Here we go! Next Chapter! It is not Bata-ed so let me know if anything is wrong.


Prowl's View:

We were back at the base, frantically trying to find out where Sideways could have gone. No matter how many times we scanned the area where he had picked her up, we couldn't find anything. We had widened the area and even switched to trying to find Starlit's signal, but there was nothing!

"Prowl, we're trying our best but, without Teletran One…" Optimus tried to get me to stop pacing. "When you met with him, did he give you any idea where he could be?"

"No…he didn't say anything. He just…was himself." I didn't really want to think about what he had told me. Everything he had said still haunted me.

"There hasn't even been a blip on the screen!" Bumblebee cried in frustration. I noticed he seemed just as stressed about her being kidnapped as I was.

"Maybe we could ask Jazz if we can use their scanners?" Bulkhead suggested off handedly.

"Ask and you shall receive." said black and white ninja bot said as he walked into the room. He was with Ratchet getting his leg repaired. The medi-bot said he was very lucky. A centimeter to the left and he would have bleed out before we had gotten to him.

"Then let's use it! Come on! We don't have time! Who knows what that Decepticreep is doing to her!" Bee was, as humans say, chomping at the bit to get going.

"Bumblebee calm down. You're not helping anything." Sari put her hand on the mechs leg. At least someone was trying to calm him.

"We will, but first, earlier you said something about a blip. Where did Starlit say she saw that signal? The one she called in while we were dealing with Blitzwing." I approached the computer and moved the scanning towards the forest area.

"About here." Prime said, pointing to a dense part of the forest. "We never found anything though."

"No, but remember Lockdown? His ship could be disguised, taking a form of a building. Who's to say Sideways' ship can't do the same." I typed a few things and pulled up a map of the same spot a few days before Starlit had seen the blip. "There, just like Lockdown's ship." I looked up at the two maps. The older one showed a small clearing where trees had suddenly appeared.

"He must be there!" the yellow mech shouted, much too loud for my liking.

"I'm sure he is. I know I have said it before, but approach him with caution. He's dangerous." I said turning to my teammates. "He will not hold back."

"An' I can vouch for that. Slagger threatened Sta'lit's life before firin' on me." Jazz was leaning on the railing, keeping most of his weight off of his left leg. I briefly wondered if he should stay behind. He noticed me looking at him. "I know what you're thinkin' Prowl, but I'm not stayin' behind, dig. I want to help out and ge' her back just as badly as every-bot here. Doc bot said I should be fine." There was a piece he was leaving out but I decided to drop it. We needed every able bodied bot.

"I'm coming too!" Sari said, transforming into her robotic form.

"No Sari, not this time. Sideways is far too dangerous. You stay here and keep an eye on the monitors." Optimus told the now pouting techno organic. "Autobots, transform and roll out!"


Starlit's View:

I groaned and put a hand against my helm. Everything hurt slightly from that shock. It did not help that my systems were going insane. I could feel every movement I was making and the berth I was laying on was extremely uncomfortable. Curse this stupid interfacing system slag! But now was not the time to be concerned about it. I needed to figure out where I was and how to get out.

I sat up, cringing with every move and looked around. I seemed to be in a ship brig. A really run down one that smelled like old oil and rust. The glass that acted as the door was cloudy and you could see the sensor lasers inside from the dust. Outside in the hall looked relatively clean, which meant the brig wasn't used too often. I stood and walked towards the door to see if I could see down the hall when a noise startled me.

"Sta'?" I turned and saw an injured Jazz.

"Jazz!" I ran over, ignoring the warnings that flashed in my HUD. "Jazz you're ok! I –I thought he killed you…" I hugged him tightly.

"Ow…easy…I-I'm fine." He said patting my back, sending more warnings. "You 'ight?" I nodded.

"He shot you didn't he? Where did he…" Jazz but a finger up to my lips.

"He missed." I moved back as he stood. I stood with him in case he fell. "What about you? He gave you quite the shock."

