This episode picks up immediately after Chapter 14 of Episode One. Arcee has returned to Earth to fetch Sari. Optimus needs her help repairing some vital systems in the newly-rebirthed Cybertron.

NOTE: In this story, when Bumblebee is on Cybertron and communicating with other Autobots, he will be doing so in Cybertronian, which is all electronic; this means that, even though he still lacks a voice box, he isn't using it (wouldn't work in the vacuum of space anyway). Therefore, there will be no need to represent his beeps and boops, so I will be simply showing his speech as normal text. Of course when he is speaking to humans, I'll use the same protocol that I used in Episode One.

The space bridge opened up onto the surface of the newly-rebirthing planet, and two objects sped out of the circular opening. One was a blue motorcycle; the other was a very small fembot, flying from plasma jets streaming out of her pedes and servos. Once out of the bridge, they stopped. The motorcycle transformed and the Autobot stood to her full height. The smaller bot landed gracefully beside her. They were greeted by their Commanding Officer.

"Welcome to Cybertron, Sari," said Optimus.

"Thank you, sir," she responded. Turning to his Ninja Scout, he said, "Thank you for bringing Sari, Arcee."

She nodded, and smiling, looked down at the Technorganic. "Sari was glad to join us and assist in our efforts."

Sari's optics took in the panorama. Highways glowed around her, stretching away in the distance to vast horizons. Towering citadels, while severely damaged, were once again lit up. Primus brought life to the Autobot's home world once more.

"Glad to be here! How can I help?"

"Many things must be done," said Arcee. "Megatron is still out there, in command of the Nemesis. Bumblebee is currently botting the long-range scanners, but primary systems are failing to come up. We need your help finding out what's wrong – that is priority one. And Bulkhead is at the comm station on Moon Base Two, sending Optimus Prime's message out to Autobots throughout the galaxy. He needs help with the dish. That's priority two."

"If we can get those two running, then we'll be ahead of the game."

"Do you think you can use your mod to effect repairs on those systems?" asked Optimus.

"I shouldn't have a problem at all, sir," she responded. "Which tower is Bumblebee in?"

"Just to your right," said Optimus, pointing to the large citadel before her. And Sari headed in that direction.

Sari made it up to the control room. "Hey, Bee!"

He turned around. "Sari! How are you! Boy I sure could use your help. How's Raf doing?"

"He's doing well! I'll fill you in after we get this long-range scanner up and running. What's going on – or rather, what's not?"

"I powered it up, but it keeps shutting down on me. And when I try to access the diagnostic systems, it locks me out."

"Let me take a look." And Sari went to the main control panel. She placed her servos over the Autobot keypad. Her digits opened up and pads separated from each one. They penetrated the surface. Immediately her optics changed; they went from blue/white to all white, and she began "seeing" the internal workings of the Cybertronian systems.

"I'm entering the long-range scanner's main controller, Bee," she said. "Hold on, the entire system is locked with an encryption key. That's your problem."

"Oh no! The last bot to work the system must have done that to keep the Decepticons from using it. But it's been so long, I'm sure the key is lost – how are we going to get in now?"

The triangular-shaped appendages on Sari's helm started glowing blue. "It's OK, Bee. I've got this," she said.

"Eh? What's going on? Why are those things on your helm glowing blue?"

"A decryption mod I have. I'm breaking the encryption – not that I want to, I'm sure the bot that did this had good reason and all, but it's the only way we have to get in. It'll take me a few nanokliks…there! I'm in." Her appendages stopped glowing.

"Man Sari, you're full of surprises!"

"Hey, you needed a locksmith, right?" she smiled.

"A who?"

"Sorry, Earth term. Someone to break in. OK, let's see what we've got here. Looking at the most recent log entries. Wow! Long time ago!"

She read through the logs. "Did you know Wedge?"

"No, but I heard about him. They called him a 'boy genius'. Why?"

"This last entry was made by him. He's the one who put in the encryption. His entry says: 'Decepticons storming the long-range scanner tower. Shutting it down. Putting in encryption so they can't start it up again to use for their purposes. To any Autobots finding this log, I have startup instructions in this entry: 'and he gives the location."

"Wow. Can you find his file?"

"Looking…yes, I have it!"

"Oh, thank Primus!" Bumblebee sighed.

"We ought to let Optimus know – this is a bit of Autobot history here!"

"You're right, Sari!" And she retrieved the instructions so they could bring the long-range scanner system up properly. Working together, they followed Wedge's directions. After they were done, Sari checked everything out.

"Everything looks good, Bee!" And she started exiting the system. The prods on her digits returned, and her optics changed back to blue/white. "Give it a go!"

Bumblebee powered it up. The monitor came to life and displayed the location of all starships, their origination, manifest and status in a 30 hic radius.

"It's working! Sari, you rock!"

"Cool! Now, about Raf. I had to rescue him, Jack and Miko from Starscream. They're fine."

"What happened?!"

