A/N: This one took much longer and became much longer than the originals. I had to go over it several times to make sure I wasn't confusing myself. Coulda used a beta reader for this.

She had never felt fear like this, for she never had anything to fear. The short falls from climbing too high or angering one of the other Younglings didn't compare to this. She had never been away from her creators, or anyone she didn't know. Terror gripped her Spark and the only thing she knew to do was buzz and screech as loudly as she could, hoping her creators would hear her and save her. She knew she was moving, but she didn't know where or how or anything. She tried to get out of her what appeared to be cage, clawing and scratching with what she could. Something loud hit the 'cage' and she scurried back. "Stop that," she heard a voice.

Shockwave laughed manically as his thoughts went to how he had succeeded in getting the Sparkling from its creators so easily. How could they be so lax in protecting them? He knew Starscream had to have suspected something, but the fact he hadn't warded his family better only made taking the special Sparkling so much easier. "I warned him," he said, speaking to the Sparkling. "He had to have known I wouldn't follow in his ways. What a fool." He laughed as the Sparkling in his hold continued to cry. She had quieted a few times and he figured she had exhausted herself. He saw the Atlantic Ocean coming up quickly.

Now to pinpoint this 'abyss'. The humans were dumb enough to tell everyone publicly, so he didn't have to ask anyone about it.

Shockwave had succeeded in distracting Starscream. How easy it was to distract the leader. He was no leader if he was so easily tricked. "Stupid."

While Typhoon was feeling fear and emotions she had never felt, back at the base, Barricade – especially Barricade, was also feeling emotions that were not familiar, or emotions so strong, words were wrong.

Starscream himself was still so frazzled about what had happened, he barely realized that Soundwave had taken over his post as leader. He was thankful she was there and covered him in his time of need. While in depth of thought, he could barely hear the telepath ordering anyone who wasn't busy, to get busy over the Decepticon spread link. He'd let her take over for now. He needed a minute to compose himself and figure out how to get Typhoon back. "Tell Sixshot to find her, Soundwave."

Soundwave tilted her head slightly at him, "He's already searching."

Starscream didn't know what else to say, having not had the moment to deal with his own guilt. "Thank you," He also needed to talk to Barricade. He turned for where he knew she would be.

Barricade sat in the corner in her quarters, still in shock. Her Sparklings were beside her, but they didn't bother her, moving quietly, and waiting to see if their femme creator would snap out of whatever was going on with her. Blacklight had explained that she was like this before, but Starscream had brought her out of her gloom. They could sense her turmoil and wanted so bad for their little sister's return just like she did. Sometimes she would glance at them, but her attention was on what had happened. She was having a real hard time coming to terms with the situation.

The femme stared at the wall. She began feeling that she wasn't enough to protect any of the Sparklings or herself or her human. Mikaela got seriously hurt from that attack, and she couldn't do anything to help her. She had found out afterwards that she had nearly crushed her. This was the second time something bad had happened to one of them under her own watch. How was she worthy if she lost them so easily? She looked down at them in thought, then back to the wall. She didn't even hear Starscream enter.

"Hey,"

The Sparklings, seizing their chance, scuttled to him, hoping he could bring her out of whatever was going on. Blacklight realized quickly that that wouldn't work this time and he had advised them to back off. They did, unwillingly. He took them to the side as Starscream approached Barricade.

Barricade looked up at him, her optics meeting his, and she immediately looked down, finding great interest in the floor. She didn't look back at him. She didn't want to deal with Starscream now. She was still incredibly upset, and she knew he should be angry at her – furious. She shied from him when he approached, afraid of his anger. "Not now," she told him.

Starscream gave her a look in surprise at her movement, "What's wrong, now?" He tried to lean down to her, and she seemed uncomfortable with his attentions. He backed off slightly, unsure what to think.

Still not looking toward Starscream, Barricade said, "I'm starting to think…" she curled up with her knees to her chest, her arms resting on her knees and laid her chin on her arm. "That divorce you spoke of…"

Starscream frowned and knelt down in front of her. "What…" he gave her a look of confusion. "What are you going on about?"

"Perhaps now it is due. I won't be upset. I know I did wrong…"

Where had that come from? A cold flutter wound over his Spark at her words. "What the pit are you saying, Barricade?"

"I've failed you and our Sparklings. Twice now. You should be furious."

"Barricade… Why would I be angry?" he knew it wasn't her fault that she lost Typhoon.

Anger at herself laced her voice, "You should have considered my ability to protect them before you gave them to me…" she told the Seeker.

"I…" His optics furrowed at her. He hesitated, at a loss of what to say to what she said. She then let out a gust in a sigh. "I'm not angry at you, Barricade… I could never…"

The femme slowly looked up at him. He was dealing with this a lot better than she was. The look on his features made her frown. She allowed him to reach for her again. Realizing Starscream wouldn't lash at her, she did the only thing she could think of. She suddenly reached out and grabbed him, wrapping her arms about his neck and held on. Starscream was extremely surprised by Barricade's actions, and after a small gasp, reached his arms around her and held her to him. He stood there with her, unmoving, as she shook in his embrace. She couldn't handle the feelings going through her right now.

"'Screamer…" she said softly, unable to cope with the multitude of emotions running through her. "I'm sorry,"

"Shh, I'm here," he said gently, his hold on her tightening. "Calm. We will get through this,"

"Why?" she asked in plead, "Why do bad things keep happening to us?"

"I don't know," he replied just as softly as before, "Calm now," he repeated.

