Hey everybody, hope I didn't keep you all waiting for too long. I decided to change up the entire plot of this chapter, (i've been doing that a lot lately) so it was a pain to figure out. I ended up actually splitting it into two parts, so I hope you guys don't mind another cliffhanger haha *sweats nervously* By the way I just want to thank KristenVerne for helping me brainstorm this chapter. Without your help, it wouldn't have gotten done as quickly as it did. You're the best!

Please note: I do not own Transformers. I do, however, have my own OC's which I have inserted into the story. My OC's include Reese Shields and Chase Sanders. Electra Belongs to my sister.

26. In Enemy Territory

The first thing Bumblebee, BlueStreak, and Chase saw as they came through the groundbridge was Reese being dragged into Knockout's vehicle mode. They gunned their engines, barreling towards Knockout at an incredible speed. Unfortunately, despite their speed, the gap between them and the con was too great.

"I'm going to shoot his tires!" Bumblebee whirred, transforming and readying his blasters.

"Wait, don't shoot! At this angle and the speed he's moving at, you might injure Reese inside!" Bluestreak warned, speeding past Bumblebee.

"Scrap, I hadn't considered that," Bumblebee cursed. Instead, he shot a couple blasts at either side of Knockout, hoping it might distract the con. He transformed again and continued the chase.

"He's going to bridge back to the nemesis!" Chase called out from inside of BlueStreak's vehicle mode, being the first to notice a ground bridge open up ahead of Knockout.

"We can't let him do that." Bluestreak's voice sounded strained.

Suddenly, Knockout's brakes screeched and he spun out of control. He narrowly missed the groundbridge in his attempts to regain control of his vehicle mode.

"Reese is fighting back! She's trying to give us a chance to get close." Bumblebee whirred.

"That's my girl," BlueStreak beamed internally, pushing his engine to go faster than ever before.

Bumblebee transformed once more and aimed his blasters. He fired a couple more shots, trying to hit Knockout's tires. Unfortunately, Knockout's movements were erratic enough that both shots missed. "Slaggit," Bumblebee whirred angrily, transforming again and catching up to BlueStreak.

Reese's intervention had closed the gap considerably, creating the perfect opportunity for BlueStreak and Bumblebee. Both bots sped ahead, one closing in on either side of Knockout's flank. Their plan was to come together and catch Knockout between them.

Just as they started closing in, another bridge opened directly in front of Knockout, and he sped through without a moment's hesitation. BlueStreak and Bumblebee narrowly missed colliding into each other, as they watched the bridge close behind Knockout's retreating form. They had lost.

"REEEESE!" Chase screamed, slamming his hands angrily on Bluestreak's dash.

BlueStreak and Bumblebee transformed, the former holding Chase in his servos. They stared at the spot that Knockout had bridged away from. Reese was gone, and they had no way of finding her.

Bumblebee dropped to his knees, coolant welling up in his optics. "If I could have just hit one of his tires… If my aim had been just slightly better…"

"We did everything we could to save Reese, and will continue to do everything we can to get her back. Our first priority needs to be locating the warship," BlueStreak said sternly. As distraught as he was that they had failed to rescue Reese, throwing a pity party wasn't going to help them get her back.

"Well, that was productive. Of course, it would have gone more smoothly if someone hadn't interfered." Knockout transformed and glared at Reese, who he held tightly in his servo. "You're pretty gutsy, I'll give you that."

"Drop dead," Reese hissed, but inside she was a nervous wreck. The bots had been so close. If she could have just bought them a little more time…

"Let's see you show that attitude to Megatron! I'd love to see that, I really would." Knockout laughed as he carried Reese onto the bridge of the Nemesis. Megatron turned to face them as they approached.

"Knockout, I thought I told you to bring me the source of the energon anomaly. Why did you bring me a human?"

"This "human" is the source of the anomaly. There is definitely more to this one than meets the eye. I have my speculations, but I would need to run a variety of experiments to find out exactly why she's emitting an energon signature."

Reese glanced frantically between Megatron and Knockout. She could feel her throat constrict and her spark rate spike. 'Keep calm,' she thought to herself. Showing fear in front of the Decepticon Warlord probably wouldn't do her any good.