"I'm ok. I think it was only to knock me out." He smiled and put a hand on my shoulder. Something felt off about it though. Normally his touch felt warm and friendly but this…this felt cold. I thought maybe it was just my systems. "Jazz, how are we gonna get out of here?"

"I'm not sure we can just yet. We'll need a key to get out. We'll get him when he comes to check on us." Ok now his speech pattern was off. Something was up.

"Jazz…." I stepped back a bit. "Are…you sure you're ok?" His smile faded a bit and he started walking toward me.

"What are ya talking about? I'm fine." I kept backing away but hit the berth and fell onto my aft. Oh frag… The second I fell, he was on me. "You feel a little warm." He said putting his hand on my cheek. It wasn't in a friendly way.

"J-Jazz…y-you're acting w-weird." I was trying to act cool but my voice betrayed me.

"Shh…it's alright." His accent dropped again. He leaned a bit closer to me, far too close to be considered ok. "Relax…" his other hand was suddenly on my upper right leg.

"S-stop it!" I tried to push him away but he caught my hand.

"What? You don't like me?" He sneered. I knew then that this was not Jazz. I wanted to get away from this imposter but couldn't. He leaned in towards my audio and whispered what he wanted to do with me. He told me no matter what I did, he was going to be my first.

"W-what?" I was shaking in fear.

"You heard me…" the imposter purred in Jazz's stolen voice.

"NO!" I was able to get my left leg between us and kick out, sending him flying back in to the opposite wall. When he hit, his body flickered, reveling a gold and black mech before going back to Jazz. I quickly stood, trying to activate my blades but found them jammed. I looked down and saw these black bands on my wrists. They weren't stasis cuffs but were obviously the reason I couldn't use my weapons. "Who are you?!" I cried.

"Guess I can't keep this up." A low voice that wasn't Jazz's sighed, and he changed back to the gold and black mech. "I was trying to get you to hate this…Elite Guard." He hissed. "You're too smart for those tricks though, just like your creator."

"You…" I glared. "What have you done to Jazz?!"

"Glitch got away. But that's not what I wanted to talk about."

"Oh no, you wanted to frag me! Is that want you want from me Sire?" I sneered.

"No, I was going to knock you out to think you fragged that glitch. I would never harm my spark." He tried to come closer to me.

"Don't come near me!" I raised my fists.

"Starlit, don't make me angry." He pinched the bridge of his nose, like Prowl did when he was irritated. Now that I could see him clearly, he looked a lot like Prowl. His peds were square and he was a little bulkier than him but his form and face were like his. The only difference in the face was it was squarer and the visor was red.

"Or what?!" I challenged. Big mistake. I was up against the wall, held up by my throat. More warnings flashed and the pain nearly knocked me out again.

"I don't want to hurt you…I came here to…rekindle our relationship." He let me down and took a seat on the berth. "Come here…" he patted a spot next to him. I really wanted to refuse but I was scared he might kill me so against my better judgment, I sat by him.

"Starlit, I want you to come with me. I want us to be the family I always dreamed of." He said as I sat by him. I tried to stay on the edge but he pulled me closer. "I want my sparks to be by my side, fighting for the cause. Think about it, you, Prowl and me, traveling the universe fighting for the Decepticons."

Really? After everything that's what he wanted? He was insane if he thought I would join him after what he had done.

"A-and if I refuse?" Once more my vocal processor betrayed me.

"Then…you leave me no choice." He stood. As he stood, he let his hand slide down my arm, making me shiver. The air was suddenly heavy and I felt fear creep through my body. "I'll have to reprogram you."

My optics widened. Reprogram? But that would erase all of my memories! I'd never gain them back. I'd forget my Creator, Prowl, Jazz, the twins and worst…Bumblebee! I thought to myself.

"No…" I whispered.

