WHOO! I'M BACK!

REVIEW REPLIES!

Awesomo3000: Big emphasis on the yet. Remember. This takes place a couple of years before the series begins.

Airreon Princess: I'm liking that idea.

3luv4eva3: That may work.

TheTalidaPrimeFan: Ten stars? I think that's a first for me. I'll take it!

OK. I had an extremely difficult time finding a suitable song for this chapter. I ended up going with Pray Tell by Anberlin. Don't ask me why because I can't explain it other than saying it fits in a way. I actually used their song *(fin) for a presentation at uni. Got 100%. Needless to say, I'm proud of myself.

ENJOY!

…or not…

The first thing Talida felt when she woke up was pain.

Gasping, Talida tried to right herself, but looking up, she found that she couldn't. Her hands were chained up.

"Great," Talida muttered as she blew a stray strand of hair out of her face.

Looking down at herself, she couldn't find any sign of blood on her body. This relieved her slightly. She also couldn't feel any bones that were broken. At the most, she was bruised from the explosion.

She heard the familiar click and hiss of a door opening. Glancing in the direction of the door, she came face-to-face with Starscream.

"Ah, you're awake, Miss Prime," Starscream sneered as he approached her, "I must confess. I was rather worried about your condition after that explosion, but I was reassured that you had not been seriously injured."

"What have you done to Cliffjumper?" Talida demanded, struggling against her bonds.

"Last we heard, he was still where we left him," Starscream shrugged nonchalantly, "Lying on the ground as his Energon stains the forest floor."

Talida did not display any outward emotion at Starscream's words. She only continued glaring at him. She knew deep down that Cliffjumper wasn't dead. The Autobots would have heard about the explosion and gotten him to safety.

"You should give Cliffjumper credit. He's survived worse," Talida stated.

"So have I, Miss Prime," Starscream drawled, "Surely by now, you must be wondering why you were brought back to the Nemesis rather than executed on the spot."

"Megatron's protection order," Talida responded without hesitation.

"Our master has still not returned from his travels in deep space," Starscream revealed, "With him gone, his protection order no longer means anything to me."

"I hope comes back while I'm still here," Talida remarked.

"I would not hang on to that hope. Instead, I would hope for survival," Starscream growled, "However, since I pride myself on being such a gracious host, I am willing to give you an offer. Tell me the location of the Autobot base. Betray the Autobots and join our noble cause."

"Why would I do that?" Talida scoffed.

"Even you must admit that from time to time you are more of a Decepticon than you are an Autobot. You carry both light and darkness inside of you," Starscream stated in a matter-of-fact tone, "You have potential, Miss Prime. Potential that is being wasted by the Autobots. The Decepticons will make sure your full potential is realized. Join me, and you will be my right-hand woman. Join me, and you will live. Join me and you will have a life better than what the Autobots could ever provide you."

"Wow. No wonder you haven't turned that many Autobots to the dark side. Your salesmanship sucks," Talida quipped.

Starscream just snarled, "Sleep on it. I'm sure you are feeling overwhelmed. Tomorrow, though, I will not be so gracious."

"PRIME!"

Optimus couldn't help but cringe at the booming voice that entered the base. There were many times where he did not want to deal with their human liaison. This was one of them.

"Northern Ireland is a mess! Local authorities are reporting large machines and a young girl being involved in a forest fire! We had to jump through some big hoops for them to make it as though their investigation never happened!" Special Agent William Fowler snapped, "So what the hell happened out there?"

"Cliffjumper and Talida were on patrol when they detected an Energon signal," Ratchet answered without diverting his attention away from Cliffjumper, "The Decepticons attacked them."

"How bad?" Fowler demanded.

"Cliffjumper will live. But he will be confined to the base for the next few weeks," Ratchet informed the government agent, "As for Talida, we are not sure."

"How can you not be sure?!" Fowler exclaimed in disbelief, "You hardly let that girl out of your sights!"

"By the time we arrived, the Decepticons were gone," Bulkhead began, "And they had taken Talida with them."

That shocked Fowler to the core. Naturally, as their government liaison, he knew about a lot of the history between the Autobots and the Decepticons. Something he definitely knew of was the strange bond between Megatron and Talida. After all, it was only because of that bond that the protection order was in place. Any Decepticon who deliberately set out to do any harm to her – or kidnap her – would incur a heavy penalty. He never knew what that penalty would be, but it was safe to assume that penalty was death.