"I have had my suspicions about this one for a while. Very well, you have my permission to conduct whatever experiments you require. I look forward to hearing what you find," Megatron knelt forward so that his face was right in front of Reese's. She blanched, instinctively leaning as far away from the Warlord as she could.

"It would be my pleasure, Lord Megatron," Knockout bowed slightly and turned to exit the bridge.

"Oh Knockout, don't do anything that would kill her. She is more valuable to us alive than dead."

"Understood," Knockout nodded, though the gleam in his optics did nothing to quell Reese's fears. He exited the bridge and made his way down the many corridors to the med bay.

Reese kept quite the whole way. It took everything she had just to keep her breathing controlled. She had to mentally recall Chase's instructions from when he'd calmed her down before.

"Let's see, where can I put you where you won't just scamper off? I need to get my interior dried out before I can do anything else," Knockout muttered to himself as he scanned his shelves for something to hold Reese.

"Aha, this will do." He grabbed a large glass canister off one of the shelves and unscrewed the lid. Then, he unceremoniously dropped Reese inside and put the lid back on. "That should hold you until I can find something more suitable… Now, where did I put that air dryer?"

Reese watched from inside the glass canister as Knockout rooted around through drawers for his air dryer. As terrified as she was, she couldn't help but smirk a little knowing that she had thoroughly drenched Knockout's interior. That being said, the warship wasn't exactly climate controlled, and the cold air made her wet clothes and hair even more unbearable. She shivered a little, wishing she was back at the base where she had fresh clothes and a warm bed waiting for her.

'How am I going to get out of here? Even if I were somehow able to get out of this container, I have no way of getting off the ship. Not to mention, the bots have no way of finding me because of the ship's cloaking capabilities… I'm screwed.' Reese thought to herself as she shivered inside the canister. 'This is what I get for going out by myself.'

"That should be dry enough," Knockout muttered as he turned off the device he had been using to dry himself. It kind of reminded Reese of a cybertronian sized hair dryer. "Now, let's get to the fun stuff."

Reese's eyes widened and she shrank back, pressed up against the back wall of the canister. She had no clue what Knockout planned to do to her, but she could almost guarantee that it wouldn't be as fun for her as it probably would be for him.

"First things first, let's figure out just what you are, shall we?" Knockout leaned in so his face was close to the canister. He grabbed a scanner off one of the workstations and turned it on, running it up and down Reese's form a couple times.

"Just as I thought, you're one of those." Knockout's voice held more than a hint of disgust.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Reese asked defensively, not appreciating Knockout's tone.

"You're a half-breed, a techno-organic."

"What's wrong with being a techno-organic?"

"Organic material in general is disgusting, but flesh is particularly repulsive. Though, I suppose it could be worse. You could be a half bug like Airachnid and those mindless insecticons."

"I thought Airachnid was a decepticon. I'm surprised you would so openly express disgust for one of your own."

"Airachnid can go rust in the pits of Kaon for all I care. She is a blemish on Cybertronian kind. She only joined the Decepticons because nobody else would take her."

"Jeez, what did she do to get you so worked up?" Reese asked. The longer she could stall Knockout, the longer she could delay any experiments he had planned for her.

"She murdered my best friend. I don't know what happened to her, but if she ever shows her face around here again, I will gladly offline her as payback," Knockout hissed, rage in his optics. He slammed his fist onto the counter to drive his point home.

Reese was a little taken aback by Knockout's sudden outburst. From what she knew from Arcee, Airachnid was ruthless and sadistic, but a con that would kill her own allies… Reese shuddered at the thought.

"Oh…" She responded eloquently.

"Yea well, that isn't any of your concern. You should be more worried yourself," Knockout ran a servo down his face, trying to recollect himself. "Now, why don't you tell me how a creature like you even exists. Cybertronians can't reproduce with other species, especially not organic species."

"It's… uh, a long story." Reese didn't exactly feel like divulging her life story to a con.

"It's not like you have anywhere else to go, and I've got plenty of time."

Reese bit her lip and kept quiet. The less the cons knew about her the better.

