Throwing his fist into the medic's face, Starscream had a devious grin as he watched the bot fall onto his back from the blow. He had been enjoying the scuffle he was having the medic knowing that he would locate the girl and take her back to the ship with the decepticons. He still had to thank Cliffjumper for revealing the location when he had informed the autobots about her.

"You really should have stayed home today, doctor," Starscream mocked as he walked towards Ratchet, arming his missile and aiming it at the medic's chassis. Ratchet glared at him in irritation. "A little shame you won't see how we might welcome her into the decepticons."

"As if you really know why she has that shard, Starscream!" Ratchet snapped angrily at the con, glaring at him with narrowed optics. "She just so happens to have it, and you had to kill an entire bus load of humans to get to her. You're nothing shy of a coward."

Starscream simply shrugged and chuckled coldly. "Oh, well. The girl's probably going to die now. She did fall into that river over there, and I don't think she managed to come back up. It raging too fast."

Ratchet growled as he moved to stand while Starscream stopped and was about to fire his missile when a red fist sucker punched Starscream's cheek. To his relief, Cliffjumper glared at the con as he flies into a try and shrieked loudly from impact. "He is really grinding my gears!" The bot turned and helped Ratchet to his feet before they both arm themselves. "You'd better make a run for it, Scream. Soundwave and the other cons have abandoned you."

"WHAT!" Starscream shrieked in disbelief as he stood up with wide optics. He glanced up and saw the silhouettes of the jets flying away and he growled. He narrowed his optics as he saw Optimus speeding towards him. "This isn't over!" He jumped into the air and transformed. "Have fun fishing, ha, ha, ha!"

They watch the con fly away, though Ratchet ran over to the bank, looking into the river. His optics were wide as he saw the water was rushing. "I cannot see her." He transforms and began to speed along the bank. "She has to along here somewhere."

Cliffjumper stepped back as Optimus sped by him to follow Ratchet. He sighed and looked at the bike who was speeding towards him. "Guess I should have tried to speak to the girl before opening my big mouth."

"It's a little late for that, Cliff," Arcee said bluntly as she speeds past. "Transform and get into maximum overdrive. That girl could be drowning and we already got here too late to save those people on the bus."

"Special Agent Fowler is not going to be happy," Cliffjumper comments, glancing at Bulkhead and Bumblebee as they speed by him before he transforms to follow. "I feel really bad for the kid, I really do...I wasn't able to stop the kid from ending up in a terrible situation."

"You managed to hold them enough until we got here at least," Bulkhead said in a calm voice. "Still, I don't really understand why we are looking for the girl. You saw she had a crystal that seemed Cybertronian, right?"

"Yeah, the poor kid was run over by a bunch of other kids on their bikes and I see the crystal fall from her neck into the gutter of the road," Cliffjumper explained. "She scrambled to grab it like it was the most precious thing. And I think she has no parents. I followed her to an orphanage, and I honestly thought we would have needed Fowler to get her before I saw her sneaking out of the place to leave."

"Poor kid...and you unintentionally made her life worse as Soundwave listened to your report," Bumblebee said in a sad voice. "I don't know much about the crystal. Do any of you know?"

"I think Optimus and Ratchet do," Cliffjumper said in an uncertain tone. "Arcee, do you know anything about it?"

"I might. But it's a story that Optimus would have to tell you, I'm afraid. As there was simply an unfortunate incident long ago and a hard decision had to made." The three bots were really curious now. "Though I think once we find the girl and confirm the crystal is Cybertronian, he might tell you the story. Both Ratchet and I were there when it happened."

The three bots did not know what to think with these responses from Arcee, though they accepted the answers for the time being as they speed along the bank until they reach a calm lake that the river flowed into. Ratchet had transformed ahead of them and he was looking at the water in despair.

Optimus transformed and walked up beside Ratchet as he looked around. "Have you been successful locating the girl, Ratchet?" The medic shakes his head as the leader looked at the water. "We may need to dip into the water to find her, old friend. I know the water will be cold, but we need to know if it is the same crystal."

"I am aware." Ratchet sighed deeply and looked at him. "It's just...I feel horrible that those humans died the way they did...and we could even save one. Fowler is going to have our heads."

