Kaon, the Decepticon run city turned prison by Sentinel Prime, was sputtering back to life. The doors remained locked, possibly rusted shut at this point, but the lights in a center building had flickered on. The factory billows spitting out grayish purple smoke as the place sputtered to life. It had to be the refinery that surged on…

"The only thing we have that can get close is Star's fragging drones!" Ratchet sighed in frustration as Prime gathered us for a meeting. "Unless you want us to buzzsaw our way in, we ain't getting near that place!"

"That's the thing, we have a way in." Prime showed us drone footage on the monitor, the camera pointed to a small drilled out hole on the east side of the city. "But it's small." The team all turned towards Bee, me and Sari.

"Not again…" Bumblebee flailed his arms.

"You three are the only ones that could get in and out." Prime wasn't happy about it either, but his broad shoulders wouldn't let him crawl through the tunnel. "As much as I hate it, you three must go in and investigate what they're forging."

It felt like a weight had been placed on our shoulders, the pressure settling deep in my chassis.


"So…rock, paper, scissors to see who goes first?" Sari peered into the hole as she spoke.

"I don't have any of those." I transformed behind her, looking into the drilled out cavern. It wasn't very big, the widest it seemed to get was just shy of my jump boosters width, which meant Bumblebee was more ideal to go first.

"No, it's a game. You don't actually use rocks." Sari explained what she meant. "Like this!" She demonstrated the game while Bee poked around the hole.

"Seems they just went right under the wall." He said as we finished our game. I lost, but it didn't matter, the dip where the tunnel went under the wall was too narrow for me. "Guess that means I'm it…"

"I'll do my best to widen it a bit, I'll be right behind you two." It wasn't ideal sending just the two of them in, but I trusted they would be safe.


Bumblebee's view:

Sari led the way, she easily just walked through, only having to duck her head where the wall was. It was a snug fit, but I was able to crawl through with her. It didn't feel right leaving Starlit on her own, but I knew she could handle herself just fine.

"Finally." Sari teased me when I pulled myself out the other side. "Took you long enough."

"We all can't be as lucky as you." I brushed dirt off myself as I stood up. "Woh…" the city was way more daunting within the walls. The steel gray made the place feel like a tomb, the streets that would normally be lit by the now cold, lifeless lampposts seems to close in on us. The only light allowed in was from the sun above and the factory in the distance, making the shadows look longer and darker.

"Talk about horror movie vibes." Sari turned her jetpack on to hover by my shoulder. "Looks like this way will take us straight there!" She pointed down the dark road before us, but something in my tanks told me we shouldn't go that way.

"Too obvious…" I looked around, finding a broken fire escape that led to the rooftops. "This way!" I jumped onto a broken chunk of concrete to reach the busted ladder, pulling my way up to the roof. Sari flew up to meet me, making me jealous of her flight ability.

"Show off!" We laughed as she flew past me. From here, we could see the minicons patrolling the factory, two of them on the ground and three on the rooftop.

"Good thing we didn't go that way, we would have ran right into them." Sari landed near the edge to look. "How'd you know?"

"Had a feeling." I learned from Starlit to trust my gut feelings more. "We can sneak in there, but we gotta time it right." From here I could see an open vent on the side of the building, where the minicons seemed to not be. "Ready?"

"As I'll ever be…" Sari transformed and flew to the next building, waiting for me to catch up.

Careful to not alert them, we edged our way to the west side of the factory and slipped into the vent. I grabbed Sari when she went to land, pulling her back to stop her from falling into a smelting pit.

"Thanks…I didn't see the drop off." She clung to my armor in fear of falling again.

"Whatever you do, don't land on anything here." I whispered, letting her go to hover her way across the room. "What do you see?" From here, I could only see the pit and chains that hung along a steel beam, just below the vent. I carefully lowered myself down onto the narrow beam, balancing myself and slowly walked across it towards the catwalks.