She let go of Starscream and looked down at the other three Sparklings and lightly put her hand over them, realizing they needed her just as much as Typhoon did. The mourning femme lightly traced her claws over them; a soft purr came from her. This time Typhoon wasn't in the protective hands of the Autobot medic. She was gone, and there was speculation as to where she would be. In asking if Sixshot could help, Starscream had also sent those that would go to see if they could track her down. Surprisingly quite a few of the fliers had offered to find her. He didn't care if the government saw his troops now; he cared about finding his little femme.

"I can't." Barricade said quietly.

Starscream didn't need her coming undone on him now… He wasn't sure he could take it. The young Seeker shook his head and leaned down to her, "It's okay," he pleaded.

She'd lost all ability to control her already bad temper and the femme yelled at Starscream, "I lost her, 'Screamer! I lost our little Sparkling!" Her yelling made the Sparklings flinch and run off of her and she looked down at them with a frown. Disgusted at herself that she'd scared them. She then went to stand, letting the Sparklings land on the ground below her. She walked away from them. She felt lower than an earth snake's belly. "I never…" she started, her voice tearing at itself in emotion. "I never should have allowed you to do this…" Her fist hit the wall.

Starscream couldn't believe what he was hearing from this femme right now, "Barricade," he pleaded.

"What?" she snapped back. "it's true!"

The mech furrowed his optics at the femme for snapping like that, but he let it pass, given the situation. "I need you to be strong… Listen," he squatted down in front of her as he took the Sparklings to himself. He then stood and looked right into her optics. With his other hand, he touched her face, forcing her to look at him, "Shockwave needs Typhoon alive, so there's still hope. Everyone that can fly is out looking for her."

"Why does he 'need her alive'?" the femme asked harshly before she could stop herself. She didn't want to know, really. It was hard enough suffering from the loss of her; let alone knowing she was being… exploited somehow.

The young mech read her look. He wasn't sure if he should say anything about what Soundwave told him. It would only hurt his mate more to know their Sparkling was being used to resurrect the mech that controlled them for so long.

His silence unnerved her even more. She repeated, "Why, 'Screamer? Why does he need her alive?"

"Because…" he paused, trying to think of a way to tell it to her… "Because Soundwave thinks he's going to use her Allspark power to bring Megatron back to life,"

The look in her optics… The fear, the hurt… he knew he shouldn't have said anything. He frowned. "I'm sorry."

Judging by the hours that had already gone by, there was absolutely no way they'd be able to stop him. He hoped she survived.

Screaming at high speed over the Atlantic, Shockwave was getting close to his destination, having looked up trenches under this nasty planet's oceans. His mapping had chosen the most suitable trenches and abysses to check. Megatron was off the coast of this continent, as far as he could tell from the supposed secret documents the humans had, so that's where he would begin. The closest trench was one off the coast of Canada called the Laurentian Abyss. It was mentioned in the documents, so he figured he would look there first. They would probably drop him in the deepest parts, hoping they could never be found. It wasn't the deepest on the planet, so why had they told the public that it was? They were a naive species.

He hovered over the water, having pulled Typhoon from his hold to look at her. He really was beginning to wonder if this was going to work. "Now, little femme, you are about to be a part of Decepticon history. Are you ready for that?" The femme's reply was a squeal in fear. "I thought so,"

He reached for his subspace and pulled out the Matrix of Leadership which he had stolen. He'd also noticed when he did so, the Sparkling stopped making noise and was now looking curiously at it. He glanced at her and became curious as she was staring at the Matrix with a strange intensity.

Typhoon didn't know what it was that the scary mech had brought out, but the energy in it was fascinating and weird.

It seemed to attract her like a magnet. It had a strange green glow coming from inside of it and she could hear some kind of music coming from it and some kind of words she couldn't understand, which she found particularly interesting. She also wondered what it was for. As she stared, the markings on her body were beginning to light up slightly in a soft purple hue.

Shockwave noticed the light with interest, wondering what other secrets this little Allspark-femme had. "Curious…" he said to himself.

The Sparkling reached out to grab it but the mech moved it away. The runes on her body flared and went dark. Curious indeed.

"No. Not yet," he told her. "You'll get to play with this later. Right now, we are going to find Megatron."

She warbled at him and watched as he put the item away. All of the temporarily forgotten emotions returned to her and she curled up, worrying she wasn't going to get away from this mech and whatever he was going to do.

Meanwhile, Barricade stood at the door to the telepath's quarters. She hadn't even requested entrance and the door had opened, meaning Soundwave already knew she was there. Soundwave's mirrored visor was watching her. Barricade gave her a curious but confused look.

Soundwave only tapped the side of her head as if reading her question before she spoke it. "Enter,"

Barricade stepped through the threshold. She never spoke with Soundwave; especially about matters she considered private. Soundwave also was one of the worst to speak to because of her monotonous drone, plus she wasn't sure she would understand. Then again, she had to have been changed somehow by her own Sparklings.

She remembered the pang she felt when Frenzy had been killed, but so much was going on at the time that she had passed it by and had forgotten it – At the time, she knew he was a drone and the feeling was normal for the loss of a symbiot. To this day, she had to admit that had to be one of the weirdest things Soundwave had ever done. She also didn't understand it. That or Buzzsaw. There had to be an ultimate reason that Soundwave had connected two of her own Sparklings to her instead – one of which, she had lost. The smaller femme had decided she wouldn't be responsible for another one.

"Why are you here?"

She looked up at the telepath. For a long moment, she stared at her. She wasn't entirely sure why, because the longer she did, the more intimidating Soundwave became. Getting right to the point, Barricade looked away and growled, "Undo whatever you did with Buzzsaw."

"Clarify,"

"Disconnect him from my Spark." Barricade said, "I don't want him anymore."

