When All Lights Go Out I (TFP)

by LuvMiddleEarth

A seemingly orphaned girl who has misfortune for the majority of her life, with only a special crystal as the only connection her birthparents, learns that she is not all as normal as she thinks. And when she tries to find a good life somewhere else, her world comes to a crashing renewal as she is set upon by decepticons. And she does not know why, until she meets the autobots.

22. Chapter 22

Staring in disbelief at what they were seeing, both Optimus and Ratchet could only prepare themselves to fight against the undead. They both knew if they turned and ran, Megatron would not hesitate to use the army against humans. But there was no way they were going to run from Megatron, even when he was showing more shameful acts than they thought he could ever do.

"Megatron has desecrated the resting place of our fallen ancestors, and his own," Ratchet said in disgust, narrowing his optics at the undead bots and glancing at Optimus.

"Not even the dead are free from his warmongering," Optimus responded as he armed his canons.

Megatron was thoroughly enjoying this, and he did seem like he was concentrating as his body continued to glow with the dark energon within him. "At last, symbiosis. I can feel it, I possess complete control over army." Megatron sneered in delight, watching both Optimus and Ratchet stand waiting for his army to reach them. "Destroy them!"

Optimus began to fire upon the bots rapidly to destroy them. However, he noticed that when the blasts from his cannons hit the bots, they take damage, but were unaffected by the blasts. It took multiple blasts to even bring down a single bot. After all, they were already dead and had absolutely not spark or feeling left in their husks, just a powerful source that reanimated their bodies.

Even Ratchet saw this, and he was concerned. "Optimus, if our combatants are already deceased, how can we possibly defeat them?"

Acknowledging what Ratchet had said, and observing the struggle to even defeat them, Optimus felt as though the medic had to leave. "Ratchet, retreat! Bridge yourself back to base!"

Ratchet armed himself with his swords, while looking at Optimus like he was crazy. "No, we both promised we would return, Optimus. I am not returning alone. I shall stand with you." He walked forward and stood beside his leader. "You may require a medic when this is over with." Ratchet walked towards the undead bots and began to the slice at the bots. He felt the blades slice through the weakened metal easily, and as he sliced through several within a few seconds, he realized that swords would be the easiest way to stop these bots. He looked at Optimus who was still firing his canons at the bots. "I recommend dissection. The smaller the pieces, the better."

Optimus had taken notice on how quickly Ratchet was able to cut down several of the bots already and glanced at him, transforming his canons to swords. "Sound advice, old friend."

He walked into a bunch of the undead bots and was quick to slice his blades through them and kicked one away. He saw and felt how easily the blades cut through the bodies, and Ratchet had been correct. However, Optimus already noticed his strength felt as though it was being sapped. It wasn't a quick drain of his strength, but he did notice it. But there was absolutely no way that he was going to give up. His processor brought up the memory of Azura asking him if he would come back. Seeing her pouty expression had made him wonder that she had been upset before he left. He did think it was because he had to go on this mission.

He didn't expect it to be this kind of mission. He had assumed he and Ratchet would simply locate the area of dead Cybertronian warriors, but Megatron had returned and was already acting on the plan to raise an army of the undead. Optimus had hoped it wouldn't happen this soon, but he knew Megatron too well. Megatron was right that they have been at this for a long time, which was not something that Optimus was proud of, as he definitely would prefer that there has never been a war in the first place. Even though, without the war, he never would have had Azura.

Despite the fact that Optimus and Ratchet already found an easy way to destroy the bots, Megatron was still grinning. He was extremely proud of the fact that he could raise the dead and control it. "I have mastered dark energon," He said in a gleeful voice, making Optimus glance up at him. "When you fall, Optimus, you too shall join my army. It would be a great pleasure to keep you and your daughter together, even if you are dead."

Narrowing his optics, Optimus ran at the bots and slicing through them. Ratchet followed his lead as they sliced and diced the dead bots. Optimus really felt disgust by Megatron's words. A part of him feared what would happen when Megatron finally met Azura. He would do what he could in his power to prevent Azura from meeting him, but Optimus knew they would at some point. He could only hope that if and when they do meet, things wouldn't turn out terribly. But now that they have witnessed what Megatron was prepared to do, Optimus really did not want to imagine the additional trauma she would go through.