"Woh…they're melting those steel sheets." She used her com link to keep talking to me, keeping our voices low. "There's only two in here, they're by the bigger pit. You're clear to the left." I took her word and leapt onto the catwalk.

"That's a lot of metal slag…" I could see the bigger smelting pit from here, the two minicons were tossing large, flat sheets of metal into the large heater. "What's all it for?" I asked myself, not really expecting an answer.

"Bee…" I quickly turned to where Sari was, seeing her looking down to the right. On the other side we're protoform molds…

"No…" I scrambled to get lower to see what was going on. "Starlit was right…they're building bots!"

"But I thought you Cybertronians didn't use the same metal?" Sari asked as we watched a mechanical arm grab one of the molds and placed it on the line.

"We don't, but these buildings around us are similar to what we're made of. If they smelt it right, they could definitely build new bots." I waved Sari to back up as liquid hot metal poured into the mold. We watched in mild horror as the form only filled the legs and left arm of this one while another mold was placed on the line. The second had the front chassis filled and a left hand.

"No wait…those look like replacements." Sari hovered a little higher to view the whole process. "That looks like Blitzbrains hand…" both of us gasped and hid when someone much larger came through the doorway under our feet.

"How's the progress going?" The voice made my lines go cold. "Ah…excellent." Megatron was standing just five feet below us. "I see repairs are coming together nicely."

He didn't look good, the damage he took from the crash had disabled the use of most of his right leg and his frame had deep cracks that crackled with electricity with each movement. If the minicons didn't out number us, we would have had the perfect advantage.

"What do we do?" Sari whispered. I motioned her to stop talking, pointing up, back to the vent she came in. She shook her head, refusing to leave me. I made a face and pointed to a vent right behind my helm, I'd use that one but she couldn't follow, one of us had to make it out of here.

She huffed but she listened and took off, leaving me behind. Thankfully, the noise the factory was making covered the sound of me popping the vent open to make my escape.


We met back at the hole, where Starlit had managed to widen it enough to make it through. She had a worried look until I came into view.

"You're ok!" She beamed, thankful nothing happened.

"Yeah, but you were right. They're building replacement parts with the metal. From what I can tell, the 'Con's are pretty beat up. They're completely reliant on the minicons."

"Interesting…so if they were cut off from them they'd be screwed." Starlit was plotting something, but didn't get a chance to really voice it.

"S-s-something smells goood." The three of us froze at the broken voice.

"Go…" I armed my stingers, telling the girls to go back through the hole.

"Bumblebee!" Both of them shouted when they got to the other side. As I backed towards the hole, a very broken, extra terrifying Blitzwing pulled himself with his one working arm around the corner. He inhaled deeply, his red optics brightened as he looked up, looking me dead in the optics. The random face seemed to be the mode he was stuck in, the clicking of him trying to change made sparks around his face, giving him a strange glow. His face also had a huge crack running from his left optic down to the right of his face and back up, creating a misshaped Y.

"Mmmmmm….it's you!" He jerked forward, the crack of electricity across his body lurching him to the right. His hand dug into the dirt as he dragged himself towards me at a pace no broken mech should be able to go. "Come here autobot, I want your parts!" He laughed as his voice glitched and became a terrifyingly low pitch.

The second he started at me, I dove into the hole, scrambling through to the other side as Blitzwing reached our entry point. His arm could reach in, grazing my ped, but thankfully his broken frame still couldn't find through.

"G-g-get baaaack here!" The 'Cons hissed. "So I can crush you over a servo salad!" Starlit pulled me to my feet, ushering us out of there as quickly as possible.


"So, that was Blitzwing that tried to grab you?" Star asked once we got back to the docks. "How did he get so mangled? You said he had burns on his legs?"

"Well, stubs really. From his waist up was gone, including part of his left servo. It looked like blaster marks to me, but what blaster is big enough to cause damage like that?"

"Hmm…" Starlit was in deep thought, Sari paced by her feet. "What if it wasn't a blaster, the city had a power core at one point. I know we took it out, but the core itself is in the middle of the city, where Megatron would have been piloting it."

