I don't own Transformers or the Riordanverse; they belong to their owners.

Chapter 33: The Coping Process.

The Autobots had just won a major victory.

Nightprowler, the one thing in Atlantis that seemed to have an idea of where the Allspark could be, was safe with them; once Ratchet finished fixing him up, they would have a major head start over the Decepticons.

Nobody felt like celebrating.

As the Ark-27 flew swiftly and quietly back to Virginia to drop off Frederick Chase, an eerie silence floated around its halls.

All the Autobots aside from Ratchet had gathered in the briefing room along with their human charges. No one had felt like being alone right now.

They'd just lost a good friend.

No one said anything at first. They all just sat in their chairs in silence. Annabeth was crying. Prowl sat next to her, trying to make sure she was okay.

"...He's dead." Sunstreaker finally said. "Brawn's dead…"

Hound's face bunched up into a snarl, and he glared. "Yeah, we know that Sunstreaker," he said, venom dripping out of his voice. "I was there; I saw it; I saw Quake do it!"

"Hound, calm down," Optimus said. "I know you were close to Brawn, but—"

"Did you know he wanted so badly to see Mt. Everest?" Hound asked. "We were making plans to do it before... Primus, we don't even have a body to bury!" He put his face in his hands miserably.

"Hound it... it's..." Luke stammered. What could he say? That it was going to be okay? Because it wasn't.

Frederick stood near the doorway awkwardly. He hadn't known Brawn for long, but he could still feel the pain and anguish the Autobots were going through.

"If you need someone to blame, blame me," he said.

"Dad…" said Annabeth.

"It was my plan…" Frederick pointed out.

"No, Mr. Chase," said Prowl. "You did everything right, and the plan worked perfectly. It's not your fault…" she said.

"Yeah, it's mine." Hot Rod said miserably. "I should have been there; I should have done something! I could have helped!" He slammed his fists on the table. "I should have..." his voice trailed off.

"It's just…" Chromia muttered. "Brawn was one of those bots you thought was never gonna die. That would win the whole war single-handedly," she hung her head. "And now he's gone…"

Thalia shuffled nervously. "For what it's worth," she said. "I know what it's like to lose someone like that."

"Yeah?" asked Hound. "How?"

Thalia turned her head away and didn't answer.

Finally, Sunstreaker sat up. "Look," he said. "I don't mean to sound insensitive. But we gotta keep going," he took on a determined expression. "Brawn's last act was to give us a chance; we have it. If we wanna honor our friend, we have to take that chance."

"Sunstreaker is right," Optimus said, sitting up.

"There's a rarity…" Hot Rod muttered cheekily.

"Don't ruin it," Sunstreaker demanded.

"In any case." Optimus began. "We have Nightprowler; we have a head start; I say we take it as far as we can go before the Decepticons can catch up. Now who's with me!?"

Everyone stood up.

"Good," Optimus said.

"How soon is Nightprowler gonna be repaired?" asked Hot Rod.

"Ratchet said it might be a few days," Prowl answered.

"A few days!?" Luke exclaimed.

"He was underwater for at least a hundred years, and he got hurt badly in that brawl with the Decepticons," Prowl explained. "It's gonna take a while."

"Not to intrude, but... While this trip has been fascinating, I really need to get home." Frederick remarked. "I have a job after all."

"Yes, don't worry, Mr. Chase," Optimus said. "The Ark-27's autopilot is already on its way to your house."

"Thanks for the help." Hot Rod said.

"You're... welcome," Frederick said awkwardly. "I'm sorry, but I've never really been in a position like this."

"Oh, before I forget," Hound said, managing to regain some composure. He reached inside one of his storage compartments and brought out some physical samples from Atlantis. "Here, I got these while I was down there," he said, handing them to Frederick. "If you wanna do more research on Atlantis, these might help. And you can help yourself to some of the pictures our survey drones managed to get of the place."

Frederick took them. "You're just giving me these?" he asked, surprised.

"Consider it a reward for the help you've given us," Optimus said.

Frederick smiled. "Oh, Randolph is going to be so envious of this…" he said.

"Who's Randolph?" asked Prowl.

"My uncle," Annabeth replied.

"Yes, and he's a long story…" Frederick murmured.

When the Ark-27 landed in Virginia, Prowl was assigned to take Frederick back home. Annabeth decided to come with him, and the two rode in Prowl's police car mode back to the Chase house.

"Feels good to be able to transform again." Prowl muttered as they headed there.

Annabeth and Frederick were quiet on the way back.

"Are you sure you don't want to come home?" Frederick finally asked.

"Yeah, Dad," Annabeth said with a bit of remorse. "I don't want to leave Luke, Thalia, and the Autobots... and it's safer for you and Janet, and the twins."

Frederick was silent again for a moment before speaking up. "Just... just call me okay?" he asked. "Just let me know you're okay."

Annabeth nodded. "Yeah, Dad. I will," she promised. "I'm not gonna make you think I'm dead again."

"Thank you," Frederick said.

Finally, Prowl braked to a stop. "We're here," he said.

Frederick opened the driver's seat door uneasily. After he stepped out, Prowl's holomatter avatar appeared and replaced Frederick in the driver's seat.

Frederick walked over to the passenger seat and looked at Annabeth one last time. "Do you want to come in and say goodbye to Janet?" he asked.

Annabeth hesitated. "No," she finally said. It was going to be a long time before that bridge was rebuilt.