Meanwhile…

Azura was still upset back at the base. She had been alone for a little over a half hour, and she was pacing on the platform, going through everything that she has said and done. She thought that Bulkhead had taken the kids somewhere without her because of something she has said or done. Or maybe they just didn't want to babysit her. She did not know, but she was still sobbing softly and waiting to hear any sign of Optimus and Ratchet returning. She hated that she was left alone.

She would glance at the monitor a few times, glaring at the location the wrecker had bridged to on the screen. She was tempted to follow, but she didn't know how to activate the ground bridge. She thought about running back to her room to lock herself in there until someone came home, but she wouldn't even know if they would return. The base was quite soundproof, and it was hard to really hear anything, unless you were standing in the hallway.

"Arcee to base, come in," Arcee's voice spoke through the com link, startling Azura as she had not been expecting anyone to speak through the com link. "Jack? Azura? Hello?"

Azura walked over to the monitor, not knowing Arcee would hear her. "A-Arcee?"

"Azura!" Arcee was relieved to hear her voice. "I am glad to hear your…" She paused for a moment when Azura let out a small sob and sniffle. "Wait, why are you crying? Did something happen?"

Azura wiped her cheeks. "E-Everyone's gone. F-Fowler d-d-dropped off c-c-clothes and f-f-food that I left from the unit. I went t-t-to put them away, s-s-set up new tanks and…I came back, and everyone was gone." She tried to not sound too ridiculous as she cried as she wanted to speak clearly. "But you d-didn't want to babysit, so…"

"I never said I didn't want to babysit you," The femme responded in confusion. "Why do you…"

"You did comment about babysitting the children before. Azura might have taken it that it included her," Bumblebee said gently. "I saw what you said hurt her. Now the others have gone, she must have felt like she did something."

"Scrap." Arcee sounded guilty when she said that. "Azura, listen to me, we need you to bridge us back. I want you to know that I will always babysit you. You are Optimus's daughter, and I think of you as my little niece." Azura frowned a little as she listened to her. "I know you might not know what to do. So I'll guide you. Do you see two signals on the monitor in front of you?"

Azura looked at the monitors, glancing between them. She wiped her eyes and she calmed down a little, which helped her to see two signals with Arcee's and Bee's faces on them. "Yes, I see you. How do I lock the ground bridge to your location?"

"The monitors have a touch screen on them," Arcee explained to the girl calmly. "Touch on our location and hit enter on the keyboard. You do not need to put anything complicated into the ground bridge, as it is a simple click and enter." Azura tapped on the screen and saw that signals get highlighted, and she cautiously hit enter, jumping when she heard the bridge start up and turn on. "Good girl!"

Azura looked at the tunnel as the vortex light fill the room. She felt a little better now that Arcee and Bumblebee were coming back. She still did not know if what Arcee was saying was true. She watched as the bike and camaro speed into the lobby before Arcee and Bumblebee transform. They both saw that Azura's cheeks were stained with tears, and it was obvious she had been crying for sometime. She sniffled and looked away from them.

Arcee stepped closer to the platform with a kind expression. "Listen, I am sorry that I unintentionally hurt you, Azura. My comment about babysitting was about the human children, not you." She glanced at the femme as she spoke to her. "I am still entirely thrilled that we have to play bodyguard and babysitter to those kids. I know we need to protect them, but I would rather spend time with you." Azura relaxed a little. "And besides, Bulkhead didn't take the kids with him to a random place. Fowler has been taken by the decepticons."

Azura looked at Arcee in surprise and wiped her cheeks. "Wait, he is?" She paused for a moment and was immediately worried. "But…he only just left! How did the decepticons catch him?"

"I don't know the full details, but the point is, Bulkhead left the base to save him," Arcee explained with a smile. "And the kids were stupid enough to follow him. Though Miko followed him first, and it shortly after, the boys did the same." She shakes her head in disbelief and saw Azura relax and realize she had overreacted.

"Oh…that explains why…" Azura felt stupid for crying. She hadn't even meant to cry, she just started crying without much control. She looked at Arcee with a guilty expression. "Sorry…I didn't mean to make you feel bad, Arcee…I…I have a fear of walking out of my room one day and no one is here…and since it happened sooner than a I thought, I kind of got scared."

Arcee reached out and picked the girl up, bringing her in to hug her. Azura smiled and hugged her back. "I don't particularly blame you. You might be at an age where you enjoy a lot of independence, but sparklings do tend to get very upset when left on their own. I know Bee was like that when he was a sparkling."