Soundwave didn't say anything right away, studying the femme, wondering why she would make such a request. She then thought about what had happened with Typhoon and put two and two together. Barricade must have felt guilty. "Why?" she asked.

"Because I said so."

She became offended Barricade would even make such a request; obviously not knowing what loss she had taken to give him to her. "What do you think it will solve?" she asked, feeling she knew the reason.

Barricade didn't want to admit her faults to this femme, "It doesn't matter,"

Soundwave hadn't even considered if it was possible to remove him. Her voice nearly growled as she spoke. "Reason for request: required,"

Barricade took a moment to think up a reason other than her failure to protect her own and… and Frenzy. When none would fit, she picked the most reasonable answer, "It's my Spark and I want him gone."

"There's more," Soundwave pressed.

"What other reason do you need?" Barricade responded, refusing to tell her the real reason.

Angry at Barricade's evasiveness and her request, if this was what she wanted, she would do it, if it was even possible. The audacity that Barricade would even ask grated at Soundwave and she quickly and harshly reached out for the femme and grabbed her, making her grunt. The telepath moved to a nearby wall and scraped the already injured femme's back up the wall, lifting her by her mid-section. The telepath then accessed Barricade's manual release.

"You have no idea, do you?" the larger femme asked.

Barricade wasn't sure what to make of what Soundwave was doing. Why was she being so rough with her? Was she angry at her for losing her Sparkling? In one way, she was thankful the femme would separate them. It was one less life she would be responsible for.

"You have no idea what we lost when I gave him to you…" Soundwave spoke to her audial, the anger in her voice very evident. The Telepath looked Barricade up and down, she then jerked as her, her hand completely covered Barricade's Spark chamber, causing pain to shoot from around the protective membrane.

Barricade started to become afraid when she felt Soundwave's claws caress over her Spark. Perhaps it hit her that she was completely at Soundwave's mercy now and the femme didn't seem to be being gentle with her. The telepath could kill her in an instant and she knew it. The hunter allowed Soundwave to continue, hoping she would become engrossed in what she was doing and forget about how rough she was being.

Soundwave hissed and jerked Barricade hard again and a sharp pain struck her Spark, making her squeal. Nope, she was deliberately being rough.

Mikaela and Miles sat in the small kitchen that had been built for humans. He jumped, as did Miles, and her soda fell out of her hands. "Barricade!" Mikaela called, pushing herself from the table and going to get up.

Daniel watched, having also jumped from the sudden squeal, wondering how Mikaela knew that was Barricade. It could have been any one of them. He set down his drink and nodded to Jess who started walking toward the door as the two ran out.

In Soundwave's quarters, Soundwave continued, the dangerous growl in her tone never leaving. "He's protected you while he's been with you," she said.

Ratchet had come up behind Starscream, wondering what was going on. Prowl had gotten closer and started to step before he was stopped. Starscream's hand went out to stop them, "Don't. I'll handle this,"

"What's going on?" Ratchet asked, Jazz coming up behind him. They stopped at Starscream's silent command.

"It's Soundwave," Starscream replied. "The only thing is…" He then yelled at the door, "she's got my mate in there! Soundwave!"

Mikela and Miles got closer and stopped, looking up at where Starscream was approaching. It was coming from Soundwave's room. They started to follow, being careful of others who were also getting up to get closer as well to find out what was going on.

Inside the room, the two femmes stood, only by the graces of the telepath. Soundwave proceeded to search Barricade's Spark. "He's who's gotten information to me before anyone else to protect you…" Soundwave's voice began taking on a hiss.

Barricade had never heard that kind of hiss from her until now and she started to become scared when she started to weaken and felt the strangest sensation. "Wait!" she cried out.

"I can't stop now," Soundwave snarled. "You asked for this. You're getting it."

Barricade felt something moving over her chamber but knew the femme's claws were still. What was that? Suddenly it felt like Soundwave was crushing her Spark and she cried out again in panic and pain. From the pain she was in, she wasn't entirely sure that this was a good idea, especially for how angry she had inadvertently made Soundwave.

"How dare you…" Soundwave hissed. For a split second, Soundwave considered squeezing but thought better of it.

There was a pound on the door, obviously a metal fist, "Barricade!" Starscream's voice carried from behind the door. "Soundwave what are you doing? Open this door!"

"No." Soundwave responded simply. She had said loud enough for the Seeker to hear, refusing Starscream's admittance – making the Seeker worry more.

"Soundwave, open this fucking door now!" Starscream commanded.

"Negative," the femme replied on the Officer Spread link instead. "She's made a big mistake." She growled loud enough Starscream could hear, but she glared at Barricade.

Starscream then started to panic. This was a whole lot of not good. "What are you doing to her in there?"

"Doing as she requested." Soundwave moved, and then jerked her arm again, Barricade let out another cry in pain.

Starscream wondered what Barricade could have asked Soundwave to do. By the sounds she was making, he was sure she was regretting her decision. His attention was temporarily diverted to Buzzsaw who flew in through the smaller door. The Seeker took the opportunity to hold the door open and he peeked. His prize for his nosiness was Soundwave's foot aimed at his face making him back up quickly. But he saw… something. He saw Soundwave's hand in Barricade's chest. He quickly got up, "Barricade! Soundwave!"

A few moments of Starscream's pleading to open the doors, they opened. Barricade stumbled out of Soundwave's quarters looking completely unharmed, yet her Spark felt funny. She made no comment when Starscream asked her what had happened. It was moot, because the separation had failed.