"So?" Sari kicked a rock, the rock pinging off something in the bushes. "Woh…is that?"

"An energon crystal?" I moved the branches to reveal a cluster of crystals growing just under the plant life. "They're all over this area. Never seen one in a bush before though."

"That's it, they needed energy to keep the city flying! Megatron must have thrown his own crew into the core to keep it airborne." Starlit solved that mystery.

"Great…so he's fixing his army up?" I asked.

"Maybe, or he's using them to rebuild himself." She got this distant look on her face.

"You good?" Hopefully she wasn't glitching again.

"Yeah…the crystals, when I get near them, it's like they're giving me visions of what's to come." She knelt by Sari and I, reaching out to touch the crystal.


Starlit's View:

I sat down next to the crystal, closing my optics and focused on the whispers that seemed to radiate from the cluster. Like before, the moment I connected to the energy it was like the lights we snapped out and I was left in the dark as a teal outline. This time, pink lines danced in front of me in different shades, an unfelt wind making them dance like strings in a breeze.

"By the Allspark…" it was beautiful, the way they danced around a circle of pink light. They fluttered, creating an opening for me to enter the center and a dark pink string reached for my hand. I approached, reaching up and allowing the string like light to wrap around my hand as it pulled me to the center. They swirled back together, inviting me in a vortex of pink lines, the whispers becoming more clear as they drew closer.

"Show me what I need to know." I asked, keeping my hand out for them to grab. With a whoosh I was pulled into a vision where everything was a light pink outline.

Bumblebee's voice faded slowly in, talking about the cons. We were in the city, Prime's back was to me but he had a darker pink outline.

"Incoming!" Optimus shouted as a plane came zooming in, crashing into the ground where Bee had been. "Bumblebee!" Optimus was tackled as he went to assist Bee, pulled up by the back of his helm.

"There you are!" Megatron hissed, but he was different, bigger even! "You and your little team have been a thorn in my side for too long!" He went to stab Prime, but the view changed and the lines went purple. Megatron was a deep, dark purple while Prime was a lighter shade. The background was lavender now, and a new purple outlined form landed a kick to Megatron's side, forcing him to drop his sword.

"You're not gonna take us out that easy!" Jazz was the new blueish purple figure, helping Prime up as Megatron gathered himself. Jazz's outline doubled, one lavender line and one deep purple, both moving at slightly different intravoles. Megatron grabbed him, plunging his claws in to his back and pulling out the spark chamber of the darker lined Jazz while the lighter one was pushed away by Bumblebee's pinkish-purple form.

I felt my spark break as I was forced to watch the darker lined version of Jazz go offline at my feet. The other version kicked Bee away from a deadly swing, only to get clipped by the backswing and losing his left hand. I forced myself out of the vision, ending up back with the swirling lines of pink.

"No…he…he won't go offline!" I told the void, but the void wrapped an orangish-pink string around my wrist and forced me back into a vision. This one was all in deep purple, everyone had the same deep purple outline inside an unfamiliar building. Megatron had Jazz trapped in his claws as Optimus went for his legs with his axe.

"You really have no concerns for your friends, do you?" Horror took over as Megatron tore off Jazz's legs, the screams were deafening. "How cruel…" he once again held Jazz up in one hand and plunged his sharp digits into his back, this time forcing Jazz's spark through the front of his chassis.

"No! Stop!" I screamed, pulling free of the string and running into the vision as the outlines disappeared into a purple mist. The light pink center light felt like a spotlight, focused on me as I grasped at the mist that was Jazz.

"You can't change everything about the future." A voice beyond the strings echoed around me.

"Why are you showing me this?! I don't understand what you want from me!" The void voice chuckled, pissing me off even more.

"Your gift is to see glimpses of what is to come, or what can be. The deeper the color, the more solidified the future is." The voice took form just outside the tornado of pink, the blue outlined figure taking the shape of Prowl.

