The message had been simple and precise. A single text to Miko's phone: Does Arcee know where her human is?

Optimus contacted Arcee on patrol, and she took a quick stop at the KO. Moments later, her voice came back panicked. Jack wasn't at the counter, or the window, or outside on break and now after five minutes she hadn't seen him and had sent in her hologram to talk to the manager, who was mad that Jack had apparently never shown and now Arcee had no clue as to where the Allspark he was.

Oh, and Jack was fired.

The response was immediate. Ratchet immediately tracked Jack's phone to a small abandoned region of Jasper, and after a quick bridge-in for Arcee, the Autobots and their respective humans went on the hunt for Jack.

Arcee immediately took off upon arrival, heading straight for the middle of town. The others searched the surrounding buildings, searching the larger buildings first and headed gradually towards Arcee's position.

It was Raf who found the tape first. It hung on a length of rope outside an abandoned house with a rusted metal door. He quickly contacted Bumblebee, who contacted the rest of the team. They converged on Raf's location, apprehension rising in the pits of their tanks and stomachs. With a nod from Optimus, Raf pressed the play button on the small recorder.

"Hello, Autobots."

"Silas," snarled Arcee. The others except Optimus shushed her.

"I trust that you are good health. I do not want my robots to have rusted joints as I dissect them."

No one spoke, all captivated by the feelings of growing horror.

"Now originally I only meant to find a way to understand you more, but mister Darby wasn't waking up quickly enough, and I regret that Arachnid's somewhat impatient behavior has rubbed off on me. So I decided to play a little game.

"The rules go like this: if I don't get a transformer by midnight tonight, I will have no qualms about beginning the inevitable demise of innocents around the globe. After all, it isn't really that hard once you have your hands on an experimental human made transformer-destroyer created by various scientists around the globe."

"Monster," hissed Bulkhead.

"Believe me, my Transforming friends, when I say that I will lose no sleep over what will happen if I don't get what I want. I'm not an unreasonable man. In fact as a show of…good faith, I have a little present for Arcee inside of the house. I felt she may want her human back, though he is a little worse for the wear. I do hope you receive this message soon. Mister Darby's survival may well depend on it."

With a click the recorder stopped. At the same time a click was heard on the rusty door, and it swung open. The smell that came rushing out was overwhelming. It smelled of dust and dirt and mildew and blood and something else that Miko and Raf (the only ones with noses) couldn't identify.

Arcee tried to go forth, only to realize that the door was much too small for her, despite her being the shortest bot there. With an almost desperate snarl, she looked helplessly at Miko and Raf. They both understood immediately and stepped forward, disappearing in the house. There was silence for a few moments before the sound of retching reached the bots audio receptors. Another few moments of silence, and then Miko stepped out looking absolutely sick.

"Is he…?"

"He's alive," croaked Miko. "But…tell Ratchet to get the med bay ready. Silas was right. He's bad. Real bad.

Hello people! I'm LIonfire42, and this is my first Transformers Prime fic. Now because of school my updates will be slow until maybe winter break. I plan on dropping in another chapter for the holidays. Please Review! Feedback helps me feel inspired!