She walked by the Seeker and punched the wall in frustration, continuing with her claws grating on the walls. Starscream watched her with a frown and then looked back at Soundwave, who was strangely readable. She was pissed. "What went on in here?"

"Selfish." Was all Soundwave said.

"Stop complicating things, would you?"

Soundwave watched Starscream walk off. She hadn't asked for it, Barricade did. Her door closed and she turned away from it. A loud crash was heard from within the quarters.

After a while of searching, Shockwave had finally located the abyss a near a small island called Oak Island. He smirked and dove for the depths. He felt the weight of the water soon after and it was freezing down here.

The humans didn't take into consideration that a live Cybertronian could withstand extreme cold. Their ability to deal with extreme heat was another story, however. If they were smart, they would have found a volcano and dropped the Decepticon leader into it. Then again, by his standards, humans really weren't that smart. His body worked to warm him as he went deeper, heading past the twilight zone. The fine thing about having a metal body and going against cold was that he could keep himself heated. It did not deter him, as it wasn't enough to hurt him. He wondered if the Sparking would survive such depths. She still had a job to do.

A submarine, which was doing maneuvers, noticed something on the radar. An officer in charge took a better look at the readings. The blip was going too fast downward to be any human made machine, even a sub made for the depts of an abyss.

"What do you think it is?"

"It's going too fast for us to even try to identify it. Keep an eye on it,"

They put in a report and watched, continually pinging the unidentified submerged object.

Shockwave, annoyed at their pings, turned and fired on the submarine, destroying it immediately and then used his cloaking device to disappear.

The systems the sub was connected to on land went haywire as the sub was no longer communicating. People got on the microphones to hail it, only to get nothing in returned.

"The USS Alaska has been struck!" Someone had just attacked a nuclear submarine, and the government went on full alert.

When he got to the bodies, they were scattered, but not as bad as one might think. They were in a very close radius to one another. He was surprised to find they had landed on a cliff of the ravine, having not dropped all the way down like the humans had originally thought. After getting a good look at Megatron, he glanced around, observing their conditions. Quite a few of them were in pretty bad condition. He also saw the body of a Seeker, which looked like Sunstorm and he saw Swindle.

He reached into his hold and pulled out a shivering Typhoon. "Let's see what your little Spark can do," he said to her.

Typhoon shivered in Shockwave's hand. She could barely move from the cold feeling all around her. Why hadn't her mech and femme creator come? She beeped at the mech, but he seemed to not hear her, doing something else as he reached into his other hold.

Shockwave then pulled out the Matrix and held it before the Sparkling. He'd noticed its reaction before and also noted the energy spikes. Now he would see if what he was hoping to happen did happen. He held it closer to the infant, "Now you may touch it," he said to her, watching with curiousness.

The instant he had presented it to her, Typhoon was drawn to it, and she stared at it. She went to reach for it. This time, he let her have it and at first, she just played with it, seeing how it glittered in her optics, how it sounded and how it glowed. It made all of her other worries disappear once more. Again, the runes on her body started to faintly glow. She began beeping and twittering at it, and Shockwave wondered if she was actually communicating with the thing.

Shockwave idly wondered what she found so fascinating about it. He watched as she drew it close to herself, hugging onto it. She also started a small purr he could barely hear. That was when things became freaky, even for him. The Sparkling's runes then began to grow brighter and brighter and suddenly it appeared that the Matrix zapped her.

Typhoon gave the Matrix a look of surprise and suddenly moved it away from herself. After the first zap, many other bolts of energy came from, almost as if it were attacking her. She let go of it in fear, but it didn't drop, instead it hovered in front of her, as if set on a table. The bolts from it grew in intensity, and she started to cry out, afraid of it. It started to light up. At first it was dim, and then it started to pulse. With each pulse, the light grew brighter. There was a sizable arc that zapped the Sparkling. When it did, she screamed, Shockwave dropped her from the intense pain. However, she floated there with the Matrix.

Shockwave didn't dare touch the Sparkling again. He watched in fascination as it then moved toward her and stuck to her chest. Scared and now in pain, Typhoon tried to pry the thing off, but it wasn't working. She scratched and clawed, panicking as it felt like it was going through her.

A loud sine wave went throughout the ocean. It originated from the Sparkling and traveled for many hundreds of miles in every direction. Submarines all over the Atlantic and anything else within the vicinity of it heard it. It made the whales and other wildlife beneath the sea flinch and even radios and sensitive equipment on land blipped. As quickly as it had come, it disappeared.

The blip was picked up by the US government and they realized where it was. Immediately, they began using satellites to try to see what was going on in that part of the ocean. Now that they had a point of origination… The Laurentian Abyss – where NBE-1 and other alien bodies had been dropped. What was going on there? They immediately called the Secretary of Defense to alert them.

Shockwave watched the Sparkling floating in front of him scream. His optics then fell on her chest where it looked like the Matrix was melding into her armor. Her tiny Spark glowed brighter and brighter until the light began peeking through her seams. Shockwave wasn't sure if she would blow up and all of this would be for nothing, but he waited to see, watching the readings he was getting from her closely. He wanted to study them later, anyway.

Whatever was building between Typhoon, the Allspark and the Matrix came to a crescendo, and she screamed again somehow louder than her little vocal processors could go as the energy had nowhere else to go. Continuing to panic, she squirmed as it sunk into her chest, her inner workings changing to accommodate the new item. Two new Sparks appeared in her chest, one green, one purple and then one last wave of energy went over the dead bodies and through the Earth that was only seen a golden circle, which vanished.