"I'll say this only once. It would be in your best interest to answer any and all questions. Things will go much easier for you that way. You can keep quiet if you want, but you probably won't like the outcome. So let's try this again, how were you made?" Knockout transformed his servo into a large spinning drill to get his point across.

Reese eyed the drill warily. She knew Knockout had orders not to kill her, but that didn't mean he couldn't inflict physical pain. Given the current circumstances, she didn't have much choice but to answer, but that didn't mean she would have to divulge every detail of information. She would treat this like she did her interrogation with General Bryce.

"I'm mostly human… or was anyways, so I was born just like any other human."

"Humans aren't compatible with energon, and they don't have Cybertronian internal components. Do you think lying to me is funny?" Knockout scratched the glass with the tip of the drill, making Reese flinch and cover her ears.

"I'm not lying, it's true that I was born like any other human. My dad was part cybertronian, that's where I got my CNA from."

"Fine then, how did your dad come to be part cybertronian?" Knockout asked exasperatedly.

"He was a protoform…"

"Finally, we're getting somewhere! Let me guess, the protoform scanned a human and a cybertronian at the same time?"

"Something like that."

"So where did your grandsire get a protoform in the first place? Protoform production stopped at the beginning of the war."

"I don't know…"

"You sure about that?" Knockout edged the drill towards the glass again.

"All he said was he was in charge of protecting it… That's all I know, seriously." Reese instinctively put her hands to her ears again, anticipating Knockout to scratch the canister once more.

Knockout squinted suspiciously at Reese, but decided that he had other more pressing questions. "So, if you are only 1/4th Cybertronian, how are you creating such a strong energon signature? You shouldn't even exhibit any cybertronian characteristics at all."

"I was… exposed to energon. It reawakened the dormant CNA in my cells.," Reese chose her words carefully. She really didn't want to think about the whole MECH incident.

"Uh huh, and how exactly did you get 'exposed'? You would have had to have ingested it, or been injected with it, in order for that to happen. I could be wrong, but you don't seem stupid enough to straight up eat energon, and the autobots definitely wouldn't inject you with it, knowing that humans are incompatible."

"There was an incident… with a curious third party…" Reese gripped her shirt tightly, her face going completely white as memories of Silas's experiment flooded her mind.

"So, MECH's experimenting on humans now too… Interesting," Knockout tapped his digits on the counter, seeming temporarily lost in thought. Reese remembered hearing that MECH had conducted experiments on Breakdown in the past. It had happened before she joined the team though, so she didn't know all the details.

"Well then, since my scans show that you have a T-Cog, you must have a cyberform, right?" Knockout stared at her curiously. He seemed to be giving off a slightly less intimidating aura. Was it that he was genuinely fascinated by her techno-organic nature? He had seemed so disgusted previously, and perhaps he still was, but the scientist in him seemed to be getting the better of him.

"Um…" Reese debated showing her cyberform. The less he knew, the better, right? She could just lie and say that she didn't have one, but that could make things worse. He was too unpredictable. As much as she wanted to be brave and avoid giving away too much information, she also needed to weigh her options logically. Otherwise, she could end up in an even worse predicament than she was already in.

"Well?" Knockout tapped his digits on the counter impatiently. "Do you, or don't you?"

"I do…"

"Then let's see it already."

"It's not exactly easy for me to control. I'm still learning to transform on command," She mumbled.

"I see…" Knockout hummed, opening a drawer and rooting around in it. Reese watched anxiously, unsure of what he was planning. She doubted he was satisfied with her answer. "What if I do… This!" He pulled out a frame welder, and without warning, blasted the glass canister with the bright blue flame.

Reese screamed and fell backwards, instinctively holding her arms in front of her face. Her body transformed on its own, despite the fact that she was in no immediate danger. The tempered glass canister blocked the flame easily, and she only slightly felt the heat from the flame on the other side.

Knockout laughed heartily, thoroughly amused by Reese's reaction. The latter glared angrily, her cooling fans activating at her embarrassment. She assumed that was probably the Cybertronian equivalent of her face going bright red.