"Prowl?!" I ran through the stings, clinging like fabric as I pushed through to see him. "Y-you did this?"

"No, you were chosen by the Allspark. I cannot tell you why, for even I do not know the answer. Just as it chose me to be its voice and form, no one really knows the answer to why." He explained as I wrapped my arms around him, feeling him hold me back. "You and I were given the task to look over the Allspark, yours involves looking into the future to find the best course to take."

"I…I don't want this! Knowing my friends and family are going to die and…" I broke off, unable to push back the sight of Jazz being pulled apart. "I won't…"

"Starlit, it's not an easy choice, this I know all too well." He tilted my chin up to make me look at him. "But it's the task we were given. Call it our fate if you will, but this is what you were chosen for. Some things cannot be changed, others are still not set in stone. I wish I could tell you what all the colors and such mean, but I'm mearley a guide in this case."

It was a huge blow to know that the deeper, darker lines were ones I couldn't change, but I was determined to make sure that one didn't happen.

"There's only so much you can reveal to the others as well. The price for knowing too much could cost everyone their lives." Prowl's warning was more of a threat. I understand what he meant though, knowing the future was my burden and mine alone.


"….Lit….Starlit!?" I slowly came back to reality, Bee waving his hand in front of my optics when I onlined them. I grabbed it mid wave, startling to yellow mech.

"Really? I'm meditating, not offline." I let him go, causing him to fall flat on his aft. "I'm fine…" I lied, hoping they didn't catch it.

"Well, did it show you anything?" Sari asked, making my spark ache again. Bee caught the tiny change in my face when I shrugged, but Sari didn't.

"Nothing important, just confirmed what we know about the 'Cons." Which was a half truth. "We should return to base to inform everyone."


Prime wasn't happy about the news that the 'Cons were back in somewhat functioning business. He, Ironhide, Jazz and Ratchet quickly gathered for a game plan, allowing Bee and I a chance to recoup. Sari was sent home to help her dad prepare for what was coming, leaving us completely alone.

"What are you hiding?" Bumblebee all but cornered me as soon as his door was shut.

"I'm not hiding anything." Wrong answer on my part. He took my hands and swung me around to sit on the couch while he hovered over me. "What?"

"You're doing it again." His arms were crossed in front of his chassis, upset I wasn't telling him everything.

"Doing what?" Both of us were getting frustrated with each other.

"We're really going to argue over this?" Neither of us wanted to fight, but I couldn't tell Bumblebee about the visions.

"I…I want to tell you, I do!" He had huffed, but it was the truth. "I just…I can't tell you everything." Bee flopped next to me in a huff, looking up at the ceiling.

"Ok…can I guess?" He turned his helm to me, a cheeky smile replaced his irritation.

"You wouldn't be able to, but I see no harm in it." He took the challenge, releasing me from some of the pressure of having to lie.

"Hmmm…" Bee sat up, leaning on his knees. "Oh! It had to do with the 'Cons." I nodded. "And…Blitzwing was trying to eat us again."

"Not quite." I laughed when he made a face. "But you're right about the 'Cons being in it. I'm not sure I can say much more than that."

"Says who? It's your ability, don't you get any say in what you can tell us?"

"Not really. I don't even get a say on what the Allspark shows me." Bee sighed at my answer. "But trust me…you don't want to see or know what I do."

"Promise me one thing then." Bee gently tipped my chin up to look into his optics. "Don't shut me out. Don't shut us out." It was a plea, not a request.

"Shut you out? Why would I…"

"If you see anything…I don't know…crazy, just promise you won't lock yourself away from us." I understood what he was saying, but could I promise to never let it affect me?

"I'll try." It was all I could give him, but it was enough. He kissed my chevron to seal the promise.

"I won't let you anyway." Now that was a promise I knew he'd never break.


"Starrrrrrr….." a distant voice screeched as I ran down the streets. The street lamps were exploding as I passed them, darkening the path. Soon, the lights in front of me were going out, my plea for them to stop was silent, my voice modulator seemed to be muted.