Shockwave shielded himself with his other hand as the energy went out. He quickly grabbed for the Sparkling again as it started to fall. The energy that dispersed did not miss the ravines or the trenches in the ocean, going in a bubble formation from her. He turned to look at what it had done and then he looked down at the small body in his hand. He was unaffected by whatever it was and figured that the Sparkling's Spark had exploded. Noticing it was limp, he lifted it higher to see if it was still alive. It was as good as dead. Seeker Sparks always were weaker than others. "Pathetic,"

Starscream sat in his office. Barricade had refused him entrance into her quarters. He used the time he had to try to calm down a little bit before the inevitable happened. Miles was standing on his desk, unsure if he should speak. Mikaela was with him since Barricade was being stubborn about even letting her in her quarters. They knew the Seeker was upset and they didn't want to incur his wrath. Instead, since his company seemed to be the only thing required, they gave the young Seeker company.

"The Combaticons are no longer on base," He heard Soundwave say on the Officer Spread link. He noticed she sounded as professional as always.

The Seeker leaned forward, putting his head in his hands. "Figures,"

Soundwave stopped to identify a radio signal she picked up. A few seconds later, she felt something. Without warning, she felt very dizzy, and her Spark went erratic, causing her to still and reset her processors a few times. She tried to comprehend what had happened, but she couldn't understand any of it. Buzzsaw flinched in the air where he'd been on reconnaissance with Laserbeak. Laserbeak also flinched.

Ravage, who was prowling around the base twitched as well from a strange sensation in his Spark.

Rumble, who was beside Soundwave, let out a strange squeal and fell over limp.

Jazz, suddenly jerked and reached for her Spark. She looked around, seeing no one else was affected by whatever that was. "Ratchet!" she called. "Somethin's wrong!"

Starscream, who had finally been allowed in Barricade's quarters, reached for his Spark just as Barricade did. As Barricade reached for her Spark, she growled and Starscream hissed and nearly buckled. They lost comprehension of their surroundings and then their Sparks hurt. "Barricade?" Starscream asked, going to his knees and catching himself on his arms.

"'Screamer?" Barricade replied.

Soundwave came to the threshold of her office, leaning on it for support, and she saw Starscream and Barricade through their open door. She made her way to them at the same time Hook had started toward them as Ratchet was heading for Jazz. He'd seen them go down, "What's going on?"

"Shockwave." Soundwave replied. She was still taking readings around her as far as her sensors could reach. However, her readings were confusing and unreliable.

"What about him?" Hook asked, looking Barricade and Starscream over.

"Whatever he's done, it hit these three," Soundwave was already coming to conclusions she didn't like.

"What about you? Why are you stumbling like you've had way too much energized energon?"

"I don't know," Soundwave replied honestly.

Jazz, who'd partially recovered, glanced at Barricade and Starscream, who were also recovering. She noticed they must have felt whatever that was, "You felt that too? That was weird!" Jazz wrapped her arms about herself, "What was that?"

"What was it?" Starscream asked.

Barricade was silent for a moment. Then she started putting things together. Jazz, her and Starscream all felt it. The only connection they'd had was the Allspark. Her Sparkling. "No!" she roared. "Typhoon!"

Ratchet looked at Hook and Hook only looked back at him. They'd come to the same conclusion. A frown was shared by them.

Meanwhile, Skorponok felt something hit his Spark, making him suddenly shoot up out of the ground, giving away his location to the mechs he'd been watching. He went still as his Spark felt suddenly erratic and strange. While he tried to comprehend what was going on, the three mechs headed right for him. Coming to his senses, Skorponok went to dive, but as he did, a large, black and red mech reached out and swiped at him, catching him by the tail before he could get underground. He shrieked at being caught.

"Kill it!" a voice rang out.

"What is it?"

"I don't know but kill it anyway!" it replied.

He'd tried the surprise approach, and in doing so, definitely got their surprise, but also got a weapon speared through his side. Skorponok let out an ear-shattering scream from the pain of the mech's weapon in his side and he wiggled profusely to get free. He tried to stab them, failing. The mech that had him swung and slammed him into the ground on his back. He curled around and again tried to get free.

A greenish colored mech grabbed him and held him up and he swung to bite him. He shied his head back and hissed. "What an aggressive little thing… what is it?"

"Is it a drone?"

"Actually, if there's one, there's probably more… maybe it's a Sparkling,"

"Even more reason to kill it,"

Skorponok bit down hard on the first thing that got close to his maw. He was then violently whipped around and thrown. He let out another cry as one of the mechs caught him again, ripping his back up a bit as it tried to evade his tail.

"You heard the boss, no killing femmes, we gotta check first,"

Sixshot had noticed Skorponok scream. Luckily, he wasn't far, as he was heading for the Atlantic to try to catch Shockwave. He turned for Skorponok.

Obviously, paying too much attention to what they had, they didn't hear or see the teal mech that was coming right for them. He focused on who had the scorpion and immediately he recognized them. It was three of the mechs that made up Predaking.

"What are you doing here?" he said to himself as he dived for them.

The six-changer fired off rounds at two of them, hitting the greenish colored one – one he recognized as Tantrum. Tantrum let out a cry and wobbled as the six-changer's round hit its mark. The other, he'd missed. Pity.

The shot made them all look up, and out of surprise and defense, they shot back. Sixshot dodged a couple of the shots, taking most of one hit in his shoulder mount, nothing big. When he got close, he came down, flipped, and almost landed on the reddish colored one, Rampage.

The attack was sufficient to get him to let go of Skorponok who beat a hasty retreat under the ground so he could get away. The mech's that had been tossing him around turned to the six-changer, all of their faces were ones of surprise.

Headstrong bounced back from him, "No! It can't be!"