"She's been kidnapped?!" Fowler barely managed to squeak out.

"It seems that with Megatron gone, Starscream believes the protection order no longer applies," Arcee muttered darkly, "I can't even begin to imagine what they're doing to her right now."

"Our daughter is resilient, Arcee. She can hold strong," Optimus attempted to reassure her.

"You and I both know how ruthless the Decepticons are when it comes to interrogating their prisoners, Optimus!" Arcee snapped, "Yes, Tally's resilient, but is she resilient enough to withstand Decepticon torture?"

"We'll rescue her, 'Cee," Bulkhead vowed.

Bumblebee, who had been silent since finding out about his sister's abduction, chose that time to speak up, and Bulkhead didn't like what he had to say.

"So what?! We've done the impossible multiple times back on Cybertron, 'Bee! I'm pretty sure we can track down the Decepticon warship and get Tally back!" Bulkhead scoffed.

"On Cybertron, we had more readily available resources, Bulkhead. Those resources were also considerably far more superior than what we have now," Ratchet reminded him, "I have lost track of how long I've tried to find the right frequency and penetrate their cloaking technology and I haven't had any luck. Even with Talida's help in recent months, I haven't had that much luck. I don't know how long it will take and neither of us know how much time Talida has."

"We have one more problem," Fowler chose that moment to interrupt, "How are we going to tell Jack?"

That caused all the Autobots to freeze. That was one thing they hadn't considered. Jack and Talida were close, that much was obvious to them. They knew that Jack would start snooping and would eventually find out the truth. Talida had been longing to tell him, but feared of what would happen if she did, with her fears ranging from losing their friendship to the Decepticons killing him.

"For now, we will simply state the truth," Optimus decided after a moment of contemplation, "Talida Prime never returned home from school and is missing. An investigation is being conducted into her disappearance."

"Don't you think we should tell him the truth?" Arcee asked.

After pondering on his spark mate's question for a few moments, Optimus finally answered, "We will deal with that should the time come."

"I am going to go inform Jack," Fowler decided as he walked away, "Tally and I had something set up should something like this ever have happened."

Those words made Fowler feel as though a thousand daggers were stabbing his heart. She was only 14 years old. She should not have been worrying about this.

And yet here they were.

When June Darby knocked on her son's bedroom door, she did so with a heavy heart.

She found Jack sitting at his desk – that secondhand desk she had bought him when he first started high school – pondering over some Algebra questions. Many students would, no doubt, be staring at their maths homework – Algebra and otherwise – and wondering how these equations and advanced calculations would help them later in life and if they would even use them after high school. At times, Jack wondered that himself. But he didn't dwell on it for too long.

For one thing, it meant taking longer to finish the homework.

"Mum, I have to finish this Algebra homework. Can it wait?" Jack asked in frustration without looking up from the complicated equations laid out before him.

"No, son. It can't."

OK, that voice definitely didn't belong to his mother. It was too masculine for one thing. Looking up, Jack saw Agent Fowler standing beside his mother.

"My name is Special Agent William Fowler. I'm from the United States government," Fowler introduced himself, flashing his credentials briefly, "I need to ask you a few questions."

"Why?" Jack demanded.

Fowler didn't answer him. Instead, he asked him another question, "Do you know Talida Prime?"

Too stunned by the man's directness, it took a moment for Jack to answer, "Yeah, I know Lida. We've been friends since we were kids. Why are you asking?"

"When was the last time you saw her?" Fowler inquired.

"This afternoon. School had finished. We were sitting under the tree talking about art class. We had to make a father's day present and I got a bit upset," Jack answered.

"What about afterwards?" Fowler demanded, pretending it had something to do with her 'disappearance'.

"She started teasing me about my crush on this girl in our grade. Sierra. She's on the cheerleading squad and the favourite to become captain next year," Jack responded with a slight blush, "Then her ride showed up."

"What did her ride look like?" Fowler questioned smoothly.

"It was a Red Dodge Challenger. But I had seen it pick her up from school before. Lida told me that it was an uncle of hers who had returned home from deployment," Jack shrugged, "She had a verbal sparring match with Sierra and left."

"I'm sorry, but why are you questioning my son about Talida's activities at school?" June couldn't help but ask.

Fowler did not know how to answer, so he settled with his renowned directness, "Because Talida never made it home."

The sensation Jack felt could only equate to being punched in the gut hundreds of times, resulting in the wind being knocked out of him. No. Fowler had to be lying. He had seen Talida a few hours ago and she was fine. She was looking forward to the movie marathon they had planned for the next night.