Bee looked at Arcee in shock as he finished putting the new coordinates into the bridge controls. "I wasn't that bad, Arcee."

"Maybe not, but you definitely clung to anyone's leg if they ever needed to go somewhere," Arcee said with a light chuckle. "And since you have come from a life where you basically had no one to depend on, your need to be with others is understandable. I kind of expected it to be stronger, but maybe it's because you already had a hard start in life."

Azura hummed softly and glanced at the bridge after Bee reactivated it. "I guess you're right." She looked at Arcee with a smile. "Thanks for clearing things up. I definitely dislike that I was misunderstanding everything."

Arcee rubbed the top of Azura's head, ruffling her hair and making her grimace and glare at Arcee in irritation. "Good." She placed the girl back onto the platform and turned to the vortex. "I hope this means we can trust that you will man the ground bridge for us."

Azura nodded, though she did think of something. "Are you sure I couldn't tag along?"

"Optimus would kill us if we even thought taking you along with us where there is a fight," Bumblebee responded with a light chuckle. "You should know that it is out of the question. I know you want to help Fowler, but we will handle this."

"Bee is right. We also need to make sure those kids are safe, especially since they made a stupid choice." Arcee transformed and sped into the vortex. "We will be back soon, Azura."

Azura watched Bee transform and follow her into the ground bridge. The bridge shut down and she stared at the bridge for a moment before rubbing her hands through her hair. It was messy now thanks to Arcee. She figured she had time to head to her room to get a brush and wash her face. Her face felt quite awful now that had been crying and she wanted to refresh herself. She felt stupid for crying over something like this.

Ugh! I feel like I am going crazy! I'm seventeen and I still feel like I'm a toddler sometimes! Is this what it feels like to be a sparkling?

Azura shakes her head as she walked down the stairs and thought about getting some ice cream as well. She smiled to herself and decided she would do that once she fixed her hair refreshed her face. She also didn't want Optimus to know she had been crying, even if Arcee may mentioned it to him. She did not want anyone to get in trouble. She didn't know how Optimus would even react, though he has already shown a lot of care and concern for her, and she knew he was protective of her. But if one of the autobots were to hurt her, even if it was pure accident, she didn't know if he would react harshly or not.

To be honest, Optimus can be intimidating if he wanted to be. I could see him scaring someone simply by being angry…though I am not sure if it is something he acts upon a lot.

She made her way back to her room and went to the bathroom to rinse a cloth and wash her face. She felt a lot better as she washed away the tears on her face. She did wonder if her tears were of water or lubricant. She stared at herself in the mirror with a smile before noticing her eyes looked odd. She leaned in and saw that she could actually just see optics behind the iris. She was weirded out by this because that meant the eyes everyone could see was like the rest of her skin.

I've never noticed before…is this because of the low-grade energon?

She leaned in again to stare, and she saw that her optics were a paler blue to Optimus's optics. She smiled a little before turning away and walking into her room to grab her brush to brush out her hair. She certainly hadn't expected any quick changes to her body from ingesting the low-grade energon. Though now she was questioning how quickly she would even grow, but she guessed she would find out at some point.

Once she was happy with her hair, she ran back out to the lobby in case she would need to bridge someone back. So far, nothing. She was happy as she made her way to the freezer. She knew the autobots still had the kitchen area they made to keep her comfortable three years ago. She opened the freezer and grabbed out on of the one litre tubs of chocolate ice cream before grabbing a spoon and returning to the lobby. She sat down on the chair by the console and opened the tub before she began to casually eat it.

She was happy that she still loved ice cream. She knew human food may not do that much for her, but she was still happy she could consume it. She hoped that when she was an adult Cybertronian she would still be able to eat food. She also was happy that she felt comfort from eating sweet food like ice cream. She hummed to herself happily as she waited for anyone to speak through the com link to have her open the bridge for them. She was hoping it would be Optimus, but she knew he and Ratchet were searching for clues regarding the dark energon. And she still wondered how she knew the name.

"Azura, can you open the bridge for us?" Arcee's voice spoke through the com link fifteen minutes later. "We have the kids, and we have Fowler, we need you to open the bridge for us."

"You got it!" Azura responded happily as she stood up and opened the bridge before sitting back down with the tub on her lap.