"Sixshot!" Rampage said in surprise.

The six-changer laughed. "No… I ain't really me… I just look like me…" Behind his visor, Sixshot furrowed his optics. "Where's your boss?"

"Slag off."

"I'll tell you what… I keep stumbling on things recently…" He kept his weapons aimed at all of them, his head going from one to the other. "I knew Shockwave was up to something. I shouldn't be so surprised to find you slargs here…" He was wondering how they got by Soundwave. He went to contact her…

"Tantrum!" Rampage called.

Said mech fired off a round toward Sixshot, making him shy away. He'd never seen it before.

"Hey, Predaking is–" The rest of Sixshot's transmission was cut off. He found he could no longer send over his link to her. The shot that had been fired glowed brightly and then dispersed. Sixshot watched with furrowed optics. "What was that?" He knew it had something to do with his words to Soundwave.

"Radio signal scrambler." Rampage answered.

"Oh," Sixshot said, almost as if it hadn't mattered. "Well, even more reason to get rid of you three. Where are the other two?"

The three stood staring at him, unsure what to make of his presence. Shockwave had said he was as good as dead. He told them Sixshot was the least of their worries. "How are you even alive? We were told you were dead."

The assassin charged his weapons, then looked down at himself. "If I'm dead, then you three have walked into the worst well of Sparks possible." He said and took aim at Headstrong. "I ask questions first or I shoot you all first."

"But…"

Sixshot fired a projectile at Tantrum. "You're interrupting me!" He said to all of them. He knew he was not outnumbered; they figured they could take on Sixshot and win as they were told they were more powerful than the previously thought dead mech. "Now tell me… Where's the other two?"

"Why in the pit should I tell you?" Rampage figured Sixshot wouldn't have a chance against the three of them now. Razorclaw had told them nothing could defeat them. He knew Sixshot was considered very strong, but figured their team was stronger now, especially since Shockwave knew they may come across another like him. Even though Sixshot was the first of his kind on Cybertron, Shockwave had his suspicions. The teal mech had to have come from somewhere.

There was a low growl from the mech. The three brought out their own weapons, prepared to take on the six-changer. He flicked his wrist, switching weapons to a more dangerous plasma type. "Which one of you attacked the femme?"

"Why should we tell you?"

Sixshot smirked behind his facemask, "Oh, I see… Gonna do it the hard way, huh? That's alright… me and 'hard way' get along best. I was itching to kick someone's aft anyway." He fired, hitting Tantrum in the shoulder, the blast, throwing the mech back hard.

Sixshot had taken a few heavy hits, but he was far from done. Several times, he'd tried to contact Soundwave, and he'd failed. He chalked it up to whatever Tantrum had shot at him. The three mechs he'd taken on were standing back, looking like they were ready to run. They realized assaulting him one at a time wasn't the way to go. "You can't be running away now… I'm just getting started." He aimed a larger weapon at them. "So… Who's up for round two?"

All three decided to try to overwhelm him and they looked for an opening.

In the abyss, Shockwave was less than impressed. He'd expected something to happen, but within the matter of a few minutes, there was nothing. The mech looked around with a disgusted frown. All that for nothing… He was just about to leave and come up with something else, but then, the area under him began to vibrate and energy bolts started to move over the bodies. He stepped away, seeing a dark body moving and sparking as energy coursed over it in waves, each one brighter than the last. Arcs also danced over the Spark chamber.

In the depths of the Atlantic, a nightmare was taking place. He had done it! Shockwave watched in amazement at what was taking place. His attention was quickly diverted to another vibrating body and another and another. He watched all of them. This was grand! It was more than he expected!

Metal was screeching and shaking when the energy hit them. A few bolts hit the wildlife that wasn't quick enough to get away, as well, killing them instantly. Parts that had been thrown down with the bodies were moving around strangely, reconnecting where they belonged. What had previously been broken and torn was repaired with each bolt of energy. Their Spark chambers burst to life. Immediately their bodies began warming against the bitter cold as they slowly thawed and began repairing once energon lines were established.

He watched in amazement as a tan colored mech actually began moving. With a wicked grin to his optics, he recognized him. The fallen Constructicon, Bonecrusher… He would have Devastator again.

The next one to move was Blackout. This was just as awesome as it gets!

A few times he'd been zapped by the arcs of energy that flew from them all. He climbed up higher on the cliff to get away from it, watching all of them reignite with life. He watched around as the Seeker that had been thrown down here also moved.

In the depths of the abyss, life was taking hold of those once dead, one of the lives that had been restored was indeed, Frenzy. When his optics on-lined, he saw darkness. In that darkness, however, was light. The light was moving, as well. He moved but found moving was hard. He then realized he was underwater. From the weight of it, he was very deep under water. Where was he?

Voices caused him to look for the source, finding it originating from the lights. Slowly he crawled, finding himself quickly upon others who were standing around. He noticed the one off to the side was Shockwave. He was staring intently down. Frenzy quickly moved to see what had his attention, and there he found Megatron. He didn't know what was going on. The last thing he remembered was taking on all those humans at the dam.

Shockwave smirked at the sight of the drone. It would come in use later, no doubt. Soundwave was partial to them – he wondered how partial.

Soundwave paused to receive the message from Sixshot. 'Predaking?' she wondered to herself. Whatever that feeling had been, it was gone. Soundwave reset her systems one final time. Something was amiss when her optics calibrated because Rumble was gone. She looked around quickly, spotting him in the corner. He looked terrified. "Rumble,"

"Horrible… This isn't real! He's alive… It's a lie…" the twin muttered, tightening in on himself. He was also back in his bipedal form. Soundwave knelt down to Rumble and took him gently in her hands. Rumble immediately tried to get away, clawing and pulling at her. "No, no, no! He's alive! I saw him!"