"You can't save them…" the whisper repeated over and over in a round, but the voice was unknown.

"Staaaaaaarlit!" Before me was a hunched shadow of Bumblebee. I tried to reach out to him, but no matter how fast I ran, the further he seemed to get. He raised his helm, his optics flickering as if he had massive helm damage. Behind him appeared a gaping red mouth with jagged teeth, pulling him in as he reached for me with a scream that shook my core. The mouth closed with a sickening crunch as a laugh resounded in the darkness I was thrown into.

"S-Sta'…" I turned around, gasping in horror at the sight of Jazz's mangled body behind me. I grabbed for his hand, but he was yanked up, a claw bursting from his chassis, his energon splashing all over me.

"No!" I jolted awake, accidentally kicking Bee hard in the tanks. I didn't register that he was there at first, my processor trying to find the invisible threat.

"Morning to you too…" he groaned, gaining my attention as he curled up in pain.

"Oh slag, I'm sorry!" I caressed his cheek. "You ok?"

"I will be…what was that about?" He sat up with me, holding his abdomen still.

"Nightmare…"

"I got that much." Bee scoffed, putting an arm around my shoulders. "Was it about that vision from earlier?" I nodded, feeling my voice close up with emotions as tears formed in my optics. "Come here." He held me closer, allowing me to cry into his shoulder.

"I'm sorry…" My voice broke as I tried to wrap my head around everything.

"Don't be. It's ok…I don't get it, but I'm here." He kept his voice low, confused as I was but still trying to comfort me. "I just wish you could tell me."

"Jazz is going to die…" it slipped before I could stop it, followed by a massive helmache. I felt Bee put his hand on either side of my helm, covering my own hands.

"Star?" The pain eased off after a moment.

"I can't!" I sobbed, not wanting the pain to come back. Bee pulled me close again, just holding me until I could calm down. "I-I can't stop it…"

"Stop what? The visions?" I shook my head, burying my face into his chassis.

"Stop what's going to happen." There was no pain with this admission, which meant I might be able to tell him in a roundabout way. "Megatron…" I was careful to track the ache to see how far I could get. "I don't know how, but he gets fixed and…gets a hold of Jazz during a fight." So far so good.

"Wait…are we all there?" That's when I remembered the double outlines in the vision. Maybe telling Bee was the answer to this riddle.

"Y-yeah, we are." I looked up to see Bee was thinking hard on something. "Why?"

"Then…maybe we can change it." He gave me a small smile. "Does that mean…you've seen all of us…"

"No…just Jazz. He's the only one I've seen…go offline." Maybe I could tell Bumblebee, maybe the pain was just from stress, but I erred on the side of caution.

"I'm sorry you have to deal with this, but you're not alone." He assured me, but I felt very alone right now. No one else knew what I did, and my new fear of being used for this "gift" was growing deep in my mind.

"Please…don't tell anyone else about my ability. Only you, Jazz and Sari know right now."

"I won't, promise. I…see why you're so scared of it now."

"I don't want to be used…" Bee kissed my chevron, making me look up again. "Some bots would love to know their future."

"I don't. I kind of want things to be…unknown. Unless you tell me, I'll try not to ask about it. I can't stand seeing you miserable though. If…you have anymore involving something scary, I'd like for you to tell me, if you can." This side of Bee no one else really got to see much of. Sure, he showed he cared about the others, but with just us, he was far gentler and spoke much softer.

"Thank you…" I smiled into his chassis, grateful for him not being his goofy self right now.


Bulkhead, Ratchet and Ironhide had been gathering crystals and storing them in the back garage. They'd been building a small refinery there, but unfortunately it was close to the med bay. Everytime I went to work there, the taunting whispers would quietly echo from the next room. I avoided it as much as I could, but our room wasn't ideal for delicate circuitry.

"….can you see?"

"…I'll rip you into pieces!"

"I can't do this…."