"Maybe, but we were not even able to come here quick enough as we were spread out over the country." Optimus looked at the bank opposite them and noticed the ground had been disturbed. He glanced at Arcee, Bulkhead, Bumblebee and Cliffjumper as they transform upon reaching them. "I see the ground is disturbed over on that bank. I am going to investigate."

Arcee stepped forward as Optimus walked into the water to make his way over. "I'll watch your back." She followed him and glanced around. "After all, you know how opportunistic Starscream can be in these situations."

Optimus just nodded as he walked through the water, ignoring the chill that the water brought again his feet. It wasn't cold enough to affect his system, but being exposed to the water completely if he had to dive into it would be different. He hoped that would not be the case he turned on his headlights on his chassis to shine them around.

"I see blood on the ground..." Arcee points at the disturbed ground. "It's fresh." She looked up at Optimus with a worried expression before turning to Ratchet. "Contact Agent Fowler, Ratchet. He is going to want to know what has happened to deal with it, and we will need human medical experts to help this girl."

Ratchet nodded and opened a link to reach the agent, knowing that he wouldn't be happy about the outcome, even though the bots had not seen this coming. Explaining why the cons even attacked a random civilian bus was going to be a lot harder, and would have to save that story for when they return to base. There was no certainty if they would be blamed, or if the girl would be indirectly blamed, though one thing was for certain. They had no choice but to bring her in for protection.

"I have located the girl." Arcee looked at Optimus with a smile and stepped forward before gasping. Shivering while leaning against a tree and nestled between a few boulders was the girl. Her golden, blonde hair stuck to her skin and back, her clothes were drenched, her fingers were blue, the skin on the back of her legs were exposed from melted clothes and the skin was burnt terribly and she had a laceration across her chest and stab wound in the back. Reaching down, Optimus gathered the fragile girl into his hand and cradled her, he felt how cold she was and he could the mist with every breath she took. "She is in terrible condition." Optimus felt horrible for the girl and wrapped his fingers around her to try and warm her up. He turned to face the others. "Open a ground bridge, Ratchet! We must leave before the cons return."

Ratchet nodded, opened a panel in his arm to activate the bridge. Once open, Optimus ran into the vortex first, followed by the other autobots to ensure that they were gone before the cons could return to try and claim the girl. Once back in the base, Arcee rushed to find the gurney and blankets that were around the old silo.

Ratchet walked over to Optimus, seeing the blood soaking the girl's clothes and staining Optimus's hand. He began to scan her. "At least your body's temperature should help to warm the girl up, Optimus. Though with her clothes soaked like that, I believe that she would warm up quicker if removed."

"Only if it is safe," Optimus said calmly as he waited for Ratchet's scan results. "Is Agent Fowler on his way?"

"Yes. He is not happy about what has happened, but as I explained the attack was unprovoked, we are not to blame...hopefully." Ratchet looked at the scan results as he finished. "Keep holding her, Optimus...but we need something to put pressure onto those wounds. They're deep and won't stop bleeding."

Bumblebee stepped forward with a worried expression. "What is so special about the crystal she has? If the decepticon were so eager to have it..."

"I will explain everything soon, Bumblebee," Optimus interrupts the young bot politely as he used his fingers to put pressure onto the wounds, ignoring the fact they would get stained. "Most of it." Bulkhead, Bumblebee and Cliffjumper all give Optimus confused expressions when Optimus corrected himself.

Optimus was extremely careful with how much pressure he was putting onto the wounds. He was well aware of how fragile the girl was. However, he was curious on how she got the crystal. He knew where the crystal came from, and how it got to Earth, but he didn't know why she had the crystal. But there was something else. Something in his spark told him this girl was familiar to him. It was like he had known her before, but he knew for a fact that he's never seen a human until he came to Earth. He only remembers one such time he felt this familiarity.

Ratchet widened his optics suddenly as he read his scan results and seemed confused. "Hmm…odd…" Optimus looked at Ratchet when the medic made the comment and watched him walk over to his small console to read the results on the screen. "You are doing well, Optimus. The pressure you are putting on the wounds should stop the bleeding. I am surprised the extreme cold of the water she had been in did not stop the bleeding. And it is a miracle she survived the trip down stream with how fast that river was rushing. At least her burns seem to be soothed by the icy water."

