(A/N: This is a birthday present for Lord Nitro. Man, that guy is great! ^^ This chapter is short, and I hope that it was good. If not, I will work harder on the next chapters. There WILL BE A SEQUEL to this story! Hope you guys enjoy, and please let me know what you think! :) )

Prologue: A Sudden Return

The signal had been lost nearly a millenia ago… There had been nothing with which to track their progress and absolutely no sign of where they could've gone, or what could've become of them… That alone kept the need to search alive in her spark.

A lone figure emerged from the flaming wreckage of what seemed to be a small aircraft, of alien make, and looked to have been overused… The owner of the strange aircraft stood and watched the ship that had been her home for so long burn away, a ball of flame erupting from when the heat lit the fuel tanks.

Silently turning away from the wreckage, the lithe figure turned her red optics onto the land before her, taking in the strangeness of a planet that wasn't her own, and wouldn't ever be unless she found for whom she searched.

Roaming red optics took in the organic land before she began to move among the trees, flitting like a silent shadow, searching, always searching.

It was confirmed. Her sister was present on this strange planet that teemed with strange life. She had been alert enough to pick up a strange marking in the trunk of a massive tree, and, upon further study, was confirmed to be from the legs of an angry Airachnid.

Hearing a strange sound behind her, the Cybertronian femme leaped upwards into the branches of a massive tree, hunching low as she hissed softly, fangs clicking as she waited to see just what creature dared to approach her in the darkness of this planet's moonless night.

The sound of rustling nearby caused the femme to tense up and her four red optics to narrow, trying to make out the forms of the intruders, her audios picking up the sound of two sets of pedes, curiosity curling up in her spark at the sudden realization of the fact that these two newcomers were Cybertronian.

Voices now reached the strange femme in her concealment, and two mechs appeared, both of whom she immediately recognized, a small smile curling up the corners of her lip components, and the femme hopped down to the ground in front of them. "Knockout. I never thought I'd be seeing your again… Especially on this sort of planet." The femme spoke in a calm, collected tone.

Knockout and Breakdown had jerked back when someone had dropped down in front of them, but the moment he heard that voice, the medic recognized it and he felt several different emotions well up in his spark as he looked up, his red optics wide. His optics took in the femme. Long, lithe legs, faceplates similar to Airachnid with the exception of having two sets of red optics, black and gold armouring, eight spider-like legs protruding from her backstrut… Purple protoform with exposed midriff… There was no doubt about it.

"Blackarachnia?" Breakdown spoke first, looking completely and utterly confused as he stared back and forth between his friend and the spider-femme, who chuckled, leaning against the tree she had been hiding in just a moment before. "Why Knockout, you look unhappy." She stated.

Finally recovering from his initial shock, Knockout glared at the femme. "What are you doing here?" He demanded, his voice taking on a higher pitch as he tried to wrap his processor around the fact that his old crush was standing in front of him.

Blackarachnia raised her optical ridges, the only change in her faceplates as she studied Knockout. "I can see you haven't changed." She stated calmly before responding to his question. "Tracking Airachnid. My sparklings." She responded, pushing away from the tree and approaching them both now. "So. Where's the HQ?" She asked, arms crossed over her chassis.

"No. No, absolutely not!" Knockout cried, shaking his helm as he glared at the femme. "There is no way I'm going to be staying in the same premesis as you!" He stated loudly, clearly upset by the femme's sudden appearance.

Rolling her optics, Blackarachnia snorted. "If you don't show me, you know that I'll find it." She responded, studying Knockout. "Surely you aren't still sore towards me?" She added, slightly amused by the immaturity of the sports model mech.

Opening his mouth to respond, Knockout was cutoff by the sudden appearance of a third mech, large with blue and gold armour, Blackarachnia smiled faintly. "Dreadwing." She murmured, studying the much larger mech who paused where he stood, red optics widening when he recognized her. "Blackarachnia." He responded in his deep, calm tone, although he was obviously surprised.

Blackarachnia smiled again, fangs overlapping her lower lip as she cocked her helm at the mech, servo on her hip as Dreadwing stared. "The reports. You were reported to have been offlined." He finally stated, his words causing Blackarachnia to roll her optics. "The reports were wrong." She stated simply. "I wish to present myself to our Lord." She added.

Nodding, as if he was suddenly just realizing the importance of this discovery, Dreadwing reached up to his comm, asking for a space bridge to be sent to them, and that Megatron would be greatly interested in a discovery they had made.

The swirl of green, white and purple appeared before them, and Blackarachnia looked down at Knockout before moving past him and following behind Dreadwing through the groundbridge, the red sports model following after her with Breakdown, not at all happy with bringing the spider femme back to base.

"Is it because you like her?" Breakdown's voice near his audio caused the mech to jump and glare. "No! I used to! Key word used. Past tense." He responded. "The problems she's going to cause. Don't you think that having she and Airachnid even in the same ship is a good idea?" He demanded pointedly, Breakdown seeming to finally grasp where the red medic was coming from. "Oh." He responded.

Megatron, Soundwave and Starscream were waiting at the other side of the groundbridge when Blackarachnia emerged, and the reactions weren't at all disappointing.

Starscream's mouth fell open as he stared in shock, wings shooting up on his back as he tensed, obviously surprised with the spider-femme's appearance, and took him several moments to recover, but Megatron stared for a moment before a smirk curled over his lip components. "Blackarachnia." He stated, the surprise evident in his voice, but the pleasure at the sight of her came out on top as he chuckled darkly. "Now we seem to have an advantage." He stated.

Blackarachnia stood before the warlord, one servo on her hip as he smirked at the warlord. "My lord." She stated, giving a small bow while Starscream spluttered beside Megatron, trying to figure out just how the slag she had found them. "B-But the reports! You're offline!" He cried, the spider femme turning to face him. "I see you're as discerning as usual, Starscream." She stated sarcastically.

"How is it that you seem to have located us on this planet?" Megatron demanded, servos clasped behind his backstrut as he studied the femme in front of him. Back on Cybertron, she had been the greatest of his scientists, above even Shockwave, not to mention her other powers that she possessed.

"I was tracking the progress of my sister." Blackarachnia responded. "My ship crashed here, which must have been the reason Dreadwing was knocking around the forest?" She asked, glancing at the big seeker, who nodded in response to her question.

Megatron was pleased with the outcome of the search. At first he had hoped that it would be a relic, or a Decepticon transport, but Blackarachnia was several times more valuable than trinkets or grunts. "I trust that you are here to rejoin me?" He demanded, the spider femme's lips parting in a fanged smile. "I wouldn't dream of anything less." She responded calmly.

The sound of a door opening up behind her caused them all to turn, red optics meeting pink as Airachnid stood in the doorway, mouth open and optics wide with obvious shock and disdain.

Blackarachnia felt her spark sink slightly… Like she had expected, nothing had changed between herself and Airachnid… Her sister was still bitter and didn't wish to be near her.

"Airachnid." Blackarachnia spoke calmly as she looked over her sister, who she hadn't seen for millenial.

"Blackarachnia." Airachnid responded, but her voice was full of bitterness, resentment and a tint of hatred.

Yes, things had changed, but Blackarachnia feared for the worst. Her optics moved down to lock onto two little spider sparklings, who stood on either side of her sister, and her expression softened… They weren't Airachnid's sparklings…

They were hers.