"Oh come on, don't look at me like that. I wasn't actually going to fry you to a crisp. Megatron made me promise not to kill you, remember? He never said anything about not having a little fun, though. Besides, it worked like a charm," Knockout continued chuckling to himself. He pulled out his scanner and ran it up and down Reese's form again. "You know, in this form, if not for your size, I would have never guessed you were part human. You should stay in this form from now on. It's much easier on the optics."

"I can't tell if you did that just to scare me, or because you knew it would work," Reese grumbled, more to herself than to Knockout. She continued to give him the most un-intimidating glare he had ever seen.

"Both," He snorted, seeming quite pleased with himself. "It's a tried and true method for teaching sparklings how to transform. Besides, I had to get you back somehow for ruining my finish."

"You threaten sparklings with frame welders?!" Reese gasped in horror, though she should have expected nothing less from a decepticon.

"Nah, we just give them a good scare. Works every time," Knockout wheezed. Reese wondered if he had ever laughed this hard in his entire life.

"Who are you including when you say we?" Reese asked. Did he mean cons? Scaring cybertronian children into transforming did seem like a con thing to do.

"Why, doctors of course. I am a medic after all. I have had my fair share of experience handling sparklings who struggled to control their transformations. Of course, it has been a while. There haven't been sparklings on Cybertron for a long time."

"You? Taking care of kids? Who would trust you to take care of their kids?" Reese stared at Knockout incredulously.

"I wasn't always a con, you know. I only joined the decepticon cause because they were winning. Well, that, and they gave me the opportunity to delve deeper into scientific research that was normally restricted by Cybertronian law. That being said, I really only worked with sparklings when I was in medical training. After that I branched off into cosmetic bodywork surgery."

"Don't you have some kind of oath that you follow? Medics are supposed to help others, are they not?"

"Oath? We don't have anything like that on Cybertron. Sure, as medics we are expected to help others, but that doesn't mean we're sworn to do so. Like I said, that's why I joined the cons. I still get to do medic work, but am not restricted by laws that would limit my horizons or scientific endeavors."

"Then why did you even become a medic in the first place? Most people do so because they want to help others, but that doesn't seem to be the case for you."

"You know, that's a good question. I suppose you have a point, helping others hasn't really been on the forefront of my processor. Unless you count bodywork as helping people, because I would say that it does.
But to answer your question, I guess I was just fascinated by life in general, well robot life anyways. Becoming a medic has allowed me to thoroughly study Cybertronian biology and physiology. That being said, I'm better at breaking things than fixing them."

"You're the living definition of a mad scientist!" Reese said in disgust.

"You could say that," Knockout merely shrugged while inspecting his medical tools. "Though I prefer to think of myself as an opportunist."

"Doesn't it make you feel bad, knowing that you're hurting others for your own gains?"

"Sure it does, but the reward of knowledge far exceeds the price of a little guilt… I'm not as sparkless as you seem to think, I just have a goal that I'm trying to reach, and I am willing to make a few sacrifices along the way if it means achieving that goal."

"And what exactly is your goal?"

"Ah ah, that's need to know information, and you, my dear, don't need to know."

Reese stared at Knockout in confusion which slowly then shifted into panic. It wasn't that he didn't feel guilt or shame for his actions, but he actively chose to ignore those feelings. What goal could be so important that it would excuse hurting others? She wanted to know more, but at the same time, she felt an even stronger urge to get away as quickly as possible.

She looked around frantically, trying to think of any possible means of escape. If Knockout was willing to harm others for his own personal interests, then what would stop him from harming her? Megatron had ordered him not to kill her, but what if his desire for knowledge led him to ignore Megatron's orders? That wasn't a chance she was willing to take.

She slammed her fists repeatedly into the glass, hoping to crack it. If she could crack it, even a little bit, then she could keep wearing away at it until it finally shattered.

Punch.

She couldn't let herself be used in some sick science experiment, not again.

Punch.

She knew she had no plan in place if she did break through the glass. Knockout was literally standing right there. It didn't matter though, she wasn't thinking that far ahead.

Punch.

Her fists were starting to leak energon from the amount of force she was putting into each attack. Despite this, she didn't feel the pain. Her breath was rapid, her spark beating in her ears. She just had to get out. Why weren't her attacks doing any damage?