She watched as Arcee, Bulkhead and Bumblebee speed into the lobby. She saw Jack get off the bike before Arcee transformed. Bumblebee transforms as well, and Azura gasped when she saw Fowler was unconscious in Bee's hands. She did not know what happened, but he looked awful. His clothes were messed up and it looked like he had been through a hard time. She watched Jack, Miko and Raf run up the stairs and they grab the gurney to lay Fowler on. She knew the gurney was still here since she had laid in it three years ago.

She placed the tub on the desk and walked over. "What happened?" Azura asked curiously as she looked at Fowler worryingly. "How and why did Fowler get caught?"

"My guess is Soundwave," Bulkhead said bluntly with a light grumble of irritation. "Fowler might have sent out some kind of transmission to his superiors on the way back to his base, and the con picked it up." Azura widened her eyes fearfully. "You already know that he's able to pick up communications like that, Azura."

"Yeah…I guess…" Azura still felt bad for Fowler as she looked at him sadly. "I feel bad that he was just here, and this happened."

"He was accusing you of being the reason why we three ended up here with you," Jack commented with a shrug.

Arcee widened her optics. "Wait, he what? He blamed Azura for the children being here?"

"Kind of. I made sure to tell him it wasn't the case, but the man did not believe me. But I kind of understand, he wasn't there when the kids unintentionally got involved. And when I say kids I mean Jack and Raf." He glanced at Miko who put her hands on her hips. "Whereas Miko just kind of stumbled into this by following you, Arcee."

"Unbelievable." Arcee was very unimpressed Fowler came to that conclusion, but there was nothing they could do about it now. She glanced at the monitors, looking at the signals for Optimus and Ratchet. "Those two have been away for a while."

Azura nodded. "Yeah, a few hours now." She walked back over to the desk and grabbed the ice cream tub. "I hope they are okay."

"They will be. Optimus and Ratchet went to check on something, and they should be back soon." She didn't react to Bumblebee's reassurance and the scout continued. "You probably know why those two left in the first place. I know Optimus, he wouldn't have gone without a reason."

Azura glanced up at Bee and shrugged. "I think they can tell you about it. I thought they would have too, but they didn't." She put another spoonful of ice cream in her mouth. "They did promise they would come back."

"And they will." Arcee walked closer to the girl, seeing her eating the ice cream. "Is it even a good thing to eat an entire tub of ice cream?" Azura looked at the femme and grinned while shrugged a little. "Hmm, I heard that humans can get stomach aches from a lot of ice cream, so I am not sure if you should have it."

"It's only half full anyway. I'll be fine." Azura scooped another lot of ice cream to eat. "I'll pay for it later if I end up with a stomach ache."

The femme nodded in agreement. "Yeah." She knew she could not say to Azura it was best to not upset her system, but she couldn't say that in front of the kids just yet. "I didn't realize you had set up two other tanks in your room. I know you were talking about more fish."

Azura nodded. "Yeah, I think I am going to buy more tetras, rainbow fish, catfish and for the bigger tank, probably angelfish, silver dollar and maybe gouramis…not sure yet."

"You'll have to show us your tanks sometime," Jack said with a smile. She looked at him with uncertainty and noticed he still seemed shaken. "I am curious how you managed to convince Ratchet to have fish in the base though. He probably would have freaked out over the idea of a pet."

"He would if it was a bird, cat or dog. But fish he was okay with since they remain in a tank of water and I am the one looking after them. Optimus did a good job caring for my first tank over the last few years though. I expected them to be dead." She placed the spoon in her mouth and swallowed the next scoop of ice cream. "I'll show them to you soon, Jack. I am sure watching fish will probably make your mind relax after what you have been through."

He nodded in agreement. "I don't suppose you have more ice cream?" She raised her eyebrow curiously at him. "I could use the sweet tooth to help me relax as well."

Azura smiled at him and was about to respond when she heard Optimus speak through the com link. "Optimus to base, I request a ground bridge."

She almost jumped up from her seat excitedly as Arcee walked over to the controls, looked at where Optimus and Ratchet's signals were and put in their coordinates before activating the ground bridge. They all look at the ground bridge as it opened and Azura waited for Optimus to walk through. When he did, she gasped in shock when she saw Ratchet's right arm had been damaged and he was holding it with his left arm. This meant there must have been a fight. And both bots seemed slow and sluggish, meaning they had been weakened somehow.