Optimus was curious about Ratchet's findings, though he did not have time to question. Arcee found a gurney and place it on a platform and she had found multiple blankets. "I am not sure what else we can do…but I also found this…" She held up a white robe and Optimus smiled slightly. "Will we even be able to remove her clothes?"

"Her shirt probably, but her pants…" Ratchet looked at the girl's legs with uncertainty. "We would need to be extremely careful…Arcee, you have the small fingers. I could assist you with it, though I do believe cold, damp cloths will be necessary to wrap around her calves to try and soothe the burns…" He widened his optics as he noticed some blisters forming on her legs. "Ew…that looks nasty…"

Optimus glanced at the girl and frowned at Ratchet. "There is no time to be squeamish, old friend." He lifts his thumb from the girl's chest and checked the wound. It was no longer bleeding, though he spotted the glimmer of silver and realized it was the necklace. "And I have located the crystal."

Ratchet looked at the leader in surprise and smiled. "First things first, Optimus, we should focus on making sure the girl is stable…or stable enough before Fowler gets here. He is bringing doctors with him as well."

The commander nodded in agreement. "I will need help. Arcee…" He looked at the femme who seemed uncomfortable. "Would you mind? I know the girl will warm up much faster when these wet clothes are removed. They still feel cold on my hands, and they are soaked in blood."

Arcee intakes heavily and stepped forward. "Not exactly what I wanted to do, but we must to help mankind…though this is the first sign of decepticon activity in several years…and it happened only when we find it." Optimus nodded as her spread out his fingers as the femme gently removed the girl's shirt. Her bra slipped off almost instantly due to the straps being completely torn and the clip had been loose. They were able to see the belt injury and there was a bit of burn on the skin from the belt as well. "Hmm…hopefully she won't need stitches…"

"That will not be up to us to confirm it…" Ratchet opened a container and pulled out some clean cloths. "I think we should at least to the right thing and clean the blood before we put her into that robe." He turned to Optimus and held out his hand. "Allow me. You should clean your hands, they are rubbing her blood into her skin as well."

Optimus was looked at the necklace still wrapped around the girl's neck and nodded. He gently passed the girl to Ratchet and he immediately began to clean her skin. Arcee was working out how to remove the girl's pants since some of it had melted. She opted to carefully rip the jeans, she snapped off any straggler threads connected to the burns on the girl's legs from the denim fabric until it was removed. It didn't take Ratchet long to clean the blood, though the wound on the girl's back was still bleeding and he pressed the clothes against it before Arcee put the robe on the girl and they place her on the gurney, covering her with the blankets.

"She should warm up now." Ratchet walked away to wash his hands and Optimus walked back as his hands were clean and he looked at her with concern. "Optimus, walk with me. I have to talk to you." He looked at the medic with worry. "I am afraid it cannot wait, so come with me and I'll tell you." Arcee watched as they walk away. "You need to wash your hands too, Arcee. You three, keep a close eye on the girl and alert us when Fowler arrives."

Bulkhead, Bee and Cliff glance at each other curiously as the other three walk away. "So…does the boss often keep strange secrets?" Cliffjumper asked curiously as he glanced at the unconscious girl. "Ya know, I didn't think that when I report I found a human girl with a Cybertronian crystal that it would be that special. Special enough that the cons themselves were after that girl, ya know."

"I feel the same way, Cliff," Bulkhead said in confusion. "There's so many different Cybertronian crystals out there. They hold no real significance, aside from beauty and sometimes power. And yet, this one is special." He shakes his head in confusion. "I am so confused…even Arcee seems to know about it."

"It is very odd when Optimus is hesitant to tell us a whole story. It almost seems a bit like when Megatron killed Elita, and that Optimus would struggle to tell what had happened. Though…I cannot remember anything else that could have caused that." Bee rubbed the back of his head as he thought about it. "Oh wait! I remember something when the cons used some weird, experimental weapon on some autobots only once or twice, and Optimus had been hit by it. He didn't die, but it weakened him and caused a weird system function. I didn't see everything because I was helping the others who were affected by the blast, but Ratchet, Arcee, Tailgate and several other bots were with Prime when it happened."