"What's gotten into you?" Knockout shook the canister a little, knocking Reese off balance.

She ignored his remark, standing back up and punching the glass again.

"You're only going to hurt yourself more if you don't stop. That glass isn't going to break, if that's what you're trying to do. Honestly, you would probably be better off conserving your strength," Knockout quirked an optic ridge at Reese's irrational behavior.

Reese continued to ignore him. She was on a one-track mind.

"Alright, that's enough. If you aren't going to stop on your own, then I'm going to have to make you stop . Megatron will have my hide if you end up severely injuring yourself." Knockout took the lid off the canister and reached inside, grabbing Reese roughly.

Reese struggled against his grip, but she was at a severe disadvantage. Knockout carried her over to a medical berth and pressed a button on the side of it, magnetizing the surface. Reese strained to move, but the magnetic pull was too strong. She had been effectively immobilized.

"There, that should keep you from hurting yourself. Jeez, you've got some nerve, kid."

Reese bit her lip, continuing to struggle against the magnetic force of the slab. Why was she so weak? She felt stupid for her irrationality, and yet, she also felt like she had no choice. Once again she found herself wishing she had some kind of weapon to protect herself. In her current form, she was weak and useless. A liability to the autobots. No doubt, they had stopped all search for the Iacon relics in an attempt to locate her. She was unwittingly giving the decepticons yet another advantage over them.

Gradually, she stopped resisting, accepting that there was no point. She accidentally transformed back into her human form, hot, angry tears spilling down her face. Even in her human form she couldn't free herself from the slab, the implants in her arms, legs, and back still holding her firmly in place. She really was pathetic.

"Are you done with your little tantrum?"

Reese didn't respond. In fact, she didn't react much at all. She had basically gone from being irrationally angry and scared to being almost completely unresponsive.

"Guess you are. Well, that works for me, since that means I can continue my experiments with less resistance now."

"Why?" Reese asked, barely above a whisper. Her voice held a dark tone.

"Beg your pardon?" Knockout seemed a bit confused by her question.

"You already know what I am… Why do you insist on doing more experiments?"

"Like I said, I'm fascinated by living things. You may not be the first techno-organic I've met, but you are the first human-cybertronian one. Can you blame me for being curious? Besides, Megatron is going to want to know if you will have any uses beyond just being a hostage."

"What do you mean, other uses?"

"Well, that's what I'm trying to find out," Knockout sighed exasperatedly. "Now transform back into your cyberform, would you? You're much too fragile in this state."

"Too fragile for what?" Reese really hated how vague Knockout was being.

"Would you stop asking questions and just do as you're told?" Knockout ran a servo down his facial plating. "Look, if you don't transform on your own, then you're basically giving me permission to make you do it my way. I didn't have to give you a choice."

Reese glowered, but did as she was told. She closed her eyes and focused on transforming, willing her body to become metal once more. At least in this form the temperature on the warship didn't bother her as badly.

"See, now was that so hard?" Knockout asked. He didn't wait for her to reply, figuring that she probably wouldn't anyways. Instead, he grabbed a small, empty energon canister and hooked it up to the side of the medical berth. Then, he attached an even smaller tube to the canister, connecting the other end to Reese's arm with a tiny patch of some kind.

"What are you doing?" Reese asked, breathing in sharply as he placed the patch. It stung.

"Collecting an energon sample," Knockout said nonchalantly, not bothering to even look at her as he spoke. Instead, he pressed a few keys on the computer console next to the medical berth.

"What?!" Reese squirmed, trying and failing to dislodge the patch.

"It will hurt less if you just lay still. Sheesh, have you never had energon drawn before?"

"It's different when it's being taken from you against your will," Reese glared, angrily watching her energon travel through the tube and into the energon canister.

Knockout only shrugged and went back to monitoring Reese's vitals.

Slowly the energon canister filled more and more with Reese's bluish-purple energon. She hadn't thought about it much, but her energon really was quite different from the normal blue stuff the other Cybertronians had. What use could it be to the decepticons, though? She tried to think, but her mind was quickly becoming foggy. Her sparkrate was steadily increasing and becoming more erratic, as was her breathing. The room spun, too. Knockout wasn't going to bleed her dry, was he? Hadn't he promised not to kill her?