Frederick looked downcast but he didn't push it. "Stay safe and call me," he said awkwardly. "I love you."

Annabeth didn't say anything. She just felt confused by the mix of emotions she was feeling. Tears welled up in her eyes again.

"Annabeth?" asked Prowl.

Annabeth hesitated a bit more before she finally spoke up again. "I love you too."

But she didn't look at her dad when she said it.

"I… I'm sorry, Mr. Chase," Prowl said. "But we really have to–"

"No. I won't keep you anymore." Frederick said sadly. "Go save the world."

Powl's holomatter avatar nodded, and he drove off.

Frederick just stood there watching the two leave before eventually going to his front door and walking in.

Janet saw him walking in. "Oh, you're back!" she said, relieved.

"Yeah, I am," Frederick said with an awkward smile.

Janet looked around. "Is... is Annabeth not coming back with you?" she asked.

"She's… She's got a new family," he said sadly.

"Oh," Janet said in seeming understanding.

The two stood there in silence for a bit before Janet spoke up again. "Give it time; I'm sure Annabeth will come around."

"I hope so…" Frederick murmured.

After the Autobots had managed to escape with Nightprowler, the Decepticons went back to the Nemesis to lick their wounds. Quicksand had been placed in a CR chamber in order to help him fully recover.

After a couple of hours, Quicksand's chamber finally opened up, and he was set free. The instant he was out of the chamber, he started looking around. He hadn't gotten a chance to get a solid look at his new team's base due to being in a rush to get out of there and get himself fixed.

Now that he was able to get a good look around, he was fascinated. Atlantis had some pretty advanced technology for its time, but it was nothing like this. Blinking lights and screens were everywhere.

Quicksand was about to touch one of the strange blinking lights with one of his pincers when he heard a scream and a crash. He ran over to see what was going on and found several of the Decepticons huddled around by a door.

"Oh, the new guy is awake," muttered Starscream upon seeing Quicksand approach.

"Yeah, what's going on?" Quicksand asked.

"Megatron's been in the training room since we got back, and you've been put in the CR chamber," Skytread explained. "He's been working out some frustrations on the poor training simulations."

"But that was hours ago!" Quicksand exclaimed.

"We know…" Skywarp murmured. "I'm starting to get worried."

They heard Megatron scream in frustration again along with the blast of his fusion cannon.

Barricade winced before speaking up. "Can you really blame him? Closest we've been to the Allspark in years, and it slipped through our fingers."

"Hey, at least we made the Autobots pay for it." Quake laughed.

"Yes, yes, we know." Starscream groaned, "You're proud of the fact you killed Brawn. We got it…"

"At least he got the job done."

Starscream froze and turned around. Megatron had just finished training and stepped out of the training room.

All the Decepticons were silent as they waited with anticipation for what Megatron would do next.

Megatron was silent himself, as if a thousand thoughts were going all through his head at once. "We need time to think of a new strategy," he muttered. "Where's Soundwave?"

"He's in his lab, studying some of the Atlantian Cybertronians we brought onboard," Starscream explained. "He's trying to see if there's any we can reactive and recruit like Quicksand."

"Well, once he's finished, tell him to report to me so we can begin planning," Megatron said coldly. "I'm not going to let the Autobots get the advantage on us!"

"Why don't we prepare another attack on the Autobots ship?" Starscream proposed. "It worked out for us last time."

"Because they'll be expecting us this time, you idiot!" Megatron shouted. "If I know Optimus, he's already put down preparations to stop something like that from happening again!"

"So what are we supposed to do?" asked Skytread.

Everyone was silent; even Megatron seemed at a loss for words about what to do about the current situation.

"Erm, can I speak?" asked Quicksand.

Megatron gave an exasperated sigh. "Yes, what is it?" he asked.

"Well, it's just..." Quicksand stammered. "I was working on something... before I got stabbed and knocked offline, I mean..."

"Working on what?" asked Starscream suspiciously.

"It's this little mini mechanical bee. It's meant to be a device to take control of another guardian," Quicksand explained. "I was developing it so we could take control of those rebels. It's meant to override and disable their thinking process."

"You mean their programming?" asked Barricade.

"If that's what you call it, then yeah." Quicksand said nervously.

Megatron's audio receptors perked up. "Go on," he ordered.

"Right, so I wasn't able to get it to work properly before I got knocked offline," Quicksand continued. "Turns out a guardian-"

"Cybertronian." Barricade corrected. "We're called Cybertronians."

"Whatever," scoffed Quicksand. "Anyway, a Cybertronian's mind is too advanced to override and take control of, but I looked over the devices all around your ship, the ones carrying all this information and stuff…"

"Our computers?" asked Skywarp.

"Yeah, those!" Quicksand exclaimed. "And this drone might be able to hack into something like that."

"Hold it, hold it!" Starscream demanded. "Are you saying you developed a cyber warfare device and spy drone over a thousand years ago!? Before this planet even invented proper computers?"

Quicksand looked confused. "What the heck is cyber warfare?" he asked.

"We'll explain it later when Soundwave is free," Megatron said. He gave a cold grin. "But for right now, well done, Quicksand. You've only just arrived, and you've already given us some options." He put a hand on Quicksand's shoulder. "You're making me not regret leaving you behind in that aquatic death trap."

"Thanks," Quicksand stammered as he shook a bit.

"Now, as for the rest of you, get back to work!" ordered Megatron.

"Sir!" everyone saluted.

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