"You'll be sorry for that one!"

I held my helm in my hands as the whispers got louder, making my processor hurt.

"Hey, ya ok?" I glanced up to see Ironhide, his face full of worry. "Ya not sick, are ya?"

"N-no, I'm ok. Just…have a processor ache."

"Anything I can help with?" He asked, looking over the table where a drone laid out in pieces. "I might not be too much help, but I can try." He held up the burned out motor. "Where's this go?"

"That needs replaced and taken apart. This one went for a swim when it missed its charger." I handed him the water logged case. "Once he's dried out I can put him back together."

"Oh…maybe I can't assist than." The orange mech said sheepishly. "Not much of a repair mech…"

"Thanks anyway. What are you doing here?" Normally everyone avoided the medbay like a virus, the exception being Ratchet and me.

"Oh I gotta get a thingy for Ratchet…uh…slag now I forgot what it was." He scratched the back of his helm nervously.

"Can you describe it?"

"It sorts things…?" Obviously he wasn't a technician. I helped him look for a shoot sorter piece, hoping that's what he meant. "Yeah! That thingy!"

"Here." I laughed, handing it to him. His hand brushed mine and for a split second I saw a vision of him with a green outline of a fembot.

"You ok?" He was holding up, apparently I had lost my balance. "You got this look on ya face…"

"I-I'm ok." That hadn't happened before. "Sorry, maybe I am getting sick."

"Can I help ya to yer room?" I accepted his offer and let him help me.


I decided to meditate instead of resting, wondering if the Allspark was trying to reach out again. As before, the light clicked off and I was back in the void, the strings this time gently pulling me into their circle. A pale pink string was the one to activate a new vision.

"You really think there's a difference?" Sari's pale orange outline formed, sitting on a medical table. My aqua outline was by a monitor next to her, reading the data output.

"Not much of one, but there is." What in the spark are we talking about? "See?" On the screen was what looked like two RNA renderings, but something was different.

"Woh…what which one is me?!" The outline of me pointed to the one on the left. So who's on the right?

The vision faded and I was back in the pink strings light.

"You know, you're really good at explaining nothing." I told the void, the only answer was the strings fluttering in an unfelt breeze. "Anything else? You've been whispering all day!"

The void didn't like my attitude and the strings slapped me across the face, not hard but enough that I felt it. I waved them away, annoyed with the strings. With a final swirl around me, the void let me go and back into reality. It wanted me to find a connection between Sari and someone else, but the clues it gave were not helpful. In frustration, I fell back onto my back on the floor, unsure of what to do next.

"Star, you there?" My com link pinged, Bumblebee was calling me on his patrol.

"Hey, sup?" I stayed on the floor.

"Come meet me at this location! I wanna show you something." He sent me coordinates. "See you there?"

"See you there."


Bumblebee had me go to the middle of an open field, white and yellow flowers dotted the clearing and almost glowed under the full moonlight. I transformed, wondering exactly where he was since he's the one who called me.

"Hey!" A moment later he drove up behind me. "You beat me here, no fair!" He transformed, a smirk still on his face.

"I thought you'd be here already." I wanted to tease him about dragging me out here, seeing as he didn't like nature as much.

"Me too…anyway, I'm here." He took my hand, looking up at the stars and pointing one out just under the moon. "See that dim looking star? That's our solar system's two stars. Weird they're so dim from here…"

"Two? I've only seen one." That earned a chuckle from Bee.

"Depending on the time, that's possible. The second sun is sometimes hidden by the other." We sat in the grass as he spoke. "I just can't believe Cybertron is so far away." I could tell he missed home, but I didn't have the same sentiment as him. To me, Cybertron was a dull metal planet that served nothing more than my birth place. The memories I had there weren't happy, unlike the ones I had on Earth.

"Yeah…weird." I leaned back on the palms of my hands. Still, the night sky was beautiful. I leaned against his shoulder as we pointed out different constellations that held planets and stars of our system. After a while, Bee laid back, causing dandelion seeds to fly into the air. It was pretty, but he inhaled some of the fluff, which caused him to gag.