"Remember how I stayed behind after you all left for Cybertron? Well it was a good thing that I did. The Decepticons thought they could abduct the kids and hold them for ransom, to force you all to hand over the Omega Keys. I was in the High School library when they showed up. The kids didn't know that you were on Cybertron and couldn't pick them up from school."

"Wha…where was Ratchet?!"

"He was at Outpost Omega One, botting the space bridge. But it's OK, I was there. Hey, I took out the Vehicons and throttled Starscream. He left empty-handed. The kids are now at the base."

"Unfortunately, I blew my cover. Agent Fowler's gonna have my helm for sure!" she sighed.

"Oh, Sari! You saved them! That's all that matters!"

A message came in on the console. "Bumblebee, what's the status of the scanner?"

"Up and running, Optimus! Sari fixed it!"

"Excellent job, Sari! Meet us downstairs and we will get you over to where Bulkhead is working."

"Yes, sir." And Sari got ready to leave the tower. "OK, Bee, duty calls."

"See you later, Sari! Thanks again for your help!"

Leaving the citadel, Sari met back up with Optimus and Arcee. She asked "How do I get to Moon Base Two? "

"Well, we do have one thing that works, and that is a space bridge," responded Arcee. "Optimus will bridge you to the control room where Bulkhead is working." And they entered another tower. This one looked like a transport terminal, with bridge tunnels lining a huge circular room. In the center was a large control booth.

Optimus got on the comm. "Bulkhead, Sari to bridge to you."

"Roger, Optimus, lookin' forward to her assistance," came the response.

The bridge lit up, and Sari walked in. Coming out, she was met by the big green bot. "Hey, Sari! How ya doin'?"

"Good, Bulkhead. How can I help?"

"I've got a recorded message here from Optimus that he needs me to send out to all Autobots. But I'm havin' a hard time getting the dish to point out in every direction. The diagnostics are coming back OK, but some of the coordinates I've entered don't give me a positive response."

"Let's see what I can find out." And Sari entered the communication's targeting system.

"You're right, Bulkhead, so far, the diagnostic systems are reporting back that everything's fine, and…whoa!"

"What? What is it?"

Sari was silent for several nanokliks. Her face registered concern. She shut her optics, and went into meditation.

"Sari? Are, are you OK?"

"I'm OK, Bulkhead. Just, let me be for a bit."

He stepped back quietly and wondered what was going on. She remained in this state for what seemed like many, many cycles. Finally, the pads on her digits retracted, and she opened her optics. They returned to their regular blue/white. Tired, she sat back.

"Sorry about that." Sari got up and looked underneath the control panel. Bulkhead started to talk, but she motioned for him to be quiet. Being smaller than the average Autobot, she was able to easily find what she was looking for: a bug. She put her servo over it, and several prods came out of her digits and entered the device. A spark and blue smoke emitted from the bug, and her prods retracted. When she was done, she got back up and approached Bulkhead.

"We need to bring Optimus up here."

"Bring him here? Why? Can't we just contact him?"

"No, no further discussions about Moon Base Two should take place over any form of transmission, not yet."

"What's going on?"

"Moon Base Two has been corrupted by Soundwave."

Optimus, Bulkhead, and Sari met in one of Moon Base Two's top-secret conference rooms. Sari had entered the room's system beforehand to make sure there were no bugs or other listening devices planted inside.

"When I went into Moon Base Two's communication targeting system, I started querying the various sub-systems looking for anomalies. That's when it told me about recent changes."

"Hold on," said Bulkhead, "it 'told' you?"

"Yes. My mod gives me the ability to 'speak' to any electronic system. It can then guide me to where the problem, or problems, lies. It told me that within the last decacycle, there had been modifications made. I knew at that point that something was wrong."

"That's when you heard me go 'whoa'," she smiled.

"How did you know it was Soundwave?" asked Optimus.

"It wasn't that hard. Although he doesn't have a voice, he has a huge ego. He apparently can't help putting his signature on his handiwork. I saw his name on the code."

"Can you remove it?"

"Yes, but it will take a while. Not all of it is inside the system. Some of it is in hardware components welded onto the surface, and in key structures inside the moon. We also have to remove them in a distinct sequence; otherwise they will set off a failsafe system."

"Failsafe, as in cause an explosion?" asked Bulkhead.

"Precisely. Megatron apparently thought it appropriate that if he couldn't have Moon Base One for himself, then no bot should have it. And any Autobot trying to undo Soundwave's handiwork without knowing precisely how should pay the ultimate price."

Optimus sighed. "Thank you, Sari, for uncovering this. How shall we proceed?"

"First, I need to go back into the system to learn the sequence for disabling the listening component. Soundwave is tapping into our communications right now – that is why I said we had to stop our transmissions immediately. If he finds out we are attempting to take apart the system, Megatron may set off the failsafe remotely before we can get started."

"I'll put in some background noises and conversations to make him think his bugs are still working. Then we can begin. It will take the three of us working together. I need to get to Control Center One; that's where I can enter the main system. From there, I can direct you on the location of the hardware and the proper removal sequence."