"No?" Sideways looked at me from the corner of his optics. "Does that mean no, you won't join me or no, you will join me."

"I-I'll never join you." I felt tears building in my optics. I knew my refusal was practically a death sentence, but I would never join this murderer.

"So be it." His voice went lower and again, an electrical shock went through my system and I was out.


Prowl's View:

We were getting close to the location. I could already feel the fear creeping into my systems. At first I wondered if it was Starlit I was feeling, but I soon realized even her bond to me was blocked and it was my own fear. I hadn't felt this scared since I was a youngling.

"Prowl, how close are we?" Jazz's voice broke me out of the suffocating fear. I'm not alone this time. I reminded myself.

I hit the brakes and everyone else followed suite. "We're here." We were a hundred feet from the ship according to the map, but we couldn't see it. "Be on guard." I said, transforming and taking off, trying to find an entrance.

"How do we get in? And…where exactly is it?" Bumblebee asked.

"Don' know." I heard Jazz go off in the other direction after he answered the yellow mech.

It wasn't long until security system noticed it had visitors, and the disguise was put down.

"Intruder alert. Intruder alert." The automated voice rang out as the guns aimed at us. We were all ready to take them out but no shots were fired. Soon the automated voice was cut and his voice was heard over the intercom.

"Well, well, look who finally showed up. Took you long enough to get here." His voice held a strange tone, like he was smiling.

"Where is she?" I narrowed my optics and raised my shuriken.

"She's here. She's going through…a bit of a change."

"What do you mean by that!?" Bumblebee yelled from the other side of the ship.

"You'll see for yourself soon enough little one." I could almost hear Bumblebee growl at the short comment. "I will allow only one to board. The rest…shall stay here." Sideways opened the ship hatch and the guns moved to aim down at the ground by the door. "Anyone else who tries to enter, will be shot onsite."

I ran to the other side, where the others were discussing who would go in. I knew who he wanted to go in. "I will." I stood between them and the door. "If anyone else were to try, he might shoot."

"Prowl, are you sure you want to go on your own?" Optimus questioned.

"When he says he'll shoot anyone else who tries to enter, he's not bluffing." I turned towards the dark opening, and took a calming breath. "Please, wait here." I took off and ran in before anyone could say anything.


Starlit's view:

I woke to a bright light shining down in my optics. I had to shut them and turn away.

"You're awake." I looked up and saw Sideways looming over a strange device. "Are you ready for your upgrade?"

I tried to get up, but found myself tied to the table.

"There is no need for that." He said from above me, holding some kind of round object. He lifted my head and put it on me.

"What is this?!" I pulled at the restraints again and tried to get the device off my head.

"It's going to give you an upgrade. Then you and I can finally…" he was about to finish but the alarms went off.

"Intruder alert!" the automated voice went off, along with red flashing lights.

"Son of a glitch…" He walked away from me and turned on the computer in front of me. On the screen I saw who the intruders were. Everyone but the twins and Sentinel were here!

"Prowl!" I called out, knowing he couldn't hear me, but I was excited to see he was here.

"Right on time." Sideways smirked as he turned on the device that was on my head. "By the time he gets to you, it'll be too late." He hit another switch and my head felt like it was about to explode.


Prowl's view:

I crept along hallways, being careful to not leave my back exposed. The ship was dark with only a few lights on. The few lights that were on were bright and disorienting, making me feel off balance. I ignored it for the most part by dimming my visor, blocking most of the light. This however forced me to use my other senses to detect where to go.

"GAAAAHHHHHHH!" A scream tore through the ship, loud enough to possibly even be heard from outside.

"Starlit!" I took off, throwing caution to the wind.


I got to the room where I heard the scream and saw Starlit tied to a metal table with a crudely put together reprograming device on her head. Her optics where white from the overload of information being downloaded into her processor, and tears of pain were streaming down her face. I quickly went over to the computer and shut it down.