"You ok?" I laughed, helping brush off some of the seeds.

"Yeah…I hate this stuff!"

"I think it's pretty. Sari says you're supposed to make a wish before blowing the seeds away, for good luck or something."

"I don't know why you like this stuff…" he picked a dandelion up, holding it up in the moonlight. Something was eerily familiar about this… "I guess I don't get plants. I still don't get why you like these things…they shed all the time and always need water. And this one? This one turns into a puff and gets everywhere!" Dread filled my core, the vision I had a while ago…he had said that almost exactly! I whipped around, looking towards the trees as I got up from the grass.

"Starlit?" Bee looked up at me, sitting up to look behind him. "You ok?"

"Bee…" I started but rustling in the bushes drew our attention. "This happened in a vision…" I whispered, to which Bee jumped up and activated his stingers.

"What was it?" He asked, but before I could answer a blur shot out of the bushes, digging its front stingers into Bee's shoulder.

"A spider…" the giant spider sneered as Bumblebee passed out. "Well, well, what do we have here?" To my surprise, the spider transformed into a femme bot.

"Wha…who are you?! What did you do to Bee?!" She grabbed me by my shoulder piece and pulled me close, her six red optics glowing brightly as she looked me over. As much as I wanted to hit her, I was cautious and chose to listen to her demands.

"He'll be fine, I only gave him enough poison to knock him out. I don't recognize you…but you reek of Optimus' team." She didn't let go, but backed off a bit to get a better look at me. "I don't have a use for you…"

"W-what?" Having to think quickly, I kicked out, creating a distance between us as she went to sting me. By pure luck, she missed as I back flipped away, only to fall back into another large creature.

"Waspinator never forgive…" the voice sent shivers down my spine. The large, green mess of a bot grabbed my arm and leaned right into my face. "Waspinator get revenge." The look in his crazed optics made me realize he wanted to eat me!

"Leave her. She's of no concern to us." The spider lady had wrapped Bee up in her purple webbing, lifting him up over her shoulder with ease. "We have what we want."

"What are you going to do to Bumblebee?!" I yelled, trying to get free of the mechs hold. "Let go!" I activated my swords, slicing through his bug-like hand, twirling myself free and going after the femme. Before I could lay a hit, I was tackled from the side by a third. This one was a large leopard, its teeth digging into my left arm as I wrestled with him.

"I'm going to use him to figure out how to change back…" the spider hissed as she stood over me. "Unless you wanna take his place?" She mocked, taking my face in her free hand and forcing me to look at her, squeezing my cheeks hard so I couldn't look away.

"T-turn back?" I grimaced as the large cat-like mech growled with my arms still pinned in its mouth. I risked losing my arm if I tried to fight back, or worse if there were more like these three hidden in the trees.

"I see. Optimus hasn't told you about lil' ol' me? I'm not too surprised, after all he thinks I'm dead." She let go, motioning for the leopard to let go too. I felt the extent of the damage as it let go, feeling my shoulder joint lock in place to prevent more damage to the joint, energon leaking heavily from the wound. "He's the reason I'm stuck like this. I'm close to solving this problem, but I need a fresh subject."

"Y-you're techno-organic?" It only just struck me that they were all half organic. "But…how?"

"Ask your leader." Her main optics narrowed while the four smaller ones glowed dangerously bright. "Hmm…maybe you are useful. You know about organics? Well, I'll give you a chance to save your toy." Her smirk made me sick, my tanks churned as she knelt to my level. "Solve my problem before I do and I won't turn this into something like him." She pointed at Waspinator, my processor finally realizing that that had once been Wasp.

"No…" Bumblebee was in terrible danger. "You can't you…gah!" A stinging sensation struck across my back, the world started to blur and distort.

"I can and will…" I got a ping on my com link just as the world faded. "Find me when you solve it." Her voice wavered around me as the poison took hold.