"You look like you had a rough time," Arcee commented as Optimus walked beside the medic. "So much for recon."

Optimus glanced at the femme before noticing Fowler in the gurney. He widened his optics in surprise and looked at the bots with a curious frown. "Why is Special Agent Fowler here? Why does he look like he has been injured?"

"Agent Fowler decided to drop by while you were out," Bulkhead explained as Ratchet and Optimus moved to the side of the lobby. Ratchet grabbed out a few metal clamps and a weld torch before handing them to Optimus while they listened. "He had some things to say regarding the destruction of the mine yesterday. He also discovered the presence of the human children." Azura expected Bulkhead to mention what Fowler had said regarding her, but the wrecker did not. "He left shortly after and he must have sent a message to his superiors. And Soundwave picked up the signal."

Ratchet scoffed in irritation with a slight grimace as Optimus placed the clamps around Ratchet's arm. Azura got the idea this was meant to be their version of a cast. "I guess that human must of let slip that he knew something about our base, or the cons would not have nabbed him." He glanced at Azura, noticing her holding the tub of ice cream as she stood by the rail listening. "And it seems he has dropped off things from the unit."

She nodded silently and Bulkhead continued his explanation. "Anyway, uh, we received the SOS signal from Fowler and Raf was able to pinpoint the man's location using the Earth tech he had available." Azura, Jack and Miko smile at the boy as he was immediately flustered from embarrassment as Optimus and Ratchet look at him, impressed he could help with that. "And I went after him, leaving Jack in charge…or so I thought."

"Bulkhead allowed the children to follow him," Arcee said bluntly while Optimus glanced at Azura. "Azura wasn't present when they left to help Fowler."

"And where were you, Arcee?" Optimus asked the femme curiously. "The story so far implies you and Bumblebee were not present when this happened." Arcee immediately looked guilty, as did Bumblebee with some nervousness. "I did order the both of you to stay here, Arcee."

"Arcee decided she didn't want to keep an eye on the human children, and asked me to go with her on patrol," Bumblebee explained, lifting his hands and pressing his index fingers together nervously. "I wanted to stay…but she ordered me to go with her."

Optimus turned on the welder after placing the last metal clamp on Ratchet's arm and began to welder the pieces so they would not fall off. "It was extremely irresponsible of you to leave, Arcee. I understand that we all need to adapt to these new changes, but running off like that is not something I will tolerate."

"Understood." Arcee glanced at Fowler for a moment before looking at Ratchet. "Optimus, you said you were just doing reconnaissance. I hope that you didn't go looking for a fight, because you both seemed weakened by something."

"This is in regard to the substance you found on Cliffjumper," Ratchet responded to the femme gently, making her widen her optics in surprise. "Optimus and I have gone to see for ourselves the truth regarding it. And we definitely found our answer." He looked down at his arm as Optimus continued to weld. "I'll give this a few hours before I can patch this up properly."

Optimus simply nodded as he focused on the task at hand. Azura still wanted to know why and how Ratchet got injured. They were vague in their answer, and she didn't know if she should say that it is dark energon they were investigating or not. She decided to just remain quiet for the time being and eat the ice cream. She looked in the container as she would likely finish the ice cream soon. She was only half left in it after all.

Miko, who was still curious about it all, stepped forward curiously. "What happened to you guys anyway?"

"You ended finding more than just the substance, didn't you?" Azura asked softly, looking at them with worried eyes.

"We engaged an army of undead Cybertronian warriors," Ratchet explained, making the girl shiver nervously as the very idea of zombie cons was terrifying to her. "Azura has seen what it can do, but Optimus had assumed the substance you found on Cliffjumper is dark energon. And he was, unfortunately, correct in his assumption."

"Zombies?" Miko was shocked that they were fighting undead and she stamped her foot, looking at them with a frown. "You fought zombies and I missed it?"

Azura glared at Miko. "Seriously?" The teen looked at Azura in surprise. "The fact there is energon out there powerful enough to raise dead Cybertronians isn't good. But…" She looked at Optimus worryingly. "How did the soldiers rise in the first place? You never took dark energon with you."

"I am afraid someone met us at the ancient battlefield where some many fallen warriors lay to rest," Optimus explained calmly, not naming the person who awoke the dead. "And my fear had been realized when they did arrive." Azura began to think Megatron had done this, though Optimus did not say. Optimus turned to look at Bulkhead. "Bulkhead, you exercised extremely poor judgement in allowing the humans to accompany you and leave Azura unattended."