"Starlit." I ran back over to her and pulled the device off of her. It was hot to the touch. "Starlit can you hear me?" Her intake system was working overtime. Her optics had returned to their green color but she didn't seem to recognize what was going on. My denta ground together in frustration as I grabbed my shrunken and cut the ropes holding her down.

"What are you doing?!" I deep voice roared from the doorway. "Get away from her!" Sideways activated his swords and charged at me. I scooped Starlit up, leapt over him and ran out the door.


We got to a storage hold and hid behind a few crates. I laid Starlit down, cradling her head. "Starlit, please. I need you to answer me." I said, putting my hand on her cheek. She had a small burn mark above her right optic ridge where the device had sat. This worried me. "Please, respond to me." I felt my optics tear up but refused to let them fall. She wasn't responding. What has he done?

The door opened farther, reveling more light and a dark looming shadow.

"Prowl! I know you're in here…come out!" the mech who I unfortunately was sired by barked. I peeked over the crate, holding my weapon in my free hand.

"P-Prowl?" I heard a weak voice and quickly looked down to Starlit. She seemed to be awake but was having trouble talking. I held a finger to my lips and helped her sit up.

Can you move? I asked through our bond.

I-I think so. Where are we? What happened? She was confused, which meant she didn't remember the pain she had been in.

Sideways kidnapped you. We're in the storage part of the ship right now. He's in here. I need you to keep quiet and follow my lead ok? I turned back to see he was searching the other side. Come on. I took her hand and lead her away from the area.

We hid behind a large pile of oil bins but it was farther away from the door. That seemed to be the only way out but we had to get around the 'con. I was about to relay a plan to Starlit when the door slammed shut, throwing us into complete darkness.

"Now I've got you. You are trapped with me. The only way out is locked and I have the only key." The mech laughed from the other side of the room.

What do we do now? I looked at a frightened Starlit. The only way I knew she was there was from the soft glow from her optics. I had to have her close her optics and shut mine off as well.

I need you to shut your optics. The light from them could give us away. I said as I closed mine. I had the training for this but Starlit did not. I felt the fear bleed into our bond. Trust me. I'll be right with you. I took her hand.

Ok…I trust you. She squeezed my hand as a signal that she had her optics closed. I carefully lead her around the room, using what I could only describe as sound shadows to lead the way. Starlit was absolutely lost and a few times she almost ran into things. Maybe I should have her train without sight next.

"You can't hide forever…" I heard Sideways' voice growl from behind us. Luckily he was just as blind as us. Starlit almost reviled us by gasping but I put my hand over her mouth.

I heard a sound and recognizing it immediately, picked Starlit up and jumped away. Not a second later, I heard him slicing through the crate we were just next to. We ended up right in front of the door but like he had said, it was locked. I had Starlit sit by a box and put a hand on her.

Stay here. I'll be right back. I leapt away as she was about to protest.


Starlit's View:

Great, now I was left alone, in the dark with a crazy mech running around! I kept telling myself everything was going to be ok but it didn't stop my spark from pulsing like crazy.

I tried to listen for footsteps but there was nothing. Neither Prowl nor Sideways made any kind of noise. I wondered if I had made any noise while we were stumbling in the dark. While I was listening, I tried getting the little cuffs off of me. They were tough but I found a small seam that I could work with. I felt around the floor and found a nail. Perfect! I shoved the nail into the seam, finding a weak link and pried them off. Now if I needed to I could use my swords.

I suddenly felt like someone was next to me. Prowl? I called to him through the bond. It wasn't him. Before I knew what was going on, I heard a switch being moved and a light shone from through my closed optics. I quickly opened them, blinded for a moment and saw the red opticed mech by the door. Luckily I was on the other side of the box and he couldn't see me.

"Enough games! I thought I would have had the advantage in the dark but apparently you trained you sister in the ninja ways as well. Very good. Keeping it in the family." I saw him sneer.