Cliffjumper raised a curious eyebrow and hummed softly. "Hmm…I wonder if this has anything to do with that. I remember hearing about that. One of the bots I spoke to who was hit by the blast said some new spark had been created in them, but it perished before he could get help. Though he had figured that there was a mutation rather than an actual sparkling, even though habloid sparks are not unheard of."

Bulkead and Bee widen their optics as they listen to him. "Come to think of it…Chromia mentioned it to me once too…" Bulkhead rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "She apparently tried hanging onto the sparkling, but her system couldn't care for it and treated the spark like a parasite. I don't know if this happened to every bot that was hit…"

"Could that mean Optimus experienced the same thing?" Bee wondered curiously as he thought about it while listening. "But…even if that is true…this may or may not be connected with that."

"Maybe, but Optimus was down in the dumps for a couple weeks, even when he continued to lead against the decepticons," Bulkhead said thoughtfully as he looked at the girl. "Whatever the reason, I am sure the boss will tell us someday. We should not pressure him to tell us if the pain is too great." He glanced at the monitors when an alert began to sound and the lights flashed green. "Here's Agent Fowler…" He opened his com link quickly. "Ratchet, the good agent has arrived."

The medic did not respond, though the wrecker knew that he had received the message. The three bots stood waiting for the elevator to reach the bottom and open as they knew that Fowler had a lot of questions for them. When the doors opened, they saw Fowler with four doctors behind him. The doctors had brought a lot of equipment with them as they walk into the lobby.

Fowler glanced around with a frown. "Prime!" He shouted angrily as he glared at the bots in front of him. "You have some serious explaining to do!" He glanced to his right and gasped when he saw the girl on the gurney and glanced at the doctors. "There's your patient. She has been through a lot." He noticed the girl's bag that had been placed on the platform and walked over to it while the doctors ran over. "Care to explain to me why the decepticons would go out of their way to attack a random civilian bus and kill all of its passengers and driver, but leave a single, young girl alone?"

"Well…uh…" Cliff began in an uncertain tone as the agent gave him a glare. "I was patrolling that part of the country in search of energon and I had taken stop in the little, nice city of Cheyenne. I didn't expecting nothing, and then I saw that young lady walking from school getting run over from behind by a bunch of kids on bikes." Fowler widened his eyes slightly and he began finding different items in the girl's bag while he listened. Bee and Bulkhead listen to the bot, while also unhappy about what happened to the girl. "And I just so happened to see she had some special necklace. The pendent is a Cybertronian crystal."

Fowler looked at Cliffjumper in surprise and looked at the doctors. One of them had removed the necklace and walked over to the man holding it out. "This is what they must be talking about." Fowler held the crystal curiously before looking at the man as he spoke. "I will say though, that girl seems to be lucky considering what she's been through. While she will need stitches to the injury in her back, probably skin grafts for her calves, antibiotics for the infection and IV fluids, she has no broken bones or even a sign of hypothermia or frostbite. She's lucky."

Fowler smiled a little as he heard that. "At least one person survived. Keep working, doctor. Put up some privacy curtains if you must." The man nodded and walked back as Fowler and the bots hear the heart monitor and see that the girl had an oxygen mask on her face, likely for precaution. Fowler held up the crystal in his fingers and stared at it curiously. "I didn't expect this to be rather small if it is from your planet."

The crystal Fowler was holding was seven and a half inches long, about the length of a pencil. And its diameter was about five inches wide. It was not big at all, and it was tied by the silver that the girl had used for the necklace. The colour of the crystal is a deep blue with what looked like to be a small glimmer of white on the inside, though it was really hard to see if someone was not looking so closely. And it was as if it had been polished and cut, that's how nice and clear the crystal was.

"It seems like it would be the smallest Cybertronian crystal I have seen," Bulkhead commented as he looked at it. "They're usually about your size, Fowler." The man looked at the bot in surprise, not expecting to hear that. "And the reason why the decepticons attacked the bus was because of this."

