I was in some kind of trouble…" I admitted. "Most of the time when you're here…"

"I know, when ya hacked ya gotta get screened and all that slag ta make sure ya're not a 'Con. We know ya're not. Ya passed all the tests all ready. Unless ya want me ta question ya again." The black and white mech teased.

"Primus no…Wait again?" I held my head. It felt like a bad hang over after drinking too much high grade.

"You were pretty out of it but I got cha to answer some basics." He put his hand on my shoulder. "That'll pass too. Sorry Sta', but there ain't much more I can do. I can defrag you processor wit that stuff," He pointed to the empty cube. "But the processor ache, I'm afraid I have no cure."

"You may not but I do." The old medi-bot came back with a normal looking cube of energon. "Drink up. You'll need it." I was able to take it from his hand without a problem now. "You're in the clear now. I was able to isolate the bug and get it out of there, but I'm afraid the damage is done. The 'Con's may now know of our plans, and may know what we have been up to."

"I'm sorry…I never meant for this to happen…" I looked down, focusing on noting but the pink cube.

"Now, now, it ain't ya fault." Jazz tried to comfort me, but it didn't work. Two stellar cycles of work was ruined because of me. Shockwave won. Megatron won. The reason he didn't kill me was because he knew I would get access to sensitive information. They just waited until now to spring the trap.

"But it…" Jazz gave me a stern look, stopping me from finishing.

"Starlight, it wasn't ya're fault. Ya didn't leak information on purpose. Trust me, this ain't the first time Shockwave has stolen info. We'll manage and figure out another plan. Do not blame ya self fo' this." Jazz had never spoke to me like that, or used my full name. I knew he was right, but it didn't stop the guilt I felt.

Later that night, the horrible sensations had all come back. Jazz couldn't give me any more of the stuff he gave me earlier. Apparently it could only be taken once a solar cycle. Hot Shot walked me home and told me Sire was caught up in a meeting. I knew the plans had been ruined and everything had to start over.

"Bumblebee will be around in a few mega-cycles to see how you're doing ok?" Hot Shot said as he laid me down on my berth. I couldn't tell which one was real…but I think the one on the left was the one that squeezed my shoulder before leaving.

I passed out for a while but awoke to a strange sound. Everything was a little blurry, but I quickly realized what the sound was. There were bombs going off! I stumbled out of my room, running into everything as I went and ran right into Bumblebee. He had just come through the front door.

"Bee! W-." he told me to hush and lead me towards the main base.

Right as we got away from the housing complex, a bomb fell right on it. Bee and I were thrown to the ground by the blast. I slowly got up and looked back behind us. The flames and broken buildings around us made me dizzy again. I effects of the hacking made me hallucinate there were bots running out of the flames, on fire and damaged, screaming in agony. I knew there was no way that was possible, everyone would have died on contact. The only reason I lived, was because Bumblebee.

"Bee…why didn't you…we left them to die!" Bee made me look at him and shook his head. He made noises that sounded like speech and communicated they had been evacuated. He went to find me when I didn't show up. "The alarms went off?" He nodded. The effects of this hacking were worse than I thought.

Inside, Sire was commanding units and sending them to different sectors.

"Get to the hanger! Everyone must evacuate now!" He commanded the rest. "First unit, get civilians to the ships! Unit two to the west, three to the gate!" Bots were running about to get to their places. "Bumblebee, you found her." He stepped down from the podium towards us. "I was worried. Get Starlit to the ships, we need to…" He didn't get to finish. An explosion went off to our left, causing bots to go flying. My Sire grabbed us and threw us to the ground. "Slag…"

Bumblebee helped me up as Sire got up and transformed his guns. "Get out of here, now!" He called. Bee grabbed my arm and ran towards the hanger. Everything was coming back to focus, but I was unable to run straight without his help. I felt useless as we headed for the Ark. Suddenly Bee stopped and pushed me to the right and a grenade flew towards us. Both of us were able to dodge it and take cover, but in the process we became separated.

Optimus' View:

The 'Cons attacked sooner than we had planned. Prowl predicted we had a solar cycle at most, but unfortunately that wasn't the case. Our only hope now was to get everyone on the four completed ships and pray we find the All Spark in time.

In the fry, we lost countless bots. Jazz and I fought through hordes of drones Megatron had built just for this mission. This drones were ruthless with no emotions, their sparks being artificial caused them to be this way. I worried no one would survive, but thankfully Prowl was able to get the anti-aircraft guns working on the towers. This put the odds back in our favor.

"Optimus, we have a problem." Prowl said over comm. Link

"What is it, Prowl?" I asked as Jazz and I continued to fight what was left of the grounded 'Cons.

"The 'Cons are starting to take the towers down, we have five clicks tops. Three ships are ready for takeoff. If we're to launch the ark, we need to do so now!"

"Send everyone who's left to the ark and let the three ships go now. We'll take off as soon as we can."

I entered the ship, quickly barking orders to get ready for takeoff. At the bridge, I found Bumblebee looking frantic.

"What's wrong? Where's Starlight?" Bee's optics told me he didn't know either and he told me he hoped she was with me.

Please R&R!