I saw a movement from the corner of my optic and a golden shuriken shot out from the shadows at Sideways. He blocked it, causing it to bounce and land by me. I don't think that was planned. Sideways looked over and saw me. I got up and ran away right before a sword landed in the spot I had been hiding.

"Starlit! Come back here!" he growled and chased after me.

I stopped when I came to a dead end. I looked around for a way out but the only way was up. Right as I was about to jump Sideways grabbed my arm.

"Let go of me!" I didn't mean for it to happen, and it all seemed to go in slow motion. Prowl landed behind Sideways but before he could to anything, my swords extended, slicing through the 'cons hand. I moved in ways I didn't know I could and ended up somehow cutting off the lower half of Sideways left arm and left a huge diagonal gouge through his chassis.

He fell to the ground, clutching his arm that was pouring energon and mech fluid. "Y-you little glitch!" He made a grab for me but Prowl pulled me away. Everything still seemed so unreal and I was only pulled out of it when Prowl opened the door. He had apparently gotten the key after he landed behind the Decepticon.

"Come on!" He pushed be in front of him, forcing me to run. "Straight ahead! Keep going!" He was right behind me.


Once we were outside I stopped running, my intakes working overtime to cool my systems.

"Starlit!" I heard two voices and one set of footsteps running toward me. One was Bumblebee and the other was Jazz.

"What happened?!" Jazz said coming towards me. I stepped back and reactivated my swords.

"Stay away from me!" I yelled, anger flaring through me. I wasn't sure if this was another trick. Jazz put his hands up and stopped.

"Easy now Sta'. I don' know what happened in there, but you're safe." The speech pattern was correct but so was Sideways' at first.

"Did he trick you?" Prowl said coming up behind me. I nodded, still keeping my optics on Jazz. "It's the real Jazz. I promise." My brother put a hand on my shoulder and motioned for Jazz to approach.

I was still wary about it but put my arms down, still keeping my swords at the ready.

"Wha' do you mean by tricked?" Jazz asked. He was right in front of me at this point. "And why are ya covered in energon?! Are ya hurt?!" He put his hands on my shoulders and gave me a quick once over to make sure I wasn't hurt. His touch was warm and friendly. It really was the real one.

"N-no…" I tried to hold back a sob. Prowl pulled me close while Jazz gave me a worried look. "I-I'm ok…" the tears were flowing despite my effort to hold back.


Prowl's View:

Starlit was with Ratchet in the med-bay getting checked up. Her processor was fine luckily but any longer under that damn device, her processor would have been fried. Ratchet said the settings on the reprograming device were set too high. That was the reason she hadn't responded at first, her processor was trying to sort out what had happened and was trying to cool down.

"What all happened in there?" Optimus approached me from behind.

"He was trying to reprogram her." I answered shortly. "He wants her to join him it seems. She…also proved she's not that weak. The energon and mech fluid on her was Sideways'. She cut his arm off."

"Woh! Who knew she had it in her." Jazz said from next to me. I nodded in agreement. The thing was, when she had done it, her optics took on a darkness.

"Prowl, come in here!" Ratchet called from down the hall. I shot up and ran down the hall, worried about what he found.


"What is it?!" I said running into the medical bay.

"You're turn to get checked up." Ratchet said, motioning me to sit down.

"Where is…" I tried to ask as I sat down, but the medic cut me off by starting to scan my processor.

"Bumblebee took her to the wash racks. She's fine, tired and covered in a 'cons blood but ok." He answered. "Anything you want to talk about?"

"When she…defended herself, her optics…they had this…darkness..." I said, thinking maybe talking it out would help.

"I think it was part of the programming he tried to download. I saw that too, but was able to delete that small code that was left over. She's all clear. As are you." He allowed me to stand back up.

"So…he was partially successful? You don't think she could really be…"

"Do you remember Soundwave? How he had all of the bots in town acting crazy? It's not too far off to think we could be reprogrammed too." Ratchet said solemnly.