Soundwave was utterly confused by Rumble's outburst, "Rumble, calm yourself."

Ignoring his femme creator, he continued to fight her. "You can't have him!" The Sparkling suddenly cried and went to leap out of Soundwave's hand. "Give him back!" Luckily, she caught him, because he would have hit the wall face first in his hysteria.

She tightened down on him, turning. A soft resonating sound came from her, and the Sparkling began to quiet, "Calm…"

The Sparkling twitched a few times and then looked up at Soundwave with the most curious gaze, "Where's Frenzy, boss? They didn't kill him, they're lying. He's alive." He then went forward and offline again.

Soundwave only stared at her Sparkling in wonder. He knew Frenzy was dead, so why was he asking where he was? She then frowned. Perhaps he was in a dream state triggered by whatever that feeling was. While he was out, she picked him up delicately and checked his Spark with the rest of him. He seemed to be all right, but she would continue to monitor him.

Skorponok didn't stop until he arrived at the Decepticon base. He'd sent transmissions to Soundwave, updating his status and the fact an unknown anomaly caused him to give away his location to mechs she didn't know about. It had also confirmed that something was felt by more than her and Rumble.

He immediately headed for Soundwave's quarters. He looked beat up and his tail was dragging on the ground, having been snapped when the mech flung him in surprise at Sixshot's arrival. Laserbeak dropped out of the air and headed into her quarters with Skorponok. Ravage soon followed.

Brawl also moved, pushing himself to his feet as armor finished repairing on him. Shockwave beamed at the sight of him. Onslaught would be more than pleased at this. Three combiner teams against Starscream, ha, the Seeker didn't stand a chance. And how convenient that Bonecrusher would be under his command, and if he played his cards right, he would have Devastator.

Blackout moved to stand. His blades shimmied as they shifted into their proper place. As soon as he was erect, he looked around. "What's going on?"

"Are you fully functional, Blackout?" Shockwave asked.

"Affirmative," the PAV-LOW responded. "What happened?"

"A lot more than you could ever imagine,"

When his optics lit, it wasn't like any light that would come from a Cybertronian. Even humans would find the color unnatural.

The ex-leader glared upwards, his navigation systems coming online and recalibrating with his vision, marking him on his compass. A wicked grin crossed his features as he looked down at his chest where that stupid human had destroyed him with the Allspark. "Decepticons! Your leader has returned!" Megatron called out with a triumphant laugh, "Even the Cube could not destroy me!" He continued to look around, spotting Shockwave.

"Shockwave," Megatron looked up at the ex-commander.

"Megatron," Shockwave answered with a slight bow, "How was your slumber?"

Megatron thought about it. He couldn't tell the mech how it was or wasn't. He couldn't remember. The last thing he did remember was that puny insect holding the cube to his Spark. "What happened? Where am I?"

"Actually, you're at the bottom of an abyss in the ocean on Earth. Interesting disposal, I must say. What were they thinking? Maybe they thought that the weight of the water would crush you… Stupid creatures. Only have a one-track mind."

Megatron looked around to the other mechs that were orienting themselves. "Tell me, Shockwave… What has happened since my… absence?"

Shockwave smirked, "It seems Starscream has taken the opportunity of your untimely demise and taken command of the Decepticons. In fact, you may be quite impressed to hear what has happened…"

Megatron growled at what Shockwave told him. How dare that pile of scrap. "Even in my death, there is no command for him… Where is he?"

"A state called Nevada. I do suggest you use caution; he somehow has Soundwave under his control. I suspect he's been reprogrammed."

"Soundwave…" Megatron became even more furious at the news, his hand balled into a fist. "Soundwave only listens to me! How dare that slarg!"

"I have two combiner teams awaiting your orders,"

Megatron smirked darkly hearing that.

Blackout stood to the side of the others watching Swindle and Sunstorm's body finish repairing. He was happy to be alive once again, "All hail Megatron!"

They were idiots, thinking they could take him on. All five of them, maybe a challenge, but not impossible, three of them, no way. They learned about underestimating him.

Sixshot glared down at the mech he'd pinned to the ground with an energon sword from his left arm. He's already maimed one and the other was pretty much dead. The mech's energon was still over his form.

"Who else is here?" When the mech didn't respond, Sixshot held his weapon to the mech's head, "Tell me who else is on this planet that I might not know about…"

"S-Snap Trap and his team,"

"So quick to sell each other out. That's one of the things I like about you. Where are they?"

The mech laughed at him, "You won't find them in time."

Starscream stood looking out. The base was relatively quiet. Prowl meandered to his side, "I need to report to Optimus,"

"I'm aware of that," He stared to a particular location, "I'm also aware that Mirage is hanging around here…"

Prowl looked out. He had no idea Mirage was around. He figured he would have been told, "Where?"

Starscream nodded in the direction he was looking, "Over there. Soundwave picked him up," He turned to go inside, his voice became stern and dark, "If he's not gone in 5 minutes, I'll give him a reason to leave. And let Prime know I know where the Matrix of Leadership is… Stupid Autobots should be more careful about those things."

Prowl felt dread. Deep set dread. That was the last thing he'd expected the Decepticon leader to say. He watched Starscream leave then looked back out to where Mirage was supposed to have been, wondering about the Matrix. Starscream wouldn't have arbitrarily said that, so there had to be truth to it.

The tactician saw a plume of dust from an obvious vehicle coming up toward the base. He watched it, recognizing it from Nellis. "Mirage, you've overstayed your welcome," he called out.