"What do you mean she never made it home?!" Jack demanded.

"There was an accident. Her uncle is being closely monitored at a military hospital and Talida was unaccounted for," Fowler responded.

"Why is the government taking an interest in Talida's disappearance?" June inquired.

Fowler had been prepared for that, so he already had an answer prepared, "Her parents are part of a highly-classified project. I cannot go into details, but when a family member of two prominent soldiers within the project mysteriously disappears, the government takes it seriously; especially giving the sensitivity of the project."

"You think someone opposed or desiring the project for themselves took her, don't you?" Jack asked, although it sounded more like a statement than a question.

"Right now, we're looking at all possibilities and pursuing every angle," Fowler responded diplomatically before standing up and holding out a card, "Thank you for your time. If you think of anything that can help with the investigation, give me a call."

Jack accepted the card without hesitation with determination in his eyes. Inwardly, Fowler couldn't help but be impressed with the teenager. Talida had been right about him. He was definitely someone who would do anything for his loved ones and was worthy enough to be trusted with the truth of Talida's origins and the 'project' he mentioned when the time came.

He couldn't be sure if Jack's mother would be happy about it, though.

"I'll show you out," June decided as they left.

As soon as June shut the door to his bedroom, Jack raced to his closet. His eyes were drawn to the backpack that laid hidden in the back corner behind some of his clothes and other knick-knacks. Placing it on the bed, he opened the zipper and analyzed the contents.

Water bottle. First-aid kit. Ration bars. Multi-purpose pocketknife. Magnesium fire-starter. Sunscreen. A whole variety of other stuff.

As he looked through all of his supplies, he began to understand in a way why Talida insisted he had this prepared. When she first gave it to him, he thought she was being paranoid, but he took it anyway to ease her conscious. Now, he loved her for giving it to him.

Wait. Did he just say love? Yes. He did feel something for Talida. He just didn't feel comfortable saying what it was because he didn't understand it himself.

His mind made up, Jack raced to the kitchen to fill up his water bottle.

"What do you think you're doing, young man?" June immediately asked.

"I'm going out to look for Lida," Jack shrugged casually as he turned the tap on.

"Oh no you don't!" June immediately objected, "I am not letting you go out at this time of day to look for her!"

"I know what I'm doing, mum!" Jack defended himself as he screwed the lid on the bottle.

"Do you really?" June couldn't help but ask as she followed her son into his bedroom, "I don't think you understand how dangerous it can be out there!"

"Mum, it's Jasper! Nothing ever happens around here," Jack scoffed without thinking.

"Your best friend was in an accident on the way home from school and is now unaccounted for!" June snapped, causing Jack to tense slightly, "I don't think you can say nothing ever happens around here anymore."

"You do know we have been playing survival games, right?" Jack drawled as he zipped his backpack shut.

"But those are games, Jack! It's a hell of a lot different from reality!" June continued to object.

"Mum, seriously. I know how to survive out in the desert. Lida gave me this emergency kit for a reason," Jack attempted to placate his mother's worries as he slipped the straps of his backpack onto his shoulders.

"It's not enough!" June yelled as they walked into the garage where Jack's bike was resting against the wall next to her car.

"I can't just sit here and do nothing knowing my best friend is out there in trouble! I need to go out and at least try to find her! I'll never forgive myself if I don't do something and she turns out dead!" Jack finally snapped, "I need to at least try and do something. She'd do the same for me."

Those words caused all arguments June had to cease. She knew her son was right. She knew first hand that Talida would do anything to protect Jack. She remembered two years ago when Jack was hospitalised because of the influenza. Talida did a better job of abusing the doctors than June – an ER nurse – ever could. When June asked how she managed to do that, Talida only responded that she had years of experience before walking off to continue her vigil at Jack's bedside.

One could imagine June's reaction if she ever found out where Talida's 'years of experience' came from.

June sighed before relenting, "Just be careful out there and be back before dinner."

Jack barely waited for the garage to open fully before he rode out onto the streets of Jasper.

He knew his chances of finding her were next to none, but as he explained to his mother, he couldn't just sit back and do nothing when his best friend was in trouble.

Even if he didn't have the slightest clue of the kind of trouble his best friend was in.

Well, that's it. Could be better, but I think you will admit I've written worse. You guys should know the drill by now. Review. Fave. Alert. Whatever.

BYE!