I bowed my head a bit in thought. "Thank you, Ratchet." I said as I got up and walked out.


Starlit's View:

I stood in the water, just letting it fall on me. Bee was just outside the showers because I told him I wanted to be alone. He of course refused to leave completely so I settled with him being by the door. I felt better now that Ratchet had gotten rid of that small strain of code but I was still reeling about what I did. I hadn't felt anything. Even after I had injured my estranged sire, I felt nothing. When I told this to Ratchet, he said it was cause by the code, but I was worried still. What if it wasn't the code? What if it was because I was half Decepticon? I knew I was dwelling too much on it but what if…?

I shook that thought out of my head. I would never harm my friends! No matter what.

"Star?" I heard the yellow mech's sad voice echo through the wash room. He was no longer facing the other way.

"What?" My tone matched his.

"Are…you ok? I mean…no one has said a word about what really happened. At least to me." His voice was getting closer to me.

"I-I don't even know what all happened." It didn't feel real still.

"Can you at least tell me that the energon you were covered in wasn't yours?" He sounded worried. I chuckled at that but it had no humor behind it.

"No, it wasn't mine, or Prowl's." I turned to look at him and saw for the first time all the worry and concern on his face. "I'm fine Bee, really." I didn't sound so sure and Bee picked up on it.

"Hey, you don't have to tell me everything, but don't lie to me or yourself about being ok." He put his hand on my shoulder. It was odd for him to do such a thing. I smiled at him through the tears threatening to fall again.

"I-I don't know how to explain what happened Bee…" I tried to compose myself but failed again. I blamed my systems for the over emotional slag.

"You don't have too." He wrapped one arm around my waist and the other behind my neck, allowing me to burry my face into the crook of his neck. I held him back and cried into his shoulder. "You can tell me when you're ready to…" he whispered into my audio.

I smiled and tightened my hold on the yellow bot and silently wished for this moment to never end.


Back at the Ship:

"Little glitch…" Sideways growled as he welded a new arm on.

"Oh come on now, she can't be that bad." Another voice said from the shadows.

"She cut my arm off!" Sideways slammed his working arm on the table.

"But the reprograming worked didn't it?" The figure came into the light, reveling a mismatched mech with a hook arm.

"No, Lockdown…it did not. I need your help to get it working." Sideways motioned to the device sitting on a shelf. "You would know why it isn't working."

Lockdown walked over to it, picked it up and looked it over. "The settings are too high. You'll fry her processor before the program can even begin if you do that again. I think I might have something to help with that."

"What do you want?" The black and gold mech sighed as he finished up putting his new arm on. It didn't match his coloring at all. It was red and black, but was the correct model and matched his right arm.

"Oh, I don't want anything from you. It's your mechling that I need to talk to." Lockdown grinned.

"What makes you think he'll talk to me?" He lifted the new red arm and flexed his new fingers. "Thank you again for the arm."

"No problem, old friend. Thank you for the two hundred credits. And I don't expect you to contact Prowl. I'll find him." Lockdown started to leave.

"Wait." Sideways barked, causing the mismatched mech to stop. "What are you doing on this planet anyway?"

"Elite Guard asked for my help. That and you called."

"You're kidding…"

"Nope. Seems this Sentinel punk wants to pretend he's catching 'Cons. It pays good money. You aren't on his list though."

"An Autobot, asking for a bounty hunter for help? Ha!" Sideways laughed humorously. "They're getting desperate…"

"Sides, I know you want your kids back. Just be careful and don't get yourself slagged by them. That outburst by your daughter sounds a little fishy."

"You've been on this planet too long…and it just proves she is a true Decepticon deep down." Sideways grinned.

"Whatever. See ya." Lockdown gave a curt wave before exiting Sideways' ship.

"I will get my family back…I will finally live the life I was meant to have…" The black and gold mech said to himself, his voice echoing in the empty ship.


Please R&R!