Fowler looked at the crystal with a frown and looked back at the bots. "But…how did they know the girl had it?"

"Unfortunately, it would have been the eyes and ears of the decepticons," Cliffjumper said in an annoyed tone. "When I saw the crystal, I alerted Optimus straight away, and Soundwave must have picked up my transmission. I was the idiot who told the location and who the crystal was with." He sighed deeply and shook his head. "I…I never meant for anyone to get hurt, Agent Fowler. It was partly my fault."

Fowler listened to the bot curiously and raised an eyebrow. "Well…if that is how the cons found out, I don't think that is your fault. But…again, how and why did they attack a random bus? Did they follow the girl?"

"I had seen the girl leave the orphanage she had come from…" The man glanced in the bag and found the girl's birth certificate. Luckily, it had been laminated as it would have been destroyed completely otherwise. "And I saw Laserbeak following her…I had seen him flying around earlier…but when I called for Optimus, they were all far from the base and Ratchet had been doing something to the ground bridge at the same time…so it was not the best of timing…"

"Right…so I guess this Laserbeak followed the girl to the bus terminal in Cheyenne…" Cliff nodded as Fowler thought about how this would have happened. "And waited until she got on a bus, and when the bus left, the decepticons attacked it and killed everyone, but her because of this crystal." The bots nod as this was what happened. "I must say, I don't understand."

"Nor do we. Optimus and Ratchet seem to have a better idea…" Bulkhead glanced to the hallway the three bots had walked down before. "When they come back, I would like to know what is special about it too." He glanced over at the girl as the doctors put up privacy curtains around her as they worked on the girl to ensure she would recover well. "Plus, we would need to know where she got the crystal."

"Well…" Fowler looked at the birth certificate carefully and looked up at the bots. He before he spoke to them, he saw Optimus walking into the lobby with Ratchet and Arcee behind him. "There you are. It seems there is a lot we need to talk about."

Optimus nodded, glancing at the curtained area briefly. "We are deeply sorry for the loss of humans because of the evil actions of the decepticons…"

"Look, I am not mad about that. These three explained what happened to me, and it sounds like that you had no real involvement, other than attempting to stop the cons before lives were lost. I am curious about why this girl is important." The man placed his hand on his hip and held up the necklace. "Why this is important. Apparently, according to Bulkhead, these crystals are meant to be my size. So why is this crystal the size of a pencil?"

Optimus looked at the crystal and his optics soften to sadness. "Because that crystal is from a time where I had to make one of the hardest decisions I ever made in my life, Agent Fowler. I had seen it only once before back on Cybertron a long time ago." He intakes heavily and looked away. "And at the moment…it would seem there is more to this girl than I realized…Ratchet found out something about her."

"Right…well…" Fowler glanced at the certificate again. "This girl has no parents…" He held up the document to shot the bots. "On here, it is written that parents are unknown and that she was found on the side of a country road with no clothes as a new born. This means someone abandoned her…" Optimus tensed slightly as Fowler spoke about her. "And that is why she was at that orphanage, Cliff. At least we know her name. It is Azura."

Optimus looked at the curtained area briefly and looked back at Fowler. "That is quite a lovely name. I guess at least whoever named her, cared about giving her a name." The man nodded in agreement. "Though it seems that I…I will need to explain what had happened surrounding the creation of that crystal and how it might have arrived on this planet. It is not an easy story for me to explain…Arcee and Ratchet will fill in some of the details that I do not remember."

Fowler glance between the two bots. He saw that both Arcee and Ratchet seem to be sad about something, and he was really curious about how important this was to Optimus. He looked at the crystal for a moment before Optimus began to explain what had happened in the past and how the crystal came to exist. Bulkhead, Bumblebee and Cliffjumper were all surprised by this, though some detail needed to be added for Fowler to understand. Once he did understand, he felt sympathy for the leader. Though it did not explain how Azura got this crystal. And Optimus, Arcee and Ratchet had not actually revealed what they had discovered about the girl right now. They believe it is best said when the girl is awake and able to comprehend what she is hearing from them.