"I don't… feel so good," She mumbled. She closed her optics, but it still felt like she was on a boat in the middle of a choppy ocean. It was becoming more and more difficult to think coherently.

"Hmmm, it seems I may have miscalculated how much energon you had to give," Knockout noted, but Reese could hardly hear him. He sounded muffled and far away. "No matter, nothing an energon transfusion can't fix." He removed the patch from Reese's arm and unhooked the canister from the side of the medical berth.

'I… don't want to die...' Reese thought to herself, aware that she was rapidly losing consciousness. 'I'm sorry… Optimus… Bluestreak… everybody…'

"What do you mean the cons got Reese?"

"By the time we got there, Knockout already had her in his alt-mode and was heading towards an open bridge. We tried to stop him, but we also had to be careful that we didn't hurt Reese in his interior," Bluestreak explained glumly.

"You did what you could; that is what matters. For now, our top priority should be tracking down the Nemesis and finding Reese. Ratchet, begin scanning all frequencies for any decepticon communications," Optimus ordered.

"Reese put up a fight… She tried to give us a chance to get close. We let her down. I let her down," Bumblebee put his helm in his servos.

"Try not to blame yourself too much, kid," BlueStreak placed a heavy servo on Bumblebee's shoulder plating. "If anything, I'm the one at fault here, not you. I agreed to let her go out on her own. I never thought something like this would happen."

"No one could have foreseen this. It is not something that any one person is to blame for. There are always things we could have done differently, but it is not wise to dwell on the past. Learn from your mistakes, and move forward with that new knowledge," Optimus gently reprimanded Bumblebee and BlueStreak.

"Optimus, do you have a plan for getting Reese back?" Chase asked. Up until then he had remained quiet.

"Given the current circumstances, it would be difficult to formulate an accurate plan of action at this moment in time. A plan will be made once we accurately pinpoint the location of the decepticon warship."

"How are you going to do that? I mean, Ratchet can scan frequencies all day long, but it could take days or weeks before we accidentally stumble across the frequency the cons are using to cloak their warship."

"I do not intend to allow that much time to elapse. Reese's main use to the cons is likely that of a hostage. If I am correct, Megatron will undoubtedly use her as a means of getting something from us."

"But Optimus, we can't just give Megatron whatever he wants! What if he asks for the Spark Extractor in return for Reese? Or what if he asks for all of the Iacon Relics we have accrued this far?" Arcee didn't like where Optimus was going.

"We do not yet know what Megatron intends to ask for. While I am hesitant to hand over such powerful weapons, Reese's safety is our top priority. We must consider our options carefully, but in the end, our decision must be the one that results in Reese's freedom."

"With all due respect, even if we did give them the relics, they'd just turn around and use them on us and the humans," Arcee countered.

"I am aware of that. We would need to come up with a plan that would ensure both Reese's safety, as well as our own."

"Good luck with that," Arcee rolled her optics.

"Arcee, none of us like this any more than you do, but Optimus is right, Reese's safety is our top priority. If that means losing a couple Iacon relics, then that's just what we will have to do," BlueStreak said heatedly. He didn't appreciate Arcee's tone. It was like she cared more about the relics than Reese's life.

"Well, what if we look for the warship and send in a strike team? I mean, wouldn't it be faster to look for the warship in person, rather than just hoping the scanners will find their secure frequency? They may be able to cloak their ship's signals, but they can't turn the warship itself invisible, right?" Chase suggested.

"And how do you propose we look for the warship? Huh? It's miles in the sky, and we don't know where on this planet it's located. It could be over the middle of the ocean for all we know," Arcee put a servo on her hip.

"Well, do you have any better plans? I mean, from the sounds of it, you don't even seem to care about getting Reese back," Chase shot back icily.

"Sure I want to get Reese back, but that doesn't mean we have to make stupid rash decisions to do so," Arcee fumed.

"That's enough you two," Bluestreak stepped between Arcee and Chase. "Arguing isn't going to help this situation."