"Let's get started. Bulkhead, you and I can work with Sari."

"Sounds good," he replied. And exiting the conference room, they got on a transport to get to Control Center One.

The transport first headed down a long lit corridor. Moon Base Two's interior transportation matrix is built like a very rapidly moving subway system. The tunnel they were traveling through abruptly ended and the three found themselves in a brightly lit, cavernous transport nexus. As their transport continued on over a long bridge, Sari looked down and saw thousands of other similar conveyors far below. When fully staffed, Moon Base One's transportation system takes bots to various sections of its many communications terminals.

They came to a crossover section where the transport stopped and transformed into an elevator. Down, down, down it went, as it descended miles into the center of Moon Base Two. Every few minutes, they could see their transport pass by similar nexus points like the first.

Finally, their journey ended. They stepped out and the main doors of Control Center One stood before them. Sari silently approached the main console and entered the master control system. She navigated to the communications control and patched in a long-running loop.

"That ought to keep him busy," she thought. She then proceeded to shut down all of the listening systems.

She stepped away from the console and walked back to Optimus and Bulkhead. "Alright, we can talk freely now," she told the two. "Let's begin taking apart his toys."

"He's got his own transmission equipment attached to dish one outside, but first, there are several bombs planted throughout Moon Base Two. I'll have to use P-O-M to find and disarm them." And Sari got down in Lotus position and began to meditate. She spread her Cyber-Ninja senses out through that sector.

After several cycles, she got up. "There were three near Control Center One. They've been disarmed. I need to go to six other sectors; my P-O-M can only reach so far, sorry."

"That's alright, Sari," said Optimus. "We are with you."

"You betcha!" Said Bulkhead, "let's go."

And taking the transport, they proceeded to the other areas, where Sari was able to disarm all the other bombs.

"Alright, with that taken care of, we can now remove the listening toys," she smirked. And returning to Control Center One, she returned to the control panel and guided Optimus and Bulkhead in the removal of Soundwave's devices.

When the final piece was done, they went back to where Sari had first met Bulkhead. "Now, let's fix the dish and get Optimus' message out!"

On the deck of the Nemesis, Soundwave was listening to the transmissions emanating from Moon Base Two. Megatron walked in. "Ah, Soundwave, nothing coming from the Autobots on Cybertron, I take it?" The Decepticon turned and played back the most recent series of sounds that were coming from Sari's loop.

"Poor Optimus. Unable to muster his troops," he sneered.

But then, an alert came over the comm device. "Lord Megatron! A broadcast has begun streaming from Cybertron!"

"WHAT?! Patch it in here at once!" And the broadcast, repeated over and over, came out thus:

"This message goes out to any surviving Autobots taking refuge among the stars: I am Optimus Prime, and I am here to tell you that Cybertron has been brought back to life. We have retrieved the Omega Keys and activated the Omega Lock. I am calling all Autobots to return to our home world so that together we can once again rebuild that which was lost."

Megatron turned to Soundwave. "What happened?! I thought Moon Base Two had been disabled! Activate the fail safe device at once!" And Soundwave pressed a pad on his console.

Several cycles passed. "Well?" asked Megatron. "Did Moon Base Two explode, or didn't it?" Soundwave stared at his console. He pressed several pads. No response! Frustrated, he slammed his fist.

"I take it, your fail safe devices have failed to accomplish what we set out for them to do?" growled Megatron. Soundwave frantically searched through the record databanks looking for clues as to what may have gone wrong. Finding something, he turned to his master and played this:

"Bulkhead, Sari to bridge to you."

"Roger, Optimus, lookin' forward to her assistance,"

"Hey, Sari! How ya doin'?"

"Good, Bulkhead. How can I help?"

"I've got a recorded message here from Optimus that he needs me to send out to all Autobots. But I'm havin' a hard time getting the dish to point out in every direction. The diagnostics are coming back OK, but some of the coordinates I've entered don't give me a positive response."

"Let's see what I can find out."

"You're right, Bulkhead, so far, the diagnostic systems are reporting back that everything's fine, and…whoa!"

"What? What is it?"

"Sari? Are, are you OK?"

"I'm OK, Bulkhead. Just, let me be for a bit."

"Sorry about that."

[electronic zapping sounds, then silence]

Soundwave stopped the replay. Megatron growled. "Her again?! That meddling little bot! So she is responsible for this! I will make her pay!

So this is the beginning of Episode Two. What do you think? Megatron has once again been thwarted in his efforts, and he will do everything in his power to deal with this "meddling" little bot.

I have some ideas about what he will attempt, and that will be one of the themes of this story line. Another will be of course, the attempt to develop the two-way connection between this dimension and Sari's home. And of course, Miko is itching for a visit to Cybertron!

The war is still going on, and new characters will show up, both Autobot and Decepticon. This story definitely falls away from the "Season 3: Beast Hunters" story line, but I will be bringing in themes from it (think: Shockwave and Predaking). And who knows, an evil Sari Decepticon clone (thanks to LuisJM for that one!)?

Thanks for reading, and please review!