The shrouded mech knew it wouldn't be long. Soundwave was notorious for picking him up after a while. He still would love to know how she did it. "Got it," he said.

"Jazz, Ratchet," Prowl called. "We need to get back and tell Optimus," When the two arrived at his side, they stood while the truck came to a stop.

Prowl knelt down, "Jess, Teri," he nodded.

"Hey, we heard some shit was going down, is everyone alright?" Jess asked, shutting the driver side door. He looked up when he heard the sound of jets.

"I'd say talk to Starscream, but be careful, he's edgy. We need to get back to the Autobot base."

Sunstorm was looking up at Shockwave while he was feeling for the damage Starscream had done. There was nothing out of place. He was perfectly fine… "How can this be? I remember that Throwback-!"

"Magic," Shockwave interrupted. He held up the small body in his hand slightly, realized she was still offline and seemed almost dead.

Megatron glanced at the little body, "What is that?"

Shockwave frowned with disgust, "It was the last bits of the Allspark. Now it's junk."

Megatron wrinkled his nose, "It looks like a drone."

"No… This was a naturally born Sparkling from a live femme."

"You fool… Don't hand me that! Femmes no longer exist!"

Shockwave smiled to Megatron, "As I said, there is a lot you have missed. Starscream has been really busy while you were away."

"Has he now…" Megatron looked at the Sparkling. "It's his?"

"Yes."

"Where did he find a femme?"

"There's more than you think there are, Lord Megatron."

"Oh? I thought I had them all killed."

"One of your elite is a femme. Thundercracker,"

"Oh really…" Megatron replied. Traitors. All of them.

Megatron was furious after hearing about Starscream, "I want that traitor! Take me to him!" He began lifting in the water, grabbing Brawl by his arm and lifting, "All of you grab anyone who can't fly and take your aft to the stratosphere!"

Headed toward the stratosphere, Shockwave had no more use for the Allspark Sparkling and dropped the useless body. On the coast of Maine, Typhoon hit the shallow beach and sand instantly began covering her. The shock of the fall must have done something, because Typhoon's little Sparks ignited faintly. She never roused when she had hit, however.

On their way back to Nevada, Shockwave used the slower travel to fill Megatron in on what he'd learned. Come to find out, Sunstorm and Swindle knew more than him up to their deaths. Sunstorm was pissed to find that Starscream had taken Barricade as his own.

Frenzy had clamped onto Blackout but was listening in on all of their talking. He heard Sunstorm speak, "You said that was a Sparkling you had?"

"It was Starscream's Sparkling, actually. It's dead now. I can imagine he's quite upset. You know how he gets when he's distressed. He makes mistakes."

"Yes... yes he does." Megatron agreed, knowing the traitor well, "What does he know?"

"Very little. My covert teams were able to get things done without anyone else knowing. Starscream may know about the one who attacked Barricade, but that's neither here nor there. I don't think he knows about Razorclaw's team."

"Perfect," Megatron purred.

Shockwave laughed, "The Autobot's first Lieutenant was not only resurrected, but by a freak of nature, he is now a she."

Megatron remembered ripping the small mech in two. Obviously, it wasn't the first time someone had used the Allspark, then. "How can this be? The Allspark was destroyed! I should know, it was used against me!"

"No idea. Crush didn't know how, only that the Allspark was involved. Do not kill off Thundercracker."

"Why not?"

"Well, since the Allspark is gone, I think it's wise to keep femmes alive. Thundercracker has always been a femme, it seems." Shockwave told the ex-leader. "She's also carrying Skywarp's Sparkling,"

"What?" Megatron nearly yelled, "This is insane! How could they have hidden such a thing from me?"

"I think someone else knew about it," Swindle said, having been listening in. "I wouldn't be surprised if it was that creep, Soundwave,"

"Well, if he didn't before, he does now,"

"Which makes me wonder why he's letting this happen. He must have an ultimate plan."

"He's probably behind it all," Swindle chuckled. It was such a far-out idea that everyone laughed with him.

I'm going to make them all wish they were never sparked!" Megatron hissed. He was beyond mad hearing from Shockwave about femmes and the Allspark. "Starscream!" the ex-leader screamed in anger. "You're mine!"

"Frenzy's alive," Rumble tried again, knowing he was pretty well caught. Ravage had pinned him down because all he wanted to do was find his brother. "I know he is. Just let me go find him. I'll prove it to you!"

"No! You're malfunctioning! Frenzy killed himself, Rumble!" Ravage growled.

Rumble frowned, "My Spark sure isn't malfunctioning. We're twins. I can sense him."

"How would you know? Maybe it is."

"Pound sand, Ravage," Rumble snarled and swiped at him.

In the desert, where a metal body lay dying, a transmission went out to Shockwave, "Boss… we have a… b-big problem,"

"Tantrum! I thought I told you to stay quiet, idiot! You are within range of Soundwave!"

"It's Sixshot… he's a-alive. He f-followed that sc-scorpion looking… drone and attacked us…"

Shockwave was in shock hearing that. Obviously, the mech had hit his head or something. There was just no way Sixshot had survived. "Sixshot? You lie,"

"No, it… it was him. He a-attacked me, Rampage and Headstrong,"

"Impossible!"

Tantrum struggled to keep his connection to Shockwave live, "I think I'm dying, boss."

"Please continue to do so… Worthless scrap," Shockwave replied with disgust that they'd been beaten so easily. There went his plans with that combiner. He wondered if, with Megatron, he could catch the beast and coerce him to join him or simply try to reprogram him. First, he needed to find out why he was here.

Poor Typhoon...