"BlueStreak is right. Arguing will only waste time, time that Reese doesn't have," Optimus agreed.

Before either Arcee or Chase could respond, Wheeljack and Miko came into the base, the latter looking extremely depressed.

"Wheeljack? Miko? What's going on? Miko, I thought Agent Fowler took you home, what are you doing here?" Ratchet turned to the two, very surprised by their sudden appearance. In fact, everyone was caught off guard by it.

Miko didn't answer. Instead, she walked straight to medbay, where Bulkhead was at. She dragged her feet and hung her head as she walked, not bothering to look at anyone.

"Wheeljack?" Optimus asked, looking at the wrecker expectantly.

"Let's just say revenge is bittersweet, and leave it at that. By the way, how's Bulk doin', Doc?"

"He's resting. He still hasn't regained consciousness, but I was able to repair the most extensive damage with surgery. It will be some time before he wakes up, though," Ratchet vented.

Wheeljack grunted, not seeming too enthused by Ratchet's answer.

Arcee excused herself to check on Miko. "Hey, you doing okay?" She knelt down beside the girl.

"Sure… Never better," Miko muttered, not bothering to look at Arcee. She leaned forward, resting her forehead against Bulkhead's servo.

"Miko, Bulkhead needs time and space to recover. Perhaps it would be best if I bridged you home," Ratchet called over, not thrilled that Miko was so close to his patient.

"What does it matter if I'm here or at home? Bulk will still be unconscious, so I don't see what the big deal is," Miko retorted angrily.

"Miko, I don't have time to argue," Ratchet grumbled, growing noticeably irritated.

"Ratchet, let her be. Bulkhead is stable, and Miko isn't going to do him any harm. Right now, we need to focus on finding Reese," BlueStreak broke in, trying to diffuse the growing tension.

"Reese? Is that the chick with the robot arms that I met last time?" Wheeljack asked.
Bumblebee nodded.

"Did something happen to her?"

"She was captured by the cons earlier this evening. We have been trying to come up with a rescue plan," Bee explained.

"Wh-what?!" Miko's head jerked up at the news. She suddenly seemed much more interested in what was going on.

"Well, let me know if there is anything I can do to help out," Wheeljack offered, which was somewhat uncharacteristic of him, considering he hardly knew Reese. Still, the bots weren't going to turn down a helping hand.

"Wheeljack, would the Jackhammer possess a means of locating the Decepticon warship?" Optimus asked, an idea formulating in his processor.

"Not on long range sensors, no. I could fire her up and take her for a spin, though. See if I could pick it up on short range radar. The nemesis can't turn itself invisible after all, and a radar should be able to pick up an object of that size, regardless of their cloaking capabilities."

"Every little bit helps. If you find anything, let us know immediately," Optimus nodded.

"Sure thing."

"Hey, can I come too?" Miko asked, coming over to the group.

"Absolutely not!" Ratchet scoffed.

"Sorry kiddo, not this time. Keep an eye on Bulk for me, kay?" Wheeljack had to agree with Ratchet on this one. Bringing Miko along would definitely be a bad idea.

"Fine…" Miko sighed, going back to Bulkhead's side.

"Well I'm coming with you," BlueStreak said, coming up next to Wheeljack. "Reese is my own flesh and blood, and I want to be on the front lines, looking for her."

"Hold up, she's your what?" Wheeljack looked very confused.

"She's my grandfemme. It's a long story; one that I can explain while we fly."

"Alright then," Wheeljack shrugged, leading the way to where he parked the Jackhammer.

"Hey I'm coming too. I may not be able to do much, but Reese has become one of my closest friends, and I don't intend to stand around doing nothing," Chase ran up alongside Wheeljack and BlueStreak.

"Okay, but you are to stay on the Jackhammer at all times, is that understood? If we do find the Nemesis, you are not to go on board," BlueStreak said sternly.

"I understand, let's go."

Hope you guys liked it! I have a better idea of what the next chapter is going to look like, so in theory, it shouldn't take too long for me to write. Thanks so much for all your patience, as well as your dedication to reading each and every chapter. This story is my baby, and I'm so glad you guys like it :) Please leave a comment and let me know what you think! God Bless - Lucy