Jack raised an eyebrow as the tone Optimus took sounded like a parent scolding someone else for not babysitting properly. Bulkhead just glanced at Azura for a moment before looking back at Optimus. "It won't happen again, Optimus. I promise."

"But it wasn't Bulkhead's fault!" Miko argued, getting the leader's attention.

"Miko, please!" Bulkhead tried to hush her from admitting she was at fault, even though it had been her fault.

"And check it out…" The girl pulled out her phone and opened it, showing Optimus the screen. "Recon!"

Seeing something on Miko's phone, he leaned down curiously to see what exactly she had on the screen. He took a moment before looking at Ratchet. "Hmm, Ratchet have a look. It could be of importance to Megatron."

"Whoa, Megatron's back?" Jack asked in a slightly startled voice. "That's bad news, right?" And he widened his eyes at the realization. "He was the one who had the dark energon, wasn't he?"

"You are correct, Jack." Optimus was very unhappy to admit this was the case. "Megatron has shown just how far he is willing to stoop in order to achieve his goals." He glanced at Azura and she tensed a little. "And some of these, he has already admitted to me for his future endeavours."

Azura gulped nervously as she finished off the ice cream. The fact Optimus looked at her as he said that made her frightened about ever meeting Megatron. Even if it could be inevitable that she would meet him, she really didn't want to. And she could tell that Optimus was likely thinking and feeling the same way. She knew he would do everything he could to prevent the both of them from meeting, but the decepticons were really trying to get their claws on her by breaking into the school and taking the files.

Ratchet stepped closer to look at Miko's phone, only to be instantly confused. "I…do not understand."

Azura looked at Miko curiously as she wondered what was on the phone as the girl checked it. "Oops, that's the con who tried to blow Raf away. At least that's what he looked like before Bulkhead rearranged his grill." She threw her fists with a smile on her face and Azura couldn't believe it.

Neither did Jack as he was fed up with her. "Miko, Raf was almost killed! This isn't a game! When are you gonna get that through your thick skull?!"

Miko didn't appreciate the scolding, but she responded to Jack's yelling. "Um, we were all almost killed Jack. You, me, Raf, even them." She points at the autobots, trying to make her point to the boy.

"Well, if this was just an average day with the autobots, then I don't want to be a part of it. Not anymore." The fear and despair in Jack's voice was clear, but Azura was stunned he would say that. However, she understood his fear. But she could not escape it like he could.

"Jack…" Optimus spoke in a gentler tone, understanding the boy's fear and frustration. "Putting you in harm's way was never our intent. However, it is no longer the safety of you three that is at risk, but the safety of all humankind." Jack narrowed his eyes as he listened to Optimus. "We will respect your decision if you wish to leave."

Jack was about to think about it when Ratchet activated the ground bridge, surprising Azura. Ratchet seemed uninterested in the boy's feelings, and eager to have him leave. "No point in long goodbyes, here's the door."

The boy seemed to make his decision and turned to Raf. "Come on, Raf."

Rafael was surprised when he given the invitation and glanced at Bee, who looked away sadly at the thought of losing his friend. "I'll be okay, Jack. See you at school."

"Sure thing." Jack sighed and turned, glancing at Azura as she approached him. "I'd offer you the invitation, but I see that your place is here."

"Yeah. It is." Azura felt tears in her eyes, and she took a deep breath. "I hope you reconsider, Jack. I like having your around." She smiled at him as the boy looked away. "You were going to see my tanks when I finished putting new fish in them…and I…I do want to let you in…eventually."

He walked around Azura to the stairs and she turned as he began to walk down them. "I guess I will never know now. But that is okay…" He glanced back at her with a smile. "I'll still be your friend. Hopefully, I will see you at school."

She just nodded as Jack made his way down and began walking towards the vortex. Azura felt like she was going to cry again. She was losing another friend, even if Jack wasn't dead. She definitely did not like this feeling at all. She looked at the ice cream container she was still holding and she had eaten the last of the ice cream. She wiped a few tears that fell from her eyes, looking down at the boy as Arcee approached Jack.

The two of them look at each other before Jack spoke. "I know, you don't exist."

"Don't make me hunt you down," Arcee said in a soft, sarcastic tone. She was clearly sad she was losing another friend as well.

When the boy walked through the vortex and it closed, Azura looked at Optimus. "So Megatron's back…and he raised the dead. What other plan does he have?"

Optimus looked at Azura, seeing the pain she had on her face about losing her friend pulled at his spark. He wanted to comfort her, but refrained from it for the time being. "Megatron has a plan to bring back the dead to conquer this world. What Ratchet and I fought was merely a prelude of what is to come. I am afraid Megatron already has this plan in motion as we speak."

"That means there will be more zombies, right?" Miko asked curiously with the clear intention of wanting to witness the fight.

"If Megatron has his way, yes. And it will not be as fun to witness as you think it will, Miko." Ratchet grumbled as he rubbed his arm, feeling some sharp pain as he moved his shoulder slightly. "An army of the undead, larger than what we have faced, would destroy your world. Jack is correct that you need to understand this is not a game."

Miko's excited face changed and she quickly turned to serious. "I guess you are right. I just want to keep things a little light hearted…that is all, really." She shrugged and looked at Fowler. "Hopefully he is going to be okay."

"If you would not mind, Miko, can you upload that image of the text you have to the console?" Ratchet asked as he typed on the console. "I would like to study the specs so I know what we are dealing with when you and Raf head home."

"Is it that time already?" Raf asked in surprise, glancing at his watch. "Oh, wow! It is that time already! The day went so fast!"

"Unsurprising, since you almost died," Azura commented bluntly as she sat on a chair. "I still don't know what possessed you to run after Bulkhead while he went to save Fowler, but I am not you."

"I only went after her because Jack wanted to bring her back," Raf responded quickly with a guilty expression. "I knew we should not have gone, but we did to try and help, or at least, stop Miko from doing something she'd regret."

"Pfft, as if I would regret that." Miko chuckled softly as she typed on the phone. "And that should be sent to you right now, Ratchet."

Ratchet brought up the image and smiled at the girl. "Thank you, Miko."

"You are welcome." Miko turned around and walked over to the stairs. "Come, Bulkhead. I think I should head home a little early."

The wrecker looked at her in surprise. "Uh, I would have thought you'd want to stay a bit longer."

"I need to make an important stop on the way home. Someone needs to be told he needs to rethink leaving the band." Bulkhead smiled at the girl and transformed. She grinned happily and ran over to Bulkhead before looking at Raf and Azura. "We will see if we can go to school tomorrow too. See you guys than."

Miko climbed into the passenger side and Bulkhead drove away. Azura looked at Raf who was checking his time again. "Are you going to leave early too?" She asked curiously.

"I have to…I have a tutor who usually comes by today, and he'll be there in an hour," Raf said shyly, adjusting his glasses as he looked at Azura. "I don't want to run off on you, but I have to or my mother will ground me for the rest of my life."

She chuckled a little at Raf's comment. "Very well. You'd better go and do that, Raf."

The boy nodded and ran down the stairs, gesturing to Bee to get going. Bumblebee was quick to transform before the boy reached the camaro. He jumped into the car and Bee sped away quickly. Arcee stood there was a sad expression as she wouldn't get to do that right now, and Azura let out a sniffle. The femme looked at Azura and saw she was crying again.

"I am sorry Jack decided to leave, Azura," Arcee reassured her gently with a smile. "I guess being in the middle of a fight like he was made him realize how brutal things are in this war."

"I know." She sniffled again and wiped away a tear. "I understand him. He doesn't need to be here." She turned to Optimus and walked towards him. "Can you hold me?" She placed the ice cream carton down on a table as she looked at him. "I…I have had a rough day myself…I thought everyone left me alone deliberately and I panicked."

Optimus gently picked her up and held her against his chassis with a smile. "I suspect that was something that had been left out of the explanation." He glanced at Arcee who flinched when he looked at her. "However, I assume it might be over a misunderstanding. You are safe now. And I see you were able to indulge yourself on something." He looked at the ice cream container and looked at her curiously. "I hope you will not purge later. I remember hearing something about eating too much ice cream."

She chuckled softly and huddled against his chassis. She breathed in his scent and listened to the pulse of his spark beneath the surface of his chassis, it all helped her to relax. Plus, she needed his presence right now. She understood the reason why Jack left, but it still hurt. She hoped he would come back. But now knowing that Megatron raised an undead army, and had an even bigger plan scared her. Especially if Megatron already had some kind of plan for her in the future.